Portal Keeper Hasabel Strategy/Tactics for Normal/Heroic

Table of Contents

• +Introduction
  • 1. Contents
  • 2. Lore
  • 3. Outline
  • 4. TL;DR
    • 4.1. Tanks
    • 4.2. Healers
    • 4.3. DPS
  • 5. Bloodlust/Heroism/Time Warp
  • 6. Changelog
• +Abilities
  • 1. Overview
  • 2. Portals
  • 3. Platform: Nexus (Portal Keeper Hasabel)
    • 3.1. Reality Tear
    • 3.2. Collapsing World
    • 3.3. Felstorm Barrage
    • 3.4. Transport Portal
      • 3.4.1. Felblaze Imps
      • 3.4.2. Feltouch Skitterer
      • 3.4.3. Hungering Stalker
    • 3.5. Catastrophic Implosion
  • 4. Platform: Xoroth
    • 4.1. Vulcanar
      • 4.1.1. Flames of Xoroth
      • 4.1.2. Supernova
    • 4.2. Everburning Flames
      • 4.2.1. Everburning Light
  • 5. Platform: Rancora
    • 5.1. Lady Dacidion
      • 5.1.1. Felsilk Wrap
      • 5.1.2. Poison Essence
      • 5.1.3. Unstable Portal
    • 5.2. Caustic Slime
      • 5.2.1. Caustic Detonation
  • 6. Platform: Nathreza
    • 6.1. Lord Eilgar
      • 6.1.1. Delusions
      • 6.1.2. Corrupt
      • 6.1.3. Unstable Portal
    • 6.2. Mind Fog
      • 6.2.1. Cloying Shadows
      • 6.2.2. Hungering Gloom
• ×Normal/Heroic Strategy/Tactics
  • 1. Positioning and Strategy
    • 1.1. Platform: Xoroth
    • 1.2. Platform: Rancora
    • 1.3. Platform: Nathreza & Final Burn
  • 2. Tank Concerns
  • 3. Healing Concerns
  • 4. Useful Tips
  • 5. Bloodlust/Heroism/Time Warp
• +Mythic Strategy
  • 1. Mythic Mode Abilities
    • 1.1. Transport Portal: Unrelenting
    • 1.2. Platform Mini-Bosses
      • 1.2.1. Vulcanar
      • 1.2.2. Lady Dacidion
      • 1.2.3. Lord Eilgar
  • 2. Strategy
  • 3. Changelog

General Information

On this page, you will find a working strategy to defeat Portal Keeper Hasabel in Antorus, the Burning Throne for both Normal and Heroic modes, which usually only differ by the tuning of the boss.

Here, we assume that you have read our descriptions of the abilities for this encounter.

The other pages of our Portal Keeper Hasabel guide can be accessed from the table of contents on the right.

The Tanks should position Portal Keeper Hasabel to either side of the room on the pull. It is generally preferred to keep her near the purple portal on spawn, leaving the red portal clear for people to enter when she reaches 90% health. Even if a Collapsing World cast occurs before 90%, the red portal area will be clear of mechanics. Tanks should perform a taunt swap every 4-5 stacks of Reality Tear.

Keeping Portal Keeper Hasabel on the edge of the platform can be helpful for forcing adds to spawn closer to the boss, as they can only spawn on one side. We advise tanking Hasabel on the edges and moving from side to side with each cast of Collapsing World.

Positioning for Ranged DPS and Healers is not particularly important for the early part of the fight. Staying at least 30 yards clear of the boss is recommended, to reduce movement from each Collapsing World. A loose spread is recommended to ensure Felstorm Barrage is not disruptive. Felstorm Barrage presents as large green lines going across the arena, and are easy to spot.

A portal team should be assigned ahead of time. The portal team should have as many players as possible without compromising the main platform group's ability to clear the add waves from Transport Portal. It is recommended to leave players that have grouping abilities (e.g. Death Grip) on the main platform. The main platform will also require enough interrupts to deal with Fiery Detonation, and later, Howling Shadows.

If your group is unsure of the DPS balance, it is recommended you send half your DPS in the portal, as well as one Tank and Healer. The best single target DPS should be assigned to portals, while your strong cleavers should stay on the platform with Portal Keeper Hasabel.

At ~92-91% on Portal Keeper Hasabel's health, the portal team should head through the red portal, ready for Vulcanar's spawn. The portal team should save their DPS cooldowns for Vulcanar in order to defeat him as quickly as possible, which greatly reduces raid damage and allows the raid to regroup into one team as quickly as possible. Flames of Xoroth and Unstable Portal should always be interrupted; establish a kick order to aid with coordination. Supernovas should always be avoided.

