When Lassirra e-mailed me with my assignment for this week, I was both excited and just a little bit dismayed. I had been assigned Ahn’kahet: The Old Kingdom. I have only attempted this instance once on heroic, and our group had been unable to get past the first boss due to the new patch. Plus, the shammy we had with us at the time was trying for the achievement so we were pulling the first spider boss way back to the beginning. Unfortunately, Blizzard has nerfed this and this boss will one shot the tank if he’s pulled past the stairs of his little room. We called it soon after learning this and I haven’t been back since, in heroic mode. So when I got this assignment I was a bit leery. I attempted multiple times to get a guild run, or even a PuG going. To my dismay, no one was ever interested in running it. I did do a run on regular with a PuG of lowbies, just so I could at least understand the boss mechanics; I was just never able to get a group to do the heroic. So to make up for that, I’ve done all the research I could on the dungeon, and now I will present you with what I have found.

Quests

Before doing any dungeon for the first time I like to research (if I have the time) what quests there are. For Ahn’kahet, you’ll first want to check with the daily heroic quest giver Archmage Lan’dalock to make sure he doesn’t have brains on his mind. Next, you’ll want to fly to Dragonblight. The instance is located just west of Agmar’s Hammer in the Pit of Narjun. Ahn’kahet is located just to the left of the summoning stone for Azjol-Nerub (which I like to refer to as AZ-Noob). Right in front of the entrance to Azjol-Nerub is a quest giver, Kilix the Unraveler. He gives 2 Quests that are done in Old Kingdom.

1. All Things in Good Time
2. The Faceless Ones

Make sure to pick up these quests if you haven’t done them already. We’re not done with all the quests though. There’s one more that you get while you’re in the instance and turn into Kilix: Funky Fungi. The quest items for this drop off Savage Cave Beasts, which are located in a sub zone of the instance called the “Shimmering Bog” where the “heroic” boss is.

That’s it for the quests in Old Kingdom, so lets get on to talking about the bosses.

Bosses, their Fights, and their Loot!

There are 5 bosses located in Old Kingdom. What I personally find interesting is the inclusion of a “Heroic” boss. You see this with Gundrak also, where there is an “extra” boss on heroic mode. Mor Lootz I guess? The bosses CAN be done in a different order; this is just how I did them. You can always change the order, just don’t forget any!

Elder Nadox

Elder Nadox is one of the bosses where a properly speced hunter can shine. I know Larissa doesn’t like the Beast Mastery tree, but this is one place where a Tenacity pet can shine. Nadox randomly throughout the fight will have a single elite add spawn. Also during the fight non-elite adds will continuously spawn. The add that you must worry about though is the elite Ahn’kahar Guardian, as once this mob spawns Nadox and all of the Ahn’kahar Swarmers which are non-elite will be immune to all damage until the Guardian is taken down. As a BM hunter with a tenacity pet you can Misdirect onto your pet and make sure the adds and the elite add are not all beating on the tank, or healer while the boss and the non-elites are immune. I also have found that laying an explosive trap at the feet of the healer has helped greatly to keep the Swarmers from interrupting their heals. They may not hit very hard, but the pushback can spell death for your tank if you’re not careful. The non-elite adds don’t have much health so AOE away.

Elder Nadox drops:

• Sprinting Shoulderpads
• Nerubian Shield Ring
• Brood Plauge Helmet
• Elder Headpiece

All of which are a /pass for a hunter. Hopefully you’ll get a sparkly shard out of it!

Prince Taldaram

Don’t you think the title “Prince” is way over used in wow

Just a thought…

In order to access the Prince you will need to clear all of the mobs below him to access the two platforms opposite of the prince. Clear the mobs from the platform and click on the Nerubian object on each platform. Once they have been clicked they will drop the shield from around the prince.

