Holyssa

Not gonna be able to make it tonight since it's my father's birthday (he dings 60 IRL). If I do pop on, it probably won't be till really late

And yea, I know I hit accept on the in-game calendar, but my brain took a #2 and I totally forgot. D'oh!

Secondly, overall last night was quite successful. We have lots to be proud of. Our DPS is up, individuals who's DPS were low, have improved significantly, and it shows quite well in that we are almost getting razorscale grounded after the second ground phase (1% off). Kologarn was slight improvement over the past 2 weeks.

Amen to this. A boss we once bashed our brains over again & again (Razorfail) getting one-shot for the second week in a row (if I'm not mistaken) is very promising, same goes for XT-002

From the looks of it, holyssa can take 2 hits (avg of roughly 17k a hit) as well as some incidental fire damage (2-4k) before he is dead (assuming the boss has at most 2 stacks of the buff). as soon as the boss gets 3-4 stacks, holyssa will probably die in the same situation. What this means is holyssa (or whoever is the tank) needs to be topped off all the time.

After looking at WWS a bit (haven't looked at ALL the deaths yet), the biggest damage spikes hit around the 21-24k+ range per swing, a little over 1/2 my life. I'm assuming this is with just two or more buffs up from Constructs (one I can handle no problem). Coupled with Scorch ticking for 3-4k (can't help taking those first few ticks, since those are spent running for dear life), and I more than likely will not survive a 2nd melee swing without eating a cooldown or two.

Don't be afraid to bunch up directly behind Ignis: if you're a afraid of the Jets, it's a raid-wide silence you will have to eat up (which will rarely miss/resist), and his only other AoE is a frontal cone. This will also save me the trouble of having to pull Iggy into an awkward spot where DPS will need to constantly shift. I noticed some people ran directly in front of the boss! I know it's tough to escape from Construct aggro (if that's the case), but if all else fails, run to the middle so an offtank can catch you and you won't eat flaming death.

Depending on how far we get tonight (and if the crazy cat lady Auraiya dies), we may be able to get a few shots in on the Watchers, the final few bosses who put a strong emphasis on staying out of bad crap.

Based on my own experiences, Hodir is probably the easiest of the four. I edited the revised strat for him in my Ulduar thread (less Engrish, easier to read), so glance over it when you have the free time

Lots of hotfixes for Ulduar. Green stuff is specifically for bosses. Most likely these are to help guilds access Hard Mode loot in preparation for the sea of Algalon tears.

* The NPCs just inside the front entrance of Ulduar (like a repair ogre) should no longer despawn.

* The Druid Tier 8 Nightsong Battlegear 4 piece bonus should now properly extend the length of Savage Roar.

* The Auriaya encounter has received the following changes: The range of Savage Pounce has been slightly reduced, the impact and periodic damage has been reduced in Heroic difficulty, the Guardian Swarm ability now summons 10 Swarming Guardians instead of 25 but their individual damage has been increased.

* The reflected damage done by Elder Stonebark with his Petrified Bark ability has been significantly reduced.

* In the Hodir encounter, the time to complete the hard mode has been increased to 3 minutes. (This will be applied during maintenance beginning with North America on Tuesday May 5.)

* The health of the Heart of the Deconstructor in the XT-002 Deconstructor encounter has been reduced.

* In the Thorim encounter, the Iron Ring Guard’s Whirling Trip ability will now only hit the tank.

* In the Assembly of Iron encounter, the duration of Overwhelming Power has been increased to 30 seconds in heroic mode and the amount of healing that Steelbreaker receives from Electrical Charge has been reduced to 20% of his max health.

* The first pack of trash mobs in the Conservatory of Life has been removed, one of the trash packs in the General Vezax room has been removed, all of the humanoids in General Vezax’s room are no longer immune to stuns, the Faceless Horrors will only go immune and summon Void Beasts once instead of 3 times, and the damage done when a Clockwork Sapper explodes has been significantly reduced.

And while not related to Ulduar, this was data-mined from the PTR and is a TCG item (along with an Ogre Pinata & Path of Cenarius):

*booming UT voice* GAWDLIKE!

Another holiday, another week of mad grinding races. A lot of the achievements for this seem fairly obvious, but I figure I made this to warn/help folk.

Concerning "Daily Chores":

The achievement was originally similar to "A Simple Re-Quest", ie do 5 dailies across 5 days. It's been hotfixed to merely doing 5 dailies in a row with your orphan out. It's STILL bugged according to Wowhead tips and forum QQ.

