Hagara the Stormbinder Encounter Guide: Strategy, Abilities, Loot

Last updated on Feb 15, 2025 at 00:00 by Abide

Hagara the Stormbinder is the fourth boss that players will fight inside Dragon Soul, found defending the top of Wyrmrest Temple. Players will be assaulted by the very elements here and must survive an onslaught of fire, lightning, and ice.

1.

Role-Specific Tips for Hagara the Stormbinder

1.1.

DPS Tips

  • Use personal defensive cooldowns as needed, there are very few risks on this fight.
  • Prioritize positioning quickly on this fight no matter the phase, there is minimal movement needed once you are in the correct spot.
  • Remember that Hagara the Stormbinder takes double damage during Feedback Icon Feedback.
1.2.

Healer Tips

  • Use major healing cooldowns during the Ice Phase to heal the Ranged group standing inside the Watery Entrenchment Icon Watery Entrenchment.
  • Use the listed AoE spells to heal targets entrapped by Ice Tomb Icon Ice Tomb.
1.3.

Tank Tips

  • Surviving Focused Assault Icon Focused Assault is your biggest concern; be ready with your own cooldowns, or an external.
  • You can position Hagara the Stormbinder near the first Frozen Binding Crystal that you will kill whenever an Ice Phase is about to occur.
2.

Hagara the Stormbinder Abilities

Hagara the Stormbinder
  • "Main Phase"
    • Focused Assault Icon Focused Assault
    • Ice Lance Icon Ice Lance
    • Ice Tomb Icon Ice Tomb
    • Shattered Ice Icon Shattered Ice
    • Feedback Icon Feedback
  • "Ice Phase"
    • Frozen Binding Crystal × 4
    • Frozen Tempest Icon Frozen Tempest
    • Watery Entrenchment Icon Watery Entrenchment
    • Ice Wave Icon Ice Wave
    • Icicle Icon Icicle
    • Frostflake Icon Frostflake (Heroic)
      • Frostflake Snare Icon Frostflake Snare
  • "Lightning Phase"
    • Crystal Conductor × 4
    • Bound Lightning Elemental
      • Lightning Conduit Icon Lightning Conduit
    • Water Shield Icon Water Shield
    • Lightning Storm Icon Lightning Storm
    • Storm Pillar Icon Storm Pillar (Heroic)
3.

Strategy for Hagara the Stormbinder

The fight against Hagara the Stormbinder can be broken down into 3 phases: a Phase 1 (referred to as the "Main Phase") that is the same every time, and a Phase 2 that will alternate between either an "Ice Phase", or a "Lightning Phase". Phase 2 can never be the same element twice in a row (no 2 × "Ice Phase" in a row) and will always alternate between the two elements, choosing whichever was not selected previously. You can determine which elemental phase you will have first by checking the visual effect present on Hagara the Stormbinders weapons before engaging her in combat. The Main Phase will last 50 seconds, while the Ice and Lightning phases will last as long as it takes the raid to complete their unique phase mechanics (more on that to come below).

Main Phase The Main Phase of Hagara the Stormbinder only has four abilities to worry about: Focused Assault Icon Focused Assault, Ice Lance Icon Ice Lance, Ice Tomb Icon Ice Tomb, and Shattered Ice Icon Shattered Ice. Focused Assault Icon Focused Assault is a 5-yard channel Hagara the Stormbinder uses to rapidly attack the tank, causing devastating damage over the 5 second duration. On normal difficulty, your tank can simply back-pedal until they are 5-yards away from the boss, breaking the channel. On heroic difficulty however, Hagara the Stormbinder will follow the tank, preventing the Focused Assault Icon Focused Assault channel from breaking. An alternative method for heroic mode involves having a non-tank run away from Hagara the Stormbinder and taunt her, followed by your main-tank taunting back. This will "ping-pong" Hagara back and forth during the Focused Assault Icon Focused Assault, buying you a few seconds of relief from the tank damage.

