Beasts of Northrend

Beasts of Northrend is the collective term used by Blizzard for the first three boss encounters of the Trial of the Crusader, added in patch 3.2. These bosses individually are Gormok the Impaler (a magnataur), Acidmaw and Dreadscale (a pair of jormungar) and Icehowl (a yeti).

Phase 1: Gormok

 * Snobold Vassals leap from Gormok's back, one for every 20% of Gormok's health loss (4 Snobolds total), and attack players. On 10 man, they have 134,000 health; only 4 of them spawn during the encounter. The player under attack receives the debuff Snobolled!. While they are not very dangerous on melees, they are able to lock down a caster from ever casting any spell. They have three abilities:
 * Fire Bomb: Inflicts 4813 to 6187 Fire damage to all enemies within 8 yards of the target.
 * Head Crack: Stuns an enemy for 2 sec. 30 seconds cooldown.
 * Batter: Strikes an enemy for 75% of normal melee damage, interrupting spellcasting for 5 sec.
 * Head Crack: Stuns an enemy for 2 sec. 30 seconds cooldown.
 * Batter: Strikes an enemy for 75% of normal melee damage, interrupting spellcasting for 5 sec.

25-player abilities

 * Berserker Enrage Each of the beasts enrages 15 minutes after it entered the arena, increasing all damage done by 500%, and becoming immune to taunt.

Phase 1: Gormok the Impaler

 * Snobold Vassals appear every few seconds, and attack players. On 25 man, they have 539,000 health; only 4 of them spawn during the encounter. The player under attack receives the debuff Snobolled!. While they are not very dangerous on melees, they are able to lock down a caster from ever casting any spell. They have three abilities:
 * Fire Bomb: Inflicts 4813 to 6187 Fire damage to all enemies within 8 yards of the target.
 * Head Crack: Stuns an enemy for 2 sec. 30 seconds cooldown.
 * Batter: Strikes an enemy for 75% of normal melee damage, interrupting spellcasting for 5 sec.
 * Head Crack: Stuns an enemy for 2 sec. 30 seconds cooldown.
 * Batter: Strikes an enemy for 75% of normal melee damage, interrupting spellcasting for 5 sec.

Strategy: Normal mode
The Northrend Beasts is a three phase boss fight. First comes Gormok the Impaler, then Acidmaw and Dreadscale at the same time, and finally Icehowl.

Phase 1: Gormok
Phase 1 is Tank and spank with a few refinements:
 * The two tanks taunt off each other to keep the damage-over-time Impale from stacking too high
 * DPS kill snobold adds that attach themselves to random players
 * Ranged and healers spread out to stay out of fire patches and outrange the 15-yard Staggering Stomp interrupt

Tanks taunt the boss off each other when their Impale debuff has expired. With two tanks, this normally results in a taunt at 3 stacks, three tanks can keep themselves at 2 stacks. It's possible to heal through 8 stacks or more, but a high Impale stack makes the start of Phase 2 very difficult. With careful management of timing, it is easily possible for two tanks to keep themselves at 2 stacks. Taunt off after the second Impale on the other tank, when your debuff should have 8 seconds left. As the cooldown on Impale is 10 seconds, this keeps the stacks on both tanks from going over 2 stacks. This is essential for Hard-Mode 10man, where there is only 2 tanks, and the damage is increased greatly.

Don't stand in the fire! All ranged classes must avoid the fire patches. They are rather short range AoE, but deal substantial damage. They randomly spawn on players, and rather quickly too. This means that while moving away from one's own fire, it's possible to enter somebody else's. To avoid this, ranged should spread out in a semi-circle, and move outward when they get fire.

Kill snobolds! Gormok throws Snobold Vassals onto random players (even on tanks). Snobolds don't deal a lot of damage, but they regularly interrupt and/or stun their targets, which is particularly dangerous on healers. Ranged (if not all DPS) should kill Snobolds quick, relieving healers first. A common mistake that players new to the instance make is not killing snobolds under the assumption that a tank is supposed to pull it off of them and tank it.

