Jin'rokh the Breaker 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. Cloaks, Rings, and Trinkets
• 3. DPS Requirements
• 4. Overview of the Fight
• 5. Class-specific Advice
• 6. Abilities
• +7. Strategy
  • 7.1. Focused Lightning
  • 7.2. Conductive Water
  • 7.3. Thundering Throw and Tank Concerns
  • 7.4. Lightning Storm
  • 7.5. Optimising Raid DPS
• 8. When to Use Heroism/Bloodlust/Time Warp
• 9. Learning the Fight
• +10. Heroic Mode
  • 10.1. Differences from Normal Mode
  • 10.2. Video
  • 10.3. Strategy
    • 10.3.1. Dealing with Ionization
    • 10.3.2. Dealing with Lightning Strike
• 11. Concluding Remarks
• 12. Changelog

Introduction

This guide is intended to provide a comprehensive description of the encounter with Jin'rokh the Breaker in Throne of Thunder. It is targeted at anyone who desires to understand the fight mechanics.

This guide is updated for World of Warcraft WoD 6.1.2.

Jin'rokh the Breaker is the first boss in the Throne of Thunder. The fight has few mechanics, by comparison with subsequent encounters in the raid, but it is nonetheless quite challenging.

The fight is a DPS race, and it also tests the individual awareness of your raid members.

Under the assumptions that a tank does half the damage of a DPS and that the enrage timer is at 7 minutes, the DPS requirements are as follows:

• 10-man Normal with 5 DPS: 82k DPS;
• 10-man Normal with 6 DPS: 70k DPS;
• 10-man Heroic with 5 DPS: 126k DPS;
• 10-man Heroic with 6 DPS: 108k DPS;
• 25-man Normal with 16 DPS: 87k DPS;
• 25-man Normal with 17 DPS: 82k DPS;
• 25-man Normal with 18 DPS: 78k DPS;
• 25-man Heroic with 16 DPS: 133k DPS;
• 25-man Heroic with 17 DPS: 126k DPS;
• 25-man Heroic with 18 DPS: 119k DPS.

Note that you benefit from damage-increasing effects for a great part of the fight.

The encounter against Jin'rokh the Breaker is a single-phase, single-target fight. The main mechanic of the fight revolves around large void zones called Conductive Water. Over the course of the fight, Jin'rokh will summon 4 of these void zones, one at a time, at regular intervals. Each void zone will eventually cover one quarter of the room, so that when the fourth void zone is cast, the entire room will be filled. A few small parts of the room do seem to remain unaffected, however.

Each Conductive Water void zone is initially beneficial to raid members who stand in it, increasing damage done and healing received (but also causing these raid members to take large damage in the event that certain fight mechanics are not avoided). About 1 minute after a void zone is created, Jin'rokh will compromise it (turning it into Electrified Waters), causing it to no longer provide benefits, and instead deal constant damage to anyone standing it.

Since the room will eventually be filled with these void zones, this constitutes a soft enrage mechanic for the fight.

In addition to this, the boss casts several other abilities that your raid must deal with.

We have released a video guide for the fight against Jin'rokh. We strongly recommend watching the video in order to get a better visual idea of the fight.

On our forums, we are maintaining threads with class-specific advice for each of the fights of Throne of Thunder. 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

