This guide is intended to provide a comprehensive description of theencounter with Megaera in Throne of Thunder. It is targeted at anyonewho desires to understand the fight mechanics.

This guide is updated for World of Warcraft MoP 5.4.

Megaera is the fifth boss of the Throne of Thunder raid. The fight isagainst a corrupted cloud serpent, which, for all intents and purposes is ahydra.

The strategy for defeating Megaera is very simple, even though the encounteritself appears very complex. It mainly requires solid healing and DPScapabilities from your raid members, as well as the ability to perform somemovement-related tasks.

1. General Information↑top

2. Loot↑top

2.1. Armor

Item Name	Armor	Slot	Main Stats
Frostborn Wristwraps (LFR, Heroic)	Cloth	Wrists	Intellect
Sandals of Arcane Fury (LFR, Heroic)	Cloth	Feet	Intellect/Hit
Gleaming-Eye Shoulderpads (LFR, Heroic)	Cloth	Shoulders	Intellect/Spirit
Hood of Smoldering Flesh (LFR, Heroic)	Leather	Head	Intellect
Poisonblood Bladeshoulders (LFR, Heroic)	Leather	Shoulders	Agility
Chain of Consuming Magic (LFR, Heroic)	Mail	Chest	Intellect
Links of the Bifurcated Tongue (LFR, Heroic)	Mail	Waist	Intellect
Grips of Cinderflesh (LFR, Heroic)	Mail	Hands	Agility
Ice-Scored Treads (LFR, Heroic)	Plate	Feet	Intellect
Rot-Proof Greatplate (LFR, Heroic)	Plate	Chest	Strength/Dodge
Plated Toothbreaker Girdle (LFR, Heroic)	Plate	Waist	Strength/Dodge

2.2. Weapons

Item Name	Type	Main Stats
Fetish of the Hydra (LFR, Heroic)	Off-hand Frill	Intellect/Hit
Megaera's Poisoned Fang (LFR, Heroic)	Dagger	Agility

2.3. Amulets, Rings, and Trinkets

Item Name	Type	Main Stats
Megaera's Shining Eye (LFR, Heroic)	Amulet	Intellect/Hit
Quadra-Head Brooch (LFR, Heroic)	Amulet	Agility
Hydraskull Choker (LFR, Heroic)	Amulet	Strength/Dodge
Spinescale Seal (LFR, Heroic)	Ring	Strength
Breath of the Hydra (LFR, Heroic)	Trinket	Haste/Intellect on proc
Inscribed Bag of Hydra-Spawn (LFR, Heroic)	Trinket	Spirit/Absorb effect on proc

3. DPS Requirements↑top

We currently have no information about the enrage timer. We will update thissection when we know more.

4. Overview of the Fight↑top

Megaera is a hydra, and as such, in addition to her body, she hasa multitude of heads. During the encounter, you never get to attack or fightMegaera herself (so, her body), and you will instead spend the entire timebattling her heads.

The objective of the encounter is to bring Megaera to 0% health, and killingone of her heads deals a certain amount of damage to her. Therefore, by killingenough heads, you will eventually killed Megaera herself. You will need to kill7 heads to defeat Megaera.

Megaera has three different types of heads.

• Flaming Heads deal Fire damage.
• Frozen Heads deal Frost damage.
• Venomous Heads deal Nature damage.

There are two different positions where Megaera's heads can be.

• Near the platform. At any given time, 2 heads (each of a differenttype) will be near the platform where your raid is located. These heads can beattacked and killed, and they deal damage to your raid through a certain set ofabilities.
• At the back of the cave. Whenever one of the heads near theplatform is killed, two heads of the same type will spawn at the back of thecave. Heads located there cannot be attacked or damaged by your raid, and theywill deal damage to your raid through a specific ability that each of thetypes possesses.

When one of the two heads near the platform is killed, the remaininghead submerges, and then re-emerges together with a new head. The new head willalways be of a different type than the one you had just killed (for example,if there is a Flaming and Frozen head, and you kill the Frozen head, the newheads will be Venomous and Flaming). This continues until the end of the fight, ensuring that you will never run out of heads to attack and kill.

We have released a video guide for the fight against Megaera. Westrongly recommend watching the video in order to get a better visual idea ofthe fight.

5. Class-specific Advice↑top

On our forums, we are maintaining threads with class-specific advice for each of thefights of Throne of Thunder. So, make sure to check them out, and if you have things toshare, do not hesitate to contribute!

