Ragnaros Encounter Guide: Strategy, Abilities, Loot

• This fight is almost entirely movement based, prioritize proper positioning and placement above everything.
• Look for the beams of fiery light that show where the Son of Flames will spawn and quickly react to ones closest to the hammer.
• Do not be afraid to use a personal defensive cooldown during difficult sections of the fight, help your healers out as much as possible.

• Prepare for a very long, healing and mana intensive fight.
• Quickly top up any low health players before Hand of Ragnaros, Wrath of Ragnaros, or Magma Trap Eruption goes out; phase 1 deaths are very common.
• Be ready with raid-wide defensive cooldowns if any Dreadflame fire patches spawn on top of the raid during phase 4.

• Tank swap every 3-5 stacks of Burning Wound.
• Save defensive cooldowns for whenever healers need to move from multiple mechanics at a time.
• Keep the Lava Scions near the Son of Flames so they can get AoE'd down together.
• Be mindful of the Entrapping Roots position in phase 4, keep Ragnaros near them, but do not activate them early accidentally.

Ragnaros is the final boss of the Firelands raid, and is an extremely challenging encounter that will require perfect execution from the entire raid to overcome the Fire Lord once and for all. This fight consists of 3 phases, with a brief intermission phase between each phase (hence forth referred to as intermission #1 and intermission #2); on heroic difficulty, players will also need to face Ragnaros in a special heroic-only phase 4. This fight can be overwhelming to learn as there are a staggering amount of new-abilities present during this encounter; we suggest learning the fight phase-by-phase, with phases 1 and intermission #1 being where most of the new abilities will be learned. Doing quick pulls back-to-back early on to practice phase 1 and intermission #1 is a great way to let the raid get a feel for the majority of the fight before moving on to the mechanics that get added in during later phases.

First, well start off by looking at the area we have; Ragnaros will be present in the center of his lava pool (which will heavily damage any players standing in it), while the rest of the wide platform in front of him is open for the raid to use. Start by having the raid spread out into 4 group-like positions with ranged and healers spreading at least 6 yards apart from each other to avoid knocking up multiple players with Wrath of Ragnaros. Ranged DPS and healers will also need to stay at least 55 yards away from Ragnaros to avoid being damaged and knocked back by Hand of Ragnaros. Melee DPS should take advantage of Ragnaross very large hitbox and attack him from maximum melee range, allowing your healers to be able to reach you from further away.

Tanks will be dealing with Burning Wound the entire fight, a stacking damage-over-time Fire debuff that Ragnaros applies to his target with each attack; aim to tank swap every 5 or so stacks, depending on what your healers can handle. If Ragnaross aggro target is not in melee range, he will attack them with Magma Blast instead, dealing high Fire damage and increasing all Fire damage taken by 50% per stack. The increased Fire damage taken will quickly kill the targeted tank if they get hit by Magma Blast 2 or 3 times in a row, so the current tank needs to be sure to always be in melee range of Ragnaros, or quickly move back in before taking too many Magma Blasts.

Frequently throughout the fight, Ragnaros will place a Magma Trap at the location of a random target, dealing massive damage to anyone still in the landing location and knocking them back. The trap will then arm itself, dealing raid-wide damage when activated and knocking up the player who triggered it. Magma Traps last forever and cover a moderate amount of space, so the raid will need to activate the traps throughout the fight to clear space. Wait until both Hand of Ragnaros and Wrath of Ragnaros are on cooldown, quickly heal up any low health players and then trigger Magma Trap Eruption by stepping on the designated trap. As the Magma Trap will knock the player up that triggered it, we recommend having either a Mage or Warlock be assigned to triggering them, as both Blink and Demonic Circle removes fall damage taken and returns you instantly to the fight.

Next ability we will learn about is Sulfuras Smash. Ragnaros will choose a random player and smash his hammer down on the ground at their location; the targeted area will show 3 orange circular indicators to show where the hammer will land, as well as the way it will be facing. Quickly move away from the indicated landing location of Sulfuras Smash, as anyone in the area will be killed and position yourself to avoid the 3 Lava Waves that will rush out from the hammer on impact with the ground. These Lava Waves will always follow the same set pattern shown in the picture, but as the landing location of Sulfuras Smash will always be different, the raid must always be aware of where the hammer is landing and make sure a Lava Wave is not headed towards them. As Sulfuras Smash does not send a Lava Wave in the direction of Ragnaros ever, players can always set forward in front of the hammer for a second to avoid a nearby Lava Wave.

That covers all the abilities in phase one, however many of these abilities will also be used in future phases, so don't forget about them! Phase one lasts until Ragnaros reaches 70% health, then he will submerge under his lava pool and begins Intermission #1.

