Boss mechanics
Which attacks bosses show on the ground beforehand, what the colours mean and how to react.
Many bosses on Orelia do more than swing at you. They use mechanics: areas on the ground that are shown shortly before they hit, minions, and shouts that warn you what is coming. Read the signs and you survive – stand still and you take a beating.
Ground markers
Before an attack lands, its area appears on the ground. A progress fill runs through it, the rim glows brighter just before impact, and a white flash marks the hit. Every marker stays visible for at least 1.5 seconds.
- Red – damageanyone standing inside at impact gets hit. Get out!
- Blue – safe zoneeveryone not standing in a blue area gets hit. Get in!
- Green – cleansestanding inside removes the boss’s debuffs from you.
Some bosses use other colours as well – when in doubt, avoid red and head for blue.
Shapes
- Circle – around the boss, around you, or anywhere in the arena
- Ring (donut) – the ring itself hits, the middle is safe
- Cone – a fan in front of the boss
- Rectangle – a beam or lane that can also sweep or rotate across the ground
Areas that chase you
Some areas spawn under every player – spread out and step away. Others follow you for a while and only lock in place shortly before they go off. Move out as soon as it stops.
Some areas stay on the ground after the impact and keep dealing damage while you stand in them.
Together or apart
- Stack: the damage is split between all players inside. Stand in it together so no one takes the full hit.
- Spread: the damage grows with every extra player inside. Keep your distance from each other.
Extra effects
A hit can do more than damage:
- Bleed – damage over time
- Slow – you move more slowly
- Stun – you cannot move for a moment
- Knockback – you are thrown away from the centre
- Boss debuffs – green areas remove them again
Minions (adds)
Bosses can call in helpers. Some protect the boss with a shield: while they live, only part of your damage reaches the boss. In that case, kill the adds first. Adds normally give no drops and no EXP.
How a fight unfolds
- Phases: at certain HP values the boss enters a new phase with different attacks. Some attacks fire exactly once when its HP drops below a threshold.
- Enrage: if the fight drags on too long, the boss uses its attacks more and more often.
- Reset: if the boss takes no damage for a while, it resets. All markers, adds and its debuffs disappear.
Many mechanics scale with the number of players in the fight – more players can mean more safe zones, for example.
Shouts
Bosses announce themselves: as a speech balloon above them, as a [Boss] line in chat, or as large text in the middle of the screen. Pay attention – the shout often tells you what is about to happen.
Fair by design
Your ping does not count against you
The server checks hits with a small tolerance: a red area only hits you if you were inside for the whole last moment before impact, and a blue area counts if you reached it during that time. Red areas are also a little smaller, and blue ones a little larger, for the hit check than they look.
A single hit currently takes at most 70 % of your maximum HP – except for mechanics that are meant to be lethal. With blue safe zones in particular, standing outside can mean instant death.
Only you and the players near you, or in the same instance, see the mechanics.