Brother Bryan’s Beginner’s Guide to
DPS at Yakamaru
WARNING: This fight is considered one of the hardest in RuneScape, to even attempt it, you should have a decent understanding of the fight mechanics involved – I highly recommend using voice chat with someone that is experienced for your first few kills.
Players must have already completed a Beastmaster kill and completed the puzzle before they can attempt this raid. Yakamaru has a total of 5,600,000 LP – 1M LP per special pool and 150K LP for each Mirage. As a beginner, your starting role is DPSH, depending on who you are going with, some teams will allow you to simply DPS for your first kills to allow you to get a handle of the mechanics. The roles for this raid are as follows:
- Base tank (BT): Takes the brunt of Yaka’s attacks.
- North (sand) Tank (NT): Provokes the Sand pool on mirage phase.
- Shark Tag (ST): Provokes the Shark pool on mirage phase.
- Poison Tank (PT): Collects the deadly poison and takes it to Yaka on each pool to end the phase.
- Resuscitator (CPR): Runs to the beach and saves the PT after each phase.
- Stun DPS (SDPS): Provokes & kills the Stun pool on mirage phase – Usually using Devotion + Onslaught
- DPS/Debuff: DPSer that also uses debuff (Vulnerability and Enfeeble) spells on Yaka through the fight.
- DPS/Healer (DPSH): DPSer that periodically uses barricade throughout the fight (in conjunction with heal group, or heal other if healing the BT) and heals the team.
Gear:
At Yakamaru, it is acceptable to use either Ranged or Magic. However, since Ranged provides the best DPS at Yaka, I will be solely focusing on a Ranged setup – Players wishing to use Magic should bring the best item-in-slot gear that they have (some suggestions can be found on my BM guide).
- Armour: Sirenic > Pernix > Ports
- Weapon: Noxious longbow / Ascension Crossbow – Those without T90 weapons will struggle to get on a team, please see me if you fall into this category (NOTE: A Noxious Staff, depending on prices, can be a cheaper alternative).
- Necklace: Amulet of Souls (better for beginners) / Reaper Necklace > Farsight sniper necklace > Saradomin’s Murmour > Dragon Rider Amulet
- Ring: Ring of Death / Asylum Surgeon’s Ring > Superior Leviathan Ring / Archers’ Ring (I) > Sixth-Age Circut Ring
- Arrows/Bolts: Araxyate Arrows / Ascension Bolts
- Aura: Penance > Vampyrism
- Pocket Slot: Sign of Life, if 99 Divination > Illuminated God Book / Scrimshaw
Inventory Loadout:
1x Holy Overload flask > Overload
4x Super Restore flask (Sub for one Super Prayer Renewal if not using Holy OVL)
1x Adrenaline flask
12x Saradomin brew flask
1x Portent of Life (if 99 Divination)
Enhanced Excalibur
Dreadnips (any combat style)
A shield switch (Any shield or shieldbow is fine)
The rest x Rocktail
NOTE: If you are DPSH instead of just DPS, you will also need to bring runes to cast Heal Group and Heal other. How this works is you build to 100% adrenaline, swap to your shield and use Barricade, this will provide 100% protection from damage for 10 seconds, during this time you should repeatedly click Heal Group, and cast Heal Other on the BT. Make sure you stop casting Heal spells 2 seconds before Barricade ends to ensure you don’t take any damage. Players should note on Tendril/Sand pool, the pools mechanics can clear/reset defensive abilities, so only Heal after Tendrils/Sand attack.
Pack Yak contents:
25x Rocktail
5x Saradomin brew flask
I suggest having a Brew at the 10th, 15th, 20th, 25th and 30th slots in your Yak and having the summoning icon left-click option set to “Take from BoB”.
