Megaera Detailed Strategy Guide (Heroic Mode included)

Table of Contents

• +1. General Information
  • 1.1. Health Values
  • 1.2. Enrage Timer
  • 1.3. Raid Composition
• +2. Loot
  • 2.1. Armor
  • 2.2. Weapons
  • 2.3. Amulets, Rings, and Trinkets
• 3. DPS Requirements
• 4. Overview of the Fight
• 5. Class-specific Advice
• +6. Abilities
  • 6.1. Back of the Cave Abilities and Mechanics
    • 6.1.1. Flaming Head: Cinders
    • 6.1.2. Frozen Head: Torrent of Ice
    • 6.1.3. Venomous Head: Acid Rain
    • 6.1.4. Interaction Between Cinders and Torrent of Ice
  • 6.2. Near the Platform Abilities and Mechanics
    • 6.2.1. Health and Respawning Pattern
    • 6.2.2. Damage-increasing Buffs
    • 6.2.3. Abilities
    • 6.2.4. Numbers of Heads to Kill
• +7. Strategy
  • 7.1. Tanking Concerns
  • 7.2. Dealing with Back of the Cave Abilities
    • 7.2.1. Cinders
    • 7.2.2. Torrent of Ice
    • 7.2.3. Acid Rain
  • 7.3. DPS Priority
  • 7.4. Healing Concerns
• 8. When to Use Heroism/Bloodlust/Time Warp
• 9. Learning the Fight
• +10. Heroic Mode
  • 10.1. Differences From Normal Mode
    • 10.1.1. Different Mechanics
    • 10.1.2. Arcane Head
  • 10.2. Strategy
    • 10.2.1. Arcane Head
• 11. Concluding Remarks
• 12. Changelog

Introduction

This guide is intended to provide a comprehensive description of the encounter with Megaera in Throne of Thunder. It is targeted at anyone who desires to understand the fight mechanics.

This guide is updated for World of Warcraft WoD 6.1.2.

Megaera is the fifth boss of the Throne of Thunder raid. The fight is against a corrupted cloud serpent, which, for all intents and purposes is a hydra.

The strategy for defeating Megaera is very simple, even though the encounter itself appears very complex. It mainly requires solid healing and DPS capabilities from your raid members, as well as the ability to perform some movement-related tasks.

We currently have no information about the enrage timer. We will update this section when we know more.

Megaera is a hydra, and as such, in addition to her body, she has a multitude of heads. During the encounter, you never get to attack or fight Megaera herself (so, her body), and you will instead spend the entire time battling her heads.

The objective of the encounter is to bring Megaera to 0% health, and killing one of her heads deals a certain amount of damage to her. Therefore, by killing enough heads, you will eventually killed Megaera herself. You will need to kill 7 heads to defeat Megaera.

Megaera has three different types of heads.

• Flaming Heads deal Fire damage.
• Frozen Heads deal Frost damage.
• Venomous Heads deal Nature damage.

There are two different positions where Megaera's heads can be.

• Near the platform. At any given time, 2 heads (each of a different type) will be near the platform where your raid is located. These heads can be attacked and killed, and they deal damage to your raid through a certain set of abilities.
• At the back of the cave. Whenever one of the heads near the platform is killed, two heads of the same type will spawn at the back of the cave. Heads located there cannot be attacked or damaged by your raid, and they will deal damage to your raid through a specific ability that each of the types possesses.

When one of the two heads near the platform is killed, the remaining head submerges, and then re-emerges together with a new head. The new head will always be of a different type than the one you had just killed (for example, if there is a Flaming and Frozen head, and you kill the Frozen head, the new heads will be Venomous and Flaming). This continues until the end of the fight, ensuring that you will never run out of heads to attack and kill.

We have released a video guide for the fight against Megaera. We strongly recommend watching the video in order to get a better visual idea of the fight.

On our forums, we are maintaining threads with class-specific advice for each of the fights of Throne of Thunder. So, make sure to check them out, and if you have things to share, do not hesitate to contribute!

