The Branches of Darkmeyer-Boss Fight

[Helm Lardar]

While perusing the guide to "The Branches of Darkmeyer", a quest on which I am currently stuck, I noticed that the boss fight section was slightly lacking. This is a shame, since this boss fight is particularly difficult, and as such is a guide that almost anyone who uses quest guides on this site will visit. Although I have yet to defeat him, I thought I might be able to help players by giving them a good idea of his attacks instead of the relatively vague paragraph that is currently there, which misses out some key pieces of information that I believe are vital to anyone attempting this kill.

 

This is the current paragraph, copy-pasted from the guide on the site:

 

 

Now enter the next room to face Vanstrom. During the fight, he will shoot magical attacks at you if you are far away from him. If you get close to him, he'll melee you. After you do some damage he will reveal his true form. Sometimes he will teleport into the middle and say "Look into the darkness", when he does this, do not look at him, or you will be hit for about 500 damage. He will also fly up in the air at times, and when he does, he creates blood spots on the floor, that if you stand on, deal hard magic damage. The best way to avoid this is to run around the room, and not stand in one spot, while attacking him and running away. He can also sometimes freeze you for a few seconds.

 

 

I would suggest that it be replaced by:

 

Now enter the next room to face Vanstrom. During the fight, he will shoot magical attacks at you if you are far away from him. If you get close to him, he'll melee you. After you do some damage he will reveal his true form. Vanstrom has four different special attacks, all of which are voice-acted and used interchangeably so it may be helpful to turn your sound on.

 

His first attack, "let the blood consume you", teleports you to the centre of the room and forms a puddle of blood underneath you. You should immediately run away to avoid large magic damage that ignores prayer. Vanstrom will immediately follow this up with a melee attack. If you can lure him over the puddle of blood, he will take damage. The damage from this attack does not always seem to be avoidable.

 

In his second attack, he summons two bloodworm leeches to regenerate his health. Immediately attack them: they only have 50 hp each, but if they reach him, they will partially heal him. Note that if you get them to attack you but do not kill them, Vanstrom may continue using his other attacks: as a result, it is essential to kill them immediately.

 

In his third attack, Vanstrom uses his wings to hover above you and casts blood spells at you, also occasionally freezing you in place. Here, the trick is to always keep running: blood pools appear under your feet and will do massive damage to you if you stand still. However, at this point, Vanstrom has 0 defence, so it is an ideal opportunity to deal a lot of damage if you brought ranged or magic combat. If you are lucky, you will be able to take as much as a quarter of his health away during his flying attack: however, remember that keeping a full health bar for yourself is more important, as being hit more than once by a blood puddle will likely kill you.

 

Vanstrom's final attack, "stare into the darkness", has the screen fade to black and back, dealing you a large amount of damage. This can be avoided if you both face the camera away from him and also turn your in-game character's back to him. You have little time to react, but avoiding these attacks will significantly help in the fight.

 

When he is about to die, Vanstrom will turn into a fine mist, which can still deal rapid and dangerous attacks. Do not relax just yet! Throw the holy water into puddles and lure him across them until he dies.

 

Before Vanstrom dies, he will summon Bloodvelds to fight you. Vanescula and Sarius will arrive. Vanescula allows you to use her powers to fight the Bloodvelds.

 

(I won't venture to post set-ups as I haven't killed him yet, but I do feel a good understanding of the attacks Vanstrom uses is essential for the guide).

Edited July 3, 2012 by Helm Lardar