yakamaru¶
Introduction¶
Raids is a mechanically intensive group boss that may seem daunting at first. But, when you break it down into different pieces, it is fairly straight forward. One thing to note is that Yakamaru has a unique mechanic that gives it 100% hit accuracy. If Yaka were to splash, it will deal half damage instead. Keeping this in mind, keeping the appropriate prayers up (mage in md, ranged otherwise) is critical. During the entirety of the fight (including Mirage Phase), Yakamaru will add stacks towards its primary target. These stacks will allow Yakamaru to deal increased damage to anyone with these stacks. This mechanic can be dealt with using Freedom to halve the number of stacks that you have. Unlike AoD, these stacks will not reset your defensive abilities.
Drops¶
Yakamaru’s helmet 1/300 (60 threshold)
Presets¶
DPS
Seismic singularity Flanking 4
Rune Pouch 
Rune Pouch 
Rune Pouch 
(Runes for 
)
DPS
Off-hand Ascension crossbow Flanking 4
Rune Pouch
(Runes for )
DPS
Off-hand Drygore mace Flanking 4- Rune Pouch
(Runes for )
North Tank
Ancients are recommended to freeze any jelly that spawns on you, while its common to have a JW to deal with them, it’s also not uncommon to just let jellies spawn and the team itself works as a whole to prevent their movement.
- Seismic singularity
Flanking 4 - Rune Pouch
- Rune Pouch
- Rune Pouch
(Runes for )
Base Tank on Ripper
Achto used for defensive resets, arcane used for damage reduction if needed at any point. It is recommended to try to use power armour however if you are learning this is a suitable alternative.
- Rune Pouch
- Rune Pouch
- Rune Pouch
(Runes for )
Mammoth Basing with Mage
The most efficient strategy to base Yakamaru with, this setup ensures you eat through the damage as much as possible with the Mammoth Scrolls, allowing you to fully concentrate on doing DPS rather than Survivability. The faster the kill, the less defensives you should use.
- Rune Pouch
- Rune Pouch
- Rune Pouch
(Runes for )
Beginner Base
Replace Achto Gloves with Achto Legs if you have them, this way you keep the Bracelet. This preset ensures you don’t stray too far away from the META strategies while at the same time giving you room to breathe in handling this type of basing.
This preset also assumes you’re camping Standards
(Runes for 
and )
Roles¶
North Tank
Also known as NT or Sand Tank. This person must voke and tank the Sand pool during mirage. Since the DPS will be focused on the other 3 pools first, the NT will be tanking mirage for the longest amount of time. That being said, a defensive rotation is advised as well as using 
, , and shield dome as effectively as possible. A good way of dealing with this pool is using 
, then using 
once a good number of stacks are built in order to receive a good heal, then using and other defensive thresholds/ultimates as needed.
Jelly Wrangler
This person is to tag, voke and drag jellyfish away from the other players during mirage phase. A maximum number of 10 jellyfish can be present in the instance at one point. Using ice barrage is a good way of dealing with the jellyfish as it will affect multiple targets. Using melee prayer and is also critical in reducing damage taken. If enough jellyfish surround the JW, it is very easy to get KO’ed. Using defensives is crucial as killing jellyfish in your party will force Yakamaru to spawn another jellyfish near the team. Bolas can also be used if you are ranging.
Main Stun
Also known as MS. This person will stun Yakamaru during the Stun pool. It is important that this is the ONLY person who stuns the pool. It is also important to note that asphyxiate should NOT be used as main stun; impact/deep impact or their ranged/melee variants will be sufficient. Using stuns during this pool will deal 1000 typeless damage to the whole team and drastically reduce Yakamaru’s defense. If another stun is used quickly, the typeless damage can hit up to 5000 typeless damage (in conjunction to the initial 1000).
Back-up Stun: Also known as BUS. This person is to stun Yakamaru during the Stun pool ONLY if the MS misses their stun. If the MS misses their stun, they are to call out “stun missed”, then the BUS will use a stun ability. Again, do NOT use asphyxiate to stun the pool.
Double
Also known as DBL. This person will act as a poison tank for Stun pool. During Sand pool, you will take the poison from sand (in conjunction with the PT). However, you will not run MD to Yakamaru during Sand pool. You will tank the poison from this point up until Stun pool is defeated. It is important to stand MD to Yakamaru during the entirety of Stun pool (pray mage) and to keep a high HP level as you will be getting hit by mage hits, poison hits, and the occasional stun hit.
