Creature Special Attacks¶
Some creatures don't just trade blows. The dangerous ones wind up special attacks you can see coming - if you watch for the tell.
Creatures no longer repeat an alert sound just because you enter their view. Combat engagement, attack, hurt and death sounds still play, with occasional idle sounds between fights. Ordinary hostile ground warnings fill in 1.2 seconds, matching the Pale Cathedral. Damage, warning sounds and attack cooldowns are unchanged.
Impale¶
A telegraphed cone strike used by the heavier undead knights.
- Every 6 to 10 seconds while it's in melee, the creature shouts "winds up to impale" above its head, with a flash of energy and a sound. That's the tell, and it keeps coming - fighting one of these is a rhythm of side-steps, not a one-off dodge.
- It stops moving for the entire 1.2-second windup - locked in place, facing wherever you stood when it told. An orange ground marker is drawn on the tiles it is about to strike: the tile ahead, the two tiles flanking it, and one more tile straight ahead, filling up as the windup runs out. About 1.2 seconds later it drives its blade through everything standing on the marker for its normal swing damage and opens a bleed (damage over time) on whatever it struck.
- The marker is the strike zone, nothing more and nothing less. Step off the marker during the windup and you dodge it. Two steps to either side always clears it; just don't stand still in front of it.
- Melee fighters: side-step on the tell, then re-engage. Healers and ranged: stay off the line directly in front of it.
- The hit shows in your combat journal as the creature's Impale, and the bleed ticks read "You are bled for N" so you can tell the drain from a swing. While a bleed is on you, a Bleeding icon sits on your buff bar with the time left.
The bleed ticks for a few seconds after the hit, and its total size scales with the hit damage. Bandage or heal through it.
Which creatures use it¶
| Creature | Notes |
|---|---|
| Skeletal Knight | Impales at reduced damage - the training version |
| Barrow Knight | First tier of the undead knight line |
| Grave Knight | Tougher; same Impale |
| Dread Revenant | The deadliest of the knights - its Impale hits hard |
| Emberforged Lizardman | The Depths, level two: same tell, same marker, lava-hot swing |
Ground Slam¶
The earth elemental's signature. Every 6 to 10 seconds while it's fighting, it rears up and slams the ground in front of it:
- An orange ground marker appears on the two tiles directly in front of the elemental and fills for about 1.2 seconds. No shout, no emote - the marker on the ground is the whole tell.
- When it fills, everything standing on those two tiles takes a heavy hit ("an earth elemental's Ground Slam hits you for N" in the combat journal), and the ground itself erupts and heaves up toward the sky - hit or miss, the floor jumps.
- One side-step clears it. The strip is exactly two tiles: your own tile is never in it and neither flank is. Melee against an earth elemental is a dance - swing, step off the strip, swing again.
The Depths telegraph pack¶
Seven creatures in The Depths exist to teach the ground-marker language on mobs you can afford to lose to. Each is a tougher-hued cousin of a dungeon regular with one telegraphed special on a 6 to 11 second rhythm. Same rules as always: the creature holds still once the marker appears, the marker fills for about 1.2 seconds, and stepping off it before it fills is a guaranteed dodge. These hit hard for their level, and several open a bleed that drains for a full twelve seconds - watch the Bleeding icon and bandage through it.
| Creature | Marker shape | The read |
|---|---|---|
| Gnash ratman | An X centered on itself | Stand in a diagonal pocket between the arms. Bleeds |
| Cinder imp | A full circle all around it | No safe side - get out of the ring entirely |
| Brood lurker | A ring with a safe center | Hug it or back away; mid-range is the kill zone. Bleeds |
| Sunken shambler | A wide wedge in front | Flank it - never stand in the mouth. Bleeds |
| Hollow lancer | A six-tile line straight ahead | One side-step clears it; it reaches the back line. Bleeds |
| Depths tunneler | A circle under your feet | It undermines where you were standing - the floor there erupts and heaves |
| Shale crawler | A three-wide wave rolling forward | The whole strip heaves skyward as the wave rolls out |
The tunneler and shale crawler are the ones to watch: their strikes move the ground itself, the same terrain heave the earth elemental's slam uses.
The rule never changes: if the ground lights up, you have a moment to move.