This guide is intended to provide a comprehensive description of theencounter with Norushen in Siege of Orgrimmar. It is targeted at anyonewho desires to understand the fight mechanics.

This guide is updated for World of Warcraft MoP 5.4.

The Norushen encounter is the third fight in the Siege of Orgrimmar.Your raid will be assisting Norushen by fighting against a boss called theAmalgam of Corruption. This fight takes place in two different realms, both ofwhich the majority of your raid members will have to experience. In this sense,the fight is reminiscent of the fights against Valiona and Theralion, and Gara'jalthe Spiritbinder.

1. General Information↑top

2. Loot↑top

2.1. Armor

Item Name	Armor	Slot	Main Stats
Rime-Rift Shoulders (LFR, Flexible, Heroic)	Cloth	Shoulders	Intellect
Sash of the Last Guardian (LFR, Flexible, Heroic)	Cloth	Waist	Intellect
Bracers of Broken Causation (LFR, Flexible, Heroic)	Cloth	Wrists	Intellect/Hit
Blight Hurlers (LFR, Flexible, Heroic)	Cloth	Hands	Intellect/Hit
Boots of Broken Reliance (LFR, Flexible, Heroic)	Leather	Feet	Intellect
Confident Grips (LFR, Flexible, Heroic)	Leather	Hands	Intellect
Robes of the Blackened Watcher (LFR, Flexible, Heroic)	Leather	Chest	Agility
Gloves of the Golden Protector (LFR, Flexible, Heroic)	Leather	Hands	Agility
Bracers of Final Serenity (LFR, Flexible, Heroic)	Mail	Wrists	Intellect
Shadow-Binder's Kilt (LFR, Flexible, Heroic)	Mail	Legs	Intellect
Quarantine Shoulderguards (LFR, Flexible, Heroic)	Mail	Shoulders	Agility
Leggings of Unabashed Anger (LFR, Flexible, Heroic)	Mail	Legs	Agility
Wristplates of Broken Doubt (LFR, Flexible, Heroic)	Plate	Wrists	Intellect
Bracers of Blind Hatred (LFR, Flexible, Heroic)	Plate	Wrists	Strength/Mastery
Rage-Blind Greathelm (LFR, Flexible, Heroic)	Plate	Head	Strength/Parry

2.2. Weapons

Item Name	Type	Main Stats
Norushen's Enigmatic Barrier (LFR, Flexible, Heroic)	Shield	Intellect
Norushen's Shortblade (LFR, Flexible, Heroic)	Dagger	Agility
Xifeng, Longblade of the Titanic Guardian (LFR, Flexible, Heroic)	One-Hand Sword	Strength

2.3. Amulets, Cloaks, Rings, and Trinkets

Item Name	Type	Main Stats
Untainted Guardian's Chain (LFR, Flexible, Heroic)	Amulet	Intellect/Hit
Reality Ripper Ring (LFR, Flexible, Heroic)	Ring	Agility
Drape of the Despairing Pit (LFR, Flexible, Heroic)	Cloak	Strength/Mastery
Fusion-Fire Core (LFR, Flexible, Heroic)	Trinket	Strength/Cleave damage

3. Overview of the Fight↑top

During the Norushen encounter you actually never fight Norushenhimself, instead fighting a mob called Amalgam of Corruption. Norushen isfriendly to your raid and he is not involved in the fight.

The encounter takes place in two different realms:

• a Normal Realm, where you will face the Amalgam of Corruption, andwhere the vast majority of the fight takes place;
• a Test Realm, where each raid member must go, briefly, once perfight.

All raid members start the encounter with a level of Corruption (and theycan gain additional Corruption by handling certain fight mechanics), which causesthem to deal reduced damage to the Amalgam of Corruption. The enrage timer canonly be beaten if most or all of your DPS players purge their corruption, becomingPurified, and thus dealing full damage to the Amalgam. Healers and tankswho become purified gain increased healing and reduced damage taken,respectively.

A player may purge their Corruption by entering their Test Realm, where theymust complete a test (defeating certain mobs). Once the test is over,players are sent back to the Normal Realm.

Videos:

• PTR Preview —a short overview of the boss, based on PTR testing, which is extremelyuseful for getting a rough understanding of the fight;
• Video Guide— a video guide of the boss, based on live-realm experience.

