Ursoc Raid Boss Strategy Guide

By Wowhead Updated: 2018/07/05

The Emerald NightmareTormented GuardiansNythendraElerethe RenferalUrsocIl'gynothDragons of NightmareCenariusXaviusLoot and RewardsEarly Legion Gearing Guide

Amulet: Cursed Beartooth Necklace

Cloth Armor: Crimson Wool-Lined Slippers, Ragged Fur Wristwraps

Leather Armor: Scarred Ragefang Chestpiece, Splotched Bloodfur Leggings

Mail Armor: Matted Fur Pauldrons, Scored Ironclaw Sabatons

Plate Armor: Primal Gauntlets of Rage, Trampling Warboots

Trinket: Bloodthirsty Instinct, Heightened Senses, Unbridled Fury, Ursoc's Rending Paw

Blood: Bloodied Bear Fang

Iron: Tuft of Ironfur

Storm: Reverberating Femur

Gear and Artifact Recommendation Guides

Ranks 1 and 2 for Vantus Rune: Ursoc drop for Scribes

Rank 3 for Formula: Enchant Neck - Mark of the Heavy Hide drops for Enchanters

Low chance to drop Mark of the Glade Guardian and Last Breath of the Forest which unlock hidden artifact appearances for Guardian Druids and Survival Hunters respectively.

Accolade of Achievement: 250 LFR

Accolade of Victory: 400 Normal

Accolade of Heroism: 500 Heroic

Accolade of Myth: 600 Mythic

Quick Tips

Damage Dealers:
When not afflicted with , stand in Ursoc's path when he uses to reduce the amount of damage inflicts.
Get as far away from Ursoc as possible when the target of to reduce the damage taken from .

Healers:
When not afflicted with , stand in Ursoc's path when he uses to reduce the amount of damage inflicts.
Get as far away from Ursoc as possible when the target of to reduce the damage taken from .

Tanks:
Ensure that no tank overlaps the effects of both and at the same time, taunting when necessary.
Switch off which tank holds Ursoc's attention for and each time he charges.
Stay out of the proximity of Nightmare Images to avoid . (Heroic, Mythic)

Notable Trash MobsTrash in the Core of the NightmareNythendraLurking Horror

Lurking Horrors will occasionally cast Torturous Leer

If the cast is successful, the Horror will channel Torturous Leer for 10 seconds, dealing Shadow damage to players in front of the Horror every second

Players can interrupt both the cast and channel portions of the spell, preventing or reducing the damage dealt

Tanks should keep Lurking Horrors faced away from the raid, and melee DPS should be careful to stay behind the Horror

Taintheart BefoulerTaintheart TormenterTaintheart Trickster

Befoulers will frequently cast Terror Barrage, firing Shadow bolts at a randomly-chosen target

The Terror Barrage will strike the targeted player and all other players within 10 yards

Healers should be prepared to use AoE and ground-based healing to top the party up after several Terror Barrage casts

It is not worth trying to spread out to avoid splashing Terror Barrage, since the damage is so light

Befoulment

The target is marked with a red arrow as well as a red circle

Befoulment roots the targeted player in place for 15 seconds, and when it expires, deals massive damage split amongst all players within 10 yards

This damage is enough to kill any single player, so the raid should stack inside the Befoulment area of effect to split the damage amongst as many targets as possible

Immunities do not remove the debuff, but can mitigate the damage it deals as it fades

The initial Befoulment cast cannot be interrupted, but stuns and other disruptive abilities may delay the cast

Tormenters will inflict Horrific Mortal Wounds on their tank

This ability deals moderate damage, and debuffs the tank to reduce incoming healing by 10% until healed to full health

The Horrific Mortal Wounds debuff can stack, making it harder to heal up the tank

Tanks should use self-healing abilities to help clear the debuff

Taintheart Tricksters will attack the tanks with Puncture Wound, dealing light periodic damage

This DoT can also stack, and may be dangerous if the tank is also affected by Horrific Mortal Wounds

Horrific Mortal WoundsEssence of Nightmare

Essences of Nightmare periodically cast Lingering Terror, applying Lingering Terror to all players within 10 yards

Lingering Terror can stack, dealing additional damage and slowing the players' movement speed more severely with each stack

Affected players are likely to reach 7 stacks quickly, and will take moderate damage from the DoT

Healers should use ground-based AoE and CDs to heal through the Lingering Terror damage

Ranged players should stay more than 10 yards away from Essences of Nightmare to avoid the debuff

Use AoE stuns and other CC to reduce melee damage on the tanks

Deathroot Ancient

Deathroot Ancients will attack the raid with Devastating Stomp, dealing moderate physical damage to all players within 15 yards

