WoW.com's Guide to Marrowgar
If ever there were a boss just begging to be turned into a totally Camaro-awesome tattoo, it's Lord Marrowgar. Like an epic, multi-skulled skeleton made of bone and skulls and spikes, Marrowgar is hands down one of the coolest-looking mobs in the game. While the sophomoric "Dude, he's a bone guy with a bone axe!" revelation has me only a little ashamed, I nonetheless get a certain thrill up my spine each time I see him.
Don't let Marrowgar's heroic mode intimidate you. Once you can master the Boned achievement, you are probably ready to handle his heroic mode.
Table of contents
Composition
You will need two tanks in 10-man normal and three in 25-man normal, and the same number of tanks in both heroic versions.You'll need two to three healers for 10-man and five to seven healers for 25-man.
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General strategy
In a sense, Lord Marrowgar has two phases: normal phase and Bonestorm phase. You want your entire raid to be stacked on either the "tank side" or "not-tank side" of Marrowgar. The tank side and not-tank side are completely opposite one another. The not-tanks should be inside the blue hit box of Marrowgar, so that when Coldflame drops, you'll easily avoid getting hit by the Coldflame because it will start behind you.
The raid's task during this encounter is to do damage to Marrowgar. When he puts someone on a Bone Spike, kill the Bone Spike immediately. Use a macro that says "/target Bone" to make this faster and easier.
When Marrowgar hits his Bonestorm phase, your raid should spread out in order to avoid the whirlwind attack. (It will damage the entire raid, and the further away from Marrowgar you are, the less damage it will do to you.) In normal mode, the Bonestorm isn't too big a deal. In heroic, however, Marrowgar will continue using his Bone Graveyard ability, making avoiding the damage from fire and Bonestorm more difficult as you scramble to knock down the Bone Spikes.
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Abilities
Bone Slice In 10-man, Bone Slice hits its target (the tank) and its one closest ally for 200% weapon damage, divided evenly between the two characters. In 25-man, it hits the tank and its two closest allies for 300% weapon damage. This is a tank-killing attack and is the reason you need two tanks in 10-man and three tanks in 25-man.
Coldflame Coldflame will target a random member of your raid and then draw a blue, burning line of fire on the ground between Marrowgar and that raid member. Your raid should simply sidestep out of the flame.This will inflict about 6,000 damage per second in 10-man and about 8,000 damage per second in 25-man. In heroic mode, it inflicts 9,000 damage per second in 10-man and about 11,000 damage per second in 25-man. The flame only stays on the ground for around three seconds in 10-man, but hangs out for nearly nine seconds in 25-man.
Bone Spike Graveyard This hurls a massive bone at a single player in 10-man, but hurls three bones at three players in 25-man. This bone will Impale the target on a Bone Spike. In both 10-man and 25-man versions, this will instantly deal 9,000 damage to the afflicted player and an additional 10% of the target's health every second. To free a player, you must do around 30,000 damage to the Bone Spike in 10-man or about 60,000 damage to the Bone Spike in 25-man. You must do about twice that much damage in Heroic mode.
Bonestorm Marrowgar goes into a rage, whirlwinding around four points in the room. While doing so, he will inflict 6,000 damage per second to anyone in his path in 10-man, while in 25-man he will inflict 12,000 damage per second. The entire whirlwind effect lasts for 20 seconds. In heroic, Bonestorm does around 12,000 damage per second in 10-man and about 14,000 damage per second in 25-man.
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Tank strategy
For tanks, Marrowgar is fairly straightforward. Pull him to your tanking spot. All of the tanks (two in 10-man, three in 25-man) should always stand on top of one another. This allows you to easily soak the incoming damage. Marrowgar used to drop aggro between each Bonestom, but this is no longer the case. Simply keep standing on top of one another, and maintain aggro. Putting a raid mark on top of the main tank so that it's easier to coordinate where you're standing.
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DPS strategy
Make sure you have a macro for "/target bone" so that you can target Bone Spike as fast as possible. Stay inside the blue hit box so that any Coldflame appears behind you. The rule of thumb is:
Don't stand in fire.
If there is a Bone Spike, kill the Bone Spike.
Kill Marrowgar.
Note that rule number one is "don't stand in fire."
There's no reason to save Heroism/Bloodlust for late in the fight, so it's best to use it early just in case someone does die.
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Healer strategy
Healing is going to be made a little more difficult as everyone spreads out so that they don't get hit with Bonestorm. If you have trouble healing everyone, you may need to require your raid to stay relatively confined. Healing Bone Spikes is going to be proportionally difficult according to how long it takes your DPS to kill Bone Spikes; the longer they take, the more difficult time you have.
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Other resources
Big Red Rhino's guide to pet tanking Marrowgar
Tankspot's written guide to Marrowgar
Totemz's elemental shaman guide to Marrowgar
