by Darkimpulse, 190 days agoInformation taken from wowwiki. link here
http://www.wowwiki.com/Malygos_(tactics)
Malygos has roughly 6,972,000 health in normal difficulty, and 19,523,000 health in heroic difficulty.
Summoning Malygos requires one member of the raid to have either [Key to the Focusing Iris] (10-man) or [Heroic Key to the Focusing Iris] (25-man, though it can also be used for 10-man). Both keys drop off Sapphiron in Naxxramas (10 and 25-man respectively).
Phase 1Malygos does a frontal physical attack and a frontal cleave. His attack speed is slow, but it does a lot of damage. Unlike other dragon bosses, he does not have a tail swipe.
Arcane Breath: deals 18850 to 21150 normal, 28275 to 31725 heroic, Arcane damage in a 40-yard cone in front of Malygos. It leaves a debuff which, after 5 seconds, causes the person to explode and deal 9425 to 10575 normal, 18850 to 21150 heroic, Arcane damage to nearby friends.
Arcane Storm: Fires arcane missiles into the air, which strike a random number of targets for 9425 to 10575 Arcane damage. Malygos will turn to the primary target of this ability when he uses it.
Vortex: Malygos takes off from the ground and spins up a whirling vortex of Arcane energy, tossing the raid around and dealing 2000 Arcane damage every second for 10 seconds. When Vortex ends, everyone will be dropped around the center of the platform and take up to 10% of their maximum health in falling damage.
Power Sparks: At regular intervals throughout the encounter, a portal will appear in the empty space away from the platform, between two of the pillars, and spawn a Power Spark. This Power Spark will slowly move towards Malygos and give him a temporary buff upon reaching him which increases all damage done by 50%, unless killed first. When players kill a Power Spark, it will leave a temporary patch of electricity on the ground which will buff players, increasing damage dealt by 50%. This buff will stack. During Vortex, Power Sparks stop moving; however, once you begin to fall from Vortex, they start moving again. Power Sparks can be Death Gripped, snared, rooted, stunned, incapacitated, and so on.
Enrage: Malygos has a 10-minute enrage timer, at which point his damage is increased by 1000%. This timer carries over across all phases, therefore the entire encounter must be completed within 10 minutes.
Phase 2Malygos will take to the sky and stops using all of his previous abilities at 50% health. Any Power Sparks that reach him after phase 2 begins will have no effect.
Arcane Storm: Fires arcane missiles into the air, which strike a random number of targets for 9425 to 10575 Arcane damage.
Deep Breath: Deals 5000 Arcane damage per second to the whole raid for 5 seconds. Cast at regular intervals. A warning, 'Malygos takes a deep breath,' is given before Malygos uses this. This ability does not effect anyone flying on a disc.
Power Overload: Purple anti-magic zones will periodically appear on the platform, reducing all magic damage taken while standing inside by 50%. These zones will shrink as they absorb more and more damage, forcing you to move to a newer one. They will knock back players nearby when they spawn.
Nexus LordNexus Lords will spawn at the beginning of phase 2. They stand upon floating discs and descend to the ground. They must be tanked normally and will drop their discs on the ground when they die, allowing melee classes to fly up and engage the Scions of Eternity.
Arcane Shock: Deals 9425 to 10575 normal, 14138 to 15862 heroic, Arcane damage.
Haste: Increases movement, casting, and attack speed by 100% for 15 seconds. Can be dispelled.
Scion of EternityScions of Eternity will spawn at the beginning of phase 2. They fly upon floating discs, which puts them out of the melee range of anyone on the platform. They have no aggro table and will periodically cast Arcane Barrage on random targets. When one dies, it will drop its disc to the ground, allowing melee classes to fly up and engage them.
Arcane Barrage: Deals 14138 to 15862 normal, 16965 to 19035 heroic, Arcane damage to a random target.
Phase 3Malygos will shatter the platform when all of the Scions of Eternity and Nexus Lords are dead, beginning phase 3. The raid will drop onto red dragons, which will be used to kill Malygos. Malygos stops using all previous abilities in this phase.