Intermission #1 will start with Ragnaros using Splitting Blow, smashing his hammer onto the ground before submerging himself in lava, becoming unattackable. While submerged, Ragnaros will attack random targets with Lava Bolt, dealing moderaately high Fire damage to the raid throughout the entire intermission phase.

Splitting Blow is very similar to Sulfuras Smash: it will target a random area, 3 large orange circles will indicate its landing area, and players will be instantly killed if they are in the landing area. However, unlike Sulfuras Smash, Splitting Blow does not generate any Lava Waves. Instead, players will take deadly Fire damage if they get close to the hammer, and 4 Son of Flames will spawn on both sides of the room (8 Son of Flames total).

The Son of Flames have no aggro table and will simply run towards Ragnaross hammer directly. All Son of Flames are buffed with Burning Speed, which increases their movement speed based on how high their current health is; with this increased movement speed, they aim to reach the Sulfuras Smash hammer location and Supernova, exploding and dealing raid-wide damage based on their remaining health. As Sulfuras Smash can target any random area, some Son of Flame may spawn very close to Ragnaross hammer. Luckily the Son of Flames are vulnerable to most crowd control, including: stuns, slows, knockbacks and other displacement (such as Death Grip). Quickly group the adds up on both sides of the room and AoE them down, coordinating stuns and knockbacks to prevent them from reaching the hammer. Prioritize ones that are closest to the hammer to reduce their movement speed from Burning Speed as soon as possible.

If any Son of Flames reach the hammer they will explode with Supernova, dealing raid-wide damage equal to their remaining health. This is almost always a wipe if it happens, so make sure you have coordinated all available crowd-control to keep all of the Son of Flames under control for as long as possible. Intermission #1 will last 45 seconds, or until all Son of Flames are dead.

Phase 2 will start with Ragnaros emerging from the lava. Tanks will still need to deal with Magma Blast and taunt swapping for their Burning Wound stacks; he will also continue using Sulfuras Smash (which spawns the Lava Waves). The new, main mechanic of the phase is Molten Seed, which Ragnaros will cast every 60 seconds exactly. Ragnaros will throw a projectile at each player, spawning a seed at their location a few seconds later. After landing, the Molten Seed deals moderate Fire damage to any enemies in the 6-yard impact radius and spawns a Molten Seed at the location.

Molten Seed is a projectile with travel time, allowing players ample time to move away from the impact area after the projectile has been launched. Since Ragnaros uses Molten Seed exactly every 60 seconds, with a little practice your raid leader will be able to call for the required movement here. The goal is to be completely stacked up on one side of the room and spawn all of the Molten Seeds in one spot, but to move away before any impacts occur to avoid the impact AoE damage.

10 seconds after landing the Molten Seeds will explode with Molten Inferno, dealing raid-wide AoE damage that is greatly reduced the further away from the seeds that you are. Moving about halfway across the platform is enough to prevent most of the damage, so be sure to quickly get away from the seeds as soon as the call is made. Upon exploding, a Molten Elemental will spawn in from each Molten Seed. These Molten Elementals have low-health and will fixate on a random target, ignoring everyone else but them. Simply AoE them down quickly while kiting away from them if needed.

Remember that Molten Seed is cast every 60 seconds exactly, giving you a perfect timer for when you need to group and move. Be prepared and in position for each Molten Seed cast as even 1 seed out of place can easily cause multiple deaths.

The last new ability in phase 2 is Engulfing Flames; this will target one of three areas on the platform and cover the area in deadly fire. The area selected will briefly show orange circles, indicating the area players must avoid, before fire covers the area. While Engulfing Flames is not very dangerous by itself, the main threat it brings is when it occurs at the same time as other spells, such as Molten Seed or Sulfuras Smash. Everyone must be ready with any available movement speed abilities, especially if Engulfing Flames targets the area where your raid is stacked, use a raid-wide movement speed ability and get to a safe area before the fires erupt.

Personal responsibility and positioning are crucial to getting through this phase. Stay focused and keep an eye out for each Sulfuras Smash positioning and avoid the subsequent Lava Waves, stack and move quickly when called for every Molten Seed, and always be aware of Engulfing Flames timer and be ready to change areas if needed. Phase 2 ends once Ragnaros reaches 40% health and begins Intermission #2.

At 40% health Ragnaros will smash his hammer into a random spot again with Splitting Blow, submerge in the laval again and repeat the Intermission #1 from earlier. Same as before, group the Son of Flames together on both sides of the room, use stuns and knockbacks to control them, and prioritize killing the ones closest to the hammer. The only new mechanic this phase are the 2 Lava Scions that spawn in. These must be tanked and will frequently debuff random raid members with Blazing Heat, causing them to spawn patches of fire at their feet every second. This fire deals very high Fire damage and heals any Son of Flame standing in the fire; players targeted with Blazing Heat will have 3 seconds to get away from any other players and any nearby Son of Flames, ideally running the fire on the outer edges of the platform.

