The Twin Emperors – Temple of Ahn’Qiraj Boss Strategy Guide

This is a World of Warcraft classic guide for The Twin Emperors who are the fifth non-optional boss in the 40-man raid, The Temple of Ahn’Qiraj (AQ40).

Overview

Vek’lor and Vek’nilash are the two brothers known as the Twin Emperors. They are the rulers of the Qiraji and reside in their large triangular temple which is filled with Qiraji Scarabs and Qiraji Scorpions.
Twin Emps is a harder fight which will require discipline and concentration from all raid members sustained over a relatively long period.
This fight can fall apart in a matter of seconds if individuals deviate from the strategy or make small mistakes.

Abilities

The Twins are immune to taunt and share their HP pool.

Whenever the twins are within 60 yards of eachother they will begin to heal.

Twin Blink – Every ~30 seconds the twins will swap places with eachother. This is an aggro reset. They will also begin attacking the player that is closest to them who will receive an additional amount of threat.

Enrage/Berserk – If the twins are not killed within 15 minutes they enrage which will drastically increase their damage and quickly wipe the raid.

Vek'nilash Abilities

Immune to all magical damage except for holy damage.

Uppercut – Melee range knockback of current aggro target.

Unbalancing Strike – Deals weapon damage +350% and applies a debuff to the target reducing their defense by 100 for 6 seconds.

Mutate Bug – Targets a random Qiraji bug in the room every 10-15 seconds. The bug grows large and changes color, causing it to attack the raid.

Vek’lor Abilities

Immune to all physical damage.

Shadow Bolt – Cast continuously at his main aggro target, deals 3000-4000 shadow damage and is able to be partially mitigated with shadow resistance. The range is approximately 35 yards.

Blizzard – This is a 10-15 yard area of effect ability that lasts several seconds. Cast over random players throughout the fight. Slows movement and deals approximately 1500 frost damage every 2 seconds whilst a player is standing under the effect.

Arcane Explosion – Cast continuously whenever a player is within melee range. Deals around 4000 arcane damage and knocks players back. Also inflicts a 70% movement slow for a few seconds.

Explode Bug – Targets a random bug to explode, causing it to grow large and eventually blow up dealing approximately 4000 fire damage in an area.

Strategy

Set up teams

2 x Tanking Squads – Two teams that should each have a Warlock tank in maximum shadow resist gear, a Warrior tank, a warlock for blood pact and 3-4 healers.
This team’s duty is to tank the emperor that is on their side of the room. The Warlocks will tank Vek’lor while the Warriors will tank Vek’nilash. After each teleport/swap the tanks will switch depending on which emperor is on their side of the room.

Pain Train – Consists of all the dps Warriors, Rogues, Hunters and leftover healers (usually Shamans if you are horde).
The pain train runs between both sides of the room doing as much dps as they can to Vek’nilash.

Bug killing team – Consists of two tanks and a bunch of Mages/Warlocks with 2 healers.
This team’s job is to kill the qiraji bugs as they are mutated and aggro into the raid.

Here's an example of how to configure the groups:

Positions

See pic.

The Fight

The Warlock tank and Warrior tank pull simultaneously and pull the bosses back by running to their positions. Tank healers will need to ensure they move forward to be in range to heal on the pull.

The pain train will wait patiently for the first teleport to happen before they begin dps on Vek'nilash.

Throughout the fight the bug-killing team will stay around the middle and burn down mutated bugs as they appear. Ensure to stay spread to minimise people getting hit by blizzard.

Every 30 seconds the raid leader should call for the pain train to switch sides in anticipation of the teleport. They should run through the middle of the room so they don't overcrowd the areas where others are standing.

Rinse and repeat until dead, kill them before the 15 minute enrage.

Notes

• Ensure the warrior tank is standing closest to the emperor on his side every time there is a teleport so they get initial aggro. The warlock tank can peel as required.
• Warlock tanks use searing pain and well-timed curse of dooms to hold aggro.
• If a main tank dies their emperor will begin running through the raid. The problem with this is that if he gets too close to his brother he will begin healing which will lead to a wipe in most cases.
• Melee should use greater fire protection potions if they are repeatedly dying to exploding bugs.
• Melee classes and Hunters need to be cautious to not use any cleave or AOE abilities that might hit neutral bugs around the room. To avoid pressing these abilities out of habit it is smart to remove them from your bars.
• It is safer for the melee pain train to switch sides sooner rather than later to avoid getting caught in the arcane explosion if the twins teleport early.
• Tank healers need to spread out so if they are hit by blizzard they wont all need to move at the same time which would a result in a massive decline in healing.

GLHF!

~Sanctus