Throne Watcher and Throne Defender | Dark Souls 2 Wiki

Throne Watcher and Throne Defender
HP	3,910 / 2,760 | 4,692 / 3,312 (NG+)
Weakness	Lightning
Resistance	Poison, Bleed
Immune	None
Respawn	NO

The Throne Watcher and Throne Defender are Bosses in Dark Souls 2 (DKS2). The Throne Defender wields a substantial greatshield and a sword, while the Throne Watcher, of a more slender build, brandishes a smaller shield and sword. As the battle progresses and their health diminishes, these bosses have the ability to buff their weapons, each manifesting in distinct colors corresponding to their individual armaments. Bosses are unique and challenging Enemies that drop Boss Souls capable of being transformed into powerful Weapons, Spells, and Items for the player.

Throne Watcher and Throne Defender Information in Dark Souls 2

Throne Watcher and Throne Defender are a team boss encounter in Dark Souls 2. This boss is fought as a pair, with the Throne Defender wielding a greatshield and sword and the Throne Watcher a slimmer figure with a smaller shield and sword. These bosses are able to buff their weapons, although they appear as different colors for each boss's weapon. This tends to happen when they get lower on health.

• When one boss is reduced to 0 HP, it will not die. Instead it will slump on its knees and remain there. After about 20 seconds, the other boss will move towards its fallen companion and revive it to full health.

Dark Souls 2 Throne Watcher and Throne Defender Location

• Located within the Throne of Want, and sharing the same battle environment with Nashandra. Players will need to obtain the King's Ring before they have access to the Throne of Want area, therefore will need the ring to fight the Throne Watcher and Throne Defender.

DKS2 Throne Watcher and Throne Defender Drops

• Throne Watcher Soul
• Throne Defender Soul
• Ring of the Evil Eye +2 (NG+)
• Souls: 68000 (Standard Game) 102000 (NG+)

Throne Watcher and Throne Defender Attacks in DKS2

NPC Summons

• Benhart of Jugo can be summoned for this fight. His summon sign is located outside the fog gate.
• The Head of Vengarl can be summoned for this fight, provided the player has defeated his body after fighting the Duke's Dear Freja. His summon sign is located outside the fog gate.
• Bradley of the Old Guard can be summoned for this fight (SOTFS). His summon sign is located outside the fog gate.

Throne Watcher and Throne Defender Strategies in DKS2

The Defender is large and armoured, with slower attacks that are reminiscent of bigger sword wielding enemies. The Watcher is less armoured but much faster, with a move-set akin to Lost Sinner (with the leaps and such) but with a thrusting sword. Both will buff its weapon at roughly 50% health.
Both bosses must be killed simultaneously or within 20 seconds of each other. If not, one boss will revive the other to full health. They may do this indefinitely. They can still be attacked while the boss casts the revive, but the spell takes less than 3 seconds to complete and their revived companion will quickly recover all health while getting back up to rejoin the fight. It is possible to interrupt this revival by staggering the boss. (accomplished with Fire Murakumo +7, and Benhart attacking simultaneously).

Below is a playbook with knowledge and tips which shows you how to defeat this boss:

1. It is not as safe to go after the Throne Defender while the Throne Watcher is alive. Wait for the Watcher to separate herself and throw a heavy attack, then punish that heavy attack, otherwise you do not have a safe window for hitting them and should play with evasion and caution, like any enemy in the game.
2. If you ARE going after the Throne Defender first, which is necessary to an extent, because you only have ~20-23 seconds before he revives the Throne Watcher, then you have to wait for the Defender to separate himself, while the Watcher is far enough behind him. When his shield is horizontal, he's blocking, so don't bother attacking them.
3. Your Estus window is when the bosses have attacked, and are about half the lateral distance of the arena away from you.
4. Rolling backward or continuing to roll yourself in the direction you're rolling are two good ways to get out of range of an attack. Sprinting seems to cause the player to be low on stamina for attacks.
5. There are two of several components to these bosses' attacks which are very important: The wind-up, and the snap. The wind-up is when the enemy is trying to throw their attack, but the attack would not cause damage. It is one type of telegraph. The snap is when the attack is actually coming at you. Roll out of snaps and not wnid-ups, and you'll be fine on avoiding damage.
6. If you're good at hitting the Defender, one good setup is to get both bosses at low enough health, then drop the Watcher. Once she is down, you can take out the Defender, but the amount of work you do is going to depend on your DPS.

Co-operation

Both of them (Throne Watcher especially) tend to switch targets very frequently and seem pre-dispositioned to come to one another's aid over staying separate in a multiple player situation. When helping a host (or having others help you), be very mindful of the location of both of these guys at all times, even when it seems that one is clearly distracted away from you. One of the top ways people get killed by these guys is by getting ganked by the Watcher when they were sure he was distracted.

Solo Turtling

The bosses have relatively low health, they seem to be vulnerable to piercing attacks, and their attacks can be blocked easily. This makes a shield turtling strategy ideal for this boss fight.
This strategy is relatively simple, and doesn't require much skill in dodging or attacking. It mainly involves stamina management, and proper gear.
In order to successfully use this strategy, you should have a few things:

1. Some investment in stamina, for blocking.
2. A good, high stability shield with 100% physical damage resistance, such as the Tower Shield.
3. A powerful, relatively long reach weapon you can use behind a shield. A Lance, specifically the Grand Lance (or the Executioner's Lance, although it cannot be enchanted with resins, which is a major drawback) is ideal for this.
4. Highly recommended, the Chloranthy Ring.
5. For this strategy, you should have light equipment, as equipment load reduces stamina regeneration and roll distance. At any rate, you should seldom take any damage when using this strategy, so you won't need heavy armour.

