Coliseum Northrend Beasts (Hard Mode)

[Ciderhelm]

Hello and welcome to the TankSpot Crusader's Coliseum raid guide! My name is Aliena and in this video I'll go over the strategy we use for the heroic 25-man version of Northrend Beasts, the first encounter in the heroic Trial of the Crusader raid instance.
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In the heroic Northrend Beasts encounter you won't be faced with any brandnew abilities, but are instead presented with a very tight enrage timer of approximately 520 seconds or 8.7 minutes as well as hefty damage increases. Additionally, every mob in the encounter including snobolds gain around 30% more health.

You fight the same enemies as on normal mode in all three phases, but while a new enemy only appears after you defeat the last one on normal mode, they're on a set spawn timer in the heroic version. Approximately 150 seconds after engaging the event, Acidmaw and Dreadscale will spawn, and 340 seconds after engaging the event, Icehowl joins the fight. This is a very tight time limit and you may have to be prepared to pick up new incoming enemies while finishing off the prior beast.

First, let's talk about the changes to the Gormok portion of the encounter. The most dangerous part about Gormok is the extreme amount of tank damage he deals. He will use his Impale ability every 10 seconds on the highest threat target. Impale now deals 150% weapon damage and puts a 5k bleed on the target that ticks every 2 seconds for 45 seconds. This effect stacks and it's highly dangerous to have tanks take more than 2 stacks of the debuff. To avoid incredible spike damage, it's advised to use a three tank rotation with a new tank taunting every 29 seconds.

Alternatively, it's doable to take two tanks, have them take three stacks and use blessing of protection on them after the other one taunts. This gives you room to take another DPS class, but greatly increases chances of tank deaths.

Finding a way to reliably deal with impale stacks is the most important part about phase 1. Killing snobolds as quickly as possible is also of utmost importance. They effectively prevent any caster they attach to from casting any non-instant spell and you won't really have any extra time to kill them on the phase change, so getting rid of them as they spawn seems the smartest way to deal with them.

Lastly, staggering stomp now hits for approximately 12000 damage instead of 9000 and the snobold's fire bombs deal 8000 damage per second instead of 6000 and will additionally place a dot on you that ticks for 2000 every 2 seconds for 20 seconds.

After 150 seconds, Acidmaw and Dreadscale will join the fight. Have tanks ready to pick them up even if you're still working on Gormok. The same general buffs apply to those two, and with the tight enrage timer it's important that this phase is executed correctly and you don't lose any raid members.

Your raid needs to make sure never to stand in front of a worm - their frontal abilities hit a lot harder and can easily mean a death especially for a caster. To properly minimize damage and chaos from paralytic toxin and burning bile, it's advised that every raid member pulls up their range frame and stays 10 yards away from everyone else. Both paralytic and burning spray inflict around 15000 damage in the heroic version and the worst thing that can happen in this phase is either debuff spreading to multiple people. Make sure to always keep track of where a person with burning bile is in case you get hit by the toxin and quickly move towards them as to not get completely paralyzed and die to the stacking debuff.

The slime pools have their damage upped from 7000 to 9500 damage per second to anyone standing in it. This is especially dangerous for melee, no one can afford to take more than 2 ticks at all. They also stay up for a minute instead of 45 seconds, which means they end up covering more room so try to move around them. As always, you want to kill Acidmaw before Dreadscale. Once Acidmaw dies, Dreadscale enrages and his debuffs get more menacing, but he should die quickly. As in the last phase, have a tank ready to pick up Icehowl if you're lagging behind on DPS a bit. He'll join the fight approximately 340 seconds in.

The biggest change to the Icehowl phase is that you no longer gain a speed buff after he uses Massive Crash. If he focuses you or a raid member close to you, plan your fastest escape route (make sure no pillar is near you) and start moving as soon as possible. It's of utmost importance that Icehowl never hits a raid member, because his Frothing Rage cannot be tranquilized on heroic mode and you will need the increased damage he takes to beat the enrage timer.

Other than that, Whirl now deals 14k damage instead of 10k, Arctic Breath inflicts 30000 unmitigated damage instead of 20000, and Ferocious Butt had its unmitigated damage upped to 90000. Use cooldowns as you see fit on this. Ranged DPS have to keep their distance to Icehowl so they don't get caught in whirl and lose valuable DPS time.

I can't stress enough that the timer is very tight, so use every trick in the book to maximize raid DPS and most importantly, don't die! That about covers the heroic changes to the Northrend Beasts.

