Thorim (tactics)

Thorim is one of the watchers boss encounters in Ulduar. The encounter has two phases, in the first, the raid has to split in a gauntlet and an arena team. The arena team must fight waves of adds while the gauntlet team makes its way through some trash and a few mini-bosses to Thorim. Upon reaching the boss, he and the gauntlet group join the arena team, starting the second phase which lasts until Thorim is subdued.

Both, fire and nature resistance are useful. When attempting hard mode, a little frost resistance gear is recommended.

Phase 1

 * Charge Orb: Charges a nearby orb with electricity. Orbs affected by this ability gain a periodic effect that fires a Lightning Shock every second, inflicting 2831 to 3169 Nature damage to enemies within 25 yards.
 * [[Image:Spell Lightning LightningBolt01.png|32px]] Sheath of Lightning: Encases the caster in a sheath of pure electrical energy, reducing all damage taken by 99%.
 * Stormhammer: Throws a stormhammer, dealing 2451 to 2551 damage to an enemy, knocking down and stunning the target for 2 sec, and causing a Deafening Thunder to all enemies nearby the target.
 * Summon Lightning Orb: Summons a supercharged ball of energy, laying waste to all in its path. This ability is used if either a) no one is in the room below where Thorim stands, or b) if five minutes pass and no one reaches Thorim.

Phase 2

 * [[Image:Spell Nature ChainLightning.png|32px]] Chain Lightning: Strikes an enemy with a blast of lightning that inflicts 3700 to 4300 Nature damage (4625 to 5375 on heroic). The bolt will arc to additional nearby enemies, inflicting 50% more Nature damage to each successive target.
 * [[Image:Spell Lightning LightningBolt01.png|32px]] Lightning Charge: Absorbs a torrent of electrical energy, inflicting 13875 to 16125 Nature damage (17344 to 20156 on heroic) to enemies in a cone between the caster and the power source, and gaining a stacking buff called "Lightning Charge" that increases Thorim's melee damage and attack speed by 15%, and Nature damage dealt by 10%. When he uses this ability, the "power source" used is one of the pillars with the orbs attached. About 10 seconds cooldown.
 * Melee strike: deals increasing amounts of physical damage.
 * [[Image:Ability Warrior DecisiveStrike.png|32px]] Unbalancing Strike: Inflicts 200% weapon damage and leaves the target unbalanced, reducing their defense skill by 200 for 15 sec.  Since the removal of defense in Patch 4.0.1, the debuff no longer has any effect.

Sif's Abilities

 * Frost Bolt Volley - Inflicts 11250 to 13750 frost damage to all raid members and slows movement for 4 sec. 8 sec cooldown. Instant.
 * Frost Nova - Inflicts 14138 to 15862 frost damage to targets within roughly 8 yards and roots them for 6 sec. 2.5 sec cast.

Initial mobs

 * 1 Jormungar Behemoth
 * 1 Dark Rune Acolyte
 * 1 Captured Mercenary Captain
 * 3 Captured Mercenary Soldiers

These mobs aren't much of a threat - killing the healer (Acolyte) first is a good idea though.

Gauntlet mobs

 * Runic Colossus
 * Health: 134,810 (Heroic: 808,860)
 * Abilities
 * [[Image:Ability Warrior Charge.png|24px]] Charge - Charges an enemy, inflicting 4625-5375 (Heroic: 6938-8062) Physical damage and knocking the enemy back.
 * [[Image:Spell Arcane PrismaticCloak.png|24px]] Runic Barrier - A shield of runic power surrounds the caster, reducing all damage taken by 50% and inflicting 2000 Arcane damage to attackers.
 * [[Image:Ability Warrior Cleave.png|24px]] Smash - Deals 37000 to 43000 Physical damage to all enemies within a 10-yard cone in front of the caster.


