Yakamaru/Strategies

Roles

 * 1 Base tank (With backup) - Player should be in melee distance and mage prayer.
 * 2 North tanks - During mirage phase, players will tank the 2 northern mirages while the team handles the ones to the south (2 north tanks are needed since hot-fix with quicksand, that will make you stuck no matter if you are in range or not). It is recommended to have them using Ice Barrage to bind the summoned jellyfish for 20 seconds.
 * 3 Healers - Rangers on Lunar spellbook who use Barricade then repeatedly click Heal Other on the tank and team. Also use Vengeance Group.
 * Have a rotating order between healers so two healers do not use Barricade at the same time, skipping the next heal and forcing the other healer to heal others next.
 * Poison tank - At 100k Yakamaru hp, run into poison target location while others get off, then bring poison effect to melee distance with mage prayer.
 * A backup poison tank(s) can help incase main poison tank is killed by being "blued" or is affected by tentacles/quicksand.
 * CPR (Resuscitator) - After every Yakamaru pool change from poison - run to the beach and save the poisoner from insta-kill effect.

Gear
All players are usually required to have Dreadnips, as when Yakamaru is attacked by 7 or more at any given time, he becomes stunned (this does not affect northeast pool's stun effect) preventing him from attacking or using abilities. Like most other bosses that have access to abilities, they only use them if they can attack their target.

Like Vorago, melee can be used but is not recommended as anyone within a 2x2 range of Yakamaru will be hit by magic attacks and be affected by his enrage mechanics unless the player is the base tanker.

Magic
When maging, it is required to be on either the standard spellbook to cast debuff spells on Yakamaru or the Ancient spellbook to cast Ice Barrage on summoned Jellyfish to bind them for 20 seconds. If north tanking, it is recommended to be on Ancients and be dual wielding due to 2-handed weapon's slow attack rate.

Ranged
Rangers should be on the Lunar spells spellbook with access to Heal Other/Heal Group and Vengeance spells, as it will be needed to restore the health of players from the many sources of high damage during the fight. As Heal Other and Group heal lifepoints based on the player's current health at the time, equipment that has more health bonuses are usually a priority for more effective heals.

Canals Puzzle
After entering a canal puzzle, you will be facing various Jellyfish in each island and there is a blocked water spout. The jellyfish that appear must be killed to unblock the spout, which will take you to the next skirmish. Once all jellyfish are killed, have five people from the group go back to the islands which had pressure pads. One player will hit the block, which will show a face. The players on the other islands must stand on the pad containing that face to unblock the canal, leading them to the boss fight. Rebank if needed by logging out then back in if you can't use the two canal banks, then re-enter instance.

Note: In order to go straight to the boss fight from instance portal, all players must have dived into the arena; if one player has not dived through the waterfall yet, the whole team must complete the canal, even if the group leader sets the boss to Yakamaru.

Pre-Fight
Before fighting Yakamaru, run NORTH to reset the loading map; this can prevent lag.

Lastly, group in close proximity to other players while standing in the gaps between pools as seen to the right, to allow for healers and group veng'ers to reach everyone. This also allows you to easily run back during shark or sand effects.

The Fight
Yakamaru does not move for the majority of the fight; the only time he moves is when he jumps to another pool. Yakamaru will jump to another pool when his health is depleted. Each pool is a phase that gives Yakamaru different abilities, and there are 5 phases in total. Players will need to deal as much damage as possible, as the total damage needed to kill him is 5,600,000 from its phases and mirages.

Yakamaru's attacks will hit everyone in the fight within a 20x20 radius of him. He does not use melee-based attacks, but his melee-distance attack is a magic attack instead. Anyone 3 spaces or further from him will instead be hit with ranged attacks, shown as tentacles bursting from the ground and attacking the player.

