Shartuul: The Guide to Not Sucking

[Sadiki]

This guide was written by Sadiki of Icecrown.
If you're going to copy it somewhere, at least tell me.

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REVISED on 9/12, more specifically to address phase 2.
Basically, Super Jump is extremely buggy now. You should now always start on the big Gan'arg guys with Throw Axe, then use Super Jump. This is to ensure that it won't miss, since he won't be able to move since he is already stunned. It also makes killing him a lot easier, since the small guys can't buff/heal him while they are stunned as you wait for Fel Flames to finish him off.

Also, you take falling damage with Super Jump. If you cast it from an extremely far distance, therefore making your demon jump higher, you can take up to 20k damage. Using it while closer will decrease the damage taken significantly.

Furthermore, it seems that all of the bosses in phases 3, 4, and 5 will be immune to damage for 1-2 seconds after spawning. Use Death Blast as a timer, and by the time it casts they will be vulnerable to Siphon Life. If you cast Siphon Life right away, then it won't work, and you'll just be wasting it.

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Shartuul is an event in Blades Edge Mountains, which is 5 phases long. If you win, the event can result in either a BoP epic ring which vendors for 20g, or a variety of epic and blue items which, when activated with 50 Apexis Shards, can AH for over 100g each. The Depleted Badge also comes from this event, which is worth more than .. you.

Requirements:
1) Crystalforged Darkrune - This is the item to start the event. To get it, you must acquire Honored reputation with Ogri'la, then do the Banish the Demons quest. The first time you do this quest, you will receive a Darkrune as a reward. After that, you will receive a bag instead which has a 10% chance of dropping a Darkrune. You turn Darkrunes into Gahk in Ogri'la, who then gives you a Crystalforged Darkrune, free of charge. The bag, Darkrune, and Crystalforged Darkrune are all Unique, so you can only hold a total of 3 at a time. [Note: You can't turn in a Darkrune to Gahk if you have the Banish the Demons quest in your quest log.]

2) Charged Crystal Focus (Optional) - You will need 2 of these to safely win the event, but 4 will make it a joke. You get these by either obtaining Depleted Crystal Focus off nearby mobs and combining them with 10 Apexis Shards, or by looting them out of the bag you receive after completing the Banish The Demons quest. The purpose of these is that each mob you control during the event has a special ability which requires a Charged Crystal Focus to use.

Now that you have the required items, head over to Shartuul's Transporter. It is located Northeast of Ogri'la, and south of Forge Camp: Wrath. You will see a Felguard Degrader walking around the transporter. Simply walk up to it and right click your Crystalforged Darkrune on the Felguard Degrader to take control of him and start the event. Make sure your UI allows you to have a pet bar before starting the event.

Phase 1
Your character will effectively Feign Death when he is effected by Spirit Channeling, and you will be in complete control of the Felguard Degrader. The goal here is to break the shield on the transporter. The transporter's health will appear on the top of your screen as a percentage.

Abilities:
Mortal Strike - Your basic single target attack. This can one-shot most of the mobs during this phase.
Mighty Whirlwind - A channeled whirlwind. This will kill any mob during this phase if they take the full duration.
Howl of Terror - An Area of Effect fear.
Fel Charge - Charges a mob at range, then does massive AE damage on the target. It is enough to kill any mob during this phase. Target must be greater than 5 yards away.
Attack Shield - Throws a hammer at the transporter, damaging it.
[SPECIAL] Life Drain - Drains life from all nearby mobs and gives it to the Felguard. Consumes 1 Charged Crystal Focus.
[Note: Currently, Life Drain does not work, but still uses your Focus. You shouldn't need to use it anyways, so don't.]

As soon as the event starts, face the transporter and activate Attack Shield. Your main priority, over anything else, is to attack the shield whenever possible. Shartuul thinks that the Felguard has betrayed him, and spawns Felhounds and Imps to stop you. Felhounds will simply run up to you and melee you, but imps will stop short to throw fireballs at you. Imps do more damage, but it's nothing huge.

As the beginning of the event, you will only get a few mobs per spawn. Wait until all but one mob gets into melee range, then use Fel Charge on the last one when it gets about 5 yards away from you. You will run over to the other mob, and the Charge AE will hit them all, wiping out the group. If you miss any, then use Mortal Strike on them. If there's more than 2-3, then use Mighty Whirlwind. Remember to keep activating Attack Shield.