• Thundering Throw is an ability that Jin'rokh casts at his current target 30 seconds after the start of the fight, and every one and a half minutes after that. Jin'rokh will cast this ability 4 times during the fight. This knocks the target back at one of the four mogu statues located around the room, resetting their threat on Jin'rokh. We believe that Jin'rokh throws the player at the statue located in front of himself, but some users on our forums have put forth the possibility that Jin'rokh throws the tank at the statue farthest from him. This breaks the statue and deals a moderate amount of Physical damage to that player. The player then falls to the ground, where they inflict a moderate amount of Nature damage to any allies within 14 yards, and stun them for 6 seconds. A Conductive Water void zone appears at this location.
  • Conductive Water void zones are created each time that Jin'rokh casts Thundering Throw, so there will be a maximum of 4 void zones in the fight. Each void zone starts out with a small size, and unavoidably grows over time until it covers one quarter of the room. Players standing inside the Conductive Water are affected by Fluidity, a buff that increases damage done and healing received by 40%, but also increases Nature damage taken by 80%. Moreover, one of Jin'rokh's abilities (we discuss it below) will damage everyone standing in the Conductive Water, if the target of this ability is also in the Conductive Water. In this sense, the waters are quite literally conductive of the electricity (Nature damage) of Jin'rokh's spell.
• Focused Lightning is a spell that Jin'rokh casts every 15 seconds or so. Each time, he creates an orb of lightning which fixates on a random raid member and moves towards them at relatively high speed (such that it cannot be kited indefinitely). The orb is not an attackable NPC, so it cannot be slowed or killed. The Focused Lightning orb has several properties.
  • While active, the orb deals Nature damage every half a second to all players within 5 yards.
  • When reaching the player on whom it is fixated, the orb detonates and deals a pretty high amount of Nature damage to all players within 8 yards. If this explosion happens in one of the Conductive Water void zones, then everyone standing in it takes a high amount of Nature damage (which is further increased by the damage-taken-increasing component of Fluidity).
  • After a Focused Lightning orb detonates, it leaves behind a Lightning Fissure, a small lightning on the ground which persists for a very long time (possibly until the end of the fight), and deals Nature damage every second to players within 5 yards. The Lightning Fissure is removed if it comes into contact with a Conductive Water void zone (due to the void zone expanding to reach the Fissure), dealing a moderate amount of Nature damage to all players inside the Conductive Water.
  • If a Focused Lightning comes into contact with a Lightning Fissure, then Implosion occurs. The Focused Lightning is detonated, dealing a large amount of Nature damage to all raid members, and increasing damage taken from subsequent Implosions by 10%.
  • If a Focused Lightning explodes (by reaching its target) inside a compromised Conductive Water void zone (called Electrified Waters), then everyone within 8 yards will effectively be killed by taking an enormous amount of Nature damage.
• Static Burst is an attack that Jin'rokh regularly casts. It causes everyone in the raid to take a moderate amount of Nature damage, and it also applies 10 stacks of Static Wound to the current tank. Static Wound causes the tank to take Nature damage per stack whenever they receive melee attacks from the boss, and a third of the damage from Static Wound is also dealt to raid members. This ability prompts an immediate tank switch.
• Lightning Storm is a spell that Jin'rokh casts every 90 seconds. This effectively marks the end of a Conductive Water being useful, since shortly after casting Lighting Storm Jin'rokh turns the most recently-spawned Conductive Water into Electrified Waters, whereby the void zone now permanently deals damage to all players who stand in it every second, and no longer grants Fluidity. Lighting Storm itself is a channeled spell that lasts 15 seconds, during which time the entire raid takes a moderate amount of Nature damage every second.

The strategy for the fight can be summarised as follows.

• Have your two tanks alternate tanking Jin'rokh so that whoever is affected by Static Wound is not currently taking melee hits from the boss.
• Have all DPS players and healers stand inside the Conductive Water void zone that is uncompromised (so, the most recently-created one) until Jin'rokh begins casting Lightning Storm.
• Make sure that ranged DPS and healers stand near to the outer edges of the Conductive Water, and that they are prepared at any time to run out in case they are targeted by Focused Lightning. Players targeted by Focused Lightning should try to kite the orb to a designated location of the room, out of the way of any Conductive Water void zones.
• Stack in the center of the room (outside of any Conductive Water void zones, compromised or not) whenever Jin'rokh is casting Lightning Storm, and use raid cooldowns to survive.

For ease of understanding and execution, the fight can be divided into four "Lightning Storm" cycles. Each cycle begins with the Thundering Throw that creates a Conductive Water void zone. This void zone lasts for 90 seconds, during which time your raid must make use of the increased damage and healing that it offers. After this, the cycle ends with Jin'rokh casting Lightning Storm, after which a new Thundering Throw happens, and so on.

Before we look at the specifics of how to execute the strategy, we should mention that the fight should be over by the time the fourth Lightning Storm is cast. This is because almost the entire room will be filled with compromised Conductive Water void zones, and the rest will likely have to be used for kiting Focused Lightning and placing Lightning Fissure. If this does not act as a soft enrage timer that will wipe your raid, we imagine that a hard enrage timer will also be found around this time.

As the fight begins, the first thing your raid will notice is that the boss is casting Focused Lightning at random raid members. This is something you will need to deal with throughout the entire fight, so it is important that everyone learns how to do it well.

