Kaineng Overlook Strike Mission Strategy Guide
WORK IN PROGRESS
Introduction
Kaineng Overlook is a very structured fight - every attack within a phase occurs on a timer, so learning the patterns will enable you to prepare for mechanics before they occur. This, coupled with the length of the whole encounter makes it one of the most technically challenging fights in the game.
There is only a single [defiance bar] in this encounter, and in normal mode the reward for breaking it is minimal, so [CC] need not be a major consideration.
When fighting Minister Li he will regularly hit the arena with an attack that is very difficult to avoid. In normal mode, this makes supports that can provide 
Aegis or 
Stability. In challenge mode, this same attack is 
Unblockable and even more dangerous which means Stability is practically mandatory.
In addition to ensuring you have specific boons, two of the enemies in phase two are empowered when close to one another which makes it worthwhile to assign a player to kite one of them away. In phase four, one player should tank The Mech Rider throughout the phase, while two other players should be assigned to attempt to pull the aggro of a specific attack from the Sniper.
The fight against Minister Li himself is actually the easier part of this encounter. Much more dangerous are the phases where you face off against multiple members of his retinue simultaneously. Because of this, classes that can bring consistent long-range cleave damage are very potent and at the time of writing there is no class better suited to this than Condi Virtuoso.
The structure and timings are nearly identical in challenge mode, but there are some additional attacks in challenge mode and all mechanics are much more punishing.
Challenge Mode Only: The normal mode there are barriers around the majority of the arenas that prevent you being knocked off, and you will be teleported back onto the platform in downed state if you do manage to fall. In challenge mode, the barriers are removed and falling results in instant death, further enhancing the need for Stability.
Note: There is a "secret tank" in this encounter, who is the first person to load into the instance. Some mechanics will always be aimed at this player, so it can be helpful to use this to your advantage by having a particular player load into the instance first.
Strategy
You start on a platform with Minister Li. He disappears as soon as he is attacked and a zipline becomes active to take players up to another platform to fight the Minister. Be aware that the zipline functions as a transform, and will therefore destroy any summoned creatures such as ranger spirits, elementalist elementals or necromancer minions.
Minister Li is a Bladesworn, and he attacks primarily using the different forms of Dragon Slash.
- - As the first player arrives on his platform, Minister Li aims a large conal attack towards a player that deals heavy damage and
Launches players back. He will occasionally rotate to track the player if they move, but there will always be enough time to move behind him before it hits. - Challenge Mode only: The final AoE indicator is removed, and the attack cannot be avoided in any way if you're inside of it. This means that sharing Stability before this attack hits is incredibly helpful. Further, Stability is removed upon being downed which makes it likely that any player downed by this attack will be knocked off the platform and die. Thus
Protection is also strongly recommended.
- - Next, Minister Li will aim for one of the four corners and prepare to charge to it. The Rush deals heavy damage multiple times to anyone in the path, almost certainly downing them. Players should ensure they are behind Minister Li before this happens.
From the corner, Minister Li will towards the middle of the arena. Everyone should squeeze into the space behind him to avoid taking damage unnecessarily.
Challenge Mode only: (see below) occurs on one random player every time Minister Li reaches a corner.
He will then back to the center of the platform.
Three random players are marked with a numeral indicator over their heads. After 11 seconds, Minister Li will fire a at each person in turn (going from I to III). Any player caught in the path will take extreme damage, and getting hit by the attack applies 
Extreme Vulnerability. Being hit a second time while afflicted with Extreme Vulnerability will instantly kill the player. Thus the three players should spread out from the stack, and ideally should position themselves in one half of the arena to give as much safe space for the rest of the group as possible.
While preparing this attack, Minister Li will rotate to face a target (not necessarily one of the numbered players) as if about to attack, but he won't do anything. Players should ensure they are not between the boss and one of the numbered players, rather than worry about where he's facing.
Challenge Mode only: five players are now targeted, but the attack will no longer hit players in between the boss and the numbered players so they can spread out across the whole platform. Additionally, when a player is hit by the attack it drops a small red AoE underneath them that also triggers instant death from Extreme Vulnerability so targeted players should immediately move after being hit to avoid it.
The AoEs remain in place for [??] seconds, so it is important that they are not dropped in the corners, as this will dramatically reduce the safe space available.
Note: There is a bug in challenge mode whereby if you phase Minister Li to 66% after he begins to attack, everyone will be stuck in place for the phase transition, but his attacks will continue. As they will be unable to move to avoid the AoEs, this will almost certainly result in multiple deaths. If the group is not confident that it can hit 66% before the attacks start, they should slow down on DPS until the attack has finished.
