1. Trial of the Grand Crusader - Northrend Beasts

[Greylock]

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The main difference between Totc and Totgc Northrend Beasts is the timer on which the three hases spawn, rather than waiting for the current wave to be killed. Meaning raid dps must be high and on the ball, while number of deaths must be kept to a minimum.

Phase one

First, let's talk about the changes to the Gormok portion of the encounter. The most dangerous part about Gormok is the extreme amount of tank damage he deals. He will use his Impale ability every 10 seconds on the highest threat target. Impale now deals 150% weapon damage and puts a 5k bleed on the target that ticks every 2 seconds for 45 seconds. This effect stacks and it's highly dangerous to have tanks take more than 2 stacks of the debuff. To avoid incredible spike damage, it's advised to use a three tank rotation with a new tank taunting every 29 seconds.


There is a more in depth tactic involving Paladins, but this will be saved for future tries.

Additionally, Gormok cannot be disarmed. The staggering stomp does more damage (12000 up from 9000) and the snowbolg bombs (8000 up from 6000) now place a dot for 2k a sec.

For Phase one the priorities are to survive the impale stacks and to kill the snowbolgs as quickly as possible.

Phase two

Due to the increase in damage from abilities the raid must make sure not to be stood in front of either worm, along with poison pools now being alot more dangerous if not avoided.

One tank will be on Dread scale, with the other two on Acid Maw, however the second tank on this worm must be stood away so as not to get the paralytic poison at the same time of the current tank, this allows for the tank to pick up the worm if the tank is not able to remove the debuff quickly enough, allowing for raid dps to continue while a burning bile inflicted character can free the frozen tank.

Acid Maw will be killed first then Dreadscale, the raid must be spread out to ensure multiple people are not caught by either raid targetting ability. By the end of phase two which ever tank is free must be ready to pick up Icehowl if the raid dps is low and runnign behind on the timer.

Phase three

The biggest change to the Icehowl phase is that you no longer gain a speed buff after he uses Massive Crash. If he focuses you or a raid member close to you, plan your fastest escape route (make sure no pillar is near you) and start moving as soon as possible. It's of utmost importance that Icehowl never hits a raid member, because his Frothing Rage cannot be tranquilized on heroic mode and you will need the increased damage he takes to beat the enrage timer.

The healers and ranged must be spread out for the duration of this phase as icebreath now does increased damage, meaning multiple healers caught by it would result in a wipe. Along with whirl doing increased damage so dont be stood too close to be knocked back, resulting in loss of healing or dps time.

[Fagan]

Quick tip on p1, if you are having trouble getting Gormok down before the worms spawn, try leaving a couple of snobolds (if they land on melee) to be dps'ed down when the worms burrow. They don't affect the melee too much. (But kill any on casters/healers asap)

[Zuzza]

Also keep melee on boss and let the ranged take down the little critters

[Korchinks]

Given the speed nerf and to enable a better spread of people around the arena, I think it was suggested that Icehowl be tanked in the center of the arena with ranged/healers evenly spread out around him:



Orange is tank/melee postions, blue is the area available to ranged/healing positions, yellow is optimal positions - evenly spread out so that when he stomps and we all get bashed to the wall, there is less chance of people running into each other as we attempt to avoid his charge - the red arrows indicate approximately where you will end up after his stomp, you can see a better spread of people will reduce the chances of your raidmates being caught by the charge.

Also, if/when we have more than one elemental/resto shammie in the group, it would be better to spread the spell power totem buff by not having ranged shammies grouped together.

Look left and right before you move, do not run toward a pillar if it is close to you.

[Fagan]

One problem there Korch, when he does his knockback (Not the crash, just the usual knockback) on the tank, he'll follow the tank to the wall. The tank would then have to spend most of the fight trying to get him back to the middle.

[Sarri]

I believe this strat is predicated on the tank being a warrior (or feral druid) who can charge him back to the center quite easily, leaving dps with less time to run and therefore (logically) more dps time... I know I have done airbear charges on this fight in 10 man. Doesnt work for any other tank tho, imo the wall strat is best if no warrior or druid is MTing.

[Korchinks]

One problem there Korch, when he does his knockback (Not the crash, just the usual knockback) on the tank, he'll follow the tank to the wall. The tank would then have to spend most of the fight trying to get him back to the middle.

It's not really a problem, more of a thing the tank has to learn to do, like kiting elementals on Illidan or moving Ignis around (it does not look easy from the tank spot video either, but that is what they do).

Sarri makes a good point, the strat is probably based on using use a Tank with a charge ability?

The position I believe is as much about increasing the spread of people when he does his stomp - splaying 25 people, using 100% of the arena around 360 degrees, instead of 25 people being splayed across 50% of the arena around 180 degrees..... the goal is to maximise space between a targetted person and the rest of the raid, reducing the chance of collateral damage when he charges - I don't think it effects DPS that much (although you can't DPS if u die ).

[Fungi]

Ideally speaking, this spreading out shouldn't be necessary to avoid the charge right ? If everyone is on the same spot.. and knocked into the wall at the exact same spot.. everyone should still be able to get out the way of the charge

A.

Ps. As a mage with Blink I know it's easy to say.

[Gladion]

Thunk it's more about spreading damage from breath.. And there is one easy solution. Don't stand near me. I seem to get 85% of those always..

ps. And it's easy to dodge charge even without blink.. Just run bit away from his facing and towards center. It's not really rocketscience.

[Korchinks]

As a mage with Blink I know it's easy to say.

This

But also with hardmode, the speed buff is removed and the chance for the targetted to cross paths with some close to them is increased making it worse for those without Blink.