Ragnaros (Firelands tactics)

Ragnaros, lord of the Firelands, is the final boss of the Firelands.

World first heroic kill on 25-man achieved 19.7.2011 by DREAM Paragon - EU-Lightning's Blade.

''Ragnaros, lord of the Firelands, embodies the fury and destruction of the primordial infernos that forged Azeroth itself. Promised the chance to set Azeroth aflame without interference from Neptulon or Therazane, Ragnaros seeks to appease the Old Gods by incinerating the World Tree of Nordrassil.''

At 70% health Ragnaros casts Splitting Blow, burying Sulfuras into the platform and creating Sons of Flame across the platform. Ragnaros submerges for 45 seconds or until the players destroy all the Sons of Flame, whichever comes first.

• On heroic mode, Engulfing Flame is replaced with World in Flames:

At 40% health Ragnaros casts Splitting Blow, burying Sulfuras into the platform and creating Sons of Flame across the platform. Ragnaros submerges for 45 seconds or until the players destroy all the Sons of Flame, whichever comes first.

Ragnaros also creates two Lava Scions that attack the players.

This stage, and the normal mode encounter, ends at 10% of Ragnaros' health.

• On heroic mode, Engulfing Flame is replaced with World in Flames:

At 10% health the Firelord unleashes his full power and is able to move freely around the platform. Players have the aid of powerful heroes of Azeroth to support them.

Tanks should stand together on one side of the platform in front of Ragnaros, with melee on the other side. This will allow melee to attack Ragnaros from behind. Ranged and healers should stand scattered behind them with a minimum separation of 6 yards, and should not approach Ragnaros as he will cast Hand of Ragnaros, knocking back players in melee range and locking out casters. Tanks should switch every 3 stacks of Burning Wound.

All players must remain aware of Sulfuras Smash, and move to a location diagonal to its impact point to avoid Lava Waves. It's also possible to stand between Ragnaros and the impact point.

When Ragnaros launches a Magma Trap at a player, everyone must move away from it, first avoid setting it off prematurely, and secondly to avoid being knocked into it by an untimely Wrath of Ragnaros. One player should be assigned to set off the Magma Traps. This player should generally stay in the middle of the group so as to be able to reach the traps quickly no matter where they appear. When all players have sufficient health to survive the trap's blast, this player will announce that he or she is setting it off, and move onto the trap. The player will be launched very high in the air and must take steps to survive the fall. Mages with Blink, priests with Levitate, hunters with Deterrence, and warlocks with Demonic Circle: Teleport are excellent candidates for popping the trap.

At 70% health, Ragnaros will perform Splitting Blow, and submerge beneath his lava pool beginning the first transition. Any Magma Traps left behind will persist throughout the encounter until popped.

Ragnaros will perform Splitting Blow, smashing down Sulfuras and spawning 8 Sons of Flame. These fire elementals will rush toward Sulfuras at high speed and must not be allowed to reach it. If one elemental reaches Sulfuras, the raid may or may not be able to recover; with two impacts a wipe is virtually guaranteed. When an elemental is reduced to 50% health, it slows greatly and attention can be switched to another one. The elementals can also be stunned, knocked back, and death gripped, but they are not affected by slows. Everyone, including healers, takes responsibility for ensuring that none of them reach the hammer.

Sulfuras may land on one of three locations, such that the elementals will be arranged differently. When Sulfuras lands in the center, there will be 4 elementals on each side. If it lands on the left, there will be two elementals to the left of it, and six to its right. The situation will be reversed if it lands on the right.

It is critical to assign specific players to specific Sons of Flame. Players assigned to elementals nearest the hammer must have quick burst damage. One such arrangement would be:

(L4) (L3) L2 L1 S R1 R2 (R3) (R4)

Players assigned to L2, L1, R1, and R2 will always go to that elemental. They should be quick-burst DPSers and/or players with stuns. Players assigned to L4, L3, R3, and R4 will be tanks and/or other DPS. When Sulfuras lands in the middle, everyone will go to their assigned location. When Sulfuras lands on the left, the elementals normally at L4 and L3 will be far to the right, and those two players must go to the right side of the platform instead. When Sulfuras lands on the right, the players assigned to R3 and R4 must instead go to the far left.

