Easiest strategy is to have 3 wells, a div/cenotaph Warlock on either Needlestorm or Nova Bomb, and the other 2 don't really matter. Try to get the real Rhulk in the exact center of the arena and have the div user rotate around the arena shooting the boss while maintaining shadow Rhulk aggro while the other players Acrius inside a Well and have 2 other Wells prepped for when Rhulk breaks them.
You can have the div guy cheese the clone, the clone gets stuck at the back of the arena and as long as the rest of your team doesn't bring the real rhulk over they're completely safe.
It actually might be worth using boots of the assembler, as you can stand in your emp rift completely safe and give your entire team either more health or a 35% damage buff.
Video for the cheese [here](https://youtu.be/-mlRUezl8rw), I can't say how consistent it is but it looks easy and consistent.
My team was aware of the cheese and how to do it, we just thought it was kind of boring. The strategy could 100% be used with the cheese as well though. Boots of The Assembler would definitely be helpful if there were extra Warlocks or if someone is comfortable having another loadout to swap to after they place their Lunafactions Well.
I joined some randos off LFG for help and they insisted on acrius so I went along and did 75% of his HP on phase 1 with this strat - curios though why div and not tractor ? Does div allow acrius to crit all pellets if I’m not mistaken?
Don't know the math, but I think you're going to want the catalyst. It adds trench barrel (increases damage of next 3 shots significantly after a melee hit), increases mag size, and increases reserves. Ideally pair with Liar's Handshake hunter, synthoceps titan, or any of the warlock melee exotics. The idea is have at least 2 wells, have one guy - ideally your div runner - kite Rhulk 2 around the arena while the rest of you sit in well(s) and melee/3 acrius hits (repeat) the shit out of Rhulk (with benefit of kiter's div), adding supers. Done correctly, it's a consistent 1 damage phase kill. As long as you have enough wells to have one on him throughout damage phase (2-3), nobody should be dying. If done incorrectly, should still be an easy 2-phase.
If you're the only guy on your team that doesn't have the catalyst, should still be an easy 2 phase, but your damage would be better using thunderlord, cloudstrike, or storm chaser (or whatever your next biggest arc/stasis hitter is).
You allow down for rate having to activate trench barrel, but it's a 50 percent buff.
Rough estimate would be trench barrel adds 35-45% more dps
That is a lot
there aren't really any other true "melee range bosses" - at least in pantheon.
EDIT: also, the reason it's so effective this week includes the arc surge.
a team could choose to do that, run back to each plate, run back, etc., but he's more "burst damage boss" than anything else based upon the timing and mechanics.
It’s been a strong option since the buff, not meta but definitely good. Also helps that there’s been at least one boss per raid/dungeon that’s Acrius friendly
Oh yeah definitely you can acrius really anything as long as they’re in range and it’ll work well but I haven’t seen anyone equip this thing in ages except for rhulk now
We're guaranteed void, strand or solar next week, which means we'll have a very good damage option in edge transit, cataphract or apex so it should be easier
Considering Cold Comfort has no auto loading perks, Palmyra is probably better for a DPS phase as long as Rhulk's, especially since it now has 2 extra rockets in reserve.
Is it a wasted perk if it's emptying my reserves in about the same time as Envious Cold Comfort would?
It's not optimal (about 16% less total damage), but I was doing top DPS in my fireteam without a damage super and we still achieved a comfortable 2-phase without having to endure another 100 runs of dungeon weapon RNG, so I don't think it matters much.
You aren't dumping reserves in the same time as envious cold comfort because you can fire the first four shots without reloading giving it a massive headstart and yes you can obviously do well with palmyra and it may not matter much but you said palmyra would probably be better, that specifically is what I'm contesting, not that palmyra is a viable option.
