The Maven Boss Guide

The Maven is one of the Pinnacle-Bosses added to Path of Exile in Patch 3.13 (Ritual League). She is the main Antagonist of the Echoes of the Atlas Expansion. Inside the Maven's Crucible, an arena-style boss event, player's can collect Crescent Splinters and combine 10 of them to form The Maven's Writ which can be opened in the Map Device.

Defeating the Maven Encounter for the first time grants you an Atlas Passive Skill Tree Point and the Ceremonial Voidstone which can be socketed into your Atlas. This allows you to advance to higher tier Maps, making the Maven one of the most important milestones to reach during your endgame progression. There are a total of four Voidstones that can be collected:

• The Maven - Ceremonial Voidstone
• The Elder - Decayed Voidstone
• The Eater of Worlds - Grasping Voidstone
• The Searing Exarch - Omniscient Voidstone

Loot Table

In addition to regular loot, the Maven has the following boss-specific drops:

• Legacy of Fury
• Graven's Secret
• Arn's Anguish
• Olesya's Delight
• Doppelgänger Guise
• Echoforge

Additional Drops:

• Orb of Conflict
• Auspicious Ambitions
• Awakened Support Gems

Skills Breakdown

The Maven fires a single Projectile at the player, dealing Lightning Damage.

The Nucleus shoots out a bunch of Projectiles that turn into Volatile Orbs, floating around in the arena. If you
collide with the Orb, they explode after a short period of time, dealing Lightning Damage.

If you leave the Volatile Orbs untouched, the Maven occasionally shouts "MINE!" This turns the Volatile Orbs
purple, and they start chasing the player.

The Nucleus randomly shoots out 5 slow-moving Ball-Lightnings that travel across the Arena,
exploding on impact.

Throughout the encounter, the Maven occasionally shouts "STAND STILL!" This indicates the Tri-Beam
Claws ability. This Skill deals a pretty heavy amount of damage if you get stuck in it, so dodging it is a
high priority. In order to do so, you can simply outrun the scratch or run away from her. The Maven is
vulnerable while performing the Ability, giving you a perfect opportunity to squeeze in extra damage.

"DO WHAT I SAY!" indicates the Circle Slam ability. The Maven charges up a circle that explodes after a
short period of time. The damage of this ability is converted into Fire, Cold and Lightning -
applying Ignite, Freeze and Shock.

The Cascade of Pain projectiles deal heavy Cold Damage, making them a high priority to be avoided.
The Maven fires a series of projectiles towards the player that also penetrate your cold resistance.
There are multiple efficient ways to dodge this ability without harm:
- Use a Mobility Skill like Dash or Flame Dash and blink behind the Maven
- Run a circle around Maven
- Stay at a long distance and simply side-step her incoming projectiles with tiny movements.
It is recommended to use a Quicksilver Flask to make dodging these projectiles a lot easier.

The Maven tracks the player while conjuring up a giant Sun Projectile. This ability explodes on impact,
dealing Fire Damage and always Ignites. Make sure to side-step the flying Orb.

The Nucleus charges up a massive Beam ability that deals lethal Amounts of Cold and Lightning Damage. This Ability also bypasses Block or Dodge Chance. The ability stays stationary once you see it charge up
and fires after a short delay, so you need to move out immediately!

The Nucleus spits out three Celestial Orbs that chase the player. Once you collide with them, they
explode, leaving a puddle behind. This Pool reduces your Action Speed and deals damage over time. These Orbs accelerate over time, making it impossible to outrun them. They also leave a degen area on the floor so make
sure to stack them up in the same spot. The best place for them is the center of the arena, this leaves enough space for dodging other abilities throughout the encounter. After every Nucleus phase, these puddles are cleared.

While the Nucleus is active, it creates 2 Beams which rotate around the Arena. The beginning of the beams
is always the 2 outer platforms that you used to avoid the Brain Blast ability. Touching the beam applies the
Maven's Punishment Debuff, reducing all Maximum Elemental Resistances by 10% and prevents all forms of
recovery of Life and Energy Shield for 10 seconds. It is very hard to survive the Debuff duration, so make sure
to not touch it!

The Maven teleports to the center of the Arena, becoming invulnerable for the duration of the Memory Game.
After a short delay, 1 of 3 Sections (Left, Top, Right) flashes up in a Purple color. You have to repeat the
correct order of the appearing flashes in order to survive this ability. Make sure to walk to the first section
as soon as it lights up to know your starting point.

