Thorim (tactics)

Thorim is one of the watchers boss encounters in Ulduar. The encounter has two phases, in the first, the raid has to split in a gauntlet and an arena team. The arena team must fight waves of adds while the gauntlet team makes its way through some trash and a few mini-bosses to Thorim. Upon reaching the boss, he and the gauntlet group join the arena team, starting the second phase which lasts until Thorim is subdued.

Both, fire and nature resistance are useful. When attempting hard mode, a little frost resistance gear is recommended.

''For many years Thorim believed that the ice giants had murdered his beloved wife, Sif, not realizing that his brother, Loken, was truly responsible. When Thorim learned the truth, Loken ensnared him and brought him to Ulduar.''

''For years, Thorim believed that ice giants had murdered his beloved wife Sif. Thorim turned his wrath upon his allies and fell into despair. When he learned that his brother Loken was responsible for the crime, Loken captured Thorim and brought him to Ulduar, where the Old God clouded the keeper's mind.''

Thorim calls in Dark Rune forces to engage players that are in the Arena until allies are able to reach Thorim by traveling through the Hallway. Once players reach Thorim he will leap into the arena and use powerful Lightning attacks to defeat his foes.

• While in the Arena interrupt the Dark Rune Acolyte's Greater Heal and the Runic Mending cast by Dark Rune Evokers.
• Avoid Thorim's Lightning Charge once Stage Two begins.
• While in the Hallway avoid Runic Smash cast by the Runic Colossus.

• Avoid Thorim's Lightning Charge once Stage Two begins.

• Avoid Thorim's Lightning Charge once Stage Two begins.
• While in the Hallway avoid Runic Smash cast by the Runic Colossus.
• While in the Hallway avoid Smash cast by the Runic Colossus once it is engaged.
• Take turns tanking Thorim to manage Unbalancing Strike.

Thorim calls in Dark Rune forces to engage players that are in the Arena until allies are able to reach Thorim by traveling through the Hallway.

• Thorim
• The Arena
• Dark Rune Acolyte
• Dark Rune Champion
• Dark Rune Commoner
• Dark Rune Evoker
• Dark Rune Warbringer
• The Hallway
• Iron Ring Guard
• Dark Rune Acolyte
• Runic Colossus
• Iron Honor Guard
• Ancient Rune Giant

• Thorim

If players traverse the Hallway quick enough and reach Thorim within 90 seconds Sif will join the battle in Stage Two.

• Sif

The fight is started by killing the trash mobs in the Arena (healer first). Thorim casts Sheath of Lightning on himself, making him almost invulnerable. After the mobs are down, the lever next to the gate on the left becomes active. The raid should now split in two, one part goes down the hallway to reach Thorim, and the other part stays in the arena to fight waves of adds.

The gauntlet team needs one tank and one healer. In 10 player mode, 1-3 damage dealers suffice, in 25 player mode an extra healer and about 7 damage dealers should be sent. Ranged DPS is better suited for the gauntlet, mages in particular. The gauntlet team must move quickly, because after 5 minutes Thorim wipes the raid.

There are 3 groups of 3 Warbringers. They can be Crowd Controlled, (Polymorph in particular). Two mobs should be CC'd while the others are killed. At the end of the hallway is a large golem. In regular intervals it raises one arm and does damage to anyone on that side of the hallway, much like Skadi. A short time after it is engaged it gains a buff which decreases damage taken by 50%, so if using cooldowns it's best to use them early.

After defeating the golem, the door behind it opens and mobs start spawning on top of the stairs. Defeat or CC the two sets of two mobs already standing there and quickly run up. When the giant aggros, he buffs any adds still alive, but the adds stop spawning. The healers must have LOS to the tank but stand outside the giant's stomp. When the giant is positioned at the top of the stairs, the healer can stand about halfway down.

After the giant is defeated the gauntlet team runs towards Thorim and jumps down into the arena. Someone must use any ability on Thorim to make him join. While running the large circles on the ground must be avoided, they are traps which briefly stun players standing on them.

The raid members positioned closest to Thorim gain initial aggro from all spawned adds.

