Frostvault -- tanking Avalanche during Rizzuk Bonechill boss fight

Rudenthor · June 2019

I have a question about the Rizzuk Bonechill boss fight in Frostvault, specifically on tanking the frost atronach Avalanche. The atronach does his "pizza slice" mechanic, during which presumably the tank must stand on the clear slice to not get one-shot. However, during our many attempts, when I was tanking the atronach, I was certainly inside the clear area of the slices and still got one shot through block by the atronach's attack.

Is there some mechanic that we are missing? We did clear it eventually with good resses and high DPS, but I would like to know if there is a proper way to do it. At one point it seemed to me like there was server lag, not registering the tank being in the right slice, but I cannot confirm this.

Zacuel · June 2019

I remember my first time tanking that on vet.

It's actually really cool to be in ring duking it out with the big atronach.

I didn't die if I followed the mechs correctly. Which wasn't easy.

So it could have been lag

UntilValhalla13 · June 2019

It's also basically a one shot if the tank leaves the aoe circle as well. You never know anymore what's lagging or buggy with this game.

fletchunit · June 2019

Nothing you were missing in terms of mechanics, you were probably just experiencing lagg. As long as you are in those gaps you will avoid being killed.

John_Falstaff · June 2019

No, it's not a lag. Refer to bug report forums, to the thread about broken AoE telegraphs. They are bugged throughout the game, it's acknowledged and the fix is said to be top priority... Aside from that, nothing.

AoEs don't line up with visuals. Avalanche turns during the mechanics when it shouldn't turn, and damage turns with it (while red on the ground stays the same). Olms, people point out, sweeps invisible cone of his breath and kills kiters. Thurvokun hits people with invisible ice blasts. The game has a whole bouquet right now, a lot of people are waiting for the patch.

code65536 · June 2019

Especially with the current game-wide broken telegraph bug, I would recommend an alternative approach to this fight.

Healer slots Inner Fire and taunts the goblin to hold him in place. He hits like a wet noodle and isn't a threat to anyone. Tank taunts the frost atro and just kites it around on a wild goose chase around the room.

At 12:40 in this video, you can see a demonstration of that approach:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6prwa8_PkA&t=764

Rudenthor · June 2019

Thank you very much for your replies, we will try @code65536 strategy, but just one question then -- I remember that if I was out of the AoE circle, the atro put a huge DoT on the tank that healer was barely able to outheal. Is that not applied if you are kiting him around like that? It seems so, but just want confirmation.

Ahzek · June 2019

The huge DoT you get when you try to leave the circle around the atronarch actually comes from ice spikes it spawns during that attack. These spikes spawn at the edge of the circle and are very hard to see, since they are almost entirely translucent. They do not cover the entire circle and have holes and cracks in between where you can pass safely.

This means in order to beat this fight deathless the tank has a few options:
-play the mechanic and dance with the boss inside the circle
-try to leave the circle asap, but avoid the ice spikes
-kite the atronarch around. Here you have to keep your distance far enough so that when the boss starts his pizza slice you are already well out of the circle

pluckpluck · June 2019

As told previously. Even with bugs, I tend to dance with Avalanche. It's not that difficult, but when you enter the third step of dance, continue to move to the left around the boss since AoE is, indeed, moving with, not respecting color. If you're looking for Cold Potatoe achievement, learning dance steps helps a lot, this ach is already a pain in his concept.. Oh, MagmaShell allows you to skip damage while not dancing and staying near Avalanche, for times you can't follow the dance - for example, if Avalanche's AoE is partly in the bigger, icy AoE on border. But you should have Avalanche always around middle of room so you're free for the dance.

At first I was kiting Avalanche around the place, but it can lead to hard situations when you cross allies and Avalanche does a special attack. DDs are bad at dancing

code65536 · June 2019

pluckpluck wrote: »

As told previously. Even with bugs, I tend to dance with Avalanche. It's not that difficult, but when you enter the third step of dance, continue to move to the left around the boss since AoE is, indeed, moving with, not respecting color. If you're looking for Cold Potatoe achievement, learning dance steps helps a lot, this ach is already a pain in his concept.. Oh, MagmaShell allows you to skip damage while not dancing and staying near Avalanche, for times you can't follow the dance - for example, if Avalanche's AoE is partly in the bigger, icy AoE on border. But you should have Avalanche always around middle of room so you're free for the dance.

At first I was kiting Avalanche around the place, but it can lead to hard situations when you cross allies and Avalanche does a special attack. DDs are bad at dancing

Cold Potato has nothing to do with the pie-slice mechanic.

Cold Potato just means that every player has run into a rolling frost ball before RIzzuk is killed.

Noldornir · July 2019

John_Falstaff wrote: »

No, it's not a lag. Refer to bug report forums, to the thread about broken AoE telegraphs. They are bugged throughout the game, it's acknowledged and the fix is said to be top priority... Aside from that, nothing.

