Morogrim Tidewalker Strategy Guide (SSC)

Author: Pride
Date: October 8, 2021
Updated: October 8, 2021
Expansion: TBC Classic

SSC Raid Guide

Fathom-Lord Karathress

Leotheras the Blind

Lady Vashj

Morogrim Tidewalker has proven to be one of the biggest obstacles in Serpentshrine Cavern for many guilds, with 53% fewer kills than Leotheras the Blind at the time of writing this guide.

And it is no wonder! He has 5.7 million HP, deals significantly more damage than other Phase 2 bosses, and offers a fairly harsh AoE damage check in order for your raid to kill him.

Thankfully, players have come together to develop new strategies for taking him down, which don’t involve common pitfalls like relying on 2 prot paladins for handling the adds.

This guide will offer your guild a step-by-step analysis of how to beat this ugly sea giant.

Phase 1

Stack with the raid right behind Morogrim
Use your Healthstone if you’re low after your Watery Grave explodes so you don’t die to fall damage
Use any AoE you have available to help kill the Tidewalker Lurker murlocs after Earthquake
Engineers, this is your time to shine – use Super Sapper Charges on the murlocs

Phase 2

Quickly move with your raid to your new spot, again stacking right behind Morogrim

Phase 1

Use your DPS cooldowns during Heroism / Bloodlust for maximum DPS
Give your protection paladin a few seconds before you start AoEing the murlocs
Warriors: After the murlocs have been grouped up, use Demoralizing Shout to help reduce their damage

Phase 1

Use your DPS cooldowns during Heroism / Bloodlust for maximum DPS
Give your protection paladin a few seconds before you start AoEing the murlocs
Hunters: Place a Frost Trap at the north entrance and on top of the raid to help slow the murlocs
Warlocks: Spam Life Tap after Earthquake to help your prot paladin get threat on the murlocs

Phase 1

You will likely need to use multiple Super Mana Potions as this fight is fairly mana intensive
Priests: Use Power Word: Shield on the MT when Morogrim starts casting Tidal Wave
If your task is healing Watery Grave targets, pay close attention, players can easily die if you’re too slow
STOP HEALING AFTER Earthquake! Wait for your prot paladin to get threat on the murlocs before you raid heal
The only exceptions to the previous rule are Holy Paladins and Priests (who can use Fade) healing the MT
Your prot paladin will need a lot of healing to handle all the murlocs, specially if affected by Pierce Armor

Phase 2

Don’t stop healing your assigned targets while you’re moving to the next spot, specially the MT

Main Tank

Try to react to Tidal Wave with a small defensive ability like Shield Block
Do not use AoE abilities like Demoralizing Shout or Commanding Shout when murlocs are close
Use your big defensive cooldowns like Shield Wall or Last Stand when repositioning for phase 2

Prot Paladin / Murloc Tank

Spam max rank Holy Light on Warlocks right after Earthquake in order to be #1 on the murlocs’ threat table
Use Divine Shield to get out of Watery Grave if the boss just used Earthquake as well
Use spell power trinkets to help you get threat on the murlocs
Use Lay on Hands on yourself if necessary when repositioning for phase 2
The boss can no longer use Watery Grave in phase 2, so use Avenging Wrath for threat on the murlocs

Offtank

Taunt / Growl any stray murlocs that are hitting raid members rather than your prot paladin

Abilities

Deals 4-5k frost damage to any target in front of Morogrim and reduces their attack speed by 400% for 15 seconds.

Cast every 15-20 seconds, with a 2 second cast time, so your healers can react to it.

4 random raid members are teleported to the center of the room, around where Morogrim is standing before you engage him, and are stunned for 6 seconds. Afterwards, they take ~5k frost damage and are launched into the air, taking a small amount of fall damage upon landing.

It is possible to resist the teleport portion of this ability, so you take no damage and can keep dealing damage yourself. Thus it is generally a good idea for your non-Retribution paladins to use Frost Resistance Aura, and your non-Elemental Shamans to use Frost Resistance Totem to increase the chances of getting a resist.

This ability is cast roughly every 40-50 seconds. At 25% HP, Morogrim will stop using this ability, replacing it with Summon Water Globule, a transition commonly called phase 2 by players.

Deals ~4k physical damage to the entire raid. Cast every 50-60 seconds.

