How to solo kite Axemaster

by Zarathorn

This guide will give you the tools needed to kite AND potentially solo kill Legendary Axemaster Hareth during the Dragon's Stand meta. Kiting allows your lane to avoid dealing with the boss, and is a common strategy by experienced meta groups. Most kiters run full minstrel or another high-survivability stat and while it is fine to do so, you will either hope the boss stays in his corner for the entire escort or rely on your boss group to kill him at the proper time. If kiting in a very defensive setup, the kite is much easier and many of the suggestions in this guide are not required. It is, however, possible for the kiter to run enough damage to kill or almost kill him before anyone even reaches your section of the map.

Of importance to mention is that solo killing Axemaster is in large part, rng. Because of staff's random conditions, your damage will vary greatly from day to day, from having the boss above 60% to having him at 10% before the second Spitfire is down. I have yet to find a more reliable way of doing enough damage while surviving.

Video of a kite, with no deaths and enough damage to solo kill even though I had a bit of help from a misguided squad member

Gear and Prep


Stats		Full Viper’s is my setup, but a beginner at kiting may want some Plaguedoctor’s, Trailblazer’s, or Seraph’s for some added healing and survival.
Weapons		Scepter/Pistol (Malice/Paralyzation), Staff (Malice/Bursting)
Runes		Renegade
Consumable		Tuning Icicle/Orrian Truffle and Meat Stew important
Traits		Chaos: Illusionary Defence: you will generally have 2/3 stacks of this up, especially on staff. Helpful to reduce damage taken. Chaotic Dampening: extremely important both for damage and damage reduction once you swap to staff. Bountiful Disillusionment: there's nothing critical to run on this tier, and while you don't shatter often, the extra boons don't hurt. Dueling: Phantasmal Fury: helps with damage on staff, not so much on scepter/pistol. This could be swapped for Desperate Decoy for a bit of extra survivability. Evasive Mirror: doesn't reflect anything Axemaster does, but this entire tier is worthless and it might help if you aggro other stuff. Superiority Complex: a massive dps increase, almost impossible to live without. Deceptive evasion greatly increases your clone generation, but at a high cost. Mirage: Renewing Oasis: gives you almost constant regen, and helps if you walk over the lines on the floor. Mirage Mantle: again, almost constant uptime. Hard to live without. Infinite Horizon: a dps increase as well as a survival increase, mainly once you're in staff. Dune Cloak might be more damage if you're not duration capped, the free Sand Shards isn't very good since you're rarely close enough.
Alternate Trait Tree		Swapping out Dueling for Inspiration (Restorative Mantras/Restorative Illusions/Illusionary Inspiration) greatly increases your self-healing and survivability at the cost of a lot of your damage. An option for those just starting out, but the chances of a solo kill are greatly decreased.

Skills


Mantra of Recovery		By far the highest HPS heal a mesmer has at the cost of a longer cast time, you always want to use both charges immediately even if you don't need them. Charge recovery time is 20 sec, but recharge time when fully used is only 10 seconds. With Inspiration this will also cast Power Cleanse when charged or discharged to purge a condition.
Blink		While you will find yourself using this less and less as you practice, its ability to get you out of any sticky situation makes it invaluable even for the most experienced kiters. If you’re feeling supremely confident, Sand Through Glass would be a damage increase while also providing more situational mobility.
Signet of Domination		a condition damage increase, combined with an on-use stun? Yes please!
Signet of Midnight		a massive dps increase for any condi-based mesmer. Blind is a worthless CC, you have this purely for the passive.
Signet of Humility		While Jaunt is tempting, your main gate to killing Axemaster is not your damage but how fast you can break his armour. For this reason, the perennial Moa is necessary for any chance at a kill. You should get two uses out of this before breaking his bar, after which it is a dead skill unless you pull something else by accident.

