What is your strategy to complete a run with the mask that give 50% minus sanity ?

[sarahtasher]

I'm a very average player and just managed to start clearing reliably SW Vision...but -50% sanity ?

[Fritters154]

I'm a very average player and just managed to start clearing reliably SW Vision...but -50% sanity ?

The one that reduces your maximum sanity? That one has been the easiest one for me to 1-mask with because of the +200 sanity from boss kills. All it really modifies is how strong the orbs are after all, at least when it is by itself.

You just have to move quickly so that you are reaching a boss every ~200 sanity lost and maybe reserving 2 orbs, 1 for starting each high corruption area. That way you can use the 3rd leading into the final boss. You can also take advantage of the potions as you go, as one color will give +100 sanity and the only harmful one has sanity loss modified by the reduction your cloak provides.

Note: that mask does become significantly worse when paired with Daredevil (400% more corruption from corruption causing attacks) since it removes your buffer, making it so any missteps on avoiding those attacks can be really bad.

[Wondercrab]

Maximising the usefulness of sanity restoring effects is the best way to offset the impact of that mask. Making use of the clickable potions scattered around visions and eating the +100 sanity food as often as possible makes a huge difference. The upgrades in the talent tree along with continual cloak improvements dramatically reduce the impact of sanity on the overall difficulty of visions, which makes the -50% mask way easier to deal with over time.

[sarahtasher]

Might as well cap the cloak, isn'it, before doing masks ?

[Yuli]

Might as well cap the cloak, isn'it, before doing masks ?

Possible. But 4 masks (every one but the -50% sanity) is possible and it's good practice.

[Notdev]

Might as well cap the cloak, isn'it, before doing masks ?

50% sanity mask is the first you get. You get other masks by wearing the 50% sanity mask and clearing just one hard zone. 4 hard zones (2 in SW, 2 in Orgrimmar) = 4 masks. The other masks are quite a bit easier IMO if you want to do easier 1-2 mask runs before fully capping your cloak. It is far easier once you cap, of course.

[Jimson]

50% sanity mask is the first you get. You get other masks by wearing the 50% sanity mask and clearing just one hard zone. 4 hard zones (2 in SW, 2 in Orgrimmar) = 4 masks. The other masks are quite a bit easier IMO if you want to do easier 1-2 mask runs before fully capping your cloak. It is far easier once you cap, of course.

To add on to this, once you have one other mask, you can wear that one instead of the 50% mask to get the remainder. Burning Bridge is an excellent mask to wear to gather other masks.

[arandomuser]

ur gift of the titans debuff is rppm so everyone games by using a weakaura that shows it, if your last gift was over a minute then you should pull elite, if less than minute afk for a while til the rppm is back off cd then pull elite to avoid sanity loss, or better yet if possible pull a pack of mobs to get buff before engaging boss

[Sangris]

Imo you should use the -50% sanity mask to get Dark Imagination. That mask is so ridiculously easy. Above 50% sanity it does absolutely nothing (except the 25% enemy buffs that they all do) and below 50% it occasionally spawns an add that dies quickly and doesn't do a lot. Another rather easy mask (especially when you're solo) is Burned Bridge, as long as you don't frantically dart around.

[Wildpantz]

Have all talents unlocked mount upp run around aoe down everything some specific mobs needs to to fast repaet for all 5 areas thats how i solo 5 mask its easy once you use black potions and have all talents

[Rucati]

The 50% sanity reduction mask is far and away the hardest, all the other masks can be either ignored or played around with minimal impact, that's the only really bad one.

I did full clear with it a couple weeks ago but it was super tight, I basically just pulled everything and AoE'd it down, which is really the only way to do anything in Horrific Visions anyway I guess.

Basically I don't actually think it's possible to full clear with the 50% sanity mask if you don't have elite extermination, and it'll likely be pretty difficult until you get to Gift of the Titans, those two make things infinitely easier. Still though, depending on your class your best bet might be to just do one lost zone with the 50% mask and then use whichever other mask you get to unlock the others.

[Blackmist]

I did a full one mask run using it in Orgrimmar, which is probably where you should start using it. It's just less annoying all round than SW.

There's little to it other than being quick. Make good use of the 200 extra sanity from elites.

[barrsftw]

Maximising the usefulness of sanity restoring effects is the best way to offset the impact of that mask. Making use of the clickable potions scattered around visions and eating the +100 sanity food as often as possible makes a huge difference. The upgrades in the talent tree along with continual cloak improvements dramatically reduce the impact of sanity on the overall difficulty of visions, which makes the -50% mask way easier to deal with over time.

How do you know which potions do what? I've clicked on some that have taken sanity away before!

[Othraerir]

the potion next to the dead guy in org/sw is the bad one. then depending what color that one is, the good one will be a certain color.

[Zantera]

Yeah biggest difficulty jump is definitely from 4 masks to 5 masks because the last one cutting your time in half. Did my first successful 5 mask run this morning and there's several things that will really help you out.

1. Play around Gift of the Titans - there is a weak aura that will show you when it's off CD and whenever it procs is a good time to pull a bit more than usual, for example if I clear some packs close to a mini boss and I get the proc, I pull the elite too and just go ham.

2. Elixirs - get one of the weak auras to tell you which elixir is the sanity restore. The corpse at the start in the right corner of SW or the hut to the left in Orgrimmar will tell you what elixir is the bad one and you go from there. The 3 other elixirs can be useful but also has some downsides to them, personally I just focus on the sanity restore ones.

3. K'bab & Gastly Goulash - The latter will give you a food buff that restores 2% of your hp every second or something and makes the runs a lot smoother. I went from having to self heal a lot as windwalker monk due to begin squishy - to not having to heal myself at all. K'bab gives a 100 sanity restore if you sit down eating, so it's a great complimentary thing to other sanity restores.

