Path of Exile 2 Draven the Eternal Praetor boss guide
Draven the Eternal Praetor is a boss you must fight to progress the main campaign in Path of Exile 2. Specifically, you have to find and defeat him to get a Memorial key piece that opens the iron gates next to The Graveyard waypoint. While Draven does not have Ailment-inflicting shenanigans, it's important to get a grasp of his moveset to emerge victorious on your first attempt.
In this guide, we'll go over these tricks to help you prepare better.
To fight Draven the Eternal Praetor in Path of Exile 2, you have to find and enter the Mausoleum of the Praetor from The Graveyard. It's worth noting that The Graveyard also leads to the Tomb of The Consort, which houses Asinia the Eternal Consort. You should do the bosses in whichever order you find their respective tombs.
How to beat Draven the Eternal Praetor in Path of Exile 2
Draven the Eternal Praetor is definitely not the hardest boss in Path of Exile 2, but his mechanics are a bit fancier than the primal bosses you've fought so far.
He only occasionally does a two-hit basic melee combo or a basic melee swing. These are quite easy to dodge or block if you're at the melee and seldom pose any threat if you're kiting him as a ranged class. Instead, the challenge in the fight comes from the three special abilities he can pull off.
The Soul Projectiles
The first is a melee swing that can send a volley of cyan-colored soul projectiles in a wide semicircular cone ahead of him. These can be blocked or dodge-rolled through, and do not deal too much damage even if you get hit. In practice, this skill is the perfect opportunity to sidestep and get a few swings in if you're melee.
There's also a second empowered variant of this move you should be aware of. However, before we proceed to that, we should talk about a unique mechanic that happens in both Draven the Eternal Praetor and Asinia the Praetor's Consort boss fights in Path of Exile 2.
Spirits and empowerment mechanic
Briefly into the fight, Draven will let out a war cry that attracts loose errant phantoms from the whole mausoleum into the boss arena.
These phantoms will try to claw their way out, but helplessly be sucked into Draven's body. You can intercept these phantoms to ground them, thus stopping their trajectory. But, why would you want to do that? Well, Draven becomes temporarily empowered if he manages to imbibe three of these spirits, which is indicated by a cyan flame burning on his helmet.
Do note that you should not ground the spirits near the burial tablets scattered around the arena, as this will spawn Eternal Knights who make the fight much trickier to deal with for a while.
When empowered, Draven's attacks and moves deal more damage, and he sends a second volley of soul projectiles every time he does that move.
The Shockwave
Another move he can do (regardless of whether he's empowered) is slam his sword into the ground, sending out a shockwave in front of him. This is arguably his most dangerous move, as the shockwave lingers on the ground and sends another shockwave on either side laterally, effectively covering a huge area. The best thing to do during this attack is to get directly behind Draven if you want to get some hits in. Otherwise, retreat to the edge of the arena till the move is complete.
Asinia's aid
Throughout the boss fight, Draven can call out to his consort Asinia for aid. When Asinia's spirit appears, she will do an iteration of her Rite of the Full Moon move: a series of four area-of-effect nukes telegraphed by four green rite circles that appear on the ground. Essentially, you have to move out of the way immediately once you see circles materialize inside the arena and stay on the run till the fourth (and largest) one explodes.
If you're having trouble with the Draven boss fight in Path of Exile 2, play patiently, wait out his moves, and engage only when he's doing the volley of soul projectiles or regular attacks. Ranged classes will have a much easier time with it, as long as you pay attention to the telegraphs.
Check out our other guides on the game:
- Path of Exile 2 Count Geonor boss fight
- Path of Exile 2 class tier list for beginners
- Path of Exile 2 Beginner tips
- Path of Exile 2: All Buff Skill Gems