WoW Classic Magtheridon’s Lair Guide

            Obviously we were pumped for The Burning Crusade classic for a variety of reasons, but one of the big ones is the return of the raids. They might not be everyone’s favorite, opinions being as malleable as they are, but their high points can’t be denied. The challenge, the gameplay, we are happy to see the return of some of World of Warcraft’s best. World of Warcraft appeals to a diverse crowd and players choosing to get a head start on the game may choose to buy WoW TBC accounts.  As for the raids, we are talking about one of the best of the best today, the smaller 25 man raid that takes players to Magtheridon’s Lair.

            Magtheridon’s Lair only has one boss, Magtheridon. He may not be the most skilled when it comes to naming lairs, but he makes up for it in absolutely decimating raiding parties. He has a lot of power, but where the real difficulty curve comes from is the coordination required to stop him from wiping the party in one fell swoop. This is one of those situations where we are happy for the smaller raid cap, since trying to coordinate 25 people is hard enough, having access to more while trying to bring down Magtheridon might even be a detriment.

            Now on the off chance you are a bit rusty, or maybe you are too young to have played through the original lair, we will give you some tips and pointers on how to get out the other side of this raid in one piece. Also with some high quality gear, but lets now count our chickens before they hatch.

            Firstly, lets break down what your raid group should look like. You’ll need four tanks, one of them specifically being a protection warrior. You’ll need the tanks for a few different aspects of this raid, but the protection warrior is essential for getting the attention of Magtheridon himself. You will also need four reliable spell interrupters. Doesn’t matter what class they are, shaman, rogue, what have you, just as long as they can interrupt spells consistently. To that extent, too, you definitely need to make sure to bring four warlocks with you as well, as they will be essential to banishing and defusing some of the more lethal elements of the boss fight. Lastly, you’ll want to make sure and bring along six healers. This raid deals some high amounts of damage at times, so you want to make sure you have as many as you need. You can, if you are so inclined, double up with shaman who can act as both healers and interrupters.

            If my math is correct, those numbers should account for 18 of the 25 potential raid slots. But there is one more requirement that we haven’t stipulated. You need to make sure to bring at least 20 people with you. If you don’t bring 20 players with you to this raid, there is a very high chance that your party will be wiped quickly. Why? Well, among a handful of other tactics that we will explain in a moment, the boss Magtheridon casts Blast Nova. The majority of your party’s attention and coordination will have to be devoted to Blast Nova. It is a spell that Magtheridon casts every 50 seconds and causes enough damage to wipe the raid. To prevent this happening, Magtheridon needs to be stunned, and this is done by having 5 players simultaneously activate 5 different Manticron cubes on the map. Here is where the 20 players come in. When activating the cube, the players who did receive a debuff which prevents them from activating the cube again for another 3 minutes. So the cubes need to activated by rotating groups of players within the raid. Which is why you need at least 20 people, otherwise the debuff will still be in effect the next time the spell sets up and no one will be able to stop it.

            Now that does sound stressful, but don’t worry too much. That is the hardest part of the boss fight and it is manageable. Everything else compared to that is relatively easy. Their will be a lot of trash to manage and damage to mitigate but as long as you are attentive and don’t let anyone get the drop on you it never gets too wild.

            The two other big piece big of advice we have for this fight. The first goes back to the tank who was pulling Magtheridon. They will want to make sure to pull him so he is facing only them, to prevent the cleave attack from smashing into your party. Also, you want to make sure that the tank, and their primary healer have their backs to the wall. This will prevent Magtheridon’s Quake attack from blasting them too far back out of range.

            The last thing that you have to watch out for, the thing that if you aren’t careful of it can snatch victory from you at the last moment, is falling debris. When Magtheridon is dropped to 30% health they will collapse the ceiling. Initially this will deal damage to all players as well as stun them for two seconds. That first effect is unavoidable, but its the subsequent debris attacks you need to watch out for.  You can use the animation or you could keep your eye out for the debris debuff. If you stay within range of the debuff for 5 seconds it will go off and your character will die. This is pretty harsh, but the good news is all you have to do to avoid it is to move, and their won’t be any other new shenanigans to make moving around the battlefield difficult.

            And there you have it. A fast and efficient guild to bringing down one of the most challenging, and rewarding, raids of The Burning Crusade. Like we said, this is a raid more about corridnation than hard stats, but that sort of coordination can be some of the hardest to manage in large groups. Number one rule? Communication. Number two rule? Don’t panic. Number three rule? Remember to have fun, that’s why you paid for the game after all.  Should you be one of the first players to conquer Magtheridon, this high end gear may fetch a premium price should you decide to sell your TBC account.