The Templar battle might’ve been preceded by a couple of encounters that gave you a quick glance at the mechanics, but it’s now time to fight the boss itself. The encounter has important concepts such as detainment, teleports, and extra mobs that can make it a brutal affair. In any case, here’s our guide to help you with the Templar boss fight in Destiny 2‘s Vault of Glass raid.
Note: For more information about Destiny 2: Season of the Splicer, check out our guides and features hub. You can also read our main guide for the Vault of Glass raid.
Destiny 2 Vault of Glass – Templar boss fight guide
The basics
Once someone picks up the relic in the area, the Templar boss fight will begin. The objective here is to destroy three Oracles that spawn in order, have the relic holder break the Templar’s shield, get everyone to deal damage to the boss, and then prepare for any possible teleports and mobs.
Team roles
- Relic Holder – The relic holder is the most important role in the Vault of Glass’ Templar boss fight. After picking up the relic, the player will notice various new actions such as a melee swipe (left click), ground slam (right click while in mid-air), a shield/cleanse (hold the melee button), and a super bar. I’ll talk more about these in a while.
- Oracle Killer (optional) – Technically, everyone can kill the Oracles that spawn. However, designated players can just hide inside the cubbyholes and use the Xenophage to take out the most visible ones. You can see one particular cheesing spot from the ceiling in the next image.
- Everyone else – The rest of the raid group should just help clear adds and any Oracles that the assigned player cannot see.
Note: Use the same cheese spots and numbering for Oracles from the previous encounter (i.e., #1 starting from the back right going clockwise) to have clearer callouts and line-of-sight.
How the fight progresses and suggested loadouts
Start by destroying the three Oracles in order. The Templar should then begin its Ritual of Negation cast. The first cast wouldn’t matter since no one should be debuffed if you killed the Oracles in the correct order.
Oh, and while the Oracles are being killed, the relic holder should be meleeing a few mobs to fully charge their super meter. Then, once everyone is in position, the relic holder will use the super to fire a blast that would break the Templar’s shield. This lets the fireteam do DPS.
Ideally, you should have the following:
- Titans – Banner Shield with Ursa Furiosa.
- Warlocks – Well of Radiance with Lunafaction Boots.
- Hunters – Golden Gun with Celestial Nighthawk.
- Double slug shotguns or sniper rifles with the Vorpal Weapon perk and Boss Spec mod.
- Anarchy exotic grenade launcher – Ideally, at least one player in the fireteam should have the Breach & Clear artifact mod to debuff the boss.
- If you have an Oracle Killer that’s hiding in a cheese spot, they should use the Xenophage to one-shot the Oracles. You could also brute force the encounter (i.e., ignore the next set of Oracles). I’ll explain more in a while.
Note: Your first DPS phase position should be on the ledges fairly close to the boss (the Banner Shield and Well of Radiance should keep you alive). Also, this position will let you stay away from exploding fanatics. Remember that they’ll still create Vex milk pools that’ll debuff you with the Mark of Negation. Your only recourse is to run to the central plate to get cleansed since the relic’s ability no longer removes the mark.
Note 2: You should be able to deplete at least 40 to 50% of the Templar’s health pool in a single DPS phase. You might even get close to a one-phase if everyone’s on point.
Detainment and blocking the teleports
One more thing you have to remember is that the Templar will detain three random people in a bubble. When detained, you’re unable to shoot to break your own shield. Instead, you need to rely on teammates to shoot your shield for you. If you try to quickly dash outside the bubble, or if your detainment isn’t removed in time, you’ll die. It’s possible for the relic holder to get detained, too, so make sure to break their bubble quickly. Also, if you’re using a rocket launcher and you get detained just prior to firing, there’s a good chance that you’ll die to the explosion.
Likewise, the relic holder has to roam around the map, looking for a red circle that denotes where the Templar would teleport to. If the relic holder can stand inside the red circle for a few seconds, they’ll block the Templar’s teleport which extends the DPS phase. The relic holder can simply hold the melee button to pop a shield to negate all damage while they’re on the spot.
Ideally, the relic holder should block two teleports so the team can have a fairly lengthy DPS phase. Also, several minotaurs will spawn depending on the number of times the teleport was canceled. You have two options from this point onwards. First, you can choose to clear the mobs, especially the half dozen or so minotaurs that have appeared. While this is going on, remember that the next set of Oracles will spawn soon, so make sure to do your callouts accordingly.
Alternatively, you can brute force the encounter by ignoring the next sets of Oracles. This is viable if your team has decent loadouts and everyone’s on point, or once the 24-hour contest mode is over and you’re no longer hampered by being at a lower level compared to enemies. For this one, just let the relic holder block as many teleports as possible (crossing back and forth each side by cutting through the spawn point, like a “U” movement).
Continue damaging the boss even if the Oracles appear. Then, once the Templar is about to cast the Ritual of Negation, the team will move to the cleansing plate and do a countdown before stepping on it. You may even let the relic holder shield you from enemy fire while on the cleansing plate. After this short transition, the relic holder, Titans, and Warlocks will just state when they have their supers so you can be ready to burst the Templar’s remaining sliver of health.
Note 1: If you can’t get an ideal DPS position (i.e., the middle or back areas), or if teammates don’t have their supers/ammo yet, just stay near the cleansing plate. Kill a few mobs and let a round of negation/cleansing pass. The relic holder will just blast the Templar so that it can teleport to a more preferable spot, and everyone will just prep to nuke it when possible.
Note 2: Lastly, the Templar will enrage if the boss fight takes longer than eight minutes. It’ll repeatedly summon more Oracles that’d make cleansing more hectic.
After you’ve beaten the Templar, it’s time to head through the Gorgon’s Maze. We’ll talk about this area in the next section of our Vault of Glass raid guide.
