Crown of Sorrow raid guide

Crown of Sorrow opened on June 4, 2019, in Season of Opulence, as the last raid of the Forsaken Annual Pass. It takes six Guardians back aboard Calus’s Leviathan to deal with Gahlran, the Sorrow-Bearer, and the Hive that have taken root there. Recommended Power at launch was 740. The whole raid hangs on one idea, and once you understand it the rest falls into place.

The core mechanic: Witch’s Blessing

• Standing in the Hive ritual pool gives you Witch’s Blessing. Blessed players can only damage Blessed enemies, and players without it can only damage enemies without it.
• After about a minute the Blessing turns into Witch’s Curse, which kills you shortly after.
• Shooting the Witch’s Vessel, a floating sphere, swaps a player’s Blessed state. Much of the raid is about timing those swaps.

1. The Hive ritual

No boss here. Three crystals each need to be destroyed by a Blessed player and an un-Blessed player at roughly the same moment, while Blessed and un-Blessed Ogres show up to make life harder. Keep the pairs clear, swap at the Vessel before anyone gets Cursed, and repeat the ritual until it completes. Any player who turns Cursed dies, so watch your timers.

2. Kingdom of Sorrow (jumping puzzle)

Blessed and un-Blessed pairs hop across platforms, destroy crystals together and use the Vessel to swap buffs as they go. Repeat until you’re across the chasm. Be quick about the crystals: dawdle and either the platforms fall or your Blessing turns into a Curse.

3. Gahlran’s Deception

The team splits into three pairs. To break the Deception’s shield, a Blessed and an un-Blessed player melee it together. The explosion strips the Blessing from players nearby, and only un-Blessed players can damage the boss, so damage grows as more of the team loses the Blessing through repeated shield breaks.

4. Gahlran, the Sorrow-Bearer

Gahlran brings three Deceptions and waves of adds. For each Deception: break its shield with a Blessed + un-Blessed melee, then shoot Gahlran’s glowing hand so he slams his axe down on it. That spawns a crystal which a Blessed and un-Blessed pair must destroy, because leaving it up wipes the team. Cursed Thrall, which only Blessed players can kill, and Ogres join in.

When all three Deceptions are dead, damage begins: shoot both of his hands, then his head. That clears out the fake Gahlrans and opens a damage window, and the hands-then-head cycle repeats.

Challenges

• Limited Blessings (Hive ritual): never more than two players with Witch’s Blessing at the same time.
• Total Victory (Gahlran’s Deception): break the shield five times in one damage phase.
• With Both Hands (Gahlran): each of his hands may only be shot by one assigned player.

The raid’s triumphs feed the A Shadow Rises seal and its Shadow title.

Tarrabah

The raid exotic, Tarrabah, is a Solar submachine gun. It was a random drop from the chest after Gahlran, and raid rewards were limited to one clear per character per week. The full loot table is below.