General Nazgrim Detailed Strategy Guide (Heroic Mode included)

Table of Contents

• +1. General Information
  • 1.1. Health Values
  • 1.2. Enrage Timer
  • 1.3. Raid Composition
• +2. Loot
  • 2.1. Armor
  • 2.2. Weapons
  • 2.3. Trinkets
• 3. Overview of the Fight
• 4. Class-specific Advice
• +5. Abilities
  • 5.1. General Nazgrim
    • 5.1.1. Rage and Stances
    • 5.1.2. Abilities
  • 5.2. Adds
• +6. Strategy
  • 6.1. General Nazgrim
  • 6.2. Adds
• 7. When to Use Heroism/Bloodlust/Time Warp
• +8. Summing Things Up
  • 8.1. Tanks
  • 8.2. Healers
  • 8.3. DPS
  • 8.4. Everyone
• 9. Learning the Fight
• +10. Heroic Mode
  • 10.1. Differences From Normal Mode
  • 10.2. Strategy
• 11. Concluding Remarks
• 12. Changelog

Introduction

This guide is intended to provide a comprehensive description of the encounter with General Nazgrim in Siege of Orgrimmar. It is targeted at anyone who desires to understand the fight mechanics.

This guide is updated for World of Warcraft WoD 6.1.2.

General Nazgrim, the prominent Horde lore figure, is the eighth boss in the Siege of Orgrimmar. This is the final encounter that takes place in the city of Orgrimmar proper. During the fight, your raid will face Nazgrim himself, who functions very similarly to the Warrior character class, as well as a large number of adds.

During the fight against General Nazgrim you will face General Nazgrim himself, as well as a number of adds that the boss summons regularly throughout the fight.

General Nazgrim mimics the mechanics of the Warrior class, having a Rage resource, a number of abilities that cost Rage to use, and three stances. The rate at which Nazgrim gains Rage depends on your raid, and every 15 seconds he will use the most expensive ability he can. Therefore, your raid's goal will be to keep the boss' Rage as low as possible, so that he does not use his dangerous abilities often.

While doing this, you will also have to contend with the adds that the boss summons.

Videos:

• PTR Preview — a short overview of the boss, based on PTR testing, which is extremely useful for getting a rough understanding of the fight;
• Video Guide — a video guide of the boss, based on live-realm experience.

On our forums, we are maintaining threads with class-specific advice for each of the fights of Siege of Orgrimmar. So, make sure to check them out, and if you have things to share, do not hesitate to contribute!

Class	Forum Threads
Death Knight	Blood Frost/Unholy
Druid	Balance Feral Guardian Restoration
Hunter	All specs
Mage	All specs
Monk	Brewmaster Mistweaver Windwalker
Paladin	Holy Protection Retribution
Priest	Discipline Holy Shadow
Rogue	All specs
Shaman	Elemental Enhancement Restoration
Warlock	All specs
Warrior	Arms/Fury Protection

General Nazgrim has a Rage resource, with a maximum capacity of 100. At the start of the fight, Nazgrim has 0 Rage, but there are many mechanics in the fight that allow him to gain Rage. Nazgrim's Rage is very important, because most of his abilities cost Rage to use. Nazgrim will use a Rage-costing ability every 15 seconds, and he will always choose the most expensive ability he can afford. He cannot use Rage-costing abilities more often than every 15 seconds because of Cooling Off.

Nazgrim gains Rage from his abilities and from his stances.

Several of Nazgrim's abilities can give him Rage, depending on how well your raid reacts to them. We detail these abilities in the next section.

Nazgrim has three stances (Battle, Berserker, and Defensive), and each of them increases his Rage generation in a different way. Technically, stances are self-buffs that the boss casts, each lasting 1 minute and being mutually exclusive (he can only have one up at a time). The boss cycles through these three stances in the same order throughout the fight.

1. Battle Stance causes Nazgrim to generate 1 Rage every second.
2. Berserker Stance increases Nazgrim's damage done and damage taken by 25%. While in this stance, Nazgrim does not generate Rage every second, but the Rage his abilities generate is doubled.
3. Defensive Stance reduces Nazgrim's damage taken by 10%, and causes him to gain 3 Rage every time he is attacked (but at most once per second). Attacks made on the boss by the tanks do not cause him to generate Rage.