Gormok's damage can be greatly reduced by disarming him in normal mode.

Phase 2: Acidmaw and Dreadscale
The key mechanic in this phase is interaction between Burning Bile and Paralytic Toxin.
 * Acidmaw applies Paralytic Toxin; Dreadscale applies Burning Bile.
 * Players with Paralytic Toxin can get it removed by running close to a player with Burning Bile and taking a tick of fire damage.
 * Burning Bile falls off naturally and cannot be removed.
 * One worm is mobile and the other stationary. Regularly they burrow themselves and switch state after resurfacing.

Both worms can be tanked normally. They apply their special attack depending on their state, that is the mobile worm applies it only to its tank, while the stationary worm puts it on a random group of players (AoE). The mobile worm also spawns poison circles around itself (similar to Grobbulus), thus must be moved.

Initially, Dreadscale is mobile and Acidmaw stationary. This means that random raid members get Paralytic Toxin, and they must run towards the Dreadscale tank to get rid of it. After the first burrow, only the Acidmaw tank gets Toxin, but he must get close to the random raid member who has Burning Bile. Usually it's better if one of the players affected by Burning Bile runs to the Acidmaw tank, not vice versa.

Positioning is important. No players except the tank should ever stand in front of one of the worms. The distance between players should be as large as possible, so that fewer raid members get Paralytic Toxin at once (it's an AoE centered on one player with 10 yard radius). At the same time, players can't be more than half the room away from the Dreadscale tank, else the toxin freezes them before they reach the tank.

Normally, Acidmaw is killed first, to get rid of Paralytic Toxin, even though after one worm dies, the other enrages for at least 50% extra damage (10 and 25 player normal).

Hunters should mark both snakes when they burrow so they are easily followed underground.

Phase 3: Icehowl
Aside from Icehowl's melee range knockback and periodic tank stun, the main mechanic of this phase is the Massive Crash and Ferocious Butt charge:
 * Massive Crash: Icehowl knocks the entire raid back to the walls, stunning everybody.
 * Icehowl moves to the center of the room and picks a random target which he's going to charge. He turns in that raid member's direction.
 * After a short pause, Icehowl takes a few steps back. At the instant he starts moving backward, everybody gets a speed buff and can move again.
 * Ferocious Butt:After two seconds, he charges the spot where his target was originally standing.
 * If he touches any player (not necessarily the original target) while moving to the chosen spot - they die instantly and he enrages. (This is dispellable with Tranquilizing Shot or Shiv).
 * If he hits nobody, he crashes into the wall. He is stunned and takes increased damage for about 5 seconds.

Avoiding the charge is critical. Other than that, healers need only watch out for the Arctic Breath freezing cone attack, which can be broken altogether if the main target breaks the stun using Blink, a PvP trinket, or immunities like Divine Shield. Melee should stand at maximum range to avoid his periodic melee knockback ability. This keeps them doing DPS instead of running back from a knockback.

Strategy: Heroic mode
Like normal mode, this is a three-phase encounter. However, the three phases are now on a timer and do not wait for the raid to kill the previous phase's boss. These timers are quite tightly tuned (2-3 min each). This makes the fight a major DPS race and you may have bosses overlap for a short time. It helps to have enough tanks to handle two phases simultaneously, at least for a brief period.

Phase 1: Gormok the Impaler
The principles of the fight remain the same, but all his abilities hit harder. The tanks take more damage, and Impale ticks for much higher amounts. Tanks should limit themselves to 3 stacks in 10 player, and 2 stacks in 25.

The Fire Bombs thrown at the ranged now stack a 20-second DoT, 2-3 stacks of which will prove fatal. Ranged must react much faster to fires.