Afterwards, Morogrim spawns 12 Tidewalker Lurker murlocs – 6 on each entrance to his room – which deal a moderate amount of damage and occasionally cast Pierce Armor, reducing their target’s armor by 75%.

Morogrim spawns several Water Globules that move towards random raid members very slowly. If they reach their target, they explode for very high AoE frost damage.

They despawn after roughly 30 seconds, so it is possible to counter them by having the raid move far enough away from their spawn point, as explained in the Phase 2 section.

Raid Composition & Preparation

Everyone should have a Healthstone, in case the Watery Grave healers don’t get to them in time.

Super Sapper Charge can help kill the murlocs faster, which will be one of the most challenging parts of the fight, so it is recommended that engineers in your raid use them.

This fight is among the most healing intensive in Serpentshrine Cavern so 6 healers are highly recommended for this fight, though having 7 might be a good idea for guilds that are struggling with keeping either the tanks or the raid alive.

All healers should come prepared with mana potions and +healing / mana regen elixirs and buff food, as this fight is very taxing on their mana.

2-3 Holy Paladin and Holy / Discipline Priests should be assigned to exclusively heal the main tank. The priests will be responsible for using Power World: Shield on the MT when the boss starts casting Tidal Wave, on top of their regular healing duties.

2 healers – preferably Restoration Shamans – should be assigned to healing players affected by Watery Grave. When they’re not dealing with graves, they can heal the raid, provided murlocs have not spawned recently.

Your remaining healers should be assigned to your prot paladin. Restoration Druids make particularly good candidates for this role, as they can stack Lifebloom on the prot paladin while generating minimal threat, preventing initial damage spikes as he grabs aggro on the murlocs.

If possible, 5 healers should be stacked in a group that includes a resto shaman using Tranquil Air Totem, which reduces their threat by 20%, making it significantly less likely they get targeted by murlocs. All of your healers should also be buffed with Greater Blessing of Salvation, for the same reason.

It is highly recommended that you bring 3-4 warlocks and 1-2 mages, as their AoE will be vital for killing one set of adds before the next one spawns. 1 of these warlocks will be the designated Life Tap user after Earthquake, as explained in the Phase 1 section.

Having at least 2 Hunters will also help, as they offer Misdirection for a solid threat lead on your MT to counteract Tidal Wave, and Frost Trap which greatly helps with managing the murlocs as explained in the Phase 1 section.

The majority of guides will have you believe that 2 protection paladins are almost a requirement for this fight. For most guilds that will not be possible however, nor is it practical to run 2 protection paladins in general.

Instead, it is recommended that you run the standard tanking setup – 1 Protection Warrior, 1 Feral Druid and 1 Protection Paladin. Only 2 tanks are absolutely necessary for this fight, and they should both have good gear as this boss hits hard and there are many, many murlocs.

The protection paladin should take all of the murloc adds. Not only are they the best AoE tank, but very crucially, they have Divine Shield, allowing them to get out of a Watery Grave in the event that it overlaps with an Earthquake, which would normally wipe your raid.

Protection Warriors are preferred for the Main Tank spot due to their defensive cooldowns like Shield Wall for when the raid needs to move after the Phase 2 transition, but feral druids work fine too.

The Pull

TBC Classic SSC Morogrim Tidewalker Pillar

Your raid can safely buff by the pillars behind Morogrim. Then, when you’re ready to pull, the MT moves to his designated spot while the raid waits behind the pillar. Morogrim has a small aggro range, so you shouldn’t be too worried about accidental pulls.

A hunter pulls with Misdirection on the MT, and when the boss is in position, the entire raid stacks right behind him, as shown in the following picture.

TBC Classic SSC Morogrim Tidewalker Raid Location

Phase 1

The rest of your hunters should now use Misdirection on the MT.

As soon as the MT has a healthy aggro lead on the boss, you should use Heroism / Bloodlust and your single-target DPS players should use their damage cooldowns, as you want to burn the boss down to 25% as fast as possible, which becomes a lot harder after Watery Graves and murlocs enter the picture.

If you’re struggling with AoEing the murlocs down in time, you can also use Heroism / Bloodlust for killing them, particularly if it looks like you’re getting overwhelmed.