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.h...amp;pageNo=1#16 - Official topic regarding this.

http://www.wowhead.com/?achievement=1789#comments:id=700180 - Wowhead

Hail to the King, Baby

This can be done on Normal OR Heroic. Doesn't matter if it's the Outland or Classic orphan model. Don't forget to summon the orphan before the King dies!

Home Alone

http://www.wowhead.com/?achievement=1791#comments

A bunch of horror stories here: ranging from folks not getting credit, addon conflicts, or getting credit twice and not having it stay counted. Rolling restarts are supposed to correct this, but just a heads-up.

There's one tip posted which may help if you have problems:

Had the same problem.. So I tried hearthing from the same place my hearthstone is set to. In my case its dalaran inn, so I hearthed from the inn itself. Got the achievement and logged in and out twice to double check. Achievement stayed kept~

Bad Example

For all you people with alts: you must be L75 to eat most Dalaran snacks.

*Tigule and Foror's Strawberry Ice Cream - sold in zeppelin's Snack-o-Matic, Ironforge (Hallow's End only), Nagrand (A), Nagrand (H), Orgrimmar (Children's Week only), Orgimmar (Hallow's End only), Stormwind (Children's Week only), and Thousand Needles

*Red Velvet Cupcake - sold in Dalaran

*Lovely Cake Slice - sold in Dalaran, as a whole cake. Click the cake to create a slice.

*Dalaran Doughnut - sold in Dalaran

*Tasty Cupcake - made with Cooking

*Delicious Chocolate Cake - made with Cooking.

*Dalaran Brownie - sold in Dalaran

School of Hard Knocks

If you're a regular PvPer, some of these goals will be run-of-the mill, but a bit more brutal due to competition. But for clarification:

AB: Have to cap a base yourself, doesn't count just standing close to one being capped.*

AV: Have to cap a tower yourself, doesn't count just standing close to one being capped.

EotS: Have to cap the flag yourself, doesn't count just standing close to one being capped.

WSG: You have to be the one clicking on the flag to return it. Like when it appears <your name> has returned the <your faction> flag.*

*There's been mixed feedback on WSG & Arathi. Try to clump up on a flag-capper and see what happens.

EotS and WSG will be the toughest by far due to flag-clumpers and turtle teams. Good luck!

More nerfs (although it's just Auriaya):

* Fixed an issue where Mimiron could randomly change targets while casting P3Wx2 Laser Barrage in phase 4. It is still possible for it to appear that he is turning quickly for an instant to shoot another direction, but this is just a visual bug that will be resolved in a future patch.

* The Auriaya encounter has received the following changes: the damage of Strength of the Pack has been increased, the duration of Terrifying Screech has been reduced, the damage of Sonic Screech has been reduced, and the damage from Seeping Feral Essence has been reduced.

Sorry for the double-post, but just to confirm peoples' concerns: Blizz is indeed already nerfing this place. I've highlighted the Ulduar boss stuff.

By Bornakk:

4/28/09

* Pure Saronite mining nodes have temporarily been disabled in Ulduar and will return in the future.

* The effectiveness of the Priest spell Divine Hymn has been reduced.

* The Priest ability Soul Warding now only reduces the mana cost of Power Word: Shield by 15% instead of 30%. The tooltip for this spell will be updated at a later date.

* Glyph of Mass dispel will now reduce the cost of the spell by only 35%.

* The Emalon encounter has received the following changes: The total health of the Tempest Minions has been reduced and Emalon’s Chain Lightning spell will now have a limit on the number of targets it can hit.

* The Ignis the Furnace Master encounter has received the following changes: The interrupt effect and duration of the damage from Flame Jets has been reduced, the damage from the Slag pot has been reduced, the number of Heat stacks needed to transform an Iron Construct into a Molten state has been reduced, the base melee damage done by Ignis has been reduced, and the damage bonus Ignis receives from Strength of the Creator has been slightly increased.

* The Assault Bots on the Mimiron encounter will now attack faster, in turn they will do less damage per hit.

* Spring Flowers will not cast or go on cooldown if the target already has the buff.

* The XT-002 Deconstructor encounter has received the following changes: The duration of Tympanic Trantrum has been reduced, the timer for XT-002 to hit berserk has been increased, the damage of Light Bomb has been reduced, the effect radius of Light Bomb has been reduced, and the health of XM-024 Pummeler has been reduced.

* The aggro radius for several trash mobs before General Vezax has been reduced and the health has been reduced on Void Beasts and Faceless Horrors.

* The Kologarn encounter has received the following changes: The damage of Stone Grip has been reduced, the amount of time to break someone out from the right hand has been increased, the radius and damage of Rumble has been reduced, and the damage of Focused Eyebeam has been reduced.

