G'huun Strategy/Tactics for Normal/Heroic

Table of Contents

• +Introduction
  • 1. Contents
  • 2. Lore
  • 3. Outline
  • 4. TL;DR
    • 4.1. Tanks
    • 4.2. Healers
    • 4.3. DPS
    • 4.4. Everyone
    • 4.5. Positioning
  • 5. Bloodlust/Heroism/Time Warp
  • 6. Class-specific Advice for G'huun
  • 7. Changelog
• +Abilities
  • 1. Overview
  • 2. Power Matrix & Reorigination Drive
  • 3. Explosive Corruption
    • 3.1. Virulent Corruption
  • 4. Phase One: My Minions are Endless!
    • 4.1. Thousand Maws
    • 4.2. Cyclopean Terror
    • 4.3. Dark Young
    • 4.4. Blightspreader Tendril
  • 5. Phase Two: Behold the Power of G'huun!
    • 5.1. Corrupting Bite
    • 5.2. Wave of Corruption
      • 5.2.1. Putrid Blood
    • 5.3. Blood Feast
      • 5.3.1. Gibbering Horror
  • 6. Phase Three: Your Destruction is Assured!
    • 6.1. Collapse
    • 6.2. Malignant Growth
    • 6.3. Gaze of G'huun
  • 7. Changelog
• ×Normal/Heroic Strategy/Tactics
  • 1. Positioning and Strategy
    • 1.1. Power Matrix Assignments
    • 1.2. Phase One
    • 1.3. Phase Two
    • 1.4. Phase Three
  • 2. Tank Concerns
  • 3. Healing Concerns
  • 4. Bloodlust/Heroism/Time Warp
  • 5. Changelog

General Information

On this page, you will find a working strategy to defeat G'huun in Uldir for both Normal and Heroic modes, which usually only differ by the tuning of the boss.

Here, we assume that you have read our descriptions of the abilities for this encounter.

The other pages of our G'huun guide can be accessed from the table of contents on the right.

The raid needs most of its players, excluding tanks, to be grouped into pairs to run manage Power Matrixes. The number of pairs required will vary based on your raid size, composition, and the speed at which you can ferry the orbs. Ideally, you want to pair classes together such that the weaknesses of one are covered up by the other. For example, in Phase Two, when the raid has Putrid Blood stacks, if a group has relatively low self-sustain, it would be wise to put a healer in that pair, or to simply send a healer in addition to the pair.

In instances where your raid would opt to send three people up, the third person should never actually handle the Power Matrix. Their job should be to either clear out Amorphous Cysts or to heal the group, depending on their role. For instance, in Phase One, the damage needed to kill a wave of adds before the next group spawns can be pretty manageable. In this case, it can be a good idea to send a third person in each group whose sole job is to run ahead and attack Cysts.

Lastly, it is important to mention that Demonic Gateway can be used while holding the Power Matrix, so it is ideal to set one up on both platforms. This only works, however, if the player does not have maximum stacks of the slow from Power Matrix.

The raid should begin by killing and interrupting the Cyclopean Terrors. Have Tanks pick up the Dark Young and keep him nearby. When Dark Bargain is about to be cast, move the Dark Young on top of the adds, so it is applied to them as well as the raid. Once the buff goes out, it is wise to move the Dark Young away from the raid slightly, to reduce passive cleave that might hit it, since it is advantageous to keep the Dark Young alive as long as you can in order to get as many Dark Bargains as possible.

Players should remember not to get more than one buff of Dark Bargain at the same time, since this will mind control them.

When the Blightspreader Tendrils spawn, the raid needs to immediately swap and focus these down, while keeping them interrupted. Two people are enough to keep them unable to cast, while the rest of the raid can use their interrupts elsewhere. The Dark Young should be brought over and tanked near the Blightspreader to minimize downtime when refreshing Dark Bargain.

Players afflicted with Explosive Corruption need to run the to the edge of the room before the debuff expires in order to drop Blighted Ground and Virulent Corruption in a good spot.

Send the preassigned groups to the upper platform as their orbs spawn. It may be possible for certain hyper-mobile classes to solo a side, but there is generally no reason to do so, as sending two people is nearly as fast and much safer.

