Hyjal Summit - Azgalor (Boss 4)

[Shadowwolf]

Links:
http://www.wowwiki.com/Azgalor_%28tactics%29

Video:
[youtube=500,425]gtxMn3p3LnU[/youtube]

Abilities:

Wave Mobs:

Crypt Fiends
Shackle-able / Fear-able / Trap-able

• ~170k HP
• Melee - ~2k on plate
• Spiders - sometimes shoot out tiny spiders at a random person in range. They do about 300-400 damage total.
• Web - Occasionally web someone, immobilizing them for 10 seconds.

Ghouls
Shackle-able / Fear-able / Trap-able

• ~140k HP
• Melee - ~1.5k on plate
• Cannibalise - When they go low on health, the ghouls will run to a corpse and start cannibalizing it, restoring about 7% of their health every 2 seconds, for 10 seconds.
• Frenzy - 150% attack speed increase for 8 seconds

Stun, shackle or fear these when they Cannibalize as fast as you can to prevent it restoring health.

Shadowy Necromancers
Sheep-able / Fear-able / Trap-able

• ~120k HP
• Unholy Frenzy - Increases an ally's attack speed by 100% for 20 sec, but also inflicts 500 nature damage to that ally every 2 sec.
• Shadow Bolt - A bolt of shadow dealing 2250-2750 to the current target.
• Cripple - Increases the time between an enemy's attacks by 100% and decreases movement speed by 50%, in addition to reducing its strength by 50%. Lasts 15 sec. Can be dispelled.
• Summon Skeletons - Summon a skeleton from a nearby corpse. They can be either a Skeleton Invader, with 32k HP, or a Skeleton Mage with 24k HP. One is a melee type, the other one is a caster. They are no real threat, just an irritation.

Banshee
Shackle-able / Fear-able / Trap-able

• ~83k HP
• Banshee Curse - Reduces chance to hit by 66% for 5 min. Decurseable.
• Banshee Wail - Much like a Shadow Bolt, it causes 2475 to 3025 to the current target.
• Anti-Magic Shell - Creates an anti-magic shield around the caster, absorbing up to 200,000 magic damage for 30 seconds. Can be purged.

Abominations
Shackle-able / Fear-able / Trap-able

• ~180k HP
• Melee - ~3k on plate
• Poison Aura - Sometimes the Abomination will use a poison cloud-like ability, dealing roughly 750 damage to everyone around the Abomination every 3 seconds.

Gargoyles

• ~120k HP
• Melee - ~1.5k on plate
• Gargoyle Strike - Deals 850 to 1150 nature damage to an enemy. The spell has a 35 yard range and a 1.5 second cast.

The Gargoyles will start in the air, out of melee range. Howoever, if they aggro someone and he goes out of their Gargoyle Strike range, they will land and follow by ground and remain grounded.

Frost Wyrm

• ~330k HP
• Frost Breath - A 3 second cast, 35 yard range ability that deals 2550 to 3450 frost damage to it's target and everyone in 8 yards around it, and slowing their movement speed by 50% for 6 seconds.

They will remain airborne until they die, and so cannot be damaged by melee. They will come in waves 6 and 7 from the direction of the 2 Towers where the tanks and Shadowy Necromancer DPS are.
Have them off tanked by a hunter / mage / warlock somewhere away from people.

Giant Infernal
Banish-able / Fear-able

• ~130k HP
• Melee Strength - 2000 fire damage
• Flame Buffet - Increases fire damage taken by an enemy by 50 for 60 seconds. It stacks infinitely and is cast on the target highest on his aggro list. Can be dispelled.
• Immolation Aura - Burns nearby enemies for 414 to 456 fire damage every 3 seconds.

Fel Stalker
Banish-able / Fear-able

• ~100k HP
• Melee - 2400 damage on cloth/600-800 on plate
• Mana Burn - Burns 1140-1260 mana from the Fel Stalker's current target and deals half the mana burned in damage(570-630). Can be interrupted.