During this transition, random players will be targeted with Lava Bolts, for roughly ~40,000 damage putting an additional strain on healing.

After 45 seconds have passed or when all Sons of Flame have been killed, Ragnaros will re-emerge from his platform beginning Phase 2. Sons of Flame still alive at this point will explode, dealing ~100,000 damage to the raid.

There will be no more traps, but Sulfuras Smash continues. Meanwhile, Ragnaros gains two new abilities: Engulfing Flames and Molten Seeds.

Engulfing Flames will set one third of the platform on fire. It may be nearest him in melee range, or in the middle or back. Players must move out of it immediately.

Ragnaros will throw a Molten Seed at each player at intervals. When this happens, players must be clustered loosely in a specific location. After the seeds land, all players will move 40-50 yards away to a designated spot for AOE heals and AOE damage. The AOE heals will heal the damage that the seeds do when they explode. The AOE damage will kill the elementals that spawn from the seeds. After the elementals are dead, move back to the previous location to prepare for the next batch of seeds.

It will be dangerous while players are moving to the AOE heals/damage point, as Ragnaros may choose this time to ignite that part of the platform with Engulfing Flames, or use Sulfuras Smash right in the middle of the raid. Players must be extra vigilant to be prepared to move away from these while at the same time laying down AOE damage or healing.

Take care not to push Ragnaros under 40% health during a seed encounter, as you don't want seeds/elementals up when Intermission 2 begins. When Ragnaros approaches 40% health, stop all DPS until the seeds have exploded and the resulting elementals are slain. Then stay where you are (do not move back to the seed dropoff point) and quickly push him under 40% to trigger Intermission 2.

Ragnaros performs another Splitting Blow, and the Sons of Flame must be killed and prevented from reaching Sulfuras as in Intermission 1. In addition, each tank must pick up a Lava Scion. While still alive, Lava Scions will periodically afflict players with Blazing Heat, which will periodically drop fire patches that damage players while healing Sons of Flame. These players should move to the back of the platform. They still need to deal with their Sons of Flame (as do the tanks); however, players must be 'very' careful not to allow Sons of Flame to pass through fire patches, which will both heal them and return them to full speed.

Especially on Heroic Mode, it is vital to use the full transition time (45 seconds) to bring the Sons of Flame to as low as possible before Phase 3, as they will continue to cast Blazing Heat. Be careful not to leave the Sons of Flame alive after Ragnaros emerges, as they will explode.

After 45 seconds or when all Sons of Flame have been killed, Ragnaros will re-emerge from his platform, and all Sons of Flame left alive will explode for ~100,000 damage.

In this phase, Ragnaros will continue to use Sulfuras Smash and Engulfing Flames. Lava Scions, if left alive, will continue to cast Blazing Heat on players. In addition, players must contend with a new element in this phase: Living Meteors.

This is a good time to use Heroism. If still alive, Lava Scions should be killed ASAP. Several seconds into the phase, Living Meteors will begin to spawn. Each player targeted by a Living Meteor should move toward the rear of the platform, and then to the far corner, so that the meteor will be away from other players as much as possible. When the meteor corners a player, that player should use a direct ranged attack on it, which will cause the meteor to target someone else. Note that the meteors spawn in increasing numbers - the first two spawns will only trigger 1 meteor each, while the third and fourth drop 2 each.

Any player who doesn't normally use a ranged attack may wish to hotkey one in advance, e.g. Shadow Word: Death for healing priests or Moonfire for feral druids. Instant attacks are best.

At 10% health Ragnaros will retreat, completing the encounter.

Ragnaros has significantly more health, and all abilities deal significantly more damage. In particular, Sulfuras Smash, Son of Flame Supernovas, and Meteor Impacts deal ~500,000 damage.

Phase 1: When popped, Magma Traps leave behind a debuff (Magma Trap Vulnerability) increasing damage taken from subsequent Magma Traps by 50%. This debuff lasts 45 seconds and stacks; thus, Magma Traps must not be popped too frequently.