Arcane Pulse: Deals 28275 to 31725 Arcane damage to anyone within 30 yards of Malygos.
Static Field: Creates a blue, electric-looking orb on a random target. This orb deals 9425 to 10575 Arcane damage per second to anyone within 30 yards of it.
Surge of Power: Malygos will target a random person and give them a warning that Malygos is focusing on them. Malygos will then shoot a beam at his target, dealing 12000 Arcane damage every half second for 3 seconds, as well as 5000 Arcane damage per second to anyone near the primary target for 5 seconds.
editStrategies Source information needed!
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Phase OneDuring Phase One, Malygos is tanked in the center of the room by one tank. Everyone else is beside or behind Malygos to avoid his cleave and cone attacks.
Power Sparks: designate a stack location for ranged DPS, and have a Death Knight pull the sparks to that spot. Once pulled, root them to keep them in place while you kill them.
A Death Grip macro to quickly target and grip Power Sparks:
#showtooltip
/cleartarget
/clearfocus
/tar Power Spark
/stopmacro [target=target,noexists]
/focus
/cast [target=focus] Death Grip
During Vortex, if Malygos has the buff from a Power Spark reaching him, it will be removed. Rogues may Shadowstep and Killing Spree out of the Vortex and continue DPS; Mages can Iceblock out of it as well. Lots of casters will most likely have under 20,000 health, so healers will want to use any instant casts they can on anyone under 20,000. Without a Paladin, only instant spells may be cast, though Hunters can cast Steady Shot but they will suffer from pushback. Paladins can use Concentration Aura together with Aura Mastery to allow casters in range of the aura to continue normal casting while in the air. This makes the first (and maybe third) Vortex extremely easy. Tell the raid to use healthstones and/or potions in Vortex two and you are set. When Vortex ends and you fall, Hunters can avoid fall damage by Disengaging from Malygos, and Mages and Priests can Slow Fall and Levitate.
Note: Once Malygos reaches 50%, he will slowly take off, however he remains targetable throughout, so burn him as best you can while he is taking off, and continue to hit him with instants once he's in the air.
Phase TwoPhase Two begins at 50%.
Malygos himself is not targetable during this phase. It will end when the adds he spawns are all killed.
During this phase Malygos drops pink anti-magic zones onto the ground. The raid MUST stand inside of these; they reduce magical damage taken by 50%. They shrink over time, so it's important that your raid moves to each new one he drops.
During this phase there are two types of NPCs riding around on disks in the room: Nexus Lords and Scions of Eternity. The Lords will move down onto the group, and need to be tanked; they will one-shot a non-tank. The Scions will cast Arcane Blast on random targets (on disks or not), which is mitigated by the anti-magic zones.
As the NPCs die, they drop disks which players can mount. Melee should take disks to DPS Scions. While mounted on a disk, players do not take damage from Malygos.
HEROIC TARGET PRIORITY: In 25-man, tanks and melee who are not yet on a disk should focus fire the Lords, while ranged focus fire the Scions from the beginning of Phase Two. (Of course, melee who get a disk transition to Scions.) This method consistently ends phase two 30-45 seconds faster than starting the phase with all DPS on the Lords.
After all of the NPCs riding on the disks die, players on disks need to dismount as Phase 3 is about to begin.
Note: After all the Scions are dead, you will get a short burn period on Malygos before he breaks the floor. Use any DPS increase cooldowns that are available at this time, as you will not be able to use them once you mount your dragon. If executed well you can take an extra 5%-10% off his HP before you enter phase 3.
Phase ThreeMalygos destroys the floor of the room, and the raid falls onto dragon mounts. Malygos will move into center of (destroyed) platform and then he does not chase dragons, he just turns to his current target.
The dragons use combo points and energy similar to a rogue. The combo points are used for special finishing moves. Many unit frame addons do not show these combo points, however simple counting in your head can suffice as the abilities are quite basic.
During this phase Malygos has 3 main abilities.
