Lord of Blades

Type: Living Construct (List)

Race: Warforged (List)

Monster Manual classification: Missing from MM: Warforged

Alignment: Neutral Evil

Boss: Purple Named - Powerful Boss

CR: ♦22/32Normal ♥36Hard ♠42Elite ●♦28/35Epic Normal ●♥39Epic Hard ●♠58Epic Elite

Attack:

Attack Bonus: ♦78Normal ♥82Hard ♠91Elite ●♠160+Epic Elite
Attack Damage: Trident (Slashing). Note that his damage will be far higher if he has the Power of the Forge buff:

♦8d20+17Normal ♥10d20+17Hard ♠12d20+17Elite ●14d20+22Epic Epics: Similar as Heroic Normal on EN, Similar to Heroic hard on EH, and insanely high on EE: 400+ damage swings are not uncommon.

- Note: His most common attack animation results in two attacks.
Spellcasting - See below
Special Abilities - See below

Special Qualities:

HP: ♦210kNormal ♥270kHard ♠400kElite ●♦160kEpic Normal ●♥350kEpic Hard ●♠860kEpic Elite approximately, as monster hitpoints are rolled randomly
AC: ( ●64-69Epic)
DR: Adamantine + Good Amount: ♦15Normal ♥17Hard ♠20Elite ●20Epic Each epic difficulty has the same DR.
Fortification: 80% on all difficulties
Saves: Fort: Massive, Will Save: ●♠60+Epic Elite, Reflex Save: ●♠55+Epic Elite
Resists/Immunities: Living Construct Traits. Resist ♦50Normal ♥60Hard ♠70Elite ●♠100+Epic Elite to each of the major elements (Fire, Electric, Cold, Acid), and ♦25Normal ♥50Hard ♠75Elite ●100Epic to Light. Takes full damage from force, sonic and negative energy only.
Spell Resistance: ?
Intimidate DC: ♦~55Normal ♥~60Hard ♠~76Elite ●♠100+Epic Elite (-4 Size Penalty as he is considered Large)
Defence Bypass: True Seeing and Dodge Bypass ability, meaning Blur, Displace, Dodge defences on players are all ignored.
- Note: The Defence Bypass abilities is only when the Lord of Blades is encountered during the Killing Time raid. They do not have this ability during The Lord of Blades raid.

Habitats:

Description: The Lord of Blades <Commander of the Mournlands> is the raid boss of The Lord of Blades raid introduced in Update 11. You first encounter him in Eldritch Site Prime.

Spells Known

Save DC ♦32Normal ♥34Hard ♠37Elite ●♠~55Epic Elite

Blade Barrier (Frequently)
Cometfall (Frequently, targets a random party member)
Symbol of Stunning (Occasionally casts, random nearby target)
Necrotic Ray (Targets a random party member, Deathward Negates)
Tactical Detonation (Rarely cast)
Fire Storm (Rarely cast)
Divine Punishment (Only cast on players in the water)

Phase One: Initial Special Abilities (100% to 75% Health)

The Lord of Blades has a huge variety of devastating special abilities. Some are only gained when he reaches various health percentage marks which keeps the battle interesting.

