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Comment by 583527

This boss will switch between weapons during the fight

2h Mace
This is a kiting phase as he does pretty much unhealable damage on tank, he also jumps on random player and impales them with his mace.
Heroic: Throngus leaves a trail of fire, so players who get impaled need to move right away when they land.

Dual Blades
Throngus' attacks gets really fast and he may do an extra swing with his weapons.
Heroic: Leaves a magic dot on tank which stacks.

Shield
Every damage dealt front of him will be almost completely nullified so get behind him and attack him only then.
Heroic: His shield will breath fire, which does heavy damage.
In addition, untargettable archers will shoot party members from balconies.

Comment by 262954

Forgemaster Throngus is a member of the race known as the Ettins. Little is known about this new race at the moment, but what we do know is that they resemble 2 headed ogres and that they are located both in the mountains around Gilneas and Lakeshire as well as Silverpine forest.

The name Ettin is an archaic English cognate from the Old Norse; Jötunn. A Jötunn is a creature from Norse mythology and they are commonly called frost giants.

The 2 headed giant/ogre derivation of an Ettin seems to originate from C.S. Lewis' Narnia books, primarily The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. C.S. Lewis, as with his fellow Tolkien, liked to draw inspiration from Northern European Mythology and so he felt that, with a slight evolution of what an Ettin was, an Ettin was a suitable minion for the White Witch to command.

It then was picked up, and more than likely the bigger part of the inspiration for the WoW developers, by Dungeons & Dragons. Ettins where first introduced in the 1977 1st D&D revision, in the same basic form as C.S. Lewis' evolution, that being a 2 headed giant/ogre. It has since remained in all major revisions of the D&D series.

And that is a brief insight into what an Ettin is, and what is has been inspired by.

Comment by NokoFace

Forgemaster Throngus is the second boss in the lvl 85 dungeon Grim Batol. He is much like Forgemaster Garfrost in the Pit of Saron, and Mr. Smite in the original Deadmines.

Regular: Throngus has 3 phase, 4 if you count the "Weaponless" stage. Throngus will periodically stomp, causing a cave in on random players, this does a small amount of physical damage over time, so don't stand in it.

The gimmick to his fight, is he will take out a weapon, changing the phase. What weapon he will have is completely random.

Mace, "Oh, this is gonna HURT!": Throngus will do EXTREMELY high damage to his current target, but his movement speed is drastically slowed. The tank has to kite him around, as to avoid getting hit. In this phase, Throngus will charge a random player and impale them, carrying them around on his mace and do physical damage over time.

Swords, "Throngus SLICE you up!": Throngus will hit very fast and very hard during this phase, and that is basically all I saw.

Shield, "You not get through defenses!": Throngus will take out a shield, any attacks from the front will be deflected and/or reflected. The only way to do damage, is to hit him from behind. So adjust accordingly when ever he turns around. As to not make this phase easy, twilight cultists will shoot burning arrows at the party, dealing around 6k fire damage.

Heroic: The fight changes greatly on heroic, Throngus gains a new ability in addition to cave in, called "Disorienting Roar". It starts at 3 stacks, and increases spell casting time by 150%. What it means, is it will take 150% longer to cast a spell, and it is removed every time you cast a spell, even instant casts.

Mace: Throngus leaves a trail of burning fire from his mace where ever he walks, the fire does an extreme amount of damage. This means when he impales someone and drops them, they have to run away as soon as they can, as he will drop them in the fire.

Swords: Throngus will place a magical DoT on the tank, dealing high amounts of fire damage over time. It can be dispelled.

Shield: The shield will change to a winged dragon, it will breath fire, and deal 8 - 10k damage per second. This combined with the flaming arrows, now dealing 8k fire damage, is deadly. So stand close to him so you can quickly move away.

(As of the time of this posting, Throngus is nearly impossible to kill on heroic, as when he impales someone, they are instantly disconnected from the game.)

Comment by Archijslv

For the swords: disarm them. It helps a lot.

Comment by Xarlequin

Heroic tactic, how we sucessfully did it was (Live Cataclysm):
Setup:
Protection paladin (me)
Fury warrior
Shadow priest
Shadow priest
Restoration shaman

The boss has three kinds of weapons, which will change the way the group has to behave.

Dual-wielding swords: Basically doing fast hits (heavy damage) on the tank. Also causing a dispellable dot on the tank, increasing fire damage. Simply dps him from the back.

