Xhul'horac Detailed Strategy Guide (Heroic Mode included)

Table of Contents

• +1. General Information
  • 1.1. LFR Difficulty
  • 1.2. Normal and Heroic Difficulty
  • 1.3. Enrage Timer
• 2. Overview of the Fight
• +3. Summing Things Up
  • 3.1. Tanks
  • 3.2. Healers
  • 3.3. DPS
  • 3.4. Everyone
• +4. Phase One: The Legion's Flame
  • 4.1. Abilities
    • 4.1.1. Xhul'horac
    • 4.1.2. Adds
  • 4.2. Strategy
    • 4.2.1. Tanking Concerns
    • 4.2.2. Positioning
    • 4.2.3. Handling the Mechanics
• +5. Phase Two: Grasp of the Void
  • 5.1. Abilities
    • 5.1.1. Xhul'horac
  • 5.2. Adds
  • 5.3. Strategy
    • 5.3.1. Tanking Concerns
    • 5.3.2. Positioning
    • 5.3.3. Handling the Mechanics
• +6. Phase Three: The Shadowfel Amalgamation
  • 6.1. Abilities
    • 6.1.1. Xhul'horac
    • 6.1.2. Adds
  • 6.2. Strategy
    • 6.2.1. Tanking and Positioning
    • 6.2.2. Handling Abilities
• +7. Phase Four: Tearing Apart
  • 7.1. Abilities
  • 7.2. Strategy
  • 7.3. Tanking and Positioning
• 8. When to use Heroism/Bloodlust/Time Warp
• 9. When to use the Legendary Ring
• 10. Learning the Fight
• +11. Loot
  • 11.1. Armor
  • 11.2. Weapons
  • 11.3. Amulets, Cloaks, Rings, and Trinkets
• 12. Concluding Remarks
• 13. Changelog

Introduction

This guide is intended to provide a comprehensive description of the encounter with Xhul'horac in Hellfire Citadel. It is targeted at anyone who desires to understand the fight mechanics.

This guide is updated for World of Warcraft WoD 6.2.

Xhul'horac is a boss encounter in the Hellfire Citadel raid instance. This four-phase encounter stresses your raid members' ability to move quickly and to dodge ground effects.

This guide is written and maintained by Azortharion, a top Hunter with 6 years of raiding experience, who currently raids in Ðanish Terrace, a world top 20 guild.

For the Looking for Raid version of the fight, we provide you with a special LFR guide. This will tell you everything you need to know in order to complete the encounter, in a quick and concise way.

This guide covers both the Normal and Heroic versions of the encounter, as far as mechanics and general strategy is concerned. The only difference between these two modes is found in the tuning, with Heroic being more difficult.

When we speak of extreme situations (such as the difficulty of a soft enrage timer, or damage from a certain source being too high to survive), we mostly refer to Heroic mode.

We do not currently know what the hard enrage timer for this encounter is.

Xhul'horac is a 4-phase encounter during which your raid will have to contend with Xhul'horac himself as well as with a number of different adds.

• Phase One lasts until the death of a specific add.
• Phase Two lasts until the death of another specific add.
• Phase Three lasts until the boss reaches 20% health.
• Phase Four lasts until the boss dies.

In this section, we will very briefly summarise what the players belonging to each of the three roles have to do during this fight. This is by no means meant to provide sufficient information to master the encounter, and it is only supposed to give you a very rough idea of what to watch out for.

• During Phase One, perform a tank switch on the boss and Vanguard Akkelion when the Felblaze Flurry debuff stacks too high.
• During Phase Two, perform a tank switch on the boss and Omnus when the Withering Gaze debuff stacks too high.
• During Phase Three, perform a tank switch for each Fel Strike or Void Strike.
• Throughout the fight, use defensive cooldowns for each Fel Strike and Void Strike.

• Use defensive healing cooldowns on tanks when they are about to get struck by Fel Strike and Void Strike.
• Save as many healing cooldowns as possible for Phase Four.
• Take care to heal raid members affected by Ablaze or Wasting Void.

• DPS the targets that appear in the following priority:
  1. Wild Pyromaniacs
  2. Unstable Voidfiends
  3. Vanguard Akkelion/Omnus
  4. Xhul'horac

• When targeted by Fel Surge or Void Surge, drop the void zones that spawn in their designated areas of the room (Fel Surges go left, Void Surges go right, for example, or vice versa).
• Have an assigned group of players close Black Holes by walking into them together. 3 people is ideal, but 2 is possible.
• Have an assigned ranged DPS player kite the Unstable Voidfiends around by always being the closest to them, while avoiding their Volatile Voidstep by stepping out of the ground effect constantly.
• Be extremely careful not to step in Creeping Void with Ablaze, and in Chaotic Felblaze with Wasting Void.
• Intercept Fel Orbs if you are not debuffed with Ablaze or Wasting Void.
• Interrupt Fel Orb as much as it is possible.

