Watcher Raid Walkthrough - The Vile Maw Instance
by oogabooga227
Things to Bring With You
- Brilliant, Glorious, or Sparkling Edhelharn Tokens
My suggestion is that every single member of your raid brings at least one, and preferably two of these. The Watcher will give your entire raid +15 Dread, and without a +5 Hope token you'll spend the fight cowering, which is neither productive nor fun. - Scrolls of Improved Battle Lore and Warding Lore
These aren't absolutely required of course, but they are easy to get and each scroll helps the entire group for 30 minutes with +5% offense and defense. There are plenty of good reasons to use them, and no good reasons not to, so I would recommend using them every time. - Celebrant Salves and Essence of Athelas (Power and Morale Pots)
Better to have them and not need them, than to need them and not have them. - Food
Every little bit helps make this an easier fight, so make sure you've got your food of choice ready to use. I recommend Cup of Red Tea and Rack of Lamb. - Destiny Points
Destiny can play a larger role in raids now, especially with the Watcher. While itâs not needed, it defiantly helps. This option is used assuming you have no hope turn-in. - Other consumables
If you're the leader of the raid, be sure to bring extra potions, hope tokens, battle/warding lore scrolls, food, etc., or assign someone else in your raid to bring them. It's inevitable that someone will forget and it's easier to have extras than to make 11 other people stand around while someone goes to get something they forgot.
Preparing your Raid Interface
Show dispellable effects only
You should always be using this on raids, in my opinion. Bring up your Options menu, go to Social Options, and put a check mark next to "Show Dispellable Effect Only". You'll no longer be able to see buffs on the members of your fellowship/raid, but you'll be able to easily see debuffs that can be dispelled, which is the whole point.
Show Health of Target's Target
I always keep this up all the time (in fellowships too), as it provides an easy way to tell who has aggro, and how much morale and power they have. With this display showing, it's very easy to tell if your target has changed targets so you can react accordingly.
Raid Assist Window
You do have this up already, right? If not, bring up your Social panel, go to the raid tab, and hit the button that says Raid Assist Window. Your raid leader has already specified who is the main assist, right? The raid assist window is your best friend, so use it.
Post Processing Effects
Have your raid go into their advanced graphics options. Obtainable by simply doing the following:
1. Hit ESC
2. Options
3. Adv. Graphics
4. Scroll Down to the Post Processing Tab
5. Deselect Post Processing Effects
6. Click Accept
The reason Iâm telling you to do this is quite simply, disabling Post Processing Effects allows you to see through the water much easier which will help tremendously during Phase 3.
Show Vitals
On the same Raid tab of the Social panel, you have the option to select whose vitals you want to see on your screen during the raid. I usually keep everyone up, so I can instantly see if anyone in the raid has died, needs a heal, or needs to use a fear potion. You can also use their vitals display to target them just by clicking on it, so they can be quickly rebuffed, healed, etc.
Ok, so now you're all ready to roll! You've got your potions and all your consumables on your hot bar, and you've got your interface all set up just how you like it, right? Okay, sometimes the default locations of those windows arenât right where you want them, so use Ctrl + \ to move them around to your liking (this undocks the windows so you can move them around). I would also suggest that when you do this, move your OWN status bar (the one that's usually up in the upper left part of the screen) down next to your hot bar somewhere. You want to be able to easily see your own debuffs so you can watch for the "eyeball", so put your status bar someplace where you can easily see it while you're fighting. You can always move it back later if you don't like it there all the time, but for this fight it's imperative that you can see your debuffs easily and quickly.
Getting ready to Fight
You're almost ready to go! Just a few more things to do! Get everyone in position just inside the archway, but donât run up too far or risk starting off the encounter early. Now is the time to use your Scrolls of Battle Lore and Warding Lore, Food, your first Hope token. Have Captains and Minstrels refresh everyoneâs buffs. Lore-Masters summon your Eagle at this time, and keep it on passive for now.
Traits
Traits can play a vital role for this encounter, especially your virtues. Extra Morale and Armor Value can greatly improve your chances to survive. So with that, I strongly urge you to slot the following:
1. Valour (+240 Morale)
2. Justice (+150 Morale)
3. Empathy (+450 Armor Value)
4. Innocence (-5% Incoming Melee Damage)
5. Players Choice
I would recommend for Hunters to slot Compassion, as they will still take a fair amount of Ranged Damage. Other classes have their options from Loyalty or Honesty.
Weapon Damage Type
For The Watcher use an Ancient Evil damage weapon. These are easily obtained from IA instances, so stock up!
Hope Turn In
Recently the addition of Hope Turn In's has arrived. Make no mistake these +3 hope buffs tremendously help, and if you have one at your disposal, itâs highly recommended that you use it. The rule of thumb for most bosses in this game is the more Hope you have, the better. The two current turn in's are: Broken Chain-Link and Mirdanant.
Group Make Up
A Balanced group is going to make this raid much easier, than stacking classes will. My suggestion is to have 2 Minstrels along with 2 Captains, or a Captain, Rune Keeper Combination. Off healing plays a large role in this fight, so make sure you have enough of it, while maintaining enough DPS to take care of the Shaking Tentacles in a timely manner.
Rewards
Goddess-Macha, Hirel (Sinister, Brandywine)
Click to enlarge
