Plumbing101 - A Guide to the Waterworks instance.

[Katherine_Light]

This guide has separate sections to explain how each boss works (in black), give recommendations for those of you who are new to the dungeon and want to get out safely (in green), and recommendations to those of you who are familiar with the dungeon and are ready for some strategies that will allow for faster farming (in purple). Colour blind people of the world, I apologize. Key words are bolded so you can find the important bits faster.

A short note on farming for your gear: while both bosses can drop crowns gear like mega snacks and mastery amulets, Luska drops your legendary hats and Sylster drops your robes and boots. To access the Waterworks, you must be level 60. Once you reach level 60, speak to Blad RavenEye by the mill on Triton Avenue to get your quest. If this is your first time through the dungeon I would HIGHLY recommend having a life wizard with you. I would also recommend marking location outside the sigils before you enter. It is best to enter the dungeon on a server that is as least crowded as possible, so that you can for sure get back to this server if you need to. If you are defeated and need to get back in this will save you a whole lot of frustration.

This is the entry room to the waterworks. There are four passages off of it, and each passage has two rooms. You must work your way through the first room in the passage to gain access to the second. The second room will contain a lever you must pull to help you fix the drain valve. Just for information's sake, I numbered the location of the passageways and the order in which you will be working through them. (All pictures can be clicked on to be made bigger if you can't see.) Each of the enemies you will encounter has an 80% resist to their own school.



Your first mob fight (death & storm)- the first room of the first passageway. I would recommend having all wizards (save life) blade up and use a 7 or 8 pip AoE. If you have a full group and all of them have trained gargantuan, you can also try using your school blade on the first turn and attacking using a 4 pip AoE on the second turn. We called these strategies "mad hatter" and "mad rush" respectively 0 yo ucan read more about them and how to set up your deck here. If this is one of your first times through, you may want a life wizard to heal your group with unicorn or rebirth during the final round of each battle. You've got a lot of fights ahead and don't need to waste your potions on healing after mobs.



Second battle in the first passage (storm & ice). Note the lever in the background. Also note that, aside from the mini-boss fight, the second room of each passageway is a pull floor. You will be pulled into the battle in the order in which you enter the second room, even if the last person to the room runs right up to the enemies to trigger the fight.



After you pulled the lever you will head into the second passage. This is the first room. The book in front of you will instruct you to open ONLY the blue clams and not the yellow. (I circled a yellow clam so you could see what to look for. The outside of the clam is identical to the blue ones.)



You must open all of the blue clams BEFORE the red wisps you see in the background disappear, and be warned - they disappear FAST. The timer for these wisps starts as soon as the first person enters the room, regardless of when anyone else enters, even if they don't read the book. Try to have your group all enter the room together to avoid any problems with the timer running down. This can be tricky to complete if you don't move fast.

On this floor, you can also "trick" the timer. If one person enters the room to start the timer, than can quickly back out the way they came. When they do this, the timer usually stops, and all the members of your group can then enter the room and take as long as they want to open the clams. Please note that this trick sometimes backfires - I said the timer USUALLY stops. On occasion it will keep going, in which situation you've wasted time and it's impossible to get all the clams open in time. Any time you use a glitch like this you're taking a chance, so use this one at your own risk.

If you successfully complete this puzzle, you get a floor full of red wisps. If you don't, you get this (sun).



The floor following this is Luska Charmbeak, your mini-boss.



HOW THIS BOSS WORKS
At the start of the battle, Luska tells you


Luska will 'ink' every round. This means the player in sun spot will get a smoke mantle (as shown above) and all other players will have a 70% hex placed on them.

Shot of Luska's health for you.



People in sun spot can use any type of attack with no consequence. However, if a person who is not in sun spot and has not yet been smokemantled takes any single target action on the boss, you will receive this message.


If anyone who is not inked has tried to do any single target spell (trap, attack, convert, weakness, black mantle, etc), on Luska, he will first remove a trap you have put on him, then remove all shields on you with shatter. Then you will be hit with either
1- a super-charged power link which does approximately 700 damage per round over 3 rounds. Luska will also then remove all shields and absorbs from everyone on your team, or
2-a super bone dragon which does about 1100 per round. The first hit is much stronger thanks to the 70% hex you will have on you.

