Trial of the Crusader: The Beasts of Northrend

We’re going to do something a little different today. Instead of looking at class mechanics or specs, we’re going to look at the latest raid available to you guys. The newest raid is the Trial of the Crusader, which is the name for both the 10 and 25 man normal versions of the raid. The heroic version of the raid is named Trial of the Grand Crusader and it is only available after a minimum of 6 weeks because of the way that Blizzard is releasing the bosses.

The Beasts of Northrend is the initial “boss” of the new Trial of the Crusader and actually consists of three fights and four bosses. The fight itself is similar to the Ring of Blood and Amphitheater of Anguish quests because it’s a “gauntlet” against beasts with one fight after another. The difference between ToC and the old quest chains is that there isn’t any downtime between any of the three encounters that make up the first boss. Overall, the first “boss” is fairly easy and we’ll be covering the skills and strategies for each encounter.

I apologize for the links in this article not popping up tooltips like they usually do. WoWhead seems to be a bit behind in updating their non-ptr site and I used links from MMO-Champion instead.

Abilities

Gormok the Impaler

• Staggering Stomp – This is an AoE that looks like Thunder Clap. Deals 9200 – 9800 damage and is easily avoided as a hunter.
• Impale – Inflicts 150% of weapon damage to the target and also causes the target to bleed for 3500 – 4500 damage per application every 2 seconds for 30 seconds. This will be on your tanks, so you shouldn’t worry about it unless you pull aggro.

Dreadscale

• Burning Bite – Inflicts 11100 to 12900 Fire damage to an enemy and coats them with burning bile. This will only affect your tank.
• Burning Spray – Sprays fluid at an enemy and nearby targets, dealing 8325 to 9675 Fire damage and coating them with burning bile. This must be dispelled by Paralytic Toxin.
• Fire Spit – Deals 9250 to 10750 Fire damage to an enemy. This will only hit your tank.
• Molten Spew – Deals 3700 to 4300 Fire damage per 0.25 sec. to enemies in front of the caster. You won’t be in front of Dreadscale, so you have nothing to worry about.

Acidmaw

• Paralytic Bite – Inflicts 12950 to 15050 Nature damage on an enemy and injects them with a paralytic toxin. This will only affect your tank.
• Paralytic Spray – Sprays acid at an enemy and nearby targets, dealing 8325 to 9675 Nature damage and applying a debilitating paralytic toxin. This will eventually paralyze you and must be dispelled by Burning Bile.
• Acidic Spew – Deals 2775 to 3225 Nature damage per 0.25 sec. to enemies in front of the caster. You won’t be in front of Acidmaw, so there’s nothing to worry about here.
• Slime Pool – Inflicts 5088 to 5912 Nature damage to enemy targets within the Poison Cloud.

Icehowl

• Ferocious Butt – Delivers a ferocious headbutt to an enemy, inflicting 69375 to 80625 Physical damage and stunning for 3 sec. You won’t survive this, so don’t get hit by it.
• Arctic Breath – An icy breath that freezes targets in a cone in front of the caster, inflicting 20000 Frost damage over 5 sec.
• Massive Crash – Leaps into the air and crashes down with massive force, dealing 11000 Physical damage to all enemies, stunning them, and knocking them back.
• Whirl – Whirls around, dealing 9250 to 10750 Physical damage to all nearby enemies and knocking them back.
• Frothing Rage – Increases Physical damage and attack speed by 50%.

The Fight

Gormok the Impaler

Gormok is the first encounter of the Beasts of Northrend boss fight. The fight is simple, straightforward, and you should be capable of downing him within two or three tries. It only takes about 30 seconds to realize how the fight works and after that it’s just less QQ and more pewpew. What you’ll notice about Gormok is that your group needs at least two tanks who will swap off when they get two or three Impale debuffs and that he likes to toss fire at the ranged players. He also likes to throw some Snobolds at the raid group, but they have no aggro tables and are easily killed. As a hunter, you should stay at least 15 yards away to avoid the Staggering Stomp that Gormok casts and then just DPS him down. If he throws a fire at you, move out of it. It’s similar to Razorscale’s blue flames and they will kill you rather quickly. If Gormok tosses out some Snobolds, especially if they hit the healers or other casters, you should immediately switch over to DPSing the Snobolds to get them off of other players as soon as possible. If a Snobold lands on you, keep DPSing the boss, especially since they can’t really keep a hunter from casting since we have mostly instant-cast skills. Gormok will only toss out 5 or 6 Snobolds, so when you kill all of them, you’re free to just DPS the boss down until he dies.

