October 18th, 2007

WoW: The Headless Horseman

Halloween is approaching fast and Blizzard was kind enough to throw some pumpkins our way with the Headless Horseman event in World of Warcraft. When you ride out of Undercity and see a huge pumpkin head in the king’s throne room, you just have a feeling something big is going down. And it’s true, preparations have begun and you can attend the seasonal events up until the end of the month. This won’t take long, so bear with me and be fast to join in the fun.

One major attraction is the new boss which can be found deep within the halls of the Scarlet Monastery, in the Graveyard part. Usually we’re talking about a certain Interrogator that goes by the name of Vishas and likes to yell “I’ll pry the secrets out of your flesh.” This time the regular horde of low level zombies and ghosts just won’t do. Outside the chapel, lies the Forlorn Cloister roughly in the middle of the instance you’ll see a new addition surrounded by candles. This tough pumpkin has a tale to tell and it all starts when you light another candle near the dirt mound. You just go there and take the quest and as with any regular quest you can complete it only once. Me, I went through the event six times in a row, with different group members, just for the hell of it cause it’s fun. The headless rider has a great laughter sequence, filled with evil echoes. Did I mention that his, erm, head drops as a plate helmet? Yes, warriors and paladins will be pleased to get it since all laughter emotes henceforth will have the same dubious echo attached to them, elite cool factor for pimping your character.

For this highly scripted fight you need a tank, a healer and one DPS to keep things simple, thus anything less than a tanking paladin and an affliction warlock won’t do. My first party managed to kill the Headless Horseman with just three people, but go ahead and charge in with five. The level 70 elite starts flying on his flaming mount once the candle has been lit, angry for disturbing his rest as he charges. Expect 3k hits on cloth and 1500 on plate. The first phase is spank and tank, with the occasional pumpkin being thrown at one random party member except the highest on the agro list. It disorients the target, deals impact damage and 600 each second for five seconds over an area. Never steal agro because the tank might get the pumpkin and you’ll wipe. Once you get him to 1-3% he’ll become immune to all attacks and spells as head pops off. We tried to slay him there and then but it’s just not possible. The rider will now use an area of effect ability not unlike whirlwind as he chases his dead around the graveyard. Be sure to stay out of his melee range as you deal damage to the pumpkin head. It has a timer so be fast, but otherwise, once the head reaches 60% hit points the rider will get it back and it’s phase one all over again.

The pumpkin head does not regenerate hit points when joined back with its owner. The second time you get the rider to 1%, the appearing head will be injured. Be sure to take it to its next phase at 30%. This last part is tricky as the rider begins to summon pumpkin patches all around. Four pumpkins will incubate over eight seconds or so and when the time is up, will spawn four adds that hit for 500 on cloth and need to be AoE down. If your damage output is good enough, ignore the adds and force the head out for the last time. Once the head reaches zero hit points, the rider dies, taking his minions to the next realm.

While it’s not exactly Black Temple loot, I came to appreciate its seasonal particularities. Three unique rings drop, Ring of Ghoulish Delights for melee, The Horseman's Signet Ring for caster dps and Witching Band for healers. Stats are the same as on the rings from heroic instances, but with way greater accessibility and a pumpkin look to boot. If you’re lucky you’ll get that plate helmet which seems to have a really low drop rate, otherwise another cloth helmet drop will do. It’s something along the lines of The Pumpkin Head, useable by anyone just for looks. A witching fest would not be complete without witches flying on brooms here and there. You want it, you got it. A normal broom mount can be used in Azeroth and an epic broom mount will allow you to fly in the Outlands. Although the tool tip says they can only be used once, there have been reports that they work indefinitely. At least until they expire and that’s 13 days from the time they dropped. The Headless Horseman has an abundance of these, as they drop each and every kill.

If you’re still not convinced, let me sweeten the deal. The Scarlet Monastery is situated in Tirisfal Glades, home of the undead and Horde Territory. This means you can’t initiate combat with a player unless he is flagged for PvP. Needless to say, both Horde and Alliance flock at the entrance, just waiting for a chance to see the Headless Horseman. After all, it won’t take more than 10 minutes to find out if your group has what it takes to defeat him. Blizzard has this instance reset limitation, thus you’ll find yourself in the position of waiting for your next soft reset. This leads to major number of both horde and Alliance waiting not too patiently before the instance entrance. This is the stuff wars are born from and the way inside is filled with endless skeletons from those passed away. Over and over again, they fight. At some point the Alliance had the upper hand, but then the Horde took over. I wonder who is camping who at the moment. It was a great feeling when numbers were growing and we all decided it was time to react. One fireball here and the next thing you know, the world goes up in flames. It’s like a bar fight without the bruises, going on right now in your friendly World of Warcraft realm neighborhood. If you held out thus far in reading this article, then you must be hungry for a piece of the pumpkin pie yourself. So get on to it and don’t stop until you have your treats!