The Kite


Setting up	You will want to be in position to the south side of the gate when Axemaster spawns. While you can camp there from map reset, it will likely be at least 8 minutes before he spawns, so this is somewhat unnecessary. Leaving the escort group to head towards Axemaster around the time the Cavaliers spawn is a safe bet to reach him and set up on time. Make sure your group knows you are kiting so no one tries to help you and inadvertently kites mobs into you.
Pulling the Boss	Make sure your food buffs are up, and start the kite in scepter/pistol. When Axemaster spawns, let him start walking and use Scepter 3 on him from max range. He may immediately use Thousand Axes, this is fine. Do NOT start your autoattack yet, as scepter autoattack spawns a clone which may aggro other mobs spawning from the tower. Back up slowly and let Axemaster come off the path. As soon as you think it is safe, use Signet of Humility and Signet of Domination. Once Axemaster is far enough from the path for it not to bounce, use Pistol 5 as well. These 3 skills should always be used on cooldown until his breakbar is gone.
Phase 1	You want to stay just inside max scepter attack range, moving back every time Axemaster does. When he uses Fissure, step to the side and watch for the split lines, making sure to leave yourself enough room to move for Thousand Axes. When he uses Underhand Swing, Scepter 2 to block or dodge it. Note that he will sometimes target Underhand Swing on your clones, so watch his facing as you may not need to avoid. Always err on the cautious side though, as taking an Underhand Swing can force you to use Mantra. If you find yourself lower on health, you can step outside the 1000 range of Thousand Axes and let your clones hold him for a few seconds. Continue to use Signet of Humility, Signet of Domination, Magic Bullet, and 3-clone Diversions to chip at his breakbar. This pattern will continue until his cc bar is broken, during which you should expect to do around 5% of his health.
Phase 2	Upon his cc bar breaking, Axemaster will be stunned for 5 seconds. He will then proceed into his phase 2 attack pattern, gaining movement speed and using Underhand Swing much more often. At this point you want to switch to staff, and close to around 300-400 range away. Maintain this range as much as possible, as this will protect you from his melee swings and the extreme damage of Thousand Axes in melee while allowing your autoattacks to bounce to you and back to the boss. Use staff 3, 4, and 5 off cooldown for boons and damage. As staff does not have a block, you want to save your dodges for Underhand Swings. Staff 2 can be used to gain distance if Axemaster closes to melee, but do not rely on it to avoid attacks. Your greatest source of damage is your autoattacks, but staff 3 also contributes a fair amount. Because staff also has lower clone generation, you will have to be more mobile during this phase as well. Be careful that while backing away from the boss that you do not accidentally back into the lane, as groups of mobs will be constantly spawning in it. Continue to cloak every Underhand Swing and avoid Fissures, while spending as much time as possible autoattacking. Your damage will vary, but you should expect to have him at least below 50% as the escort squad is reaching you for the first time.
Ending the Kite	Your kiting adventure will end in one of three ways. Once the squad group doing the Thumper event escort reaches the tower, they will often join you to kill Axemaster if your damage was low. If your damage is high enough to bring him low, be careful not to kill him before they are done their escort. Killing him too early may result in the final escort to the tower gate failing to complete before Axemaster respawns, negating the purpose of the kite entirely. Either way, you are freed up to help the group proceed with the rest of the meta event. The third option is a mistake on the part of the kiter resulting in death, at which point Axemaster will be free to leave and begin walking towards the lane. This is not the end of your kite, and it is possible to recover from a death. If you have a revive orb and use it immediately, you can re-engage Axemaster before his health resets or before he reaches the lane. In this case, simply resume kiting. If you are forced to Waypoint back, you may not reach Axemaster before he rejoins the lane. His health will also reset to full, but his CC bar will not. It is possible to ride past with a mount to avoid the mobs and use Scepter 3 to pick him from within a pack of mobs just like on the initial pull. Your chances of a solo kill after a death are almost non-existent, but your primary job of keeping him away from the group can continue.

Boss Abilities

Axemaster Hareth has several abilities to watch for, all of which have visual telegraphs. While his attack pattern changes after his armour is broken, the skills are all used in both forms.


Chop	Axemaster's basic melee combo, consisting of two swings of his axe sideways followed by an overhand chop. Does about 4k damage base, and usually requires the full 3 swings to kill any clones. Axemaster can turn during this attack, but once started will finish the animation even if all melee targets are dead or have moved.
Fissure	Axemaster raises his axe slowly and slams it down, creating a symmetrical black line that travels out from him before splitting into 3. Each of these lines further splits into 3 before stopping. These lines inflict high damage and bleeding on anyone who touches them, and despawn after about 15 seconds. The damage from this skill can be blocked, but the lines continue to travel regardless. After his armour is broken, this ability will be accompanied by the voice line "The jungle will swallow you whole!"
Thousand Axes	Axemaster's signature ability, creates four waves of axes that travel out to around 1000 range away. These axes cannot be blocked or dodged normally, but they can be dodged with Mirage Cloak. These axes individually do not hit that hard, however they cripple and there are quite a few of them. Despite popular belief, the pattern of Thousand Axes is not random and is actually fixed, and its positioning is based off a single target Axemaster chooses. See diagram below. After his armour is broken, this ability will be accompanied by the voice line "Taste one thousand axes!" Note that this ability also deals massive damage in melee separate from the damage caused by the thrown axes, however as you should never be in melee this will not be an issue.
Underhand Swing	A very quick ability with Axemaster winding up and swinging his axe underhand, throwing a single ranged projectile at his target. This axe hits for around 7k damage and cripples if it hits. Once the axe is in flight, it will track the target even if they teleport. This attack can be blocked and dodged. After his armour is broken, the frequency of this attack increases greatly.
Execute	Axemaster's single most dangerous ability to a kiter is rarely seen. This ability seems to only be usable on targets under a certain health threshold, however the exact amount or percent is unknown. Axemaster will crouch and leap at his target, hitting for over 15k damage if he connects. This attack is unblockable, but can be dodged. After his armour is broken, this ability will be accompanied by the voice line "I smell weakness.” Unless you are in full defensive gear, this ability will almost certainly one-shot you if not dodged.
Heavily Armoured	Axemaster begins the fight with his armour intact, and takes greatly reduced damage. While his armour is intact he moves slowly, underhand swings only rarely, and is silent. His breakbar must be broken to remove his armour, after which he is permanently without it unless allowed to reset out of combat for several minutes. Once his armour is broken, he takes full damage but moves much faster and underhand swings very often, up to once every few seconds if not using another ability. He also begins using his voice lines for various abilities.