When the Reorigination Drive reaches 100 Energy, stack the group on top of any remaining Dark Young to allow healers to efficiently top off the raid, as well as to allow DPS to generate resources by attacking the stunned mob. Once this first Reorigination Blast concludes, G'huun will emerge and begin Phase Two.

Tank G'huun near the entrance of the room and swap the active tank as often as possible without triggering the diminishing returns on taunt, in order to keep Growing Corruption low. Have the raid spread out behind G'huun in a semi-circle shape. The raid should aim to be as close as possible to maximize the effect of AoE healing, but not so close as to hit each other during the Wave of Corruption. After two Waves, have the raid start moving in towards the boss in between casts.

Stack up on the players targeted by Blood Feast in order to drop your stacks of Putrid Blood. Burn down the Gibbering Horror that spawns as fast as possible to reduce the number of Mind-Numbing Chatter he is able to cast.

Continue to send teams up to handle the Power Matrix, with the aim of triggering a Reorigination Blast after Blood Feast. It is somewhat important to trigger the Blast after a Blood Feast because the additional damage from Putrid Blood can be taxing on Healer mana at best, and fatal to the raid at worst. If the raid does have high stacks, then it is perfectly fine for the person running the orb to simply wait at the Reorigination Drive until the stacks are clear before depositing the orb. This also has the ancillary benefit of getting the Gibbering Horror caught in the Reorigination Blast.

At 20% Health, G'huun will enter Phase Three, destroying the Reorigination Drive, and triggering Collapse. The raid should use personal damage reduction cooldowns and move as far from the impact zone as possible to further reduce the damage they take. This is an excellent time for healer raid cooldowns such as Revival, Healing Tide Totem, or possibly a Tranquility plus Flourish combo (though Tranquility needs to be ramped up before the Collapse actually starts). During the cast of Collapse, G'huun will take 99% reduced damage, however if DPS feel that they are safe, it is advisable to ramp damage through pre-applying DoTs, or generating resources like Insanity or Chi.

The fight will continue just as in Phase Two, except there will no longer be Blood Feasts to clear your stacks of Putrid Blood, the Power Matrix mechanics will no longer exist, and G'huun will periodically cast Gaze of G'huun and Malignant Growth.

Dealing with Gaze of G'huun is simple enough; the raid just needs to look away from him as he completes the cast in order to avoid being feared for 6 seconds. However, the Malignant Growths are much more intense. The raid will need to identify safe zones quickly and use movement speed abilities to make it there before the Growths explode. Once in the safe zones, its important to stay somewhat close to the edge of the zone in order to quickly move out of the second burst of Growths. A consequence of needing to keep near the edges of the safe zones is that Malignant Growth spawns will invariably funnel the raid together. Despite this, it is vitally important to stay spread out. Wave of Corruption casts will still take place, making finding a safe place to stand all the more challenging.

Also, as opposed to Phase Two, G'huun should be tanked in the center of the room. This will make handling the Malignant Growth spawns much easier.

There are not many complex concerns on this fight for tanks, but G'huun can melee particularly hard. If he reaches high stacks of Growing Corruption or if you are tanking both him and the Gibbering Horror, you could be in real danger of dying.

Outside of that, sometimes it can be difficult to see Virulent Corruption as they pass through the boss model, so it is important to keep an eye out for those and be ready to react fast.

Damage during the Reorigination Blasts can be intense, especially if you are entering them with stacks of Putrid Blood. Be prepared to use a lot of Mana and rotate cooldowns in order to keep the raid healthy.

It is also important to be aware of the upper platform group's rotation, so that you are able to top those players off before the run out of your range.

When the Gibbering Horror is up, the tanks will be taking fairly significant damage. That, coupled with the interrupts from Mind-Numbing Chatter, can make keeping them alive somewhat tricky. Be ready to cut casts and use external cooldowns.

We advise you to use Bloodlust/ Heroism/ Time Warp when G'huun is stunned by Reorigination Blast to make use of the 100% damage buff.

• 06 Sep. 2018: Made a small edit regarding the Phase Three transition timing based on live real experience.