Omen

Omen is a demon boss summoned in the Moonglade during the Lunar Festival. Blessed by Elune, he was once a noble Wild God, but was corrupted and driven insane by fel energies during the War of the Ancients.

Background
The demigod Omen was a being of great strength and knowledge. Blessed by Elune, Omen wandered primordial Kalimdor, guiding hunters and gatherers and offering luck and advice to all he met. When the Burning Legion launched their attack during the War of the Ancients, Omen allied with Azeroth's defenders.

During one heated battle, Huln Highmountain tried to protect Omen from the forces of the Legion, but the great beast was gravely wounded and poisoned with fel energy. Before he succumbed to demonic corruption, Omen gave his last breath of purity to Huln's spear, Talonclaw, adding to the powers that other Wild Gods had left therein. Huln placed the Ancient's name on his spear so that his courage would always be remembered.

Omen's wounds eventually plunged him into a deep, dreaming sleep, where fel-inspired nightmares slowly consumed him. When he finally awoke centuries later, he had fallen to madness and began to rampage. No longer a creature of wisdom — but still possessing the strength of Elune's blessing — he tore through the land, killing and devouring, until a group of ancient heroes gathered in the village of Nighthaven and confronted the beast. Calling down the moon's wrath, they blinded and stunned Omen and forced him to retreat into the deep waters of Lake Elune'ara.

Finally defeated in Moonglade, Omen now sleeps among the silt of Lake Elune'ara. Although driven insane by the Burning Legion, the demi-god still possesses Elune's blessing and is, hence, immortal. During the Lunar Festival, he stirs, and heroes of the land are called to defeat him once again in order to ease the tormented Ancient's suffering, in the hopes that perhaps next year he will return with a clearer mind.

Abilities

 * Cleave
 * AoE Starfall, 1800 damage a tick.

Summoning Omen
To summon Omen, you must use Cluster Rockets on the launchers on the southeastern shore of the lake. This will cause several Minions of Omen to appear. Continue killing them and firing off rockets, and eventually Omen will appear out of the lake. It seems that there is no need to kill them, it's enough to merely have two players continually use Cluster Rockets on the launchers and he will eventually emerge out of the lake. Using Elune's Candle on the Minions may make Omen appear faster.

Overview
Omen is a fairly straightforward fight. He has a moderately powerful melee attack, a frontal Cleave, and frequently uses a powerful AoE Starfall (ticks for about 1800 damage every two seconds over a large area.) A level 70 tank should have no difficulty holding aggro on him as long as he or she is given time to build initial threat and DPS watches themselves. Using two or three healers will make it easy to keep the tank up without drawing healing aggro. A group of 10-15 well-geared level 70 characters should be able to beat him easily. The fight can be done by lower-level characters, but you will want a group of 15-20+ at level 60 or 25-30+ at lower levels (a 40-man group around L40 could probably handle it, especially with a high-level tank and/or healer.)

His most dangerous ability by far is Starfall — this will kill most characters even at L70 if they do not move out of the affected area quickly. Lower-level characters will be killed within seconds. Since healers will normally be busy keeping the tank alive, players who are hurt by this should bandage afterwards if possible. The best way to mitigate this is to constantly drag Omen around (so if he drops Starfall on the tank or a melee DPSer, you will quickly move out of the way.) Ranged DPS and healers should just keep a close eye out for it (turning on scrolling combat text helps, as it pops up a big thing saying "" when the AoE is on you) and move out of the area as quickly as possible. It is necessary to keep the whole raid moving to survive Starfall, since it seems to be hardly if not impossible to resist(immunity shields like Divine Shield and Ice Block work too if you're too low on health). If Starfall killing the tank is an issue, you may want to use only ranged DPS (meleers can just sit back and use ranged weapons); this reduces the chance that Starfall will be cast on top of the tank.

The boss can be graveyard-zerged; he can be dragged over close to the nearby graveyard to make this easier. Omen does not regenerate his health if he drops aggro, though he will eventually despawn.

The guards in Nighthaven (and some of the elites, like the flight masters) will aggro on Omen if he is kited there. The non-elites do not do much damage, but the elite NPCs can hurt him substantially. Also, if it is a busy time, there will normally be many other players in Nighthaven who will help kill him.

Using Elune's Candle on Omen appears to prevent him from casting Starfall for a few seconds (and deals some damage to him as well.) Having a number of characters rotating uses of them may almost completely prevent him from using Starfall.

It is a fairly good deal to have Horde and Alliance players cooperate on killing him if you can't get enough people for Omen. It doesn't matter who tags Omen — anyone with the quest can obtain quest credit by stepping into Omen's pillar of light after he is dead. This does not always work properly — if you have the quest, step into the light, and get the buff without getting quest credit, try stepping out, dismissing the buff, and stepping into the light a second time.

Kiting
A group that cannot adequately tank Omen may be able to beat him by constantly kiting him around; as long as you are moving you will not take much damage from Starfall, and Omen has no other attack outside of melee range. Hunters are good for this, since they can use Aspect of the Cheetah to keep away from him while still dealing substantial ranged damage. Other DPS classes must be careful not to get above the threat level of the kiter, or Omen will run to them and quickly slay them. Ranged DPS at maximum range can avoid a lot of the damage from Starfall (try to spread everyone out); melee DPS may want to just hang back and use their ranged weapons, and/or bandage any healers who get hurt.