During the fight, Yakamaru will not let you attempt you leave the fight through lobbying. If you do so, a message will say "Yakamaru is displeased with your cowardice.", preventing you from doing so. If you are out of combat with Yakamaru, a message will appear saying "Yakamaru is displeased with your cowardice, and throws dangerous projectiles at you!", dealing 2,000 damage to all players out of combat with him. This will mean that it is a fight to the death, although players can leave a failed kill by asking the group leader to kick them or removing themselves from the group.

As soon as Yakamaru appears, attack him. There are abilities that can occur throughout the whole fight:
 * An orange jellyfish can spawn along with cracks with 50,000 lifepoints. Players must stand on the cracks, after which a geyser will erupt out. The player will take around 1,700-1,850 magic damage from the geyser, but will deal 10,000 damage onto the jellyfish. Prioritize these jellyfish over Yakamaru, as they are aggressive and can stack rapid AoE melee damage.
 * One random player will turn blue (similar to the water Metamorphosis ability), and must pass the effect on to another player. This is done by standing next to someone else who has not obtained it yet (this is why standing close together is helpful). If you do not pass it on to another person, you will be hit for typeless damage, starting at 1500 and incrementing by 1000 for every following hit, until the effect is passed. After passing the effect around to 5 or 6 players, the effect will disappear.
 * Yakamaru as well as Beastmaster Durzag have enraging mechanics, where damage against you increases over time. This effect is applied to anyone in an area around the main target. Yakamaru will warn you about increased enrage three times, saying "Yakamaru's water begins to drench you," (2x) "Yakamaru's waters begin to soak through you," (3x) and "Yakamaru's waters conducts his full power." (4x) By applying Freedom after each warning, you can decrease the rage state by one. This will cause triple damage after the second message and quadruple damage after the third message against the main target, against anyone else the multipliers will doubled at second warning and triple at third warning instead. Unlike Durzag, Yakamaru does not reset his enraging mechanic when he is not focusing on that player, so the only way to decrease his stacks are by continually using Freedom whenever those messages appear.

When Yakamaru reaches 100,000 lifepoints at the specialty pools, poison will spawn in a designated spot. The team should have a poison runner, someone who will use the poison to infect Yakamaru at the end of the phase. When Yakamaru shoots the poison, it will hit a 1x1 area (shown with green arrows on that spot). The poison runner will then go melee distance to Yakamaru once they are poisoned (Protect Mage prayer) and the team depletes his health to 0.

A successful poison attempt should yield the message "Yakamaru is lured by the scent of your poison..." and drag them into the pool with him. That player will later end up on the shore, and must be resuscitated by a teammate or will instantly die from the poison. While that player is being resuscitated, any damage from Yakamaru will be reduced to 1 regardless of protection prayers or defenses. You can still eat and drink potions while being resuscitated however, and it is advised to do so should the resuscitator become "blued" while saving you.

If the poison runner misses the poison, Yakamaru cannot be poisoned and the phase must be repeated again. The message "As no one poisoned Yakamaru, it returns to the central pool to recover." will appear, and Yakamaru will be back at the starting pool at health he was at + 50,000. No canal jellyfish will appear when this occurs.

After every phase Yakamaru will go to the starting pool and summon multiple jellyfish encountered in the canal puzzle. Prioritise these jellyfish first, as they hit very fast and hard on the players. During the phase, planks will also appear on the south-eastern coast. There is no need to have a designated person to collect planks since it takes up many inventory spaces. Whoever has lots of empty inventory spaces should pick them up, as it is needed to defeat Yakamaru. After Yakamaru loses another 200,000 lifepoints while in the starting pool, he will go to the next phase by jumping to one of the pools. The first pool is randomly chosen, but the others will be chosen in a clockwise rotation based on the previous pool.

Centre pool (Start)
This is the pool that Yakamaru is waiting for players in. The designated tank should shatter the barrier, starting the fight. The tank should be in melee distance with Yakamaru while praying against magic attacks. Everyone else should be standing away, but close together, while praying against ranged attacks.

After 200,000 lifepoints are lost, Yakamaru will run to a new random pool for the next phase and return here after health on that phase is dropped.

If Yakamaru is killed without being poisoned at end of phases, Yakamaru will return here, then players must redo the pool that he was just in until he is poisoned.

