Ulduar Strategies

[Holyssa]

This topic is gonna be several posts long since the instance is so damn jam-packed, so please do not reply until after the post containing Algalon is created.

Hopefully these strategies that I found will help us get a decent foothold on Blizzard's new playground. Print 'em, study 'em, hell...use them for bathroom reading if need be.

Happy reading!

Edited April 15, 2009 by Holyssa

[Holyssa]

Flame Leviathan is the first boss raids will encounter in Ulduar. This unique encounter requires players use siege vehicles (similar to Malygos) to complete this encounter.

Siege Vehicles Basics

Before the fight even begins players will be split up into different siege vehicles. You will use these vehicles to defeat the dwarven army ahead of you and ultimately, Flame Leviathan. On heroic mode there are 4 of each vehicles and on normal mode there are 2 of each vehicles.

* Siege Engine Driver - Attack buildings by ramming them, knock back mobs, and engage a speed boost

* Siege Engine Passenger & Gunner - Shoots pyrite ammo out of the air, helps shoot targets on the ground

* Demolisher Driver - Shoots fireballs and pyrite barrels

* Demolisher Passenger & Gunner - Picks up pyrite ammo to reload the demolisher, may also load launch the passenger from the cannon

* Chopper Driver - Drops inflammable oil slicks, may also pick up players to protect them from damage and death

All vehicle passengers may pick up explosive to throw at the dwarven armies.

Siege Vehicle Abilities

Salvaged Siege Engine

* Health Points:

* Driver x 1, Gunner x 1, Passengers x 2

* Driver Abilities:

o Ram (40 energy) - 5400-6600 damage with a knock back addition

o Electroshock (38 energy) - Spell interrupt with a 4 second lockout period, 25 yard cone effect

o Steam Rush (40 energy) - Charges very fast with a minor damage on impact

* Gunners Abilities:

o Anti-Air Rocket (10 energy) - Rapid fire long range (1000 yard) missile launcher

o Cannon (20 energy) - Launches a cannon ball that does medium damage

Salvaged Demolisher

* Health Points: 428,000

* Driver x 1, Passengers x 2

* Driver Abilities:

o Hurl Boulder - 13,500-16,500 damage, ignites oil slicks dropped by choppers.

o Hurl Pyrite Barrel - 27,000-30,000 damage, consumes 5 pyrite

o Ram - 8550-9450 damage with a knock back addition

o Throw Passenger - Launch a passenger who has loaded themselves into the catapult.

* Passenger Abilities:

o Cannon - Fire a cannon ball forward, explodes after traveling 50 yards dealing damage in a 10 yard area of effect radius.

o Grab Crate - Pick up a crate with your hook, reloading the demolisher with liquid pyrite.

o Increase Speed - Uses the liquid pyrite you’ve been picking up, increases movement speed by 100% for a 1 minute duration.

o Load into Catapult - You get in the catapult and the drive may fire you as a projectile.

Salvaged Chopper

* Health Points:

* Driver x 1, Passenger x 1

* Driver Abilities:

o Sonic Horn (20 energy) - 3150-3850 damage in a 35 yard range frontal cone.

o Tar - Lays down a pool of tar that slows enemies by 75% for a 45 second duration. This pool may be ignited by demolishers.

o Speed Boost (50 energy) - increases the vehicle’s movement speed by 100% for 5 seconds.

Dwarf Army Mobs

Steelforge Defender:

* Health Points: 8,316

Titanium Stormlord:

* Health Points: 75,600

* Melee hits are around 1,500 damage

* Cyclone - Hits demolisher vehicles for approximately 3,000 nature damage

Ulduar Colossus:

* Health Points: 315,000

* Shockwave - casted ability, should be interrupted by siege engines

Buildings and Towers

Note that in order to complete this encounter on hard mode for achievements and additional loot you must leave up at least one tower. The more towers you leave up better quailty and increased amount of loot you’ll receive.

* Tower of Nature (Freya’s Ward) - Deals 15,000 nature damage and summons guardians of nature

* Tower of Frost (Hodir’s Fury) - Deals 15,000 frost damage, attacks entomb enemies in blocks of ice

* Tower of Flames (Mimiron’s Inferno) - Deals 15,000 fire damage, leaving a fires behind

* Tower of Storms (Thorim’s Hammer) - Deals 15,000 damage

* Storm Beacon - Each beacon summons ads in a small radius.