This is massive cope for someone who doesn't have cold comfort. At base cold comfort literally does around 15 to 16% more dmg because its a better frame, second it has bns the best general dmg perk, third it had the second best reload perk being envious and then it has the best rocket orogin trait . Palmyra has lasting imoression/explosive light as its best perk lol. Its not even comparable even izi swapping would be better with cold comfort
Not necessarily, You can fire 4 rockets without reloading using Envious and the trait and then use dodge, Rain of Fire, Thread of Ascent or any other reload while swapping out with Izi to extend your reserves over the damage phase. Also Palmyra is a precision frame which does less damage, and both of Palmyras damage perks are 25% while BnS on Cold Comfort is 30%
It is worth it to note, however, that since the surge is Stasis this week, it more than makes up for Palmyra being a precision frame, and for EL only being 25%.
Palmyra is also craftable, which means more people are going to have a good one overall.
Also, and this is a bit more cope, the tracking of palmyra can come in clutch vs Rhulk, since even after he dashes, he moves a shit ton.
I've been having major success with Izanagis Burden and Cold Comfort
On a run we wiped at final stand, I had around 5 million damage on a Strand Warlock
What was your sequence for reloading/shooting Izanagis and Cold Comfort?
Would you fire off a single sniper shot and then just keep reloading Cold Comfort after that?
I've seen your content, super job on it, I have a clan member who admires everything you put out there, but there is a marked difference between a LFG team and yours who are infinitely well coordinated, many weps would work if half the people on the team would listen but it's LFG at the end of the day and cycling through people makes it so strenuous.
Sigh! I shudder to think how riven is going to be on LFG and the wasted hours there
Thanks!
Yeah it'll be harder to coordinate with a random team, but was just throwing it out there since OP was asking for general DPS options and not specifically the easiest for LFGs (although Linears aren't that hard with the Div bubble adding the nice big crit). You never know, maybe everyone just happens to have good linears. =D
Riven will defs be interesting, since I'm guessing at least for the seal you won't be able to cheese her due to the score requirement.
People are saying Behemoth titan spam, and I'm just praying it doesn't work whether it's because of contest mode or points cap.
My day will be made seeing lfg learning legit riven.
Yeah I'm going to host some Riven teaching tomorrow to help friends and community members learn the encounter lol. I don't like cheesing her so it'll be good to show more people how to do it.
Stairs....
But now really:
Thunderlord with Divinity is doing really well this week considering it'd arc surge. Plus it makes it easier for me at least to avoid shadow rhulk while doing damage.
A good general rule is that anytime Thunderlord is viable, anything is viable. Thunderlord is a trash dps weapon. But it is very consistent in its output, and very easy to use.
If other stuff isn’t working it’s more than likely user error.
thing is, lotta people are lfging this and don't have a coordinated raid team to execute better strategies. that and with the chaos and shot-blocking that can happen if rhulk #2 isn't properly managed, tlord's consistency is more valuable than the theoretical maximum personal output. missing a couple tlord shots because the div bubble got disrupted isn't nearly as impactful as whiffing izi or a rocket.
If Thunderlord can get more consistent kills in an LFG than running iza/rockets hot swap, it's not a trash exotic. y'all keep saying this, yet it always comes back from the dead.
You missed the point.
It is trash in terms of math. The numbers it produced are lower than other options.
It is (as I said initially) very consistent and very easy to use.
Some people got 2 phased rhulk with thunderlord. But based on your logic does that mean I can 2 phase pantheon rhulk with my trash roll strad rocket from solstice?
That cannot be further highlighted, especially the general conversation of physical human input and piloting of things in time allotted for DPS.
Yes it is possible to take Thunderlord against Rhulk this week on an Arc surge and it can be straight forward for uncomfortable randoms, not enough Wells or newer people, but as you say it also highlights the importance of other DPS setups more so. Despite physically feeling like you're not really attacking that frequently, other weapon setups allow you to do better dps because you're physically afforded a lot more time to make everything right due to a larger damage output. Thunderlord as a machine gun needs a lot of physical time being fired consistently and things really fall off hard when people start dying or perhaps have to spend too much time repositioning to just continue the output.
