Hex Lord Malacrass Strategy Guide (Zul’Aman)

hex lord malacrass strategy guide (zul'aman) tbc classic
  • Author: Pride
  • Date: April 27, 2022
  • Updated: May 3, 2022
  • Expansion: TBC Classic
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Zul’Aman Raid Guide

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Nalorakk

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Hex Lord Malacrass

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Zul’jin

Hex Lord Malacrass, the Witch Doctor, is the penultimate boss of the Zul’Aman raid. Players can challenge Malacrass after defeating the 4 Loa spirits that he enslaved.

His fight will be the most difficult one in Zul’Aman for many groups. There are a LOT of mechanics in this fight, but most of them aren’t too bad — it’s typically his high AoE damage through Spirit Bolts that will give your raid trouble, as it overwhelms groups with inadequate healing or DPS.

This guide will offer a detailed, step-by-step tutorial on how to defeat Malacrass via the magic words: oh ee, ooh ah ah, ting tang, walla walla bing bang.

Role Summaries

  • Cleave down the adds, but be careful, don’t break crowd control effects
  • Follow the kill order on adds, even if cleaving
  • Be at your maximum melee range away from Darkheart
  • Use your personal DPS cooldowns during Heroism / Bloodlust for maximum DPS, after the adds are dead
  • Move out of Consecration & Whirlwind
  • Kill Malacrass’ Fire Nova Totem
  • Rogues, Warriors: It will primarily be your responsibility to interrupt Malacrass’ spells in this fight
  • Stay stacked up with your healers throughout this fight so they have an easier time keeping all of you alive
  • Cleave down the adds, but be careful, don’t break crowd control effects
  • Follow the kill order on adds, even if cleaving
  • Use your personal DPS cooldowns during Heroism / Bloodlust for maximum DPS, after the adds are dead
  • Kill Malacrass’ Fire Nova Totem
  • Shadow Priests, Warlocks: Don’t deal self-damage during or shortly before Spirit Bolts
  • Mages: You can Spellsteal Malacrass’ Avenging Wrath for a massive DPS buff for 10 seconds

Adds

Hex Lord Malacrass

Spirit Bolts

  • Always keep an eye out on Spirit Bolts timer using an addon like DeadlyBossMods so you’re ready for it
  • Make sure players are topped off before Spirit Bolts comes
  • Spirit Bolts deals 9000 damage per player at first, so most players only need 2-3k healing to survive it
  • After all of the adds die, Malacrass will cast Drain Power after every Siphon Soul, increasing his damage by 1% per living raid member per cast
  • Spirit Bolts will now deal 9900 damage per player, then 10800, then 111700, etc.
  • Druids: You can essentially cancel out Spirit Bolts on 1 group by using Barkskin -> Tranquility

Adds

  • Keep all of the adds away from your ranged DPS & healers
  • Move the adds away from crowd controlled mobs
  • Make sure Lord Raadan & Thurg are always faced away from your raid
  • Tank Koragg with your back against the wall to avoid his knockback
  • Gazakroth cannot be tanked, don’t waste your time chasing him around

Hex Lord Malacrass

  • Keep Malacrass away from the adds at the start, but be mindful of your healers’ range
  • You will have to move Malacrass around to avoid AoE, such as Rain of Fire and Consecration
  • Consider using defensive cooldowns when Malacrass uses Slice and Dice on himself / Mortal Strike on you
  • He does more damage later on in the fight because of Drain Power, so using cooldowns later on is smart too

Abilities

Adds

Hex Lord Malacrass will have 4 adds with him, randomly pulled from 4 pools of 2 adds each, giving each chance a 50% chance to appear.

Most of the adds aren’t too dangerous, and all of them can be crowd controlled, if your raid lacks the DPS or healing to AoE them down.

Alyson is among the easiest adds you can get. As a Humanoid, she is susceptible to Polymorph, Sap and Freezing Trap. If your group cannot crowd control her, it is recommended that you kill her first or second, after Lord Raadan.

Your group will always have to fight either Alyson Antille or Thurg.

