Before Fighting Adina

• Required Masteries and Mounts

  • No masteries required.
  • A mount isn’t required, but can negate the initial damage at the beginning of the fight.

• Special Roles

  • 1 tank: Cardinal Adina attacks the players with the highest Toughness.
  • 5 pillar baiters are required.
    • These are usually done by supports and ranged DPS. Pillar baiters should be assigned ahead of time.

• Skill Changes

  • Bring projectile destructs and reflects.

• Power DPS is generally preferred because of the short burst phases and condition clears at each split phase. If phases are long, condition DPS is okay.

Pre-Event

Head east from the Leystone access. The way is blocked by an Earth Elemental with 5 stacks of Pillar Pandemonium and 5 pillars in front of it. Each stack makes it take 20% less damage and deal 20% more damage.

Two players should hide behind each of the five pillars. The Earth Elemental will destroy the pillars with 2 players behind them using . Each pillar that is destroyed removes one stack of Pillar Pandemonium.

Being hit by causes Radiant Blindness, Bleeding, and Downs the player.

• Radiant Blindness (Blind): Debuff that causes all outgoing attacks to miss for 10 seconds.

Killing the elemental opens a door to the Basalt Arena where Cardinal Adina awaits.

Phase 1 (100%-75%)

Start the fight with 2 players behind each pillar. There should be one baiter and one non-baiter at each one. Non-baiters should remember who their pillar buddy is. It can be helpful to place a marker on the baiters. Players should start on a mount to avoid taking damage from the shockwave when the fight starts.

Someone starts the fight by either taking a step into the arena or damaging Cardinal Adina. Everyone is hit by and hides behind their pillar to wait for (Boulders). Any players not behind a pillar are Downed.

• (Shockwave): Moderate damage shockwave from Cardinal Adina immediately before . You can block, Aegis, or Evade.

Non-baiters should not leave the green tiles in the center except to hide behind pillars or do split phases. Baiters should not go fully in the green tiles; the edge of the green is in melee range.

Boulder Barrage (Boulders)

Cardinal Adina targets each player and fires at them after a short delay. Boulders instantly Down players and can be avoided by hiding behind a pillar or jumping into sand. Pillars are destroyed if there are 2 players behind it. If there are fewer than 2 players behind a pillar, it will only be damaged, not destroyed. If there are more than 2 players behind a pillar, a random player in the arena will be Downed.

Tanking

Cardinal Adina doesn’t hit particularly hard so high Toughness isn’t needed. The tank needs a channeled block, Stability, or Aegis for (Cone).

Always keep Cardinal Adina facing south. Stay on the green tiles, directly south of her.

The tank cannot be picked for pillar baiting.

Stone Fist (Auto Attack)

Cardinal Adina uses to gain 2 stacks of might, attack you, and cause a ripple effect on tiles in a cone shape towards you. The rippling tiles damage players and pillars. Pillars are damaged by the first attack, then destroyed by a second. Already damaged pillars are destroyed.

Perilous Pulse (Cone)

appears as a large orange cone. It tracks with you for 3 seconds and then Cardinal Adina slams into the ground, knocking back and doing moderate damage. Block, Aegis, or Stability the attack. Stability will only negate the Knockback, not the damage.

When Cardinal Adina is about to hit a phase, move to the side so you aren’t standing where (Wall) will spawn.

When split phases are ending, get back to Cardinal Adina before the rest of the group so she doesn’t turn around and hit them.

Stalagmites (Mines)

When appear, dodge over the one closest to Cardinal Adina. If done properly, it will explode and the tile will disappear but you won’t take damage. When she phases, all of the explode so this prevents you from taking damage from the closest one.

Attack pattern:

• (Auto) x3

• (Cone) & targets 5 players with (Pillars)

• (Auto) x5

• (Mines)

• (damage reflection)

• (pillar destruction)

At the same time that Cardinal Adina uses , 5 players will be selected for .

Tectonic Upheaval - (Pillars)

The 5 players furthest from Cardinal Adina (tank not included) are selected for (Pillars). They have yellow text pop up on screen that says “You have been targeted by !” and get an audio ding notification. They receive an AoE the size of one tile that follows them for 5 seconds and expands.

After 5 seconds, the AoE gets a script around the border and remains wherever the player was standing. 2 seconds later, a pillar erupts out of the ground. It instantly kills any player standing on top of it. Players within one tile of the pillar are Cripple, Immobilized, and receive Radiant Blindness (Blind).

Pillar baiters are usually done by supports and ranged DPS. Baiters should be assigned ahead of time.

Pillars dropped next to, or on top of, each other are destroyed. If one player of a pair is dead, the remaining player should become the baiter regardless of what class they’re playing (excluding the tank). If the phase lasts long enough that pillars drop twice, they will need to drop their next pillar next to the still-standing one to destroy it. Each standing pillar gives Cardinal Adina a stack of Pillar Pandemonium (Stacks).