Southern-most pool (Tentacles)
During this phase, Yakamaru has access to two tentacle abilities. The first one, which is a group of bunched up tentacles, is used against his current target and deals rapid hits of 2000 for players near it, which will kill them easily. The base tank should be prepared to run or use Barricade to block the tentacles' attacks. This attack can be easily seen as Yakamaru will lower his head onto his main target, rather then using regular attacks. The other tentacle ability will choke top DPS who has dealt the most damage onto Yakamaru, dealing small hits of 300-700 while binding them, and will be freed when enough damage has been done on Yakamaru.

Deal damage to Yakamaru while avoiding his special attacks until the end of the phase, where like all phases, poison will spawn. The person who is contaminated by running into the 1x1 target area must then run melee distance to Yakamaru, infecting it.

This is considered the most dangerous phase, as the required DPS means healers will not be healing.

Deal damage to Yakamaru while avoiding his special attacks until the end of the phase, where like all phases, poison will spawn. If you suspect that the tentacles are about to appear, wait for them to be used or have someone backup poison tank, as the smaller tentacles can grab the main poison tank.

Yakamaru will return to the centre pool now.

Centre pool (Poison)
Yakamaru leaves this pool after 200,000 lifepoints lost. If you successfully poisoned, it will run to the next phase (Pool clockwise from the last pool). If you defeated Yakamaru before he was poisoned, the pool that he was just in will need to be repeated again.

During this time, resuscitator should save the poison player on the beach. Players with spare inventory space should loot planks for Mirage phase.

Yakamaru will spawn multiple types of jellyfish from the canals after each phase (excluding mirage), each of which can cure Yakamaru of his poison if it gets to him. Thus, stun and provoke all jellyfish then kill them quickly. However, Yakamaru will be cleared of his poison regardless if one of the jellyfish spawned was a Reflecting/Durable jellyfish, as upon death it will cleanse him of the poison.

South-western pool (Sharknado)
During this phase, the fight goes on as normal but Yakamaru has the ability to create sharknados. This can be easily seen, as the whirlpool around Yakamaru will grow larger and have sharks circling around it. After several attacks, Yakamaru will release the sharks in a circle, which will drop onto the floor and then explode, dealing 2100-2400 classless damage per shark. If you Surge or Escape before the sharks appear on the ground, they will appear on the tile where the player Surged or Escaped to. The sharks are solid objects, so players should avoid Surging or Escaping too early or teammates will be hurt by their damage. Alternatively, you can fish the sharknado pool, which will reduce the amount of sharks but is not recommended as you will be forced to go within melee distance.

Instantly after the sharks explode, an orange jellyfish will spawn.

Deal damage to Yakamaru while avoiding his special attacks until the end of the phase, where like all phases, poison will spawn. The person who is contaminated must then run to Yakamaru, infecting it. Players should be very careful with their DPS on Yakamaru. If he is near 110,000 lifepoints and a sharknado pool is about to be launched, wait for the sharks to be launched before running back in.

Yakamaru will return to the centre pool now.

North-western pool (Sand)
In this phase, Yakamaru dampens the ground around him, causing players near him to be stuck in the sand. A message will appear for the person not affected by the ability saying "Yakamaru drags your team into quicksand! Free them before they drown!". There is no warning message for players affected by the quicksand, so players should be looking for a Detonate-like animation at the beginning of the quicksand and quickly spam a phrase that will let players know that they need to be freed. This effect triggers five attacks after the orange jellyfish. If not saved in time, the player will die instantly, although a Sign of Life or Death will be activated and the player will rejoin the battle.

Players are advised to stand in a rectangle formation to easily see who is stuck in the sand and have a partner free them, so more people can focus on DPS. The main tank can and will be dragged also, so a player should use protect/deflect magic until they are out of his melee range.