This phase is fairly easy, and you won't need to use Life Drain at all. You also shouldn't need to use Howl of Terror here. After awhile, the mobs will spawn in much larger packs, and it will take awhile for them all to pop up and run at you. Wait until you have a large group of Felhounds, kill them all with Charge, then finish off the stray mobs with Mighty Whirlwind. After the shield hits 0%, the demon inside the portal breaks free, and any mobs still alive despawn. Make sure Howl of Terror and Charge are not on cooldown when you break the shield.

Boss: Doomguard Punisher
There is only one thing you have to be careful of on this boss, and that is Fel Flames. When he comes out, use Charge on him and start hitting him with Mortal Strike and Whirlwind. When he starts to use Fel Flames, fear him immediately or you will take massive damage. If he does this fairly quickly, then run away while Charge refreshes; otherwise just hit him with it immediately. Simply beat him to death with this tactic, and when he reaches low health you will have won at phase 1.

[Note: If you open your map window during the transition to phase 2, the event will bug out and reset because it won't put you in control of the next mob. I have already spoken to a GM about this, and it is a known issue. DON'T DO ANYTHING AFTER YOU KILL THE BOSS.]


Phase 2
Your Felguard Degrader dies, but you take control of the boss and upgrade to a Doomguard Punisher. Shartuul realizes that his demons aren't revolting, but are being controlled. He starts sending out the big guns.

Abilities:
Punishing Blow - Deals damage to a single target. Does 3x damage if target is stunned.
Fel Flames - Does damage in a cone to targets in front of the Doomguard. This ability channels for a very long time.
Throw Axe - Deals damage to one target and stuns him. Target must be greater than 5 yards away.
Consume Essence - Consumes health from a Gan'arg, healing you. This will drain about 80% health from the target. Target must be greater than 5 yards away.
Super Jump - You jump into the air, landing on your target and doing damage, plus stunning all mobs in proximity. Target must be greater than 5 yards away. (Note: You take falling damage from this. The closer you are to the mob when you cast it, the less damage you will take.)
[SPECIAL] Dive Bomb - You fly around the area, raining meteors on your enemies. You also reflect spells during this. Consumes 1 Charged Crystal Focus.

As you will quickly notice, most of your abilities require range to use, therefore this phase is all about getting the jump on your enemies before they reach your melee range.

At the beginning, you will get sets of 2 small Gan'arg guys at a time. They are very easy, and these are the mobs that you should be using Consume Essence on. It not only gives you health, but nearly kills them. You can simply kill them by using Consume Essence on one, then Throw Axe on the other before they reach you. Use Punishing Blow on the one you just stunned and it will do 3x damage and kill it. Then just keep using Punishing Blow on the other one until it dies. If that's not your style, then just use Fel Flames and stand there until it burns them up. Remember to always use Consume Essence when you aren't at maximum health; you can outrun the small guys so you have the range to use it. The easiest way to do this is to strafe away.

After a couple sets of 2, you will get 4 mobs. You can just Fel Flames them to death, however at this point you will notice that they will occasionally run away and start channeling a spell. Well, they're building miniature Fel Cannons. Either kill them before they make one, or use Throw Axe to stop them. If they manage to make a Fel Cannon, it isn't a big deal. You can kill them very easily with a Punishing Blow or Fel Flames, and they don't do much damage. However, don't let Fel Cannons stack up or you will start taking too much damage.

After the set of 4 mobs, the real event starts. Groups of 5+ small guys spawn, with a large Gan'arg in the middle of the pack. These are of utmost priority to kill immediately since they do massive damage with Acid Geyser, and there is a certain method of getting the job done. As they spawn, get some range from them. If you have decent range and need health, then Consume one of the small adds really quick. However, your main priority is using Throw Axe on the big guy immediately. This will stun him, allowing your first big 3x damage Punishing Blow hit. This will take him to 50-60% health. Then, run away and use Super Jump. As soon as the stun debuff appears on him (can take a second), hit him with Punishing Blow again. He will either be dead at this point, or have under 10% health. In the event that Punishing Blow misses, you will have to use an additional Throw Axe/Punishing Blow combo to get his health down. Just run away until he stops to cast Acid Geyser, then hit him with Throw Axe before it hits you. The last thing to do is use the full duration of Fel Flames to finish off the entire pack of mobs. The reason for using Super Jump as your second stun is important - the small guys can use a red beam on the big one that buffs him and regens his health by a lot, and Fel Flames takes awhile to finish off the last of his health. Therefore, you want your AE stun to be the last one you use, so that they don't have a chance to cast it. Remember to deal with the Gan'arg that run away to make Fel Cannons. They are also very easy to heal off of, since they distance themselves for you.

