YSKARA – THE ICE QUEEN

OVERVIEW

Part boss fight, part arena control – Yskara the Ice Queen is a complex Boss that requires quick reflexes and the ability to multitask.

Yskara is sustained by the Heart of Ice, a floating crystal in the middle of the arena. To take Yskara down permanently, you need to destroy the Heart of Ice. Otherwise, she’ll keep coming back to inflict icy torment on your Invokers.

Melting the Heart of Ice requires you destroying – and keeping control – of three Elemental Shards located around the arena. Controlling these means you can finally put Yskara down for good. Melee Attackers are a god-send for this fight, as they gain a whopping +100 ATK bonus and aren’t slowed down by her Call of the Tundra skill. Don’t neglect Move SPD either – you’ve got a lot of running to do!

So you have a choice – ignore Yskara and focus only on capturing the Elemental Shards? Or take her out ASAP so you can focus the Shards down without interruption?

Our advice: take Yskara out first, so she cannot slow you down in taking the first Shard or two. Once she’s back in the fight, focus on her again, take her out and capture what’s remaining. The blizzard that she casts is a real pain to deal with as the fight goes on, as it can slow your Invokers to a crawl. Defeating Yskara also deals damage equal to 10% of the Heart of Ice's MAX HP – so there's an extra bonus to not letting her wreak icy havoc!

But don’t get tunnel vision! You can only take her down for good once the Heart of Ice is gone. Keep your head on a swivel, be ready to change your focus, and you’ll soon turn this Ice Queen to slush.

DO

✓ Bring Melee Attackers.

✓ Control the Flame Shards!

✓ Use Invokers or Relics with Frost and Fatigue Tolerances.

✓ Focus on DPS and Move SPD - the faster you take control and move between Flame Shards, the faster you’ll melt the Heart of Ice.

DON'T

✕ Rely on Ranged Attackers – they miss out on a huge +100% ATK bonus and will be slowed by Yskara’s blizzard.

✕ Ignore the minon waves! Failure to control them means you’ll constantly be fighting to regain control of the Flame Shards.

✕ Focus solely on Yskara. While she is a threat, your real objective is destroying the Heart of Ice.

✕ Stay still. You need to be constantly on the move to protect the Flame Shards and stop incoming minions.

SKILL BREAKDOWN

Passive – Cold Heart

Damages the Heart of Ice by 10% of its MAX HP every time Yskara is defeated.

Yskara will automatically revive after 30s, with full HP, if the Heart of Ice has not been destroyed.

  • TIP #1: Don’t rely on Block Revive! It will not stop Yskara’s revival by the Heart of Ice, so you cannot overcome her power the easy way.

 

  • TIP #2: Get up close and personal. You might want to use Ranged Attackers to save on running distance, but Melee Attackers gain +100% ATK in this fight. Use them to take Yskara out quickly, so you can focus on controlling the Flame Shards.

  • TIP #3: Taking Yskara out does deal damage to the Heart of Ice – but don't rely on this as your main damage source! Controlling the Flame Shards is still the fastest way to end this fight.

Combo Attack #1

Attacks 1 enemy, dealing N damage. 

Combo Attack #2

Selects 1 enemy. Attacks all enemies in a 7m radius around the target, dealing N damage per hit.

Skill 1 – Call of the Tundra

Calls a Blizzard, covering the whole arena, lasting 10s. The Blizzard ticks 1 time every 1s. Each tick deals N damage to all enemies in the area. Each hit casts a [50% Move SPD Down] debuff on the target, lasting 3s. The [Move SPD Down] debuff will not affect Melee Attackers.

 

Casts 2 stacks of Fatigue Corruption on each target. The Fatigue Corruption ticks 1 time every 10s. Each tick damages the target by 0.5% of their MAX HP. Each stack of Fatigue Corruption decreases the target's Move Speed by 3%.

  • TIP #1: Bring Fatigue Tolerance. Having high Move SPD is absolutely essential for rotating round the area to keep control of the Flame Shards – and the Move SPD reduction from Fatigue stacks fast. You can’t avoid the blizzard once it’s cast, so the only way to decrease the Move SPD reduction and the damage applied by Fatigue is with Fatigue Tolerance. 

 

  • TIP #2: Take out Yskara! Keeping Yskara out of the fight means you don’t have to deal with the blizzard at all. Dispatching her will also stop the blizzard immediately, so focus nearby Melee Attackers on her if you’re caught in the storm.

Skill 2 – Winter's Fury

Attacks the furthest enemy in a 50m radius, dealing N damage. Casts Frost Corruption on the target, lasting 3s. Frost Corruption prevents Skill Recovery for its duration.

