Hagara the Stormbinder: Strategy for Hunters

Hagara the Stormbinder is the fourth boss in the Dragon Soul raid instance. Here’s what a hunter needs to know about the encounter:

The fight is comprised of three alternating phases: The normal phase, the ice phase, and the lightning phase.

Normal Phase:

  • DPS Hagara. Let the casters stand in the blue beams to soak the Ice Lance. Ice Lance slows attack speed but not casting speed so it’s better for casters to soak it if there are enough available.
  • Kill the Ice Tombs that entrap other players. Position yourself close to Hagara rather than at max range. Run to melee when you see a blue arrow over your head so that they can help to quickly break you out of the Ice Tomb.

Ice Phase:

  • DPS the Frozen Binding Crystals while running clockwise along the inner edge of the outer ring to avoid the Ice Wave.
  • Use Disengage to move out of the way quickly if needed. Deterrence does not mitigate Ice Wave damage.
  • Also avoid the falling Icicles a la Hodir.
  • Use Master’s Call to gain immunity to or remove movement-impairing effects.
  • Blow DPS cooldowns just after the phase ends, while Hagara is debuffed with Feedback.

Lightning Phase

*I’ve now completed this fight in LFR, normal 10, and normal 25 difficulty on live and did not experience any pet problems in Lightning Phase as long as I pulled my pet back and just let it run along with me in Passive stance. For heroic mode, Arktem (Enigma on US – Deathwing) suggests, “Either 1.) Manually move your pet right next to you during Lightning or 2.) completely dismiss it. Obviously option 1 is slightly better DPS wise, but 2 works just as well if you’re really worried about the little guy chaining lightning.” Another suggestion for heroic mode is to use the “Move To” command to place your pet as part of the lightning conduit.

Here’s a video of the encounter from Hexan of Implosion on EU – Dun Modra, Marksmanship hunter:

For more hunter strategy guides see Dragon Soul: Boss Strategies and Videos for Hunters