Gruul the Dragonkiller

[Rei]

Abilities

* Basic Melee: 3-3.5k at the start of the fight, on tanks.

* Growth: Self-buff, increases damage done by 15% every 30 seconds, size increased by 10%, can stack up to 30 times. Undispellable.

* Hurtful Strike: Occasionally hits the 2nd highest aggro in melee range. A second tank is needed to mitigate this, 12350-13650 physical damage. If no secondary target is within melee, this hits the first target available within melee range. This damage increases after each growth.

* Reverberation: Occasional zone-wide silence for 3 seconds. Not dispellable. Can be reduced by anti-silence abilities.

* Cave In: Random AoE which causes ~3000 damage every 3 seconds in the area. This occurs more frequently in later stages. This counts as melee damage and can be mitigated by armor. Growth also affects Cave In.

* Ground Slam: Zone-wide knockback into a random direction, then triggers the Gronn Lord's Grasp.

* Gronn Lord's Grasp: Stacking debuff after a Ground slam that reduced movement speed by 20%. stacks 5 times after 5 secs then causes Stoned. This is not dispellable.

* Stoned: Stunned. Occurs after 5 stacks of Gronn Lord's Grasp.

* Shatter: After being Stoned, Gruul will shatter everyone, the damage dealt increasing if players are closer to each other. This damage is physical, and goes through immunity shields such as Divine Shield and Ice Block. Ranges from 1100 if just within 15 yards to over 8.5k if very close. (Pets do not cause damage or get damage with this ability, they get stunned anyway)

Tactics
Overall

Players will have ~10 minutes to defeat Gruul (He has roughly 3.2 mil. HP), otherwise the buff stacks will annihilate the tank. At 16+ grows, Hurtful Strike can theoretically one shot your OT, making it vital to keep them topped off after every strike. The fight is basically a DPS race, with an emphasis on raid survival.

A high-stamina/high-DPS raid is favored for this encounter. Melee DPS is at a disadvantage, as Cave-ins often spawn on top of Gruul, and they may have to run out repeatedly in preparation for his Ground Stomp.

The focus is primarily on keeping several "tanks" alive, in the case of healers, or simply staying alive yourself, in the case of DPS. Cave-Ins, while becoming increasingly deadly, only tick after 3 seconds, allowing the quick-footed to exit without damage. Shatter positioning is very important, as too many deaths quickly lead to lethally low DPS.

This is one of the few fights where Main Tank death is not an automatic wipe. Tanking duties simply shift down the ladder of offtanks, with the previous Hurtful Strike soaker becoming the MT.

The main priority for the healers should be to keep track of the silence and have 4/5 healers hit HoTs on the tank to stay alive through the silence. This takes some timing and practice.

Preparation

Gruul can't do any magical attacks, so it's advised to use amplify magic.

If a Paladin in your raid has Improved Concentration Aura, it may help to place that person in a group comprised of healers; the Silence duration mechanic can save your raid on Reverberation at a high Growth stack, by reducing the amount of time they are silenced.

Avoiding Shatter

Rogues can use Cloak of Shadows to remove the "Gronn Lords Grasp" movement debuff. Likewise, Paladins can also use Divine Shield to remove the movement debuff, and mages ability Ice Block remove the debuff aswell (it doesn't prevent getting/making any damage, though).

The Ground Stomp knockback does not properly function if the player is on the rocks around the outer ledges of the room. Players there will be pushed only a short distance, if at all.

Main Tank Death at 1/4 HP

It is common for many guilds attempting to defeat Gruul to lose their MT around 1/4 health on Gruul. This is usually because the designated healers for the group are running low on mana and/or are not properly getting HoT rotations in before the silence. This fight is important for Priests to have high Mp5 to last a full 8 minutes. Priests should not be asking for Innervate any sooner than 5-6 minutes into the fight. Anything before then is lack of preparation on the healer's part and can wipe the raid continuously at the same range of health percentage on Gruul.

Shatter will affect targets beyond line of sight however, players can wedge themselves into niches along the outside to avoid being launched inward toward Gruul.

If your tank dies a lot during the AoE silence...

If your group consists of 3 tanks (which it should because of High King), you designate a main tank (tanking Gruul of course), a Hurtful Strike tank, and a third tank that is also building up aggro (just in case one of the other tanks die. This third tank should Intervene the main tank to take a hit once during the AoE silence so the healers don't have to worry about the main tank dying due to lack of heals. Additionally it should be noted that if the tank dies at this point, the healers are simply not doing their job. Everyone must have HoTs ticking at all times during silence. Additionally if your tank dies between 20%-35% on Gruul's health, they are also not doing their job. Priests should have high Mp5 stacked and not require Innervates until the very end, if at all.

Notes



* Be sure when you begin the encounter everybody follows the MT from the initial hallway. The doors close when Gruul is engaged and anybody who does not enter the room will be locked out of the encounter.

* Any Dreamless Sleep type potion will freeze a Stomp victim in mid air, preventing him from flying towards the rest of the raid. This should be used in the event of someone getting caught out of position, or a "all flung into the center" scenario. One thing to remember with this however, is that the range of Shatter includes vertical range, so a person using the sleep potion has to time it at the highest point possible to avoid people below them.

* See The Burning Crusade: Guild Progression for the world first kills
* Gruul bugs and the gate stays closed after a wipe where someone has hearthed while the encounter was occurring.

* Pets are not affected by hurtful strike or shatter, but do receive stoned and remain stunned for the same duration as everyone else.

* Druids can barkskin every shatter and is a good tactic to minimize dmg taken.

* It is important to note that even if you are within melee range, and able to use your special abilities, you may lie outside hurtful strike range. This is good for melee, and could be deathly bad for tanks.

* For KTM users, you must be very careful as to how you approach the meters as melee. Shatter damage dealt will increase your threat on this system. Omen/Threat 1.0 users are safe.

* Druids make excellent off-tanks. The Hurtful Strike cannot crit, and cannot be a crushing blow, so all the OT needs is armor, HP, and threat generation. Druids don't have to rely on getting hit to generate rage like warriors do, and their typical gear will give them very high dodge as well.

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[kotahi]

Deadly Boss Mods helps a lot with this fight, it lets you know when hes going to use his abilities and lets you know when you are too close to people. go out and get it if you dont already have it