Hello everyone, this is Separation from Bleeding Hollow. I would like to take a few minutes to introduce myself to the RogueRogue community! I picked up the game a few weeks after the burning crusade was released and chose my first class, the rogue. After being in countless raids/groups I knew I was going to be playing my rogue much more than any other class. From Karazhan to the Sunwell Plateau, I have killed every boss BC had to offer and now that Wrath of the Lich King has been introduced, there are many new encounters as well as the end game content being released. WOLTK has also brought many new players to the game, which is a good thing! A large selection of them have chosen the rogue class. Maybe its the high single target damage they can output in a raid environment, or maybe its the fact that people enjoy stealthing around in Warsong Gulch. Whichever it is, it opens up a whole new experience of how you play the game, this can also include questions, wanting advice or just to talk to someone who enjoys the class just as much as you do. That’s where I come into play, I am going to be introducing my RogueRogue Icecrown Citadel guide made exclusively for rogues!
Introduction
Hey everybody welcome to the RogueRogue.com guide to Icecrown Citadel raid guide. I’m Separation and I am going to be going to be explaining the Lord Marrowgar encounter which is the first boss of Icecrown Citadel. I will be going over positioning, optimal spec, glyphs and overall what you need to know to stay alive as a rogue during the fight. First of all, there are 2 ICC specs that rogues should choose from which are 51/18/2 (Mutilate) and 20/51/0 (Combat). Depending on each encounter in my guide, I will give you the optimal spec you should be using that yields the best result for that fight. Lets talk about glyphs now, for combat the 3 major ones are Glyph of sinister strike, killing spree, and tricks of the trade. For Mutilate your glyphs should be glyph of mutilate, hunger for blood, and tricks of the trade. You will notice both specs glyph tricks of the trade simply because of the 2 piece benefit you get 15 energy back and you are also enraging your target for 4 seconds longer, that of which should be another rogue.
Spec/Poisons
The spec that fits this encounter the most efficiently is the combat spec that I have mentioned above. You do a lot of running around during this and you are going to be target switching more than a few times. As you know combat has extremely high burst potential and cooldowns so you can quickly and successfully take down the target at hand. For poisons, you are going to want to be using Instant on your main hand and deadly on the offhand.
Click the Image For Full Size
Positioning for Abilities
As you can see in the picture above, you really dont get to look at the boss for alot of the fight, you are starting at his…well imaginary feet and red hit box. As a rogue and along with other melee classes the most efficient place to stand is directly in back of the boss because he does a frontal cleave which hits the three tanks you are using for the fight. One of the bosses abilities that he casts somewhat quickly into the encounter is Coldflame. You can refer to the picture for this it is the blue fire he casts onto the ground in a 8 yard line towards a certain direction. All you have to do is use your Q or E key to quickly strafe out of this as its not exactly life threatening but does tick for 6,000 so be careful that you do not tunnel vision on this boss. The second thing you need to watch out for is Bone Spike Graveyard. This ability impales multiple targets and makes them unable cast/move as long as they are stuck in the spike. This is where being combat comes into play because typically melee get spiked during this fight and thats a great time to use a targeting macro, /tar Bone Spike /startattack /cast sinister strike, this is also the opportune time to hit your blade flurry/killing spree since it spreads the damage out and cleaves each of the spikes while still hitting the boss.
The last thing you really need to look out for on this fight as a rogue is Bone Storm. This is a AoE type mechanic where the boss basically does a bladestorm ability hitting everything in his melee range and even slightly outside of it, the further you are away from him the less damage he is going to do. Normally guilds will set up positions for this but if you are pugging and nobody gives you a set place its a great idea to think ahead of where you are going to run for this. Rogues have 2 great survival talents for this specific boss ability which are feint and evasion, when he is bone storming you do want to be as far away from him as possible but if you find yourself getting caught in a corner, macroing or manually hitting feint/evasion is a great way to survive this (at any point of the bone storm keeping feint on cooldown is a good idea as well). Other than that this boss has fairly simple mechanics you need to look out for while playing your rogue.
This screen shot gives you an Idea of the distance you really want to keep while he is storming, also note that fires will be cast while he is bone storming so be careful to avoid those to. Also note that walls and corners are a bad place to be before he does this so make sure you are spreading out, there is plenty of room to be standing ahead of time for this. Getting trapped in a corner can result in multiple ticks from bone storm damage and backing yourself into fire.
