Path of Exile 2 Tor Gul the Defiler boss guide
Path of Exile 2’s Tor Gul the Defiler awaits players at the top of The Spires of Deshair. This gigantic skeletal abomination is known for its devastating sweeping fire attacks and remarkably strong melee strikes. You have a solid amount of room to move around, and you’re going to need to use every inch of it. Since the boss doesn’t move from its location, ground-based attacks are going to be incredibly useful — with potentially one exception.
Tor Gul the Defiler is a step up in difficulty in its own way compared to bosses like Rudja the Dread Engineer in Path of Exile 2. Although challenging, understanding his attacks can improve your chances of survival.
How to beat Tor Gul the Defiler in Path of Exile 2
Tor Gul the Defiler is one of Path of Exile 2’s Act 2 main bosses and is not one to be trifled with. A massive skeleton towering over the player, striking the player with giant headbutts, sweeping attacks, fire, and vomit. That’s right, this skeleton is going to belch huge AOEs of pure chaos damage-dealing vomit.
It can also summon adds, because — of course — it can. You will constantly need to stay on the move in this fight, but there’s one major thing you need to be aware of. Tor Gul the Defiler has some Fire Resistance, so bring your own one if you can. In addition, Boots with +Movement Speed will serve you well here.
That means you’ll want to bring Fire abilities with the Flammability Skill Gem, so you can reduce its Fire Resistance if you plan to use Fire attacks on him. He’s also got quite a lot of Armor — so if you have skills that can Armor Break, that will also be to your advantage.
Tor Gul the Defiler can punch the ground, leaving a fiery spot in its wake, as well as do wide clawing arcs that you need to dodge out of the way of. He can also do a massive headbutt, which counts as an AOE, so you can’t block it — make sure to move.
This Path of Exile 2 boss can also spew huge gouts of flame that leave much of the arena heated, so standing in those spots deals fire damage. He will rotate during this, so keep moving to stay safe. It’s easy to see which spots to stand on. Both ranged characters and melee characters will have places to stand in this fight, though it may require some relocation.
Among its many Fire-based attacks are a series of small AOE fire explosions that become fire tornados. Towards the end of the fight, it’s going to begin belching up patches of vomit. If you stand on them, you take chaos damage, so that should be avoided.
This is when you start seeing adds, Raging Spirits — fiery skulls that chase you around. Before dying, it will likely make one final attempt to defeat you with a headbutt, so don’t relax just because the boss is out of HP. This is certainly a boss fight where poisons and bleed effects are going to stand out since you constantly have to move.
Check out our other Path of Exile 2 guides and features
- Path of Exile 2 Frost Sorceress guide: The easiest starter build in Early Access
- All Path of Exile 2 Keystone Passives (known so far)
- Path of Exile 2 Passive Skill Tree guide: How to plan out your build