After this, Minister Li will repeat , targetting a random player.
Challenge Mode only: (see below) occurs on one random player during the slash.
After this, Minister Li will repeat the pattern of attacks until he reaches 66%:
- (center) ⇒ (to corner) ⇒ (corner) ⇒ (to center) ⇒ ⇒ (center)
Phase 2 (The Enforcer, the Mindblade, and the Wardrobe)
At 66% health Minister Li goes invulnerable, freezes everyone in place, then launches the entire squad back to the lower platform. Shortly after, three of his minions appear on the platform.
Each of the three spawn in the middle of the square tile patterns on the eastern half of the arena, going from north to south: The Enforcer, the Ritualist, and the Mindblade. The Enforcer and Mindblade will periodically fixate on the closest player and direct the majority of their attacks at these players. If the Enforcer or Mindblade are allowed to come within ~500 units of each other, they will buff each other with 
Lethal Inspiration, adding lifesteal to their attacks and converting conditions into boons every 10 seconds.
The Ritualist does not move for the first 40 seconds of this phase, and the Enforcer will immediately teleport to the middle and begin a fixed-pattern dash attack. Therefore it is most efficient to have a player immediately pick up the Mindblade's fixation and pull the her onto the Ritualist to cleave the two of them together.
With three enemies to deal with at once, the number of mechanics can be overwhelming, so we will first look at each of the minibosses in turn, and then how they all fit together.
The Mindblade
The Mindblade is a Virtuoso (but fortunately one that will close to melee range). This is the simplest of the three minibosses, and mostly just performs a basic auto chain:
- Flying Cutter ⇒ Flying Edge ⇒ Fan of Blades [is Cutter Burst a thing like the wiki claims?]
- - 25 seconds into the phase, three overlapping AoEs will appear around the Mindblade. After three seconds, a bladestorm appears at each AoE and moves away from the miniboss, inflicting
Torment and dealing moderate damage. This attack repeats after 50 seconds, this time featuring six non-overlapping AoEs. - Challenge Mode only: Players hit by will receive a stack of
Infirmity, reducing their incoming healing by 25% per stack for the next [??] seconds.
After [??] seconds, two random players are targeted by large red? AoEs. After [??] seconds, a series of four damaging AoEs will be dropped at the player's location. Each AoE applies [extreme vulnerability?] to players hit by them, and getting hit a second time will instantly kill them. The players should move to the edge of the arena and drop each of them in a line away from the group. While it would leave the most free space, having both players dropping at the same locations can lead to confusion, so it may be safer for them to go to opposite sides of the arena if possible.
Players should return to the group immediately after finishing this mechanic (make sure it has actually finished!) as they may soon be targeted by [shared destruction].
The Ritualist
The Ritualist does not fixate on a player, and never moves apart from occasionally teleporting to a new location.
- - Immediately after spawning, the Ritualist channels an attack that spawns multiple small AoEs near players, each one dealing moderate damage and removing boons.
After , the Ritualist will attack the Secret Tank from range with Lightning Strike, dealing low damage with each hit.
40 seconds into the phase, the Ritualist will teleport to the center of the arena and summon a number of untargetable spirits, each with a large AoE around them. The spirits explode five seconds after the AoEs appear, dealing heavy damage to players inside them and either Launching or 
Pulling them.
There are two variants of this attack. The first summons four spirits midway between the Ritualist and the platform edge, leaving the corners free. These spirits will Launch players away.
The second variant summons two spirits, with a safe zone underneath each spirit. The longer edges of the arena will also have safe space, but standing underneath a spirit is likely to be more convenient. These spirits will Pull players into them.
The Ritualist will alternate between the two variants approximately every 60 seconds.
Challenge Mode only: More spirits will spawn, reducing the playable space. At the same time, two players will receive [shared destruction], making it important for the group to remain stacked together.
The Enforcer
The Enforcer is a Willbender who alternates between charging around the arena in a fixed pattern, and attacking their fixated target with basic sword attacks.
Immediately as the phase starts, the Enforcer will teleport to the center of the arena and repeatedly use in an hourglass pattern north -> southwest -> east -> south -> northeast -> west. He leaves behind willbender flames on the ground that apply 
Burning and deal low damage.
Upon finishing the charges, a medium-sized red AoE appears around him and he issues a that 
Taunts anyone caught inside, then rapidly spins in place, dealing heavy damage.
