Overall

This is a single phase fight that remains the same from beginning until the end when Hodir is at 1% health. Making effective use of the friendly NPCs' buffs can increase raid DPS tremendously and is necessary to successfully complete the encounter in Hard mode which requires killing Hodir within 3 minutes. Also the "Projected Textures" option in the game video settings should be turned on for this fight (as of 3.1.1 it's on by default), as much of the avoidable raid damage requires seeing the glowing white target circles on the ground.

Once the encounter begins by pulling the boss or attacking an iceblock, all players need to be aware of Hodir's Biting Cold aura. This aura cannot be outranged and will stack a DoT debuff every few seconds whenever a player is not moving. The amount of damage done every tick increases rapidly with every stack of the debuff, so players that accumulate more than a few stacks will likely die. Moving will only remove one stack of the debuff every second, so players who have multiple stacks of the debuff must remain moving for several seconds before the debuff is completely removed.

Throughout the fight, Hodir will randomly cast Freeze which is a Frost Nova type spell centered on a random member of the raid. The targeted player along with any other players within 10 yards of him will be rooted for 10 seconds. This should be dispelled as quickly as possible. Priest Mass Dispel works well for this. Paladins can help free players with Hand of Freedom and Mages can Blink to free themselves. Gnome characters can also use Escape Artist, so gnome mages have two escapes from this root effect. Humans can use Every Man For Himself and Rogues have Cloak of Shadows and Vanish. The major problem with Freeze is if it prevents players from moving out from under an Icicle, or to safety from Flash Freeze. It may be worth saving one's personal escapes for these situations.

Randomly during the fight, Icicles will fall from the ceiling onto players. They are visually cued by snowflakes pouring down before they land and, with projected textures, a white target circle on the ground. Players have a few seconds to move from the area before the Icicle hits the ground, causing significant damage to all players in the area and knocking them back around 30 yards if they are not already rooted by Hodir's Freeze spell.

Periodically Hodir gains a self-buff called Frozen Blows. It reduces the physical damage he does, but in turn buffs frost damage to his attacks (up to 40,000 unresisted). While Hodir has the Frozen Blows buff he also deals 4,000 frost damage to the whole raid every 2 seconds, so healers will have to be prepared. If the raid is employing a frost resist tank, he needs to watch for the emote tied to this and immediately taunt him. Healers also need to be paying attention for the emote to switch targets onto the frost resist tank. When the buff wears off, the original tank must taunt back immediately and the healers must switch back right away again.

When Hodir starts casting Flash Freeze, three large icicles will begin to fall (two on Normal). The areas where these icicles will fall are immediately marked by a mound of snow and a large white targeting circle on the ground. Players should get next to, but not inside one of these large circles as soon as possible. After several seconds the large icicle will crash into the ground causing tremendous damage to anyone in the circle and knocking them 30 yards away. After the icicle has hit the ground, all players have only a couple seconds to run into the circle where a large icicle has just fallen. Any NPCs or players who are not in one of the large circles will be frozen in an iceblock by the Flash Freeze. Players and NPCs in iceblocks should be freed immediately prior to resuming DPS on Hodir.

Overall, this fight is mostly a test of endurance. No players should get more than a couple stacks of the Biting Cold debuff. Very few should ever get hit by falling Icicles. And no one should get frozen by Flash Freeze.

In depth - Mage NPC'sThe two Mage NPCs will randomly Conjure a Toasty Fire, These stop players from having to move around to get rid of the Biting Cold debuff. Note that the fires only place the buff on a certain number of people in range, so keep an eye on your buffs and don't assume you have it. Check to be sure you have the buff, else you could be left out in the cold.

But, on top of that effect, any DPS caster that should have the Toasty Fire buff will also apply the stacking effect Singed to Hodir, which increases magic damage taken. This can stack up to 25 times (the tool tip on Wowhead is incorrect), increasing all spell damage taken by 50%. The Mages also have an ability called Melt Ice, which they cast on the other NPCs who are caught by Flash Freeze. This does between 5 and 15% of the total life of an Ice Block, although, this isn't enough for your raid to ignore the other NPCs. Because of these abilities, To simplify the encounter even more Mages need to be your priority NPC to release from the Ice Blocks.

Mage/Singed tactics

Because the Mages will only spawn fires about 5-15 yards around them selves, assigning a caster to each of the Mages will ensure that the debuff stay's up at all times. Before you start the encounter, mark each of the Mages before you begin (using Diamond and Moon, as these are less likely to be used by any addons), their names are Amira Blazeweaver/Missy Flamecuffs and Veesha Blazewaver/Sissy Flamecuffs and can be targeted using the /Target command (their Ice Block stops them from being clicked).

Once the encounter starts, release the mages first, as they will help your raid to release the rest of the NPCs. The assigned casters will be looking out for the fires they spawn, Once up, practicaly stand on top of them and start casting to get the debuff rolling (remember, You can't run though them once he starts casting Flash Freeze!). Singed has a 30 second duration, and a 30% apply chance. To help with keeping the Debuff stacked, It's important for the raid to release the mages as fast as possible. The mages will help you to release the rest of the NPC's, Which is a nice little bonus! Assigned casters get back to their respective NPC, and refresh Singed.

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