As with Intermission #1, Intermission #2 will end after 45 seconds or when all Son of Flames are dead; this means that it is best to keep 1 Son of Flame alive at very low health, crowd controlled to prevent it from reaching the hammer. Keeping a Son of Flame will allow you to damage both Lava Scions down as low as possible during the full 45 second timer of Intermission #2, ideally having both below at least 20% health before Ragnaros emerges again.

Phase 3 starts after the second Intermission and lasts until Ragnaros reaches 10% health, when he will be defeated. Ragnaros will continue to use Magma Blast and Burning Wound on the tanks, as well as Sulfuras Smash and Engulfing Flames. Phase 3 adds a new element to the mix, Living Meteors; these meteors will spawn in every 50 seconds, and doubles the number of meteors that spawn every other time, for example:

Number of Living Meteors	Timer (Estimated)
1	0:50
1	1:40
2	2:30
2	3:20
4	4:10

This means the Living Meteors act as a soft-enrage as they will begin to overwhelm your raid once you get too many out at once. Players must avoid the small impact area where the Living Meteor will land to avoid certain death. The Living Meteors take greatly reduced damage and should not be damaged; instead, they will fixate on a random player and chase them around, slowly gaining speed over time. The entire raid must avoid any nearby Living Meteor, if anyone gets within 4 yards of the meteor it will explode with Meteor Impact, killing all players within 8 yards. Kite the meteor to the back of the room and use any available movement speed abilities to kite for a longer period of time.

When the Living Meteor eventually begins to catch-up to its fixate target, it should be attacked to trigger its Combustible buff. This buff will cause any attack made against the meteor to knock it back in the direction that the attacking player is facing; Combustible should only be procced when you can no longer kite safely, or if the Living Meteor is approaching a group of players. Always be aware of where you are knocking the Living Meteor to, as knocking it into other players will kill everyone near the meteor.

This phase can be extremely chaotic when multiple abilities are going off at the same time. Always be aware of your positioning and which abilities that Ragnaros will use next, being ready to begin moving to a safe area when needed. Having a couple ranged DPS assigned to attacking any Living Meteors that can't be kited will keep them away from the raid and allows you to stack as a group for easier healing and get more damage on the boss rather than losing DPS players to kiting. This is where you want to use all major DPS cooldowns such as Bloodlust, ideally right after a Engulfing Flames goes off. Phase 3 lasts until Ragnaros reaches 10% health, where he will retreat back into the Elemental Plane to lick his wounds. If engaging Ragnaros on heroic difficulty, it is ideal to push into phase 4 before more than 2 Living Meteors spawn, as anymore makes phase 4 extremely chaotic.

Heroic Ragnaros adds an entire new phase 4 to the fight; after reaching 10% health, Ragnaros will attempt to flee through his lava back into the Elemental Plane, only to be stopped by Cenarius, Malfurion Stormrage, and Arch Druid Hamuul Runetotem. They will force Ragnaros out of his lava, solidifying it behind him to trap him on Azeroth, aiding your raid to help defeat Ragnaros once and for all. In addition to the entirely new phase four, a few new mechanics are added into each phase, which we will briefly go over.

• Phase 1
• Every time a Magma Trap is detonated the raid will be debuffed with Magma Trap Vulnerability. This puts a timer on how often you can trigger a trap, meaning you will want to trigger the first one as soon as possible to start the timer on this debuff. This will also mean that you will likely have a couple of traps up when heading into Intermission #1; wait till your debuff is gone and clear any remaining traps before the end of the Intermission, using any raid-wide defensives if popping multiple in a row (heal up first between each).
• Intermissions #1 & #2
• The only difference in each Intermission is that the Son of Flames now spawn in random locations rather than predetermined locations. Players will need to quickly adapt to the Son of Flame spawn locations and damage any that are close to the hammer while getting down needed stuns and knockbacks. Death Grip is a must here to group up any stragglers to allow for AoE to quickly clear the adds out.
• Phases 2 & 3
• Engulfing Flames is replaced by World In Flames, which will chain 4 Engulfing Flames in a row, each on a different area. Be mindful of where the indicators that show where the fire will erupt from and stand just outside of the flames so that you can quickly move to where the flames just were (when it's safe).
• In phase 2, Molten Elementals will gain Molten Power, increasing their damage dealt by 25% for every other nearby Molten Elemental, and size by 10%. This causes them to essentially 1-shot anyone they hit, and the size grants them larger attack range. Follow the phase 2 picture above to properly kite the Molten Elementals while AoEing them down and finishing off any remaining adds from a distance. Use of a Hand of Protection here on a strong AoE class is a great way to get some damage off safely.