4. Class-specific Advice↑top

On our forums, we are maintaining threads with class-specific advice for each of thefights of Siege of Orgrimmar. So, make sure to check them out, and if you have things toshare, do not hesitate to contribute!

Class	Forum Threads
Death Knight	Blood Frost/Unholy
Druid	Balance Feral Guardian Restoration
Hunter	All specs
Mage	All specs
Monk	Brewmaster Mistweaver Windwalker
Paladin	Holy Protection Retribution
Priest	Discipline Holy Shadow
Rogue	All specs
Shaman	Elemental Enhancement Restoration
Warlock	All specs
Warrior	Arms/Fury Protection

5. How Corruption Works↑top

At the start of the fight, all players receive a Corruption resource bar.Everyone starts out with 75 (out of 100) Corruption, which causes them to dealreduced damage to the Amalgam of Corruption.

Players can remove their Corruption by completing their role-specifictests, which we cover in the next section. In short, players haveto enter their Test Realms, something that is done by interacting with one ofthe several orbs located around the edges of the room. When a player interactswith an orb, they are sent to an alternate version of the room, where neitherthe raid nor the Amalgam of Corruption is present. Instead, they will have toface one or more enemies (depending on their role). When players becomePurified (reaching 0 Corruption), or after a certain amount of time regardlessof success, players are sent back to the Normal Realm.

Becoming Purified affects players differently, depending on their role.

• It causes all players to deal full, unreduced damage to the Amalgam ofCorruption.
• It causes tanks to take reduced damage.
• It causes healers do increased healing.

It is also worth mentioning that it is possible to get more than 75Corruption. There is an ability that is cast regularly throughout the fight,which requires certain raid members (with no more than 75 Corruption) to takedamage from it in order to deactivate it, and doing so grants these players 25Corruption. There is no particular negative effect that happens when a playerreaches 100 Corruption, but they deal 0 damage to the Amalgam of Corruption(making them practically useless as tanks or DPS players), and they cannotdeactivate the aforementioned ability.

Realistically, it may be impossible to have your entire raid Purified,given the large amount of time that this takes. As we will see later on in thestrategy sections, you will need to make some decisions about which raidmembers should be Purified.

6. Tests↑top

Even though the tests that players have to complete are not complicated, wehave chosen to present them before the Normal Realm because understanding howtests work allows you to get a better understanding of the Normal Realmmechanics.

When interacting with an orb located around the edges of the room, theplayer will be sent into their Test Realm. The Test Realm is differentdepending on the player's role (DPS, healer, or tank).

After a player is sent into their Test Realm, the orb they used disappearsuntil the player comes back from the Test Realm. The number of players you cansend in Test Realms at the same time is therefore limited to the number of orbsyour raid will have at its disposal. There are 2 orbs in 10-man, and 5 in25-man.

6.1. Test of Serenity (DPS)

The DPS player Test Realm consists of one large add, called aManifestation of Corruption, and one or more small adds calledEssences of Corruption. When an add is killed, a certain amount ofCorruption is removed from the player. Large adds remove 40 Corruption, whilesmall adds remove 15 Corruption.

The exact number of small adds depends on how much Corruption the playermust purge in order to become purified. So, for example, if the player has topurify 75 Corruption, there will be one large add and three small adds. Ifthe player has less Corruption to purge, then there will be fewer smalladds.

When the player becomes Purified, they will be teleported back to theNormal Realm. Alternatively, if they still have not reached 0 Corruption after60 seconds, they will be automatically teleported out.

The abilities of the mobs are not very problematic. The Manifestations ofCorruption have a frontal cone attack that deals a lot of damage, but whichcan easily be avoided (the graphic effect precedes the damage). TheEssences of Corruption have an attack that they fire in a line in front of them,which must also simply be avoided, and they regularly put up shields thatcause all attacks made from the front to be deflected, so simply attack themfrom behind.

6.2. Test of Reliance (Healer)

The healer Test Realm contains a hostile mob called Greater Corruption,and three friendly mobs that attack it. The healer must survive, and theymay also have to heal the friendly mobs. Any damage that they can deal to theGreater Corruption will speed up the phase.

The Greater Corruption casts three spells.

