Azgalor Strategy Guide (Mount Hyjal)

azgalor strategy guide (mount hyjal) tbc classic
  • Author: Pride
  • Date: January 29, 2022
  • Updated: January 31, 2022
  • Expansion: TBC Classic
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Mount Hyjal Raid Guide

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Archimonde

Azgalor, the Pit Lord, is the fourth boss that players will encounter in the Mount Hyjal raid, the final boss of the Horde base camp section of the raid, and the penultimate boss of Mount Hyjal.

He has the same stats as previous bosses in the raid – 4.25 million HP and 6200 armor. He’s considered to be average in difficulty relative to other bosses in the raid. If your guild had the DPS and healing power to handle Kaz’rogal without too much trouble, it’s highly likely you can take on this ugly demon too.

This guide will offer a step-by-step analysis on how to defeat Azgalor before he spells your doom.

Role Summaries

  • Use your personal DPS cooldowns during Heroism / Bloodlust for maximum DPS
  • Don’t bother trying to DPS the Lesser Doomguard — stay on the boss instead
  • If Rain of Fire targets the melee, stay out, do not risk dying for a little bit of damage

Main Tank

  • You have ~10 seconds to face Azgalor away from the raid and move him to his spot
  • Don’t ever move close to other players, as you will kill them with Cleave
  • Be careful with turning the boss when moving out of Rain of Fire
  • Be ready to react to a damage spike with personal cooldowns, particularly during Howl of Azgalor

Lesser Doomguard Tank

  • Pay attention to which Doom spot players afflicted by its debuff are moving towards
  • Keep the Doomguards far away from melee & at least 20 yards away from other players
  • Be ready to react to a damage spike with personal cooldowns, particularly during Howl of Azgalor
  • Consider using a PvP trinket (Medallion of the Alliance) to break out of War Stomp if necessary

Abilities

Azgalor’s signature ability. Generally more annoying than it is deadly. Very similar to a Warlock’s Curse of Doom.

A random player in the raid gets marked for death. After 20 seconds, they will instantly die and a level 72 elite Lesser Doomguard will spawn on their corpse, attacking players until picked up by a tank.

Doom’s debuff cannot be dispelled or removed in any way other than death, or leaving the raid, f.e. by using your Hearthstone, which is obviously not very practical. So this ability is commonly countered by having your Warlocks use their Master Soulstone on Doom’s target, or by having your Druids combat res them with Rebirth.

The Lesser Doomguard doesn’t hit extremely hard, but will need to be tanked away from the raid.

Doom is cast every 45 seconds and cannot be resisted.

A level 72 elite demon that spawns after a player dies to Doom. Needs to be tanked.

The doomguard can use War Stomp, Cripple and Thrash. Hits tanks for about 1200-1500.

Does weapon damage plus 1000 Physical damage and stuns all players within 10 yards for 5 seconds.

Can deal a modest amount of damage to cloth or leather users, so they should stay away.

The doomguard targets a random player within 45 yards and applies a debuff to them, reducing their movement speed, attack speed and strength by 50% for 12 seconds.

Cripple cannot be dispelled conventionally. The only way to remove it will be via movement speed clearing effects, like Free Action Potion or a Paladin‘s Blessing of Freedom.

The doomguard will randomly deal 2 extra attacks on a melee attack, for a total of 3 attacks.

Its damage is not particularly high, but this can catch you off-guard, particularly during Howl of Azgalor.

This ability will be the primary cause of random deaths in this fight, as players often underestimate its damage.

Azgalor targets a random player within 40 yards and spawn a 15 yard radius Rain of Fire on them. Players inside its area of effect will take 1619 to 1881 Fire damage every 2 seconds.

Additionally, every time they take damage from this ability, they will become afflicted with the Unquenchable Flames for 5 seconds, causing them to take to take 1250 Fire damage per second, for a total of 6250 Fire damage over its duration. That amounts to 8000 Fire damage for standing inside the Rain of Fire for just 2 seconds.

The damage is high but your healers should be able to handle it, unless you stand inside the Rain of Fire for longer than 2 seconds, in which case it is very likely that you die. Its damage can easily become lethal if Rain of Fire is followed by Howl of Azgalor. Players with less than 8000 HP will need to use consumables, such as Master Healthstone or Super Healing Potion, in order to survive that scenario.

Cast every 10 to 30 seconds.

A debuff applied to players who take damage from Rain of Fire. Deals 1250 Fire damage per second, for a total of 6250 Fire damage, or 8000 Fire damage for standing inside Rain of Fire for 2 seconds.

Unquenchable Flames’ damage can be resisted, unlike Rain of Fire‘s. Thus it is not a terrible idea to use any Fire resistance buffs you may have available, such as a Paladin’s Fire Resistance Aura.

