Annihilation

[Corfe]

Anyone struggled with this one and got some GOOD advice how to beat it? First phase is super easy for me but second must be some kind of joke or i'm not getting something. Undoable would describe the level of difficulty it poses.

[Ashen]

It might seem overwhelming at first but as long as you have something to deal with the orbs (like the Enigma), the fight is quite easy. The orbs are pretty much the only threat in this fight. My advice: stay calm and listen to the audio cues for the attacks, they basically tell you when to dodge. Also, I would recommend doing it solo for your first time because online input delay can mess up your dodges much more than any other boss fight.

[Flyingshjt]

I recommend lowering the music for this fight. Right before annie does an attack, if the background music is low enough, you will hear a *shwiing* sound effect indicating that the attack will come right after. So you u hear this sound, you have about half a second to hit dodge.

[Daidaedra]

the lights on the ground also explode in the order they apeared in. so you can save stamina and only try to dodge once the explotion reaches you.
the bars that approach you you can also crouch underneath
and the orbs are instantly destroyed if hit with "song of eafier" if well placed it trivialises that phase and stunns annihilation if all orbs are destroyed.

There are alot of effects and it is usefull to learn what effect means what.

the tentacles also flash an effect in the direction they will fall befor creating the walls.
once you get a feeling for it´s attacks you should see that it attacks slower than you would originally think. they want you to feel overwhealmed initially.

[The Icecream Snowman]

This boss is all about visual noise and distractions.

As soon as phase 2 starts, run to the far left wall. Left because the camera is over your right shoulder so you get a little more visibility.

Now, basically ignore the tentacles, ignore the beams and red circles, ignore the vertical bar attacks. You only need to dodge the big sword, horizontal red bars, balls and maybe one or two red circles, if you're stood right in it.

Next, listen for the ping sound which indicates an attack is about to come. That's you cue to be ready to dodge.

When the orbs spawn, ignore the boss and shoot them down. They drop ammo and the more you kill, the fewer can attack you when they are released.

Then the phase switches back, be ready to dodge. Don't be greedy, dodging is more important than shooting.

[Velmoria]

In phase 2 form, the only thing you need to dodge is "whatever long stick" it uses for slash and ground slam which spawn black mist under your feet with dodge roll. You can ignore everything else.

Annihilation attacks always have 2 sequences and the "switch" always happens between them. So observe boss animation so you can remember what attack comes after the "switch".

[stribogger]

If all else fails, run Challenger/Shield Drone together and get your armor up, then wear the rings that let you light roll even with heavy armor. Makes the fight alot easier, obviously, as you can just eat a lot of the hits and it doesn't really matter. You can infinitely respec your trait points too, so you can put some into siphoner and then wear the ring that grants you an extra 4% lifesteal, now you are at 8-10% lifesteal along with the shield and the second life from challenger.

But, like everyone else says, the second phase is a bunch of audio/visual noise. just pay attention to the timing of his swipe, and watch out for the red orbs, which you can take out easily with an AOE or crowd control, then refocus on the big man. You can also practice him in boss rush whenever you want on any difficulty anyway.

[靐]

git gud. No, seriously, git gut. Once you get how to beat the boss you realise how great the design around it. Turn off the music and listen to "BRRR" sound cues. Once you hear that simply dodge after like 1s. That's it. Pay attention when it switches phases cuz it may be in mid attack. During the coop you can clearly see when someone played the boss before or not lmao.

As of the build I suggest you to have some aoe vs annoying stuff. For damage I used crossbow (lol) it is kinda crazy here. I ran amulet for inf ammo for memes, artifact for lifesteal, rings for even more lifesteal, invoker+ritualist to proc dots and aoe vs annoying stuff. Cat ring in case I am not gitgut. With all that lifesteal and skills you should always be at 100% hp. You can also try the ring "shield on ability usage". With the new prism system it should be even easier now.

[Kappa]

Listen to sound and don't rely on sight.
While it might be overwhelming at first, it's pretty chilling once you learn the trick.

[WeaverDuck]

Dont rely only on roll, use backstep and listen to sound cues. Fight itself is quite easy after you do that.

[Jay_square]

either git gud and learn the mechanics or get a friend to carry your weak @$$

[Corfe]

thank you for all the tips. Im currently postponing this misery by doing DLC's :) But Ill annihilate Annihilation very soon.

[Xaelon]

I beat that fight on Apoc by stacking shields. I recall using Engineer Medic with Sparkfire and other sources of DoTs. That way I could let my turrets and DoTs damage the boss while I focused on dodging.

Medic Shield + shielded heart + max Vigor trait will stop the boss from being able to oneshot you with everything except for a full salvo of orbs. You could probably use warden's shield drone to achieve similar results. Medic Shield + Shield drone would make you very hard to kill for that matter. Black Cat ring is worth throwing on too.

Regarding the orbs: enigma makes short work of them.

Phase 2 is awful though. The arena swapping BS is a garbage design choice. You'll just have to do the fight enough times to get used to it.

[Corfe]

Just killed it by doing a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ of damage in a very short time. Used that gun made of fingers (nightfall) and gear boosting its damage to unholy proportions. Whole fight took a minute or so. :) The ending was really unexpected. Thanks again for all the tips.

[PR1D3]

Ursprungligen skrivet av WeaverDuck:

Dont rely only on roll, use backstep and listen to sound cues. Fight itself is quite easy after you do that.

Pretty much this plus like what others say turn off the music. It's better to play without music when you're learning this boss so you can hear the sound cues. The neutral dodge is better due to how snappy it is and necessary with how the boss has some back to back attacks. Roll dodge animation takes up time that can throw you off. Put in the time. Annihilation can be one of the easiest boss to fight when you understand him and the sound cues. Those cues could make it where you could wear a blindfold and still dodge all his attacks with ease.