Heals an injured ally within 40 yards for 27,750 to 32,3250.

Can and should be interrupted. It is also recommended that you use a healing reduction effect like Mortal Strike, Wound Poison or Aimed Shot.

Silences all players within 8 yards for 2 seconds.

You should be tanking Alyson away from your healers and caster DPS, so they don’t get silenced.

Dispels a beneficial magic effect from Alyson’s current target.

This spell will mostly just be an annoyance for healers, as they have to re-apply their buffs and healing-over-time spells on the tank.

Thurg is a straightforward bruiser. As a Humanoid, he is susceptible to Polymorph, Sap and Freezing Trap. However, he has high magical resistance, so unless your group has a Warlock who can reduce his resistances with Curse of the Elements, it will be very difficult to keep him crowd controlled, so just AoE him down.

Your group will always have to fight either Alyson Antille or Thurg.

Thurg deals 110% weapon damage to his current target and up to 2 other players within 5 yards of that target.

Generally not too scary, as Thurg’s damage isn’t the highest, but it can kill clothies, so tank him away from ranged DPS and healers.

Buffs a random ally, granting them 100% increased attack speed for 10 seconds.

Can be dispelled by a Dispel Magic / Purge / Arcane Shot, and should be dispelled if he targets Malacrass himself.

Raadan is arguably the most difficult add you can get, due to his high AoE damage. As a Dragonkin, he is susceptible to Hibernate and Freezing Trap. If you are able to CC him, you should, otherwise it is recommended that you kill him first, as his abilities are very potent.

Your group will always have to fight either Lord Raadan or Slither.

Raadan exhales fire onto your raid, dealing 3000 Fire damage to all players in a 10-yard cone in front of him.

3000 isn’t a massive amount of damage, but coupled with his Thunderclap and the high AoE damage in this fight, it can be dangerous. It is therefore imperative that Raadan always faces away from your raid.

Raadan stomps, dealing 1700 to 2300 Nature damage to all players within 15 yards, and reduces their attack speed by 20% for 6 seconds.

Same as with Flame Breath, 2000 damage on average may not sound like a lot, but there’s a lot of raid damage coming out in this fight already and this just makes things worse. 15 yards is deceptively high range — make sure he’s tanked far, far away from ranged players.

Slither is by far the easiest add you can get, particularly as getting him means you won’t get Lord Raadan. As a Beast, he is susceptible to Polymorph, Hibernate and Freezing Trap.

Your group will always have to fight either Lord Raadan or Slither.

Spits poison at a random player, instantly dealing 875 to 1125 Nature damage to them, and applying a Poison debuff to them for 5 seconds, dealing 750 Nature damage per second, for 3750 damage over time, or 4750 damage in total. The debuff can stack up to 3 times, but Slither will typically not cast it very often, and thus you will most likely never see it stack.

It is recommended that you dispel the poison, as the damage can add up.

Fenstalker isn’t a particularly difficult add, but he can be incredibly annoying to deal with if your group somehow happens to not have a disease dispel effect. As an Elemental, he is susceptible to Banish and Freezing Trap. If you have no disease dispel and no way to crowd control him, kill him first or second, otherwise you can kill him last.

Your group will always have to fight either Fenstalker or Gazakroth.

Targets a random player within 40 yards and applies a Disease debuff to them for 30 seconds. Every 5 seconds, the debuffed player will deal 1885 to 2115 Nature damage to all other players within 10 yards of them.

This spell will be trial to deal with if you have any class with a disease dispel ability, such as Cleanse, Abolish Disease and Disease Cleansing Totem — just make sure you dispel it immediately, particularly if it targets a tank or melee DPS player.

Gazakroth is among the easiest adds in this fight, but also among the most annoying. As a Demon, he is susceptible Banish, Turn Evil and Freezing Trap. It’s recommended that you keep him crowd controlled if possible, as he can be very annoying to deal with, even though his damage is low.

Your group will always have to fight either Fenstalker or Gazakroth.

Gazakroth targets a random player and shoots a small fireball at them, dealing 472 to 528 Fire damage.