 * Ancient Rune Giant
 * Health: 202,215 (Heroic: 808,860)
 * Abilities:
 * [[Image:Spell Fire SealOfFire.png|24px]] Rune Detonation - Immobilizes a target with a runic ward that detonates after 4 seconds to inflict 11250 to 13750 Fire damage around the target.
 * [[Image:Trade Engraving.png|24px]] Runic Fortification - Fortifies nearby allies. Damage done increased by 50%. Attack and cast speed increased by 50%. Health increased by 100%.
 * [[Image:Ability WarStomp.png|24px]] Stomp - Inflicts 8313 to 10687 Physical damage to nearby enemies and knocks them back.

Arena mobs

 * Dark Rune Warbringer
 * Health: 33,702 (Heroic: 190,000).
 * Abilities
 * Melee strike.
 * Aura of Celerity: 20% spell and melee haste to allies.
 * Rune Strike (melee strike + 1000 nature damage).


 * Dark Rune Evoker
 * Health: 33,702 (Heroic: 162,000).
 * Abilities:
 * Runic Lightning: 45 yards range, 1.5 sec cast; strikes an enemy with a blast of runic lightning, inflicting 7875 to 10125 Nature damage.
 * Runic Mending: 40 yards range, 2 sec cast; heals an ally for 18500 to 21500, then heals for an additional 6000 every 1 sec for 15 sec.
 * Runic Shield: 30 yards range, 0.5 sec cast, 6 sec cooldown; surrounds the caster with a runic barrier, absorbing 120,000 magical damage and reducing all physical damage taken by 50% (lasts 1 minute).


 * Dark Rune Champion
 * Health: 53,924 (Heroic: 296,582).
 * Abilities:
 * Charge: Charges an enemy, inflicting normal damage plus 75 and stuns the opponent for 2 sec.
 * Mortal Strike: Inflicts 250% weapon damage and leaves the target wounded, reducing the effectiveness of any healing by 50% for 5 sec.
 * Whirlwind: Attacks nearby enemies in a whirlwind of steel that inflicts normal damage plus 100.


 * Dark Rune Commoner
 * Health: 8,820 (Heroic: 25,200).
 * Abilities:
 * Low Blow: Lands a cheap shot on an enemy, inflicting Physical damage and reducing the target's damage dealt by 3% for 20 sec.
 * Pummel: Pummels an enemy for 15 damage and interrupts the spell being cast for 5 sec.

Phase 1
The fight is started by killing the trash mobs in the Arena (healer first). Thorim casts Sheath of Lightning on himself, making him almost invulnerable. After the mobs are down, the lever next to the gate on the left becomes active. The raid should now split in two, one part goes down the hallway to reach Thorim, and the other part stays in the arena to fight waves of adds.

The Gauntlet
The gauntlet team needs one tank and one healer. In 10 player mode, 1-3 damage dealers suffice, in 25 player mode an extra healer and about 7 damage dealers should be sent. Ranged DPS is better suited for the gauntlet, mages in particular. The gauntlet team must move quickly, because after 5 minutes Thorim wipes the raid.

There are 3 groups of 3 Warbringers. They can be Crowd Controlled, (Polymorph in particular). Two mobs should be CC'd while the others are killed. At the end of the hallway is a large golem. In regular intervals it raises one arm and does damage to anyone on that side of the hallway, much like Skadi. A short time after it is engaged it gains a buff which decreases damage taken by 50%, so if using cooldowns it's best to use them early.

After defeating the golem, the door behind it opens and mobs start spawning on top of the stairs. Defeat or CC the two sets of two mobs already standing there and quickly run up. When the giant aggros, he buffs any adds still alive, but the adds stop spawning. The healers must have LOS to the tank but stand outside the giant's stomp. When the giant is positioned at the top of the stairs, the healer can stand about halfway down.

After the giant is defeated the gauntlet team runs towards Thorim and jumps down into the arena. Someone must use any ability on Thorim to make him join. While running the large circles on the ground must be avoided, they are traps which briefly stun players standing on them.

Arena
Those raid members which are positioned closest to Thorim gain initial aggro from all adds wich spawn.

A simple setup for the arena team is to stack up dead center in the room. This avoids getting hit by the charged orbs, and also greatly increases the effects of both, AoE healing and AoE damage. The disadvantage of this method is that it makes the raid more susceptible to Stormhammer - it's possible to just take Stormhammer, but the group can also try to quickly spread out when it hits.

