TOC Cheat Sheet

For most people this blog post will be extremely worthless. Trial of the Crusader is something to run on your alts — and even then probably on hard mode. I’m going to post it anyways, because there are casual players out there who might just benefit from it. It is also helpful for me to have my own quick reference to look at that is less verbose than WoWWiki.

Our guild cleared TOC for the first time several weeks ago (yes, I know it came out in frickin August). A combination of RL, drama, and fear of not being l33t enought led us to not even attempt it until early this year. With a brief hiccup on Faction Champions we managed to get through it just fine. It helped us remember how much we actually like raiding and we’re going to be moving on to ICC shortly (hooray!).

The fights in TOC aren’t overly complex, and there are only five boss encounters. With a team decked out in triumph emblem gear, and a reasonable amount of situational awareness (or just DBM), even a casual player can manage it.  I still think the Keepers in Ulduar we’ve been working on are far more difficult in terms of mechanics.

This is meant to be a quick cheat sheet of important things to know, not a substitute for Tankspot videos, WOWiki, or some of the more elaborate guides. I have only run 10-man, so I may be missing some 25-man specific things. Also remember that this not for heroic mode. In addition, I know there are multiple strategies for many of the fights — this is just what worked for us. *Phew*… enough disclaimers, let’s get started!

Northrend Beasts

Three bosses in one encounter— w00t!

Phase 1 — Gormok the Impaler

Big magnataur — rawr!

Everyone:

• Stay out of the fire. Literally.

Tanks x2 :

• Trade off, taunting at 3 stacks of the Impale debuff

DPS:

• Kill Snowbolds as they latch on to people, otherwise kill the boss

Healers:

• Heavy heals on the tank who has him
• Stay 15 yards from Gormok or the Staggering Stomp will interrupt you.
• Melee will take AOE damage from the Stomp^
• After the phase ends, be sure to still heal the tank with the Impale debuff

Phase 2 — Worms

Nasty giant worms that spew stuff at you

Everyone:

• If you get the Paralytic Toxin debuff run to whomever has the Burning Bile debuff to cleanse yourself before it paralyzes you
• If you have Burning Bile, don’t stand too close to other people as it does AOE damage
• Stay out of the slime pools
• Stay behind the worms

Tanks x2:

• Tank them near-ish to each other, facing away from the raid
• After they submerge, pick them up and face away from the raid ASAP

DPS:

• Focus on Acidmaw first, then Dreadmaw

Healers:

• Extra heals on those with the debuffs

Phase 3 — Icehowl

Giant blue yeti who just wants to make friends

Everyone:

• Spread out
• At some point he will knock you to the wall with Massive Crash, and then charge at one person. Run away from the original position of his target – if he hits anyone he will enrage.

Tanks x1:

• Position him facing the wall to avoid knockback from Whirl

DPS:

• After the Massive Crash and charge he will be stunned against the wall — use cooldowns then as he will take 100% more damage.

Healers:

• Spread out (seriously).
• Extra raid heals on those who get frozen by Arctic Breath

Lord Jaraxxus

Always blame the gnomes

Everyone:

• Run outward (but not through the raid) if you get the Legion Flame debuff
• Spell-steal, Tranquilizing Shot, Purge, or Dispel the Nether Power from the tank
• Interrupt Fel Fireball

Tanks x2:

• One on Jaraxxus, one on add duty.
• Offtank needs to pick up the Mistress of Pain and the Felflame Infernals when they spawn

DPS:

• Nuke adds ASAP
• Melee don’t bother with the Infernals (too much AOE pain).

Healers:

• Must heal people through Incinerate Flesh (until the debuff goes away)
• Heal those with Legion Flame.
• Watch the offtank when the adds spawn.
• Splash damage from Infernals is high.

Faction Champions

The PVP-but-not-PVP fight

Everyone

• Cry
• Kill the healers first
• Have people on each healer to interrupt and lock them down
• Interrupt, interrupt, interrupt, interrupt
• Dispel, dispel, dispel
• CC!
• Don’t bother with resilience gear
• Run away if they’re beating on you
• Trinket out of fears if possible

Tanks x0:

• You can’t really “tank” this fight like normal. Taunts work but have diminishing effects — use them to distract a champion from pounding on a squishy

DPS:

• Focus fire on one mob at a time — most dangerous healer first

Healers:

• Stay as far away from the champions as possible — distance contributes to threat!
• Health deficit contributes to threat — keep people topped off so they don’t get 1-shotted
• Dispel/Cleanse

Twin Val’kyr

Light and Dark Valkyr make a deadly duo

Everyone

• Click on the light or dark portal to grab a buff
• Switch color on Vortex to match the Twin casting, then switch back after the cast is over

Tanksx2?

• Can do this with one tank but easier with two
• Each grab a Twin and buff the opposite color of your twin
• You don’t have to switch colors ever if your healers can take it — just pop a mitigating cooldown if your twin casts Vortex

DPS:

• DPS the Twin of the color opposite your buff
• Easiest if all DPS focus on one Twin
• If the other twin casts Twin’s Pact, switch color to DPS her shield and interrupt her heal, then switch back
• Try to catch orbs of your own color for the dps boost, while avoiding those of the opposite color

Healers:

• Doesn’t really matter which color you take, just remember to switch for Vortex if necessary

Anub’arak

A familiar giant beetle — not to be confused with the other giant beetle, Anub’rehkan

Everyone

• Phase 2: He will pursue a random member of the raid with spikes. Run to an ice patch  to prevent getting hit. Everyone else watch out for the spikes.

Tanks x2:

• Phase 1:
  
  • Main tank on Anub, offtank on add duty
  • Face him away from the raid
  • Offtank must pull the Nerubian Burrower adds to ice patches so they don’t burrow
• Phase 3: Only one tank needed

DPS:

• Ranged: Must bring down Permafrost orbs as much as possible throughout the first two phases
• Phase 1: Probably kill the adds when they spawn (we don’t actually, we just wait until Phase 2)
• Phase 2: Bring down the Burrowers and the little scarabs — get them off your healers
• Phase 3: Burn!

Healers:

• Phase 1: Beware of raid damage from Penetrating Cold
• Phase 3:
  • It’s healer hell
  • Keep the health of your raid members as low as possible to minimize the health Anub steals via Leeching Swarm
  • Beware of Penetrating Cold.