Ragnaros Raid Guide Cataclysm Classic

Ragnaros is the final boss of the Firelands raid, where he has retreated following his prior defeat inside the Molten Core. Groups must clear the other bosses in the raid in order to reach him, and he presents the ultimate challenge for raid groups during the Rage of the Firelands phase of Cataclysm. Ragnaros can be fought on either Normal or Heroic difficulty with both 10 and 25 player raid groups. He drops the Smoldering Egg of Millagazor, which grants the highly prized Pureblood Fire Hawk mount.

Firelands Raid Overview

Beth’tilac Guide

Shannox Guide

Ragnaros Guide

Firelands Loot

Lord Rhyolith Guide

Baleroc Guide

Dragonwrath Guide

Alysrazor Guide

Majordomo Staghelm Guide

The Ragnaros Encounter is a spectacular boss fight comprised of four main stages on the Heroic Difficulty and two main intermission stages. On the Normal Difficulty, the encounter only has 3 stages, keeping the 2 intermissions in between the phases.

The fight is complex, featuring many mechanics. The first stage is filled with dodge-based interactions where players have to avoid magma and lava waves while also avoiding being smashed by Sulfuras. The first stage ends with an intermission that often leads to many wipes, with players having to stop minions from reaching Sulfuras. The second stage is continued similarly, with minions being involved as well, while the platform is engulfed by flames caused by Molten Seeds. In the same manner, an intermission follows between the second and third stages, where players have to deal with the same mechanic, only that this time, more adds spawn.

The third stage is similar to the previous stages, having meteors added into the mix. Lastly, the fourth stage is the one that shocks most players, as Ragnaros reveals that he does indeed have a lower body, emerging from his pool and unleashing his full power on the players. Players will be aided by Malfurion, Cenarius, and Hamuul during the last stage!

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

Role Summaries

Abilities

Adds

Elite NPCs (Heroic Only)

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!

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 Ragnaros Encounter has quite some astonishing differences between the Normal Difficulty and the Heroic Difficulty! While there are minimal changes to phases and intermissions, the major difference between the two difficulties is the addition of one additional phase which not only shocks the world by unraveling the lower part of Ragnaros’s body but also features some of the most iconic Warcraft characters!

The following effects have been modified in the first three phases of the Heroic Difficulty: Magma Trap Eruption, Son of Flame adds, Molten Elemental adds, World in Flames.

• Magma Trap Eruption also triggers the Magma Trap Vulnerability effect.
• Son of Flame adds no longer spawn from fixed positions, now spawning from random locations.
• Molten Elementals now have the Molten Power effect.

The Fight

Pull

The Ragnaros Encounter can be started in multiple ways, although the ideal way to start the fight is by having everyone occupy predetermined positions. This is purposefully done to maintain a 6-yard distance between each player which should be maintained during the first phase of the encounter! This is required due to the Wrath of Ragnaros and Magma Trap mechanics!

Players should encircle the entire platform and be evenly spread while maintaining a minimal 6-yard distance between each other, quickly approaching Ragnaros and their designated spots once the encounter begins. For players who raided the ICC raid during WotLK Classic, this approach will feel similar to the Blood Prince Council encounter, where they also had to use specially designated positions and respect them at all times.

While the Magma Trap and Wrath of Ragnaros mechanics are on cooldown, the raid may choose to stack as they see fit, but they must spread once again as the mechanics approach to ensure that they don’t have multiple people trigger the Magma Trap Eruption effect at the same time or multiple people that get severely injured by Wrath of Ragnaros.

The encounter has an 18-minute Enrage Timer, meaning that players must not rush the mechanics, as they will have plenty of time to bring about the downfall of the Firelord Ragnaros!

Phase 1

Phase 1 is represented by the following abilities: Burning Wound, Sulfuras Smash, Wrath of Ragnaros, Hand of Ragnaros, Magma Trap, Magma Trap Eruption, and Magma Blast.

As the pull commences and the encounter begins, two things will happen quickly! The tank will immediately get afflicted with the Burning Wound effect, stacking up roughly every 5-6 seconds after the first application. Quickly after, roughly 2-3 seconds after the combat starts, Wrath of Ragnaros will be used by Ragnaros, dealing high Fire Damage to a random player and all other players caught in the 6-yard radius of the explosion. Wrath of Ragnaros will be cast in a random location. As mentioned previously Wrath of Ragnaros is one of the reasons why players must spread during this part of the encounter! The effect will occur once again roughly 36 seconds after its initial cast.

