Crown of Sorrow (raid)

The Crown of Sorrow is the latest Raid in Destiny 2, released in the Penumbra expansion. Taking place once more on the Leviathan, the Guardians are tasked by Emperor Calus to clear out his ship of a Hive infestation. At the center of this infest, the Guardians must contend with a terrifying foe, Gahlran, the Sorrow-Bearer.

The raid features Guardians moving through the Leviathan, as they tackle an onslaught of Hive hordes.

Layout

 * TBA

Bosses

 * Gahlran's Deception
 * Gahlran, the Sorrow-Bearer

Hive Ritual
There is a circular green pool of hive energy just inside the entrance of the first room of the Crown of Sorrow raid, alongside two blessed knights. Standing in this pool will grant any players inside of it the "Witch's Blessing" buff. After having the buff for 1 minute, players will receive the "Witch's Curse," causing the player to die shortly after. On the opposite end of the room, just in front of the large ravine, is a spherical crystal called the "Witch's Vessel". To kill the blessed knights, and any other blessed enemies that spawn throughout the encounter, players must have the Witch's Blessing buff. Inversely, non-blessed enemies can only be damaged by players who do not have the "Witch's Blessing" buff.

In order to get rid of the Witch's Blessing buff, blessed players must stand in a small radius near the Witch's Vessel (marked on the ground) and damage the Vessel at the same time (roughly) as a non-blessed player. Any players within the radius of the Witch's Vessel at the time that it is damaged by both a blessed and a non-blessed player will either lose their Witch's Blessing buff if they already had the buff, or gain the buff if they did not have the buff prior. Players will have to continuously swap between the two states by damaging the vessel, maintaining players of both states.

After a short time, three crystals will spawn in various locations around the room denoted by a distinct sound. There will always be one in the center of the room, one to the left of the Witch's Vessel, and one to the right of the Witch's Vessel. Each crystal requires damage from both a blessed and non-blessed player at roughly the same time in order to be destroyed. If any of the three crystals are not destroyed in a short period of time a team wipe will occur.

After destroying the crystals, more blessed and non-blessed enemies will spawn on both sides of the Witch's Vessel, alongside both a blessed and non-blessed mini-boss Ogre. After killing these Ogres another wave of crystals will spawn. When these crystals are destroyed the message "Ritual Phase Completed" Repeat this entire process 3 more times, for a total of 4 completed rituals, to complete the encounter.

Infiltrating the Kingdom of Sorrow
This encounter is a rather simple jumping puzzle utilizing the Witch's Blessing and Witch's Vessel from the previous encounter. Much like the previous encounter, there will be a green pool that will grant players the Witch's Blessing. After grabbing the Witch's Blessing, a crystal inside of a spherical shield will spawn. At least 1 blessed and 1 non-blessed player must enter the shield and damage the crystal at roughly the same time to destroy it.

After this crystal is destroyed, 3 crystals will spawn without a shield in the air in front of the raid group. These crystals must be damaged by both a blessed and non-blessed player to be destroyed. Once all 3 of these crystals are destroyed, small circular platforms will rise from the abyss and two more shielded crystals will spawn. Just like before, at least 1 blessed and 1 non-blessed player must enter the shield and damage the crystals to destroy them. Players will need to take caution and jump from platform to platform to advance.

This pattern repeats until a large platform rises with a Witch's Vessel in the center. Guardians must reach this platform and destroy the Witch's Vessel to swap their blessed states and create a checkpoint, keeping all platforms up until that point raised. This entire process of damaging shielded crystals, non-shielded crystals and destroying the Witch's Vessel is repeated two more times before reaching the end of the chasm.

Failing to destroy crystals in time, or being slow, will result in any platforms after the last checkpoint to fall and the team will die.

Gahlran's Deception
The team arrives into a triangular-shaped arena. Once everyone arrives to the middle, Gahlran will arrive at the top section of the arena and summon his Deceptions. One of these deceptions is the real one, the rest are fakes that will dissappear when the encounter starts.