Click the Image for Full Size
Closing
To end with, Lord Marrowgar is not the most difficult boss by far in ICC but the abilities listed in this guide can definitely cause problems to people not paying attention to his/her surroundings during this encounter. We all know that part of being a successful rogue is the ability to stay alive during boss encounters and I have covered everything you need to know in order to do that for this fight. I hope this simple guide can be of help to you as a player and as a rogue. If you have any questions about this encounter, I would be more than happy answer them for you. I encourage you to check in with RogueRogue.com soon in the future as I will be releasing a guide for each of the 12 bosses and I look forward to helping you better yourself as a rogue. Please enjoy!
-Separation-
Related posts:
Just to add a little to your information, there really isn’t a reason to stand far away from Marrowgar (even on Heroic if your heals aren’t retarded) during Bone Storm since the damage is rather minor. Depending on the speed your guild/group takes to kill him you can get 1-2 Evasions off which is 1 full phase you should be able to stay on him and take little to no damage at all. When you don’t have Evasion you can just Feint to reduce the damage you take (keep in mind the majority of your damage comes from melee/poisons so the minor loss in damage from using Feint isn’t as huge as not attacking him at all), if you start to dip low just Feint and stand away from him til you get topped off.
Comment by Adoryna — April 14, 2010 @ 9:32 pm
Hey Separation I used to play on Bleeding Hollow during BC (US servers) just wondering which guild you were apart of back then the two top guilds were Royal Militia and Dissension, not trying to “quiz” you or anything like that just wondering out of sheer curiosity :>
Comment by Randø — April 14, 2010 @ 9:58 pm
Edit: Totally forgot about Horde side I played Alliance haha well same question for Horde side
Comment by Randø — April 14, 2010 @ 10:21 pm
I understand the bonestorm damage can be minimal at times, this guide is to teach you how to play with people who dont tolerate things like that which alot of guilds like their melee to take minimal damage. Thank you for your input though.
Rando-I played with Tribunal during the burning crusade, hope that answers your question!
Comment by Separation — April 14, 2010 @ 10:58 pm
Nice effort and everything, but i think that post is rather useless since it simply gives some information that you can find on EJ and some information that you can find on tankspot/wowhead about the fight.
Comment by undaddy — April 15, 2010 @ 12:47 am
Well, I do want to stress that this is simply a beginners guide for someone who has never been inside ICC before. There are not alot of guides out there that are built specifically around rogues. Alot of rogues that pvp strictly are starting to want to raid so this is the perfect guide for those people who are visiting the site to begin with. Thank you for your input.
Comment by Separation — April 15, 2010 @ 1:32 am
Nice guide. Looking forward to the others. I get a lot of rogue questions from new people to the class and it will be a lot easier to be able point them here for info. Thanks
Comment by Corrahn — April 15, 2010 @ 1:48 am
hi separation thx for the guide,now this is interesting addition to RR.com which involve a bit of PVE in counter act to PVP thing in RR.com.Keep it up and we might see a revolution in RR.com from cheers!!!
Comment by apih — April 15, 2010 @ 4:11 am
Hey Separation! Welcome to the site, awesome guide. Looking forward to the other parts of this
Comment by ShiftSeven — April 15, 2010 @ 5:29 am
List all of your addons plz
Comment by Syni — April 15, 2010 @ 6:10 am
owai-
Comment by Unforgived — April 15, 2010 @ 6:18 am
Should post this on the forums on EJ instead of here.. ‘We’ (I) don’t feel the need of an PVE guide for such an simple encounter if you’re going to make a guide this indeepth I’d advice you to take a boss that actually requires brain activity instead of the first boss.
Comment by Varmt — April 15, 2010 @ 6:57 am
Are you idiot or something ?cuz this is his first time ….a good warm up for some more to come:D(may be)
Comment by m.k — April 15, 2010 @ 8:08 am
Varmt
i think this guide its not for those ppl who screams LFM icc25 /w min 6K gs and achiev.
ps: nice guide mate
Comment by Gyvas — April 15, 2010 @ 8:20 am
I missed the post about this site becoming about PvE.. Please never make a post again unless your explaining fights like putricide, blood wing fights, or sindragosa , and lich king.. rest of bosses take no strats.. well mayb the basics of rotface can be useful to rogues.. but every other fight takes no brain.
And your guide is good.. but seriously, this fight is easy as !@#$ and you have to be really dumb not to know how to do it..
1: Stay away from bladestorm
2: Kill bone spikes
3: Stand behind boss at all times
Thats it!
Comment by Bob — April 15, 2010 @ 11:00 am
If you read my previous posts on here Bob, you would understand that I did say this is going to be a beginners guide for people who have never been into ICC before. Maybe I should warn people that if you are already doing hardmodes in your guild, than this is not a guide for you. I can assure you there are people out there who can appreciate the simplicity of this guide. Again theres no point in leaving 1 or 2 bosses out of a “Complete ICC guide”. Give it time I will be explaining more difficult fights, the strategies will be more complex when I get to the complex bosses. Keep checking back I assure you the guide will feel more complete once I release all 12 bosses. Thanks for your input!