• Disheartening Laugh deals damage to the healer and the friendlyNPCs, and it must simply be healed through.
• Pit of Despair is a damaging void zone that the Greater Corruptioncasts, which must simply be moved out of and avoided.
• Lingering Corruption is a debuff that the Greater Corruption placeson the healer or on one of the NPCs, which, if not dispelled within 10seconds, deals a high amount of Shadow damage to that player.

Once the Greater Corruption has been killed, the healer will be teleportedback out to the Normal Realm.

6.3. Test of Confidence (Tank)

The tank Test Realm contains a hostile mob called Titanic Corruption.The tank must survive against this mob for 60 seconds in order to becomepurified, and to be teleported back out to the Normal Realm.

The Titanic Corruption uses several abilities.

• Titanic Smash is a frontal cone attack that must be avoided.
• Corruption is a stacking DoT that deals a small amount ofShadow damage per stack.
• Hurl Corruption is an interruptible nuke.
• Burst of Corruption is a ground attack that deals a massive amount ofdamage and which must absolutely be avoided.
• Piercing Corruption is an attack that deals a high amount of damage,and which must simply be survived through.

7. Normal Realm↑top

Your entire raid will start out in the Normal Realm, and this is where themajority of your time will be spent. That said, most raid members will have tomake a short incursion into their own Test Realm relatively early in the fightin order to purge their Corruption. The Test Realms are almost completelyseparate from the Normal Realm, but because they still do have some bearing onthe rest of the fight, we felt it important to mention them first.The most important connection between the two realms is that any mobs killed byDPS players in their Test Realms are sent over (with full health) into the NormalRealm, where your raid will have to handle them.

7.1. Abilities

In the Normal Realm, your raid will have to face theAmalgam of Corruption, as well as two types of adds.

7.1.1. Amalgam of Corruption

The Amalgam of Corruption uses several abilities against your raid.

• Unleashed Anger is an ability that the Amalgam regularly uses to dealvery high Physical damage to its tank.
• Self Doubt is a stacking tank debuff that increases the damage thatthe tank takes from Unleashed Anger by 40% per stack. This requires a tankswitch.
• Icy Fear is a raid-wide damaging ability that the Amalgam uses every3 seconds for the entire fight. It deals increasingly high Frost damage, as theAmalgam's health decreases. Icy Fear only damages players in the Normal Realm.
• Blind Hatred is a very dangerous ability that the Amalgam ofCorruption uses every 60 seconds. For 30 seconds, a beam of corruption ischanneled into the boss from the outer edge of the room. The point of origin ofthe beam moves along the edge of the room, causing the beam to sweep acrosspart of the room. Any players that come in contact with the beam take a largeamount of Shadow damage every second.
• When the boss reaches 50% health, it gains the Frayed ability.At 50% health, and for every 10% health lost after that, the boss summons alarge add called Unleashed Manifestation of Corruption. More on this, andother adds, in the following section.

7.1.2. Adds

There are two types of adds that can appear in the Normal Realm.

• Unleashed Manifestations of Corruption appear whenever aManifestation of Corruption is killed in a Test of Serenity. Moreover,an Unleashed Manifestation of Corruption will appear when the Amalgam ofCorruption reaches 50%, 40%, 30%, 20%, and 10% health. These adds have twoabilities.
  • Burst of Anger is a raid-wide damaging attack that the UnleashedManifestations of Corruption spam while they are alive. It deals moderateShadow damage.
  • Residual Corruption is a small void zone that is left behind when anUnleashed Manifestation of Corruption is killed. This void zone deals a highamount of raid-wide Shadow damage every few seconds. If a player who has 75 orless Corruption stands in it, the void zone disappears (ceasing to dealdamage to the raid), but it grants the respective player 25 Corruption.
• Unleashed Essences of Corruption appear whenever anEssence of Corruption is killed in a Test of Serenity. These adds havea single ability.
  • Expel Corruption is a projectile attack that the adds spamat the Amalgam of Corruption. If a player is in the path of the projectile,they take a large amount of Shadow damage, and they intercept it. Otherwise,if the projectile reaches the Amalgam of Corruption, it buffs it with Fusion, increasing its damage done by 5% per stack, for 15 seconds.

It is important to note that thanks to Foul Link, any damage done tothese two types of adds in the Normal Realm is also copied to the Amalgam ofCorruption. In the case of the Unleashed Manifestations of Corruption, thisonly applies to those mobs that entered the Normal Realm as a result of havingbeen killed in the DPS players' tests, and not to those caused by Frayed.

