Frosty the Seasonal Boss

Granted, it doesn't really roll off the tongue.  If he'd been 10+ man, I could have said "Frosty the Raid Boss" which would have been perfect.  Alas.

Before we start, why do we want to kill Ahune, exactly?  [The Frost Lord's War Cloak] is why; [Amulet of Bitter Hatred] too if you're doing him on Heroic.

So, you've got your gun/bow/crossbow/squirtgun, a bag full of ammo/arrows/permanent dye and want to go bust up some giant summonable frost lord.  Good for you.  What do you do?

Well, to summon Ahune you need to do one pre-quest in normal-mode Slave Pens.  Just enter Slave Pens, and there will be an NPC right inside the entrance.  Grab the quest from her, and make your way through the instance to the first open area.  There, you'll see the NPC to turn in the quest.  Once done, the same NPC will give you a daily quest to summon Ahune.  The daily quest itself is turned in at the big crystal just to the left of the tunnel you entered through.

Remember that turning in the daily quest will immediately summon Ahune; make sure your group is ready!

Also, you should probably clear the area before summoning him.  Killing the groups on the right, left, the pat and the makrura ahead should do it.  Just don't stand behind Ahune, or you'll pull the naga further on.

Ok, you've summoned Mr. Ahune;  what do you need to know?  Happily, everything you need to know can be condensed into this  list:

• Ahune has two phases: "kill the adds" and "dps like a caged, rabid grizzly bear."

• Phase 1: ("kill the adds")

1. In this phase, Ahune takes 75% less damage, so you shouldn't be shooting at him unless there's nothing else to do.

2. Don't get within melee range of Ahune himself; he has a mean right-hook.

3. Keep Aspect of the Viper up.  Don't be afraid to use "normal" ammo for this bit.  DPS isn't the issue; it's keeping your mana and cooldowns in reserve.

4. At the start of the phase, a large, rocky elemental will spawn.  Smaller elementals will continuously spawn throughout phase 1.  The big guy must be dead by the time you reach phase 2—this shouldn't be a problem.  The little guys have about 1,500 hp on normal.  Try and burn them down as they spawn.

• Keep a close eye on your pet.  The elemental has a stacking 100 dps dot that cannot be removed.  If it gets to three stacks, pull your pet out and let the dot tick off.  Mend pet does just over 150 hps, so three stacks isn't too bad, but from there it quickly becomes fatal.  If it gets above five, your pet is pretty much dead.

• Keep an eye on your healer.  When one of the little adds goes after her (and they will,) nuke it.

• Once the big guy is down, you might find yourself having trouble killing the little adds that continue to spawn, on account of the melee destroying them in the blink of an eye.  If this is the case, you might as well autoshot Ahune.  It won't do much, but it's better than sitting there twiddling your thumbs.  Also, he's not immune to Serpent Sting, for what that's worth.  /shrug

• Don't be afraid to set your pet to aggressive once the big elemental is down.  Your pet will not aggro any of the nearby naga or slaves, and it allows you to perforate Ahune while your pet shreds adds that come after you.  Just remember to put him back on passive when you go to phase 2.  If he keeps going after Ahune himself, back off a bit so he's out of your pet's aggro range.

• Phase 2: ("dps like he just insulted your mother")

1. Swap in your best ammo.

2. Send your pet in to attack.

3. Hit Aspect of the Hawk.

4. Hunter's Mark the core.

5. If it's not on cooldown, and it increases your DPS, use it.  That means Bestial Wrath, trinket(s) and Blood Fury for Orcs.  If you don't have a Shammy and can handle it, Rapid Fire too.  A God Mode macro helps here.

6. DPS the Frozen Core as hard as you can.  Ahune has no direct attacks in this phase, so threat isn't an issue.  (Don't forget about the spikes; see the general section.)

• Phase 2 lasts about 30 seconds.  Phase 1 lasts for over 2 minutes, which means that Bestial Wrath and most cooldowns will be ready to go by the time phase 2 rolls around again.  Don't equip trinkets if you won't be able to use both in 30 seconds.  I personally only use one "On Use" trinket since I'd probably forget to activate the other one.

• In general:

• Stay off the sheet ice on the ground.  There's a random knock-down effect in place.

• If you see swirly effects near your feet, move.  If you see ice popping out of the ground near you, move faster.  If you don't, a big spike will burst up below you, and throw you into the air.  This is true in both phases, so don't get too focused on DPS.

• Due to the above, stay on the leftish side of the area, so you don't get thrown into the water.

• Once he's dead, make sure everyone loots the chest.  Until the chest despawns, you cannot re-summon Ahune.

• You can attempt Ahune as many times as you like, provided someone in the group hasn't summoned him today.

And that's basically it.  Go in there, nuke him down, and have fun.  I've already gotten my cloak off him, but it's such a fun fight that I'm looking forward to doing it some more before the festival's over.

That the pet schorchling looks awesome has nothing to do with it.  Nope.