Hex Lord Malacrass Guide: Strategy, Abilities, Loot

Hex Lord Malacrass is the fifth boss you will encounter in Zul'Aman and can only be reached after all four previous bosses are defeated. This fight has many different adds and the boss will copy the skills of a random class in the raid. Be sure to read up on the mechanics below to properly handle this boss.

• Drain Power — Hex Lord Malacrass drains the power from all nearby enemy players, reducing their damage dealt by 1% and increasing his own damage dealt by 1% for each enemy hit.
• Spirit Bolts — Deals 450 Shadow damage to all enemies every 0.5 seconds for 10 seconds.
• Siphon Soul — Targets a random raid member and steals mimics their class, using a few of their spells depending on the class:
  • Druid — Lifebloom, Moonfire, Thorns
  • Hunter — Explosive Trap, Freezing Trap, Snake Trap
  • Mage — Fireball, Frostbolt, Frost Nova, Ice Lance
  • Paladin — Avenging Wrath, Consecration, Holy Light
  • Priest — Heal, Mind Blast, Mind Control, Pain Suppression, Psychic Scream, Shadow Word: Death
  • Rogue — Blind, Slice and Dice, Wound Poison
  • Shaman — Chain Lightning, Fire Nova Totem, Healing Wave
  • Warlock — Curse of Doom, Rain of Fire, Unstable Affliction
  • Warrior — Mortal Strike, Spell Reflection, Whirlwind

The Hex Lord Malacrass fight consists of 4 adds surrounding the Hex Lord. Each of these adds is randomly chosen from one of two options, similar to the Moroes fight in Karazhan. Below you can see the different adds and their unique abilities:

• Alyson Antille
  • Arcane Torrent — Silences nearby enemies.
  • Dispel Magic — Removes magic buffs from enemies or debuffs from allies.
  • Flash Heal — Quickly heals a nearby injured ally.

• Thurg
  • Bloodlust — Increases a nearby allies attack speed by 100% for 10 seconds.
  • Cleave — Frontal attack, hits up to 2 enemies.
  • High magic resistance, often breaks crowd control effects early.

• Lord Raadan
  • Flame Breath — Deals 3,000 Fire damage to all enemies in front of the caster.
  • Thunderclap — Deals 1,700 to 2,300 Nature damage to all enemies within 20 yards, slowing their attack speed by 20%.

• Slither
  • Venom Spit — Deals 875 to 1,125 Nature damage to an enemy and places a DoT on them, dealing 750 Nature damage per second for 5 seconds total.

• Fenstalker
  • Volatile Infection — Infects an enemy for 30 seconds, causing them to deal 1,885 to 2,115 damage to all nearby allies every 5 seconds.

• Gazakroth
  • Firebolt — Deals 470 Fire damage to a random target. Has no aggro table.

• Darkheart
  • Psychic Wail — Fears all nearby enemies for 2 seconds.

• Koragg
  • Cold Stare — Curses an enemy, causing them to take 1,415 to 1,585 Frost damage any time they cast a spell or ability. After 15 seconds, the curse bounces to a nearby ally.
  • Mighty Blow — Deals damage to target and knocks them back.

How geared and skilled your group is will determine how you approach this boss. Geared groups who are familiar with the raid will most likely simply have their tank run in and start the fight and quickly AoE down the adds. Groups with a bit less gear or still learning the fight may want to play a bit safer, having any usable crowd control move into position to CC one or two of the adds to make the start of the fight much smoother. Either way, use a Misdirection if available on your tank and direct Hex Lord Malacrass himself to the tank. After that start dealing with the adds, either AoEing them down or dealing with them one at a time. Once the adds are down the fight becomes much easier.

Once all of the adds are down, have the ranged players stack at max range from the boss to avoid a few of the AoE abilities he has. The group will want to stack up to help the healers top the raid up as there is a high amount of raid wide area damage on this fight.

The main mechanic of the fight is the Siphon Soul, where Hex Lord Malacrass will mimic the abilities of one of the classes in your raid. You can find the list of spells he copies above under Hex Lord Malacrass' abilities. Watch to see which class he copies and be ready to avoid any area spells he might use, such as Rain of Fire. Try to remove any debuffs he uses on your party or buffs he uses on himself, and definitely make sure you interrupt the heals he will cast. The Mind Control can be removed from a friendly player by having a Shaman use Purge, or a Priest use Dispel Magic on them.

