One reason not everyone finds the Overlook Strike to be "insanely easy"

[blp.3489]

I've done the Overlook Strike a couple of times now, and succeeded both times, but only because my party members revived me several times.  I was just watching a guide to the strike mission and here are some screen shots from the video.

Is it just me or is it a little difficult to see the "tells" that we are supposed to react to through all the effects?  Is there a setting that makes the tells more visible?  During the DE meta I sometimes can't even see that big fancy tell that says that a stomp is coming because it is completely covered with shiny players.  Just sayin. 

And what is with the green circle  with yellow arrows mechanic?  As you can see in one of the screen shots the green circle is in the orange area that will get you downed.  I got downed a couple time going into the circle in the last run.  What happens if you do go into the circle and what happens if you don't?

Do these mechanics one shot you regardless of your attributes or can you sacrifice your DPS and take a tanky build so you don't need to be revived every time you don't see a tell?  Are we supposed to buy an extra set of equipment to use in strikes because our open world equipment isn't suitable?  I rarely get downed in most open world content, getting downed a half dozen times or more in the strike didn't feel that good.

[IAmNotMatthew.1058]

10 minutes ago, blp.3489 said:

I've done the Overlook Strike a couple of times now, and succeeded both times, but only because my party members revived me several times.  I was just watching a guide to the strike mission and here are some screen shots from the video.

Is it just me or is it a little difficult to see the "tells" that we are supposed to react to through all the effects?  Is there a setting that makes the tells more visible?  During the DE meta I sometimes can't even see that big fancy tell that says that a stomp is coming because it is completely covered with shiny players.  Just sayin. 

You can lower your effects to make it less blinding. It's the case with generally any place where multiple people are present and unfortunately we have no options to make them more visible.
 

11 minutes ago, blp.3489 said:

And what is with the green circle  with yellow arrows mechanic?  As you can see in one of the screen shots the green circle is in the orange area that will get you downed.  I got downed a couple time going into the circle in the last run.  What happens if you do go into the circle and what happens if you don't?

Red AoE bad, Green AoE good. The red explodes before the green, so you can freely explode and make it back to green for safety. The green only explodes if not enough people are in it. If you enter the green before the red is over whoever is on you blows up. Stacking those two mechanics in one wasn't the best idea.

13 minutes ago, blp.3489 said:

Do these mechanics one shot you regardless of your attributes or can you sacrifice your DPS and take a tanky build so you don't need to be revived every time you don't see a tell?  Are we supposed to buy an extra set of equipment to use in strikes because our open world equipment isn't suitable?  I rarely get downed in most open world content, getting downed a half dozen times or more in the strike didn't feel that good.

Yes, they are going to oneshot you, maybe not if you run full Minstrel, 
Open world gear might not cut it in Raids, or Fractals, but in general they are fine in Strikes.

[LucianDK.8615]

disabling legendaries like ad infinitum, vision and aurora makes a world of difference.

[ugrakarma.9416]

i said many times, the "hard mode" of this encounter is just visual noise.

But don't worry, the toxicity elitists soon come here to say that everything is fine, that is our problem, because we are dumb, lazy or whatsover.

But u can look at minister position. if hes in center, DPS walking on circles on him, if hes in corner, go behind him;

Edited March 31, 2022 by ugrakarma.9416

[blp.3489]

26 minutes ago, IAmNotMatthew.1058 said:

Red AoE bad, Green AoE good. The red explodes before the green, so you can freely explode and make it back to green for safety. The green only explodes if not enough people are in it. If you enter the green before the red is over whoever is on you blows up. Stacking those two mechanics in one wasn't the best idea.

Thank you for your helpful explanations!

So if I am the only one that goes in the green it will explode and maybe down me?  That would explain some of my downs.  So in the situation in the screenshot I should wait until the red attack has happened and then get in the green?  And I should dodge at the end of the green if I'm the only one in it?  Or just stay out of the red and the green?

