The Prophet Skeram



The Prophet Skeram is an important religious leader in Ahn'Qiraj, and author of The Prophecy of C'Thun. He is the first boss found in the Temple of Ahn'Qiraj, and must be defeated for access to the rest of the zone.

Attacks and abilities

 * Basic Melee attack for about 700 - 1000 damage.
 * True Fulfillment, which Mind Controls a target, and gives them increased damage, higher resistances, faster movement and instant-cast spells. The target also grows to an immense size, so it is easy to see who is being controlled.  The effect cannot be dispelled, but targets can be sheeped, feared, stunned, or put to sleep if a Druid is in an animal form.
 * Quartile Split. At 75%, 50%, and 25%, creates two images that have identical abilities to Skeram. The images spawn with the same percentage of life as Skeram, but they do not have as many hit points as the true Prophet, making them much easier to kill. As of patch 2.0.1, raid marks will be removed if they were put on the boss before, so the identity of the real boss will not be immediately given away.
 * Arcane Explosion (1.5K, large radius). It can be interrupted.  He only casts it if there are more than four people in melee range of him. Casting speed can be slowed by Curse of Tongues and Mind-Numbing Poison.
 * Earth Shock (2.5K), once every second until his aggro target is in melee range.  This is generally lethal unless the target has NR.  Skeram will start casting earth shock on the person that is highest on his aggro list ONLY, if this person is not in melee range AND MELEEING HIM. If he is tanked correctly and the current aggroholder stays within melee range, no earth shock will be fired. He does not do this randomly; Earth Shock spam is a sign that the tanks are not reacting fast enough.
 * Blinks to either platform beside him, clearing aggro.

As of patch 1.12, aggro rules changed. As such, Arcane Explosion is not guaranteed for 4+ people, and it could happen for less people present as well.

Strategy
The first boss encounter is a short jog from the entrance of the zone, five trash pulls away. The trash consists of three individual Obsidian Eradicator and two groups of Anubisath Sentinel x4. He was previously about as difficult as Majordomo Executus from the Molten Core, but with the buff he received in 1.12 he is somewhat more difficult. Similar to Executus, the Prophet Skeram requires skill and strategy to beat over quality of gear. Most guilds that have considerable progress in Blackwing Lair can handle this boss.

Raid Makeup: 5 of each class would be recommended, and at least three Warriors geared as Main Tanks. Ideally, 6 Warriors and/or Feral Druids (two for each teleport spot) will allow all the Prophet's Images to be tanked, even if they all are using Mind Control on a tank. It is key that these tanks do not move from their assigned location, and if Mind Controlled, they return to their spot.

Raid Placement: When the Prophet splits into the three, they will initially all Blink to separate spots, and must be immediately tanked before he starts spamming Earth Shock. The easiest method to control this is to have two tanks at each of the three Blink point (Middle, and Left/Right stairs), so that if one is Mind Controlled, the other can still pick up the mob. Skeram and his images may Blink and group up in one of the three locations, so healers need to be alert and tanks must immediately pick up the new mob.

The Rogues should split up and put at the three Blink locations as well, but remember to keep a maximum of four players at each Blink location, to avoid the Arcane Explosion. The Healers should also be split into roughly 3 groups, to heal the three melee groups, and to spot heal the rest of the raid. All of the rest of the ranged DPS should head to the top of the steps and move back and forth as Skeram Blinks to a new location.

Mages have a specific role however, their main job is to Polymorph anyone that gets Mind Controlled. They should split up and take positions along both sides of the steps so they can have the best LoS possible. They may go on DPS as long as there are no players to sheep. One Warlock, on each side as backup, can help by fearing players as well.

Alternate Strategy: This strategy is a little more specific about placement. It requires a minimum of 6 warriors but is much more likely to be successful.

Tanks: Tanking is a very important part of this fight, it requires quick thinking and response. Raid leaders, give each of the six tanks his/her own MT window in CT_RaidAssist. Tell everyone in the raid that MT1 and MT2 will be in the middle platform for the full duration of the fight. MT3 and MT4 will be on the left platform. Finally, MT5 and MT6 will be on the right platform. Designate MT1 to be the first to run in when the fight starts and begin tanking as usual. When Skeram is blinking regularly (not splitting), only MT1, MT3, and MT5 will taunt him when he comes to their platform. The secondary tanks (MT2, MT4, MT6) will ONLY autoattack when a single Skeram is on their platform. The main job of the secondary tanks at each platform is to watch carefully during a Skeram split for when a second image blinks on top of one while it's already being tanked. Have that secondary tank immediately identify the second image and taunt him as quickly as possible to avoid earth shocks, then drag him to another platform carefully, and have the main tank (MT1, MT3, MT5) of that platform pick it up. During a split, have the tanks call out if he is tanking an image or the real Skeram, call DPS to start immediately on the first identified as an image.