This attack repeats every 70 seconds. He will use a different hourglass pattern the second time, instead moving southwest -> east -> northwest -> northeast -> west -> southeast. He alternates between the two patterns throughout the phase.
Challenge Mode only: the willbender flames from apply Infirmity, reducing incoming healing by 25% per stack. The Taunt AoE from is now larger than the damaging AoE, and the whirl attack fires out a ring of small, hard-to-spot AoEs that apply 
Debilitated when hit.
Players can stand just outside the damaging AoE, or at the platform edges to avoid getting hit by the projectiles.
After finishing and , the Enforcer will fixate on the closest player and move to them to attack with a basic sword chain:
- Sword of Wrath ⇒ Sword Arc ⇒ Sword Wave
55 seconds into the phase, three random players and the Enforcer get a large AoE around them. After five seconds, the Enforcer leaps in the air and a heavenly palm slams down, dealing heavy damage and briefly applying Extreme Vulnerability. Getting hit by more than two AoEs at once will instantly down the player.
This attack can be blocked and evaded, and repeats every 35 seconds.
Challenge Mode only: Everyone is targeted, and the AoEs are larger.
Phase 2 Strategy
While each miniboss is simple, fighting all three at once means you will often get different mechanics chained together, so a typical playbook is presented:
As the phase begins, one player should move to the Mindblade's location to pick up aggro, while the rest of the group stack on the platform edge near the Ritualist. Once fixation has been picked up, move the Mindblade towards the Ritualist so they can be cleaved together. Try to have the Mindblade on the outside edge of the platform to reduce the risk of her ending up too close to the Enforcer.
As the Enforcer starts , a second player should move close to the AoE in order to pick up the Enforcer's fixation. As players will likely still be attacking the Mindblade, the Enforcer should be kited away - this is most efficiently done by a class with some inherent sustain that can also provide damage or support from range.
Challenge Mode only: As starts, supports should try to provide Stability to prevent the Taunt. Then, everyone should look out for the small AoEs that apply Debilitated. The extreme edge of the platform is safe, but players need to be practically hanging off the edge which can be risky. A safer approach is to wait for the Taunt AoE to disappear, then dodge into the arena towards the Enforcer and stand just on the outside of the red AoE.
After 40 seconds, the Ritualist will teleport into the middle of the arena and Summon Spirits. This will most likely force the group to move, just be sure not to pull the Enforcer and Mindblade together. Once Summon Spirits ends, the Ritualist will teleport again to the western side of the platform. Depending on the health of the Mindblade, you can either pull it on to the Ritualist to continue cleaving, or finish it off and pull the Enforcer onto the Ritualist instead.
Once the Mindblade is dead, the encounter becomes a lot simpler: continue to pull the Enforcer on top of the Ritualist and avoid AoEs as normal. The Enforcer is difficult to hit while performing , so focus on the Ritualist instead. The Ritualist is almost certainly going to be the next to die, leaving you with just the enforcer.
Once all three are dead, the zipline back to Minister Li's platform will reappear.
Phase 3
Phase 3 is very similar to Phase 1, though the attacks come in a slightly different order and his pattern of charges is now fixed.
As the first people reach his platform, Minister Li will to the south corner and aim towards the middle of the platform. will now sometimes coincide with a new mechanic:
Shortly after reaching the corner, Minister Li targets the five closest players with a medium-sized AoE. The AoEs detonate after five seconds, dealing 20% of player's max health. If they are stood in more than one AoE, the second one deals 150% of their maximum health which will instantly down them.
Challenge Mode only: This mechanic coincides at the second of the phase, rather than the first.
Next, he will dash clockwise to the next corner and repeat + . Minister Li will do this until he has charged to each corner.
After completing + in the fourth corner, he will back to the middle of the platform and perform . Afterwards, he will dash back to the first corner and start the pattern again.
Challenge Mode only: The movement pattern is the same, but rather than in every corner, it now alternates with , starting with in the first corner.
Phase 4 (Sniper and Mech Rider)
At 33% health Minister Li goes invulnerable once more and launches everyone back to the lower platform. Shortly after, two more of his minions appear on the platform. This is typically the longest and most difficult phase as mishandling the mechanics can result in an overwhelming about of damage pressure.