The “icing on the cake” of Azgalor’s abilities, so to speak, and the ability most likely to cause wipes.

Silences all players in the raid for 5 seconds, preventing them from casting any spells. This will be very annoying for your caster DPS players, but utterly devastating for your healers, if used at a bad time.

Everyone will need to be careful if they are taking Unquenchable Flames damage, if a Lesser Doomguard is about to spawn, or if the tank is on not topped off. Your tanks should have heal-over-time spells on them at all times to counter this, and be ready to react with any defensive cooldowns they may have if needed.

Note that Howl of Azgalor can be resisted, so equipping a couple of strong Shadow resistance pieces, such as the Medallion of Karabor, will be very much worth it – even for caster DPS, but specially so for healers. Furthermore, a Priest’s Prayer of Shadow Protection will be invaluable here.

Cast every 15 to 40 seconds.

Deals weapon damage plus 1750 Physical damage to Azgalor’s current target and chains to up to 5 nearby allies.

Typically deals 6-8k damage to tanks, and will almost certainly kill everyone else. For that reason, nobody should be standing in front of Azgalor or within 5 yards of the tank, as they will get all of your melee DPS killed.

The damage on tanks is no joke either. Your main tank should have heal-over-time spells and an armor-boosting effect, like a Priest’s Inspiration or a Shaman’s Ancestral Fortitude, at all times. They can and will randomly die to this ability if it overlaps with a melee attack during Howl of Azgalor, if you are not very careful.

Cast every 10 to 30 seconds.

Raid Composition & Preparation

Bring all the health restoring consumables you can: Master Healthstone, Super Healing Potion, etc.

Your Priests should make sure everyone in the raid has the Prayer of Shadow Protection buff on them, giving them a chance to resist Howl of Azgalor. It will increase your raid DPS and save lives.

Your Paladins should make sure Judgement of Light is up at all times, as its healing can also make a difference.

This fight is among the most healing intensive in Mount Hyjal, with only Archimonde, the last boss, coming close.

Doing this fight with 5 or fewer healers makes it extremely stressful, so a minimum of 6 healers is recommended for this fight. Running a 7th off-healer is also a great idea for guilds that are struggling with healing.

2-3 healers should be assigned to your main tank. Holy Paladins will have to default to this task as they have no AoE healing and only one instant healing spell. It is strongly recommended that a single Restoration Shaman or Holy / Discipline Priest is assigned to the MT at all times, as their Ancestral Fortitude / Inspiration armor buffs will increase their chance of surviving a Howl of Azgalor, particularly if Azgalor uses Cleave in that time period.

1 healer should be assigned to your Lesser Doomguard tank. Restoration Druids will excel here, as they can keep their heal-over-time spells on both the MT and the Doomguard tank, saving their lives during Howl of Azgalor.

The rest of your healers should all focus on raid healing. Holy Priests are unquestionably the best for this task, as their instant cast Circle of Healing will most likely save everyone afflicted by Unquenchable Flames. Restoration Shamans are also great but their Chain Heal has a long cast time, so they will need to be proactive.

Your healers will need all the healing power they can get for this fight, so they should use +healing consumables, such as Elixir of Healing Power and Golden Fish Sticks.

There are no specific DPS class / spec requirements for this fight. However, melee DPS are at a significant disadvantage, as they will frequently get targeted by Rain of Fire, forcing them to stay out for long periods of time.

Warlocks are not a must, but they make this fight somewhat easier, by using their Master Soulstone on players marked for death by Doom. It is a very good idea to have a few of them around for this fight.

This fight is not strictly speaking a DPS race, but the longer it goes on, the more players you will lose to Doom, and the more accidental deaths you will likely have to Rain of Fire. It is thus strongly recommended that your DPS players all use DPS consumables here, including the more expensive ones, like Elixir of Demonslaying.

You will need 2 tanks for this fight. Running a 3rd tank is not a bad idea, as they can help prevent Lesser Doomguards from running loose in the raid and casting War Stomp, specially if your primary Lesser Doomguard gets targeted by Doom themselves, potentially causing havoc in the raid.

Any tank works fine in the main tank spot. Protection Paladins are exceptional Lesser Doomguard tanks, thanks to their ability to generate instant threat at long range using Exorcism.

Your main tank should be using stamina and survivability consumables for this fight, minimizing accidental deaths.

The Pull

Pulling Azgalor works in the same way as with all previous bosses. After every mob in 8th wave is killed, the wave counter changes to “Invading Enemies = 1”, Azgalor emotes, and then begins moving towards the Horde base camp.

