To successfully breach the Citadel, focus your party composition on crowd control and barrier destruction. You will primarily face Venatori Spellbinders—elven mages who generate regenerating silver barriers—and Hollowed Sentinels, heavy armored knights resistant to physical stagger. Bring Neve for her Ice Slow to manage the knights and Lucanis for his Abyssal Strike to quickly strip mage barriers.
The Citadel’s defensive mechanisms consist of Lyrium-Infused Conduits that power invulnerability fields on elite guards. These conduits are immune to physical attacks; use Lightning or Cold elemental abilities to overload them quickly. Watch the floor for glowing circular runes; these are pressurized mana traps that inflict 'Shock' status, stalling your ability cooldowns. Avoid these by dodging toward the inner courtyard pillars.
Key objectives include capturing the two Gatehouse Winches. A common pitfall is attempting to split the party; stay together, as enemies will spawn behind you once a winch is 50% turned. Use Taunt abilities to keep the Sentinels' focus while you focus-fire the mages, then interact with the central crystal to disable the main gate's warding spell.