Gazakroth will keep spamming this ability on random targets, so he effectively cannot be tanked, he just does his thing. Its damage is miniscule, it will just annoy your casters and healers as it repeatedly incurs spell pushback.

Darkheart is one of the most annoying adds you can get. As an Undead, he is susceptible to Shackle Undead, Turn Evil and Freezing Trap. If you can crowd control (particularly with him Shackle Undead), it is highly recommended that you do so and then kill him last, otherwise you may want to kill him first or second.

Your group will always have to fight either Darkheart or Koragg.

Darkheart screams, dealing 2357 to 2643 Shadow damage to all players within 5 yards, and causing them to flee in terror for 2 seconds.

The damage component is already pretty potent, but the AoE fear component can be brutal, sending your tank fleeing in a random direction, causing them to take crushing blows, potentially getting ranged DPS or healers hit by cleaves, etc. If you do not have a way to crowd control him, make sure you kill him first.

The range of this spell (5 yards) is just barely shorter than melee range. Thus if your tanks and melee DPS players stand at the maximum range they can attack Darkheart from, they can avoid this ability altogether, making things a lot easier. In practice this may be difficult however, as there’s a lot of movement in this fight.

Koragg is among the most straightforward adds you can get. As an Undead, he is susceptible to Shackle Undead, Turn Evil and Freezing Trap. If you have no way to crowd control him, it is recommended that you kill him last — he just isn’t that dangerous.

Your group will always have to fight either Darkheart or Koragg.

Koragg deals 139 to 161% weapon damage to his current target, knocking them back a great distance.

Your tank should tank Koragg with their backs against a wall, to prevent being knocked to a bad spot or out of the healers’ range.

Koragg applies a shadowy Curse to a random player for 15 seconds. If that player uses a spell or ability while cursed, they will take 1414 to 1586 Frost damage, and the curse will jump to another nearby player.

It is important that this curse is decursed immediately, or it can get annoying. Alternatively, make sure you are not near other players when you trigger it, to avoid propagating it.

Hex Lord Malacrass

Malacrass channels for 10 seconds, repeatedly sending out a volleys of dark energy. Deals 450 Shadow damage to every player every 500 milliseconds, for a total of 9,000 damage per player, or a massive 90,000 damage to your entire raid. The only real downside to this ability is that Malacrass cannot use any other abilities while channeling Spirit Bolts, so your healers only have to focus on this damage, nothing else.

This spell will be the main cause of wipes for many groups, particularly those with weaker healers or no strong AoE healing classes. Thankfully, this damage can be mitigated by Shadow Resistance, so having a Priest / Paladin use Prayer of Shadow Protection / Shadow Resistance Aura will make things a good bit easier. If your healers are struggling, particularly later on when they’re late on mana, players can additionally help by using Master Healthstone, self-heals and defensive cooldowns (Divine Shield, Ice Block, Cloak of Shadows, etc) as necessary.

Cast 30 seconds into the fight, and then every 40 seconds afterwards. So you will typically see this ability at 0:30, 1:10, 1:50, 2:30, 3:10, etc.

Malacrass targets a random player and siphons their essence. For the next 30 seconds, he gains access to 3 specific abilities from that player’s class. Some of those abilities are upgraded versions of player spells, but others are almost the same as the player spell.

Most class abilities that Malacrass gets access to are frankly trivial. The only noteworthy classes he can Siphon are Mage, Paladin, Priest, and to a lesser extent Warrior. See the Siphon Soul Class Abilities section for information on what abilities each class grants him.

Malacrass will always use this ability immediately after he is done channeling Spirit Bolts, so you will typically see it at 0:40, 1:20, 2:00, 2:40, 3:20, etc.

Malacrass drains the power of every player, reducing their damage done by 1%, and increasing his own damage by 1% per player drained. Thus if you have 10 players alive, he will gain 10% increased damage every time he casts Drain Power. These effects stack up to 99,999 and 999 times respectively, resulting in 99,999% reduced damage done by players (slightly overkill to be honest, Blizzard) and 999% increased damage done by Malacrass. This is effectively a soft enrage timer for this fight, as the longer the fight goes on, the worse things become for you.

