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.
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)
Approximately 20s into the encounter, she fires a at the group. This attack is unavoidable and will create one of three random effects.
Each of these effects deals heavy damage the first time you are hit, and each subsequent time you are hit it will deal a multiple of that damage (so twice as much on the second hit, three times as much on the third, etc).
Challenge Mode only: Each attack deals extreme damage that will instantly down any player hit by them.
The three random effects are:
Wall of Fear
A group of krait spawn at the edge of the arena and move directly across it. Surrounding each krait is a large AoE that pulses damage and also pulls nearby players towards it. Players should position themselves in one of the gaps and use whatever means they have to avoid being pulled into the AoEs. They always appear at the same locations:
In the first phase, three krait appear at the southern edge and move north.
In the second phase, three krait appear at the western edge and move east.
In the third phase, two krait appear at the southern edge and move north.
Terrifying Apparition
A random player is fixated upon by a , which slowly walks towards the player for 18 seconds. The apparition is surrounded by a dangerous AoE similar to the krait, but only the fixated player is affected by the pull. This is by far the easiest hallucination to deal with as it moves slowly and only requires one player to kite it away, and if the fixated player is downed the apparition will immediately fixate on a new target.
Wave of Torment
A series of hallucinatory Quaggan appear near random players and explode with a . The explosion AoEs can overlap so it’s important to avoid them, though the positioning of this can often force you away from the boss. A quaggan spawns every second, but each player can be targeted at most once every two seconds. In normal mode, this attack is “instanced” such that if it downs you, the attack will stop even though it continues for other players.
In phase 1, quaggan spawn for 12 seconds.
In phase 2, quaggan spawn for 16 seconds.
In phase 3, quaggan spawn for 18 seconds.
Challenge Mode Only: the AoEs are significantly larger but explode much more slowly which can actually make it easier to deal with. Additionally, in all phases they spawn every two and a half seconds over 10 seconds - for a total of five AoEs.
45s into the encounter, Ankka teleports to the middle of the arena and starts dragging all players towards her. She is surrounded by a large AoE that ticks for 6 seconds.
The first time you are hit it deals heavy damage and each subsequent time you are hit it will deal a multiple of that damage (so twice as much on the second hit, three times as much on the third, etc).
In later phases, Ankka will create four smaller AoEs in a square pattern and can teleport between them during the attack. The location of her next teleport is indicated by a green pillar of light that appears just before she moves.
After Death’s Embrace ends, Ankka’s defiance bar will unlock. Breaking her will make her 
Stunned and 
Exposed for 10 seconds.
Soon afterward, Ankka fires another and then repeats from . Just before she starts , her defiance bar will lock again.
She will follow the same pattern throughout the phase, but as she can be stunned, the timings will vary.
→ → → → → → Repeat
Phase 2
At 75% health, Ankka will become invincible and flee to a new area. The group should follow the path to the east, avoiding the AoEs that spawn to block you. Once the first player reaches the new arena, any remaining players that are far enough away will be teleported into it too. This means some groups may prefer to have a single player (ideally with movement skills) rush forward while everyone else remains behind.
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 3
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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