NOTE: Throughout the fight, you should be keeping your health high by occasionally sipping on a Brew, players should only eat a Rocktail if they suddenly lose a bunch of health. This is because if you eat a Rocktail you will lose adrenaline, but you won’t if you drink a brew. You will also want to keep your Rocktails for fast healing during the Mirage phase incase you get attacked by multiple Meleefish. So, don’t be afraid to eat your Rocktails, but try to stick to Brews unless you’re under half-health.
Recommended Action Bar:
From left to right, using Revolution
Dazing shot (2H) / Needle strike (Dual-wield), Sacrifice, Corruption Shot, Snipe, Tuska’s Wrath (Anticipation if you don’t have it), Piercing Shot, Fragmentation Shot, Snap Shot, Bombardment, Surge, Rapid Fire (bind), Devotion, Freedom, Death’s Swiftness
NOTE: I advise keeping your Ranged Abilities book open so you can quickly use Binding Shot and Tight Bindings on Meleefish (both stun abilities), you can use Rapid Fire straight from your action bar to bind.
Starting the fight:
As with BM, players will need to be organised with the group system. The leader of the group will set the Raid instance to Yakamaru, then you need simply pass through the blue barrier by the Mazcab bank and you’ll be taken to the Yaka instance. If all 10 players have NOT completed the puzzle, it will need to be completed again before you can proceed – It is considered common practice for players to do the puzzle after BM not before Yaka.
NOTE: Players should remember to bonfire before entering the instance.
The instance layout:
The Yakamaru fight takes place on a beach with 5 pools. One in the middle, with four pools arced around it in a South-to-North sweep on the Western side of the main pool. On the Eastern side of the main pool is the ocean! Each of the four pools on the outside gives Yakamaru various special attacks while it is within that pool.
For the majority of the fight, Yakamaru, unlike many other bosses remains stationary. The only time Yaka moves is when it’s jumping to another pool. After defeating Yaka at a “special pool” he will jump back to the main pool, where he needs to be defeated again before he’ll jump to another special pool.
What are the “special pools”?
South: Tendril pool
South-West: Shark pool
North-West: Sand pool
North: Stun pool
The fight:
NOTE: This fight is considered to the death. If you are out of combat for too long, Yakamaru will start firing projectiles at you dealing constant 2K damage – you can avoid this by using Anticipation, Freedom, Surge or Escape to “enter combat”. You may only leave the fight by dying or leaving the group (click leave and hold down the 1-key), the system will not allow you to lobby/logout once the fight begins.
Yakamaru’s main attacks:
Throughout the fight, Yakamaru has three different special attacks that the DPS have to pay attention too.
- Yakamaru will summon an Orange Jellyfish with 50,000 LP, there will also be 5 black spots/cracks on the ground, these Jellyfish use melee attacks and hit hard, so they should be prioritized over killing Yaka. Shortly after spawning, geysers will erupt out of the black cracks, if a player is standing on the crack, they will take ~2K damage but deal 10,000 damage to the Jellyfish. When an Orange Jelly spawns, players SHOULD stand on the black cracks, a well timed Resonance (shield switch) will result in a ~2K heal. If the Jelly isn’t killed when the geysers erupt, players should use stun or bind abilities on the Jelly and kill it as quickly as possible, then return to killing Yaka.
- Yakamaru will cause a single player to “turn blue”, your whole avatar will turn blue similar to the metamorphosis ability (when using water spells). If you turn blue, you must pass it to another player who has yet to receive the blue, otherwise you will take damage, starting at 1500 increasing by 1000 every hit (after a two tick pause) until it does a final hit of 5500 damage. To pass the blue, you need simply stand NEXT to someone that hasn’t received the blue – this is usually not an issue as the DPS should be standing in a group together. DO NOT pass the blue to the BT. If no one is around, you should run to the nearest player while eating Rocktails, there is no point drinking brews as this won’t out heal the damage you take. The blue will NOT be passed to someone standing on the same square as you, if this occurs simply step out of the group and it’ll pass to another player.
- Yakamaru will use the pool specific special attack (see below).
