How to tell "Spell" from "Attack" for boss abilities?

The upcoming changes with the removal of dodge and increase to evasion and spell suppression seem to really emphasize a distinction between incoming "attacks" and "spells". My question is, how in the world do we tell these things apart? A lot of the endgame bosses don't visibly have weapons in a normal sense, but I kind of doubt that they only use "spell" abilities.
Sirus shoots one of his several types of beam at you; is that a spell? The Shaper throws some glowing orbs at you; is that an attack?
How is anyone supposed to know?

Do you really think that beams and balls are attacks?

"

Cimmerian_ wrote:

Do you really think that beams and balls are attacks?

So do Sirus, Shaper, Elder, and Maven just have "spells" only and no "attacks"?

"

EveryZig314 wrote:

"

Cimmerian_ wrote:

Do you really think that beams and balls are attacks?

So do Sirus, Shaper, Elder, and Maven just have "spells" only and no "attacks"?

https://pathofexile.fandom.com/wiki/The_Elder


This page will tell you each attack and spell for every boss in the game, and I believe every monster as well. Check it out.

"

Cimmerian_ wrote:

"

EveryZig314 wrote:

"

Cimmerian_ wrote:

Do you really think that beams and balls are attacks?

So do Sirus, Shaper, Elder, and Maven just have "spells" only and no "attacks"?

https://pathofexile.fandom.com/wiki/The_Elder


This page will tell you each attack and spell for every boss in the game, and I believe every monster as well. Check it out.

This page refers to everything as Attacks, from the ice spears to the siphon, and describes none of them as Spells. The word "spell" does not even appear on the entire page. Are you telling me that everything the Elder does is Attack type (rather than the page just using "Attacks" colloquially to refer to the Elder's offense abilities")

Easy, just look at the combat/death log.

So on the wiki, the Shaper's page says which abilities are Spell type and which are Attack type. The Elder and Sirus pages list the abilities but don't clarify Attack vs Spell (just referring to everything as "Attacks" probably colloquially). The Maven's page doesn't even list her abilities.

"

EveryZig314 wrote:

This page refers to everything as Attacks, from the ice spears to the siphon, and describes none of them as Spells. The word "spell" does not even appear on the entire page. Are you telling me that everything the Elder does is Attack type (rather than the page just using "Attacks" colloquially to refer to the Elder's offense abilities")

it doesnt matter if you dont know which one it is

theres a group of abilities that are clear 1 shots that you need to be aware of and relying on dodge for them is stupid to begin with

shit like eva/dodge is something that you use to conveniently have easier time mapping, not facetanking signature boss attacks

"

yamface wrote:

"

EveryZig314 wrote:

This page refers to everything as Attacks, from the ice spears to the siphon, and describes none of them as Spells. The word "spell" does not even appear on the entire page. Are you telling me that everything the Elder does is Attack type (rather than the page just using "Attacks" colloquially to refer to the Elder's offense abilities")

it doesnt matter if you dont know which one it is

theres a group of abilities that are clear 1 shots that you need to be aware of and relying on dodge for them is stupid to begin with

shit like eva/dodge is something that you use to conveniently have easier time mapping, not facetanking signature boss attacks

With 100% Spell Suppression some of those might not be one-shots IF they are spells, but who knows if they are spells?

Also, Dodge does very much help a lot of the time with Sirus's final phase "teleport away and shoot several homing beams" attack, since failing to doge ALL of them is fairly unlikely and dodging even one can be the difference between survival and not.

Also, fing lol at "you don't need to know what's a spell or attack, I simply play perfectly and never get hit".

"

EveryZig314 wrote:

Also, Dodge does very much help a lot of the time with Sirus's final phase "teleport away and shoot several homing beams" attack, since failing to doge ALL of them is fairly unlikely and dodging even one can be the difference between survival and not.

Also, fing lol at "you don't need to know what's a spell or attack, I simply play perfectly and never get hit".

so what youre saying is youre too incompetent to play the sirus fight properly so you resort to stacking dodge to cheese the die beam... fyi dodge does nothing against that move because its a spell and therefore you need spell block/spell dodge and not regular dodge. and even then you have to get cb and shock immunity AND build a well above average hp pool. ive looked at your expedition characters you are nowhere close to tanking that beam so knowing which one is which doesnt even matter