Only ranged DPS players and healers who can be targeted by this ability. Your raid leader should designate one or more locations where the Focused Lightnings should be detonated, ideally out of the way of the areas where Conductive Water will be later on. Basically, you want to drop these close to the outer walls of the room. Alternatively, it is possible to drop them on the location of Conductive Water that have not yet been created (basically in front of the mogu statues located around the room).

If you are placing the Lightning Fissures near to the walls on the outside of the room, the idea is to keep them out of the way of your raid for the entire fight, so that they do not inconvenience you or deal any damage to you. If you are placing them where a Conductive Water void zone will spawn, then the idea is to have them detonated and despawned by this void zone just as it spawns. Note that in the latter case, anyone inside the Conductive Water will take a considerable amount of Nature damage, so it is best to place them right where the void zone will appear (remember that it starts out small and expands) so that it will immediately detonate them, during which time your raid can wait outside the void zone to avoid the damage.

As the player fixated upon by the Focused Lightning orb, make sure that it does not:

• reach you when you are inside a Conductive Water void zone (be it compromised or viable);
• come into contact with a Lightning Fissure.

While there is not much management of Conductive Water that is in the hands of your raid, there are several things you need to keep in mind here.

First of all, be prompt in moving to the newly-created Conductive Water void zone. They are quite small when they first appear, and they can be easy to miss, but it is a great DPS loss not to benefit from them from the very start.

Second of all, always be mindful of the fact that you risk being targeted by a Focused Lightning (unless you are a tank or melee DPS player). To give yourself the best chance to move out of the Conductive Water before the orb reaches you, make sure that you are near to the edge of void zone. Keep in mind also that the void zone expands over time, so you'll need to re-adjust your position accordingly.

Thirdly, melee DPS players can rest assured that Jin'rokh's massive hitbox enables them to attack him from very far away, so standing in the void zone and attacking the boss at the same time should not be an issue (although tanks should make an effort to keep the boss relatively close to the void zone).

Tanks will need to taunt off of one another regularly due to Static Wound. More specifically, as soon as Static Wound is applied to a tank, the other tank should taunt Jin'rokh. The stacks of Static Wound decrease over time, so that when they are about to expire, they will be very low. This means that the off-tank can taunt Jin'rokh even if their stacks have not fully worn off, since tanking Jin'rokh with 1 or 2 stacks is not deadly.

Thundering Throw will toss the tank at a mogu statue, dealing damage to them and any other players at the location of the statue. As a tank, you need to keep in mind that it appears Jin'rokh will toss you at the statue that is located behind you. The location where you are thrown at is also where the Conductive Water void zone appears, so if your raid leader has advised a particular order for the spawning of these void zones, you must be careful to position yourself correctly.

When a tank is thrown by Jin'rokh, their threat on him is reset. This means that the off-tank has to taunt Jin'rokh immediately, or the boss will start attacking and killing other players.

The need to taunt Jin'rokh for both Static Wound and Thundering Throw can pose some problems. To make sure that you do not end up in a situation where the off-tank has many stacks of Static Wound, you have to be very careful. We recommend having the tank affected by Static Wound taunt Jin'rokh about 3 seconds before Thundering Throw is cast (boss mod timers are quite accurate here). This causes Jin'rokh to throw the tank that is affected by Static Wound, allowing the off-tank to take the boss back afterwards. Even in the event that Jin'rokh gets a melee attack on the tank who has Static Wound, this should not wipe your raid.

Finally, as a helpful user pointed out on our forums, Death Knights' Anti-Magic Shell can be used to prevent the application of Static Wound.

For Lightning Storm, everyone should stack in the very center of the room, at the location of the boss. Healing and defensive cooldowns should be used to get through this phase.

Everyone must make sure to leave the Conductive Water void zone as soon as Lightning Storm starts, because the increased Nature damage taken from Fluidity will make you unhealable otherwise.

Finally, you must remember that shortly after a Lighting Storm starts, the most recently-spawned Conductive Water void zone will become compromised, and standing in it from this moment on is extremely detrimental.

Since standing in Conductive Water grants a sizeable DPS increase, it is important to save your DPS cooldowns for these times. Therefore, it is not advised to use any cooldowns at the pull, and to make sure from then on to always save them so that they are up during your time inside a Conductive Water void zone. Doing this properly will result in a great DPS increase which may prove to be necessary to defeat the boss.

We recommend using Heroism/ Bloodlust/ Time Warp about 20 seconds after the first Conductive Water void zone is created. This allows raid members to re-use 1-minute DPS cooldowns, as well as DPS potions.

