This guide is intended to provide a comprehensive description of theencounter with Thok the Bloodthirsty 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.

Thok the Bloodthirsty is the eleventh boss in the Siege of Orgrimmar. Thisgiant devilsaur is holding three friendly NPCs captive, and your raid willhave to release them throughout the fight. Unfortunately for the NPCs, as soonas they are free, Thok devours them, obtaining their abilities and using themagainst your raid.

1. General Information↑top

2. Loot↑top

In addition to the items listed below, General Nazgrim drops the tokens thatyou will need for buying your Tier 16 Head parts:

• Helm of the Cursed Conqueror (LFR, Flexible, Heroic);
• Helm of the Cursed Protector (LFR, Flexible, Heroic);
• Helm of the Cursed Vanquisher (LFR, Flexible, Heroic);

2.1. Armor

Item Name	Armor	Slot	Main Stats
Akolik's Acid-Soaked Robes (LFR, Flexible, Heroic)	Cloth	Chest	Intellect
Montak's Grips of Scorching Breath (LFR, Flexible, Heroic)	Cloth	Hands	Intellect
Icy Blood Chestplate (LFR, Flexible, Heroic)	Plate	Chest	Strength/Parry

2.2. Weapons

Item Name	Type	Main Stats
Festering Primordial Globule (LFR, Flexible, Heroic)	Off-Hand Frill	Intellect/Hit
Hvitserk's Formidable Shanker (LFR, Flexible, Heroic)	Dagger	Agility
Britomart's Jagged Pike (LFR, Flexible, Heroic)	Polearm	Strength/Mastery

2.3. Amulets, Rings, and Trinkets

Item Name	Type	Main Stats
Signet of the Dinomancers (LFR, Flexible, Heroic)	Ring	Intellect/Spirit
Thok's Acid-Grooved Tooth (LFR, Flexible, Heroic)	Trinket	Intellect/Cleave healing
Gleaming Eye of the Devilsaur (LFR, Flexible, Heroic)	Amulet	Agility
Devilfang Band (LFR, Flexible, Heroic)	Ring	Strength/Mastery
Thok's Tail Tip (LFR, Flexible, Heroic)	Trinket	Amplifies stats/Strength

3. Overview of the Fight↑top

The fight against Thok the Bloodthirsty has two phases that alternateseveral times. That said, while one of the phases stays the same throughoutthe fight, the other changes somewhat each time your raid enters it.

• Phase One is the phase that the fight starts in. During this phase,your raid must fight Thok, who uses a number of abilities against your raid.The end of the phase is brought about by actions performed by your raid(although failing to end the phase for too long will eventually lead to awipe).
• Phase Two is a transition phase during which Thok can no longerbe tanked, fixating on random raid members instead. During this phase,your raid will have to free one of three friendly NPCs (Akolik, Gorai, andMontak), at which point Thok will kill them and the phase will end. Thiswill cause your raid to re-enter Phase One, with the difference being thatThok's abilities in Phase One will be somewhat influenced by the NPC that hehad previously killed in Phase Two.

This alternation of phases continues until all 3 NPCs have been freed (so,your raid will go through a maximum of 8 phases). At this point, your raidwill be stuck in Phase Two with no way to bring Thok out of it, eventuallyleading to a wipe.

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. A Few Words on General Strategy↑top

As we have explained above, and as we repeat below, your raid will enterthree different variations of the same Phase One, each with slightly differentabilities. Your raid is free to choose the order of Phase One variations, aswe explain in the relevant section.

Note also that it is probably not going to be the case that your raid willneed to go through all three Phase One variations before Thok dies, but thiswill depend on the overall tuning of the encounter.

5.1. Ideal Phase One Variation Order

Even though we have not yet explained what the abilities of each Phase Oneare, we feel it is important to stress right away the ideal order for thePhase One variations (which, we remind you, is determined by the order inwhich you free the three NPCs during the iterations of Phase Two).

We strongly advise you to follow the order of Akolik, Gorai,Montak, as this promises to be the easiest way to execute the fight.

6. Phase One↑top

Phase One is the phase that the fight starts in, and the phase thatThok will return to after each Phase Two (albeit with slightly modifiedabilities each time).