Class	Forum Threads
Death Knight	Blood Frost/Unholy
Druid	Balance Feral Guardian Restoration
Hunter	All specs
Mage	All specs
Monk	Brewmaster Mistweaver Windwalker
Paladin	Holy Protection Retribution
Priest	Discipline Holy Shadow
Rogue	All specs
Shaman	Elemental Enhancement Restoration
Warlock	All specs
Warrior	Arms/Fury Protection

It is important to differentiate between the abilities that the heads use when they are at the back of the cave and near the platform. The in-game Dungeon Journal refers to the back of the cave as being "inside the Concealing Fog". Any heads not in the Concealing Fog are those that are near the platform and attackable. We will stick to using "back of the cave", though.

We will first present to you the abilities that the heads at the back of the cave use. Even though you will not be confronted with these abilities at the very start of the fight, we feel that these abilities are the most important ones and the ones that are more difficult to understand.

Whenever one of the heads near the platform is killed, two heads of the same type regrow at the back of the cave. For example, if your raid kills a Flaming Head near the platform, two Flaming Heads will appear at the back of the cave. At the start of the fight, before any heads have been killed, there will be no heads at all at the back of the cave.

Let us now look at what each type of head casts from the back of the cave.

When at the back of the cave, the Flaming Heads cast Cinders. This is a debuff applied to a random raid member. It deals instance damage, as well as damage over time for 30 seconds. Dispelling this player is possible, and when doing so, it causes a fiery void zone to be place at the player's location.

The more Flaming Heads are present at the back of the cave (the number increases the more Flaming Heads you kill near the platform), the more players will be targeted by Cinders.

When at the back of the cave, the Frozen Heads cast Torrent of Ice at a random raid member. This is a beam of ice that chases that player for 8 seconds, dealing Frost damage at the point of impact and leaving behind icy void zones called Icy Ground in its path. Standing in these void zones deals damage and progressively slows your movement speed.

The more Frozen Heads are present at the back of the cave, the more players will be targeted by Torrent of Ice.

When at the back of the cave, the Venomous Heads cast Acid Rain. This ability shoots a ball of acid at the location of a random raid member, which lands a few seconds later. When it lands, it deals a large amount of Nature damage to all raid members, but the damage is lower the farther away players are from the impact location.

The more Venomous Heads are present at the back of the cave, the more players will be targeted by Acid Rain.

Cinders has important interactions with Torrent of Ice. Namely, if the player affected by the Cinders debuff runs over the Icy Ground void zones created by the Frozen Head, these void zones are dispelled. Moreover, the fiery void zone created by dispelling Cinders can be removed by making the beam of ice from Torrent of Ice come into contact with them.

There are a few things you need to know about these heads. We will go over these things first, before looking at their abilities.

• The heads do not share health.
• There are always two heads present near the platform, and when one is killed, a new head of a different type (different both from the head that has just been killed, and from the other head present) spawns in its place.
• When one of the heads is killed, the remaining head is healed to full health.

There are two damage-increasing buffs that the heads will keep stacking on themselves. One is removable, while the other is not.

• Hydra Frenzy is removable. When a head is killed by the raid, the remaining head receives a stack of Hydra Frenzy, which increases attack speed by 20% per stack. The only way to remove the buff from a head is to kill it (the buff will be gone when the head respawns). This buff prevents you from repeatedly avoiding to kill one of the heads.
• Elemental Blood of Megaera ( Fire/ Frost/ Nature) is not removable. When a head respawns after being killed, it gains a stack of Elemental Blood of Megaera, which permanently increases the Magic damage done by all heads of that type (so both the head near the platform and the heads at the back of the cave) by 10% per stack. This buff lasts until Megaera dies, making the fight harder as it goes on.

After a head is killed and both heads have respawned, they do not melee and they do not need to be tanked. Instead, their only ability is Rampage ( Fire/ Frost/ Nature). This causes the raid to take Magic damage every second from each of the two different types of heads. The damage inflicted by each type of head is increased by 25% for each additional head of that type that currently exists at the back of the cave. So, if, for example, there are 4 Flaming Heads at the back of the cave, the damage taken from the Fire component of Rampage will be increased by 100%. This leads to more and more damage the closer you come to the end of the fight.

When Rampage fades, the heads begin performing melee attacks. They now need to be tanked. In addition, they now each have a specific breath attack.

The breath attacks are cast in a cone in front of the head, and they deal damage to all affected players. Additionally, they also stack a specific debuff each. These stacking debuffs necessitate a tank switch.

