With the 3.2 patch to the World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Blizzard has opened up yet another raid instance for players. The first encounter in the Trial of the Crusader raid is a three phase event where players need to defeat four different beasts of Northrend.  The beasts come out as three separate waves; the first is the magnataur Gormok the Impaler, then the pair of Jormungars Acidmaw and Dreadscale, and finally the Yeti Icehowl. Our very own Byron "Messiah" Mudry brings you a guide that covers all you need to know to defeat the Beasts.


 

The first encounter in the Trial of the Crusader raid is a three phase event where players need to defeat four different beasts of Northrend.  The beasts come out as three separate waves; the first is the magnataur Gormok the Impaler, then the pair of Jormungars Acidmaw and Dreadscale, and finally the Yeti Icehowl.

Gormak

Gormak is a giant magnataur that represents the first of the mighty Beasts of Northrend.  He is a relatively simple fight with only 2 main abilities.

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Gormak the Impaler

Impale – This attack hits the tank for 150% of normal weapon damage and inflicts a bleed DOT debuff.  The bleed DOT can stack and inflicts roughly 4,000 damage every 2 seconds for 30 seconds.  Gormak uses this attack every 10 seconds.

Staggering Stomp – Gormak’s other major ability is a stomp that hits everyone within 15 yards for roughly 12,000 damage (8,000 in 10 player raids) and disables spell casts for 8 seconds.

Snobolds – These vicious little beasts ride around on the back of Gormak throwing fire pots at the players.  They are also thrown at the players themselves by Gormak. 

Gormak Strategy

When Gormak enters the room, two tanks need to grab his attention and hold him by the door into the coliseum.  All ranged DPS and healers need to stand in the center of the coliseum so that they are out of range of the stomp effect.

The first important thing that needs to happen in this part of the Beast encounter is that tanks need to trade threat by taunting off of each other every 25 seconds.  Once the current tank has 2 stacks of the bleed debuff they need to call out for the next tank to taunt.  Done properly the tanks can trade back and forth and only ever have two bleed debuffs.

On Gormaks back are a pack of Snobolds that throw fire at players.  The fire lands and leaves a roughly 10 yard flame area for about 20 seconds.  Anyone in this area will take heavy fire damage.  It is everyone’s responsibility to get out as quickly as possible.

[protip]It really helps for players to have a macro to instantly target the snobolds that are thrown out and start DPSing them down. This is simple enough to do and saves a lot of time. A very simple macro to use would be:

/target snobold
/cast <usual first attack>[/protip]

While the tanks are dealing with Gormak he will throw the Snobolds out at players.  When these hit a player they will stun and kick that player and they scramble all over them.  When this happens players are essentially out of the fight.  Therefore when a snobold is on a player all ranged DPS must attack and kill that snobold.  Throughout the fight, four snobolds will be launched at players.

The other important thing is that healers keep the melee DPS and tanks topped up on health in case they get stunned.  They shouldn’t if they are positioned properly but while avoiding fires or being attacked by snobolds they will sometimes wander closer than they should.  Therefore it is best to keep them at full health, as a second stomp can wipe out many melee players.

Once you have defeated Gormak, the second wave of the beasts of Northrend will enter.

Acidmaw and Dreadscale

The second wave in the encounter is a pair of vile jormungars called Acidmaw and Dreadscale.  This part of the encounter is a coordination test as you need to work together to bypass the two different poisons that they apply.

Acidmaw's Abilities

Paralytic Bite – This attack hits the main tank for roughly 14,000 damage (10,000 in 10 player raids) and applies a paralytic poison debuff. The poison stays on a player and slows them down over time until they are stationary.  The effect is removed by suffering damage.

Paralytic Poison – Acidmaw sprays poison at everything in his front arc, inflicting roughly 10,000 damage and applying a paralytic poison. It is the same debuff as applied to the tank above. 

Poison Gas – Acidmaw drops poison gas clouds under him that stay in place and grow over time.  Anyone in a cloud will suffer roughly 5,000 nature damage per second.

Dreadscale's Abilities

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Dreadscale

Burning Bite – This attack hits the main attack for roughly 12,000 fire damage (10,000 in 10 player raids) and applies a burning poison.  The burning bile poison deals fire damage over time at roughly 5,000 damage per second for 10 seconds.  Anyone within 10 yards of a player effected by burning bile will also suffer the damage.

Burning Bile – Dreadscale can also spray his burning bile at players, this attack hits everyone in his front arc for roughly 9,000 fire damage and applies the burning bile debuff described above.

