How to Beat Mephisto, Harbinger of Hatred in Diablo 4 Vessel of Hatred

To absolutely no one’s surprise, Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred’s last boss is the Mephisto, the Harbinger of Hatred. The final battle’s difficulty relies heavily on everyone’s build. If players try to force an endgame build that requires a few mandatory unique items during the campaign and you don’t have them, the fight becomes extremely hard. The same goes for a build that has low single-target damage. However, knowing all the fight mechanics will surely help you beat Mephisto, even if the fight will take a few minutes longer. Here’s how to beat Mephisto, the Harbinger of Hatred, in Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred.

How to Defeat Mephisto, the Harbinger of Hatred, in Diablo 4 Vessel of Hatred

After Eru’s surprising betrayal – I mean, he was suspicious for not telling why he saved you from the river in the first place –Mephisto has now been released from the stone. Eru took the stone and the vessel to help resurrect Mephisto to save Nahantu from Mephisto’s destruction.

To stop you and Neyrelle from stopping Eru, Mephisto brings the Harbinger of Hatred monster to stop you. The Harbinger of Hatred is essentially Mephisto since it is his physical manifestation.

Mephisto, the Harbinger of Hatred, Fight Mechanics

The fight starts with the Harbinger of Hatred spreading corruption in the arena and giving you a small area to play around. Akarat joins you in the fight and you have to wait until he recovers so he can aid you in battle. Akarat will clean the corruption on the floor and remove the Harbinger of Hatred’s immunity once he gets up. You can deal damage to the Harbinger of Hatred for now.

However, the Harbinger of Hatred will become immune to damage again in the next phase. The only way to remove the Harbinger of Hatred’s immunity is by using Akarat’s power. Akarat will turn into a glowing ball of light at the start of each phase, and you need to grab it to get his power. Once you have taken Akarat’s power, all your skills will change to an exclusive attack that will remove Mephisto’s immunity, similar to how the conduit shrine works.

Once the Harbinger of Hatred is vulnerable, you can deal damage to it before he becomes immune again.

The Harbinger of Hatred’s Moveset

While the Harbinger of Hatred constantly spreads corruption, as seen in the second image, you’ll notice a theme in his attacks that is quite similar to the fight against Lilith. He uses his ears to slam the ground on each side, creating a projectile that splits into three projectiles and damages everything in a linear path. After he slams both ears, he’ll do a final slam that fires five projectiles starting from its head.

When he starts flailing his body, it’ll start this attack animation. The best way to dodge it is to go farther from the boss and dodge the projectiles as they come to you. You can also ignore these mechanics if you have some defensive abilities available.

Another one of his dangerous attacks is his simple swipes when you are at melee range. If you don’t have enough maximum life, armor, or defense from passives or skills, each swipe will take more than half of your HP and force you to spam potions to stay alive. It is best to save your defensive skills for this situation since you want to deal consistent damage to the boss.

During the whole fight, enemy hollows will always spawn around, and you have to deal with these hordes of enemies. However, Akarat is also here to help you by taking the Harbinger of Hatred’s attention for a while, giving you some time to deal with the horde or damage to the boss.

Avoid all these dangerous attacks, and you should eventually beat Mephisto, the Harbinger of Hatred. In a way, the fight was way easier than the battle against Urivar because of Akarat’s aid. If you are having a hard time surviving, getting the mercenary, Raheir, for his armor buff will help you get some more survivability.