Introduction

Hex Lord Malacrass is the fifth boss in Zul'Aman and is considered to be one of the two "final" bosses, Zul'Jin being the other. Once all four avatar bosses have been defeated, the raid can reach Malacrass by going up the ramp on the central island.

There are 3 groups of trash leading up to Malacrass; 2 packs of 2 Amani'shi Berserkers. These huge trolls are immune to Taunt/Growl/Righteous Defense, do a knockback, and have a low health Enrage that makes them hit very hard. The other group consist of 4 trolls, all of which the raid has encountered before.

Malacrass drops 2 or 3 items of epic quality and 3 Badges of Justice. Killing Hex Lord Malacrass is the objective of the quest line starting with obtaining the map of Zul'Aman near Nalorakk, the bear boss. The reward for this quest is 5 Badges of Justice and some gold.

Raid Setup

For Malacrass, you need at least 1 tank. A second tank can be a feral druid in DPS gear or a DPS warrior. 3 healers are recommended, preferably one or two that have good multi-target healing (CoH priests, shamans, druids). Because of the nature of the fight (Siphon Soul; see below), the presence of some classes can make the fight harder.

Wipe Prevention

None: the door from which you enter closes when you engage Malacrass.

Gear, Buffs and Consumables

Shadow Protection buffs are a must. The healers will be stressed for mana, so Mana Potions and mana regeneration consumables are recommended. Lesser geared raids will want to add DPS consumables too. If you've made it this far, your gear is good enough to kill Malacrass. Low HP casters might want to swap to some more stamina heavy items or take HP increasing consumables. Shadow resistance gear can help, but is not needed to kill Malacrass, so limit it to high quality shadow resistance items.

Boss Adds

Malacrass will come with 4 adds chosen randomly from a set of 8. Each add can be crowd controlled ("CC-ed") according to its type, and the raid can decide to kill as few as 0 or as many as 4 adds before attacking Malacrass, depending on crowd control ("CC") availability and preference. The adds are:

Thurg - Melee ogre (Polymorph)
Gazakroth - Imp, fires randomly targeted fireballs for 300 damage (Banish)
Lord Raadan - Dragonkin with frontal Flame Breath and Thunderclap (Hibernate)
Darkheart - Undead with instant cast spells and AoE Fear (Shackle)
Alyson Antille - Blood Elf healer (Polymorph)
Slither - Serpent with poison bolts (Polymorph, Hibernate)
Fenstalker - Elemental with Volatile Infection (Banish)
Koragg - Melee undead (Shackle)

Boss Hit Points

Approximately 1,900,000

Boss Abilities

Spirit Bolts - Malacrass will shoot Spirit Bolts at the raid, dealing 450 shadow damage. Over a period of 10 seconds, he will shoot 20 bolts at everyone. The damage is subject to shadow resistance. This ability is used approximately every 40 seconds.

Drain Power - Every minute, Malacrass will drain power from the raid, reducing each raid member's damage by 1% and increasing Malacrass' damage by 10%. Drain Power stacks.

Siphon Soul - Directly after casting the Spirit Bolts, Malacrass will use Siphon Soul on a random raid member. This player can function normally, but Malacrass gains some of the abilities of the targeted player's class. Siphon Soul lasts until Malacrass recasts it again after the Spirit Bolts. These are the abilities that Malacrass gains per class:
Druid - Thorns, Lifebloom, Moonfire
Hunter - Freezing Trap, Snake Trap, Explosive Trap
Mage - Fireball, Frostbolt, Frost Nova
Paladin - Consecrate, Avenging Wrath, Holy Light
Priest - Psychic Scream, Flash Heal, Mind Control
Rogue - Blind, Wound Poison, Slice and Dice
Shaman - Fire Nova Totem, Chain Lightning, Healing Wave
Warlock - Curse of Doom, Unstable Affliction, Rain of Fire
Warrior - Mortal Strike, Spell Reflect, Whirlwind

Strategy

Positioning

Positioning is not very important apart from the generic scenario with the tank tanking the boss faced away from the raid, the melee directly behind the boss and the ranged at a safe distance. There are some things worth noting, though: there needs to be space for the tank to move Malacrass on some of the class Siphon Souls. Furthermore, ranged DPS and healers need to spread out on the warlock Siphon, while staying somewhat clumped up during other parts of the fight is beneficial since it increases the effectiveness of Chain Heal and Circle of Healing. Finally, the CC-ed adds should not be near the boss, allowing Thunderclaps, Whirlwinds and other multi-target abilities, but the CC classes need a good view of both the boss and their add.