Fire Spit – This attack can reach anyone in the room and hits for roughly 10,000 fire damage.

Molten Breath – Dreadscale also has a fire based breath attack that hits everyone in his front arc for roughly 4,000 fire damage per second.

Acidmaw and Dreadcale Strategy

When these two jormungers are released into the Colusieum, each needs to be picked up by a tank and turned away from the raid.  Dreadscale will appear first on the right side of the entrance and be mobile to begin the fight. Acidmaw will appear shortly after on the left side of the door and be stationary to begin the fight.

The tank with Acidmaw slowly moves him around the room facing away from players so that poison clouds do not stack underneath of them.  DPS is split between the two jormungars so that they will die together later in the battle.  If Dreadscale dies before Acidmaw, there will be no way to remove the paralytic poison.  In addition, if either one dies before the other, the second will enrage doing more damage. 

Keep damaging each jormungar until roughly one minute later they both submerge under ground.  They will re-emerge shortly, however now Dreadscale will be stationary and Acidmaw mobile.  The tanks pick up their assigned worms again and the fight continues. 

The key to this phase of the Northrend Beasts encounter is the coordination between players to remove the paralytic poison.  Anyone that is hit by the paralytic poison needs to either get near someone with the burning poison or have that person come to them. 

[protip]Another method to break the poison, but a little more risky, is to turn Dreadscale to the raid quickly after players suffer paralytic poison.  When Dreadscale sprays his molten breath it will free all the paralyzed players.  The tank needs to quickly turn Dreadscale back around though or he could make things worse.[/protip]

Keep DPS even between the two Jormungars, and the fight simply rotates between each being mobile and stationary.  Keep it up until they die and then you face the third Northrend Beast.

Icehowl

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The yeti Icehowl

The third and final Northrend Beast is a giant yeti called Icehowl.  He can cause huge amounts of physical damage and flings players around the room. 

Frost Breath – Icehowl will turn to face a random player and breath his icy breath on them and anyone else in a small cone in that direction.  The breath deals roughly 30,000 frost damage (15,000 in 10 player raids) to all players affected over five seconds.  In addition, while affected by the breath players are made stationary and can not use most abilities.

Massive Leap – Icehowl will leap into the center of the room and cause an AoE blast that hits everyone for roughly 10,000 damage and flings them to the outer wall.  Players will be stunned there for a few seconds before Icehowl does his next attack, Ferocious Charge.

Ferocious Charge – This attack occurs immediately following massive leap.  Icehowl will select a random target and charge across the room at them.  If he hits he will inflict roughly 75,000 physical damage and if they survive, stun the player for three seconds.

Whirl – This attack hits all players within 10 yards for roughly 10,000 damage and throws them back.

Icehowl Strategy

Icehowl is picked up and tanked by a single tank when he enters the room.  He will occasionally stun the tank, and throw players away from him.  When this happens, move back into position and continue the fight.  Players do need to spread out around Icehowl however and not simply stack behind so that when uses his frost breath attack, it does not hit too many players.

When frost breath occurs, healers need to keep players alive until he stops casting it.  This can be done best with AoE or HOT heals.  Also anyone hit by the attack should attempt to minimize incoming damage using abilities or to get out of it with abilities like Divine Shield or Blink.

The main part of this fight, however, is Icehowl’s charge attack.  When players are flung to the wall they will be stunned for a second while he jumps to the center and targets someone.  You will get a brief second to see the announcement of who he is targeting before he charges at that player.  That player, and anyone else near them, must quickly move away to the side or be crushed against the wall and die.  If he does hit someone with this charge, he will enrage and cause significantly more damage. If he does enrage, either a hunter or rogue can remove the enrage through the use of Tranquilizing shot or Anethetic Poison.

If players successfully avoid the charge, he will be stunned against the wall and suffer additional damage for a short time. If this happens repeatedly, the fight becomes what feels like the most simple part of the Northrend Beasts encounter.  You simply need to tank and DPS him while he is active, avoid the charge, rinse and repeat.  I am sure the healers don’t think this phase is so, simply due to the large damage he can inflict on the tank and to players hit by his frost breath, but it shouldn’t be that bad with Ulduar geared players.


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Last Updated: Mar 13, 2016

About The Author

Byron has been playing and writing about World of Warcraft for the past ten years. He also plays pretty much ever other Blizzard game, currently focusing on Heroes of the Storm and Hearthstone, while still finding time to jump into Diablo III with his son.

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