6.1. Abilities

• Fearsome Roar is a frontal cone attack that applies a stacking debuffon affected players, causing them to take 25% more damage for each stack.This ability requires a tank switch.
• Tail Lash is a tail attack that Thok casts, which deals a high amountof Physical damage to players located behind him, stunning them for 2seconds.
• Shock Blast regularly deals a high amount of Nature damage to randomraid members.
• Deafening Screech is a raid-wide damaging ability that Thok regularlyuses. He uses this ability increasingly often as Phase One goes on, and thetime of the next cast is indicated by Thok's increasing energy resource (whichdoes not serve any other purpose in the fight). In addition to dealing a veryhigh amount of Physical damage, this ability also interrupts playerspellcasting.
• Bloodied is a debuff that players receive when they drop below 50%health. The debuff has no effects whatsoever, but when a minimum number ofraid members (5 in 10-man and 15 in 25-man) with the Bloodied debuff are within10 yards of one another, Thok will enter Phase Two.

6.1.1. Variable Phase One Abilities

Each of the three instances of Phase One following the very first one willhave slightly different abilities, depending on which NPC your raid freesduring the preceding Phase Two. Specifically, Thok's Fearsome Roarand Shock Blast abilities will be replaced.

• If your raid frees Akolik, the following happens.
  • Acid Breath replaces Fearsome Roar. Acid Breath is alsoa frontal cone attack, but it deals Nature damage instead of Shadow damage. Itapplies a stacking debuff on affected players, reducing their armor by 20% perstack.
  • Corrosive Blood replaces Shock Blast. Corrosive Blooddeals Nature damage to random raid members, placing a 30-second DoT onthem.
• If your raid frees Waterspeaker Gorai, the following happens.
  • Freezing Breath replaces Fearsome Roar. Freezing Breathis also a frontal cone attack, but it deals Frost damage instead of Shadowdamage. It applies a stacking debuff on affected players. At 5 stacks,the players become frozen in a tomb of ice, and raid members must destroy thetomb to free them. Being trapped in the tomb deals 5% of that player's healthin damage every 2 seconds.
  • Icy Blood replaces Shock Blast. Icy Blood deals Frostdamage to random raid members, placing a 15-second DoT on them. If playersreach 5 stacks of the DoT (by being targeted 5 times before the DoT has achance to wear off), they become frozen in a tomb of ice, and the tomb mustbe destroyed for them to be freed. Being trapped in the tomb deals 5% of thatplayer's maximum health in damage every 2 seconds.
• If your raid frees Warmaster Montak, the following happens.
  • Scorching Breath replaces Fearsome Roar. Scorching Breathis also a frontal cone attack, but it deals Fire damage instead of Shadowdamage. It applies a stacking DoT on affected players, causing them to takea moderate amount of Fire damage per stack.
  • Burning Blood replaces Shock Blast. Burning Blood dealsFire damage to random raid members, placing a fiery void zone at theirlocation.

6.2. Strategy

The strategy for Phase One depends on which instance of Phase One yourraid is in. We will first present certain common Phase One tactics, after whichwe will discuss each variation separately.

6.2.1. Common Phase One Tactics

There are a few common elements shared between all variations of PhaseOne.

• The means for entering Phase Two is the same, and it isimportant to understand how this works. In order to force Thok to enter PhaseTwo, the minimum required number of raid members affected by the Bloodied debuff must stack together. Naturally, a pre-requisite of thisis that the minimum number of players (5 in 10-man and 15 in 25-man areaffected by Bloodied to begin with, something which really only happens oncethe raid starts sustaining sufficiently increased damage (caused by theincreased frequency of Deafening Screech).
• The raid should stack up in all Phase One variations, except when youfree Montak. There are two beneficial effects of this strategy. The firstis that the raid is easy to heal, and the second is that your raid willautomatically push Thok into Phase Two once enough players are below 50%health (which, given the fact that your healing is boosted by the raid beingstacked together, is a good indication of when the damage has reached highenough values that exiting the phase is a good idea).
• It is important that the raid always stand to Thok's side, and neverin front of or behind him. This is because Thok retains the cone attacks bothin front of and behind himself throughout all Phase One variations.
• Every Phase One variation requires a tank switch, and the mechanicsare very similar. In all cases, the debuff that requires a tank switch isapplied to all targets in a cone in front of Thok, so the off-tank mustremain out of this cone until it is time to taunt.
• Your healers will have to be prepared to heal the copiousamounts of raid damage caused by Deafening Screech. As the frequency ofthese casts increases, raid cooldowns should be used. It is important that noone casts any spells when Deafening Screech is cast, in order to avoid beinginterrupted and locked out. This is especially important for healers, whoneed to be able to heal the raid as soon as Deafening Screech has been cast.It is also worth noting that the raid damage is complemented in every PhaseOne variation by some form of unavoidable damage on random raid members.

