Death and Taxes (War for the Atlas)

Death and Taxes is a unique .

Map type: Indoor

Boss:

• Avatar of Ash
• Avatar of Winter
• Avatar of Silence
• Avatar of Apocalypse

Mechanics

Death and Taxes is reminiscent of a raid boss in classic MMORPGs. The map is initially empty. Players must run past three orange portals, which are surrounded by elemental effects similar to those of certain Shrines, to the end of the map where a final fourth orange portal can be found. Upon reaching the end, the boss is activated and blue portals throughout the map will spawn hostile animated weapons.

The map has no native monsters other than the boss, which has 4 forms, though portals will spawn animated weapons after the boss has been engaged. Once each form is killed, the boss will enter an "in-between stage", becoming immune to damage until it is lured to the next orange portal. Players need to kill every form to complete the map. Each form will drop loot.

Animated weapons

Once the first portal is activated, these are spawned continuously until the last boss's form is dead. Caveat: animated weapons can't be hit with Spark. Spark is ground projectile, and animated weapons are flying.

Avatar of Ash

Once the first portal is activated, Avatar of Ash will spawn, which uses Flameblast, and Fireball supported by Lesser Multiple Projectiles. Flameblast is by far the most dangerous of these, especially since all of the action tends to make the expanding circle difficult to see until it is too late, especially in the presence of stun and desync. You need to pre-emptively move every few seconds in order not to get hit.

Avatar of Winter

Upon reaching the next portal, the boss will take form of Avatar of Winter, which uses a huge AoE Ice Nova, long range Glacial Cascade and spawns ice versions of Firestorm.

Avatar of Silence

Upon reaching the next portal, the boss takes form of Avatar of Silence, which casts Shock Nova, Ball Lightning, and Storm Call. As with Avatar of Ash's Flameblasts, it is unwise to stand still; while one Storm Call hit probably won't kill you, an entire salvo may do so.

Avatar of Apocalypse

Upon entering the final portal, Avatar of Apocalypse spawns, which uses all previous spells combined. This is the boss' final form; Avatar of Apocalypse will not respawn once killed.

Divination card

The following divination card can drop in this area:

• The GamblerThe Gambler5Divination Card"I don't believe in karma. If it were real, I would never win."

Supporter attribution

Death and Taxes was created by an anonymous supporter.

Legacy variants

Death and Taxes has legacy variants.

Version Discontinued	Base Item	Modifiers
2.4.0	Necropolis Map Map Level: 77	Unique Boss deals +(50 to 60)% Damage and attacks (25 to 30)% faster Unique Boss gives 10000% increased Experience
2.0.0	Necropolis Map Map Level: 75	Unique Boss deals +(50 to 60)% Damage and attacks (25 to 30)% faster Unique Boss gives 10000% increased Experience

Version history

Version	Changes
2.2.2	The Death and Taxes unique map can no longer spawn Perandus Chests or Cadiro, as they were capable of spawning on areas the boss needed to go to in order for the map to be completed.
1.1.4	Introduced to the game.