Locus of Wailing Grief is the second boss in Destiny 2 Warlord’s Ruin and it takes the mechanics in the first boss encounter and expands upon them. I’ll guide you through how to beat Locus of Wailing Grief and include my pro tips.
How to beat Locus of Wailing Grief in Destiny 2 Warlord’s Ruin
Locus of Wailing Grief is a tough boss because it’s the only encounter with the Biting Cold debuff that will kill you when it reaches 10 stacks. After, I don’t recommend using Well of Radiance (use this absolutely cracked PvE Solar Warlock build instead) on this boss because you’ll need to move several times during the DPS phase.
Here’s the loop for defeating Locus of Wailing Grief: destroy the six Blighted Eyes, defeat a yellow bar mini-boss on the left or right side of the stage, destroy one or two Taken Totems while avoiding Biting Cold, wait for Imminent Wish to end and get one or two Solar Charges, dunk the Solar Charges into one of the four square braziers which are called Warming Flame, deal DPS in the lit Warming Flames after lighting them all, and repeat. It’s a lot of steps, but if you’re consistent, you’ll come out on top.
How to get rid of Biting Cold debuff
First, shoot all six Blighted Eyes floating over the middle of the stage. I highly recommend staying at the front of the stage for the entirety of the encounter (except for when you need to deal DPS) because the Taken adds down below are too numerous and overwhelming.
Once all six Blighted Eyes are destroyed, a yellow bar enemy spawns on both the left and right sides of the stage. As a Fireteam, pick a side to work on together so you don’t split up your damage and end up not being strong enough to do anything. I recommend the left side just because it felt easier there for my Fireteam.
Another pro tip: wait for the yellow bar enemy to spawn a Taken Totem and then defeat them quickly after. You’ll also want to defeat the yellow bar enemy as close to a torch as possible because during this phase, you’ll gain stacks of Biting Cold which kill you when you get 10 stacks. To get rid of the stacks, you need to get the Sheltered from the Storm buff by standing near one of the flaming torches near the front of the arena.
The Imminent Wish countdown, which works just like it did in the first boss Rathil, only gives you around 30 seconds. During this time, watch your Biting Cold and balance going away from a torch to enter a circle to defeat the black orb in a Taken Totem. I highly recommend defeating two Taken Totems to get two Solar Charges. If you can do this, this boss encounter will go more quickly.
Related: How to get Wish-Keeper Strand Exotic Bow in Destiny 2
How to deal damage to Locus of Wailing Grief
After the black orbs in the Taken Totems are destroyed and Imminent Wish is over, Biting Cold will go away and you’ll be rewarded with Solar Charges based on how many Taken Totems you successfully defeated. Pick these up and, after your team clears away some adds in the middle, dunk the Solar Charge in a Warming Fire square brazier — there are four of these which is why I recommend trying to get two Solar Charges per round to get to DPS faster.
Once all four Warming Fires are lit, the DPS phase begins. Right before this point, you need to communicate with your team to have them all gather at one of the Warming Fires in the front because you can only deal DPS while in the circle around a lit Warming Fire.
After a while, the Warming Fire will go out which means you need to go to another one to continue dealing damage. My team used the front right one, then the back left one, then the front left one which worked really well for DPS.
After all the Warming Fires are out, DPS is over and you need to repeat the process starting with the Blighted Eyes. The process for defeating Locus of Wailing Grief is a long one. As a final pro tip, my Fireteam had a lot of success using the Tether Shadowshot Void Hunter Super to eliminate all the adds that, if we weren’t careful killed us and ruined our DPS. While one team member was doing that, I used my Daybreak Solar Warlock Super to deal tons of damage to the boss. Good luck!
