Mount Hyjal Tactics

Rage Winterchill

Introduction
Rage Winterchill is the first boss fight in Hyjal, and while it's one of the most annoying, it's quite easy.

As you'll probably have only 25 or fewer people attuned, you'll most often take your Kael'Thas or Vashj group setups to Mount Hyjal as well.

The fight can be done with 23, or even 21, people, so don't worry if you can't get a full raid of 25 in.


Raid Setup
Tanks: 5 (A mix of Prot and Fury Warriors and Feral Druids)
Healers: 8
DPS: 12

Alter this setup depending on the number of people you have attuned, but in general make sure to bring at least 2 feral druids and 3-4 warriors. Some of the "tanks" can be DPS specced and change from tanking gear to DPS gear at the end of the waves.


Buffs, Potions and Gear
No special potions are required besides the ones you use on every raid. Full damage potions for the DPS is crucial.


Boss Abilities

Rage Winterchill

HP - 4,200,000
Melee Strength - 3k on plate.

Icebolt - Shoots at a random target, dealing 4250-5750 frost damage, encasing the person in a frozen tomb, which deals 2500 damage per second, lasting a total of 4 seconds. It's an instant cast and Winterchill will target the person he fires it at for a split second before he returns to the tank.

Frost Nova - A Frost Nova spells that freezes anyone in the area it's used over, just like the Mage's Water Elemental's Frost Nova spells, immobilising people affected by it, for 6 second. It's dispellable but it's often not worth it. He won't use Death and Decay while you're frozen.

Death and Decay - A 10 second channelled spell, affecting a patch of ground, much like the Vashj Toxic Spores, dealing to each person in the area damage equal to 15% of that person's max health each second. He won't use Death and Decay while you're frozen with Frost Nova.

Frost Armor - An exact copy of the mage ability, reducing attack speed and movement.


The Mobs

Abomination
Abominations
These start coming with wave 6 and are in almost every group after that, ranging from 2 to 6 in number.

HP - 180,000
Melee Strength - About 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.

Shackle-able / Fear-able/ Trap-able


Ghouls
Ghouls are a part of nearly every single wave.

HP - 140,000
Melee Strength - About 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.

If you see a ghoul cannibalizing, you must stun it or Shackle it or even fear it as fast as you can to prevent it restoring health. A cannibalizing ghoul takes an entire raid's worth of DPS to kill.

Shackle-able / Fear-able/ Trap-able


Shadowy Necromancers
These guys are a part of most waves after wave 4. Potentially the deadliest mobs in the waves.

HP - 120,000

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.

Sheep-able / Fear-able / Trap-able


Crypt Fiend
Crypt Fiends
In most waves Crypt Fiends put in an appearance, though they are most noticable in the first and last waves.

HP - 170,000
Melee Strength - About 2k on plate.

They will sometimes shoot out tiny spiders at a random person in range. They do about 300-400 damage total. Absolutely nothing to worry about.

Web - They will sometimes put a web around someone, immobilizing him for 10 seconds.

Shackle-able / Fear-able / Trap-able


Alliance NPCs
They're all Elite, do mediocre damage and have tons of HP.

The alliance base is full of NPCs who will help you throughout the encounter. Their aggro range isn't too big however, so the hunters should pull mobs, as described below, to the alliance groups in the back to engage them in the fight as well.

The NPCs cannot be buffed or healed or interacted with in any way. The only exception is that Jaina Proudmoore gives an aura to people in 20 yards that increases their spirit by 100%. In general, it is useful to Taunt mobs off the NPCs if they are close to dying, since the can be easily killed and the damage they contribute is very useful.

The NPCs will reset and regen health when the raid goes out of combat. However, if an NPC dies it's down for the try.


The Fight


Trash Waves
Two ranged DPS players, hunters preferably, should be assigned to peel off one weaker mob each, from every wave (like a Ghoul) and drag it back to Jaina Proudmoore and the Riflemen, in order to make them join the fight, since they are a great help. After the back NPCs have aggroed the kited mob, the hunters should try to kite it through the AoE area so it can take more damage.

If there is a mob attacking the NPCs, usually a group of 5-6 NPCs can sucessfully kill it on their own, but 1-2 will die in the process. Since they are valuable DPS, it is a good idea to have any extra non-tank feral druids or warriors, or even the tank themselves, Taunt the mobs off the NPCs so they won't die.

Each wave consists of about 12 to 18 mobs and they come roughly every 2 minutes.