On the main platform, the raid will begin to deal with waves of Felblaze Imps. Their casts of Fiery Detonation should be interrupted whenever possible. Classes with grouping, such as Death Knights, are extremely helpful in stacking up the Imps, allowing you to quickly cleave them down efficiently. Imps should be prioritized above Hasabel.

At ~62-61% on Portal Keeper Hasabel's health, the portal team should head through the green portal, ready to engage Lady Dacidion. For this portal, we recommend sending an additional Healer to assist the group, as there is higher group damage. If your portal group has low DPS, the Healers can allow the group to sit on low health (30-40%) to increase healing efficiency, as Poison Essence deals damage based on current health. Felsilk Wraps need to be eliminated immediately. Stacking under the mini-boss is advised, as the Wraps are quickly cleaved and it greatly improves raid healing. Avoid the fel pools, as Caustic Detonation can be lethal if your group is on low health.

On the main platform, Feltouched Skitterers will join the Imps pouring from the Transport Portals. Unlike the Imps, they have an aggro table and should be picked up and tanked immediately. They are lower priority than the Imps, however, they should be killed quickly as their Acidic Web can be disruptive, or even lethal during Collapsing World and Felstorm Barrage.

At ~34% health, a preassigned player should run into the red portal and pick up one of the fire orbs ( Everburning Flames). They must then take the debuff through the purple portal within 10 seconds, when the orb will expire and drop to the floor. This will allow the portal group to see through the Mind Fog present when Lord Eilgar spawns. Please note that on the PTR, the group could simply stand right on top of Lord Eilgar and were able to target and attack him, however this is likely unintended and will be fixed by live.

Alternatively, a player can pick up one of the Everburning Flames after killing Vulcanar and drop it next to or inside the purple portal ahead of time. The orb should be out of the way so it is not accidentally picked up by another player. This is a good trick and saves a little time and DPS efficiency.

At 32-31% on Portal Keeper Hasabel's health, the portal team should enter the purple portal and engage Lord Eilgar when he spawns. All players must be within 10 yards of the Everburning Flames in order to be able to target Lord Eilgar. Corrupt should always be interrupted. Delusions will only target Healers; use this debuff as a means of regaining lost Mana, only dispelling it when you have reached a comfortable level of Mana.

Hungering Stalkers will join the Imps and Spiders coming out of the Transport Portals. These adds can also be tanked and should be cleaved down. Their cast, Howling Shadows, is highest priority to be interrupted.

When all three portals have been cleared, the entire raid should return to the main platform and burn Portal Keeper Hasabel as fast as possible. Raid damage will be extremely high, as Portal: Xoroth, Portal: Rancora, and Portal: Nathreza will all be ticking simultaneously in addition to the three types of adds running rampant throughout the platform.

The main concern for Tanks on this fight is the damage from Reality Tear stacking very high while the portal group is dealing with a mini-boss. Cooldowns will likely be necessary after a couple stacks, as the damage is fast and potent.

The tank on the platform generally has very little to worry about. The damage from the mini-bosses is high, but it is predictable and sustained and there are no lethal spikes of damage.

This fight has a very large healing "check". There is constant ticking damage throughout the entire fight, waves of adds, and plenty of unavoidable mechanics hitting the raid. Additionally, it should be expected that some players will mess up the avoidable mechanics on occasion, which adds to the insane damage intake and stress level for the Healers on this fight.

The periods of highest threat are:

• multiple casts of Fiery Detonation going off in succession;
• tanks on high stacks of Reality Tear while a portal group is off the main platform;
• whenever high stack Reality Tears expire and trigger very large Bursting Darknesses (cooldowns advised);
• when the portal group is fighting Lady Dacidion and you are suffering ticking damage from Portal: Xoroth and Empowered Portal: Rancora (cooldowns advised);
• when the portal group is fighting Lord Eilgar and you are suffering ticking damage from Portal: Xoroth, Portal: Rancora, and Empowered Portal: Nathreza (cooldowns advised).

Pay special attention to:

• Portal Keeper Hasabel's health — it is very important that the portal group is always on time and kills their mini-boss as fast as possible;
• Felstorm Barrage casts, as they will often instantly kill players when combined with the ticking damage that is always present;
• interrupting the casts of the mini bosses, the Felblaze Imps' Fiery Detonations, and the Hungering Stalkers' Howling Shadows.

We advise you to use Bloodlust/ Heroism/ Time Warp after the portal group has returned from defeating Lord Eilgar. Wait for them to be properly in position on the main platform, then pop all available damage cooldowns and burn Portal Keeper Hasabel. Bloodlust/Heroism is best used here for several reasons; primarily, this is the period of highest raid damage and is a "race to the finish". This allows Bloodlust/Heroism to act as both a damage and healing cooldown, which is highly efficient. There is little point in using it at any other point in the fight, as the portal group will often be separated from the main platform.