CPR
This person must revive the PT after the pool is phased. The PT will show up on the beach and will have a bar over their head indicating how long you have to revive them. If you do not get to the PT before this bar is depleted, the PT will be instantly killed.
Poison Tank
Also known as PT. This person must tank the poison for each pool (except for Stun). At 100k HP, Yakamaru will release a poison to a random square and you will have a few seconds to be standing on this square. The designated tile will be at the center of four inward facing green arrows (this looks like detonate). Once you get the confirmation message that you have received the poison, you must rush into melee distance to Yakamaru (pray mage). Once Yakamaru hits 0 HP, you will be taken to the beach (southeast area of the instance) and the CPR will revive you. Make sure to switch ranged prayer here. If the poison tank misses the poison or is not standing MD as the pool dies, the entire pool must be repeated.
Stun 0
Also known as St0 or S0. This person must DPS the Stun pool during mirage. This person should also follow the same rotation as St5 but does not need to use any planks. This role is optional as the NT may act as a St0 (this should only be done if you are very experienced).
Stun 5
Also known as St5 or S5. These 2 people must take 5 planks from the beach and DPS the Stun pool during mirage. A quick way of dealing with this is tagging the pool, → 
→ 
on the pool. Once the pool flies into the air, you and your partner will close the pool with your 5 planks (together, 10 planks are used).
Shark 10
Also known as Stag10, SH10, or S10. This person must voke and tank the Shark pool during mirage and then use 10 planks to cover the pool once Yakamaru is defeated. Since most of the DPS will be focused on the Shark pool during mirage, the SH10 will not have to rotate defensive abilities asides from devotion or debilitate. That being said, using devotion then building into 
/ 
/ 
, using an adrenaline renewal potion and doing a DPS rotation is advised. Once Yakamaru hits 0 HP, it will jump into the air and the SH10 must close the pool with their 10 planks so the pool does not respawn.
Mechanics¶
Yakamaru has different mechanics based on the pool he is currently occupying (Choice of tendril, shark, sand, stun, and mid).
Map of Yakamaru Pools
Sand Pool
This is the northwestern pool, it will always follow the shark pool unless Yakamaru dives to the sand pool first. Yakamaru will use the “Quick Sand” special attack here. During this attack, Yakamaru will begin burying eight random players in the instance (or however many are in the instance minus 2, so if 8 remain, 6 will be affected). The two free players must click on the other players in order to free them from being isnta-killed. If the base tank is buried, they must be freed as soon as possible. Typically, the 2 unaffected players should free the player closest to them and then immediately free the base tank. If you are affected by the special attack, your defensive abilities (except freedom and anticipation) will be put on cooldown (you can still use Disruption Shield and Shield Dome). Furthermore, you will still be able to attack Yamaru even if you are affected by the Quick Sand attack.
Keeping the special attack in mind, the team should be cautious with doing too much or too little DPS around 100k HP. If Yakamaru does the Quick Sand attack in conjunction to releasing the poison, the poison tank and double may not be able to get the poison in time. If Yakamaru is preparing to do the Quick Sand attack and the HP is slightly above 100k, the team should slow down on the DPS. If Yakamaru is close to 0 HP and the poison tank is in position to phase and Yakamaru is preparing to do the Quick Sand attack, the team should either phase ASAP or slow down. This ensures the CPR is free to save the poison tank from the insta-kill.
Stun Pool
This is the northeastern pool, it will always follow Sand Pool unless Yakamaru dives to Stun Pool first. During this pool, Yakamaru will not gain a special attack, but will gain a special mechanic. This means that Yakamaru’s special attack rotation will be: 4 auto attacks, jellyfish, 4 auto attacks, blue, repeat. The unique mechanic that Yakamaru gains is a defensive buff. This buff increases as the fight progresses to the point where Yakamaru will become invulnerable to all attacks except to the style it is weak against. Yakamaru’s weakness is indicated by its helmet’s color (red for melee, green for ranged, blue for mage) or the text next to Yakamaru’s name. This mechanic is bypassed by using a stun ability to drastically lower Yakamaru’s defense. Stuns that will proc this are: asphyxiate, deep impact, impact, horror, shock, tight bindings, rout, binding shot, demoralise, destroy, stomp, forceful backhand, backhand, and kick. Dreapnips and dominion tower gloves will not stun the pool. Once a stun is used, Yakamaru will reflect damage to the team, the damage reflected can be anywhere between 1000-5000 damage. This damage scales to Yakamaru’s current defense. If Yakamaru has a very high defense and a stun is used, the damage reflected will be closer to 1000. If Yakamaru has a low defense or was recently stunned, the damage will be closer to 5000. If two players stun Yakamaru at the same time, the typeless damage will stack, meaning the team will instantly be hit for 6000 damage.
