A great, somewhat underrated instance. It has some of the most novel and unique boss fights I've ever participated in (Buru is a blast!), has loot that is better than the best Molten Core drops (Staff of the Ruins, anyone?), has plenty of class books for each class.

In addition, incase you're in a guild that is heavily geared and doing, say, only BWL and Naxxramas, doing book runs of AQ20 can get your guildbank the most amount of money in the shortest amount of time. Just get the books and sell them for plenty of cash - on my server, each book goes for roughly 750g, though the PVP-viable spells such as Frostbolt and whatnot goes for as high as 1000g.

And, since you're getting six books for a full run, that's almost a guaranteed 4500g every 3 days (though they can take some time to sell).

By Valdan on 11/02/2008 (Patch 3.0.2)
I find that hard to believe due to the lvl 52 isnt alowed in. Required lvl is 60.

Wrong, its +50, Gate is opened by someone and you are in raid group

I've run AQ20 3 or 4 times, and AQ40 twice, and they are still my favorite raids to date. I was over the moon when they brought Naxx into WotLK, but was disappointed they haven't done anything with AQ. AQ has some of the most spectacular architecture and scenery in this damn game, i really hope Blizz decide to do something with it further, it's a shame to see that go to waste.

The last boss, Ossirian the Unscarred, whenever i engage him, i get shivers down my spine as the sky turns red...

been starting doing aq20 solo as feral druid.
Anyway I'd say this is alot mroe money efficient compared to zg. a normal aq20 run gives around 300-350g + greens that I d/e on alt later on. Great fun and gives some CC rep if you still lack it

The minimum entry level for Ruins of Ahn'Qiraj is no longer 60; I was able to enter it on my Level 50 Rogue:

http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/5793/wowscrnshot072709102000.jpg Screenshot

Is it soloable at lvl 80?

I've just done this as an 85 Boomkin. I'm farming Cenarion Circle rep for the Guardian of Cenarius title, which I think is an appropriate title for a Druid. Balance is my secondary spec and I did it in my resto gear.

Kurinnax was slightly annoying because I forgot about his stupid sand hill Silence gimmick and got silenced once. That is a long silence. Also there seemed to be something bugged, I kept trying to lead him back to where I'd left some Wild Mushrooms but the game would kind of blink and I'd be in an opposite location. I think it's because I had him outside of his pit. I still killed him easily.

The only problem I had was Rajaxx on my first attempt. I waited for the waves to come one at a time which was probably my mistake. By the time Rajaxx showed up I'd used my pot cooldown and Innervate was on cooldown and I didn't have enough mana. I had to try to keep myself up with Lifebloom and Rejuv AND dps him while he was doing his huge knockback attack which takes like 40% (?) of your health. I got him to like 50% before I died regardless.

When I rezzed and ran back into the instance I got back to Kurinaxx's area and suddenly 3 or 4 of Rajaxx waves were coming at me simultaneously. I am not sure why this happened but it turned out to be for the best. Those mobs have about 30k health and "officers" (Major, Colonel, etc.) have about 50k. I popped Barksin, Thorns and Starfall and that took care of most of them. All at the same time. With Wild Mushroom being instant cast now that could help as well, but I didn't need it. Took out the remaining waves easily. So it seems best if you AOE multiple waves at once, instead of waiting for them. When I got down to one officer I decided to let him bang on me while I waited out an Innervate cooldown. 3 minutes isn't that long and the officers generally only do about 1000-1500 damage a hit. Killed him and then came Rajaxx. I put some Wild Mushrooms in his path, popped my Treants, Barksin, Thorns, Starfall, kept my dots up, Starsurge at the beginning but after that I didn't get much chance to cast long nukes. I hit Starsurge when it was instant but mostly relied on instant cast stuff, Typhoon won't knock him back but it's another source of instant cast damage. I did not need a potion that time.

After that I decided to play it safe with the rest of the bosses' environmental gimmicks. Although, Moam was a joke and so was Ayamiss. I imagine Ayamiss would be more difficult for a melee class but I dpsed it down without any adds appearing or any summoning to an altar. I kited Buru to the eggs and had no problem. I used the columns on Ossarian to remove his 300% damage bonus buff and to try to get him vulnerable to one of my schools of magic. I got lucky on the second column and got Arcane. He wasn't letting me cast Starfire so I Moonfire spammed him down for the last few percent, heh. I only needed two columns.

This instance seems to be a lot about keeping moving while fighting a boss and hella knockbacks from mobs and bosses.

I got an awesome amount of rep. The bosses were awarding +110 three times each. The mobs all awarded 11 and Ossarian awarded +550.

I hadn't seen anyone specifically say this yet, but AQ20 is now AQ10. Bosses health pools and damage have been cut and the drops seem to be a tad more rare (epics at least).