Flame Leviathan Abilities

* Flame Jets - Channeled cast, deals large radius area of effect damage, 2000 damage per second, cast lasts 10 seconds.

* Battering Ram - Knock back on target that’s within melee range. Applies a debuff to the knock backed target increased damage taken by 100%.

* Gathering Speed - Increases movement speed, 5% per stack up to 20 stacks.

* Missile Barrage - All players and vehicles take 700 damage every few seconds.

Hard Mode Strategy

Raid groups attempting to defeat Flame Leviathan on hard mode will need to leave at least one tower up. These towers place a pillar of light on the ground (associated colors below) that deal their respective abilities. Note that these beams can be avoided.

* Storm Tower (purple) - lightning balls come down from the sky

* Flames Tower (red) - beam moves across the ground leaving fires behind

* Frost Towers (blue) - freezes players and siege engines

* Nature (green) - spawns adds that must be killed

Flame Leviathan Boss Strategy

As soon as you engage Flame Leviathan he will randomly target a siege engine vehicle. The driver of this vehicle must kite the boss. Initially it’s very easy to kite, but as time passes Flame Leviathan will begin to pickup speed, making it more difficult.

Every 30 seconds Flame Leviathan will target a new siege engine, which will be tasked with kiting (if a siege engine is not alive he will target a demolisher or chopper). This fight really comes down to the kite and each vehicle fulfilling its role successfully (as described below).

Siege Engine Role

While this kiting is going on other players in siege engines can be doing damage with ram and more importantly using electroshock to interrupt flame jets. However, be prepared to kite as the 30 second kite cycle comes to an end. The passengers of the siege engines should be shooting down pyrite ammo in the air. If there aren’t any pyrite ammo left they may DPS the boss.

Demolisher Role

Demolishers are the bulk of the damage output on this fight. Your demos should be attacking the boss with hurl boulder, hurl pyrite barrel, and launch passenger. In order to maximize damage it’s a good idea to save your hurl pyrite barrel for when the overload circuit has been activated.

Interlude on Catapult Passenger Launch

After your overload circuit wears off you’ll want to have your demolishers launch a single DPS class and a single healer to the back of Flame Leviathan. There are 4 turrets here, after killing a target a button will pop up. You will channel a cast on this button and upon completion Flame Leviathan will be stunned, increase the damage you deal to him by 50%, and reset his movement speed. These players will be knocked off Flame Leviathan and should be promptly picked up by a chopper and returned to a demolisher, in preparation for the upcoming launch.

Choppers Role

Chopper’s are tasked with dropping their flammable oil slicks on the ground in front on Flame Leviathan. This will slow him and deal additional damage if they catch fire. In addition, choppers should be picking up any players that are coming off the back of Flame Leviathan or players that have been launched and missed their targets.

Edited April 15, 2009 by Holyssa

[Holyssa]

Ignis the Furnace Master is the second boss of Ulduar, located within the Colossal Forge.

Ignis the Furnace Master Abilities

* Health Points: 24,400,000 (heroic)

* Scorch - Fires a frontal jet of flames, deals 3770-4230 fire damage every 0.5 seconds for 3 seconds. Additionally, catches the ground on fire, dealing 3299-3701 fire damage every 0.5 seconds to all nearby enemies (heats up Iron Constructs)

* Flame Jet - Stomps the ground, calling up geysers of fire that deal 8483-9517 fire damage, knocking targets up into the air and interrupting spell casting for 8 seconds. Applies a damage over time of 1000 fire damage per second for 8 seconds.

* Slag Pot - Picks up a random target, hurling them into the slag pot. The slag pot deals 5000 fire damage every second for 10 seconds. The target cannot attack while in the slag pit. If they survive the target gains a buff that increases haste by 150%.

* Strength of the Creator - Increases damage by 20%. This stackable debuff is applied each time an Iron Construct is summoned and removed each time an Iron Construct is shattered.