• The Flaming Head casts Ignite Flesh. This deals Fire damage and stacks a Fire damage DoT on affected players.
• The Frozen Head casts Arctic Freeze. This deals Frost damage and stacks a debuff that freezes the affected players at 5 stacks.
• The Venomous Head casts Rot Armor. This deals Nature damage and stacks a debuff that causes affected players to take 10% increased damage from all sources per stack.

Finally, if there is no one in melee range of Megaera's heads near the platform, these heads begin spamming Megaera's Rage ( Fire/ Frost/ Nature) at the raid, which will quickly lead to a wipe.

Each head is worth about 14% of Megaera's health, so you will need to kill 7 heads to defeat the encounter.

Despite the fact that the fight appears extremely complicated, the strategy is really rather simple. We summarise it in this section, before developing it further in subsequent sections.

1. When the fight starts, you will want to focus your raid's DPS on one of the two existing heads (we recommend the Frozen Head).
2. After one head dies, your raid should stack up in a location close to one of the heads, while you endure the raid-wide damage of Rampage.
3. After 20 seconds, Rampage will end and you can spread out again. Have your two tanks each pick up one of the two heads, and tank them facing away from the raid. They will need to perform a tank switch between these two heads.
4. DPS one of the remaining two heads.
5. At this point, you will need to begin handling the abilities cast by the heads at the back of the cave.
   • The player(s) afflicted by Cinders must run over any Icy Ground void zones available and then be dispelled in a safe location (away from the raid and in a place where the resulting void zone will not interfere with the raid's movement.
   • The player(s) chased by Torrent of Ice must run from the beam of ice. They must be careful not to kite it over the raid's location, and, if possible, to kite over any existing fiery void zones to extinguish them.
   • Everyone should move away from the impact location of Acid Rain to minimise the damage that they take. Moving 15-20 yards away is enough.
6. Continue DPSing the heads one at a time, while handling the mechanics cast by the heads at the back of the cave, and the increasing damage you will have to endure.

Tanks have a relatively simple task during this fight. While Rampage is being cast, there is no task that tanks must perform, and they should continue to stack with the rest of the raid while attacking the head that is the current DPS target.

Shortly before Rampage ends, the two tanks should each go to one of the two heads, and they should prepare to start tanking them. As soon as Rampage ends, the other two heads will begin to melee and cast their frontal cone attacks.

These two tanks will need to switch the heads they are tanking so that the debuffs applied by the breaths do not stack too much. We recommend switching after 2 stacks of the debuffs applied by the breath, but it is also possible to only switch after one head is dead, and during the subsequent Rampage.

If you are doing the former, then tanks should use any abilities they can to more quickly cover the distance from one head to the other (abilities such as Roll and Heroic Leap). If you are doing the latter, you should be using defensive cooldowns when taking the third breaths. The head that your raid is focusing should be dead before a 4th breath ever comes.

There is not much to be said about how to best handle these abilities, as they are quite straightforward. In any case, all raid members will need to learn what these abilities do, since handling them properly is probably the most important part of the fight.

Players affected by Cinders should be quick to run over any existing Icy Ground void zones, and then move to a safe location (out of the way of the raid) to be dispelled.

The damage of the Cinders DoT is quite high, so healers may be forced to dispel these players early in order to prevent them from dying. As such, if you are the person affected by Cinders, you have to be mindful of your own health in order to estimate how quickly you need to move to a safe location.

Players chased by Torrent of Ice must be very quick to run from it, since the damage inflicted at the point of impact is quite high. It is important to make sure never to run over the location of other raid members, and especially not over the place where the raid is stacked (assuming that 3 heads are active near the platform).

If there are any fiery void zones in undesirable locations, players being chased by Torrent of Ice should kite the beam over them to despawn them.

Acid Rain is probably the easiest mechanic to deal with. All that your raid members must do is be prompt in moving away from the impact location (it is clearly visible). Certain classes can afford not to move if they use Magic damage-reducing abilities like Anti-Magic Shell or Cloak of Shadows.

It makes little difference, in general, which heads you decide to kill at which time. That said, there is one important thing to keep in mind. The head near the platform that is alive when another head is killed will gain a stack of Hydra Frenzy. This means that you need to maintain a balance between the heads you kill, so that no head gets to have more than 2 stacks of Hydra Frenzy. So, you cannot, for example, avoid killing the Venomous Head the entire fight, because it would gain too many stacks of Hydra Frenzy and thus kill its tank.