Is there a specific display option to turn down effects?  There is an "Effect LOD" with the tooltip "Limit detail of particle effects" but I'm not sure if it should be checked or uncheck to limit the effects...

Thanks again!

[Erise.5614]

27 minutes ago, blp.3489 said:

Thank you for your helpful explanations!

So if I am the only one that goes in the green it will explode and maybe down me?  That would explain some of my downs.  So in the situation in the screenshot I should wait until the red attack has happened and then get in the green?  And I should dodge at the end of the green if I'm the only one in it?  Or just stay out of the red and the green?

Is there a specific display option to turn down effects?  There is an "Effect LOD" with the tooltip "Limit detail of particle effects" but I'm not sure if it should be checked or uncheck to limit the effects...

Thanks again!

Green means a lotta damage that's shared between everyone who's standing in it. If everyone is in there you'll hardly notice it dealt any at all. If you're alone you'll probably down. Just make sure there's a few people with you in the green. No dodging.

Don't stand in someone elses red when they explode. That kills you. But the timer between green and red is different. So you can stand in green when it explodes while standing apart when red explodes.

You can leave EffectLOD checked. It doesn't have much of an effect in strikes but it keeps your framerate good when lots of people are casting spells (e.g. during meta events). 

There is no way to reduce visual noise like this from your 10 man squad or your 5 man group.

It's considered important information in instanced content since you can use other peoples combo fields, may receive healing or boons while inside,  etc.

 

Edited March 31, 2022 by Erise.5614

[IAmNotMatthew.1058]

26 minutes ago, blp.3489 said:

So if I am the only one that goes in the green it will explode and maybe down me? 

It downs everyone if not enough people are in it. 4-5 people are required if I'm correct. 
EDIT: Apparently it shares damage, I didn't notice it sharing damage, we usually all stack into it, so the damage must be minimal with 10 people.

26 minutes ago, blp.3489 said:

So in the situation in the screenshot I should wait until the red attack has happened and then get in the green?  And I should dodge at the end of the green if I'm the only one in it?  Or just stay out of the red and the green?

The way I do it is run out of the group into Li's cleave area and when my circle is getting close to half full I dodge, that way I evade the cleave and stay on my feet, I start running back, explode and walk into the circle without any problem. 
However, not everyone gets Red, 5 people are guaranteed to get it, the remaining are free to move and stack as they please, I'm 99% sure that a person can't get green and red at once.

26 minutes ago, blp.3489 said:

Is there a specific display option to turn down effects?  There is an "Effect LOD" with the tooltip "Limit detail of particle effects" but I'm not sure if it should be checked or uncheck to limit the effects...

I'm not sure which settings limit player effects as I mostly turn everything off, but I think Effect LOD should be one.

Edited March 31, 2022 by IAmNotMatthew.1058

[blp.3489]

In the screen shot in the lower left Li is about to nuke the entire platform except the area in the corner behind him, but there is a green circle in the area about to be nuked, or at least I assume there is from the big yellow arrows as the green circle is completely invisible due to the spell effects.  As you can't actually see the green circle and may not be sure how long before Li's nuke, how do you know whether to go in the green circle or stay behind Li?

[TexZero.7910]

34 minutes ago, blp.3489 said:

In the screen shot in the lower left Li is about to nuke the entire platform except the area in the corner behind him, but there is a green circle in the area about to be nuked, or at least I assume there is from the big yellow arrows as the green circle is completely invisible due to the spell effects.  As you can't actually see the green circle and may not be sure how long before Li's nuke, how do you know whether to go in the green circle or stay behind Li?

As a first run, you wouldn't.

 

With experience you know the fight and those mechanics resolve like so. Dragon Slash (Li), Orange Bombs (random 5 targets), Green Circle (Random single target).

 

You also know exactly where Li is going as his patteren is fixed. On the third phase he's going counter clockwise.

[Rhansem.4865]

42 minutes ago, blp.3489 said:

In the screen shot in the lower left Li is about to nuke the entire platform except the area in the corner behind him, but there is a green circle in the area about to be nuked, or at least I assume there is from the big yellow arrows as the green circle is completely invisible due to the spell effects.  As you can't actually see the green circle and may not be sure how long before Li's nuke, how do you know whether to go in the green circle or stay behind Li?