* The Assembly of Iron encounter has received the following changes: The damage of Rune of Death has been reduced, the damage of Chain Lightning has been reduced, and the damage of Lightning Whirl has been reduced.

My "Pain in The @$$" senses keep tingling whenever I see the Children's Week requirements, so if you need me in my lolret spec, I can help

AGAIN with this crap. Bump to remind people NOT to click on links.

"justrakop" just sent me one of these nasty PMs. Deleted it on-sight. Grr. Argh.

If you're unsure of who these morons are that send you weird PMs, search for them via this handy site, which is a database of forum spambots.

http://www.stopforumspam.com/search?q=justrakop for example.

Also, if you zoom out, you can see the blue streaking of the fire before it hits the ground, and move out of the way before it hits (the red streaking fireballs are unavoidable, and do 9-12 k damage a hit).

Remember the ol' script used to help spot Void Reaver orbs? It may not be necessary for everyone, but if you have problems spotting the blue flames from high above, copy-pasta this script into your chat (or make a macro!).

/script SetCVar("cameraDistanceMaxFactor", "3.4")

With this, you can zoom out and see nearly the entire field, easily giving you plenty of eye coordination when it comes to dodging the blue fireballs.

This will also help in other fights, like spotting Iron Council's X-Box sized Void Zones, or XT's adds.

Happy Birthday to the lord of the floor!

Didn't want to make a new thread on this, but a "minor" bugfix patch hit today.

This list is a series of hotfixes that have been implemented.

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.h...58165&sid=1

And then there's the Patch itself. Do note that Talent Points got reset again:

General

*In order to address issues with the dual talent specialization system, all players will have their talents points refunded. Players who have purchased dual talent specializations will have both specializations reset. Glyphs will not be affected by this reset.

Bugs

* Characters who are not of the same race or class are once again able to view each others' professions linked in chat.

* Fixed an issue in which player and pet nameplates were appearing larger than normal.

* Thrall’;s throne has been adjusted back to its proper size and the base replaced. He will no longer need to defy gravity.

* Fixed an issue with a display error on druid leather helms.

* Corrected an issue for GeForce2/ATI 7 series card users that would result in critical errors for select actions in game. As a result certain projected textures, like spell effects and targeting circles, will no longer render on some terrain objects.

* Achievements

o Corrected an issue preventing players from earning the achievement, “Storming Stormwind.” Players who were not properly awarded this achievement for completing the objective should retroactively be granted completion.

* Warlock

o Demonology

+ Fel Synergy (Rank 1): Corrected the tooltip to now display the proper healing amount.

* Dungeons and Raids

o Caverns of Time: Culling of Stratholme

+ Fixed an issue with the outside map not appearing correctly.

+ Fixed an issue where an incorrect skin was being applied to certain classes/races when the Human Illusion buff is cast upon them.

o Ulduar

+ The mob packs in the XT-002 Deconstructor encounter can now be engaged separately and are no longer linked.

Trash Tips:

The Molten Giants before Ignis:

These two Golemagg lookalikes are known to cause lots of problems for even the best tanks. This Wowhead tip is similar to the strat I used on the PTR to beat them:

Okey, people are having a wipefeast on these right now, because of their AoE-silence (the Earthquake ability).

It should be noted that the silence can be Line of Sighted!

This gives several ways to do this:

1.Always have some healers hiding out of Line of Sight. When the silence occurs, they run out from their hiding and start healing.

2.This one is my favorite. Place the tanks and healers in such a way that the healers have LoS to to the tanks, but not the Molten Colossus. I painted an illustration in paint which can be viewed here:

The green area is where the healers should be, the black dots are the tanks, and the red circles are the Molten Colossus. This way the healers can heal the tanks without ever being silenced.

Because they hit hard as trucks, they should be downed as fast as possible. Make the whole raid nuke one of them, while an off-tank tanks the other one. This to make it easier for the healers.

Since the OT will be tanking for double the time if he continues after the first mob is downed, he will start losing to much HP from the stacking debuff. Instead, the MT should wait for the debuff to wear off himself, and then taunt the Colossus off the OT. This will pretty much reset the fight wihtout having to deal with any nasty debuffs.

I hope it was helpful.

((I'll post more as we progress farther and run into the more troublesome stuff))

MOVIES!

TankSpot is gradually adding tutorials on the bosses. I'll post links to 'em here as they appear. Click the green links. Unless otherwise noted, these are all 25-man "Normal" Mode movies.