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Hi, I'm Lore from Tankspot, and this is a short addendum video to our Northrend Beasts guide. I'll be explaining an alternative to the normal taunt rotation that helps minimize instant tank deaths in Phase 1 due to Gormok's Impale ability.

This strategy calls for two tanks trading back and forth, and two Paladins for Hand of Protection. If one of your tanks is a Paladin, a second Paladin is not needed.

You should begin with your best-geared tank on Gormok, who will hold him until 3 stacks of the Impale debuff. Positioning of the tanks as well as the rest of the raid is done exactly as normal. The only changes with this strategy involve specifically when taunts, cooldowns, and Hands of Protection are used.

Once the first tank has taken 3 stacks of Impale, the second tank taunts. This tank will hold Gormok for 4 Impales. By now, Gormok will have started to stack his Rising Anger buff to increase his damage. Minor cooldowns such as trinkets or Last Stand can be used here to help lower the chances of an instant kill. Try to time them so that they're still active when the 4th Impale lands. He Impales every 10 seconds, so for example a 20-second trinket could be used shortly after the 2nd Impale and still be active for the 4th one.

After the 4th Impale, the first tank's 3-stack will be just about to fall off, so he taunts Gormok back. The second tank gets a Hand of Protection, or in this case uses Divine Shield, to clear his 4-stack, letting the healers focus entirely on the first tank. Gormok's Rising Anger will have several stacks by this point, so the first tank should be ready to use trinkets and minor cooldowns. He'll be taking a total of 3 Impales before the second tank taunts again.

When the second tank taunts again, he should immediately use a major cooldown such as Shield Wall or Icebound Fortitude if possible. Paladins will be unable to use Divine Protection due to Forbearance, and instead must rely on Ardent Defender or an external cooldown. The first tank should get a Hand of Protection to clear his 3-stack, and remove it with a cancelaura macro, because the second tank will only be taking one Impale before the first tank taunts Gormok back again.

By this point, Gormok should hopefully only be able to get one or two more Impales out before he is defeated. The first tank should use a major cooldown also, and if possible, he should try to time it to still be active in case a second Impale lands. There's only a window of a couple seconds in which this is possible, so it will be tricky.

Using this strategy greatly reduces the chances of an instant tank death due to Gormok's Impale and melee swings landing too closely together. Both tanks will have small Impale stacks going into Phase 2, but those shouldn't be too difficult to heal through, and external cooldowns can be used to help. For more information, including our full 25-man strategy, check the Project Marmot forums at Tankspot.com. As always, if you're watching this on Youtube, just follow the link in the movie details. Good luck!

[Rafus]

yeah, another video by Aliena. love her

[Coldknight]

Ok i have said this befor if you find this useful but the best way to prevent whirling strike is have the tank get his back against the wall while he tanks icehowl. This way he will not be knocked back and icehowl will never get a chance to hit range.

[Magnuss]

Ok i have said this befor if you find this useful but the best way to prevent whirling strike is have the tank get his back against the wall while he tanks icehowl. This way he will not be knocked back and icehowl will never get a chance to hit range.

In order to maximize DPS time I put his back to the wall and made sure that all melee were pushed right against the wall and attacking. As a warrior tank I can charge back in him when knocked back and reposition if necessary, but this allows melee to go full on for the longest duration possible. It made the difference between low health enrages and a slaughtering kill.

[Bohuslav]

Thank you for this video Aliena. I am just wondering if it is possible to avoid getting the paralytic toxin altogether. I have noticed that due to the increased damage, it is extremely hard to run close enough to the Dreadscale tank to drop the debuff without dying in the process. I have a terrible time with this problem due to the distance that I must maintain from other raid members, and I have died while running toward the tank (who has also died because I was running and not healing). As a resto shaman I must remain still long enough to cast my bigger spells so if it is possible to just avoid the toxin in the first place that would be amazing.

[Kazeyonoma]

tried this in 10 man, and wiped at 4% it is VERY tight in terms of enrage timer.

[Magnuss]

Thank you for this video Aliena. I am just wondering if it is possible to avoid getting the paralytic toxin altogether. I have noticed that due to the increased damage, it is extremely hard to run close enough to the Dreadscale tank to drop the debuff without dying in the process. I have a terrible time with this problem due to the distance that I must maintain from other raid members, and I have died while running toward the tank (who has also died because I was running and not healing). As a resto shaman I must remain still long enough to cast my bigger spells so if it is possible to just avoid the toxin in the first place that would be amazing.

