Guild Wars 2

So, just did Cairn for the first time yesterday as a Chrono and some things really irked me for feeling inconsistent, badly broadcast or even bugged. So I’d like to ask for clarification of what just went under my radar vs. things that are actual problems with the fight.

So the first thing I noticed was that I seemed to be taking random 10k+ spikes every now and then while standing in melee range, usually downing me on the next “proper” attack. Nothing even remotely close appeared in the combat log. Am I being silly or is there some hidden trick?

Secondly and unrelated to the first, what determines the damage of the red poison (Shared Agony?)? Because I have taken variable amounts of damage standing in only one of those, it seems to be about 4k base but I’ve been chunked for 8k single-hit no-crit, again with only one red circle in existence. Actual mechanic or did I sometimes luck out on a shared damage reduction? (too strong for regular Protection though)

Thirdly, is there a bug with the spin swipe/“pool noodle” attack where it hits through defensive abilities? I could’ve sworn I got hit by it while I had Blur/Distortion on me, in one instance I literally saw the pink icon in my buff bar right before and after I got hit.

And finally of course a remark on the fake difficulty of our skill FX drawing over the telegraph of the port circles. Hard to see is one thing and totally fine, but impossible to see because we’re properly using our abilities? Bleh.

So, any insights? Thanks in advance!

Photoloss.4817:

So the first thing I noticed was that I seemed to be taking random 10k+ spikes every now and then while standing in melee range, usually downing me on the next “proper” attack. Nothing even remotely close appeared in the combat log. Am I being silly or is there some hidden trick?

Where were you standing? If you’re in-front of Cairn, all 3 of its swipes deal damage.

Photoloss.4817:

Secondly and unrelated to the first, what determines the damage of the red poison (Shared Agony?)? Because I have taken variable amounts of damage standing in only one of those, it seems to be about 4k base but I’ve been chunked for 8k single-hit no-crit, again with only one red circle in existence. Actual mechanic or did I sometimes luck out on a shared damage reduction? (too strong for regular Protection though)

The shared agony deals hp% damage if I’m not mistaken, this is hearsay so take this with a grain of salt. I’m not too sure myself.

Photoloss.4817:

Thirdly, is there a bug with the spin swipe/“pool noodle” attack where it hits through defensive abilities? I could’ve sworn I got hit by it while I had Blur/Distortion on me, in one instance I literally saw the pink icon in my buff bar right before and after I got hit.

To my knowledge, the swipe attack can not be blocked, or invouned though, only dodging will work. I’ve tried to distort through it as well and had similar results, the special action key works in evading it though.

Photoloss.4817:

And finally of course a remark on the fake difficulty of our skill FX drawing over the telegraph of the port circles. Hard to see is one thing and totally fine, but impossible to see because we’re properly using our abilities? Bleh.

As for this part, yeah, I’ve had people complaining about the same thing. Try playing on best performance I guess? One advice I can give is that the teleports will appear on Cairn’s 1st swing and there will always be three of them. Keep an eye for the orange outline of the teleports, they are the most noticeable thing in my experience. Also the teleports will pop as soon as it makes its 3rd swing, so you have until then to position yourself accordingly.

Spectral Agony is the first thing that comes to mind, the agony of others reflects heavy damage to their allies. The Swipe Attack has some inconsistencies, yet, it’s safest to dodge or spectral leap through it, at blocking, stability, etc sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t.
Also, during Dance Dance Revolution wait for the boss to get back to the center before getting on a green field, otherwise you risk getting thrown off again.

Sephylon.4938:

Where were you standing? If you’re in-front of Cairn, all 3 of its swipes deal damage.

Obviously somewhere in melee range not paying attention to his facing
Do the “3 swipes” actually hit simultaneously? My issue is not the total rate of incoming damage but getting spiked in an instant like a VG green or Sabby timebomb popped.

Sephylon.4938:

The shared agony deals hp% damage if I’m not mistaken, this is hearsay so take this with a grain of salt. I’m not too sure myself.

I have consistently taken either 4k or 8k. I don’t care about the number itself but the fact a single circle sometimes deals double damage for no apparent reason. Maybe I should double-check with the eles since Hardy Conduit+Frost Aura could be responsible for ~50% dmg reduction.

Sephylon.4938:

To my knowledge, the swipe attack can not be blocked, or invouned though, only dodging will work. I’ve tried to distort through it as well and had similar results, the special action key works in evading it though.

Blocking actually seemed to work at least sometimes, while Blur (which should be an evade) sometimes didn’t. Then again I know Tequatl waves can be dodge-rolled but not evaded via Blur…

Sephylon.4938:

As for this part, yeah, I’ve had people complaining about the same thing. Try playing on best performance I guess? One advice I can give is that the teleports will appear on Cairn’s 1st swing and there will always be three of them. Keep an eye for the orange outline of the teleports, they are the most noticeable thing in my experience. Also the teleports will pop as soon as it makes its 3rd swing, so you have until then to position yourself accordingly.