The two enemies faced in this phase are the Sniper and the Mech Rider, and they are linked by an effect called 
Vitality Equalizer. This tracks the health % difference between the two minibosses and should it go above 20%, Equalization Protocol is triggered. As the name suggests, Equalization Protocol equalizes their health (so the higher health miniboss loses 10%, and the lower health gains 10%), and additionally both of them gain a damaging aura called 
Destructive Aura for 30 seconds.
Challenge Mode only: Destructive Aura hits harder, rips all boons from players, and lasts until the end of the phase.
Note: For some reason, the first time Equalization Protocol is triggered in a phase, the lower health miniboss only regains 5% of their health.
Equalization Protocol defines how you play this phase. The safest method will be to start by attacking the Sniper, and switch focus to the Mech Rider when you reach 10-15 stacks of 
Equalization Matrix. The Sniper will regularly leave the platform, so you can also switch focus to the Mech Rider until she returns.
A riskier strategy relies on the fact that the Mech Rider has significantly more health than the Sniper (~3.43 times as much health on Normal Mode). This means focussing entirely on the Sniper and deliberately triggering Equalization Protocol is an effective way to quickly reduce the Mech Rider's health. Given that there are regular moments where you can only attack the Mech Rider, and Destructive Aura only lasts 30 seconds, it is usually possible to finish this phase in this way without triggering it too many times. It is very possible to outheal the ticking damage in Normal Mode, but is not recommended for Challenge Mode.
It is worth noting that neither the Sniper nor the Mech Rider will move while they are on the platform, so they will always be over 600 units away from each other. This means that classes with long-range cleave, such as Condi Virtuoso are extremely effective in this phase as they can deal damage to both targets simultaneously.
As in Phase 2, the separate Mechanics of the two minibosses will be explained, followed by an overview of how they fit together.
The Sniper
The Sniper is a Deadeye, and while she will occasionally attack with standard rifle skills (Deadly Aim, and Three Round Burst). These attacks are inconsequential, and the Sniper mostly just stands there when she is on the platform. Her real threat occurs when she teleports away from the platform.
Approximately 20 seconds after spawning, the Sniper teleports away to one of seven small platforms above the current one. The platform she goes to is random, and upon arriving, she will immediately target the closest player with a powerful shot, indicated by an orange laser and a faint red AoE surrounding the targeted player. After 10 seconds, the Sniper fires, dealing [??]% max health to the targeted player. If there are any other players within the red AoE, the attack will ricochet to them, dealing [??]% max health to additional targets.
At the same time as this attack starts, all other players will be targeted with . As players spread to deal with this mechanic, it is vital they do not move too close to the player targeted by .
can be avoided in a number of ways - it can be blocked and dodged, or avoided with invulnerability or projectile defence. As there is no indicator of when the attack will hit, this can be difficult to time, so longer duration defensive effects are useful.
Challenge Mode only: After the initial shot, rather than return to the platform, the Sniper will instead pick the closest target, teleport to the next platform clockwise or anticlockwise of their position (randomly), and fire again. The second and third shots occur faster (after approximately four seconds). Additionally, the shots are no longer blockable and instead of ricocheting to other players, it instead hits the original target multiple times and instantly kills them. [can it be dodged or invulned in CM?]
In Normal Mode, this attack is relatively low threat as it only affects a single target, who can simply be ressed if they are downed by it. In CM though, the danger of instant death means that it's much safer to have a specific player pick up the aggro for this attack and heal up between each shot. The heavy damage and requirement for healing means that a tanky healer is ideal for this job.
Unfortunately, as you cannot know which platform she will jump to ahead of time, for this to be reliable, the squad will need two players to fill this role. They will need to head to opposite ends of the platform just before this attack occurs, to ensure that one of them is always picked. Because the Sniper picks a new target before she teleports, the targeted player (assuming one of the intended targets has been selected) should move towards the Sniper's location to ensure they pick up the next target too.
Players not wishing to be targeted should try to avoid the platform edges as much as possible, ideally closing to melee the Mech Rider after ends.
The Mech Rider
Ankka remains invincible once you reach her, and launches out three Reanimated Spites. These spites can be killed, but they also die when their defiance bars are broken, which should be much quicker. After 20 seconds, any remaining reanimated Spites are destroyed, buffing Ankka with one stack of 
Power of the Void per spite for 60 seconds. Not only does this effect increase her damage and defense by 25%, but it also causes her attacks to apply 
Debilitating Void to players, reducing their incoming healing by 50%. A number of Reanimated Malices also spawn during this phase, but they should die easily enough to cleave that they don’t cause a problem.