Phase One lasts from the start of the fight, until Vanguard Akkelion, an add that spawns during this phase, is killed.

• Fel Strike is an ability that Xhul'horac regularly uses on his current tank. It deals massive Fire damage in a single strike.
• Fel Surge is a targeted ability that Xhul'horac regularly uses. He targets a random amount of raid members, but always at least 3, and applies a 5-second DoT on them that deals moderate Fire damage every second. When the DoT expires, the affected player leaves on the ground a patch of Chaotic Felblaze, which lasts until the end of the fight and gradually spread (by spawning other patches around it). Standing in this patch afflicts raid members with Ablaze, a stacking, 15-second, Fire damage DoT.

Shortly after the fight begins, Xhul'horac begins spawning a number of adds.

• Vanguard Akkelion is an add that spawns shortly after the fight begins. Akkelion has a high amount of health, and can be tanked. When Akkelions takes damage, that damage is also taken by Xhul'horac.
  • Felblaze Flurry is an ability that Akkelion regularly uses on his current tank. It deals high Fire damage in a number of rapid strikes, and increases damage taken from Felblaze Flurry for 7 seconds. This effect stacks, and requires a tank switch.
  • Chains of Fel is a targeted ability that Akkelion occasionally targets a random amount of raid members with. It tethers them together with visual fel chains, and deals moderate Fire damage to them every second. This effect stacks based on how many raid members are tethered together, which is entirely random. The Chains of Fel can be broken by having tether players move far away from each other.
• Wild Pyromaniacs are adds that spawn roughly every 45 seconds in waves of 3 or 4. They seem to always appear near the boss. They cannot be tanked, and deal no melee damage. Instead, they just spam their Fel Orb ability.
  • Fel Orb is an interruptible ability that Wild Pyromaniacs constantly cast. It fires an orb in a random direction. When the orb reaches the wall of the room, it leaves behind a Chaotic Felblaze Fire patch (just like when Fel Surge expires) that applies Ablaze to players standing in it. Players can intercept the orb, preventing the Fire patch from spawning, but this causes Ablaze to be applied on them.

During Phase One, your raid's main goal is to kill Akkelion as quickly as possible, all the while surviving the abilities used against you. The raid should not focus any DPS on Xhul'horac at this time.

Xhul'horac and Akkelion must be tanked throughout Phase One. We advise you to tank both of them close to either side of the room. In Phase Two, as we will see later on in the guide, we advise tanking the boss and Omnnus (the tankable add during that phase) on the opposite side of the room. This will allow void zones from both phases ( Fel Surge in Phase One and Void Surge in Phase Two) to be placed on opposite sides of the room, preventing these void zones from ever touching, which is important.

A tank switch must be performed to deal with the Felblaze Flurry cast by Akkelion. When this happens, the tank who was tanking Akkelions should take Xhul'horac, and vice versa. We do not know the exact amount of stacks to recommend switching at, yet.

Tanks should try to rotate defensive cooldowns for every Fel Strike cast by Xhul'horac.

As stated above, we recommend pulling the boss towards either side of the room and tanking him there. The ranged camp should stay around the middle of the room, as far as away as possible from the boss.

There is no need for raid members to be spread out during this phase, but there is also no specific benefit to stacking up.

Raid members targeted by Fel Surge should drop their Fire patches on the side where Xhul'horac is currently being tanked, but as far away from him as possible. This will make Phase Two easier, as we will explain later.

Players targeted by Chains of Fel must spread out in all directions as quickly as possible, to break the chains and minimise damage taken from its ticking debuff.

Finally, the raid will have to handle the Wild Pyromaniacs' Fel Orb. These casts must be interrupted as much as possible, and the Pyromaniacs must be killed as quickly as possible. For the Fel Orbs go through, ranged raid members that are not already affected with Ablaze should intercept them to prevent Fire patches from spawning.

Players affected with Ablaze should wait for the DoT to drop before going back on Orb-intercepting duty. While the DoT runs its course, these players must be healed.

Phase Two lasts from the death of Vanguard Akkelion until the death of Omnus.