XT-002:

I'm the OT running around with all the Pummellers on me. It's a good video showing how we did it. Everyone in a line out from the boss. When you get bombed you run to the left or the right out of range. OT picks up Pummellers and ranged AoE burns down the Scrapbots when they get close.

Razorscale:

Ignis the Furnace Master

The Iron Council:

Kologarn:

Auriaya:

Hodir:

Thorim:

Freya:

Mimiron:

General Vezax:

Yogg Saron:

Part 1:

Part 2:

10-man:

Taken from Wowhead. . Looks like Heroic Loken with add-juggling. This should be a nice test of our DPS

Emalon the Storm Watcher:

"Emalon the Storm Watcher is a simple fight, with a moderately tight DPS requirement. He has a 6-minute enrage timer.

He has 3 major abilities:

*Chain Lightning: Strikes an enemy with a blast of lightning that inflicts 7400 to 8600 Nature damage. The bolt will arc to additional nearby enemies, inflicting 20% more Nature damage to each successive target.

*Lightning Nova has a 5 second cast time, and functions similarly to Loken's Lightning Nova. Damage received is reduced by distance from the boss.

*Overcharge is cast on a Tempest Minion, granting a buff that heals the target to full and causes the Tempest Minion to explode after 20 seconds. The buff that stacks on the Tempest minions will increase damage output by 20% every 2 seconds, maxing out at 200% before it explodes.

Emalon also has 4 adds, called Tempest Minions:

*Each add that is killed will respawn about 3-5 seconds after it is killed.

*One tank should be able to handle all 4 adds.

*If a Tempest Minion is not killed before it explodes, it will cast Overcharged Blast, instantly wiping the raid. (With the fully stacked buff, that's ~25k damage to EVERYONE in your raid.)

Strategy:

*Have your off tank run in and aggro all the adds, and drag them to a corner while your main tank taunts Emalon off the off tank.

*Attack the boss until Emalon casts overcharge on a Tempest Minion.

*Attack the overcharged Tempest Minion. This is critical - if the add is not dead within 20 seconds of the overcharge cast, you will be dead instead.

*Have the offtank pick up the newly spawned replacement Tempest Minion.

*Rinse and Repeat.

TL;DR:

*If you have DPS below 2k sustained DPS, do not attempt this boss. You don't have the sustained output that you will need to kill the Tempest Minions in time."

I also copy-pasta'd this insightful little tip:

"Most wipes are caused by adds exploding because DPS doesn't switch (or find the add) fast enough.

Protip: Have everyone turn on npc health bars (press v). The charged add will jump to 100% health on its bar as soon as it gets a charge. Click the bar and start bursting. This avoids wasting time tabbing through adds."

EDIT: Clip of the 10-man fight in action with similar directions. Fair warning - it's kind of boring, lol

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lf9S1v8Fx30

Good lord, that was quick. I swear, European raiders are robots.

http://www.mmo-champion.com/index.php?topic=50101.0

I made several posts in the Training Hall containing all kinds of Ulduar strats I found. Sorry if the thread got a little huge

Please read them so we can better understand the fights!

Algalon the Observer Tear Drinker

((RESERVED SPOT))

Yogg-Saron

((RESERVED SPOT))

General Vezax

General Vezax is the 12th boss encounter of Ulduar. General Vezax guards the prison holding Yogg-Saron.

General Vezax Abilities

* Health Points: 25,100,000 (heroic), 6,275,250 (normal)

* Shadow Crash - deals 11,310-12,690 shadow damage and knocking back all enemies near the impact point. Leaves a magical area at the impact point for 15 seconds that increases magic damage by 50%, reduces healing by 50%, and reduces mana cost by 30%.

* Searing Flames - deals 13,875-16,125 fire damage to all players within a 20 yard radius. Reduces armor by 75% for 10 seconds. 2 second casting time, can be interrupted.

* Surge of Darkness - increases physical damage by 100% and reduces movement speed by 55% for a 10 second duration. When the General buffs himself with this you must kite him.

* Aura of Despair - prevents normal mana regeneration through out the fight. You can still gain mana via evocation, mana pots, etc. You can destroy the crystals flying around the room to get mana. These crystals drop a cloud on the ground, which will convert your health into mana.

* Profund of Darkness - deals 500 damage to all enemies and increases shadow damage by 10% per stack. Stacks on the raid (related to achievements)

General Vezax Boss Strategy

For the most part this is a pretty standard tank and spank fight…with a few slight variations. When you engage General Vezax simply start DPS like normal, have your DPS interrupt searing flames as often as possible. When General Vezax casts surge of darkness all DPS should stop, allowing your tank to kite General Vezax around the room. This is a great time for your casters to take advantage of the clouds for mana regeneration. Make sure you are rotating your casters appropriately, it’s important everyone maintains thier mana (particuarlly healers).