I already tried looking for the orange outlines but to my dismay often found them obscured even by my own wells -,- Anyway thanks for the help.

Amaimon.7823:

Spectral Agony is the first thing that comes to mind, the agony of others reflects heavy damage to their allies.

I deliberately put up two points because yes, the red circle poison hurts (I assume that’s the “agony” you mean, or is there another one?); but in some cases there were no red poisons on the team or all 3 were clearly in view and far away from me, yet I still took a >10k spike in melee range.

Photoloss.4817:

Sephylon.4938:

Where were you standing? If you’re in-front of Cairn, all 3 of its swipes deal damage.

Obviously somewhere in melee range not paying attention to his facing
Do the “3 swipes” actually hit simultaneously? My issue is not the total rate of incoming damage but getting spiked in an instant like a VG green or Sabby timebomb popped.

Sephylon.4938:

The shared agony deals hp% damage if I’m not mistaken, this is hearsay so take this with a grain of salt. I’m not too sure myself.

I have consistently taken either 4k or 8k. I don’t care about the number itself but the fact a single circle sometimes deals double damage for no apparent reason. Maybe I should double-check with the eles since Hardy Conduit+Frost Aura could be responsible for ~50% dmg reduction.

Sephylon.4938:

To my knowledge, the swipe attack can not be blocked, or invouned though, only dodging will work. I’ve tried to distort through it as well and had similar results, the special action key works in evading it though.

Blocking actually seemed to work at least sometimes, while Blur (which should be an evade) sometimes didn’t. Then again I know Tequatl waves can be dodge-rolled but not evaded via Blur…

Sephylon.4938:

As for this part, yeah, I’ve had people complaining about the same thing. Try playing on best performance I guess? One advice I can give is that the teleports will appear on Cairn’s 1st swing and there will always be three of them. Keep an eye for the orange outline of the teleports, they are the most noticeable thing in my experience. Also the teleports will pop as soon as it makes its 3rd swing, so you have until then to position yourself accordingly.

I already tried looking for the orange outlines but to my dismay often found them obscured even by my own wells -,- Anyway thanks for the help.

Amaimon.7823:

Spectral Agony is the first thing that comes to mind, the agony of others reflects heavy damage to their allies.

I deliberately put up two points because yes, the red circle poison hurts (I assume that’s the “agony” you mean, or is there another one?); but in some cases there were no red poisons on the team or all 3 were clearly in view and far away from me, yet I still took a >10k spike in melee range.

We refer to story agony as Spectral Agony since this is what the Mursaat called it in guild wars 1. We deliberately say Spectral Agony instead of just Agony because in gw2 there’s the fractal of the mists where agony is used as a mechanic. So it’s just to make a clear distinction between the two agonies.
Spectral Agony is just the concept of damage coming from Mursaat, Cairns, and Aether Constructs.

I just thought of something else. After the swipe attack, Cairn spawns several green fields instantly, after which he lets out a burst of Spectral Agony. This one requires immediate reaction, rather than his dance dance revolution where you have plenty of time. Could be that you’re so focused on attacking the boss that you missed these greens?

Amaimon.7823:

We refer to story agony as Spectral Agony since this is what the Mursaat called it in guild wars 1. We deliberately say Spectral Agony instead of just Agony because in gw2 there’s the fractal of the mists where agony is used as a mechanic. So it’s just to make a clear distinction between the two agonies.
Spectral Agony is just the concept of damage coming from Mursaat, Cairns, and Aether Constructs.

Okay so NOT his red circle poison which I believe is listed as “Shared Agony”?

Amaimon.7823:

I just thought of something else. After the swipe attack, Cairn spawns several green fields instantly, after which he lets out a burst of Spectral Agony. This one requires immediate reaction, rather than his dance dance revolution where you have plenty of time. Could be that you’re so focused on attacking the boss that you missed these greens?

Don’t those lift you in the air too? Pretty sure I didn’t miss any greens either way as everyone else was still stacking next to me and making no effort to move even during the spike damage. Actually the pattern where he spawns ~6 circles of equal size and immediately charges up felt reasonably slow most of the time.

Photoloss.4817:

Amaimon.7823:

We refer to story agony as Spectral Agony since this is what the Mursaat called it in guild wars 1. We deliberately say Spectral Agony instead of just Agony because in gw2 there’s the fractal of the mists where agony is used as a mechanic. So it’s just to make a clear distinction between the two agonies.
Spectral Agony is just the concept of damage coming from Mursaat, Cairns, and Aether Constructs.

