The second boss of Nerub-ar Palace, the Bloodbound Horror, can be a real skill check for your raid group on higher difficulties due to some very important mechanics. To help with that, here’s how to defeat the Bloodbound Horror in World of Warcraft: The War Within.
How to Defeat the Bloodbound Horror on Normal Difficulty in Nerub-ar Palace
Before beginning the fight, you’ll need to do two things. First, familiarize yourself with the circular arena which forms a sort of donut broken into chunks with an outer edge. The blood that pools between the safe areas of land can deal a lot of damage, and you’ll need to hop over it multiple times so knowing where the gaps are smallest will take a lot of weight off of your Healers.
Second, split the raid into two even groups of DPS and Healers, each led by a tank. When the fight starts you’ll want each group to go to seperate sides of the arena, and you can mark areas and the tanks with corresponding raid symbols to make this easier to see. This is because of the central mechanic for the Bloodbound Horror fight, where one group will need to enter the Unseeming (also known as ‘the shadow realm’, ‘the other side’ or simply ‘downstairs’).
The spell that sends you to the Unseeming is called Gruesome Discharge and it hits in a cone based on where the boss is facing, which should be around one of the Tanks. Gather everyone in that Tank’s group and get ready to take a big hit of damage, then turn your attention to the several mobs that spawn. Only players hit by the ability will be able to target and damage them, and you’ll need to kill them all before you get sent back to the real world. Tanks will need to take the attention of a mob called a Lost Watcher, which will cast a shield on the boss if not interrupted but is otherwise not a priority. Everyone else will need to find the Forgotten Harbinger mobs and kill them as soon as possible. These stand still and don’t need to be tanked, instead they simply summon adds that deal raid damage if they reach the boss. After your return, the other group will need to get ready to head to the shadow realm, as sending the same group twice in a row will deal pretty much lethal damage.
Meanwhile, those on the outside mostly just have to DPS the boss, while Healers look out for a debuff called Crimson Rain that absorbs a set amount of healing. The main mechanic to avoid is called Grasp from Beyond, which marks several players with a debuff that drops pools periodically. These pools drop about every second, but they dont do damage immediately. Instead, a tentacle explodes out of them after three seconds, so you actually have some time to maneuver. Get away from the group first, then minimize the space you take up by dropping a pool, moving a few steps, then dropping another.
Finally, the boss casts Goresplatter at 100 energy, which is a huge area-of-effect that will kill anyone within it. The entire WoW raid group will need to run to the outside edge of the arena to avoid it, before returning to the Bloodbound Horror. If you can get these mechanics down pat then the second boss of Nerub-ar Palace shouldn’t cause you too much trouble.
How to Defeat the Bloodbound Horror on Heroic Difficulty in Nerub-ar Palace
With a good group of WoW players, the Bloodbound Horror should fall after only a few casts of Gruesome Disgorge. But on Heroic difficulty, there is much less margin for error. Leaving even a single enemy alive during the Unseeming phase can spell a wipe, and they can spawn much further away from each other. Luckily, you can see purple marks where they’ll appear, so try to get a group in position before getting sent to the shadow realm.
To make things even worse, the boss also gets a new ability. Spewing Hemorrhage casts deadly laser beams that rotate anti-clockwise around the boss and kill anyone caught in them. These start on either side of the boss but are affected by where it’s facing, so the Tank that isn’t in the Unseeming will need to position themselves to give the other group time to kill any Forgotten Harbingers before the beam forces them to move. Paladins and other classes with brief invulnerability windows should be able to move through the beam in a pinch, however.
Additionally, the blood pools deal even more damage so using speed cooldowns to avoid touching it is imperative. Warlock gates are excellent for getting players across the big moat to avoid Goresplatter. Check the image above for a approximate visualization of some of the abilities’ ranges.
If you enjoyed this guide or found it useful, feel free to check out some of Siliconera’s other guides on How to Beat Ulgrax the Devourer, or How to Access the Nerub-ar Palace raid.
World of Warcraft and The War Within expansion are immediately available on PC and Mac.
Published: Sep 18, 2024 06:45 pm