Durumu the Forgotten Detailed Strategy Guide (Heroic Mode included)

Last updated on Jun 21, 2013 at 12:38 by Vlad 35 comments

Table of Contents

Boss Icon - Durumu the Forgotten

Introduction

This guide is intended to provide a comprehensive description of the encounter with Durumu the Forgotten 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.

Durumu the Forgotten is the seventh boss in the Throne of Thunder raid. This is a relatively straightforward encounter in terms of strategy, but the execution must be precise, and there is a great deal of raid damage that must be healed.

The fight is very punishing, and even small mistakes can cause players to die.

1.

General Information

1.1.

Health Values

Difficulty Durumu Crimson/Azure/Amber Fogs
10-man 261M 1.3M
10-man Heroic 392.5M 2.2M
25-man 785M 4M
25-man Heroic 1,17M 6.5M
LFR 430M 2M
1.2.

Enrage Timer

Durumu has a hard enrage timer of 10 minutes, after which time he casts Obliterate Icon Obliterate, wiping your raid. There is no soft enrage timer.

1.3.

Raid Composition

Difficulty Tanks Healers DPS
10-man 2 2-3 5-6
10-man Heroic 2 2-3 5-6
25-man 2 5-7 16-18
25-man Heroic 2 5-7 16-18
2.

Loot

2.1.

Armor

Item Name Armor Slot Main Stats
Chilblain Spaulders Icon Chilblain Spaulders (LFR, Heroic) Cloth Shoulders Intellect
Leggings of Pulsing Blood Icon Leggings of Pulsing Blood (LFR, Heroic) Cloth Legs Intellect
Lifedrainer's Sordid Grip Icon Lifedrainer's Sordid Grip (LFR, Heroic) Cloth Hands Intellect/Hit
Sandals of the Starving Eye Icon Sandals of the Starving Eye (LFR, Heroic) Leather Feet Intellect
Crimson Bloom Legguards Icon Crimson Bloom Legguards (LFR, Heroic) Leather Legs Agility
Vein-Cover Bracers Icon Vein-Cover Bracers (LFR, Heroic) Mail Wrists Intellect
Aberrant Chestguard of Torment Icon Aberrant Chestguard of Torment (LFR, Heroic) Mail Chest Agility
Links of the Disintegrator Icon Links of the Disintegrator (LFR, Heroic) Mail Waist Agility
Iceshatter Gauntlets Icon Iceshatter Gauntlets (LFR, Heroic) Plate Hands Intellect
Legplates of Reemergence Icon Legplates of Reemergence (LFR, Heroic) Plate Legs Intellect
Caustic Spike Bracers Icon Caustic Spike Bracers (LFR, Heroic) Plate Wrists Strength
Legplates of the Dark Parasite Icon Legplates of the Dark Parasite (LFR, Heroic) Plate Legs Strength/Expertise
Artery Rippers Icon Artery Rippers (LFR, Heroic) Plate Hands Strength/Parry
Treads of the Blind Eye Icon Treads of the Blind Eye (LFR, Heroic) Plate Feet Strength/Parry
2.2.

Weapons

Item Name Type Main Stats
Ritual Dagger of the Mind's Eye Icon Ritual Dagger of the Mind's Eye (LFR, Heroic) Dagger Intellect/Spirit
Durumu's Baleful Gaze Icon Durumu's Baleful Gaze (LFR, Heroic) Crossbow Agility
2.3.

Cloaks and Rings

Item Name Type Main Stats
Deadly Glare Cape Icon Deadly Glare Cape (LFR, Heroic) Cloak Intellect
Reinforced Mirror-Sheen Cloak Icon Reinforced Mirror-Sheen Cloak (LFR, Heroic) Cloak Strength/Dodge
Durumu's Captive Eyeball Icon Durumu's Captive Eyeball (LFR, Heroic) Ring Intellect/Spirit
Durumu's Severed Tentacle Icon Durumu's Severed Tentacle (LFR, Heroic) Ring Strength/Dodge
3.