If you kill the current wave before the next one comes, you'll be placed out of combat and you can drink or eat till the next one comes.

In general, if you do not kill all mobs before the next wave, you'll get overrun in a wave or two at most. With good performance you should have about 10-15 seconds break before each wave.

Wave 1
The first wave consists of Crypt Fiends and Ghouls.

The tanks grab about 2-3 mobs each and start building aggro on all of them. While the tanks are building up aggro, the raid focuses DPS on some Crypt Fiend or Ghoul, which is tanked either by the NPCs or an extra fury warrior/feral druid. When that mob is dead, and by judge of the tanks, AoE can begin. Every single class should try to help the AoE. Mages, warlocks, paladin, warriors, druids, rogues - everyone with some kind of multi-hitting ability should help out.

The next few waves should have a similiar setup.

Shadowy Necromancer
Wave 4
This is when the Shadowy Necromancers join along with the Ghouls and Crypt Fiends.

The Shadowy Necromancers will aggro the first player or mob they'll see, though most often a player. If more than 2-3 Shadowy Necromancers come, and there's a healer or caster in front and he gets targeted, in 90% of the cases he'll die from being hit by 2-3 Shadow Bolts simultaneously.

The Shadowy Necromancers should be sheeped or feared.

In these waves, Melee is assigned to killing the Shadowy Necromancers while mages, warlocks and paladins are assigned to AoE-ing the Crypt Fiends and Ghouls.

When there's only about 1-2 Shadowy Necromancers left alive, the melee should get back and help on whatever's left alive from the AoE, after which the entire raid focuses fire on the remaining Shadowy Necromancers.

It goes on like this for about 2 more waves.


Wave 6
At wave 6, Abominations will start joining the fight. Wave 6 should contain only 2 Abominations. Those are treated as Crypt Fiends.
These phases go like a mix of Wave 1 and Wave 4. Tanks build aggro on all undead mobs. Melee is assigned to killing the Shadowy Necromancers, while the Warlocks, Mages and Paladins are assigned to AoE. When there's only about 1-2 Shadowy Necromancers left alive, the melee should get back and help on whatever's left alive from the AoE, after which the entire raid focuses fire on the remaining Shadowy Necromancers.

The rest of the waves are a mix of Abominations, Crypt Fiends, Shadowy Necromancers and Ghouls and mostly resemble Wave 6. Here;s a complete breakdown:

Code:

Wave   Mobs   Total Number
1   10 Ghouls   10
2   10 Ghouls, 2 Crypt Fiends   12
3   6 Ghouls, 6 Crypt Fiends   12
4   6 Ghouls, 4 Crypt Fiends, 2 Necromancers   12
5   2 Ghouls, 6 Crypt Fiends, 4 Necromancers   12
6   6 Ghouls, 6 Abominations   12
7   4 Ghouls, 4 Necromancers, 4 Abominations   12
8   6 Ghouls, 4 Crypt Fiends, 2 Abominations, 2 Necromancers   14

On wave 8, you'll have about 3 minutes before Rage Winterchill spawns so you can drink/eat rebuff, etc.


Boss


Rage Winterchill
It doesn't matter where he's tanked, as long as he is away from Jaina Proudmoore, as his spells will kill her and reset the event. He will arrive like the rest of the mobs and engage the person closest to him. Misdirect him to your main tank and let him build up some aggro before you start DPS-ing.

There's nothing special about him. He will use his abilities pretty randomly and relatively often.

An important rule of thumb is to keep everybody topped up. It is important for everybody to have their Spell Details in Video Options up to full , or you won't see the Death and Decay. As soon as you see the Death and Decay (red bubbles on the ground, same as the mobs in Botanica), it is imperative you stop what you're doing and move out. He won't use Death and Decay while you're frozen.

Icebolt, which he uses very often, is the biggest hazard. It does over 10,000 damage in about 3 seconds, and will kill most people before then. The key to dealing with this ability is simply having lightning reactions and casting fast heals, or even pre-casting on a person the moment you see the Icebolt flying at him, so the heal can land together with the bolt.

As an overview, keep everybody topped up, be lightning fast on the Icebolt and always immediately move out from the Death & Decay.


Ghoul
Class Comments
Tanks - Do a lot of tanking! Taunt loose mobs, don't let them get on the casters, and be ready with an AoE Taunt if anything goes wrong.

Fury Warriors, Feral Druids - If you're not tanking any mobs, make sure to Taunt mobs off the Alliance NPCs if the NPCs get low on health.