Luska will begin inking more people as his health drops. While group attack spells will not trigger his bone dragon/power links, they will still trigger an additional person being inked if they bring Luska below a certain health point.
Sun spot is inked from when Luska is at full health
Eye spot is inked at about 16000 health
Star spot is inked at about 11000 health
Moon spot does not get inked regardless of health - we have gone as low as 120 without getting moon inked.
If you bring Luska below 11000 health in one hit, both eye and star will be inked simultaneously.
If the person in sun spot dies, Luska will not begin inking the second person in line. The only way for more to get inked is to lower Luska's health.

To re-iterate: Luska cannot be trapped with normal traps, as this is a single target spell. You will incur the penalty for TRYING to place a trap on him, but the trap will be immediately removed! You must kill this boss with BLADES ONLY. Exceptions: windstorm and pet traps. Luska will also only remove only one trap from fuel, elemental, and spirit traps, though if you are not inked you will still be hit with a power spell.

Some additional notes on Luska:
-Luska is balance and has a correspondingly high balance resist.
-I'm hearing lots of weird things about Judge. In some cases, Luska will hit you with a power spell if you judge him, even from an inked position. In other, Luska has failed to hit with a power spell even if the person judges from an uninked position. I would recommend staying away from judge altogether to be safe, especially since he resists it tremendously anyway.
-bubbles are fine to be casted by anyone. Luska will not knock them out.
-anyone can blade as much as they want. Blades do not trigger any cheats.
-smokemantle and the 70% hex will be placed at the beginning of each round, IF there is not currently a smoke mantle or curse on the player. If the smokemantle or curse from the prior round is still there, a second will not be added.
-Luska does NOT react to spells that are not single target attacks. Group attacks, or group buffs/debuffs such as plague, smokescreen, windstorm, etc, do not trigger any cheats. (It should be noted, though, that a smokescreen would be used up on Luska's inking process, which will never fizzle, so it is a waste of a spell.)

Recommendation for a safe fight: Have a main hammer in sun position using single target attack spells, and a life wizard in the last spot. Since Luska will be inking more people as the fight goes on, keep your life wizard safe in the moon spot so you have more assurance of safety. Without traps and with your hammar fizzling often this may take a few hits, so be prepared for a long battle. The more types of blades you can get on your hammer, the better. Players aside from the main hammer can feel free to attack using bladed group attacks with no consequence other than additional inking. Life wizards, please keep some triage on deck in case someone not inked mistakenly attacks with a single target spell (eg, a leviathan as opposed to a storm lord). A wizard with low health may well not survive more than one hit of Luska's bone dragon, so triage right away and follow up with a heal the next round. Be prepared for a long, drawn out fight with lots of fizzles, but as long as you've got a life wizard with you and you do not keep trying to trap Luska, you should be just fine.

Alternate recommendation for a faster fight: Have the person in first position put a myth dispel (or spirit defuse) on Luska so that you can trap/feint him. (You can pick up treasure myth dispels in the Zafaria library, or frequently the bazaar.) This will make his myth spell to remove the trap on himself fizzle. Make sure the person doing the dispelling is in sun spot - if you try to dispel from an uninked position, the dispel itself is used up when Luska tries to pierce your shields off. The myth dispel will only allow you to put ONE trap up per dispel, so if you want to put up stacking feints, you'll need two dispels. With stacking feints and a high powered on hit spell, this fight can be quick and painless. If someone other than your sun spot player will be placing the feints, please keep these things in mind:
1. Do not feint the same turn your sun spot player is trying to put up a dispel. There's a good chance the dispel may fizzle, in which case your trap won't stick.
2. If possible, wait to feint until the same turn your hammer is hitting. The means you'll only have to deal with one tick of the power spell.


After defeating Luska, pull the lever and head over to the third passageway, where you'll face 2 more rooms of fights (death and fire).



Second fight with lever (balance and ice).



After this passage, you will head into the final corridor and this room.



The eel will show you the order in which to pull the levers, which, in case you somehow miss it, is this.



After pulling these four levers, there is no way to mess this up, lol. Pulling that last lonely lever won't trigger a fight or stop you from getting your wisps, nor will putting any of the others lever back up. I tried (because why not?). Upon completing the first four levers, you get a floor full of wisps. If you pull a lever out of order, you will get this fight (storm). TY to Toa of Light and Aria Amethyst for caps of this one!



The last room of this passage has another mob fight (life and moon).



Pull the lever, head back to the main room and use the drain valve to meet your final bosses.



Allow yourself a moment to quietly (or not so quietly) freak out when you get a look at their health...


And then prepare for the final boss fight with Sylster Glowstorm. (Sylster is star and no longer has any resist to any school, the water-wing is fire, and the SpellHammer Sorcerer is death.)