-Separation-
At Syni- Hey there, to answer your question about the addons you see its Akrios UI that you can find under the UI section at the top of the page. The DBM type addon on the right is called “Deus Vox Encounters”, the character portraits are Pitbull 3. Map is called “Sexy Map” and the unit frames under recount is “Grid”. If you have any questions about anything else please let me know.
Comment by Separation — April 15, 2010 @ 11:52 am
Lol some ppl here are such a retards XD. OMAGAD DIS IZ PVE?!?! ME WANTZ PVP, IM GUNNA FIND ANOTHER ROG SIET!!!. U wanted additional bloggers nd when u have it, u still whine. Do these ppl get money for that? Doubt so. So stfu and grow up. And yes flame me and prove youre 11 years old kid lol XD I dont care
Comment by Hitmaster — April 15, 2010 @ 1:12 pm
I mean, why do u have to bash some1s work? If u dont like it, either post costructive comments or just dont post at all
Comment by Hitmaster — April 15, 2010 @ 1:14 pm
@truewan-Flame on! But seriously, you’re going to look for a new site because they implemented a PvE section? Wow, I didn’t know it was that hard to scroll up or down past the guide or click on VIDEOS if that’s not too much of a strain on your hand.
Comment by Herptyderp — April 15, 2010 @ 2:04 pm
I think what the majority would prefer is if the PvP and PvE stuff was separated. Since Akrios doesn’t post often, it would be annoying to have say 6 entries all about PvE before we read anything else about PvP.
Maybe set up some tabs for each blogger, or a main tab for general stuff plus a tab for PvP entries and a tab for PvE entries.
It’s nice to be able to access the information you want without having to scroll about looking through what you don’t want to read about.
Comment by tora — April 15, 2010 @ 3:18 pm
I can’t begin to comprehend the stupidity of some posters. There is not one mention of this site being strictly for PvP.
Maybe you guys should take the dicks out of your eyes and go read past articles on DPS rotations and such.
Comment by Ultorskoss — April 15, 2010 @ 3:45 pm
“take the dicks out of your eyes”
Classic
Comment by Kutsuu — April 15, 2010 @ 4:19 pm
lastrogue.com
Not always updated, but at least he sticks to pvp stuff.
Comment by fdsaf — April 15, 2010 @ 5:11 pm
Guys honestly I did not come here to step on anybodys toes. You have to actually have to click on guides, then click again to read the pve section. Sure its going to pop up on the front page but please give it time it will get bumped away eventually. Akrios and I thought this would be a good idea to cater to people who wanted to maybe try pve and get into raiding. If you are a strictly pvp player then please ignore the ICC guides when you visit the site thats all I can offer. I hope you guys enjoy the future of what we are going to be doing here.
-Separation-
RogueRogue.com
Comment by Separation — April 15, 2010 @ 5:16 pm
I play PvE as well, but there are just so many damn sites out there dedicated to it, I was looking forward to a site dedicated to PvP.
You cant roll out a site that was based on PvP, rogue PvP at that, turn around and post an easily understood PvE fight and say “oh well you can just scroll past it” or “this site never said anything about being for scrictly PvP” when you have pretty much posted videos, topic all about PvP and turn around and post a PvE post, not expecting a backlash from some people.
Sure some people are fine with PvE on this site. Im not one of those people. Please visit this site for more PvE rogue help (arguably the best PvE site out there)
http://elitistjerks.com/f78/
Im not saying you did a good job, because you did, but the fight itself is well known and PvP is fucking awesome. PvE… its like looking at a beautiful picture. The first time you see it your blown away, but if you stare at it for hours on end it’s just another picture you occassionally look at again.
PvP is just so much more fun.
Comment by TrueWan — April 15, 2010 @ 6:08 pm
You might find the fight easy, but plenty of people that play WoW need help not standing in fire. It’s a short guide to a fight without a lot to explain. It’s as nice of a Marrowgar 25 man HM guide as you’re going to find anywhere.
Comment by Hunterk — April 15, 2010 @ 8:26 pm
Nice guide Separation, though Marrowgar isn’t one of the most complex fights to explain, you still managed to go in depth. Really looking forward to future posts, and the expansion of roguerogue in both lights pve and pvp.
Comment by Spinetap — April 15, 2010 @ 11:19 pm
One more thing Id like to say before signing off for the evening. I didnt really mention anything except PvE since my first introduction I want to stress to everyone that I absolutely LOVE to pvp as well. Ive been on multiple 2200+ teams so Im not just a pve “dragon slayer” I found out about this site because of Akrios/Unmercey originally, they were a great inspiration. So please understand I enjoy both and want to offer a pvp side to things in the future as well.