Deal damage to Yakamaru while avoiding his special attacks until the end of the phase, where like all phases, poison will spawn. The person who is contaminated must then run to Yakamaru, infecting it. Be careful if a quicksand attack is about to occur when Yakamaru is near 100,000 lifepoints, as the main poison tank may be grounded and be unable to reach the poison.

Yakamaru will return to the centre pool now.

Note: During the quicksand phase, make sure that no one is stuck in the ground before depleting Yakamaru's health bar, since they will be unable to move and unable to block the pool.

North-eastern pool (No-stun)
During this phase, Yakamaru gradually gains a damage reduction effect, until he is completely immune to damage. He will also be weak to a certain combat style, which will partially bypass this effect. While Yakamaru is immune to them, stuns are not advised to be used outside specific circumstances. Doing so will cause Yakamaru to reflect it back at the whole team, dealing typeless damage, based on how high his damage reduction is. The higher the damage reduction, the lower the damage dealt and ranges from 1,000 (at full immunity) to 5,000 (no immunity) As such, during this phase there should be one designated person (the tank, usually) to stun Yakamaru when his damage reduction is high (more may be needed in case the stun misses). Do not use channeled abilities such as Asphyxiate as it deals 4 stun attacks, dealing from 16,000-20,000 damage back at the whole team (if it was used to break the first stun, then the next three hits went through), which will kill off most of the team.

After each stun, players should use all abilities available to them (excluding stuns), as after being stunned, all damage towards Yakamaru will increase greatly where thresholds that normally hit 4,000 damage can increase up to 10,000 without using any damage boosters. As such, watch his health carefully, as excessive damaging will result in the team having to restart this pool.

Deal damage to Yakamaru while avoiding using stuns (unless you are the designated or backup stunner) where like all phases, poison will spawn. The person who is contaminated must then run to Yakamaru, infecting it.

Yakamaru will return to the centre pool now.

Mirage phase
After all five phases are done for the first time and Yakamaru has been damaged to 50,000 lifepoints, it will create mirages of itself on all but the starting pool. Each mirage only has 150,000 lifepoints.

If any number of the mirage images are left out of combat, a message will say "As a mirage was left out of combat, it flings dangerous projectiles at the group!", dealing 2,000 damage to all players in the arena. This can be fatal when combined with damage from standard jellyfish, so the two north tanks come into play to aggro the mirages on them, so they do not fling projectiles at them. Teams go from the tendril pool to the damage reduction pool when clearing mirages, as quicksand will reduce the amount of DPS if the damage reduction pool is taken first. When at the tendrils mirage, have someone aggro the sharknado mirage or it will fling projectiles at everyone in the team.

As soon as the mirage's health bar is depleted (not the real Yakamaru, shown in the top bar), spam click the pool instantly, otherwise the mirage will return with full health and need to be defeated again. The tendril and quick sand pools are blocked with sand, requiring no items. The sharknado and damage reduction pools are blocked with the planks obtained during the fight. It will help to be in melee distance by the time the health bar is depleted.

As all phase effects are active at once, make sure to stay aware of sharks when killing tendril pool, etc. The Base tank will also be needed at stun pool.

Note: During the quicksand phase, make sure that no one is stuck in the ground before depleting Yakamaru's health bar, since they will be unable to move and unable to block the pool.

Note: During the fight, Area of Effect (AoE) attacks (such as Dragon Breath, Chain and Ricochet, etc) should be used with care, as they can damage any familiars in their range under certain conditions. Note that this does not always happen and what causes it is currently unknown.

After the pools have been blocked, Yakamaru will return to the centre pool. Once it dies, the boss fight is over, although any remaining jellyfish should be cleared before looting the boss.

There is a glitch where if blocked just as the mirage comes back down, the mirage will still survive and Yakamaru will not appear yet. Simply kill the mirage and Yakamaru will reappear again.

Feats Challenges
There are 5 special challenges that when completed award progress towards "the Daredevil" title. In order to complete the feat, the challenge described must be met AND players must finish the kill.

Reward
Claim from Yakamaru's corpse in the eastern pool to receive your reward, and you can exit from the area by the whirlpool.