Malacrass will cast this spell immediately after Siphon Soul, but only after all of his adds are dead.

Siphon Soul Class Abilities

Immediately dispel Frost Nova off your entire raid. If your raid has a Priest, group up so they can easily dispel everyone with Mass Dispel.

Deals 2828 to 3172 Frost damage to a random player and slows them by 50% for 4 seconds. 2 second cast, interruptible.

Deals 472 to 528 Frost damage to every player and applies a Magic debuff to them, rooting them in place and increasing their Frost damage taken by 50% for 10 seconds.

Frost Nova should be dispelled immediately off every player, due to Malacrass’ Ice Lance ability. If you have a Priest in the raid, your raid should stack up so they can dispel everyone with just 1 cast of Mass Dispel.

Deals 657 to 843 Frost damage to a random player. If that player is rooted, that player will take triple damage. Players afflicted by Frost Nova will take ~5000 Frost damage, while those who are not will only take ~1200, hence it must be dispelled immediately.

Do not dispel the Unstable Affliction. Decurse Curse of Doom right away, or if you have no decurses, make sure the cursed player is at full HP when the Curse of Doom fades, or they will die. Move out of Rain of Fire.

Applies a Magic debuff to a random player in the raid for 18 seconds, dealing 500 Shadow damage every 3 seconds, for a total of 3000 damage. If the Unstable Affliction is dispelled, the dispeller will take 4625 to 5375 Shadow damage and be silenced for 5 seconds.

As the periodic damage is very low, it’s generally better to just heal the afflicted player — do not dispel them.

Applies a curse to a random player in the raid for 30 seconds. After 30 seconds, that player will take 6475 to 7525 Shadow damage.

If your raid has a class with a Decurse ability (Remove Lesser Curse / Remove Curse) then decurse this right away, otherwise be prepared to heal that person urgently, to avoid having them die.

Engulfs a 5-yard radius area in a rain of fire for 10 seconds, dealing 2775 to 3225 Fire damage players inside that area every 2 seconds.

Interrupt Flash Heal. Dispel people feared by Psychic Scream, prioritizing the tank first. Dispel Mind Control with Dispel Magic, Purge, Arcane Shot or Spellsteal.

Heals an ally for 46,250 to 53,750. 2 second cast, interruptible.

Causes every player within 8 yards to flee in fear for 4 seconds. Magic debuff.

Dominates a random player’s mind, causing them to attack their allies for the next 20 seconds.

Can be broken by Tremor Totem and Will of the Forsaken, or having someone cast Dispel Magic, Purge, Arcane Shot or Spellsteal on you.

Dispel Wound Poison off the tank, and be prepared to heal them significantly more than normal due to Slice and Dice. Remove Blind by using Divine Shield, Blessing of Protection or Ice Block.

Increases Malacrass’ attack speed by 50% for 40 seconds.

Deals 472 to 528 Nature damage to Malacrass’ current target and applies a Poison to them for 15 seconds, reducing their healing received by 10%. The debuff stacks up to 5 times, reducing healing received by 50% in total.

Blinds a random player within 10 yards, causing them to walk around unable to act for 10 seconds. May only be removed by Divine Shield, Blessing of Protection and Ice Block.

Dispel Lifebloom using Dispel Magic, Purge, Arcane Shot or Spellsteal, but only if you can dispel it in the first 3 seconds, otherwise there’s no point. Keep up a healing reduction debuff, like Mortal Strike, Wound Poison or Aimed Shot on Malacrass. Dispel Moonfire off players.

Malacrass gains a heal-over-time effect for 7 seconds, healing himself 4713 to 5287 every second, or 35,000 on average over the spell’s duration. After the Lifebloom fades or if it is dispelled, Malacrass instantly gets healed for 18,500 to 21,500.