To turtle, just block all of their attacks with your shield. Make one or more attacks from behind the shield every time you see them beginning an attack, and never attack at any other time. This means you should finish your attack when they finish theirs, maximizing stamina regeneration, and allowing them to get into your reach. If things get too hairy or you have low stamina, roll or run far away from them. You will suffer severe damage if you're staggered, especially if they have imbued their weapons.
The number of attacks you should make for each of theirs varies, mainly depending on your current stamina. However, you shouldn't be too defensive. Although making just one attack would seem to be the safest option, in practice this makes the fight longer, and thus increases the chance of mistakes. It's recommended to try to make 2 or 3 attacks when possible. You will have to retreat sometimes though, so don't follow this as an iron rule.
You must also keep both of them in front of you at all times. You must do this even if you have to take a hit in order to improve your positioning. In general, the boss closest to you attacks you first, or sometimes they attack together. To switch targets, just get closer to a different boss. Remember, that you make at least one attack whenever they attack you, so whoever attacks you is automatically your current target. Using a lance, you can also hit both at once if they attack you together.
Some more advice, if you want to stick to this strategy all the way:

1. Don't attack without blocking, and don't attack when they aren't attacking themselves.
2. Don't try to dodge anything directly. There is seldom a need to do this. Don't make any fancy dodge and attack maneuvers.
3. Don't commit to time-consuming strong or running attacks, unless you can kill one of them by doing this.
4. Relax your shield whenever they're not attacking. You have to make sure you have high stamina, so if you don't need to block, don't.

This boss fight also requires a target switching strategy of some sort. There are several such strategies, but they have been detailed elsewhere, so I won't talk about them here. You should also use Charcoal Pine Resin, as the bosses are weak to fire.

Solo "Light" Melee

Characters with lighter armor and faster weapons can make quick work of these two. Having your AGI around or over 100 and keeping your equip load low (or wearing a Cloranthy Ring) greatly helps. I used a Sun Sword, but any weapon of similar speed and stamina use should work. Simply keep away from them, trying to keep them both in your field of view. When Watcher (the faster one) charges in, block or dodge his attack string. After, get two or three hits in and roll back--the Defender is slow enough to allow this, and the farther away you are when the Watcher charges, the more time you'll have. But watch your stamina and don't get too greedy.

When the Watcher adopts his blocking stance, close in on the Defender and get a few hits in. The Watcher will also occasionally jump back and circle, allowing you to pile up damage on the Defender. When they start using their weapon buffs, beat Defender to within an inch of his life (but not to death, unless you're sure you can swing it and kill Watcher fast enough) and focus on Watcher afterward until he's dead. Mopping up the Defender is a piece of cake.

Some other things: If your stamina is high enough and your regen fast enough, you can play keep away with them and wait out their buffs if you need to. If you need to heal, stick near, but just out of range of Defender (try to keep him moseying toward you) and wait for Watcher to charge and then close in and bait Defender. When they both start to attack, double roll out and take a swig. You may want to wait a half second to make sure Watcher isn't charging again, though, depending on how fast you can chug.

Chaos Storm

You only need Chaos Storm and Iron Flesh and Warmth. If you can wear Havel's armour set to reduce the damage you will get. (+10 Pyromancy Flame recommended)

As soon as you enter the room cast Warmth and Iron Flesh. The two bosses will now be directly in front of you depending on your cast speed. All you have to do now is cast your two Chaos Storms and watch them die. If one of them isn't finished after the two Storms (yeah you need a little bit of luck with it) finish it of with another pyromancy.

Dark Souls 2 Throne Watcher and Throne Defender Hints

1. It is recommended you get one boss down to a low health, then work on the other until it dies so you may quickly dispatch them both. Alternatively, if you kill one boss you should use as many high damage attacks as possible
2. Both bosses are incredibly weak to fire
3. You can force the boss(es) to fall off the edge of the arena if you lure them both to the edge and then move between them. This is hard but possible to do.
4. Pyromancy FLAME SWATHE could be very helpful (lower movie).

• The Throne Watcher has less health and weaker defense. Get the Throne Watcher to near half health, kill the Throne Defender first. If you get both enemies below half health, they will both imbue their weapons with lightning, (EDIT: The Throne Watcher seems to prefer imbuing his blade with magic, while the Throne Defender will imbue his with lightning. As there is a significant difference in the hue of the element between them) doing significantly more damage. Then after the Throne Defender dies, dispatching the Watcher may take only a few seconds. It also seems that after they imbue their weapon twice, they will not continue to imbue their weapons. (Needs confirmation.)
• Havel's Greatshield is the ideal shield, because of its 100% physical defence, along with its rather high defence in all elements, especially magic which is around 90% defence at base value. (The imbued weapon do NOT do elemental damage. Tested with a +10 Gyrm Greatshield - neither of the imbued weapons did chip damage through the 47.5% magic/lightning resistance)
• You can summon Benhart of Jugo to help with this fight. Although, he does not do concrete damage, but as always, he can be used as a distraction.
• You can also summon Head of Vengarl, if you have previously spoke with him in the misty area in the Shaded Woods. (However, it is important to note that in some cases choosing not to summon the Head of Vengarl before fighting the Throne Watcher and Throne Defender the first time, and then dying could cause the summon sign to disappear the following approach to the battle. Even if you did not use it.) (Unconfirmed for Benhart of Jugo.)
• It is highly recommended - if you don't mind the final boss being anti-climatic - that you fight this boss before clearing the other areas made available by the King's Ring, as defeating them last will cause the final boss fight to start immediately making it fairly difficult.