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Overview

Gnarlroot is a 2-phase fight with a 20-second intermission high healing and high damage burn period at the end of each Phase 2.

• Phase 1, the boss spawns lines of swirls with dormant adds in the four cardinal directions from his facing. The raid must drop puddles that cover those dormant adds to activate them over the course of the phase.
• Phase 2, the boss takes 99% reduced damage and spawns 4 sets of roots. The raid must soak small puddles that deal DoT damage but allow you to burn away the roots by touching them.
• Once all roots are destroyed, the burn period begins.

Key mechanics

• Tanks swap for every Dreadfire Barrage (opens in a new tab) and use magic-based CDs.
• Flaming Pestilence (opens in a new tab) - 4 lines of swirlies in cardinal directions from boss. Dormant Tainted Lashers spawn from some swirls.
  • Tactic Tanks must keep the boss centered and facing a cardinal direction to force swirl positions. Tanks are advised to set a Countdown.
• Critical Countdown Controlled Burn (opens in a new tab) - 4 random non-tank players (one healer and three DPS) get debuffed. After 6 seconds, the debuff expires and leaves a Shadow-Scorched Earth (opens in a new tab) puddle that lasts for the rest of the phase.
  • Tactic If afflicted, you must run to the assigned OUTERMOST raid marker position to drop your puddle. See Phase 1 for more details.
• Every ~30 seconds (three times per phase), the boss faces a random non-tank player and casts the conal Shadowflame Cleave (opens in a new tab).
• At the start of Phase 2, the boss spawns 4 sets of Doom Roots in the four cardinal directions around him.
  • Tactic 2-3 non-tank players must soak the Splintering Charcoal (opens in a new tab) swirls and quickly run along the roots to burn them. You have 10 seconds and can clear up to 5 root sections per soak.
• Critical At the end of Phase 2, the boss takes 100% additional damage and deals massive raid-wide AoE damage for 20 seconds.
  • Tactic
    • DPS: Save personal CDs and bloodlust for this burn period.
    • Healers: Coordinate raid CDs for this AoE damage period.

Strategy

Phase 1

Mythic

For every set of Flaming Pestilence (opens in a new tab), two dormant Tainted Treants are also spawned along with the dormant Tainted Lashers.

• Dormant Tainted Treants must be activated before P2 begins. Ideally, Treants are activated in each pair that they appear so the raid can properly handle and kill them before the next pair or P2 begins.

  • Tactic All DPS should switch to the Treants as soon as they spawn and kill them ASAP.

    Once we're comfortable with the fight, we can assign a few DPS to handle the Treants while the rest of the raid focuses on the boss.

• Tainted Treants cast Blazing Pollen (opens in a new tab), a 4-sec cast that must be interrupted or it damages and disorients the 5 nearest players.

  • Tactic 2 assigned interrupts per Treant is sufficient (one primary and one for backup).

• Tainted Treants frequently cast Flaming Sap (opens in a new tab) on a few random players, but it does no damage if those players are 5+ yards away from others. This debuff does apply a slow.

  • Tactic Debuffed players should stay spread apart from others.

Phase 2

After ~90 seconds in P1, the boss casts Doom Cultivation (opens in a new tab) to start P2. During this phase, the boss takes 99% reduced damage. He'll also immediately spawn 4 sets of Doom Roots in the four cardinal directions around him.

Intermission

When all Doom Roots are burned away Phase 2 ends and a 20-second burn period begins with the boss casting Uprooted Agony (opens in a new tab). During this period, the boss takes 100% additional damage and deals massive raid-wide AoE damage.

• Raid should bloodlust and use potions.
• DPS should have 2-min CDs available if used on the pull.
• Healers should coordinate raid CDs for this AoE damage period.

💡

Adds should already be dead, but if any are alive the tanks should deal with them via CC and interrupts.

Alternative strategies

Wall positioning

This strategy involves tanking the boss against a wall, with the goal of forcing two of the four Flaming Pestilence (opens in a new tab) swirl lines to spawn more bunched up given they're forced by the geometry of the wall.

Pros

• It's easy to cover the wall-facing swirl lines with roughly a single puddle each. Therefore, it reduces the chance that a handful of improperly placed puddles will ruin an attempt by allowing too many dormant Tainted Lashers to remain deactivated prior to Phase 2.
• Raid is more stacked up, which can be good for healers.

Cons

• Critical The raid is forced into a much smaller working area, given that puddles are going to be placed within melee distance on both sides of the boss, plus outward along the two non-wall Flaming Pestilence (opens in a new tab) lines.
• It's harder to maintain consistent boss facing and therefore consistent Flaming Pestilence (opens in a new tab) line directions, since the initial puddle spawns are likely overlapping with tank positions.