Poison:
At 100,000 LP on each special pool, Yakamaru will release the deadly poison. A set of green arrows will appear on the ground – Make sure you are NOT standing on this. The Poison Tank will stand there and absorb the poison (and yes, as the name suggests they will begin to take high levels of poison damage), the PT will then move within melee distance of Yakamaru. If this is not done correctly, Yakamaru will jump back to the main pool to the LP he had previously +50,000LP and the special pool will have to be repeated afterwards from full health (1M LP).
After the PT is eaten by Yaka, he will be spit up on the beach with an adrenaline bar above their head. The CPR will run over and click (ONCE) on the PT and wait for the bar to fill up, thus resuscitating the PT. If this is not done correctly, the PT will instantly die.
To ensure that each pool is poisoned correctly, DPS should stop using thresholds/stop attacking once the poison is released. This is particularly important on the Stun Pool, as Yaka’s lifepoints will drop very quickly on this pool.
The fight begins:
The Main Pool (starting pool):
This is the pool Yakamaru starts in, at the beginning of the fight there will be a glowing barrier over this pool; when everyone is ready, the BT will click on this and summon Yakamaru beginning the fight.
Players should start this fight by standing inbetween the Shark and Tendril pools, the BT will stand on the Eastern side of the main pool. Players should have Protect from Ranged, Protect Item and Anguish on for the entire fight. You should also use Devotion as often as possible to reduce the amount of damage you take.
All the tanks will try to keep Yakamaru focused away from the DPS as much as possible, similar to the line of sight attacks at BM, Yakamaru causes players to be drenched by water if he is facing you – this is an enrage mechanic. You will get a notification in the middle of your screen if this occurs, the first one being “Yakamaru’s water begins to drench you”, this will cause you to take 1.2X damage, the more attacks Yaka does in your direction, the more drenches, and therefore damage you will take. If you become drenched, simply use Freedom to clear its effect – this is important to do as it also affects the enrage stacks on the tank.
When 200,000LP of damage has been done to Yaka, he will jump to one of the special pools. The first pool he jumps to is random, but afterwards he will move around in a clockwise direction until he has visited all four special pools.
The pool rotation is: > Tendril > Shark > Sand > Stun >
Tendril Pool (South pool):
Yakamaru has two tendril abilities for this pool.
-Yaka will fire up a bunch of tendrils underneath the person he is targeting (BT) causing rapid 2K damage, this will almost always certainly kill you unless you are prepared for it.
– The other ability is a set of tendrils that chokes the top 5 DPSers. This will proceed to do increasingly higher damage (starting at 200LP/2 ticks) – these tendrils binds the players and resets/clears all defensive abilities. These players will be released when enough damage has been done to Yakamaru.
When fighting this pool, all DPS should allow the BT to tag Yaka first, this is because there is a chance Yaka will use his 2K tendril attack first – if this attack occurs within the DPS pile, it can easily kill half the team. Simply wait until Yaka is facing/attacking the BT, then proceed to attack.
During this pool, players should stand north of the pool somewhere inbetween the Shark and Main pool. Proceed to DPS this pool cycling through Death’s Swiftness and your Threshold abilities. At 100K LP the poison is released (like at all pools) and once complete, Yaka will return to the main pool.
Main Pool (Poison):
Yakamaru will leave this pool after 200,000 LP has been dealt. If the team successfully poisoned the last pool, he will jump to the next pool in the rotation. If you failed to poison the special pool, Yakamaru will return to the main pool with +50K LP (so after the first pool, he will have 850K LP, 2nd pool 650K LP ect) and then proceed back to the failed special pool.
After every successful phase (special pool) Yakamaru will return to this pool and a further 200K LP has to be done to him. Yaka will also spawn a group of Jellys (the same ones that you encountered in the Canal Puzzle) – this will consist of one of each combat jelly, and either one Durable OR Reflecting Jelly. There are two options here, and it depends on your team which one you do:
-Phasing: Ignore the Jellys (stun and move away from the meleefish) and attack Yakamaru. While poisoned he will take double damage (but will also deal extra damage to all players). If any of the Jellys reach Yaka, or the Durable/Reflecting Jelly is killed, it will cleanse the poison from Yaka – this also occurs if enough damage (200K) is done to force Yaka to the next special pool.
