User:Serillian/Battleguard Gri'mak

Battleguard Gri'mak is the fourth boss encounter in the Temple of Qri'vexx. He is favored among his people and is revered as a hero of the mantid. His warrior skills will put his enemies to the test.

Background
One of the stronger mantid to return from the wall, Gri'mak has been chosen by the mantid to become a teacher to lesser warriors and squires. With an arena to his name, Gri'mak brings his knowledge to bear and imparts it on his fans. Striving for something more, Gri'mak welcomes outside challengers (provided they can make it past the Centurion) and intends on doing respectful battle with them. With all evidence pointing towards him being free of Sha corruption, Gri'mak has his choices to make and only serves Qri'vexx long enough to gain followers for his cause. With the invasion of the temple, Gri'mak hopes these invaders will give him a good challenge to entertain him and his crowd. Those who defeat him in honorable combat will gain his favor regardless of race: he can use what "allies" he can get to set his plan of overthrowing Empress Qri'vexx into motion.

Abilities
Battleguard Gri'mak enrages after 9 minutes of combat. The war hero enrages after 12 minutes on LFR difficulty.







Signature Attacks
Every minute of the encounter with Gri'mak that passes by, he will use one out of three special attacks against his enemies.







Gri'mak's Shouts and Roars
Every 20 seconds, Battleguard Gri'mak casts a random Shout or Roar ability that varies in effect.









Gri'mak's Banners
Every 30 seconds, Gri'mak will throw down a banner that grants a random effect and inspires a Qri'thik Fanatic to join the fray. The banner itself can be attacked to destroy it. Battleguard Gri'mak will only throw down a banner if there is no banner present in the arena.'' Gri'mak will throw a banner down regardless if there is a banner present in the arena. This banner will grant him a secondary effect until destroyed. In addition, a thrown banner will also inspire a Qri'thik Blade Reaver to join the battle.''


 * 7,880,000 (10-man Normal)
 * 11,540,000 (10-man Heroic)
 * 11,820,000 (25-man Raid Finder)
 * 15,760,000 (25-man Normal)
 * 23,080,000 (25-man Heroic)
 * 23,080,000 (25-man Heroic)









Qri'thik Fanatic
When a War Banner is thrown down, Gri'mak's fans will cheer him on. The burst of praise will also motivate a Qri'thik Fanatic to join the arena.


 * 21,450,000 (10-man Normal)
 * 37,500,000 (10-man Heroic)
 * 32,175,000 (25-man Raid Finder)
 * 42,900,000 (25-man Normal)
 * 75,000,000 (25-man Heroic)
 * 75,000,000 (25-man Heroic)







Qri'thik Blade Reaver
As a War Banner is thrown down, a Qri'thik Blade Reaver will join the Fanatic in battle with Gri'mak.


 * 98,300,000 (10-man Heroic)
 * 196,600,000 (25-man Heroic)
 * 196,600,000 (25-man Heroic)









Strategy
A regular raid composition can be used for this encounter. Gri'mak can be tanked anywhere in the arena but keeping him in the center is best along with the raid stacked up. Players don't need to stack up right away but for certain abilities, it is advised to do so.

Gri'mak has a power bar that indicates his current Battle Fury percentage. Each melee attack that lands increases his damage by 1%. This increases as he damages players with his Signature attacks.

His first ability, Furious Strike, is the standard "tank-switch" ability. It progressively increases the damage the tanking player deals by 20% per stack but at 5 stacks, Release Rage occurs which kills the player and deals lethal damage to anyone near them. This should never happen as tanks can switch off each other at 4 stacks. Tanks will also need to switch early when Shattering Cleave occurs as the tanking player loses half of their armor. The tanks need to stay stacked up on each other to split the damage this cleave deals. Shattering Cleave happens about every 3rd Furious Strike and tanks should coordinate around that as the reduced armor could be problematic, especially if handled poorly.

Shouts and Roars
Early into the pull and every 20 seconds afterwards, Gri'mak will cast a random Shout or Roar ability, each of which can punish poor raid play. These shouts and roars can be prevented by the banners Gri'mak will toss down during the encounter. However, the first shout will occur before a banner is thrown down so the raid will have to deal with it and depending on which one he will use, that first shout/roar can easily cause problems within the raid. Fortunately, Gri'mak will never use the same shout/roar back to back.

