Vishimtar The Fallen
This raid starts of relatively easy. The first 75% of the fight is pretty much standard. Most guilds seem to fail during the last 25% of the fight where each person in the raid must pay attention, else the raid will wipe. One of the most troubling parts of the raid is that if someone dies, a "Spirit Wraith" will spawn. These mobs hit for 1400+ and hit very quickly. Below is a run down of the fight.
Throughout the entire fight, Vishimtar cast's his AE:
Vishimtar's Shadow
Slot Description
1: Decrease HP when cast by 1250
2: Decrease Hitpoints by 850 per tick
4: Decrease Movement by 5%
11: Decrease Mana by 5 per tick
This can be cured with one cast of Resplendent Cure. Shamans' HoT, Spiritual Serenity, also works very well with keeping your group healed through the AE. The AE goes off approximately every two minutes.
Melee are reminded that Vishimtar has AE ramps. The problem with this is that his ramp range is fairly large and depending on where you are standing, it is still possible to be hit even if you are at max melee. I've found it helps if you stand right at the outer corner of his hit box, though be weary of push.
Eggs: At approximately 80%, everyone in the raid will get a yellow emote saying something along the lines of "Your actions have caused Vishimtar's children to waken. They will be... hungry". This means that Vishimtar's eggs ("a tainted egg") have spawned. Only one egg spawns at a time. When an egg spawns, everyone but the MT/Clerics/Enchanters must run to the egg and begin to kill it. The eggs must be hit with Blunt/Hand to Hand weapons. These weapons get a significant damage bonus versus the eggs. All other weapons do very minimal damage (1-50 damage per swing, typically). Once an egg dies, everyone needs to get back on Vish. The eggs will continue to spawn until four eggs have been killed. Keep in mind that if an egg does not die fast enough, several drakes will spawn that will wipe the raid. After the last of the four eggs is killed, everyone will get a yellow emote saying something along the lines of "How dare you encroach my home. I must protect the eggs." At this point, the raid gets a short break in egg spawns.
Shadows: At approximately 70%, several "Vishimtar's Shadows" spawn. These mobs hit for only 15 damage and proc a knockback. However, they only have 100HPs. DO NOT kill these shadows. If a shadow dies, a "Lifedrain Shadow" spawn in its place. These shadows hit significantly harder (up to 1600) and will quickly eat up your crowd control classes.
To deal with the shadows, group a Paladin with four or so Enchanters. The Enchanters mez the Shadows (Do note that the Shadows are highly resistant). The Paladin is in charge of casting group heals for the Enchanters. Also, the Paladin should stun the Shadows while they are mezzed so they will attack him if/when mez breaks. It is important that the enchanters keep the Paladin Runed. Otherwise, the Paladin will be knocked around significantly and may end up far away from the raid. In order to prevent an accidental riposte from killing a Shadow, the Paladin should remain ducked except when casting spells. Typically the crowd control group should remain away from the raid to minimize the chance of someone accidentally targetting then killing a Shadow.
If someone does kill a Shadow and a Lifedrain Shadow spawns, have an enchanter mez the Lifedrain. After a minute or so, the Lifedrain will despawn.
Clouds of Concentrated Chaos: Every 25%, starting at 75%, "a cloud of Concentrated Chaos" spawns. They con indifferent to all. When your clerics are starting to run low on mana, pull and kill the cloud. Upon its death, everyone in the raid gets healed for 10,000 and gets 10,000 mana. Keep in mind that everyone needs to go and attack eggs when they spawn and forget about the cloud until the egg is dead. Some people get too caught up in killing the cloud.