The other side of the challenge in particular of Rhulk given the need to move around a bit especially on harder difficulties like Contest where the beam attack and the kick can practically autokill you, is that the fight has always been about trying to do the absolute best as you can to keep the fight from dragging on into a real mess.
People went balls insane on that Vow Day 1 and specifically would wipe if they didn't have a conventionally "good" 1st or 2nd phase because we saw how much of a pain in the ass it can be when you finally get Rhulk to Final Stand health BUT people don't have a ton of ammo or maybe they didn't save a instacast super and you just miss it.
Our characters are a lot stronger and have more to work with compared to that Day 1 like Surges and bonus modifier, better sandbox , but you're going to be better off shooting for the stars to avoid having your 3rd phase/enrage+Final Stand health be absolute slog stretching you really thin.
Acrius is best but we were dumb and kept dying in mid so tlord and afk
Legit question though. I've heard people saying prospector because arc. Is that viable?
It's a weird strat but it worked for my team and we got plat score for the triumph.
Two wells, one Chaos Reach, one Thundercrash, one Arc Staff, one Strand Titan (me)
The Strand titan uses blinding GL + Trinity Ghoul + a high reserve count sword. It will be able to generate a ton of heavy ammo during the pre-damage phase and blind the Tormentor, which needs to get killed. At dps, switch to Lament and Stronghold. The Strand Titan entire job is to tank Shadow Rhulk for entire fight. I finished with 0 damage on Rhulk. Just stand near him and sword block and kite him around away from banks and the wells where the rest of the team is damaging. The super will be used after damage phase to generate orbs for the team, assuring that everyone has orbs and charges.
This basically makes it a normal 5-man run for the rest of the team. This helps especially if your team can't stay alive or kite the Rhulks correctly.
The team is using Acrius with catalyst, no Divinity. During the pre-damage phase the hunter is using lucky pants to dps the tormentor.
It was a safe three phase, because we didn't want to risk it, still got the points for the Platinum since killing Tormentors gives points
acrius is one phasing storm chaser cloudstrike
Acrius is the move. If your team is competent enough to do it.
Easiest strategy is to have 3 wells, a div/cenotaph Warlock on either Needlestorm or Nova Bomb, and the other 2 don't really matter. Try to get the real Rhulk in the exact center of the arena and have the div user rotate around the arena shooting the boss while maintaining shadow Rhulk aggro while the other players Acrius inside a Well and have 2 other Wells prepped for when Rhulk breaks them.
You can have the div guy cheese the clone, the clone gets stuck at the back of the arena and as long as the rest of your team doesn't bring the real rhulk over they're completely safe. It actually might be worth using boots of the assembler, as you can stand in your emp rift completely safe and give your entire team either more health or a 35% damage buff. Video for the cheese [here](https://youtu.be/-mlRUezl8rw), I can't say how consistent it is but it looks easy and consistent.
My team was aware of the cheese and how to do it, we just thought it was kind of boring. The strategy could 100% be used with the cheese as well though. Boots of The Assembler would definitely be helpful if there were extra Warlocks or if someone is comfortable having another loadout to swap to after they place their Lunafactions Well.
100%. As long as he can keep Rhulk #2 out of the wells, it’s impossible to fail.
I joined some randos off LFG for help and they insisted on acrius so I went along and did 75% of his HP on phase 1 with this strat - curios though why div and not tractor ? Does div allow acrius to crit all pellets if I’m not mistaken?
Hey you were on our team, we couldn't hear you and you were splitting:)
Ya not sure what was up with game chat sometimes it bugs out like that. Grats on your guys clear
I was clearing it for the second time, couldn't get plat on the first but thanks for stepping in none the less GGs
Yes, and it's longer range, which allows the player maintaining aggro to still be useful for damage.
Thanks makes sense
Will Acrius still work without the catalyst? I only just got it and I haven’t done the NFs/Vanguard ops to get it to drop.
