Thaurlach

Template:Infobox Mob Thaurlach is the final and most difficult boss found within The Rift of Nûrz Ghâshu. He is a Balrog that was defeated long ago and has been imprisoned for ages. The time has finally come to put him to rest forever!

Quotes

Rawr? His massive blade does most of the talking.

Overview

Note: All damage numbers listed are assuming no mitigation (0%) towards that damage type.

Preparation

• Several +5 15/30-minute Hope Tokens per Fellowship
• 1,000 per player for Continuing Hope (optional, but makes the encounter easier)
• Shadow resistance potions if possible (from reputation vendors)
• Some regen food such as Lembas and stat food can help
• One Guardian with 3,800+ Morale and 55%+ avoidance is ideal (Hunker Down/Eldar's Grace is helpful)
• Two Minstrels, both with Song of the Hopeful Heart slotted
• Two Champions, one with Heavy Shield Use slotted (for the Ever-seer encounter)
• One or two Lore-masters with Proof Against All Ills slotted (in-combat wound removal)
• One Burglar for the crucial conjunction when Thaurlach hits 15,000 morale
• 20x Fear, Poison, Wound and Disease curing potions

Battle

The Thaurlach battle takes a considerably long time (over 45 minutes), so the strategy is divided into three major phases. If Glathlírel is defeated at any time during the encounter, Thaurlach begins to instantly defeat players, resulting in a wipe.

Phase 1 - Purifying the Waters

File:GlathlirelPurifying.JPG

Glathlírel purifying the left fountain.

Glathlírel will begin the encounter when someone in the fellowship approaches her. She walks into Thaurlach's room and then heads down to the left corridor in order to purify the water. Before it is purified, the water instantly defeats anyone who walks into it.

There is no need to use any Hope Tokens during this phase, so save them for later. As Glathlírel heads down the corridor on the left, two World-eaters with 36,000 morale will spawn and attack her. They can heal themselves, will occasionally summon a Summoned World-eater, and can be crowd-controlled. In the meantime, Darklings will continuously spawn from four spawn locations - two holes down the left corridor and two down the right. If 3 reach the glowing runes on the middle platform, they will turn into a Darkling World-eater elite mob. It is a good idea to place Hunters on the middle platform to deal with them from range before they transform.

Once Glathlírel has no more mobs near her, she will begin casting to purify the water fountain. Protect her for the 15-30 seconds that she is casting. If the second World-eater was crowd-controlled far enough away so that she does not attack him, you can take him down while she is purifying and save some time. Once finished, she will then move down the right corridor, and another two World-eaters will spawn. Repeat the same process as before to deal with them, then protect Glathlírel during another purification.

After the water in both corridors is purified, she will move back to the middle and note that something is still not right. At that moment, Thaurlach will break free from his chains, and Phase 2 will begin.

Phase 2 - The Ever-seer's Demise

As Thaurlach breaks free, he uses chains in one hand and summons a massive sword in the other. He also gains an Uncommon Fortitude, an Eldritch Renewal effect and an 8 dread aura. Glathlírel will then tell you that some players will need to stay with her, while others should go pull the levers in order to stop the corrupted water from entering the pool. She will gain an aura that heals her and anyone around her for a significant amount, enough to allow players to withstand Thaurlach's damage for a while.

In order to pull the levers, designate four players - two on either side, with one of the players being a tanking class - to run along the left and right ledges around the pool that Thaurlach is standing in. Do this before Thaurlach breaks free in order to give everyone enough time to get in position. As he breaks loose, the doors at the far sides of the chamber will open to each reveal a room with a lever at the back. There will be four Darkling World-eaters in the left room and one World-eater with three Darklings in the right. The two tanks need to pick up the mobs that spawn as quickly as possible and run them back to the rest of the raid, who will be standing on the glowing circle beside Glathlírel. The other two players should pull their respective levers, then head back to the raid as well. The levers have a 3-second induction time that should be taken into account. By pulling the levers, the platform that Thaurlach is standing on will be lowered and the water in the pool purified.

While four players are getting the levers done, the Hunters who remain with the rest of the raid should be focusing on holding aggro on Thaurlach. He hits Glathlírel very hard until the levers are pulled, so having him attack a Hunter instead will make healing much more manageable.

