This guide is intended to provide a comprehensive description of theencounter with Hagara the Stormbinder in Dragon Soul. It is targeted to anyonewho desires to understand the fight mechanics.

This guide applies to patch 4.3 of World of Warcraft.

Hagara the Stormbinder is a Shaman located in the Eye of Eternity, theinstance that used to house Malygos. You access this area by taking a portalfrom Wyrmrest Temple.

The fight against Hagara is all about proper positioning and coordinatedmovement. As such, most raids will find this fight to be a breath of freshair before attempting the gear check that Ultraxion represents.

1. General Information↑top

2. Loot↑top

3. Overview of the Fight↑top

The fight against Hagara is made up of 3 phases: Main Phase, Ice Phase,Lightning Phase. The Main Phase lasts 50 seconds and is followed by either theIce Phase or the Lightning Phase. The fight goes back to the Main Phaseas soon as your raid has finished dealing with the Ice Phase or theLightning Phase. The Ice Phase and the Lightning Phase alternate in such a waythat a fight will usually look like this:

• Main Phase with a shortened duration of approximately 30 seconds;
• Ice Phase or Lightning Phase (depending on the visual effect on Hagara's weapon before the pull);
• Main Phase;
• Lightning Phase or Ice Phase;
• Main Phase
• Ice Phase or Lightning Phase;
• Main Phase;
• Lightning Phase or Ice Phase;
• ...

To determine whether you will get an Ice Phase or a Lightning Phasefirst, simply look at the visual effect on Hagara's weapon before thepull (it will either be a frost effect or a lightning effect).

Each phase will require your raid to properly deal with positioningconstraints or to move in a synchronised fashion:

• The Main Phase will require members of your ranged group toposition themselves in such a way that they prevent missiles from reaching themelee group, all the while freeing players who get encased in Ice Tombs.
• The Ice Phase will require your raid to run in a clockwise fashion on theedge of the platform to keep damaging Ice Waves at a safe distance. Iciclesfalling on the platform also need to be avoided. At the sametime, DPS players will need to destroy the crystals that protect the boss.
• The Lighting Phase will require your raid to create a chain of playersto propagate lightning in order to disable several objects that protect theboss.

Main Phase	Ice Phase	Lightning Phase

4. Main Phase↑top

The Main Phase is a tank and spank phase. The boss should be kept in the middle ofthe room and be damaged as much as possible. The ranged group must also dealwith a few abilities that mostly require proper positioning and good reactiontime.

After 50 seconds, the Main Phase ends and an Ice Phase or a LightningPhase starts.

4.1. Abilities

During this phase, Hagara will use the following abilities.

 
• She has a melee attack that she uses every 2 seconds. Because she also  spends a lot of time casting her various abilities, she ends up using her  melee attack every 5-6 seconds in average. It deals moderate damage to  the tank and should not pose any problem.
 
•                 Ice Tomb is cast once per Main Phase (usually 10 seconds into the   phase). This ability, which is absent in LFR difficulty, encases 2   random players (but never the tank) in 10-man difficulty and 5 in 25-man   difficulty in Ice Tombs. These tombs need to be destroyed before the encased players   can regain control of their characters. As soon as the ability is cast,   targeted players are marked with a blue arrow on top of their head and 7   seconds later, they are frozen. Ice Tomb deals approximately 7,000 damage   damage per second to encased players. The ability does not chain to nearby players.
 
• Focused Assault is the same in all difficulties and is cast   every 15 seconds. This ability is channeled for 5 seconds and causes   Hagara to attack in front of her for 50% of her normal melee damage every   0.5 second. While she does this, Hagara remains stationary so the tankcan easily move away from her.
 
• Shattered Ice is always cast either right before or right after   Focused Assault. This ability, which targets one random player, slows down   movement for 4 seconds and deals 78,000 Frost damage in 10-man difficulty,   100,000 in 25-man difficulty, and 65,000 in LFR difficulty.
 
•                 Ice Lance is cast twice per Main Phase. Every time, it summons 3 crystals.   Each of these crystals fixates on a random player and for 15 seconds   send one missile per second towards this player (so 15 missiles in total).   When a missile reaches its target or another player on the path to its target,   it explodes and inflicts Frost damage to every player in a 3 yard radius   (15,000 in 10-man   difficulty, 20,000 in 25-man difficulty, and 13,000 in LFR). In 10-man and   25-man difficulty, it also reduces the attack speed (but not the   casting speed) of whoever gets damaged by 25%.