In normal mode, Snobold Vassals are only really dangerous when hindering a healer. In heroic mode, they are a significant hazard when they hit a damage dealer because they cut down on the victim's DPS in a very tightly tuned encounter. All DPS in the raid should prioritize snobolds and burn them down as fast as possible. Ranged players with a snobold on them must immediately run to the melee. This positioning has two main benefits: melee can help kill the snobold, and it guarantees the player is within range for everyone.

Gormok throws a total of four snobolds. After the fourth, Fire Bombs stop too. At this time, everyone should blow their pots and cooldowns to kill him quickly, because Phase Two is about to begin. Gormok should be at 10% or less when the NPC announces the arrival of Acidmaw and Dreadscale: "Steel yourselves, heroes, for the twin terrors Acidmaw and Dreadscale. Enter the arena!"

Phase 2: Acidmaw and Dreadscale
There are no changes to the mechanics of Acidmaw and Dreadscale. As at least one tank is still affected by an Impale stack, it is useful to have Acidmaw picked up by a ranged tank such as a warlock or a hunter. Paladin's can also use Hand of Protection on the tank with the Impale stacks to remove them. The tank with HoP should remember to take off buff before tanking, or else they won't be able to attack or gain threat. It's also a good idea to blow Heroism/Bloodlust right at the start to get Acidmaw down as fast as possible.

Positioning is even more important in Heroic mode. The whole raid must be spread at least 10 yards from each other to avoid having more than one person hit by Acidmaw's Paralytic Toxin - the raid can't afford to have 3 or 4 people stop DPS and run across the room to remove it. Alternatively, two tanks can take turns on Dreadscale. As soon as the first one gets Burning Bile, the second one taunts so that Tank 1 is free to run around and clear toxin from affected players.

Once Acidmaw dies, Dreadscale enrages. It's a good idea to save some cooldowns for this part of the fight. If Dreadscale burrows just as Acidmaw goes down, he does not enrage. Dreadscale should be at most at 20% when Icehowl enters.

Phase 3: Icehowl
Again, positioning is more important than in normal. Initially, Icehowl should stand in the center of the room, ranged spread evenly in a circle. (If there are any poison clouds left from Phase Two, everyone must make sure not have their back towards them, so they don't end up knocked back into one during a Whirl or Massive Crash.) Among other benefits, spreading out reduces the number of players affected by Arctic Breath. It helps a lot to have a Retribution Paladin with 2/2 Divine Purpose who uses the following macro:
 * /assist Icehowl
 * /cast Hand of Freedom

This breaks Arctic Breath on the initial target, and thus everyone else affected is freed too. Next, healers must quickly top everyone off before Massive Crash, as it now hits for around 18k HP and can easily kill players who are not at maximum health.

Whirl is easily avoided by standing at maximum melee range. All melee DPS should attempt to stand at maximum range to avoid Whirl and be able to keep doing DPS to the boss. If that is not possible, stand with your back to the nearest wall, to minimize the knockback.

When the stun breaks, players no longer receive a speed buff to avoid Icehowl's charge. Moving sideways (strafing) is a very good method to avoid it, but keep an eye out for nearby columns. Speed enchants (Tuskarr's Vitality) or abilities like Pursuit of Justice, Feral Swiftness etc. can help too. The enrage after Icehowl hits a player can be removed as in normal mode, so a hit in and of itself won't cause a wipe. However, the loss of DPS due to missing a stun phase can cause you to wipe to the enrage timer.

When the enrage timer expires, the next Massive Crash one-shots everyone affected by it. However, it can be survived by Ice Block or Paladin Bubble. If Icehowl is nearly dead, mages and paladins should Ice Block or Bubble through the initial crash, get out of his way if targeted by a charge, and try to nuke him down before the stun wears off.

Quotes

 * Gormok's intro
 * yell


 * Acidmaw and Dreadscale's intro
 * yell


 * Icehowl's intro
 * yell


 * Wipe
 * yell

Loot
As with the other bosses in the instances, there are separate versions of each item for Alliance raids and for Horde raids.

10-man encounter
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10-man Heroic encounter
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25-man encounter
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25-man Heroic encounter
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