Sign inHogger
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Hogger is a gnoll chieftain who leads the Riverpaw pack in the southwest corner of Elwynn Forest. He is a level 11 elite, the first elite monster most human and many gnome and dwarf players ever met, and the one that taught a generation of new players what the gold dragon around a portrait meant. That lesson, usually learned by dying, turned a minor bounty target into one of the best-known characters in World of Warcraft.
Biography
After the Third War, the Riverpaw gnolls grew bold in Elwynn Forest. Led by Hogger, they raided farms and outlying villages, and the Stormwind marshals suspected that the Defias Brotherhood was supplying them with weapons and direction. With the army stretched thin, the marshal in Goldshire did what frontier lawmen do: he posted a bounty on the gnoll's head and left it for adventurers to collect.
The game never gives Hogger much story beyond that bounty. His reputation comes almost entirely from players.
In World of Warcraft
Hogger roams the hills in southwestern Elwynn Forest, south of the road to Westfall, among packs of Riverpaw gnolls. In patch 1.12 he is a level 11 elite humanoid with exactly 666 health, the same total as two other low-level elites from the same era: Old Icebeard in Dun Morogh and Captain Flat Tusk in Durotar.
The bounty quest is Wanted: "Hogger", a level 11 quest available from level 5. It starts from a Wanted poster in Goldshire and is turned in to Marshal Dughan. Hogger always drops the quest item [Huge Gnoll Claw], and the reward is a choice of [Footman Tunic], [Stormwind Guard Leggings] or [Balanced Fighting Stick], along with reputation with Stormwind.
Hogger uses a small kit of melee abilities:
| Ability | Effect |
|---|---|
| Head Butt | Stuns the target for 2 seconds |
| Pierce Armor | Reduces the target's armor by 50% for 20 seconds |
| Rushing Charge | A short burst of speed that adds damage to his next hit |
None of this is dangerous for a group of three level 10 characters. The trouble is that Elwynn Forest is mostly a solo zone, and a lone player at level 8 or 9 who walks up to a gnoll that looks like all the others will find that he hits much harder, has several times their health, and brings his friends.
The "Hogger raid"
Because Hogger was so feared by new players, killing him became a small social event. Players would shout in the general channel to gather a group, and some servers saw "Hogger raids" in which large numbers of very low-level characters swarmed him at once. The joke spread: in general chat he was described as an unbeatable raid boss, and players claimed that legendary items such as Thunderfury were rare drops from him.
Later history
In Cataclysm (patch 4.0.3a), Elwynn Forest was redesigned. Hogger got a hill named after him, Hogger Hill, and a new quest chain in which players defeat him and see him hauled off to The Stockade in Stormwind City. He later leads a prison riot there and is one of the bosses of the revamped dungeon. He is also one of the few old-world elite monsters that kept his elite status after patch 2.3 lowered the difficulty of early content.
His fame carried into other games. Hogger is a legendary card in Hearthstone and was the first opponent in that game's original tutorial, a playable hero in Heroes of the Storm, a unit and boss in Warcraft Rumble, and a card in the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game.
In World of Warcraft: Forever, a "Super Hogger" was one of the bosses that attacked quest hubs during the end-of-beta event in October 2026, alongside Azuregos and Lord Kazzak.
Trivia
- Hogger's 666 health matches the "number of the beast", a joke shared by Old Icebeard and Captain Flat Tusk.
- Since Wrath of the Lich King, the game's statistics panel has tracked deaths to Hogger.
- At BlizzCon 2009, the guild Premonition fought a level 80 heroic version of Hogger in a live raid demonstration and did not defeat him.
- A miniature version of Hogger, Hogs' Studded Collar, is a pet from the Darkmoon Faire achievement That's Whack!
Sources
Categories: Characters