Twin Emperors

The clever brothers Vek'nilash and Vek'lor are known as the '''Twin Emperors'''. They rule over the Qiraji from the sanctuary of their AQ40

Background

In this area, Qiraji Scarabs and Qiraji Scorpions are scattered all around the floor and if killed they constantly respawn throughout the fight. They are initially neutral (yellow), but turn hostile when hit by any sort of area effect, or when mutated by Emperor Vek'nilash.

Attacks and Abilities

Both Emperors

• Heal Brother - Whenever the twins get within 60 yards of one another, they will spam heal each other for 30000 health/tick. Keep them far apart.
• Twin Teleport - Every 30-40 seconds, the two twins will switch places, visible by a blue glow around their feet. The twins will be rooted for about 2 seconds after they teleport before they start attacking again. There is a complete aggro wipe, and the Emperors will attack the closest player to them, who will receive a large amount of threat after the 2 second root runs out.
• Berserk - After 15 minutes, the Emperors will go berserk dramatically increasing damage and wiping the raid.
• Combined Health - The Emperors share health. Damage to one emperor hurts the other emperor as well. They therefore die simultaneously.

Emperor Vek'nilash: Swings a big sword, immune to all magical damage.

• Uppercut - Knocks back a single random target in melee range.
• Unbalancing Strike - Inflicts 350% weapon damage and leaves the target unbalanced, reducing their defense skill by 100 for 6 sec.
• Mutate Bug - Mutates a bug every 10-15sec or so.

Emperor Vek'lor:''' Caster, immune to all physical damage, has a mana bar.

• Shadow Bolt - Spams on his aggro target, hits for 3000-4000. Partially resistable.
• Blizzard - Slows and damages everyone within its area of effect. 1500 damage/tick.
• Arcane Burst - 4000-4950 arcane damage AoE counterattack whenever a player is within melee range. Knocks back anyone it hits and slows their movement speed by 70%.
• Explode Bug - Explodes a bug every 7-10sec or so.

Qiraji Scarabs/Qiraji Scorpions

• Virulent Poison - Stackable DoT randomly procs on melee attack.
• Bugs are triggered by their corresponding Emperor: Vek'nilash mutates bugs within 25 yards, Vek'lor explodes bugs within 30 yards.
• Explode Bugs - grow to 200% size, and their tentacles begin to spark. They explode 3sec after they are triggered and inflict between 2813 to 3187 fire damage.
• Mutate Bugs - grow to 400% size, gain 300% health, melee for 1800% damage, as well as turn hostile. They must be tanked/killed since they otherwise stay mutated for 4 minutes and melee for 1000+ damage per hit.

Strategy

Raid Setup

• Two Tank teams: 1 Warrior, 2 Warlocks (one for Blood Pact, the other for tanking), a Paladin/Shaman and 4-5 Healers. One team covers the left side, the other takes the right.
• A Bug-Hunter team: 3 Mages, 2 Warriors and a Paladin/Shaman/Druid for healing.
• A Physical DPS team: all Rogues, Hunters and remaining Warriors plus 1-2 Paladins/Shamans for healing.

Tanking:

• The Magical Emperor is tanked by a Warlock (Shadow damage), the Physical by a Warrior (physical damage). After each teleport the character closest to the given Emperor will get aggro. In every case we want this to be the Warrior. However:
• On a switch from physical to magical the tanking Warlock will immediately after the teleport begin to chain-cast searing pain on the magical Emperor in order to get aggro. Both, the Warrior and Warlock keep a healthy range to their Emperor to avoid Arcane Bursts, triggered if any character is within Melee range. The more range they can get the better, as it helps their healers to avoid all Blizzards and exploding Bugs. Ideally all tanking happens on a line orthogonal to the respective wall an Emperor is tanked against.

• Warlock tanks should use Curse of Doom as well as Searing Pain to pull aggro. Excluding partial resists, the damage done by Curse of Doom is easily enough to pull aggro from a warrior. Approximately 10-15 seconds after the fight starts, or after a teleport, the active warlock tank should cast this Curse on Vek'lor. The exact timing requires practice, but it far more effective than just spamming Searing Pain alone.
  • Shadow Ward should be activated before the teleport warning is received. This means the first bolt can be absorbed, and Shadow Ward will have cooled down during the tanking period.
  • Once the warlock has aggro Vek'lor will move towards him. It is critical that the warlock be alert for this, and move back slightly. If the warlock does not react fast enough, Vek'lor will Arcane Blast the warlock tank, seriously disrupting the positioning. If handled correctly, Vek'lor will remain well outside healing range, and the warrior tank can move in along the wall behind him. This is close to where the warrior will tank after the teleport.

• On a switch from magical to physical the Warrior has to be closest character in the proximity of the Emperor. If he gets uppercut and knocked away, he has to come back in position before the teleport so the Warlock can live (who would otherwise not survive a Physical Emperor's hit). Once the Warrior has aggro he positions himself with his back to the wall, so he doesnt go flying when uppercut and thus out of range of heals. The tanking Warlock just waits his turn again.