Li's slash needs to be dodged so getting practice just standing out there and dodging it will help you survive the encounter. There are two ways to time your dodge, either when your circle is half full or when the visual indicator on the ground for the slash goes away. Many times I run into people bringing their damage circle into the safe zone so getting used to just dodging the slash every time lets you avoid that damage when faced with needing to run out to the slash zone. Also, the green circle will always be on a player. This green circle will follow them around. That is why it was out in the slash zone, a player brought it there. It is another reason why the green circle should be focused because if ignored it will just down the player it is on. I will often see the person with the green circle quite far from the group so I will leave the safe zone even though I don't have a circle, dodge the slash, and then be close enough to help with the green circle.

The encounter always has the same sequence of slash -> circles explode -> green circle explodes. 

[SinisterSlay.6973]

So unlike the time limited meta. The strike is less restrictive.

It's ok to sacrifice DPS to keep yourself alive. If you want to add more self healing or defense. Go for it.  You being downed and needing to be revived removes 2 people's DPS vs you surviving hits and doing only half damage.

In my first runs I used necro skilled to heal with every condition. I could take 2 direct hits without going down. My dps was still 8k which sadly put me on the higher end of the group 😓. But it meant I could learn the mechanics and strategy. By the third run I went full DPS build again since I now knew exactly what to expect and how to dodge.

This isn't dark souls, you don't have to keep dying over and over to learn.

 

[Linken.6345]

1 hour ago, blp.3489 said:

In the screen shot in the lower left Li is about to nuke the entire platform except the area in the corner behind him, but there is a green circle in the area about to be nuked, or at least I assume there is from the big yellow arrows as the green circle is completely invisible due to the spell effects.  As you can't actually see the green circle and may not be sure how long before Li's nuke, how do you know whether to go in the green circle or stay behind Li?

The green is on a player so that player wa standing in the red slash.

[blp.3489]

I appreciate the explanations of the mechanics, thank you, I may go back and try to learn to be more proficient.

That said, I think the explanations illustrate my original point that the strike isn't "insanely easy" as people on other threads have said.

[IAmNotMatthew.1058]

Just now, blp.3489 said:

I appreciate the explanations of the mechanics, thank you, I may go back and try to learn to be more proficient.

That said, I think the explanations illustrate my original point that the strike isn't "insanely easy" as people on other threads have said.

Kaineng goes from being fairly chill on mechanics to just throwing everything at you back to back. 
Green and Red separately is fine, mixed can yield fun results, like running around like headless chicken on our first pull screaming at the person with green not to move.

I usually hold Strike runs for my Guilds, we are trying a new timing to make it easier for others to join. Currently we are giving Friday 8pm CET a try, so, if you are EU we can bring you with us and walk you through each Strike.

[Ashen.2907]

2 hours ago, ugrakarma.9416 said:

i said many times, the "hard mode" of this encounter is just visual noise.

And not just this encounter.

For what its worth, most of the higher end content players I know decry the visual noise in this game as much as do the more casual players I know. It lessens the fun for everyone and reduces the effect of player skill on outcome.

[ChronoPinoyX.7923]

I don't blame people if they don't see the target numbers on their heads. Not only is it tiny to start, the colour ANet chose was so bad it blends far too easily with the environment regardless if there's low visual noise or not.

Seriously, whoever thought it was a good idea to use a dark colour scheme in a mission that's literally happening at night time didn't think things through when they made those icons... 

[ugrakarma.9416]

1 hour ago, blp.3489 said:

I appreciate the explanations of the mechanics, thank you, I may go back and try to learn to be more proficient.

That said, I think the explanations illustrate my original point that the strike isn't "insanely easy" as people on other threads have said.

easy and confuse are 2 different things, the strike is easy, but very confusing to new players. 