When both levers have been pulled and everyone is back at the glowing circle, the pool will be purified, so the Main Tank should immediately run in and work on building up threat and holding aggro on Thaurlach. The two Minstrels should cast Song of the Hopeful Heart on the glowing circle and at the Balrog's feet where the MT is standing, allowing everyone to have hope without worrying about a hope wipe. Everyone except the MT should be focusing on defeating the mobs that had spawned in the rooms. Once that's done, the raid should use a +5 15-minute Hope Token in each fellowship and move past Thaurlach up the steps and into the large chamber behind him, leaving the MT and Glathlírel behind to keep him occupied. Make sure that everyone runs in at around the same time, since the doors close once the Ever-seer enters the battle.

The Main Tank should stand in front of Thaurlach and keep him positioned so his/her back is facing Glathlírel, who will still be standing on the glowing circle healing herself and casting some ranged heals on the tank. With sufficient avoidance, Guardian's Ward up at all times, ranged healing from Glathlírel and an eye on the morale bar, the tank should be able to stay up. If the tank's morale does drop below 2,000 it is a good idea to run backwards and get within range of Glathlírel's proximity heal for a few seconds. Thaurlach will also use his Chain Strikes ability occasionally, which deals a lot of damage and will knock the tank back almost all the way to Glathlírel. When this happens, stay beside her for a few seconds if healing is needed, then run back into melee range. It is not a good idea to stay out of melee range for too long or he will begin to use Baleful Roar, which causes over 1,500 Shadow damage and dispels any Hope Token effects.

In the chamber that the rest of the raid runs in to, they will find the Ever-seer at the far end, four darkling holes in the corners, four pillars and just as many levers that should not be activated yet. Have the Off Tank (ideally a Champion with a Heavy Shield on) grab a hold of the Ever-seer and turn him around where he stands so that he is facing the wall. If available, another Champion should be positioned behind the Ever-seer. Both Champions need to be clobbering whenever possible. Quite often (every 15 seconds or so), the Ever-seer will stop attacking and perform one of two casts, in which he turns sideways and either pulls his arms in close or holds one into the air. Each cast takes about 5 seconds, and should be interrupted by a clobber. The rest of the raid should split into two equal groups and run to the left and right sides of the room, staying out of line-of-sight of the Ever-seer as much as possible in case he gets a cast off. Do so by standing behind the pillars in the room. If he completes his casting, players in his line-of-sight will receive either several Fear effects - such as Suppressed Fear, Distraught and Greater Shadow Vulnerability - or a Deeply Penetrating Thorn wound debuff. The wound must be treated with a Pure Healing Draught or by a Lore-master with Leechcraft on the affected player within 10 seconds or the player will be instantly defeated. The first time it is treated, it turns into a Partially Extracted Thorn, which will not cause instant defeat but still deals around 600 damage when it counts down. Therefore it should be treated twice if possible, which will entirely cure the wound.

While fighting the Ever-seer, Darklings will be coming out of the four corners of the room and heading towards two Void Holes between the pillars. If several of them reach it, a Darkling World-eater will spawn, so it is up to the DPS classes to prevent this from happening. A good way to proceed is by taking out any Darklings and then switching to the Ever-seer until more spawn. Rinse and repeat that process until the Ever-seer is defeated.

Once he goes down, take a few moments to get some power back, then have a player pull the levers one by one from left to right (facing the wall). This will remove the Eldritch Renewal effect on Thaurlach and cause the door to the Ever-seer's room to open. This is when Phase 3 begins.

Phase 3 - Vanquishing Thaurlach

As the doors open, Thaurlach will let out a Baleful Roar that wipes everyone's hope and deals a lot of shadow damage to anyone within his line of sight. His dread aura also goes up from 8 to 10. Glathlírel will stop casting her heals and run down to melee attack Thaurlach. The players who took down the Ever-seer should run back into the main room and both fellowships will need to use a 15-minute +5 Hope Token within range of the MT. The MT will also start requiring a lot of healing and may need to use cooldowns such as Guardian's Pledge to stay up until the Minstrels can get within range, since Thaurlach speeds up his attack rate.

Thaurlach will no longer use ranged attacks, so he can be pulled around the pool. Turn him around and pull him closer to one end of stairs that lead up to the Ever-seer's room. All healers and ranged DPS should be positioned as far back as possible on the ledge on the opposite side of the room. This means that if he was pulled to the south end of the stairs, said players should stand on the north ledge, 20+ meters away from the tank. Melee classes should position themselves on one side of Thaurlach, standing beside one of his legs. This will prevent them from getting hit by his frontal AoE attacks and his Tail Swipe.

