Thorim DPS and Parse Guide

lettara lettara • Published June 1, 2023

The main way to maximize damage on Thorim is to move as little as possible. You should attempt to eat every Lightning Charge with a Power Word: Shield from a disc priest, as well as a raid cooldown like Divine Sacrifice.

You can comfortably eat the Lightning Charge up until 5 stacks so long as you Divine Sacrifice and, so your goal should be to kill him before this point. You will want to dodge any Lightning Charges above 5 stacks, or call for external defensives such as Hand of Sacrifice, Guardian Spirit or Pain Suppression.

Players with valuable proc trinkets such as Flare should consider stopping damage altogether in Phase 1, 45 seconds before the boss becomes active. Always talk to your raid team about this beforehand, because if too many people do this then the adds will become overwhelming.

Make sure you are in your positional assignment before Thorim jumps down to achieve maximum uptime. 

Glyphs:
Heroic Strike
Whirlwind
Rend

If the fight persists for too long and Thorim‘s stacks climb too high to where his lightning cone attack stands to 1 shot you, make sure to move positions and utilize Nitro Boosts to move between the positions.

Opener: Unstable Affliction > Haunt > Corruption > Curse of Agony

Pre-Pot: N/A

Glove Usage: On Thorim Activation, 45s In, and Execute

2min Trinket Usage: On Thorim Activation (with Slower than 2:30 kill times) or Just Execute

Talents: Default 55/0/16

Glyphs:
Quick Decay
Life Tap
Glyph of Haunt

Prior to entering the gauntlet place your Demonic Circle in your predetermined spot.

After finishing the gauntlet and moving down the tunnel towards Thorim, make sure to NOT pet attack Thorim prior to him jumping down into the arena. If your pet gets stuck up top where Thorim normally stands then order your pet to follow until he comes down to your location.

Once in position in the arena try to limit your movement and avoid standing in blizzards.

The first 3 Lightning Charge abilities will not kill you, but if combined with a Frostbolt Volley may be enough to finish you off.

On the third and fourth Lightning Charge call for a defensive raid ability such as Divine Sacrifice to plant and maximize your uptime on the boss. If your raid doesn’t have any extra defensives cooldowns then be prepared to avoid the Lightning Charge. Dodging the abilities and not dying is a much better outcome than laying on the floor unable to do any DPS.


An alternative strategy is to stay inside the arena rather than enter the gauntlet and have a rogue use Tricks of the Trade on you for a Corruption and Curse of Doom on Thorim prior to him jumping into the arena. Outside of these two maximizations Thorim is a Patchwerk encounter where maximizing our uptime will be the key to success. In warcraft logs Thorim DOES NOT begin until his activation where he lands inside the arena. This is abusable because usually all excess damage dealt by Tricks of the Trade is monitored and split into its own section separate from the warlock. However, if you snapshot abilities such as Corruption and Curse of Doom all the damage is counted as your own if it is active on him as he lands. So, when your gauntlet team is moving down the tunnel to activate Hard Mode you can get a Tricks of the Trade from a rogue and snap an empowered Corruption and Curse of Doom. You can also cast a Shadow Bolt from the arena to debuff Thorim with Improved Shadow Bolt for the crit buff prior to Corruption. Even though this is a parsing strategy due to the manipulation of the logs allowing the damage to count towards the warlock, it is also the highest DPS strategy. This is because of how our Corruption interacts with snapshotting and Tricks of the Trade amplifying our DPS.

Opener: Shadow Bolt, Metamorphosis/Immolation Aura on one of the melee stacks, then perform your normal rotation.

Pre-Pot/Second Pot: Potion of Speed in execute. 

Metamorphosis: On pull during Bloodlust

Gloves Usage: On pull and on cooldown.

Nitro Boots Usage: If coming from gauntlet, then boot midway through last hallway to get to your spot faster before Thorim drops down.

Thorim is extremely similar to Razorscale. Most of the optimizations on this boss are moving as little as possible and using your cooldowns and pot at the correct times. There is also the same Rank 1 Shadow Bolt snipe on one of the dwarves in the arena before Thorim drops down for an early Decimation.

Metamorphosis/Immolation Aura in one of the melee stacks and hope you don’t kill a melee or two with chain lightning. Move out of melee as soon as Immolation Aura ends.

Have a Demonic Circle on your spot in the ranged spread to avoid movement in the future.

You can usually soak and not move for the first 3 or 4 Lightning Charges due to your tankiness. Even more so if combined external cooldowns from your healers like Divine Sacrifice.

Ideal Duration: 120s

The pre-pull: No pre-pull notes as this encounter has trash at the beginning as part of the fight. Do not trigger any ICDs for 45 seconds before boss comes down from platform.

Opener and rotation:

Perform a standard single-target opener. Snapshot fire elemental totem when spell power is at a max, usually about 8 seconds into the fight.

Perform a standard single-target rotation. There is no cleave in this fight so a physical setup is best.

Use Potion of Speed when able to align it with other cooldowns and ICDs unless fight length is too short to allow this.

Encounter specific notes:

A physical damage equipment set is best on this boss as there is no cleave as part of the parsing criteria.

You can soak the first 3 Lightning Charges as long as you are topped off to maintain best melee uptime on boss.

Cooldown Usage (assuming 120s fight duration):

  1. Don’t Pre-pot.
  2. While in the arena, try and stop attacking the adds if your group allows it to save your ICD’s for when Thorim is available to attack.
  3. Add damage doesn’t count toward your parse.
  4. Ask for the spot behind the boss for the best chances not to get parried. While possible on the sides it requires much more precise placement.
  5. While you will want to use feint off-cooldown for your rotation, try and use feint before the Lightning Charge going out. This will allow you to stand still and pump while you take reduced damage. 
  6. If you notice a raid member is out of place near you and Chain Lightning is off cooldown, pop cloak of shadows for safety.

