Common mechanics and markers

Many duties in the game use common markers to help communicate to players how to resolve certain mechanics without needing prior knowledge of the specific encounter.

By understanding these markers, players will learn the game's encounter design "language" and be able to apply their knowledge to unfamiliar encounters.

Stack markers

Stack markers are indicated with multiple arrows pointing at a party member or location in the arena with a rhythmic high-pitched pulsing sound. They usually indicate an attack wherein the damage received will be split amongst party members, but are occasionally used to indicate positioning to evade a mechanic (for example, Xande's earthquake mechanic in Syrcus Tower).

Variants of stack markers are:

• Regular stack marker. This is identified by one arrow pointing down and four arrows at 90-degree angles with a ring encircling the targeted character. This indicates an incoming attack with massive damage. Stand inside the ring to share the damage.
• Line AoE stack marker. This is identified by the single orange arrow above and three orange arrows to either side of the targeted party member. Stand in the line AoE to share the damage. It is not necessary to be close to the targeted party member, but merely within the line AoE.
  • In some high-end content, line AoE stacks will deal more damage to the closest one or two players, requiring one or both tanks to stand in front and mitigate the damage. Colloquially known as a wild charge.
  • Blue line AoE stack markers will target a fixed location instead of being directed at a player.
• Repeated incoming damage stack marker. This is identified by four orange inward-pointing arrows stacked on top of each other and indicates that the incoming attack will be repeated multiple times. Stand inside the ring to share the damage and healers be prepared to spam heals to resolve this mechanic.
• Tankbuster stack marker. This is identified by a regular stack marker with a red coloration and a variable number of orbs above the targeted tank. The requisite number of tanks must position themselves inside the ring to share the damage. An example of this is Twin Pom Meteor in Thornmarch (Hard).

Spread markers

Spread markers usually consist of an attack marker over a player and a circle that marks a specific area around that player. These markers will appear on multiple players in the party or alliance at the same time and indicate an attack dealing slight or medium damage. In high-end content and rarely in normal-difficulty content, these attacks also often apply a vulnerability to damage of the same type (often Magic Vulnerability Up) for a very short amount of time.

Any player getting hit by two or more of these attacks will take a very high or lethal amount of damage due to the vulnerability, requiring the marked players to spread their positions across the arena to survive.

Tankbusters

Tankbusters are extremely damaging attacks designed to be survivable only by tanks. Tanks are expected to use their mitigation abilities to reduce the incoming damage. The amount of HP lost varies, but more difficult duties will often send a tank into critical HP even with mitigations.

Tankbusters are indicated with a high-pitched sound and a red arrow pointed down with some sort of marker encircling the tank.

There are a few variants of tankbusters.

• Single target tankbusters are the most common and are indicated with red rings encircling the tank and a chevron pointing downwards.
• AoE tankbusters will have the above, in addition to pulsating red circle on the floor emanating from the tank. Some AoE tankbusters in older content do not display the red circle.
• Caution AoE tankbusters will also be similar to a single target tankbuster marker, in addition to yellow and black lines (similar to caution tape) orbiting the tank in a square shape. This is most commonly used to indicate a line or cone-based AoE tankbuster but can also indicate a regular AoE tankbuster as well.

Towers

Tower markers indicate an attack that will do damage to anyone standing inside of it. If there are not enough players inside a tower to take the attack, the tower explodes and deals a high amount of party-wide damage. Unlike stacks, the damage done by towers is usually not split between players.

Common variations of towers include:

• Regular tower. This tower deals a moderate amount of damage and requires one player. It can generally be survived by any role.
• Tank tower. This tower usually combines the visual indicator for a tankbuster with the tower itself. It requires one player and deals a very high amount of damage, usually only allowing a tank to survive the attack. Some older high-end content do not display the tankbuster indicator on tank towers.
• Multi-player tower. This tower usually has a visual indicator showing how many people are required to prevent the tower from exploding. Common indicators are small circles on the ground or tower-like structures appearing multiple times inside the marker. Some tower indicators visually react when a player steps inside of it. Multi-player towers may also be paired with a stack marker, indicating that damage will be split between all players in the tower.
• Summoning circles. These are single or multi-player towers that will disappear as soon as the requisite number of players stand inside, unlike regular towers that resolve after a fixed period of time.

There are many variations of towers with non-standard visual indicators in the game, so it can be difficult to recognize a tower at first glance. They are usually indicated by a stationary circle on the ground that does not look like a normal attack circle. They often have a tower-like structure inside them and sometimes show an indicator for an impending attack, for example a falling meteor.

Towers generally don't explode when too many people take the attack. Additionally, players dying to a tower attack usually still count as having successfully taken the attack. Due to the high party-wide damage and associated risk of a party wipe, it is often better to "sacrifice" a low-health player to a tower than to let it explode.