| Boss: | Northrend Beasts |
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| Zone: | Trial of the Crusader |
| Modes: | 25N, 25H |
| Type: | Normal boss kill |
| Stave <Semper Fortis> |
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| 3 guides |
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| Created: 13 Nov 2009 Updated: 16 weeks ago |
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Target Audience
This strategy is aimed at a usual 25man raid group with 3 tanks and a mix of ranged and melee. It can be adapted for most raid groups with little effort.
Overview
Use 3 tanks to mitigate out impales in Phase 1, and retain mobility despite poisons and burning biles in Phase 2.
Raid Composition
| Tanks: | 3 |
| Healers: | Any |
| Melee: | Any |
| Ranged: | Any |
If heavily stacked in Melee then you may have to split melee into multiple groups anytime that Dreadscale is rooted in P2, as a Burning Bile cast into melee can kill them all very quickly.
Phase 1: Gormok
Tanks will be taking as few impales as possible, switching after 2-4 stacks depending on how well geared the particular tank is. We find that having the highest mitigation tank go first, the second highest mitigation tank go second, and then of course the third tank taunt after that. As the snobolds drop from Gormok's back his damage goes up. So as the tanks start taking greater and greater damage, start using Tank and Healer Cooldowns just before the impales and begin using Paladin Hand of Protections to get rid of stacks of Impales. We start rotating cooldowns when his rising anger reaches 4(the buff he gets as the Snobolds drop.) This is especially critical on the last tank to take any impales before the worms become active.
Ranged and Healers should spread out as much as possible to prevent fires from being too dangerous. As the Snobolds drop from Gormok's back onto people in the raid, the ranged and possibly select melee (I find warriors strong choices) should switch to kill the Snobolds. Prioritize Snobolds on Healers, then Ranged, then Melee and Tanks last.
DPS should be strong enough to defeat Gormok before the worms become target-able.
Phase 2: Acidmaw and Dreadscale
One tank assigned to Acidmaw, One tank assigned to Dreadscale, and one tank who will help with whichever worm is mobile (Dreadscale to start).
All DPS on Acidmaw.
When the Dreadscale tank gets hit with burning bile the other tank with him taunts, and the Burning Bile tank runs towards the raid in between the worms, and then stops. Anyone who got hit with poison can easily get to him before their poison timer is up. If the melee or Acidmaw tank gets hit, then the Burning Bile tank simply runs over and frees them without the poisoned targets having to move. After clearing the poison he goes back to Dreadscale.
When they submerge and re-emerge the Acidmaw tank will establish aggro, and we use Bloodlust / Heroism here. The Acidmaw tank will make sure the boss is facing away from the raid, and slowly follow the contours of the room in either a clockwise or counter clockwise fashion. Be wary of Burning Bile hits on groups here. The first tank on Acidmaw will get hit with poison early, and no one will have burning bile, so the second tank picks up Acidmaw and continues kiting him. As soon as someone gets burning bile they should free the poisoned tank.
Acidmaw should either die now or die after the next emerge.
While Dreadscale is alone and rooted it is imperative that people do not group up, and that the melee stay in as small of stacks as possible. If they get burning bile they should immediately move away from anyone else and stand on their own. Whomever is tanking Dreadscale should try to use CDs to help with the damage coming in, and tanks should switch aggro and use available CDs here. If DPS values are close to our own then you will see Dreadscale mobile after Acidmaw dies, then Dreadscale will submerge and re-emerge and be rooted until he dies. Keep an eye on the timer, if need be make sure an extra tank is available to pick up Icehowl for phase 3. Dreadscale should die either before or within 15 seconds of Icehowl becoming active.
Phase 3: Icehowl
This phase we tank Icehowl near the wall, facing the center so that melee get knocked back into the wall. If we can spare a tank we'll have a tank standing out of his knockback who will then taunt when the boss does the knockback for easy re-positioning.
10 seconds before Massive Crash we call out for people to identify where they will get hit too on the wall. This way people can prevent themselves from getting knocked into doorways or other similar obstructions. From here it is a matter of avoiding his charges and getting strong DPS in. If you have gotten this far and still have the majority of your raid up you will kill him easily before the enrage as long as no one gets hit. If someone does get run over, don't panic, have a tank with Cooldowns (their own and healers) taunt the boss, have a hunter tranq shot him, and melee wait to go in till after he has calmed down. If this happens once, then you will likely run up very close or over the enrage timer (especially as you are likely to have DPS down).
If the enrage timer is coming up, don't just give up. If his enrage activates before he activates Massive Crash, he will one shot everyone who doesn't use immunity cooldowns. But those that do might still be able to carry the boss over when he crashes into the wall. And if he enrages AFTER he knocks everyone back, then you have a very good chance of taking him down if he hits the wall, as you will have some strong DPS time before he begins killing people.
General Tips
Phase 1: Don't stand next to someone with a snobold unless you are melee. The snobolds can interrupt nearby people as well as the person they are on.
Phase 3: If you can find a spot to get massive crashed to by yourself, do it.
Once you pick a direction along the wall, stick with it. Don't change your mind, and don't stop running.
If you do not have a passive speed boost, get Tuskarr's Vitality. Every little bit helps. Also consider asking Leatherworkers in the Raid to make drums of speed.
Tank Tips
Our tanks usually use a 4 impale, then 3 impale, then rotate 2 impales through the rest of the fight. When taking a large stack often the tanks take steps away from Gormok once another tank has aggro. This prevents accidentally pulling it back and more importantly gets a tank already taking heavy damage from the bleed away from the stomp.
Heal Tips
Know where your other healers are standing at all times, and don't be near them. In every phase there is danger in being close to another healer, and if more than one healer has to move it may cause a tank death.
If you have a snobold on your back, be sure to call it out. If Snobolds are truly a problem, ask the raid leader to have a melee attack the snobold. The melee will pull aggro, and hopefully the you won't get kicked anymore.
Melee Tips
In Phase 1 if there is a snobold in the melee group, you can target the Snobold and splash damage (cleaves etc) will hit the boss. This does not work in reverse, the Snobolds are immune to AoE and cleaves.
Phase 2: While dreadscale is rooted use the /range from DBM to make sure you aren't in range of more than 2 other people in case of Burning Bile.
Ranged Tips
Thanks to Tessi of Semper Fortis
Phase 1: Stay spread out. And to target Snobolds quickly make a /target macro.
Phase 2: Stay spread out. Never stand where a worm will emerge. And never stand in front a mobile worm.
Common Problems
-Not Enough DPS for Phase 1 - Consider leaving Snobolds on melee alone until Phase 2 and kill them on transitions. There are also versions of the strat that use 2 tanks for an extra DPS.
-Too Many Snobolds active - Have highly mobile melee switch to help with the Snobolds
-Tanks keep dying - Make sure your healers are not getting snobold interrupted or are having to focus too much on tanks with the bleed stacks. If that's the case consider trying to use Hand of Protections to remove bleed stacks to free healers up.

Article author
This is quite obviously still a work in progress. Feel free to criticize and / or agree with points, or ask for clarifications.
I'll be editing for both content and legibility reasons as I move forward, but I just wanted to get something up for people to use.
The advice sections will be filled in after I poll a few people from the guild and get their advice / opinions.