Locked and Loaded: Hellfire Citadel cheat sheet for Hunters

Previously we talked about choosing a Hunter spec for Hellfire Citadel, and last time I gave a crash course in Marksmanship for those who may be new to the spec. Today we’re going to look at some quick tips for all 13 bosses in Hellfire Citadel. While I do recommend Marksmanship for Hellfire Citadel, most of these tips apply to those of you playing the other specs.

Think of this as a cheat sheet you can pull out when you hit a new boss for the first time. This is aimed primarily at Normal and Heroic, but could apply to LFR as well.

Hellfire Assault

• Talent and glyph yourself for mobility — Posthaste and Glyph of Disengage are both recommended (or at least one of them).
• Barrage is a no brainer here. Also, this may be one of the only fights where I’d consider dropping Stampede for A Murder of Crows. Hardly anything lives long enough to benefit from a full Stampede.
• While it is an AoE fight, single target damage should still be your first priority.

Iron Reaver

• Deterrence will save you from most mechanics in this fight, including Pounding and Barrage.
• Speaking of Barrage, don’t underestimate the size of the damage cone, especially since you’ll probably be standing far from the boss.
• Positioning yourself in the middle during the air phase should allow you to hit almost every bomb, especially with the extra ~5 yards of range from Sniper Training.

Kormrok

• During Grasping Hands, position yourself at the rear of the stack point so that your Barrage can hit all of the hands.
• Make sure you’re using Crouching Tiger, Hidden Chimaera to help you soak more Explosive Runes with Deterrence.
• If your raid is having trouble getting the Hands killed fast enough, considering swapping to Beast Mastery.
• Make sure your Aspect of the Cheetah is glyphed, as it’s very helpful for getting to Explosive Runes and dodging your way through the empowered waves.

Hellfire High Council

• You can slightly delay cooldowns like Bestial Wrath, Focus Fire, and Rapid Fire if one of the bosses is about to hit 30%. It will be more helpful to the raid to push through the final 30% as fast as possible.
• Position yourself so that Barrage hits as many Mirror Images and bosses as possible.

Kilrogg Deadeye

• If you’re going down for Vision of Death, save your cooldowns for when you come back up.
• Adds can be slowed. Use Concussive Shot and Ice Trap to allow for more DPS time.
• If playing Marksmanship, always open up on adds with an Aimed Shot. This ensures you’ll benefit from Careful Aim and get most of the Focus back.

Gorefiend

• When you get Touch of Doom, you can use Deterrence and drop it on top of an existing Doom Well to leave more room.
• Save your cooldowns for Feast of Souls. The first one happens roughly 2 minutes in, which means Rapid Fire will be available. However, the next one happens 3 minutes after that, meaning you should hold onto your third Rapid Fire for an extra minute so that it can be used during the second Feast of Souls. As luck would have it, your second Stampede also lines up perfectly with this.

Shadow-Lord Iskar

• As a hunter, it is possible to survive Phantasmal Winds if you don’t get the Eye of Anzu passed to you. Disengaging against the wind stops you momentarily, and glyphed Aspect of the Cheetah helps as well. There’s also Nitro Boosts as a last resort.
• Save cooldowns if the second phase (where adds spawn) is imminent. These happen at 70%, 45%, and 20% boss health. Your cooldowns are better served on the Wardens and Talonpriests.

Socrethar the Eternal

• In phase 1, if you are targeted by the Volatile Fel Orb, simply move out of the group, pop Deterrence and let it hit you. No need to kite it around.
• In phase 2, Haunting Souls can be slowed and stunned, making Ice Trap and Binding Shot invaluable (especially for loose adds that aren’t being kited through the fire properly.
• Use Counter Shot to interrupt the Shadowcallers (ranged adds). This will force them to run into the group, allowing them to be cleaved down easily. Obviously don’t do this if you are a part of the interrupt rotation on the main boss.
• Position yourself so that the Soul of Socrethar is in between you and the Haunting Souls portal. This way your Barrage will be able to hit them if they get too close to the group.

Tyrant Velhari

• Deterrence fully blocks the damage from Edict of Condemnation. It can even be used to solo soak the final tick. This is a risky business though, you have to be sure no one else is in range or else they will likely die. It also blocks damage from Annihilating Strike.
• Save your Stampede for the phase 2 boss burn (typically when Blood Lust is used).
• Use Disengage to move around when possible in phase 1. While you will still take ticks of damage when moving, it should be less than it would be if you walked over.

Fel Lord Zakuun

• Deterrence can be used to avoid all of the damage from waves.
• If you have the Latent Energy debuff from soaking a pillar, Deterrence will NOT stop the explosions that happen when you are hit by a wave. You’ll avoid the damage, but your raid will not.
• The only true single target fight in the raid, meaning you can bust out your Glaive Toss or Powershot if you want a change of pace (Beast Mastery should still use Barrage).

Xhul’horac

• The two large adds that spawn (Vanguard Akkellion and Omnus) take damage when the boss takes damage, and vice versa. If you’re playing Marksmanship, you can use this to your advantage by attacking whatever target is above 80% health for the Careful Aim bonus.
• Beast Mastery is actually pretty good on this fight, especially if you are assigned to the imps. It’s not quite as good if you’re killing the shadow adds because of pet travel time.
• Deterrence cannot be used to block all of the damage from a Black Hole Singularity. I have the repair bill to prove it.
• Deterrence prevents the application of Feltouched and Voidtouched when running through fire. This allows you to walk straight to the middle of a patch of fire before triggering Shadowfel Annihilation, which should allow you to clear the maximum amount of fire.

Mannoroth

• If Infernals clump up too close to the raid, a glyphed Explosive Trap can knock them away.
• Deterrence blocks all damage from Felseeker and the Mannoroth’s Gaze fear. This is especially helpful if not enough people are in the circle (the damage still splits, but you don’t take your share).
• Delay your Barrage for when the imps spawn, and be prepared to snipe stray imps that land far away from the raid.
• Disengage can be a life saver here. If you’re accidentally knocked off the edge with Felseeker, it can throw you back on the platform. It can also be used to temporarily stop you from being pushed back during Shadowforce (jump, spin, disengage).

Archimonde

• Deterrence blocks pretty much any damage in this fight, including Shadowfel Burst (the knock up), Wrought Chaos, and walking through fire on the ground.
• In phase 3, you can place Binding Shot in the middle of Nether Tears to instantly stun Living Shadows that spawn.
• Use Distracting Shot to peel away any Infernal Doombringers that are stacked on top of each other. The infernals can also be slowed with Concussive Shot and stunned with Binding Shot.
• If you are assigned to go down to the Twisting Nether, Concussive Shot works on the Void Stars down there to allow for more DPS time (very important).
• I find it hard to recommend anything but Marksmanship for Archimonde. There are simply too many instances where single target burst damage is needed.

Have any more tips? Let us know in the comments!

Hunter Q&A

Yes, Raptor Strike may be a thing again, as shocking as that sounds. I certainly did not expect it, but there are some big changes coming to Hunters in Legion. Probably more changes than any other existing class. Survival will be a melee spec that utilizes a pet, Beast Mastery will remain about the same as it is today, and Marksmanship is going completely pet free. You can bet that talents will be completely reworked to fit this new paradigm as well.

This post about Hellfire Citadel was already completed and scheduled before the big announcement, but next time on Locked and Loaded (looks like I may have to rename the column again) we’ll be diving straight into all things Legion.