Okay so NOT his red circle poison which I believe is listed as “Shared Agony”?

yes and now, it’s a bit confusing. but all agony is refered to as spectral, no matter the source, that includes the red circle some people have during the boss. It gets confusing because every source of agony has a unique name, and then the agony blast during the green fields has a technical name spectral agony to make it even more confusing.
But all sources of agony outside fractals are referred to as spectral agony because thats what the npcs in gw1 called the agony coming from all sources mursaat.

Photoloss.4817:

Don’t those lift you in the air too? Pretty sure I didn’t miss any greens either way as everyone else was still stacking next to me and making no effort to move even during the spike damage. Actually the pattern where he spawns ~6 circles of equal size and immediately charges up felt reasonably slow most of the time.

There is a bug in his second phase (75% -> 50% HP) where his green circle attack is completely unavoidable, could that be what’s damaging you? His explosion during the green circle attack will only lift you into the air if you don’t have stability.

The only way to avoid this bug is to push him quickly to phase 3 with good DPS.

AnariiUK.7409:

Photoloss.4817:

Don’t those lift you in the air too? Pretty sure I didn’t miss any greens either way as everyone else was still stacking next to me and making no effort to move even during the spike damage. Actually the pattern where he spawns ~6 circles of equal size and immediately charges up felt reasonably slow most of the time.

There is a bug in his second phase (75% -> 50% HP) where his green circle attack is completely unavoidable, could that be what’s damaging you? His explosion during the green circle attack will only lift you into the air if you don’t have stability.

The only way to avoid this bug is to push him quickly to phase 3 with good DPS.

Haven’t heard of or experienced this bug at all. Are you sure you didn’t just accidentally step on a 2+ man field alone?

AnariiUK.7409:

There is a bug in his second phase (75% -> 50% HP) where his green circle attack is completely unavoidable, could that be what’s damaging you? His explosion during the green circle attack will only lift you into the air if you don’t have stability.

The only way to avoid this bug is to push him quickly to phase 3 with good DPS.

Yeah, I see this bug more often than I’d like. It made getting my jade heart on the first few attempts rather difficult, and not because of personal skill. =/

Photoloss.4817:

Sephylon.4938:

Where were you standing? If you’re in-front of Cairn, all 3 of its swipes deal damage.

Obviously somewhere in melee range not paying attention to his facing
Do the “3 swipes” actually hit simultaneously? My issue is not the total rate of incoming damage but getting spiked in an instant like a VG green or Sabby timebomb popped.

The swipes will be one after the other, left swipe, right swipe, then left swipe again. On the 1st left swipe, Cairn will drop the teleport circles, on the 3rd swipe, the 2nd left swipe, Cairn will shoot the jade shards, and the teleport fields will pop.

at least on the first phase the dmg spikes u take are eithre from agony or reflects. Using reflects on cairne is suicide.

10k sounds like a missed (or insufficient amount of ppl) green circle. The thing about this one is that it’s lift-up part and damage are two separate stories. You can stab and completely void the cc part, but the damage itself is unblockable and will knock you for a loop still.

The teleport traps are indeed the worst. Especially with mesmers and their ethereal fields that not only cover it but like to blur what’s beneath them as well.

As for shared agony – it does 10% max hp (unavoidable) on the person affected by it, every 3s. No idea how much it does to others caught in the circle.

Amaimon.7823:

AnariiUK.7409:

Photoloss.4817:

Don’t those lift you in the air too? Pretty sure I didn’t miss any greens either way as everyone else was still stacking next to me and making no effort to move even during the spike damage. Actually the pattern where he spawns ~6 circles of equal size and immediately charges up felt reasonably slow most of the time.

There is a bug in his second phase (75% -> 50% HP) where his green circle attack is completely unavoidable, could that be what’s damaging you? His explosion during the green circle attack will only lift you into the air if you don’t have stability.

The only way to avoid this bug is to push him quickly to phase 3 with good DPS.

Haven’t heard of or experienced this bug at all. Are you sure you didn’t just accidentally step on a 2+ man field alone?

Fairly certain, it’s the attack where all greens are the same size which tends to bug out. However, looking at a few solos it doesn’t seem to be restricted to only the second phase. We duo’d Cairn yesterday for a bit of fun and repeatedly had the bug on each cycle during the second phase. It seems like it randomly occurs, but if it happens once then it will repeat each time his cycle of attacks repeat.

Basically what happens is: The greens will spawn momentarily while he’s still doing his autos, then they will dissapear. He’ll then start the big explosion channel. Even if you stand where a green was previously, you’ll be hit by the explosion. The greens then reappear shortly after his explosion is finished.