Hey guys I’m Mezzy from WoW Weekly and today we’ll be taking a look at Xhul’horac in Heroic Hellfire Citadel. These tactics also apply to the normal version.
This is a 4 phase encounter in which you will deal with different abilities in the first 2 phases and then face them both in the last 2 phases. The core of this encounter is that Xhul’horac will use 2 different magic schools: Fire and Shadow. If you get hit by a fire spell you will get a 10 second debuff. If you get hit by a Shadow spell in those 20 seconds, you will explode dealing a large amount of damage to anyone within 20 yards. The same applies for if you get hit by a shadow spell, you will not be allowed to get hit by a fire spell for 20 seconds.
When you cause an explosion you will also increase your damage taken by the next explosion by 100% for 1 minute.
Different spells will create moving patches of fire and shadow on the ground in this fight. Standing in fire will give you a stacking fire dot and standing in shadow will give you a stacking shadow dot. When the patches of fire and shadow touch each other they will explode dealing a lot of damage to anyone standing nearby. This will also increase their damage taken by the explosion by 100% for 1 minute. This detail is important because you’ll want to force some explosions as they clear up the fire where the explosion occurs.
So, with the environmental mechanics out of the way, let’s talk phase 1.
In phase 1 Xhul’horac will use Fel Strike on the tank dealing a big amount of fire damage to them. Meanwhile he will put the Fel Surge debuff on random players. After 5 seconds the debuff will expire and leave patches of fire underneath those players. So to deal with this in phase 1 you will want to use one side of the room and if you get the debuff move to the edges of the room so that the fire can stay out of the way for as long as possible.
You will also have to deal with adds in this phase. There will be a mini boss called Vanguard Akkelion. This will need to be tanked by the tank that’s not tanking Xhul’horac as he will also be putting heavy damage on the tank through his ability Felblaze Flurry. The damage of this attack will increase on the tank each time. This means it will require a tank swap after Felblaze Flurry ends.
Akkelion’s second ability is Chains of Fel. With this he will chain players together and a dot will start ticking on them. They can break this chain by moving away from each other, and they should of course do so.
During phase 1 you will also have to deal with Wild Pyromaniacs. These are just imps. They will start casting Fel Orbs which will throw balls of fire into the environment. If they hit the ground patches of fire will spawn from this. However if you get hit by the fire ball instead the fire will not spawn but you’ll get a stacking dot for 15 seconds. So to deal with the imps you’ll want to group them up if you can with grips and you can stun/interrupt them. Dps these down as soon as possible and if a fire ball does get cast, get hit by it so less fire spawns.
Your dps priority will be the imps, then Akkelion and if you can cleave damage onto him, the boss. Any damage Akkelion takes will also be put on the boss. In phase 1 run away from your chain partner, intercept the Fel Orbs and if you get the Fel Surge debuff run as far as you can to the edge.
Once Akkelion dies you will enter phase 2. You will face mostly similar mechanics but now they will be of the shadow school spell. So if you get hit by fire, do not get hit by shadow and vice versa. You will also want to move to the other side of the room to reduce the chance of fire and shadow meeting each other.
In phase 2 Xhul’horac will now hit the tank with a high hitting shadow damage spell, Void Strike. He will also put the debuff Void Surge on 1 player, which will also put shadow patches on the ground after 5 seconds. Once again, run this to the edge if you get this debuff. This will deal a lot more damage to that player though, so they will need healing.
The mini boss during phase 2 is Omnus. His Withering Gaze ability works just like Felblaze Flurry. This is a heavy hitting attack that will increase your damage taken from Withering Gaze by 20%. You will again want to swap tanks after Withering Gaze ends.
Instead of chains, now you will have to deal with Black Hole. This will keep pulling everyone towards it until it explodes. You can make the Black Hole explode by letting someone run to it’s center. This will then deal a huge amount of damage to anyone within 11 yards of the center. So choose a group 4-5 of players to take care of the Black Holes each time. To make coordinating this easier, we put raid marks on the assigned players so it would be easy to see when enough players were at the black hole to make it explode. Any extra people soaking the explosion because they were close are just a bonus to spread the damage more.
In addition to the imps you will also deal with Unstable Voidfiends. These will teleport to the nearest player, dealing a moderate amount of shadow damage. You will see a small purple swirl on the ground where they are going to teleport. So you can get out of the way without being hit. If someone gets hit by it then a patch of shadow will be put on the ground.
In phase 2 prioritize killing the imps, then voidfiends and then Omnus. Assign multiple people to close Blackholes and if you get the Void Surge move it out of the raid.
In phase 2 you will also want to start using explosions to your advantage to clear up the fire on the other side of the room. The green and purple flames will expand over time so you want to clear as much up as possible. We had multiple people get hit by shadow damage on purpose, run over to the green side of the room and clear up the fire by letting explosions occur.
You need to continue doing this in phase 3 as well because it will get quite hectic. We put up additional markers in the encounter area so that it was easier to call out where to clean up the fire or shadow so that anyone else near that point could get away.
Once Omnus dies you will enter phase 3. In this phase Xhul’horac will use both spell schools and all spells from the previous phases. If you get Fel Surge, move to the fire side and if you get Void Surge move to the shadow side. Keep taking care of adds and move the boss to where there isn’t any fire. !!!!One tank should tank the boss when he’s in his fire mode and one should tank him when he’s in his shadow mode.!!!
You will also have to clear up the shadow fire on the purple side now so be sure to coordinate letting explosions occur there as well. If you have one rogue or more you can really use them well by having both feint to reduce the explosion damage and cloak of shadows to take off the damage increasing debuff once they have 3 or 4 stacks. It will mean you don’t have to have a lot of people clearing up the fire which helps the general coordination.
Once Xhul’horac reaches 20% you will go into phase 4. No more adds will spawn, but you will now have to deal with the soft enrage. Xhul’horac will use Overwhelming Chaos every 10 seconds. He will pulse for a moderate amount of Chaos damage but he will also increase his damage done by 20% each time. Use heroism at this point clear up any adds and finish him off. Just be sure to stand on a part of the platform that does not have fire or shadow.
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