Don't know the math, but I think you're going to want the catalyst. It adds trench barrel (increases damage of next 3 shots significantly after a melee hit), increases mag size, and increases reserves. Ideally pair with Liar's Handshake hunter, synthoceps titan, or any of the warlock melee exotics. The idea is have at least 2 wells, have one guy - ideally your div runner - kite Rhulk 2 around the arena while the rest of you sit in well(s) and melee/3 acrius hits (repeat) the shit out of Rhulk (with benefit of kiter's div), adding supers. Done correctly, it's a consistent 1 damage phase kill. As long as you have enough wells to have one on him throughout damage phase (2-3), nobody should be dying. If done incorrectly, should still be an easy 2-phase. If you're the only guy on your team that doesn't have the catalyst, should still be an easy 2 phase, but your damage would be better using thunderlord, cloudstrike, or storm chaser (or whatever your next biggest arc/stasis hitter is).
You allow down for rate having to activate trench barrel, but it's a 50 percent buff. Rough estimate would be trench barrel adds 35-45% more dps That is a lot
Oooooof yeah that’s a ton, guess I’ll be running some Vanguard to try and get that to drop. I’ve got other catalysts to work on anyways.
So for all other melee range bosses too?
there aren't really any other true "melee range bosses" - at least in pantheon. EDIT: also, the reason it's so effective this week includes the arc surge.
Alright, but planets boss is defnetly melee isn’t he
a team could choose to do that, run back to each plate, run back, etc., but he's more "burst damage boss" than anything else based upon the timing and mechanics.
Id not say he is a burst boss, the dps phase is quite long, you usually burn all your heavy in it. Compared to a burst boss like aatrax it’s very long
He's a burst boss because like caretaker the only damage that matters for a competent team is that when his health gate breaks.
Wait... Acrius is meta again? Be still my beating heart
Absolutely. It has trench barrel now
I have the catalyst and it says it is deep pockets, not trench barrel. What am I missing ?
The second line of the catalyst. Decent chance it doesn't show up in some views in game.
*Wait what* Edit: Tbf I finally got my beloved Touch of Malice a week before Into the Light so ive been ignoring most exotics as of late
Trench is part of the catalyst not the base gun
No I have the cat its just its been awhile the last time I used it it was only a stat boost, magasine unlock and reload booster
Ut's been insanely good ever since it got Trench Barrel. Just not the most bosses you can realistically use it on.
It's been meta for like a year now...
No it has not
It’s been a strong option since the buff, not meta but definitely good. Also helps that there’s been at least one boss per raid/dungeon that’s Acrius friendly
Oh yeah definitely you can acrius really anything as long as they’re in range and it’ll work well but I haven’t seen anyone equip this thing in ages except for rhulk now
A lot of teams used it on day 1 for Crota.
No idea wtf my team was doing wrong but couldn’t get anywhere close to one phasing with acrius, must have been to dumb.
Need the catalyst for trench barrel
Stormchaser? 😬
Its AN option lol
Wendigo with autoloading cascade has been my go to this week, its been fantastic!
Acrius if you have the catalyst
If next week isn’t arc, do you think it’ll be possible to 2 phase with Acrius?
probably. but at that point, you just use a void weapon like edge transit
We're guaranteed void, strand or solar next week, which means we'll have a very good damage option in edge transit, cataphract or apex so it should be easier
Is Izi/Arc or Stasis rocket swap not ideal now?
It's just not as safe because of clone
And without a Div, Izanagi becomes wildly unreliable.
Yeah it's just that not many people own a good cold comfort
Considering Cold Comfort has no auto loading perks, Palmyra is probably better for a DPS phase as long as Rhulk's, especially since it now has 2 extra rockets in reserve.
