Warpriest

"On the third pace, Oryx's Warpriest meets them in battle, and he is victorious, he paints the void with fire, he salts the earth with ash."

- The Books of Sorrow XXX: a golden amputation

The Warpriest is an Ascendant Hive, and one of Oryx, the Taken King's most powerful champions in his Court; having conquered five-hundred and eighty-five worlds from the time of the Golden Amputation to the fall of the Gift Mast. Utterly devoted to the principles of slaughter, victory, and tribute, the Warpriest offers Oryx his tribute in the challenge and slaying of others and weighing the past conquests of worlds against his principles, often in appeasement for the Worms' gluttonous appetite so that Oryx might one day not need kill to gain sustenance and can focus all his power on leading the Final Shape. He is encountered in the King's Fall Raid in the Basilica, and bars the way to Golgoroth's Cellar.

Normal mode
The Warpriest is an Ultra Hive Knight who is immune to conventional means of damage, allowing him to lay down suppressive fire with his Boomer so long as the glyph sequence has not already been activated or has been activated in the wrong order. If a plate has been stood on at the wrong time or the glyph sequence has been broken too many times, then the Warpriest will reject the fireteam's initiate by summoning his Oculus to cause a wipe. This is important because the only way of damaging him is with the "Aura of the Initiate" buff, which is gained by performing correctly a random glyph sequence with pads scattered around the room. If the player holding the aura does not kill an enemy in ten seconds, they will die and the aura will be transferred to someone else.

Like Crota, the Warpriest also uses an Oversoul in the form of the Oculus, which will kill any Guardian not standing directly in the shadow of one of the three monoliths in the room. If ten minutes have passed and the Warpriest has not been killed, this Oculus's effect remains persistent, wiping out the entire fireteam. Players cannot hide behind the same monument more than once as one will be destroyed when the Warpriest activates his Oculus.

Hard Mode Changes
In Destiny 1, for the Hard Mode of King's Fall, the Warpriest becomes noticeably more dangerous in that he can now call upon three separate monoliths, each of which grants him an ability from a Taken enemy: the first one represents an Axion Dart like that of a Taken Centurion, the second one represents a Retaliation Swarm like those of a Taken Hobgoblin, and the third one represents a Darkness Bolt like that of a Taken Captain.

Challenge Mode Changes
When the Warpriest Challenge is active, the encounter demands that the same person cannot hold the Brand of the Initiate twice. If someone picks up the brand after they already done so, they will die because the Warpriest will reject the initiate.

Destiny 2
In Destiny 2, the Warpriest remains largely the same. However, the Destiny 1 Hard Mode variation of the Warpriest gaining Taken abilities is always active. The Warpriest will fire Retaliation Swarms when shot at, will summon Axion Darts at will, and fire Darkness Bolts to blind Guardians. The other important change is regarding the Brand of the Initiate. No longer is this timer extended by killing enemies. Instead, an unbranded player must kill a Taken Knight that spawns, pick up the Brand Claimer buff it leaves behind, and interact with the branded player to absorb the Brand before their timer expires. Doing so will prevent them from dying and provide more time to continue damaging the Warpriest. Claiming the brand at the last possible second will ensure maximum damage time, which is paramount to gaining enough time to take down the Warpriest. Brand Claiming can be done twice before no further Taken Knights spawn, leading to the Warpriest summoning his Oculus to wipe you, which you must hide from.

Trivia

 * The Warpriest is the second Hive to be seen wearing a cape, the Wizards being the first.
 * According to his Grimoire, he learned the creation of an Oversoul from Crota.

List of appearances

 * Destiny
 * The Taken King
 * Destiny 2
 * Season of Plunder