With Mod 16/17 a new set of rare bosses was introduced that can be accessed via a shade that spawns in certain large format maps in 3 rune ME runs.   The shade looks very familiar to a warlock soul puppet.

By defeating the correct 2 of the 4 rare bosses available, you have a good chance of getting a really good weapon drop for your classs.  I believe the drop is now need/greed ‘able (and 2 drops now per boss which further increases your odds) of 1 of a set of special weapons called the Watcher Set, which has a great multi-stat bonus that now procs and stays up for the full extent of very long fights (yes i tested it does not drop). Also, the bosses drop legendary vanity pets and awakened essences used to restore Successor Gear from LOMM.

Thanks to one of our alliance members for noting that parties should check their loot mode before beginning the watcher fight. If your loot mode is set to round robin, the weapons that drop have a chance of ending up with the player who cannot use them.

Weapon Set

Essences and Awakened Essences

How to Maximize Chances of Getting a Watcher Set Item

* Form or join a Watcher Run party, preferably for the boss you need for your class. Only one person in the party needs to have a quest active, and any 3 runes placed will work to spawn the shade. Only the 2nd “larger” maps have spaces that will spawn the shade and you will know one will spawn when it talks about “you feel and immense presence” when you enter the space.  Some of these bosses are almost trivial but a few need a full party with tank and/or heal(s) and special resources like artifacts/scrolls/altars.  

Class to Boss Matrix

Basic Process I Recommend

* Only one member needs the correct essence for the agreed-upon boss.  This means a cohort party of 5 can have 15 chances a day, and in my experience a shade spawns about every 10 runs only in the large maps.

*  You may want to avoid traps for some of these bosses, as some of the perma-banes from these can be problematic. Longing and Despair in particular are bosses that are harder with some banes.

* Once a shade spawns, make sure the team is prepared for the fights before summoning as it’s easy to lose your essences or wipe otherwise.   Also, if a member dies, they should not release as a barrier is placed that can be hard/impossible to pass to get back into the space for the fight.

* In general, the tank aggros the boss and either kites him or brings him to an obstruction like a hill or mushroom to hold aggro while dps work him/her, but all bosses are different. Despair doesn’t move at all…. while Regret can be aggro’d from a Hill and Sorrow kited while range dps’d. Longing requires close in DPS and a burst of dps between 20% and 0% health, and we also used coordinated Trobriand Rings in sequence to stun him during the burst dps phase (this helps but isn’t mandatory).

The fight..

Sorrow – Rogue, Barbarian, Fighter, Hunter

Essence of Sorrow will summon this Wolf like Boss.  The most common winning strategy is to utilize a standard 5-person party and have the tank kite the boss around the map while the dps ranges her down. The party will want to stay away and dodge or avoid the sword that seems to have a mind of its own, otherwise this boss is straight-forward.

Regret – Cleric, Paladin, Warlock, Hunter

The stag can be aggroed from a hill or cliffside while ranged down.   Almost any class can aggro it.  I believe contact with a player will heal it, so you want to keep your distance.  

Longing – Cleric, Wizard (never actually saw this drop though!), Paladin, Hunter

This tanky boss needs to be dps’d within it’s bubble so close-in. and it has a shield that needs to be worn down, or wait until the shield lifts for bursts of dps. Most commonly teams will have a tank aggro it from a cliffside or mushroom, while dps slowly works it down to 20% to keep from stealing aggro. At 20% you want to have saved your best dps for bursting it from 20 -> 0%.  If not killed fast enough the boss will fully heal. Trobriand Rings are super valuable for stunning the boss at summoning and then at 20% start a rotation of stuns (agreed to upfront).  The more people with this artifact the better, as you can use a rotation to stun the boss for 1 sec at a time with 1 person calling the rotation. The signal you look for is Longing raising both hands (not just 1 hand which can fake you out).

Despair – Rogue, Barbarian, Wizard, Fighter

The longest and hardest fight of the bunch and I’ve only done it twice. This boss stands perfectly still…. and you can only dps it after the green chains have appeared on a player and been cleansed. Red chains = redirected dps like in the Sisters of Fury fight. Orange Chains = You Die (sorry). Green chains = cleanse them and dps the boss like crazy. I’ve seen videos of Despair being 1 phased after the green chains.  Unfortunately, there are usually plenty of deaths and rez sickness, so scrolls are usually used, unless you have top notch DPS.  An experienced healer will help a lot, and I’ve seen teams complete this boss with no tank.  This fight I have the least confidence with so feel free to add your own hints and correct me too. 

Thanks goes to Immy from Legendary Chaos for the write up.