4. The buffs from killing named npcs - So in SW you will have 1 up in cathedral square (either the building towards the right, OR the building next to where etheral trader is) which will give you 1 hour buff for vers or haste, then you either have one in dwarf district (first building to the left if its open) or the bank in trade district - for crit or more dmg done. In orgrimmar it's either blacksmith in a building to the left at start OR gamon at the inn, and then either transmog hut to the right in the drag OR a shaman at the start of valley of spirits. Killing these npcs is kinda fast and especially if you pick up a buff early in the run, that extra 10% dmg done or 10% crit can be very good.

5. Mind the overlaps - This is really the one thing that will screw you over the most. Every pack of mobs typically has 1 thing that can mess things up for you, bosses might have more. This combined with the 'affixes' of the area you are in, it's important to keep calm and collected when things go wrong. If you stop focusing a caster you might get stunned in pools of sanity draining crap and very quickly you will start losing seconds.

Having done several runs and failed before doing it, I think honestly biggest things is just to get some practice and not get too stressed up. I feel like most failed runs come down to yourself stressing out and making mistakes, and im some areas like the hard areas this week - you will get overlaps of lead feet and split personality and you just gotta remain calm. I managed to get to Mage quarter for my last wing having done the other 3 with all 3 sanity orbs and my cheat death still up. Rather pop an orb earlier than trying to risk it though, cause you really want cheat death on something like Alleria and not waste it on trash because you got greedy.

[Powerogue]

Surprisingly easy on its own, you just have less leeway to make mistakes. Go fast, keep that sanity topped off. Definitely doable if you already have the full clear pretty well understood. It's stacking it with the others that scares me. That plus 400% increased sanity drain from enemies sounds super deadly.

[anjoO]

How do you know which potions do what? I've clicked on some that have taken sanity away before!

this is really easy, you should only need to know:

if the vision is in og, go to 47.05, 81.01. in this house you see a dead alchemist and a potion. this is the bad potion.
if the vision is in sw, you must go in the direction of the trade district. on the right side is a corpse with a note and a potion. this is the bad potion.


so, after you know which is the bad potion, use this list to know which is the good potion:

if black is bad, green is good
if purple is bad, black is good
if red is bad, blue is good
if blue is bad, purple is good
if green is bad, red is good

[Lolites]

did 5masks sw yesterday, frost dk (icecap) in hc gear (bit over 460 ilvl)

use all buffs possible, dont forget to eat kebab in easy zone as you move to next bonus area, try to pull more when you have the gift up, and i cant stress this enough, AVOID ALL SHIT from bosses/miniboses one hit from some can drain sanity by awful much so if you manage not to die and not get hit by those morons (too much) you should be fine (ofc depending on your gear and skill)

[exochaft]

this is really easy, you should only need to know:

if the vision is in og, go to 47.05, 81.01. in this house you see a dead alchemist and a potion. this is the bad potion.
if the vision is in sw, you must go in the direction of the trade district. on the right side is a corpse with a note and a potion. this is the bad potion.


so, after you know which is the bad potion, use this list to know which is the good potion:

if black is bad, green is good
if purple is bad, black is good
if red is bad, blue is good
if blue is bad, purple is good
if green is bad, red is good

There's also Weakauras out there that will basically automate the system. I can't recall if we're allowed to link external websites, but you can search for them on the wago.io website. Once you find the "bad" potion, the weakauras will show you what every color does (less thinking one has to do since the colors can shift every run). Also, it's not quite obvious, but consuming a colored potion of the same type that you already have running drastically increases it duration. For example, if you drink a red potion and it gives you Fire Breath for 5 minutes, consuming another red potion before it expires will extend the buff by 15 minutes. Even for a 5 mask full clear run, you only really need to consume 3 buff potions of the same time w/o the buff expiring and you'll be good for the entire instance (can't remember the exact math, but my buffs usually have 40+ minutes remaining after the 3rd potion).

I'd say to be comfortable as an average player, you want the +200 sanity when elites die talent and the Gift of the Titans talent to make things easier with the -50% sanity mask. Not only will you be getting chunks of sanity back when killing elites, but you'll stop passive sanity drain and sanity drain from attacks/effects for 20 seconds when GotT procs (along with a nice speed/dps boost). Also, don't forget there are specific Vision-only food you can craft, as the recipes should've dropped by now from N'zoth invasion mobs after getting through most of the cloak quest line. I personally tend to use the 20% movement speed at all times food, but there's others like 20% reduced CC duration, 2% healing/sec, +100 sanity if you eat for 10 seconds, and "stealth" for 10 minutes.

Beyond that... it comes down to gear/skill, your route, and also your class/spec (some classes/specs have a really hard time in there). If you're trying to clear everything, pay attention to simple things, like avoiding killing elites with a full sanity bar as that +200 sanity perk will be wasted. If GotT procs, maybe pull more mobs to kill due to the haste buff, or taking on an elite/mini-boss that you have trouble with due to all the sanity drain attacks (I tend to use a GotT proc on that elite in the Trade District that spams sanity draining attacks since I don't have immunities and short-CD interrupts). While it can be buggy, you can also plan to use your "cheat death" talent to refill your sanity bar to save a sanity orb for later or taking on a boss/elite that you know will drain your sanity something fierce.

[Aphrel]

elite extermination, the sanity potion you loot on ground and kbab all still gives their full value.

So -500 max sanity as actually not very hard.

In the medium zones i often have max sanity as i leave because the return from the above mentioned sanity sources is larger than the drain from the zone.