This essay will explain how to kill Murmur; the final boss in Shadow Labyrinth. If you follow the strategy outlined below, you’ll find it to be a fairly easy encounter.
For those who are just working on Karazhan attunement, you don’t need to kill Murmur to acquire the quest item. Just move left along the wall and you can reach the shard without having to face Murmur. Make sure all party members are nearby before summoning the elite. If a player is too far away, they won’t be able to loot the quest item and that can be extremely frustrating as that player will have to complete the entire instance all over again.
Before facing Murmur, everyone should know about the special abilities of this boss. They are the following:
Sonic boom. This is an AOE attack that takes a few seconds to cast. If you have the “see targets cast bar” option enabled in your UI settings, you will see when this spell starts to cast and that should allow you enough time to move away from it and avoid taking damage. If you get hit with Sonic Boom, it will do damage equal to approx. 75% of your maximum health and will reduce your movement speed by 90%.
Touch of Murmur This is a debuff that is placed on a single random party member. After ten seconds, it will explode and launch the affected player into the air. Everyone within the blast radius will be silenced for a few seconds and it will take approx. 4,000 points of damage. Touch of Murmur is unavoidable. It’s best to have the affected player immediately move away from the group or just position everyone so they don’t affect any other players if they take the debuff.
Resonance. Murmur will emit resonance if you fail to keep at least one player within melee range. If it casts resonance, it’s a wipe. The debuff deals natural damage and increases natural damage taken.
party positioning
Your healer must be alone and positioned to the left or right of Murmur. The tank will stop directly in front of Murmur. Ranged DPS should be placed on the opposite side of your healer. Melee DPS must be behind Murmur for the entire fight. It is very important that the area directly in front of Murmur is left open. Only his tank should be standing there, and no one should be standing behind the tank. The reasoning behind these positions will become clear in a moment.
Step by step to engage Murmur
1. Your tank meets Murmur where he is. By the way, Murmur is fixed on his position. He will not move during the entire fight.
2. The moment your tank engages Murmur, the rest of the group should start DPS. You do not need to wait for agro to establish.
3. When Murmur starts to cast Sonic Boom, your melee DPS (which is located directly behind Murmur), should run forward and do everything possible to avoid getting hit by him. His tank must not move and must be healed through each Sonic Boom.
4. Depending on your player class, when you get Touch of Murmur, do the following:
If you tank gains Touch of Murmur, it must not move. Your healer should heal your tank through it. However, all other melee DPS will need to run directly into the area in front of Murmur and move away from the tank to avoid damage.
If you curator gets Touch of Murmur, it should keep healing the tank and stay where it is. If your healer is properly positioned on her own, she shouldn’t affect other party members. She will have to heal herself after the explosion.
Yew Ranged DPS gets Touch of Murmur, they need to keep shooting/casting spells. They must keep their DPS to the max at all times. Don’t run, it won’t do any good. It’s more important that you continue to DPS. After the explosion, they will need to bandage themselves and/or take health potions. If they are placed correctly, they should not harm anyone else.
Yew Melee DPS gains Touch of Murmur, they must immediately run to the clear area in front of Murmur. If they’re not fast enough, they’ll take out your group by killing the tank.
If you follow the above strategy, Murmur is a very easy kill. The less melee DPS you have in the group, the easier it becomes because no one has to move when they get Touch of Murmur, and the overall DPS will be constant throughout the fight.