Boss

Azgalor

• Melee - ~8k on plate, no crushing blows
• [spell=31340]Rain of Fire[/spell] - A 20-yard random area of effect spell dealing 1619-1881 fire damage every 2 seconds for 10 seconds. Applies [spell=31341]Unquenchable Flames[/spell], dealing 1250 fire damage every 1 second for 5 seconds. Resistable. Can be avoided with Divine Shield / Ice Block / Cloak of Shadows.
• [spell=31344]Howl of Azgalor[/spell] - 5 sec zone-wide AoE silence, 15 seconds cooldown, resistable (shadow)
• [spell=31345]Cleave[/spell] - Frontal Cleave ability which hits for ~10k on plate
• [spell=31347]Doom[/spell] - Casted every 45-50 seconds on a random target, it places a debuff on the player which will kill the player after 20 seconds. When the target dies, it will spawn a Lesser Doomguard with 62,000 health on the spot of the dead player that should be tanked. The ability is not used on the main tank and cannot be removed or avoided in any way by any immunity.
• Enrage - Enrages 10 minutes after the pull

Lesser Doomguard

• ~65k HP
• Melee - ~2.5k on plate
• [spell=12787]Thrash[/spell] - Chance on successful melee hit to gain two extra attacks
• [spell=31406]Cripple[/spell] - Debuff slowing movement and attack speed by 50%
• [spell=31408]Warstomp[/spell] - short range AoE dealing 1250 damage plus 2 sec stun, ~15 sec cooldown

Suggested Strategy:

Trash Waves

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Have 1 or 2 hunters pull off a mob each wave to the tauren and Thrall camps then run back into the raid.

The waves come every 3 minutes, except for wave 8, which gives you 4 minutes before the boss.

Wave 1
6 Abominations, 6 Shadowy Necromancers

Sheep/fear most of the Shadowy Necromancers. Melee can start killing off the Shadowy Necromancers one by one, making sure you interrupt their spells as much as you can.

One or two hunters should pull an Abomination back to the tauren warrior and Thrall camps to engage them in the battle. Tanks gather up the Abominations. Ranged DPS focus on the Necroamancers at first until the tanks say they have aggro and are ready for AoE, after which start AoE-ing the Abominations.

Wave 2
5 Ghouls, 8 Gargoyles, 1 Frost Wyrm

This time the Gargoyles will come from where all mobs come during the waves, and the Frost Wyrm will come from the right-side Tower as seen from the horde camp.

Have a hunter/mage/warlock tank keep aggro on the Frost Wyrm away from the raid. Everyone who can should throw a DoT on the Frost Wyrm.

If you get Gargoyle aggro try to run away from them so as to make them land. Once landed, Tanks try to grab aggro on the Gargoyles and pile them up together with the Ghouls (who should already be tanked), and then begin AoE.

Once everything is dead, focus on finishing off the Frost Wyrm.

[attachimg=2]

Wave 3
6 Ghouls, 8 Giant Infernals

In this wave, 6 Ghouls will come, in addition to 8 Giant Infernal meteorites falling around in a big circle, centered slightly in front of Thrall.

Main Tanks grab aggro on the Ghouls and build it up. If you think 2-3 Tanks can manage all the Ghouls, send some out to help with tanking the Giant Infernals.

You most likely won't need to kite in this wave, as a Giant Infernal will often land in range of the horde NPCs.

The Giant Infernals should be feared and Banished. The tauren warriors and all horde NPCs in general are very capable of tanking them. Kill off the NPC-tanked Infernals first, and keep Banishing/fearing the rest. Don't pile them up, as their Immolation Aura will become very deadly that way and a person or NPC with the Flame Buffet can die off quickly.

You can either:

• AoE the Ghouls first and kill off the Infernals later
• kill some Infernals then AoE the Ghouls and continue killing Infernals
• kill the Infernals and then AoE the Ghouls.

The choice is yours though the second option is slightly recommended.

Wave 4
6 Fel Stalkers, 8 Giant Infernals

The Fel Stalkers are deadly as they have a Mana Burn, which burns roughly 1200 mana. They need to be tanked, Taunted off mana classes at all times, and then AoE-ed.

Dealing with this wave is the same as Wave 3 when it comes to Giant Infernals.

You can either:

• AoE the Fel Stalkers first and kill off the Giant Infernals later
• kill some Giant Infernals then AoE the Fel Stalkers and continue killing Giant Infernals
• kill the Giant Infernals and then AoE the Fel Stalkers
• have all melee kill off the Fel Stalkers while ranged kills the Giant Infernals.

The choice is entirely yours.

