Unwaking Waters (mission)

Primary
The objective of the mission is to defeat the powerful dragon Kuunavang. It is composed of two similar stages:

Stage 1: Entering the Temple: This stage is comprised of a long trek into the whirlpool in which the Harvest Temple has sunk. The spiraling path has barriers that prevent the party from going further until Kuunavang is weakened enough. Prior to each barrier, a large group of Afflicted will emerge from it to assault the party and Kuunavang will swoop from the side to use her powerful skills. Still, with proper preparation for this confrontation, dispatching the Afflicted group while dealing damage to Kuunavang should be straight forward.

It is important not to ignore the afflicted and their Afflicted Soul Explosions. Wards and group protective skills such as Aegis or Shelter are extremely useful in making the party able to sustain the Afflicted attacks while defeating Kuunavang.

Coming to the first portal, hang back near the ship and let the afflicted pass by. In doing so stops the flow of afflicted from that barrier. This might also work on the remaining barriers. Once the first barrier is down stay at the arch. This helps shield you somewhat from Kuunavang and her spores/scales.

Stage 2: Defeating Kuunavang: After breaching the last barrier, a cutscene will play and then the party will be standing face to face with Kuunavang at the top of the temple. She will be called Enraged Kuunavang and presumably her attacks and power will be augmented.

It is vital to be mindful of the basics of defeating a powerful foe in this game:
 * Bringing interrupts to try and prevent Kuunavang from invoking her skills will work. However she is resistant to interrupts so it takes two or more to stop her from casting.  Dazed works really well because of this.
 * Bring armor-ignoring skills if possible as they will inflict their damage equally regardless of Kuunavang's high level.
 * Grenth's Balance is a very effective way for recovering from spikes and dealing massive damage to Kuunavang. Frontline Warriors can bring this skill without losing combat potential.

Expert Level
Complete the mission objectives in under 20 minutes (unconfirmed). This earns 1500 Experience, 150 gold, and 1 skill point.

Master Level
Complete the mission objectives in under 15 minutes. This earns 2000 Experience, 200 gold, and 1 Skill point.

Walkthrough
Selecting Your Party

In this mission, your party must be able to accomplish two things: (1) do a very significant amount of ranged damage, and (2) interrupt Kuunavang despite her resistance to being interrupted.

This places some limitations on which party configurations have any real likelihood of success. Generally, a team with only one melee attacker is preferred, and a team with more than two melee attackers will most probably be unable to deal adequate amounts of ranged damage. (This is a design oversight which has lead to both sides of the mission being filled with warriors and assassins who are unable to find parties.) If live players with ranged attacks are unavailable, henchmen with ranged attacks are preferrable to live players without ranged attacks. It is possible to complete the mission (and even the master's reward) with only henchmen (on both sides), so don't be afraid to use them if human players of the appropriate classes are in short supply -- just make sure you have a ranged weapon to direct them with (or use ctrl + shift + space).

It can take two or more interrupts to actually stop one of Kuunavang's spells, so your party should include more than one character with more than one interrupt. For some reason, the henchmen seem to have more luck interrupting Kuunavang than most humans.

Defeat the First Afflicted Mob

This should be fairly easy for you at this point in the game.

Weaken Kuunavang for the First Time

Since you face Kuunavang alone, this should be fairly simple. Hit her with ranged damage and make sure to interrupt Corrupted Dragon Scales. While her other attacks are powerful, especially Dark Chain Lightning, none of them is capable of killing much of your party from full health in one casting, as is Corrupted Dragon Scales. If your team has interrupts "to spare," feel free to interrupt her other skills -- just don't leave yourself in a situation where you'll be unable to interrupt the Corrupted Dragon Scales if that's the next skill she uses. When you weaken Kuunavang enough, she will fly off and a mob of afflicted will emerge from the first barrier.

Defeat the Second Afflicted Mob

The key to this battle is to stay out of Kuunavang's range while killing the afflicted. As soon as Kuunavang flies off after your first battle with her, run towards the barrier. Run to the far end of the wrecked ship on your left and hook around to take up position above it. This will place you far enough away from the edge that Kuunavang will not be able to reach you. Defeating the afflicted mob should be simple without Kuunavang's interference.

Weaken Kuunavang for the Second Time

With the afflicted dead, pound Kuunavang with ranged damage. This is essentially like your first battle with her, except that she flies around a bit more. When you've damaged her enough she will fly away, the next barrier will dissolve and the next afflicted mob will be released.

Defeat the Third and Fourth Afflicted Mobs

Again, the key is to stay out of Kuunavang's range while killing the afflicted. Here you can do this by NOT PASSING THROUGH, or even entering, the arch where the barrier was. You can lure the afflicted through the arch, where you can kill them without Kuunavang's interference. Depending on how quickly you dispatch the third mob, the fourth mob will arrive during or soon after your battle with the third. Dispatch them in the same manner. You will know both mobs are dead when you've killed two bosses at that location.

Weaken Kuunavang for the Third Time

This battle is no different than "Weaken Kuunavang for the Second Time." When she is weakened enough, she will fly away again, the penultimate barrier will dissolve, and the final afflicted mob will be set loose.

Defeat the Final Afflicted Mob

Advance to the barrier that just dissolved, but DO NOT PASS THROUGH IT. Use the same positioning and strategy as for the third/fourth mob to keep Kuunavang out of the fight. This may actually be two mobs, but they arrive so closely together there might as well be only one.

Weaken Kuunavang for the Fourth and Final Time

This battle is the same as before. When it ends, a cutscene will begin, and you will be taken inside the temple for the final part of the mission.

Defeat Kuunavang

This battle is more-or-less the same as your previous battles with Kuunavang, except: (1) your melee attackers can now reach Kuunavang, and (2) you are in an enclosed area which will rapidly become filled with Corrupted Dragon Scales if you fail to interrupt Kuunavang's casting.

The first thing to do, immediately after the cutscene ends, is to scatter/fan out. Sometimes Kuunavang will cast Corrupted Dragon Scales the moment the battle starts, and follow up with Dark Chain Lightning immediately after that. If she does this, and your entire party is still standing in the spot you were in at the end of the cutscene, you will all be knocked down in the scales, which will probably kill too many party members for you to recover. By fanning out, you limit your losses to one or two party members at most, should Kuunavang begin with this most deadly opening move.

From there, battle Kuunavang as before -- dish out as much damage as you can and make sure to interrupt the Corrupted Dragon Scales (and Dark Chain Lightning if you have the interrupts to spare).

If Kuunavang does manage to cast any Corrupted Dragon Scales, simply run out of them and continue attacking her. Don't stop to destroy them -- they will die on their own soon enough, and she can create more of them far faster than you can destroy them if your interrupters don't stay focused on her.

One Final Note

Don't rush. The strategy outlined above will virtually guarantee a time well under the master's cutoff without any rushing. (Its author completed the mission using an elementalist with 15-henchman team in about 8 minutes.) Both Kuunavang and the afflicted can be finished quickly and easily if you hang back and fight them alone, but a battle against both of them together will drag on as you spend more time on self-preservation than doing damage. Moreover, rushing into such battles is a very good way to get party members killed, costing you even more time to revive them.

Skill Capture

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