King in the Mists Boss Guide

The King in the Mists is one of the bosses available in the Path of Exile Endgame. Making a return from his appearance in the campaign, he's back with a slightly varied move set and more punishing mechanics. Defeating the King in the Mist unlocks more passives for the Ritual Atlas Passive tree, making the Ritual mechanic more rewarding.

Getting to the boss

In order to access the King in the Mist boss encounter, you need to obtain An Audience with the King from completing Rituals.

Place the An Audience with the King in the Realmgate on your Atlas. You can find this around the Atlas starting area. Doing so opens portals to the Crux of Nothingness, where you can fight The King in the Mist.

For a more in-depth look into farming Ritual, take a look at our Ritual Farming Guide!

Loot table

As you defeat King in the Mist on higher difficulties, you unlock more Ritual Atlas Passive Skill Points, unlocking the ability for rarer items to drop. The King in the Mist will always drop at least one Omen along with one of the following uniques, depending on difficulty:

• Beetlebite
• Ingenuity
• The Burden of Shadows
• Pragmatism
• From Nothing (Very Rare)

For a full list of boss loot tables, check out our comprehensive cheat sheet here: Boss Loot Table Cheat Sheet

Ability Breakdown

Phase 1

Affliction Totem

Summons an Affliction totem that causes increasing damage over time the longer it’s alive.

These totems have a very small amount of health, players should ensure they are killed quickly to prevent multiple stacking up and applying a larger chaos degen.

Ritual of Dance

Curses the player with a ritual, requiring them to keep moving or be rooted in place. The color of this effect is Purple.

Keep moving to avoid being rooted.

Ritual of Meditation

Curses the player with a ritual, requiring them to stop moving or be rooted in place. The color of this effect is Red.

Players are still able to dodge roll 1-2 times in order to prevent getting hit by other abilities. Too much movement causes the player to be rooted in place for a few seconds.

Thorngrip

Bursts forth purple vines in a cone in front of him.

This ability is fairly easy to avoid, he always casts the ability with the voice line "Thorngrip!". If you're in melee range, dodge to the side past him, if playing in range roll away from him.

Vine Slam

Avoid sound cue plays as he raises his staff before slamming the area around him.

He usually only casts this ability while players are in melee range, if you hear the avoid cue sound with the red indicator above his head, move out of melee range to avoid the slam.

Mystic Fetish

The King in the Mists teleports to one of the 3 fetishes placed around the arena and activates it. The more mystic fetishes are active the more dangerous the arena becomes. Spawning in Afflicted Swarms and Volatile toads as long as they are active.

The longer you are on the same platforms as the fetishes, the more increased damage you begin to take from Portent Vapors.

Note: Minion players can micro their minions up the ramp to destroy the fetish, preventing the player from getting the increased damage taken stacks.

At 25% he becomes immune and transitions into Phase 2. 

After transforming, the King in the Mist sends players into a Wildwood Maze.

Phase 2

Afflicted Swarm

The King in the Mists creates small roaming swarms of purple insects that deal chaos damage over time if the player stands in them.

Blood Tornado

At the beginning of Phase 2, a massive Blood Tornado spawns and begins to chase the player around the arena. Getting hit by the tornado applies armor break.

Try your best to maintain distance between you and the tornado, getting Ritual of Meditation when the tornado is close to you is very dangerous. You can still dodge roll away 1-2 times, just don't continuously move.

Blood Wave

Blood Waves spawn from the edges of the arena, dealing physical damage and knocking players back when hit.

Explosive Spore

The King in the Mists fires a large fast moving orb that explodes after a short duration, maiming the player if caught in the blast.  After the explosion, multiple purple pustules spawn, detonating if the player walks over them.

Bait the spores to the edges of the arena, this drops the pustules at the edges to allow for more freedom of movement.

Volatile Toads

These toads are summoned around the entire arena, hopping until they reach a player or the wall of the arena before detonating.

Wildwood Maze

At the beginning of Phase 2, the player is teleported into a maze and needs to follow the white sacred wisps, as they lead you in the general direction of the exit.

Boss Mechanics

Damage Types: Physical, Chaos

Phase 1

Default Attack

• Fires a small projectile at the player

Special Abilities

1. Affliction Totem
   • Summons an Affliction totem that causes increasing damage over time the longer it’s alive.
2. Ritual of Dance
   • Curses the player with a ritual, requiring them to keep moving or be rooted in place. The color of this effect is Purple.
3. Ritual of Meditation
   • Curses the player with a ritual, requiring them to stop moving or be rooted in place. The color of this effect is Red.
4. Thorngrip
   • Bursts forth purple vines in a cone in front of him.
5. Vine Slam
   • Avoid sound cue plays as he raises his staff before slamming the area around him.
6. Mystic Fetish
   • The King in the Mists teleports to one of the 3 fetishes placed around the arena and activates it. The more mystic fetishes are active the more dangerous the arena becomes. Spawning in Afflicted Swarms and Volatile toads as long as they are active.

Default Attack

• His default attack now fires three projectiles instead of one.

Special Abilities

1. Afflicted Swarm
   • Small swarms of purple insects fly around the arena, dealing chaos damage over time if the player is hit by them. 
2. Blood Tornado
   • At the beginning of Phase 2, a massive Blood Tornado spawns and begins to chase the player around the arena. Getting hit by the tornado applies armor break.
3. Blood Wave
   • Blood Waves spawn from the edges of the arena, dealing physical damage and knocking players back when hit.
4. Explosive Spore
   • The King in the Mists fires a large quick moving orb that explodes after a short duration, maiming the player if caught in the blast.  After exploding multiple purple pustules spawn, detonating if the player walks over them. 
5. Volatile Toads
   • These toads are summoned around the entire arena, hopping until they reach a player or the wall of the arena before detonating.
6. Wildwood Maze
   • At the beginning of Phase 2, the player is teleported into a maze and needs to follow the white sacred wisps, as they lead you in the general direction of the exit.  

Scaling

The Crux of Nothingness Difficulty nodes on the Atlas Tree make King in the Mist more challenging. On +1 The King in the Mist casts Blood Tornado in Phase 1, with a second Blood Tornado spawning once Phase 2 starts.

The King in the Mist has roughly 3 million health in Phase 1 and 4 million health in Phase 2. While on +1 he has 4.5mil Health in Phase 1 and 6mil in Phase 2.

Summary

This guide includes move sets and strategies to help you beat The King in the Mist endgame boss encounter. Defeating the King in the Mist unlocks more passives for the Ritual Atlas Passive tree, making the Ritual mechanic more rewarding.

Check out these related guides:

• Boss Loot Table Cheat Sheet
• Ritual Overview
• Citadel Farming Guide
• Atlas Tips and Tricks

Credits

Written By: havoc616

Reviewed By: Crouching_Tuna, Jerrin

Language Reviewed By: Tenkiei