* Activate Construct - Iron Constructs within the scorch area gain a stacking buff. At 20 stacks it will become molten, causing it to deal 4713-5287 fire damage to all enemies within a 7 yard radius. Dragging the construct through water will cause it to turn “brittle”, allowing you the ability to shatter it by dealing more than 5,000 damage in a single attack.

Ignis the Furnace Master Boss Strategy

This encounter is more or less a standard tank and spank fight. The major addition to this fight involves the iron constructs. You’ll want to drag these iron constructs into the scorch fires on the ground. Standing in these fires increased a buff that stacks to 20, at 20 stacks they turn molten.

After turning molten you will drag the iron constructs into the water, which turns them brittle. This stuns them for 20 seconds, increases chance to be critically hit by 50%, and will cause them to shatter if they take more than 5000 damage in a single hit. Shattering a construct removes one stack of Ignis’ damage buff.

Casters should be aware of the timer on the Flame Jets and avoid being hit by this, as it will lock you out of that school for 8 seconds. Beyond that there isn’t much too this fight…tank and spank, don’t get hit by scorch areas, heal through the DoT on the charge, and don’t get locked out by jet stream.

Note: there is no hard mode for this encounter

Edited April 15, 2009 by Holyssa

[Holyssa]

Razorscale is the third boss of Ulduar and is located within Razorscale’s Aerie, across from the Colossal forge.

Razorscale Boss Abilities

* Health Points: 12,600,000 (heroic), 3,900,000 (normal)

* Wing Buffet - Knocks back in a large radius around Razorscale. 1.5 second cast time.

* Flame Breath - Deals 17,500-22,500 fire damage in a frontal cone. 2.5 second cast time.

* Flame Buffet - Increases fire damage taken by 1500. Last for 60 second duration.

* Devouring Flame - Launches a lava bomb at a target, deals 8788-10,212 fire damage. In addition, deals 8788-10212 fire damage everyone second to anyone standing within a 6 yard radius of the explosion site.

Razorscale Boss Strategy

Phase 1 - Air Phase

To start phase 1 simply talk to the expedition commander. During this phase you are tasked with defending the dwarven crews while they repair the harpoon launchers. Your primary focus here is killing all of the adds and avoiding the devouring flames that Razorscale will be launching.

As each harpoon launcher is successfully repaired they may be clicked to fire a harpoon at Razorscale. After all 4 turrets have been fired Razorscale will come to the ground. Once on the ground Razorscale will be stunned temporarily, during this time your DPS will want to blow all cooldowns to do as much damage as possible.

After the stun ends Razorscale will fly up into the air again and you’ll repeat the firing process to bring her down.

Phase 2 - Ground Phase

Once you’ve got Razorscale below 50% she will land. During this phase you’ll want your tank to spin her face away from the main raid to avoid flame breaths. At this point the fiight becomes a standard tank and spank fight. Continue to avoid devouring flame and keep DPS up. As flame buffet stacks on your tank he will be taking some serious damage towards the end of the fight, so maximizing your DPS during this phase will be crucial.

[Holyssa]

XT-002 Deconstructor is the 4th boss of Ulduar. He’s located in the Ulduar scrap yard.

XT-002 Deconstructor Boss Abilities

* Health Points: 17,850,000 (heroic), 5,250,000 (normal)

* Gravity Bomb - Targets a random playing causing them to explode and pull in nearby players after 9 seconds. Creates a gravity well.

* Gravity Well - Created by the gravity bomb on the targeted player, which pulls players within a 10 yard radius into the well, dealing 19,000-21,000 damage.

* Tympanic Tantrum - Deals 10% damage every 1 second for a 12 second duration to the entire raid, dazing all enemies. Cast once per minute.

* Light Bomb - Causes targeted player to deal 2,000-3,000 damage to nearby players while they are attacking, last for 9 seconds.

* Enrages after 8 minutes

XT-002 Deconstructor Boss Strategy

This encounter is a standard tank and spank fight for the most part. The most important aspect of this fight is simply spreading out. After a player gets hit with a gravity bomb or a light bomb that player needs to immediately separate themselves from the group to minimize damage. Furthermore, healers should be on the lookout for tympanic tantrum. This will deal 120% damage to all raid members over 12 seconds, so every raid member will need to at least receive a decent amount of heals. It’s not a bad idea to assign healers to individual groups, as to ensure all players receive a heal.