After 3-4 of these groups, a small group of 2 Gan'arg will spawn. This means the boss is going to become active in about 5 seconds. Kill one of the adds, but leave the other up so you can heal off of it later. A lot of people use Dive Bomb here, but do not do it. You will simply be wasting a Crystal Focus, and killing the Gan'arg that are your healing fuel. You definately do not want the Gan'arg to freely run around spawning Fel Cannons, though, so make sure you kill them if they start doing that. Ideally, you shouldn't need to heal off them at all once the boss comes out.

Boss: Shiva Assassin
It doesn't really matter what abilities this boss has, because they all are dangerous. The idea is to chain stun the boss until she dies. It doesn't really matter what order you use, just chain Throw Axe and Super Jump over and over so she never has a chance to cast anything on you. The stuns will also let you hit for 3x damage with Punishing Blow, making the fight rather quick. If you use Super Jump while at minimum range, your Doomguard will only go a few feet into the air, making the landing faster, which in turn stuns her casting faster. Once you get her to low health, you win a cookie.


Phase 3
She tears apart your Doomguard, and you gain control of the most overpowered being in existence. She also has a nice ass.

You will be in control of this mob for the next 3 phases, and you won't heal between phases. Get used to her. Quickly. She has 3 forms: Shadow, Fire, and Ice. Each form has a 30 second cooldown, and puts the other ones on a 10 second cooldown. This means that you can never, ever, unnecessarily switch forms at the wrong time, because your other ones will go on cooldown. If they are on cooldown at the wrong time, you will die a horrible, horrible death.

Abilities:
- Aspect of Shadow, the healing aspect.
Death Blast - If Siphon Life is on the target, it will consume the Siphon Life and heal half of the damage dealt.
Siphon Life - Puts a DoT on the target which transfers health to the caster.
Shadow Nova - Does area effect damage and puts a dot on all effected mobs, draining health and giving it to the caster.

- Aspect of Flame, the damage aspect. (Run speed is increased by 30% while in this aspect.)
Pyroblast - Does fire damage to the target.
Flame Buffet - Does fire damage, and increases fire damage taken by the target for 1 minute. Stacks to 10.
Cleansing Flame - Removes a debuff on the caster.

- Aspect of Ice, the protection aspect.
Iceblast - Does frost damage to the target.
Icy Jump - Frost Novas the target in place, then the assassin leaps backwards.
Iceblock - You become immune, but cannot move, for 4 seconds. Reflects all spells back to the caster.

[SPECIAL] Chaos Strike - Does damage and increases the power of your attacks for 30 seconds. Consumes 2 Charged Crystal Focus. (Currently bugged to only use 1.)
Also does the following:
- If the target is afflicted with Flame Buffet, the target will take the additional damage.
- If the target is frozen, the damage from Chaos Strike will be tripled. (Not important.)
- If the target is afflicted with Siphon Life, the target will be weakened, taking additional damage.

In phase 3, Shartuul will appear and summon a giant Flying Spaghetti Monster to do battle with you. When he spawns, hit him with Siphon Life and Shadow Nova, then switch to Aspect of Flame. [Note: All of the bosses from this point onward will be immune to damage for 1-2 seconds after spawning. Start off by casting Death Blast, and by the time it casts they will be vulnerable to Siphon Life.] Start stacking Flame Buffets on him, while weaving Pyroblasts in between. Try to keep range from him while doing this; while in Aspect of Flame, you will run 30% faster. He will channel yellow beams into the ground occasionally, creating a Disruption Field on the ground which deals damage if you run through it. If he targets this directly on you, move before he creates it. His main form of damage is fireballs, but your healing DoTs should keep you at maximum health most of the time.

When you see the emote "Eye of Shartuul focuses intensely!", stop what you are doing and immediately switch to Aspect of Ice. This means that he is beginning to cast Dark Glare, which is a giant laser beam from hell. You must Iceblock as it casts (the cast time on it is longer than 4 seconds, so watch the cast bar so you know when to Iceblock), which then makes you immune, and reflects it back to him for massive damage. This is the ideal time for you to switch back to Aspect of Shadow, however since it is on a 10 second cooldown, hit him with Icy Jump first to distance yourself. Then, switch to Aspect of Shadow. If your Siphon Life is still on the mob, then hit him with Death Blast to consume then, then reapply it. If it wore off already, then just reapply it, then hit him with Shadow Nova. After that, go back into Aspect of Flame and continue stacking Flame Buffets and chaining Pyroblasts.