Transition 1: Sons of Flame now spawn in random locations around the platform, rather than 8 fixed zones. This requires the use of swing groups to take care of inconvenient spawn locations. In particular, Death Grips and Knockbacks are invaluable.

Phase 2: Molten Elementals now buff other nearby Molten Elementals with Molten Power - increasing damage done by 25% per nearby elemental and granting immunity to slows/CC effects. This means that if grouped up, players will not be able to survive hits by Molten Elementals. To deal with this, players should stack up and move as the Molten Seeds drop - this will group up the Elementals - and move far away while remaining within range. When the seeds explode, players should AoE while running away, aiming to kill the elementals before they reach (and wipe) the raid.

In addition, Engulfing Flames is now replaced by World in Flames. Ragnaros will cast 3 Engulfing Flames on the platform in quick succession. Players must stand at the "borders" between where Engulfing Flames spawn, and dance to avoid each set of flames.

Transition 2: Same as Transition 1 with the addition of 2 Lava Scions that must be tanked. Players should try to get the Lava Scions as low as possible before pushing into Phase 3, while minding the 45 second timer.

Phase 3: Ragnaros continues casting World in Flames and Sulfuras Smash. At this point, it is an all-out DPS race to try to push Ragnaros to his next phase before his third spawn of Living Meteors, as this will spawn 2 meteors bringing the total to 4, which the raid will be unable to deal with in Phase 4. When Ragnaros is pushed to 10%, he will no longer spawn meteors and will submerge beneath his platform a final time. Any damage done to Ragnaros does carry over to Phase 4, so the raid should continue DPS.

This time, Cenarius will temporarily freeze Living Meteors (which should be kicked to the back of the room), and Ragnaros will re-emerge from his platform having healed 40% of his health.

Living Meteors from Phase 3 persist in this phase and must be knocked back and kited. Ragnaros also uses 3 main abilities, each of which is partially countered by a helpful buff received from the Archdruids that join the fight.

Superheated: Ragnaros will quickly stack a fire damage DoT on the raid. The raid should stand in the Breath of Frost provided by Cenarius, which will reset all current stacks on players and grant immunity to further stacks. Cenarius will spawn two Breaths of Frost, upon the third Breath spawning the first will despawn. This will continue, leaving at most two Breaths up at one time.

Living Meteors: Upon the second spawn of Breath of Frost, players should group in the more convenient Breath at the time (based on dreadflame positioning), and move a Living Meteor into the second Breath. If done correctly, the Meteor will be temporarily frozen and vulnerable to damage and should be killed during this time. The raid should continue freezing and killing Meteors any time two Breaths are up, until all meteors have been destroyed.

Empower Sulfuras: Entangling Roots (marked by green circles on the ground) will be periodically generated by Hamuul. When Ragnaros is kited onto the area, he will be temporarily stunned and take increased damage. While this may seem tempting, the Roots are best used to counter Ragnaros' Empower Sulfuras ability. Periodically, Ragnaros will empower his weapon, and gain a buff that will deal ~500,000 damage to the entire raid per melee swing. Upon receiving this buff, Ragnaros should be taunted by an off-tank and kited into the Roots. When done properly, the Empower Sulfuras buff will expire before Ragnaros breaks free. If the roots are not available (due to previous mistakes), Ragnaros will need to be "taunt-kited" back and forth until his buff fades.

Dreadflame: Ragnaros periodically summons Dreadflames on the ground. Dreadflames deal damage to players standing in them, and will constantly multiply if not extinguished immediately. Malfurion will cast Cloudburst on the ground and 1 (25 man: 3) player must go and take it to receive the buff Deluge, which will grant immunity to Superheated and Dreadflame damage and allow him to extinguish Dreadflames by running over them. Dreadflame will spawn faster and faster the longer this phase lasts, and unextinguished Dreadflame will continue to multiply. When the Dreadflame begins to overwhelm the raid, the player(s) with Deluge should begin to prioritize Dreadflames that are close to the raid, close to Breaths of Frost, and close to Entrapping Roots (for the tank to taunt and trap Ragnaros). Eventually, the Dreadflames will spawn and multiply faster than they can be extinguished, and will overwhelm the raid.