A group wipe will probably occur if the hunter runs out of mana; having a Druid (or three) to use Innervate on them, and/or a lot of mana potions, will help. You can also use multiple hunters; when one runs out of mana, he/she should Feign Death to leave combat and drink (or simply die and run back), then start DPSing again. Because Omen does not reset health, even if you wipe you can set up again and repeat until he is downed.

Omen will leash if taken too far from his spawn point, so keep this in mind when attempting to kite him. It is well advised that you bring a healer to mitigate starfall damage (which oddly does not daze cheetah/pack affected players) — a priest or druid being best, given their instant cast HOTs. A paladin could conceivably work, though the cooldown on Holy Shock is prohibitive, and you may as well keep looking before using a shaman healer.

Soloing
It is possible for warlocks, balance druids, and possibly other classes, to solo Omen. Plan on spending 30 minutes kiting him without help. There is a very large tree, south along the road, near the cluster launchers where he spawns. Cast all DoTs on Omen and run him tightly around the tree. You will have to reapply one spell every ~9 seconds so that he does not reset. Healthstones, healing potions, and a run speed enchant will help significantly. You will be taking damage from Lifetap and occasional Starfall spells, so if you have neither Siphon Life (warlock talent) nor Fel Stamina it is unlikely you will succeed in killing him without help. It is also possible to kite him around Nighthaven as a hunter using a combination of Aspect of the Viper and Aspect of the Cheetah, and damage over time through traps, stings and pausing to shoot at Omen. One must run in a circular pattern around Nighthaven through the inn and over the bridge, and around again, all the while doing this. It takes a massive amount of time, but is possible. Nearby players are likely to help, as do all guards that Omen passes, though these die fairly quickly.

Omen has now been buffed to 5.6 Million health and does about 3-4 Thousand damage with Starfall. Omen is also now leashed to his summoning grounds. He can no longer be kited to Nighthaven. Max distance toward Nighthaven is the second bridge from the summoning grounds. -OMEN IS NOW CLASSED AS A RAID BOSS- It is still possible to solo Omen, although it takes a prohibitive amount of time.
 * Note: 2009 Update

Balance druids can solo Omen with relative ease so long as their mana regeneration is sufficient to maintain a very long, pitched fight. As with the strategy above, pull Omen to the large tree to the south of his spawn point (just north of the Great Cat Spirit). It seems to be easiest to circle the tree in a clockwise fashion. Use Insect Swarm and Moonfire as your primary sources of damage, reapplying them as soon as they wear off. You can also use Force of Nature and Starfall on every cooldown to supplement your damage, but try to drop Force of Nature immediately after Omen uses HIS Starfall, else your treants will likely die without doing any damage. Glyph of Moonfire and Glyph of Insect Swarm can be helpful here, as can Glyph of Innervate to help prolong your mana. You won't have time to get any other spells off on Omen and you must not allow him to land a physical attack on you lest you be dazed, so stick to your two damage-over-time spells. You'll usually catch at least one damage tick each time he uses his Starfall ability, so use Lifebloom and possibly Rejuvenation to keep your health up. When you begin to get low on mana, use Innervate if it's not on cooldown. If it's still on its cooldown, stop using Moonfire and just use Insect Swarm to keep Omen from resetting, casting it only once every ten seconds or so, until you can use Innervate again. Trinkets such as the Majestic Dragon Figurine and talents such as Intensity (druid talent) will help preserve your mana between Innervates. If Omen begins to get too close for comfort, shift into Travel Form to give you some breathing room, but don't outrun Omen too far or you'll be out of casting range and he may reset.

Expect to devote at least two hours to soloing Omen at level 80, although depending on gear level it can go faster. It's interesting to note that Omen does not immediately regain health when resetting, so if you lose aggro you can take that opportunity to eat/drink/bandage. A player attempting to solo Omen has at least a few minutes to rest when he resets before their progress is lost, however waiting too long will allow him to despawn. A level 85 hunter can solo him without interference, as long as they keep their signature pets alive.

Quests

 * Elune's Blessing (quest)
 * The Quest NPC is Valadar Starsong in northeastern Moonglade. To complete this quest, you need to receive Elune's Blessing. This blessing comes from the corpse of Omen.


 * After Omen has been killed, simply stand in the light that shines on his dead body and you will be buffed with Elune's Blessing and complete the quest. Note that you do not need to be in the raid that tapped and killed Omen, you just need to stand on his body. (So if you see folks fighting him, don't worry about a Raid invite, just lend a hand. Horde and Alliance often fight together on this quest. Do not engage in pvp, even if they are flagged for it while fighting.)


 * A notable quest reward is, which will transform a into an  (24 hour cooldown).

Achievements

 * Elune's Blessing (achievement)

Notes and trivia

 * Omen has always had two heads; it is not a mutation caused by his fel corruption.
 * Although Omen is described as a "two-headed wolf Ancient",  the model used by Omen and the Kurken is referred to as a "nian" in the game files. This appears to be a reference to the  from Chinese mythology who, much like Omen, would emerge from under the sea or mountains once a year to terrorize its surroundings. The Nian is purported to be afraid of bright colors (such as the color red) and loud noises (such as fireworks and the banging of drums); according to one legend, this is the origin of the traditional Chinese.
 * An Omen is available during the yearly Spring Event in Heroes of the Storm.