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WoW.com's Guide to Halion

Michael Gray
Updated ·5 min read

Halion is the final raid encounter to be released in Wrath of the Lich King. While Halion is not the most advanced or progressed boss in the expansion -- that's still Arthas -- he is going to be the final word on raiding for a while. The comparison between Halion and Sartharion is pretty valid. When you enter the raid entrance, there are three mini-bosses with whom you'll need to do battle. After clearing them, you get the opportunity to throw down with Halion himself. The mechanics are obviously different, but the raid has a similar overall feel. Don't worry -- there's no three-drakes-up mechanic this time around.

(Video via EFBIEEI1)

Table of contents



Composition

In 10-man mode, you will need two tanks and three healers. In 25-man mode, you'll need five healers. But, as always, the number of healers you actually use will change a little depending on their throughput.

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General strategy

Like most dragons, Halion does tail swipe and cleave. Standard dragon positioning rules apply.

The fight with Halion starts simply and obviously, because Halion draws a giant circle of fire on the ground.. Your raid will need room to maneuver, so have the main tank pull Halion all the way to one side. Try and keep raid members who are not currently interacting with raid effects toward the same side, so that everyone will have lots of space to maneuver.

There's only a couple abilities for you to worry about during the first phase. First, Fiery Combustion will be cast on raid members. This is a DoT. But more importantly, it will stack Mark of Corruption on the raid member. When the Combustion either runs out of time or dispelled, the combusting player will drop a fire on the ground proportional in size to the number of stacks. Therefore, as soon as someone gets Combustion, they should run away as quickly as possible. When Combustion is cleansed off him, players will be knocked back.

The other thing to keep an eye out for in phase one is Meteor Strike. As you see the signs of a Meteor Strike happening, raid members should move out of the way and not stand in fire.

In phase two, when he's at 75% health, Halion will open a portal into the twilight realm. He will exist in both realms. However, only the main tank and healer will want to stay in the "real world." Everyone else should go inside the portal and DPS the heck out of him. Most dynamics of the fight inside the portal works the same was as phase one, except that Fiery Combustion now becomes Soul Consumption. Instead of knocking everyone back Soul Consumption will draw everyone towards the person with the mark.

The second trick replaces Meteor Strike; this new ability is called Shadow Pulsar. Two balls will appear at the edge of the raid space. These two balls will spin diametrically opposite one another, occasionally attacking with Twilight Cutter..

When Halion hits 50% health, the raid enters phase three. In this phase, Halion will simultaneously exist in both the real world and in the twilight realm. He gains a stat called Corporeality. If you do more damage in the real world, Halion will become less corporeal, doing more damage and healing in the twilight realm. If you do more damage in the shadow world, the inverse would be true. Therefore, you want your damage between the two realms to be as equal as possible.

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Abilities

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Tank strategy

Tank, spank. Be aware of the Twilight Cutter, however, since that may call for a cooldown. Additionally, try and keep Halion positioned toward the very side of the area.

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DPS strategy

Don't stand in fire, and blow him up. During phase 3, however, be sure you have an equal amount of damage inside and outside the Twilight Portals. This is because you need to stay within about 40-60 Corporeality in order to keep Halion from wiping half your raid.

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Healer strategy

If your main tank has done Sartharion, then he'll have no problem with this fight. However, there's going to be lots of raid damage floating around. You will need to be prepared to help out folks who fail to not stand in fire, or else the raid damage will quickly overwhelm them.

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Other resources
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  • Twilight Precision: Increases Halion's chance to hit by 5% and reduces the player characters' chance to dodge by 20%. This is to handle scaling issues based on player's gear.

  • Flame Breath/Dark Breath: This is the fairly common cone breath weapon used by most dragons. It's flame damage in the "real" world, while it's shadow damage in the twilight world.

  • Meteor Strike: Used in phase one, this attack is fairly powerful. It takes a few seconds to land once a mark is placed on the ground; don't stand there. Only occurs in phase one.

  • Fiery Combustion/Soul Consumption:Places a powerful DoT on the player who receives this debuff. That player should run away from the raid so that it can be cleansed. Each time it ticks, the power will place a Mark on the character. The more marks, the larger fire or shadow zone that will be left on the ground after curing the affected player. In the Fiery version, the Fiery Combustion will knock everyone away, while Soul Consumption will pull folks toward the zone.

  • Dusk Shroud: Inflicts ongoing shadow damage to anyone in the twilight realm. This takes place in both phase two and phase three.

  • Twilight Cutters: Two balls of energy form on the outside of the raid area. They slowly circle the outside ring of the fight area, shooting Twilight Cutter for 10 seconds, and then turning off for 30 seconds. This repeats during the entirety of phase one and phase two.


Change log

  • 100603: Clarified that Twilight Precision reduces players' chance to dodge