| Name | Gruul's Lair Guide: Part 2 |
| Category | Raid |
This is the second part of the Gruul's Lair guide, taking off after killing High King Maulgar and his Ogre Council.
After defeating High King Maulgar, the wooden gate at the left side of his room opens up, opening the path to Gruul the Dragonkiller. At this point, there will be more trash mob pulls to handle before getting to Gruul. It will be the same 2 types of mobs similar to the first set before High King Maulgar, and is still random per pack.
Raid Composition - Gruul the Dragonkiller
2-3 Tanks:
1 Main tank
1 Offtank (Feral Druid preferred) with high HP
1 Tank on standby (if one of the primary tanks get killed), can be replaced with a DPS class if the 2 tanks can handle it.
7-8 Healers (Druid / Shaman / Paladin / Priest)
Other slots open for melee / ranged DPS (more ranged DPS preferred)
Immediately near the gate are 2 stationary ogre mobs guarding the path. These two will be your first pack to kill, so pull them and bring them to High King Maulgar's room. Watch out for the single ogre patrol that goes near the 2 stationary ogres, so time your pull such that the patrol is far from the guards. Kill the 2 ogre guards, then proceed on pulling the single ogre patrol.
After the 3 ogres are dead, move in the pathway a bit and you'll encounter 2 stationary ogres again, and a single ogre patrol as well. Wait for the patrol to move out before pulling the 2 ogres, and pull them back once pulled. Get the patrol after killing the 2 stationary ogres.
Once they are dead, get ready for the final trash pull. This is the hardest trash pull inside Gruul's Lair, since it comprises 3 ogres in the pack, and you get random ogre types on them. If you get 2 priests on the pack, you'll be needing to monitor them both and assign individual rogues and shamans to interrupt their heals or purge their renews, or the fight will drag out since they will be constantly healing each other. You can also try separating the two priests as far as you can to avoid them healing one another. If you get more Lair Brutes, make sure to stay out of melee range on them to avoid their cleaves, and tanks should be alert on taunting them back when they dump aggro then goes to a raid member. After killing this 3-ogre pack, get ready to face the final boss in the instance.
Gruul the Dragonkiller
The Overlord of all the ogres in Outland, and the final boss of the Gruul's Lair instance. He is also the father of seven Gronns located all throughout Outlands -- Goc, Gorgrom the Dragon-Eater, Grulloc, Maggoc, Slaag, Skulloc Soulgrinder, Durn the Hungerer.
Key Abilities
Growth - Gruul's indispellable self-buff. It increases his damage done by 15% and his size by 10% every 30 seconds. Can stack. Also affects Cave In damage. This can serve as Gruul's enrage timer, since around Grow #14 and beyond can basically one-hit the offtank by its Hurtful Strike, or the main tank would have larger damage spikes due to Gruul's physical attacks.
Hurtful Strike - Gruul's offensive ability which hits the 2nd highest aggro in melee range. Hits for around 12350 to 13650 physical damage and can be mitigated by armor. Affected by Growth, which can basically one-hit the offtank if Gruul's Growth is stacked too high.
Cave In - Looks like rocks falling to the ground, it's an AoE ability which affects a small random area in the room. Deals 2700 physical damage every 3 seconds for 15 seconds. This damage is affected by Growth, which can really hurt people if Gruul's Growth is high enough. Anyone standing under Cave Ins should move away immediately.
Reverberation - AoE silence which Gruul occasionally casts. Silences everyone for 4 seconds. Cooldown is around every 45 seconds or so.
Ground Slam - Approximately every minute, Gruul does a Ground Slam that throws everyone in random directions. Follows with Gronn Lord's Grasp.
Gronn Lord's Grasp - A debuff that will appear on each and everyone in the raid after the Ground Slam. Decreases movement speed by 20% per second, which stacks up to 5 after 5 seconds. Within this 5 second timeframe, everyone should move away from anyone nearby, making sure they don't have anyone near them when they cannot move anymore (5 stacks). Rogues can Cloak of Shadows out of this, as well as Paladins' Divine Shield and Mages' Iceblock.