Corrupted Drakes: At 50%, four yellow con "Corrupted Drakes" spawn. Two spawn on the north side of the room, two spawn on the south side of the room. Dedicate two four-man groups to these drakes. A group should consist of two tanks (Knights or Warriors) and two healers (typically a Druid and a Shaman). These drakes are to be tank mezzed. It is important for the tanks to stand on the spawn spot of the drakes and aggro them immediately when they come alive. If they do not, there is a good chance that the Corrupted Drakes will warp to the raid. Do not kill them as they'll quickly respawn and need to re-debuffed. The Corrupted Drakes are highly resistant to magic, so ensure that an Enchanter comes by and Tash's each drake so slow can land. Once the drakes are slowed, it is easy to keep up with heals on the two tanks. To lighten the work load of the healers, pull the two north drakes together on the north, and the two south drakes together on the south side. Drake tanks and their healers should not go off to kill eggs.
Mournful Spirits: At 25% four Mournful Spirits spawn. This is where the raid gets difficult. At this point Vish starts to cast the AE "Creeping Doom" on four random people in the raid at certain intervals. Whoever gets hit with Creeping Doom has about 48 seconds to cure it. In order to cure Creeping Doom, you need to run up to a Mournful Spirit and say "shoulder my burden". When you do this, the Mournful Spirit despawns and cures your Creeping Doom. Make sure you have auto-attack turned off when you approach the Mournful Spirit. Also, you must be standing very close to the Mournful Spirit in order for it to cure you. Sometimes you must say the phrase multiple times before it will cure you; make you sure have a hotkey made to say "shoulder my burden". If Creeping Doom is not cured in time, Creeping Doom Trigger goes off and Death Touches whoever was cursed, causing a Spirit Wraith to spawn. Each time Creeping Doom gets cured, 1% of Vishimtar's health gets "unlocked". Translation: You cannot damage Vishimtar below 25% without having your raid force successfully curing Creeping Doom. If all four people cure Creeping Doom on the first wave, Vishimtar can be damaged down to 21%.
Have everyone in your raid set up an audio trigger to go off if they get Creeping Doom cast upon you. The audio trigger should go off on the text:
You sense your doom approaching
This makes it exceptionally easy to figure out if you have Creeping Doom. Keep in mind that no in-game sound goes off when Creeping Doom lands (unless you have an audio trigger set up) and that the icon for Creeping Doom looks just like the icon for Vishimtar's Shadow.
It is important for the Clerics in your raid to have Target Divine Aura. If the MT gets hit with Creeping Doom, have the ST ready to take aggro. When Creeping Doom has about 12 seconds before it goes off, have a cleric cast Divine Aura on the MT. When Creeping Doom goes off, the DA will block the 32,000 damage. Don't forget that the MT loses aggro when he has DA on. Have the MT click off DA when Creeping Doom is gone and re-take aggro.
On the same note, if you find yourself unable to find a Mournful Spirit and Creeping Doom is about to trigger, there is a couple of things you can do to avoid it. Clerics, SKs, Bards, Paladins, and Necros can cast Divine Aura/Harmshield/Kazumi's Note of Preservation to absorb the damage from Creeping Doom. Also, if you are bound in Plane of Knowledge, you can gate out before Creeping Doom wears off. Once you get into PoK, the DT will try to hit you for 32,000 but you'll get a message saying "You try to cast a spell on yourself, but you are protected".
It is entirely possible that there will not be enough Mournful Spirits up for the number of people that are hit with Creeping Doom. This happens since there can only be four Mournful Spirits up at a time and if someone still has the Creeping Doom from the previous cast, then cures himself after some of the Mournful Spirits respawn, someone from the next casting of Creeping Doom will not have a Spirit available to them. I think of it as "Musical Chairs of Death".
Remember, this part of the raid is very hectic. You have to have your entire raid force looking out for Creeping Doom and curing it, DPSing Vish, and killing "a tainted egg" as they spawn. If someone is not paying attention, it is very likely that they will die and cause your raid to wipe.
Spirit Wraiths: These are the adds that spawn when a member of your raid dies. If one of these spawns, quickly get an Enchanter or a Necro to mez it. After it has been up for a minute or so, it will automatically despawn.
