Gurtogg Bloodboil is, as seen above, a massive pain in the- rather, a fairly large fel orc boss.  Possessing numerous abilities that will stretch your healing capacity as well as tactical and strategic abilities, this guy is probably the first true test of one’s capabilities within Black Temple, a definite step up from Gorefiend and all others before him.

Abilities

5,600,000 HP

Melee – 5,000 – 6,000 average on plate, Crushing Blows for 8,000 – 9,000 and can hit clothies for upwards of 20,000 during the chaotic battle of phase 2.

Arcing Smash – Cleave attack hitting for an average of 5,000 throughout phase 1 and upwards of 12,000 in phase 2, also reduces healing effects by 50% for 6 seconds, mortal strike style.

Fel Acid – Wide cone attack with a range of about 10 yards, deals around 8,000 nature damage over 10 seconds.

Enrage – 10 Minutes into the fight, Gurtogg will enrage, wipe is imminent.

Phase 1

Disorient – Disorients the highest threat target, lasts 5 seconds.

Knockback – Generic knockback attack, reduces targets threat level.

Bloodboil – Stacking debuff ability cast every 10 seconds to the 5 raid members furthest from him, deals 600 damage to the target every second for a total of 24 seconds.

Acidic Wound – A stacking debuff applied to the currently targeted tank every 2 seconds, reduces armor by 500 and ticks for 250 damage, stacks a generally unlimited number of times, cannot be removed.

Phase 2

Insignificance – Debuff ability cast at the beginning/entering phase 2, makes all abilities inflict absolutely no threat/aggro whatsoever.

Geyser – Small AoE targeted upon the fel raged player, dealing 5,000 nature damage to them as well as anyone within 5 yards of the position.

Fel Rage – Placed on a random player, cast every 90 seconds and lasts a total of 30 seconds on both the target as well as Gurtogg himself.

Increases armor by 15,000(Does not apply to Gurtogg)
Increases health by 30,0000(Does not apply to Gurtogg)
Increases damage done by 300%
Increases size by 100%
Increases Healing done by 100%
Decreases cost of spells and abilities by 50%

Gurtogg will gain the bonuses of Fel Rage as well aside from those noted above.  During the Fel Rage Gurtogg will only attack the player afflicted by Fel Rage until either they die or the rage has worn off.

Phase 1

One of the primary abilities to be dealt with when facing Gurtogg in phase 1 is his bloodboil, a stacking debuff dealing a fairly annoying amount of damage to an entire group of players, those farthest away from him at any time.

To counter this we’ll be assigning a number of groups to bloodboil duty, and it’s exactly as it seems, whenever one group picks up bloodboil they move forward, past a set ‘line’ basically, and the next group moves back to be targeted next wave of bloodboil.

Generally it’s a good idea and makes it easier on everyone to set a specific point of the room as the ‘line.’ Meaning players in the current bloodboil group simply need move back, behind the set object, when it’s their turn, and forward once more when they’ve received the debuff.

Bloodboil will be cast a total of 5 times throughout phase 1 in 1-10 second intervals between each usage, obviously you’ll need some healers to counter the effects of the debuff, I recommend AoE heals/HoT’s for this duty.

Now, onto DPS, this boss is untauntable, and, due to his unique tank-destroyer abilities/disorient, must be handled by a minimum of 2, and more likely 3, tanks at any one time.  Just keep your threat levels below all three tanks at all times and go slowly.

Healers will be grouped up into healing assignments around the Tanks, requiring the majority of the healing due to the bosses continual high damage, and another one or two for bloodboil duty.  At any one time having at least 4 healers or more on the main-tank is recommended.

Tanks, this’ll definitely be a testing fight, assuming you have three in operation all of you will have to maintain the top 3 positions on the threat meter at all times, and even then within a short range of one-another.

Transitions between tanks will come either once the present main-tank has received an overwhelming amount of the Acidic Wounds debuff or after a Disorient.  For the acidic wounds debuff you’ll simply have that tank cease attacking and allow one of the others to gain aggro, this is the reason for making certain the tanks are close to each other in threat.

For disorient the tank will be unable to act for 5 seconds, causing the boss to immediately switch to the number 2 threat tank, healers have to be on the ball for this switch as the new-tank will likely hit a massive damage spike.

Knockbacks will also aid with threat reduction for whoever the primary tank is, however maintaining close threat levels is still a requirement to avoid any hitches throughout phase 1.

Phase 2

Phase 2 will likely be noted by the sudden usage of Geyser, exploding upon both the newly fel-raged player as well as anyone else that happens to unluckily be nearby.  Phase 2 requires a more spread-out arrangement of players to avoid the bosses various abilities now in use.

However, healers will need to note that, despite the bosses focus switching to whoever the Fel Raged player is, any and all debuffs from phase 1 are still present and can just as easily kill off a player without some aid as well.

As Gurtogg rushes his new target all healers, except for possibly one or two still healing up those damaged from phase 1, will need to switch to the targeted player and immediately begin healing.  Despite this players additional 30,000 HP and 15,000 armor, the boss will also possess an even greater damage output and be easily capable of dropping them regardless.

Perhaps the most important duty will be that the Fel-Raged player keep themselves alive at all costs aside from using invulnerabilities such as Ice Block, Divine Shield, or even Vanish.  Doing so will cause the boss to target the highest threat player from Phase 1 and even a great tank will be hard pressed to survive his enraged damage output, likely using Shield Wall/other applicable defensive ability.

Throughout phase 2 DPS will be free to unleash all cooldowns and abilities as the Insignificance debuff will prevent them from increasing threat/gaining aggro.  Maximize your trinkets and more powerful abilities by using them as quickly as possible into this phase.

After 30 seconds have passed both the Fel Rage and phase 2 will end, returning to the strategy as utilized in phase 1.  This is often one of the more wipe-prone transitions as the boss can Arcing Smash players on his way back to the tanks, often catching healers off-guard with sudden damage spikes and dropping injured players.