4.2. Strategy

Once you understand precisely what the abilities do, the strategy is simple andcan be summed up in the four following points:

• When Hagara is using Focused Assault, the tank should back away fromher (either by walking back, or strafing backwards). This will minimise thedamage that the tank takes, as the boss is slow to catch up and must break herchannel to do so. Make sure that the tank does not turn their back to Hagara,however.
• Healers should be especially wary of the damage done by Shattered Iceas it can easily one-shot someone who has previously been damaged by Ice Lance.
• Shattered Ice can be warded with Dark Simulacrum, which givesthe Death Knight who casts it a nice amount of extra damage.
• DPS need to free players trapped by Ice Tomb. Note that this doesnot apply to LFR difficulty, as Ice Tomb is absent from this level ofdifficulty.
•              When a melee player is targeted by Ice Lance, a ranged DPS or a healerneeds to step in the path of the missiles so that they do not reach thetargeted player. The reason for doing this is two-fold. First, as the missilesdeal proximity damage (3 yard) upon reaching their target, letting them reacha melee player will deal damage to the entire melee group. Second, in 10-manand 25-man difficulties, if melee players are hit by the missiles, their DPSwill suffer from the attack speed reduction that they will receive. A targetedmelee player could move out of the melee group but they would be unable tocontinue attacking the boss whereas the ranged player who soaks can continueperforming their duties.

5. Ice Phase↑top

50 seconds into a Main Phase (if this Main Phase was preceded by a LightningPhase), Hagara will enter an Ice Phase. Hagara casts Water Shield onherself, which causes her to remain stationary and immune to all damage untilthe raid has successfully completed the phase.

             During the Ice Phase, the raid will be chased around the platform by verydeadly Ice Waves. While running to avoid the waves and the Icicles that fallfrom the sky, the raid will need to destroy 4 Frozen Binding Crystals by attackingthem whenever possible.

When all 4 crystals are destroyed, the Water Shield protecting Hagara isremoved and she is debuffed with Feedback, which, for 15 seconds,causes her to be stunned and take 100% increased damage. The Main Phase restartswhen the debuff drops off Hagara.

5.1. Abilities

During the Ice Phase, your raid will be faced with the followingabilities:

 
•                 Watery Entrenchment prevents players from entering the center of the  platform as doing so is very deadly (15% health lost every second and movement  speed reduced by 50%). This Watery Entrenchment is created a few seconds into  the Ice Phase, giving players time to move to the edge of the platform.
 
•                 Ice Wave summons 4 Ice Waves a few seconds after the entrenchment is  created. Each of these waves extends from the boss to the edge of the platform  and move in a clockwise manner around the platform at a speed slightly slower  than a player's base running speed. Being hit by a wave  is extremely deadly as it causes 200,000 Frost damage in both 10-man and  25-man difficulties and 130,000 Frost damage in LFR difficulty, in  addition to increasing Frost damage taken by 50% for 2.5 seconds.
 
•                 Icicle causes Icicles to regularly fall from the sky  onto the outer part of the platform. Icicles come by waves, each wave consisting of  about 10 Icicles and coming 15-20 seconds after the previous wave. A visual  effect marks the location where an Icicle is  going to fall. After 4 seconds, the visual effect disappears and 1 second  later, the Icicle hits the ground, damaging everyone within a 7-yard radius  (the area previously marked with the visual effect) for 100,000 damage  in both 10-man and 25-man difficulty. In LFR difficulty, this ability is  absent.

5.2. Strategy

             Just like with the Main Phase, the strategy for the Ice Phase is simple,once the abilities are properly understood. The simple tasks that raid memberswill need to perform during this phase are the following (see the image on theright for a visual overview):

• Move clockwise so that you stay between two Ice Waves. Getting hit bythem is very deadly, so make sure to remain at a safe distance. The visualeffect for the Ice Waves can be misleading, as you can be hit even ifthe visual effect does not reach you, so be careful.
• Whenever you can, attack the Frozen Binding Crystals. Always keepan eye on the Ice Wave chasing you when you attack a crystal, as it is easyto get carried away and lose track of their exact position.
• In 10-man and 25-man difficulties, you also need to keep an eyeon the falling Icicles and move out of the areas where they are going tohit the ground.

To give you an idea, it should take no more than 2 turns around the platformto destroy all 4 Frozen Binding Crystals.

During this phase, healers should have only heal the occasional damagefrom falling Icicles. Should a player manage to survive being hit by an IceWave, they should be healed quickly before they take damage again.