Going back to the Burning Wound effect, this mechanic occurs right as the encounter begins and proceeds to continue doing so throughout the entirety of the fight. Tanks will have to swap due to this mechanic inflicting heavy amounts of Fire Damage in the form of a DoT effect throughout the encounter. However, tanks such as Blood Death Knights may manage to out-heal the DoT effect, meaning that a DPS-oriented Off-Tank such as a Feral Druid may be brought in cases of raid groups attempting to solo tank the encounter. The benefit of allowing Burning Wound to stack is the Burning Blast side effect which the DoT applies, empowering the tank with extra Fire Damage. Tanks may choose to allow themselves to reach a high amount of Burning Wound stacks just to stack the Burning Blast effect in case the DPS are having trouble killing Ragnaros.

Besides those two mechanics, Ragnaros will also prepare using the following abilities right after the pull:

• Sulfuras Smash in 30-40 seconds after the pull.
• Hand of Ragnaros in 25 seconds after the pull.
• Magma Trap in 16 seconds after the pull.

Sulfuras Smash will cause Ragnaros to smash his hammer against the platform, picking a random location right next to his lava pit. Sulfuras Smash is a deadly ability that must be avoided by the raid at all costs! The damage is strong enough to instantly kill anyone in the precise spot in which the hammer hits while also leaving behind a pool of fire that continues to deal damage. The strike itself can be considered an instat-kill but the pool of fire left behind will not instantly kill a player. Besides the damage of Sulfuras Smash, the ability also spawns 3 x Lava Waves which represent a high threat! Each Lava Wave will deal a huge amount of instant Fire Damage while also placing a DoT effect on the target. If the target somehow survives both the instant damage and the first tick of the DoT effect, the target may be saved by other players who are capable of dispelling Magic Effects.

The Lava Waves move in straight directional lines starting from the point of Sulfuras Smash‘s location. The directions in which the waves go are East, South, and West (15:00, 18:00, and 21:00). After the initial cast of Sulfuras Smash, the ability will be used again after another 30-40 seconds!

Hand of Ragnaros will cause Ragnaros to deal moderate Fire Damage to all players within 55 yards of his lava pool, knocking them in the process. This ability can’t be avoided but it can be mitigated by Defensive Cooldowns. However, it is advised to maintain any valuable Defensive Cooldown for a much more scary and important ability, Magma Trap. Healers will instead have to use AoE abilities to top the raid off after the Hand of Ragnaros abilities occur. The ability will reoccur every 25 seconds after its initial cast!

Magma Trap is a dangerous ability that players must keep their eye on at all times since it can cause unexpected raid wipes! Ragnaros will place a Magma Trap every 25 seconds after the initial cast. The ability will deal high Fire Damage upon landing on the platform, meaning that players have to spot the location where it will land and avoid it at all costs. The tricky part about the ability is the interaction that follows since players must get rid of the Magma Traps, lest they risk triggering them at a later time. The issue with the interaction is the Magma Trap Eruption effect which it triggers, dealing unavoidable damage to the entire raid group. The damage can be mitigated but can’t be resisted or blocked entirely, meaning that players have to trigger the traps in specific moments based on a Raid Leader’s call. Additionally, the trap sends players flying violently in the air, meaning that they must receive either Levitate or Slow Fall to escape a death by Fall Damage.

On the Heroic Difficulty, Magma Trap Eruption also causes the

Lastly, Magma Blast will only trigger if no player is in Ragnaros’ melee range, meaning that raid groups should not worry about this ability as long as the tank is always next to Ragnaros. If nobody is next to Ragnaros, Magma Blast will quickly wipe out the raid as Ragnaros spams the ability violently.

First Intermission

As soon as Ragnaros reaches the 70% HP threshold, the first intermission begins! As the intermission begins, Ragnaros will submerge under the lava for 45 seconds or until the Son of Flame adds are killed. The entire point of this stage of the encounter is to make sure you kill all the Sons of Flame!

During this stage of the encounter, Ragnaros will use the following effects: Splitting Blow and Lava Bolt.

As the transition itself happens, Ragnaros begins casting Splitting Blow. Upon finishing the cast, Sulfuras remains stuck on the platform while Ragnaros hides beneath the lava. As soon as Splitting Blow occurs, players standing too close to Sulfuras receive heavy Fire Damage per second. The ability also summons 8 x Son of Flame which attempt to rush to Sulfuras’ location in the middle of the platform as fast as possible.