Lastly, every 30 seconds, the raid will be bombarded with Spirit Bolts, which deal 450 Shadow damage to all players every half second for 10 seconds. This damage can cause spell pushback, making this spell quite dangerous, especially if the raid is not full health before this spell goes off. Be ready to use any defensive abilities available on yourself or others, as this ability goes off frequently. It is also worth noting that Drain Power will constantly increase his own damage done, making the Spirit Bolts more and more deadly the longer the fight goes on. Burn the boss down quickly before this becomes overwhelming.

This fight can be chaotic for healers as there is plenty of raid damage going out. Prioritize healing the tank early on as they will take a ton of damage while tanking the boss and adds. Once the adds are dealt with, make sure your raid is stacked as much as possible, allowing your heals to hit as many people as they can. Remove any magical, curse or diseases that your party gets debuffed by, as these will only make the healing requirements much steeper.

Spirit Bolts can be quite deadly to the raid; not only do they deal high damage over time, but as they are frequently hitting you, you will have your spell casts pushed back constantly. Aim to use any instant casts you have during this time. Spells such as Circle of Healing are amazing during this as it has no cast time and is an AoE spell. Aim to have a Paladin give you Concentration Aura during this spell cast to help prevent or remove the spell pushback. You may also place Earth Shield on yourself or another healer to reduce or prevent them from getting spell pushback as well. Use whatever you can to make it through each of these bolts as they hit for more and more damage the longer the fight goes on.

Prioritize the adds down quickly at the start. Use any available stuns and interrupts on the adds to help lock them down and kill them. Be mindful of your threat as you swap to Hex Lord Malacrass as your tank may have been focusing their threat into the adds at the start.

Once the adds are dead, make sure to watch for any needed interrupts on Hex Lord Malacrass, as he may copy a class that has healing spells and attempt to heal himself. Mages should aim to Spellsteal the Avenging Wrath buff if Hex Lord Malacrass copies a Paladin player.

Melee players will need to be mindful of the multiple different area spells that may go off, such as Consecration or Whirlwind. Move away from any avoidable area damage quickly, paying extra attention to the ground around Hex Lord Malacrass for any dangerous abilities.

During Spirit Bolts, help your healers out by using any defensive cooldowns available to you. Even something as minor as a Healthstone or a Super Healing Potion can be the difference between living and dying.

Hex Lord Malacrass can be a hectic fight at the start when dealing with the boss and his 4 adds. Focus on getting a decent threat lead on the boss himself, while generating some threat on each of the adds evenly. The first kill target can mostly be ignored, especially if you can use a stun on it while the DPS quickly kill it. Once threat is established, tank the Hex Lord with your back against a wall and keep him at max range away from your raid.

Once the adds are dealt with, Hex Lord Malacrass himself is fairly simple. Simply keep your threat up and be ready with any defensive cooldowns, especially during his Spirit Bolts, as everyone will be taking tons of damage during this cast.

Item	Item Type	Slot
Tiny Voodoo Mask	Accessory	Trinket
Battleworn Tuskguard	Plate	Head
Coif of the Jungle Stalker	Mail	Head
Dagger of Bad Mojo	Weapon	One-hand Dagger
Girdle of Stromgarde's Hope	Plate	Waist
Heartless	Weapon	One-hand Sword
Prowler's Strikeblade	Weapon	One-hand Dagger
Hood of the Third Eye	Cloth	Head
Hood of Hexing	Cloth	Head
Staff of Primal Fury	Weapon	Staff
Hex Lord's Voodoo Pauldrons	Mail	Shoulder
Tome of Diabolic Remedy	Accessory	Trinket
Cloak of Ancient Rituals	Accessory	Back
Hex Shrunken Head	Accessory	Trinket
Formula: Enchant Weapon - Executioner	Formula	Enchanting

If you were looking for a full guide for the Zul'Aman raid, see the links below:

You may also be interested in progressing through the other raids of Tier 6, such as Hyjal Summit and Black Temple. As such, we recommend you check out our guides for those raids as well!