Once Yakamaru is stunned, you should use high hitting abilities and thresholds like snapshot/wild magic/hurricane and use sacrifice (as it can hit up to 10k during this time). Using soulsplit during these thresholds is also advised as it will drastically cut down on food usage if done properly.
If your double has done their role properly, you do not need to slow down around 100k HP as you will already have a poison tank ready.
A fast way to do this pool is to have everyone heal to full HP and build to full adrenaline, have someone stun, then use onslaught at the same time. If executed properly, this will cut down on kill time fairly noticeably.
Shark Pool
This is the western most pool, it will always follow the tendril pool unless Yakamaru dives to shark pool first. Yakamaru will use the “Sharknado” special attack here. During this attack, Yakamaru will shroud itself in a Sharknado and, after a few attacks, will release the sharks. These sharks will land around Yakamaru and at the feet of every player in the fight. To avoid tanking the ~2 thousand+ typeless damage, you must surge/escape/bladed dive away from the sharks or kick them away. It is highly recommended to surge/escape/bladed dive away as you may kick a shark into the DPS pile. It is very important to note that the sharks will trail you until they land on the ground, meaning that escaping too early will cause a shark to land at your feet and hit you (and other DPS who are near you). One method of dealing with this is having the DPS death dot next to the Tendril pool (southern pool) during this special attack. Only a single shark will land next to the death dot and can easily be kicked away. This method requires extensive communication and is not advised.
Immediately after the sharks land, a jellyfish will spawn (as four auto-attacks will have passed). Since the team will be spread out, make sure to bind the jellyfish so that it does not attack the base tank or the DPS pile.
As poison tank, it is important to note that there may be more than one shark at your feet as the poison is released. It is advised to bring bladed dive in order to escape from the sharks, dive to the poison, then barge to pool in the event that the “Sharknado” special is unleashed as poison is released.
Tendril Pool
The southern most pool is referred to the “tendril pool”. In this pool, Yaka will still use the Jellyfish and Blue attacks, but will also use two more mechanics. In this pool, it is imperative that the base tank is the first person who tags the pool, otherwise Yakamaru may unleash a “Tendril” special attack into the DPS pile that will deal rapid typeless damage. The special attack order will always follow this: jellyfish, blue, pool special. For the southern pool, the tendril special attack will be the third special. Keeping this in mind, it is possible to use resonance on every single jellyfish spawn outside of middle pool (assuming you tag the jellyfish and Yakamaru does not snipe your res) and maintain a high HP level without eating.
The tank will deal with a tendril that will shoot up from the ground and deal rapid typeless damage. This can be negated by using barricade or stepping away from the tendril.
The DPS will deal with a “choke”. This choke will deal small amounts of typeless damage that will affect the top 5 DPSers. The DPS can negate this special attack by doing more damage to Yakamaru. If the DPS does not do enough damage to Yakamaru during the special attack, the choke will deal increasing amounts of damage (up to 2000). Freedom will not clear this (defensives are reset by this special attack). If the poison is released when the top 5 DPSers are choked, you should be prepared to take the poison for this pool and tank it. This is more of a courtesy towards your group and you should indicate if you are covering the role to avoid confusion.
As the poison tank, you should be prepared to barge into Yakamaru immediately after receiving the poison to avoid the possibility of being choked outside of melee distance. Make sure you pray magic while standing in melee distance and eat as necessary as the poison will hit you for fairly high damage and cannot be negated by venomblood or antipoison.
Mirage Phase
After all 4 pools have been completed, there will be 20 planks on the beach (to the southeast) and a number of jellyfish around Yakamaru. At this point, the SH10 and two St5’s should get their planks and position themselves near their pools. The NT and Base Tank should also position themselves near their pools as the phase continues. Ideally, the St5’s, the St0, NT, and JW should stand to the north of the middle pool. The SH10 and the free DPS should stand to the west of the middle pool. The base tank should stand south of the middle pool. Once the middle pool hits 50k HP, mirage will begin. Each pool will only have 150k HP.
The NT will tag the Stun pool to draw aggression and then provoke the Sand pool, then use devotion to negate incoming damage from both pools. The St5’s and the St0 will use devotion, drink an adrenaline potion (or replenishment potion), and then use onslaught. The pool should close after a few seconds. Both St5’s will click on the pool and use their 5 planks to close the pool. If the pool is not closed, the pool will respawn and must be repeated. It is important to NOT use stuns on this pool, as the stun mechanic will still be present.