Dreadscale and Acidmaw

Dreadscale and Acidmaw are fought as a pair and the raid must have one tank on each. You’ll notice that during the fight, one of the two Jormungar will be immobilized in the ground while the other can move around and chase the tank. DPS should always be on the immobilized Jormungar and eventually they will switch rolls. Both Jormungar also have the exact same skills, but Dreadscale uses fire while Acidmaw uses poisons. One unique part of this encounter is that both worms will give a debuff, and both debuffs will dispel each other. Typically one tank will have your fire debuff and the other will have the poison debuff, but you should make sure that it’s communicated through Vent or some other chat program who has which debuff. Acidmaw will randomly spew poisons at the raid and they will bounce to anyone within 10 yards, so stay spread out and make sure you know who has the fire debuff. The same goes for Dreadscale as well. One thing that Acidmaw does that Dreadscale doesn’t is drop a poison cloud which is similar in appearance to the clouds you drop on Grobbulus. The tank that is tanking Acidmaw should kite him to avoid the pools of poison and you as a hunter should have no problem avoiding them. Again, just always DPS the Jormungar stuck in the ground until they are both around 15% and then your DPS should split and kill them at just around the same time. If one Jormungar dies before the other, the remaining one will enrage. Plus, if you kill them within 10 seconds of each other, you get an achievement.

Icehowl

Icehowl is the last encounter of the Beasts of Northrend and is actually one of the most fun fights I’ve experienced in WoW. Don’t let his skills list intimidate you, he’s really a pushover. The healing on the tank will probably be pretty intense, but hey, you’re a hunter, that doesn’t matter to you. The easiest way to deal with Icehowl is to keep him tanked in the center of the room and form a large circle around him. He will periodically cast Arctic Breath which will freeze all targets in a cone shape in front of him and you won’t be able to DPS if you get frozen. Icehowl will also periodically cast Massive Crash where he will jump up and then slam down on the ground. Everyone will be knocked back against the wall and then stunned. You need to pay attention when this happens because Icehowl will jump again and turn to face someone. When he does, make sure you run AWAY from where he is facing. If anyone gets hit by his Ferocious Butt (when he charges), they will most likely die unless they are a tank, and then Icehowl will gain Frothing Rage. After Icehowl charges, he will become stunned if he doesn’t hit anybody and it’s the perfect time to just go all out with your DPS. After he becomes mobile again, your tanks should bring him back towards the center and you just repeat everything until he dies. It’s an easy fight for hunters, no doubt.

The Loot

Loot differs based on faction, but both factions have the same stats on similar items. I won’t be listing heroic loot, but I will list normal Horde/Alliance loot with (H) and (A) respectively.

10 man:

• Bracers of the Northern Stalker (H)/Armbands of the Northern Stalker (A) – Decent hunter stats, but sadly no Armor Penetration for you MM hunters out there.
• Collar of Unending Torment (H)/Collar of Ceaseless Torment (A) – Nice hunter neck for such an easy first boss. It even has Ar.Pen.

25 man:

• Stygian Bladebreaker (H)/Steel Bladebreaker (A) – NICE hunter stats and dual-wieldable. Armor Penetration is always a nice bonus as well.
• Cuirass of Cruel Intent (H)/Breatplate of  Cruel Intent (A) – Really nice chest, in fact, it’s better than t8.5. I almost had it for my hunter, but I would’ve lost 1.74% hit rating, which is hard to make up. If you have an item like Grim Toll or Twisted Visage and can spare the hit rating loss, then this is a GREAT chestpiece.
• Cloak of the Untamed Predator (H)/Drape of the Untamed Predator (A) – Really nice cloak for hunters. I lost the roll on this one sadly, but it has a nice amount of Agility as well as Haste.