Ice Lance Icon Ice Lance is cast twice every Main Phase and summons 3 unattackable Ice Lance that will choose a player near Hagara the Stormbinder and "fixate" on them, drawing a blue beam of light between themselves and the Player. After a short time the Ice Lance will begin to shoot an Ice Lance Icon Ice Lance every second, for a total for 15 seconds, (15 Ice Lance Icon Ice Lance in total) at the player targeted by the blue beam. Upon reaching the target, Ice Lance Icon Ice Lance explodes and deals Frost damage in an area around the target, while also slowing the attack speed of everyone hit by 25%. The idea with this is to have a Ranged DPS "break" the beam by walking into it and getting hit by the Ice Lance Icon Ice Lance, rather than the Melee DPS who will be clumped together. On heroic mode two Ranged DPS will be needed to soak the Ice Lance Icon Ice Lance, as each missle taken increases all Frost damage taken by 10% per stack. This can quickly add up and cause your death, so prevent this by having 2 players alternate soaking after every 3 Ice Lance Icon Ice Lance, allowing enough time for the debuff to fall off entirely.

Ice Tomb Icon Ice Tomb will freeze 5 players (2 in 10-man) raiders in a Ice Tomb Icon Ice Tomb, stunning them and slowly suffocating them. These Ice Tomb Icon Ice Tombs must be quickly killed to free the player, which should be easily and effectively should be stacked; Ice Tomb Icon Ice Tomb always freezes a set number of players and it does not splash to nearby allies. While you not be able to target the players inside of the Ice Tomb Icon Ice Tombs directly with healing spells, they can be targeted by some spells, found below:

  1. RestorationRestorationTranquility Icon Tranquility and Efflorescence Icon Efflorescence;
  2. PriestPriestPrayer of Mending Icon Prayer of Mending, Prayer of Healing Icon Prayer of Healing and Divine Hymn Icon Divine Hymn;
  3. HolyHolyAtonement Icon Atonement;
  4. HolyHolyLight of Dawn Icon Light of Dawn.
  5. RestorationRestorationHealing Rain Icon Healing Rain, Healing Stream Totem Icon Healing Stream Totem and Spirit Link Totem Icon Spirit Link Totem;

Shattered Ice Icon Shattered Ice simply targets a randomly player and deals very high Frost damage; this can easily cause deaths if players are not topped up frequently, this is especially true for the players soaking Ice Lance Icon Ice Lance or frozen in Ice Tomb Icon Ice Tomb.

Ice Phase Hagara the Stormbinder will begin the phase by surrounding herself in Frozen Tempest Icon Frozen Tempest, becoming immune to damage as long as the 4 nearby Frozen Binding Crystals remain alive. In order to remove the Water Shield Icon Water Shield, making Hagara the Stormbinder vulnerable to damage and ending the Ice Phase, you must kill all 4 Frozen Binding Crystals around the room. To hamper you from doing this, Hagara the Stormbinder will summon 4 Ice Wave Icon Ice Waves, shooting them out in 4 directions as shown in the image above. These Ice Wave Icon Ice Waves will move around the room in a clockwise manner, dealing lethal damage to any player that they touch. This will force the raid to also continuously move in a clockwise manner to avoid the Ice Wall from catching up. This will limit the amount of DPS up-time you can achieve on the Frozen Binding Crystals as you pass them by. Please note that if you are standing on top of Hagara the Stormbinder as the Ice Wave Icon Ice Waves come out, or are standing in their path of travel, you will take damage and die.

If you know an Ice Phase is coming up, we recommend you drag Hagara the Stormbinder to a Frozen Binding Crystal spawn, as shown on the image above, while having the Ranged DPS and Healers stack just outside of the Watery Entrenchment Icon Watery Entrenchment ranged (visible by the large bubble surrounding Hagara the Stormbinder). For as long as the Ice Phase lasts, Hagara the Stormbinder will channel Watery Entrenchment Icon Watery Entrenchment, dealing 12% max health per second to all players inside of her protective bubble. Rather than having our Ranged DPS run around the entire Ice Phase, we will choose to have them stand in the middle and maintain 100% DPS up-time on the 4 Frozen Binding Crystals, allowing you to end this phase much faster.