You now have 1 minute to ressurrect the fallen, rebuff them and regenerate mana. Azgalor will eventually make it to the gates of the Horde base camp, and engage you and your allies one way or another.

azgalor 1

Just like with Kaz’rogal, you can choose if you want to pull Azgalor to Thrall and the various Horde NPCs to get their assistance. They don’t do as much for your raid this time around, and in fact they slightly hurt your raid by increasing the chances that Rain of Fire affects your melee DPS, but their small DPS contribution is neat regardless.

Also just like with Kaz’rogal, you will want to engage Azgalor the moment he gets into the Horde base camp. The longer you delay engaging him, the worse things will become for you. Therefore, you will want to have your Hunters use their Misdirection on the MT right away, who should in turn be close to him, prepared to quickly move him towards Thrall.

The rest of your raid should position as shown in the picture below. Ranged DPS and healers will spread out in a semi-circle or crescent moon shape around one of Azgalor’s sides, while melee DPS huddle up right behind him on the opposite side. Your main tank healers should stand away from everyone else, to avoid having to move due to Rain of Fire.

It is vital that nobody stands in the tank’s path while he’s moving Azgalor, as Cleave is prone to randomly killing up to 5 of your non-tanks — an embarrassing mistake that forces you to sit through 8 waves of trash again.

azgalor 2 2

The Fight

Azgalor will usually not cast any abilities within the first 10 seconds, letting your raid prepare before the onslaught begins. This is a great time to apply debuffs, and your Paladins in specific should make sure that Judgement of Light is applied and kept up, as it will slightly reduce the burden on your healers over the fight’s duration.

The first ability you see will most likely be Cleave, which your healers will need to be ready for. Next up, Howl of Azgalor — the first real test for your raid. Your healers should have all of their healing-over-time spells applied on the main tank in anticipation of the silence, and your MT should be ready to react if necessary.

Your raid should use Heroism / Bloodlust as soon as Howl of Azgalor ends, for maximum DPS. If your raid is more melee DPS heavy, you could instead opt to wait until the first Rain of Fire is cast, making sure it’s not on your melee, as that would waste a pretty big percentage of your hasted uptime, thus reducing your DPS.

Azgalor will also start casting Rain of Fire at this point. If your raid has done a decent job of spreading out, only 3-4 people should be getting hit at a time, which should be manageable for your healers – particularly if you have kept players of in the same group together so your Holy Priests can pump out some Circle of Healing to top everyone off quickly.

The main risk factor at this point will be Rain of Fire and Howl of Azgalor overlapping. Players hit by Rain of Fire, particularly those with low HP, should keep an eye out on their HP, and be ready to react with a Master Healthstone, Super Healing Potion or other defensive cooldown to survive the consequent Unquenchable Flames damage.

At the 45 second mark, just as you’re getting used to his mechanics, Azgalor will cast his first Doom. Your Warlocks should use their Master Soulstone on the targeted player. The targeted player should communicate which designated Doom spot he’ll be moving to and when, so the Lesser Doomguard tank gets prepared in time.

azgalor 2 3

As soon as the Lesser Doomguard spawns, nearby ranged players should switch their attention to it and nuke it down as fast as possible. While it doesn’t do too much damage, it can cause problems, so just get rid of it ASAP.

Your designated Lesser Doomguard tank healer in particular should remain focused while it’s alive. It’s easy to get used to its low-ish damage output and lose focus, finding a different target to heal. However, an unfortunately timed Howl of Azgalor along with a Thrash can quickly take a big chunk of HP off your tank, potentially killing them, so do not become complacent — keep them topped off and stacked with heal-over-time effects until it dies.

This concludes all of Azgalor’s abilities and mechanics. He repeats this pattern, casting Doom every 45 seconds. It’s undoubtedly a very stressful fight on your healers, who will need to stay focused and ready to react to anything for 2 to 3 minutes. Your chances of success will increase exponentially if your DPS players are capable and aware enough to react with a defensive ability in the event the lethal Rain of Fire and Howl of Azgalor combination occurs.

Provided your raid manages to stay focused throughout this fight, you don’t lose too many people to Rain of Fire and your DPS is strong enough to kill Azgalor before too many people have died to Doom, you should be getting some shiny purple loot from this wretched pit lord.

Well done on persevering this far! With Azgalor dead, the only boss threatening Nordrassil, the world tree, still remaining in Mount Hyjal, is none other but Archimonde, the defiler himself. Brace yourself for the fight of your life against one of the most iconic characters of Warcraft III!

 

About the Author

Pride

Classic WoW is my jam, with a passion for PvP. Most know me as Baranor, the ret paladin guy, but I'm secretly a druid main, don't tell anyone. In my free time I play Switch games, particularly JRPGs. Some day I'll be making my own games and I humbly hope you play those too!
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