General Nazgrim uses two abilities that do not cost Rage to use.

• Sundering Blow is a very damaging attack that Nazgrim uses on his current target. It deals a large amount of Physical damage, and it stacks a debuff on the target that reduces their armour by 10% per stack. Whenever Nazgrim uses this ability, he gains 5 Rage. If he casts it on a player who already has stacks of Sundering Blow, then he gains an additional 5 Rage for every stack. This ability requires a tank switch.
• Bonecracker is a spell that Nazgrim casts on random raid members. It places a bleed effect on these players, causing them to take a moderate amount of Physical damage every second for 30 seconds, and it also reduces their maximum health by 10%.

The rest of Nazgrim's abilities cost Rage to use. As we mentioned above, every 15 seconds he will cast the most expensive ability he can afford.

• Heroic Shockwave costs 30 Rage. Nazgrim leaps at the location of a random raid member, dealing a large amount of Physical damage to all players within 10 yards, and causing several Aftershocks.
  • When Nazgrim lands, three lines of fire on the ground appear. A few seconds later, these lines, called Aftershocks, erupt and deal very high Fire damage to any players they come in contact with. Nazgrim gains 3 Rage for every player that takes damage from Aftershock.
• For 50 Rage, Nazgrim will summon a Kor'kron Banner. This is an attackble NPC that does not do anything except cause the attacks of all adds currently present in the fight to grant Nazgrim 3 Rage. The Banner does not need to be tanked, and it has relatively low health.
• War Song costs 70 Rage. This is a raid-wide damaging attack that causes players to take 50% of their maximum health as Physical damage.
• Ravager costs 100 Rage. Nazgrim throws a weapon at the location of a random raid member. The weapon cannot be targeted or attacked, and it will continue to spin in place at that location until the end of the fight, dealing very high Physical damage to any players in a 6-yard radius, and granting Nazgrim 5 Rage every time a player takes damage from it.

Before pulling Nazgrim, you will notice that he is surrounded by a large group of Orgrimmar Faithful. These adds are linked to the boss (so you cannot get rid of them before pulling Nazgrim), but they have low health and no abilities.

Throughout the fight, roughly every 45 seconds, Nazgrim will summon two adds. There are 4 types of adds, and Nazgrim will always summon two of them at random (although every pair of summons must contain one of each type of add, so after the first summon of each pair you can anticipate what adds will come next).

• Kor'kron Ironblades
  • cast Ironstorm, spinning around for 1 minute and dealing high Physical damage to any players within 6 yards;
  • cast Last Stand when they reach 50% health, increasing their maximum health by 25% (and gaining 25% health in the process).
• Kor'kron Assassins
  • enter the fight in Stealth. They are not visible, and their movement speed is reduced by 50%;
  • cast Backstab, dealing a massive amount of Physical damage to a random player, but only if they manage to attack that player from behind;
  • cast Assassin's Mark, causing them to fixate on a random (non-tank) raid member.
• Kor'kron Arcweavers
  • cast Arcane Shock, an interruptible single-target nuke that deals high Arcane damage to a random raid member. Each successful cast of Arcane Shock buffs the Arcweaver with a stack of a buff that increases their Arcane damage done by 25% for 10 seconds'
  • cast Magistrike is an interruptible spell that deals high Arcane damage to players in an area, and also causes them to take some Arcane damage over time;
  • cast Unstable Blink, blinking around to a random location in the room.
• Kor'kron Warshamans
  • cast Earth Shield on an ally (either Nazgrim or another add). This buff heals the target for 5% of their maximum health the next time they take damage. It can be dispelled;
  • cast Empowered Chain Heal, an interruptible chain heal that jumps to up to 5 targets, healing each for increasing amounts;
  • cast Healing Tide Totem, summoning a Healing Tide Totem that has low health and that heals allies within 8 yards for a massive amount of health (30% of their maximum health every 3 seconds).

Despite the large number of abilities and adds present in the fight, the strategy for the encounter is actually quite simple.

At the very start of the fight, you should AoE down all the Orgrimmar Faithful before focusing on Nazgrim.