Class	Forum Threads
Death Knight	Blood Frost/Unholy
Druid	Balance Feral Guardian Restoration
Hunter	All specs
Mage	All specs
Monk	Brewmaster Mistweaver Windwalker
Paladin	Holy Protection Retribution
Priest	Discipline Holy Shadow
Rogue	All specs
Shaman	Elemental Enhancement Restoration
Warlock	All specs
Warrior	Arms/Fury Protection

6. Abilities↑top

It is important to differentiate between the abilities that the heads usewhen they are at the back of the cave and near the platform. The in-gameDungeon Journal refers to the back of the cave as being "inside the Concealing Fog". Any heads not in the Concealing Fog are those that arenear the platform and attackable. We will stick to using "back of the cave",though.

We will first present to you the abilities that the heads at the back ofthe cave use. Even though you will not be confronted with these abilitiesat the very start of the fight, we feel that these abilities are the mostimportant ones and the ones that are more difficult to understand.

6.1. Back of the Cave Abilities and Mechanics

Whenever one of the heads near the platform is killed, two heads of the sametype regrow at the back of the cave. For example, if your raid kills aFlaming Head near the platform, two Flaming Heads will appear at the backof the cave. At the start of the fight, before any heads have been killed,there will be no heads at all at the back of the cave.

Let us now look at what each type of head casts from the back of thecave.

6.1.1. Flaming Head: Cinders

When at the back of the cave, the Flaming Heads cast Cinders.This is a debuff applied to a random raid member. It deals instance damage, aswell as damage over time for 30 seconds. Dispelling this player is possible,and when doing so, it causes a fiery void zone to be place at the player'slocation.

The more Flaming Heads are present at the back of the cave (the numberincreases the more Flaming Heads you kill near the platform), the moreplayers will be targeted by Cinders.

6.1.2. Frozen Head: Torrent of Ice

When at the back of the cave, the Frozen Heads cast Torrent of Iceat a random raid member. This is a beam of ice that chases that playerfor 8 seconds, dealing Frost damage at the point of impact and leaving behindicy void zones called Icy Ground in its path. Standing in these void zonesdeals damage and progressively slows your movement speed.

The more Frozen Heads are present at the back of the cave, the more playerswill be targeted by Torrent of Ice.

6.1.3. Venomous Head: Acid Rain

When at the back of the cave, the Venomous Heads cast Acid Rain. This ability shoots a ball of acid at the location ofa random raid member, which lands a few seconds later. When it lands, itdeals a large amount of Nature damage to all raid members, but the damage islower the farther away players are from the impact location.

The more Venomous Heads are present at the back of the cave, the moreplayers will be targeted by Acid Rain.

6.1.4. Interaction Between Cinders and Torrent of Ice

Cinders has important interactions with Torrent of Ice.Namely, if the player affected by the Cinders debuff runs over the Icy Ground void zones created by the Frozen Head, these void zones aredispelled. Moreover, the fiery void zone created by dispelling Cinders can beremoved by making the beam of ice from Torrent of Ice come into contactwith them.

6.2. Near the Platform Abilities and Mechanics

There are a few things you need to know about these heads. We will go overthese things first, before looking at their abilities.

6.2.1. Health and Respawning Pattern

• The heads do not share health.
• There are always two heads present near the platform, and when one iskilled, a new head of a different type (different both from the head that hasjust been killed, and from the other head present) spawns in its place.
• When one of the heads is killed, the remaining head is healed tofull health.

6.2.2. Damage-increasing Buffs

There are two damage-increasing buffs that the heads will keepstacking on themselves. One is removable, while the other is not.

• Hydra Frenzy is removable. When a head is killed by the raid,the remaining head receives a stack of Hydra Frenzy, which increasesattack speed by 20% per stack. The only way to remove the buff from a headis to kill it (the buff will be gone when the head respawns). This buffprevents you from repeatedly avoiding to kill one of the heads.
• Elemental Blood of Megaera( Fire/ Frost/ Nature)is not removable. When a head respawns after being killed, it gains astack of Elemental Blood of Megaera, which permanently increases the Magicdamage done by all heads of that type (so both the head near the platformand the heads at the back of the cave) by 10% per stack. This buff lastsuntil Megaera dies, making the fight harder as it goes on.

6.2.3. Abilities

After a head is killed and both heads have respawned, they donot melee and they do not need to be tanked. Instead, their onlyability is Rampage ( Fire/ Frost/ Nature).This causes the raid to take Magic damage every second from each of the twodifferent types of heads. The damage inflicted by each type of head isincreased by 25% for each additional head of that type that currently existsat the back of the cave. So, if, for example, there are 4 Flaming Heads at theback of the cave, the damage taken from the Fire component of Rampage will beincreased by 100%. This leads to more and more damage the closer you come tothe end of the fight.

When Rampage fades, the heads begin performing melee attacks. They nowneed to be tanked. In addition, they now each have a specific breathattack.

The breath attacks are cast in a cone in front of the head, and they dealdamage to all affected players. Additionally, they also stack a specificdebuff each. These stacking debuffs necessitate a tank switch.

