Victory or Death, Mouth of Zhaitan help

[Witch of Doom.5739]

OK, I feel so stupid in this story mission, the part where you're trying to kill the large Mouth of Zhaitan on the plateau after you leave the airship. I've killed all the other enemies on the plateau and only the MoZ is left but I cannot beat him. I've read board comments and watched videos, all to no avail. People say, "Just grab those fire things he drops and throw them at him when he inhales." There is no "just grab" about it for me. When I do grab one he attacks me so fast, knocks me down, and then burns me to death before I can get any damage off.

Is he immune to all other damage, or can you get some damage in from a ranged weapon while he's inhaling? I'm playing an Elem and it seems like he's so much faster than me. Thanks very much. Tired of replaying this part a dozen times.

[LadySilverHand.6841]

If you are not intent on soloing, I really recommend a group for that step. It's been a long time since I did it, but I definitely remember it being a pain, and much easier with helpers.

[Greener.6204]

I just did it about two weeks ago, and gladly will help (won't be in-game much for the next bit, but if I am, tap me on the shoulder).

He throws around fireballs which land on the ground and do AoE damage. Once that's done, there's an item which you can run over to and pick up with your interact button. You can then throw that item at him with the new skill that you get, when his mouth is open.

The trick that I find is kiting him around in circles, as you can always run back on top of a fireball that he has previously dropped. He seems to only go through his actions when you're at medium range.

1. Kite him until he throws the fireballs on the ground.
2. Pick one up.
3. Click on him so that you have him as a target for step 4.
4. Kite again from medium range until he stands still. He'll soon open his "mouth"
5. Throw the item you have with skill 1. If you have him targeted from step 3, you should succeed.

And yes, this can be a very frustrating fight.

[LadySilverHand.6841]

That's the strategy my friends helped me to use, as I recall.https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Call_TargetStep three and onward is a LOT easier if you "Call Target". It allows you to re-acquire the target so much easier if you lose it in your running about.

[Danikat.8537]

What Greener said.

The important thing is to keep moving. The only time you should be standing still during this fight is when you're throwing the rock in his mouth and possibly when he's stunned by that and you're attacking.

It's definitely easier with more people - that way even if one of you loses the rock or misses a throw chances are someone else will succeed and you'll all still get a chance to attack.

[FogLeg.9354]

As said already, having even 1 extra players helps a lot. But this is still fairly easy fight once you understand the mechanics.

Basically it goes like this:

• do not attack it at all, just keep running in circle and dodge all damage
• once he throws fireball, get out of AoE circle but return back to pick up the stone
• keep running until monster starts the "mouth" attack
• quickly throw firestone at it
• if successful, it will be stunned for little time, use all your attacks now, be ready to dodge away once it recovers
• you probably have to repeat whole process several times

[DebraKadabra.5278]

The Mouth is WAY less of a pain now than it used to be, once VoD was made to be a soloable instance.

[taliahsdreams.7915]

Pick up firestone WALK backwards, dodge. WALK backwards, dodge. Throw firestone in mouth. Attack him with your weapons. Repeat. NO RUNNING. :)

[tiewan.1086]

I still could not figure out how the stones might be helpful - they do awful little of damage. I've got a warrior. But a good old rifle is your friend - setup the build for rifle or dodging, dodge the firewall, buff up, fire. You can only manage 1 auto attack and a volley until next wall, dodge it, and back. The open area behind the mouth is good for running. It takes a few minutes but it can be done.

[Khisanth.2948]

@tiewan.1086 said:I still could not figure out how the stones might be helpful - they do awful little of damage. I've got a warrior. But a good old rifle is your friend - setup the build for rifle or dodging, dodge the firewall, buff up, fire. You can only manage 1 auto attack and a volley until next wall, dodge it, and back. The open area behind the mouth is good for running. It takes a few minutes but it can be done.

They also remove the invulnerability buff on it.

The breakbar also makes a big difference since the Exposed debuff causes it to take 50% additional damage.

[Artarvis.2975]

This was areally annoying battle until I understood what was happening.After reading advice above, I thought i could only do damage with the fireballs he drops... and that was like 1-2% damage each time...But as someone else pointed out above (and I missed on first read) while he does a bit of a reeling animation after you hit him with the fireball while he is doing the vortex thing, you can damage him normally.I was using a Dragonhunter and my traps really messed him up too - I tried to time him walking over my traps at the same time I hit him with a fireball WHILE he did the vortex thing... but it was too much to coordinate.Which is a shame because the traps and my sceptre CC skill pretty much stripped his breakbar - but without him reeling/stunned from fireball, I couldn't get enough damage into him before he stomped me.