Rogues - Focus on the single-target damage of the pre-AoE targets, help kill the AoE-d mobs after AoE is called, and finish off the Shadowy Necromancers.

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.

Warlocks - 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 feared mobs saps raid DPS.

Hunters - You'll be kiting the Ghouls to the back of the raid, to engage Jaina and the other NPCs at the back into the fight. Use Aspect of the Cheetah if you're having troubles, and don't let the mobs hit you. Kite the mobs through the AoE whenever you can.

Healers - Simply keep the raid alive. Shamans can use Magma Totems and paladins can use Holy Wrath/Consecration to help out on the AoE.


Miscellaneous Notes
If you die in the fight, you can corpse-run back in and rejoin at any time, even midway through a wave fight, but not during the boss itself.

Anetheron

Raid Setup
Tanks: 5 (A mix of Protection and Fury Warriors and Feral Druids)
Healers: 9
DPS : 11

A total of about 4 priests - Shadow and Holy should be brought for the extra Shackles which come useful later on.
Alter this setup depending on the number of people you have attuned, but in general make sure to bring at least 2 Feral druids and 3-4 warriors. Some of the "tanks" can be DPS specced and change from tanking gear to DPS gear at the end of the waves.

Buffs, Potions and Gear
Make sure your rogues bring plenty of top level Wound Poison.

No special potions are required besides the ones you use on every raid. Full damage potions for the DPS is crucial.

Anetheron

Boss Abilities

Anetheron
HP - 4,200,000
Melee Strength - About 3-6k on plate.

Carrion Swarm - Sends out a green carrion blast wave in a cone of about 60 degress of the target it's cast upon, dealing 4250 to 5750 shadow damage, and applying a debuff that reduces healing DONE(not recieved) by 75%. Not dispellable, affects potions, bandages; everything. The debuff lasts 20 seconds, and the Swarm itself is targeted at a random person. Has a 60 yard range.
He uses this ability aproximately every 11-15 seconds. (Variable timer)

Inferno - Cast every minute on a random target. A meteor falls from the sky, dealing 2,500 fire damage, stunning the target for 2 seconds and summoning a Towering Infernal where it lands. The Towering Infernal has 220,000 health , doesn't hit hard, but has an Immolation dealing 3325 to 3675 fire damage every 2 seconds to everyone within 8 yards.

Sleep - Sleeps up to 3 random targets for 10 seconds. Dispellable by Tremor Totem or Will of the Forsaken.

Vamperic Aura - Heals Anetheron for 300% of the damage he deals. Your rogues need to keep Wound Poison fully stacked on him at all times to limit the impact of this ability.


The Mobs

Abomination

These start coming with wave 2 and are in almost every group after that, ranging from 2 to 4 in number.

HP - 180,000
Melee Strength - About 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.

Shackle-able / Fear-able/ Trap-able


Ghouls
Ghouls are a part of nearly every single wave.

HP - 140,000
Melee Strength - About 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.

If you see a ghoul cannibalizing, you must stun it or Shackle it or even fear it as fast as you can to prevent it restoring health. A cannibalizing ghoul takes an entire raid's worth of DPS to kill.

Shackle-able / Fear-able/ Trap-able


Shadowy Necromancer

These guys are a part of most waves after wave 4. Potentially the deadliest mobs in the waves.

HP - 120,000

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.

Sheep-able / Fear-able / Trap-able


Banshee
Part of most waves after wave 3

HP - 83,000

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 pruged.

Shackle-able / Fear-able / Trap-able


Crypt Fiend

In most waves Crypt Fiends put in an appearance.

HP - 170,000
Melee Strength - About 2k on plate.

They will sometimes shoot out tiny spiders at a random person in range. They do about 300-400 damage total. Absolutely nothing to worry about.

Web - They will sometimes put a web around someone, immobilizing him for 10 seconds.

Shackle-able / Fear-able / Trap-able


Towering Infernal
Towering Infernal
HP - 220,000

Immolation - Deals 3325 to 3675 Fire damage every 2 seconds to everyone within 8 yards of the Infernal.


Alliance NPCs
They're all Elite, do Mediocre damage and have tons of HP.

The alliance base is full on NPCs which will help you throughout the encounter. Their aggro range isn't too big though, so the hunters should pull mobs, as described below, to the alliance groups in the back to engage them in the fight as well.

The NPCs cannot be buffed or healed or interacted with in any way. Only Jaina Proudmoore gives an aura to people in 20 yards that increases their Spirit by 100%. In general, it is useful to Taunt mobs off the NPCs if they are close to dying, since they can be easily killed and the damage they contribute is very useful.