Getting toxin on someone who is far from the tank can happen quite a bit and they wont make it to the tank in time. When this happens the only person who can fix it is the tank. The flame breath has a cooldown before he will use it a second time so when you realize you are not going to make it then the tank can wait for a new flame to hit him and move VERY quickly over to you (preferably not blowing up the raid with fire as he/she does so) and free you and then get the worm into a safe position/direction before the next breath.

[Coldknight]

In order to maximize DPS time I put his back to the wall and made sure that all melee were pushed right against the wall and attacking. As a warrior tank I can charge back in him when knocked back and reposition if necessary, but this allows melee to go full on for the longest duration possible. It made the difference between low health enrages and a slaughtering kill.

Still your still having raid member to the wall. While tankspot is just putting him in the center which would be very annoying for people to keep running back towards him.

[Alkaholiek]

Hey, I was wondering how you deal with the stacking buff on Gormok from the snobols? It seems to be a huge problem for us and we just can't heal it trough. Had the same in 10 man but after we luckely got trough phase 1 we didn't had any real problems.

So I was wondering if there is any way to remove the buff.

Also keep up the good work and thanks in advance,

Alka

[Splug]

Hey, I was wondering how you deal with the stacking buff on Gormok from the snobols? It seems to be a huge problem for us and we just can't heal it trough. Had the same in 10 man but after we luckely got trough phase 1 we didn't had any real problems.

So I was wondering if there is any way to remove the buff.

Also keep up the good work and thanks in advance,

Alka

The stacking enrage on Gormok is an unavoidable part of the encounter. You cannot avoid the stacks from mounting by killing him faster as the snowbolds' deploying seems to be health based. He will always build up to four stacks, and you just have to outheal the damage intake. If you are having trouble even with cooldowns being rotated, you may want to review the gear your tanks are using, as well as contemplate adding a healer. For the gear level that has been available up until this week, the encounter is tuned fairly tight both for survival and damage pace. Each week will go a long way to reducing the difficulty via gear income.

-Splug

[Holybubi]

Been having a lot of trouble with this encounter on 25man.
On 10man it was much more simple for both DPS, healing, positioning wise.
We get P1 with about 1Mil HP left when the worms enter the arena, so we burn him down quickly. We also avoid on DPSing the adds that are on the melee, just keep dots running on them, attacked such as Heart Strike and Cleave will dmg them as well. We finish them off when P2 starts.
The trouble comes on P2, we waste about 10-15 sec trying to find a spot (as ranged) that is in range of the worm and out of range of everyone else.
After everyone are positioned we start getting the poision debuff on several targets, and unless you are about 15 yards from the tank with the fire debuff you will probably be stunned. No matter how fast you react. If a ranged that is about 30 yards of the tank gets it he's dead meat. We tryed using BL to get the worms down before P3 but all the time with positioning and constant moving i really dont see how its possible. Sometimes we get poison debuff without a fire debuff. so there is nothing to do be get stunned. Im really lost here, seen this fight from a Tank POV would be better with all do respect.

[Cetyrz]

Just a quick question for those that may be able to help. My guild currently only runs 10 man content, we occasionally pick up a 25 man ulduar pug but predominantly only have access to the t8.5 items through tokens or VoA. We cleared the new bosses in ToC when they unlocked every wednesday night (and with exception of the champions) typically have everything down to a 1-2 shot. We don't have much in the way of Ulduar hard mode gear as we are still working on Yogg due to some roster issues. We decided however to go into 10 man TogC this weekend and give it a few go's. We currently have 1 warrior MT, DK OT, 3 Healers (Disc priest, Paladin and a Shaman) 2 rogues, a ret pally, Boomkin lock / hunter depending on who is free (last night we took the boomkin insead of the lock).

We found that even with 2 stacks of impale we were losing tanks fairly quickly, our best attempt was getting to phase 2 but gormok still had 50% health left. Both myself and the other melee classes are currently DPSing the snobolds as it takes quite a while for just two of our ranged to get them down, so resultantly even if we get to phase 2 it's a wipe.

Should we be keeping our melee on gormok at all times and letting the ranged burn down the adds as they pop up?

Also just wanted to point out I don't know if it was hotfixed in normal mode too but Gormok is NOT disarmable in heroic, whereas he was for us in regular last week.

[schroey]

Hello!