6. Lightning Phase↑top

50 seconds into a Main Phase (if this Main Phase was preceded by an IcePhase), Hagara will enter a Lightning Phase. When this happens, Hagara casts Water Shield on herself, which causes her to remain stationary and immuneto all damage until the raid has successfully completed the phase.

             During the Lightning Phase, the raid will have to overload the 4Crystal Conductors that protect Hagara. Players need to formchains so that lightning propagates through them, eventually reachingthe conductors and overloading them.

When all 4 conductors are overloaded, the Water Shield protecting Hagara isremoved and she is debuffed with Feedback, which, for 15 seconds,causes her to be stunned and take 100% increased damage. The Main Phase restartswhen the debuff drops off Hagara.

6.1. Abilities

             During the Lightning Phase, the raid will be faced with aBound Lightning Elemental, whose death causes the overload of anearby conductor, which the raid then uses as a source for propagatinglightning to the other conductors. There are three things to note aboutthis Elemental:

• it always spawns at the same place, near the entrance portal;
• it should be picked by the tank;
• it performs a weak melee on its current target every 2 seconds.

Also, the raid will take constant damage from Lightning Storm.Every 2-3 seconds, this ability hits 3/4 random players in 10-man difficultyand 7/8 players in 25-man and LFR difficulties. Each player takes 15,000Nature damage in 10-man difficulty, 17,500 in 25-man difficulty, andabout 10,000 in LFR difficulty. Every time a player is hit by Lightning Storm,they receive a stack of a debuff that increases Nature damage taken by5% per stack.

6.2. Strategy

Just as with the other two phases, the main difficulty of this phase residesin understanding what the abilities do. Then, the strategy is simple.

As the phase begins, a Bound Lightning Elemental spawns and needs tobe picked up by the tank. This add must then be brought next to 1 of the4 Crystal Conductors and killed. This will cause the chosen CrystalConductor to become overloaded.

       From this point on, your raid will propagate the lightning emitted by theoverloaded Crystal Conductor to another Crystal Conductor. This will cause theother Crystal Conductor to also become overloaded. To do so, the players fromthe raid need to create a chain to propagate lightning from the overloadedCrystal Conductor to the other Crystal Conductor. Once this is done, the newlyoverloaded Crystal Conductor can be used as the source of a new chain that willoverload one the remaining, non-overloaded Crystal Conductors.

As you can see from the screenshots, the chain does not need to be perfect.The maximal range for lightning propagation seems to be around 10 yards. If,somewhere in the chain, the distance between two consecutive players go overthe maximal range, a few seconds will elapse before the end of the chain losesthe lightning, giving enough time for overloading the targeted Crystal Conductorbefore the lightning runs out.

6.3. Tips

Because Lightning Storm cause players to take increased Nature damage inthis phase, healers will have to face increasingly heavy damage. To alleviate this, the raid shouldswitch to Nature resistance during this phase by using either of Aspect of the Wild froma Hunter and Elemental Resistance Totem or Healing Stream Totem (improvedwith Glyph of Healing Stream Totem) from a Shaman.

Mages ( Ice Block), Paladins ( Divine Shield) and Rogues( Cloak of Shadows) can and should remove their stacks of Lightning Stormwhen they start taking too much damage.

With a bit of practice, you can divide your raid in 2 groups that will gooverload the crystals around the platform in opposite directions. This allowsthe raid to spend less time in the Lightning Phase (and therefore takeless damage from Lightning Storm).

7. When to Use Bloodlust, Heroism, or Time Warp?↑top

Bloodlust, Heroism, or Time Warp should be used at the endof an Ice Phase or a Lightning Phase, so as to benefit from the 100% increaseddamage that the boss takes for 15 seconds.

8. Learning the Fight↑top

The execution of the fight does not require much practice as the raid is notfaced with overly complex tasks. The only part that may pose problems is theoverloading of the 4 Crystal Conductors in the Lightning Phase.

Regarding these Crystal Conductors, it is important to note that Water Shield has a duration of 300 seconds, which probably means that theraid has 300 seconds to complete the Lightning Phase. So there is ample time topractice overloading the Crystal Conductors, as long as the raid cansurvive the increasing damage from Lightning Storm.

9. Heroic Mode↑top

The Heroic version of the fight with Hagara is extremely similar to thenormal version of the fight. The differences between Normal and Heroic modeare the following:

• Main Phase: Focused Assault can no longer be avoided and eachmissile of Ice Lance applies a stacking debuff that increasesFrost damage taken.
• Ice Phase: Hagara regularly applies a debuff on players that slowsmovement speed.
• Lightning Phase: Storm Pillars regularly appear on the platformand explode after 3 seconds, dealing proximity damage.
   
