Temple of Ahn'Qiraj

The Temple of Ahn'Qiraj is a 40-player raid beneath the Qiraji city in southern Silithus, where the Old God C'Thun waits beneath the hives. It opened with the Ruins of Ahn'Qiraj in patch 1.9 in January 2006, after the server-wide war effort that every realm had to finish first. With nine required bosses (including C'Thun) and two optional ones, the Tier 2.5 armor, and the first Old God fight in World of Warcraft, it was the hardest raid in the game until Naxxramas.

Background

The qiraji are the insect-like servants of C'Thun, one of the Old Gods imprisoned by the Titans. A thousand years ago they and their silithid swarms nearly overran Kalimdor in the War of the Shifting Sands. The night elves held on only because the Dragonflights joined the war. The bronze dragon Anachronos, with Arygos, Caelestrasz and Merithra (children of the blue, red and green Aspects), sealed the city behind the Scarab Wall.

Inside the temple, the twin emperors Vek'lor and Vek'nilash rule the qiraji. Beneath them, C'Thun has been recovering his strength. When the gates open, three dragons of the blue, red and green flights, [[forever:npc:15502]], [[forever:npc:15503]] and [[forever:npc:15504]], are hiding in humanoid form near the temple entrance. They work with the Brood of Nozdormu, the bronze dragonflight's faction, and trade gear to raiders who prove their strength. After C'Thun falls, Arygos, Caelestrasz and Merithra appear in his chamber.

Getting in

Like the Ruins, the Temple only opened on a realm after the Ahn'Qiraj War Effort. Each faction in Ironforge and Orgrimmar gathered metal bars, herbs, cloth, leather, food and bandages by the tens of thousands. Meanwhile, one player, backed by a top guild, finished the long Scepter of the Shifting Sands quest chain. That chain needed three shards of the scepter: the red one from Nefarian in Blackwing Lair, the green one from the nightmare-corrupted dragon Eranikus in Moonglade, and a blue one earned through a long chain for the blue dragonflight.

When the supplies were in and the scepter was done, the player rang the Scarab Gong with [[forever:quest:8743]] and opened the gates. That started a ten-hour battle between the realm's players and the qiraji army in Silithus. Players who rang the gong during those ten hours received the Black Qiraji Resonating Crystal ([[forever:item:21176]]), a mount that could never be earned again once the battle ended. Patch 3.0 later gave those players the Scarab Lord title. Warcraft Wiki credits Kalahad of the US realm Medivh as the first to ring the gong, and Medivh's gates opened on January 22, 2006.

Once a realm's gates are open, the Temple portal is on the right as you pass through the Scarab Wall. There's no key or attunement.

Bosses

Strategy notes

Twin Emperors. The two emperors heal each other when they stand close, so they're tanked apart. Vek'lor, who takes no physical damage, is usually tanked by a warlock with Searing Pain, while Vek'nilash, immune to spells, is tanked and killed by melee. Every 30 seconds or so they teleport to each other's spot, and the tanks have to pick them up again. Bugs around the room explode or mutate when the emperors cast on them.

Viscidus. The ooze can't be hurt normally. The raid has to hit him with hundreds of frost attacks (spells, frost wands, frost-enchanted weapons) until he freezes, then shatter him with melee hits. He splits into globs that crawl back to reform him, and every glob killed takes away part of his health. Guilds without many mages and shamans skipped him, which is why he's optional.

Princess Huhuran. Her Noxious Poison hits the 15 closest players, so melee and tanks stacked nature resistance gear to survive it. At 30% health she goes berserk, and the raid has to burn her down before her poison wipes the group.

C'Thun. In phase one, the giant Eye of C'Thun fires Eye Beams that jump between players standing close together, and sweeps the room with Dark Glare. The raid spreads out in a circle and kills the tentacles that spawn around it. In phase two the Eye dies and C'Thun's body rises. It takes almost no damage from outside, so players swallowed into his stomach have to kill the flesh tentacles there to weaken him, while the rest of the raid deals with giant claw and eye tentacles. C'Thun was the hardest boss in the game for months. Few guilds beat him before Naxxramas opened, and many never did.

Loot

Tier 2.5

Ahn'Qiraj's armor sets are informally called Tier 2.5. Bosses drop class-neutral tokens, and players combine them with Brood of Nozdormu reputation to buy their class's version from the dragons. Boots and shoulders come from Viscidus, Huhuran and the Silithid Royalty ([[forever:item:20928]] and [[forever:item:20932]]), helmets from the Twin Emperors ([[forever:item:20930]] and [[forever:item:20926]]), legs from Ouro ([[forever:item:20927]] and [[forever:item:20931]]) and chests from C'Thun ([[forever:item:20929]] and [[forever:item:20933]]). The class sets are Conqueror's ([[forever:item:21331]]), Avenger's ([[forever:item:21389]]), Stormcaller's ([[forever:item:21374]]), Striker's ([[forever:item:21370]]), Deathdealer's ([[forever:item:21364]]), Genesis ([[forever:item:21357]]), Oracle ([[forever:item:21351]]), Enigma ([[forever:item:21343]]) and Doomcaller's ([[forever:item:21334]]). See Tier Sets.

Bosses can also drop [[forever:item:21232]] and [[forever:item:21237]], which the dragons trade for blessed Qiraji weapons, shields and staves such as [[forever:item:21242]] and [[forever:item:21273]].

Every boss in the temple also drops a [[forever:item:21229]]. Players hand them to [[forever:npc:15503]] at the temple entrance with [[forever:quest:8579]] for Brood of Nozdormu reputation, which the Tier 2.5 pieces require. Each piece needs a minimum reputation with the Brood, so reputation was often a slower barrier than the drops.

The Eye of C'Thun

C'Thun always drops the [[forever:item:21221]]. Players take it to [[forever:npc:15379]] in the temple with [[forever:quest:8801]], and then to Anachronos in the Caverns of Time with [[forever:quest:8802]]. The reward is a choice of [[forever:item:21712]], [[forever:item:21710]] or [[forever:item:21709]].

Qiraji battle tanks

Trash in the temple drops colored crystals such as the [[forever:item:21218]]. They summon a Qiraji battle tank mount that only works inside the Temple of Ahn'Qiraj. The black version from the gong was the only one usable anywhere.

Atiesh

The Temple is also part of Atiesh: C'Thun drops the [[forever:item:22734]] for players on that quest, which came later in patch 1.11 with Naxxramas.

History

Patch 1.9 released on January 3, 2006. On each realm the raid opened when that realm finished the war effort, and on most realms that took weeks. The war effort itself, the ten-hour battle, and the crowd of players who showed up on gate opening day overloaded many realms. See Opening of the Gates of Ahn'Qiraj for the event's full story.

The Temple was tuned for guilds that had finished Blackwing Lair. The first few bosses were about as hard as late Molten Core, but Princess Huhuran, the Twin Emperors and C'Thun were well beyond anything else in the game. The raid was also the first time players met an Old God, a thread the game would pick up again in later expansions.

Later history

The Temple stayed in the game as old content. The war effort quests were removed in Cataclysm, and new realms started with the gates already open. In World of Warcraft Classic, the war effort and the gate opening were run again on every realm in 2020. In the lore, Varok Saurfang led the Horde into the Ruins, and the Alliance fought its way through the Temple and killed C'Thun.

Sources

• Temple of Ahn'Qiraj, Warcraft Wiki
• Gates of Ahn'Qiraj, Warcraft Wiki
• Scarab Lord, Warcraft Wiki
• Patch 1.9.0, Warcraft Wiki