May I inquire the amount of healers you run with for the heroic beasts? I can't find any info about your raid setup for your video and my eyes can't see the grid too well

Thank you!

[Aliena]

We had 6 in that vid. 5 would probably do though.

[Meteorius]

The stacking enrage on Gormok is an unavoidable part of the encounter. You cannot avoid the stacks from mounting by killing him faster as the snowbolds' deploying seems to be health based. He will always build up to four stacks, and you just have to outheal the damage intake. If you are having trouble even with cooldowns being rotated, you may want to review the gear your tanks are using, as well as contemplate adding a healer. For the gear level that has been available up until this week, the encounter is tuned fairly tight both for survival and damage pace. Each week will go a long way to reducing the difficulty via gear income.

-Splug

My gorup has currently been having issues with 10 man heroic gormak as well. We found that having a warrior and pally tank helps with absorbing the stacking debuff though. The pally starts off the fight, gets 4 stacks then calls for the warrior to taunt. The pally then bubbles and it drops the stacks. When the warrior gets 4 stacks, the Pally taunts and bubbles the warrior dropping his stacks. We still didn't get past him, but it seems to have worked. I also heard that warriors can disarm Gormak as well. Is this a good way to do it? We also had an issue healing, we went in with 2 healers (Priest and Tree), and they are geared and know their stuff, but just couldnt keep up, should we add another healer to the mix or will that mutilate our DPS? Ranged DPS were getting killed quick from the fires, since it kills us in 2 ticks, any way to avoid that other than watching what direction the snobols are tossing the fire?

[Meteorius]

What would be a great 10 man make up for this? What kind of and how many tanks, what type and how many healers, and any specific DPS classes needed? My group currently runs with a Warrior and Pally Tank, Priest and Druid Healer, and Dps consists of 3 mages, a elemental shaman, a DK, and a shadow priest. Any suggestions on the group make up?

[swelt]

Quite a lot of stuff in one big ramble there Meteorius. Here's a few answers:
- You can't disarm him in heroic mode
- Impale hits harder and harder over the course of the fight because of Rising Anger, the buff gormokk gets when he throws off a snowbold. The dot, while a big factor in tank deaths, is not the only thing you need to be thinking about, but the impale hit itself. Going to 4 stacks is risky, but you can mitigate that risk with good coordination of cooldowns. "whatever works best for you"
- Going with 2 healers is risky in 10 man. If one of them gets a snowbold it's very bad. Going with 3 is a safer option.
- Fire is hot. Don't stand in fire.


We were doing some experimental attempts at heroic 25 man last night (not a good attendance night unfortunately, and the disconnect boss decided to join in too). We found going with 3 tanks we could get a very stable rotation and consistantly get to phase 2 with no tank deaths, but we are worried that the overhead of 3 tanks will screw us over in phase 3.

[Meteorius]

Yea, sorry for the ramble and tons of questions, lol. I just need to get my group up to speed for this raid and can use all the advice I can get :-D

[Blackwolfe]

We found going with 3 tanks we could get a very stable rotation and consistantly get to phase 2 with no tank deaths, but we are worried that the overhead of 3 tanks will screw us over in phase 3.

The best way to combat this is to make sure at least one of the three tanks is a DK or Druid (since they can very easily switch from tanking to decent DPS).

[sycorax]

We've done fairly well on Uld hardmodes 10 and 25, and on toc 10H but for some reason are having a frustrating time on Northrend Beasts H25. We are getting thru gormok using heroism and have no snobolds up when Acidmaw and Dreadscale activate. The first part of the worm fight seems to go pretty well with 6 heals and 3 tanks we just have the tank getting burning bile run the debuff to ppl with toxin. It seems to work okay, although there is some disagreement still with how we do this. (IE is it better to run the aoe thru the raid to clear toxin off people, or should the tank move to a position outside the raid but behind the melee so ppl can still run to him and not have to be infront of the boss to clear their own debuffs?) either way we are mostly fine until the submerge and then everything goes straight to hell.

I believe that ppl just dont know where to be when the worms re-emerge. They dont want to grp up too much and dont want to be infront of the boss, that much we know. Nevertheless it seems like we STILL have ppl clumping up in the transition, and healers unprepared for the tanks to pick their targets back up. Id like to know if there is any predictability to where the worms will re-emerge so that our raid can be more or less in position, spread out and ready to go as soon as possible. Most of the time we have deaths due to mass burning bile, or an immediate tank death upon pick up.