The Lost Vale: Part 7 - Middle Wing: Zaar The Painseeker And The Darkpromise Beast (for Real)
By: Damihdez
After talking to Lanorith Mournfire for the next part of the quest, head straight up the middle wing. Mow your way through the mobs until you get to the entrance of the windy tunnel. Outside, you should see Caledor Mournfire hanging out. Important!: have EVERYONE in the party that needs to turn in the quest talk to him at once. Complete the quest and then when the new one pops up, WAIT for everyone. Do a countdown in vent so that EVERYONE clicks Accept on the new quest at the same time. The reason for this is that Caledor becomes hostile as soon as you Accpet the quest, so you want your whole team to be able to accept the quest at once (to avoid fighting him multiple times). Once he is defeated, double-check that you have the Quest Item Mournfire Talisman (or Amulet? i don't remember). This will allow you to pass through the tunnel without getting hurled backwards. If this is your whole team's second time here, you do not have to fight Caledor.
Once you emerge from the tunnel, hang a left into the room here with the broken down door. Inside is Zaar the Painseeker. He is pretty much a tank and spank; his one trick is to randomly teleport someone into one of the four cages in the corners. This effectively removes the from the fight until they are freed, and can be fatal due to the cage's DoT damage. Everyone except one tank should immediately turn and destroy the cage to free them. The lone tank will occupy Zaar's attention. No quest completion yet.
Work your way down from the plateau by means of the little path to your left as you exit Zaar's little torture-crib. Move as a group, and go somewhat slowly. The Furies flitting about will fly down and attack you at specific points, so you don't want your squishies too far from the tanks. Kill the Bliss Furies first, due to their cleave attack.
At the bottom of the path, you'll encounter another Fiend of Slaanesh. If you happen to turn right at the bottom, you will see a cave. It is not necessary to go in there, but there are a ton of maggots in there in case you feel like racking up some maggot kills. Turn to the left from the path down to continue. Across the little creek is a path leading up that you want to take next. On each landing, there will be some daemonvines that pop up out of the ground, but they're not to tough.
Cross over the unbroken white bridge and kill the last of the trash vines. You are now approaching the Darkpromise Beast that you met earlier. This thing can be a bit annoying, but isn't really that tough. Basically the things to watch out for are the Beast's spit attack that deals splash damage, and it's DoT (Infectious Poison). Spread out due to the splash attack, and announce if you get hit with the DoT. This is a 1000 point DoT that cannot be mitigated. My team usually just heals through the damage, but sometimes it is difficult. Nublet mentions the following, which I think I will try next time we go.
"Darkpromise Beast has a nasty DoT that will tick for 1,000 damage and leave a nasty debuff where if you are hit by this DoT again it will now tick for 2,000 damage. This DoT and debuff last for the duration of the fight. This infectious poison will infect the next closest person to the group mate who had the dot originally when the poison ends. If no one is close then the DoT will re-apply itself to the original person. It is advisiable to pass this DoT onto a group mate before it expires and keep doing so until the fight is over.."
So basically, if you get the DoT, let it hit you a few times and then pass it off to the next closest person (by running over on top of them).
After making vine-steaks out of the Darkpromise Beast, turn your quest in and pick up the next part. We're getting very close to the end now, so grab some coffee!
To Be Continued! Next Episode: A Brief Interlude Before the Bitter End