  • In 10-man Heroic difficulty, there are 8 Lightning Conductors  (up from 4).

9.1. Main Phase

In the Main Phase, the missiles from Ice Lance now apply astacking debuff that increases Frost damage taken by 25%. The debuff lasts3 seconds, so anyone stacking Ice Lance missiles will end up taking +375%Frost damage.

By itself, this debuff does not prevent a player from soaking all 15 Ice Lancemissiles, as they only deal 15,000 damage each. The problem comes from a playertaking +375% increased Frost damage and being targeted by Shattered Ice, whichdeals about 100,000 Frost damage in Heroic mode.

Therefore, you need to have two players on each Ice Lance. By alternatingevery 2 or 3 seconds, they enable to debuff to drop, thus making the damagefrom Shattered Ice manageable if they are targeted by it.

Also, Focused Assault can no longer be entirely avoided. Tanks stillhave to move out of the attack, but Hagara will catch up much faster. Tosurvive, defensive cooldowns and healing cooldowns will be needed.

9.1.1. 10-man Specific Advice

In 10-man groups, Shattered Ice is a lot more likely to targetsomeone under the effect of the debuff from Ice Lance. Toprevent this, there are a few strategies that you can use:

• Shattered Ice appears to only target players in front of Hagara. Tohandle this, you can have the tank face her away from the raid and handle thedamage from Shattered Ice by themselves. Alternatively, if there is a playerother than the tank in front of her, they will be targeted instead, so you canuse a melee DPS to take the damage from Shattered Ice and reduced tank damage.
• Grounding Totem is not consumed by Ice Lance but it is consumed byShattered Ice. So it may be a good idea to have a Shaman in the same group as thetank or the melee DPS designated to take damage from Shattered Ice, and let thisShaman drop Grounding Totem as soon as Ice Lance begins.
• A healer can use a defensive cooldown during the cast time of Shattered Iceto protect the player who is being targeted.
• Aura Mastery is very helpful here, unless you plan on using it during theIce Phase for stacking in the middle (note that Aura Mastery does not work duringthe Lightning Phase, since the damage is Nature damage).

9.2. Dealing with Frostflake in the Ice Phase

In the Ice Phase, Hagara will target a random player with Frostflake. This debuff does no damage but it slows downthe targeted player and stacks every seconds, meaning that the player willeventually come to an almost complete stop. When dispelled, the debuffleaves a Frostflake Snare on the ground. Every player standing in this10-yard radius frost area is slowed down by 50%. Exiting the frost arearemoves the movement speed reduction.

The problem with this debuff is that, during the Ice Phase, raid playerskeep moving together to attack the Frozen Binding Crystals and avoid the Ice Waves. Therefore, dispelling the debuff immediately is not recommended,as this runs the risk that players get slowed and subsequently caught by the Ice Wave.

One possible strategy is to have targeted players enter the Watery Entrenchment and be dispelled there. They will take a few ticks ofdamage, but this should be manageable and the Frostflake Snare will be outof everyone's way (currently, dispelling Frostflake inside the Watery Entrenchmentprevents the Frostflake Snare from being created). Another possible strategy isthat targeted players move to theedges of the platform to be dispelled, though this means that other players need tobe careful and stay away from the edge.

9.3. Dealing with Storm Pillars in the Lightning Phase

In the Lightning Phase, Hagara will regularly summon Storm Pillars.These pillars have a visual effect that looks like a ring. 3 seconds afterthey have spawned, they explode and deal 35,000 Nature damage to all playerswithin 5 yards.

The idea is to circumvent these pillars when making a lightning chain betweenthe conductors. It is also perfectly viable to ignore them, provided that you canheal the damage, which increases as Lightning Storm stacks build up.

9.4. Beating the Enrage Timer

To beat the enrage timer, you will need to spend as little time aspossible in the Ice Phase and the Lightning Phase, where the boss is immuneto damage.

9.4.1. Ice Phase

Below, you will find a list of tips to shorten the duration of the Ice Phase.

• 2 or 3 seconds before the Ice Phase starts, have the tank bring Hagara to thelocation where a Crystal will spawn. This will save you precious seconds travelingfrom Hagara to the first Crystal when the Ice Phase begins
• Use movement speed buffs, such as Drums of Speed, Stampeding Roar(Bear Form), or Stampeding Roar (Cat Form),so that your melee players can rapidly switch from one Crystal to the other.
• If the melee DPS are at full health, they should keep attacking the Crystal,even if an Icicle is going to fall on them.

