Vortex

For the NPC of the same name see Vortex (NPC).
==Locations==
==Characteristics==
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==Spells==
* All in Good Time: Deals damage to any characters/summons being currently linear to the Auroraire (infinite range). It's exactly 500 earth damage, 20% erosion and additional earth damage that equals 50% of the character's eroded HP. Cast once per turn.
* Zombie Contamination: Spell cast linearly (8 range) in a 2-cell-AoE, applies the unhealable state for 1 turn, unbewitchable. The spell cannot be cast if no monsters have died yet. The spell gets locked once all monsters of all waves are defeated.
* Clockrock: Cast automatically on turns 4, 7, 10 etc. The spell has an effect depending on whether all monsters of all waves are already dead or not. If not: all monsters on the map infinitely gain the buff that's associated with the current state of the Auroraire. It gets removed when the monsters die. If no monsters play anymore: he teleports himself next to the Auroraire, priority on the right, then clockwise rotation.
* Time Out: The spell gets unlocked once all waves are defeated, meaning they do not play anymore. It's cast linearly with a range of 8 (no line of sight). Deals fire and agility damage, removes 2 turns of effects and applies the "pacifist" state (unbewitchable). Cast 3 times per turn.
* Vormhole: Gets unlocked the same way as the spell Time Out. Has short range, teleports the target onto its previous cell (like flight), hits an AoE of 2 cells (?) around the target as well. Deals earth, neutral and water damage or only earth damage. It leaves a poison which is activated on Vortex' next turn: the entities hit by Vormhole suffer the same damage once again (or inflict it in an AoE around them?). Cast 3 times per turn. The exact functionality of the spell is not confirmed. However, it does not matter a lot because you normally keep Vortex on range anyway when facing him, or simply kill him before he can even play.
==Drops==
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==Strategy==
; The Aurour
Vortex will summon his unmovable and invulnerable Aurour at the beginning of the fight. Like the Aurour, Vortex is unmovable and invulnerable. Imagine it as a clock hand because there are 12 fixed positions on the border of the map which it rotates through (not to mention the map is somewhat shaped like a big clock). If one of the fixed positions is occupied by any entity, the Aurour will always change places with it when rotating. The position determines the current state of the Aurour, for example "Twelfth hour" state when it's located on the top of the map or "Sixth hour" state when it's on the bottom of the map. Firstly, the state of the Aurour determines some of Vortex' spells described above. Furthermore, the Aurour is an essential mechanic in the dungeon to actually defeat the monsters. Vortex has -100 MP and as you can read above, he pretty much doesn't do much by himself, so the first part of the fight is all about defeating the waves.
; Revival mechanic
As a dungeon mechanic (not by a certain spell of Vortex), any monsters that died last turn are automatically revived in the beginning of a new round. Monsters can be revived a limitless amount of times just like in Sylargh. This means that with 6 loot for example starting from wave 5, there will be exactly 29 monsters on the map (plus Vortex). The monsters are summoned on a range of 3 next to Vortex, priority being on the right and then changing clockwise (same priority as with Queen of Thieves' Bonbombs). They are revived with 50% of their max. HP, erosion is taken into account and stacks. Thus, it's about 3000 when first revived in case it only suffered natural erosion (or about 2200 for later waves since they only have 4950 HP).
In case a monster is killed twice on the same hour, it will be revived as always, but will infinitely be invulnerable and infinitely skip turns. It stays on the map but it's practically defeated. This is the only way to defeat a monster in Vortex! While the Aurour is in a certain hour state, all monsters on the map that were once defeated at a time when the Aurour was in that same hour state enter the "same hour" state. Obviously, you will have to try to kill monsters in the "same hour" state as much as you can. If you're too slow, you can't avoid being submerged by the waves.
The monsters that infinitely skip their turn are still able to lock. On top, all monsters apply an automatic effect at the beginning of their turn, including "defeated" monsters: any "defeated" monsters being within a range of 2 linearly from the monster are pushed away by 2 cells. This makes it impossible to block fresh monsters between some defeated ones. Otherwise, it's quite negligible with ranged tactics but should be kept in mind for close range tactics.
; How does the Aurour rotate?
Obviously you have to know how Vortex' summon rotates through the hours in order to come up with a certain system/strategy to kill monsters. There is on the one hand an automatic mechanic that moves the Aurour and another mechanic enabling players to make the Aurour rotate by choice.
The automatic mechanic: Each time a player begins a turn, the Aurour rotates by one hour. This means for example for 4 loot that the Aurour will be in "fourth hour" state before turn 2 and in "eighth hour" state before turn 3 (the Aurour is in "twelfth hour" state in the very beginning of the fight). That being said, 5 loot or 7 loot are generally the worst choices for the dungeon because the rhythm of the Aurour is totally irregular and it's very hard to have a system. Considering hour rhythm, 6 loot is the easiest because the hours will be cyclically the same every 2 turns. The last player for example will always have hours 6, 12, 6, 12 etc. Thus, you only have to keep in mind to re-kill a monster two turns later once you killed it. 4 loot goes well too, the cyclic rhythm of the Aurour will be 3 turns instead of 2.