6.2.2. Basic Phase One

As we have indicated above, during this phase, your raid should do thefollowing things:

• make sure Thok's face and tail are not pointed towards the raid;
• have the entire raid stacked up (alongside Thok);
• perform a tank-switch on the boss;
• heal the increasing raid-wide damage caused by Deafening Screech,as well as the damage from Shock Blast.

Assuming that your raid is following our advised strategy of stacking up,then Thok will enter Phase Two as soon as the raid damage starts to get toohigh. To prolong the duration of Phase One, you should start using defensivecooldowns once the interval of time between Deafening Screech casts drops below7 seconds.

6.2.3. Phase One: Akolik Version

If your raid frees Akolik, the Phase One that follows will bring Acid Breath and Corrosive Blood to replace Fearsome Roar and Shock Blast.

The strategy for this phase remains practically identical to the BasicPhase One strategy. Corrosive Blood is a DoT, so healers will have to keepan eye out on the players affected by this DoT, especially when Deafening Screech is being cast.

6.2.4. Phase One: Gorai Version

If your raid frees Waterspeaker Gorai, the Phase One that follows willbring Freezing Breath and Icy Blood to replace Fearsome Roarand Shock Blast. While the strategy remains mostly the same as inthe Basic Phase One, there are two notable differences.

First of all, your healers will have to pay special attention to raidmembers who are affected by Icy Blood, especially when Deafening Screechis being cast, since the health of these players could drop dangerouslylow.

Second of all, your DPS players will have to kill any ice tombs thattrap raid members. The tombs have low health, but since players who are trappedtake damage from the tomb, they must be freed quickly. Players who are trappedcan be healed, and healers should make sure that these players do not die.Unlike most spells of this sort, the tombs do not have any sort of AoEeffect, and they do not chain to nearby players, so stacking remains entirelyviable during this phase.

6.2.5. Phase One: Montak Version

If your raid frees Warmaster Montak, the Phase One that follows willbring Scorching Breath and Burning Blood to replace Fearsome Roar and Shock Blast. The strategy remains very similar tothe strategy for the Basic Phase One, with an important difference.

The fiery void zones that players leave behind each time they are targetedby Burning Blood make it impossible for the raid to remain stacked up. Thismakes healing much more difficult, and it also requires a certain degree ofcoordination to have Thok leave the phase (since the raid will have to stack upon a synchronised fashion). Moreover, Thok himself will need to be movedrepeatedly so that players are no hindered by the fiery void zones.

Overall, this variation of Phase One is the most difficult one tohandle.

7. Phase Two↑top

Phase Two starts whenever the minimum required number of raid membersaffected by the Bloodied debuff are stacked together, and lasts untilyour raid frees an NPC and Thok kills them.

7.1. Abilities

During this phase, Thok has two abilities. He will Fixate onrandom raid members, walking towards them. Throughout the phase, Thok isaffected by Blood Frenzy, which causes him to deal lethal damage toany players who are in a short cone in front of him.

Thok remains fixated on the same player for 12 seconds, after which time hewill change target. Throughout the phase, Thok's movement speed increases, suchthat after a while it becomes impossible to out-run him. It is important tounderstand the way in which Thok chooses his target, because the process isnot entirely random. To begin with, Thok will only fixate on players who aremore than 20 yards away from him. Out of these targets, Thok prefers to fixateon the farthest player from him, within a certain distance, which appears toincrease with each new Fixate. So, Thok is most likely to choose the playerFarthest from him within a 30-yard radius for the first Fixate, the farthestplayer within a 40-yard radius for the second Fixate, and so on. These rulesare not exactly set in stone, and the boss will sometimes fixate on someone inviolation of these rules, but they seem to apply most often.