Stoned - After receiving 5 stacks of Gronn Lord's Grasp, everyone will be affected by Stoned debuff which stuns and renders you vulnerable to Shatter. This debuff will be removed once Shatter has occurred.
Shatter - Once everyone has been Stoned, Gruul will smash the ground shattering everyone, dealing damage to anyone near them. This ability deals damage depending on the people within 20 yards from you. The nearer the player to you, the larger shatter damage each of you will deal to yourselves, and the farther the players' distance with each other will reduce the Shatter damage. Also if there are many people within 20 yards from you, you will receive shatter damage from every single person within that range, and you will deal shatter damage to each of them as well. If no one is within 20 yards from you, shatter will do nothing and you will receive no shatter damage as well. Invulnerability effects like Paladin / Priest shields, or Mage Iceblock will not prevent shatter damage.
The fight is basically a DPS race, so the raid should have high DPS to kill Gruul before he grows too much that tanks get killed instantly. Survival is important as well, and everyone should have high enough health to survive shatters if ever there are multiple players near each other. Luck can be a part of this fight, since Ground Slam tends to throw anyone at a random direction, and it can throw several people to a single point where they would die to shatter. Everyone should be spread out, and be mindful of the little niches along the edges of the room. Ranged DPS / healers can stay near them and when Gruul is about to do Ground Slam, hide behind those stakes / rocks to prevent themselves from being thrown to the middle with everyone. Everyone should also be aware of their surroundings and be alert for Cave Ins, and move out immediately the second they get the Cave In debuff.
Before the Fight
Since Gruul doesn't do any magical damage, mages should cast Amplify Magic on everyone to ease up on healing. Assign groups to different sections of Gruul's room, so they can stay there, and spread out within their section. One group can stay on each direction of the room (north, south, east, west) and the melee group can stay in the middle. Make sure there is a healer for each group aside from the MT / OT healers. Before engaging Gruul, everyone should stay inside Gruul's room just beyond his gate but not too close to Gruul because he has a huge aggro radius, since upon engaging Gruul the gate will close, locking out anyone who is outside the gate.
Tank Notes
Tanking Gruul doesn't need positioning, and he should be tanked at the center of his mound all the time (the light colored platform in his room where he is initially standing). The main tank shouldn't be in full HP gear, since he won't be catching Hurtful Strikes (except when Gruul has grown too much and every melee is dead). Stick with the basic main tank gear (high defense, block, etc). The offtank should be in his stamina gear, keeping in mind armor and dodge to mitigate the Hurtful Strikes. Remember that Hurtful Strikes cannot crit, or crush you so defense would really be a minor thing for the offtank. Decently geared feral druid tanks are the best offtanks for the Hurtful Strikes, since they have very high armor and dodge to mitigate the Hurtful Strike damage, and they can maintain 2nd in aggro quite easily.
On Cave Ins, the tanks should move out of them immediately. Be wary of the Reverberation ability of Gruul, where healers are silenced for 4 seconds. Don't hesitate to drink potions or pop your trinkets if ever your health drops low during the silence. After Ground Slam, try to Intercept / Feral Charge to Gruul immediately, so that after Shatter if ever he does a Hurtful Strike, the tanks are present in melee range to soak up the damage. But remember to stay away from each other before getting Stoned to reduce the Shatter damage on yourselves. If a tank dies anytime when Gruul's Growth is high enough, have the backup tank get ready to put on a shield and catch the Hurtful Strikes. Use Shield Wall if needed.