Once the Maven finishes the setup for the Memory Game, she yells: "SCURRY, SCURRY!" which indicates
that it's time for you to repeat her pattern in the same order. While you are trying to do so, she slowly charges
up a giant blast expanding from the center of the arena. Every wrong step you do in the Memory game
heavily slows you down and increases the speed of the blasts expansion. The Memory Game Blast
explodes if the entire Arena is filled or the player steps into the already charged up section of the Blast.
This ability is lethal, so make sure to repeat the Patterns correctly to survive this phase.

If you are unable to do the Memory Game, simply logout and re-join the encounter. You have a 60 second
buff that makes you invulnerable to any source of damage as long as you stand still. Once the Memory Game
is over and the Maven blasts the area, you can continue the fight. This also works after you have died to any
of her abilities.

Once the Maven's health is depleted, she teleports out of the Area, and the Nucleus enters the
Arena. Once in the center, it channels a massive lethal Blast ability. In order to dodge this Ability,
you have to step in 1 of the 2 outer Platforms that become active while the Channel persists.
The occurring massive explosion remove all remaining Volatile Orbs.

Once you defeated the Nucleus for the 3rd Time, it collapses, creating 5 Beams that rotate around the
arena. Similar to the Beams from the Intermission Phases, they inflict the Maven's Punishment Debuff,
lowering your Maximum Resistances by 10% and preventing you to recover Life and Energy Shield for
10 Seconds.

Boss Mechanics

The Maven & the Nucleus

In Order to open the Portals to the Absence of Mercy and Empathy, you have to place a The Maven's Writ into your Map Device. The Maven's Writ is a combination of 10 Crescent Splinters that you can obtain in the Maven Crucible Encounters.

The Maven is a very scripted Encounter. Once you learn the Mechanics and the order of appearance, especially when it comes to the Memory Game, you are going to have an easy time defeating her. It's all about practice!

The Maven Fight has 7 Phases. 4 phases in which you fight against the Maven, 3 phases against the Nucleus. The fight always alternates between those two. In Phase 1, you want to bring Maven down to 0% health, at which point she teleports out of the arena and the Nucleus floats towards the center, initiating Phase 2.

Phases

Phase 6 - The Nucleus - 33% to 0% Health

Once you step closer to the Maven the Encounter starts and after a few seconds she teleports to the Arena. After Maven becomes targetable, she teleport herself to a random location on the platform and engages.

The Maven uses the following abilities in Phase 1:

The Maven Phase 1 abilities:

• Default Projectile Attack
• Cascade of Pain
• Tri-Beam Claws

The Nucleus Phase 1 abilities:

• Lightning Ball
• Gravity Well
• Volatile Orbs

When the Maven reaches 0% Health, she teleports out of the Arena and the Nucleus makes his way into the center of the Platform. On arrival, he starts channeling a massive blast that deals lethal damage to your Character. In order to avoid that, run to the outer rotating platforms that are available in this phase.

If you successfully manage to avoid the massive blast, walk back into the Arena, since the outer Platforms will become inactive again. The Nucleus spawns 2 Beams starting from the center, leading towards the outer platform you used to avoid the Brain Blast. Make sure to not stand anywhere close to the outer platforms in order to dodge this ability. If you touch the Beam, you get a 10-second debuff called "Maven's Punishment," that disables the ability to restore Health (besides Instant Recovery Life Flasks) and Energy Shield.

Things like Life Leech, Life Regeneration or the use of Life & Hybrid Flasks won't work, and you have to avoid every source of damage in order to survive the debuff. The beams also slowly rotate around the arena, effectively creating two moving safe zones for you.

While it's your turn to damage, 3 random Map Bosses will spawn. These can range from very easy to incredibly dangerous, depending on their abilities. Some may slow, stun or damage you from range, so be aware of which bosses are present. You don't have to kill the Map Bosses if you have enough damage, but it makes the Intermission Phases easier. Once the Nucleus hits 66% of his health, he floats to the orbit again and Phase 3 begins.

While you were fighting the Nucleus, the Maven replenished her health back to 100%. In Phase 3, the Maven uses all her previous abilities, as well as the famous Memory Game and Circle Slam. The Nucleus is now able to use the lethal Ion Cannon Ability.