As soon as the phase starts, an add called aKor'kron Jailer enters the room. This add has no real abilities to speakof (he has a standard temporary enrage effect that makes his melee attackssomewhat more dangerous), and upon his death, he drops a key. This key can beused to unlock one of the three cages found in the room, which are holding thethree friendly NPCs that we have mentioned above. The player who loots thekey is free to unlock any cage they choose. As soon as a cage has beenopened, the NPC who was inside will perform a short role-playing segment afterwhich time they will be devoured by Thok (who stops chasing his Fixatetarget), and Phase One starts immediately after that.

Note that the Corrosive Blood DoTs cast in the preceding Phase Onewill remain active during Phase Two (they will drop off at the end of it),causing additional damage to your raid.

7.2. Strategy

The strategy for this phase is very simple. As soon as it starts, everyoneshould move away from Thok in preparation for him choosing his first Fixate target. As soon as he has chosen a target, that player shouldrun away from the boss in a predictable direction, while the rest of theraid must make sure to be out of Thok's path.

The best way to handle Thok's fixate is to set raid markers at twolocations of the room, about 50 yards apart, and to aim at having Thok kitedbetween these two locations. The first fixated player should take Thok tolocation A, while other raid members should prepare to take him to locationB when they get fixated upon, and so on. This allows the rest of the raidto have free access to the rest of the room.

The Kor'kron Jailer should be picked up by the tanks as soon as hespawns, and all your DPS players should focus on killing him right away.After this, simply have a designated player loot him and open the cage ofyour choice.

It is possible to DPS Thok during this phase, at the expense of prolongingthe phase, and while this may be favourable in some situations, we have yetto see a good reason not to end the phase as quickly as possible.

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

We recommend using Heroism/ Bloodlust/ Time Warp at thestart of the fight. This is mostly because there is no specific reason to useit at a later time, and benefiting from all raid members having all theircooldowns available at the start is very advantageous.

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

• Tank Thok in such a way that neither his head nor his tail is facingthe raid.
• Perform a tank switch and stay out of Thok's frontal cone attack until itis your turn to taunt.
• Pick up and tank the Kor'kron Jailer during Phase Two.

9.2. Healers

• Be prepared to heal the increasing raid-wide damage from Deafening Screech, and make sure not to be casting when Deafening Screechgoes off.
• Beware of the combined damage of Deafening Screech and Shock Blast(or the ability that replaces it).

9.3. DPS

• DPS Thok.
• Kill the ice tombs.
• Kill the Kor'kron Jailer during Phase Two.

9.4. Everyone

• Avoid being in front of or behind Thok at any point in the fight.
• Kite Thok in a sensible direction if you are being focused upon duringPhase Two.
• Beware of the fiery void zones present in the Montak Phase One.

10. Learning the Fight↑top

The structure of this encounter allows your raid to very easily experienceall the possible mechanics and phases, meaning that you can practice eachindividual aspect at your own leisure.

To force Thok into Phase Two prematurely, simply tell your healers to keepeveryone who takes damage below 50% health, and within two Deafening Screeches or so you should be able to enter Phase Two. Thisallows you to practice kiting the boss without having to go through severalminutes of Phase One every time.

Similarly, since the Montak Phase One is the most difficult one, and alsothe one we advise doing last (should your raid even reach it before Thokis dead), practicing it is important. So, you can simply choose Montak as thefirst NPC to free for a few attempts so that everyone can get acquainted withhow the phase works.

11. Heroic Mode↑top

The Heroic mode of the encounter against Thok the Bloodthirsty plays outvery similarly to the Normal mode fight. There are a few new mechanics, butwhat truly causes the strategy to change is the very tight tuning of theHeroic mode version.

11.1. Differences From Normal Mode

Thok has more health, and deals more damage in Heroic mode than inNormal mode. In addition to this, two new mechanics, and two changes toexisting mechanics exist. The new mechanics both involve adds that spawnduring the second and third Phases One, respectively.