• The Flaming Head casts Ignite Flesh. This deals Fire damage andstacks a Fire damage DoT on affected players.
• The Frozen Head casts Arctic Freeze. This deals Frost damage andstacks a debuff that freezes the affected players at 5 stacks.
• The Venomous Head casts Rot Armor. This deals Nature damage andstacks a debuff that causes affected players to take 10% increased damagefrom all sources per stack.

Finally, if there is no one in melee range of Megaera's heads near theplatform, these heads begin spamming Megaera's Rage( Fire/ Frost/ Nature)at the raid, which will quickly lead to a wipe.

6.2.4. Numbers of Heads to Kill

Each head is worth about 14% of Megaera's health, so you will need to kill7 heads to defeat the encounter.

7. Strategy↑top

Despite the fact that the fight appears extremely complicated, the strategyis really rather simple. We summarise it in this section, before developing itfurther in subsequent sections.

1. When the fight starts, you will want to focus your raid's DPS on one ofthe two existing heads (we recommend the Frozen Head).
2. After one head dies, your raid should stack up in a location close to oneof the heads, while you endure the raid-wide damage of Rampage.
3. After 20 seconds, Rampage will end and you can spread out again. Have yourtwo tanks each pick up one of the two heads, and tank them facing away fromthe raid. They will need to perform a tank switch between these two heads.
4. DPS one of the remaining two heads.
5. At this point, you will need to begin handling the abilities cast by theheads at the back of the cave.
   • The player(s) afflicted by Cinders must run over any Icy Groundvoid zones available and then be dispelled in a safe location (awayfrom the raid and in a place where the resulting void zone will notinterfere with the raid's movement.
   • The player(s) chased by Torrent of Ice must run from the beam of ice.They must be careful not to kite it over the raid's location, and, if possible,to kite over any existing fiery void zones to extinguish them.
   • Everyone should move away from the impact location of Acid Rain to minimise the damage that they take. Moving 15-20 yardsaway is enough.
6. Continue DPSing the heads one at a time, while handling the mechanicscast by the heads at the back of the cave, and the increasing damage you willhave to endure.

7.1. 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 thehead that is the current DPS target.

Shortly before Rampage ends, the two tanks should each go to one ofthe two heads, and they should prepare to start tanking them. Assoon as Rampage ends, the other two heads will begin to melee and casttheir frontal cone attacks.

These two tanks will need to switch the heads they are tanking so that thedebuffs applied by the breaths do not stack too much. We recommend switchingafter 2 stacks of the debuffs applied by the breath, but it is also possibleto only switch after one head is dead, and during the subsequent Rampage.

If you are doing the former, then tanks should use any abilities they canto more quickly cover the distance from one head to the other (abilitiessuch as Roll and Heroic Leap). If you are doing the latter, youshould be using defensive cooldowns when taking the third breaths. The headthat your raid is focusing should be dead before a 4th breath ever comes.

7.2. Dealing with Back of the Cave Abilities

There is not much to be said about how to best handle these abilities, asthey are quite straightforward. In any case, all raid members will need tolearn what these abilities do, since handling them properly is probably themost important part of the fight.

7.2.1. Cinders

Players affected by Cinders should be quick to run over any existing Icy Ground void zones, and then move to a safe location (out of the wayof the raid) to be dispelled.

The damage of theCinders DoT is quite high, so healers may be forced to dispel these playersearly in order to prevent them from dying. As such, if you are the personaffected by Cinders, you have to be mindful of your own health in order toestimate how quickly you need to move to a safe location.

7.2.2. Torrent of Ice

Players chased by Torrent of Ice must be very quick to run from it,since the damage inflicted at the point of impact is quite high. It isimportant to make sure never to run over the location of other raid members,and especially not over the place where the raid is stacked (assuming that 3heads are active near the platform).

If there are any fiery void zones in undesirable locations, players beingchased by Torrent of Ice should kite the beam over them to despawn them.

7.2.3. Acid Rain

Acid Rain is probably the easiest mechanic to deal with. Allthat your raid members must do is be prompt in moving away from the impactlocation (it is clearly visible). Certain classes can afford not to move ifthey use Magic damage-reducing abilities like Anti-Magic Shell or Cloak of Shadows.

7.3. DPS Priority

It makes little difference, in general, which heads you decide to kill atwhich time. That said, there is one important thing to keep in mind. The headnear the platform that is alive when another head is killed will gain a stack of Hydra Frenzy. This means that you need to maintain a balance between theheads you kill, so that no head gets to have more than 2 stacks of HydraFrenzy. So, you cannot, for example, avoid killing the Venomous Head theentire fight, because it would gain too many stacks of Hydra Frenzy and thuskill its tank.