If you can dispel it (with Dispel Magic, Purge, Arcane Shot or Spellsteal) in the first 3 seconds, do so, otherwise there is no point — just keep up a healing reduction effect like Mortal Strike, Wound Poison or Aimed Shot on him.

Deals 925 to 1075 Arcane damage to a random player, and applies a Magic debuff to them for 12 seconds, dealing 500 damage every 3 seconds. Deals 2000 periodic damage, or ~3000 damage in total.

Gains a damaging shield for 40 seconds, causing players to take 200 Nature damage every time they hit Malacrass with a melee attack.

Kill the Amani Snakes spawned by Snake Trap, they only have 81 HP. Quickly heal melee DPS when the Explosive Trap is triggered. Laugh at Malacrass for picking a meme class to Siphon.

Places a trap at a random spot within 5 yards of Malacrass. When a player gets close to the trap, it will release 8 Amani Snakes with 81 HP, which chase the highest aggro target and apply Deadly Poison with their attacks, dealing trivial damage.

Places a trap at a random spot within 5 yards of Malacrass. When a player gets close to the trap, all players within 10 yards of the trap will be frozen and unable to act for 10 seconds (Freezing Trap). Can be dispelled (magic debuff), breaks on the first source of damage taken.

Malacrass will typically cast Explosive Trap immediately after Freezing Trap, freezing people from the stun in the process.

Places a trap at a random spot within 5 yards of Malacrass. When a player gets close to the trap, all players within 10 yards of the trap will instantly take 2675 to 3375 Fire damage and become afflicted with a debuff, dealing 1000 Fire damage to them every 2 seconds, dealing 5000 damage-over-time over its duration or 8000 damage in total (Exlosive Trap Effect).

Malacrass will typically cast Explosive Trap immediately after Freezing Trap, freezing people from the stun in the process.

Malacrass regrets picking a Hunter of all the classes he could have possibly picked. He is just really frustrated for 30 seconds.

Interrupt Healing Wave & Chain Lightning. Destroy Fire Nova Totem before it explodes.

Heals an ally for 46,250 to 53,750. 2 second cast, interruptible.

Deals 2775 to 3225 Nature damage to a random player within 30 yards. Chains to up to 5 nearby players. 2 second cast, interruptible.

Summons a Fire Nova Totem with 1000 HP in a random spot within 5 yards of Malacrass. If the totem is not killed within 4 seconds, it will explode, dealing 5655 to 6345 Fire damage to all players within 20 yards and then despawning.

Pump out more heals on the tank while they have the Mortal Strike debuff. Melee DPS quickly move away from Malacrass when he starts channeling Whirlwind. Casters be careful of Spell Reflection — specially if your HP is low, do not kill yourself.

Deals 150% weapon damage to Malacrass’ current target and applies a debuff, reducing their healing received by 50% for 5 seconds.

Malacrass starts channeling a whirlwind of steel for 4 seconds. Every 2 seconds, he will deal weapon damage plus 100 to all players within 8 yards. Cannot move or cast other abilities while channeling Whirlwind.

Malacrass raises his shield, reflecting the next spell cast on him within the next 5 seconds.

The tank and melee DPS need to move out of Consecration ASAP, it hurts — can be confusing if you have Paladin players casting Consecration themselves. If you can dispel Avenging Wrath (with Dispel Magic, Purge, Arcane Shot or Spellsteal) do so immediately, else the healers must be to pump big heals on the tank as Malacrass now hits a lot harder. Interrupt Holy Light.

Heals an ally for 46,250 to 53,750. 2 second cast, interruptible.

Malacrass creating a 10-yard zone of consecrated ground underneath his feet, lasting 20 seconds. Players inside the holy ground will take 1500 Holy damage per second.

Malacrass gains a buff increasing his damage done by 50% for 10 seconds. Can be dispelled with Dispel Magic, Purge, Arcane Shot or Spellsteal.

Raid Composition & Preparation

Malacrass deals heavy AoE damage with his Spirit Bolts, so it is a must for everyone to have Master Healthstones, ready to use when your healers are struggling to keep up with his damage. Most of that damage is of the Shadow school, so it can be hugely beneficial to have a Priest buff your raid with Prayer of Shadow Protection.