Thanks again
-=Separation=-
Comment by Separation — April 15, 2010 @ 11:49 pm
good one but dont mysteriously stop posting -.-
Comment by m.k — April 16, 2010 @ 2:46 am
Okay here is one question for you -=Separation=-:
How do a fail rogue pull up in being a successful rogue…?
Or just say a rogue stoped playing wow for about 2 seasons and he missed alot what shall he/she do to return back into the game specially if that rogue is not well known?
How to return back into the game without having to spend 3 months to go 4 times to icc25?
This is the guide which most people need not suddenly advancing into high level gear
Comment by m.k — April 16, 2010 @ 3:01 am
You guys do realize that Akrios HIMSELF posted two Level 70 and 80 Rogue Mutilate PvE cycle videos right, and that you can find them here on this website.
I guess the people that REMAIN loyal would know that.
For the new Bloggers, welcome to Roguerogue.com, I personally look forward to both aspects of the game from different views. I honestly don’t understand why people would not want to enjoy the PvE aspect of a game that has PvP on the backburner.
TL;DR, if you want a PURE PvP guide that is CONSTANTLY updated; make 15+ high rated Arena and World PvP videos, make a Blog site, get a HUGE fanbase from all over the world and update that shit yourself.
A vast majority of you were pointed here by people that use this site to better themselves as rogues, don’t flame anything, if you are 2700+ rated in Arena, obviously you are doing something right and I don’t see why you would need to be here. If your guild is rocking 12/12 25 man Icecrown Citadel hardmodes then you definitely do not need to be here.
Thats my speech, enjoy the site everyone.
Comment by Tokikonae (Stormreaver,US) — April 16, 2010 @ 9:54 am
Hey M.K. thats a really good question, and actually it does not take as long now to get back into the game as it used to. Back in the day being a full tier or 2 behind could really hurt you and take a while to get caught back up, but recently blizzard has made catching up quite easy. What I would suggest doing is start doing the weekly quest for 5 frost badges and do your daily heroic every day. This way you can immediately get your 2 piece tier 10 which is the most important aside from weapons/trinkets. Also while on that topic try to get yourself into 10 and 25 man Vault of Archavon raids which produces frost badges as well as tier 10 pants/hands drops (on chance of course). Also one of the BiS trinkets for mutilate which is the spec I would suggest you try, is attainable with frost badges the “Herkumi War Token” sold by the frost vendor in Dalaran. For weapons I would find a group for ToC 10 or 25 because some very good starter daggers drop from there, some of which can hold you off until you get into ICC. Let me know if you have any questions about spec/glyphs and I would be more than happy to answer them. Thanks again for your question, I hope this helped!
-=Separation=-
Comment by Separation — April 16, 2010 @ 2:24 pm
So this is a rogue site and should give information on both PvE and PvP. While this isn’t a hard fight, obviously, it’s best to include it if you’re planning on providing a full ICC raid guide for rogues, which he is. While some of you may think this is completely unnecessary you don’t seem to grasp the entire scope of the situation, that is that this site is for all rogues to come to for PvP and a large portion of PvP, as always, has been PvE gear. Especially for rogues. So Kudos to Akrios and Separation for putting this together, and I support it 100% as should the rest of you.
Comment by Rashaverak (Eredar) — April 16, 2010 @ 7:18 pm
nope, mutilate 4 life
Comment by Polaris — April 17, 2010 @ 7:03 am
@-=Separation=-
Thanks for replying Separation and I hope I can stay in touch with you soon.
At the moment Iam going through ma boards so when iam done I will work on the points you have given me:D
Comment by m.k — April 17, 2010 @ 1:41 pm
[...] everyone, welcome back to the RogueRogue.com guide for the Icecrown Citadel raid. This is Separation and I am going to be covering the Lady Deathwhisper encounter. Lady [...]
Pingback by ICC Rogue Guide Part 2 Lady Deathwhisper | Rogue-Rogue — April 22, 2010 @ 9:23 am
[...] of the RogueRogue blog has posted the first of a series of Rogue strat guides for Icecrown Citadel bosses. This one covers Lord Marrowgar and includes recommended spec, poisons and [...]
Pingback by [Rogue] Icecrown Citadel: Lord Marrowgar strat : The Daily Rogue — April 22, 2010 @ 4:26 pm
Honestly your giving some pretty basic info here. and I wouldn’t say combat would be top rogue spec here. Muti … also u can evasion+sprint and dps during bonestorm, to sit and wait for all that time doing nothing is silly .. especially on normal mode.
Comment by Matt — June 22, 2010 @ 2:26 pm