The Path of Exile's version of "Simon says" makes this fight pretty unique. The Maven teleports to the center of the Arena and becomes invulnerable. The Memory Game consists of splitting the Area into 3 different Zones (Left, Top, Right). After a short delay, the platforms randomly light up in a sequence (indicated with a purple flash), and you have to repeat her pattern by walking into the zones in the order they were lit up. While doing so, the Maven channels a massive blast ability that is lethal. If you repeat a wrong pattern, the channel will be sped up and your character receives reduced Action Speed. It's almost impossible to complete the Memory Game after making a mistake, and it's better to log out to save 10% Experience. It's very important to focus on the given patterns in order to successfully beat the Memory Game. In Phase 3, a pattern of 3 zones light up while in Phase 6 & 7, 6 zones light up, making the phase a lot harder to beat.

Since you can freely move your Character while she is lighting up the Zones, it's best to pre-position yourself in the first zone, so you only have to remember 2 more tiles.

This is a repeat of Phase 2: the Nucleus floats to the center of the Arena once the Maven has reached 0% health. Once again, you have to move to one of the outer platforms to survive the Brain Blast ability before you make your way to the Arena again. Don't get hit by the spawning Beams, defeat 3 Map Bosses and bring the Nucleus health to 33% in order to trigger Phase 5.

In Phase 5, the Maven uses all of her abilities used before and empowers the Memory Game to a 6 Stage Pattern. The easiest way to defeat the Memory Game is to pre-position yourself into the first zone. Dodge the Cascade of Pain ability, walk out of her Circle Blast Ability, rinse and repeat. Once you bring her Health down to 0%, she teleporst out of the Arena and the Nucleus makes his way into the center of the Arena for the last time.

In good old fashion, we have to move to the outer platforms of the Arena in order to avoid the Nucleus Brain Blast ability. This time around, we are able to kill the Nucleus and force the Maven into the Arena. The last phase begins.

In the final Phase of the Maven Encounter, 5 Beams spawn that have the same effect as the Nucleus Beam: making you unable to recover Life (besides Instant Recovery Life Flasks) or Energy Shield in any form. Each beam has an open space where you can safely walk through. Not only do the beams rotate around the arena for the rest of the encounter, but also the gaps move in random patterns, forcing you to reposition yourself all the time. To make things worse, the Maven uses an extra ability: the Sun Projectile, On Impact it explodes, dealing a ton of Fire Damage as well as leaving a nasty Ignite debuff. You can blink or outmaneuver this ability, but be aware of the Beams.

Since the Nucleus is dead, the puddles you left from the Gravity Well ability will not disappear. Make sure to stack them up in the center of the arena, especially during Phase 5, as you will have to deal with them for the rest of the encounter. Otherwise, you will have a hard time playing the Memory Game while dodging the Beams and getting slowed from the Void Zones.

The Maven uses her entire toolkit as well as a 6-Stage Memory Game. This is by far the hardest phase, so try to nuke her down before you get overwhelmed by her countless abilities.

Good Luck, Exile!

Make sure to check out our Skills Breakdown Section to learn more about each of the Abilities.

Uber Maven

In addition to the regular Maven encounter, there is also an Uber version available by opening 5 Reality Fragments in your Map Device. This makes the fight much harder in several ways:

In addition to her massively higher life and damage, the following changes also make the Uber version a much harder encounter:

• Both Maven and the Nucleus gain +4 Projectiles, making it harder to dodge abilities and triggering Collapse Volatiles much more frequently
• Void Zones from Volatile Orbs persist for the entire encounter. 
• Tri-Beam Claws begin at a randomized location and inflicts the Maven's Punishment debuff (no recovery)
• Extra bosses also spawn during the Memory Game
• 70% less Damage taken Area modifier

In addition to the regular Maven loot, the Uber Maven has the following boss-specific drops:

• Viridi's Veil
• Impossible Escape
• Progenesis
• Grace of the Goddess
• Awakened Empower Support
• Awakened Enlighten Support
• Awakened Enhance Support
• Shiny Reliquary Key
• Curio of Potential

Additional Drops:

• Orb of Conflict
• Auspicious Ambitions
• The Void
• Awakened Support Gems

Summary

• Keep moving! Most of Maven's abilities can be outmanoeuvred, like the Tri-Beam Claws or the Cascade of Pain.
• Try to stack up the Gravity Well orbs in the centre of the arena, so they become less relevant in the fight.
• Don't touch any Brain Beams! The debuff you get makes it very hard to sustain incoming damage.
  You can use skills like Flame Dash to blink over beams.
• Stay focused on the Memory Game. If you are unable to do the Memory Game, logout and re-join the encounter.

Credits

Written by mbXtreme.
Reviewed by wudijo.