Dealing with Thousand Axes


1000 AXES	While Execute is without a doubt Axemaster's most dangerous ability, the one that most often kills a kiter is Thousand Axes. This ability requires some practice to dodge properly and without wasting mirage cloak, which is necessary once you swap to staff since you need your cloaks for Underhand Swing. The main thing to understand about Thousand Axes is that its pattern is set and never changes, but the orientation may change if he targets one of your clones as the "primary" target. Once the ability has begun, the orientation is set regardless of who moves where.
	The first wave will be to the target's right side, with the leftmost axe being almost exactly lined up with the primary target. The second wave will be straight at the primary target, with the closest gap being around 200 units to the left. The third wave will again be to the target's right, with an extremely dangerous double-stack of axes thrown directly at the target. The final wave will be to the target's left, and if you were standing in your original location, miss you completely. Given this, the easiest method to dodge a Thousand Axes targeted on you is to shift about 200 units left as soon as you see the ability begin. Moving like this will dodge the first wave due to it being to the right, hopefully find the gap in the second wave, and dodge the third wave again due to it being focused right. As the third wave passes moving right to dodge the edge of the final wave. Doing this will almost guarantee you dodge waves 1, 3, 4 with a decent chance at dodging wave 2 by finding the gap. Note that as the gap is much smaller closer to Hareth, once you have swapped to staff finding this gap is much harder. Even if you are hit by the wave 2 axe, it will only do around 3k damage which your regen should be able to heal as long as you are not otherwise taking damage. Note that it is also possible to avoid the damage from Thousand Axes if you are positioned significantly higher on terrain than Axemaster, but attempting to climb any rocks or ledges runs the risk of him resetting due to pathing issues. Thus, the slight hill on the left side of the alcove area is the only section this can be somewhat reliably done on.
	If Thousand Axes is targeted on a clone, things become a bit harder. If Axemaster targets a clone to your right, you will only have to dodge maybe the second and definitely the last wave. If he targets a clone to your left, you will have to dodge the first and third waves. Using a mirage cloak is usually okay in this situation, but you want to use it on the earlier wave if you can so your endurance can regen. It's up to the situation if you think it is safer to use cloak and risk him following up with Underhand Swing/Execute or tank the axe and save your endurance for the following attack.

Axe patterns for Thousand Axes, assuming the original target is directly “south”. Note that the only pattern that cannot be avoided without a minor shift from original targeting position is the second wave.

Tips.. Tips.. Tips..


Ask someone in your group to keep an eye on the map in case anyone tries to join you early and tell them to not go near you. Trying to type while kiting is often difficult.	Tips

While in scepter/pistol, you can be very liberal with your use of mirage cloak. Underhand swings occur rarely, and you can block them with scepter 2 if you run out of endurance. Once in staff, you have to be much more careful how often you use your cloak.
As your damage done with staff can vary fairly wildly, be mindful of his health pool. It is very easy to take the boss from 30% to 10% within a minute almost without noticing. Killing him too early is almost worse than dying.
It is probably possible to get out of combat with Axemaster after breaking his CC bar, since it does not reset immediately, and swap skills. However, the only skill worth swapping off is Moa, and while Jaunt seems like it would be useful the short range means it is often not enough to get you out of a bad situation like Blink. The only real benefit to this would be swapping on Time Warp for extra dps.
While you can go without the Tuning Icicles as they are just a damage modifier, the Orrian Truffle and Meat Stew is essential to kiting on mirage. You are relying on your mirage cloaks for damage and survival both, and the increased endurance regen is invaluable. The cheap version of this food is Bowl of Meat and Winter Vegetable Stew, giving 30% endurance regen instead of 40%.
If the worst should happen and you lose Axemaster into the lane in an unrecoverable fashion, make sure you let your commander know. They will want to plan for when the squad reaches the boss and how to deal with it in the best way.