TL:DR - hit him with dropped fireball while he is vortexing and then damage him normally for a window of a few seconds.

[coopoor.2631]

this is the 3rd day trying to do this part of the story line the mouth of zhiatan i come to the conclusion i will spam gw2 with tickets everytime i die from this quest trust me this is a lot of spamming they already asked me not to send anymore tickets in i answer is you want the tickets to stop let me finish the quest very simple pretty soon they will get the idea that may be this quest in game isn t a good idea cause trust me i can put a lot of tickets in on the same subject takes me only a minute.

[Neworder.7981]

The lfg is your friend, it never takes more than a 10/15 mins to get 2 or 3 together, done it several times over the past few weeks, Not that you really need help just being an alt collector I like to throw it open to anyone to come and join in. Anyone on eu get hold of me in game and I will come and join in..

[Danikat.8537]

@coopoor.2631 said:this is the 3rd day trying to do this part of the story line the mouth of zhiatan i come to the conclusion i will spam gw2 with tickets everytime i die from this quest trust me this is a lot of spamming they already asked me not to send anymore tickets in i answer is you want the tickets to stop let me finish the quest very simple pretty soon they will get the idea that may be this quest in game isn t a good idea cause trust me i can put a lot of tickets in on the same subject takes me only a minute.

Spamming tickets is not going to achieve anything. Customer Support are not developers, they can't change how the game works. Even if they choose to pass on the feedback that you don't like this quest and someone at Anet agrees that it should be changed (which is unlikely at this point) it would take weeks at least for them to make changes, get QA to test it and get it scheduled for release. Probably even longer than that.

Have you tried following the advice given in this topic? If so can you tell us what you're having trouble with so we can help you work it out?

Alternatively if let us know which region you're in (EU or NA) someone may be able to join you in-game to help directly.

[Tanner Blackfeather.6509]

@coopoor.2631 said:this is the 3rd day trying to do this part of the story line the mouth of zhiatan i come to the conclusion i will spam gw2 with tickets everytime i die from this quest trust me this is a lot of spamming they already asked me not to send anymore tickets in i answer is you want the tickets to stop let me finish the quest very simple pretty soon they will get the idea that may be this quest in game isn t a good idea cause trust me i can put a lot of tickets in on the same subject takes me only a minute.

Abusing the ticket system will (I sincerely hope) at some point lead to some form of sanction. You're not actually helping anyone but creating unnecessary work for Customer Service folk.

Try to party up. Ask for guides. Look over your gear. Try a different skill/trait setup. There's a ton of actually productive things you can do.

[Urud.4925]

@coopoor.2631 said:this is the 3rd day trying to do this part of the story line the mouth of zhiatan i come to the conclusion i will spam gw2 with tickets everytime i die from this quest trust me this is a lot of spamming they already asked me not to send anymore tickets in i answer is you want the tickets to stop let me finish the quest very simple pretty soon they will get the idea that may be this quest in game isn t a good idea cause trust me i can put a lot of tickets in on the same subject takes me only a minute.

If you still need help and play on the EU servers, send me a whisper, we will do it together.

[Turkeyspit.3965]

@coopoor.2631 said:this is the 3rd day trying to do this part of the story line the mouth of zhiatan i come to the conclusion i will spam gw2 with tickets everytime i die from this quest trust me this is a lot of spamming they already asked me not to send anymore tickets in i answer is you want the tickets to stop let me finish the quest very simple pretty soon they will get the idea that may be this quest in game isn t a good idea cause trust me i can put a lot of tickets in on the same subject takes me only a minute.

I get it. My first character, that fight took me forever, as I didn't know what I was supposed to do. My 2nd character had an easier time, as at least I knew the mechanics, but it still took several phases.

I just so happened to want to finish the core story on my Thief this weekend, and yesterday I did that encounter on my Staff Daredevil, and took him down in 2 phases; he was at around 40% (?) health after the first phase, then had to kite him around until he did his stomach-turns-to-black-hole thing, and boom.

In other words, nothing wrong with this quest, it's completely soloable, and in my opinion, if you can't defeat this encounter, you're likely better off not moving ahead into Heart of Thorns or Path of Fire content, as open world fights can be even more of a challenge than this fight.

[Urud.4925]

In case someone from NA is willing to help @coopoor.2631 , please whisper him in game. I tried but I play on EU.

[raaahbin.7405]

Thank you FogLeg - it was the ability to do normal damage while stunned with a fireball I was missing. As soon as I knew I could do that, it only took me 5-10 minutes to solo, with no deaths.