Hello all, I've been writing something about AQ40 and the shit we encounter there. This short guide will contain whatever you need to know. I strongly suggest everyone reads it, specially those that had headaches and could not be arsed to turn up for the wiping that gave us this knowledge. [b]Obsidian Eradicator[/b] Strategy for these are simple: Tank pulls and tanks. Paladins and druids heal on this fight. All priests warlocks and hunters drain mana. Everyone else DPS. The eradicator will drain mana of every mana user in range at regular intervals. Hunters can avoid the drain by staying at max range. If you allow the mana of an Obsidian Eradicator to reach full, they will do an AOE for around 6000-7000 damage. This attack has a range of about 40 yards. [b]Anubisath Sentinels (packs of 4)[/b] Each of the 4 will have one of the following unique abilities: - Mending wounds - Manaburn - Thunderclap - Thorns - Mortal Strike - Periodic Knockback - Magic Reflection (Arcane/Fire) - Magic Reflection (Frost/Shadow) - Shadowbolt volley Mages can detect magic to determine which Sentinel has which ability. If mages can't detect the ability it's Arcane/Fire reflecting. As soon as we kill one sentinel it shares it's ability with the remaining 3, and heals them for 2/3rds of their health or something. So we need to kill them in a good order. The shadowbolt volley can hurt a lot, but can be avoided by hugging the shadowbolt sentinel. We usually kill them from easy to hard: - Periodic Knockback / Mending wounds - Magic Reflection (any kind) (if we have 1 of each melee will have to finish the last sentinel) - Thorns/Thunderclap/Mortalstrike/Manaburn/Shadowbolt volley The trash in front of skeram has a respawn rate of 30 minutes. Keep that in mind if corpserunning in the boss fight.... [b]PROPHET SKERAM[/b] The first boss of AQ40, and a tough cookie at that. He'll be standing on a platform structure with 2 platforms on his left and right and one behind him. Because of his abilities we'll split the tanks into 3 groups. The maintank will tank Skeram approximately where he is standing and the other 2 tanksgroups move to the left and right platform and remain there. Ranged dps runs up the 2 stairs and stands behind skeram. Skerams abilities: - Arcane explosion He does an arcane explosion that has a warning Skeram begins casting Arcane Explosion or something, he forgot to put points into improved arcane explosion I guess. Lucky us. Rogues can use kick to interrupt his casting. It's hard to time the kick with a 1.5 second AE casting time, but every kick that hits prevents around 1000-1500 damage to everyone in range. - True Fullfillment Skeram periodically Mind Controls someone on his aggrolist. This mindcontrol lasts around 15 seconds. The person that is mindcontrolled should be sheeped / feared / slept immediately. Sheep is best, since it heals them as well. - Earth Shock Skeram is slow moving and hard to control. To avoid people kiting him around and destroying his ass blizzard thought it would be fun to incorporate some ragnaros tactics into this boss. If skeram (or his copies) has no-one meleeing him he will start Earth Shocking. His earthshock hits for 2500 damage each shock and he does it about every 1.5 second or so. It is vital to have someone melee him, even a rogue can stay alive (if healed) so melee him. - Blink/Teleport Skeram periodically blinks to another platform, that's where the other tanks come in. They should be waiting for him and start hitting him with swords/sticks and butterknives as soon as possible. If he has no-one meleeing him he'll do his Earth Shock. - Copy Self At 75%, 50% and 25% Skeram will make 2 copies of himself that will spawn at the 2 other platforms. All debuffs are wiped of all 3 skerams that are there now. We have to identify the first fake one fast and dps it down, they should go down fast. The order we usually do it in is Middle, Left, Right. If the middle one is the real skeram move to dps the left one immediately. All three skerams should be meleed or he'll do his earth shock. During the skeram fight a lot of people are likely to die. The graveyard is close to the gates and you'll be able to run back and join the fray again. This is however only if it is the first attempt after clearing trash. The trash in front of skeram has a 30 minute respawn and you'll encounter respawns if you try and corpserun during the second attempt. If there are a lot of people dead after handling the 75/50/25 percent chaos everyone should stop DPS and wait for the dead to come running back. Skeram hits like a sissy and the MT alone can solo him down to the next split. There is no need to hurry DPS when there is only one Skeram. After killing skeram the doors behind him open up the entrance to the temple. Going down the stairs and to the left you'll find the quest mobs for the Lord's Insignia. Also the 'hidden dragons' are located there if you have a quest to visit them. [b]Qiraji Brainwashers and Venkriss Guardians[/b] Next up we'll encounter a group consisting of a Brainwasher and some Venkriss Guardians. We have never had any particular problem killing these but I'll explain anyway. [b]Brainwasher[/b] These are smaller blue versions of Skeram. They have little