You simply have to repeat that to defeat him, however there is one thing to note. He can begin casting another Dark Glare as Aspect of Ice's 30 second cooldown refreshes, so you must be quick when you go into Shadow, then Flame, so that you don't make the cooldown on Aspect of Ice longer than it needs to be. Get Siphon/Nova up, then transform to Flame immediately.


Phase 4
Big ugly is dead, and Shartuul summons Dreadmaw, a slightly retarded corehound. He only does any real damage while in melee range, so you simply kite him around. Hit him with Siphon Life/Shadow Nova (don't get too close), then go into Aspect of Flame immediately. You will spend most of the phase in this form; if you don't need to regen any health, then you won't have to swap out of it at all. Use the run speed bonus to stay away from him, and stack Buffets while chaining Pyroblast when possible.

When he emotes "Dreadmaw lashes out, exposing a flaw in his victim!", he will put a debuff on you and speed up. Use Cleansing Flame right away so he doesn't catch up, and continue kiting him. He becomes stronger as the fight goes on, but he shouldn't be able to melee you once. Just keep going until he dies, and remember to use Cleansing Flame very fast when he debuffs you.


Phase 5
Shartuul steps up and challenges you to Mortal Kombat. You accept.

The first thing that happens, is purple lasers rain down from the sky and spawn a million Fel Eyestalks. These aren't really important at all. They can Mind Flay, but I've never seen them actually do it while the event was in progress. Their main function is to serve as healing fuel for Shadow Nova, and you can just ignore them. They respawn every once in awhile during the event.

Shartuul teleports in, screams like Tarzan, and starts his onslaught. Hit him with Siphon Life and Shadow Nova (which will also kill all of the Eyestalks around you) and then swap into Aspect of Flame. Stack Buffet, nuke with Pyroblast, repeat. This is what you have to watch out for:
- His main form of attack is Shadow Bolts.
- He will randomly Magnetic Pull you to him, interrupting your casting, then teleport away. It's not a big deal, just run over to him and continue the fight.
- He will constantly apply two debuffs to you: One will reduce your shadow resistance by 10k, greatly increasing shadow damage taken as a result, and the other is Immolate, which will apply a heavy fire DoT to you. Both can, and should be, cleansed immediately with Cleansing Flame. This is the main reason it is important to be in Aspect of Flame most of the fight.
- Shartuul yells, "Prepare to be Incinerated!". Switch to Aspect of Ice and Iceblock immediately. It casts in half the time as Dark Glare did, and if not reflected will take off almost half of your maximum health.

As soon as you reflect the Incinerate, start the cycle over: Switch to Shadow, consume Siphon Life if it is up by using Death Blast, then reapply Siphon and Nova to him. Switch back into Flame, cleanse yourself of any debuffs, then continue stacking Buffets and chaining Pyroblast.

However, you may run into an issue during this fight, and that's where your Charged Crystal Focus come into play. You can use two of them to activate your special ability, Chaos Strike. This ability isn't that special on it's own, but there is a devastatingly powerful trick you can do with it. Now, while fighting Shartuul, you cannot afford to switch into Aspect of Shadow to renew Siphon Life whenever you want, or he might Incinerate while Aspect of Ice is on cooldown. If he does that, you lose. Therefore, you must follow the specific cycle of Shadow -> Flame -> Ice. Depending on how often he uses Incinerate, you might not have the chance to switch into Aspect of Shadow often, and as a result you will lose health at a rate that you won't win the event. Therefore, if you are missing over 40% health when you go into Aspect of Shadow after an Incinerate, do this trick:
1. If you still have a Siphon Life up, consume it with Death Blast.
2. Reapply Siphon Life.
3. Activate Chaos Strike. Since Siphon Life is up, Shartuul will now take 50k extra damage from all attacks, including Siphon Life. Know what's coming next?
4. Let Siphon Life do a couple ticks of damage to Shartuul, then consume it with Death Blast. You receive half of the damage dealt, healing you to full health.

Shartuul's damage output rises towards the end of the fight, so you will most likely need to do this trick at least once. You can also do it during any of the other phases that you are in control of the Shiva Assassin and need health quickly. You can even heal through an Incinerate with it.

Once you kill Shartuul, he grabs the Shiva Assassin and kills both himself and the demon. Spirit Channeling wears off of you in a few seconds, and you are free to go loot Shartuul, claiming your leet epix.

Notes
Other people aren't supposed to be able to help you in the event, as shown by the mobs having tons of health and doing massive damage that a normal player cannot achieve, and are discouraged from doing so by the Fel Eyestalks all over the place. However, if a mage uses Fireball on a mob with 10 Flame Buffets, it will hit for over 50k damage.