DPS Requirements

Under the assumptions that a tank does half the damage of a DPS, that the boss enrages after 10 minutes, and that the healing the boss gets from Life Drain Icon Life Drain is negligible, the DPS requirements are as follows:

  • 10-man with 5 DPS: 76k DPS;
  • 10-man with 6 DPS: 65k DPS;
  • 25-man with 16 DPS: 80k DPS;
  • 25-man with 17 DPS: 76k DPS;
  • 25-man with 18 DPS: 72k DPS.

Keep in mind that there is a lot of movement during the fight.

4.

Overview of the Fight

The encounter against Durumu the Forgotten is three-phase fight during which you must defeat Durumu himself, while also killing several adds at regular times in the fight. It could be said that this is a single-phase fight, but we feel that it is easier to understand and learn the encounter if you look at it as a three-phase encounter. The phases are.

  • The Normal Phase. This is the state in which the fight starts, and this is essentially the default state of the encounter. Durumu uses his less harmful abilities during this time.
  • The Colorblind Phase. 30 seconds after the start of the fight, and roughly every 3 minutes after that, Durumu will target 2 raid members with a differently coloured cone of light each, and these players will have to move around the platform (the cones follow them around as they move) until they are able to reveal the locations of 3 invisible adds. If a cone of light is shone on the location of one of the adds, the add is revealed. The phase ends when all 3 adds have been killed. During this phase there is intense raid damage.
  • The Disintegration Beam Phase. About two and a half minutes into the fight, and roughly every 3 minutes after that, Durumu will enter the Disintegration Beam Phase. For one minute, Durumu will channel a deadly beam of light in front of him, and he will rotate slowly around the platform. In addition to this beam of light, the floor of the room will become covered in extremely damaging ground effects. Only a small safe zone exists, which moves slowly around the room with Durumu, and players must stand in this safe zone to survive the phase.

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

5.

Class-specific Advice

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!

6.

Normal Phase

6.1.

Abilities

Durumu is stationary in the center of his platform. If there are no targets in his melee range, he will spam Gaze Icon Gaze at the raid, dealing a large amount of damage and eventually killing everyone.

It should be mentioned that all of the abilities that Durumu uses during the Normal Phase also occur during the Colorblind Phase.

  • Hard Stare Icon Hard Stare is a damaging attack that Durumu often casts on his current target. It deals damage and applies two debuffs to the target.
    • Serious Wound Icon Serious Wound is a stacking debuff that reduces the healing received by the target.
    • Arterial Cut Icon Arterial Cut is a bleed effect that can only be removed if the target is healed to maximum health.
  • Force of Will Icon Force of Will is an attack that Durumu regularly spams. The boss targets a random raid member with a narrow cone effect, and a few seconds later, any players standing in this cone are knocked back.
  • Lingering Gaze Icon Lingering Gaze is a spell that Durumu regularly casts at random raid members (2 in 10-man, and 5 in 25-man and LFR). The boss fires Shadow bolts at the locations of these players, which deal a moderate amount of Shadow damage in a 15-yard radius when they land, and which leave behind a void zone that lasts until the end of the fight. Players who stand in these void zones take damage every second and have their movement speed progressively slowed.
  • Life Drain Icon Life Drain is an ability that Durumu regularly casts. He summons a Hungry Eye, an unattackable and untargettable NPC which channels Life Drain on a random raid member for 15 seconds, dealing damage to them every second, and healing Durumu for the life it drains. The channel can be intercepted by any players who place themselves between the Hungry Eye and its target, and this causes the Hungry Eye to drain life from them instead. This is beneficial, because the eye deals increasing damage the longer it stays on a single target.

It is worth noting that in the case of Force of Will Icon Force of Will and Lingering Gaze Icon Lingering Gaze Durumu also creates a specific NPC that actually uses these abilities against your raid (a Mind's Eye Icon Mind's Eye and an Appraising Eye respectively), although this is not something that has any relevance.

6.2.

Strategy

During this phase, your raid will have a relatively easy time, since this phase acts as the calm before the storm of the other two phases.

