Gruul's Lair High King Maulgar Gruul the Dragonkiller Gruul the Dragonkiller is, as his name implies, a renowned dragon-slaying Gronn as well as the final boss of the raid dungeon Gruul's Lair in Blade's Edge Mountains. He is the father of the seven Gronn: Goc, Gorgrom the Dragon-Eater, Grulloc, Maggoc, Skulloc Soulgrinder, Slaag, and Durn the Hungerer. Gruul's (Item #31750) is required for the quest The Cudgel of Kar'desh. Abilities (Spell #36300): Increases damage done by 15% every 30 seconds, stacks up to 30 times. (Spell #33813): Hits the 2nd highest aggro in melee range. A second tank is needed to mitigate this, 12350-13650 physical damage. This attack is not capable of critically striking and will occur every 8 seconds. If no other character is in range, Hurtful Strike will hit the Main Tank! Pets are not valid targets. (Spell #36297): Occasional zone-wide silence for 4 seconds. (Spell #36240): Randomly targeted AoE which deals base 2700 damage every 3 seconds in the area. This occurs more frequently later in the encounter. This counts as physical damage and can be mitigated by armor. Growth will modify Cave In damage. (Spell #33525): Zone-wide ability that sends all players flying in a random direction, then triggers Gronn Lord's Grasp. (Spell #33572): Rapidly stacking debuff that occurs after a Ground Slam, reduces movement speed by 20% per second. After 5 seconds, triggers Stoned. Players must move away from each other during this time to avoid the effects of Shatter. (Spell #33652): Stun that occurs after the full effect of Gronn Lord's Grasp has taken place. Renders targets vulnerable to Shatter. (Spell #33654): After being Stoned, Gruul will shatter the whole raid. Damage dealt is based on proximity and acts as a player-based Area Effect spell, similar to Arcane Explosion. Shatter damage ranges from 9000 when standing directly on another player to 2000 when at the max rage of effect, 20 yards. The more space between players, the less damage is taken - no damage will be dealt if players are >20 yards away from each other. Note: Invulnerability effects do not prevent Shatter damage! Pets do not deal or receive damage from this ability. General Tips First and foremost, the success or failure of this encounter hinges on maximizing raid damage and minimizing Shatter damage. Gruul's stacking growth buff will constantly increase the damage done to the MT, the Hurtful Strike Tank, and anyone targeted by a Cave In. This means that after a certain point, the damage dealt through these sources will exceed the limits of tank health or healer mana. As noted above, it is absolutely imperative that the Hurtful Strike Tank be in melee range of Gruul at all times. If Gruul cannot strike the second-highest threat target, he will continue down the list until he finds a target he can strike. This will almost ensure that a melee DPS class will be instantly killed. If there are no other targets in range, Gruul will slam the MT with an extreme spike of damage, almost guaranteeing an instant kill. The shaman (Spell #16240), priest (Spell #15363), and paladin (Spell #20235) talents are pivotal in assisting in the mitigation of the massive physical damage that the tanks will endure throughout the fight. Make sure your healers are properly specced, as these talents alone will add up to huge amounts of added mitigation over the course of the fight. Cave In damage is not applied instantly. It works very similarly to blizzard in that it applies a Damage over Time (DoT) to an 8 yard radius. If you notice the debuff quickly enough and react by repositioning yourself, you can prevent huge amounts of damage and allow your healers to continue focusing on the tanks. Properly geared and talented druids are considered by many to be excellent Hurtful Strike Tanks, as Hurtful Strike does not pose the threat of criticals or crushes, and is handled very well by druids' high armor and dodge statistics. Note: Gruul's gate will close when he is engaged, be sure your raid is ahead of the wooden pillars at the entrance to his room!