-Kill all the Jellys first, then proceed to kill Yaka in the main pool – Most teams will do this, but pay attention for anyone that calls “Phase” just incase. Again, stun the Meleefish and move away from them quickly, as they can deal high amounts of damage.
During this phase, 5 planks will also spawn along the beach (resulting in a total of 20 for the fight). These are used to block both the Shark and Stun pools. You should NOT pick up planks unless you are specifically given the role to do so.
Shark Pool (South-West pool):
During this phase Yakamaru has the ability to create a sharknado, this is easy to spot as the water around Yaka will rise up and sharks will be swimming around in it. Yakamaru fires out sharks in all directions of the pool, these are like bombs and blow up several seconds later causing 2-3K damage per shark. Do NOT Surge/Escape away as this will cause the sharks to land to the square you have Surged/Escaped to.
For this pool, players should stand on the northern point of the Tendril pool (so that they are just standing in the water of Tendril pool). When the sharks are thrown out, players should spam click underneath their avatar as sometimes your character will run out into the sharks. If all players are DDing (Death Dot) on the correct spot, all the sharks should land far enough away from the group that no one takes damage. If one shark lands next to the DPS group, you can click on it to “kick it away” and avoid taking damage. If multiple sharks land near you, you should run south away from them, then return to the DD afterwards.
During this pool, players should keep their health high incase of rouge sharks. Remember if you get blued, to step out of the DD so the blue is passed to another player. As soon as the sharks explode, an Orange Jellyfish will spawn, so be ready to move onto the black crack.
If at around 150K LP Yaka is about to release a Sharknado, players should stop attacking until after the sharks have exploded to ensure the PT can get to the poison safely. Yaka will then move back to the Main Pool (Poison).
Sand Pool (North-West pool):
On this pool, 5 auto attacks after the Orange Jellyfish is spawned all players (bar two) will sink into the sand and become trapped – this will also clear/reset all defensive abilities and put them on cooldown. A message will appear for the two players that aren’t trapped “Yakamaru drags your team into quicksand! Free them before they drown!”. There will be no message for players that become trapped in the sand, so pay close attention to what is happening.
Trapped players must wait for someone to free them, it is often advised to type the letter F in the chat after a few seconds to ensure you are freed. If players sink too low into the sand, they will instant die, however a sign/portent of life/death will save you. To free players, you need simply click on them once and they will be pulled from the sand. All players that are free should help free trapped players until the whole team is free.
All players should stand inbetween the Shark and Main pool, just south of the Sand pool during this phase. Players should stand next to each other to make it as easy as possible to free the team when sanded. Players must also ensure that someone frees the BT. Proceed to DPS until the poison is released and the pool is complete. Yaka will now return to the Main Pool (Poison).
Stun Pool (North pool):
During this pool, Yakamaru will gradually gain a damage reduction ability until he is immune to all damage. Stunning Yakamaru will reset his defence but will reflect damage back to the entire team.
Abilities that count as stuns for this pool are – Magic: (Asphyxiate, Deep Impact, Impact), Ranged: (Tight Bindings, Binding Shot), Melee: (Destroy, Stomp, Forceful Backhand, Backhand, Kick).
Dreadnips can stall/stun Yaka, but don’t trigger the reflect effect on this pool. Dominion gloves bind but don’t stun. Both are safe to use during this pool.
A designated stunner (main stun) is set before the fight begins. ALL players must NOT use stuns during this pool except under certain circumstances, as damage will be reflected back to the team. A message will be displayed in the middle of your screen “X (player) has stunned Yakamaru!” if you stun, the damage from this depends on how high Yaka’s damage reduction was – 1000 (lowest) up to 5000 (highest). The damage depends when Yaka was last stunned. The exception to this is if a player uses a channelled ability such as Asphyxiate or Destroy, where all players will be dealt 5000 damage four times, almost always killing everyone. If you accidently use one of these abilities, click/move/surge/escape away immediately!
