Temple of Ahn'Qiraj (The Prophet Skeram)

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• The Prophet Skeram
• Battleguard Sartura
• Fankriss the Unyielding
• Princess Huhuran
• The Twin Emperors
• C'Thun

Optional Bosses

• Yauj, Vem, and Kri
• Viscidus
• Ouro the Sandworm

The Prophet Skeram

The first boss located within AQ40 is considered by some to be on par with the last few bosses of Molten Core, but I personally consider him to be an equal of Razorgore. However you see him, he is a difficult enemy to defeat so never let your guard down! He’s pretty much the religious leader of all of the bugs contained within AQ and he has written books on the history of AQ. Not that dumb of a bug if you ask me!

Set-Up!

To arrive at Skeram you will need to fight your way through a few trash pulls. The Obsidian Eradicators need to be mana drained and focused fired. The Anubisath Sentinels each have a unique ability and when they die they give that ability to their allies. So you want to take out the weakest one first (generally any of them with an AoE) then work your way up to the hardest. The only expectation is Mortal Strike where you may want to take it our earlier. After the way is clear you will want to mount up outside of his aggro range (the door) with bug mounts so that you will have enough speed to get everyone into position fast. If your guild doesn’t have enough bug mounts then regular mounts can work or everyone can just walk.

As for groups you will need three tanking groups. One main tank group and two off-tanks with the rest of the raid evenly spread out in the rest of the raid. The two off-tanks are for the two outer bottom platforms while the main tank is for tanking Skeram. Each tank group should include a Paladin (if you are Alliance), a Warlock, and two healers dedicated to healing that tank.

Skills

True Fulfilment: Mind Controls a person (rumored to be high on the aggro list) and imbues them with impressive strength. The counter to this is to simply sheep (the best possible crowd control) or any other form of crowd control your ally until it wears off.

Arcane Explosion: If more then four people are within melee range he has some fun with Arcane Explosion. It does a lot of damage, but thankfully your raid shouldn’t be all bunched up around him. Warriors should have no problem dealing with this.

Teleportation: This could also be a blink, it’s really not known. Anyway he’ll teleport to one side or the other at random which will clear his hate list.

Clone (Image): Just what you needed, more bugs! At 75%, 50%, and 25% Skeram will create two clones of himself with a lot less hit points. They have the same abilities which means they need to be tanked and killed.

Earth Shock: Like the fire lord Ragnaros, Skeram doesn’t like to be left alone once you’ve angered him. If no one is within melee range he will begin casting this devastating ability on the person he hates the most. Having someone always in melee with him will prevent this and like all of his other abilities, his clones have it too.

Tactics

When the charge is called your main tank needs to lead into battle and grab Skeram’s attention first. While your tank group is working on controlling Skeram have your ranged DPS and healers get up on the stair rails (be sure they are split up evenly although the range from one stair rail to the other is good). With your non-melee people up on the stair rail you will avoid the Arcane Explosion which should be contained on the three lower platforms. Your two off-tanks should each take a position on the two platforms for when he teleports. They need to be alert and ready to take control of Skeram if he appears before them.

With the main-tank successfully holding aggro and the off-tanks firmly in position you can pretty much take it easy until he reaches his first 75% point. When he gets there he’ll teleport and summon clones of himself. Then he will teleport in, so your off-tanks need to move into position and grab the clones and the raid needs to focus fire them down. Why? Well they have the same abilities as Skeram himself making them a high annoyance as they Arcane Explosion and mind control others.

After the clones are dealt with settle back into DPS’ing on Skeram. At 50% and 25% he’ll spawn clones of himself again in which case you can repeat what you did at 75%. If you find that the clones are more trouble then normal then simply add two additional tanks in the middle that are designated as clone tanks. This makes your raid less efficient, taking up two possible DPS spots for tanks. However, it’ll allow you to be more flexible when a cloned Skeram teleports to the side and your off-tanks are there to grab it.

There is one very important role, outside of tanking, that will cause your raid to wipe without fail. Those who are mind controlled must be Polymorphed or they will destroy the raid. Many believe that he’ll always mind control the second person on his “hate/aggro list” which will mean that he will go after someone who can do very good DPS. With having more then double their original attack they will have no problem shredding through the raid and if you kill them then they can not assist anymore with the raid. So have your Mages ready to Polymorph anyone who gets mind controlled!

This fight is all about controlling the clones, keeping them on the platform and keeping those who are mind controlled successfully Polymorphed. If you wipe then you will have a short period of time to get back before the entrance mobs respawn. So it’s best to give every attempt a good one. If you are learning this encounter then be sure to assign the most important roles to your best (generally best equipped) players.

When he dies you can either go to the bug trio (optional) or head for Battleguard Skeram who is next in line for the non-optional bosses..

Does your guild have a differnt tactic or is there something else you'd like to submit? Email me at [email protected] or post in our forums!