Icecrown Citadel: Lord Marrowgar

Lord Marrowgar, the gate guardian of Icecrown Citadel, greets those who have the audacity to enter the Lich King's lair. Pieced together by the Lich King from the bones of a thousand vanquished adventurers, he is the guardian of the Frozen Throne within The Spire, and wields the power of the throne itself. He is all looks, truth be told, as he is one of the easiest fights of the entire raid.


Upon defeating the initial trash mobs in ICC, the raid will come to the end of a hall where Lord Marrowgar awaits. The initial pull requires the tank(s) to pull Marrowgar to the center of the room facing away from the raid and stacking upon one another. Once positioned, DPS can ease into his enormous hit box and start whittling him away.

Throughout this initial phase the tank(s) will consistently share damage from Marrowgar's Saber Lash ability. Saber Lash is a devastating cleave attack whose damage is shared by multiple players (preferably tanks). If the raid is short on tanks, a plate DPS with high HP is a viable solution.

Saber Lash is just the tip of the iceberg for Lord Marrowgar's arsenal. Throughout this DPS phase Marrowgar will randomly cast "Bone Spike Graveyard" and "Coldflame". Bone Spike Graveyard will target random raid member (25-man = three raid members) and send a cadaverous bone spike through their corpse. The spike incapacitates the target and deals 10% of the target's health every second until death. It is vital that DPS focus fire the spikes down to save their allies. A preferred solution to this ability is to stack all DPS in Lord Marrowgar's rear hit box so when an ally is impaled, both melee and ranged DPS can quickly focus fire. Also, if the raid is correctly stacked in Marrowgar's rear hit box, they will not be affected by Coldflame.

Coldflame will target random members of the raid and send a trail of frigid death towards them. This should be immediately avoided. Stop all casting, DPS, heals or whatever and avoid this spell at all costs. Coldflame deals approximately 9,000 frost damage per second. This can, however, mitigated with either a Paladin's Frost Aura or a Shaman's Frost Resistance Totem.

One might think that this is enough for one fight, but NO! There is more! Just when the raid appears to be in complete chaos, the fun continues when "Whirlwind" arrives. Lord Marrowgar's Whirlwind attack randomly sweeps across the room dealing moderate damage per second to all players. Players should scatter and try to distance themselves as much as possible from Marrowgar. It is important to also stay within reach of a healer should his whirlwind become unavoidable. The closer the proximity to Marrowgar himself, the higher the amount of damage that is dealt to each player. Whirlwind is a physical attack, meaning that armor will reduce the damage caused. Whirlwind sounds more intimidating than it truly is but the damage itself is not very much. After the Whirlwind, Marrowgar's aggro-table is reset and it is up to the tanks to pick him back up and place him again in the middle of the room. Hunters and Rogues should respectively Misdirect and Tricks of the Trade to aid the tank(s) in establishing control once more.

Once control is established - meaning the tanks are stacked and have positioned Lord Marrowgar back into the center of the room - its all rinse and repeat!

If you're interested in the "Boned" achievement, you must not leave any player encased in Marrowgar's Bone Spike Graveyard for more than 8 seconds.

Abilities:
Saber Lash: Powerful cleave; damage can be shared between three targets.
Coldflame: Trail of blue flames that deals 6000 frost damage a second.
Bone Spike Graveyard: Impales the target and deals 9000 physical damage to target an additional 10% of the targets HP for every second they are on the spike.
Bone Storm: Deals 6000 physical damage every 2 seconds to all players in the room; deals more depending on players' proximity to Marrowgar.