Snowcloak first boss

How do you avoid freeze stacks when he does Snow Drift? I've tried several things, from moving anywhere to moving towards the wind direction (to my left side) like someone pointed on Reddit but so far I've had less than 40% success avoiding it, the odd thing is I've seen people hardly move at all and not get frozen.

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Originally Posted by Alukah

How do you avoid freeze stacks when he does Snow Drift? I've tried several things, from moving anywhere to moving towards the wind direction (to my left side) like someone pointed on Reddit but so far I've had less than 40% success avoiding it, the odd thing is I've seen people hardly move at all and not get frozen.

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Be moving while he's casting Snow Drift and for a second or two after he casts it.

The Bombs will also apply the Freezing stacks if not burned down by the DDs.

Oh, I didn't know you could avoid that Oo.

http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb2...oreyouknow.jpg

I didn't know either. I THOUGHT movement was involved but felt like the stacks were RNG.

I just heal through it XD keep medica 2 + regen on all members and they can stay frozen forever lol

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Originally Posted by Sylve

Be moving while he's casting Snow Drift and for a second or two after he casts it.

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Doesn't work, it just seems a random chance to not get a stack. I have tried pretty much every possible method you can think of to avoid a stack and none of them work.

I just run in circles when he starts casting it and stop running when I take the damage for it.

It really does feel like RNG-hell. Sometimes you won't get it while moving, sometimes you will. But I have no idea what causes you to get it vs. not get it. It definitely has something to do with either moving, or attacking the boss, or maybe both.

Sometimes it almost seems like a good idea to intentionally get hit by something to be frozen earlier in the fight, in order to avoid randomly getting frozen when both bombs are up.

I had really tried looking up how to avoid this early on when it came out, but I totally forgot after getting Qarn for every Expert roulette since. ._.;

A lot of people swear by the moving thing. Someone also tried to emphasize that they stacked under the boss to avoid it.

As a healer, it was incredibly frustrating to keep getting frozen. I haven't tried either out to confirm though.

moving while he casts it does not work. it seems totally random. I throw up whispering dawn before the freeze goes off and it's largely ignorable though.

Something I noticed is when he's casting if the party does a good amount of damage to him during it, no one ever freezes but if we are split fighting or slow on bombs it seems like someone always freezes.

i've had some groups actively stagger who gets frozen stacks so as few people are frozen at any given time as possible.
basically if the healer and tank can control WHEN they get frozen, it gets a bit easier.

I haven't had the chance to test it out, but someone told me it's like T5's twisters. Moving works, but you can't cross anyone's path. Maybe it works, maybe it doesn't.

Or maybe it's like one boss in Qarn and one boss in Sastasha where you deal enough damage to break them out of it. It would fit the theme they have going.

My methods for avoiding it are moving when casting, and if im going to get frozen i force a stack and get frozen early so i can heal everyone else when they freeze

Ok so I don't have 100% confirmation on this, but have tried it several times and it seems to work. During the cast I turn away from the boss and keep facing away through the animation. Much like Petrifaction in T7. I don't know if you have to be facing away during the cast bar or the actual snow animation, but this has worked for me everytime. Again this is not confirmation, just what I have been doing.

I can move the entire fight and stilk get stacks and be frozen. There's definitely more to the mechanic than move.

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Originally Posted by Animarelic

Something I noticed is when he's casting if the party does a good amount of damage to him during it, no one ever freezes but if we are split fighting or slow on bombs it seems like someone always freezes.

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If anything I tend to believe this theory. My FC groups just power through this boss no problem so I'm not overly worried about figuring it out. At first we got frozen a lot when it was new to us. Now we rarely get frozen. *shrug* it's something. I don't think it's RNG, at least not 100% of it. It's probably a DPS/gear check of sorts.

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Originally Posted by Parodine

As a healer, it was incredibly frustrating to keep getting frozen. I haven't tried either out to confirm though.

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It is very predictable as a healer when you are about to be frozen, when you see anyone at 3 stacks just toss up Regen +Medica 2 or rouse + Whispering Dawn.

I would love to know how some people dodge it, I imagine they offset the stacks with some mechanic (probably RNG, SE loves them some RNG) just so the whole party does not shutdown at the same time.

Normally I just throw my weak stoneskin* on the healer if they're new/barely geared, pop a defense cooldown and patiently wait it out.


*(It has made a few fights that would have normally been wipe, not complaining everyone is new/undergeared at some point but.. lol thank goodness for that extra help to others)

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Originally Posted by Sparktacus

It is very predictable as a healer when you are about to be frozen, when you see anyone at 3 stacks just toss up Regen +Medica 2 or rouse + Whispering Dawn.