If Gri'mak uses the Staggering Shout ability, anyone in the middle of a cast will be interrupted and prevented from casting again for 6 seconds. This shout hits extremely hard, further increased as Gri'mak's Battle Fury grows. Any form of cooldown, personal or raidwide, must be used to survive this damage later on in the encounter.

If Gri'mak uses the Dazing Roar ability, everyone hit by this attack will be dazed by 60%, which may prevent people from moving to the banner to block line of sight. This hits the softest but the snare can be a problem for those who can't get behind the banners in time (it won't count if this is the first roar used before the banner).

If Gri'mak uses the Disrupting Shout ability, this drains up to 150k Mana from mana users (Ret Paladins and enhance Shamans suffer from this effect too and all of their mana is drained by this ability) and inflicts Physical damage equal to 200% of the amount drained. This attack alone can nearly kill (and it will as Battle Fury grows in power) players with more than half of their mana so they will have to make sure they are under 50% Mana by the time Gri'mak uses another shot/roar attack. For those without Mana, this attack drains up to half of their Energy, Rage, Focus or Runic Power and deals about 60,000 Physical damage for every 10 Power resource drained. This won't be much of a problem as classes who use Energy, Rage, Focus and Runic Power will constantly use up their resource. This attack will be harmless once players are blocking line of sight via banners.

If Gri'mak uses the Sonic Roar ability, this deals damage based on distance from the boss along with knocking them down. If anyone is facing the boss, including those LoSing using the banner, they will be stunned for 5 seconds so make sure players are facing away from him at all times. While using the banner to block line of sight of Gri'mak is helpful, the banners themselves provide additional problems for the raid to deal with as well and players may not always get to have a banner out.

War Banners of Gri'mak
The banners, while they block line of sight from the Shout and Roar attacks, grant Gri'mak random abilities each time they are thrown out (which is every 30 seconds). Depending on the ability granted, the banner will have to be destroyed or kept up for quite some time. Each time the banner is thrown down, they will also spawn a Qri'thik Fanatic add.

Crushing Rage will grant Gri'mak a 10% damage increase per stack up to 50% increased damage. This ability calls for the banner to be destroyed before it reaches maximum stacks as Gri'mak will deal dangerous damage, especially combined with his ever growing Battle Fury effect.

If Gri'mak is granted his Blood Shout ability, he will occasionally deal AoE damage to the raid and apply a strong DoT along with a stacking debuff that lowers attack and casting speeds. If this ever reaches 5 stacks, players cannot attack or cast and they will not be able to do any damage or healing. This debuff only lasts 7.5 seconds but the shout is used every 5 seconds so players will be silenced and pacified indefinitely, eventually wiping the raid. The banner must be destroyed before this debuff reaches 5 stacks.

When the banner grants Gri'mak Flurry, his attack speed increases by 50% and every fourth melee swing causes Gri'mak to attack 3 times. While easily healed through, this can be quite a problem as his Battle Fury grows in strength, threatening to kill a tank or bring him real close to death. When combined with Furious Strike or Shattering Cleave, the damage can kill fast. Cooldown usage can help counter and prevent any sudden spike in damage.

The last ability the Banner can grant Gri'mak is the Blade Hurl ability, he will throw his weapon targeted at a player's location. He starts to fight unarmed for about 10 seconds. During this time he does not use any weapon strikes or other related abilities, giving tanks a short break before he resumes fighting with such abilities again. However, his Shouts and Roars will continue to be used. This granted ability is probably the least threatening of all possible abilities that can be given to him. The good side of this is that Gri'mak will not throw another banner down until the previous is destroyed so the raid can keep this banner out until the boss is beaten.

Qri'thik Fanatic
Whenever a War Banner is tossed down, a Qri'thik Fanatic will join the fight as well. This add can be crowd controlled in every possible way. It would be best to quickly kill the fanatic to eliminate unwanted damage from it. If possible, keep the fanatic more than 15 yards away from Gri'mak or else it will gain the Fan Frenzy ability and attack 100% faster.

