Baran, the Crusader

Baran, the Crusader is one of the Elderslayers / Conquerors of the Atlas. He serves as one of the end-game bosses of the Atlas. The boss fight itself has 8 different levels, based on the player's current Atlas Awakening level. It is colloquially known as A1 Baran through A8 Baran.

Items influenced by the Crusader have a red icon on its header and have unique Crusader modifiers.

Non-influenced items can have the Crusader's influence added using a, which is a rare drop from Baran.

Defeating Baran for the first item in a region will drop a that can be socketed into Atlas citadels. There are 8 atlas regions thus there are 8 Crimson Watchstones.

Encounter
Players must first spawn a Conqueror within the Atlas using the steps in the Atlas quick guide. Then talking to Kirac and Zana will open a portal to the Conqueror's citadel. Defeating the map boss will open a portal to the Conqueror's arena, where they must fight Baran.

Tips

 * Baran is notable for dealing a high amount of Lightning damage, and is also the only Conqueror to deal this type of damage.
 * Players need maintain constant mobility and avoid the Runes tiles and lightning shots, as they can be deadly.
 * Baran's attacks are very powerful, but have a slow and noticeable wind-up to them. Stay mobile before each attack and retaliate between attacks.
 * Baran's lightning attack where he fires three lightning shots in a small spread can easily one-shot most builds. Always stay moving during this part.
 * Baran's ground slam and rune cast have very long startup times, but make sure to keep your distance for the ground slam.
 * When Baran is channeling his runes, stand in the corners of the arena to maximize your safe zone area.
 * If Baran casts more runes when he already has some up, you can stand in the runes right before he creates more to overlap them.
 * At high levels, unless you have a very powerful build, it's highly recommended to not add increased speed to the map, It lets him spawn more runes and fire his deadliest attacks faster and leave him far less vulnerable.

Attacks
Melee with Directional Knockback
 * Default melee attack

Slam
 * Briefly charges up and slams his sceptre in front of him, dealing massive physical damage. The sceptre releases lightning projectiles in a spread pattern.
 * Deals 300% of Damage
 * 50% of Physical Damage Converted to Lightning Damage
 * +30 to Melee Strike Range
 * 66% less Attack Speed
 * Deals 110% of Base Attack Damage

Dash To Target
 * Baran dashes to the player, dealing no damage.

Trigger Beam
 * Fires three bolts of lightning that hit in a small area, then explode. Damage is dealt both when first fired and on explosion. These bolts can overlap, and are extremely deadly to most builds.
 * Deals 2138 to 3207 Physical Damage
 * 75% of Physical Damage Converted to Lightning Damage

Beam Impact
 * Fires multiple lightning bolts in a scattered pattern. Same as the previous attack, but much less deadly since they are much less likely to overlap.
 * Deals 969.2 to 2908 Physical Damage
 * 50% of Physical Damage Converted to Lightning Damage

Triggered Delayed Blast
 * Deals 2102 to 3154 Physical Damage
 * 75% of Physical Damage Converted to Lightning Damage

Rune Detonation
 * After a lengthy charge up, Baran creates Runes in your current location in a cross pattern.
 * They will be placed in squares of his arena. They last a long time before disappearing, and at higher levels Baran can have more than one cross pattern of Runes active.
 * Runes deal damage over time and degenerate mana. When stepped on, they will also detonate after a delay to deal lightning damage and shock the player.

Summon Daemon
 * Summons a minion that assists him in combat.

Exclusive

 * Crusader items (items with the Crusader influence)
 * Crusader items (items with the Crusader influence)
 * Crusader items (items with the Crusader influence)

Awakened support skill gems
Read list of awakened support skill gems for full list

Zana
From Zana:

"Like many of those once loyal to the Templar regime, Baran held particular contempt for his former brethren. Our mutual disdain for Dominus helped us bond. We stayed up far too late on many nights, discussing where science and spirituality overlapped... and where they clashed.

While I tended to agree with Veritania's secular view that people must be responsible for their own actions, Baran was still a firm believer that trust in God was necessary for good moral judgement. Despite everything the Templar put him through, his faith was unshaken.

We didn't always see eye-to-eye, but we respected each other's positions. Of course, once the madness set in, that respect vanished, replaced by fevered argument and name-calling. As the group dwindled, he found reasons to cast doubt on each of the departed. In our last fight before the two of us went our separate ways, he accused me of being sent by a shadowy demon to draw him away from the righteous path...

And then I was alone."

Conquerors of the Atlas
Baran is the younger brother of Officer Kirac. In, Kirac asked the player to investigate The Templar Laboratory to find out what Baran and Zana were doing. The player encountered a broken map device. Therefore, the protagonist and Kirac search for another map device in a vault.

Upon rebuilding a map device from spare parts, Kirac asks the player to search for Baran in Maps in the quest. The player instead finds Zana in an abandoned Citadel of a Map. Then the player finds Baran in the corner regions of the Atlas in quest.

The player encounters Baran several times but in the first few, Baran escapes. In the final fight the player finally kills Baran, who then leads the player to Sirus, who is also killed by the player. After these events, Oriath is utterly obliterated by Sirus, and the Oriathians flee from there and take refuge on an island.

Echoes of the Atlas
The epilogue storyline in the Echoes of the Atlas expansion introduces the Maven as the ultimate endgame Atlas boss, in parallel to Sirus and the Conquerors. Kirac speculates that after the death of his brother Baran, the player was still able to encounter Baran due to the Maven resurrecting him. This also addressed the long-standing plot hole of how the player could encounter and slay the Conquerors (and other bosses in map) repeatedly.

Baran's Journal
Baran's journals are clickable lore items dropped each time you defeat Baran.

Dialogue
Upon defeating Baran in the highest difficulty (Awakening Level 8), he says: "Kirac...sent you? You must keep him out of the Atlas...I cannot be saved...he will find only his own doom, endlessly pursuing my rescue...he will end up...like me...

Tell Zana...she was right...to seal us away...Sirus must never...be..."

Version history

 * The lore has been updated after the introduction of Echoes of the Atlas expansion.


 * Added new lore objects to the Conqueror of the Atlas boss areas. Baran's journals added to the game.


 * Introduced to the game.
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