HP and can be dps'd down quite easily. They have 2 abilities: - Mindcontrol They will mind control someone on their aggro list. Sheep the mind controlled person or let them run rampant, we haven't had that much problem with it. - Mind Flay with Fear, when you don't resist you get feared yay. Brainwashers usually die before they can get a mind control of. We kill brainwashers first. [b]Venkriss Guardian[/b] These are smaller but slightly annoying bugs. They are easily dps'd down as well though. They do one special thing. When one of the guardians in a group die the rest of them charge towards the corpse and send everyone at the corpse flying back and impaling them giving them a DoT. Further in the zone you'll encounter Venkris Warrior patrols as well. [b]Venkriss Warriors[/b] These are similar to the Venkriss Guardians but are more of a white/gray color than the brown guardians. These have no special abilities apart from releasing 10 Venkriss Borers when they die. The warriors should be killed one by one and the borers AOE'd to pulp. [b]Venkriss Borer[/b] Annoying small bugs that the warriors release. They hit for about 200-400 so AOE. After going down a spiral hallway and killing 2 packs of brainwashers and a warrior patrol, we head to the right at the bottom of the spiral. One last pack of brainwashers and guardians awaits us there before we come to a big circular room containing what is known as the Bug Family [b]BUG FAMILY[/b] It is rumored that the bug family will drop different loot depending on which bug dies last. But since that's also broken at the moment I'll tell you the strategy for killing them in the easy way. But first their abilities. [b]Lord Kri[/b] Biggest bug of the 3. He does a nature damage AOE that has a DoT component added to it. Nasty nasty nasty. We need hunters spread out over the raid so everyone has some NR. Farm maraudon as well lazy asses! You'll need it later on in the instance. When Kri dies he releases a poison cloud that does 2000 nature damage per tick. Get out of there. [b]Princess Yauj[/b] Blue biatch. She does an AOE Fear around her. She is to be tanked as far away from the tunnel entrance as possible. Since you can reset this encounter by all running out into the tunnel. Fear ward rotation for her is very handy. A secondary tank in berserker stance helped us last time as well. Yauj gains a healing ability once Lord Kri is killed. This Greater Heal should show up on your SpellAlert, and rogues can kick her, warriors can pommel etc. You'll probably hear lots of shouting on TS: 'KICK!'. If she heals right after a fear the kick is likely to miss and she'll heal around 10-15% of her total health. There should be a few warriors in berserkerrage / pommel rotation on her. So we always have a non-feared warrior ready to pommel her if she starts to heal. Don't use your pommel when there's a lot of people around her. Use it when people are feared. When Yauj dies she releases around 10 smaller bugs that can be chainfeared. They should be dealt with soon, or they'll start eating healers. The small bugs do a kick and knockdown ability which both interrupt spellcasting quite frequently. [b]Vem[/b] Smallest of the 3. He is also the hardest to tank, since he charges random persons around him. When he charges his aggro list is cleared. He also periodically stuns the tank for 3 seconds reducing the tanks aggro slightly. When he's the only one left, everyone hug him and dps him down like a lava surger. The easy order is to kill Kri first, then Yauj, then Vem. Positioning for this kill is as follows: - Yauj is to be tanked where she is before starting the encounter - Kri is dragged to the right of the tunnel entrance - Vem is dragged to the left corner of the room. Start DPS on Kri as soon as you see 2 sunders on him. And burn him down fast and avoid the cloud he releases. After that burn down yauj and deal with the bugs when she dies. After that burn down vem and lewt epix. We did it once in this order: Kri -> Vem -> Yauj. When Vem died he was devoured by Yauj. Yauj grew to approximately 1.5 times the size, and went on a rampage one/twoshotting tanks and cloth alike. I shudder to think what will happen if we first let Yauj devour Vem and then Kri devours Yauj........ After this encounter we head back the way we came and move further into the instance, we'll encounter 3 packs of 6 venkriss guardians each, and a patrol of venkriss warriors. The patrol comes into the room of the first pack so we want that back pulled back into the tunnel. [b]BATTLEGUARD SARTURA[/b] When we're done with those we come to a big circular room again containing Battleguard Sartura and her 3 guardians. These guardians and sartura herself can't be tanked properly. They pick someone on the hatelist and charge over there and whirlwind them and everyone near them to death. The reason she can't be tanked is that she whipes aggro when whirlwinding. She and her guards have one ability in common: - Whirlwind She is immune to stun while whirlwinding. But can be stunned when not whirlwinding. She moves around while whirlwinding and does AOE damage ofcourse. Every whirlwind their aggro list is cleared. So warlocks NO DOTS or she'll come for you! The guards also have a punt