Phalanax shield: Will breathe fire in 4 directions, avoid it and dps him.

Mace: This is the easiest but also the most tricky one. He will hit insanely hard, but run very slow. This means the tank has to kite him. He will also charge and impale a random target. Therefor we had the group stay around the entrance from the previous room, while I kited him away from them. Doing so, the range for his impale charge became very long, and he never even got close to reaching me. DPS can chase him to keep dpsing, but be aware of the fire-trace he leaves and dont run in it.

He will also stomp to cause Cave ins. Move away from them obviously.
And lastly, Disorienting Roar will slow spellcasts, so healer has to be aware and keep people topped.

Good luck!
Xeela/Xarleen - Aggramar EU.
Thanks to Sargenus for the post above, from where I stole some info.

Comment by 562556

Shield Phase is the only real tough part. Dodging the initial tick or two of fire every time he changes directions can be tricky. If your tank is not fast enough to kite him out of Cave ins (or you just get bad RNG) you can have several near him when he goes into this phase, making for a very angry (and possibly OOM) healer.

Blow your cooldowns during a dual wield phase and hope RNG works in your favor regarding the shield phases. Mace phase is really easy to deal with, though if he chooses it at the start DPS should be wary of threat.

Comment by 160838

Most of the wipes on this boss are the result of sheer bad luck. Its not a hard fight, but when your numbers come up wrong your screwed.

Comment by 488240

Might I add that Fire resistance helps a lot on this fight! Especially for when your healer gets grabbed by impale - it's fire damage that hits you and resistance mitigates it.

Comment by Wowvocate

Very RNG fight on heroic. If he wants your healer to die - your healer will die, and there's nothing the party can do about it.

Simply DPS him down as fast as humanly possible and hope the dice rolls in your favor.

Comment by gubugu

This fight is very easy , but on some phases some players get ''lost'' and die , here is the strategy for HEROIC DIFFICULTY

1- This fight have 3 phases , The Shield Phase , The Swords Phase , and The Mace Phase

2 - On the Shield Phase he will gain ''Personal Phalanx'' wich reduces damage taken by 99% from attacks that come from the front , so on this phase everybody will damage behind him ... on this phase he also gains a shield that causes a Fire Cone , when you see he positioning the shield to one direction , go behind him to dont take the damage , he will do this the entire phase

3 - On the Sword Phase he will Gain an ability that can grants him an extra attack , this phase is known as ''The Healer Phase'' for the damage is VERY intense , healers must heal very strong , he is disarmable on this phase , so disarm him , it will help alot the healer's life, he will also cast a debuff on tank , for god's sake , dispell it

4 - On the Mace Phase , he will gain a buff ''Damage Increased by 300% and movement reduced by 70%'' obviously the Tank must Kite him around , or it will be a 1 shot , on this phase he will also pick up a random player and impales him on his mace , 6k damage each 2 second , lasts 6 seconds, he will leave a firey path while he walks , obviously , don't stand in it

5 - On the whole fight he will cause earthquakes and rock to fall from the sky , you must avoid the rocks , for they hit 8k each second , (the rock falling area is marked by a consectration , it's easy to avoid , but on the end of the fight , the whole area will be consectrated)

This fight isn't too hard , Hope you Enjoyed

Comment by Kevy

Important note for healers.
DO NOT forget to dispell the magic debuff during the swords phase.

Comment by Thedrun

During the shield phase on heroic the radius based heals (Druid Efflorescence, Priest Holy Word: Sanctuary, etc) can be very useful as people will usually cluster up near Throngus to allow for easy movement out of the shield. Try to center these area effects on the boss such that when movement is needed by the party (shield position changes, or falling rocks) there is a good chance people will still be able to stand in them and be healed. As a Druid this might mean positioning yourself in the center of the boss model and swiftmending yourself, since the dps and tank generally hang out near the edges of the boss.

A related strategy for dealing with the shield phase - the boss is very easily reset by running back into the hallway you came from. If the shield phase occurs first or maybe even second, reset the boss. Having the shield phase occur first almost guarantees another shield phase before the fight ends, and the shield phase is easily the most healing intensive. If you are really pressed on survivability, keep resetting until the shield phase occurs third for the best chance of success.

Comment by 27865

If you're really having a problem with this on Heroic, just 2-heal it.

Comment by 437722

Just did this on heroic. Was kicking our buts till our ret pali decided to go to his off spec and heal.