The additional mechanic: It has to do with the blue glyphs that are generated by the monsters. Each monster lays a blue glyph on the same cell at the start of its turn. Each glyph lasts for 1 turn. If an entity is attracted/pushed beyond a glyph, it will stop on the glyph. The glyph has an effect once a character enters it, either by movement or going inside: The character changes places with the respective monster and the Aurour rotates by 1 hour. On top, both the monster and the character gain a certain buff for 1 turn. Each fugitive has a distinct buff, you can look them up on the respective monster pages. Both effects, the buff and the rotation will happen even if places are not exchanged! This means you could for example go inside and out of a glyph several times with Stabilization. Or even easier: locking a monster with a Panda and using it to pick it up and activate the glyph up to 3 times per turn, by your choice. Classes that push easily, like Srams, can do the job as well. With 1 glyph, it's theoretically possible to rotate the Aurour an unlimited amount of times. This additional mechanic is irrelevant for any strategies that operate on range. In order to make use of it, you practically have to be close to at least one monster, but part of your initial goal is to keep them on range anyway. That being said, it's only viable for close range tactics and should be used!
The Aurour mechanic: Each time anyone (can be a summon) hits Aurour, that attacker gets teleported symmetrically to the Aurour if a destination cell exists. If the teleportation effect causes the attacker to swap places with another entity (similar to a telefrag effect), the Aurour will also rotate to the next hour immediately. This effect can be triggered multiple times during the same turn.
; The Aurour buffs
Each of the 12 possible states of the Aurour has a certain buff associated with it that can affect monsters. The respective buff is applied to a monster once it dies. For example, when a monster dies while the Aurour is in the "fourth hour" state, the monster will gain the buff associated with hour 4 when revived. The buff is infinitely attached to the monster, even if it dies again. Buffs can stack, so a monster that was killed 3 times, on hours 4, 5 and 6, will always have the respective buffs of hours 4, 5 and 6. Also, don't forget that Vortex casts a spell every 3 turns (turns 4, 7, 10, 13 etc) that buffs all monsters on the map depending on the Aurour's current state. Either you watch out for that by rotating the Aurour thanks to a blue glyph (close range tactic) or you have such an hour rhythm that you simply don't have to care about it. That's the case for 6 loot on range. This variant will always have hours 6 or 12 on Vortex' turn which are both not dangerous. However, some hours are problematic or even lethal, depending on strategy and team composition. You should definitely come up with such a system that monsters are never killed on hours that are problematic for your team.
List of buffs from hours 1 to 12:
# +10 Critical Hits and +200 Critical Damage
# Unlockable state
# +400 Intelligence
# +2 MP
# Damage suffered x70% (like Pandas' boozer)
# +400 Chance
# +150 Critical Resistance
# +4 AP
# +400 Strength
# Cannot be pushed or attracted anymore
# +30% Vitality
# +400 Agility
; Final step of the fight
Once all monsters of all waves are "defeated", meaning after the last revival, Vortex unlocks his two main damage spells (described above). However he stays invulnerable, unmovable and keeps his -100 MP. Also, his spell Clockrock already changes properties as described above. The following round, Vortex himself doesn't do anything, stays invulnerable but loses his -100 MP and his unmovable state. All monsters on the map disappear and all characters such as Vortex are teleported to their initial positions, meaning their positions at the very beginning of the fight. Vortex will absorb any buffs into himself that were given to monsters during the fight, each of them stackable once. This excludes buffs that were given due to the Clockrock spell. During this turn, you obviously cannot damage Vortex, but place yourself properly or apply buffs for next turn. 
Vortex automatically teleports himself next to the Aurour at the start of turns 25, 28, 31 etc.
; Strategies
The most common strategy was once the close range tactic based on a Rogue (4 loot), taking advantage of the massive and everlasting damage of a bomb wall to kill and re-kill tons of monsters each turn before they even play (also known as "Spawnkill"). While often being declared as too easy or "Auto-win", it actually required considerable set investment, an extremely precise placement of bombs and very solid turns up until turn 10 roughly. Thus, this was a widespread misconception.
Now however, with the dimension update, this tactic was nerfed drastically. Each wave is allowed to play for at least one turn now. If they either succeed in killing a character or messing up your precise placement, it might be over. The skill level for this tactic has considerably increased, for me it was one of the most challenging things in the game recently. It might still be needed though to complete the Trio or Impertinence achievement.
That being said, ranged strategies seem the easiest now. They were already used earlier but were largely outclassed by the "Spawnkill" strategy. You should have at least one Enutrof or Cra for MP reduction/pushing and a team that's capable of dealing very high damage in order to kill mobs as frequently as possible. Common choices are teams full of damage Cras or an Eliotrope accompanied by a damage-heavy team in general.
; Bugs
Currently there are quite some bugs in Vortex which might affect close range tactics but are more or less insignificant for ranged strategies. Monsters revived and killed directly by a bomb wall are taken into account, but they are not shown. Under certain circumstances, revived monsters can be invisible, either until the respective character has his turn, or even completely. It can cause confusions that are lethal. Also, the state display of the invulnerable state can simply lack which can be just as confusing. But this is more of a general problem that the state display in Dofus currently has. However, those bugs don't change anything if you know exactly what you're doing and know your system. This way you know anyway where is what and what's dead and what's not.
Category:Xelorium
Category:Divine Dimensions