Rogues: Split your rogues up through this fight to have as few on each platform as possible. The rogues should also stand inside Skeram in front of the tank. The rogues will always be mind controlled before the tank if this is done correctly. If you have 3 rogues in the raid, assign each one specifically to stay at either the middle, left, or right platform for the whole fight, they should not move between platforms. If you have more than 6 rogues, with the way this strategy is set up, it can be very dangerous due to Skeram's arcane explosion. At the very least, have them apply mind numbing poison to one of their weapons, and be ready to kick at all times as soon as they see him casting arcane explosion.

Healers: There should be three groups made up of Tank, Tank, Priest, Druid, Shaman/Paladin. This allows the healers to take a position relative to the tank that allows them to always be ready to heal the tanks in their group. All healers that are not in one of these 3 groups should be spread out, ready to spot heal when needed.

Other ranged dps: Warlocks, hunters, etc should be split up on the staircases as well, even positioned above the middle platform where they could shoot down on the platform while still being able to move to another location quickly when he blinks.

Example fight: Ready check (trash respawns fast, AFKs could mean a wipe); everyone mounts on a Qiraji Battletank if available; Skeram is engaged regularly, MT1 moves into position and begins tanking while the rest of the raid takes their position. After 30 seconds or so, Skeram blinks to the left platform, MT3 taunts and begins building aggro regularly. At this point, MT4 is only autoattacking, not sundering or taunting at all. Later into the fight, when he hits 75%, The three images split up and MT1, MT3, and MT5 taunt their images immediately, MT2, MT4, and MT6 begin autoattacking. MT5 calls out that he noticed his Skeram image taking more damage than normal, he calls that out, raid leader calls DPS on the right platform. Before that image is killed, it blinks to the middle, on top of the image that was already there. This is where MT2 comes in, he taunts the image that just blinked and begins moving it back to the right-side platform, where MT5 will taunt it and MT2 will move back to his position in the middle. Repeat this throughout the fight and it should be kept under control, and you'll get a nice, clean kill. Good luck everyone!

The Split
The most important aspect of this encounter is the splitting that the Prophet will do at 75%, 50%, and 25%. Once he reaches each of these levels of health, he will disappear for a moment, and then three new Prophets will appear, only one of which is the real boss, and initially all in separate Blink locations. The illusions themselves can also Blink to the other locations, often stacking on one another. This is another reason why two tanks in each corner are essential, because if two Prophets are in a corner, a tank is almost guaranteed to become Mind Controlled. If this does happen, try to have an extra tank run in to take up the extra spot, or have one tank from the now vacant corner run over and try to pick up the slack.

Since the 2.0.1 patch Raid Target markers on The Prophet Skeram will be removed when he splits, so the DPS will need to figure out which one is real from the amount of damage they are doing. While the raid kills the two illusions, mages must continue casting polymorph on anyone who is affected by Mind Control.

Speed is of the essence at these three points in the encounter. Everyone will be scrambling to do their job, and if players are slacking, tanks will die from the extra damage, or non-sheeped Mind Controlled players will start 1 or 2-shotting individuals in the raid.

Tips

 * Healers and Ranged DPS can jump onto and stand on the railings up to the third level. This may cause some LoS issues when trying to sheep and/or fear the Mind Control targets, but allows them to attack the Prophet when he is in the center, as well as their corresponding side.
 * If you have difficulties finding out which one is the real Skeram when he splits, let an assigned Hunter send his Pet in at 77%, 52%, 27% to attack the boss. When Skeram splits into three, the pet will be attacking the real one. Also if you were targeting the real prophet he will remain targeted after a split.
 * Have your Warlocks use their Soulstone on one of the 6 tanks. They are the key to avoiding wipes, not DPS or healing.
 * The Mind Control affects the person nearest to Skeram, another way to ensure your tank never gets Mind Controlled is to have a weaponless Rogue stand underneath Skeram when he is being tanked. Be very careful when he teleports or splits as not to be the nearest to him until the tank picks him up as that will kill the rogue very quickly.

Wipe Warning
When you are learning the encounter, or having a particularly bad raid, and are wiping on the Prophet, be aware of the respawn time on the Obsidian Eradicator which patrols the area around Skeram. The respawn on all the trash up to the Prophet is 30 minutes, so unless you are extremely quick at killing the trash, and wiped really quick on the Prophet, it is best for the raid simply to wait for all the respawns before you start another attempt.

Quotes

 * Random (before aggroing)
 * yell
 * yell
 * yell
 * yell
 * yell


 * Aggro
 * yell


 * Killing a player
 * yell


 * Death
 * yell

Sound Files
See Sound Files of Kalimdor: The Prophet Skeram

Trivia

 * A picture of Skeram is found on the front cover of the World of Warcraft Dungeon Companion book.
 * While the things hanging at his sides look like a stole of some kind, they are round like sleeves (which is odd because he has no visable arms).