  • TIP #1: You can’t escape. Yskara uses this Skill a lot, and the size of the arena means you cannot avoid it. Those Frost Corruption begin to stack up, meaning getting hit will essentially be an instant stun – and time is of the essence. Take her out fast!

CORRUPTIONS 

Yskara has two Corruptions: one Damage Corruption (Fatigue), and one Control Corruption (Frost).

Each of Yskara's attacks will deal extra damage as Fatigue Damage, which is not decreased by your Invokers’ DEF Stat.

DAMAGE CORRUPTION –  FATIGUE

Fatigue Corruption

  • Each stack of Fatigue damages the target by a percentage of their MAX HP every tick. Each stack also decreases the target's Move SPD. Infinite duration.

Fatigue Tolerance

Fatigue Corruption is a damage-over-time effect that damages the recipient by a percentage of their MAX HP every tick. It also decreases the target's Move SPD by a certain percentage. Fatigue Corruption has an infinite duration and cannot be removed. Fatigue Corruption stacks additively, so each stack of Fatigue directly increases the damage per tick along with the Move SPD reduction.

Bosses with Fatigue Corruption also deal direct Fatigue damage from their Skills, in addition to their regular damage. Direct Fatigue damage ignores the target's DEF stat, and can only be decreased by the target's Fatigue Tolerance.

Increasing an Invoker's Fatigue Tolerance will decrease all Fatigue damage by the Invoker's Tolerance percentage, along with decreasing the effects of the Move SPD reduction.

CONTROL CORRUPTION – FROST 

 

Frost Corruption

  • Stuns the target, making them unable to move or use Skills. Stops all Skill Cooldowns on the target.

Frost Tolerance

Frost Corruption stuns the target, while also freezing all of the target's cooldowns for its duration.

With cooldowns on pause, your Invokers can effectively be locked out of using their Active and Ultimate Skills if they get hit with Frost Corruption at a bad time. This means no heals, no buffs or debuffs - restricted to Combo Attacks alone.

Increasing an Invoker's Frost Tolerance decreases the duration of the Frost Corruption by the Invoker's Tolerance percentage, which means a shorter stun, and less time with frozen Cooldowns.

STRATEGY

This is a battle where speed is of the essence: you are effectively on the clock, and speed of movement and rate of damage will decide your fate.

THE HEART OF ICE

Yskara the Ice Queen gains her strength from the Heart of Ice – the eternally frozen Shard at the centre of the Crucible. While the Heart of Ice remains, the Yskara cannot be permanently defeated – she will constantly revive after a short time.

 

To defeat Yskara for good, you need to destroy the Heart of Ice – but the Heart cannot be damaged directly.

THE SHARDS

The Heart of Ice is powered by the three Elemental Shards, located around the Crucible, on the upper level. Each Shard will either heal or hurt the Heart of Ice, depending on who last destroyed it - either your team or the enemy team.

When these Shards first spawn, they will be Frost Shards and will continuously heal the Heart of Ice. But, if you can destroy a Shard, it will switch forms: it will respawn as a Flame Shard and damage the Heart of Ice, instead of healing it.

You will have significant resistance: enemy minions will respawn throughout the battle, and will want to keep control of as many Frost Shards as possible. Their aim is to keep the Heart fully healed and unleash the Ice Queen’s ultimate power. These minions will protect Frost Shards and look to prevent you from switching them to Flame Shards.

But, even if you manage to destroy a Frost Shard and switch it to Flame, your job still isn’t done. Enemy minions will constantly try to destroy Flame Shards and switch them back to Frost - so you’ll need to constantly defend them.

THE ICE QUEEN

Then, there’s the small matter of Yskara herself. She’s going to make your task incredibly hard – she will constantly slow your team and make it even more difficult to maintain control of the Shards. On the positive side, this has much less of an effect on Melee Attackers – so you might want to leave your ranged Invokers at home for this fight.

Remember, Yskara cannot be permanently defeated while the Heart of Ice is alive. She will always respawn, so defeating her only grants you a temporary respite from her torment - but it is worth it, if you’re fast enough to take advantage while she’s out-of-action.

HOW TO WIN

If you're able to control the Shards and destroy the Heart of Ice, then Yskara will lose her power – and you can defeat her once and for all.

To win this fight, you’ll need to maintain more Flame Shards than Frost Shards throughout the battle. This means Move SPD and damage output is paramount: you’ll need to be fast enough to navigate the arena, and have enough damage to destroy the Shards quickly and get them back on your side.