Taerar Guide: Strategy, Abilities, Loot
Taerar is one of the four Dragons of Nightmare and can be found in one of the four random spawn locations at Feralas, The Hinterlands, Ashenvale, and Duskwood when the bosses are spawned.
This guide will help you prepare for his unique special abilities, explain a strategy to maximize your odds of success, and go into detail on his loot table.
Season of Discovery Changes
As with previous phases of SoD, all bosses will drop both new and improved loot for players to collect. The list below shows the new and original loot for a side-by-side comparison.
New Loot
Classic | SoD |
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Taerar Summary by Role
Tanks
- You will need at least 3 tanks so that all Shades of Taerar can be controlled and tanked separately whenever the boss loses 25% of his health.
- Be prepared with
Fear Ward,
Tremor Totem and
Berserker Rage for his Bellowing Roar area of effect Fear.
- As usual with Dragon bosses, turn them away from the raid such that your raid group is standing to the side of the boss, as they will do a very dangerous breath attack from the front and also have a tail sweep attack from their backs.
- Their breath attack,
Noxious Breath inflicts a damage over time effect, increases the cooldown on your abilities by 10 seconds and stacks up to 6 times. This all but requires a tank swap, as even one application of the breath will cause you to fall very behind on threat generation.
Healers
- Make sure to avoid the green clouds that roam the encounter area, as they will sleep you for 5 seconds, possibly causing deaths in the process.
- Set up
Fear Ward and
Tremor Totem in advance of his Bellowing Roar area of effect Fear.
DPS
- Make sure to avoid the green clouds that roam the encounter area, as they will sleep you for 5 seconds, possibly causing deaths in the process.
- Focus down the Shades of Taerar one by one in order to quickly reduce the threat they pose to the raid group.
Taerar Important Abilities

Bellowing Roar is Taerar's area of effect Fear ability. This can be dangerous, especially if it lands on a tank, causing the breath and tail attacks to hit the raid. Make sure to be ready with Fear preventing abilities such as
Fear Ward,
Tremor Totem and
Berserker Rage.
Summon Shade of Taerar is cast whenever Taerar loses 25% health and causes the boss to become inactive and untargetable while three Shades of himself spawn. Tanks must pick these Shades quickly and move / turn them away from each other, as all of them do breath attacks which could be dangerous if allowed to hit multiple players at once.
Mark of Nature is cast on any player who dies during the fight, lasts for 15 minutes and causes them to fall asleep for the duration of the debuff if they re-engage Taerar, thus preventing players from re-joining the fight if they die at any point.
Noxious Breath is a breath attack in front of the boss and forces a tank swap by reducing the threat output of the affected tank significantly.
Strategy for Taerar
Taerar is one of the harder Dragons of Nightmare fights because of the coordination and multiple tanks required to handle the Shades mechanic.
To compensate for this added difficulty, you will not have to worry about him self-healing like Lethon or from random deaths causing the encounter area to become a minefield like Emeriss.
Start the fight by pulling the boss to the bottom of the ramp and have your main tank turn him sideways, such that the raid group can stack up on his side.
Whenever the boss approaches 75%, 50% and 25% health, have your group stop DPS
until the Shade tanks are free from the Noxious Breath debuff. This will
allow them to be able to generate good threat on the Shades themselves. If the DPS
stop fails, have your group's DPS focus the Shades tanked by tanks not affected
by the breath debuff first, to ensure threat is maintained. Rinse and repeat
until he is dead, and good luck with the loot!
You can see an example kill here, by Baron / Cstrike Gaming.
Taerar Loot
Item | Slot |
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Boots |
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Legs |
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Shoulders |
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Boots |
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Gloves |
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Two-Hand |
Trace Stone | Off-Hand |
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Ring |
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Wrist |
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Wrist |
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Boots |
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Main-Hand |
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One-Hand |
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Back |
Changelog
- 18 Nov. 2024: Page updated for SoD P6 & Classic Anniversary.
- 06 Aug. 2024: Guide reviewed and updated.
- 16 Apr. 2020: Guide added.
In The Same Category

This guide has been written by Abide, TBC veteran for nearly a decade. Abide is a Warrior tank and multi-class expert currently playing on Faerlina as Horde. You can find him in the the Icy Veins Discord. You can also see him live on Twitch.
- Hour of Twilight Arrives to Cataclysm Classic on February 18th + Raid Release Schedule
- Season of Discovery Hotfixes: February 4th
- Transfers from Hardcore Realms Temporarily Disabled
- Cataclysm Classic Hour of Twilight PTR Notes: January 30th
- Season of Discovery Hotfixes: January 30th
- Season of Discovery Naxxramas PTR Development Notes: January 30th
- Season of Discovery Phase 7 Now Live + Patch Notes
- Additional Sanctified System and Seal of the Dawn Adjustments in Season of Discovery Phase 7