HOW THIS BOSS WORKS

From the first turn, Sylster will cast a doom and gloom around your fight. What actions are and are not allowed during the round are determined by the colour of this doom and gloom. When the bubble is white, you can place any types of traps on the bosses. When the bubble is black, you can place any blades on yourself. Please note that whether the bubble is white or black, it does still function as a regular doom and gloom as well and will cut healing in half.Sylster will always begin with a white doom and gloom / traps permissable bubble, so feel free to place traps on your first turn.
Exceptions: windstorm, pet blades and pet traps are permissable at any time. Pet blades will stay on through the end of the first bubble ONLY - pet spells will be removed along with all other spells at any bubble change beyond the first. Sylster can detect cloaked blades, so there is no point in cloaking during this fight.




The first trap bubble will always be 3 rounds, and the bubbles following will be 4 rounds each. He will knock out the bubble at the beginning of each round, even if your turn is first. This means that you may very well be expecting a blade round, all choose blade spells, only to have him interrupt at the beginning of the turn and change it to a trap bubble. In this case, all of the blades your team casts that turn will be removed from you as soon as they are cast, like this. When Sylster changes the bubble he will remove 4 traps from each boss and 4 blades from each person on your team. He will start by removing the blades most recently added.


In any given round, do NOT attack unbuffed with a single target attack . Should it be a blade round and you attack without blades (or if you attack in a trap round without traps), depending on who you have attacked you will incur the following:
Sylster: Power Ra (base damage appear to be about 1800?)
Waterwing: 375 rebirth with no absorb
SpellHamer: scarecrow.
It does not matter whether or not the trap or blade is actually used in the attack, so long as there is one present at the time your card is played. There are no conquences for attacking unbuffed with a global spell.

If you kill Sylster first, the shark minion will say "NOT DA BOSS!", and will take over the boss' role of changing the cheat bubble. At the beginning of the first turn after the boss is killed, he will interrupt and cast a trap bubble, even if the trap bubble was already up, and this will begin a new 3 or 4 round cycle. (So if you kill the boss at the end of a 3 round trap bubble, you may have 6 straight rounds in which to trap.) If you then kill the shark, the fish will say "WHERE DID EVERYBODY GO?", and knock the existing bubble out with a trap bubble in the same way the shark did.

Recommendations for a clean fight: Buff down the line to whomever has a good attack and pips available. Put the person mostly likely to be your hammer at the end of your line-up, and prepare them for big hits. As soon as the boss changes the bubble, you have a four rounds to buff to hit. You can make full use of these rounds if you can predict when the change is coming. If not, try to buff as much as possible in the second, third, and fourth rounds and have your hammer hit at the end of the fourth round. Since group spells do not risk triggering a power spell from one the bosses, stuff your deck with AoEs and use them as your main attack, particularly if you have any doubt about when a bubble change is coming. Discard and clear out your deck to find the buffs you want, and set up for big hits as efficiently as possible. You can get a whole lot of blades on your hammer in a few rounds. Depending on who's got pips and decent cards at the time, pretty much anyone can be your hammer in a given round. Once you're down to the final boss, wait for a trap round, have feints in hand (amulet and treasure are especially useful), and get to work on a big hit or two to finish him off.

Recommendations for a challenge and a faster fight (AKA - dispels).
Using dispels to keep traps or blades on: You can dispel the spell Sylster uses to remove your traps or blades when he changes the bubble. (He uses the cleanse ward myth spell to remove traps placed on him in a blade round, and the storm spell disarm to remove blades put up in a trap round.) In this way, if you have a vaporize on sylster at the end of a trap round, Sylster will be prevented from removing his traps. Conversely, if you have a dissipate on him at the end of a blade bubble, he cannot remove your blades at the switch.