Player version of Power of the Forge

Power of the Forge: This is a special buff that both the players and the Lord of Blades can acquire. Its power comes from the pillars, so destroy those if you wish to end it.
- Player Version: To get this buff, head towards the center while the power links are at full strength and you see a bluish holographic aura appear, which will later glow yellow indicating it's charged and ready. It will grant you approximately ~50 seconds (warning: no timer is displayed and the duration is semi-random) of the buff. It allows you to float over the plasma water, move faster, and grants you +25% damage output, -40% spell point costs, DR15/-. This is useful to allow melee players to attack the pillars (Power Links). Be warned - when you get the buff, you will also get a 120 second debuff. This debuff just warns that you if you attempt to get power of the forge again within that 120 second window, something bad will happen - you will get stunned for ~12 seconds by a unresistable/unremovable stun called "Mind Probe".
- Boss Version: The Lord of Blades get this buff by heading to the center if you don't get it before he does. For him it provides much more devastating benefits: massively increases his strength, damage output on all his attacks, speed and thus overall difficulty. It can stack up on him up to five times, each new buff increasing its intensity. Due to this it's highly recommended that you have a party member get the power of the forge before he does, and also destroy all the pillars early on, and again later on, unless you wish to complete the optional (as destroying the pillars during the second spawn will end the raid).
Touch of the Mournlands: "The Lord of Blades taints each wound with the power of the Mournlands." This special attack applies to every critical hit he performs (even ones where extra damage is absorbed by fortification) with one of the two attacks in his trident sweep attack animation, and also with the 'Mighty Blow Stun' attack described below. Those attacks crit on ♦19Normal ♥18Hard ♠17Elite ●17Epic, so you will see a lot more of this debuff on higher difficulties. What it does: each successful proc lowers your current maximum hitpoints by 5%. It can stack indefinitely and each successive application resets its duration back to full - 80 seconds. You can negate this by shield blocking, or simply having him miss you. Cloudkill is a useful spell to increase his miss chance.
Mighty Blow Stun + Backspin + Mighty Slam: Occasionally the Lord of Blades will attack his current target with an extremely devastating stun + attack combo. There is no save on the stun and it seems to have an unlimited range, however it can be blocked if your timing is extremely good, as there is an audio tell before he does it. It also cannot be removed like a normal stun. After the stun he will start spinning his trident in the air behind him, which will severely damage all flanking party members if they do not quickly get out of the way. Be sure to watch your tank and move out quickly if he gets stunned, or listen for the audio cue. The spin up lasts for about 5 seconds.

After the backspin, he will perform a very powerful slam attack, this effect will also knock back several feet anyone he hits (it should only be the tank). The slam attacks deals massive slashing damage. Base damage is ♦317+5d20Normal ♥317+6d20Hard ♠317+7d20Elite ●322+8d20Epic, again increased by Power of the Forge.

Binding Chains: This ranged special will hit only his current target. It binds them in chains severely slowing movement by -75%, melee attack rate by -50%, reducing the tumble and jump skills by 40 points (tumble is in fact disabled entirely). Recommended strategy during this attack is to shield block and endure.

Phase Two: New Special Abilities (75% to 40% Health)

Return my Hounds: At this stage he will immediately restore his Hounds of Blades to full health, and reset their AI/Positioning.
Neo/Superman Leap: This ability allows him to escape combat and perform a massive leap to the ceiling of the Forge. He cannot be damaged while performing the leap. This ability will also reset his aggro list. Once he drops down he will perform either of these specials:
- Pouncing Strike: He will target 1 random party member and lead down slamming his Trident into their body, dealing massive damage enough to outright kill many party members. Damage is the same as his Mighty Blow above and is amplified by Power of the Forge.
- Powerful Double Charge': If he instead lands on the very outside edge of the arena, he will perform a powerful double charge. This one isn't too bad as it simply knocks down players that get in his way, and deals moderate damage. It does show a saving throw, but even rolling a 20 generally won't negate it. Simply dodge it or shield block to avoid some damage.
Whirlwind: Perhaps his most devastating special. This attack has very short tell - he will swing his weapon around in circle above his head as a sort of wind up. The attack itself is a very devastating AOE attack so if are flanking and don't have aggro, move away quickly! It deals standard melee attack damage per hit (amplified by Power of the Forge), and hits EXTREMELY fast, every ~150 milliseconds and goes on for several seconds. Each hit will also hit all nearby players in a 360 degree arc, and cause a powerful knockback with no save. You will be knocked back much further if you are in the air.
- If you are the tank: recommended strategy is step into the water, out of the Lord's melee range. Ideally you are tanking him near the water. In dire straits you can just jump straight up - thereby getting knocked a long way into the plasma and hope you can survive that. Jumping helps even if you are far away as the knockback distance is greatly amplified if you're airborne, especially with Feather Fall on.
- If you are not the tank: stop attacking immediately when Whirlwind's animation and sound starts, and run away from the tank. Ideally don't stand near anyone else, nor within melee range of the edges of the platform. If LOB changes aggro and is on you (often happens if the tank dies), jump and hope you can survive the plasma - but even if you only live a few seconds, you've probably prevented a raid wipe.

