Big Hit Box

Icehowl’s charge, aka Trample, is a great mechanic. Though it’s an ability that is mostly a non-factor in regular mode and is much reviled in heroic, I say it’s a great mechanic because it relies on player skill and reaction, and not a specific class doing a specific thing.

“Get outta the way” is as universal as “get outta the fire.” The charge/stun/kill/enrage mechanic quickly separates the heads-up players from the not-so-heads-up. It’s simple really: if you die to Icehowl’s charge in ToGC you were either poorly positioned or ran the wrong way, and if you bite it in ToC with the a run speed buff then it’s twice as bad.

“But Stoney,” you say “bad positioning isn’t my fault. How do I know where I’m going to end up?” And then you say ask, “are you going to start talking to yourself like that crazy rogue Zaltu?”

No I’m not talking to myself that’s you taking to me. Or at least me pretending to be you talking to me. And when you were me, er I was you pretending to be you asking me about positioning I was going to answer you as me answering you like this:

Dear reader, only you can prevent bad positioning on Icehowl. Follow this simple guide for safe delivery from charges and preventing wipes: Run to the small point.

Look at the star on the floor of the ToC arena:



I know we’re all sick of looking at that damn thing so take a look at this one with a pretty graphic overlay:

small points good

Those are the small points. If you run to the nearest small point before the knockback you will always be positioned exactly in the center of an empty wall.

The big points, for lack of a better verb, point to the doors where you will get stuck and most likely die thus causing Icehowl to enrage, one-shot a tank plus two melee dps before a Hunter can Tranq shot and another tank can pick him up. In heroic the loss of the stun debuff most likely means you’ll hit the enrage timer and wipe the raid.

door bad

There are other bad points as well. Standing between points means that you get knocked back near a support pillar. The path around the support pillar takes too much time on heroic mode to successfully evade the charge. It can be done, but I don't recommend it. If you do get knocked near a pillar, don't run to the pillar because it's just more ground you have to cover.

wrong way

Play it safe and get to a small point.

Let’s review this far:

• Small point = center of wall = safe.


• Big point = stuck in door = wipe.


• No point = pillar = wipe.

Positioning is only half the problem. Running like a scared little girl screaming bloody murder because your big brother jumped out of the dark wearing a werewolf mask is the other half. (I hope you’re not too scarred for life from that incident 25 years ago Kathleen! Really, I'm sorry) Once you get in position, spin your camera around and zoom out.

They say the human brain can calculate angles and vectors faster than any machine. Don’t bust out the protractor, this one is straight forward: is he running at me, to my left, or to my right?

Here’s a hint: run the opposite direction.

In summary: find a small point, move your camera, evaluate direction, and run the opposite way. Thanks for playing, we have some lovely parting gifts at the door.

May all your hits be crits!