7.2. Strategy

The strategy for the Normal Realm revolves around several importantconcepts. First of all, you will need to decide which players should go intotheir Test Realms in order to become Purified (as well as when they should doso). Second of all, you will need to handle the many mechanics of theAmalgam of Corruption and of the two types of adds.

7.2.1. Purifying Players

The more players you can have purified, the easier the fight will be, sinceyour DPS will be higher, your tanks will survive better, and your healing willhave been made easier. That said, purifying all raid members is simply notfeasible, due to the amount of time it takes to do (remember, the number ofplayers that can be sent into Test Realms is limited by the number oforbs). In fact, even purifyingall your DPS players may not be realistic. So, you will most likely needto prioritise who gets to become purified. Here are a few guidelines tohelp you decide.

• You must purify a minimum number of DPS players so that you have enoughraid DPS to defeat the boss before the enrage timer. This value will dependgreatly on many factors, so you will need to evaluate it in your particularset of circumstances.
• You must have enough purified non-DPS players (tanks and healers) to beable to soak all the Residual Corruption void zones left behind byUnleashed Manifestations of Corruption. At a minimum, you will need to have10 such void zones soaked (the actual number depends on how many DPS playerscomplete their Test of Serenity, since each completed test sends an UnleashedManifestation of Corruption to the Normal Realm).

At the start of the fight, you should send a tank and one or more DPSplayers to the Test Realms (depending on the raid size in which you areplaying). The first Unleashed Manifestation of Corruption, which willenter the Normal Realm before this tank has had a chance to return, will haveto be tanked (and the resulting Residual Corruption void zone soaked) by thetank who remained in the Normal Realm. When the tank who first entered theirTest Realm returns to the Normal realm, they will do so with 0 Corruption,which means that they will be able to soak the next 4 Residual Corruptionvoid zones. In the meantime, the other tank will have to enter the TestRealm, become purified, and return to the Normal Realm.

Your raid will then continue this cycle, sending one of the two tanks tothe Test Realm regularly (while sending DPS players at every opportunity). Thiswill also allow your tanks to perform the require tank switching on theAmalgam of Corruption.

7.2.2. Handling Normal Realm Mechanics

The brief outline of the strategy for the Normal Realm is as follows:

• Perform a regular tank switch on the Amalgam of Corruption to negatethe effects of the Self Doubt debuff.
• Make sure everyone moves away from the beam of corruption created by Blind Hatred.
• Make sure that all the projectiles shot byUnleashed Essences of Corruption towards the Amalgam of Corruption are beingintercepted by raid members.
• Kill the Unleashed Essences of Corruption and theUnleashed Manifestations of Corruption as soon as they appear.
• Have the Residual Corruption void zones left behind by UnleashedManifestations of Corruption soaked by their designated soakers.
• When the Amalgam of Corruption reaches 50% health, be prepared to initiatea DPS burn phase (while still killing all the adds that appear), and beprepared to handle the increased raid damage taken.

Blind Hatred is hard not to notice, since its visual effect is veryprominent. While it appears instantly, the beam of corruption is notdamaging at first, so players have a few seconds to get out of its way.

Intercepting the projectiles of the Unleashed Essences of Corruption isalso not very complicated, since these adds do not move once they havespawned, so the path of their projectiles is easily predictable. In any case,even if a few projectiles reach the Amalgam of Corruption, this is not veryproblematic.

Healers will always have to be prepared to respond to high raid damage whenan Unleashed Manifestation of Corruption appears. Firstly because it willdeal damage to the raid with Burst of Anger, and secondly because for thefew seconds after the mob dies and before the Residual Corruption void zoneis soaked, there will be high raid damage. It is worth mentioning that Burst ofAnger is not cast if the Unleashed Manifestation of Corruption is stunned, sothat is a neat way to reduce raid damage.

Healers must also constantly respond to the raid damage from Icy Fear,which increases in potency as the fight goes on.

7.2.3. Sub-50% Health

The truly difficult part of the fight starts when the Amalgam of Corruptionreaches 50% health. At this point, the damage dealt to the raid through Icy Fear will reach high amounts. Moreover, the 5Unleashed Manifestations of Corruption that will spawn (one for every 10%of the boss' health) will put a further strain on your raid.

