Intermission: Crystals
Assuming the Usurper of Frost was successfully brought below 20% in her phase,
there’s a short intermission phase before phase 3.
After the Absolute Zero cast, Shiva knocks everyone back from center
and inflicts
Deep Freeze
on everyone, forcing you to wait for a brief scene.
Shiva becomes encased in ice, just like in
E8N,
and the arena becomes a bright icy blue.
16 seconds later, the
lifts, and the crystals spawn.
4 Crystals of Light spawn on the cardinals far away from the boss,
while 4 Crystals of Darkness spawn on the intercardinals close to the boss.
The crystal covering the Usurper of Frost is called the Ice Veil,
and it almost immediately begins casting Endless Ice Age, the enrage for the phase.
You must destroy the Veil before the cast completes to progress to phase 3.
The crystals are all tethered to the Ice Veil, granting it
Invincibility
.
If you destroy all the adds, the
will be removed
and the Ice Veil will fall rapidly.
Gaia will also appear, channeling darkness energy into the crystal in an attempt to free Ryne. It doesn’t seem to be doing much, though…
Crystal Attacks
There isn’t much in the way of mechanics in this intermission. Periodically, each of the Crystals of Light will target a large, circular AoE at the nearest player, while each fo the Crystals of Darkness will target the nearest player with a narrow cone.
Oddly, there’s no castbar for the big circles,
but the narrow cones are called Sinbound Blizzard.
You must be careful about aiming the cones, because if they hit a crystal,
that crystal will receive
Vulnerability Down
for the remainder of the phase.
The
Vulnerability Down
lowers the damage done to a Crystal of Darkness or
the Ice Veil by 80%, but makes a Crystal of Light invulnerable.
Note: Due to a graphical glitch, sometimes the cone omens do not render correctly. They’re still there, and they can still hurt you.
With the second wave of AoEs, the Crystals of Light will target the nearest players with passable tethers. After the third wave, the targeted players will be hit by a series of three Hiemal Ray, small circular AoEs leaving behind puddles that inflict a DoT.
The Eternal Ice Fragment
If you destroy all the crystals and the Ice Veil, then the crystal holding Shiva shatters and the transition to phase 3 begins. An interactable Eternal Ice Fragment appears on the ground just in front of Shiva, but it shatters before anyone can interact with it. If you remember your lore, one of Gaia’s key memories you saved during E12N was of Ryne and Gaia making the fragment into a necklace. Its destruction seems portentious…
And in actual fact, while you can proceed to the end of phase 4 without the Eternal Ice Fragment, you will be unable to enter phase 5 and clear the fight. Gaia’s voice line near the end of the phase, “Is my darkness not enough?!” is the clue to the alternate solution to the phase that’s required to clear.
Instead of killing the Crystals of Darkness, they must all be left alive. If all four survive while the Crystals of Light die, they will begin channeling dark energy into Gaia and the Ice Veil. Note that using caster LB3 will instantly defeat the Crystals of Darkness, so it can’t be used if you want to clear the fight. That said, LB3 is still a great prog tool, because the Ice Veil absolutely melts[1] if all the crystals are dead.
The Ice Veil will lose its
Invincibility
and gain a
Vulnerability Down
in its place, reducing incoming damage by 50%
To make up for it, Gaia’s channeling will complete successfully,
and near the end of the Endless Ice Age cast,
Gaia will do her enormous hammer slam from
E12N
and remove a full half of the Ice Veil’s health bar.
If you complete the phase in this way, then instead of shattering, the Eternal Ice Fragment will be absorbed into Shiva and you will be on the path to clearing the fight.
Acknowledgments
Special thanks for this section go to Silent Bramble and Nova, with usual thanks to PoV uploaders.
-
hehehe ↩