Arcane Pulse - A very dangerous AoE that will quickly kill anyone within 30 yards of the center of his hitbox. Due to the large size of the dragons and the 3-dimensional aspect of the encounter, this may be smaller than you think.
Static Field - A randomly targeted AoE ability. He casts it in the area of a random drake, and it spans 30 yards in all directions. It does moderate damage over time, and will take a drake from 100% to dead in around 10 seconds if you do not move out of it. Move out of the fire.
Surge of Power - 3 random(?) drakes are targeted. The players who control these drakes will have a large boss emote appear on their screen. Malygos begins casting a 3-second cast. Once this cast is complete, he deals a large amount of damage every 0.5 seconds for 5 seconds. This will just about kill anyone who does not successfully use the Flame Shield ability for at least part of those 5 seconds. (Note: the 10-man version of this ability is far less potent.)
The dragons have 6 abilities:
Flame Spike:
Damaging fire attack causing 943-1057 fire damage and awarding 1 combo point at the cost of 10 energy.
Engulf in Flames:
Finishing move which launches a blast of flame igniting target for 1500 fire damage every 3 seconds. The effect can stack and will last longer per combo point up to 22 seconds. Costs 50 energy.
Revivify:
A HoT that lasts for 10 seconds healing 500 per second and awarding 1 combo point at the cost of 10 energy. This can stack up to 5 times. Each drake has its own stack, so if two drakes are stacking this ability on a single drake, that drake will have two separate stacks.
Life Burst:
Huge AoE healing finishing move which increases the casters healing done by 50% and lasts longer per combo point. Max combo points award a 15k heal to all friendly targets within 60 yards over 25 seconds. Costs 50 energy.
Flame Shield:
Finishing move to protect your drake. Shield surrounds you reducing all damage taken by 80% and lasting up to 6 seconds for max combo points. Costs 25 energy with a 30-second cooldown.
Blazing Speed:
Increases your drake's flight speed by 500% for 8 seconds. Costs 0 energy with a 30-second cooldown.
A common misconception is that there are offensive and defensive combo points, and that each of the finishers requires a different type. This is not true. The combo points are linked to your current target when you use an ability that generates points. For example, if you target Malygos and shoot 5 Flame Spikes, you will have 5 combo points on Malygos. This means you can use your Flame Shield ability while you have him targeted. If you change target to yourself, you will have no combo points on yourself and the shield will not fire. Similarly, if you target yourself (or another drake) and cast the heal on it, you can then Flame Shield so long as you have that target targeted.
Confusing? Go do the "Aces High" daily quest in Coldarra. It's the same drake you control in Malygos. It's designed as a practice tool specifically for the fight. Even the enemy drakes in that quest have an ability that is similar to Malygos' Surge of Power ability.
A basic strategy that has worked to kill Malygos on live realms goes as follows:
- All drakes group up on one spot, roughly level with Malygos. Must be at least 30 yards away from him, and close enough to use Flame Spike.
- 3 drakes should be designated healers. They cast 5 HoTs on themselves and then cast Life Burst. This heals all drakes within 60 yards for roughly 25% of their HP. If a particular drake gets low on HP (they were slow to move from Static Field, or failed at Flame Shield usage) you can cast the 5 HoTs on them instead, then Life Burst with that drake targeted. Remember: The HoT stacks are not your combo points. You may have 5 HoTs still on yourself, but you just used a Life Burst, so you need to cast another 5 HoTs to get 5 combo points again. You can cast a 5-combo-point Life Burst roughly every 7-8 seconds. With 3 healers, this means every drake gets healed for ~25% of their HP every 3 or so seconds. (Only 2 healers are needed in the 10-man version, possibly only 1.)
- The other drakes must build their Engulf Flame stack. Cast Flame Spikes for combo points, then Engulf Flame to add another charge to your stack. It can grow indefinitely, and this is the only way Malygos will die within the enrage timer.
