Spec for high mobility, single target burn, hero at the start of phase 4 (last canister).
Basic mechanic is dealing with 4 containers that slowly fill up with energy. As containers hit 33 and 66% bad things happen. The boss will focus a container and charge it up over a minute; this is broken if the boss takes 25% damage.
Players can drain containers by clicking on them, but they can’t drain one the boss is actively charging. If a container hits 100% the raid explodes. Use world markers to identify the containers so that as raiders get turned about they can orient themselves. Draining a container is minor raid damage (~500 per tick) so try to drain containers one at a time.
The order containers get filled is set, as shown below – 1, 2, 3, 4 (from left to right). On our attempts, Darkvein never stops filling the last container, so it’s a DPS race. You either kill her or she blows up the raid.
Since the order is set, the drain order is also mandated:
Drain the container that is about to be focused.
Drain a container that has just finished being focused.
Drain any container that is getting close to 30%.
Generally tank the boss near her spawn location to give orb-cutters room to move (see later), and move adds that spawn to the boss (see later). Assign ranged/heals to stand by containers so they can be drained immediately. Ranged and heals should generally be spread out amongst the entire area so that they can catch BOTTLED ANIMA throughout the encounter.
CONSTANT MECHANICS:
WARPED DESIRES: Physical dot on the tanks, swap ~2 stacks.
BOTTLED ANIMA: Red swirlies that need to be soaked by a single player.
SINS AND SUFFERING: Orbs that need to be cut by beams (see later).
ADDS: Player marked with LIGHTLY CONCENTRATED ANIMA. Player affected needs to drop their add >10 yards from melee, but not too far away (probably one container distance). Standard add is HARNESSED SPECTRE that cannot move – move the boss onto the add. Keep main damage on the boss and cleave to the add.
PHASE 1 (Exposed Desires)
Container 1 is being charged. Drain container 2.
33% Random players debuffed and share damage with the tank. Not clear if this is all damage or only the bleed. Use DR and shields to mitigate effective healing.
66% when the tank debuffs expire, debuffs explode. Get clear from raid. The area behind where Darkvein stands is a good place to explode safely.
PHASE 2 (Bottled Anima)
Container 2 is being charged. Drain container 1 and container 3.
Affects BOTTLED ANIMA soak pools. At 33%, the missile leaves behind a puddle of ticking damage, the catcher needs to get out ASAP. At 66%, targeting zone missile now bounces for a second required soak, meaning more puddles and less room to move. Unclear if bounce affected by player facing.
PHASE 3 (Sins and Suffering) – Drain container 2 and container 4.
At 33% orbs are linked by a beam that deals massive damage, raid needs to get clear. At 66% beams start rotating around making it difficult to clear them. You can consider HERO near the end of this phase to quickly push out of it.
CLEARING ORBS:
Three players will be affected by SHARED SUFFERING (visible lines that tick for 2k damage each). Orbs are destroyed by having SHARED SUFFERING link through all orbs at the same time.
Players will instinctively stand behind an orb as shown below, which will not work:
Instead, players need to stand next to an orb as shown below. This is made much easier by having one player locked into position and then the other two players adjust appropriately.
Use a raid marker (STAR) at the start of the encounter to indicate a zone of truth. The player who has the orb closest to this marker should stay at their position and the others should adjust. Place this near the melee pile so that if a melee player gets the debuff, they have a good chance of being able to continue attacking the boss while the other players get into position.
The player in the LOCKED position must stand so that they are in a line with two orbs EG:
This strategy will work even when beams are present between orbs, and when beams are rotating.
Note in the example shown one beam is not cutting an orb. This is fine – the only thing matters is that ALL ORBS have ANY beams coming through them.
Also note that players will frequently need to stand quite far from their orb in order to cut it due to various other mechanics, which is why it’s imperative that one player lines up with two orbs, and the others adjust. No matter how far the locked player moves backwards, the other two will always be able to orient themselves to this first player.
Phase 4 (Concentrated Anima) –
Drain container 1 and container 3. Hero/Execute before the last container fills.
At 33% players debuffed with LIGHTLY FOCUSED ANIMA are now also rooted immediately AND a new add type appears. Raid should get clear of rooted players (few clears work; Paladin BLESSING OF FREEDOM confirmed). Tanks identify the tank add ASAP and move boss over to cleave down. The other adds need to be chain interrupted and focus down one after the other.
Raider should call out interrupts (I have next on X) and save interrupt til as late as possible, as after interrupt will start recasting immediately.
At 66% shards explode out of the spawn points that hit very hard. Raid needs to dodge aka ‘get clear of rooted players’ is now ‘or die’. Note shards splatter out to the edge of the raid so everybody will need to pay attention to this.
If there are rooted players in close proximity they need help to survive. Aim to have the boss down before this happens 🙂