Things not do if you are using the dispel strategy:
-If you plan to use pet blades during the first trap round, make sure you myth dispel Sylster before you put up a pet blade. When you myth dispel him, he sees it as a charm and will remove any blades from your team, so dispel first, pet blade after.
-If you have used a dissipate and have blades remaining during a trap round, do not attempt to add a pet blade or myth dispel the boss. The dispel won't get removed, but any type of charm including dispels, whether on you OR him, will trigger his disarm cheat and get your remaining blades removed.
-Strangle will NOT change Sylster's blade/trap cheats. His spell to change the COLOUR of the bubble will fizzle, but the cheats will still change and all remaining blades or traps will be removed anyway.
-You CAN use strangle to get rid of the doom&gloom and put up an alternate bubble. If you strangle sylster and put up a wyldfire, darkwind, or other bubble, your bubble will stay in place only until the next bubble change, which you can also stop with another strangle. His trap & blade cheat will remain the same, but you can heal fully and get an attack boost for your own spells. Make SURE, then, that you are keeping track of which bubble you are on as you will no longer have the colour to remind you. Do not try to put up a new bubble without a strangle on, or he will knock out whatever bubble is up with another doom and gloom. Also, pets whose spell come with a bubble (ie white rat magician, red ghost, brown spider, or the power up talent) can change the doom and gloom bubble at any time without even needing a strangle, since a pet spell will go unnoticed by the bosses. Note, though, that without a strangle up even a pet bubble will be knocked out at the next bubble change. Unintended consequence - the fish's rebirth and sylster's satyr will also now heal them for full value.

A note to balance wizards: Spirital defuse is a wonderful thing. This will have the effect of both allowing someone to knock out that doom and gloom with an attack bubble for awhile (thanks to the death dispel) AND preventing those traps from being removed at the end of the following trap bubble (thanks to the myth dispel). A note of warning as stated above - do not place them on Sylster during a traps bubble if you have blades remaining, as it will trigger his disarm spell and your defuse will not stop that.

Also recommended for everyone:
-Potion up before the battle, you'll want full health and mana.
-Carry reshuffle in yoru sideboard. Several, if you can. If you are not using the dispel strategy, it cna be a big relief to know that you can discard to find what you need but still get those cards back later.
-If you suspect a bubble change may be coming, and someone is hitting with a single target attack, put a blade or trap on them, even if it's not the right school. The buff will still count in the bosses eyes, and even if your action wasn't necessary, you've at worst lost a pip, and at best saved your team from an Super-Ra.
-Count the 4 rounds out loud so that everyone is aware of when the bubble will change. If you can put up the correct buffs on the first round of a new bubble you have that much more time to make your hits effective.
-Storms wizards take note - you can supercharge at the beginning of a blade bubble, and still get a huge hit by the end of that bubble. Even if you don't attack by the end of the bubble, if your team piles blades on so that there are more than 4 after it, so supercharge will remain into the traps bubble.
-Finally, if you are defeated, port back to the location you marked by the sigils, mark again, and don't forget to drink your potion.

Here's a video showing the benefits of the dispel strategy. In this fight, the storm wizard supercharged on the first round of the first blade bubble while the other players gave various treasures or balance blades to the storm wizard. One wizard put a storm dispel on Sylster to stop him from removing the blades at the end of the blade bubble. On the first turn of the trap bubble, stacking feints were placed on Sylster and the storm wizard attacked with a gargantuan stormlord. This wasn't just a one hit kill but one hit overkill. I have seen every school sucessfully one hit the trio of bosses using this strategy, so have some fun with it. Try out some ideas and see what happens!

A video of the myth dispel strategy (which is faster but a bit trickier) is coming soon.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIutP8IxsPQ

Finally, enjoy your gear and your mega snacks! The drops here are amazing. As a bonus, while the gear drops may be hard to come by, any no-auction gear you win will only ever be from your own school, so whatever you do get will be usable.

DeathShard's guide to Waterworks Drops! Both bosses occasionally drops megas, Sylster more than Luska, and I can confirm drops in live of both mastery amulets and Baconator gear.


As always, if anyone wants a hand with the dungeon, please post a request over at the Mercenaries for Hire Difficult Instance thread and we'd be glad to give you a hand!

And HUGE, HUGE thanks to Jesse NightWalker, compguru1, John Shadow, and RamessesII for running this dungeon with me over. and over. and over. You guys are the best. (I'm totally not gonna use the 'hidden' option when you guys are online. Really.)

[Johnny]

Wow nice guide! ^^
I have been waiting for one of these.
Great job!

[Noob]

Great Guide! I will definitely use this when I'm in WaterWorks! ;D

[teddster77]

Wow.... This is.. Great! :D
Happyface for you! :D

[Kaceytron]

Awesome and great guide! I will be bookmarking this so when I do the waterworks, I have a guide to help! :D

[Jesse Nightwalker]

Guide turned out great! Awesome Job

[AutumnSky]

been waiting on this guide

woooo thanx :D!!

[DarkDrake]

great guide. i hope that should they change it when it goes live, ya update it, because this is a very informative guide.

[Katherine_Light]

Bumping - on the second page already, wow this forum is moving fast today.

[Natalie Rose]

This guide is amazing. I'll definitely use it when doing the instance! Great job on it(: