Unwaking Waters (mission)

''This is a mission entry. For information on the Luxon Location, see Unwaking Waters (Luxon). For the Kurzick Location, see Unwaking Waters (Kurzick).''

Objectives
Defeat Kuunavang
 * Weaken Kuunavang to destroy the barrier.
 * Weaken Kuunavang to destroy the barrier.
 * Weaken Kuunavang to destroy the last barrier.
 * Defeat the corrupted dragon Kuunavang.

Rewards

 * 1 The type of faction received depends on which outpost you entered the mission from. You can only earn the faction reward the first time you complete the mission at a certain level in either mode and from either outpost, you will not earn faction for completing it at the same level in the other mode or from the other outpost.

Primary
As with Vizunah Square, this is a two party mission. The way the parties are combined works the same as there, except that one party comes from the Luxon side and one from the Kurzick side. If a human party does not join from the other side, you will be paired with a henchmen party. This can actually be helpful, as it is important for the two parties to stay together, and a henchmen party will do this well.

The first part of this mission alternates between killing groups of Afflicted and fighting Kuunavang. The groups of afflicted have no more than 8 mobs, which makes them pretty easy to kill with the 16 characters between your two parties.

Kuunavang, on the other hand, has several very powerful skills. Dark Chain Lightning will do very heavy armor-ignoring damage and knockdown much of your party. Note that dark chain lightning is an attack, not a spell, which limits which interrupts will work against it; regardless, interrupting it is unnecessary. Corrupted Dragon Scales and Corrupted Dragon Spores will cause health degeneration to all characters in a large area, with the former far more degeneration than the latter. These last two skills have very long cast times, and it helps greatly to interrupt them. A hero ranger or mesmer with several interrupts can thus be useful. The henchmen Daeman and Erys Vasburg fill this role well, too.

Kuunavang is resistant to interrupts, however, so skills that would normally interrupt her sometimes won't. Hexes and conditions also last only half of the normal duration on her, so while Dazed can be useful to interrupt her, it doesn't last as long as one might expect. Kuunavang also flies around, mostly staying out of melee range, so only ranged interrupts are viable.

In the early portion of the mission, Kuunavang alone isn't really that dangerous. If she does get corrupted dragon scales or spores off, you can easily get out of the way and return to the fight later. Once you do sufficient damage to Kuunavang, she retreats to beyond a gate. Once you do some more damage, she retreats to beyond another gate. This happens with a third gate, as well.

What is dangerous, however, is fighting a group of afflicted while fighting Kuunavang. When a group of afflicted comes, retreat to significantly behind the previous gate. The afflicted will chase you to there, and you don't have to make any special effort to aggro and pull them. Kuunavang will not chase you past the gate, even if you were already in combat with her, and you can destroy the afflicted in peace.

Afflicted groups come at set times, so the number of afflicted groups you have to fight can vary by how quickly you can wear down Kuunavang. The timing of which group of afflicted comes after which gate can likewise vary. Some afflicted groups may contain one or two bosses; such groups will have fewer mobs total to compensate.

When Kuunavang gets low enough on life, a cut scene plays, and the group fights Kuunavang alone, without any afflicted to help her. For this battle, Kuunavang will finally be in range of melee characters. More importantly, the battle takes place in an enclosed area, so you will be unable to run away. It is thus especially vital that you interrupt corrupted dragon scales. If Kuunavang does get a cast of them off, you can kill the scales, but be certain that any interrupters stay with Kuunavang to not let her get additional casts of them off.

Master's reward
The fifteen minute time limit for master's reward is quite generous, and allows for quite a bit of backing off to wait for afflicted or running away from corrupted dragon scales. The mission can be sped up by heavy armor-ignoring damage (since Kuunavang has very high armor), but this is unnecessary. Taking excessive melee can make it take much longer to wear Kuunavang down before the cut scene, so it helps to avoid melee henchmen and heroes.

Hard mode
If you get a henchmen party from the other side, they are much stronger than normal, as NPC allies in hard mode generally are. As such, it can help to let them take the brunt of the damage when fighting groups of afflicted. The henchmen party will try to stand behind yours a bit, but is slower to follow than your own party if you run away. You can take advantage of this by running away slightly as an afflicted group gets near, so that they'll see and attack the henchmen party before your own.

As above, the keys are lots of interrupts for Kuunavang and not fighting Kuunavang and afflicted at the same time. The 15 minute limit for master's reward is unchanged, but still allows plenty of time even if you run away every time as soon as afflicted appear in the distance on radar.

Kuunavang is now capable of killing some party members in two hits if you have no defensive measures against it, which may be faster than healers can react. It helps to keep Kuunavang permanently weakened or blinded while fighting her. The easiest way to do this is with Enfeeble. Some other skills work, too, but recall that conditions only last half of the normal duration on Kuunavang, which limits your options.

Monsters
Afflicted Dragons
 * 24 (26) Afflicted Warrior
 * 24 (26) Afflicted Ranger
 * 24 (26) Afflicted Monk
 * 24 (26) Afflicted Mesmer
 * 24 (26) Afflicted Necromancer
 * 24 (26) Afflicted Elementalist
 * 24 (26) Afflicted Assassin
 * 24 (26) Afflicted Ritualist
 * 30 (32) Enraged Kuunavang
 * 30 (32) Kuunavang

Bosses - elite skill capture

 * 28 (30) The Afflicted Maaka - Enraged Smash
 * 28 (30) The Afflicted Pana - Broad Head Arrow
 * 28 (30) The Afflicted Jingme - Ray of Judgment
 * 28 (30) The Afflicted Lau - Order of Apostasy
 * 28 (30) The Afflicted Hsin Jun - Stolen Speed
 * 28 (30) The Afflicted Shen - Mind Burn
 * 28 (30) The Afflicted Senku - Shadow Form
 * 28 (30) The Afflicted Xenxo - Weapon of Quickening

Follow-up

 * Players will be in the Harvest Temple after the completion of this mission.
 * To continue the storyline, talk to Kuunavang to get the Primary Quest, Taking Back the Palace