Before Fighting Cairn
-
Required Masteries and Mounts
- Glider Basics mastery is required to reach the platform
- No mounts required
-
Special Roles
- There is no tank needed, but Cairn does aggro to the person who is furthest away.
When you enter, Glenna is standing directly ahead. You can either speak to her for a regular start to the fight or wait and do a platform start instead. Continue forward down the path and pass through the waterfall. At the bottom of the hill is a cliff with a platform across the way.
Celestial Dash - (Special Action Key, Dash)
-
When you pass through the waterfall on the path to the boss arena, you gain Celestial Dash, a Special Action Key ability. Make sure your Special Action Key is bound to something easy to use.
-
Celestial Dash (SAK/Dash), is a Ground-Targeted dash skill with an Evade and a Range of 1,200. It also has a very short Cooldown, so use it as much as you need during the fight.
If no one spoke to Glenna, the group may go down onto the platform without starting the fight. After the ready check, someone can /gg and go back to talk to her. They have enough time to run ahead and join the group on the platform before the fight starts. This gives an opportunity to precast skills before Cairn spawns.
If the group did speak to Glenna, then Cairn, a massive Jade Construct, will be ahead of you on the platform. Landing on the platform will begin the fight.
Main Fight
Auto Attacks (Impact & Meteor Swarm)
Cairn's auto attack targets the furthest player and consists of -> .
- Cairn swings its right arm then left arm.
- Cairn swings its right arm and throws a fan of projectiles that Knockback, damage, and give the player some stacks of Unseen Burden (Stacks). If you are within the rune in the center of the platform, the projectiles do not hit you unless they are reflected.
Projectile destruction skills are fine, projectile reflects will reflect into your team. See a list of reflects here.
Groups used to assign a kiter to keep the shards on the opposite side of the group, but they now avoid the attack by never leaving the rune.
Placement
Unless doing (Greens), the group should always stand inside of the runic circle in the middle of the platform. Turn up Shaders if you can’t see it. Standing outside of it causes players to be Knocked back by Cairn's auto attack. It also makes it easier to distribute boons and heal the group.
The group stacks on the line of the rune on the North side of the platform and the players with (Agony/Red) stand on the other 3 lines.
Opener:
-
-> (Auto)
-
(1 Green on North side of Cairn)
-
-> (Auto) x 6
Unseen Burden - (Stacks)
Every second you gain 1 stack of a debuff called Unseen Burden (Stacks). Each stack of this debuff decreases your movement speed by 1%, up to 99%. This does not affect your Celestial Dash or Dodge, so you can still move by using those. These stacks can also be cleared by doing the (Greens) mechanic.
Displacement - (Teles, Ports)
They can be stepped out of, Evaded, or blocked. If you are standing in one, you have a yellow screen border. If you are teleported, use Celestial Dash (SAK/Dash) to quickly return to the stack, or one of the 3 open spots if you have .
Shared Agony - (Agony, Red)
40 seconds into the fight after the second (Greens), the furthest player from Cairn gets (Agony/Red), a large AoE with a red border that tracks with you. It lasts for 1 minute. This mechanic repeats every 20 seconds until there are 3 players at a time who have .
The players with the AoE are damaged for 10% of their maximum health every 3 seconds. Other players who stand in the AoE take massive amounts of damage depending how far they are from the player with (closest 25% max health, middle 50%, furthest 75%, everyone else 0%).
Some groups have healers or others with good sustain assigned to bait . Some groups opt to not assign it and let whoever gets it deal with it. The stack should be on the North side of the platform on the line of the runic circle in the middle. Turn up Shaders if you cannot see the rune. The players with should go to the other 3 lines on the rune so they do not overlap each other or the stack.
Attack Pattern
At 75%, 50%, and 25%, Cairn restarts its loop. Groups with high DPS will never see some of these attacks.
Cairn's Loop:
-
(Green Minimum Players pattern)
-
-> (Auto) x 1-4
-
(Dash)
-
(Green pattern)
-
-> (Auto) x 1-4
-
(Sword)
-
(Green pattern)
-
-> (Auto) x 1-4
-
Repeat
After 25%, Cairn adds after . Cairn then does 1-4 auto attacks and repeats the loop from the top.
Spatial Manipulation - (Greens)
Every 1-4 auto attacks, Cairn does (Greens) and spawns green circles around the arena.
If you are not standing within a valid circle within 3 or 6 seconds (depending on the attack), you take damage, are Floated, and gain 25 stacks of Unseen Burden (Stacks). If you successfully stand in a circle, you cleanse 25 stacks of Unseen Burden.
Almost every group uses a “no greens'' strategy by using Stability to prevent the Float. You can ignore the and continue attacking the boss because you aren’t floated. You still take damage and gain stacks of Unseen Burden, so healing must be adequate and the squad must be comfortable with being slow.
Unless someone specifies that it is a “heart run” (Envoy Armor II collection achievement for legendary armor), assume that the group will not be doing Greens.
Minimum Players (Green Pattern 1)
The circles in this pattern are three different sizes with white glowing orbs above. The number of orbs is the minimum number of people required to be inside the circle for it to give protection from . If there are no glowing orbs, any number of people is fine.
These numbers are per individual circle; there is no need for all of the numbered circles to have players within them. Aim to be in medium circles with other players unless you have , in which case you should go to a small circle alone.
-
One orb for small circles.
-
Two orbs for medium circles.
-
Four orbs for large circles.
Energy Surge (Green Pattern 2)
Cairn teleports around the arena, leaving behind circles as it goes, in an attack called . Wait until it returns to the center before going to a circle yourself, as being hit by Cairn causes a Knockback. When it returns, it will hunker down and explode out 3 seconds later.
The circles in this pattern are all medium and they can have any number of people in them. Above 50%, the final circle will always be directly under it in the center of the arena.
Orbital Sweep (Green Pattern 3)
Cairn stops, slams its arm onto the arena, and spins counterclockwise, this is called . Being hit by this will knock players backwards and do damage. After it stands back up, it will hunker down and explode out 3 seconds later.
The circles are all large and can have any number of players. Note that the activation for these is quicker than the other variants, so players must reach them quickly.
Gravity Wave
The final of Cairn's attacks is that it will begin to use below 25% health. Cairn sends out 3 shockwaves from the center of the platform that cause a large Knockback and minor damage. To avoid it, either stay in the center or Dodge towards the center.