Devastating Stomp damage also stuns affected players for 2 seconds

Devastating Stomp has a long cast time, allowing players to escape its area of effect if they react quickly

Additionally, Deathroot Ancients will breathe a Rotting Gasp at the tank

This deals one burst of moderate damage to all players in front of the Ancient

Tanks should be sure to keep the Ancients facing away from the raid, and melee DPS should be careful not to be in front of the Ancients

Devastating StompLingering TerrorDevastating StompDrake's FuryDrake's WrathDrake's WrathDragons of NightmareElerethe RenferalIl'gynothUrsocGuardian GorrocGuardian Rurson

Dread Charge target

Dread Spirit casts Dread Impact upon reaching its target

Grisly TrapperSummon Dread Spirit

Summon Dread Spirit calls a Dread Spirit to the Trapper's side

Dread Spirits cannot be attacked and will despawn after performing their Dread Charge

The Dread Spirit chooses a target for Dread Charge, marking the targeted player with an arrow

The Dread Spirit will then charge to that target, dealing Dread Charge damage to all players in its path

Dread Charge also knocks back any player it damages

Upon reaching the Dread Charge target, the Dread Spirit will cast Dread Impact, damaging all players within 10 yards

The player targeted by the Dread Spirit should react quickly and run out of the raid to avoid disrupting other players with Dread Charge's knockback

All players should be mindful of their position and avoid being knocked back into other packs of enemies or off the edge of the cliffs

Gruesome Cleave

Kill the Corrupted Totem...

...before Twisted Nova occurs

Dire Shaman

Dire Shaman will cast Dreadful Wrath at their current target, dealing moderate damage

They will also periodically cast Dread Wrath Volley, dealing high damage to all players within 60 yards

Interrupt Dread Wrath Volley as often as possible, as the damage can be fatal in conjunction with other trash mechanics

About every 20 seconds, Dire Shaman will summon a Corrupted Totem

The Corrupted Totem immediately begins to cast Twisted Nova, an uninterruptible cast

After 7 seconds, the Twisted Nova will deal extremely heavy damage to all players

The Corrupted Totem must be killed before its Twisted Nova casts completes

All players should swap immediately to the Corrupted Totem and burst it down as quickly as possible

Healers should save cooldowns for the occasional Dread Wrath Volley or successful Twisted Nova cast

Corrupted Feeler

Many of the Corrupted Feelers can be avoided with careful pathing

If a Corrupted Feeler is engaged in combat with the party, players should stay out of melee range of it until a tank has picked it up

The Feelers will periodically channel Corrupt on a random player, dealing heavy single-target damage

Corrupt can be interrupted, or the Corrupted Feeler can be stunned, disoriented, or incapacitated to interrupt the cast

Horrid Eagle

Horrid Eagles deal moderate tank damage with Rend, a 10-second bleed

It is rare to fight more than one Horrid Eagle at once due to how spread out they are, so Rend should never stack

Horrid Eagles will also Screech, dealing moderate damage to all players within 20 yards

Screech should be interrupted when possible, but is a much lower priority than Dire Shaman interrupts

Guardian Gorroc will frequently cast Shadow Volley, dealing moderate Shadow damage to all players further than 5 yards away

The raid can stack on Gorroc to reduce damage, or healers can be prepared to heal through it

Focus on the Dire Shaman and its Corrupted Totems first

Guardian Rurson

Erupting Terror

Dark Lightning

Guardian Rurson alternates between Erupting Terror and Dark Lightning casts

Erupting Terror deals moderate Shadow damage to all players within 10 yards of Rurson

Rurson casts Dark Lightning at a random player's position, creating a large zone that persists for 20 seconds

Players in the Dark Lightning zone will take heavy damage each second

Run out of Dark Lightning quickly, and note that its area of effect is slightly larger than its graphic

Healers should save cooldowns for the Dark Lightning casts

Dread ChargeUrsoc Abilities & StrategyUrsocBloodlustHeroismTime WarpBlood FrenzyBloodlustHeroismTime WarpFocused Gaze/Barreling ImpactFocused GazeMomentumTrampling SlamBarreling Impact

Ursoc will target a single player with Focused Gaze

Focused Gaze will never target a tank, but all other players are valid targets

After 6 seconds, Ursoc will charge at the Focused Gaze target with Trampling Slam

The farther away the Trampling Slam target is, the less damage the player will take

Once Ursoc reaches the Trampling Slam target, he will damage the entire raid with Barreling Impact