The fanatic will also apply a stacking bleed effect which can only be removed when the victim is healed past a certain threshold (70% for Normal). Killing the Fanatic and keeping it stunned at the same time will prevent the majority of the add's damage. Once killed, they will no longer spawn until another Banner is thrown down.

Signature Moves
Every minute of the encounter, Gri'mak will use one of his three signature moves against the raid. They all will put pressure on the raid but are easily handled with smart cooldown usage.

Arcing Strike is the stack up ability players must quickly react to. Gri'mak marks a player and after 3 seconds, he will deal a massive amount of damage to that player, splitting the damage with everyone 8 yards close. Gri'mak will then gain applications of Battle Fury equal to the number of players struck by this attack. Since everyone will need to split the damage with this attack, Battle Fury will jump in stacks each time he's about to perform this attack. A raid cooldown will be needed to survive the damage of this attack during later points of the encounter.

Another signature move Gri'mak may use is the Twisting Steel attack which is a fixate whirlwind. He damages anyone near him while changing targets every few seconds. Players should spread out and run if they get targeted. For every player hit by this ability, Battle Fury grows even higher. Following this attack, Gri'mak suffers from Exhausted and takes an increased amount of damage. This allows players to "catch up" before the Battle Fury effect grows to high to survive. In addition, the next Qri'thik Fanatic that joins the fight gains a strong enrage ability that makes him more stronger until killed.

The final Signature attack is Fury Charge which targets a random player outside 30 yards and deals moderate damage to them and increasing the damage they take from another Fury Charge by an absurd amount. Because of this, a rotation of players is needed to counter this attack until another minute passes in which he will use another signature move instead. In addition, if players fail to go outside the 30 yard range needed for Fury Charge, Gri'mak will summon 5 Fanatics to effectively wipe the raid (as some of the adds will be close to Gri'mak and gain the Fan Frenzy effect).

Heroic Changes

 * Battleguard Gri'mak will throw down a war banner regardless if there is one already present, preventing players from leaving one banner up the whole time.
 * In addition to Qri'thik Fanatics joining the fight each time a banner drops, a Qri'thik Blade Reaver will attack players as well. This new add has abilities that can easily wipe a raid that doesn't pay close attention to it.
 * Qri'thik Fanatics will also cast Mimic Battle Cry that copies the Shout or Roar ability used by Gri'mak, this forces players to LoS both the boss and the add when the shout/roar goes out.

Quotes

 * Intro
 * yell
 * yell


 * yell
 * yell


 * yell
 * yell


 * yell


 * The arena stands fill with Qri'thik Fanatics and Blade Reavers. They emit a chant that may indicate cheering.


 * Aggro
 * yell


 * yell


 * Performing Signature Attack
 * yell


 * yell


 * yell


 * Casting a Shout or Roar
 * bossemote


 * bossemote


 * bossemote


 * bossemote


 * Throw War Banner/Call Qri'thik Fanatic
 * yell
 * bossemote


 * yell
 * bossemote


 * Call to Blade Reaver (Heroic)
 * yell


 * yell


 * Player killed
 * yell


 * yell


 * yell


 * yell


 * 30% Health
 * yell


 * Berserk
 * yell


 * Defeat
 * yell
 * yell
 * yell


 * yell
 * yell
 * yell


 * Outro
 * yell
 * yell

Achievements

 * Heroic: Battleguard Gri'mak - Defeat Battleguard Gri'mak in the Temple of Qri'vexx on Heroic difficulty.
 * Proper Respect - Have the entire raid salute to Battleguard Gri'mak on Normal or Heroic difficulty each time he loses 10% health, and then defeat him.
 * A Weak Technique - Defeat Battleguard Gri'mak on Normal or Heroic difficulty on multiple visits to the Temple of Qri'vexx while he is currently using the following Banner-granted abilities during the time of his defeat.
 * Defeat him while he has the Crushing Rage ability
 * Defeat him while he has the Blood Shout ability
 * Defeat him while he has the Flurry ability
 * Defeat him while he has the Blade Hurl ability