Phase Three: The Final Devastating Special Ability (40% to 5% Health)

Return my Hounds yet again: He will once again re-summon his hounds to full health.
Rain of Blades: At 33% he gains one final, very devastating special attack. This one has an easy tell, he will crouch down and small blades will fly out of his back, then a couple of seconds later the special attack will hit. It deals massive damage over time, it's similar to the Black Abbot's Inferno in that it engulfs the entire platform except one small area. Though the damage is quite survivable by high HP players with good healing - thus the tank should stay out to avoid having the party get cleaved by the Lord of Blades in the center. Deals slashing damage. Reflex save for half, but for most characters even half damage will be enough to kill them if they remain in it too long. There is one safe area: the exact center of the platform. Also keep in mind if power of the forge is active while you dodge, the center will deal some minor electrical damage while the forge power charges; some healing may be necessary.

Phase Four: Reinforcements! (5% Health to Quori ambush)

The Hounds' Last Assault: At this point he will return his hounds yet again (if they are dead) for a final assault. Killing the hounds at this point completely disintegrates their corpses, preventing further resurrection. It is recommended to kill them during this phase.
Evade and Summon Reinforcements: At this point he will continuously perform his Neo/Superman leap to avoid taking serious injury (occasionally doing a single charge, pounce attack or spell) and instead he will keep you busy by summoning several waves of Bladesworn Warforged reinforcements. These include:
~30 Bladesworn Assassins (spawning a small amount in several waves)
~6 Bladesworn Artificers (spawning one at a time in several waves)

Once all these waves are defeated they will not respawn and the final phase will be triggered.

Final Phase and How to complete the raid (5% to completion)

A short time after this phase begins a portal will appear in the center of the platform and several waves of Quori monsters will begin to spawn and attack you.

The Lord of Blades cannot be directly defeated, as the Power of the Forge will be back to prevent him from dying (the amount of health he regains after being reduced to zero varies with difficulty). You can choose to "Mark" him - reduce him to zero health up to three times to complete optional objectives - or simply go for completion by destroying the newly attackable set of pillars. Once you destroy the pillars, the raid will be complete and the Lord of Blades will depart regardless of his current health. Not all pillars will need to be destroyed, as the last two remaining will fall on their own once the rest are destroyed.

Note that all pillars have a second destructible connection at the top and both have to be destroyed to topple the pillar. As these are not reachable by melee characters, even with the Forge buff, some form of ranged damage is required to complete this fight.

If you mark the Lord of Blades three times, completing the optional objectives, you'll have no choice but to destroy the pillars to complete the raid. The DM will inform you that attacking him further is futile and a new required objective to destroy the pillars will appear.

The waves of quori do eventually stop spawning, but they are fairly tedious to kill and can be dangerous. Groups do sometimes choose to kill all the quori first when marking, but it's more common for someone to be assigned to kite the quori while the rest of the group focuses on the Lord of Blades or the pillars.

(The version of the Lord of Blades found in Killing Time is missing many of his abilities, most notably the Blade rain, and is only red-named. He fully heals when first "killed" and you must bring him down again to end the raid. Note that no version of the Lord of Blades actually ever dies during combat and as such he has no Monster Manual entry.)

Developer Verification

Quote:
Originally Posted by (former developer) Eladrin Even the Lord of Blades left his heavy fort item at home, and is sitting at 80% (even though he really should have the Improved Fort feat).

External links