A little corruption is all it takes to turn even the nicest elemental into a world destroying harbringer of death. It's not his fault, he was raised this way. We'll help you bring about his untimely demise and turn Morchok into less chok.

L2R Difficulty Ranking = 2.6/5

This is a basic execution encounter that should not be too difficult to master. An average guild can expect to spend 1-2 days learning and executing this encounter.

  • Tanking = 2/5
  • Healing = 3/5
  • DPS = 2/5
  • Movement = 3/5
  • Situational Awareness = 3/5

About the difficulty ranking: L2R ranks the difficulty of different fights based on an average of how difficult the different aspects (tanking, healing, and dpsing) are as well as the fights overall movement and situational awareness requirements.  These stats are weighed on a scale of 1-5 and the values are averaged together to form the L2R Difficulty Ranking you see above.  The rankings assume you are attempting the fight at the inteded gear level at the time it was most relevant.

Raid Makeup

  • Tanks = 2
  • Healers = 5-6
  • DPS = Balanced DPS

Abilities

Morchok

  • Stomp - Splits 3000000 damage between all targets within 25 yards. The two targets closest to Morchok take a double portion of the damage.
  • Crush Armor - Reduces an enemy's armor by 10% for 20 sec. Effect stacks up to 5 times.
  • Resonating Crystal - Splits massive Shadow damage between the three closest enemies. The total damage increases the further the targets are from the explosion.
  • Furious - Decreases the time between your attacks by 30% and damage increased by 20% for until cancelled.
  • The Earth Consumes You! - Morchok uses the power of the earth to draw all players to him, inflicting 5% of their total health as Physical damage. While the power of the earth draws the players to him, Morchok also summons Earth's Vengeance.
  • Earth's Vengeance - Shards of Earth's Vengeance erupt from the ground, inflicting $%103178s1 Physical damage to nearby players within 2 yards and leaving behind obstacles.
  • Black Blood of the Earth - Deals 5000 damage to enemies near Morchok, increasing their Nature damage taken by 100% for 6 sec.

Positioning

The raid will stack at max melee range behind the boss. Make sure not to stand closer to the boss than the two tanks. Assign a group of 7 to run to crystals and soak the damage from them. During the Black Blood phase, the raid will need to stand behind rock walls to avoid the ground effect. Once this fades, return to phase 1 positioning.

Strategy

Positioning for the fight is quite simple. Players should stack in one group slightly behind Morchok at max melee range. This does a few helpful things. It allows stomp damage to split between all players and significantly eases healing. It also makes it easy for both tanks to be the closest targets causing them to take the double damage from his stomp.  Tanks will want to repeatedly taunt off of each other before Crush Armor stacks too high to keep from being one shot by his melee attacks. Designate 7 ranged players to take the crystals as they spawn. These players have the task of running to each crystal that spawns and eating the explosion damage from it. The crystal automatically focuses the 7 closest players, so they will need to run to each one. Additionally, it deals less damage to targets that are closer so each of these players will need to stand as close to the crystal as possible before it explodes. Players focused by the crystal will receive a beam between themselves and the crystal. This beam changes color depending on distance and signifies how much damage will be taken. Far away players will have a red beam, while mid distanced players will have yellow. Players very close to the crystal will have a blue beam. Ideally, all players will have a blue beam when the crystal explodes. After the crystal has exploded, the 7 assigned players will make their way to the next crystal and repeat this process. If the rest of the raid remains stacked in their original spot, the crystal group should remain in range of heals constantly, but if this becomes an issue, don’t hesitate to place a healer or 2 in the crystal group. This phase should not be difficult. When Morchok pulls the raid to him for the start of phase 2, pay attention to where the rock spikes form and choose a direction to run. Players will be momentarily stunned, but once able to move will need to quickly hide behind one of the many rock walls. Hiding behind the rock walls will block players from the Black Blood of the Earth. Simply stand behind the wall until this dissipates and prepare to repeat phase one again. If positioned just so, it is possible to dps the boss while shielded from the Black Blood of the Earth, but do not risk death to accomplish this. Once it is safe, Morchok will become active again and the tank will need to pick him back up. Regroup for phase one positioning and repeat the fight as normal. We like to save heroism and major cooldowns for 20% when the boss becomes Furious, but using it at the start of the fight can also be optimal.

As the first boss, Morchok should not give your raid too much trouble. Make sure the 7 players handling crystals are competent and understand their roles. If players are drowning in Black Blood of the Earth, it may be helpful to mark a primary player for them to follow. This can also increase overall raid dps all players run to the same optimal position. If you enjoyed this guide or found it helpful, bookmark us at LearntoRaid.com, subscribe to us on YouTube, and follow us on Twitch.tv and Twitter. As always, we hope that this guide was helpful and we’ll see you at the next boss.