Continue to DPS General Vezax until he is about 35% health. Before reaching 35% you’ll want to make sure all your casters have enough mana, if not slow DPS and allow them to get some mana regeneration going. After you take Vezax to 35% he will summon Saronite Animus. Generally you want to simply off tank Saronite Animus and finish off the general. If you want to complete the achievement you need to kill Saronite Animus before Vezax. Continue burning down the General until he’s dead.

General Vezax Hard Mode Strategy

The hard mode is the same type of fight as I’ve detailed above, except you cannot use any of the mana-regeneration clouds for the duration of the fight.’

Hodir: This is a revised Wowhead strat, much cleaner than the one from StratFu:

#Biting Cold - Applies exponentially increasing damage-over-time Frost damage every 1 second to stationary targets. Any form of movement will reset the number of stacks.

#Freeze - Inflicts 5,550 to 6,450 Frost damage to players within 10 yards. Also roots the targets in place for 10 seconds. The rooting component of the spell is a magic debuff.

#Flash Freeze - Encases the entire raid in tombs of ice with 35,000 (Heroic: 44,000) hit points. Kills targets already frozen. Flash Freeze has 9 seconds cast time and its effects can be negated by standing in a Snowdrift spawned by Icicle.

#Icicle - Inflicts 12,000 Frost damage in a random area and leaves Snowdrift, which protect against Flash Freeze.

#Frozen Blows - Reduces Hodir's physical damage by 70%, but grants each of his attacks 31,062 (Heroic: 40,000) additional Frost damage, for 20 seconds. Enemies take 4,000 additional Frost damage every 2 seconds for the duration of the spell.

NPC Abilities. These guys can be healed by players!

Moonkins:

~Starlight - Envelops a location in starlight for 1 min, increasing the attack and casting speed of friendly units within it.

Shamans:

~Storm Power - Charges a nearby friendly target with lightning, increasing critical strike damage by 135% for 30 sec.

Priests:

~Dispell - Priests will randomly dispell Freeze on the members of the raid.

Mages:

~Toasty fire - Warms nearby friendly creatures, preventing the effects of Freeze and Biting Cold, and increasing Spirit by 4. In addition, your Spells and Ranged attacks have a chance to singe enemies. Toasty fire can be extinguished by falling ice or Flash Freeze.

~Singed - Singes the enemy, inflicting 3000 Fire damage and increasing damage taken from magical spells and effects by 2% for 25 sec. Stacks up to 30 times.

Strat:

-Start the fight off by having the normal tank pull Hodir, and proceed to kill the Flash Freezes (~40k each) to free the four adds. The adds assist you an enormous amount in this fight, and keeping them alive is a huge benefit to your raid. Once all four adds are freed, start DPSing Hodir. Beware of Icicles hitting people (there will be an animation that looks like snow raining down as a warning for incoming icicles) they hit for a decent amount of damage. Much like the Keristrasza fight, you will receive a damaging debuff if you stand still, you can remove stacks by moving, or simply jumping. The Moonkin NPC will periodically spawn beams of light (similar to the ones spawned by the Lunar Festival items), standing in them will give you a 100% haste buff, so get into those if possible.

A raid warning will call out when Hodir begins casting Flash Freeze, at which point two large, light blue circles will appear on the ground. DO NOT stand in these circles, until icicles have fallen on them to leave a clearly visible mound of snow. As soon as the snow mound appears, EVERYBODY (tank included) must stand on these mounds, or they will be encased in flash freezes, and must be broken out immediately. The NPCs will also be frozen, and should be freed as soon as possible.

The other threat to this fight is Hodir's Frozen Blows ability. This weakens Hodir's physical damage considerably, however it adds a TON of frost damage to them. Have your frost resist tank taunt him IMMEDIATELY after gaining this buff. (On ten man with ~320 resist I was still getting hit extremely hard, so I recommend going to cap with your resist). The raid will take AoE damage which must be healed through during this phase (having raid members each wear a piece of frost resist is recommended to make it easier to heal through). When the buff is gone, the MT should taunt Hodir back immediately.

Thorim is the 10th boss encounter of Ulduar. This boss is located in the Clash of Thunder.

Thorim Boss Abilities

* Health Points: 11,300,000 (heroic)

* Stormhammer - deals 2,451-2,551 damage, knocking down and stunning for 2 seconds. Causes deafening thunder to all nearby enemies.

o Defeaning Thunder - inflicts 4,625-5,375 nature damage to enemies in close proximity of a stormhamer. Silences for 6 seconds

* Beserk - Increases damage by 500%, attack / cast speed by 200% and health by 300% of Thorim and his allies.