Stealth and step foot into the arena past the gate before the boss is pulled and ask for a DI from a paladin. This will allow you keep your Stealth (Over Kill buff) till Hardmode is activated so you have the energy regen coming out of stealth for when Thorim is targetable, similar to Razorscale. If you don’t run in splits with main and alts I would not recommend doing this unless you are looking for a top 100 parse. This will give 3 minutes for the paladin to be ressed, clear the arena and to complete the gauntlet so the window can be very close for this to benefit you.

Glyphs:
Glyph of Shadow
Glyph of Mind Flay
Glyph of Shadow Word: Death

Potion: Potion of Speed

Opener: Standard

All damage prior to Thorim jumping down from his balcony is excluded from parses.

Maximizing damage on Thorim is all about minimizing your movement. You should be able to avoid Blizzard damage entirely by standing in the inner half of the arena, and the encounter should ideally be short enough to tank most Lightning Charge before they become a one-shot kill.

Communicate with your healers to know if there are available defensive cooldowns before deciding if you have to move or not.

Seal: Seal of Vengeance

Glyphs:
Glyph of Judgement
Glyph of Seal of Vengeance
Glyph of Reckoning

Encounter:

  • Save your ICDs if possible after the first few waves of adds for when Thorim comes down.
  • Ideally you wont have to move at all and your healers will be able to heal you through the Lightning Charge alongside you using flash of lights with art of war procs on yourself.
  • Precast consecration in the center of the room before Thorim comes down.

Coming Soon!

The pre-pull:

●     This encounter has trash at the beginning as part of the fight. Do not trigger any ICDs for 45 seconds before the boss comes down from the platform. If you’re in the gauntlet doing trash, then try and take a reasonable amount of time coming back to trigger the boss phase and boot into position. Avoiding some ICD triggers may prove difficult.

Opener and rotation:

●    Potion of Speed when able to align it with other cooldowns and ICDs unless fight length is too short to allow this.

Encounter specific notes:

●     There is a good spot for mages in the north part of the room. Where you can soak a reasonable amount of lightning with healer CDs before having to move. Or avoiding them all together with some simple side stepping. Frost Ward helps mitigate the damage from Sif, as well as moving far enough forward to not chain the tank with chain lightning.

Cooldown Usage (assuming 120s fight duration):

●     Can use Evocation before coming back down into the raid group for P2.

●     Use gloves on engage.

●     Use any on-use trinkets

●     Use Combustion and Apply Living Bomb

●     Use instant cast Pyroblasts or Living Bombs when moving is required. Minimal movement with maximum cast time is essential to having effective DPS.

Opener:
Before Thorim is active, place your trap in the center of the room so it procs on him instantly.

Encounter tips:

  • One of the best ways to maximize damage on Thorim is to hold your DPS for the final 45 seconds of Phase 1 to ensure that your trinket procs are available for Phase 2. Bear in mind that if enough people in your raid do this, you can lose people or even wipe.
  • Note that Thorim does a chain lightning that can easily kill melee when you go to trap. You can use a Weakaura that shows the Cooldowns of Thorim‘s chain lightning so you know when it is safe to trap.
  • Stand close enough to Thorim to not get hit by blizzard.
  • Try to maximize your sniper training uptime by moving as little as possible.

Glyphs:
Glyph of Insect Swarm
Glyph of Starfall
Glyph of Starfire

Potion: Potion of Speed

Opener: Standard

All damage prior to Thorim jumping down from his balcony is excluded from parses.

Maximizing damage on Thorim is all about minimizing your movement.

You should be able to avoid Blizzard damage entirely by standing in the inner half of the arena, and the encounter should ideally be short enough to tank most Lightning Charges before they become a one-shot kill.

Save your Barkskin for Lightning Charge. Communicate with your healers to know if there are available defensive cooldowns before deciding if you have to move or not.

Recommended Talents & Glyphs

120s Ideal Duration

Overview

Thorim is a short, but moderately dangerous encounter. There’s a few mechanics to respect, a strict positioning check, and one timing to meet.

Mechanics Briefing

  1. Chain Lightning – Tank it by positioning correctly with no overstacking.
  2. Lightning Charge – As long as you’re topped off, you can tank these. If you’re not, then use Barkskin or Survival Instincts.
  3. Dark Rune Mobs – Swipe these while your gauntlet group is making their way. Ensure your trinkets are available when Thorim jumps down.

Pre-Pull Checklist

  • Watch for Thorim to enter Hard Mode and begin his roleplay speech.
  • If possible without triggering trinkets, obtain a Savage Roar.
  • Use Innervate on someone and Cast Gift of the Wild for Clearcasting.
  • Enter Cat Form immediately and begin pooling to max energy.
  • Be directly underneath where Thorim will jump down to.
  • Use a Potion of Speed as soon as the boss is attackable.

The Encounter

Perform a single-target Berserking opener on the boss and then continue dealing damage with a single-target rotation. Maximize your behind boss melee range uptime, never be on the right or left stack. Do your best to be max melee range to minimize the chance of chaining Chain Lightning.

Conclusion

Parsing on Thorim is a combination of rotational cleanliness, boss kill time, trinket timing, and raid positioning intelligence. Innervate before Thorim jumps down and prioritize non-Feral Druids if Innervate or Rebirth is needed. Don’t leave Cat Form, don’t drop your target, stay behind and within range of the boss.

Glyphs:
Glyph of the Ghoul
Glyph of Death and Decay
Glyph of Dark Death

Encounter notes:

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