  • Have your tanks alternate tanking Durumu, so that Serious Wound Icon Serious Wound does not prevent the healers from topping off the tanks to rid them of Arterial Cut Icon Arterial Cut.
  • Have raid members position the void zones left behind by Lingering Gaze Icon Lingering Gaze in such a way that they do not hinder your raid's movement. Make sure no one stands in these void zones.
  • Make sure that everyone moves out of the cones created by Force of Will Icon Force of Will, so that they do not get knocked back.
  • When a player is targeted by Life Drain Icon Life Drain, have one or two other players alternate getting in between that player and the Hungry Eye in order to minimise the healing that Durumu receives.

As Solragor pointed out on our forums, the debuffs applied by Hard Stare Icon Hard Stare can be removed by means of Divine Shield Icon Divine Shield and Hand of Protection. This enables a single Protection Paladin to tank the encounter by removing the stacks, or even by a non-Paladin tank, if there is a tank in the raid with Clemency talented.

6.2.1.

Lingering Gaze Positioning

Players who are targeted by Lingering Gaze Icon Lingering Gaze have about 3 seconds before the void zone forms at their feet. Once targeted, these players should make sure to move in such a way that the void zones left behind do not hinder the raid's movement, especially during the Disintegration Beam Phase.

There are a few different options for how to handle this. One strategy is to designate the area under Durumu's model as the void zone location, and have everyone dump their void zones there. Naturally, this large void zone will gradually expand a bit over time, since players will not always be able to place all their void zones in the exact same location (since even touching that location will be an instant or near-instant kill, due to the high number of overlapping void zones). If done correctly, then this strategy basically removes the void zones from the fight entirely, but executing it well is not very easy. Moreover, the central point of the single void zone under Durumu becomes extremely damaging (due to the many overlapping void zones present there), so players who misstep when trying to place their void zone can die.

Another strategy is to have players dump the void zones at the outer edge of Durumu's platform. If players stand on the very edge, then half of the void zone will be outside of the platform, so the space taken up by void zones is smaller. This is easier to execute than the previous strategy, but it is still not always easy for players to get to the very edge of the platform in time. If attempting this, melee players should keep in mind that Durumu's hitbox is truly gigantic, so they can stand very far from him when attacking him.

In any case, there are two important things to avoid.

  • Do not leave the void zones within 10-15 yards of Durumu. This area is generally where the melee safe zone during the Disintegration Beam Phase is, and having void zones here can be a very problematic for melee DPS players who are trying to move through the Eye Sore maze.
  • Unless you are placing all the void zones under Durumu, do not have two or more void zones merged together or connected. Doing so would turn the void zones into one larger void zone, which can prove to be an obstacle during the Disintegration Beam Phase. Instead, try to leave enough space between any two void zones so that players can move between them.
7.

Colorblind Phase

As we mentioned before, the Colorblind Phase is first cast about 30 seconds after the start of the fight (1 minute after the start of the fight in LFR), and every 3 minutes after that. Each time, it lasts until your raid members detect and kill 3 adds.

7.1.

Abilities

We remind you that Durumu uses all the abilities from the Normal phase during the Colorblind Phase.

When the Colorblind Phase starts, three random raid members (excluding tanks) will each be targeted by a beam of light. There is a red beam, a blue beam, and a yellow beam. These beams persist for a few seconds, and during this time, they do not do anything. After a few seconds, the beams turn into three differently-colored cones of light are created on the floor of Durumu's circular platform: a red cone, a blue cone, and a yellow cone.

The red and blue cones are centered around the players targeted by the red and blue beams respectively, and follow these players around as they move. The yellow cone moves around either clockwise or counter-clockwise (it is chosen randomly).

These cones of light cover an area from Durumu's location (in the very center of the platform) to the outer edge of the platform.

If there are no players (aside from the players who the red and blue cones are following) inside one of the cones, the raid will take a very high amount of damage from that cone.

  • The red cone damages the raid through Infrared Light Icon Infrared Light.
  • The blue cone damages the raid through Blue Rays Icon Blue Rays.
  • The yellow cone damages the raid through Bright Light Icon Bright Light.

Players who do stand in the cones are still not safe from damage, though. Each cone deals a large amount of damage every second, split between all players standing in the cone.

7.1.1.

Revealing the Adds

On the platform, there are 4 invisible adds that can only be revealed by having the appropriately-colored cone of the light on their location. The red cone of light has the ability to reveal 3 adds called Crimson Fogs, while the blue cone has the ability to reveal an add called Azure Fog. The Colorblind Phase ends when all 3 Crimson Fogs are dead.