Challenge Mode only: The defiance bars on the sprites are significantly bigger, and Power of the Void will last until the end of the phase if Ankka gains it, making bringing lots of CC essential to safely completing the CM. Additionally, a Reanimated Hatred will now appear in Phase 2 (see Phase 3 for details).
When all Spites are gone, Ankka is vulnerable again. She starts with an and shortly after will Jump past the closest player. Ankka doesn’t do much for a while, mainly just using basic attacks and .
30 seconds into the phase, multiple Zhaitan’s Reaches spawn around the area and perform a spin attack that pulls any players within their ring AoE towards them. They follow this up with a slam attack that launches/knocks nearby players back, before repeating the spin + pull attack once more, then dying. They spawn in a rough cross-shape, which leaves some safe space at the northern and southern ends of the arena, but it may be simpler to bring some extra Stability and not worry about it. Whenever these enemies reappear, it is in the same locations.
Challenge Mode only: The Reaches will not despawn on their own, so it might be recommended to kill some to give yourself more space.
Shortly after, it’s time for another followed by and then - recall that in this phase she summons four smaller AoEs and can teleport between them. Finally, she fires another .
Challenge Mode only: Ankka will teleport more times.
After this, she will repeat Necrotic Ritual and then do the following:
- → → More Zhaitan's Reaches spawn →
For the rest of the phase, Ankka will cycle through the following:
- → → → → → repeat
After each , Ankka's defiance bar will unlock, and it will lock again just before .
Phase 5
At 40% health, Ankka becomes invulnerable and flees once more. Follow her north as before.
Phase 3 starts similarly to Phase 1, with and , followed by a Jump. Be mindful that as the arena is much smaller it is more likely that her jumps will eventually move her out of the arena and cause her to reset to the middle.
Shortly after, she uses .
~35s into the phase, she becomes invulnerable and repeats Necrotic Ritual. This is the same as in previous phases, except an additional Reanimated Hatred will spawn next to Ankka and fixate on the most distant player. For 20 seconds, the Hatred will chase the fixated player, and if it reaches them will 
Immobilize them and channel a damaging attack on the player until killed or broken. The fixated player should try to avoid the Hatred until the end of the Necrotic Ritual so that they are not caught off-stack.
After this, she does the following:
- → → → Zhaitan's Reaches → → → → Necrotic Ritual →
She will then cycle through the following attacks until she dies:
- Zhaitan's Reaches → → → → → → repeat
Challenge Mode
Phase 3 is different enough from the normal mode version to warrant its own section.
The major change in this phase is that as it starts you will see four white AoEs along each edge of the arena. Standing in these AoEs provides the 
Sanctuary buff for 10 seconds. This buff protects you from a ticking damage effect called 
Devouring Void that will slowly increase in damage each tick until you return to one of the Sanctuaries.
Being able to stay within these AoEs is essential to handling this phase. As such, the group should make use of positioning to bait Ankka to jump toward one of them so that she can be attacked from safety. Players should stack tightly with their backs to one of the AoEs and when she leaps towards them, reposition so they can stand in the sanctuary (hopefully this is now in melee range of Ankka). As the krait spawn at the southern end of the arena, it might be safest to try to pull Ankka to the northern Sanctuary, so that the group can see them coming.
Naturally, the need to return to these Sanctuaries regularly will make handling other mechanics more difficult. People should make sure to be in the white AoEs during , and it is very important that the AoEs be dropped in the corners rather than on the Sanctuaries (fortunately this only occurs once in Phase 3).
The final change occurs during Necrotic Ritual. In addition to all the usual mobs, one last one is added: a Reanimated Antipathy that resembles an Eye of Zhaitan. The Antipathy spawns at the western Sanctuary and if it is not killed within 10 seconds it will destroy the Sanctuary entirely, then teleport to the next one. The Antipathy moves in the order west → north → south → east and when it returns in the second phase it will start from where it left off (the Sanctuaries will not regain health between each Necrotic Ritual). It is not the end of the world if it destroys one Sanctuary in each phase, but very important that it is only one. The Spites always spawn in the same locations near the west, north and south Sanctuaries, so it might be worth sending more people to the one where the Antipathy will appear. Should you be left with only the south and east Sanctuaries, it is strongly recommended to bait Ankka towards the east one, as the krait make the south Sanctuary very dangerous.
Example showing the Reanimated Hatred and Antipathy during the Necrotic Ritual. Also note the white Sanctuary zones that are present for the entirety of the CM phase 3.
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