Once everyone is in position, begin to DPS him down. For the first 50k morale, the fight is rather uneventful. As his morale reaches 175k, he loses his Uncommon Fortitude (conjunction immunity) and will call up auras and effects seemingly at random. The possible auras and effects are as follows:

Name	Effect
Aura of Protection	Target takes 50% less damage, reduced chance to suffer a critical hit.
Aura of Rage	Target deals 10% more damage.
Aura of Restoration	Heals 78 Damage initially. Heals 78 Morale every 4 seconds.
Aura of Retribution	Attacking this creature causes you harm, as well. Sometimes the pain is enough to make you recoil in dread.
Balrog's Protection *	Target takes 50% less damage, reduced chance to suffer a critical hit.
Balrog's Rage *	Target deals 10% more damage.
Balrog's Renewal *	Heals 273 Morale every 4 seconds.
Balrog's Retribution *	Attacking this creature causes you harm, as well. Sometimes the pain is enough to make you recoil in dread.
Resilient Fortitude	This creature recovers from coordinates assaults with an extended period of immunity to subsequent attempts.
Sulfur Deception	Increased evasion against ranged attacks.

* Effect only occurs while the aura with the same name is up. Seems to override the aura's effect.

There is not much that can be done to counteract these effects, but they will generally not cause too much of a problem and go away after a little while. Continue to DPS him down, and once he hits around 125k morale anyone with the Rift set gloves should activate them for the Shadow absorption chance. Make sure you do not trigger any conjunctions, as you will likely need one right before the end of the fight. At approximately 115k he will do a Baleful Roar, wiping hope, so each fellowship will need to use a new Hope Token. He will do it again at around 85k, so be prepared. He will also do a puking animation once or twice that drops 3-6 power-draining and damaging diseases on everyone in front of him. This means that the tank will need to be cured of disease as soon as possible or run out of power (or worse). According to TABA Kinship, this puking attack may be preventable by keeping addle on Thaurlach. He also puts a Fatal Affliction with an eyeball icon on the MT from time to time, which needs to be cured with a Poison potion or by a Hunter within 10 seconds or the tank will be instantly defeated.

Once his morale reaches 50k, the trickier part of the battle begins. He will fly up into the air approximately once every 30-60 seconds and land about 5 seconds later in a massive AoE splash that instantly defeats anyone within about 10-20 meters. As soon as he jumps, the melee DPS should run back towards the healers, while the MT can jump up onto the ledge on the left, thereby allowing him/her to get back into position on Thaurlach quickly after he lands without having to worry about him facing towards the rest of the raid.

At 15k, use a conjunction on him and go all red/yellow. Also use Oathbreaker's Shame, Heart Seeker and any other high damage attacks to bring him down as quickly as possible. As his morale drops below 10k, he will spin around and make one last furious attempt to defeat Glathlírel. The MT and any other melee players with taunt abilities should use them as soon as he changes target to her, because he will defeat her in 2-3 hits (a matter of 3-5 seconds) if he is not taunted off. When he is taunted successfully, beat the last bit of his morale to dust, and then enjoy the nice loot and title!

Tip: To make subsequent encounters much easier, ensure that the player who receives the Broken Chain Link (seen below) does not hand it in until just before the next time you head in to fight the Balrog. Have everyone gather around Glorfindel as the quest is turned in for a 3-hour long +3 Hope buff that lasts through defeat (but not link-dead) and stacks with other Hope effects.

Loot

Thaurlach always drops the following barter gems, which can be exchanged for the shoulders and weapons of the Rift set:

Dazzling Emerald Firey Quartz

He also always drops the following quest item, which turns in at Rivendell for a very nice buff and reward:

• Item:Item:Broken Chain Link

He has a chance of dropping other Incomparable items as well, including:

• Item:Item:Edhelharlos

Lash Fragment Wanir-men

Wig-feld File:Gilechor.jpg

... and others yet undiscovered.

Links

Forum post from Deephallow Brewers with links to a quality video of Phase 2 and beyond.
TABA Kinship's Guide to the Thaurlach encounter.