Blackrock Foundry Heroic Gruul!
Hello, Ability Powered gamers! We are heading into the World of Warcraft raid “Blackrock Foundry” to check out the first boss (depending on which wing your raid team is heading to): Gruul! The video above was filmed while we were in Heroic mode, but the strategy is the same in normal as well. This is the strategy my raid leader uses to help us minimize mobility during the fight.
How to Fight a Giant of a Boss
As you can see, markers are placed on each side of the boss and the raid team is split into two groups: one for each side. We also mark one player in each group to serve as a mobile stacking point in case of the cave in on our current marker. When the fight begins both teams stack on their assigned markers. This is the majority of the fight for healers, ranged, and melee damage dealers. During the fight, there a few mechanics requiring you to reposition or move your character:
Gruul’s Grueling Abilities
- Overhead Smash: Overhead Smash will be cast periodically during a fight. You can tell it’s coming by a visual on the ground in the area where it will cause damage. Another visual aid will be the direction the boss faces right before he smashes the ground. Since you will be stacked close the boss it is easy to avoid by strafing left or right during this. You can also run straight forward, however, getting back into position will take longer due to walking backwards taking more time than simply strafing left or right. These will be back to back during Destructive Rampage which is the most movement required spell during this fight.
- Cave In: A cave in will be a circle on the ground where falling debris will be dealing damage to anyone standing inside. Once again, you can simply strafe out of this cave in. Just make sure you are still stacked on the person marked as the mobile sticking point.
- Petrifying Slam: if you are targeted by Petrifying Slam you need to move out of the group as soon as possible to avoid damaging those around you. In our raid team, players targeted run behind the stacked group until they shatter. You only need to be eight yards away from your friends so minimal movement is required.
- Inferno Slice: This mechanic is by far the easiest for everyone except for the tanks in your group. For this mechanic just stay stacked up on your marker to help mitigate damage about to be focused on your tank. Pretty simple, huh?
Watching Out for Gruul’s Abilities
And that is all the mechanics you will need to be worried about while healing or dealing damage as ranged or melee. Obviously, tanking has a very different role in this raid such as tank swapping after every third Inferno Slice and also turning the boss onto the appropriate stacked group for mitigation. Unfortunately, tanking is not a role I am currently playing in World of Warcraft, so I’m not as comfortable giving you guys notes on how to tank with minimal movement.
Blackrock Foundry Heroic Gruul & Making Things Easy
Blackrock Foundry Heroic Gruul is a very straightforward boss encounter requiring very little movement if you just strafe left or right to avoid damage and stack to mitigate Area-of-Effect (AoE) damage. As a healer, make sure your AoE healing spells are available after each Inferno Slice. Also, be sure to watch Deadly Boss Mod to know when to prepare for possible upcoming movement, so you can prepare your healing assignments before it becomes necessary to move. Another helpful healer tip: While channeled mana potions are typically the most popular potion to restore mana, on this boss the instant potions seem to work better due to the unpredictability of his Overhead Smashes. But don’t take my word for it, head to Blackrock Foundry and check out Gruul today! Have you conquered this boss? Do you have any more tips? You have the more questions? If so, leave a comment below! Check out our Short Raid Notes for more World of Warcraft raid guides!
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