11.1.1. New Mechanics

During the second Phase One, after the second Deafening Screech hasbeen cast, a group of Captive Cave Bats will join the fight. These addshave a normal threat table, and their only ability is Vampiric Frenzy, aself buff that some bats gain and that causes them to deal damage around themand heal themselves for a part of that damage.

During the third Phase One, after the second Deafening Screech, an addcalled Starved Yeti will join the fight. This add fixates on randomlocations around the room, charging towards them. Whenever he reaches aselected location, the Yeti chooses another one, and so on. Players who are inhis path take lethal damage.

11.1.2. Changes to Existing Mechanics

In addition to these two new mechanics, two changes to existing mechanicsare worth noting. Every time Thok kills an NPC during Phase Two, he healshimself for a very high amount of health. The healing is reduced by all Mortal Strike-style abilities. Moreover, it is worth noting that theplayer on whom Thok fixates during Phase Two takes damage from this fixateeffect (the damage is not very high, but it requires healing).

11.2. Strategy

Before we look at the strategy changes that have to do with the increasedtuning of the fight, let us quickly see how to handle the new, Heroic-onlyadds (since this is not very difficult).

The Captive Cave Bats need to be picked up by the tank currently nottanking Thok, and your raid will have to AoE them down quickly. Stuns can beused to reduce the damage that the bats deal.

The Starved Yeti has a very high health pool, making it inefficient tokill him. Instead, it is best that your raid leaves this add alive, and insteadjust avoids him for the remainder of the fight. The location to which the Yetiwill charge is marked by a red pillar of light, so your raid members will haveto always make sure not to be in the Yeti's path.

Now, we can look at other changes that occur in the strategy. Basically,the strategy remains similar to the Normal mode strategy, but since everythingis more difficult, your raid will have to execute the fight with greaterprecision. We will give you some guidelines and tips.

11.2.1. Prolonging Phase One

Given Thok's very large health pool, you will want to drag out Phase One(the first Phase One, as well as the Frost-themed version of Phase One), foras long as possible, in order to give your raid as much time as possible tokill the boss. This means that you will have to go to great lengths to stay inPhase One until Thok reaches 25 or more stacks of the buff he gains eachtime he casts Deafening Screech. There are two important facets to thisissue.

1. Firstly, it is best to split the raid group up into two groups, neither ofwhich is large enough to trigger the end of Phase One should all its membersbe below 50% health. For example, 2 12-player groups in 25-man (Thok's tankwill not be in either group, since no one else should be in front of the boss)is a good option. This will ensure that Phase One will not be leftaccidentally.
2. Secondly, your raid will need to make use of every single availabledefensive cooldown in its arsenal. While this includes all the usual defensivecooldowns, keep in mind a two of the more peculiar ones: Hand of Protection(makes the target immune to the damage of Deafening Screech) and Devotion Aura (allows healers to continue casting heals while DeafeningScreech is being cast, without being interrupted).

Once your raid reaches around 25 stacks, you should stack up inside a Power Word: Barrier or Spirit Link Totem and pass into Phase Two thisway. Note that if Thok reaches 30 stacks, he will instantly wipe the raid.

Note that you should not try to prolong the Poison and Fire-themed versionsof Phase One. This is because these phases are extremely difficult for yourraid (given the high damage done by Corrosive Blood and the fieryvoid zones, respectively). Instead, you should attempt to exit these phases asquickly as possible.

11.2.2. Phase Two

There are two important tasks to perform during Phase Two.

The first is making sure that there is a Mortal Strike-style effect onThok each time he is about to kill the NPC that were released from a cage. Thiswill greatly reduce the amount of healing that Thok receives.

The second is employing an efficient manner of kiting the boss. The best wayto kite him is to take him around the outside of the circular room, and to thentake him all the way out to the end of the corridor connected to the room,before bringing him back in. Your raid members should make use of Warlock Demonic Gateways once Thok's movement speed is high.

12. Concluding Remarks↑top

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

13. Changelog↑top

• 08 Dec. 2013: Added Heroic mode strategy.
• 26 Sep. 2013: Added a link to the video guide, and added 25-manhealth values.