The Shaper

"I no longer believe these are realms of chance, rather, they must have been formulated by a sentient mind... a designer or architect. Every shadow in this place creeps about with an unforeseen purpose."

- Zana, Master Cartographer

The Shaper is the creator of the Atlas of Worlds and the main antagonist of the Atlas of Worlds expansion. He acts as a final boss, residing in .The Shaper also occasionally appears in maps that are influenced by him. Players can fight the Shaper using the map fragments set, and do not need to chase the Elder and Shaper across the Atlas anymore. These map fragments can be obtained by defeating the Guardians of the Void.

The Shaper's real name is Valdo Caeserius, and is the father of Zana Caeserius. Zana assists the player during the battle with the Shaper and constantly implores him to stop fighting and join her, but he refuses.

The Shaper is considered to be one of the most difficult bosses in Path of Exile. His abilities deal very high damage and he has the highest health pool out of any enemy in the game. His iconic ability, the Shaper Beam, deals 15,000 elemental damage per second using a combination of Fire, Cold and Lightning elements. The Shaper does not deal Chaos damage and does not inflict bleeds.

The fight consists of multiple phases. Before the Shaper encounter begins, the player must defeat four side bosses at the nexus. After that a portal opens to the Shaper's arena. The Shaper himself has three phases. At the end of the first and second phases he banishes Zana and the player to a passage while he heals up. The players must traverse the passage and return to the arena to begin the next phase. The Shaper recovers health slowly between phases.

Defeating the Shaper is guaranteed to drop a map fragment required for the Uber Elder encounter, either or. The other 2 fragments are dropped by The Elder.

Items influenced by the Shaper have a red star icon on its header and have unique Shaper modifiers. Shaper influenced items can drop from the Shaper boss as well as from monsters killed in maps influenced by the Shaper.

Background information about the Shaper is written in the Book of Memories, which is filled as the exile collects his Memory Fragments from Elder-influenced zones.

Entry
Players must use the following fragments in their map device to fight The Shaper. They can be collected by fighting various bosses, and can also be traded amongst players.


 * - obtained by defeating the boss
 * - obtained by defeating the boss
 * - obtained by defeating the boss
 * - obtained by defeating the boss

The arena is called.

Recommendations
The following is recommended:
 * At least 2 million damage per second (rolling over your main attack ability should show 100K+, because Path of Exile cannot calculate DPS properly)
 * A method to increase damage against unique enemies (such as Assassin's Mark for critical strike-based builds)
 * Capped elemental resistances (fire, cold and lightning resistance at 75%)
 * At least 6,000 Effective hit points (Life pool)
 * High life regeneration or energy shield regeneration to combat the Shaper Beam which deals 15,000 elemental damage per second
 * At least 20% block or evade chance, or Mana before Life defenses

The following is optional:
 * to quickly traverse the long passages that appear between the combat phases
 * can increase your defensive ability if you keep dying (spellcaster and ranger builds only)
 * can increase your defensive ability if you keep dying (melee builds only)

Summary
The following is a quick summary of the entire fight with The Shaper.

The Nexus
The entry area is X shaped and contains four paths, each leading to a boss that must be killed before a portal in the middle opens. The bosses are four randomly-chosen map bosses. After they are killed, the Shaper fight can begin.

The 4 bosses will be a random selection from the following:
 * Ambrius, Legion Slayer
 * God's Chosen and The Hallowed Husk
 * Spinner of False Hope
 * Shock and Horror
 * Tyrant
 * Penitentiary Incarcerator
 * Olof, Son of the Headsman
 * The Goddess
 * The Cursed King
 * Merveil, the Reflection and Merveil, the Returned
 * Shadow of the Vaal
 * The Infernal King
 * Piety the Empyrean
 * Eater of Souls and Heart of the Beast
 * Fire and Fury

Phase Mechanics
You are prevented from opening portals to your hideout while in the Shaper's arena.

Between Phases
Between each of the Shaper phases, Zana and the player must traverse an area filled with monsters and kill a boss at its end. Those areas use randomly-chosen tilesets, and appear to be thin, floating islands in a sea of stars. At the end of the area there is a boss that players must defeat, after which a portal opens up that returns players to the main arena.

Each of the bosses at the end are based on Riftwalker from the, but have much higher health. The Shaper slowly regenerates his health during the between phases, so it's recommended to complete them as quickly as possible. Once The Uncreated/Unshaped is killed, this regeneration stops, and the between phase is complete.
 * The Uncreated is the boss between phase 1 and phase 2. It has the same skill set as Riftwalker.
 * The Unshaped is the boss between phase 2 and phase 3. He is similar to The Uncreated but also fires a volley of frostbolts in quick succession every once in a while.



The above list only includes loot from the regular single-boss Shaper fight. In Uber Elder (dual Shaper-Elder fight), the Shaper himself drops nothing.

The Shaper fight always drops one of the above Shaper-influenced unique items as well as one of the Uber Elder map fragments. Also there is a chance to find and unlock the Celestial Hideout upon killing the Shaper.

It can also drop, even if The Maven is not present and observing the fight.

Lore
The Shaper's original name is Valdo Caeserius, and is the father of Zana Caeserius. The Synthesis league also expanded the backstory of the Shaper and his construction of the map device.

Dialogue
The Shaper is voiced by New Zealand actor, Daryl Habraken.

Version history

 * Conquerors of the Atlas: A brand new endgame mapping experience. The Shaper and the Elder have both been defeated! ...Just not by you. Another group of Exiles has saved Wraeclast from these celestial harbingers of doom, but that wasn't enough. They continued to cut paths through the Atlas, leaving carnage in their wake, and forcing Zana to seal them in the Atlas forever. But they are trying to find a way out... Can you stop them before they bring ruin to Oriath? Featuring 5 new endgame boss encounters, powerful rewards (including new currencies), and new ways to modify your Atlas.
 * We've added an Ailment Threshold to monsters. In the great majority of cases, the Ailment Threshold matches the monster's Maximum Life. It primarily differs for especially high-life monsters (such as The Shaper), where the threshold is reduced to allow ailments to be applied with hits that wouldn't ordinarily reach the required Life thresholds.
 * The Elder, Shaper, and combined Elder and Shaper encounters can still be accessed. If you're lucky, Zana may offer a Shaper or Elder guardian's map!
 * (not in patch notes) The health value of the Shaper has been adjusted.


 * Bosses which previously had 60% or 80% less effect of curses on them now have 33% or 66% less effect of curses on them respectively. This includes map bosses, Incursion architects, Betrayal targets, Breachlords, Shaper, Elder and others.


 * No longer immune to Taunt, though they may not retarget based on being taunted.


 * Many unique monsters which were previously immune to Ailments have had their immunities removed, with the exception of Freeze. Notably, this includes several Beyond Demons, the Atziri Trio, Atziri herself, The Shaper and his Guardians, among others.
 * The Shaper now prevents players from opening portals while fighting him. Zana has 50% more life during the Shaper encounter. The grace period when re-entering the Shaper encounter mid-fight has been reduced to 3 seconds.


 * Introduced to the game.
 * }