- When Static Field is cast on the pack of drakes, everyone needs to strafe to one side until you are out of the field. You will slowly rotate around Malygos with this method. Do not move more than you need to, as you may rotate all the way around to a previous Static Field if you are too fast.
USEFUL TIP: Assign one of the raid members to lead the whole raid through phase three. Once everyone lands on their drakes, everyone should type /follow NAME where NAME is the name of chosen player. Everyone will follow that player automatically and can focus on healing or burning Malygos without other concerns like range for healers or avoiding Static Field.
- Any drake can be the target for Surge of Power. When you get a boss emote, use the 3-second Malygos cast-time to ensure you have enough combo points/energy, and then cast Flame Shield once it begins channelling.
Due to the above method of Shielding, DPS drakes should ensure they are using 5-combo-point Engulf Flames on the target. This means their Engulf stack will stay up for a long time, so they can use any current combo points they have to Shield themselves instantly when targeted, then quickly refresh their Engulf before it times off.
All drakes should also pretend that the bottom limit for their energy is 25. If you have self control and never go below 25 energy, you will always have enough energy to cast a Flame Shield on yourself. It will also help DPS drakes refresh their Engulf Flames stack should they need to use Flame Shield at an unfortunate time in their DPS cycle.
Another VERY effective drake DPS strategy for advanced players is using Engulf Flames at 3 combo points, making your debuff stack up even faster, however this is more energy consuming and requires a lot more energy management. The trick is to do 3 Flame Spikes, cast Engulf Flames, and wait until your revivify is at 1 second before renewing your revivify stack, then pump out your 3 combos and another Engulf Flames. When Malygos uses his Arcane Surge on you, you will most likely be waiting to restack your revivify. Stack it twice on yourself, and use your shield once he casts it. This will save you some combo points, and try shooting 2-combo-point Engulf Flames as fast as possible after, then go back to waiting revivify to hit 1 second.
The reason you need to wait so much is so you don't stay low energy and have enough energy to use your shield fast enough. The main trick is to not panic while doing it. You can take your time since revivify lasts 10 seconds, so basically you have 10 seconds to cast your 3 spikes and your engulf and revivify. This rotation racks up severe damage, a lot more than 5-combos Engulf Flames can, since the number of combo points only affect its duration. With this strategy, I have seen players reach 900k damage and up to 24 stacks, which is nearly 1/3 of Malygos's HP in phase 3, which means 3-4 players DPSing would be enough to bring him down if they do it correctly, so try practicing this while doing the daily "Aces High!".
First Time Maly Kill - Tips. The tactics above assume that your raid has good coordination and all of them play correctly. However, as any raid leader knows you have to come up with a technique of coping with the members of your group who slack.
For our first Maly kill we used a different tactic in phase 3. The 1-1-2 works fine if you have around 2-3 mins left when phase 3 starts, but on your first kill you are likely to have closer to 1-1.30 mins left. If you have all 10 people left alive, quickly designate 2 healers. Their job is simply - 1-1-1-1-1 AoE heal! The 8 DPS should follow the tactic 1-2-1-2-1-2, etc. Since combo points only determine how long the DoT is there for, the 1-2-1-2 method allows you to stack your DoT a lot faster. This means Malygos is likely to be taking double damage in half the time. The only downside being, if you get surged, you may have to take a tick or 2 before you have the energy to pop your shield.
The main thing to remember is - even if the enrage triggers, it ain't over yet! Malygos has no real AoE pwnage in phase 3, and so must kill each drake individually. The remaining drakes have around 2-3 seconds to spam 1 and get their final DoT off. By this time there should be around 8 DoTS on Malygos, all with around 10 stacks and hitting Malygos hard - this DoT keeps ticking even when he enrages, as long as their is a drake left alive.
On our first kill, we had 400k left to do when he enraged and the DoTS did that while we fled, hopelessly being picked off one by one.
ALL raid leaders should note that if your group CAN reach phase 3, they are geared for this raid, and it's simply a matter of refining the technique.