* Unbalancing Strike - Deals 250% weapon damage and leaves the target unbalanced, reducing defense by 200 for 15 seconds

* Lightning Charge - absorbs energy from a target, deals nature damage to all enemies in a frontal cone between caster and the targeted enemy. Increases the caster’s melee damage / attack speed by 20%.

Gauntlet Mobs and Abilities

* Jormungar Behemoth

o Acid Breath - deals 12,000 nature damage and 1500 additional damage every 2 seconds.

o Sweep - deals 6,000 damage and knockdown for 3 seconds.

* Captured Horde / Alliance Soldier

o Barbed Shot - deals 4,513-4,987 physical damage and an additional 500 damage every 3 seconds for 12 seconds.

* Captured Horde / Alliance Soldier 2

o Heroic Strike - strong melee attack that deals 5,088-5,912 with a high amount of threat

o Devastate - sunders armor and causes 50%, sunder armor stacks up to 5 times

* Captured Horde / Alliance Healer

o Heal - area of effect healing (details needed)

* Dark Rune Acolyte

o Holy Smite - deals 7,500 holy damage

o Greater Heal - heals an ally for 86,500 (confirmation needed on this number)

* Dark Rune Champion

o Whirlwind - standard area of effect whirlwind damage plus an additional 100

o Mortal Strike - deals 250% weapon damage and reduces healing by 50% for 5 seconds.

o Charge - charges and enemy knocking them down and dealing normal weapon damage plus 120.

* Dark Rune Evoker

o Runic lightning - deals 7.875-10,125 nature damage

o Runic Mending - heals an ally for 18,500-21,500 then heals an additional 6,000 health every 1 second for 15 seconds.

* Dark Rune Commoner

o Low Blow - standard attack and reduces the target’s damage dealt by 3% for 20 seconds.

o Pummel - interrupts spell casting for 5 seconds.

* Dark Rune Warbringer

o Runic Strike - deals nature damage equal to weapon damage with an additional 1000

o Iron Honor Guard

o Cleave - deals 150% of melee damage, standard cleave mechanic

o Hamstring - Deals 50% of normal melee damage and reduces movement speed by 50% for 6 seconds

* Iron Ring Guard

o Whirling Trip - 2 second knockdown, dealing weapon damage

o Impale - causes target to bleed until healed past 90% of maximum health. Deals 1750 damage per second until removed.

* Ancient Rune Giant

o Stomp - weapon damage plus a 2 second knock down.

* Runic Colossus

o Smash - deals 13,875-16,125 damage, knocking them up

o Charge - charges an enemy, deals normal damage with an additional 120 and a knock back

o Runic Barrier - reduces physical damage taken by 50% and deals 2,000 arcane damage to attackers

Thorim Boss Strategy

Before the fight even begins you’ll want to split your raid into 2 groups. Group 1 will be the gauntlet group and should be composed of at least 2 tanks, 3 healers and caster DPS. Group 2 will be the Colosseum group and will fight the mobs in the arena area. This group should also have 2 tanks, 3 healers and your melee / hunter dps (due to the silence). The gauntlet group will work their way up to Thorim and the Colosseum group will simply fight the mobs and survive until group 1 makes it to Thorim.

After group 1 completes the gauntlet Thorim will jump down into the Colosseum, group 1 will follow him. At this point it’s a pretty standard tank and spank fight. When Thorim hits a tank with unbalancing strike another tank will need to taunt. Continue pumping out as much DPS as possible. Now it’s just a DPS race against lightning charge, which will 1 shot tanks.

Thorim Hard Mode Strategy

Most are saying the hard mode encounter includes Sif, Thorim’s dead wife. She won’t be tankable and will simply run around producing additional raid damage. Note that this has yet to be confirmed.

Freya is the 9th boss encounter of Ulduar. She’s located in the center of the valley in Ulduar.

Freya Boss Abilities

* Health Points: 4,200,000 (heroic), 1,400,000 (normal)

* Sunbeam - Deals 10,638-12,362 nature damage to all enemies within an 8 yard radius of the target. 1.5 second cast time.

* Nature’s Fury - Applied to an enemy target for 10 seconds. Deals 4,625-5,375 nature damage to all nearby players everyone 1 second.

* Touch of Eonar - Heals Freya 24,000 health every 1 second

* Attuned to Nature - Fight starts with 150 stacks of this buff. Each stack increases healing on Freya by 4%.

* Photosynthesis - Heals plant life for 10,000 damage every 1 second.