A simple setup for the arena team is to stack up dead center in the room. This avoids getting hit by the charged orbs, and also greatly increases the effects of both, AoE healing and AoE damage. The disadvantage of this method is that it makes the raid more susceptible to Stormhammer - it's possible to just take Stormhammer, but the group can also try to quickly spread out when it hits.

The most dangerous mobs are the Dark Rune Champions which do a whirlwind atteck. They need to be kept away from the main raid, and/or disarmed. The Evokers casts heals-over-time that heal for massive amounts and also cast magic damage shield that can be stolen by mages. Both are dispellable and need to be dispelled/stolen quickly. Wound poison helps to reduce the amount healed.

Once Thorim is activated, he jumps down into the Arena. The mob waves stop spawning. During the whole of Phase 2, Thorim gains an extra Lightning Charged buff every 10 seconds. This buff stack progressively increases damage and attack speed, it's in effect a passive enrage timer. From about 7 stacks on, healers and tanks need to use some CDs to survive, after about 15 buffs Thorims melee hits can one-shot even the best geared tank.

After Thorim is in the arena, he needs to be picked up by the MT immediately. The raid should spread out to avoid extra damage from Thorims' chain lightning. Every time Thorim uses Unbalancing strike (which is every 15–20 seconds), tanks need to taunt him off each other. When Thorim uses Lightning Charge, small lightning balls come from a column. After a short time, that column deals large amounts of AoE damage in a 60 degrees angle, this damage may be enough to one-shot players after the third Lightning Charge.

If the gauntlet team reaches Thorim within 2:45 min (6:15 on Heroic) of killing the adds in the entrance, the illusion of Thorim's wife Sif joins the fight. Additionally, Thorim gets +43% health and +67% damage compared to Normal Mode (it is not only +30%/+40%, since the debuff Touch of Dominion being applied for Normal Mode reduces his stats by -30%/-40% from the Hard Mode values).

While the increased damage is not a large deal, the additional HP make the fight longer, which means a substantially higher stack of Lightning Charged.

In hard mode, Thorim's Chain lightning is very dangerous to melee, so it is advisable to form 2-3 melee camps more than 8 yards from each other around the boss, as with Kel'Thuzad at 60.

Sif herself is unattackable. She has four abilities which when chained together can kill raid members very quickly.

• Frostbolt Single: This does 11,000-13,000 Frost damage and is chain cast on random targets when Sif isn't casting anything else.
• Frostbolt Volley: This is the same damage as her single target frostbolt and hits everyone in the room every 10–15 seconds.
• Frost Nova: Sif frequently teleports to a random location starts a 2.5 sec cast of Frost Nova. It does high amounts of damage (13,000-15,000) so avoiding it by running away is paramount but not always possible due to the snares.
• Blizzard: Much like Shade of Aran, Sif conjures a Blizzard which orbits the perimeter of the room, making the center area 'safe'. It does 4,500 Frost damage every 2 seconds and snares targets by 50%.

When Thorim is defeated 'Sif' reveals itself for what it is: an influence tentacle of Yogg-Saron.

Demoralizing Shout cuts the damage the tank receives from unbalancing strike by 40%.

Priests can MC a Dark Rune Warbringer. Besides dealing high damage, they also give all nearby allies a permanent buff called "Aura of Celerity", increasing melee, ranged and spell haste by 20%, practically a permanent Bloodlust (also requirement for the achievement / ). In addition, the mind-controlled Warbringers hit harder than most level 80 players.

The following achievements are for the encounter's hard mode:

• Aggro
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• Special
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• Missed Hard Mode
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• Thorim jumps down
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• Hard Mode Reached
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• Killing a player
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• Wipe in Arena
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• Berserk
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• Defeated
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• Outro on Normal Mode
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• Outro on Hard Mode:
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Mortals, I am indebted to you for freeing me from the terrible corruption that besets this place. Though I have not yet recovered fully, I can help you battle Yogg-Saron.

• Buffing for Yogg-Saron's encounter

I can grant you and your friends the Fury of the Storm, increasing your damage and maximum health. Should you be face with evil so malevolent that it cannot be destroyed, I can channel all my power into a final Titanic Storm that will destroy even Immortals.

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See Sound Files of Ulduar: Thorim