As for the change, I suppose it was to see if players would enjoy raiding a 10-man raid at 60, hopefully a future sign that they will do the same to the other classic raids for those classic loving players.

Rep seems to still be the same and some of the mechanics are tweaked a bit. Buru's pool seems to have lost some water, I suppose Blizzard caught on the fact some people were swimming during the encounter.

If you enter Ahn'Qiraj 20 man it will show the 10 man banner beside the map. Apparently it's a 10 man now even though it has not changed since classic WoW.

Ridiculously easy now, I was able to do the whole instance in 4 pulls (as ret paladin): trash up to and including Kurinaxx, Rajaxx and his waves, trash in Moam's room that I aggroed on my way through, and Ossirian.
Rajaxx together with his waves was quite brutal but doable.

Easily soloable as a Shadow Priest. If you like to pull large amounts of trash for lulz and loot, it will take you about a hour. If you kill the minimal amount of trash, much less.
Remember that some trash is worth killing; The Obsidian Destroyers (the mobs who look like small versions of Moam) can drop Lesser Eternal Essence or Illusion Dust, which sells well.

Each boss drops around 20-21 gold, 2 pieces of gear, 2 grey items (the old class ability books) that vendor for 10g each, and one "trade in" item. It's worth noting that the drops Disenchant into the next level of shards (the virtually worthless Small Prismatics, rather than the desirable Large Brilliants), so you may be better off just vendoring everything.

Idols and Scarabs still drop, for whatever good they might do you.

The various AQ Enchanting formulas as well as other patterns from the old game DO still drop, and at a reasonable rate. If you're filling out your Professions list (and AQ Temple hasn't been nice to you), AQ Ruins is a viable alternative.

It's worth noting that this instance is (still) easier to solo than it is to duo. Ayamiss' sacrifice, Ossisian's cyclones, etc. Bosses can be cautiously zerged, as such:

Kurrinaxx ~ constantly ports you in front of him, interrupting your spellcasts. Use DoTs. Watch out for the swelling-exploding sand traps. Afterwards, if you want the NPC's to arrive faster for the next boss, run towards the stairs towards the exit. The bald guy and his four elf friends will be along shortly.

Rajaxx ~ just as big a pain as always. Fight the waves one at a time, use Shadowfiend/Dispersion/Hymn to keep your Mana going. The trash bounces you in the air, interrupting your spellcasts. Not hard, but by far the most annoying fight in here. Named NPC becomes a vendor afterward should he survive, but won't hang around long.

Moam ~ nuke him down. He'll die almost as fast as some trash packs.

Buru ~ you can do this fight the proper way if you're so inclined...but standing toe-to-toe and nuking him works fine. He summons a large pack of adds at low health, nothing to worry about.

Ayamiss ~ do NOT use your Shadowfiend; Ayamiss will register your pet as an additional party member and sacrifice you on the altar. Just stand back and blow her away, just like you did Moam.

Ossirian ~ not hard, but takes time. I found using the clickable spire-crystal things helps speed things up. Do this boss last! His emote about "winds blocking out the sun" is quite accurate; It procs a visual sandstorm effect that is displayed throughout the entire instance and is very annoying.

Finally, once you're done...remember to check your Calendar; AQ Ruins is a 3-day reset, not a weekly lockout like most raids.

It is fairly common knowledge that basically any 85 can solo this place (some squashy classes needing some strategy) - The question some people have is "Why?" though, and here is why...

Transmogification.

The AQ instances drop greens that for the most part drop no where else in the game and many of them are highly sought after (IE: Glorious Set). You can also find a limited market for the idols/etc if people are going back and trying to complete the quests for the awesome/unique weapons/gear. Moam still rarely drops the blacksmithing pattern as well that can net in the thousands.

A few tips when you are in there:
- The "Flesh Hunter" oozling mobs should get kill priority when they are aggroed as they can use a 'Consume' ability which spells insta-death for any class without an effect like Divine Shield to break it.
- General Rajaxx uses an ability that will halve your HP, but you need not worry as it is percentage based so will never actually kill you. It can be resisted (nature) and should only be used twice in a lvl85 kill.
- The bug trash at Moam has a pushback that punts you 30+ yards and can chain you half way across the area.
- Ayamiss has a flying phase for the first 30% which means melee needs to think of a way to do ~100k damage at range while a poison debuff stacks on them.
- While Buru is best defeated using her original strategy busting the eggs (Dismember damage adds up), Ossirian can safely be zerg'ed down.

Entirely trivial at 90 as a rogue. Huge trash packs can be quickly AoE'd down without taking much damage, all of the bosses can be killed in under 30 seconds, and Rajaxx's Thundercrash was the only time I ever dropped below about 90% health (you should be killing him fast enough that he can only use it once).