Heroic Ragnaros is soloable by Death Knights on 10 man at level 90. For the strategy and relevant details, see the linked video.

At Level 90, Ragnaros is still a worthwhile boss to run, due to his excellent transmog gear and the chance (1%) to drop a Smoldering Egg of Millagazor. In addition, the detail and quality of the encounter makes the instance well worth at least one visit.

Phase 1: With level 90 health pools, Magma Traps now deal insignificant amounts of damage and can be popped largely without regard to the vulnerability debuff. The "exploding" player should still use an ability to mitigate or avoid the fall damage. Sulfuras Smash and Lava Waves should still be avoided (the Lava Wave, in particular, can knock players off the platform, leading to inevitable death).

Phase 2: Instead of stacking the molten elementals (when stacked, 20 molten elementals still deal ~1,000,000 damage per swing) it is best to spread out the molten seeds and the spawning elementals, thus avoiding the stacking buff. The adds can then be picked off one by one by the raid.

Phase 3: The raid should burn Ragnaros while minding any Living Meteors that may spawn (ideally none). The meteor impacts still deal enough damage to possibly kill a level 90 player (~500,000) and thus should be knocked back and kited.

Phase 4: If the group has high DPS, it's possible to ignore any Living Meteors and simply burn the boss. He will still quickly wipe the raid with Empower Sulfuras, and thus tanks should save Entrapping Roots for the ability.

Transitions: The transitions are extremely important even for a Level 90 raid - exploding Sons of Flame deal ~500,000 raid damage per Supernova. It's best to split the group in half, and assign half of the raid to each side. Players should keep in mind Sons of Flame need only be burned to ~50% to be slowed considerably - after which it is best to switch to a high-health Son of Flame if there is one up.

Due to possible attrition from instant-death mechanics and the need for high, focused DPS, a full raid is recommended (especially for a pug) even at Level 90.

Ragnaros is fairly easily soloable after the mechanics updates in Patch 6.0.2. Stand in melee range and pop all CDs on the pull. Standing in melee range lets players ignore the Sulfuras Smash and Lava Waves mechanics, as they will land at minimum 10 yards away from the inner edge of the platform. Be warned that both mechanics can still knock players off the platform, which will fail the encounter. Magma Traps don't do much damage, but the fall damage that the traps cause will.

In the intermissions at 70% and 40%, get positioned near Sulfuras. Do quick attacks to the Sons of Flame nearest to the hammer to slow them down (remember that they move slower the less health they have), then do the same for the rest of the adds that are closing in. Make sure as many die as possible before reaching Sulfuras, as their Supernova still stings, though it's not the instant fatality it was before 6.0. The sons take priority over the Lava Scions in the second intermission, but once the sons are under control, burst down the scions.

In phases two and three, Engulfing Flame (or World in Flames in heroic mode) comes into play. Do get out of melee range if the area of effect hits the inner 1/3 of the platform. Molten Seeds in phase two are inconsequential, but do kill the adds that spawn. Phase three's Living Meteor landing zones still hurt, so side-step out of them. Keep doing damage until he hits 10% and ends the encounter in normal mode, or submerges for phase four in heroic.

In the Heroic-only phase four, drag him over Entangling Roots when Ragnaros casts Empower Sulfuras, and otherwise stand in Cenarius' Breath of Frost.

• Firelands (achievement)
• Firelands Guild Run
• Heroic: Ragnaros
• Heroic: Ragnaros Guild Run
• Realm First! Ragnaros
• Ragnar-O's

• Introduction
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• Aggro
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• Rage of Ragnaros (Cast when a player is on Heart of Flame (quest))
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• Wrath of Ragnaros
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• Transition
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• Phase 2
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• Phase 3
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• Killing a player
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• Defeat on Normal
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• Phase 4 (Heroic Only)
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• Ragnaros attempts to withdraw from the battle, as he would on normal difficulty. He is interrupted, however, by the arrival of Cenarius, Malfurion, and Hamuul, who each channel a powerful spell that solidifies the lava surrounding the Firelord.
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• Ragnaros breaks free of the stone magma and rises from the lava, allowing him to freely move throughout the platform. The final battle is now!
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• Death on Heroic
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