Barreling Impact's damage is reduced for every player that Ursoc had to charge through in order to reach the Trampling Slam target

Players that Ursoc charges through will take Momentum damage, be knocked away, and receive the Momentum debuff

Soaking a Momentum charge while having the Momentum debuff is fatal

Focused GazeMomentumTrampling SlamBarreling ImpactMomentum debuffMomentum

Before beginning the fight, the raid leader should assign all non-tank players to one of two "soak groups"

These soak groups will alternate soaking the Momentum charge:
Group 1 soaks the 1st charge

Group 2 soaks the 2nd charge

Group 1 soaks the 3rd charge

Group 2 soaks the 4th charge

Repeat this pattern until the boss is dead

Focused GazeFocused GazeFocused GazenotBarreling ImpactFocused GazeTrampling SlamBarreling ImpactMomentum debuffRoaring CacophonyBarreling ImpactRoaring Cacophony

Roaring Cacophony deals extremely high damage, split amongst all players within 25 yards

Each time Ursoc casts Roaring Cacophony, he gains a stack of Echoing Dischord

Echoing Dischord increases the damage dealt by all subsequent Roaring Cacophony casts by 10% per stack

Ursoc will cast Roaring Cacophony twice between each Barreling Impact, 10 seconds apart

Under 30%, or when Echoing Dischord stacks are high, healers should use minor cooldowns to top the raid off between the first and second Roaring Cacophony casts

Roaring CacophonyRoaring CacophonyMomentumTank DebuffsTank Debuffs

Ursoc will inflict tanks with Overwhelm and Rend Flesh debuffs

Rend Flesh is a very powerful bleed effect, and in conjunction with Roaring Cacophony or the boss's melee attacks it can threaten a tank

Rend Flesh's bleed lasts 12 seconds, and Ursoc casts it every 20 seconds, so it can never stack

Overwhelm deals moderate damage, but increases all Physical damage its target takes by 15%, which includes Roaring Cacophony and Barreling Impact damage

Overwhelm lasts for 12 seconds and is cast every 10 seconds, so it will stack

Additionally, Overwhelm increases the damage its target takes from Rend Flesh by 150% per stack

Tanks must avoid ever having both Overwhelm and Rend Flesh debuffs at the same time!

This requires frequent taunts to ensure one tank takes 2 stacks of Overwhelm while the other tank takes the Rend Flesh
For example, Tank 1 takes the first 2 Overwhelms, with Tank 2 taunting between them to take the first Rend Flesh

When Tank 1's 2nd Overwhelm stack falls off, Tank 1 taunts for the next Rend Flesh

When Tank 2's Rend Flesh falls off, Tank 2 taunts and will take the next 2 Overwhelms

Barreling ImpactRoaring CacophonyBlood FrenzyBlood Frenzy

This is by far the most dangerous portion of the fight

The increased melee attack speed along with increased damage leads to extremely heavy tank damage

Roaring Cacophony may threaten to wipe the raid as Echoing Dischord and the Blood Frenzy damage bonuses are multiplicative

Healers should use their most powerful cooldowns to recover from the first Roaring Cacophony of each set

All players should use personal defensive cooldowns to mitigate damage during this phase, whenever possible

Tanks should save their strongest cooldowns for mitigating Roaring Cacophony damage while debuffed with Overwhelm

Blood FrenzyBloodlustHeroismTime WarpBarreling ImpactBloodlustHeroismTime WarpStrategy Summary

Tank Ursoc against a wall

The raid should stack up on Ursoc's side to split Roaring Cacophony damage

Mark a spot in the center of the room for the target of Focused Gaze to run to

Divide the raid (minus tanks) into two soak groups and alternate soaking each Momentum

When the Focused Gaze target is chosen, the correct soak group should move behind Ursoc to stand between the boss and the world marker

Never soak a Momentum if you still have the Momentum debuff!

Use healing cooldowns to recover from Barreling Impact damage

Use Bloodlust/Heroism/Time Warp when Ursoc reaches 30% health and gains Blood Frenzy

Tanks must continually taunt Ursoc to manage Overwhelm/Rend Flesh

Tank Responsibilities

Avoid having both Overwhelm and Rend Flesh at the same time

Managing the tank debuffs requires frequent taunting, as illustrated in the infographic to the right:
Tank 1 starts the fight and gains 1 stack of Overwhelm

