The final week of Destiny 2‘s The Pantheon has arrived, featuring a whopping eight bosses and one mean Power disadvantage. Whether Guardians just want a clear for that sweet Emblem, or they’re pushing to hit a Platinum score on each encounter for the Godslayer Title, they’ll want to know what to expect from The Pantheon: Nezarec Sublime.
The Pantheon is a limited-time boss rush mode in Destiny 2, featuring encounters tuned to inch up the difficulty. Alongside encounter reworks, players also go against a Power disadvantage, starting at -5 in The Pantheon’s first bout and going up to -20 for Nezarec Sublime. While regular Raids can already be challenging, The Pantheon demands mastery, quick thinking, and coordination.
Modifiers matter
For The Pantheon: Nezarec Sublime, players have a few helpful modifiers to regain control in the encounters. First up is the return of Shot Caller from The Pantheon: Oryx Exalted. This modifier offers increased Special and Heavy weapon damage on top of damage resistance. Players can trigger the modifier by landing three precision shots in rapid succession.
Alongside Shot Caller are the Solar and Strand Surges. Each Surge empowers matching elemental weapons, meaning players will want an arsenal of Solar and Strand weapons for Nezarec Sublime. Of particular note, The Parasite, Whisper of the Worm, Apex Predator, Sleeper Stimulant, Sunshot, and Scatter Signal all work marvelously, depending on the specific encounter.
The first six bosses
If players have been following along with The Pantheon each week, they already know what’s in store for most of the boss rush. Guardians will still have to carve their way through all of the bosses previously defeated in The Pantheon: Atraks Sovereign, The Pantheon: Oryx Exalted, and The Pantheon: Rhulk Indomitable, only this time with a -20 Power disadvantage.
Some of these encounters can feel very different with the Power disadvantage and different Surges active. If players are struggling to overcome a boss, just remember to play to the strengths of the Surges and Shot Caller and to equip relevant Resistance mods on armor.
Riven
Riven mechanics
Most players are used to passing over Riven with a bit of cheese, but that’s not going to work anymore. Guardians will have to learn how to defeat Riven legit if they want a chance at toppling Nezarec. That said, once you know what to do, the fight is easier than it’s been made out to be.
Riven changes
Of course, the most significant change is that you can’t cheese Riven anymore. This used to be done by having the whole Fireteam go into one room together and then use a glitch to respawn back at the start if Riven didn’t appear. For The Pantheon, that method is defunct, and Guardians must do all of the mechanics in the encounter.
Outside of doing Riven as intended, there are more enemies, and naturally, at a -20 Power disadvantage, they can hit like a truck. Doing the encounter’s mechanics safely will be the real challenge, with the only other notable change being that Riven sports additional resistance on the lower floors.
Nezarec
Nezarec mechanics
Nezarec is the final boss in the Root of Nightmares Raid and the last encounter in The Pantheon. Like other encounters with several mechanics happening simultaneously, it’s easiest to approach the fight with pre-assigned roles and an understanding of how everything comes together. The Fireteam will want to assign two players as runners and another one or two for tanking/kiting. The remaining players will focus on clearing the arena of enemies. The arena itself is separated into three lanes, with platforms dotted around the left and right lanes.
At the edge of the left and right lanes closest to the Rally flag, players will notice a plate with either a Light or Dark node (Dark on the right, Light on the left). This is the starting point for each runner. The tank team/player should stay far back in the middle lane, by the rally flag, and the ad clear players are free to move about so long as they don’t put themselves in danger.
To start the encounter, each runner can shoot their respective node to gain a buff, either Flux of Darkness or Flux of Light. The runners then want to look at the platforms closest to their plate and head to the one with a small black orb floating above it. Standing on the plate and damaging the orb transfers the buff, activating that platform. Players must activate all platforms on both sides to push into a damage phase. However, there are a couple of catches.
After runners expend their buff, they can return to the starting plate to get another. That said, the buff-giving plate will move after players have activated it a few times. This means runners must keep an eye out after activating a plate to ensure they’re running the right way toward a rebuff. The other consideration in this relay race is Nezarec himself.
Soon after starting the encounter (usually when runners are heading to their second plate), Nezarec will raise a hand in the air, which starts bouncing random players around. This will make it almost impossible for runners to do their job, so this is where the tank comes into play. Using a sniper, the tank must shoot the crit spot on both of the boss’ shoulders. This will elicit a flash of color (either white for Light or orange for Darkness), which should be communicated to the rest of the team.
Shortly after the flash of color, Nezarec’s chest will light up so the tank can take a precision shot. Popping his chest debuffs the tank with Nezarec’s Hatred, which makes the boss jump down and chase the player for as long as they have the debuff. This will buy the runners additional time to activate plates until Nezarec starts to glow. When this happens, the runner of the opposite color called out must reacquire their Flux buff and use it on an activated platform matching the color Nezarec flashed. For example, if Nezarec flashed white after popping his shoulders, the Darkness runner would rebuff and use the buff on an activated Light platform.
If done correctly, the platform in question will provide any player that passes over it with a shield buff called Light or Darkness Refuge that prevents Nezarec’s wipe mechanic. It’s important to note that the shield doesn’t last very long, so players will want to ensure they rebuff if it expires before Nezarec erupts. With the wipe avoided, Nezarec will return to his balcony, and players can finish activating any lingering platforms.
Once all platforms on the left and right are activated, they’ll emit a beam of light to signal the phase switch. The Fireteam should all gather at one predetermined platform and play it safe until a beam pierces through Nezarec. Once that happens, Guardians can unload everything they have on the boss. Nezarec won’t just sit there and take the damage, though. The boss will attack players from the ground and the air, sometimes even teleporting around.
At the end of the damage phase, if Guardians don’t do enough to push the boss, Nezarec will teleport back up to the balcony, and the whole cycle will start again. If players can push the boss, he’ll enter a final stand where the team has one last chance to finish Nezarec off.
Nezarec changes
Alongside the Power disadvantage, a few changes to Nezarec will make the fight more difficult. The most notable thing is that if players stand on a plate for too long, it explodes. This means that Guardians must be especially careful when trying to get their Refuge buff.
It also makes it more challenging to plan a safe locale for damage. Fireteams can try avoiding stationary damage altogether and follow the boss with a couple Well of Radiance Supers and The Lament sword, or they can try to lure the boss towards the starting Darkness node before damage starts to make use of the safe root jutting out from the side of the arena.
In addition to exploding plates, Tormentors and Cabal Colossus will be running rampant, but thankfully, their defeat is not required for groups to get a Platinum score. The Colossus, however, are shielded with Light or Darkness. The Fireteam can have an add clear player stand on the buff-giving plate with a runner so they get the buff as well and can then eliminate the Colossus, or players can stun or blind the foes.