The team should split into 3 groups of 2, each group picking one side of the arena, because once the encounter starts, the sides will be closed from each other with magic barriers, leaving the teams to defend themselves without help. The side which has the real Deception must avoid his attacks until damage phase, as only few hits from the blades can be fatal. The side which has the Witch's Blessing pool will start. 1 of the players must pick up the blessing. Each group must kill 3 enemy waves, first and second wave including Wizard and Thralls, and third wave including an Ogre and thralls. once the enemies are killed, there are 3 vessels which will spawn the crystal sphere. The starter group needs to run to one of the vessels on either side of their field and pass the Witch's blessing to one non-blessed player from each side. Once this is done, the barrier between the 2 fields will break and the 2 teams can help each other out. After the passing, new enemy waves will start. Repeat the process for the third group, but this time the blessed players must pass the blessing to the remaining 4 non-blessed players.

Once 4 players are blessed, run to the Gahlran's Deception, and have one of the blessed players and non-blessed player to hit him with melee attack at the same time. This will break the deception's shield for a short moment, allowing the non-blessed players to damage him. Repeat the process, but be wary of 2 things. First, hitting the Deception will disable the blessing from the blessed player, making him a non-blessed. Second, other blessed players must stay far away from the Deception, as it has been reported that being too close while the shield disables will cause small AoE effect that disables any blessings caught within its range.

Once all the Blessings have been used, and if the Deception is still alive, run to your sides and repeat the process until he is dead.

Gahlran, the Sorrow-Bearer
The encounter starts by shooting large Gahlran starting in the segment with the rally banner. Players should remain in the same teams in the same segments as the last encounter. Both players will work together while one remains buffed and one remains non buffed. Each segment should assign their own witches vessel which they will always return to to switch buffs.

3 waves of hive will spawn close to Galhran's feet. Acolytes for the non-buffed player and a Knight for the buffed player. You should have enough time to kill all three waves on one "round" of buff. Periodically throughout this encounter shielded crystals will spawn in various places across the segments. These need to be cleared. When on is cleared the crystal will always move to the next segment clockwise.

After clearing the waves on two segments ogres will spawn. On the other a Gahlran's Deception. All segments get two cursed thrall that need to be dealt with. Players with the Deception should hit it at the same time. One with buff and the other without. Note here that if a crystal appears on your side prioritize it over the Deception as breaking the shield removes buff and then the crystal cannot be broken. One player should get buff by standing in their vessel and having another player with buff shoot from outside the vessel. The other player should shoot Galhran's green hand. He will slam an axe and destroy the deception. 3 Deceptions need to be killed to start the damage phase.

Once the damage phase starts each segment should look at Gahlran. He will raise his hands. Both players should shoot the left hand, right hand and then his face. This will either destroy Galhran or reveal the real one. All players should swap buff to reset the timer. Keep a watch for crystals as they can still spawn at this time.

Boss DPS is done by performing the same action of shooting Galhran's hands left to right and then the main DPS phase is shooting his face. Repeat the cycle of hands then face 2 additional times. However if you take too long breaking his hands the first time you will only get one addition chance at DPS.

With Swarm of the Raven and Tractor Cannon it is possible to one phase Galhran. However if not then as with the deceptions repeat the process again to access a second damage phase.

Strategies

 * TBA

New Mechanics

 * This raid contains a new and unique effect called "Witch's Blessing" which allows you to damage "blessed" enemies but does not allow you to damage non-"blessed" enemies while the player has the effect
 * If the timer for the effect "Witch's Blessing" runs out, the player will acquire a debuff called "Witch's Curse" that will cause the player to die after having it for a few seconds.

Trivia

 * The Crown of Sorrows is the third raid in the Destiny series where the Hive are the primary foe, after Crota's End and King's Fall.
 * Though the Hive is the main enemy encountered in the Raid, the final boss is actually Cabal.
 * This is the fourth Raid to take place on the Leviathan.
 * This is the first Leviathan raid where Calus does not provide any commentary.