ability: - Punt Will send the target flying backwards. Stay away from the next corridor that leads further into the zone! Or you'll draw bugs and wipe the raid. Sartura goes enraged at 20%. This enrage is dependant on how fast you DPS her down. We have to get her health below 30% in 10 minutes or she will go ULTIMATE SPANKAGE at 20%. If we do get her health down to 30% within 10 minutes her attack power won't increase much but it will be noticable. To kill her we need to wait till she is gone all the way to the left and run into the room spread out to the right of the entrance. Do not mount up. Run in. This is one chaotic fight and we need to make sure the guardians are between sartura and the raid. 2 tanks can keep sartura busy and away from the raid while the rest of the raid kills the adds quickly one by one. [i]Everyone needs to watch their back, if Sartura heads for you, get out of the way![/i] Paladins can stun the adds to keep them in place. Try and stay close to your healers. Warriors can taunt the adds to keep them away from the squishies. The adds have little HP and should go down quickly. Ranged DPS burns down the guardians as fast as possible. Rogues should only melee the guardians when they are stunned otherwise they'll get raped by the whirlwind attacks. Once the adds are down DPS should go ALL OUT on sartura. She can not properly be tanked so you can't really get aggro from her. If she does go after you I suggest watching this short clip: [url]http://sartura.ytmnd.com/[/url]. Use everything you got. It is vital to get sartura enraged which happend at 25% last time before 10 minutes are up or we face the supreme mode enrage which will kill us. Rogues should focus on trying to stun her when she's not whirlwinding. Save Combo points for stunning, ranged will take her down. I'm not sure if this worked on our takedown, but stunning is important. If you die during the killing of the adds you should run back into the instance as soon as possible. If you die after all the adds are down you're unlikely to make it in time and evade bug her. [b]FANKRISS THE UNYIELDING[/b] The next boss is Fankriss the Unyielding. He is similar to Kurinaxx in AQ20, and even uses the same model and skin how lame! To get to Fankriss we'll have to rapidly move through a corridor with Venkriss Soldiers and Venkriss Drones. Mages and Warlocks AOE them down quickly while a tank tries to grab aggro of the soldiers. We have to keep moving FAST. The drones are on a 15 seconds or less respawn timer. So follow that front tank, and don't linger behind. Right before Fankriss is a small save spot. Do NOT go forward too much or he'll aggro, stay where we killed the last bugs. Drink up buff up. We don't have much time, or we'll have respawning Soldier patrols on us during the fight. The Fankriss fight is similar to that of Kurinaxx in AQ20. He does the mortal wound debuff: - Mortal Wound Stackable Debuff on the MT that reduces healing by 10%. This is a cleave attack so it can hit multiple people in front of him. We need 2 of the least equipped tanks on him since he doesn't hit for much. Rotate tanks like on Kurinaxx. During the fight Venkriss Hatchlings will spawn in the alcoves around the room. Apparantly when the hatchlings spawn 1 person will get teleported and rooted to the alcove? The Hatchlings will hit for 800-900 on cloth. During the fight Elite level 63 worms (Spawn of Fankriss) will spawn randomly across the room. These will have to be tanked and DPS'd down A S A P. The worms can be stunned. This fight is a bit like razorgore with the spawning adds, but we need to get Fankriss down as fast as possible before we get overwhelmed. For original information on the Fankriss fight: [url]http://www.wowwiki.com/Fankriss_the_Unyielding[/url] This strategy speaks of having tanks in the spawn alcoves to keep the hatchlings there while they are dps'd down. We did one attempt without much strategy on him earlier and figured we might be able to just AOE everything down. But as we might run out of mana soon, it may be a good idea to read the guide at wowwiki. For a takedown movie: [url]http://connected.dnd.utwente.nl/~wouter/AMvsFankriss.avi[/url] [b]Vekniss Hive Crawler[/b] After we kill Fankriss the Unyielding we will encounter Vekniss Hive Crawlers. They use extremely high damage instant poison, mind numbing poison, and crippling poisons. The poisons must be cleansed immediately. [b]Vekniss Wasp Packs[/b] Just before Princess Huhuran we'll encounter Vekniss Wasp Packs. I took this info from wowwiki once again. These are groups of three or four mobs located in Temple of Ahn'Qiraj just before Princess Huhuran. They come in a few different flavors. Each group contains two or three Vekniss Wasps, a Vekniss Stinger, and/or a Qiraji Lasher. The Vekniss Stinger is similar to the Hive'Zara Stinger in Ruins of Ahn'Qiraj, except naturally much more deadly and cannot be rooted. The Vekniss Wasps are also quite similar to the Hive'Zara Wasps in Ruins of Ahn'Qiraj, except again naturally much more deadly and cannot be rooted. The Qiraji Lasher is similar to the adds accompanying Battleguard Sartura except that they cannot be stunned. Should you have additions, comments or something please post them. -Ammo