Freya Boss Strategy

Upon engaging Freya she will begin spawning adds. These adds heal Freya through a self buff system. At the beginning of the fight Freya will ahve 150 stacks of a buff, each stack increases healing done on her by 4% (600% total). Each time you kill an add one of these buffs is removed.

Phase 1

Adds spawn every minute.

* Wave Type 1

o Storm Lasher - Casts area effect lightning damage in a 15 yard radius. Also casts chain lightning that hits up to 4 targets.

o Snaplasher - Stacking debuff upon dealing damage, increases damage by 1% and reduces speed by 1%, stacks up to 99 times. As this reaches a critical mass stack you’ll need to kite these.

o Ancient Water Elemental - Frontal cone tidal burst, deals 8,000 damage. Face these away from the main raid body.

* Wave Type 2

o Detonating Lasher - Spawn around Freya in a circle in packs of 12. Reduces Freya’s healing buff by 2 stacks per mob.

* Wave Type 3

o Ancient Protector - 1,900,000 health points, removes 25 stacks of Freya’s buff. Also cast conservator’s grip, which prevents attacking and casting spells.

o Stand under the healthy mushrooms to remove conservator’s grip.

Phase 2

During phase 2 no more adds will spawn. At this point it’s essentially just a tank and spank fight. Freya has the same abilities as in phase one. In addition, she also had Lifebinder’s gift…trees spawn around freya every 30 seconds, kill all of these within 15 second duration or they will heal Freya for 15%.

Freya Hard Mode Strategy

To complete Freya on hard mode you must leave the Elders up. Each elder provides an additional buff, similar to the way Sartharion’s drakes worked.

* Elder Brightleaf - increases magic damage dealt by Freya and her adds by 50%

* Elder Stonebark - increases physical damage dealt by Freya by 50%

* Elder Ironbranch - increases physical damage dealt by Freya’s adds by 50%

Mimiron is the 8th boss encounter of Ulduar. He’s located in the Spark of Imagination. Mimiron is the builder of Flame Leviathan.

Mimiron Abilities

* Leviathan MKII

o Health Points: 6,970,000 (heroic), 1,740,000 (normal)

o Napalm Shell - Deals 9,425-10,575 fire damage to enemies within a 5 yard radius. Additionally, laves an aura that deals 6,000 fire damage per second for 8 seconds in that location. 2 second casting time

o Plasma Blast - Deals 30,000 fire damage per second for a 6 second duration. 3 second cast time.

o Proximity Mine - Deals 20,000 fire damage. Disarmable by rogues.

o Shock Blast - Deals 100,000 nature damage to all enemy targets within 15 yards. 5 second casting time.

* VX-001 - Anti-personnel Assault Cannon

o Health Points: 6,970,000 (heroic), 1,740,000 (normal)

o Heat Wave - Deals 9,425-10,575 fire damage with an additional 3,000 fire damage per second DoT for 5 seconds to all targets within an 80 yard radius.

o Rocket Strike - Deals 1,000,000 fire damage at a targeted location (indicated by circle on the ground)

o Rapid Burst - Deals 3,299-3,701 damage to all targets in front of the anti-personnel assault cannon.

o Spinning Up - starts spinning, charging up the laser barrage

o P3Wx2 Laser Barrage - Deals 20,000 arcane damage to targets in front of VX-001, 80 yard range.

* V0-L7R-0N

o Shock Blast - Deals 100,000 nature damage to all enemy targets within 15 yards. 5 second casting time.

o Proximity Mine - Deals 20,000 fire damage. Disarmable by rogues.

o Hand Pulse - Deals 7,000-8,000 damage to all targets in front of the mob.

o Rocket Strike - Deals 1,000,000 fire damage at a targeted location (indicated by circle on the ground)

o P3Wx2 Laser Barrage - Deals 20,000 arcane damage to targets in front of VX-001, 80 yard range.

o Plasma Ball - Used on the highest threat target. Deals 14,1380-15,862 damage.

* Aerial Command Unit

o Health Points: 4,600,000 (heroic)

o Plasma Ball - Used on the highest threat target. Deals 14,1380-15,862 damage.

* Assault Bot

o Health Points: 1,000,000 (heroic)

o Special Note: Drops an item (magnet core) that allows you to force an Aerial Command Unit to the ground.

o Summon Magnet Core - Temporarily forces an aerial command unit to the ground. While on the ground it takes an additional 50% damage.

o Magnetic Field - Roots the target in places and increases the damage taken by 30%. 6 second duration, can be dispelled.

* Bomb Bot

o Health Points:

o Explosion - deals 9,425-10,575 fire damage to all targets within a 5 yard radius.

