Darkweaver Syth is the first boss of Sethekk Halls in Auchindoun. He is charged by Talon King Ikiss with the defense of the Sethekk Halls while the other arakkoa, called the Sethekk, search for their promised god. This enigmatic god is probably the deceased primal god, Sethe.
Quests[]
- [69D] Brother Against Brother
- [69D] Terokk's Legacy
Abilities[]
- Frost Shock: Deals around 500–600 damage and slows the target.
- Flame Shock: Deals around 600–1000 damage and does a DoT.
- Shadow Shock: Deals around 500–650 damage
- Arcane Shock: Deals around 600–800 damage
- Chain Lightning: Deals damage, amplifies per player that got hit by it.
- Summon Elementals: Darkweaver Syth summons a wave of 4 elementals when he drops to 90%, 55%, and 15%. The elementals are of four different magic types.
Abilities of the elementals:
- Fire Elemental, Flame Shock and Flame Buffet: Direct damage and with a debuff that increases Fire Damage done to the target. (stacks up to 5 times)
- Frost Elemental, Frost Shock and Frost Buffet: Direct damage and with a debuff that increases Frost Damage done to the target. (stacks up to 5 times)
- Arcane Elemental, Arcane Shock and Arcane Buffet: Direct damage and with a debuff that increases Arcane Damage done to the target. (stacks up to 5 times)
- Shadow Elemental, Shadow Shock and Shadow Buffet: Direct damage and with a debuff that increases Shadow Damage done to the target. (stacks up to 5 times)
The elementals are immune to their own school of magic. The Shadow Elemental is Immune to shadow-based Fear and Banish, being in its school of magic. Earth, Fire, and Arcane Elementals are fearable. The Shadow Elemental can be feared by a warrior's Intimidating Shout, but not by priest or warlock fear effects.
Strategy[]
Aggressive[]
A completely offensive strategy, by rushing in to DPS him. It can get pretty crazy, and is only suggested if you have good healing for the fight. If done right, you can easily finish him without members dropping below 50% health.
Have the tank charge in and aggro him in the center of the room. All other party members should bunch up right inside the doorway. When the first wave of adds spawn you should do a Warlock or Priest fear and just keep burning the boss. When second wave comes frost nova, fear, or any kind of mass crowd control. This is a burn fest. Don't worry about burning down the adds as they each have 4k health and make it difficult to keep off the healers.
Conservative[]
A more conservative strategy is to pause to kill each wave of elementals before returning to Syth. This strategy can be less risky for parties where a majority of the characters are not yet level 70, as the accumulation of a dozen elementals may be too much for a lower level party to handle.
This strategy appeared to be superior for a group of a 70 Rogue, 66–67 2 Paladins, a Warlock, and a Hunter (I forget who was what level exactly besides the Rogue); also for a group of 67 warrior, 68 druid, and three 68 hunters; also for 67 warrior, 68 paladin, 70 balance druid, and two 68 hunters. Details of the strategy are as follows:
- Set up an order in which the DPS will burn down the elemental adds that spawn. Each elemental is immune to his own element type, so for example if you're a fire mage make sure others are DPSing the fire elemental first, and if you're grouped with a warlock or shadow priest make sure you DPS the shadow elemental first. The air-looking elemental is actually arcane and is immune to arcane damage. Alternatively, let each damage dealer pick an elemental to target.
- DPS Darkweaver Syth until he summons the first wave of elementals.
- Kill the elementals in the predescribed sequence. If you have a warlock, he may banish the last Elemental to be slain (not needed nor recommended). If you have fears on short cooldown, use one at each spawn to make it easier. There should be No DPS done to the boss during this step, to be certain that the second wave is not prematurely summoned!
- Once the elementals are dead, DPS Darkweaver Syth until he summons the second wave of elementals.
- Kill the second wave as per step 3.