7.4. Healing Concerns

This is a very healing-intensive encounter. The fight starts out withrelatively low damage, but this damage continues to increase as the fight goeson.

The periods of highest raid damage are during Rampage. At thesetimes, the raid should stack up, and healing and defensive cooldowns must beemployed. Keep in mind that after the very first Rampage, the raid may need tomove while stacking, in order to avoid Acid Rain, and certain raidmembers will need to move out if targeted by Cinders or Torrent of Ice.

8. When to Use Heroism/Bloodlust/Time Warp↑top

We recommend using Heroism/ Bloodlust/ Time Warp later on inthe fight, when the damage taken is more intense. The best time to use it isprobably during the final Rampage, because this raid damage isvery intense.

9. Learning the Fight↑top

Despite its apparent complexity, the fight is quite simple to learn.

The most important part of the fight is making sure that everyone knows howto handle the abilities that Megaera's heads cast from the back of the cave.Once players are accustomed to avoiding Acid Rain, Cinders,and Torrent of Ice.

In addition to this, success will come from your healers becomingintimately accustomed to the damage patterns, and utilising their cooldownsaccordingly.

10. Heroic Mode↑top

The Heroic mode of the Megaera encounter is not very different from theNormal mode, but a few key differences do exist.

10.1. Differences From Normal Mode

Megaera's heads have increased health, and they deal increased damage, butyou will have to kill the same number of heads as in Normal mode in order todefeat the encounter (7). Aside from these changes, three existing mechanicsare somewhat different, and an entirely new head (with assortedmechanics) exists.

10.1.1. Different Mechanics

Cinders now leaves behind a void zone every 3 seconds while the DoTis active on a player, instead of leaving behind a single void zone when itis dispelled.

Icy Ground void zones expand over time (2 minutes), until they coveran area twice their original size.

Acid Rain shoots three balls of slime at random players, insteadof just one.

10.1.2. Arcane Head

The Arcane Head follows the same basic mechanical principles as allthe other heads. When it is near the platform, it casts a breath attackcomparable to those of the other heads. The ability is called Diffusion, and it stacks a debuff on affected players, which causes 10%of all healing received to be redirected to allies within 8 yards.

From the back of the cave, the Arcane Head casts Nether Tear, whichsummons several Nether Wyrm adds. These adds have two abilities that theyfrequently cast.

• Nether Spike is an interruptible nuke that targets random raidmembers.
• Suppression is an interruptible spell that stuns a random raid memberfor 15 seconds. The stun is dispellable.

The Nether Wyrms can be attacked and killed, and they have normal threattables.

10.2. Strategy

The strategy for the Heroic mode is very similar to the Normal modestrategy: kill 7 of Megaera's heads while handling the abilities that youare presented with. That said, there are several peculiarities to takeinto account.

• Attack the Heads with priority (over the Nether Wyrms). DPSingthe Heads is more important than cleaning up any existing Wyrms.
• Never kill a Venomous Head. Dealing with the Heroic version ofAcid Rain (where three balls of slime are shot at the raid instead ofjust one) is very difficult.
• Dispel Cinders when the affected player reaches a safelocation. Leaving behind multiple void zones is undesirable. In general,you will not need to clear up any Icy Ground void zones, though this maybe necessary a few times throughout the fight.
• Place Torrent of Ice void zones far from the raid. The best wayto do it is to have ranged DPS standing at maximum range away from Megaera, and,as soon as someone is targeted by Torrent of Ice, to run back (so, fartheraway from Megaera still). Eventually, more and more of the ground will becovered in these void zones, meaning that you may need to use Cinders to clearup some space towards the end of the fight.

10.2.1. Arcane Head

Handling the Arcane Head is actually quite simple. As we mentioned,killing the Nether Wyrms quickly is not very important, and it is muchmore important to focus DPS on the existing head. It is best to have only afew players DPSing the Nether Wyrms, and having everyone switch to them rightafter a head dies (for the few seconds during which no head can be attacked).The Nether Wyrms' health is low, so killing them should not be a lengthyaffair. While they are alive, make sure to disrupt their casting asmuch as possible, and to dispel any players that end up being stunned bythem.

11. Concluding Remarks↑top

This concludes our raid guide for Megaera. We hope you havefound it helpful. Please do not hesitate to post any feedback you may have onour forums.

12. Changelog↑top

• 09 Jun. 2013: Added Heroic mode.
• 15 Mar. 2013: Replaced our PTR preview with our video guide.
• 13 Mar. 2013: Added link to forum threads that containclass-specific advice for the encounter.
• 08 Mar. 2013: Updated health values, and updated the guide toreflect the fact that there are now always 2 heads near the platform, and thatthey always use Rampage for 20 seconds after one head is killed,after which they revert to their normal abilities. This is in contrast to themuch more convoluted way in which the fight worked on the PTR.