#WEARECOL

Heroic Lady Inerva Darkvein Boss Guide

BY Andrew Miesner / December 3, 2020

Written and produced by Crzypck

Special thanks to our consulting team: Tagzz, Xyronic, and Ftbubbler

Lady Inerva Darkvein

This is a fight that doesn’t really have “phases” as much as a progression of adding abilities. The real twist here – you get to decide what abilities the boss does not gain access to.

  • Encounter-Wide Mechanic: Containers
    • There are 4 Containers around the room
    • One Container will be “Focused” at a time
    • All Containers are filling slowly with Anima
      • Focused Container fills dramatically more quickly
      • Each Container has 3 fill levels – each level grants Inerva a new mechanic to throw at you
        • Level 1 is always active
        • Level 2 is activated when the Container reaches 33% capacity
        • Level 3 is activated when the Container reaches 66% capacity
      • Clicking any Container causes Anima Release
        • Drains Anima from the clicked container
        • Also does raid-wide AoE damage, 300 Shadow/second for as long as a Container is being drained. Stacks with each additional Container actively being drained
          • Additionally deals 900 Shadow/second for 10s to whoever clicked the Container
        • You may not click the currently Focused Container
        • You can click a currently-open Container to close it early
    • Each Container has its own set of mechanics that are granted to Inerva based on the current fill level
      • The base mechanic for each Container is Level 1. Level 2 retains the base ability, but modifies it in some way.
        • Level 3 takes everything from Level 2, and further modifies it
    • If any container reaches full capacity, it’ll Breach, dealing 12k Shadow to all players per second
      • This persists until the Breached Container is clicked, and the Anima levels are reduced
  • Container of Desire – 100%-75% Boss HP
    • Level 1 – Expose Desires
      • Smacks the tank, dealing 28k Physical
      • Also applies a 21s DoT called Wicked Desires, deals 43k Shadow over 21 seconds
      • Forces regular tank swaps at 2-3 stacks
    • Level 2 – Expose Cognition
      • Adds the Shared Cognition effect
        • Debuff applied to several random players, lasts 8s
        • After Expose Desires is cast, the damage on the afflicted tank is copied to all players with Shared Cognition
    • Level 3 – Expose Heart
      • When Wicked Desires expires, the afflicted tank explodes for 18k Shadow damage to the raid.
      • Damage taken is reduced by distance
  • Container of Bottled Anima – 75%-50% Boss HP
    • Level 1 – Bottled Anima
      • 3 small soak circles appear on the ground.
      • Bottles of Anima fall on the circles after a few seconds
      • Soaking the circle deals 12k Shadow damage
      • Any circles NOT soaked deal 22k Shadow to the whole raid
        • This is bad. Do not let any circles go un-soaked or you’re gonna have a bad time
    • Level 2 – Lingering Anima
      • Bottled Anima circles now leave a puddle of Lingering Anima on the ground, regardless of if it was soaked or not
      • Deals 7800 Shadow damage continually to anyone standing in the puddle
    • Level 3 – Replicating Anima
      • Bottled Anima now bounces after the first impact, meaning they need to be soaked a second time
  • Container of Sin – 50%-25% Boss HP
    • Level 1 – Lesser Sins & Suffering
      • 3 Little orbs called Sins of the Past spawn around the room, relatively close to the center
        • These each deal 1500 Shadow damage per second to the closest player
    • Shared Suffering
      • 3 players are also afflicted by this debuff
      • Links the 3 afflicted players together with a blatantly obvious red line
      • Linked targets each take 900 Shadow damage every ½ second
      • Anyone who walks through the line connecting the players also takes 900k Shadow per ½ second
    • Sins of the Past disappear when the Shared Suffering players stand on them simultaneously
      • As a note, in testing this was really tricky to execute properly and, takes a while to get used to. Players with Shared Suffering needed to be ever so slightly OUTSIDE the orbs, such that all 3 orbs are within the connected area
    • If you do not successfully complete that task within a certain time period, the Sins of the Past explode, dealing 37k Shadow to the entire raid over 10s
    • Level 2 – Sins and Suffering
        • An Anima Web forms, connecting the orbs
        • Essentially a line connecting each orb to the other 2 orbs
        • Any player who walks through the Web takes 31k Shadow over 10s
    • Level 3 – Greater Sins and Suffering
      • The Orbs themselves, and therefore the Anima Webs, now spin.
  • Container of Concentrated Anima – 25%-0% Boss HP
    • Level 1 – Lightly Concentrated Anima
    • Debuffs 3 random players with Concentrated Anima. Red circle around affected players
    • Deals 8k Shadow damage over 10 seconds
    • When Concentrated Anima expires, the circles explode, dealing 15k Shadow to anyone within the circle
      • You absolutely, positively, should not use this to gang up on your own raiders and have 2 explode on someone, killing them
    • Additionally, an add spawns from each circle
      • 2 type of adds, Harnessed Specter & Conjured Manifestation
      • Harnessed Specter needs to be tanked. If nobody is within melee in range, it’ll chain cast Condemn, big AoE ability for 15k/s.
        • This add cannot be interrupted
        • Also applies a tank debuff called Unconscionable Guilt
        • Deals 15k Shadow damage, plus increases damage taken by Unconscionable Guilt and Expose Desires by 10% for 15s
      • Conjured Manifestation also chain casts Condemn
        • However, the Manifestations can be interrupted. Condemn freaking hurts, so you better interrupt this damn thing.
      • For each set of Concentrated Anima debuffs, 1 Specter and 2 Manifestations will spawn.
    • Level 2 – Concentrated Anima
      • The players afflicted with the Concentrated Anima debuff are now rooted in place
    • Level 3 – Highly Concentrated Anima
      • The explosion caused by Concentrated Anima expiring now also sends out red orbs called Fragments of Shadow
        • These deal 25k Shadow to anyone hit
        • Probably want to play dodgeball and avoid these things

Strategy

The list of mechanics seems intimidating, but this fight is not as complicated as it seems.