• Void Strike is an ability that Xhul'horac regularly uses on his current tank. It deals massive Shadow damage in a single strike.
• Void Surge is a targeted ability that Xhul'horac regularly uses. He targets a random amount of raid members, but always at least 3, and applies a 5-second DoT on them that deals moderate Shadow damage every second. When the DoT expires, affected players leave behind a patch of Creeping Void, which lasts until the end of the fight and spread. Standing in this patch afflicts raid members with Wasting Void, a stacking, 15-second, Shadow damage DoT.
  • If a patch of Creeping Void comes into contact with a patch of Chaotic Felblaze from Phase One, a Shadowfel Annihilation is triggered. This erases the two patches and deals massive Shadowflame damage to all players within 20 yards of where the two patches met. Additionally, all patches of Creeping Void and Chaotic Felblaze disappear within 20 yards of this explosion. Finally, raid members debuffed with Wasting Void that touch patches of Chaotic Felblaze also trigger a Shadowfel Annihilation.

Shortly after Phase Two begins, Xhul'horac begins spawning a number of adds.

• Omnus is an add that Xhul'horac spawns shortly into Phase Two. Omnus has a high amount of health, and can be tanked. When Omnus takes damage, that damage is also taken by Xhul'horac.
  • Withering Gaze is an ability that Omnus almost constantly uses on his current tank. It deals massive Shadow damage in a single strike, and increases damage taken from Withering Gaze for 7 seconds. This effect stacks and requires a tank switch.
  • Black Hole is an ability that Omnus occasionally casts. He opens a portal near the middle of the room. It deals moderate Physical damage to the entire raid every second, and slowly drags all raid members towards it. If any raid member enters the Black Hole, they unleash a Singularity. Players can avoid being pulled into the Black Hole by running away from it.
    • Singularity deals a lethal amount of Shadow damage that is evenly divided between all players standing within 11 yards of the middle of the Black Hole, and destroys the Black Hole.
• Wild Pyromaniacs continue to spawn like they do in Phase One. Intercepting their Fel Orbs still applies Ablaze. If a player affected by Ablaze also receives the Wasting Void debuff (from a Creeping Void void zone), this will trigger a Shadowfel Annihilation.
• Unstable Voidfiends are adds that spawn throughout the phase roughly every 45 seconds, in waves of 3 or 4. They cannot be tanked and deal no melee damage. Instead, they just spam the Volatile Voidstep ability.
  • Volatile Voidstep is a 3.5-second cast that teleports the Unstable Voidfiend to the nearest raid member's location, inflicting heavy Shadow damage to that raid member if they do not move in time, as well as spawning a patch of Creeping Void at that location. When the cast begins, a ground effect is placed at the location of the targeted raid member, giving them time to move away.

The strategy for Phase Two is very similar to that for Phase One. You will mostly ignore attacking Xhul'horac, and instead try to kill Omnus as quickly as possible, while handling the abilities used against you.

Xhul'horac and Omnus must be tanked throughout Phase Two. We advise you to tank both of them close to the opposite side of the room from where Xhul'horac and Akkelion were tanked in Phase One. This will allow ranged raid members targeted by Void Surge to run to the opposite side of the room and place their Creeping Void void zones there, where they will not come in contact with Chaotic Felblaze void zones and trigger a Shadowfel Annihilation.

A tank switch must be performed to deal with the Withering Gaze cast by Omnus. When this happens, the tank who was tanking Omnus should take Xhul'horac, and vice versa. We do not know the exact amount of stacks to recommend switching at, yet.

Tanks should try to rotate defensive cooldowns for every Void Strike cast by Xhul'horac.

For Phase Two, we recommend pulling the boss towards the side of the room opposite from Phase One and tanking him there. The ranged camp should stay in rather close formation around the boss.

Players targeted by Void Surge should move as far away from Xhul'horac as possible, and more importantly, away from any Chaotic Felblaze patches left in Phase One. This is to avoid them ever meeting and triggering a Shadowfel Annihilation, as well as allowing the raid as much space as possible.

To deal with Black Hole, assign a group of at least 2 raid members to walk into the Black Hole together to trigger a Singularity and split the damage amongst themselves. Immunities do not work for avoiding this damage.

The Wild Pyromaniacs' Fel Orb casts should still be interrupted as often as possible. For any Fel Orbs that go through, you should let them travel to the wall if they are moving towards the Chaotic Felblaze on the other side of the room, since the Shadowfel Annihilation that will be triggered is too far away to do harm to your raid. If they are moving towards the raid, intercept them like you would in Phase One.

