Role in Gruul's lair

[Kyroro]

My guild is going to start going to this instance in the next 1-2 weeks. Being one of the MTs in our current KZ runs, I'm starting to wonder what kind of role I could play as a tank. Clearly I could tank Mulgar, but then comes Gruul. Our guild's tanks are decently geared, but I probably outgear them all. Despite that fact, my HP is almost 2k lower than most of them. The warriors usually go for the high HP and armor gearing, rather than avoidance like a la pally tank.

Any ideas on justifying why I should MT Gruul? This question is bound to come up and I'm in competition with 2 other warriors. I don't think I could fullfill the OT role well, with a limited mana pool and unable to sustain threat. Warriors could always go dual wield and build up rage that way. Too bad paladins cannot.

[Thels]

Maulgar: Either tank himself or the Seer or Lock. Note that pretty much everything is tauntable here.

Gruul: You either need to be the MT, or you can equip your healing gear and stand aside. Pallies can't offtank.

HP ain't everything. Compare Armor. Compare Miss+Parry+Dodge. Of course you need a Warrior in your group to keep Commanding Shout up on you.

[Lev]

- You need at least 3 Tanks for the Trashmobs in GL. 4 Would be better
- You can Tank Raufgar or one of his Adds
- If DPS is not a Problem you won't have problems with Tanking Gruul. But the more he grows up, the more important Mitigation (Amor) and a looooong Healthbar becomes.
- I'm not sure, but as an Offtank, you should get enough incomming DPS to do this job as well... but you should consider to hold your manapots on CD, too.

[Daeren]

MAulgar is ok, no problem (bhe hits hard though).

But Gruul.

Paladins are better maintanks except for one problem, silence.

It's hard to time that silence with holy shield, and that makes it tricky as the maintank.

Otherwise, a druid or a warrior is a better offtank simply because they have larger HP pools.

At 14+ growths, Gruul will oneshot you if you are the offtank, but he won't oneshot you if you are the MT, but he can oneshot you if you get crushed.

[Lore]

Warrior MT, Druid OT on Gruul if you're looking for the optimal configuration. There really isn't any good reason to put a Paladin in either spot.

That said, I've done both.

[Daeren]

Warrior MT, Druid OT on Gruul if you're looking for the optimal configuration. There really isn't any good reason to put a Paladin in either spot.

That said, I've done both.

Same, but that was before flask and consumables nerf..

[Lore]

I've MT'ed him 2.0, haven't OT'ed. I tend to generate slightly less threat than the warriors on Void Reaver, so it'd probably be a small disadvantage to have a paladin there, but not unworkably so.

[Mysta]

I am OT for Gruul. We have tried 3 OTs on him before at the same time just to see threat generation, a Warrior, Druid, and Me. Since i was able to frontload my threat I started taking the hurtful strikes first and was able to maintain my lead in threat the entire fight. Gruul died at 16 growths. The warrior OT had less threat than most DPS and the Druid was on my tail in the beginning, but dropped off after not receiving any damage (of course). Also found out a few times that KTM does not reflect our new threat increase from talents. I had pulled aggro off the MT around the 3rd growth and KTM was showing me at only 85% of the MT.... Raid buffed I sat at 16.5k Health.

[PsiVen]

I've OT'd Gruul, but only before the SA nerf. I had mana issues, but threat was fine. Since Gruul dies so fast for us now the SA nerf wouldn't matter.

I had about 5.5-6k mana raid buffed, with 220ish +dmg. Grouped with a shadow priest for mana battery.

[Kyroro]

Out of curiosity, when you perform the OT role, what is your spell damage and mana pool? In raid gear my mana is barely 4k and spell damage is just shy past 130. Any information on gearing choices and abilities to use would also be greatly appreciated Did you use a spell damage flask?

[Mysta]

Just click my sig to go to my armory. Thats what i OT him in. 192 spell dam unbuffed and about 4.2k mana unbuffed... 6k mana buffed was more than enough while getting healed through the HS. I might pot sometimes after a string of dodges. Get T4 helm and shoulders and a spell dam weap with 40 enchant... that should be all you need. And maybe Wizard oil if you want.

[Kyroro]

Just an update, we finally got a shot at Gruul and I ended up as OT. We had 2 OTs in the beginning because we didn't know if the bug was fixed. The druid OT was clearly generating more threat than me, sometimes more than the MT. But since he's also good DPS, we let him go cat and I ended up being the only OT.

Tried a few things to get threat right, and still a learning process.

SoR definitely will not cut it. Threat generation is waaay too low. SoV generates a ton more threat. You need to have JoC on Gruul as well for that extra damage. If possible have another pally judge wisdom on him for more mana.

My threat was not consistent across all our attempts, I don't know why. Sometimes it'd be ridiculously low, just above the melee. Other times it'd be so high that I would steal aggro from the MT. I suspect it might have to do with SoV falling off... >,< Anyways you literally have to blow your abilities 100%, SoV, JoV, max. rank consecrates. Mana goes fast. I end up going through 2-3 super mana potions per attempt.

I needed to be hit with HS, I started swapping all my avoidance gear for stamina. I was 17.7k raid buffed, and the warrior was sitting at 19.8k. I also used the spell damage flask from Ogri'la, wizard oil and spell damage food just to keep threat up. I still have a little too much dodge, will try to find some blues that give stamina and spell damage.

HS hurts! Is any of it reduced by armor? At 11 growths, I was getting hit for 12k. I started getting nervous that I was going to be one shot in 2-4 more growths.

Next raid I will get the hunters to use their misdirect on both the tanks to keep the threat up.