It has been more than two months since the official release of POE 2 early access. How is your game’s progress? Have you successfully entered the endgame stage? If you are still stuck in the first three acts because of insufficient level or too powerful bosses, don’t worry, we will provide you with some help!
As you know, POE series of games has always been known for its high difficulty, so in order to defeat each boss you encounter, you not only need to consume POE 2 Currency in advance to exchange for more powerful gear or armor for your character, but also need to understand the fighting style of these bosses.
Based on this, this time we will introduce you to the duo boss Ekbab And Iktab in the second act. By analyzing the different ways to deal with these two bosses, we can help you defeat them smoothly.
Introduction To Ekbab And Iktab
The full names of these two bosses are Ekbab, the Ancient Steed and Iktab, the Deathlord. You’ll encounter them in Act II because you’ll be asked to assemble Horn of the Vastiri as part of the pre-quest, and you’ll need to collect three items to do so. One of them, Mastodon Tusks, is part of A Theft of Ivory quest, and you’ll need to go to Mastodon Badlands, Bone Pits for this, where you’ll encounter this double boss.
Overall Battle Strategy
Once the battle is triggered, both bosses will attack you at the same time, so you’ll need to decide how to deal with them in advance to avoid being caught off guard. It’s worth noting that whichever boss you defeat first, the other boss will become more powerful afterwards, increasing the efficiency of each of its attacks.
So you can’t focus on taking down one of them like you would a normal Path of Exile 2 boss, it’s best to deal as much damage to them as possible, let their health drain at a similar rate, and then quickly kill them both during your attack turn.
If you find it too difficult to kill both bosses at the same time, you can also try to kill Iktab first, as he’s the more dangerous of the two. Because Ekbab’s enhanced attacks can be avoided by flexible dodging, and its attacks will not become stronger as the battle progresses, but Iktab’s attacks will be more difficult to deal with.
On this basis, it is recommended that you trade with others with POE 2 Chaos Orbs you obtain in exchange for some equipment with lightning resistance to improve your survivability in battle, because Iktab’s lightning attacks and lightning wand attacks will significantly reduce your health.
Ekbab, The Ancient Seed Attack Patterns & Skills
Since the skills and attack methods used by these two bosses in battle are different, they will be introduced to you separately.
1. Ground Slam
When using this skill, Ekbab will raise its front hooves and slam the area in front of it, causing a wave of cascading damage. When you see Ekbab standing up, move away from it immediately to avoid this attack.
2. Tusk Swipe
When Ekbab launches this skill, it will swing its head to the left to cause damage, so you can more easily avoid this attack by just staying on its right side. However, sometimes Ekbab may follow your movement trajectory and swing to the right, so always be vigilant.
3. Charge
This skill allows Ekbab to deal straight-line damage to you by charging forward, and Ekbab will retreat before charging forward. Your best bet is to keep your distance from the boss so that you can more easily avoid this attack.
In fact, most of Ekbab’s attacks can be avoided by moving to its sides, so when you see it preparing to attack, dodge to its sides in time according to the distance between you. While this is not difficult, avoiding Ekbab’s attacks while avoiding Iktab’s attacks is the real challenge.
If you kill Iktab first, Ekbab will gain more power, specifically it will create a smaller Ghost Nova of Iktab and then shoot projectiles at you, and also let one or two smaller ghost orbs follow you and explode when they get close to you, which you can detonate by dodging at the last second.
Iktab, The Dreadlord Attack Patterns & Skills
Iktab has more skills than Ekbab and is more difficult to deal with, so you have to focus on him.
1. Lightning Wand
This skill will fire small lightning projectiles at you that explode on impact. This attack is hard to avoid and hard to foresee, and the only way to avoid it is to either distance yourself from the boss as soon as you see the first set of lightning projectiles or time them to dodge.
2. Sigil Meteor
Three orange marks will appear on the ground after the boss uses this skill, and then a meteor will fall on them. Simply avoid the orange marks to avoid the meteor.
3. Lightning Strikes
With this skill, Iktab will randomly strike small areas of the arena with lightning. These lightning strikes are indicated by small light blue marks, just avoid them.
4. Ghost Nova
This skill will cause a nova to appear in the center of the arena, which will slowly rotate while firing projectiles at you at a regular interval. To avoid taking damage, you need to move to the edge of the arena and move with the nova to avoid the projectiles.
5. Bone Tendrils
After using this skill, the boss will summon five circular AOEs near your feet. After a moment, they will explode and can be avoided by keeping moving. However, Iktab will only use this attack after Ekbab dies.
When Iktab gains extra power due to Ekbab’s death, all of its attacks will become stronger. For example, Sigil Meteor will form more marks to cover a larger area of the arena; Lightning Strikes will cover a higher density; Ghost Nova’s projectiles will be fired faster, and nova will rotate faster.
It is worth noting that walking too far when dodging Ghost Nova’s projectiles may put you in the path of another projectile. So it is better to walk with the projectiles as the nova rotates, rather than dodge every projectile.
Related: Path of Exile 2 Currency Free Giveaways & Promotions
After defeating these two bosses, you will not only get the loot drops but also successfully obtain Mastodon Tusks to complete the assembly of Horn of the Vastiri and continue your journey in Path of Exile 2. But if you are short of orbs to exchange for gear during the battle, you can try to participate in the seventh POE 2 giveaway event in IGGM Discord, which will give you a chance to win a lot of free orbs!