Wave 5
4 Abominations, 6 Fel Stalkers, 4 Shadowy Necromancers

Tanks should grab the Abominations and Fel Stalkers and build up aggro while melee and ranged kill off 1-2 Shadowy Necromancers.
Sheep the rest of the Shadowy Necromancers or even fear them.

After tanks have enough aggro, AoE the Abominations and Fel Stalkers. Melee keep on the Shadowy Necromancers. After all the Abominations and Fel Stalkers are dead, kill off the other Shadowy Necromancers.

Wave 6
8 Shadowy Necromancers, 6 Banshees

This wave is a bit harder than the rest as the potential for being 1-shot due to Shadowbolt/Banshee Wail chaining is high. Thus, have your main tanks stand in front of the entire raid (as you often should anyway) so they can take the initial aggro and get the spell hits. Be ready for a lot of fast healing to keep them up.

After tanks have aggro, sheep/fear the Shadowy Necromancers. Melee should start killing off the Banshees as their Anti-Magic Shell can be tricky to break through with AoE.

Ranged should focus on the Shadowy Necromancers, trying to Counterspell their spells.

Priests can try to Mind Control a few Shadowy Necromancers, and first increase melee DPS with their buffs before helping out with killing/taking aggro on the other free Shadowy Necromancers and Banshees; there are two ways of dealing with these. Either kill them one by one, or try to pile them up as much as you can and AoE what you have. The second variant is certainly harder to execute but can save you precious seconds if you're having trouble with the wave timer.

Wave 7
6 Giant Infernals, 2 Fel Stalkers, 2 Crypt Fiends, 2 Ghouls

Tanks grab the Fel Stalkers, Crypt Fiends, Ghouls and anything else.

While you build up aggro on them, ranged and melee take care of some of the Giant Infernals. AoE the Felhunter/Crypt Fiend/Ghoul pack when tanks have enough aggro and kill off any remaining mobs.

Wave 8
4 Abominations, 4 Crypt Fiends, 2 Fel Stalkers, 2 Shadowy Necromancers, 4 Banshees.
(the last trash wave you'll see in the Battle of Mount Hyjal .. this week)

Tanks should grab the Abominations, Crypt Fiends and Fel Stalkers. Sheep the Shadowy Necromancers. Melee can start killing off the Banshees. Ranged should also help out while they don't have their Anti-Magic Shell yet. When the tanks have enough aggro, AoE the mobs. After the AoE targets are dead, kill off any remaining mobs.

The Boss

[attachimg=3]

Azgalor will come from the normal wave entrance. If you need to slow his approach to allow extra recovery time, a few rogues can chain Distract him. With 3 rogues, you can keep him entirely in place.

Azgalor must be Misdirected as soon as possible to the main tank so that he does not aggro on Thrall. If he engages some Horde mobs at the entrance, you should still Misdirect him. You don't want the NPCs competing for aggro at the start of the fight.

About 15 seconds after the moment Azgalor is engaged (be it by players or NPCs) he will use his Howl of Azgalor, and keep using it every 15-20 seconds. The MT must have his health topped off and have multiple heal over time (HoT) spells on him before this silence so that he doesn't die during it.

On a random basis and very often, if not constantly, Azgalor will cast his Rain of Fire ability on a random target. The raid needs to stay spread out and move out from it when hit. The main tank can simply take the Rain of Fire damage if it's cast within range of him for any reason.

40-45 seconds into the fight, the first Doom will be cast, and a new one will be cast every 40-45 seconds. Doom kills the targeted player after 20 seconds, which cannot be prevented, and spawns a Lesser Doomguard from him. The player must run to the Doomguard tanking spot as soon as possible and do everything he can not to die before he's there.

At the tank spot, there should be a healer and 2 tanks. If you're having trouble, add one more healer or tank as you see fit.
The Lesser Doomguard must be tanked near Thrall. Also, keeping the Doomguard tanking spot out of range of Howl of Azgalor helps the healer on the Doomguard tank.

Thrall and his camp alone are perfectly capable of dealing with the Doomguard and keeping no more than 1-2 Doomguards up at a time.

At the end of the fight the tanks should have a total of about 3-4 Lesser Doomguards on them which the raid must kill after Azgalor is dead.

Azgalor hits very hard so be very careful with the Main Tank healing.