Prince Taldaram has a bit of the RNG to him, which can be either quite fun, or quite frustrating. He has only three abilities, which only vary in strength from normal to heroic. His first ability is Bloodthirst, which will be what the Prince attacks the tank with primarily. He has two other abilities, and this is where the RNG starts to come in. On heroic he will Conjure Flame Spheres, times three, which shoots spheres of flame (did you think it made white kittens fly at you or something?) in random directions. You will want to avoid these flame spheres as they do a rather decent amount of damage, and your healer is going to have enough to worry about, but don’t make it your primary focus to dodge the spheres, only if you can. Now here’s the fun bit of RNG. He will Vanish and randomly choose one group member to Embrace in Embrace of the Vampyr. You will need to do approximately 40k damage to Taldaram to release his victim. During this time he will deal 2500 shadow damage every two seconds healing himself, and healing done to his victim is reduced by 100% so you can’t just heal through the damage. When I did this on normal he choose me EVERY time to embrace. He must have a thing for female blood elf hunters…

Prince Taldaram drops:

• Gauntlets of the Plundering Geist
• Flame Sphere Bindings
• Necklace Of Taldaram
• Bonegrinder Breastplate
  

MMM I like me those Gauntlets. They are some of the best pre-naxx gloves you can pick up… besides the heroic cryptstalker gauntlets. So need away!

Amanitar

(If you sound his name out… doesn’t it sound like “A Man eater?”) This is the “Heroic” boss, which you will not see unless you’re in heroic mode. From what I’ve been able to read, he’s a pretty tank and spank fight except for his “Mini” ability, which he will cast on someone, and they will have to be near a Healthy Mushroom to remove the mini effect by damaging the mushroom. The mushroom will also give you a 100% buff to your damage, which apparently stacks. So with one buff you will do 200% damage, at two buffs you will do 400% and at three buffs you will do 800% damage, etc.. Unfortunately though, the buff does not last long and from what I’ve read you’ll need to be in melee range to get the buff. There are also Poisonous Mushrooms that you’ll need to destroy through the fight to remove their poisonous cloud. Be sure to not use AOEs, as they will destroy all the mushrooms within that area rendering it useless.

Amanitar drops:

• Legguards of Swarming Attacks
• Amanitar Skullbow
• Amulet of the Spell Finger
• Silken Bridge Handwraps

The skullbow is one of the better bows pre-naxx, besides the Drake-Mounted Crossbow out of Utgarde Keep. If you can get the Drake-Mounted though… Go for it!

Jedoga Shadowseeker

Jedoga is a pretty standard tank and spank, except for the Twilight volunteers that she has surrounding her. Ignore them to start with; they won’t matter until Jedoga ascends back into the air. One of the volunteers begins to walk towards Jedoga and once there, if you don’t burn them down as fast as you can she will receive Gift of the Herald, which increases her damage by 200%. This can be devastating to a group so make sure and burn down those volunteers quickly. As ranged DPS you’re in a particularly good place to do as much DPS against the volunteers as possible. So if you need to, I would suggest blowing cooldowns on the volunteers. If Jedoga gets that buff, you can almost guarantee a wipe. (Makes me think twice about volunteering for anything….)

Jedoga Drops:

• Edge Of Oblivion
• Faceguard of the Hammer Clan
• Shadowseeker’s Pendant
• Subterranean Waterfall Shroud

None of which really benefit a hunter. So get to disenchanting already!

Herald Volazj

Ahhh, last but not least is our fun pal Herald. He has a mind-flay, and a melee attack but those are not really a problem. He has a semi-unique ability to make you kill your friends… or your PuG mates… or at least their shades. Herald will cast INSANITY which will make you see copies of your group mates, and you will have to burn them down as fast as you can. They each have approximately 12k hp in heroic mode. Once you have burned yours down (target the healer first) you will be able to see the rest of the shades that your group is dealing with and you can assist in burning them down. This was a really fun (but VERY) confusing mechanic the first time I encountered it. That mage keep pulling aggro off the tank? Feel free to burn his shade down and don’t feel bad if you take a little pleasure in it.

Herald Drops:

• Staff of Sinister Claws
• Greaves of Ancient Evil
• Fiery Obelisk Handguards
• Kilt of the Forgotten One
• Titanium Compound Bow
• Skirt of the Old Kingdom
• Wand of Ahn’kahet
• Bracers of the Herald
• Frozen Orb

The Titanuim Compound Bow is nice, but not as nice as the bow earlier or the Drake-Mounted. But if it’s an upgrade to what you got, go for it!

Well there you have it!

Hopefully you’ve enjoyed this article on Ahn’kahet as much as I’ve enjoyed writing it. Now I feel much more prepared when I can finally get a group together to get in there and kick some butt! If you have any feedback please leave it in the comments! I would love to hear any suggestions people might have on how I can improve this article or any I might write in the future!

This post by Sabiba.