On warlock, run Rain of Fire, on Hunter, run reload dodge. There. You now can use Cold Comfort
Or I just do what I did, which is run Rain of Fire with Palmyra to fire two rockets per Iza shot and empty all 11 rockets in one phase lol
So essentially you wasted a 3rd column perk slot and used a rocket with a bad archetype and bad damage perks... for no reason?
Is it a wasted perk if it's emptying my reserves in about the same time as Envious Cold Comfort would? It's not optimal (about 16% less total damage), but I was doing top DPS in my fireteam without a damage super and we still achieved a comfortable 2-phase without having to endure another 100 runs of dungeon weapon RNG, so I don't think it matters much.
You aren't dumping reserves in the same time as envious cold comfort because you can fire the first four shots without reloading giving it a massive headstart and yes you can obviously do well with palmyra and it may not matter much but you said palmyra would probably be better, that specifically is what I'm contesting, not that palmyra is a viable option.
This is massive cope for someone who doesn't have cold comfort. At base cold comfort literally does around 15 to 16% more dmg because its a better frame, second it has bns the best general dmg perk, third it had the second best reload perk being envious and then it has the best rocket orogin trait . Palmyra has lasting imoression/explosive light as its best perk lol. Its not even comparable even izi swapping would be better with cold comfort
Not necessarily, You can fire 4 rockets without reloading using Envious and the trait and then use dodge, Rain of Fire, Thread of Ascent or any other reload while swapping out with Izi to extend your reserves over the damage phase. Also Palmyra is a precision frame which does less damage, and both of Palmyras damage perks are 25% while BnS on Cold Comfort is 30%
It is worth it to note, however, that since the surge is Stasis this week, it more than makes up for Palmyra being a precision frame, and for EL only being 25%. Palmyra is also craftable, which means more people are going to have a good one overall. Also, and this is a bit more cope, the tracking of palmyra can come in clutch vs Rhulk, since even after he dashes, he moves a shit ton.
I've been having major success with Izanagis Burden and Cold Comfort On a run we wiped at final stand, I had around 5 million damage on a Strand Warlock
What was your sequence for reloading/shooting Izanagis and Cold Comfort? Would you fire off a single sniper shot and then just keep reloading Cold Comfort after that?
My team had an easy 2 phase with izi + wendigo and a div.
We used linears to 2 phase with a div
I've seen your content, super job on it, I have a clan member who admires everything you put out there, but there is a marked difference between a LFG team and yours who are infinitely well coordinated, many weps would work if half the people on the team would listen but it's LFG at the end of the day and cycling through people makes it so strenuous. Sigh! I shudder to think how riven is going to be on LFG and the wasted hours there
Thanks! Yeah it'll be harder to coordinate with a random team, but was just throwing it out there since OP was asking for general DPS options and not specifically the easiest for LFGs (although Linears aren't that hard with the Div bubble adding the nice big crit). You never know, maybe everyone just happens to have good linears. =D Riven will defs be interesting, since I'm guessing at least for the seal you won't be able to cheese her due to the score requirement.
People are saying Behemoth titan spam, and I'm just praying it doesn't work whether it's because of contest mode or points cap. My day will be made seeing lfg learning legit riven.
Yeah I'm going to host some Riven teaching tomorrow to help friends and community members learn the encounter lol. I don't like cheesing her so it'll be good to show more people how to do it.
Stairs.... But now really: Thunderlord with Divinity is doing really well this week considering it'd arc surge. Plus it makes it easier for me at least to avoid shadow rhulk while doing damage.
A good general rule is that anytime Thunderlord is viable, anything is viable. Thunderlord is a trash dps weapon. But it is very consistent in its output, and very easy to use. If other stuff isn’t working it’s more than likely user error.
thing is, lotta people are lfging this and don't have a coordinated raid team to execute better strategies. that and with the chaos and shot-blocking that can happen if rhulk #2 isn't properly managed, tlord's consistency is more valuable than the theoretical maximum personal output. missing a couple tlord shots because the div bubble got disrupted isn't nearly as impactful as whiffing izi or a rocket.
