Trial of the Crusader
The Northrend Beasts
Gormok the Impaler
Abilities:
Staggering Stomp - Stomps the ground, dealing ~12,000 (~8,000) physical damage to all enemies within 15yds, interrupting spellcasting for 8secs. (Should only effect the tanks and the melee; healers be especially careful not to be in range of the attack)
Impale - Deals 150% of weapon damage to an enemy and causes it to bleed ~2,500 (~2,000) damage/application every 2secs for 40secs (30secs). Used about every 10 seconds on the primary aggro target. (Should only be used on tanks; an OT should taunt when the MT gains ~3 stacks with the MT taunting back when his debuff wears)
Rising Anger - Increases all damage done by 15%, applied each time Gormok is taunted.
Soft Enrage: None
Hard Enrage: Berserker Enrage after 15 minutes of combat, whichever beast you are fighting will enrage, increasing all damage done by 500%, and becoming immune to taunt.
Acidmaw and Dreadscale
Acidmaw Abilities:
Acid Spit - (Stationary) Deals ~7,000 (~5,500) Nature damage to a random target.
Paralytic Spray - (Stationary) Deals ~7,500 Nature damage to its target and others within 10yds, inflicting them with Paralytic Toxin as well.
Acidic Spew - (Mobile) Deals ~4,000 Nature damage every 0.25sec for 2.5secs in a frontal cone. (This should only be hitting the tank)
Paralytic Bite - (Mobile) Deals ~12,500 (8,500) Nature damage to its target and inflicts Paralytic Toxin.
Paralytic Toxin - (Debuff) Deals 3,000 Nature damage and reduces movement speed by 10% every 2secs for 60secs or until removed by Burning Bile. (If afflicted with this, you must try to get close to someone with Burning Bile debuff and take a tick of AoE damage to dispel the toxin)
Dreadscale Abilities:
Burning Bite - (Mobile) Deals ~14,000 (~8,000) Fire damage to his target and coats them with Burning Bile
Molten Spew - (Mobile) Deals ~3,000 Fire damage/0.25sec for 2.5secs in a frontal cone. (Should only be hitting the tank)
Fire Spit - (Stationary) Deals ~7,000 (~5,500) Fire damage to his target.
Burning Spray - (Stationary) Deals ~7,000 Fire damage to a random target and other players within 10yds, also causing Burning Bile.
Burning Bile - (Debuff) Deals ~3,500 Fire damage every 2secs to anyone within 10yds. Removes the Paralytic Toxin debuff; lasts 24secs.
Shared Abilities:
Slime Pool - (Mobile) Spawns a pool of slime under the Jormungar. The slime pool grows in size over 30secs and deals 2,000 Nature damage/sec to anyone standing in it. (Tanks need to slowly move the mobile Jormungar around and everyone needs to avoid standing in the green puddles)Sweep - (Stationary) Deals ~7,500 Physical damage to players within 15yds of the stationary Jormungar, knocking them away. (Can't be avoided by the melee and just needs to be healed through)
Soft Enrage: When one Jormungar dies, the other will Enrage, increasing damage by 50% until defeated. Cannot be removed.
Hard Enrage: Berserker Enrage after 15 minutes of combat, whichever beast you are fighting will enrage, increasing all damage done by 500%, and becoming immune to taunt.
Icehowl
Abilities:
Arctic Breath - Deals 4,000 (3,000) Frost damage/sec for 5secs to its target and anyone within the cone between the boss and the target. Stuns and silences those effected for the duration of the attack. (Stay spread out and try to avoid large groups from being effected at the same time, needs to be healed through)
Whirl - Deals ~9,000 (~7,500) Physical damage to everyone within 15yds, knocking them back. (Again, melee can't really avoid this and will need to be healed through it)
Massive Crash - Deals ~10,000 (~8,000) Physical damage to the entire raid, stunning everyone for 7secs and knocking them to the walls of the Coliseum. When the stun wears off everyone will be buffed with Surge of Adrenaline.(This is the crux of the fight and everyone needs to pay attention to who Icehowl targets and which direction he faces)
Surge of Adrenaline - Increases the raid's movement speed by 50% for 8secs, following the stun effect from Massive Crash. (Use this to avoid the boss and rush back to him)
Ferocious Butt - Basically this one-shots anyone it hits. After Massive Crash Icehowl will choose a target and charge them, anyone hit will be killed. (Move away immediately and don't get in front of his charge)
Staggered Daze - Increases all damage taken by 100% for 15secs; stunned for the duraction. (If no one is hit with Ferocious Charge, this goes into effect)
Frothing Rage - Increases both physical attack speed and damage dealt by 50% for 15secs. (Happens when anyone is hit with Ferocious Butt; can be removed with Tranq Shot and Anesthetic Poison)
Soft Enrage: If someone is hit with Ferocious Butt, Icehowl will enrage for 15secs; removable with Tranq Shot or Rogue poison.
Hard Enrage: Berserker Enrage after 15 minutes of combat, whichever beast you are fighting will enrage, increasing all damage done by 500%, and becoming immune to taunt.
Adds:
Snobold Vassals: This add is used by Gormok only. During the fight he will toss out a Snobold at a random player, a total of 4 in 10man and 6 in 25man.
Head Crack - Stuns for 2secs.
Batter - Deals 75% of normal melee damage and interrupts spell casting for 5secs.
Fire Bomb - Creates a patch of fire underneath a random person which deals ~5,500 damage/sec to anyone within 8yds.