DO NOT USE ANY STUNS ON THIS POOL. Aside from that, this pool is fairly easy, keep your lifepoints high incase someone stuns by mistake. At 100K LP the poison will be released, ALL players should stop attacking at this point as the last 100K LP disappears very quickly and the PT needs time to absorb the poison/MD (melee distance) Yaka.
Yaka will then return to the Main Pool (Poison).
NOTE: If you use my recommended action bar, you will have no stuns on it.
Mirage Phase:
NOTE: All Jellyfish should be killed before starting the Mirage Phase!
After all five phases have been done (Main Pool + all four Special Pools) and Yakamaru has been brought to 50,000 LP he will create Mirages of himself on all but the starting pool. All the Mirages only have 150K LP.
Jellyfish that spawn during Mirage phase should be stunned or bound but not killed, it is more important to kill the mirages of Yakamaru. Take care to move out of MD of the Meleefish as they hit hard.
If any of the Mirages of Yakamaru are left out of combat, all players will start taking constant 2K damage. You will NOT have to deal with this. The BT will tag the Tendril Pool, Shark Tag takes the Shark Pool, North Tank takes the Sand Pool and the StunDPS take the Stun Pool.
At the beginning of Mirage phase, players should make their way to either the Tendril or Shark Pool – which pool the DPS starts on depends on the team, and is usually called before the beginning of mirage. If starting on Tendril Pool make sure NOT to attack until the BT has tagged the mirage.
Pay close attention to the health of each mirage, when it gets down to ~25K LP all players should move into Melee Distance of the pool. Once the mirage is killed, you have 5 seconds to spam click on the pool to block it. Tendril/Sand pool are blocked with sand which requires no items. The Shark/Stun pool require 10 planks each, someone else will have gotten these. If the pool is not blocked, it will have to be repeated from 150K LP.
Players should be aware of their surroundings as all pool special attacks will be in effect. The biggest risk for you (from special attacks) will be not moving away from the shark bombs.
NOTE: Remember to stun/bind all Meleefish and move away from them, then proceed to attack the mirage. Stun/bind/move as required, but keep DPSing.
NOTE: For the Sand Pool, players should make sure no one is stuck in the sand before killing the Mirage, else not enough people will be able to click and close the pool.
As a DPS when Mirage phase starts, your job is to deal as much damage as possible to the Mirages. You will NOT have to deal with the Stun pool, as this will be closed by the StunDPS who will then join you on the remaining pools.
Attack Mirages in this order: Shark/Tendril > Tendril/Shark > Sand; watch for the call so you know if your team is starting on Shark or Tendril pool. Once the Sand Pool is closed, you must then deal 50,000 more damage to the Main Pool to kill Yakamaru. If you’ve made it this far, well done! You can now click on Yakamaru’s corpse to receive your loot.
TLDR Notes:
-Orange Jelly, stand on black crack, use Resonance.
-If you turn BLUE, pass to another player, NOT BT.
-Use Devotion as much as you can.
-Freedom all drenches.
-Stun/bind Meleefish
Main (Poison):
-Stun/bind Meleefish
-Kill Jellys
-Kill Yaka
Tendril:
-DON’T tag first.
-DPS
Shark:
-DD on edge of Tendril pool
-Spam click under yourself when sharks come out
-Run away from sharks
-DPS
Sand:
-Free players who are trapped
-DPS
Stun:
-DON’T use stun abilities
-DPS
Mirage (Kill all Jellys before starting):
-Tendril/Shark then Sand pool
-Stun/bind Meleefish, then move away
-MD at 25K LP of each Mirage
-Spam click each pool when Mirage is killed
Courtesy of Bryanqwert, last updated April 2nd 2016