This is a very healing-intensive encounter. The fight starts out with relatively low damage, but this damage continues to increase as the fight goes on.

The periods of highest raid damage are during Rampage. At these times, the raid should stack up, and healing and defensive cooldowns must be employed. Keep in mind that after the very first Rampage, the raid may need to move while stacking, in order to avoid Acid Rain, and certain raid members will need to move out if targeted by Cinders or Torrent of Ice.

We recommend using Heroism/ Bloodlust/ Time Warp later on in the fight, when the damage taken is more intense. The best time to use it is probably during the final Rampage, because this raid damage is very intense.

Despite its apparent complexity, the fight is quite simple to learn.

The most important part of the fight is making sure that everyone knows how to handle the abilities that Megaera's heads cast from the back of the cave. Once players are accustomed to avoiding Acid Rain, Cinders, and Torrent of Ice.

In addition to this, success will come from your healers becoming intimately accustomed to the damage patterns, and utilising their cooldowns accordingly.

The Heroic mode of the Megaera encounter is not very different from the Normal mode, but a few key differences do exist.

Megaera's heads have increased health, and they deal increased damage, but you will have to kill the same number of heads as in Normal mode in order to defeat the encounter (7). Aside from these changes, three existing mechanics are somewhat different, and an entirely new head (with assorted mechanics) exists.

Cinders now leaves behind a void zone every 3 seconds while the DoT is active on a player, instead of leaving behind a single void zone when it is dispelled.

Icy Ground void zones expand over time (2 minutes), until they cover an area twice their original size.

Acid Rain shoots three balls of slime at random players, instead of just one.

The Arcane Head follows the same basic mechanical principles as all the other heads. When it is near the platform, it casts a breath attack comparable to those of the other heads. The ability is called Diffusion, and it stacks a debuff on affected players, which causes 10% of all healing received to be redirected to allies within 8 yards.

From the back of the cave, the Arcane Head casts Nether Tear, which summons several Nether Wyrm adds. These adds have two abilities that they frequently cast.

• Nether Spike is an interruptible nuke that targets random raid members.
• Suppression is an interruptible spell that stuns a random raid member for 15 seconds. The stun is dispellable.

The Nether Wyrms can be attacked and killed, and they have normal threat tables.

The strategy for the Heroic mode is very similar to the Normal mode strategy: kill 7 of Megaera's heads while handling the abilities that you are presented with. That said, there are several peculiarities to take into account.

• Attack the Heads with priority (over the Nether Wyrms). DPSing the Heads is more important than cleaning up any existing Wyrms.
• Never kill a Venomous Head. Dealing with the Heroic version of Acid Rain (where three balls of slime are shot at the raid instead of just one) is very difficult.
• Dispel Cinders when the affected player reaches a safe location. Leaving behind multiple void zones is undesirable. In general, you will not need to clear up any Icy Ground void zones, though this may be necessary a few times throughout the fight.
• Place Torrent of Ice void zones far from the raid. The best way to do it is to have ranged DPS standing at maximum range away from Megaera, and, as soon as someone is targeted by Torrent of Ice, to run back (so, farther away from Megaera still). Eventually, more and more of the ground will be covered in these void zones, meaning that you may need to use Cinders to clear up some space towards the end of the fight.

Handling the Arcane Head is actually quite simple. As we mentioned, killing the Nether Wyrms quickly is not very important, and it is much more important to focus DPS on the existing head. It is best to have only a few players DPSing the Nether Wyrms, and having everyone switch to them right after a head dies (for the few seconds during which no head can be attacked). The Nether Wyrms' health is low, so killing them should not be a lengthy affair. While they are alive, make sure to disrupt their casting as much as possible, and to dispel any players that end up being stunned by them.

This concludes our raid guide for Megaera. We hope you have found it helpful. Please do not hesitate to post any feedback you may have on our forums.

• 09 Jun. 2013: Added Heroic mode.
• 15 Mar. 2013: Replaced our PTR preview with our video guide.
• 13 Mar. 2013: Added link to forum threads that contain class-specific advice for the encounter.
• 08 Mar. 2013: Updated health values, and updated the guide to reflect the fact that there are now always 2 heads near the platform, and that they always use Rampage for 20 seconds after one head is killed, after which they revert to their normal abilities. This is in contrast to the much more convoluted way in which the fight worked on the PTR.

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