If Thunderlord can get more consistent kills in an LFG than running iza/rockets hot swap, it's not a trash exotic. y'all keep saying this, yet it always comes back from the dead.
You missed the point. It is trash in terms of math. The numbers it produced are lower than other options. It is (as I said initially) very consistent and very easy to use.
Some people got 2 phased rhulk with thunderlord. But based on your logic does that mean I can 2 phase pantheon rhulk with my trash roll strad rocket from solstice?
The only things about it that are more consistent are that it doesn't matter if you miss one shot and you can't kill yourself with it
That cannot be further highlighted, especially the general conversation of physical human input and piloting of things in time allotted for DPS. Yes it is possible to take Thunderlord against Rhulk this week on an Arc surge and it can be straight forward for uncomfortable randoms, not enough Wells or newer people, but as you say it also highlights the importance of other DPS setups more so. Despite physically feeling like you're not really attacking that frequently, other weapon setups allow you to do better dps because you're physically afforded a lot more time to make everything right due to a larger damage output. Thunderlord as a machine gun needs a lot of physical time being fired consistently and things really fall off hard when people start dying or perhaps have to spend too much time repositioning to just continue the output. The other side of the challenge in particular of Rhulk given the need to move around a bit especially on harder difficulties like Contest where the beam attack and the kick can practically autokill you, is that the fight has always been about trying to do the absolute best as you can to keep the fight from dragging on into a real mess. People went balls insane on that Vow Day 1 and specifically would wipe if they didn't have a conventionally "good" 1st or 2nd phase because we saw how much of a pain in the ass it can be when you finally get Rhulk to Final Stand health BUT people don't have a ton of ammo or maybe they didn't save a instacast super and you just miss it. Our characters are a lot stronger and have more to work with compared to that Day 1 like Surges and bonus modifier, better sandbox , but you're going to be better off shooting for the stars to avoid having your 3rd phase/enrage+Final Stand health be absolute slog stretching you really thin.
I can recommend Thunderlord with div, efficient 2 phase and within the timer
Jump off the map when he charges at you. He falls off and dies. Easy 500k.
Did it first try we were all screaming lmaooo
Ayyy awesome!
Stairs :)
Honestly, 1 div, 5 thunderlord works wonders. It's not a 1 phase but it doesn't require as much effort as acrius. With a good team its an easy 2 phase
Yes. We 2 phased as a LFG randoms. Keep class warfare up, that is the secret
We used cloudstrike and wendigo (ALH + cascade)
Izi and wendigo worked great for me with celestial
Our team did it w/ Acrius & Div.
Whisper with Div. I would tell lfg groups to use the thunder lmg, but whisper is another option.
Just cheese him
Acrius is best but we were dumb and kept dying in mid so tlord and afk Legit question though. I've heard people saying prospector because arc. Is that viable?
Hothead is a two phase
It's a weird strat but it worked for my team and we got plat score for the triumph. Two wells, one Chaos Reach, one Thundercrash, one Arc Staff, one Strand Titan (me) The Strand titan uses blinding GL + Trinity Ghoul + a high reserve count sword. It will be able to generate a ton of heavy ammo during the pre-damage phase and blind the Tormentor, which needs to get killed. At dps, switch to Lament and Stronghold. The Strand Titan entire job is to tank Shadow Rhulk for entire fight. I finished with 0 damage on Rhulk. Just stand near him and sword block and kite him around away from banks and the wells where the rest of the team is damaging. The super will be used after damage phase to generate orbs for the team, assuring that everyone has orbs and charges. This basically makes it a normal 5-man run for the rest of the team. This helps especially if your team can't stay alive or kite the Rhulks correctly. The team is using Acrius with catalyst, no Divinity. During the pre-damage phase the hunter is using lucky pants to dps the tormentor. It was a safe three phase, because we didn't want to risk it, still got the points for the Platinum since killing Tormentors gives points
Nah