User:Yshyii/Vale Guardian

Vale Guardian

Use the Vale Guardian walkthrough for a in depth guide on the mechanics.

How Not To Kill Your Squad

You cannot singlehandedly wipe the squad unless you are the tank, are assigned to a green, or pull the red seekers on the group.

• Tank: Know your positioning, aim the boss away from the group. Positioning depends on the strategy used.
• Greens: If you get assigned to "do a green", it means that whenever a green circle appears somewhere in the arena, you have to go there until it disappears.
• Seekers: The red orbs floating around are seekers. They deal a lot of damage when standing inside their aoe, so make sure not to pull them onto the group.

Short Guide

Blue circles periodically spawn under players. Anyone standing on them when they disappear will get teleported to a random spot in the arena.
The red floating orbs deal a lot of damage in the aoe around them. Do not pull them onto the group, try to push them away from the group.
Green circles periodically appear. When there are not enough players inside the green when it disappears, the whole squad will take 80% damage. Depending on the strategy used, this mechanic might be ignored and the damage must be healed. If you are assigned to take greens, always run there.
During the 66% and 33% split phase, go to the guardian you were assigned to. If not assigned, go to the Red Guardian if you have condition damage, and to the Blue Guardian if you have power damage.
Starting from 66%, certain areas in the arena will have a coloured floor. It deals damage when stood on.

Brief discussion of mechanics

Vale Guardian is an easy boss in that its mechanics are easy to understand and the dps requirement is low. With new players though, everyone getting teleported around by accident, seekers pulled on the group, greens missed or not properly being healed during its damage proc, things can go south very quickly. Vale Guardian mechanics correspond to the mechanics of the Guardians during the preevent and split phase. The Green Guardian spawns blue circles that teleport anyone standing on them. The Red Guardian spawns seekers and is only vulnerable to condition damage. The Blue Guardian spawns green circles and has an invulerability buff that needs to be stripped.

White Magic Bullets fly around the arena and deal damage when they hit someone.

Vale Guardian attacks the player with the highest toughness. Vale Guardian deals a lot of damage in front of it with its standard attack pattern, so the tank aims the boss away from the group.

Blue circles spawn under players close to the boss. Standing on them when they disappear will teleport players to a random spot in the arena. Both a sound warning and yellow screen border make you aware of this effect. Teleportation can be avoided by sidestepping the circles, dodging over it, or blocking it with aegis or any channeled block.

Red Seeker orbs damage anyone in a circle around them. They can be dealt with by pushing or pulling them away, and using conditions that slow them or stop them in place.

Green circles deal 80% of player health when they explode. They take 5 seconds to charge up, and appear again 10 seconds after exploding. The arena is visually subdivided in three parts. A green spawns within the part of the arena Vale Guardian stands in when the green appears. During boss phases, four players can stand on a green to prevent it from doing any damage. During split phases, three players can stand on a green to prevent it from doing any damage. Any downed players inside the green do not count toward the threshold. The way to deal with this mechanic depends on the overall strategy used, either sending out players to stand on the green, or ignoring the green and healing through the damage.

At 66% and 33% of boss health, Vale Guardian runs toward the middle of the arena. It then splits into its constituent parts: the three coloured Guardians from the pre event which all retain their respective mechanics. At the start of the split, each spawns at their corresponding pillar at the edge of the arena. Players get a buff that corresponds to the colour of the part of the arena they were standing in when the Guardians spawn. Standing near a Guardian of another colour deals damage to the player. Depending on the strategy used, players get assigned a pillar by the squad and generally stay there until the end of the split.

After 66%, Vale Guardian periodically gets a CC phase, during which it shoots out projectiles that deal damage. The CC phase eventually runs out on its own. During the CC phase, no green circles can spawn. That added benefit probably is not enough reason to delay CCing because the damage is sudden and random in location.

Between 66% and 33%, one part of the arena lights up. Players standing in it periodically take damage. Between 33% and 0%, two parts of the arena are lit up at the same time.

Common strategies

Most used strategies are marked in bold. Theoretically some tanking strategies can be combined differently, but in general you will find

Green strategies

Because the green circle mechanic is so impactful, the main difference in strategies mostly involves around dealing with them.

• 'Do greens': During boss phases, four alive players are required to stand in the green circles to avoid them from dealing their damage. Generally that means four players are assigned to the greens, but spares might be used. Ideally a healer and ranged DPS classes get assigned. If you see a marker placed on top of your head, it probably means you're one of the green runners.
  
• 'Ignore greens': The squad tries to absorb all damage. Only invulnerability skills can prevent it from dealing damage, so surviving relies on making sure everyone is fully healed before the blast, giving barrier, and instantly healing after the damage.

Tanking strategies

• 'Do greens tanking strategies': Between 100%-66% the boss is tanked at the edge of the arena near a pillar to allow access to speed mushrooms. Between 66%-0% the tank moves around the arena to make sure the green falls in an area that is not lit up.
• 'Skip greens side tanking strategies': Between 100%-66% the boss can be tanked at the edge of the arena near a pillar to allow access to speed mushrooms. Between 66%-33% the boss can be tanked at the edge on the border between two parts of the arena. When the current area becomes coloured, the squad can simply cross the border to stand in the safe part. Between 33%-0% the boss is tanked by going around the arena and staying in the only non-coloured part.
• 'Skip greens mid tanking strategy': Everything is tanked in the middle. Generally for groups who can deal with reds and do not get teleported, with enough dps to keep the phase short.

Split strategies

Too many combinations possible. Players usually get assigned a pillar before the fight starts. If none are assigned, condi damage usually goes to red, one person usually being the druid pulls green to blue, and the rest goes to blue. Just enough players are sent to red as to kill it at the same time as the other group kills blue and green, so not all condi dps have to go to red. Blue Guardian only requires three people in the green circle, but this green circle definitely has to be taken even in no green strategy, because the players at red will also take damage from the green circle.

Profession role discussion

Tank: Needs to know where to stand, depending on the greens and tanking strategy used. If tanking near the edge, teleport circles can be avoided by dodging backwards into the wall. It does not move you, so the boss will stay still.
If the squad is doing greens, the tank needs to make sure no greens fall in a coloured area between 66%-0%. This is easy between 66%-33% because there is only one coloured area, and the tank can go clockwise around the arena, following the coloured area. Between 33%-0% however, there are two coloured areas. If Vale Guardian is moved too late, the coloured area might switch to the one Vale Guardian is being tanked in, and the green might spawn inside there. Because greens take about 10s to spawn after the last one exploded, counting to 6s/7s and then moving to the next area already gives enough time for Vale Guardian to finish its attack and move to the next area in time. This includes sometimes moving Vale Guardian into a coloured zone, but it will become safe in time before the green hits.

Chronomancer Tank: Try using invulnerability from signets in Inspiration traitline to avoid damage from greens. Definitely useful when healers are otherwise occupied.

Druid: Use Glyph of Tides to push Seekers away. Use Entangle to immobilise Seekers. Celestial avatar 5 and Staff 4 also work as immobilisation. Consider using Glyph of Rejuvenation if regeneration is covered in the full squad, and more burst heal is needed.

Scourge Heal: Give barrier before a green hits.