There is no enrage timer. 2 healing this makes it cake.

Comment by 757098

On the shield phase it's in my experience as a healer to let the people spread around in a circle of the boss. I had groups who would move behind the boss but all at the same spot which means the fire is pretty much is garantueed to come that way when he changes direction and damages everyone. If you circle around him, not everyone has to move and not everyone is being hit by the flames as he's changing direction. Standing behind him isn't required and standing on the side works as well as long as you're not past his front.

Another thing is on his dual blade phase that you don't dispel the DoT as it is applied. Removing it costs a lot of mana. Let the DoT stack to a maximum of 3 and then dispel it because as opposed to many stackable debuffs, you can remove all stacks with on dispel.

Comment by 727744

Anyone else have issues during his Shield Phase where he'll bug out and just randomly start spinning in a circle, without holding his shield up spraying fire everywhere?

Comment by 416972

Something that really helped my group was when he went into the Mace phase, I hit Distracting Shot as a hunter and kept my aggro high. Since I was at max range most of the time anyways, all the boss could do was walk very slowly towards me. I would then Feign Death and Misdirect onto the tank to give all the aggro back.

I highly recommend two healing it if you can, the damage is absolutely insane for a single healer. I will try Fire Resistance next time, it might make this fight more doable with a solo healer.

Comment by 271275

I'm curious if rogues can Dismantle his shield. I doubt it, but hey, worth a shot right?

Comment by Lindentree

Last night we had the same glitch for 3 wipes in a row. It's similar to the sprinkler bug mentioned above but it doesn't sound exactly the same so I figured I should document it independently.

When Throngus picked his shield phase, he would face a player and throw his flames as usual; but when it was time for him to change direction, he would pick up his shield, still spewing flames, and face the tank. Please note, his head and body faced the tank, but the flames still appeared to be coming from the shield, which was held at roughly a 45 degree angle from the tank (so the tank was still getting hit). When the tank moved, Throngus would follow, as though he were meleeing, but there was no melee damage - just the shield's fire and the fire arrows. He had no movement animations with the shield in this position.

When we switched our spriest and healadin to holy priest and retadin, the bug didn't happen and we downed him. We speculate therefore that the bug may have been related to the spriest's Shadowy Apparitions.

Comment by 368807

Did anyone else feel kinda sad after hearing his death quote? :(

Comment by iPalmerFX

This was a ^&*!@ for our group...
Shaman,
Warrior,
Rouge,
Warlock,
Priest,

We kept getting the Dual blades, Multipul times, and the healer kept going oom. and it was just a mega-mind-*!@# :(

Comment by Zancoth

Here's an interesting question;

Who whips Throngus?

Comment by KungFuHamster

Does he ever drop anything but that damned agility ring? I've killed him well over a dozen times and haven't seen anything but that stupid ring drop.

It's ridiculous.

Comment by Dowjones

"Prophet Tharon'ja" from Drak'Tharon keep reprises his role in this boss. HARONJA IS ETURNAH

Comment by 455808

About the arrows on shielf phase, there's something that we can do about they? Keep walking to avoid or anything?
Or it's just something for the healer heal over the arrows damage?

Comment by Shetyre

better die then fail and live

- a true man

Comment by MABGamer6407

changes weapons, is worried about disappointing its Master. And most importantly there both a Forgemaster. The Catta Version of Garfrost. :D

Comment by 1484249

Just soloed Grim Batol for the Winterfest hat. Could not find the Forgemaster.
According to the map I should have been standing upon his head, but he was nowhere to be seen.

Is there a trick/mechanic needed to summon him? I killed everything in sight, and moused over every object I could.

What am I missing?

Comment by SFFCorgi

A note on something I haven't seen mentioned. I just Timewalked Grim Batol as a Resto Shaman, and got killed by fire. On my run back, in the area of the previous boss, I was getting hit by fireballs from the shield. This was through thick walls and a crooked corridor. You take damage because you're in the party, in the fight.

Comment by icemistress

currently, as of this current timewalking cycle starting 21/9/2021 this guys "Disorienting Roar" ability does not behave correctly. No abilities used on a MM hunter removes a stack basically taking one out of the fight for half a minute. I have submitted an ingame bug report and i strongly suggest anyone else who encounters this, especially if on a different class, also submit a bug report. Hopefully we can get it sorted by next time Cata timewalking cycles around