Hagara Icicle
Hagara Icicle

Players running around the room will need to avoid the Icicle Icon Icicles falling, as indicated by the smaller blue circles; you should have plenty of time to change course if these are about to fall on the way in front of you, avoid this damage. Assign at least one or two of your Healers to run around the room clockwise with the Melee DPS as needed for heals.

Remember, wait until the Ice Wave Icon Ice Waves have gone out before moving into the center or you will die. The damage from Watery Entrenchment Icon Watery Entrenchment is health percentage based, and therefore can not be reduced by damage reduction abilities. Instead, aim to use abilities that increase healing throughput such as Tree of Life Icon Tree of Life, or help stabilize the raids health, like Spirit Link Totem Icon Spirit Link Totem. The goal of the Ranged DPS is to cause all 4 Frozen Binding Crystals to die at around the same time, keeping in mind where the Melee DPS are and aiming to kill the ones furthest away from them. You don't want to entirely kill the next Frozen Binding Crystal in front of the melee group, leaving them nothing to DPS. Try to spread your damage out evenly and swap to the higher health crystals, or the ones that the melee won't be able to reach for awhile.

On heroic difficulty, players will need to deal with the new debuff Frostflake Icon Frostflake, which applies a 10% stacking slow, up to 80% total. When dispelled, Frostflake Icon Frostflake will create a Frostflake Snare Icon Frostflake Snare at the targeted players location; this is a large field of ice that slows the movement speed of any players in the area by 50%. Anyone in the center of the room on top of Hagara the Stormbinder can completely ignore the debuff (do not dispel it at all even, allow it to time out), as it deals no damage and only slows movement speed. Players moving around the room should quickly move away from the stack of melee players and get dispelled, placing the Frostflake Snare Icon Frostflake Snare away from the group.

Once all 4 Frozen Binding Crystals have been destroyed Hagara the Stormbinder will become overloaded by Feedback Icon Feedback, becoming stunned for 15 seconds and take 100% increased damage from all sources. While the double damage taken is nice, we suggest saving major DPS cooldowns such as Bloodlust Icon Bloodlust to get through the 2nd Ice Phase, once the Ranged DPS and Healers are stacked up in the center. This allows you to quickly end the phase and get back to the easier phases as there is no real difficult DPS check on this encounter.

Lightning Phase Similar to the Ice Phase, at the start of a Lightning Phase Hagara the Stormbinder will run to the center of the room and become immune to damage, this time via Water Shield Icon Water Shield. She will also summon 4 Crystal Conductors around the room, which must be "overloaded" to break the Water Shield Icon Water Shield and end the Lightning Phase. Hagara the Stormbinder will also create a Lightning Storm Icon Lightning Storm, dealing damage to random raid members and increasing their Nature damage taken by 5%; this debuff stacks, acting as a soft-enrage for the Lightning Phase.

To facilitate the overloading of these Crystal Conductors, Hagara the Stormbinder will spawn in a Bound Lightning Elemental at the start of this phase. The Bound Lightning Elemental should be grabbed by a tank and dragged to an position as shown in the image above before being killed. Upon death the Bound Lightning Elemental will release a Lightning Conduit Icon Lightning Conduit at the nearest target, which deals some damage before bouncing to the next nearest target within 10-yards. This Lightning Conduit Icon Lightning Conduit must be forced to bounce between player in a line to each of the 4 Crystal Conductors to overload them and end the phase.