• Pillar Pandemonium (Stacks): For each pillar that is standing, Cardinal Adina gets 1 stack of Pillar Pandemonium and deals 20% more damage and takes 20% less incoming damage.

If two players are dead, the alive players of those pairs should place their pillars on top of each other and become pillar buddies. Scale up if needed for even numbers of dead pillar baiters. If it’s an odd number greater than 1, merge the even numbers and then have the remaining person destroy their own pillar each time.

TL;DR drop pillars on top of each if there are dead people or standing pillars. It’s better to have too few pillars than too many.

There are several options for dropping pillars (there is no officially recognized terminology in pug groups for methods 2 and 3).

• Pillar skip - If group DPS is high enough, the squad will not need to hide behind pillars at all. It does not matter where pillars are placed as long as they are far enough from the center to not cause Radiant Blindness.

• Assigned pillar buddies - The non-baiter remembers who their pillar baiter is. Pillars can be placed anywhere that will not cause Radiant Blindness. The baiter goes back to the pillar they dropped and the non-baiter follows them. This method works for groups that will not have non-baiters accidentally getting (Pillars).

• Relative locations - This is the best method for new groups. The pillars are split by the southern line and become a crescent moon so they keep their relative positions. Players always go to the assigned location of their pillar. If a non-baiter accidentally gets , they will drop it wherever the open spot in the pattern is. With this method, it doesn’t matter as much who ends up with the pillar because the pattern remains the same and players go to the same pillar.

After pillars drop, there is a 20 second burn phase. At the end of that phase, Cardinal Adina has an eye over her head from and raises her hands in the air. Stop attacking and turn your character model around to avoid Radiant Blindness (Blind). Run back to your pillar and Dodge when the eye disappears to avoid damage from the shockwave.

• (Invuln): Cardinal Adina reflects projectiles, gains Protection and Resolution, and casts Radiant Blindness after 2 seconds. Resolution appears to function like Retaliation used to and reflects damage back at players.

Repeat the attack pattern until 75%. The (Mines) detonate and all pillars are destroyed. Get away from the red lines that appear on the ground or you will instantly be killed when the wall appears.

Split Phase 1 (75%)

At 75% Cardinal Adina becomes immune to damage and creates a sand wall called (Wall) that spans the diameter of the arena. It revolves counterclockwise around the arena one time. Players that touch the wall or Cardinal Adina's hitbox are instantly killed.

Immediately move away from the red arrows.

Players that fall into the sand are launched up from Sand Geyser (Bounce) and receive moderate damage and Radiant Blindness. Does not always work so players can get stuck in the sand.

After the wall finishes its path around the arena it disappears.

Cardinal Adina changes the arena into a new shape using and summons a Hand of Erosion in the north west and a Hand of Eruption in the north east.

Hand of Erosion casts (Curse) that gives the effect Eroding Curse every 15 seconds. It cannot be avoided or blocked. The Hand of Eruption throws (Pocket sand) once players are in range about every 7 seconds.

• (Curse): Damage and condition damage taken are increased by 15%; stacks in intensity. The effect lasts for 1 minute.

• (Pocket sand): A projectile that applies Bleeding and Weakness to players and does a Knockback.

Groups typically meet up in the NW corner and kill the Hand of Erosion first. Use project destructs/reflects. Organized groups split subs between the Hand of Erosion and the Hand of Eruption.

If there is no bubble or other projectile destruction, don’t forget that you have a Dodge key. Wait until the hand makes a fist and Dodge when it starts flinging sand.

Phase 2 (75%-50%)

This phase is identical to Phase 1 (100%-75%).

Split Phase 2 (50%)

This phase is almost identical to Split Phase 1 (75%). Cardinal Adina summons 2 additional hands during this split. There is a Hand of Erosion in the NW and SE and a Hand of Eruption in the NE and SW.

Groups typically meet in the SE corner at the Hand of Erosion and kill hands clockwise. Use project destructs/reflects again to protect the group from the Hand of Eruption. Organized groups split subs with one going to the NW hand and the other going to the SE hand. They still rotate clockwise.

Phase 3 (50%-25%)

This phase is identical to Phase 1 (100%-75%).

Split Phase 3 (25%)

This phase is identical to Split Phase 2 (50%). Mind the gap when running south to north.

Phase 4 (25%-0%)

This phase is almost identical to Phase 1 (100%-75%). A Hand of Erosion spawns in the NW a couple of seconds after Cardinal Adina hits 20% HP. A second Hand of Erosion spawns in the SE a couple of seconds after Cardinal Adina hits 10% HP.