There’s nothing that’s absolutely necessary for this fight, but having a good balance of crowd-control classes can make this fight a lot easier. This will be particularly true for weaker groups, as tanking and healing will be a lot harder when you have to deal with 5 enemies at once, rather than 2 or 3.

This fight is extremely painful to heal due to Malacrass’ high raid damage from Spirit Bolts. This fight will be extremely difficult to clear without 2 healers, at least 1 of whom is a class with strong AoE healing spells, like a Restoration Shaman or Holy Priest. Weaker groups may want to go with 3 healers instead, to help spread the healing load. Holy Paladins will suffer here, simply put, so it’s recommended that you don’t try this with just Holy Paladins.

Restoration Druids are great here thanks to their ability to cover the raid with Lifebloom and other healing-over-time effects to deal with Spirit Bolts, as well as easily heal both tanks while adds are still up. Moreover, they can essentially cancel out 1 instance of Spirit Bolts off one group, by combining their Barkskin with Tranquility, which will be invaluable later on in the fight, after Drain Power boosts Spirit Bolts damage.

To make things worse, this fight is typically longer than most other Zul’Aman fights, so mana can be an issue. To that end, it is recommended that your healers use +mana regeneration consumables, such as Blackened Sporefish and Elixir of Major Mageblood. Super Mana Potions and Dark Runes are also practically a must, specially for weaker groups.

There are no particular DPS requirements for this fight. Ranged DPS have a slightly easier time due to not having to avoid Consecration and Psychic Scream, but that’s not significant enough to say that you should stack ranged over melee — having a balance of both would be good here.

This fight is an intense DPS race — the longer the fight goes, the more Drain Power stacks he gets, and the more his Spirit Bolts hurts. Thus it is highly advised for your DPS players to use DPS boosting consumables. Consumables will also help you kill the adds faster, which can make a big difference for weaker groups.

This fight is doable with 1 tank, particularly if they’re a Protection Paladin. Neither Malacrass or his adds hit particularly hard, so it wouldn’t be too hard to keep up a Protection Paladin tanking all of them at once if they have decent gear. It’s recommended that only experienced groups do this though; in general you’ll want to have 2 tanks, 1 picking up Malacrass (any class is fine), while the other (usually a Protection Paladin) picks up all of the adds.

Malacrass does not deal exceptionally high damage, but threat isn’t exactly needed here — your main tank has a lot of time to build up threat on him while your raid kills the adds. Thus both of your tanks should probably use DPS consumables, helping end this fight sooner.

The Pull

There are 2 trash packs inside Malacrass’ room that must be cleared before engaging him. It is recommended that you pull them to the entrance of the room, or even outside his room, to avoid accidentally pulling Malacrass while you’re fighting the trash.

After you’ve taken care of the trash packs, ress any dead players, buff up and regenerate mana at the entrance of Malacrass’ room.

hex lord malacrass 0

When your group is ready to start the fight, have your Hunters use Misdirection on the tank — but don’t pull right away. The rest of the raid needs to move in with the tank, and particularly players who will be crowd controlling will need to move in fast — as much as possible you’ll want to CC adds at their original position, away from player AoE spells. If your group doesn’t have any Hunters, the add tank should move in first, so they get original aggro on the adds.

After the fight starts, you’ll want to assume the following positions, which you’ll be using for more or less the entire fight:

hex lord malacrass 1 2

In simple terms, your tanks pick up their assigned targets and head to a pillar. Some of the adds are slower than Malacrass, so it’s recommended that your Malacrass tank moves him to a different pillar, more towards the center of the room, like in the picture above. The rest of your raid stacks on a single spot, somewhere inbetween Malacrass and the adds so your healers can reach both tanks & ranged DPS players can attack every target. Having a position similar to the picture above allows your players with crowd control to be close to the adds’ original spots, so they can re-apply their CC as necessary.

