Near the end of Path of Exile 2 Act 1, you’ll begin to encounter much tougher bosses than you did in the earlier parts of the story. The boss that really starts this more difficult stretch of enemies is The Executioner, which is the final encounter in “The Trail of Corruption” quest.
The Executioner doesn’t have a ton of attacks, but the ones they do have can one-shot your entire shield and health bars on certain classes and builds. To ensure that doesn’t happen to you, check out our guide below on how to defeat The Executioner.
Defeating The Executioner in Path of Exile 2
Let’s get one thing out of the way quickly; The Executioner only has one phase and can’t heal throughout the fight. So you only have to deal with the HP bar you see on the screen when the fight begins. That doesn’t sound so bad, right? Well…
The Executioner does send out dozens of additional enemies to chase you down and deal damage throughout the battle. Regardless of how many you kill, these enemies will continue to come, so it’s best to deal with the ones giving you trouble and leave the rest. The main enemies you must worry about are the aggressive ones always on your tail. Other ranged enemies shoot fire arrows at you from the corners of the arena, but these are easy to dodge if you keep moving.
For the most part, though, you want to focus your attention on The Executioner. Of course, if you can deal area-of-effect (AoE) attacks to damage the boss and their lackeys simultaneously, that’s a favorable route as well.
The best piece of advice we can give is to always have the boss on your screen. If you drift too far away and you can’t see the boss anymore, they can surprise you with an attack that might one-shot your entire health bar.
The Executioner’s attacks
Speaking of being attacked, let’s go over all of the moves The Executioner will throw at you during the fight. Fortunately, there are only two main attacks you need to worry about. Unfortunately, both of those attacks have the ability to one-shot some characters (including my Sorceress build).
Axe Stomp
The first and most common attack you’ll have to watch out for from The Executioner sees them wind up and hit their massive axe on the ground. This causes the surrounding area to explode with fire, dealing huge damage if you’re caught in the area of effect.
This attack is easy to predict, as the boss winds up for a few seconds and gets highlighted red. However, the boss also twirls around while winding up to catch you in the crossfire. The easiest way to avoid the attack is to wait for the boss to start swinging their axe, and then dodge backward or in the opposite way of the attack. The attack’s area of effect is quite large, so dodging multiple times is good practice. This axe stomp attack can catch you by surprise if you’re busy healing or killing the smaller enemies.
Guillotine
Now it’s time for The Executioner’s signature attack: the Guillotine. This attack will one-shot most characters in Path of Exile 2 if you’re directly hit, even with full shield/HP. While you can get partially hit by the attack, it will still take a majority of your shield and health.
The Guillotine attack consists of the boss bringing down a massive axe from the sky to impact the ground. Upon impact, it will deal AoE damage to anyone within a couple of meters from it (including smaller enemies). Luckily, the Guillotine attack is easy to see coming, as The Executioner stands still and makes a throat-slitting gesture right before the axe comes down from the sky.
However, the direction of the attack tends to be all over the place. It will always come down in the direction The Exeuctioner is looking, but the boss will change their line of sight to face you right before the axe impacts the ground. As such, you need to constantly look out for the tell-tale signs of the Guillotine attack and make sure you look at the position of The Executioner. If you take your eyes off the boss for even a second, that could be the difference between living and dying.
Axe Swings
Finally, we arrive at The Executioner’s smaller attacks, which all involve some sort of axe swinging. There are a few variations of this attack, but for the most part, they are easy to avoid. The boss will swing their axe once or twice at you, changing direction if you move in a different direction. A simple dodge avoids the axe, but sometimes, the boss will chain together their axe swings with one of their larger attacks.
The best time to strike at The Executioner is when they just finish an axe swing, as they’re vulnerable for a second or two. If you keep moving at an axe distance away from the boss, they won’t be able to hit you.
Those are the main attacks you’ll see from The Executioner. There aren’t many in total, but they’re still a handful to deal with.
Best strategy to defeat The Executioner
All in all, The Executioner boss fight comes down to not making many mistakes. If you take your eye off the boss for a second, you could be crushed by the Guillotine attack. If you try and kill one too many smaller enemies, the boss could wind up for the Axe Stomp attack and take away precious healing flasks from you.
The main loop you want to fall into is staying a few meters away from the boss so you can’t get hit with axe swings. Then, attack when the boss is done with an axe combo for easy damage. You’ll generally want to dodge away and keep a close eye on the boss after you deal damage, as The Executioner likes to do one of their bigger attacks after you’ve done so.
If you dodge one of the big attacks, go back in to deal more damage. Then, when the boss is ready to start swinging their axe again, return to the distance you were at originally and repeat the loop over. You’ll have to deal with the smaller enemies in the process, so always stay moving to avoid too much damage from them.
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