Rage Problem and Threat Generation for Tanks
Gaining rage is a general issue in this encounter, especially for the offtank since he will be relying on the Hurtful Strikes mainly for his rage generation. If someone else pulls 2nd aggro, the offtank will find it hard to go up to 2nd aggro since he won't have enough rage and will have to rely on the rage generated by his attacks (the Hurtful Strike went to the one who pulled 2nd aggro). This happens if your initial attacks misses or gets blocked / parried, and the melee has already started to DPS. To fix this, every melee DPS should let the tanks gain enough aggro at the start before commencing DPS to avoid pulling 2nd aggro. Misdirects can also help, but be careful of misdirecting too much threat that the offtank gains too much aggro than the main tank. If this happens, lay down a bit on your attacks and let the main tank move up on the aggro list before continuing to normally gain 2nd aggro.
DPS Notes
This fight is generally a DPS race, since too much high Growth stacks will eventually kill the tank easily. Every ranged DPS should go all out and will only have to maintain aggro below the main tank. Hurtful Strike only applies to melee, so having more aggro than the offtank should be fine, but not more than the main tank himself. Melee DPS should be the one minding their aggro carefully, since they should maintain aggro below both the main tank and the offtank. Rogues should Feint every time, and Vanish if they get high enough aggro. Cat feral druids should also Cower everytime its up, and ease up on DPS if ever they get very high on the aggro list. Blessing of Salvation helps very much for the melee DPS, especially to the DPS warriors. Make sure the paladin assigned to Blessing of Salvation / Light give the DPS warriors the 10 minute Blessing of Salvation, after giving both tanks Greater Blessing of Light.
Healer Notes
Healers in each group should heal their own group if ever one gets damaged due to Cave In, and also after Shatters. Tank healers should keep the tanks topped off, especially the offtank who receives large spikes due to Hurtful Strikes. Druid healers and priests should keep HoTs on them all the time, to avoid Reverberation from killing the tanks from no healing at all for 4 seconds. Paladins with Improved Concentration Aura can be grouped up with the other tank healers, to reduce the duration of Reverberation silence. After shatters, druid healers should be ready to Nature Swiftness heal or Swiftmend the tank immediately if his health gets too low due to shatter damage.
Avoiding Shatter / Lessening Shatter Damage
Everyone should be spread out and in their respective sections in Gruul's room. If some of the ranged DPS can find a tiny slot behind stakes or rocks by the walls of Gruul's room, stay near them. Whenever Gruul's Ground Slam timer is almost up (those people who use bossmods), those with hiding spots should proceed to those spots so that when he does Ground Slam, they won't get thrown to the middle of the room with everyone and they can avoid killing most people with Shatter. Everyone else should just move away from each other right after landing from the Ground Slam. Use the 4 seconds time slot before you get Stoned to move out from everyone, to avoid or reduce Shatter damage you deal to anyone nearby and receive from anyone nearby. It doesn't matter where you go, just find a spot where no one will be near you, or just move to a spot where you are far away from anyone nearby.
Druids can cast Barkskin to reduce the Shatter damage they receive. Rogues can use Cloak of Shadows to remove Gronn Lord's Grasp debuff, then sprint out from everyone. Mages can Iceblock out of the debuff, then click it off immediately to run / blink to a safe place without anyone nearby. Paladins can shield out of the debuff and move out to safety. Everyone should be aware and move out from anyone, it's for your own safety too. After Shatter, move back to your respective positions and resume DPS / healing / tanking. Healers in every group should heal everyone up quick, as well as the tank healers should keep the tanks topped off quick after Shatter. Note that pets aren't affected by Shatter, but they still get Stoned like everyone else.
Try to adjust the raid composition if you are wiping due to lack of DPS (thus letting Gruul grow very strong), or lack of healing. Keep focused and be aware of your surroundings everytime, prevent Shatters if you can and he'll go down easily. Also having shamans cast Bloodlust / Heroism at around Grow #8 should help.
**Additional addons that help on the fight**
KTM / Omen - addon that monitors threat. Everyone should have this to monitor their threat.
Deadly Boss Mods / BigWigs Bossmods - bossmod addon which help the raid provide cooldown timers for Gruul's abilities.
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