The Fight

Adds

While extremely well geared groups could nuke Malacrass down without killing the adds first, that won’t be the case for the vast majority of groups. You will thus want to kill the adds first, crowd controlling some of them. You’ll typically only need to CC 1-2 adds at most, as they aren’t particularly difficult to deal with. If your group has crowd control for them, it is highly recommended that you keep Gazakroth and Koragg CCed at the start, as they can be very annoying.

It is recommended that you kill the adds in this order, from most dangerous to least dangerous:

Lord Raadan> Alyson Antille > Koragg > Darkheart > Fenstalker > Gazakroth > Thurg > Slither

This part of the fight is extremely straightforward — kill the adds as per the priority order above. Marking the adds can make this a lot easier. This part is more of a test on your healers, and if they can keep both tanks up at once. Everyone else gets to have a field day cleaving down the adds, seeing those big numbers everywhere. Keep the adds you don’t want to deal with right now crowd controlled, then kill those too, and you’re done with the add phase.

Provided your healers are doing okay with keeping up your tanks and Lord Raadan is never allowed to face your raid, the only complications that can arise during this phase are Malacrass’ mechanics. Which brings us to the next section!

Hex Lord Malacrass

Most groups will take between 1 to 3 minutes to kill the adds. Malacrass however won’t be nice and wait for you to kill them, he’ll be using his abilities throughout. Specifically, Spirit Bolts 30 seconds in, followed by Siphon Soul. The first Spirit Bolts will be the roughest for many groups, as you’re still dealing with 3-4 adds and their damage, giving your healers a tough time.

Your healers must always remain aware of the Spirit Bolts timer and make sure the raid is fully topped off before it starts. Thankfully, there’s no Drain Power increasing Malacrass’ damage yet, so Spirit Bolts will do its baseline 9000 damage per player, reduced by a good amount if your raid is using Shadow Resistance buffs, such as Prayer of Shadow Protection / Shadow Resistance Aura. Most players will only need 2-3k healing in order to survive Spirit Bolts, which won’t be too difficult to achieve, though topping them off that will be extremely painful.

Immediately after Spirit Bolts ends, Malacrass will target a random player in your raid and use Siphon Soul on them, gaining 3 abilities from their class. This is a brief run-down of what to do to counter each of Malacrass’ new class abilities.

Malacrass will keep these abilities for 30 seconds, at which point it is time for Spirit Bolts again. That is the general dance of this fight, which will repeat every 40 seconds, as Malacrass uses Spirit Bolts at 0:30, 1:10, 1:50, 2:30, 3:10, 3:50, etc etc. Stay alert, nuke down the adds, and use defensive cooldowns such as Divine Shield, Ice Block, Cloak of Shadows, Master Healthstones etc, to help out your healers as necessary.

Once you’ve killed all of the adds, it will be time for your DPS to switch to Malacrass. That will be a good time for your raid to use Heroism / Bloodlust, as the fight is now mostly a tank-and-spank, with your DPS having full uptime on Malacrass.

The only thing that changes at this point is that Malacrass will now cast Drain Power after every Siphon Soul, indefinitely increasing his damage dealt and reducing your raid’s damage dealt every time he casts it. This means that if you killed the adds at 2:30, the Spirit Bolts at 3:10 will deal 9900 damage per player, the one at 3:50 will deal 10800 damage, and so on. Your raid will eventually be overwhelmed, which is why you want to use cooldowns now and kill him ASAP.

And that is all of the tricks that Hex Lord Malacrass has! There’s a whole lot of mechanics of your players to deal with, particularly with his Siphon Soul giving him access to so many different abilities, but at its core this fight is a DPS race and a fight for survival. Provided your damage is decent and that your healers can deal with Spirit Bolts, you’ll be taking down his ugly witch doctor and finally get to take on the last boss, the Amani chieftain Zul’jin!

 

About the Author

Pride

Classic WoW is my jam, with a passion for PvP. Most know me as Baranor, the ret paladin guy, but I'm secretly a druid main, don't tell anyone. In my free time I play Switch games, particularly JRPGs. Some day I'll be making my own games and I humbly hope you play those too!
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