Problem tanking Gormok the Impaler (togc25)

[Gronx]

At the time the second Impale shall hit, he does a Meleswing for about +25k, then under the same secound he Impales me for about +35k.. Is this normal? Our Healers have no way to keep me up there.. If you look at my gear The World of Warcraft Armory

How should we be able to keep me and the other 2 tanks alive against this?

[Hamburglar]

My guild does it with 2 tanks on Gormok. The pally takes the first 4 and I use Last Stand on 5 and 6, Shield Wall on 7 and if I didn't time it properly I call for a pain supression on the 8th. When Gormok has 4 stacks of Rising Anger you need a cooldown on you to live through impales. I like to pretend I'm a paladin or druid tanking this without any outside cooldowns. After I die to 60k damage in < 1 second though and need a battle rez I get shocked by to reality.

[Omok]

If he is hitting you that hard, then you must be either taking too many impale stacks or taking too long to kill him. We just did a clear of 25 man TotGC last night, and Gormok was only hitting for about 25.6k average for impales, and 18k melee hits. Maybe you are not keeping up all the debuffs you need on him, which would make him hit quite a bit harder. Typically, we do this fight with three tanks and switch off the moment we get two stacks of impale. You can do it with two tanks and more stacks of impales, but why do it and risk a tank death?

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[Aggathon]

Linking your armory might help too.

In 25 man ToGC we use a 3 tank 2 stack rotation (could also do 2 tank 3 stack, but 3 tanks is very beneficial for phase 3 imo, and is just generally easier). You can pretty much tank your first rotation fight, maybe just use shield block to mitigate some damage, but the second time you tank, you should hit shield wall about 1 second before the first impale, and it will last you until the second impale hits so you can shield wall both. This will keep you alive, sometimes I last stand too just to be sure, but with shield wall up I'm fine.

[toonnamefail]

We use a pretty simple 2 tank rotation and it looks like this

Impale 1
Impale 2
Impale 3 - HoS (Ret Paladin)
Impale 4 - LoH (Holy Pally 1)
Impale 5 - LoH cont (Holy Pally 1) Tank CD 1
Impale 6 - Tank CD 1 cont

Tank 2 taunts Tank 1 gets BoP (Holy Pally 1)

Impale 1
Impale 2 - HoS (Holy Pally 1)
Impale 3 - Tank CD 1
Impale 4 - Tank CD 1 cont + Tank CD 2
Impale 5 - Tank CD 2

Tank 1 taunts Tank 2 gets BoP (Holy Pally 2)

Impale 1 - HoS (Holy Pally 2)
Impale 2 - LoH (Holy Pally 2) + Tank CD 1
Impale 3 - LoH cont + Tank CD 1 cont + PS/GS
Impale 4 - PS/GS cont + Tank CD 2

[Aggathon]

Out of curiousity, why would you eat so many impales when with 2 tanks you can just do a 3 stack rotation?

[toonnamefail]

Well we typically take 13-14 stacks of impale which means that we would need 4 tank switches meaning both tanks will always require healing this way only one tank will ever need healing at any given time until p2 but even then the "clean" tank will pick up dreadscale 1st, get burning bile and the the impaled tank will tank dreadscale and usually his stack will fall off shortly after.

Just a way I found to minimise the spread of healing, we always have plenty of CD's to mitigate the inc damage from the impales. Not saying a 3 switch wouldn't work as well but to me and my raid team this seems to work the best.

[Aggathon]

3 stacks only ticks for like 4k though, just put beacon on the tanks and it heals the dots fine, is also a lot nicer on healer mana since the impales don't hit as hard.

[Megatwan]

we use 3 tanks, 2 pallys and a druid. we take 2 impales each and he usually dies on either the 5th or 6th tank rotation. Ardent Defender FTW this fight.

If its the pally on the 5th rotation we just use AD for our backup
If its the druid and we get to the 6th we just let him hold it until it dies and use wings when the 2nd impale hits.

Also Hand of Sac. when the boss is buffed x4+ if your impales fall off. I typically save forbidance for the worms if possible so i dont like bopping pally tanks druing beasts phase 1

[toonnamefail]

I am assuming you are bopping after the 1st rotation as using a 2 tank 3 stack rotation in heroic would not work as impale lasts for 45s? And even then depending on your dps one of your tanks is going to be looking at 4/5 stacks on the last rotation. Never had a problem with healer mana or heals required on tanks due to always having cd's available and pushing through them.