You simply have to face this part of the fight head-on. Before the bossreaches 50% health, you will have to have finished purifying anyone youwanted to purify, and your entire raid be prepared to focus on the Normal Realm.You must continue killing Unleashed Manifestations of Corruption as theyspawn, since you cannot afford to keep any of them alive. Moreover, you willhave to keep soaking their Residual Corruption void zones. If no tanksare able to soak more void zones (so, if both tanks have 100 Corruption), thena healer can soak them, or, if there is no other alternative, even a DPSplayer (but this will lower raid DPS).

8. When to Use Heroism/Bloodlust/Time Warp↑top

We recommend using Heroism/ Bloodlust/ Time Warp when theAmalgam of Corruption reaches 50% health. At this point in the fight, most orall of your DPS players should have become Purified, so they will benefit themost from it. Moreover, this is when the fight reaches its most criticalmoments, since the Amalgam of Corruption spawnsUnleashed Manifestations of Corruption, and the raid-wide damage from Icy Fear is very high.

9. Summing Things Up↑top

In this section, we will very briefly summarise what the players belonging toeach of the three roles have to do during this fight.

9.1. Tanks

• Perform a tank switch on the Amalgam of Corruption.
• Pick up and tank the Unleashed Manifestations of Corruption when theyspawn.
• Soak the void zones caused by Residual Corruption (your raid leaderwill assign you).

9.2. Healers

• Beware of the increasing raid damage from Icy Fear.
• Beware of the high raid damage whileUnleashed Manifestations of Corruption are alive.

9.3. DPS

• Always prioritise DPSing adds when they are up.

9.4. Everyone

• Avoid the Blind Hatred cutter beam.
• Do not be on top of a dying Unleashed Manifestation of Corruptionunless you are assigned to soak it.
• Intercept the projectiles that Unleashed Essences of Corruption firetowards the Amalgam of Corruption.
• Complete your role's test.

10. Learning the Fight↑top

There are several things your raid must master before you can begincontemplating defeating this boss. The first is establishing clear assignmentsfor soaking all the Residual Corruption void zones. This is an aspectthat should be agreed-upon and well understood before the boss is pulled.

The second important aspect is having an efficient sequence of players toget purified. Coming up with this will require a bit of experimentation, untilyou figure out exactly what the best solution is, but, as a raid leader, youshould always be looking for ways to tweak this to perfection.

Finally, it is very important to execute a powerful, yet controlled burnphase once the boss goes below 50% health. When we say controlled, we mean thatyour DPS players should never lose sight of the fact that killing adds remainsthe top priority. Indeed, even the Unleashed Manifestation of Corruptionthat spawns when the boss is at 10% health should be killed. In other words,you must make sure that players do not develop tunnel vision with regards to theboss, but at the same time you must make sure that the raid DPS is as high aspossible.

11. Heroic Mode↑top

The Heroic mode of the Norushen encounter is extremely similar to the Normalmode. In its initial version, the Heroic mode presented many new abilities, butthis was changed very quickly by Blizzard, meaning that the fight isconsiderably simpler now.

11.1. Differences From Normal Mode

The only difference from Normal mode is that all the mobs in the encounterhave received an increase in health and damage (something quite standardfor a Heroic mode encounter).

11.2. Strategy

The strategy for the fight remains practically unchanged from Normalmode. Your DPS players should go into their Test Realms and becomePurified as quickly as possible. Once everyone is Purified, you shoulduse Heroism/ Bloodlust/ Time Warp and finish off theAmalgam of Corruption.

Naturally, as in Normal mode, when sending DPS players into the Test Realms,you will need to make sure that you do not send so many players in that theUnleashed Manifestations of Corruption that appear in the Normal Realm willoverwhelm your raid.

12. Concluding Remarks↑top

This concludes our raid guide for Norushen. We hope you havefound it helpful. Please do not hesitate to post any feedback you may have onour forums.

13. Changelog↑top

• 13 Nov. 2013: Added Heroic mode strategy.
• 15 Sep. 2013: Updated the guide.
  • Added a link to the video guide.
  • Added 25-man health values.
  • Clarified certain Corruption mechanics, including the number of playerswho can be in the Test Realms at the same in time in 25-man (5 players).
• 29 Aug. 2013: Added Summarising Things Up section.