Tank 2 taunts, and gains Rend Flesh

Tank 1 taunts back, and gains a 2nd stack of Overwhelm

Tank 2's Rend Flesh will fall off

Tank 2 taunts and takes the next Overwhelm, now having 1 stack

Tank 1's Overwhelm stacks fall off

Tank 1 taunts and takes the next Rend Flesh

Tank 2 taunts back, and gains a 2nd stack of Overwhelm

Tank 1's Rend Flesh will fall off

Tank 1 taunts and takes the next Overwhelm, now having 1 stack

This can be summarized as "every time your co-tank gains a debuff, taunt; every time you lose a debuff, taunt"OverwhelmBlood FrenzyDamage-Dealer Responsibilities

If targeted by Focused Gaze, run to the center of the room, at least 30 yards away from the boss

When it is your group's turn to soak Momentum, move to stand behind Ursoc, in the line between Ursoc and the Focused Gaze target

Never soak a Momentum if you still have the Momentum debuff

Use personal defensive cooldowns when taking Roaring Cacophany damage, especially just after a Barreling Impact

Be sure to align your strongest DPS cooldowns with Bloodlust/Heroism/Time Warp during Blood Frenzy

Healer Responsibilities

Tank damage is extremely heavy, especially when a tank has two stacks of Overwhelm

Assign at least one healer to primarily watch tanks, but all healers should top the tanks up after each Barreling Impact or Roaring Cacophony

Use external cooldowns to protect the tanks during the Blood Frenzy phase

Raid damage is high from Roaring Cacophony and Barreling Impact

Use efficient AoE immediately after these effects

Rotate cooldowns for each Barreling Impact, and use minor cooldowns as needed for Roaring Cacophony

Be sure to save the largest cooldowns for the Blood Frenzy phase, where they may be necessary for Roaring Cacophony as well as Barreling Impact damage

If targeted by Focused Gaze, run to the center of the room, at least 30 yards away from the boss

When it is your group's turn to soak Momentum, move to stand behind Ursoc, in the line between Ursoc and the Focused Gaze target

Never soak a Momentum if you still have the Momentum debuff

Looking For Raid Difficultythe Momentum debuffMomentumMomentumMomentum

Tanks should still tank Ursoc by the wall

The raid should stay close to Ursoc, within range to split Roaring Cacophony damage

The player targeted by Focused Gaze should run to the center of the room

Ideally, two groups of players would trade off soaking each Momentum to minimize raid damage

Otherwise, individual players should monitor their Momentum debuff and avoid stacking it above 3-4 stacks to prevent taking fatal damage

OverwhelmOverwhelmRend FleshHeroic DifficultyRoaring CacophonyNightmare Image

The Nightmare Image will create a Miasma zone beneath it, with a 20-yard radius

Miasma deals moderate damage each second to players standing in its area of effect

The raid should begin moving away from Ursoc's position when he begins casting Roaring Cacophony, to minimize Miasma damage

Nightmare Images cannot be targeted or killed, and while they only appear briefly as Ursoc is casting Roaring Cacophony, their Miasma persists for the rest of the fight

Nightmarish CacophonyRoaring Cacophony

Nightmarish Cacophony deals heavy damage split evenly amongst all players within 20 yards

Any player struck with this damage is also feared for 3 seconds

The fear is not dispellable and may cause the player to run into Miasma damage or another Image's Nightmarish Cacophony

Nightmarish CacophonyMiasmaMiasma

Tanks still begin the fight with Ursoc at the wall, and with the Focused Gaze running to the center of the room

With each Roaring Cacophony, the tanks should drag Ursoc along the edge of the room, to avoid taking Miasma or Nightmarish Cacophony damage

This shift should be as little as possible, so that Miasmas will overlap and take up less space

Each shift may make the Focused Gaze positioning a little different, so Momentum soakers may have to adjust their position correspondingly

Additionally, soakers must position so that they are not knocked back into the Miasma

Echoing DischordRoaring CacophonyMiasmaMythic DifficultyRoaring Cacophony

Nightmare Images still cast Nightmarish Cacophony each time Ursoc casts Roaring Cacophony, and cannot be tanked near the boss

This requires three tanks, as the Ursoc tanks will still be occupied handling the Rend Flesh/Overwhelm debuffs

The third tank should pick up all existing Nightmare Images and hold them at least 20 yards away from the raid

A healer should be assigned to monitoring the third tank's health

Ranged DPS should quickly switch to the Nightmare Images and burn them down, while melee DPS stay on Ursoc

When a Nightmare Image animates, its Miasma dissipates

The Nightmare Image formed by Roaring Cacophony 1 will not be animated until after it casts Nightmarish Cacophony in conjunction with Ursoc's Roaring Cacophony 2

The Images tank should not be in range of the Nightmarish Cacophony, to avoid being feared

Taunt the Nightmare Image as soon as it becomes active aftercasting Nightmarish Cacophony

Nightmarish CacophonyRoaring CacophonyRoaring CacophonyMiasmaRoaring CacophonyRoaring CacophonyRoaring CacophonyAbout the Author:Restoration Shaman@healiocentrichealiocentric ... a blog that revolves around healing

Comments

Comment by SemiNobleBerean

It started with Arthas in WC3.

