Attacking Large Bosses who are not on the ground

[Tinker.6924]

Most of my big damage abilities are ground targeting. When fighting a huge boss, like Tequatl or Balthazar's war machine at the end of PoF, where you can maybe target a foot or his mouth, I wonder how effective my ground target abilities really are. When he puts his foot down, I know where to hit. On the other hand, if his foot is hovering but still targetable, I can see other players attacking (and presumably hitting) and I can attack with my ranged-abilities but I'm not so sure my ground target abilities are "landing".

Any info on this?Thanks,

[Loosmaster.8263]

Do you have damage floaters on? That is one way to tell. Also I think the hit boxes have some verticality to them.

Edit for example: During the Mark 2 Golem, when you target his hands, the AoE ground skills on my Guardian staff hit because I can see the damage floaters.

[Tinker.6924]

I see an option for "Simple Damage Floaters" and I've put a check in that and see if it is helpful for this. Thanks.

[Sigfodr.9576]

It depends on your class and the skill and the bossBut generally, if the skill needs to be triggered (like necro staff marks) then it will NOT work. But if it simply is a field/well etc on the ground then it DO work.

[Tommo Chocolate.5870]

@Loosmaster.8263 said:Do you have damage floaters on? That is one way to tell. Also I think the hit boxes have some verticality to them.

Wait... We can turn damage floaters off?! How? The only option I've found for them is the simple damage floaters one, which only makes them slightly less obnoxious.

(I understand their utility, but I really dislike damage floaters, so assuming it doesn't make the game unplayable, I'd rather not have them.)

[altermaven.7385]

"Floating" targets usually have a ground affix and can be targeted by ground AoE attacks, they usually reside directly under the target strike mark, but chances are you will have more success hitting a ground strike mark (Teq's legs, example) with ground AoE.

As for the Mk.II golem: the center of the enemy is still strikeable even if the targets switch to the arms when the golem has the arms crossed. In fact, if you have a decent AoE ground attack you can hit all three targets while the golem is doing this: both arms and the center.

[ProtoGunner.4953]

With large 'epic' bosses like Tequatl you will hit even if it's in the air. The hit boxes are huge.Also you can use Snap Ground Target to Current Target which makes AoE skills like meteor shower snap automatically to the target. Very good in conjunction with the option of fast casting on release.

These options are extremely useful as staff necro with the marks.

[Blocki.4931]

If you have a gap closing skill it can also move you to where the damage box is so then you can simply aim at the ground you're standing on. Alternatively you can just go where all the other people are standing :)

[Steve The Cynic.3217]

All, beware in general that these bosses often count as structures rather than NPCs, which means that e.g. DH traps won't trigger on them.