This is a World of Warcraft classic guide for The Prophet Skeram who is the first boss in the 40-man raid, The Temple of Ahn’Qiraj (AQ40).
With Blizzard’s announcement that they will be releasing classic World of Warcraft servers and the imminent release of Ahn’Qiraj (AQ) on the Lights Hope private server on which I currently play, I thought a strategy guide for each of the bosses would come in useful.
Overview
The Prophet Skeram is a religious cult leader of the Qiraji which are a race created by the old god C’thun.
Skeram is the first boss of AQ40 and also considered the easiest. It takes about 15-20 minutes of clearing trash before you come to this encounter.
Skeram is not an optional boss and must be killed in order to access the other parts of the dungeon. The trash on the way to this encounter respawns after 30 minutes, which only leaves time for two attempts.
Abilities
True Fulfillment – A raid member is Mind Controlled and grows in size. Additionally they will do increased damage, move faster and spells will be cast instantly. This effect is not dispelable and the target should be controlled with fear, stun, blind or ideally, polymorph. This ability is also meant to target the person closest to Skeram.
Quartile Split – At 75%/50%/25% Skeram spawns two illusions of himself across the platform that deal identical damage but have a drastically lower amount of hit points. The illusions need to be identified quickly and killed. It also helps to tank them separately as AoE damage can quickly wipe out the melee if they are positioned on top of each other. Ideally the raid should be able to focus one of the illusions down before it gets the opportunity to blink and stack with another illusion.
Arcane Explosion – Deals approx. 1.5k damage in a large radius. Healers and ranged dps need to make sure they are standing outside of its range. This ability can be interrupted and the casting speed can be slowed with Curse of Tongues.
Blink – Skeram blinks to one of the three spots on the platform and resets aggro. DPS need to stop until a tank has re-gained threat.
Earth Shock – Blasts a target for approx. 2.5k damage every second until his primary target is in melee range. It is important that Skeram is picked up quickly by the tanks after every blink or split.
Strategy
While strategy may vary from guild to guild, here is the basic approach that works for most.
The Pull:
Everyone should be mounted. The main tank (MT) runs in and tanks the boss where he is on the middle platform. The raid moves to their positions along the upper stairs/platform. The off-tanks will take up positions on the left and right platforms in anticipation of taunting the boss after he blinks.
The Fight:
Begin dps when the tank has established good threat after every blink. Rogues/Warriors need to interrupt arcane explosion and Mages need to polymorph the mind-controlled target ASAP. To avoid the MT getting mind-controlled a gimp melee dps should be nominated to always position himself under the boss (Skeram will mind control the closest target). Some guilds like to split up the melee dps across the three platforms.
When the boss hp is nearing one of the split intervals at 75%/50%/25% ensure that tanks/healers are in position to deal with the extra Skeram illusions. After the split occurs it is vital to quickly establish which two skerams are the illusions and the raid leader needs to call which target to kill first. Raid members may need to use health stones and arcane protection pots to stay alive. If the Skerams stack on top of each other melee either need to bail or focus on nailing every interrupt. Once both illusions are taken care of the fight is basically a rinse and repeat until dead.
Notes:
- Warlocks should soulstone tanks.
- DPS warriors need to be prepared to throw on a shield and help tank.
- Curse of Tongues/Mind Numbing poison should be utilized to slow the cast speed of arcane explosion to make interrupts easier.
- A nature protection potion taken before the fight by the entire raid will minimize deaths during slow/resisted taunts on blink transitions by absorbing the earth shock nature damage.
- Don’t cleave mind-controlled people and be sure to use fears/blinds initially until the target has been polymorphed.
- The hardest part of the fight is dealing with the 25% split phases. Make sure there are designated healers assigned and in position to heal the 3 tanks and melee across the platform during these phases.
Good Luck!
~Sanctus