The Mark of Death

What dark forces have assisted the Black Abbot in making his unexpected return?

{{Quest The magic users of the Silver Flame have tracked down the reawakened Black Abbot - but they warn that something even more powerful is accompanying him. Venture inside the Ascension Chamber and confront what awaits within.
 * name= The Mark of Death
 * epic= 30
 * duration= long
 * raid       = yes
 * enormal= 17,328
 * ehard= 17,764
 * eelite= 18,202
 * loc= Ascension Chamber
 * npc= Hamond Byre
 * zone= The Necropolis
 * patron= The Silver Flame
 * favor= 9
 * free= no
 * extreme=
 * loadingpic=L Mark of Death.jpg
 * overview=

Flagging
Complete each of the epic necropolis quests at least once and turn in the rewards. Talk to Hamond Byre. When you first enter the chamber you will first find a blue bridge spanning the deadly water surrounding the main platform - go ahead and cross this, awaiting your party members on the edge of the main circular platform. Moving into the center of this platform locks the raid by triggering a blue barrier at the entrance, removing the bridge and effectively preventing others from joining the raid.
 * Desecrated Temple of Vol (epic)
 * Fleshmaker's Laboratory (epic)
 * Ghosts of Perdition (epic)
 * Inferno of the Damned (epic)
 * obj=
 * Approach the Abbot
 * Make the Abbot mortal again
 * Defeat the Death Knights
 * Defeat the Abbot
 * traps=
 * misc=

(This can sometimes be circumvented by stepping to the right as you enter the raid into a small pool of water and dying, relying on a chance of being teleported to the center of the main platform - this is not a guaranteed mechanic, sometimes failing to teleport characters at all; at best providing a free completion.)

Once the party is gathered on the edge of the main platform, prepare your buffs and then begin the raid by moving to the center of the platform. The raid group should spread out as the Abbot can appear and drop an energy burst immediately. Once the Abbot does come down after his short dialogue, you will need to beat him down. He will then retreat to the statue and a single portal will appear. At this point four Vampire Knights will spawn in a pack on the platform, followed shortly by six Empowered Devotees (three in the east and three in the west on the edge of the platform). Most of the party members should enter the portal, leaving enough people behind to CC the spawning trash which appears.

Inside the portal there will be a Death Knight and two other spawns; once the Death Knight is dead the sarcophagus in the room can be destroyed and a pair of "Delta Phase Goggles" will appear on the altar. One person will need to take them (it's best if this is the tile runner for one of the next rooms) and then the whole group should return to the main platform.

At this stage there will be more spawns which should be CC'd as before, with the Abbot returning and beginning to use his special abilities (Inferno/Encasement/Disjunction). The Abbot casts Inferno which inflames the main platform, not only harming you but also producing an over-time spell-point and hit-point draining curse which remains after the inferno has finished. You'll find that there are a few positions on the very edge of the platform which provide you with safe points against Inferno damage - North-East, South-East, South-West and North-West, as well as the cardinal points North, East, South and West. Go behind archers' spawn locations if you want to be absolutely certain, and generally stand as close to falling off as possible while still remaining on the platform.

Once more beat the Abbot down to reach the next part of the raid; two portals will spawn in the South-East and North-West corners of the main chamber. There will be tile platforms that the person with the phase goggles can see to navigate to them. Again, a small group should go to these rooms (one group can be allocated to follow the goggle holder on the tiles, another group can be allocated to 'swim' to the other room) and kill the Death Knights, then smash the sarcophagi in each room. If at any point there is no one alive on the main platform the Abbot will teleport all raid members to him on the main platform so some people must remain behind and control the trash. Due to the deathknights' special abilities (see below), melee characters are generally tasked with heading west, while ranged/casters head east.

Once these next two sarcophagi have been destroyed each room spawns an item - "Everlasting Boulders" and "Eternal Iceball Wand" respectively. On the main platform, Lady Vol will join the fight and the Abbot will require beating down once more. Breaking either sarcophagus also triggers the spawning of mobs on the main platform, which will include two undead beholders - once more Flesh to Stone and curse will take care of these - many groups will want to smash the sarcophagi at the same time to enable easy control of mobs on the main platform.

Lady Vol will cast Manifest Zones of Dolurrh, signalled by blue circles on the ground. You will have a few seconds to avoid the blue clouds which appear next. There doesn't seem to be a way to negate the effect except to move out of the zone quickly: ''You are hit by Dolurrh's manifest zone. Gravity is heavy here, and you cannot cast spells. You will take ongoing Evil damage while here, and if you stay too long you will take 20% of your maximum hit-points in Bane damage every second.''

Once the Abbot has been beaten down enough he will retreat and Lady Vol will respawn the three killed Death Knights onto the main platform. Once they are killed, Lady Vol will unleash a large AoE called 'Mark Of Death' (aka: "Blue-ferno") and then the Abbot will return and can be killed.

 Mob CC Tactics 

Killed trash-mobs will re-spawn every 45 seconds, so a wizard can use the Flesh to Stone spell to keep them alive but incapacitated; this also applies to Doomspheres (undead beholders); removing their anti-magic field - remember to also drop a Curse on your stoned mobs to lower their saves. An Energy Drain or similar level drain effect can assist in landing the initial stoning. These beholders should be the CCer's primary target. If no stoner is available, blind archers will wander aimlessly, unable to target party members.

Vampires

These will be in a pack to start with and can be dealt with by using Flesh to Stone and then using Bestow Curse to drop their saving throws against this. During the Death Knight phase charming the vampires (Control Undead) can help but this breaks more frequently, plus the vampires will die during inferno.

Empowered Devotees

These are archers that get a stacking buff '', so the longer they are alive the more damage they can deal. They have been observed to crit for over 500 on Epic Normal. They can be blinded (cleric Divine Disciple's Sunburst works the best here, since it has no save) making them ineffective for the remainder of the raid. Flesh to Stoned and cursed are also advised for efficiency and to avoid confusion.

Deathknights

The deathknight with Tenser's Transformation increases the spell point costs of any caster who hits him, as well as decreasing the ranged attack speed of anyone who hits him with a projectile. This debuff stacks up to 19 times and increases spell point costs +10% per stack and reduces ranged attack speed -5% per stack.

The deathknight that you found in the first portal has no visual marker; however, he does have an intercession aura. Intercession Ward given by an or an  can protect against this, but the Abbot can disjunct gear. This knight should be kept away from divine casters.

The deathknight with the red aura has no particular effect and is therefore the lowest priority of the three.

Each of the deathknights performs an intimidate animation, after which they are given Adrenaline. On elite, the estimated necessary fortification you should have is 180%+.


 * chest= Always contains an amount of s until the chest is ransacked, number varies by difficulty

}} See also:
 * npcreward= Standard, 20th reward contains every item in the list, renown will also be available.
 * unique= yes
 * monsters= MonsterArt VolU23.jpg
 * Empowered Devotees
 * Vampire Knights (orange named)
 * Doomspheres (orange named)
 * Death Knights (red named)
 * Quells (red named)
 * Black Abbot (purple named raid boss)
 * Lady Vol (purple named raid boss)