In order to handle Volatile Voidstep, assign a single raid member to stay closest to all of the Unstable Voidfiends, and kite them away from the raid by moving away from the ground effect when it appears. Since Volatile Voidstep is always cast on the nearest player, they will continue casting it on this assigned player. Ranged DPS players should focus on killing the Voidfiends as second-highest priority, after the Wild Pyromaniacs.

Phase Three starts when Omnus dies, and it lasts until Xhul'horac reaches 20% health.

During this phase, you will only fight Xhul'horac together with Wild Pyromaniacs and Unstable Voidfiends.

Xhul'horac uses both Fel Surge/ Void Surge and Fel Strike/ Void Strike, alternating between them for every cast made. These abilities are very similar to their Phase One and Two versions, with one difference. If a tank who is struck by Fel Strike takes damage from a Void Strike afterward and vice versa, a Shadowfel Annihilation is triggered. Thus, Fel Strike and Void Strike both become tank switch mechanics.

The Wild Pyromaniacs and the Unstable Voidfiends continue to spawn and behave as during Phase Two.

Throughout this phase, your raid has to handle Xhul'horac and the Wild Pyromaniacs and the Unstable Voidfiends adds. The goal of the phase is to bring Xhul'horac to 20% health (in order to reach Phase Four) as quickly as possible, all while prioritising dealing with the adds.

Perform a tank switch so that only one tank is hit by Fel Strike, and another is only hit by Void Strike. This means taunting off one another when a strike of any kind lands.

We recommend moving the boss to the middle of the room. Here, raid members have the best access to both sides of the room, where the Chaotic Felblaze void zones from Phase One and the Creeping Void void zones from phase two are located (as we will see, this is important for the strategy of this phase).

For Fel Surge, place the Chaotic Felblaze fire patch among the others that were placed in Phase One, and for Void Surge, place the Creeping Void shadow patches among the others that were placed in Phase Two.

Your DPS players will have to prioritise killing the adds, while still doing enough damage to Xhul'horac to bring him to 20% health as quickly as possible. The adds' abilities should be dealt with in exactly the same way as during Phase Two.

Phase Four lasts from the end of Phase Three until Xhul'horac is killed.

During this phase, Xhul'horac retains his abilities from Phase Three ( Fel Surge/ Void Surge and Fel Strike/ Void Strike), and gains an additional ability. No more adds spawn during this phase, but any adds still alive when the boss reaches 20% health remain in the fight until killed.

Overwhelming Chaos is the new ability Xhul'horac gains in Phase Four. He uses this ability every 10 seconds. It deals heavy Chaos damage to all raid members, and increases his damage done by 20% for each time it is used. As time goes on, the damage from Overwhelming Chaos becomes unhealable.

Phase Four is an intense DPS race where healers will have to keep the raid alive long enough for Xhul'horac to die. Ideally, your raid should aim to push Xhul'horac past 20% health when few or no adds are alive, in order to make this last phase easier. If any adds are still alive, Wild Pyromaniacs should be killed right away, while Unstable Voidfiends can be cleaved down next to Xhul'horac.

The primary goal of Phase Four is to kill Xhul'horac as quickly as possible. DPS cooldowns should be saved for this point in the fight.

As far as tanking Xhul'horac, the tanks will have to do exactly the same thing they did during Phase Three, namely ensuring that only one tank is hit by Fel Strike, and another is only hit by Void Strike.

We recommend stacking up behind the boss, in order to get as much healing on everyone as possible.

We recommend using Heroism/ Bloodlust/ Time Warp when Xhul'horac enters Phase Four, as the healing requirement will ramp up very quickly, and it is important that the boss dies as quickly as possible at this time.

We recommend that DPS players use the Legendary Ring when priority targets such as Wild Pyromaniacs and Unstable Voidfiends spawn. Additionally, a use of the Legendary Ring should be saved for Phase Four.

We recommend that healers use their Legendary Ring as they please until Phase Four, at which point they should save it for when the damage becomes too high to keep up with.

Finally, we recommend that tank players use their Legendary Ring when they are alternating between tanking the boss and large adds during Phases One and Two. In Phase Three and Four, there are no particular tanking requirements, and the Legendary Ring for tanks can be used as a DPS cooldown, thanks to the Versatility it gives.

Xhul'horac is a long and difficult fight. The most important part of the fight is properly handling abilities that target individual raid members, such as Fel Surge or Chains of Fel. Fortunately, Phase One is not timed and many abilities carry over to the other phases, albeit in a slightly different form, which gives you ample room to practice. DPS players will also be tested on their ability to focus down important targets, such as Wild Pyromaniacs, which can also be practiced during Phase One.