Following the image shown above, you can immediately end a Lightning Phase as soon as the Bound Lightning Elemental dies. Be sure that there are enough players in line for each Crystal Conductor (four is enough with proper spacing), and have a couple people acting as "bouncers" around the middle. With properly assigned positions and a clean execution, the Lightning Phase should end within 5 seconds of the Bound Lightning Elemental dying as the Lightning Conduit Icon Lightning Conduit rapidly bounces through the lines and reaches all 4 of the Crystal Conductors at the same time.

Lightning Chain
Lightning Chain

On heroic mode, Hagara the Stormbinder will frequently create Storm Pillar Icon Storm Pillars around the room, which explode after 3 seconds for 35,000 damage. Move out of these if you are not in an assigned Lightning Conduit Icon Lightning Conduit position, and if you are, use a personal defensive cooldown to help survive.

Once all 4 Crystal Conductors have been destroyed Hagara the Stormbinder will become overloaded by Feedback Icon Feedback, becoming stunned for 15 seconds and take 100% increased damage from all sources. Afterwards, the Main Phase will repeat, followed by an Ice Phase. This pattern will repeat, cycling between Main Phase and either Ice or Lightning phases until the boss is defeated.

4.

Hagara the Stormbinder Loot

Normal Heroic

Below you will find all of the loot available for this boss encounter. Use the different buttons to view the different loot between both Normal and Heroic difficulties.

4.1.

Normal Difficulty Loot

Item
Bracers of the Banished Icon Bracers of the Banished
Girdle of the Grotesque Icon Girdle of the Grotesque
Treads of Dormant Dreams Icon Treads of Dormant Dreams
Runescriven Demon Collar Icon Runescriven Demon Collar
Ring of the Riven Icon Ring of the Riven
Signet of Grasping Mouths Icon Signet of Grasping Mouths
Electrowing Dagger Icon Electrowing Dagger
Lightning Rod Icon Lightning Rod
Shoulders of the Corrupted Conqueror Icon Shoulders of the Corrupted Conqueror
Shoulders of the Corrupted Protector Icon Shoulders of the Corrupted Protector
Shoulders of the Corrupted Vanquisher Icon Shoulders of the Corrupted Vanquisher

Below you will find all of the loot available for this boss encounter. Use the different buttons to view the different loot between both Normal and Heroic difficulties.

4.2.

Heroic Difficulty Loot

Item
Bracers of the Banished Icon Bracers of the Banished
Girdle of the Grotesque Icon Girdle of the Grotesque
Treads of Dormant Dreams Icon Treads of Dormant Dreams
Runescriven Demon Collar Icon Runescriven Demon Collar
Ring of the Riven Icon Ring of the Riven
Signet of Grasping Mouths Icon Signet of Grasping Mouths
Electrowing Dagger Icon Electrowing Dagger
Lightning Rod Icon Lightning Rod
Shoulders of the Corrupted Conqueror Icon Shoulders of the Corrupted Conqueror
Shoulders of the Corrupted Protector Icon Shoulders of the Corrupted Protector
Shoulders of the Corrupted Vanquisher Icon Shoulders of the Corrupted Vanquisher
5.

Hagara the Stormbinder Achievements

Achievement Description
Siege of Wyrmrest Temple Icon Siege of Wyrmrest Temple Defeat the bosses laying siege to Wyrmrest Temple in the Dragon Soul raid.
Dragon Soul Guild Run Icon Dragon Soul Guild Run Defeat the bosses in Dragon Soul while in a guild group.
Heroic: Hagara the Stormbinder Icon Heroic: Hagara the Stormbinder Defeat Hagara the Stormbinder in Dragon Soul on Heroic Difficulty.
Holding Hands Icon Holding Hands Destroy the final Crystal Conductor during Hagara's lightning phase on Normal or Heroic Difficulty, while all raid members are part of the final Lightning Conduit.
6.

Further Reading

Hagara the Stormbinder is just one of the eight encounters present in the Dragon Soul raid of Cataclysm. If you would like to learn more about the others, please see our other pages for the raid below.

7.

Changelog

  • 15 Feb. 2025: Page added.
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