  • Tank the boss near the middle of the room, with the group spread around the encounter area
  • Lust on pull
  • All Level 1 abilities are active the entire encounter.
    • This means Exposed Desires, Bottled Anima, Lesser Sins and Suffering, and Lightly Concentrated Anima all regularly occur
      • The base versions are pretty simple to deal with
    • Exposed Desires necessitates a tank swap every 2-3 stacks
    • Bottled Anima is a traditional “soak the circle stupid” mechanic
      • This is a large reason why spreading is important. In testing, these could land just about anywhere in the room, so spreading helps ensure at least someone is close to each soak circle
    • Lesser Sins and Suffering is a bit tricky to get down the first couple tries, but really you’re just putting 3 orbs inside a triangle
      • In testing, we found the most consistent way was for each of the Shared Suffering players to stand near an orb, just outside of it. From there, all three walk slowly in towards their orb until it triggers them despawning
    • Lightly Concentrated Anima is just a DoT that eventually explodes, and results in some adds
      • This one is probably the most difficult base ability, as the Conjured Manifestations just chain-cast a massive AoE, so you’ll need an interrupt rotation
      • Recommend 3-4 people assigned to each Manifestation. In testing, Condemn was a 7 second cast, so 2 melee or 3 ranged were needed
        • Have the 3 melee interrupters assigned to one add, 4 ranged to another, if you can
      • As long as this Container stays Level 1, the affected players should move to the boss, but not overlapping their circles. This’ll keep the adds near the boss for cleave and easier interrupts
  • The Focused Container order is Exposed Desires > Bottled Anima > Sins and Suffering > Concentrated Anima
    • The Container being focused shifts every 25% Boss HP
  • Handing when to drain the Containers is actually pretty straightforward. There are three scenarios you should click to drain a container
    • First – whenever a Container had been Focused, but has just stopped being focused
    • Second – Whenever a Container is ~20-30 seconds away from being Focused.
    • Third – Drain the Sins and Suffering Container whenever it reaches 20% and is not being Focused.
      • This is the most difficult Level 3 Container, and as such you should do everything you can to minimize its time at Level 3
  • Handling Higher Levels
    • Exposed Desires
      • Level 2 is pretty straightforward – several people take copied damage from the tank with the debuff.
        • This is just a healer thing, make sure you’re throwing spot heals as necessary to the players with Shared Cognition
        • The tank with Exposed Desires needs to ensure they have Active Mitigation up for the 8s duration of Shared Cognition
      • Level 3 is simple to deal with. After a tank swap, when your Wicked Desires debuff has 5 seconds of duration left, yeet the hell outta the group towards an edge
    • Bottled Anima
      • Level 2 you really don’t have control over. The circles spawn in random locations, so the puddles will just be random. Don’t stand in bad things.
      • Level 3 you also don’t have control over. Soak the second set of circles, don’t stand in bad things.
    • Sins and Suffering
      • Level 2 makes running through the room more difficult and dangerous. There’ll be a giant red triangle, with the Orbs as the corners. Running through the beams really freaking hurts, so just don’t do it. I know it’s tempting and the beams look cool, but just don’t, okay?
      • Level 3 is horrifying. Those beams that hurt really badly? They spin now. They freaking spin. You can be safe one second, and have Burning Crusade Fel Reaver flashbacks the next as the beam sneaks up behind you.
        • This also makes the job of the Shared Suffering players much more difficult, as the orbs aren’t stationary. Try to get to your orbs and clear this as quickly as possible, before the rotating beams start silently sneaking up on people and wrecking them from behind
      • This is the Container we recommend always draining immediately after its Focus ends, and getting it lower than Level 3
    • Concentrated Anima
      • Level 2 makes this Container suck. The easy way to handle the adds is have them near each other, which you cannot do if the affected players are rooted.
        • The current offtank needs to book it to the Specter to prevent it from chain-casting Condemn
        • The assigned melee interrupters should go to the Manifestation closest to the boss
        • The ranged interrupters should be on the other one further away
        • Don’t let these casts get off, it’s bad news
      • Move the boss to whatever add you’re currently killing for some extra cleave damage
      • Level 3 doesn’t really add much, just dodge the orbs. They’re big, they’re mean, they’ll knock you on your ass and have you face-down on the floor. You don’t wanna be face-down on the floor. Don’t take a ball to the face.
  • And honestly that’s it. This encounter is a series of fairly easy to handle mechanics that periodically get more difficult. You can proactively choose to remove the most difficult versions of mechanics from the raid.

Positioning

Tank the boss near the middle of the room. Circle marker below is for the players affected by Concentrated Anima to get near when that Canister is still level 1. Star is the drop off point for tanks with Wicked Desires expiring, when the Exposed Desires Canister is level 3. The Canister marked Skull is the Sin & Suffering one, which we recommend draining out of level 3 as soon as it’s no longer focused. The group should be loosely spread throughout the room.

When Concentrated Anima is Level 2 or Higher:

Idea here is for the tank to just move the boss to the adds for cleave damage. You do NOT need to do this, but it is a way to pump a little extra damage into Darkvein and get through the fight a little more quickly.