Kael'thas in BC.

Saurfang in Wrath.

Staghelm in Cataclysm.

The Klaxxi in Pandaria.

Iskar in Warlords.

And many others.

So many friends that became our enemies. And sadly we had to say goodbye to each of them without a happy ending.

But in Legion, Blizz seems to have shown us this thing called "redemption."

Ty blizz. Ty for redeeming Illidan. And ty for letting this end happily.

Just a simple letter from an even simpler man.

Seriously though. Got sick to death of killing old friends. I'd rather fight Ragnaros again.

Comment by defektunge

The healing advice seems rather optimistic. If you try to use a healing cooldown after every impact and between the roars, you're going to need one every 20 seconds or so.

Comment by CzechCloud

Its basically best to split into two groups and just change everytime Ursoc charges. We tried this and had no problem with progressing.

Comment by Abohassan

For healers! if a tank got Overwhelm and Rend Flesh, focus heal on him. In addition, all raid members must be close to the boss for roar. My guild use same startegy above for Focused Gaze. This is my guild kill https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0u0H_xR7ANw

Comment by DarthKaan12

This needs to be updated for LFR. He DOES put a debuff on those hit by the Momentum for 300% increased damage, but it usually falls off before the next momentum hits.

Comment by Hreimdal

The mythic section could use a write up. What you are suggesting using 3 tanks will just over complicate the fight and require more raid dps to beat the enrage. It can be done of course if your raid has sufficient dps, but i would put your suggestion down as an alternate strategy.

There is no real reason to use 3 tanks as 2 can deal with the boss and the nightmare image at the same time just fine.

Comment by 683381

So, I had the opportunity to tank Ursoc tonight. I had read about this fight, and knew what was supposed to happen. I was following the tip in the guide above that says: This can be summarized as "every time your co-tank gains a debuff, taunt; every time you lose a debuff, taunt"

Except, I messed up the taunt pattern every time (confirmed via logs it was always my bad taunts). But, I used this failure to figure out a few things that others might find helpful.

1. While Ursoc is casting Rend flesh, a taunt will make him switch targets. This means, if you are supposed to get rend flesh next, and you don't already have aggro (tho you probably should have, which I'll explain next) and he starts casting it on the tank that already has Overwhelm... it's not too late. You can still taunt and get the rend flesh like you're supposed to. On the other hand, if you have an overwhelm and want to get aggro back immediately after the rend flesh hits... do not taunt during the cast (like I did a number of times).

2. While I believe the failed taunts might have been only due to #1, I certainly didn't feel 100% confident about all my taunts. I didn't like the fact that I had to notice "when the other tank gets a debuff", because just looking at a snapshot of the other tanks debuffs, you can't tell whether they just got it or whether they already had it for a while and are supposed to have the boss. So, next time, I'm going to take another approach. See below.

Same strat, different triggers
Taunt if:
You have neither debuff.
<or>
The other tank just got rend flesh.

The first condition will occur when rend flesh falls off. That's preparing you to get your first stack of overwhelm. Additionally, it will occur when your 2nd stack of overwhelm falls off. That's preparing you to next get rend flesh. The second condition should only happen when you have one stack of overwhelm, and are ready to get the second stack.

This will precisely result in the same taunt/debuff pattern in the infographic in the guide above. Except, thinking about it this way, you never need to notice the instantaneous event of an Overwhelm debuff being applied which has no cast time. Instead, you only need to watch your own debuffs, and simply taunt after rend flesh if you weren't the one to get it. It lets you focus only on the state of your own toon, which will give you more bandwidth to worry about moving out of Miasma and tanking images.

Additionally, if you followed the "taunt when co-tank gets a debuff" closely, the taunt after the second overwhelm is applied would cause Ursoc to melee the tank with rend flesh for a while, which is non-ideal.

Comment by DestroyEverythin

hardest boss encounter for tanks in EN. Once i realized only rend had a cast timer and overwhelm did not this became much easier. I suggest a seperate voice channel for the tanks since they dont need to talk to the rest of the raid at all.

as a veteran tank (since WotLK) i cant think of a fight that causes more of a headache than this, luckily its 5 minutes

Ursoc Raid Boss Strategy Guide

Contribute