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Middle-earth: Shadow of War’sfinal quest, The Bright Lord, is longwinded and has more than one surprise throughout. After you beat the Witch-king, you’re immediately thrown into the fight with Sauron on top of his tower of Barad-dur
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Once you complete Eltariel’s other quests and capture the four main Fortresses in Mordor, you’re able to take on The Bright Lord quest. Sauron has a few tricks up his robes and three phases to deal with, which can be a pain on harder difficulties.
How To Beat Sauron Boss Fight - Phase One
As soon as the fight begins,Sauron will use a large AoE that will travel out in a ring from his current location. When this comes towards you, you should try to time your dodges to roll over it. The hitbox is somewhat lenient, so just make sure you don’t roll too early and you should be able to clear it.
The most reliable way to dodge this, and the most reliable thing to do throughout the entire fight, is to utilise the Shadow Strike ability to instantly zip towards Sauron for some damage, leaving everything he’s thrown at you in the dust.
During this first phase, Sauron will be in white robes, and during this phase,you can parry his normal sword swings. Keep an eye out for the icon above Sauron’s head to indicate an attack.He will typically swing a few times at you, but if you parry you will stop the attack and create an opening to deal some damage.
Sauron likes to spam his ring AoE a lot,so you’ll have to be on your toes to keep up with the dodging. After hitting him a few times, he’ll teleport away to stop you from combing him into oblivion.Try hitting him a few times, backing away, and repeating.When he moves away from you,he might decide to use his ranged attack.Dodging this move is all you’re able to do until you get close enough. It comes out fast, so be prepared to move when you see the dodge icon.
Throughout the fight, Eltariel will be filling him full of arrows to help with damage. Once you’ve got his HP down,mostly through performing executions when you have enough Might,he’ll go into his second phase where he wears his iconic evil guy armour and uses his classic mace.
Sauron Boss Fight - Phase Two
In phase two,you won’t be able to parry any of Sauron’s attacks. He’s wearing his armour now andcan’t be staggered by normal attacks. During this phase, his attack pattern also changes.
He will nowswing three or four times with his mace,and these attacks will be unblockable. All you’re able to do to avoid them is to roll away and keep your distance.Pick your time to attack, and remember to use Shadow Striketo create a decent opening since this will be the best usage of your Elf Shot.
The biggest change to this phase is that he willnow have a pushback attackthat will send you flying. There doesn’t seem to be a way to dodge it, so when you’ve stopped being pushed back,start to make your way back towards Sauron.After he’s pushed you away,Sauron uses a ranged circular AoE indicated by a red ring on the ground.
He will spam this move until you close the distance,so again Shadow Strike will come in clutch to get back in there immediately. Keep attacking and chipping away, and verify to dodge his mace swings, and you’ll eventually get his HP down.Eltariel will prompt you to Banish Sauron,which will remove his armour and take you into the third and final phase.
Sauron Boss Fight - Phase Three
As soon as you’ve gotten him to this phase,Sauron will start by using the ring AoE attack from before.Except for this time,he will spam it multiple times around the arena and be teleporting an awful lot.Take your time anddodge the rings one at a time.Don’t worry if you get hit by a few, they shouldn’t cause you too much trouble.
He will teleport around a lot in this phase, so you should try andkeep close by using the Shadow Strike skill,while also paying attention to his ring AoEs.He’ll end the AoE attack with a teleport to your location and a giant swing you must dodge.
Other than that, the phase is the same as the first one. Eltariel will help chip away at his health, andyour Executions will do significant damage.Keep this up until his health is low enough, and you’ll be prompted to finish it off with a Banish.Get close to Sauron, hold down the Drain button until it fills up,and you’re done.
Congratulations, you’ve beaten Sauron and finished the main story of Shadow of War. Now the real end-game begins: building the ultimate, most lethal, and most hysterical orc army to laud over the lands of Mordor with.
