The raid instance Gruul’s Lair is located in the Shear Ridge and is one of the first challenges for 25-player raid groups in WoW: Burning Crusade Classic. With High King Maulgar and Gruul, two bosses await you that you should quickly send to the boards with our tips.
The raid instance Gruul’s Lair is your entry point into the large 25-player raids in WoW: Burning Crusade Classic. Two bosses and relatively few trash mobs await you. In general, this instance is similar to Onyxia in the classic times of World of Warcraft, there is only one boss more. Even the difficulty level is comparably moderate from today’s perspective.
Unlike many other TBC raids, you don’t need to do a preliminary quest to enter Gruul’s lair. You can simply walk into the instance. The entrance is located at the northern end of the huge chasm in the shear ridge. You’ve probably already noticed the portal while leveling, when you had to deal with the ogres here. Speaking of ogres, the leader of the ogres, High King Maulgar, is also the first boss in the lair. Once he is defeated, another path opens into the cave. There you will meet the giant mountain gron Gruul himself. By the way, you have already run into his sons. Some of them stay in the shear ridge, another one walks around in Nagrand.
Equipment and raid setup
In order not to fail mercilessly at the first boss, High King Maulgar, you should already have quite good equipment. At least blue items from the high-level instances are required. Homemade epic armor and weapons or those from Karazhan and the heroic instances are obviously much more valuable. Also pack useful consumable items like potions, elixirs or vials, and food.
The raid itself should be fairly balanced. For Maulgar, you need a well-equipped tank with a lot of hit points. A druid or warrior with appropriate talent distribution are the best options for this. Since the first boss is flanked by four other companions, you’ll need special classes to keep them busy as well. A mage with a high number of hit points is mandatory, for example, because he’ll take care of Krosh Firehand. The remaining three mobs can be occupied in different ways, but more about that on the next page. Depending on your experience, you can also vary the number of healers. For the first steps we recommend eight healers. Later you can go down to six healers.
Due to Maulgar’s whirlwind and fear effect, melee fighters have a slight disadvantage in the first boss fight. However, you should have at least two melee fighters with you who can interrupt any heals from the priest. Also with Gruul, too many frontline soldiers can make the fight more difficult. On the other hand, if you pack several hunters and warlocks and support them with group-wide buffs like totems, the battles should be easier for you.
The trash mobs in Gruul’s lair
The group is standing? Everyone is armed to the teeth? Morale is good? Then it’s time to enter Gruul’s lair! After buffing each other, take on the trash mobs in front of High King Maulgar. Fortunately you’ll only have to deal with three mobs here. A patrol and two other ogres block your way.
Which enemies they are exactly, however, is left to chance. There are only two different trash mob enemies in this instance, Lair Thugs and Gronnpriests. Both types of enemies have a little over 250,000 hit points and have different abilities. Your melee fighters will certainly be bothered by the Thug’s SPLIT, but the DEADLY PUNCH will only hit the tank in question.
Campers live longer
Occasionally, the lair’s thugs will charge at random players in the battlegroup, losing the threat from the tank. Therefore, a warrior or druid is best to stay in the camp of healers and ranged fighters, and in this case bring the enemy back to a safe distance. If the hard melee fighters are about to die, they still call for help, so tank them at a safe distance from more enemies. The Gronnpriests have a fear effect that makes all melee fighters flee, the tank included. Again, another Warrior or Druid should pull the Priest from the group.
Also protect yourself with Fear Spell Protection and Totem of Earth Strike. RENEW removes Mages, Shamans, and Priests, and the Great Heal is interrupted by respective interrupting actions such as Kick or Counterspell. Take the patrol first and then the party of two. If Maulgar is still unconquered an hour after the trash mobs have been eliminated, the enemies will reappear. However, you don’t have to worry about them respawning in the middle of the boss fight, this is not possible.
The way to the back of the cave
After Maulgar and his companions have passed away, the second section of the cave is open to you. Some ogres await you before you can advance to Gruul the Dragon Slayer. They appear in groups of two, patrols and even in a group of three at the end. However, they are the same kind of enemies that you had to fight at the beginning of the instance, i.e. Thugs of the Lair and Gron Priests. Fight them in the same way as before. Your advantage is the large space of High King Maulgar, which you’ll use in battle.
What is WoW Classic?
World of Warcraft Classic is a true recreation of the original WoW as you know it from 2006. All parts of the game – from combat mechanics and talent trees to character models and zones – have been recreated, contributing to the authentic experience.
Getting Started
All players with an active World of Warcraft subscription or game time on their accounts have access to WoW Classic at no additional cost.
- Open the Blizzard Battle.net Desktop App and select World of Warcraft from the menu.
- Select World of Warcraft Classic from the Version menu. If you have more than one World of Warcraft account, you’ll see a second Account drop-down list. In this column, select the active account you want to play with.
- Click the Install button. The progress bar will tell you when your game is ready to play.
- Click the Play button when the installation is complete.
You will need to select the realm you want to play on from several different realm types. Make sure you choose the same realm as your friends – in World of Warcraft Classic, you can only group with characters that are on the same realm as you!
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