When the red cone is brought to the location of a Crimson Fog add, and when the blue cone is brought to the location of an Azure Fog, the add will become visible, and your raid can now attack and kill it. If the cone is moved from the add's location before the add is dead, the add will cease to be visible to the raid.

While revealed, both the Crimson and the Azure Fogs damage your raid.

  • The Crimson Fog spams Caustic Spike Icon Caustic Spike on random raid members, dealing Physical damage to them.
  • The Azure Fog casts Icy Grasp Icon Icy Grasp, dealing increasing damage to any players standing in the blue cone.

If either the Crimson or the Azure Fogs cease to be revealed before they are dead, then they deal a large amount of raid-wide damage. Also, the Azure Fog respawns immediately after being killed.

Finally, it is important to mention that right before the Colorblind Phase starts, the locations of the 3 Crimson Fogs, and that of the Azure Fog, are indicated for a brief moment by appropriately-colored flashes of light at their locations.

7.2.

Strategy

Despite appearing complex, the strategy for this phase is rather simple. The execution of it is, however, quite difficult.

Your raid's main goal is to reveal and kill the Crimson Fogs as quickly as possible, so that the Colorblind Phase is over in a short amount of time.

  • Have someone survey the platform and call out (and preferably mark with raid markers) the locations of the three Crimson Fogs, and that of the Azure Fog. These locations are visible for about 1-2 seconds before the phase starts.
  • Have your free raid members evenly distributed among the three cones, in order to ensure that none of the cones deals raid-wide damage, and that the damage dealt within each cone is split among many raid members.
  • Have the player targeted by the red cone move around the platform to the locations of the Crimson Fogs. They are to remain at the location of the first Crimson Fog until it has been killed, before moving on to the second and so on.
  • Have the player targeted by the blue cone move to a location other than where the Azure Fog is located, and not reveal this add under any circumstance.
7.2.1.

Assigning Players to Cones

Melee DPS should all be in the red cone, so that when the Crimson Fogs are detected, these players will be in range of them to attack them.

Ranged DPS should be in the yellow cone, since they can attack the Crimson Fogs regardless of where they are on the platform.

Healers should be in the blue cone, because this cone generally does not move at all, so the healers can focus entirely on their task while standing still.

The tanks should stand in the blue or yellow cones, so that Durumu faces away from the red cone (at least sometimes), allowing the melee DPS to attack him from behind while they are not killing Crimson Fogs.

7.2.2.

Things to Avoid

The first thing that should be avoided is revealing the Azure Fog. This is because when this add is revealed, the players inside the blue cone will take increasing damage until the Colorblind Phase ends. So, the player targeted by the blue cone should go to a location other than where the Azure Fog was spotted before the cones of light appeared, and they should never bring the cone to the Azure Fog's location.

Secondly, it is imperative to avoid moving a cone from an add that has been revealed but that has not yet been killed. The amount of raid damage that this does is very high, and it will almost surely cause deaths.

7.2.3.

Healing Concerns

There are many sources of damage during this fight, and especially during this phase. In addition to the usual tank damage and Life Drain Icon Life Drain damage, all raid members will be taking steady damage from being in the cones.

Moreover, the Crimson Fogs will be spamming Caustic Spike Icon Caustic Spike at random raid members, dealing even more damage.

We advise using healing and defensive cooldowns during this phase of the fight.

8.

Disintegration Beam Phase

The first Disintegration Beam Phase starts about 2 minutes and 30 seconds after the start of the fight, and it then happens roughly every 3 minutes after that. Each time, it lasts precisely 1 minute.

8.1.

Abilities

As the phase begins, Durumu will start channeling Disintegration Beam Precast Icon Disintegration Beam in front of him. For the first 10 seconds or so, the beam is harmless. During this time, the floor of the room slowly gets covered by Eye Sore Icon Eye Sores. Initially, the Eye Sores cover a random circular sector representing 1/12th of the room. From there, the Eye Sores area expands and covers an additional 1/12th of the room every second until the entire room is covered. The expansion proceeds in a clockwise or counter-clockwise fashion; this is chosen randomly.

