The Darkness War
If you’re familiar with Nightmare Hell Eternal from TSW, much is the same, but other things have changed!
Batab Crusher: He hides in the bushes and needs to be lured out. His only cast is Blood Boils, which can be interrupted. Adds sometimes appear, and he’ll turn a few into slow walking, purple glowing exploding bombs. Kill those at a distance; they leave a persistent bit of damaging AoE behind. He summons a lot more adds.
Everyone sticking close to the boss makes it easier for the tank to grab the adds before they run up behind someone and hit them in the head.
Xibalban Bloodhound: It is at first surrounded by many Mayans; the Nacom Warcallers cleave. Each add that the Bloodhound kills increases its damage. It casts big uninterruptible cones of Filthy Underworld Miasma, and occasionally Blood Boils, and Concuss, which kicks players back. Concuss can do a lot of damage, so the tank should have a shield up when it’s cast. Nothing the hound does can be interrupted, and because of that, it should be moved after a couple pie slices so people have a lot more room to move.
For reference: Concuss with a shield: Xibalban Bloodhound’s Concuss hits (Normal) you for 0 filth damage.
Dark House Sorcerer: All of the sorcerer’s casts are uninterruptible. Blood In writes Mayan runes on the ground around him and summons 2 - 5 ak’ab. Blood Out surrounds the area in whirling sand and dirt, forcing the players in closer, where the sorcerer casts Ceremonial Cut, a column attack to get off of, Ceremonial Cross, two column attacks, and Ceremonial Line, where he spins in place and the line of charged Mayan runes spins with him. He’ll occasionally buff himself after a Itazumi’s Wrath cast; purge it. He casts more AoE to avoid during Blood In.
This guy has a bug where one of his Ceremonial attacks will place the Mayan rune graphic in a different place than the chalk outline. In my experience, the chalk outline is the “real” cast.
Unbound Ak’ab: After the first four baby ak’ab are rounded up and dealt with (they die messily in a persistent damaging AoE), the boss shows up under ground and then pops up. Dash can’t be interrupted, but it doesn’t seem to do damage if its pointed against a wall. After a while, it will dive under ground and chase a player, pop up, summon some baby ak’ab. Those babies need to be rounded up and placed on the edges of the area so they don’t build up and make it impossible to move around.
Having one person bait the diving ak’ab far away from everyone else so they can deal with the babies is one way to manage that phase.
Mayan Battle Mage: Affectionately known as Bombs Away Bob in my first cabal for his habit of carpet bombing the arena in three columns. A targeted AoE, Sanguine Omen, can usually be interrupted. He often summons adds, more and more of them as the fight continues, and will transform some of them into slow walking bombs. Main difference here is he’ll periodically buff himself with Itazumi’s Wrath; that needs to be purged.
Wayeb-Xul, The Hound of the Nameless Days: This fight starts out with lots of adds that need to be corralled into one place. The Nacom Warcallers cast Hew, and along with the Chilam Psychopomps (who will AoE buff the others–drag the adds out of the buff circle), have more HP than the Mayan Bloodletters. After they are dealt with, Wayeb-Xul flies in. It will cast a massive cone AoE, Exhale the Void, which is dangerous and interruptible. It occasionally casts Concuss, which cannot be interrupted, Wayeb-Xul stuns everyone, switches targets, and teleports people around the arena, though everyone (including the tank!) who hides behind the rocks on the right side won’t be teleported.
Concuss is EVERYONE’S job to deal with–the tank needs to taunt Wayeb-Xul, but the DPS and healer also need to give the tank time to enforce that taunt. During Phase 1, everyone including the tank should hide behind the rock to the right of the arena, and when he’s done casting, the tank should jump out and taunt Wayeb-Xul before anyone else touches him. Most taunts work for this, but I have heard some people have issues with the Hammer taunts (Raging Volcano isn’t a proper taunt; unsure why Enter the Fray wasn’t reliable for the person who used it but it’s worth testing). Sometimes Wayeb-Xul will cast Open the Rift immediately after Concuss–if this happens, to try to make sure the tank’s taunt sticks, don’t touch Mr. Pigdor the Filthinator.
In Phase 2, Evulsion right before the end of Concuss is good to make sure Wayeb-Xul doesn’t turn to a DPS if you have a melee, but it’s fragile and DPS unloading ASAP is a good way to die. Otherwise wait until the instant he turns away–ranged DPS won’t be targetted quickly so you have time to taunt. This is more robust aggro.
Drag him over by the rocks and point him away so that everyone can hide quickly. He’ll also Open the Rift, stunning and yanking everyone but the tank into melee range, forcing them to run back out before he slams his feet down. It’s quite a lot bigger in E5+. It’s also possible to hide from it in the lee of the rocks that are used to hide from Concuss, but the angle has to be right.
After enough damage is done, he’ll start Reanimation on the Mayan adds; they need to be dealt with. After a couple casts, The Verangian will show up, stun everyone, chase off Wayeb-Xul, and grant the players a major buff. After all the Mayans are resurrected and killed again, Wayeb-Xul returns, casting Sacrificial Ceremony in order to reanimate the Mayans a third time as slow walking bombs, Open the Rift, and Exhale the Void. Concuss during this phase will not teleport people around. All the while, The Verangian is fighting the thing in the abyss; eventually, it will kill him, leaving the players without a buff if they take too long to kill Wayeb-Xul.
If the Verangian dies, Wayeb-Xul’s Concuss will start teleporting people around again.