Your designated Watery Grave healers will need to keep an eye out for players getting teleported to the middle, and quickly heal them so they don’t die to fall damage or Earthquake.

About 40 seconds into the fight, you should prepare for the first Earthquake. Make sure nobody is below 4k HP before it comes, as even if they survive, they cannot be healed for a while afterwards, leading them to die to any minor source of damage.

If your prot paladin got targeted by Watery Grave when Earthquake comes out, he should use his Divine Shield immediately to get back to the raid and save his healers from certain death.

After Earthquake comes out, it is crucial that your healers do not panic and start casting AoE heal spells to top your raid off, as they will very likely get aggro on the murlocs and die.

Every single healer, except for the 2-3 paladins and priests assigned to the MT, should stop healing altogether. Your priests should get a couple of Flash Heals in, making sure your MT does not die to Morogrim’s normal damage, and then Fade, to lose all aggro off the murlocs.

Similarly, your MT should not get aggro on the murlocs, as there’s a very high chance he will die if he gets the armor reduction debuff. That means no Demoralizing Shout, Thunder Clap, Commanding Shout, etc until the prot paladin has picked them up.

Just as the murlocs spawn, you want your designated Life Tap warlock to start spamming Life Tap, and your protection paladin to spam max rank Holy Light on him with Righteous Fury active. This will cause him to generate a significant amount of threat and most likely be the #1 player on the murlocs’ threat table.

It also helps if you have one of your hunters drop a Frost Trap on the north entrance (the one you are closest to) as the murlocs have to cover a smaller distance getting to you from there, and you would like all of them to come at once rather than in waves, so you can AoE them down without threat issues.

Another Frost Trap on the raid can also help kiting the murlocs slightly if your healers are struggling to keep your protection paladin alive.

TBC Classic SSC Morogrim Tidewalker Frost Trap

If your prot paladin is still taking too much damage or dying, a DPS warrior in your raid can use Demoralizing Shout and Thunder Clap on the murlocs after your prot paladin has grabbed the initial threat. This will reduce their damage fairly significantly.

Give your prot paladin 4-5 seconds to get some threat on the murlocs, and then your casters should start using their AoE spells (Seed of Corruption / Flamestrike / Arcane Explosion etc). Getting aggro off 1-2 murlocs likely won’t kill them as individually the murlocs don’t hit too hard, but it helps if your 3rd tank Taunts any stray murlocs that are going after casters / healers.

You ideally want to finish off all the murlocs before the next Earthquake is cast, as you can quickly get overrun. To that end, it can help if your shamans of all specs use their Fire Elemental Totem, as it deals a surprising amount of AoE damage, particularly when you’re struggling.

Phase 2

When you reduce Morogrim’s HP to 25%, phase 2 starts. Morogrim will now cast Summon Water Globule instead of Watery Grave.

Rejoice – this phase is actually easier than phase 1, provided you know how to deal with it.

As mentioned before, the Water Globules only last ~30 seconds and move very, very slowly. They always spawn in the same spot, so it is possible to move the boss to a location where the globules will never reach you, such as the north-east corner of the room, just behind the pillar where you’ve been fighting him so far, as shown below.

TBC Classic SSC Morogrim Tidewalker Phase 2 Location

It is vital that your healers do not panic and stop healing while the raid moves to their new position, as it is very easy for a tank to die while moving. To help with that, your MT should use any defensive cooldowns available to them, such as Shield Wall or Last Stand, and your protection paladin should be ready to Lay on Hands himself if necessary.

Without Watery Grave stunning your players and requiring your healers’ attention, the fight is significantly easier. The only challenge at this point is that you’re now even closer to the north side murlocs, so your prot paladin will have to be aware of that and possibly use Avenging Wrath / a spell power trinket (specially when healing the Life Tapping warlock) to ensure murlocs don’t go for your healers and cause a last minute wipe.

But if you’ve gotten this far, it’s very likely that you can handle phase 2, and are now one step closer to the final boss of Serpentshrine Cavern – Lady Vashj!

About the Author

Pride

Classic WoW is my jam, with a passion for PvP. Most know me as Baranor, the ret paladin guy, but I'm secretly a druid main, don't tell anyone. In my free time I play Switch games, particularly JRPGs. Some day I'll be making my own games and I humbly hope you play those too!