Gruul

Garrosh knew that the surest path to breaking the gronn lay in subjugating their great father, Gruul. Known in another time as the Dragonkiller, here Gruul has been reduced to the role of menial laborer. In a cruel mockery of the Shattered Hand’s warrior tradition, his hand has been replaced with a hook to enable him to more easily haul pallets of fuel to the furnace.

Map

List of Abilities

Inferno Slice (Important!) (Tank Alert)
Gruul slashes at his primary target, inflicting 449,683 Physical damage and increases damage taken by subsequent Inferno Strikes by 20% per application. This burning slash will also inflict 806,154 Fire damage split evenly amongst additional enemies in front of the caster, burning them for 20,154 Fire damage every 3 sec.

Cave In
The ceiling cracks and crumbles, caving in over players for 45,346 Physical damage every second.

Overwhelming Blows (Tank alert)
Inflict 188,942 Physical damage to enemies within 10 yards. Also increases damage taken by from Overwhelming Blows by 10% per application.

Petrifying Slam
Knocks players in a random direction and begins the process of petrification.
Players turn to stone over time, eventually shattered by Gruul’s mighty roar, causing players to inflict 25,797 Nature damage to all allies within 8 yards.

Shatter
Your petrify shatters for 25,797 Nature damage to all allies within 8 yards.

Overhead Smash
Slams the ground inflicting 179,873 Nature damage to all enemies in a line in front of the caster.

Destructive Rampage
Gruul, blinded with rage, increases his haste by 50% and repeatedly slams the ground in fury.

The fight against Gruul is a straightforward two-phase encounter that only requires a little environment awareness. In the first phase against Gruul, his first and most important ability is Inferno Slice. It’s an ability that does heavy damage to his primary target, which is fatal unless the damage is shared among several targets. The attack also leaves a debuff which increases damage taken by the next Inferno Slice with 20%, and a ticking DoT that lasts for 3 sec.

To counter this attack, the raid should split into two groups that stand on each side of Gruul. The tanks should not stack with these groups (think of it as a square with Gruul in the middle – two raid groups in two opposite corners and the two tanks in the other corners). The tanks stand alone because of the Overwhelming Blows, which is a frontal cone attack the rest of the raid has to avoid. But as soon as Inferno Slice is impending, which Gruul does at a 100 rage, the tank should run into one of the raid groups so the damage is split among all allies. As soon as the raid group has been hit by Inferno Slice, the tank should return to her original position.

Inferno Slice does very high damage on the raid group, and it should only be cast once on the same group before the off tank taunts and run in with the Inferno Slice into the other raid group (twice on Heroic). For healers this means quite a lot of burst healing between the Slices, and I really recommend using Rushing Jade Wind.

Gruul does two abilities which you should avoid; Overhead Smash which is a frontal cone in a random player’s direction and Cave In, which are spots where the ceiling start to cave in and cause a rock fall. Both of these abilities should be avoided by the raid.

Once in a while Gruul will do Petrifying Slam on randomly chosen targets. These players will be knocked into the air and start to become petrified. In a short while their movement speed will be closing to zero, and then Gruul will Shatter their petrification and cause damage on all nearby allies. If you get knocked up into the air, run away from the raid as fast as possible so that once you shatter, it won’t hit your friends. This will seldom happen a healer so you will most likely not worry about it yourself. Keep a note on which players get petrified however.

In phase two, Gruul will enter a Destructive Rampage and keep spamming Overhead Smash and Cave In all over the room. The raid should stay vigilant and step out of all of these environment effects. This happens about every 2 min and after this phase, he goes back to the original phase with Inferno Slice again.

For this fight, Rushing Jade Wind is the best talent paired with Healing Elixirs. The reason is that the Inferno Slice mechanic requires a lot of burst while dropping yourself dangerously slow ever so often. Diffuse Magic would negate most of the damage but since it comes so often it’s better with Healing Elixirs, which has an 18 sec cooldown.

The high risk of losing people is if the tanks somehow mess it up and Inferno Slice only hits a few people or if they don’t handle the tank stacks properly. Either way, use Rushing Jade Wind if the Inferno Slice hits your group and Uplift-sequence if it hits the other group. If you are in danger of dying, you can either pop Fortifying Brew or force Healing Elixir to activate with a quick channel of Mana Tea. If the tanks are in danger of dying, spam heal them with Enveloping Mist and Surging Mist and use Life Cocoon on cooldown.

Since you’ll be using Rushing Jade Wind a lot, you’ll need every bit of mana you can get. Start the encounter in Crane stance and try to reach about 6-8 stacks of Mana Tea before the first Inferno Slice hits. Pre-pot a Draenic Potion of Intellect before the fight starts to get some extra healing out while in Crane stance. You’ll still be able to use a mana potion later in the fight.

• Parts of the raid will take high damage on Inferno Slice.
• Tanks will take high damage when the Overwhelming Blow stacks get high.
• Use Spinning Crane Kick/Rushing Jade Wind when your own raid group takes Inferno Slice.
• Use Uplift or Chi Explosion when the other raid group takes Inferno Slice.
• Sidestep Overhead Smash and Cave In.
• Players who get cast up in the air by Petrifying Slam should run away before Shatter hits. Shatter does notable damage to anyone it hits.
• When Gruul goes into a Destructive Rampage, keep avoiding all his abilities like normal.

• Begin the fight in Crane stance and aim for about 6 stacks of Mana Tea before the first Inferno Slice hits.
• When Crane healing, put the Jade Serpent Statue with the other raid group to spread the Eminence healing.

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