The most dangerous mobs are the Dark Rune Champions which do a whirlwind atteck. They need to be kept away from the main raid, and/or disarmed. The Evokers casts heals-over-time that heal for massive amounts and also cast magic damage shield that can be stolen by mages. Both are dispellable and need to be dispelled/stolen quickly. Wound poison helps to reduce the amount healed.

Phase 2
Once Thorim is activated, he jumps down into the Arena. The mob waves stop spawning. During the whole of Phase 2, Thorim gains an extra Lightning Charged buff every 10 seconds. This buff stack progressively increases damage and attack speed, it's in effect a passive enrage timer. From about 7 stacks on, healers and tanks need to use some CDs to survive, after about 15 buffs Thorims melee hits can one-shot even the best geared tank.

After Thorim is in the arena, he needs to be picked up by the MT immediately. The raid should spread out to avoid extra damage from Thorims' chain lightning. Every time Thorim uses Unbalancing strike (which is every 15–20 seconds), tanks need to taunt him off each other. When Thorim uses Lightning Charge, small lightning balls come from a column. After a short time, that column deals large amounts of AoE damage in a 60 degrees angle, this damage may be enough to one-shot players after the third Lightning Charge.

Hard mode: Lose your Illusion
If the gauntlet team reaches Thorim within 2:45 min (6:15 on Heroic) of killing the adds in the entrance, the illusion of Thorim's wife Sif joins the fight. Additionally, Thorim gets +43% health and +67% damage compared to Normal Mode (it is not only +30%/+40%, since the debuff Touch of Dominion being applied for Normal Mode reduces his stats by -30%/-40% from the Hard Mode values).

While the increased damage is not a large deal, the additional HP make the fight longer, which means a substantially higher stack of Lightning Charged.

In hard mode, Thorim's Chain lightning is very dangerous to melee, so it is advisable to form 2-3 melee camps more than 8 yards from each other around the boss, as with Kel'Thuzad at 60.



Sif herself is unattackable. She has four abilities which when chained together can kill raid members very quickly.
 * Frostbolt Single: This does 11,000-13,000 Frost damage and is chain cast on random targets when Sif isn't casting anything else.
 * Frostbolt Volley: This is the same damage as her single target frostbolt and hits everyone in the room every 10–15 seconds.
 * Frost Nova: Sif frequently teleports to a random location starts a 2.5 sec cast of Frost Nova. It does high amounts of damage (13,000-15,000) so avoiding it by running away is paramount but not always possible due to the snares.
 * Blizzard: Much like Shade of Aran, Sif conjures a Blizzard which orbits the perimeter of the room, making the center area 'safe'. It does 4,500 Frost damage every 2 seconds and snares targets by 50%.

When Thorim is defeated 'Sif' reveals itself for what it is: an influence tentacle of Yogg-Saron.

Tips
Demoralizing Shout cuts the damage the tank receives from unbalancing strike by 40%.

Shadow priests can MC a Dark Rune Warbringer. Besides dealing high damage, they also give all nearby allies a permanent buff called "Aura of Celerity", increasing melee, ranged and spell haste by 20%, practically a permanent Bloodlust (also requirement for the achievement / ). When mind controlled, these mobs also do more DPS than most player characters.

Quotes

 * Aggro
 * yell
 * yell


 * Special
 * yell
 * yell
 * yell


 * Thorim jumps down
 * yell


 * Killing a player
 * yell
 * yell


 * Wipe in Arena
 * yell


 * Berserk
 * yell


 * Defeated
 * yell


 * Outro on Normal Mode
 * yell
 * yell
 * yell


 * Outro on Hard Mode:
 * yell
 * yell
 * yell


 * Required for Yogg-Saron's encounter
 * yell

Sound files
See Sound Files of Ulduar: Thorim

Hard mode
The following achievements are for the encounter's hard mode:

10-man encounter
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25-man encounter
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25-man Hard mode encounter
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