Majordomo Staghelm Raid Guide Cataclysm Classic

Majordomo Staghelm is the sixth boss in the Firelands raid, where he blocks the path that leads to his master, Ragnaros. Groups must clear the first five bosses of the raid to face him, and he must be defeated in order to reach the final boss. The Majordomo can be fought on either Normal or Heroic difficulty with both 10 and 25 player raid groups.

Firelands Raid Overview

Beth’tilac Guide

Shannox Guide

Ragnaros Guide

Firelands Loot

Lord Rhyolith Guide

Baleroc Guide

Dragonwrath Guide

Alysrazor Guide

Majordomo Staghelm Guide

Fandal Staghelm, known as the former Archdruid of Darnassus, is regarded by the Night Elves as one of the most vile and repugnant individuals of his kin. However, that was not always the case, as Fandal was once a wise and very respected member of the Alliance and of the Night Elves, taking Malfurion’s place while he went into a deep slumber in the Emerald Dream. After the loss of his daughter, Fandal Staghelm changed and often quarreled with Tyrande Whisperwind while guiding the Night Elves. As his aggressive demeanor and thinking were believed to lead the Night Elves to a dark place, it was discovered that he was slowly corrupted and driven to insanity.

Betraying everything that Druidism stood for, the now-crowned “Majordomo” Staghelm performed acts of treason against his kin, forming the Druids of the Flame group and pledging himself entirely to the Fire Lord in the hopes of seeing the entire world burn.

The Majordomo Staghelm Encounter is quite different from the other encounters listed so far. Unlike specific stages like the previous bosses have, Majordomo Staghelm has three unique Shapeshifting Forms that can be manipulated based on the positioning of the raid. Each form has its various abilities, meaning that the encounter will be quite dynamic, especially when considering that players may choose to force him to Shapeshift often.

(You can reference the Majordomo Staghelm Loot list if you want to see all of the boss drops.)

Role Summaries

Abilities

Adds

Raid Composition & Preparation

Healers

You should bring 5 standard Healers for this encounter for the 25-man version of the encounter. You can maintain the 2-healer format for the 10-man version of the encounter but you should ideally have one Hybrid Class that can swap to a Healer Specialization in case 2 healers are not enough.

Healers don’t necessarily need to bring any specific consumables although they must keep in mind that maintaining a healthy Mana Pool is necessary for this encounter. One consumable that may help in case of OoM emergencies is the Potion of Concentration!

DPS

There are no strict requirements for DPS classes or specs here, you simply want a combination of good raid buffs and debuffs, as well as the best players you can muster.

DPS should stock up on Golemblood Potions/Volcanic Potions/Potion of the Tol’Vir and make sure they use flasks as well!

Tanks

This encounter requires 2 mandatory tanks on both the 10-man and 25-man versions of the raid! This is mostly due to the Burning Orbs requiring tanks to soak the effect and cycle between themselves to avoid acquiring too many stacks.

Tanks should use Fire resistance-enhancing effects such as the Mirror of Broken Images while also being assisted by effects such as Aura Mastery!

Encounter Mechanics & Strategy

Normal vs Heroic Difficulty

The only difference between the Normal Difficulty and Heroic Difficulty of the Majordomo Staghelm Encounter is the addition of the Concentration mechanic. Besides the Concentration mechanic, the only difference is the change in damage dealt by abilities and Majordomo Staghelm’s Health Pool.

Since the mechanics of the encounter remain the same, the only noteworthy thing to mention about the Heroic Difficulty is that players should strive to maintain Concentration as much as possible and that Heroism/Bloodlust/Time Warp should be used as soon as the majority of the DPS group reaches 100 stacks of Concentration as soon as possible.