DPS:

• DPS is split in two, Bug-Hunters and Boss DPS:
  • The Bug-Hunters take care of all Mutated Scarabs and Scorpions on the Physical Emperor side to keep them from killing the Healers.
  • The Boss-DPS bounces from side to side following their Emperor (Warriors, Hunters and Rogues on the Physical, Warlocks, Mages on the Magical) The Melee DPS have to take much care that they run away from their Emperors in due time (5 seconds) before the next teleport so the Warrior gets initial aggro on the new Emperor. A rogue getting aggro easily messes up the positioning and healing-chains. Also, standing close to the Magical Emperor triggers Arcane Blasts which can wipe all the melee DPS in seconds.
  • Switch early, don't test your luck.
  • After the first teleport, DPS can start.

Healing:

• Healing the Warlock-Tank is easily done by a single Priest or Druid and thus provides a ~25 sec timeframe during Vek'lor (magical Emperor) where healers are at ease to pick up loose ends, regen mana and heal some DPS.

• Healing the Warrior during Vek'nilash (physical Emperor) time is tricky as he will frequently get hit by a sequence of big blows in very short time. It is neccessary to constantly channel heals, keep HoTs up and shield after Unbalancing Strikes and Uppercuts. 3 Priests chaincasting Heal 2 (augmented by +heal) and constant Renew does most of the work. Paladins/Shamans and Druids are used for the gaps inbetween. Starting to cast when there is already a health deficit (reactive healing)is not sufficient.
  • Healers will be moving a lot in this fight between their positions for the respective Emperor (further away in a safe spot on Vek'lor to avoid Blizzards and closer on Vek'nilash as the Warrior to be healed is near the wall —> see illustration. In the event of Vek'lor moving unintentionally close to the Warlock tank, all healers on the side have to react quickly and increase their range to maximum so they can avoid all blizzards.
  • Outpost: Each side places one designated healer (best geared Priest ideally, maybe accompanied by a paladin/shaman) in the oupost position (10 yds away from the Warlock so they dont get both hit by the same blizzard). His responsibility is to stay in range of the warrior and heal him during Vek'lor. This allows the main healer group to get to their safe-position (out of blizzard range in the middle) immediately after the teleport. Should the outpost-healer take damage from a blizzard or exploding bug, the main healer group takes care of it. The outpost healer also covers the first damage on the warrior when he takes aggro on a switch back to Vek'nilash until the main healer group gets back in close-position.
  • Druids coordinate their innervates and be prepared to cast Rebirth on Warlock and Warrior.

Notes

• Instead of using warlocks to tank the caster Emperor, a warrior can be used. The warrior should stand close enough after a teleport phase to receive initial aggro, and then move out of melee range to stop Arcane Explosions. By doing so, however, you can only DPS the physical Emperor. This has the extreme disadvantage of the warrior generating very little aggro relative to the healer aggro generated keeping him up from shadowbolts, however this can be countered by filling that warriors group with healers and having him spam Battle Shout. This will easially overcompensate for the healing aggro. An advantage to this method is it makes dealing with the bugs much easier, as that becomes the only job the casters have, and mutated and bugs will be burned down in seconds.
• Another alternate tanking strategy is tanks in full HP gear just stand with their backs to the wall and never move. When the magic Emp comes in they just stand there and eat arcane explosions. Arcane explosions are slower than shadow bolts and sometimes he even melee attacks for small damage. The cast time for Arcane Explosions are slow and they are fairly easy to heal through. This provides the benefit of not having to move at all. The healers need to watch for exploding bugs and blizzard which will require extra heals on the tanks. This is a good alternative if you find the Magic Emp would chase the tank when moving out during a transition.
• Demoralizing Shout is your greatest friend in this fight. As with other bosses such as [[Broodlord Lashlayer]], attack power calculations are given significant weighting when used with certain strikes (ie. Broodlord's Mortal Strike, Vek'nilash's Unbalancing Strike). However, when using Demo Shout, you need to be careful not to aggro additional neutral bugs. As with other debuffs, a tank is able to demo shout before the emperors port, and the debuff will stay on after the port.
• Another interesting fact is that while Emperor Vek'nilash is immune to most magic damage, he is not immune to the priest's Smite and Holy Fire spells.
• The holy wand from BRD, Wand of Eternal Light, can also do damage to Emperor Vek'nilash.

Things everyone needs to constantly watch out for:

• EVERYONE needs to keep track of which emperor is which at all times.
• SpellAlert (or an appropriate local spell announcing mod) is a MUST for everyone. This will warn you when nearby bugs are about to explode. You need to be constantly cautious of exploding/mutating bugs at all times and avoid them.
• When you find yourself underneath a Blizzard, run out! Scrolling Combat Text gives a warning on incoming Blizzard. To survive the tick, kings (and frost ward if you are a mage) are of great help.
• Vek'nilash will hit the melee DPS with random knockbacks, so be sure to bandage/potion when necessary.
• Blizzard will be cast only when multiple players stands in the vicinity of the caster twin (40 yards range). Be sure the healers are not in 40 yds range!

Quotes

• Ah, sacrificial lambs.
• Look brother, fresh blood.
• Come brother, blood is to be spilled.
• Oblivion will engulf you !
• Like a fly in a web.
• Your arrogance… rude !

External Links

*Original Tactics Link
*German Tactic Link
*Thottbot_Emperor Vek'lor
*Allakhazam_Emperor Vek'nilash
*Thottbot
*Allakhazam

ASR Specifc Notes