The NPCs will reset and regenerate health when the raid goes out of combat. If an NPC dies it's down for the try.


The Fight

Trash Waves

Anetheron Raid Positions for the trash waves

A hunter should be assigned to peeling off one weaker mob from every wave, like a Ghoul, and dragging it back to Jaina Proudmoore and the Riflemen, in order to make them join the fight as well since they are a great help. After the back NPCs have aggroed the kited mob, the hunter should try to kite it through the AoE area so it can take more damage.

If there is a mob attacking the NPCs, usually a group of 5-6 NPCs can sucessfully kill it on their own, but 1-2 will die in the process. Since they're valuable DPS it is a good idea to have any extra non-tank feral druids or warriors, or even the tank themselves, Taunt the mobs off the NPCs so they won't die.

The Hunter Kited mobs are the pre-AoE targets, which are killed while the tanks are building aggro, so that the NPC-aggroed mobs can die sooner and Jaina will use her AoE abilities to help you.

Each wave consists of about 10 to 14 mobs and they come roughly every 2 minutes.

If you kill the current wave before the next one comes, you'll be placed out of combat and you can drink and/or rest till the next one comes. In addition, if you manage to get out of combat, the Alliance NPCs will reset and recover their HP. Dead NPCs will not respawn.
In general, if you do not kill all mobs before the next wave, you'll get overrun in a wave or two at most. With good performance you should have about 10-15 seconds break before each wave.

Ghoul
Wave 1
The first wave consists of 10 Ghouls.

The tanks grab about 2-3 mobs each and start building aggro on all of them. The hunter pulls one of the Ghouls back to the riflemen and Jaina to engage them in the fight. While the tanks are building up aggro, the raid focuses DPS on the kited Ghoul, so that once he dies Jaina can assist the raid with her AoE and Elementals. When that mob is dead, and by judge of the tanks, AoE can begin. Every single class should try to help the AoE. Mages, warlocks, paladins, warriors, druids, rogues; everyone with some kind of multi-hitting ability should help out.

Wave 2
The second wave consists of 4 Abominations and 8 Ghouls.

Abominations should be treated as Ghouls. Let the Hunter kite an Abomination or Ghoul back to Jaina and the Riflemen and have the raid kill that Abomination first, while the tanks are building aggro on the AoE mobs.

Wave 3
The third wave consists of 4 Shadowy Necromancers, 4 Crypt Fiends, and 4 Ghouls.

Shadowy Necromancers should be sheeped or feared, a Ghoul should be kited and the rest tanked and AoE-d. Kill the Ghoul while the tanks build aggro.

Melee should focus on the Shadowy Necromancers one by one, interrupting them as they cast their Raise Dead (summon skeletons) ability.
Once the AoE targets are dead everyone focuses on the Shadowy Necromancers.

When one Shadowy Necromancer is at 50%, a tank can break a sheeped one and build aggro so that it can be killed as quickly as possible after the first one.

Banshee
Wave 4
The fourth wave consists of 2 Banshees, 6 Crypt Fiends and 4 Ghouls.

The Banshees should be Shackled as their ranged abilities make them very hard to AoE. Kite a Ghoul again, kill it, and AoE the rest of the Crypt Fiends and Ghouls. Kill off the 2 Banshees, and dispel the curse they give. If a Banshee uses Anti-Magic Shield, casters should simply switch to the next Banshee.

Wave 5
The fifth wave consists of 4 Banshees, 6 Crypt Fiends and 2 Shadowy Necromancers.

Have your priests Shackle 2-3 Banshees. Sheep the Shadowy Necromancers, and kite a Crypt Fiend or two through the back lines to pull aggro.
If you can, try to have your warrior tanks, or maybe a rogue, help interrupt the Banshee spell casts so they can keep in range of the AoE.

Finish off the 2 Shadowy Necromancers after everything else is dead.

Wave 6
The sixth wave consists of 2 Abominations, 4 Shadowy Necromancers and 6 Ghouls.
Sheep/Fear the Shadowy Necromancers, kite a Ghoul or an Abomination who should then of course be killed before the AoE begins.

Wave 7
The seventh wave consists of 4 Abominations, 4 Crypt Fiends and 4 Banshees.

Same as wave 5. Shackle 1-3 Banshees. Kite an Abomination, tank the other Abominations and some of the Banshees, and after the kited Abomination dies, start AoE. Then finish off any remaining mobs.