Players will have to kill the Sons of Flame as soon as they spawn! If players fail to kill even one Son of Flame, the entire raid will be wiped out due to the Supernova! As the Sons of Flame spawn, they receive the Burning Speed, having extremely high movement speed thanks to the effect from the very moment they appear. Players will be able to diminish the buff and remove it as they chew through the Son of Flame‘s HP, removing the buff entirely once they drop the adds’ HP to below 50% HP. Additionally, Sons of Flame can be dazed, stunned, or knocked back but can’t be rooted, meaning that their rush to Sulfuras can be stunted quite quickly. If they do somehow manage to reach Sulfuras, the entire raid dies as Supernova deals very high Fire Damage to every player in the group.

While this interaction occurs, Ragnaros will also use Lava Bolt! The Lava Bolt ability sends forth balls of magma toward 4 random players every 4 seconds, inflicting moderate Fire Damage upon impact. This damage can’t be dodged or blocked, with healers having to provide AoE healing to the raid.

On the Heroic Difficulty, the Son of Flame adds spawn from random locations instead of the predetermined locations of the Normal Difficulty. On Normal Difficulty, the adds will spawn from the sides of the room.

Phase 2

As the first intermission concludes, Ragnaros will emerge from his lava pool with around 68% maximum HP remaining, continuing to attack the raid!

Phase 2 is represented by the following abilities: Burning Wound, Sulfuras Smash, Magma Blast, Engulfing Flame (Normal Difficulty), World in Flames (Heroic Difficulty), Molten Seed, and Molten Inferno.

The Burning Wound, Burning Blast, Magma Blast, and Sulfuras Smash mechanics remain the same as in Phase 1, meaning that you will have to respect the same tactics. The most important addition to the mix is the Molten Seed and Molten Inferno combination. As Phase 2 begins, Ragnaros will use the Molten Seed ability, throwing multiple seeds toward the location of 10 random players. The seeds deal upon landing and burst into Molten Inferno after 10 seconds.

It is crucial for the raid to stack right before this mechanic happens and to continue moving as a group! The stacking and blob movement that occurs afterward is required to not only evade the initial damage dealt by the Molten Seeds but also run away as far as possible from Molten Inferno to mitigate its damage.

To achieve optimal movement and avoid triggering Magma Blast, the group will have to stack at one of the corners of Ragnaros’ Lava Pool and run away from its edge all the way to the other side. While Molten Inferno occurs, multiple Molten Elementals will spawn, chasing after the group. It is important to have the DPS cleave them as they keep running, especially on the Heroic Difficulty where the Molten Power effect is also involved.

Besides the Molten Seed and Molten Inferno combination, the raid group will also have to deal with the Engulfing Flame (Normal Difficulty) and World in Flames (Heroic Difficulty) mechanics.

Engulfing Flame will set one-third of the platform ablaze, dealing high Fire Damage on impact and another instance of high Fire Damage exactly 1 second after. When this effect occurs, the Raid Leader will have to direct the raid, usually saying either: “Up or Down”/”Forward or Back”.

World in Flames simply causes 3 x Engulfing Flames to spawn on the platform in a sequence over 9 seconds, with players having to coordinate fast during the ability’s duration.

Second Intermission

Once Ragnaros reaches the 40% HP threshold, the encounter reaches the second intermission! During this stage of the encounter, Ragnaros will use the following abilities: Splitting Blow & Lava Scion adds.

The second transmission functions almost the same as the first transmission, only this time, Lava Bolt will no longer be present! Instead, Ragnaros calls upon more powerful minions to aid him in battle, summoning 2 x Lava Scions! The second transmission ends when all the Son of Flame adds are killed or 45 seconds pass!

Lava Scions by themselves are absolutely no threat, however, the ability they possess is especially dangerous when considering the Son of Flame adds! The 2 x Lava Scions afflict players with the Blazing Heat debuff which can’t be dispelled. When a player gets affected by Blazing Heat, they immediately have to run to the edge of the arena and walk in a circular pattern along its edges. This is done in a way to avoid placing dangerous fires over vital locations of the platform as Son of Flame adds immediately regain 10% of their maximum HP whenever they stay in the fire trail created by Blazing Heat.

The Lava Scions must be focused at the same time as the Son of Flame adds! Ideally, they must be killed right before Phase 3 begins or right at its beginning since players can’t risk another round of Blazing Heat.

Phase 3

As the second intermission ends, Phase 3 begins immediately after, with Ragnaros emerging from his lava pool with a remaining 40% maximum HP. Phase 3 represents the final stage of the Normal Difficulty and ends whenever Ragnaros reaches 10% maximum HP!

During Phase 3, Ragnaros will use the following abilities: Burning Wound, Sulfuras Smash, Magma Blast, Engulfing Flame (Normal Difficulty), World in Flames (Heroic Difficulty), and Summon Living Meteor.

