The Heroic Halls of Origination (HOO) can be a challenging place for unprepared players. The very first boss, Temple Guardian Anhuur, is a test of fire for players who enter the Chamber of Prophecy. If each player can’t coordinate and learn their task to beat this boss, the group is destined for failure.

People will come up with the most absurd strategies which end up right on in a wipe, while other players just don’t get which is right and left and jump down on the wrong side of the stairs; or will panic and won’t do the task assigned. I have seen tanks pull the boss before I even finish explaining the event and assigning tasks. This article is aimed to all those players out there who wish to beat this boss in heroic mode to move forward to the other bosses which have the phat lootz.

Bad way to do it

I have seen tanks pull all the snakes in the pit to allow two players to pull both levers. This is a terrible mistake because all those snakes will do a lot of damage, and the healer will be hard-pressed to keep the tank and bystanders alive. The healer will quickly run out of mana in the first phase, and that’s no good because there are two duplicate phases to this boss.

Good Strategy

By observation, one strategy in particular has worked very well when I explain it to the group, and they execute it.

Watch for the beams coming from the statues on the ceiling, which leave a blue fire on the ground. Get out of it or you get over 9000 damage a tic while standing in them. Tanks should be always aware of watching not to stand on it. The boss likes to cast it on the tank sometimes.

Around 75% health, Anhuur will say: “Beacons of Light, bestow upon me your aegis.”

Temple Guardian Anhuur becomes protected by his defense beacons. You must disable them by pulling the levers in the pit below.

In Heroic mode, these levers aren’t automatic. They have a 10 sec cast bar, which will be interrupted by snakes.

The way to go in this strategy is to have the tank and a dps jump on the stairs on the left side, instead of directly into the pit. Go downstairs, and pull the three closest snakes between the stairs and the defense beacon’s lever. Another dps player must copy the same pull on three snakes, while the other dps player triggers the other defense beacon’s lever. Note: Some dps classes can pull the three snakes from the bridge (mage, warlock, hunter). Other variation would be for a dps player sending a pet to aggro the three snakes.

Both players on the snakes shouldn’t fight the snakes downstairs. Their only task is to aggro as a distraction while the player who is at the beacon’s lever does his job unmolested. The player on the snakes should run back upstairs immediately after pulling the snakes, and meet on the bridge.

The players at the beacon’s lever should sorta hug the wall along the stairs to prevent aggro from other nearby snakes when going in and out of the pit.

The healer should stand above on the bridge healing the snake pullers on each side to keep them alive until they reach the bridge, and until the other two dps players return from deactivating the levers. No reason to worry about those two players as they only will get damage from Anhuur’s hymn at a slow pace of 2400-4000 damage a tick.

It would be very useful if one of the dps players with an interrupt ability is assigned to interrupt Anhuur’s hymn, because the tank will be slowed down by the snakes to reach the boss in time.

Once everyone is upstairs, start AOE. The boss will come join the party, and that AOE is gonna hit the boss as well. In this strategy, you are only fighting, at most, six snakes (Three from each side). Very good for the healer to handle. At that moment, it wouldn’t hurt to have druid’s tranquility, or a shadow priest’s healing hymn to help the healer.

At around 25% health, Anhuur will go into phase two. Rinse and repeat the previous steps and the boss will bite the dust in defeat.

Congratulations. You owned the first boss in Heroic Halls of Origination.

I recommend going for the bosses on the second floor afterward to get some good loot from Ammunae, Isiset, Rahj and Setesh at the Seats of the Keepers; and to prevent your group from disbanding in either optional bosses from the Vault of Light or the Tomb of the Enrager. The gauntlet boss Anraphet at the Vault of Lights takes a long while fighting four elemental mini-bosses (with no loot) and several groups of troggs.

The Earthrager Ptah hits for 30000 damage, and has a lot of things going on like adds coming in at phase two. You don’t want to risk having people leave without loot.

That can be frustrating to some players and you will rather get secured loot with the main bosses than to risk a group disband against optional bosses. So leave those two for the end, and focus your initial time into the Seat of the Keepers area (second floor).

Temple Guardian Anhuur

  • Melee Swing: 18949 – 27070 Physical damage. (When blocked: 7105 – 14492 Physical damage).

  • Divine Reckoning: Anhuur casts this spell at a random player. After around 10 sec, Divine Reckoning dissipates from the target player causing 15420 Divine damage and healing Temple Guardian Anhuur for 57825.

  • Shield of Light: Anhuur casts this spell every 30% health (phase 1 and 2). Few seconds later, he gains Shield of Light making him immune. A message onscreen will say: “Temple Guardian Anhuur becomes protected by his defense beacons! Disable them by pulling the levers below.” Anhuur will yell: “Beacons of light, bestow upon me your aegis!”.

  • Reverberating Hymn: All players suffer 1000 – 9000 Holy damage while the hymn is cast. Note: The moment Hymn starts you get a yellow debuff on your right screen which stacks. Each stack increases Holy damage. By the 16th Hymn stack, a player suffers up to 9000 Holy damage per tick.

  • Burning Light: Anhuur will throw a yellow fire blossom at a random player. A few seconds later, the statue heads on the ceiling will shoot a blue searing light beam at the location where the target player stands. You will see a blue fire on the ground. The player is affected by up to 10228 Divine damage per tick until the player moves away from that spot.

Pit Viper

  • Melee Swing: Hit player for 1016 – 2585 Physical damage.

  • Poison-tipped Fangs: player suffers 3377 – 4238 Nature damage.

Blizzard Quote: