So I completed my first 4 mask run this week.
However it was closer than I would have liked and there is no way I would be able to complete a five mask with my current setup.
I used Rank 3 Blood as Major. Rank 3 Breath, Rank 2 Iris and Rank 2 Strife as minors.
Id suggest getting a vision of perfection and purification protocol in place of iris it looses value with target swapping you have the 2 primal and bow so vop as a minor could probly help. How far into the talent tree are ya for visions?
Also I belive wowhead has an essence setup for visions and raidbots could SIM essences for dungeon setup to find a good set up but I do find bop a good major or minor and blood of enemy good for bursting bosses down. Having the visions tree filled and 15 cloak make it super easy too
I have went all the way through the right side of the tree and I’m working on the left side now but don’t have the resurrect with 500 sanity yet.
Level 13 cloak right now.
I honestly didn’t even worry about masks until my cloak was rank 15. I just completed my 1st 5 mask run this week. The trick was to bring lots of k’babs. Being able to restore 100 sanity once a minute on demand really, really helps.
I haven’t used K’babs yet. That sounds like it would be very helpful.
I didn’t realise you could use them so much.
Yeah, you can use them off cd as much as you want as long as you aren’t in combat
And use them in the lowest sanity drain places also the healing 2% is good food and maybe scrolls to buff up and AP a pet with lust and runes and flask if super serious the 500 sanity revival is good for mess ups. A misdirect macro to pet could help keeping adds off you camo can be good too. I do find org weeks easier just because Shaw sticking to pet when u need to not look at eyes. Mage tower int poly and feinvdeath on the other ability. I usually 5 mask easily but I do like to grab all the buff stuff I can possible. You also grab potions in the visions too? Id guess tbh getting cloak to 15 would best make it somewhat more trivial though 
I would recommend using them as often as you can when you can gain back 100 sanity regardless of where you are. Running back to the lowest drain area, especially once you got the rank 15 cloak is more hassle and waste of time then trying to run back and forth imo.
Yes, and one of them is also a sanity restore. Once I have the 3 buffs from in-vision potions up to 40 minutes each I’ll stop getting them and focus exclusively on the sanity restore ones. You could prolly manage with 30 minutes each but I like to be safe.
My first five masked run was last night and I’ll tell you what I learned.
for me, focusing Iris major was a waste. I always got knocked or interrupted and i don’t have the movement version yet. I replaced this with purification protocol and I don’t regret it. Especially the version that has a chance to KILL an aberration. It’s killed mini bosses INSTANTLY and its amazing and wouldn’t use anything else on a 5 mask run as a major, IMO.
On my hunter I tried multiple runs as BM and SV, both went well TBH, but BM is obviously easier (didn't look at your spec).
Cloak: I didn't even attempt a masked run until I had at least 13 cloak, just wasn't able to power through without enough Sanity loss prevention. One of those masks, the one that reduces total Sanity, really hurts if you don't have enough sanity loss reduction.
Talent Tree: Talking about the one you spend momentos on. If you aren't far enough down, at least with Elite extermination, I dunno if you could even do a five mask TBH. At least not at the gear level that I'm at (casual gear level). Without that talent, don't even try.
ALSO, the last talent in that tree, the Titan one, is AMAZING. You don't realize how much Sanity loss it really prevents until you finally have it.. Holy balls.
I also only drink the +Sanity potions and the Healing potions. If you don't find multiple potions that aren't the sanity ones, i wouldn't drink them as the effects of them running out of time on your character can get you killed easily in 5 masked runs. (this happened my first attempt). I also for the first time used those "K'bab" foods. Very helpful as they restore a lot of sanity over your total run. I definitely recommend.
I watched a few guides as well on optimizing your route, as this helps ALOT. When you first load the map before entering visions, know where you want to go, how much you can pull (mobs that stun and what not) and where you want to stop. This makes a HUGE difference, especially in SW's Mage Quarter.
If you don't have the following things I mentioned, or a really high IL, i would bank your key's until you have either a high enough cloak, or the items I've listed as they basically make or break my runs. With my characters that don't have Gift of the Titans, I can tell a considerable difference. Also my other toons only have around Rank 10 cloak, and it feels 100% worse than my hunter with 15 cloak.
Hope this helps!
P.S. I don't pull AS large of groups in 5 masked runs. Mobs are a lot more dangerous and one slip up and i'm dead. But with the R15 cloak and Gift of the Titans, i can take much more time. I usually make it to the end boss of a 5 masked run with 2 orbs left and Cheat death. Or 3 orbs and NO cheat death. But if you can save cheat death for the final boss, I recommend it. You never know when you're going to flub something up, and you'll be happy you have it for the final boss.