Keep everyone topped off before the silence and move out of the Rain of Fire as fast as you can. Survive the Howl of Azgalor, Rain of Fire, don't die with Doom on you before you've reached the Doomguard tank spot, and you will have a kill. It takes about 5 minutes to kill Azgalor, which is around 7-8 Dooms.

Notes:

Thrall must be kept more than 100 yards away from Azgalor as the Howl of Azgalor will engage Thrall in combat with Azgalor and the Rain of Fire will kill him rather quickly

The Howl of Azgalor can be resisted; shadow protection gear and buffs are useful for healers.

One tank for the boss, and at least one more for the Lesser Doomguards (two is better, in case one of them gets Doom). The Doomguard tanks need two healers, the Azgalor tank three. The other healers should keep up the raid.

Casters should wear some epic shadow resistance gear and the Shadow Protection buff as well, to resist the silence. Fire resistance potions can increase survivability, the melee group can wear some fire resistance gear if available. All Warlocks should have a Soulstone available, but not pre-cast.

The boss should be tanked away from Thrall and all NPCs, because the NPCs die quickly in the Rain of Fire.

Rain of Fire

The first priority for everyone is to avoid Rain of Fire - move out of it fast. Beyond that, the periodic silence makes it challenging to keep the tank up. The tank should have as many HoTs as possible at all times, and (like everybody else) be generally at top health, so that there's a good chance to survive 5 seconds without a heal. It's also possible to stop all melee attacks during silence, so that the Boss doesn't get the increased swing speed from parries.

Lesser Doomguards

When receiving the debuff, players should run to the predetermined Doomguard tanking spot. At that place, Thrall and his NPCs should kill them. One possible setup is to tank them at Thrall's place, and use one Doomed player to pull the Tauren NPCs to that place (one player dies near the warriors, and a second tank brings the Doomguard along with the Tauren to Thrall).

Depending on the number of Warlocks and healers, it's possible to Soulstone anybody with doom, or only healers.

Note: there is a known bug (as of 2.4) that Doomguard tanks may be unable to get loot because they are not on the aggro table of the boss. It is highly recommended for Doomguard tanks and healer to go in range and do a couple ranged attacks on the boss before going to the Doomguard tanking spot. Healing or bandaging someone who is on the bosses aggro table also should work.

Class Comments
Tanks
Taunt loose mobs, don't let them get on the casters, and be ready for AoE Taunt if anything goes wrong. On the boss itself, have the dedicated protection/feral tanks assigned for Azgalor and Lesser Doomguard tanking.

Lesser Doomguard tanks shouldn't stand close to the Doom-ed person so that they don't catch a Warstomp before they have aggro.

Fury Warriors, Feral Druids, Rogues
If you're not tanking any mobs, make sure to Taunt (for feral druids/warriors) mobs off the Horde NPCs if the NPCs get low on health. On Azgalor, move out of the Rain of Fire as fast as you can. Rogues can use Cloak of Shadows to avoid the damage and the DoT altogether.

Mages
On the non-Abomination waves, position is irrelevant. In Abomination waves it's crucial to be out of melee range of the Abominations. Sheep the Shadowy Necromancers, Counterspell their Shadowbolts, and keep an eye on the sheep. On Azgalor , run out of the Rain Of Fire and use Fire Ward to absorb some of the damage.

Warlocks
Banish Stalkers and Giant Infernals, prioritizing those that are attacking the tauren warriors. On the non-Abomination waves, position is irrelevant. In Abomination waves it's crucial to be out of melee range of the Abominations. Fear the Shadowy Necromancers if the sheeping isn't fast enough, but don't fear too much as chasing down the mobs saps raid DPS. On Azgalor, Soulstone the people who get the Doom, whilst saving a Soulstone or two in case a healer gets it.

Hunters
You'll be kiting the undead mobs to the back of the raid to engage Thrall and the other mobs at the back into the fight. Use Aspect of the Cheetah if you're having troubles, but don't let the mobs hit you. Kite the mobs through the AoE whenever you can. On Azgalor, like everyone else, run out of the Rain of Fire.

Healers
At the trash, simply keep the raid alive. Shamans and paladins help out the AoE with Magma Totems, Holy Wrath, and Consecration.
At Azgalor, keep the tank and the raid topped at all times and especially just before a Howl of Azgalor, and use as many heal over time (HoT) spells on him as you can to prevent him dying during the silence effect. A paladin is most suitable for healing the Lesser Doomguard tanks.