Below is a macro I wrote when we first started doing Vish. The macro is designed to help you out during the last 25% of the fight. Here's what it does:
Checks to see if anyone around you gets hit with Creeping Doom (by parsing for the emote). If the macro sees that someone has been hit with it, it will send them a tell and also make an announcement in /gu.
If you get hit with Creeping Doom, the macro will automatically turn off attack, warp you to a Mournful Spirit and say "shoulder my burden" until you are cured. Then, it warps you back to where you were before you got hit with Creeping Doom. It is also written that if someone takes your Spirit before you get cured, it will warp you to the next one until you get cured.
|<<< Vishimtar Helper Macro >>>
|Written by Moonspell for RedGuides.com
|
| This macro is intended to be used during the
|Vishimtar event in DoN. The code doesn't become
|applicable until Vish is as 25% as that's where
|the event becomes difficult.
|Usage. Start up the macro as you would any other
|script (e.g. /mac filename.mac). Ensure that in your
|EQ options menu, under the filters tab, that PC and NPC
|spells are set to show. This is required so that the macro
|can tell when someone has been hit with the Death Touch AE.
|The ability to automatically cure yourself of the Creeping
|doom requires a warp plugin. Make sure you edit the macro
|to conform to the syntax of your particular plugin. If
|you do not have warp, or do not wish to warp, delete the
|shoulderMyBurden event.
|What it does. This macro serves two purposes. First off,
|it announces in /gu when someone standing near you
|has been hit with the Creeping Doom AE. It then targets the
|affected person and sends them a tell informing them
|that they have the DT and should run to a Mourning Spirit.
|The second function helps you rid yourself of Creeping
|Doom. When you are hit with it, you will target a
|mournful spirit, turn attack off, warp to it, hail it, and
|say "Shoulder my burden". The macro checks to see if someone
|caused your spirit to despawn and it will automatically
|warp you to the next one. Once that's over with, you will
|be automatically warped back to your original location.
#turbo
#event hitWithCreepingDoom "#1# goes pale#*#"
#event shoulderMyBurden "#*#You sense your doom approaching#*#"
sub main
/echo <<< Vishimtar Helper Macro Started >>>
/declare MyXLOCA int outer 0
/declare MyYLOCA int outer 0
/declare MyZLOCA int outer 0
/declare startingTarget string outer
:start
/doevents
/goto :start
/return
sub event_hitWithCreepingDoom(Filler, communications)
/varset startingTarget ${Target.CleanName}
/delay 1
/target pc ${communications}
/delay 1s ${Target.Name.Equal[${communications}]}
/if (${Target.Name.Equal[${communications}]}) {
/gu ${communications} is CURSED with Creeping Doom
/delay 2s
/tell ${communications} Run to the Spirit and Hail, and say 'Shoulder my Burden'
/target ${startingTarget}
}
/return
sub event_shoulderMyBurden
/varset MyXLOCA ${Me.X}
/varset MyYLOCA ${Me.Y}
/varset MyZLOCA ${Me.Z}
/varset startingTarget ${Target.CleanName}
/popup YOU HAVE BEEN HIT WITH CREEPING DOOM
/delay 2
:tryagain
/target "mournful spirit"
/attack off
/warp target
/stick
/delay 1
/keypress h
:ShoulderMyBurdenLoop
/delay 2s
/if (${Me.Buff[Creeping Doom].ID}) {
/if (${Target.CleanName.NotEqual[mourning spirit]}) /goto :tryagain
/if (${Target.ID}==FALSE) /goto :tryagain
/say Shoulder my burden
/goto :ShoulderMyBurdenLoop
} else {
/delay 1s
/stick off
/warp loc ${MyYLOCA} ${MyXLOCA} ${MyZLOCA}
/target ${startingTarget}
/return
}
Well, that's all I can remember for now. I hope it helps!
The old guildleader went a bit whacko and quit EQ. The guild renamed itself to Precision Strike and moved to The Rathe. Science of War still exists as a WoW guild now but the guildleader charges people a donation fee to get access to the old EQ1 strats which only go through PoP/GOD.