The first thing that your raid members will need to learn is how to handle Focused Lightning properly. Failing to do so will probably be the biggest source of wipes while learning the encounter. In the interest of mastering this quickly, ranged DPS players and healers should focus primarily on reacting very promptly to being the target of a Focused Lightning, and making sure that it is detonated in a safe location. Once everyone understands precisely what they need to do and how important it is that they do it right, then they can begin focusing more intently on their actual role.

Aside from this, the second biggest contributing factor to a speedy kill is making sure that the DPS players are taking advantage of the increased damage granted by Fluidity insofar as their cooldowns are concerned.

The rest of the tasks your raid members will be required to perform should not pose too many problems, and your raid members should get accustomed to them while they are mastering the two important issues we listed above.

The Heroic mode of the Jin'rokh the Breaker encounter presents only two changes from Normal mode, so the fight will feel very similar overall.

In addition to Jin'rokh dealing increased damage and having increased health, there are two important new mechanics in the fight.

• Ionization is a debuff that Jin'rokh applies on all raid members, except tanks, one minute after the fight starts, and every 90 seconds after that. The debuff lasts 24 seconds, and it can be dispelled. While active, the debuff does not do anything, but when it wears off or is dispelled, it causes the affected player anyone within 8 yards of them to take a very high amount of Nature damage. If the debuff wears off while that player is in a Conductive Water void zone, every other player in the Conductive Water will take a very high amount of Nature damage.
• Lightning Strike is cast at the start of each Lightning Storm, and lasts for the same duration as the Lightning Storm. Several beams of lightning hit the ground, and from each of these beams, 4 small sparks of lightning move out in 4 directions, traveling along the floor. Coming in contact with the beams, at their point of impact, or with any of the resulting sparks, deals a high amount of Nature damage.

To familiarise yourself with the heroic-mode changes, we advise you to watch this kill video from Inner Sanctum:

The strategy for the Heroic mode is very similar to the one from Normal mode. There are only two small modifications.

Whenever Ionization is cast, every single one of the affected raid members must make sure that the removal of the debuff occurs in safe conditions. That means that they must not have any other players within 8 yards of them, and that they must not be in the Conductive Water void zone. Moreover, they must make sure that they have enough health to survive the damage (which will hit for around 300,000 damage or more).

Players should spread out a few seconds before the Ionization goes out, and any players who are safe (away from other raid members and topped off) should be dispelled. Then, healers can dispel players progressively over the next 24 seconds, and players who have had their debuff dispelled can move back into Conductive Water.

Immunities such as Cloak of Shadows, Ice Block, and Divine Shield work to remove the debuff without harming the affected player, but the proximity damage will still be dealt. However, if these immunities are up at the time when Ionization is applied, the debuff is not applied at all to these players. As such, players with available immunities should use them right before Ionization is cast. Furthermore, players who are capable of dispelling themselves while making sure to survive the damage (such as through the use of powerful defensive cooldowns) should do so.

The implication of Lightning Strike is simply that stacking during Lightning Storm is no longer possible, as everyone will have to move around (or dance) to avoid the sparks from Lightning Strike.

There is really no tip or secret that we can share regarding this task, and everyone's own awareness and ability to move will come into play.

This concludes our raid guide for Jin'rokh the Breaker. We hope you have found it helpful. Please do not hesitate to post any feedback you may have on our forums.

• 26 Mar. 2013: Corrected the mention of how many players are affected by Ionization in 25-man (it used to state that 11-19 players are affected, whereas in fact all players except the tanks are affected). Also added mention that having damage immunities active when Ionization is cast prevents the application of the debuff.
• 19 Mar. 2013: Added Heroic mode strategy.
• 13 Mar. 2013: Added link to forum threads that contain class-specific advice for the encounter.
• 11 Mar. 2013: Replaced our PTR preview with our video guide.
• 07 Mar. 2013: Added mention that Thundering Throw resets the tank's threat; added mention that Anti-Magic Shell prevents the application of Static Wound; clarified the wording of several aspects.
• 06 Mar. 2013: Adjusted health values in 10 and 25-man, based on live server findings.
• 04 Mar. 2013: Fixed two errors in the loot table.
  • Worldbreaker's Stormscythe was listed as a Sword, but it is an Axe.
  • We gave Intellect, Strength, and Dodge as the main statistics for Jin'rokh's Soulcrystal.

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