This guide is intended to provide a comprehensive description of theencounter with Hagara the Stormbinder in Dragon Soul. It is mostly targeted to tankswho desire to have a short but detailed overview of what is expected ofthem during that fight.

This guide applies to patch 4.3 of World of Warcraft.

   

The Hagara encounter is composed of three phases, which alternate in apredictable fashion throughout the fight. The boss has a large number ofabilities, as well as adds, that may make the encounter look complex anddifficult to understand, but we assure you that it is quite simple.

As a tank you will tank the boss (without many complications), have toperform a movement challenge, and sometimes tank an add for a brief period oftime.

   

1. 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, such thatyou will always have a Main Phase - Lightning Phase - Main Phase - IcePhase sequence. The fight randomly starts with a Main Phase followed bya Lightning Phase or a Main Phase followed by an Ice Phase.

Hagara the Stormbinder requires a single tank.

                               

Main Phase	Ice Phase	Lightning Phase

2. Main Phase↑top

During the Main Phase, your tasks as a tank are extremely simple:

• Tank Hagara the Stormbinder in the center of the arena.
• Whenever she casts Focused Assault, move out of her immediate frontalcone area; either by moving backwards or sideways.In the event that you cannot do this in time, be prepared to use a defensivecooldown.
• Be mindful that the Ice Tombs, which will sometimes entrap some of your raidmembers, cause line of sight issues that may separate you from your healers.

Death Knights can ward Shattered Ice (an ability of Hagara that is otherwiseof no concern to tanks) using Dark Simulacrum. In addition to preventingthe targeted player from taking damage from it, it gives a nice DPS boost tothe Death Knight who casts Dark Simulacrum.

3. Ice Phase↑top

             During the Ice Phase, Hagara does not need to be (and cannot be) tanked.You will have to stick together with your raid. Thereare no adds for you to tank here, and your main goal is survival.Your tasks during this phase can be summarised as follows:

• Stay outside of the large bubble that covers the center of theplatform.
• Move around the other edges of the platform, in a clockwise manner, whileavoiding:
  • the falling Icicles, the impact location of which is clearly marked withvoid zones (this mechanic is absent in LFR difficulty);
  • the Ice Waves that travel in a clockwise manner around theplatform (they are slightly slower than your normal run speed and they arevery deadly);
• Do some damage to the 4 Crystals that can be found around the edges ofthe platform (only when you do not have anything to avoid).

The Ice Phase ends when all 4 Crystals have been destroyed.

4. Lightning Phase↑top

       During the Lightnight Phase, Hagara does not need to be (and cannot be)tanked. You will have to do the following things:

• Pick up and tank the only add, a Bound Lightning Elemental, next to oneof the 4 Crystal Conductors located around the platform. It always spawns atthe same spot (near the entrance portal).
• Once the Elemental is killed, you will have to assist your raid in forminga chain of players from the conductor (which is now overloaded) to the next one(which will become overloaded as a result), and so on until all 4 conductorshave been overloaded. Your raid leader will direct your movement here.

Once all 4 conductors have been overloaded, the phase will end.

5. Heroic Mode↑top

In addition to almost all abilities dealing more damage and every unit havingmore health, each phase of the fight has a unique difference between Normal andHeroic mode.

5.1. Main Phase

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.

Optionally, your raid leader may ask you to make the boss face away the restof the raid so that you are the only player in front of her. This will cause Shattered Ice to always target you.

5.2. 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 raid leader should communicate a location where people should gowhen targeted by Frostflake, usually inside the Watery Entrenchmentor on the edge of the platform. The idea is that other players do not getstuck in the Frostflake Snare that will appear after Frostflake is dispelled.

In addition, you will probably be asked to use Stampeding Roarif you are a Druid tank, in order to reduce the traveling time from oneCrystal to the other.

Finally, in order to maximise DPS on the Crystals, you should keep attackingthem even if an Icicle is going to fall on you (provided that you have enoughhealth to survive the 100,000 Frost damage).

5.3. Lightning Phase

During the Lightning Phase, you will still need to bring the add close toa Crystal Conductor. When it reaches low health, most of the raid willstart positioning themselves around the platform. The idea is that assoon as the first Crystal Conductor is overloaded, the raid should alreadybe properly positioned to spread the lightning to all (almost all, in10-man difficulty) the other Crystal Conductors. The positionassigned to you will most likely be very close to the first CrystalConductor.

Also, Storm Pillars will randomly appear on the platform. Theyexplode after 3 seconds, dealing 35,000 Nature damage to players closeto them. Normally, your raid will ignore them and heal through the damage,as otherwise this will interfere with the raid positioning for spreadingthe lightning.