Unstable Magic Abilities

Unstable Magic Abilities are a set of standardized NPC skills and effects originally introduced with the Bounty system in the Path of Fire expansion and later expanded to a number of high-ranking NPC enemies in subsequent expansions and content releases. Many of these abilities have unique mechanics requiring players to perform specific actions in order to avoid damage or be able to inflict it. Depending on the rank, NPCs may randomly possess either one Unable Magic Ability from the offensive category, or two or three Unstable Magic Abilities, one from each category.

Mechanics

• Elite rank enemy NPCs gain one offensive Unstable Magic Ability, randomly selected from any the offensive category or from a specific subset of the offensive category (e.g. Elite Unbound Spirit of Destruction only uses  Polluter,  Sniper, or  Spinning Laser)
• Champion rank enemy NPCs gain one defensive and one offensive Unstable Magic Ability, each randomly selected from the lists below.
• Legendary rank enemy NPCs will gain an additional third Unstable Magic Ability as shown in the Legendary category.
• Breaking the defiance bar of the enemy NPC is encouraged as it causes the  Lockout effect that disables all Unstable Magic Abilities for a short period of time.

Exceptional

• Outside of bounties, not every Elite, Champion, or Legendary rank NPC follows the pattern of the mechanics above.
  • Some Champion or Legendary NPCs can have no Unstable Magic Abilities, some only get access to one. For example, Ignaxious only gets access to  Scorcher at 50% health.
• After the Path of Fire expansion, some Elite enemies that were found as part of events started gaining access to one ability.
• In The Icebrood Saga Living World story, a new set of abilities that vary based on the week were introduced, but are only used within that Living World. See also: Cold War#Wave defense.

List of abilities

Type	Effect	Description	Strategy for countering/Notes
Offensive	Ley-Energy Buildup	Find ley-energy orbs to discharge damaging buildup.	Standing within a Ley-Energy orb’s area of effect grants the  Resistor until the orb disappears. If a player is standing in multiple fields at once and one of them expires, the effect is removed and must be reacquired by re-entering an active orb.
	Polluter	Drops expanding poison fields.	Dangerous fields of poison start to appear and expand around the area applying  Torment and  Poisoned conditions to anyone standing on them. Can be simply avoided by not standing in them.
	Scorcher	Drops fire fields that damage and burn foes.	Avoiding the fields is encouraged.
	Sniper	Targets foes, then fires a powerful shot.	Avoid touching the glowing orb. Touching it will applies the  Target effect, which cause player vulnerable to a powerful shot. If affected, breaking line of sight with the NPC will remove the effect.
	Spinning Laser	Creates spinning lasers that damage foes.	Laser bars that spin around appear near the enemy causing heavy damage to anyone who touches them. Avoiding them is the best option.
	Rampager	Increases damage when enraged by summoned chak.	This ability has been disabled.
Defensive	Exploiter	Attack from close up to identify weak point.	Touching the bubble surrounding the enemy will grant the  Identified Weak Point for 20 seconds during which the enemy can be damaged.
	Phase-Shifted	Avoids attacks from outside the designated area.	Standing in the designated blue areas will allow to damage the enemy. The area will change between melee and ranged distances. Any damage done from the outside of this field will be blocked.
	Propagator	Plants a tendril that applies protection to allies.	Protection Tendrils appear near the enemy. Can be ignored or easily taken down by damaging them.
	Restorer	Spawns a coalescence to provide a health shield.	Summons Elite Healing Coalescences or Champion Healing Coalescences periodically. Can be either ignored or killed.
	Signaler	Blinds players who ignore stop or go signals.	When the enemy has a  Red Light next to it, players must not move in order to damage the enemy. During the  Green Light players must be always moving while causing damage. Not following these rules causes  Persistently Blinded causing all attacks to the enemy to miss.
	Survivor	Periodically blocks the next several attacks.	Doing damage during this time is automatically blocked. Waiting for this to end is encouraged.
Legendary	Captor	Traps players in difficult-to-escape snares.	Small AoE fields start appearing near the enemy locking players within them. Player cannot run out of the field, but can simply evade or use other means to escape the field.
	Flash Freeze1	Time jumps to avoid chilling pulses.	Jumping during the wave to avoid the momentary freeze.
	Frightener	Surrounds itself with a fear-inducing field.	Damaging the enemy should not be affected.
	Hammerer	Knocks down foes with hammer strikes.	Three rotating hammers will start to circle the enemy increasing and decreasing the distance from it. Avoid touching the hammers since they cause knockdown.
	Petrifier	Locks eyes to turn foes to stone.	Facing the opposite way of the enemy whenever the petrification sign appears above the enemy should be enough to prevent petrification.
Icebrood Saga	Frigid Footfalls	Creates icy areas that damages and chill enemies.	Leaves behind a trail in its path that inflicts  Chilled and pulsing damage (roughly 200 radius). Encourages skills with larger ranges.
	Frigid Vortex	A vortex of freezing cold air surrounds you, periodically dealing massive damage.	Four ice tempests emerge then move outwards and spin around.
	Frozen Barrier	Periodically generates a barrier that reflects missiles.	Temporary barrier on the enemy that reflects projectiles.
	Icy Echoes	When hit, causes the attacker to deal damage to allies in a radius around themselves. No attacker can cause this effect more than once every 2 seconds.	Each player pulses low damage (at most every two seconds) to nearby players each time the enemy is hit. Discourages tight stacking.
	Lethal Coalescence	Periodically targets a foe with a massive burst of frost magic. The damage done by this attack is distributed among all enemies caught in the blast.	Targets a random player with a green circle that inflicts massive damage to all players within the circle after a delay. Each player standing within greatly reduces the damage. Encourages group stacking.

1. Also part of The Icebrood Saga specific effect.

See also

• List of NPCs with Unstable Magic Abilities

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Effects (stacking)