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This issue that I've found is that if multiple people are getting frozen at once, or as luck would have it, the entire party, keeping up tank damage vs AoEs on everyone vs bombs is very difficult with regen healing. It's not an issue of predicting when I'm going to be frozen as much as it hoping that the AoEs that come about while frozen aren't life-threatening for the whole party.

I'd rather just avoid being frozen if it's possible to know how.

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Originally Posted by Valcro

If anything I tend to believe this theory. My FC groups just power through this boss no problem so I'm not overly worried about figuring it out. At first we got frozen a lot when it was new to us. Now we rarely get frozen. *shrug* it's something. I don't think it's RNG, at least not 100% of it. It's probably a DPS/gear check of sorts.

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I doubt it, when someone manages to dodge it everyone else still gets stacks, so there's no way to fully interrupt it, only to dodge it.

to prevent the freeze you need to be moving near the end of the casting/a few secs after the cast bar is finished.

So apparently this was "fixed", yet it's still 50% work chance for me...

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Originally Posted by Alukah

So apparently this was "fixed", yet it's still 50% work chance for me...

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Last I've tried, you have to be moving during the animation until you see the damage show up.

I've only done Snowcloak once, but what I was told is that you have to move around to avoid getting the debuff. Seemed to work for me. I only ended up getting one stack, when I was late on the timing.

You may have to start moving a little early, and stop moving a little late, just to be safe. Whether that's how the mechanic works, or it's lag/latency, who knows. But I really don't think it has anything to do with proximity to allies or the boss, or RNG, or damaging the boss, etc.

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Originally Posted by AdamFyi

Last I've tried, you have to be moving during the animation until you see the damage show up.

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Two runs so far and managed to avoid every single freeze, this worked 100%.

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Originally Posted by Sove92

Doesn't work, it just seems a random chance to not get a stack. I have tried pretty much every possible method you can think of to avoid a stack and none of them work.

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People used to think Twister @ T5 is random too...
it works for me every single time I play it.

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Originally Posted by Ramen

People used to think Twister @ T5 is random too...
it works for me every single time I play it.

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Its probably mechanically an invisible shorter lifespan version of the twister "mines."

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Originally Posted by Ramen

People used to think Twister @ T5 is random too...
it works for me every single time I play it.

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I made my post before the 2.41 patch, where the bug in Snow drift was fixed.

It's not about moving when he is casting. You have to be moving when the snow drift animation actually starts and the damage hits. The actual spell comes about 2-3 seconds after the cast ends. I have been moving during the spell animation itself and not the cast and have successfully avoided getting stacks. I have also been in groups that actually know to move during the animation and not the cast and everyone managed not to get stacks at all.

It's still random. I've had entire groups moving right after cast goes off and continue to keep moving until the damage hits and we all still get a stack/frozen. Then I have times where I move while cast finishes and do nothing during the animation/damage and not get a stack, and of course other times where I do get a stack.

I just ran a snowcloak to test if moving prevented the debuff by running along the outside of the available arena as soon as the cast bar started until after the debuff appeared, completely disengaging the boss and being fairly far from team mates. I still got hit by every single debuff, so either movement is not a factor or it is bugged even worse than before the patch.

Yeah, it still doesn't consistently work for me either.

Yep, moving didnt work for me either the last few runs Ive tried.

what i do is when i see snowdrift finish casting, i wait 3 seconds then hit A and S rapidly till it goes off, works 100% of the time for me

I have tested moving around the whole fight, but still got hit by most of them... And then tried standing still through it another time, and got hit the same amount of times (so not all)

Some runs it works by moving like you have said, and some times it doesn't... To me it seems like it's random from run to run

Ran some tests with this mechanic over the course of 3 separate runs (trying different scenarios) and here are the results I got.
This is all post-fix (supposedly)

On first instance
Stood still from cast until damage taken (as a control)-> stack of debuff
Started running during cast until damage taken -> stack of debuff
Started running after cast until damage taken -> no debuff
Started running before cast until damage taken -> no debuff

On second instance
Stood still from cast until damage taken (as a control)-> stack of debuff
Started running during cast until damage taken -> no debuff
Started running after cast until damage taken -> no debuff
Started running before cast until damage taken -> stack of debuff

On third instance
Stood still from cast until damage taken (as a control)-> stack of debuff
Started running during cast until damage taken -> stack of debuff
Started running after cast until damage taken -> stack of debuff
Started running before cast until damage taken -> stack of debuff

---Analysis---
I know 3 runs is hardly a proper sample, but from what I can tell the only certainty with this mechanic is the control. If you don't move, you will get a stack. As far as anything else goes, it just seems like pure RNG to me. Some fights I go with only 1 or 2 stacks so I think I have it figured out. I try reproducing the result the next run and end up frozen over and over. I honestly have no idea at this point if there is a definitive way to dodge this mechanic.