Throne of Thunder: Megaera (10)

Megaera is a hydra, and we never get to attack Megaera herself only her heads. To kill her, we need to kill 7 heads to defeat Megaera.

Megaera has three different types of heads.

• Venomous Heads(green) deal Nature damage;
• Flaming Heads (red) deal Fire damage;
• Frozen Heads (blue) deal Frost damage;

Megaera's heads can be in one of two places near the platform or at the back of the cave.

1. Near the platform: 2 heads (each of a different type) will be near the platform and can be attacked and killed, and they deal damage to the raid;
2. At the back of the cave: When one of the heads near the platform is killed, two heads of the same type will spawn at the back of the cave. These heads cannot be attacked or damaged by the raid, and will deal damage to the raid through a special ability;

When one of the two heads near the platform is killed, the remaining head submerges, and then re-emerges together with a new head. The new head will always be of a different type than the one we had just killed.

Strategy

When the fight starts, we will want to focus the raid's DPS on one of the two existing heads. Have the two tanks each pick up one of the two heads, and tank them facing away from the raid. The heads have a HUGE hit box allowing melee to spread out by being at max melee range the ranged and healers should also spread out with DPS at max range from the head while healers fill the spread out in the gap between melee and ranged.


When one head dies, the raid should stack up close to one of the heads, to allow AoE heals during the 20 seconds of Rampage. DPS should continue to nuke the head that is to be killed.

After 20 seconds, Rampage will end and we can spread out again. Tanks should switch between these two heads.

The raid will now have to dea with the special abilities cast by the heads at the back of the cave.

You MUST move away from the impact location of Acid Rain to minimise the damage taken 15-20 yards away is enough.

If you are afflicted by Cinders you MUST run to the drop zone or over any Icy Ground void zones available and then be dispelled in a safe location. DO NOT run to the sides or you will get breathed upon and take avoidable damage.

If you are chased by Torrent of Ice you MUST run from the beam of ice AWAY from the raid and IF possible, kite over any existing fiery void zones to extinguish them. DO NOT run to the sides or you will get breathed upon and take avoidable damage.

Continue DPSing the heads one at a time, while handling the mechanics cast by the heads at the back of the cave, and the increasing damage we will have to endure.

Tanking Concerns

Tanks have a relatively simple task during this fight. While Rampage is being cast, there is no task that tanks must perform, and they should continue to stack with the rest of the raid while attacking the head that is the current DPS target.

Shortly before Rampage ends, the two tanks should each go to one of the two heads, and they should prepare to start tanking them. As soon as Rampage ends, the other two heads will begin to melee and cast their frontal cone attacks.

These two tanks will need to switch the heads they are tanking each time a head dies, and during the subsequent Rampage. Tanks should be using defensive cooldowns if taking a third breaths. The head that the raid is focusing should be dead before a 4th breath ever comes.

Dealing with Back of the Cave Abilities

Acid Rain

Acid Rain is the easiest special to deal with as all you must do is move away quickly from the impact location. Certain classes can afford not to move if they use Magic damage-reducing abilities like Anti-Magic Shell or Cloak of Shadows.

Cinders

If you are afflicted by Cinders you MUST run to the drop zone or over any Icy Ground void zones available and then be dispelled in a safe location. DO NOT run to the sides or you will get breathed upon and take avoidable damage.

The damage of the Cinders DoT is quite high, healers may be forced to dispel you early to stop you dying if you slack at moving and/or spreading out this can cause wipes.

Torrent of Ice

If chased by Torrent of Ice you must run from it immediately or die. NEVER run it through other raid members, and especially not over the place where the raid is stacked. If there are any fiery void zones from Cinders that you can safely run over you should kite the beam over them to despawn them.

Kill Order

Unkilled heads get a stack of Hydra Frenzy and this means if we allow a head to go unkilled all fight it will have 220% attack speed. However with good healing we should be able to deal with that. Therefore the preferred kill order is:

Green - Red - Green - Red - Green - Red - Green - Red

This allows us to not have to deal with the most annoying special ability, Torrent of Ice.

However, if the tanks and healers are unable to deal with that we will need to kill the blue head and the kill order then becomes:

Green - Red - Green - Red - Blue - Red - Green

This will mean that we risk having a healer kiting during the most damaging times but does mean less healing on the tanks.

Healing Concerns

This is a very healing-intensive encounter which starts out with relatively low damage, but this damage continues to increase as the fight goes on.

The periods of highest raid damage are during Rampage and for best results the raid should stack up, and healing and defensive cooldowns MUST be used.

After the first Rampage, the raid may need to move while stacking, to avoid Acid Rain, and some raid members will need to move out if targeted by Cinders or Torrent of Ice.