Special Concerns
There are a number of tricks and bugs associated with this fight that can cause aggravation if not addressed:
Shields on Phase 2 do *not* stop damage...they merely reduce damage by 50%. This is especially important for healers during a Breath - heals need to be prepped and ready to go off immediately, as the Breath hits quite hard.
The Shield Debuff does not always register immediately upon entering the bubble. To reduce chance of server/client lag in registering the debuff, it is advisable not to jump into the bubbles, lest the server not register you with the debuff at an inopportune time.
Confirmed bug - Transition from phase 2 to 3, all players must at some point clear and reaquire their target if targeting Malygos as they land on the dragons (especially DPS, as healers tend not to be targeting Malygos during the transition). Combo points do not properly stack if Malygos is not reaquired as a target, and will result in your Flame Shield not going off, despite sufficient combo points (this occurs because the dragon is technically a separate entity, and the fact that you never set *its* target to Malygos seems to cause this error).
Bug in 3.0.8 - It appears that pets (Hunter/warlock/etc..) will not be affected by the Arcane Breath ability, but will gain the debuff which causes them to explode after 5 seconds. Until this is resolved, pets probably should be kept in their stables for this encounter. Comment: pets normally would try to attack from behind, so it is highly unlikely that they would get the debuff unless the tank is moving all the time.
If you died during the fight, do not release until Alexstrasza finishes summoning the loot. If you do, you will not be allowed to loot.
The End
Then you just burn him until the end of the fight, where Alexstrasza enters and finishes the battle. The loot for the fight comes from Alexstrasza's Gift, the fight rewards two badges.
The exit portal respawns, and you can fly over to it. The floor of the instance does not respawn
by Darkimpulse, 229 days agoGender Male
Race Bone Wraith
Level ?? Boss
Health
7 million (10 man)
23.7 million (25 man)
Abilities
10-player
Bone Storm
Attacks nearby enemies in a whirlwind of bone that lasts until canceled. 3 sec cast. Every two seconds, triggers AoE damage that drops off as you get farther away from the boss. Roughly 6k standing on top of him, 4k just inside his hitbox, 2k just outside, and 800 or so at around 30 yards. The boss charges 4 targets before wiping aggro and ending the Bone Storm. 30 sec cooldown.
(Heroic mode) — Attacks nearby enemies in a whirlwind of bone, which causes them to bleed for 15 seconds. Instant. 10000+?/3
Bone Spike Graveyard
Hurls a massive bone spike which impales any enemies in the way. Deals 10% health per sec for 5 seconds or until killed. 3 sec cast. 39k hp. 10 sec cooldown.
(Heroic mode) — Hurls a massive bone spike which impales any enemies in the way. Deals 10% health per sec for 5 seconds or until killed. 3 sec cast. 5 sec duration
Coldflame
Summons a line of frost that hits enemies in the way. Instant. 8 yd line of effect. Deals 6000 Frost/sec for 8 seconds. 3 sec cooldown. Random target.
(Heroic mode) — Instant. 8 yd radius. Deals 9000 Frost/sec for 8 sec.
Saber Lash - Melee range
Splits 200% of normal melee damage to an enemy and its nearest ally, replacing melee attack. used every second, but not during bone spike graveyard cast; prevents the targets from being targeted by Bone Spike Graveyard.
Bone Storm
Attacks nearby enemies in a whirlwind of bone that lasts until canceled. 3 sec cast. Every two seconds, triggers...
(Heroic mode) — Attacks nearby enemies in a whirlwind of bone, which causes them to bleed for 15 seconds. Instant. 8000+?/3 on Normal. 11000+?/3 on Heroic
Bone Spike Graveyard
(Heroic mode) — Hurls a massive bone spike which impales any enemies in the way. Deals 10% health per sec for 5 seconds or until killed. 3 sec cast. 5 sec duration Puts the Impaled debuff on the affected player.
Coldflame
Summons a line of frost that hits enemies in the way. Instant. Should the Coldflame get within 8 yards of anyone, it casts...