Phase 3 behaves a lot like Phase 2, where players have to dodge Sulfuras Smash and avoid being burnt to crisps by Engulfing Flame! However, one nasty additional mechanic is added into the mix, the Summon Living Meteor ability.

Every 50 seconds or so, Ragnaros will use Summon Living Meteor, calling up to 3 Living Meteors at the same time. The Living Meteor are deadly and will kill any player that comes into close contact with them, dealing extremely high Fire Damage. Any player that approaches their 4-yard radius triggers the Meteor Impact effect, dealing enormous Fire Damage to any player in an 8-yard radius. The Living Meteor ability fixates targets, meaning that they will never stop chasing a player in an attempt to trigger Meteor Impact.

Luckily, those meteors can be pushed around every 5 seconds with any attack, especially ranged attacks due to the Combustible mechanic.

To optimally mitigate this mechanic, players will have to play “Ping Pong” with the meteors, taking turns attacking the meteors and making sure that they stay far away from the raid. The meteors can either be kept back near the entrance of the boss arena or, even better, thrown right through Ragnaros’ model in his lava pool!

Once you repeat those mechanics and manage to get Ragnaros to 10%, you can officially claim a victory over the Fire Lord on the Normal Difficulty! For those brave enough to challenge him on the Heroic Difficulty, the fight goes on, with Phase 4 starting right as he reaches the 10% HP threshold.

Phase 4

Phase 4 commences as soon as Ragnaros reaches 10% HP and hides beneath his lava pool, with Cenarius, Malfurion Stormrage, and Arch Druid Hamuul Runetotem making a grand entrance, sealing the Fire Lord’s pool. As they claim that the Fire Lord is weakened, he regenerates a massive amount of HP and reveals the fact that he actually had legs all along, exiting his lava pool and chasing the raid in an attempt to slay the players alongside the iconic Warcraft characters that just joined the fight.

Upon seeing the newly rejuvenated Ragnaros, players may panic, yet they can rest assured that Cenarius, Malfurion Stormrage, and Arch Druid Hamuul Runetotem will provide extensive aid in the remainder of the battle.

During Phase 4, Ragnaros gains the following effects while also maintaining some old ones: Burning Wound, Superheated, Empower Sulfuras, Dreadflame, and Living Meteor!

The most immediate threat during Phase 4 remains the presence of the Living Meteors which continue chasing the players, even as the phase transitions! The meteors will have to be dealt with throughout the entirety of the fight, but luckily, the Breadth of Frost effect provided by Cenarius will lock them in place and enhance all damage they receive by 50%. This simply means that players will have to move them toward the Breadth of Frost patches on the platform and target them down while also dealing with Ragnaros himself!

The first immediate threat besides the Living Meteors is Superheated, which is immediately cast by Ragnaros as the phase begins. This ability deals low Fire Damage but it ramps up the damage it inflicts quickly through the stacking debuff it also applies which increases damage taken from it by 10% per second. This threat can be neutralized by standing in the Breadth of Frost areas spawned by Cenarius which will grant immunity to the effect.

However, if you think that Superheated is bad news, wait until you figure out that the Fire Lord is preparing a sneaky one-shot right as he is escaping from his pool. While the phase transitions and you deal with the Living Meteors and Superheated, Ragnaros will be ready to channel Empower Sulfuras right as he exits the pool.

As he finishes casting Empower Sulfuras, a player from the raid will have to immediately taunt him and move him toward the newly placed Entrapping Roots effect which is provided by Hamuul. The area glows green and can easily be spotted! If players fail to do so they will have to face one sad surprise. Empower Sulfuras lasts 10 seconds after the cast is finished and provides Ragnaros with the ability to deal 500000 Fire Damage to all players by simply swinging his hammer on a single target. This means instant death to the entire raid and a very frustrating raid wipe!

Luckily for us, the Entrapping Roots will always be available when Empower Sulfuras is used!

Lastly, the Fire Lord also has access to Dreadflame! The effect spreads like wildfire, covering the platform quickly unless countered by the Cloudburst effect provided by Malfurion Stormrage. Multiple players can interact with the Cloudburst, gaining the Deluge effect. Deluge will grant those players immunity to Dreadflame and will also allow them to step on the flames to distinguish them. You will need to assign a few players to do this mechanic, ideally ranged players who can still cast while moving!

If everything goes right, I can only offer you congratulations for completing one of the most intense and complicated encounters from WoW Cataclysm Classic, bringing forth the “Heroic” defeat of the Fire Lord Ragnaros himself!