Stun Pool (Mirage)
The NT will tag the Stun pool to draw aggression and then provoke the Sand pool, then use devotion to negate incoming damage from both pools. The St5’s and the St0 will use devotion, drink an adrenaline potion (or replenishment potion), and then use onslaught. The pool should close after a few seconds. Both St5’s will click on the pool and use their 5 planks to close the pool. If the pool is not closed, the pool will respawn and must be repeated. It is important to NOT use stuns on this pool, as the stun mechanic will still be present. The NT should then move to the north of the Sand pool and the St5’s and St0 should move to Shark pool.
Shark Pool
The SH10 should be positioned to the south of the pool. They will tag the pool, voke, use devotion, build to 100% and then do a DPS rotation. The four free DPS should move to the east of the pool and also do a DPS rotation. If the DPS is optimal, Yakamaru will only unleash two special attacks. Once the pool hits 0 HP, the SH10 will use all 10 planks to cover the pool and then use freedom to halve the number of aggression stacks they have. The SH10 and free DPS should then remain in their sunshines/death’s swiftnesses and attack Tendril pool.
If the DPS is not sufficient, the SH10 should use resonance, freedom, then rotate defensives to reduce incoming damage. The incoming DPS from the St5’s and St0 should be enough and the pool should close.
Tendril Pool
The Base Tank will be south east of the Tendril Pool and must tank the pool until after Shark Pool is finished. The special attack rotation will remain the same, meaning the Base Tank’s rotation should remain the same. Once Shark Pool is closed, the DPS will focus on Tendril Pool and it should be closed before anyone is choked. Once the pool hits 0 HP, the DPS and Base Tank MUST spam click on the pool in order to add buckets of sand and close the pool. Every player can only add 2 buckets of sand, meaning a minimum of 5 people are needed to close the pool on the first try. If the pool isn’t closed in time, it must be repeated. If the pool is repeated, the Base Tank must provoke the pool off the DPS or risk having a tendril spawn in the DPS pile. It is important to note that buckets of sand added to the pool during previous attempts will carry over. This means if 6 buckets of sand are added during the first attempt, only 4 buckets of sand are needed to close the pool on the next attempt.
Once the pool is over, everyone becomes DPS and moves to Sand pool.
Sand Pool
The NT will be north of the pool and be tanking auto attacks. Since no one else from the team should be near the pool (until Tendril is defeated), Yakamaru will not use the blue special attack or the Quick Sand attack. However, Jellyfish can still spawn during this pool and will be a problem. You can use stuns/binds/entangle/bolas to deal with Jellyfish, though your JW SHOULD be keeping those off the NT. Once the DPS comes to finish Sand pool, you need to be cautious of the Quick Sand attack. If your NT was rotating DPS rotations during their Barricade/Devotion, the pool should be finished quickly. When the pool hits 0 HP, the team should spam click on the pool and fill it with 10 buckets of sand.
If the team is affected by the Quick Sand attack as the pool hits 0 HP, you won’t be able to fill the pool with 10 buckets of sand and will be forced to repeat the pool.
Mid Pool
The Base Tank will tag, provoke, then run west to tank the middle pool after mirage. The DPS should use thresholds and dump their adrenaline as the pool will only have 50k HP. The JW should keep their Jellyfish away from the team during this last portion of the fight
The middle pool will utilize the “jellyfish attack” and the “blue”. It is important to note that Yakmaru will use four auto attacks before using a special attack.
The jellyfish attack will spawn a jellyfish in the arena and five holes will spawn around it. After a few seconds, the holes will shoot water up and damage everyone standing on them for about two thousand damage. This damage can be negated using resonance or simply standing off of them. What is important to note is that every person who “tanks” this special attack by standing on the holes will deal 10 thousand damage to the jellyfish. This means that only five people need to stand on the holes in order to kill the jellyfish. An easy way to deal with this mechanic is to use binding shot (or entangle) on the jellyfish, equip a shield, and use resonance. You can switch to soulsplit and use piercing shot (or wrack/slice) to deal extra damage and finish off the jellyfish. If the mechanic is ignored entirely, the jellyfish will deal quick melee hits to everyone around it.
The middle pool will utilize the “jellyfish attack” and the “blue”. It is important to note that Yakmaru will use four auto attacks before using a special attack.
Learning Raids¶
If you’re interested in learning raids, join this boss school link and check out the pins there to get started!