AoEs don't line up with visuals. Avalanche turns during the mechanics when it shouldn't turn, and damage turns with it (while red on the ground stays the same). Olms, people point out, sweeps invisible cone of his breath and kills kiters. Thurvokun hits people with invisible ice blasts. The game has a whole bouquet right now, a lot of people are waiting for the patch.

This is the truth,

First time I tanked it= died a couple time then realized mech then did it no problem

Second time (one weekly-mainteance release later) it was almost impossible.

Many charged AoEs are acting crazy lately, basically like this:

1= You are standing on point A and mob start to charge his AoE attack
2= You move to a safe position (point

to avoid it then you stop and start fighting again
3= the charging mob TURNS toward you (with the AoE) a split second BEFORE unleashing attack (making it unavoidable).

I've seen this happening in:

Fang Lair= Thurvokun charge his ice-tail sweep then suddently turns, particulary funny results in execute phase when ghosts are out (you can get ragdolled half room away on a ghost wall)

vMA= many archers seems affected when they perform the arrow spray skill

Frostvault= avalanche making it almost impossible to dodge his sweeps (you DO dodge but since he turns...)

akray21 · July 2019

Rudenthor wrote: »

I have a question about the Rizzuk Bonechill boss fight in Frostvault, specifically on tanking the frost atronach Avalanche. The atronach does his "pizza slice" mechanic, during which presumably the tank must stand on the clear slice to not get one-shot. However, during our many attempts, when I was tanking the atronach, I was certainly inside the clear area of the slices and still got one shot through block by the atronach's attack.

Is there some mechanic that we are missing? We did clear it eventually with good resses and high DPS, but I would like to know if there is a proper way to do it. At one point it seemed to me like there was server lag, not registering the tank being in the right slice, but I cannot confirm this.

My tank buddy was having this same issue, he was claiming lag or other bugs. I believe him because I've been one shot in that dungeon by things that I clearly avoided.

znrk · July 2019

code65536 wrote: »

pluckpluck wrote: »

If you're looking for Cold Potatoe achievement, learning dance steps helps a lot, this ach is already a pain in his concept.

Cold Potato has nothing to do with the pie-slice mechanic.

Cold Potato just means that every player has run into a rolling frost ball before RIzzuk is killed.

What he means is that while doing Cold Potato, based on your RNGluck with frost ball targetting, it is possible that tank will have to do the dance gazillion of times. When we were doing Cold Potato the whole fight lasted somewhere around 10 minutes because one of the players could not become the target of the ball, no matter what we did.

rudvil · July 2019

you don't have to be "targeted" by ball, to get "Cold Potato" you just need to run into "icy ball" itself until he disappear, even if it's "targeted" on another player

znrk · July 2019

rudvil wrote: »

you don't have to be "targeted" by ball, to get "Cold Potato" you just need to run into "icy ball" itself until he disappear, even if it's "targeted" on another player

Did not work like that for us, when we were trying to get it - 20th of April.

rudvil · July 2019

znrk wrote: »

rudvil wrote: »

you don't have to be "targeted" by ball, to get "Cold Potato" you just need to run into "icy ball" itself until he disappear, even if it's "targeted" on another player

Did not work like that for us, when we were trying to get it - 20th of April.

when you hit "icy ball" you get some kind of buff for about 10 min., to complete this achievment, all 4 ppl in group should have this buff, prior killing RIzzuk.
If you die, you lose "icy ball" buff, and you have to catch "icy ball" again to get this buff back...
sry for bad english

butterrum222 · July 2019

I found when tanking him that if you stand still and block during the first 2 hits then side step the last one you can survive. That means being in the aoe in the first one

GlorphNoldorin · July 2019

Pretty sure like other conal mechanics are bugged, the damage cone is moving. I found quite a few times being one shot whilst standing in the clear area.

A couple of times I thought I just saw the cone move. It seems to go clockwise so I always tried to stand on the clockwise edge of the clear zone and keep moving in that direction.....with a little necessity for doing the correct timing.

This way most times now I can successfully negotiate yet another bugged ZOS fight.

Edit: Apparently there is a fix for all these conal bugs in update 23.....ye right we haven't heard that before.

Pontypants · August 2019

It's just the last hit that will kill you, the first two you can block. Just keep walking during the last one and you should be able to avoid it. I had the same thing, if I was close to the cone attack but not touchng, I still got one-shot. So just make sure you are quite far from the red cone and you should be good.

Here's a guide I wrote for frostvault in case you need some additional help: https://esoplanet.com/frostvault-dungeon-guide/

Currently finishing up HM

Suddwrath · August 2019

Can anyone confirm that it has been fixed?

Trinity_Is_My_Name · August 2019

code65536 wrote: »

Especially with the current game-wide broken telegraph bug, I would recommend an alternative approach to this fight.

Healer slots Inner Fire and taunts the goblin to hold him in place. He hits like a wet noodle and isn't a threat to anyone. Tank taunts the frost atro and just kites it around on a wild goose chase around the room.

At 12:40 in this video, you can see a demonstration of that approach: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6prwa8_PkA&t=764

Excellent! Thanks so much for posting this. Will try this next time.