Tanks will be tested primarily on their ability to juggle two targets amongst themselves while reliably tank switching on short notice when the Felblaze Flurry and Withering Gaze abilities stack too high.

Finally, healers are tested on their ability to do healing when it is needed, and using single-target, defensive cooldowns reliably as the boss is about to use Fel Strike and Void Strike.

All in all, given the fight's progressive nature, your raid will be more or less forced to master one stage before moving on to the next one.

In this section, you will find the loot table for Xhul'horac. The section is divided in 3 subsections: armor, weapons, and the rest (neck, back, finger, and trinket items).

Item Name	Armor	Slot	Secondary Stats
Countenance of the Revenant (Heroic, Mythic)	Cloth	Head	Multistrike Haste
Pious Mantle (Heroic, Mythic)	Cloth	Shoulders	Multistrike Mastery
Mantle of the Arcanic Conclave (Heroic, Mythic)	Cloth	Shoulders	Critical Strike Haste
Deathrattle Shoulderpads (Heroic, Mythic)	Cloth	Shoulders	Multistrike Critical Strike
Shadowfel Cord — LFR	Cloth	Waist	Haste Critical Strike
Felfume Slippers — LFR	Cloth	Feet	Mastery Multistrike
Hood of Unknowable Secrets (Heroic, Mythic)	Leather	Head	Multistrike Critical Strike
Felblade Spaulders (Heroic, Mythic)	Leather	Shoulders	Haste Critical Strike
Oathclaw Mantle (Heroic, Mythic)	Leather	Shoulders	Mastery Haste
Mantle of the Hurricane's Eye (Heroic, Mythic)	Leather	Shoulders	Haste Mastery
Girdle of Volatile Duality — LFR	Leather	Waist	Multistrike Critical Strike
Ironpelt Boots — LFR	Leather	Feet	Haste Critical Strike
Sinister Felborne Helmet (Heroic, Mythic)	Mail	Head	Critical Strike Multistrike
Pauldrons of the Savage Hunt (Heroic, Mythic)	Mail	Shoulders	Haste Multistrike
Pauldrons of the Living Mountain (Heroic, Mythic)	Mail	Shoulders	Critical Strike Haste
Bracers of Tainted Magic — LFR	Mail	Wrists	Haste Mastery
Rancorbite Sabatons — LFR	Mail	Feet	Haste Multistrike
Demongaze Pauldrons (Heroic, Mythic)	Plate	Shoulders	Multistrike Mastery
Shoulderplates of the Ceaseless Vigil (Heroic, Mythic)	Plate	Shoulders	Mastery Haste
Pauldrons of Iron Wrath (Heroic, Mythic)	Plate	Shoulders	Critical Strike Multistrike
Breach-Scarred Wristplates (Heroic, Mythic)	Plate	Wrists	Haste Mastery
Stoic Netherfel Legplates — LFR	Plate	Legs	Critical Strike Multistrike
Demonbreaker Crushers — LFR	Plate	Feet	Mastery Multistrike

Item Name	Type	Main Stats	Secondary Stats
Voidcore Greatstaff (Heroic, Mythic)	Staff	Intellect	Multistrike Haste
Hammer of Wicked Infusion (Heroic, Mythic)	1H Mace	Agility	Multistrike Critical Strike
Fiendsbreath Warmace (Heroic, Mythic)	1H Mace	Strength	Multistrike Critical Strike

Item Name	Type	Main Stats	Secondary Stats
Vial of Immiscible Liquid (Heroic, Mythic)	Amulet	Intellect	Mastery Critical Strike
Voidthread Spineguard — LFR	Cloak	Strength	Critical Strike Mastery
Void Lord's Wizened Cloak (Heroic, Mythic)	Cloak	Agility Strength	Bonus Armor Mastery
Portal Key Signet (Heroic, Mythic)	Ring	Agility	Multistrike Critical Strike
Loop of Beckoned Shadows (Heroic, Mythic)	Ring	Strength	Critical Strike Multistrike
Unstable Felshadow Emulsion (Heroic, Mythic)	Trinket	Spirit	Leech on target

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

• 12 Aug. 2015: Added link to LFR guide.
• 30 Jun. 2015: Corrected an error in the guide, whereby we stated that adds despawn at the start of Phase Four. Instead, adds simply stop spawning after the boss enter this phase.

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