(Heroic mode) — Inflicts 8000 Frost damage every 1.0 sec for 3 sec. Instant. 8 yd radius. Deals 11000 Frost/sec for 8 sec on Heroic
Saber Lash - Melee range
Splits 200% of normal melee damage to an enemy and its two nearest ally, replacing melee attack. used every second, but not during bone spike graveyard cast; prevents the targets from being targeted by Bone Spike Graveyard.
General Strategy for Normal Difficulty
Lord Marrowgar is a fairly simple encounter that should not give any guild prepared for Icecrown Citadel any difficulty assuming you have ToC hard modes on farm. If your guild is farming ToC normal 10-man and nothing higher, be prepared to hit the learning curve.
Tanking
Tanks need to stand on top of each other to soak Saber Lash. If you are short tanks and the raid has plate DPS available, one can be put in front of the boss with the tanks to help soak the Saber Lash damage. If said DPSer has a tanking set, equipping a piece or two to increase their HP is an option should they be taking too much damage. Note that the tanks will take substantial damage during the fight - using an off tank of this sort is not advised, as it will make healing even more difficult, although it is better than insufficient tanks.
The key to the fight is managing the transitions between the Bone Storms and going back to the Bone Graveyard phase. You have 10 seconds from the end of Bone Storm until Lord Marrowgar starts casting Saber Lash again (until then he simply melees his target) - the tanks need to pick him up and position themselves together in that time. (The 10 second grace period also applies to the beginning of the encounter, counting from when he is first aggroed, giving the tanks time to set themselves up.)
DPS
Lord Marrowgar has a gigantic hit box! If the melee are hugging the boss, they're standing way too close. This is true for those melee who wish to dodge the cold fire rather than avoid it completely by standing in his hit box, but if you're doing 10-man without a dedicated spike team the melee need to be standing with the healers until you outgear the encounter or are attempting his heroic mode.
Bone Spikes
Ranged DPS, or nearby melee, should immediately switch to Bone Spikes to free impaled players. If the raid has an abundance of melee, members should stay relatively close together to reduce travel time. Bone Spikes should die within two GCDs; any longer and you will have issues.
Cold Fire
Cold Fire spawned by Marrowgar should be avoided entirely by ranged DPS, and moved out of immediately by melee. It moves in a straight line out from its spawn point in melee range and if moved out of immediately by melee no damage will be taken. It is also possible for melee to stand inside his hit box and avoid it completely, as the cold fire spawn starts outside of his hit box. Touching this flame applies a short but potent Damage over Time effect in heroic mode.
Cold Fire during his non-Bone Storm periods will be directed at a given person, thus ranged should spread out radially, preventing more than one from having to move from any given spawn.
Bone Storm
Every 30 seconds Marrowgar will execute Bone Storm. This whirlwind attack cannot be avoided and damage is dealt every two seconds based on your proximity to the boss as he spins. The closer you are, the more damage you take. Additionally, in heroic this will also leave a bleed effect on anyone hit by it.
While in his Bone Storm Lord Marrowgar will randomly target and charge a raid member. When he reaches them he stops moving for around six seconds before targeting another random raid member. Every time Lord Marrowgar reaches his target and stops he will fire four lines of Cold Fire along the semi-cardinal points (NE, NW, SE, SW - they form an X). After his fourth target the Bone Storm will end.
Healing
The tanks take moderately-high damage (10-15k every second from Saber Lash (13-17k 25 man)). During the Bone Storms, everyone takes damage. People who don't move when they're targeted by the boss during Bone Storm will be taking full Bone Storm damage in addition to Cold Fire damage from up to four separate Cold Fire effects. They will probably die.
Note that Lord Marrowgar has a red positioning reticule below him. Stacking your entire raid (with the exception of the three tanks and any hunters) on the back edge of the reticule during phase 1 does three things:
1. Prevents all incoming Coldflame damage. (No one is hit by the fire)
2. Controls the location of Impales so they may be quickly DPSed.
3. Allows Healers and Caster DPS to remain stationary, maximizing throughput.
The raid must disperse during Phase 2. Bone Storm damage is negligible, but Priests need to be mindful that Inner Fire charges are depleted by this ability. Stay mobile in Phase 2, and re-collapse to the rear of the positioning reticule once the tanks regain control after phase 2.