* Trash Bot

o Health Points: 110,000 (heroic)

o No special abilities

Mimiron Boss Strategy

Phase 1 - Leviathan MKII

This phase is a standard tank and spank fight. Tank the boss in the middle of the room and have your casters and other ranged classes spread out around the room. Make sure your ranged is at least 15 yards away from the boss, so they don’t eat shock blast. Also, be aware of the mines that will be spawning. Don’t bother disarming them, simply avoid them as most of them will be concentrated between your melee and ranged classes.

Phase 2 - VX-001, Antipersonnel Assault Cannon

The most important thing during this phase is to simply stay spread out. The entire raid should spread out around the room, making sure you have healers equally dispersed. Furthermore, everyone needs to be very aware of the rockets. These rockets will target a section on the ground, so if you see them heading in your general direction simply move 5 yards in any direction to avoid being hit.

Occasionally the boss will begin the laser barrage. If he does start spinning you should move directly behind the boss. This will allow you to avoid taking any damage from the laser.

Phase 3 - Aerial Command Unit

For this phase you will need both a ranged tank and a kiter. As soon as your ranged tank has sufficient threat range can begin attacking the boss until the first assault bot spawns.

Adds spawn at various locations around the room. A spotlight will appear on the spawn location, indicating the type of add that is about to spawn. An orange light means it’s an assault bot and your kiter will need to be picking them up. These assault bots can and should be slowed / immobilized / etc to assist your kiter. Once the kiter has sufficient threat these mobs should be burned down. Make sure you give your kiter sufficient time to build threat.

If the spotlight is green it means a junk bot or bomb bot is about to spawn. Junk bots should be picked up by your tanks. Bomb bots do not need to be tanked, they will walk around a bit and then blow up, simply move away from them and don’t get hit by the explosion.

After the assault bot has been killed he will drop a magnetic core. Use this core underneath the boss. This will pull the boss to the ground, allowing melee to DPS him for a 6 second duration (damage is also increased during this phase).

Repeat the above steps until he’s dead.

Note: turn free for all loot on during this phase to allow cores to be picked up.

Phase 4 - V0-L7R-0N

This phase is essentially all 3 previous phases wrapped into one. There are no new abilities and each phase works exactly the same, however, adds do not spawn during this phase.

Things to look for…

* Ranged tank still must tank the Aerial Command Unit

* Melee tank still must tank Leviathan MKII

* Entire raid must avoid mines

* Melee should run out to avoid shock blast

* Laser Barrage will cast more often, be ready to run behind the boss

* Avoid rockets, move 5 yards in any direction if they are coming towards you

In order to defeat the boss you must kill all 3 sections at the same time, otherwise they will repair. Split your melee and ranged DPS accordingly, keep heals up, and use the above list to make sure you don’t forget anything…do these things and you’ll have your first kill under your belt

Mimiron Hard Mode Strategy

To complete this encounter on hard mode simply press the large red button in the back of the room. When engaged the boss gains “emergency mode”, which increases damage and health by 25%. To defeat hard mode you must kill this boss in less than 8 minutes.

Auriaya is the seventh boss of Ulduar and is located within the Shattered Walkway.

Auriaya Boss Abilities

* Health Points: 16,730,00 (heroic), 3,200,000 (normal)

* Horrifying Screech - All nearby enemies flee in horror for 5 seconds

* Sentinel Blast - Deals 5,500 shadow damage and increases the shadow damage taken by 100% for 5 seconds, stacks up to 5 times.

* Sonic Screech - Shockwave like ability that deals 185,000-215,000 shadow damage to all enemies with the path. This damage is split amongst all the raid members hit.

* Summon Swarming Guardian - summons panthers adds.

* Sanctum Sentry

o Health Points: 558,000

o Savage Pounce - Deals 13,875-16,125 damage with an additional 7,400-8,600 bleed every second for 5 seconds.

o Strength of the Pack - Increases damage done by 50% when other sanctum sentries are within 20 yards.

* Feral Spirit

o Health Points:

o Feral Essence - Each essence buff increases the damage dealt by 50%. There are 9 total stacks of feral essence (…9 lives, lawl). The feral defender can revive himself at the cost of one of these essences.

o Feral Pounce - 4 second stun and inflecting 602-698 shadow damage every second for 4 seconds.

o Feral Rush - charge, deals 1,609-1,691 damage. Interrupts casting.

o Seeping Feral Essence - Left behind upon the dead of a feral spirit, similar to a void zone. Deals 9,000 shadow damage every second to those standing within.

(Strategy will come later)