As I detailed above my strat is about streamlining the heals required, to me its simplified and my guild agrees. Why heal 2 targets when its not necessary?

Also im pretty sure 3 stacks of impale ticks harder than 4k in heroic, makes sense that it ticks that hard in normal though.

[Wolftank]

We are doing a 3 tank rotation... (Druid, War, DK)
Taunt after 2 impales
I am usually 3rd tank, so when I tank first round its no problem.
When we are going through 2nd round I usually use IBF just before I get first impale.
By this time worms are just about to spawn and I move into position, if there are 2 pallys I get a BoP to get rid of the stacks, though not really necessary anymore.

I pick up the poison worm, Druid pick up the fire worm. (He gest a BoP to get rid of impale stacks too).
Gormok is dead or dyeing now (or just before they spawn).
Warrior normally have 0-1 debuff, so no problem there.

Oh I keep tanking the stationary worm, and the two other tanks taunt off each other when they get a debuff - so they can run to poison victims while poison worm is still up.

We have done it once with 2 tanks, just taunting off at 3 stacks, worked ok... but worm face was a bit more problematic due to poison victims having more problems running to fire worm tank to get deduff removed (he cant or should not turn worm towards raid to help someone with poison on them)...

But I guess it really depends on what you have available to you...

Good luck
/Wolf :Q

[Aggathon]

I am assuming you are bopping after the 1st rotation as using a 2 tank 3 stack rotation in heroic would not work as impale lasts for 45s? And even then depending on your dps one of your tanks is going to be looking at 4/5 stacks on the last rotation. Never had a problem with healer mana or heals required on tanks due to always having cd's available and pushing through them.

As I detailed above my strat is about streamlining the heals required, to me its simplified and my guild agrees. Why heal 2 targets when its not necessary?

Also im pretty sure 3 stacks of impale ticks harder than 4k in heroic, makes sense that it ticks that hard in normal though.

The bleed ticks for less than the damage the other tank is taking that's for sure, and you only use BoPs once he's about to die.

[squats]

• Impale 10 yd range — Inflicts 100% (Heroic: 150%) of weapon damage to an enemy and causes it to bleed for 2188 to 2812 (Heroic: 3938 to 5062) damage per application every 2 seconds for 40 (Heroic: 45) seconds. Cast every 10 seconds. Instant

[Thulldar]

I think what Squats was hinting at is that impale does not actually hit harder based on the number of stacks you have. Only the bleed damage increases. For some reason, almost everybody is under the opposite impression, and it keeps getting re-posted on here.

The only way to avoid the instant-death scenario you describe is to cover every single impale with a cooldown (last stand, shield wall, icebound fortitude, survival instincts, pain suppression, guardian spirit, etc). With 3 tanks this is easy to do with just one or two cooldowns from healers. Each cooldown should last through two impales if timed correctly.

Note: The first 2-3 impales of the fight, you don't have to use cooldowns for. He gains strength (hits harder) as he throws each snobold, so before he throws any, he doesn't hit nearly as hard.

[squats]

i was simply letting everyone know what it hits for.

the damage he hits for with impale does not change as thulldar stated.
2 or 3 tanks work just fine, tho 3 tanks reduces the chance your healers will get distracted and let a tank die. even with 2 tanks that puts you at a 5.9k/sec bleed (effectively. its actualy 11814/2 secconds) and that should be heal-able. i dont think stacks of impale are you issue.

the issue was that impale was used when you got an un mitigated melee swing from him. it does happen and its unlucky. the only way you could hope to live is if your healers are pre-casting like they are supposed to be.

[Blitzago]

We currently do a 2 tank rotation, taunting after 4. With a Pally and Warrior. Both about 55k hp buffed.
I start on him, and tank the first 4 without cooldowns. After the warrior taunts, I usually go out to range to help kill snobolds and help reduce the damage from the stomp.

The warrior eats the 5th, last stands the 6th, and shield walls the 7th and 8th.

I taunt back, and then don't use any cooldowns, and usually kill him by the 3rd or 4th stack on me again.. I then bop myself to clear the stacks going into phase2.

[Unger]

Aggathon, you cannot use a two tank rotation and only get 3 impales. You need to go to four for the other tank to have his stack drop off (I assume he is referring to heroic).

Have the pally go first, go to four using his own cooldowns. You take over... use LS and SW to get to four. Have the other tank take over again. If he can go to 4 more with outside cooldowns, you will only have to take 2 (or less if you kill him faster).