Forgot to mention, and didn’t want to add to my already long previous post.
I have recently downloaded some Horrific Visions weak auras and they are amazing. I don’t remember the name, but it was the first search on google when I looked it up.
It has a potion tracker (you click on the bad potion once you see it by the dead body) and you never have to remember for the rest of your run, what potion is what. VERY helpful. It also has a Gift of the titans tracker which is very useful to know when it is available or not. Timing your Gift of the Titans before some of the mini, or bigger bosses can really help prevent Sanity loss.
Also not sure if you're doing this or not, but don't "over cap" your sanity. Until i watched a few guides I had no idea I was even doing this. Here's what I mean..
Let’s say your total sanity is 1000. You’re currently at 800 sanity, and about to kill a mini boss that will give you 200 sanity (with the elite extermination talent). That’s great, as it will cap you. Sometimes I would go into an elite fight with say, 900 sanity, which means i just wasted 100 sanity that I will no longer be able to get. This doesn’t seem like a big deal, but that’s more time you could’ve cleared adds, grabbed potions or momentos, or killed buff bosses. Go do those thigns, then come back when you’re under cap, so you don’t over cap. Hope this helps!
Lots of helpful tips in there.
I’ll definitely be downloading the potion tracker and changing my Major Essence.
One thing a lot of people don’t know is you can dodge chains of servitude (mini boss casts this at the entrance to SW in trade district and so does main boss at the end of the vision). Just before the cast goes off (or any time during casting) cast aspect of the turtle. Then as soon as the cast finishes and goes into the channeling portion you can remove the aspect of the turtle buff and continue DPS. You won’t get silenced or pulled.
General tips are to play around your gift of the titans procs. It has a 1 min internal CD and after that will proc about 50% of the time you kill a mob. This means once the internal CD has past you are very likely to proc by killing 1-2 mobs. While gift is active you don’t take any sanity loss. You can use gift to cheese mini bosses that have lots of sanity loss abilities. GIft also gives you basically blood lust with all the haste so you can pull larger packs with gift up.
Last thing is just practicing. Gear isn’t that important in visions but knowing all the abilities and how to deal with them is important. I would reccomend doing 4 masks until you can consistently do them without going below 50% sanity (making sure that add thing doesn’t spawn) and then adding the long night mask back in.
Add me at twitch.tv XxDRAVENxX channel. I stream at 730pm most nights. U don’t even have to follow me. I’d like to help show you the route. It’s not to bad u can tag along with me on one. I run crucible of flame even and it works well. It’s good for fast killing dangerous mobs. What masks are u wearing for your runs. Mask of the long night is nearly as hard as the other four masks put together. So if u were running that mask already then ur closer to completion of a five mask run than u think.
Five masks in stormwind aren’t to bad. Also have u bought every talent upgrade in the vault like gift of Titans. Kabob before opening each new gate section. Specific routes make it easier. On boss Mathias Shaw position where the tiny eyes can’t see ur face even if u have to only let ur pet be damaging for short goes. In mage quarter kick polymorph from main boss and feign or turtle his other casts. Care on the adds in this zone they will tear u up if not careful on route and positioning.
On boss in trade district just max distance his chains with cheatah and disengage. always kill tentacles that are in this zone and few others with minor burst and intimidate stun to stop them from porting five times. Gl man
Shaw rekt me last night. I just couldnt position to get away from the eyes LoS. And BM’s burst is terrible without proper azerite traits. Feel so gimped not having both Dance of death + Primal instincts.
One thing that helped me was to take off pet taunt on this fight. If your pets keep aggro, you can’t get him away from those eyes to reposition him. If he has aggro on you, the fight is 100% EZ mode. Hope this helpS!
This is totally true though be prepared to be stabbed in the back quite a number of time. With the burning bridge mask on I find the easiest way to reposition him is to run in the safe direction from the eyes, move slightly to the side when you have the room and then walk backwards until he’s in front of you enough to attack safely.
Remember, you’re playing BM: your pets are doing most of the damage. You can actually get away with fighting Shaw with your back turned while your abilities are on CD, then flipping the mouse onto Shaw for a split-second to pop KC and Barbed Shots. (spin the camera so you can see your face then right-click, and boom, back turned.)
Put the camera right above you so you can see Shaw and the LOS of the eyes, then keeping your face away from the eyes, reposition yourself so that Shaw is facing you.
I believe it’s only once every 3 minutes unless there was a change?
3 minutes 1 minute it’s all the same.