To destroy all the crystals, your raid will normally need to go around theplatform twice (although you should manage to destroy the first crystal duringthe first pass). To speed up this process, you should do as much damage aspossible on the 3rd and 4th crystal. Then, while the bulk of the raid goesfor a second pass to finish off the 1st and 2nd crystal, a few DPS playersshould be left to finish off the 3rd and 4th crystal. The idea is the3rd and the 4th crystals should be destroyed at around the same time asthe 2nd crystal.

Several DPS classes can be left on the 3rd and 4th crystal, thanks to theirability to avoid or reduce the damage from the Ice Waves and/or Watery Entrenchment, though any player can easily survive the 2 or 3 ticksof Watery Entrenchment that it takes to avoid an Ice Wave:

• Mages with Ice Block, Blink, and Mage Ward, or even Cauterizefor Fire Mages;
• Rogues with Sprint and Feint;
• Paladins with Divine Shield;
• Death Knights with Anti-Magic Shell;
• Shadow Priests with Dispersion.

9.4.2. Alternative Ice Phase Strategy: Stacking in Watery Entrenchment

A totally different strategy is to have the entire raid, save the melee DPSand the tank, stack up on Hagara. This will enable the ranged DPS to have a 100%uptime on the crystals (making the phase shorter), at the cost of a muchincreased raid damage (which will require a good AoE healing setup).

This strategy changes nothing for melee DPS and the tank who will still haveto run around the platform and get their Frostflake debuff dispelled onthe edge or inside the Watery Entrenchment.

Note that the damage from Watery Entrenchment is based on players'health, so it is advised to disable raid buffs such as Power Word: Fortitude or Commanding Shout, and to avoid usingcooldowns such as Rallying Cry.

9.4.3. Lightning Phase

During the Lightning Phase, you will want to overload all theCrystal Conductors within a few seconds of the death ofthe Bound Lightning Elemental. To achieve this, the chains of playersfrom one Conductor to another will be pre-established and each playerwill have a pre-determined location to go to. The add will also alwaysbe killed on the same Conductor, so that you can assign melee players aposition close to this Conductor, while DPS players will be assignedpositions that are further away. Each player should try to reachtheir position at the moment the add dies (depending on how far it is,they might have to start moving long before the add dies).

In 25-man difficulty, 6 players are required to conductor lightning from oneConductor to the other and you only need to make 3 chains.

             In 10-man difficulty,you need 2 players for each chain and you have to make 7 chains (there are 8conductors in 10-man Heroic difficulty, up from 4 in 10-man Normal difficulty),meaning that some players will need to participate in the overloading of more thanjust one conductor. The diagram shows a possible strategy with 4 groups, one madeup of healers that will not move (so they can keep healing) and 3 others that willhave to move

Note that from a single Crystal Conductor, you can propagate lightningto several other Crystal Conductors.

Finally, you should ignore the Storm Pillars when they spawn in the pathof one of the chain of players and heal through the damage that they deal.

10. Achievement: Holding Hands↑top

The Holding Hands achievement is part of the Glory of the Dragon Soul Raider meta-achievement. The achievement is ratherstraightforward and is linked to the Lightning Phase.

What you need to do is overload the last Crystal Conductor byusing a chain of players made up of the entire raid. You cannot havemost of the raid stacked together somewhere in the chain, with a few playersdoing the actual lightning conduction part. You have to make a continuouschain of players. If players are too close, this runs the risk that thelightning will jump a player.

In 10-man difficulty, there is a lot of available room to make the chain,so obtaining the achievement should not be a problem.

In 25-man difficulty,however, you will need to create a sort of semi-circle from one overloadedconductor to the final conductor. To make it easier, you can make the chain startfrom the overloaded conductor that is diametrically opposed to the final conductor.This will give your raid ample room to maneuver.

The achievement triggers as soon as the final conductor is destroyed. You do notneed to kill the boss, which is good news for raids who want to get the achievement butnot kill the boss on Normal mode.

11. Concluding Remarks↑top

This concludes the strategy guide for Hagara the Stormbinder. We think thatmany guilds will enjoy progressing on this fight as dealing with the variouspositioning challenges can be quite fun.

As always, we would be pleased to read any feedback that you have (typos,suggestions, praise, etc.) by e-mail or in a comment below.