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Raid Mechanics: Gruul

by - 9 years ago

Gruul is an interesting boss to look at. Back in Burning Crusade we met this ogre lord as Gruul the Dragon Slayer and he even had his lair as a raid instance. The alternate reality of Draenor was not good to him though and now he is a slave to the Iron Horde. As part of the torture he went through Gruul lost his hand and had it replaced by a hook. Mechanically this contributes to his ability Inferno Slice, which helps give contrast to how this alternate reality changed him.

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(Old School Gruul)

Gruul is the closest to a Patchwerk fight we can find in BRF. The main mechanic that we have to be concerned about is Inferno Slice. This ability requires the tanks to position Gruul so that he hits stacked groups of players to split the damage. This ability also has a debuff that applies to all damaged players which warrants a tank swap and requires the stacked groups to be hit in a specific order so the same group does not have the debuff twice in a row. What I find really interesting of this fight is how the rest of the mechanics; Petrify, Overhead Smash, Overwhelming Blows and Cave In, all require players to not be close to others or move away from the stack group positions. This makes Gruul an interesting and dynamic fight were people are constantly moving close and away form each other to deal with different mechanics.

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(Inferno Slice in Action)

This fight is not hard for most DPS or healers. Most of the time they just sit in one spot doing their rotations or healing group members and only have to move around the boss whenever a mechanics requires them to. Tanks are the ones that have the more complex job as they have to find a way to position the boss for Inferno Slice but not get people hit with Overwhelming Blows. Most groups I have been a part of have one of the tanks stand in the group that is supposed to take the slice next and just taunt off the other tank once Gruul begins casting this ability.

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Gruul is not the hardest of encounters but I am glad Blizzard were able to reuse some old mechanics and mix them up with new ones to make a different take on Patchwerk type encounters. Gruul is a good break from the intensive mechanical fights in Blackrock Foundry and it is a good boss for guilds to begin their journey through this raid.

What are your opinions Gruul as an encounter? Has your guild had any trouble with him? I would love to read your feedback down in the comments


JR Cook

JR has been writing for fan sites since 2000 and has been involved with Blizzard Exclusive fansites since 2003. JR was also a co-host for 6 years on the Hearthstone podcast Well Met! He helped co-found BlizzPro in 2013.


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