Strategy:
This encounter is a 3 phase fight against 4 separate bosses, each with their own unique abilities and strategies. If you wipe at any time, you must start over from the beginning.
The first phase is against Gormok the Impaler, a captured Magnataur that tosses Snobolds at the raid.
You will want two tanks for this fight and should hold him near the door he enters from. The tanks should stand next to one another and the OT will taunt when the MT gains a couple stacks of the Impale debuff (whatever your healers are comfortable with, usually between 2-4 stacks). The MT can taunt back once his stacks have fallen off. The boss can be disarmed, so rogues and wars should use that whenever they can to help lower the damage the boss can dish out. Melee should stay stacked up behind the boss and the ranged will want to stay spread out in the rest of the room to keep the fires from hitting too many people at once. Ranged and healers will also need to be sure to stay more than 15yds away from Gormok in order to avoid his Staggering Stomp attack since it will stun them.
Throughout the fight, Gormok will toss out Snobold allies that will land on random people's backs and cause havok to the raid. They have two stun attacks and a fire bomb attack which is where the fire patches come from. People need to move out of fire immediately and the Snobolds should be burned down quickly. Melee should take care of ones in melee range while ranged take care of the ones on ranged. On most of the dps they are only a nuisance, but on a healer they can cause wipes if they are not dealt with quickly. The next phase will begin once Gormok has fallen.
This phase of the encounter is against not one, but TWO Jormungars.. yeah I had to say it. Anyway, the fight starts with Dreadscale wondering into the arena to the right of the gate and Acidmaw will burrow his way up on the left side of the room; both will need to be picked up by a tank each right away. The tanks should do their best to always keep both Jormungars facing the gate and the raid needs to be sure to always stand behind them and never to the front or sides.
Unless the raid is going for the achievement, all dps should focus on burning down Acidmaw first. Dreadscale tends to do more damage since his Burning Bile debuff causes AoE damage, but Acidmaw's Paralytic Poison causes a lot more issues for the tanks and anyone else stunned by it. Normal dispels have no effect on these debuffs and the only way to remove (other than certain class abilities like a Rogue's Cloak move) Paralytic Poison is to take a tick of damage from someone with Burning Bile. Because the tanks will pretty much always have one of these buffs, the Acidmaw tank will need to keep moving over to take damage from other tank in order to not get paralyzed in acid pools. If someone other than the Dreadscale tank receives Burning Bile, be sure to run to the Acidmaw tank as well to help out.
About once a minute, the Jormungars will burrow under the ground and reappear in a different spot somewhere in the area. You can see where they are heading by the dirt clouds that trail behind their movement. The fight starts with Acidmaw stationary and Dreadscale mobile, but these roles swap after every burrow. The tanks will need to keep this in mind since their roles of tank 'n spank vs slow kiting also changes. After the first burrow raid positioning becomes even more important since everyone needs to be aware of where to stand to avoid being hit with a cone attack by either boss.
Once one Jormungar goes down (should be Acidmaw first), the other will enrage and do 50% extra damage for the rest of the fight; this ability cannot be removed. Even after one is killed, the other will continue with his burrow phase and swap roles as normal. With one dead the fight becomes very easy so just watch positioning and finish off the second Jormungar. While fighting Dreadscale please watch for the Burning Bile debuff and move away from others if you have it so that you're not causing extra raid damage to a large group of people.
This is the final phase of the fight, against the large yeti creature known as Icehowl. This fight is actually the easiest phase of the entire encounter as long as no one screws up Massive Crash. If no one messes up the fight doesn't take too long and it's fairly easy. If anyone messes up however, it can easily cause a wipe and people will definitely die. Icehowl should be tanked in the center of the room and only 1 tank is required for this phase. The other tanks should be on backup however because if anyone messes up on Massive Crash the tank is likely to be killed unless you can remove the enrage/blow cooldowns quickly enough. You CAN tank against the wall instead of the center, but you run a higher risk of large groups being bunched up against the wall during Massive Crash that way.
The raid should surround the boss and keep spread out during the fight. His Arctic Breath attack is aimed at one random target, but anyone between him and his target is also effected by the damage and stun of the attack. Staying spread out will help keep this from affecting most of the raid as well as keep the raid spread all the way around the wall on Massive Crash. At least 1-2 healers should also stand behind the tank so that when he uses his Whirl attack, the healers are thrown with the tank instead of away from.
Massive Crash is the single most important gimmick of this fight to watch for. During a Massive Crash, Icehowl will leap into the air and crash down in the center of the room, dealing damage to the entire raid and sending everyone flying into the outer wall. The attack also leaves everyone stunned for a few seconds while Icehowl chooses his victim. A raid warning will pop up with a random person's name that he is targeting and he will hop backwards and begin charging to where that person was just standing. Right as he starts his charge, the raid's stun will wear off and everyone gains a short speep boost. Move away from the area he is charging and do NOT run through his path. Anyone hit by Icehowl will be killed instantly and Icehowl will enrage for 15secs. The enrage can be removed by hunters and rogues, but you really don't want this to happen at all. If everyone avoids being hit, Icehowl will instead ram the wall of the Coliseum and stun himself for a short time and take extra damage. You want to utilize these stuns to dish out as much damage as possible to chip away at his large health pool. Rinse and repeat until the final Northrend Beast is defeated.
Achievements:
Not One, But Two Jormungars - Defeat Acidmaw and Dreadscale within 10 seconds of each other
Upper Back Pain - Defeat Icehowl while at least 4 (2) Snobolds remain alive