The Fight

The Majordomo Staghelm Encounter doesn’t have multiple phases, instead, featuring a single unique phase. The sense in which we call it unique is that Majordomo Staghelm will consistently change between 3 primary forms depending on the positioning of the raid group. Each one of Majordomo Staghelm’s forms has access to 3 separate abilities, with 2 of them being shared between Cat Form & Scorpion Form. The main abilities that deal damage are: Leaping Flames, Flame Scythe, Searing Seeds, and Burning Orbs.

As such the encounter can be highly manipulated resulting in some very interesting possible approaches.

There are a few mechanics that must be respected at all times when considering the overall shapeshifting mechanic such as Adrenaline and Fury. The most popular way of engaging this encounter is by forcing Majordomo Staghelm to often swap between forms to prevent him from stacking Adrenaline too many times while in a single form. However, the raid group must also make sure to not perform the shapeshifting mechanic too often, lest they risk stacking Fury too many times along with triggering the powerful mechanics from Staghelm’s Night Elf Form: Searing Seeds and Burning Orbs. Choosing to force Majordomo Staghelm to swap forms too many times will result in getting overwhelmed by Fury then Searing Seeds and Burning Orbs subsequently.

The shapeshifting mechanic triggers based on the specific positioning of the raid group! Raid groups can choose to initially initiate the encounter in either Cat Form or Scorpion Form. It doesn’t specifically matter in which form the encounter begins, as some players prefer to fight the Scorpion Form while others prefer the Cat Form, however, the truth is that the Cat Form is often easier to fight than the Scorpion Form. This is because Leaping Flames is far easier to deal with than Flame Scythe.

Leaping Flames causes Majordomo Staghelm to leap around, leaving burning areas on the ground that deal moderate Fire Damage every 0.5 seconds while also spawning a Spirit of the Flame add. This mechanic is infinitely easier to deal with than the Flame Scythe mechanic since the potential damage that can be inflicted is bound to an area and can be mitigated instead of directly inflicted upon the players as in the case of Flame Scythe. The Spirit of the Flame add won’t be any cause of concern and should simply be picked up by the tank and positioned next to the boss for the DPS to cleave it quickly.

Flame Scythe is an attack performed by Majordomo Staghelm in a cone area, inflicting enormous Fire Damage. Since the damage is equally split between all players it hits, the mechanic is problematic if players don’t properly stack to soak it.

The best strategy for the encounter is to keep Staghelm in Cat Form for as long as possible and force him to shapeshift before he reaches 3 to 4 stacks of Adrenaline. Your raid group will have to consistently move and precisely coordinate to make sure that the Scorpion Form is avoided as much as possible.

Besides Cat Form and Scorpion Form, Majordomo Staghelm will revert to Night Elf Form upon each third transformation. Once he goes into Night Elf Form, he instantly casts Fiery Cyclone, proceeding with either one of Searing Seeds and Burning Orbs right after. Theoretically, players can control which one of the Searing Seeds or Burning Orbs is used based on the way they choose to force Staghelm to shift, but the reality is that it is extremely difficult to maintain a consistent flow of transformations at all times.

Considering both the Searing Seeds and Burning Orbs abilities, the former is definitely the more troublesome one. Searing Seeds places a bomb on every player on the raid, dealing considerable Fire Damage to each target caught in a single bomb’s radius. The problem with Searing Seeds is that each bomb has a different trigger duration, meaning that some bombs will go off faster than others. This is especially troublesome considering that all players must quickly reposition themselves to avoid stacking.

The Burning Orbs mechanic is considerably easier to deal with when compared! Majordomo Staghelm will spawn multiple orbs around the arena whenever he casts Burning Orbs, with each orb dealing ramping Fire Damage to a target. This mechanic will force the raid to retreat towards the south part of the arena and have both tanks soak the effect. The tanks should individually soak the orbs, with the raid leader having them swap in between each set of orbs to avoid losing control of the encounter and delaying the removal of Burning Orbs.

If everything is executed properly, the fight is a simple rinse & repeat of the previously mentioned mechanics until Majordomo Staghelm meets his demise!