You must complete the
Controlling Spirit prerequisite quest to access this Heroic Instance.
Exar Kun (EK) is a
heroic instance in Star Wars Galaxies Restoration. It is one of the more time-consuming instances with many more notable mechanics than most other heroics.
Open Hand of Hate
The Open Hand of Hate is the first boss you fight against in the instance. He stands between two braziers at the far side of the room with 8 Exar Kun Cultists forming a ring around the room. Once combat is initiated with the Open Hand of Hate, a wall will rise that blocks off the tunnel entrance you came in from, so make sure everyone is ready and inside the room before beginning.
The Open Hand of Hate applies a debuff called Shared Pain that causes a certain percentage of the damage he takes to be directed back at the group members with the debuff. Additionally, balls of electricity will be sent all over the room, targeting those who are in combat with the Open Hand of Hate. As a result, the tank should run to the back of the room to keep the Open Hand of Hate busy while the rest of the group takes care of the Exar Kun Cultists, who will become active one by one while the Open Hand of Hate is in combat, until they are all dead. Killing them too slowly will result in your group being overwhelmed very quickly.
Once all 8 of the Exar Kun Cultists are killed, the boss fight begins and the group can proceed with attacking the Open Hand of Hate. Every time he says, "My pain runs deep. Let me share it with you!" during the fight, he is changing the targets of the Shared Pain debuff. Pay close attention to who has the debuff or your group might find themselves killing their own healer.
The Minder of Weak Wills
After defeating the Open Hand of Hate, a new hallway opens up and you have to kill a few Tomb Fliers. Then, the Minder of Weak Wills will come down the hallway with Mother Luresh and Vin'rith. During the fight with these NPCs, more creatures will spawn in the hallway. Lots of concentrated AOE effects and focusing the same target (typically Mother Luresh, then Vin'rith, then the Minder of Weak Wills) makes this fight pretty simple.
The Caretaker of Lost Souls
When the fight with the Minder of Weak Wills has ended, your group will enter a room with the Caretaker of Lost Souls standing in the center. On either side are prisoners behind bars and several cultist NPCs around the room. Before you are able to fight the Caretaker of Lost Souls, you'll have to take out all of the Caretaker Protectors. The group should position on the right side of the room, near the Executioner.
The group should initiate combat with the Caretaker of Lost Souls when everyone's ready. Once the Caretaker of Lost Souls is in combat, three NPCs will spawn: a
Calming Influence, a
Pain Bringer, and a
Tomb Guardian. To maintain consistent, accurate focus for groups, the community has taken to calling "C-P-T", meaning to kill those NPCs in that order - (C)alming, (P)ain, (T)omb.
After you have killed C-P-T, a Prisoner on the opposite side of the room will begin to walk across the room. When it reaches the end, the Executioner will become active and begin walking towards the Prisoner. If the Executioner kills 4 Prisoners, the instance is automatically failed. Therefore, it is advisable to have everybody switch their damage to the Executioner. If the Executioner's health reaches a certain threshold (near 1/6th), the Executioner will say "I have failed the master!" and become untargetable again, returning to the normal spot they stand in.
After the Executioner is stopped, a Caretaker Protector becomes attackable. Then, C-P-T will spawn again, and this fight repeats in that exact same way (C-P-T, Executioner, Protector) until four Caretaker Protectors have been killed. As soon as the fourth Caretaker Protector is killed, the Caretaker of Lost Souls becomes active. Green fire will spread from the center of the room where the Caretaker of Lost Souls is standing towards your group and follow you around the room. The group should move together to avoid the fire, as it does a lot of damage. The melee members of the group should additionally move circularly around the Caretaker of Lost Souls as they fight, avoiding the green fire there.
The Clenched Fist of Hate
After finishing off the Caretaker of Lost Souls, your group navigates a hallway with 6 Tomb Guardians in it. Kill them in pairs rather than trying to fight them all at once, and then you're ready to face the Clenched Fist of Hate.
The Clenched Fist of Hate is quite straightforward, but requires good setup. During the fight, he will apply a debuff called Immolation to players at random. The tank won't receive the debuff (unless another player rips the boss' aggro). The Immolation debuff will set you on fire and cause a trail of fire to follow you wherever you go for its duration. You should walk away from your position instead of running because running will cause the fire to spread more. Avoid walking into other players in your group with the fire because it will hurt them just as much. As long as everyone remains calm and walks away from the fire, the fight is trivial.
The Four Bosses
The next room has four bosses in it: Lingering Harmony, Promised Vengeance, Unquenchable Wrath, and Embraced Chaos. Two of these bosses are only attackable by Melee users and the other two are designed to be taken out by the Ranged members of your group. This means you need at least two Melee for this fight.
Start the fight by having the Melee members stand on opposite sides of the room to the left and right of the NPCs. They should initiate the combat and the Ranged group members should immediately start focusing the same target between Promised Vengeance and Unquenchable Wrath.
Once the fight starts, the Embraced Chaos and Lingering Harmony will run back and forth across the room, between the two Melee. Attacking these NPCs applies a stacking debuff to the Melee users. Each stack causes that NPC to receive 10% less damage from your attacks and deal 10% more damage to you, up to 100%. With that in mind, it's important to equalize your hits between both of the NPCs. The NPCs do not start with equal health, so there is a bit of catching up to do. It's recommended to have a group member calling out each NPC's remaining health. Combat Medic DoTs can be applied to both of them, which helps speed the process up and can be very useful for equalizing their health.
Exar Kun Wordbearer
The next fight begins immediately after all four of the other bosses die. The Exar Kun Wordbearer will aggro the closest enemy. This fight involves a lot of AOE damage and a whole lot of lightning orbs being sent out at the group. If you see "You are being electrocuted!" in the chat, you probably need to move. The lightning orbs do a ton of damage.
Massassi Enforcer Blade & Exar Kun
After killing the Exar Kun Wordbearer, make your way off the stairs. Exar Kun and a Massassi Enforcer Blade. They both deal a fair bit of AOE damage but the Enforcer Blade does more damage and has less health. The fight is pretty trivial but the blade cannot be taunted so if aggro gets ripped it can get complicated.