How To: Offtank Gruul the Dragonkiller

[Sithy]

Off-tanked him last night, we had one wipe due to a bad silence getting the MT owned pretty harshly but for a raid filled with 50% alts and 50% mains a swift 10 grow kill was nice.

I tried running vengeance but I had it falling off and my threat was dropping pretty low, almost getting a dps warrior crushed. Swapped to righteous and threat was going up a little better. I'd like to try vengeance again but if it drops off like it did for me righteous just felt better.

Its a fun fight from a tank perspective, with almost 500 buffed sd threat didn't seem that hard to maintain.

[Uthadanin]

Off-tanked him last night, we had one wipe due to a bad silence getting the MT owned pretty harshly but for a raid filled with 50% alts and 50% mains a swift 10 grow kill was nice.

I tried running vengeance but I had it falling off and my threat was dropping pretty low, almost getting a dps warrior crushed. Swapped to righteous and threat was going up a little better. I'd like to try vengeance again but if it drops off like it did for me righteous just felt better.

Its a fun fight from a tank perspective, with almost 500 buffed sd threat didn't seem that hard to maintain.

Vengeance gets tricky with the knocback, I held threat pretty well with vengeance, but swapping in some righteous swings as soon as I made my way back from knockback helped.

[2ndNin]

How does your guild deal with knockbacks? For us everyone else runs to the outside and MT / OT run to the inside, normally I get close enough to retrigger vengence on him. If it does fall off righteous for a fast smack then back to building works for me normally (you can even salvation the dps if they are getting uppity and approaching your threat )

[vyskol]

...

Question: Is gruul tauntable? I was trying to taunt durning growths 4-8 to get threat b/c I was #3 tank and didn't get misdirects.

No, he's not. Lately I've been pulling aggro off the MT during the first few grows (Bad OT! I know.) and have to stand there quite a while before the warrior can get him back off me.

[Canuun]

No, he's not. Lately I've been pulling aggro off the MT during the first few grows (Bad OT! I know.) and have to stand there quite a while before the warrior can get him back off me.

This is actually my main problem with SoV, at least at the start. The first ground pound, I often get so much threat from the SoV stack ticking that a lucky JoV or AS crit pulls aggro. I typically go with SoR and pop AW before the first ground pound, and switch to SoV after that (popping a SD trinket while the stack builds).

[Meriel]

I see a lot of SoV but I am a BE and I have trouble keeping second without misdirects, will it be a better idea to judge SoB for more threat than judging SoR? I want to keep constant threat so I consecrate keep holy sheild active constantly and judge SoV, always have around 400 buffed +spell damage.

Also if I was MT would I be better off with a flask of the beast and up alot of my dodge or try to focus on more stam and spell damage. I don't seem to have a problem holding threat if I use more agi food and buffs.

My main concern is a BE perspective over all the draeni and humans =P

[Pizbit]

Basically, on Gruul, I open up with a Judgement of Righteousness. I have to be careful because if it crits, I can pull aggro from the MT as he is still moving Gruul into position.
Then I nail him with Judgement of the Crusader. In my tank gear with Judgement of the Crusader up, I have nearly 600 effective spell damage.

BTW, note the bolded portion.
It's why I ask for the MT on Gruul to get a MD.

[Frickit]

how long do you wait before judging after the MT gets his misdirect? Im afraid to do it instantly but then our healers are vulnerable for a second which was enough to one shot my priest last night. I didnt even realize they were HoTing the tank right away.

I guess I just need to be faster and maybe start with crusader instead of righteousness...

[Sithy]

I just don't see how a healer can get hit by him at the start unless they run right through the center... there is no logical reason to run through the center. I healed the fight on my priest and never have I been hit by a hurtful strike, ever.
It's like asking why did the chicken cross the road? To get to the other side. In this case why don't you just take the cross walk and not get killed?

[Frickit]

ok you're the second person to say that and it was not something I even thought of. Ill pass it on thanks.

[Pizbit]

how long do you wait before judging after the MT gets his misdirect? Im afraid to do it instantly but then our healers are vulnerable for a second which was enough to one shot my priest last night. I didnt even realize they were HoTing the tank right away.

I guess I just need to be faster and maybe start with crusader instead of righteousness...

I judge as soon as the MT gets the MD. Not my problem if the hunter fails.

[Ariashley]

I've been to Gruul's a ton on my rogue (without ever seeing a Dragonspine Trophy QQ). On Sunday, my paladin's new guild is going to Gruul's. I'm guessing that I can effectively tank Blindeye and tank the priest trash, since none of those casters hits too hard (I can even tank them on my rogue briefly). Not sure about trash brute lords or OTing Gruul.

I'm pretty sure MTing Gruul and even the High King is above my gear bracket atm, since I'm pretty much solidly in that Kara bracket. How much health is required to OT him?

I'm only 20 or so badges short of the badge chest, so I will definitely have it by the weekend. I get at least 7 daily (should get more like 15 on Friday and could get up to 22 tonight in Kara). That will put me at 12882 unbuffed health and 13270 armor. Uncrushable with just under 51% pure avoidance. Is that enough to OT Gruul? I know he's hit me with hurtful strikes on my rogue when the MT or OT died for somewhere around 20k, but my rogue has negligible armor and avoidance.

Assuming use of the spell damage consumables, I would have kings, mark of the wild and fort to improve my health pool to about 15.8k (or 16.9 if we get a lock in group) with spell damage of 419 with Wrath of Air or 318 without.

I wouldn't want to gimp the group if those stats are insufficient and would probably just bring my rogue. The guild has been using an unguilded tank to main tank pretty much everything to date and gearing up an underexperienced druid.

[Frickit]

You can definitely off tank him I'd say. Your gonna need heavy heals from Hurtfuls. Make sure you stay out of the the cave ins too because your health will be dropping pretty low every few seconds. You could tank anything else as far as trash or HKM encounter.

[Zeels]

Problems will be in the later growths 12 and more (if it takes that long), you'll get some really big hits. And if your MT goes down, you'll probably die when you take one more hit, so be prepared to pop trinkets and nighmare seeds and whatever more

*Edit*

I use the badge threat tome (lightbringer?) and then switch out to repentance at the later growths in case the MT dies.

[shaak]

I have to say while OTing Gruul is a job any tank can do, it's one that's tailormade for druid OTs. In the months I did it, 90% of the time I had to auto-attack so as not to surpass the MT in threat.

i agree that druids are perfect offtanks for this fight, especially because hurtful cant be crushing or critical hit, also their natural high armor mitigates it very well and naturally high health helps extremely well too