We have divided the rest of the tasks that your raid has to perform in sub-sections.

Throughout the fight, your tanks will have to perform a tank switch on the boss, in order to ensure that Nazgrim never attacks a player who is debuffed by Sundering Blow.

Bonecracker is an ability that cannot be avoided in any way, so healers will have to respond to it by adequately healing the affected players. Healers must also be prepared for the increased damage Nazgrim deals during Berserker Stance.

The next thing for your raid to do is keep Nazgrim's Rage as low as possible. This means that no one except the tank debuffed by Sundering Blow should attack him during Defensive Stance, and that all raid members should avoid Nazgrim's abilities.

Specifically, Nazgrim's abilities should be handled as follows.

• The raid should be spread out in preparation for Heroic Shockwave (so that no more than 1 player takes damage from Nazgrim landing). All players must then make sure to move out of the Aftershocks before they erupt.
• The raid must kill the Kor'kron Banner immediately, especially if there are adds currently alive. Its health is low so doing so should only take a few seconds.
• The healers must be prepared to handle the damage from War Song. Raid members affected by Bonecracker are especially fragile at this point. Any personal damage reduction cooldowns players can use for War Song are very welcome.
• Everyone should move away and stay away from the Ravager weapons.

It it easy to tell what ability Nazgrim will cast next, and when he will do so, by keeping track of his Rage bar and his Cooling Off debuff. For example, if Nazgrim has 35 Rage and Cooling Off is expiring in 3 seconds, it is most likely that he will cast Heroic Shockwave.

Whenever any adds are alive, these should be the top priority, although if the only add still alive is a Kor'kron Ironblade, then you can afford to cleave and DoT Nazgrim at the same time, since these adds are the least dangerous ones.

Kor'kron Ironblades have to be killed by ranged DPS players whenever they are casting Ironstorm. Moreover, you should be prepared that this add will heal itself when it reaches 50% health. These adds need to be tanked.

Kor'kron Assassins have to be stunned and killed as quickly as possible, because they can easily kill raid members through Backstab. It is ideal if the Hunters in your raid can maintain Flares up so that your raid can see the Assassins in Stealth. After that, anyone who is fixated on (through Assassin's Mark) by the Assassins must make sure to face them. These adds need to be tanked when they are not fixated on random players.

Kor'kron Arcweavers must be interrupted as much as possible. Specifically, they must never be allowed to cast Magistrike, but any interrupts of Arcane Shock are also welcome. Given that these adds are trying to cast spells all the time, they do not really need to be tanked.

Kor'kron Warshamans must also be interrupted as much as possible. They must not be allowed to cast Empowered Chain Heal, their Earth Shield must be dispelled quickly from the target it is cast on it, and Healing Tide Totems must be killed right away. It is important to make sure never to bring any enemies near the Healing Tide Totems. These adds do not really need to be tanked either.

We consider the following kill priority to be the most reasonable.

1. Kor'kron Warshamans;
2. Kor'kron Arcweavers;
3. Kor'kron Assassins;
4. Kor'kron Ironblades.

Given the fact that Ironblades are not very dangerous, you can delay killing them until the boss enters Defensive Stance. This allows you to do do more DPS on Nazgrim, and gives you something to do during Defensive Stance when you cannot attack him. Only do this if Defensive Stance is coming reasonably soon, because having too many Ironblades up can cause complications.

We recommend using Heroism/ Bloodlust/ Time Warp while General Nazgrim is in Berserker Stance, since he takes 25% increased damage at this time.

In this section, we will very briefly summarise what the players belonging to each of the three roles have to do during this fight.

• Regularly perform a tank switch on General Nazgrim to handle Sundering Blow.
• Make sure to tank mobs away from Healing Tide Totems, as well as away from the weapons caused by Ravager.

• Beware of the high raid-wide damage of War Song, and do not hesitate to use cooldowns for it. Pay special attention to players affected by Bonecracker.

• Prioritise DPSing the adds over Nazgrim. Kill Kor'kron Banners and Healing Tide Totems immediately.
• Do not attack Nazgrim during Defensive Stance.

