One of two bosses you’ll need to beat to open the gate in the Cemetery of the Eternals, Draven is a tricky foe that can throw several mechanics at you at once. Don’t get overwhelmed by using this guide on how to defeat Draven the Eternal Praetor in Path of Exile 2.
Where to Find Draven in Path of Exile 2
Draven can be found in a sub-dungeon called the Mausoleum of the Praetor, somewhere within the Cemetery of the Eternals. As the maps are procedurally generated there is no fixed location for it to spawn, but you’ll know it by the round entrance building and the checkpoint outside. If you instead find the Tomb of the Consort, the Mausoleum’s sister dungeon, it will be worth stopping to clear that first so you don’t have to search for it again later.
Inside the Mausoleum, you’ll need to search out Draven’s resting place among all the tombs. Enemies to watch out for include magic-lobbing skeletons that can deal decent damage if ignored, Eternal Knights that block projectiles with their shield and fire back their own, and worst of all the tight chokepoints that can trap you in a mass of foes if you aren’t careful. Explore until you find a checkpoint by an area called the Heart of the Mausoleum, where you’ll be able to summon Draven to fight. Before that, though, get a look at the ground on the arena and note the central grave where Draven will emerge as well as the four cracked small graves around it. These will be important for a later mechanic.
How to Defeat Draven in PoE 2
The fight with Draven in Path of Exile 2 starts off simple enough. He has two moves, a wide swing that fires a fan of green projectiles, and a multi-part combo. Ranged characters should be able to kite him fairly easily, while Melee uses will need to dodge and block his combo and get behind him to avoid the fan.
As Draven falls below 80% he’ll start introducing several new moves, sometimes one after another. The main one to watch out for his a shout that starts dragging struggling ghosts from the outside of the arena to him. If these ghosts touch Draven, he will absorb them to power himself up for a while, but you can run over the ghosts to get rid of them before that. However, if a ghost is squashed while on top of one of those cracked graves it will summon an Eternal Knight, which can be healed or resurrected again every time another ghost is squashed on top of it. These knights are a minor nuisance for Melee characters, but they can block projectiles like others of their kind and that makes them a pain for Ranged players. There are a number of strategies you could use to manage them, but in our experience simply ignoring any ghosts you can’t squash safely is fine since Draven’s powered up attacks aren’t much harder to avoid than his regular ones.
His other attacks include a line of fire shot forward that then explodes outward, so getting behind him when he casts it is a good bet even for Ranged players. He’ll also start lunging if you get too far away, which is something to look out for. More impactful are the attacks where he summons the consort Asinia, who will cast her AoE circles like in her own fight. These normally come in a series of 2-3 smaller circles followed by a 4th larger one, and while you can dodge roll out of them easily enough we recommend simply running as it is slightly easier and you aren’t slowed between rolls.
Many of these attacks can go off at once so don’t be afraid to back off, avoid the worst, and heal before going back to attack. Keep a level head and chip away at his health and you’ll put the praetor back in the dirt where he belongs.
If you found this guide helpful, be sure to check out some of Siliconera’s other guides such as All Classes in Path of Exile 2 and How to Check the Sever Status for the game.
Path of Exile 2 is available now in Early Access for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.
Published: Dec 9, 2024 05:15 pm