After the Eye Sore Icon Eye Sores reach the area where Durumu is channeling his Disintegration Beam Precast Icon Disintegration Beam, you will notice two safe zones forming next to the beam (on its left if the Eye Sores were expanding counter-clockwise or on its right if the Eye Sores were expanding clockwise). One safe zone is close to the boss and meant for the melee group. The other safe zone is further away and meant for ranged players.

When the entire room is covered in Eye Sore Icon Eye Sores, the Disintegration Beam Precast Icon Disintegration Beam becomes very harmful (it will kill anyone it hits) and Durumu will start spinning: clockwise if the Eye Sores covered the room in a clockwise fashion, counter-clockwise otherwise.

The safe zones keep moving with the beam, so as to always give the raid protection, provided that players move with them. On the PTR, the Eye Sores were not respawning as the safe zones were moving, so the safe zones were effectively expanding, eventually creating an entire safe circle around Durumu. We are not certain that this was the intended effect.

Finally, during this phase, Durumu also deals moderate amounts of damage to random raid members.

8.2.

Strategy

The idea behind this phase is to always stand in the safe zone, and follow it as it expands/moves, so that the beam that Durumu is channeling never catches you.

While stepping on Eye Sore Icon Eye Sores will not kill you, this is still something that should be avoided at all costs.

9.

When to Use Heroism/Bloodlust/Time Warp

We recommend using Heroism Icon Heroism/Bloodlust Icon Bloodlust/Time Warp Icon Time Warp at the start of the fight, since there are no distractions at this time for your raid (no Colorblind Phase and no Disintegration Beam Precast Icon Disintegration Beam). Alternatively, if you dispose of a Colorblind Phase later on in the fight with ample time until the next Disintegration Beam Phase, you can use it then.

10.

Learning the Fight

There are two things that are of the utmost importance for all raid members to learn if you are to successfully defeat this boss.

First of all, everyone must understand very well what is happening during the Colorblind Phase, and what their role is, depending on whether or not they are the target of one of the three cones of light.

We anticipate that a great majority of wipes will come from players taking too long to reveal all the Crimson Fogs, or from players moving the cone of light away from an already revealed Fog that has not yet been killed. You must simply insist upon this aspect until all raid members are familiar with it.

Secondly, surviving the Disintegration Beam Phase is a crucial aspect of the fight. This is not a team effort - rather, it is up to each individual raid member to survive, and your margin of error here is very small indeed. You should mark a player who knows how to move during this phase, and simply ask the rest of the raid to follow them.

11.

Heroic Mode

The Heroic mode for Durumu the Forgotten presents several important differences from Normal mode. The strategy, as we will see, remains similar, but a few additions do exist.

11.1.

Differences From Normal Mode

In addition to all of the hostile NPCs having increased health and dealing increased damage, there are a few notable additions in terms of mechanics.

  • The Colorblind Phase now has a maximum duration of 80 seconds. If you have not managed to kill all 3 Crimson Fogs and end the phase in that time, Durumu will instantly wipe your raid.
  • During the Colorblind Phase, there is now a third add, called an Amber Fog, which is revealed if the yellow cone reaches its location.
    • As with the other two Fog adds, when this add ceases to be revealed, it deals a very large amount of raid-wide damage (through a spell called Burst of Amber Icon Burst of Amber).
    • While revealed, the Amber Fog casts Amber Retaliation Icon Amber Retaliation, which deals damage to all players located in the yellow cone each time the Amber Fog loses 10% of its health.
  • Before each Colorblind Phase and Disintegration Beam Phase (except for the very first Colorblind Phase), Durumu will create three walls of ice that divide the platform into three sectors. These walls of ice are made out of several small sectors (attackable NPCs with relatively low health). These walls of ice are impassable, and as such they will heavily obstruct your raid's movement, quickly causing a wipe.
  • Durumu gains a new ability. After the first Disintegration Beam Phase, he will begin casting Dark Parasite Icon Dark Parasite, which applies a DoT on random raid members. This debuff can be dispelled, and the longer that it remains on a player, the more damage it deals to that player. When dispelled, the DoT turns into a debuff called Dark Plague Icon Dark Plague, which has the same duration remaining on it as Dark Parasite had when it was dispelled. While Dark Plague is active, it spawns an add called a Wandering Eye every 3 seconds.
    • Wandering Eyes fixate on random raid members, dealing damage to them every 2 seconds. Moreover, any damage that the Wandering Eye takes is also mirrored to the player on whom it is fixated.
11.2.

