Resto Shaman vs. Azgalor - A Healing Guide : Too Many Annas

Resto Shaman vs. Azgalor - A Healing Guide

Posted on October 1, 2008 - Filed Under Guides, Healing, Shaman

This is one in a series of posts covering resto-shaman-specific information for tier4 through tier6 Burning Crusade boss fights. It will NOT be a boss kill strategy, rather a list of tips and tricks for your friendly neighborhood shaman to make these fights run a little more smoothly.

Previous guides for Karazhan, Gruul’s Lair, SSC, TK: The Eye, and other tier 6 guys can be found here.

Azgalor is a Pit Lord - once second in command to Manneroth, he took up the lead of the Burning Legion at Hyjal when Mannoroth was killed by Grom Hellscream. Though not as clever as Mannoroth, his ability to create chaos and violence is well known among the Legion. He’s big, he’s ugly, and he’s the hardest boss in Hyjal so far. He’s also the last boss in Hyjal that has trash waves to mess with (hooray!).

Azgalor Basics

First - a moment about the trash. All of the trash in Hyjal is done gauntlet style. You have between 90 seconds and 3 minutes (depending on the wave) to complete each of 8 waves before each boss. The waves of trash get harder as you get closer to the boss, and as you progress deeper into Hyjal. If you wipe on the trash OR the boss, you start the entire event over again. (The only exception to this is Archimonde, who has no trash, and therefore resets like any other boss). Azgalor’s trash introduces Doomguards, Fel Stalkers, and Infernals.
This fight is about survival (somewhat in preparation for Archimonde). Even though raid members will be dying every 45 seconds, the emphasis in this fight is about staying alive - don’t stand in fire - more than all out DPS.
There is a 10 minute enrage timer for this fight.
Positioning is also rather important on this one, as you want to have Thrall help - but NOT with Azgalor himself. If Thrall is too close to Azgalor, he can get the Rain of Fire and die, resetting the encounter.
Rain of Fire - once again, a fight mechanic that depends largely on your ability to not stand in fire, Azgalor’s Rain of Fire is *painful*. 15 yard AOE cast on any target within 30 yards. It lasts 10 seconds and deals 1500-2K damage every two seconds. Anyone in the fire for more than 2 seconds will receive a debuff called Unquenchable Flames, which then deals 1250 fire damage every second for 5 seconds. DO NOT STAND IN FIRE.
- Because the Rain of Fire happening in melee range puts an undue amount of stress on healers who are already dealing with the silence (see next bullet point), we usually have the melee work on the Doomguards until Azgalor is at about 20%, and then have them switch. Our raid has substantial ranged DPS, so this may not work in all cases.
- Melee that have substantial (200+) Fire Resistance can stand in the Rain of Fire and resist most of it.
Howl of Azgalor - 5 second, zone wide AOE silence. This burns healers, so make sure your Main Tank and Offtanks are stacked with HOTs at all times. He uses this ability as frequently as every 15 seconds, so it can be a real pain in the rear.
- Howl of Azgalor is resistible with Shadow Resist gear. Healers should be wearing around 200 Shadow Resist, and everyone in the raid should have Prayer of Shadow Protection.
He melees for 6-9K on plate, and cannot crush. However, he has a nasty frontal arc cleave that hits for around 10K.
Doom - the mechanic that makes this all very much more interesting. Randomly, any target within 100 yards gets a debuff called Doom. It lasts for 20 seconds, at the end of which they die and spawn a Lesser Doomguard with around 60K hit points at their spot of death. These Doomguards must be tanked - and must be tanked far away from Azgalor, to avoid Rain of Fire. Usually two tanks and a selection of melee DPS will deal with the Doomguards over where Thrall stands.
- When you get Doomed, run to the Doomguard tanks. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200. You can finish a heal, but then get your tail over there. It’s not worth dumping a doomguard on the healing camp.
- It’s important that Thrall NOT aggro on Azgalor, so that he can be used to help deal with Doomguards (and so he doesn’t die to Rain of Fire damage).
- You can not resist, dispell, or otherwise remove Doom. In that light, any in-combat resurrection abilities are crucial here. This is a good fight to make sure your Reincarnation ability is available. Other options are quick-thinking Warlocks to soulstone the Doomed person, and Druid battle resurrection.

Group Considerations: Nothing special for shamans, though having a paladin in the healing group for Concentration Aura is nice.

totems, Totems, TOTEMS: The usual for your group, nothing special for this one. Mana can get a little sketchy if a lot of healers get Doomed early on, so keep Mana Tide ready.

Heroism/Bloodlust: This will depend on what group you’re in. There is some merit to using Heroism/Bloodlust early on, before too many people get Doomed, particularly if you’re in a ranged group. If you’re in a melee group, use it whenever the melee is actually fighting Azgalor, or in the last 20 seconds of the fight.

Don’t stand in the…FIRE.

Shaman friendly or unfriendly? Friendly. Though people tend to scatter for Rain of Fire, your ability to Reincarnate after a Doom means the rest of the healers can breathe a little easier. Chain Heal is also quite useful if the Melee are going to stay on Azgalor.

Other stuff

Shadow Resist gear is really a must for this fight. At 200 SR, I’ve resisted more than half of Azgalor’s Howls. Obviously this is going to change each fight, since it is random, but with an entire healer group wearing SR gear, a lot of the pressure is alleviated.
After Azgalor dies, if anyone still has Doom, they WILL still turn into a Doomguard, and you will still have to kill it!
Azgalor is the first boss to drop Tier 6 tokens (gloves).