The ability can be interrupted by CCing them.

1. When the adds spawn, the tank must not chain the stone shaper. Taunt them. As soon as they start their channel, then chain them in. The important thing here is to avoid CCing them before they start the channel, because then they get CC immunity. Wait for them to start the channel, then CC. Tank chains are the best for this, since they serve a dual purpose of both interrupting the channel and bringing them in to be burned down in AoE. If your tank is not a DK, then you'll have to find some other way to CC them (keeping in mind that if you have a non-tank on CC duty, you'll need a backup in case they are the ones hallucinating during an add spawn).
2. My Mazzatun farm group runs with three AoE ultimates: two from the DPS and one from the healer (destro ult is ideal). The two DPS alternate their ults on the totems and add packs. For example, I'll drop my ult on the first totem, and then when the first add pack has been grouped up, the other DPS will drop their ult. The healer holds their ultimate in reserve in case the DPS who's next in the ult rotation is hallucinating or otherwise unable to drop their ult. The key here is to plan your ult usage so that you have an ultimate for every priorty target--totems and add packs--and that you don't blow them all on the same target. Though towards the end during the final burn to kill the boss, we'll call for ults free, and if the healer still has their reserved ult at that point, they'll drop it.
3. Always stay close together when the boss is active. When someone is hallucinating, move the entire group to the statue. Not only does it make it easier for the hallucinator to identify the statue, it helps with healing them and prevents totems from spawning far from the group if it spawns on their location.
4. If healer has hallucination, off-heals from tank or DPS (Vigor, Funnel Health, etc.) and Igneous Shields (if the tank is a DK) should be able to protect the group long enough for the healer to get free.
5. The mini-boss phases are recovery phases because all the key mechanics are paused--no totem spawns, no hallucination, no add spawns, etc. So don't be in a hurry to kill the mini-bosses. We use that opportunity to build ultimate and regain resources. Take your time and heavy/light attack as needed.

Its hard, but worth it for the skin!

I ran with a group that has a strategy to ensure one of the DPS get the totem vision and not the tank or healer.

The curse is not random, 9 times out of 10 it goes to the person closest to the boss when the amberplasm spawn dies.

So what you do is tank the amberplasm shade way back at the door, the healer and one DPS stay near the tank. The DPS who you want to gets the vision stands next to the cage with the main boss.

Other things you can do to make the fight easier:

• If you get the boss to 67% quick (when the first amberplasm shade spawns, you avoid adds)
• If the boss throws the orange goo, have one of the DPS use it so an add doesn't
• When tank hold the amberplasm shade at the door, do not burn it, ensure everyone has their ultiamte up (which should be warhorn, destro, Stamina ult of choice, Nova also is decent)
• When DPS gets vision, other 3 players go near the totem.
• All four players stay at totem and close to boss so healer can do her thing and totem spawns by boss
• Use utlimates together on totem (which also gets boss/adds)
• Hardest part of fight is if your DPS is a little low, boss might give a second person totem vision before another amberplasm shade spawns or she is dead. Ideally this is avoided. If it's the healer or the boss isn;t in execute, get everyone to the cursed totem. If boss is low, try and just kill her.

Amazing advices. I just want to add this: On 2nd and 3rd boss 1 DD must deal with archers when they appeear, and back to boss when they are dead, excluding when you have to do the mechs.
On Xal-Nur, healer can slot barrier to the last spice carry. Both DD carry the spice, and the first to drop release 1 Wamasu (1 Wamasu per spice carry). Take your time and do the mechanics.

I got all Mazza vet achievements as a DD (magsorc) and Healer (magplar).

Thanks for the tips everybody! Sounds like we're pretty close to the right strategies, just need to work on executing them better.

The immovability pots idea is a great one, if it can keep me upright in the visions + adds phase then we should be able to finish fairly easily.

Joy_Division wrote: »

The curse is not random, 9 times out of 10 it goes to the person closest to the boss when the amberplasm spawn dies.

Are you sure about that?

I've never noticed that before, and I've run the SotH dungeons a lot (we ran HM multiple times a day every day of the week back when the motifs were worth a lot more than they are now). But I thought that it might've just been that we didn't notice it because we weren't really paying attention and looking for a pattern.

Anyway, since you and someone else in the thread mentioned the distance thing, we did a Mazzatun run today where we tried to control who got the hallucination based on the comments in this thread. We'd have one DPS stand close to the cage and everyone else was a fair distance away. And as far as I can tell, it's just random. We did multiple pulls and were never able to reliably control who got the hallucination. In fact, most of the time, it went to the DPS that was farthest from the cage.

Though we didn't test extreme distances (like everyone else all the way over at the door). But if that had worked, then it might be because at that kind of distance, you'd probably be outranging the ability. But at normal distances, it's definitely not controllable and probably just random.