The Best Encounter To Date?
iTZKooPA on Wednesday, January 7, 2009 - 15 Comments Tags: Ahn'kahet: The Old Kingdom, C'thun, Faceless Ones, Nerubian, PUG, debuff, encounter, grinding, instancing, lore, pugging, spiders, the old kingdom 
I first recall hearing about the Faceless Ones – in World of Warcraft - around the time of Ahn'Qiraj and its faction's leader, C'Thun. While I can not recall why they came up in this context exactly, I assume it was because of the link between Forgotten Ones leading the Faceless Ones. No, C'thun isn't a Forgotten One, he is an Old God, but he looks a lot like the Forgotten Ones from Warcraft 3. Anyways, today isn't a day to dive into their lore, mainly because the topic could take more than a day to cover! Instead, I want to talk about my first interaction with the Faceless Ones via WoW.
While grinding my way to level 80 I skipped over one instance for some time, Ahn'kahet: The Old Kingdom. I wasn't dodging Herald Volazj or anything like that. In fact, I much wanted to meet the oddly proportioned end boss, but I could just never get a group going, PUG or otherwise. Finally, many levels over the suggested range and at a time when I logged in to “play for 30 minutes,” I got invited to a party for OK and couldn't refuse. The fact of the matter is that after killing members of the Lich King's Scourge, decimating any spider mob is on the top of my list. I hate spiders, but I love their fangs and femurs.
The following contains ***SPOILERS*** for boss encounters. You have been warned.
The instance is pretty standard fare, feeling much like the earlier Azjol-Nerub. After replacing the tank due to a few bad pulls early on, we breezed through the cobwebbed corridors and on to meet the Faceless Ones and their leader, Herald Volazj. The fight is tank-and-spank with a substantial twist at 66 and 33 percent. At those designated intervals, Volazj will cast a debuff across the whole party. The debuff is quite frankly best one since Vaelastraz in Blackwing Lair, and possibly the best ever.
For the lore nuts, this gives us another link to the use of insanity and C'Thun for the Lovecraft connection. Although I may be stretching it there since the evil eye is not a Forgotten One.
The spell makes use of the phasing design, showing each party member a slightly different scene. Each player's view has the rest of their party turn on them, playing their previous roles only now you are the target. Before you can get back to the boss fight (or help the slower DPSers) you must dispatch the shades of your friends.
***SPOILER OVER***
The encounter's design saved the instance from being run of the mill. Launching it ahead of the insanely short Azjol-Nerub and into the realm of fun instances, if only for the gimmick. If you haven't been there already, be sure to hit it up as soon as possible, it is another aspect in WoW that everyone should experience.
Personally, I think the guys are going to go nuts when they finally get to The Old Kingdom. Hopefully someone is new to the instance when they film it so we can see the raw reaction.
Past that, lets get some more Faceless Ones in WoW now that we have opened up the Nerubian empire. I do hear there are some in Icecrown's lands, hopefully they come with some solid lore to boot.
Reader Comments (15)
I have a small question. What happens if you don't kill your those shadows? You die?
It's a fun spell from what i hear. Finally one that turns you against your party, but while you have control (unlike Mind Control).
You'd die eventually from them hitting you. But once a player gets out of it, they can help the other players.
It isn't difficult by any means, the shadows have very low HP in normal mode.
Very cool fight, can't wait to try it in heroic.
this boss is a pain in the ass on heroic, if u dont have a grp that u have played with he can be a pain, its also a time to show ur pvp skills 1v4, i like those odds
Very difficult fight on heroic when you're a hunter and have to down a prot pally, ret pally, shadow priest (easiest), and resto druid... all four would heal themselves and made for an interesting encounter indeed.
I this was a really cool fight. I was also disheartend but the first boss in the instance that caused a few wipes before we found a our groove, but this boss also saved it for me.
I hear if you are a tank vs a healer it can take a while because they keep healing themselves, if so kill the other party members then the rest of your party can help when they are done.
As a tank I like fights like Black morass and Violet Hold, keeps me on my toes.
I'm really enjoying all the Wotlk instances, because they are short and I don't have large blocks of time to play.
The coolest boss fight has to be the 2ed boss in Slabs. The first time i was like holy crap mass mind control. Apparently this ogre can be difficult on heroic. But i never got the chance.
Right now starting on naxx which is awesome. I missed it the first time around so doing the safety dance is my new fav.
Cant wait to see what is coming up next!!!
I've been in OK once on regular, and it was pretty interesting. Have yet to try that dungeon on heroic, though.
OK was a blast on heroic with a group consisting of:
Prot Pally (me)
Resto Druid
Feral Druid
Ret Pally
Elemental Shaman
Yeah there is a time limit on insanity. After 2 minutes, maybe 3, it ends for everyone and its back to Herald Volazj.
Still a great heroic to do.
As a ret pally I ended up healing for my group for this instance (luckily with the spellpower ret talent and an up to date holy set it worked pretty well). I definitely had a lot of fun with this one, especially when healing as ret my strategy is to actually do as much damage as possible with seals to keep my mana up, which can sometimes be a pain even with healing gear on. Anyway for the insanity part since I was specced for dps I actually downed my guys before most others did so I could heal my teammates before they died. Pretty sweet boss fight :-D
This is one of the funnest boss fights in the game... Because you get to face yourself!! very fun fight, i like to have rezto druids for this (then again i loves me my rezto druids) and think the whole fighting your slef is sweet.
It's a really fun fight, if you lack hp, def or something, you could just run around like a madmen screaming until your group is able to help you. Hands up for glyph of the aspect of the monkey and a full melee party.
The first time i did this (day 4 or something, i forget) I was like "OMFG WHY ARE U ALL ATTACKING ME!?" I thought my pug group was a Dick, but we had all learned we needed to Kill them cause they were copies...some 5 minutes later, lol.
But once u get it down, So, Freaking Awesome! I actually enjoyed kill the mage in my group the most for being all high and might on his t6 dps, lol. >:3
Only problem, on Heroic, theres a small glitch with classes overhealing as shadow copies. Especially this 1 time with a resto druid, who was able to cast Nurish, in Cat form. Nurish, 2 sec cast, in cat form. Can you imagine?
this fight on heroic is an absolute blast as a hunter. The Shadows act as true npc's so during the boss encounter everyone stay a good distance from each other to give everyone time to do their thing when the debuff hits. The second the debuff happens send your pet to each players shadow, since they are npc's the pet will get agro on each of them, then just bash away on them while keeping your pet healed. I'm usually done with my group before anyone else has killed their second shadow.
lol, i can indeed already see the reaction of the guys when they try this boss. WTF STOP ATTACKING ME!! xD
Blood pvp spec DK> prot pally, holy priest, hunter, and a mage, now imagine taking them all down in 10 seconds w/ a gargoyle