Raids

Entering an Alpha-1 open-world raid.^[2]

Raids will either be based on triggered events or more traditional systems. Traditional world bosses will change based on node development.^[3]

We want things to be more fluid and one of the ways that we make them more fluid is through our triggered event system. That is one of the methods by which we make these more spontaneous. We make them more accessible to a wider audience. You can be just in the city and not normally be a part of a raid team, but now get to participate in this organic event that's popped up around the city and if you are not participating then buildings are gonna get destroyed and NPCs are going to die... It's not just how fast can we do it, how will we get it done in its schedule, but oh my god this thing popped up if we don't kill it we're not going to access to our stables this week and we can't get our animal husbandry certificates... It's that risk versus reward that gives you a sense of adrenaline.^[4] – Steven Sharif

The majority of raids in Ashes of Creation are open-world.^[5]^[6]^[7]^[8] Only a minority of raids will be instanced.^[6]
- Some boss rooms (within larger encounters) will be instanced.^[5]
- Instanced dungeons and raids will utilize room locks or other mechanisms that restricts the encounter to its target audience.^[5]

Raid bosses

Alpha-2 naval raid bosses.^[9]

Elder Dragon of the Tundra raid boss in Alpha-1 castle sieges.^[10]

There will initially be between 12 to 15 raid bosses in the world.^[11]
Legendary equipment is only dropped by Legendary world bosses.^[11]
A single digit percentage of the population will be capable of defeating certain content.^[12]

There will be some in-depth raiding that has multiple stages that will be extremely difficult and... It would definitely be in the single digits of population that will be capable of defeating certain content... It doesn't mean that there won't be content available for the larger percentages as well... There should be a tiered level of content that players can constantly strive to accomplish. If there is no ladder of progression and everything is flat and all content can be experienced, then there is no drive to excel.^[12] – Steven Sharif

List of raid bosses

This section contains potentially outdated information from Alpha-1 testing.

Raid strategies

Raids will have elements that can be pre-planned.^[13]

Required composition of DPS, healers, and support.^[13]
Key positioning.^[13]

Raids will also have dynamic elements that can change from session to session.^[13]

The types and numbers of bosses and mobs present in the raid and their skill repertoire.^[13]
Variables are manifested based on node progression.^[13]
- The number of metropolis nodes developed.^[13]
- The types of metropolis nodes developed.^[13]

One of the design elements that we're implementing into our raids is that the raid will not be exactly the same every single time. You're going to have variables that can't necessarily be pre-planned out for. You can pre-plan out for a lot of the raid like how many DPS do you need and healers and support; where the key position and all that stuff; but I think the compelling aspect of Ashes raiding will be the difficulty in achieving this content and having that content change from session to session as well. We want there to be variables that get manifested by what type of node got developed elsewhere. Is he going to have acolytes or cultists? What will the acolytes have skills [available] to them? What kit is the boss gonna have? What available skill repertoire will the boss be able to [wield]? ... A lot of those systems are influenced obviously by world development. So the raid takes into account at what stage has the world developed: Are there two metropolises now available in the world? Okay well let's activate this skill in this skill. Now you have five metropolises, well now all these skills have been activated. Are there are they all economic nodes? Are they all military nodes? That we can change things based on that stuff. And it really is a threat assessment from the environment against the players.^[13]{{ndash|Steven Sharif}

Raid mechanics

Boss fight concept art.^[14]

Boss fights will have fairly intricate mechanics.^[15]

Combat itself will be pretty intricate mechanics-wise. We're going to have different phases of the bosses, there's going to be a lot of adds stuff, there's going to be random oriented skill usage. We're not going to have telegraphed templates on the ground, but we will have telegraphed animations, so it's going to be location, mobility, strategic. It will be something that can not be repeatable in the exact same way from raid to raid, but has a variance between the combat, so raiders are going to have to be fluid in thinking on their feet.^[15] – Steven Sharif

Multiple phase fights.^[15]
Adds.^[15]
Random skill usage.^[15]
Fights will require location, mobility and strategy.^[15]
Boss mechanics may be affected by changes in climate or time of day.^[16]
Telegraphed animations, but no obvious telegraphed templates on the ground.^[17]^[15]
Players can utilize boss mechanics against other players.^[17]

Anytime the boss is telegraphing an ability, that is an opportunity for you to direct the location of that effect; and so in that sense, yes you could use a boss's mechanics in an interesting way to affect an enemy raid.^[17] – Steven Sharif

Telegraphs

In specific circumstances there will be telegraphs (tells) to communicate something that's happening.^[18]

Animation tells.
Templates.

Raid progression

Raid tiers

Tiers of raid difficulty are in accordance with the world's node structure.^[19]^[20]

The more developed a zone the more challenging the content; and we feel that's a good progression when it comes to actual adventuring class, because it will match both world development and it will also continue to allow for participation for new players, if they may go into a zone that's recently been reset by either a siege or some other event.^[20] – Steven Sharif

Raid party controls

Alpha-2 Raid party controls UI.^[21]

Raid party controls include:

Kick from raid.^[21]
Promote to raid leader.^[21]
Convert raid to party.^[21]
Raid voice controls.^[22]^[23]

Raid voice controls

Raid and party leaders are able to control Voice chat.^[22]^[23]

Toggle (global) mute on the entire raid.^[23]
Define who has global speech capacity across the entire raid.^[24]
Granting administrative functions to raid and party members.^[22]

If you are joined in raid where you have multiple squads that have connected into a raid for the castle sieges, the leaders of those squads will be able to communicate across all members of squad. So let's say you have five teams of four, for a total of twenty people within a particular raid... there are five that have global speech capacity; and then in those individual parties they'll also have their own inter-voice communication. So party leader will be able to hear their party members and the party members will hear each other, but they'll also be able to hear other party leaders speak as well.^[24] – Steven Sharif

Raid target markers

Alpha-2 Target marker user interface.^[25]

Players have the ability to set target marker symbols above players or mobs that are visible to other party members.^[25]^[26]^[22]

Leader boards

Players will be able to opt-in to track certain achievements on leaderboards, such as.^[27]

Dungeons completed.^[27]^[28]
Raids completed.^[27]^[28]
PvP kills.^[27]
Caravans raided.^[27]
Gathering activity.^[27]

Leaderboards may be seasonal.^[28]

We have many dreams that we want to do with game-to-web and game-to-mobile in regards to showing stats and being making things shareable for you. We know how social media works; how sharing content with friends works. But those things will come in due time.^[27] – Margaret Krohn

Some of the following information has not been recently confirmed by the developers and may not be on the current development roadmap.