With all of the previous phases new heroic mechanics out of the way, let's dive into the entitely new phase 4. Phase 4 starts once Ragnaros reaches 10% health in phase 3. Shortly after, he will submerge into his lava only to emerge with 50% and legs to move around the platform. The first spell we will go over is Dreadflame; Ragnaros will cover random areas on the platform in patches of fire that quickly spreads around to nearby areas. The longer that phase 4 lasts, the more fires that Ragnaros will spawn in until the entire platform is covered. Luckily, Malfurion Stormrage will create a Cloudburst at the beginning of phase 4, allowing 3 players (1 on 10-man) to gain the Deluge buff. The Deluge buff makes the player immune to Dreadflame and allows them to extinguish the flames by simply walking over them. You will need to assign players to keep the fires at bay, especially around the area the raid is stacking.

Ragnaros will constantly attack the raid with Superheated, dealing moderate Fire damage and applying a stacking debuff that increases all Fire damage taken by 10% per stack. To stop this constant damage, players must stand on a patch of Breadth of Frost, doing so not only removes your stacks of Superheated, but also makes you immune to the damage it deals. Ragnaros will attempt to prevent you from using the Breadth of Frost patch by attacking grouped players with Magma Geyser, dealing high Fire damage to grouped players and destroying any Breadth of Frost patches in the area. To prevent this, players must never stack together with more than 9 (4 in 10-man) players total; to achieve this, we will be stacking in 3 groups in a triangle formation inside the Breadth of Frost, allowing the entire raid to keep the Breadth of Frost buff and be entirely immune to Superheated. This requires very precious movement from the entire raid to get into position, and everyone must stack tightly in position to prevent a Magma Geyser from wiping the raid. On 10-man difficulty, 1 player will need to be constantly outside of the Breadth of Frost as you can not stack together with 4 players on 10-man; simply have the 2 tanks rotate back-and-forth to reset their Superheated stacks.

In the original 4.3 patch of Cataclysm, Ragnaros had his Magma Geyser ability removed as it was not functioning properly and Blizzard did not want to BUFF the boss that no-one was able to kill. In Cataclysm Classic, we have the version of Ragnaros without Magma Geyserm making phase 4 arguably the easiest phase in the encounter! Without Magma Geyser, the raid can simply stack together as 1 on the Breadth of Frost patch and move together as a group from patch to patch every time they spawn.

Any Living Meteors from phase 3 will remain on the platform during phase 4. At the beginning of phase 4, all Living Meteors will be frozen in place with a constant Combustible buff activated; use this transition period time to attack both Living Meteors and push them to the very far edge of the platform, buying your raid as much time as possible before they return.

Another function that the Breadth of Frost ice patches have is that they will freeze any Living Meteors that touch them (and will be consumed in the process); while frozen, Living Meteors take 15,000% increased damage, allowing them to be quickly killed off. You are, however, limited on the number of Breadth of Frost you get; Cenarius will spawn one at the start of phase 4, and a new one every 45 seconds. Use the first Breadth of Frost to avoid Superheated, and when they second Breadth of Frost patch spawns, have whoever is kiting the Living Meteor get it into the Breadth of Frost and quickly kill it. You can do this for the second remaining Living Meteor after the 4th Breadth of Frost patch has spawned.

Ragnaros will occasionally cast a 5-second spell, Empower Sulfuras; once completed, Empower Sulfuras will cause any melee attacks that Ragnaros makes to instantly wipe the raid. This is where Arch Druid Hamuul Runetotem comes in to assist the raid; he will place a Entrapping Roots down in a random area, indicated by a large, green circle of roots. The tank will need to run away from Ragnaros whenever he begins to cast Empower Sulfuras and force him to walk through the Entrapping Roots. This will stun Ragnaros for 10 seconds and cause him to take 50% increased damage for the duration, preventing him from attacking at all during Empower Sulfuras.

From here on the phase repeats until either Ragnaros dies or he overwhelms the raid with the ever increasing Dreadflame spawns.

Achievement	Description
Firelands	Defeat the bosses in Firelands.
Firelands Guild Run	Defeat the bosses in Firelands while in a guild group.
Heroic: Ragnaros	Defeat Ragnaros in Firelands on Heroic Difficulty.
Heroic: Ragnaros Guild Run	Defeat Ragnaros in Firelands on Heroic difficulty while in a guild group.
Realm First! Ragnaros	First guild on the realm to defeat Ragnaros in Firelands on Heroic Difficulty while in a guild group.
Ragnar-O's	Defeat Ragnaros while three Living Meteors are ignited by Lava Wave.

Ragnaros is just one of the seven encounters present in the Firelands raid of Cataclysm. If you would like to learn more about the others, please see our other pages for the raid below.