Anetheron running
Wave 8
Wave eight consists of 4 Abominations, 3 Crypt Fiends, 2 Banshees, 2 Shadowy Necromancers and 3 Ghouls.

Shackle the Banshees, sheep the Shadowy Necromancers. Try to kite one of the Abominations and kill it while the tanks build aggro. After the Abomination is dead, AoE can start. After AoE mobs are dead, kill off the Banshees and the Shadowy Necromancers.

Anetheron will come in aproximately 3 minutes after Wave 8 comes.
You might have 1-4 mobs still up when he arrives. Finish them off fast.


The Boss - Anetheron

Positioning

Anetheron Raid Positions

He goes for the first target he sees, sometimes an alliance knight. Thus, have him Misdirected to your main tank.

He hits quite hard: 3-6k on plate, so be careful. Everybody spread out, especially healers. Healers should be spread in such a way that there are no more than 2 healers in 10-20 yards of each other in any given area. If 2-3 healers get the Carrion Swarm debuff, they practically can't heal at all for 20s, in which a second Carrion Swarm will be cast and might kill the people they can't heal with their 75% reduced healing.

Main Tank healers are spread in such a way that there's always at least 2 healers unaffected by the Carrion Swarm.

Assign one tank with 2 healers on him for tanking the Towering Infernal.

Eventually he'll start casting Inferno on someone, which is a 3.5 second cast. At this moment, either the Infernal tank moves to the target, or the target moves to the Infernal tank, or both. The tank aggroes the Towering Infernal, and leads it to the tank spot. After about 10-15 seconds of building up aggro, every ranged DPS in the raid targets the Towering Infernal and gets it down fast. As soon as it is down, resume DPS on the boss.

Another Inferno will be cast one minute after the previous Inferno cast, and the process repeats itself.

If you couldn't get out of combat after the last wave and before Anetheron, and the Alliance NPCs couldn't fully recover their life, tank the Infernal at the Riflemen left of Jaina, so that you don't engage her into the fight and risk her death.

From time to time, Anetheron will use his Sleep abilitiy, which will sleep a random number of people. Thus, main tank healers need to make sure at least 1-2 of them are standing near a Tremor Totem in order not to leave the tank without a healer because of an unlucky Sleep and/or Carrion Swarm.


Anetheron has a dramatic death sequence

Class Comments

Tanks
Basically just tank. Taunt loose mobs, don't let them get on the casters, and be ready for AoE Taunt if anything goes wrong. At Anetheron, one of the protection tanks will tank Anetheron, the other the Infernal. When Anetheron falls below 10% don't hesitate to use Shield Wall to eliminate any possible Carrion Swarm/Sleep bad luck and secure your kill.

Fury Warriors, Feral Druids
If you're not tanking any mobs, make sure to Taunt mobs off the Alliance NPCs if the NPCs get low on health. Tank/interrupt the Shadowy Necromancers when it's their turn to go down. At Anetheron try to bandage yourseleves and use healing potions and Healthstones to help out your healers if they get the Carrion Swarm or are Sleeped.

Rogues
Focus on the single target damage of the pre-AoE targets, helping kill the AoE-d mobs after AoE is called, and finishing off the Shadowy Necromancers. Interrupt the Shadowy Necromancers when it's their turn to go down. At Anetheron, keep Wound Poison fully stacked on him at all times, and try to bandage yourself and use healing potions and Healthstones to help out your healers if they get the Carrion Swarm or are sleeped.

Mages
On the non-Abomination waves, position is irreleveant. 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. At Anetheron, focus DPS on Anetheron himself, and 10-15 seconds after the Infernal Tank has grabbed aggro, burn down the Infernal.

Warlocks
On the non-Abomination waves, position is irreleveant. 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. At Anetheron, focus DPS on Anetheron himself, and 10-15 seconds after the Infernal Tank has grabbed aggro, burn down the Infernal.

Hunters
You'll be kiting the undead mobs to the back of the raid, to engage Jaina and the other mobs in the back into the fight. Use Aspect of the Cheetah if you're having troubles, and don't let the mobs hit you. Kite the mobs through the AoE whenever you can.

Healers
At the trash, simply keep the raid alive. Shamans and Paladins help out the AoE with Magma Totems, Holy Wrath, and Consecration. At Anetheron, don't stay close to each other. Ask a nearby healer to throw you a heal if you get the Carrion Swarm. Stay near a Tremor Totem to prevent the sleep.