• Interrupt the adds as much as possible.
• Dispel Earth Shield immediately.
• Avoid the damage from the various AoE damaging mechanics present in the fight ( Aftershocks, Ravager, Ironstorm, etc.).

The two most important aspects of the General Nazgrim encounter are not being hit by Nazgrim's Rage-generating attacks, and handling the adds efficiently.

As such, we feel that the best way for your raid to learn the fight is to focus on avoiding the mechanics of the boss, and on properly controlling and killing the adds before trying to maximise DPS. You can take a few attempts where all you are focusing on is avoiding the ground effects, interrupting the adds and so on, to make sure that everyone is familiar with these abilities, before working in the DPS that you need to kill the adds in time, as well as to kill Nazgrim himself.

It is also very useful if your raid leader or another player with good awareness can call out the next Rage-costing ability that Nazgrim will use, so that everyone can prepare in ample time.

The Heroic mode of the General Nazgrim encounter is very similar to its Normal mode counterpart. There is a simple new mechanic, as well as a new type of add, but the fight does not change much at all.

In addition to General Nazgrim and the adds having increased health and dealing increased damage, there are two major changes in the Heroic mode of the fight.

First of all, every 15 seconds, General Nazgrim will cast Execute on his current tank. This deals a massive amount of Physical damage to that player. Execute has a 2.3-second cast time.

Second of all, a new type of add exists, called Kor'kron Sniper. This add uses three abilities:

• Hunter's Mark, a fixate effect that he will cast on a random, non-tank player (with ranged raid members being chosen as targets most often);
• Shoot, a basic attack that deals Physical damage;
• Multi-Shot, a frontal cone attack that deals high Physical damage.

In Heroic mode, 3 adds spawn in each wave, as opposed to 2 in Normal mode, and the Sniper enters into this rotation with the other adds seamlessly.

The fight plays out almost identically to Normal mode. There are really only two differences.

Throughout the fight, the tank currently tanking Nazgrim needs to be prepared for Execute. Even though the damage of this ability appears to be very high on paper (3,000,000), it is not as damaging in practice. This is due to the fact that it is Physical damage, meaning that tanks will reduce it through their armor by a large amount. Any further damage reduction effects simply minimise it even more, and a topped-off tank can survive even without the use of any cooldowns (although it is recommended to use cooldowns anyway, especially during Berserker Stance). The predictable timer of the ability, coupled with the casting-time, makes timing cooldowns quite easy.

Additionally, your raid will need to be prepared to handle the Kor'kron Snipers. These are generally a low priority (only above the Kor'kron Ironblades), so killing them quickly is not very important. What is, however, important, is that the player on whom they fixate makes sure to face them away from the rest of the raid, in order to minimise the damage of Multi-Shot.

Players who are fixated on by the Kor'kron Assassins cannot afford to have their backs turned to them even for an instant, since the increase in damage done in Heroic mode means they will instantly be killed. The Kor'kron Warshamans and the Kor'kron Arcweavers remain top priorities. Players with good stuns and interrupts must always be prepared to handle these adds, since leaving them unattended even for a single cast can have catastrophic results.

At 10% health, Nazgrim will summon two waves of adds at once. This means that it is no longer possible to handle the adds normally. We advise you to have the off-tank take the adds to the back opposite side of the room from the boss (and keep them there with the help of crowd-control), while the rest of the raid burns down Nazgrim with Heroism/ Bloodlust/ Time Warp.

This concludes our raid guide for General Nazgrim. We hope you have found it helpful. Please do not hesitate to post any feedback you may have on our forums.

• 26 Nov. 2013: Made improvements to the Heroic mode strategy.
• 22 Nov. 2013: Made an addition to the Heroic mode strategy, specifying that the player who is fixated on by the Kor'kron Sniper should face the add away from the raid.
• 21 Nov. 2013: Added Heroic mode strategy.
• 25 Sep. 2013: Added 25-man health values, and added a suggestion to delay killing Ironblades until Nazgrim's Defensive Stance.
• 20 Sep. 2013: Fixed a typo, and removed mentions of using Heroism/ Bloodlust/ Time Warp at the start of the fight, since it is much better to do so during the boss' Berserker Stance.
• 19 Sep. 2013: Added a link to the video guide.

+ show all entries - show only first 2 entries