[Westenev.5289]

Barrier necros kinda trivialise this strike. The barriers are great at preventing downs, while necros themselves are inately great at ressing downed players who stand too close together or try to tank minister li's swordarts.

Edited March 31, 2022 by Westenev.5289

[DerAlteSack.3572]

15 hours ago, ChronoPinoyX.7923 said:

I don't blame people if they don't see the target numbers on their heads. Not only is it tiny to start, the colour ANet chose was so bad it blends far too easily with the environment regardless if there's low visual noise or not.

Seriously, whoever thought it was a good idea to use a dark colour scheme in a mission that's literally happening at night time didn't think things through when they made those icons... 

Your Screen also gets an effect around the edges. I am not sure though if this effect is dependant on your graphics settings. I never look for a number above my head. I usually notice that "I have been chosen" because the edge of my screen turns orange. (At least I think it was orange).

Same on the Aetherblade Strike. I am not looking for lightning above me. Instead I am looking out for a blue border around my screen.

[ChronoPinoyX.7923]

9 hours ago, DerAlteSack.3572 said:

Your Screen also gets an effect around the edges. I am not sure though if this effect is dependant on your graphics settings. I never look for a number above my head. I usually notice that "I have been chosen" because the edge of my screen turns orange. (At least I think it was orange).

Same on the Aetherblade Strike. I am not looking for lightning above me. Instead I am looking out for a blue border around my screen.

As far as I know the screen filter doesn't happen in Kaineng Overlook with Li's attack, probably on the other NPCs but Li's number mechanic is purely just the number icons. 

[Linken.6345]

45 minutes ago, ChronoPinoyX.7923 said:

As far as I know the screen filter doesn't happen in Kaineng Overlook with Li's attack, probably on the other NPCs but Li's number mechanic is purely just the number icons. 

It do you whole outline of screen turn into flames.

Same thing on aetherblade hideout but diffrent coloring its blue since the beam is blue.

Edited April 1, 2022 by Linken.6345

[ChronoPinoyX.7923]

Just now, Linken.6345 said:

It do you whole outline of screen turn into flames.

Hmm might be a bug on my end then if that's the case. I haven't seen the actual screen filter happen, I just see the numbers

[lionlady.1560]

if you uncheck grid in party and have it as a list your name changes colour to red when you have a number above you makes it bit easier to tell  🙂

 

[Vidit.7108]

Having helped out a lot of turtle groups, you're not wrong to think this one is hard. IMO it was a mistake to require this one and not atherblade or junkyard instead because a lot of casual and other gamemode players lack the instincts of elitists telling you this is easy. A lot of players afterward say "now I'm never doing this again" so it's cool you want to stick with it.

To answer the armor question the mechanics of this fight in particular involve a lot of 1-hit down kind of stuff, maybe max toughness secretly lets you survive IDK. Part of the secret of elite groups is maximizing dps, a lot of players are also bad at mechanics but if the phase ends sooner you have to do it less often. A good or great elite player will have twice the chance of making a mistake if Li makes 6 swings instead of 3 before moving you to the other platform. So it is generally to the players advantage to focus damage when gearing up unless they can't survive otherwise or need to do boons/healing. I always say doing a T3 fractal daily is harder than T4 and that's because there is a pretty big gap in player damage even among players supposedly at the top.

I think everything else is covered pretty well by the other responses. Always save a dodge for one of his big swings when the red/green aoes appear it will help make you less likely to die.

[LeSavage.1359]

I figured out what to do first time i did it (without watching guides etc, nothing), its extremely easy if u pay attention to arrows and numbers. Overall very enjoyable strike. I did it 3 times with random lfg groups all succeded, 3rd one was rough because last minister li hp phase there were 3 of us, rest dead. Tbh i dont get how ppl die there over and over again to exacly same mechanic, since its very easy to figure out what to do by urself, without guides etc. But yeah, with visual clutter happening there its harder to see things, like one untamed was doing that huge aoe green globe for half of the screen then yeah, pretty annoying.

Edited April 1, 2022 by LeSavage.1359