Note that tanks do not take damage during the Bone Spike Graveyard cast, which can be very handy for moving into position or catching up on healing.
10-man Normal Specific Strategy
Lord Marrowgar is a two-phase repeating fight.
Phase One is the Bone Graveyard phase where the tanks stand on one side of Marrowgar and the DPS and healers stand on the other.
Phase Two is the Bone Storm phase and consists of the duration of Marrowgar's Bone Storm.
The transition from Phase Two back to Phase One is what will kill most raids.
Three healers are useful to handle tank healing when a healer gets hit with a spike.
Phase One
In the Bone Graveyard phase the raid wants to stay close to each other with the melee in the middle, the ranged on the sides, and the healers in-between the melee and the ranged. The healers need to be in range of the tanks, but farther from the boss than the melee. This setup specifically allows the melee to swap to any Bone Spikes that hit raid members near them allowing the spikes to be global'd. By doing this you minimize the damage taken by the spike target, maximize the raid's time on the boss, and minimize any interruption to the melees' rotations by target switching.
Alternatively you can have one or two dedicated spike-killers whose only job is to run around and kill spikes. These people will preferably be ranged DPS with short ramp-up times that can pull at least 4.5k (they need to deal 40k damage in under 10 seconds including ramp up time. Arcane Mages are good, for example, while Affliction Warlocks would be bad). By doing this you forgo one DPSer on the boss entirely, but the rest of the DPS will be interrupted only when they get spiked.
Regardless of how you handle the spikes, the raid needs to spread out as soon as the third spike is killed because the boss is about to transition to phase two.
Phase Two
In the Bone Storm phase of 10-normal, the raid wants to stay close enough together that the healers can reach them at all times and avoid the Cold Fire at all costs. The damage from the Bone Storm is negligible if you have competent raid healing and avoid standing directly under the boss when possible. The damage from Bone Storm is AoE, so abilities like a rogue's Feint will work to full effect.
In short, don't stand in fire.
The transition from Phase Two back to Phase One is the difficult part, as he does a complete aggro wipe. To transition safely (for those of us who aren't farming heroic ToC) the raid, except for the tanks, need to stop DPS on the boss when he hits his fourth target's location. Once the fourth stationary spin is complete he'll wipe aggro and the tanks can pick him up.
Phase Two and Misdirects
The transition and Misdirect love each other. They really do. Tricks of the Trade on the other hand will get a rogue killed because before the boss aggros your Tricks target, he'll one-shot you with a 30k Saber Lash.
25 Man Normal Strategy
After experimenting with a few strategies we found one that worked great. It should work in 10 man also if you are having obscene trouble with spikes. Don't be afraid to take a 7th healer to ensure DPS survival if healing becomes too problematic, it's not a DPS race.
Phase One
Phase one is where this strategy differs. All DPS and healers should stack as close as possible to Lord Marrowgar far inside his hit box, but making sure you don't get in front and get cleaved. This does 2 things. One, it makes killing the spikes very simple as melee can cleave them all and take them out that much faster (Be aware of hunters that can't stack due to range and release them also). It also totally eliminates worrying about Cold Fire since it spawns on the outside of his hit box, so it just spawns past the raid giving you more time to DPS.
Phase Two
When his timer for Bone Storm is nearing everyone should run away from Marrowgar to lighten healer burden, though it only hits for around 5k right on top of him. Continue to DPS until he charges the 3rd person and all DPS must STOP or you WILL get aggro. Avoid the fires that spawn. Once he stops storming tanks must be ready to pick him up be standing on top of him on his last position. Moving him back to his original position can cause people to get cleaved so it is best to tank him where he ends up, trying to turn his back toward the raid to make it easier to stack on him again. Stacking is made much easier if someone is marked to stack on top of. Then just simply rinse and repeat.