- Put everything you have into finishing off Darkweaver Syth. In the runs I have done he seems to often summon the last wave at or below 20% remaining health, and at that time it is not worth the effort of killing them, though fear is obviously recommended. It is good to have 1 fear available for this part, as it is more important to fear on this part than on the others. If your only fear is a warrior, save it for this part. The remaining elementals will despawn once Syth is down.
Being that 100% of the damage in this fight is magical in nature, a mage using Dampen Magic might be a good idea. Potions of Magic Resistance (+50 to all schools) are particularly useful here (but far from needed even on heroic), but note that they will activate your combat potion cooldowns and don't stack with a priest's Shadow Protection or a Paladin's resistance auras.
With regard to the order in which the Elementals are to be slain:
With a Priest and Paladin, I would advise that Shadow be last to be killed, and that Frost(or Fire) be second to last, since these resistances can be provided by Frost(or Fire) Resistance Aura and Prayer of Shadow Protection. More Generally, just remember to bear in mind the resistances your party can afford.
An alternate strategy might be to Kill the shadow elemental first, since reportedly Syth does mostly Shadow damage and the debuff from this elemental could be the most damaging. Furthermore, this is the only elemental immune to fear/banish and the most likely to cause trouble.
(AoE Strategy) - not recommended due to fears, but feel free to use instant AoEs if they do end up grouped after they come back from the fear, if they're still alive. If you have a mage and a secondary healer then the mage can take the adds using arcane explosion in short order. The mage can mitigate some damage using fire or ice ward, and ice barrier if so spec. The arcane elemental will need to be dealt with separately as it is immune to arcane explosion.
Resistances don't play a major role in this fight.
Hybrid[]
Some groups attempting this may have insufficient healing endurance to pursue the conservative strategy, while also lacking more than one source of AOE fear and/or the strong DPS required to pursue the fully aggressive strategy. For this situation, assuming that at least one AOE fear is available, it is best to kill the first set of summoned elementals, then fear the second set and attempt to burn him down before they recover (while ignoring the third set of summoned elementals entirely).
Heroic mode[]
The adds have an aura / AoE that does approx 800 damage of its element per tick as well as stacking a debuff that increases the damage the player takes from their element. The adds seem somewhat fear resistant, though only the shadow elemental is actually immune.
Resistance buffs / totems / auras are very useful. Dampen magic on everyone is recommended since you will be getting up to 4 AoE hits per tick as well as boss spell damage.
The boss remains very squishy and does only light damage. Just DPS him down to 80–75%, focus the adds one at a time having decided kill order beforehand. Then give yourself a bit of time and get topped off before taking him down to 60–50%. Rinse & repeat; however, when the final wave comes at 10%, just finish off the boss quickly and blow fears on the elementals.
Edit: If you have high DPS group you can also have the tank blow fear and if you have a lock in the group have him fear again and all DPS on the boss.
Loot[]
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Quotes[]
Aggro:
- Hrrmm.. Time to.. hrrm.. make my move.
- Nice pets..hrm.. Yes! <squawking>
- Nice pets have.. weapons. No so..<squawk>..nice.
Summon:
- I have pets..<squawk>..of my own!
Killing a player:
- Death.. meeting life is.. <squawking>
- Uhn.. Be free..<squawk>
Death:
- No more life..hrm. No more pain. <squawks weakly>
Trivia[]
- His name might be a reference to the evil Sith Lords in Star Wars (especially given his ability to use Chain Lightning, with lightning being a signature ability of Sith lords). His grammatically incorrect sentence "Death... meeting life is..." might also be a reference to Star Wars, more precisely to Master Yoda's way of speaking.
- His aggro quote: "Hrrmm.. Time to.. hrrm.. make my move." Is a direct quote from Jim Henson/Frank Oz's 1982 film "The Dark Crystal", from the skeksis SkekSil, the Chamberlain, who said the same thing when he wanted to become emperor of the other Skeksis. The skeksis, like the cursed arokkoa, are a hunched, vulture like species, so the similarities are striking.