Strategy

The overall strategy for the fight remains similar to the Normal mode, but the following crucial changes occur:

  • Your raid must kill the Amber Fog add in case it is ever revealed by the yellow cone of light.
  • Your raid must finish each Colorblind Phase within a maximum of 80 seconds (this part should not really pose problems for raids that have a good understanding of the encounter).
  • Your raid must break down all the walls of ice as quickly as possible, each time they appear.
  • Your raid must kill the Wandering Eyes with light damage only (such as incidental damage from cleave attacks or moderate AoE damage). The reason for this is that these adds mirror all the damage that they take onto the targets on whom they are fixated, so if everyone tries to burst down the adds, raid members will die.

In the sub-sections that follow, we will go into more detail about several of these aspects, but in general, this is all you need to know to complete the fight.

11.2.1.

Amber Fogs

The Amber Fogs must be killed as soon as they appear, because the yellow cone of light moves on its own, meaning that the Amber Fogs will eventually (and rather quickly) cease to be revealed, which causes a wipe. As such, as soon as an Amber Fog appears, everyone should switch to it and kill it quickly.

The Amber Retaliation Icon Amber Retaliation spell that they cast each time they lose 10% of their health deals damage to players inside the yellow cone, but this must simply be healed through.

11.2.2.

Walls of Ice

The Walls of Ice are the most challenging (or annoying, if you prefer) addition in Heroic mode. Each time they appear (and especially before Disintegration Beam Phases), your raid has only a very short amount of time to break these walls down. Each wall is composed of several sectors, and your raid must destroy them all to be able to effectively maneuver around the platform. Single targeting the sectors is inefficient, and not recommended. Instead, you should use AoE attacks against them.

The biggest problem, however, is derived from the fact that the sectors are quite far apart from one another, so classes that can deal AoE damage over large distances (Elemental Shamans and Demonology/Destruction Warlocks) are ideal.

11.2.3.

Dark Parasite and Wandering Eyes

The first thing you must understand about the Dark Parasite Icon Dark Parasite DoT is that, on the one hand, the DoT deals more and more damage the longer it is on a player, but on the other, the later the DoT is dispelled, the fewer Wandering Eyes will spawn. This means that your raid will need to strike a balance in dispelling these DoTs, so that the damage they deal is manageable, but that the number of Wandering Eyes is also not too great.

Players who have immunities such as Divine Shield Icon Divine Shield and Cloak of Shadows Icon Cloak of Shadows can remove the DoT from them harmlessly, and they should do so whenever possible.

The resulting Wandering Eyes should be killed, as they deal damage to the random raid members on whom they fixate, but because they mirror the damage that they receive to these raid members, they should not be killed overly quickly. Instead, we advise you to simply let incidental cleaving damage and light or moderate AoE attacks do the job.

12.

Concluding Remarks

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

13.

Changelog

  • 21 Jun. 2013: Added Heroic mode.
  • 24 Mar. 2013: Added link to video guide.
  • 22 Mar. 2013: Added a lengthier explanation detailing the best ways to handle Lingering Gaze Icon Lingering Gaze; also expanded the section detailing how to assign players to cones of light.
  • 13 Mar. 2013: Added link to forum threads that contain class-specific advice for the encounter.
  • 10 Mar. 2013: Added mention that the debuffs from Hard Stare Icon Hard Stare can be removed by means of Divine Shield Icon Divine Shield and Hand of Protection, and that the encounter can therefore possibly be one-tanked.
  • 10 Mar. 2013: Added mentions that the location of the Azure Fog is also indicated by a flash of light before the cones of light appear.
  • 09 Mar. 2013: Removed mentions of overlapping the cones, as this is not actually detrimental.
  • 08 Mar. 2013: Added 25-man health values and DPS requirements.
  • 27 Feb. 2013: Added DPS requirements for 10-man.
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