Not all bosses are mandatory in Path of Exile 2. In fact, the second boss you’re likely to encounter just so happens to be optional, and aside from the obligatory loot drops, you can also expect to gain special boss drops that grant permanent boons, making these optional bosses well worth hunting down. This page will provide strategies for defeating Biera of the Rotten Pack in Path of Exile 2.

Page Breakdown¶

Biera of the Rotten Pack Location¶

Past Clearfell Encampment you’ll find the wilderness of Clearfell, a place even more dark and damned than the riverbank where you started your adventure. Wolves and undead infest the abandoned logging camps and surviving fringes of the forest here, but lurking amidst them is the odd hag - a dangerous foe that will likely teach you the danger of taking “trash mobs” lightly. In a snow covered clearing, surrounded by felled trees, you’ll find the ritual site of a particularly powerful hag - Biera of the Rotten Pack.

The location of this ritual site, and hence of Biera, is random, but you won’t usually find it on the edge of the area, so if you’re just doing perimeter runs to find the next area, you’ll actually need to explore the center of the area a bit to find it. Just look for the snow and with any luck you may hear Biera before you see her - if the chat log is enabled, Biera’s chatter will appear there.

Biera Boss Strategy¶

Biera might be a hag, but she’s far more capable than her lesser sisters in this region. As you might expect from the ritual site, she’s fond of cold magic, and unlike her sisters she doesn’t have a singular knockout punch attack, instead using various attacks to deal moderate damage and chip away at interlopers. That doesn’t mean she’s harmless, however - between the wolves she’ll summon and her increased rate of attack when she’s low on health, she can easily overwhelm the unwary, especially if she’s able to freeze her foes.

Below you’ll find all the attacks Biera of the Rotten Pack will use:

Frost Bolts¶

Like most of Biera’s attacks, this comes in two forms - unlike most of her attacks, however, she’ll use both of these forms from the start of the fight. Biera is fond of shooting frost bolts as her standard attack, either sending a barrage of frost bolts at her targets in quick succession or shooting a spread of frost bolts out in a wave. You can just walk around to avoid the former, but the latter is a bit trickier unless your timing is good enough to dodge under them, or you’ve enough distance to get between them.

Frost Spikes¶

Not to be confused with Frost Bolts, Biera’s two Frost Spike attacks summon spikes of ice from the ground. At the start of the fight Biera will conjure two AoE effects which, after a moment, will erupt into a field of spikes, while later on she’ll conjure numerous smaller AoE reticles which each spawn a single large spike. Just avoid the effect indicators and you’ll be fine - this should be more area denial than a legitimate threat.

Frost Nova¶

Biera can conjure two different AoE blasts of ice centered on herself, one being more a slow burn that that can be identified by the small ice spikes that appear around Biera before the attack erupts, shooting paths of ice spikes out from Biera. The other is your garden variety Frost Nova, similar to what the player can use. In both cases you just need to stay away until the attack resolves.

Summon Wolves¶

Once injured Biera will start summoning wolves to assist her. She does this in stages, first summoning corpses, then animating them and siccing them on you. They’re not very strong or dangerous on their own, but they can limit your mobility and make you more likely to suffer at the hands of Biera herself.

Since all of Biera’s attacks are cold-elemental spells, you do need to be wary of frost accumulation and potentially ending up frozen. When her health is over 50% she’s a fairly slow caster and her attacks are relatively easy to dodge, but once reduced below 50% she’ll cast a wider range of spells, cast much faster and will summon wolves to complicate matters. Retreating behind some logs to dispatch the wolves isn’t the worst idea, but Biera will also start accumulating energy shield if she’s neglected too long, so you have to balance safety with offense lest the fight drag on longer.

Defeat Biera and she’ll drop the Head of the Winter Wolf which, when used from your inventory, will permanently increase your Cold Resistance by +10%.