<Insert Quest for Glory credit scene here. Because Quest for Glory is cool. So is Space Quest. So you can use those credits, too. Or Police Quest. But Space Quest was better. Yeah.>

[Sadiki]

Was this guide useful to you? Feel free to mail me your entire life savings and credit card numbers, along with your wife. I will be very grateful.

I also accept puppies.

[Isolde_Strife]

puppy on the way.

[Sunder]

He only accepts puppies so he can eat them.

[Isolde_Strife]

also, i can't see how having a few mages standing around lobbing fireballs would hurt

[Sadiki]

Originally Posted by Isolde_Strife

also, i can't see how having a few mages standing around lobbing fireballs would hurt

It's unnecessary and they have a chance of dying. Putting a second person on Dreadmaw, for example, screws with his pathing.

[Isolde_Strife]

now that i got a crystalforged sword i probably will never bother attempting this event anyway except maybe to get rid of runes so i can loot further grab bags

[Sadiki]

I'm going to hack your account so I can use your runes and make hundreds of gold a day.

[Thillis]

I don't practice Santeria
I ain't got no crystal ball
Well I had a million dollars but I, I'd spend it all
If I could find that heina and that sancho that she'd found
Well I'd pop a cap in sancho and I'd slap her down
What I really wanna know (my baby)
What I really wanna say, I can't define
Well it's love that I neeeeeed
My soul will have to wait till I get back
Find a heina of my own
Daddy's gonna love one and all
I feel the break, feel the break, feel the break
And I gotta live it out
Oh yeah un-huh
Well I swear that I, what I really wanna know (my baby)
What I really wanna say, I can't define
Got love! Make it go
My soul will have to...
What I really wanna say (my baby)
What I really wanna say, is I've got mine
And I'll make it
Yes, I'm going up
Tell sanchito that if he knows what is good for him
He best go run and hide
Daddy's got a new .45
And I won't think twice
To stick that barrel straight down sancho's throat
Believe me when I say that I got something for his punk-ass
What I really wanna know (my baby)
What I really wanna say, is there's just one way back
And I'll make it
My soul will have to wait

[Sadiki]

[Dolphin]

Thumbs down actually means let him live if you want to be historically accurate.

[Sadiki]

............................. shut the hell up.

[Thillis]

owned.

[Sadiki]

Bump because you people suck.

[Thillis]

bump...........................................



Hi Sadiki

[Ladylei]

I hope you don't mind Diki, but I'm going to make a couple comments.

1) The most important thing - When you are in control of the Shivan Assassin, each boss (eye, dog, shartuul) will take up to 10 seconds before taking any damage from you. This includes siphon life. Always start in shadow form and cast death blast until you actually see the mob take damage. THEN apply siphon life. Took me a week to figure this out and thought my siphon life was resisted every single time.

2) The Felguard Degrader's Fel Charge also has a 5 yard minimum range

3) While you are in control of the Doomguard Punisher, during the three large packs, if one of the small Gan'args is channeling (red beam) the larger one, he will be immune to all stuns and damage. You need to stun the small Gan'arg in order to re-stun the large one. The easiest way to do this is to run to the small Gan'arg and super jump to the large one, stunning the small one at the top of the jump, and the large one at the end.

4) For beginners, it is usually easier to do Eye of Shartuul in ice form. Slower kite, but minimal damage in melee and ice leap will keep him away. Simply start in shadow form, death blast until he takes damage, apply siphon life and switch to ice form. Dps him down with Iceblast. After the first Dark Glare it should be time to switch back to shadow and consume your siphon life with death blast. Reapply siphon and hop back in ice. This avoids the completely massive freak out you have when you see him casting dark glare and your frost form is on a 10 second cooldown.

5) Even if you are at 5% health when you defeat Eye of Shartuul, there is no reason why you shouldn't be back to 100% at the end of the dog. He is an utter joke and you should honestly take zero damage from him the entire encounter.

Overall, your post is perfect Diki. Great job on this.
I started one and just got sick of writing and linked to the wiki page.

[Sadiki]

After some testing, I revised the guide slightly. The major points are outlined at the top of the post. Phase 2 can be extremely hard now if you don't follow that strategy, depending on your luck with Super Jump working or not.

[Taoriki]

Very nice Guide Sadiki. Going to link it on our Sol Eternum forums if you don't mind.

[Sadiki]

Only if I can join your guild. :O

[Ladylei]

I didn't think it was possible to hate the Eye Stalks more...
Patch "fixed" them I guess...