At 75%, 50%, and 25% XT-002 Deconstructor will stop attacking and spawn adds. There are 3 different kinds of adds.

* XS-013 Scrapbots - these adds will heal XT-002 if they get to him, they must be killed immediately.

* XE-321 Boombots - these adds blow up, dealing damage to friend and foe alike, when they hit 50% health. These can be used to kill the other adds.

* XM-024 Pummelers - Basic mobs, nothing special, you can kill these after boombots and scrapbots have been killed.

After the adds have been killed the fight will continue like before.

XT-002 Deconstructor Hard Mode Strategy

During any of the ad phases XT-002 may be clicked on. Doing so will expose his heart, which may be destroyed. Destroying his heart will increase XT-002’s health and damage by 25% and return him to full health. Exposing and killing the heart at the lower add spawning levels does not increase the quality of loot or open up new achievements, this is a binary hard mode fight.

[Holyssa]

The Iron Council is the 5th boss encounter of Ulduar. This encounter includes 3 separate bosses: Steelbreaker, Runemaster Molgeim, and Stonecaller Brundir. After killing any of the 3 the other 2 will receive a +25% damage increase. Killing one of the remaining 2 bosses grants the final boss left alive additional abilities. (Holy's note: This strategy assumes Brundir is killed last.)

The Iron Council Abilities

* Health Points: 30,000,000 (total, heroic), 10,000,000 (total, normal)

* Enrage timer after 10 minutes

* Supercharge - after one of the other bosses die the remaining bosses gain a +25% damage increase and an additional ability.

* Elemental Adds:

o Lightning Blast - When these adds get to their targets they deal 14,138-15,862 nature damage 30 yard radius explosion, killing the add. Spawned by Rune of Summoning (detailed below).

* Steelbreaker:

o Health Points: 10,000,000 (heroic), 3,000,000 (normal)

o Fusion Punch - Deals 100% weapon damage an an additional 8,000 nature damage per second.

o High Voltage - An aura that deals 2,500 nature damage every 3 seconds.

o Static Disruption - Steelbreaker gains this buff when one of the other bosses has been killed first. It deals 7,500 nature damage and increases nature damage taken by 50% for 20 seconds.

* Runemaster Molgeim:

o Rune of Power - 5 yard radius group buff that deals more damage to anyone standing in it.

o Rune of Death - Runemaster gains this buff when one of the other bosses has been killed first. Deals 6,000 damage per second to anyone standing in this 13 yard radius of this AoE on the ground.

o Rune of Summoning - Runemaster gains this buff when two of the other bosses has been killed first. Summons elemental adds that explode when they touch players (detailed above).

* Stormcaller Brundir:

o Chain Lightning - Deals nature damage that arcs up to 5 different targets. Can be interrupted.

o Overload - Deals 25,000 nature damage to anyone within a 30 yard radius. Goes off after the emote “PEASANTS HAS CROSSED THE LINE”.

o Lightning Whirl - Stormcaller gains this buff after one of the other bosses has been killed first. Hurls a lightning bolt at a random target, deals 6598-7402 nature damage, 5 second duration.

o Lightning Tendrils - Stormcaller gains this buff after two of the other bosses have been killed first. Runs around the room very fast and deals 8,000 damage per second to anyone nearby. Should be taunted back to the floor, where you can DPS him.

The Iron Council Boss Strategy

Phase 1 - All 3 Bosses Up

Raid groups can kill the 3 bosses in any order you wish, however, the generally accepted easiest route is Steelbreaker –> Molegeim –> Brundir. Step one in this fight is simply setting up your tanking positions. Steelbreaker and Molgeim should be tanked in the front corners of the room. Due to the overload explosion you must tank Brundir away from the raid, generally towards the back of the room is the optimal position.

Boss Specific Notes

* The tank on Brundir needs to run away from the boss as Overload is going off, minimizing damage.

* Players attacking Brundir should always try to interrupt chain lightning casts.

* Molgeim will drop rune of power throughout the fight underneath Brundir and Steelbreaker. Tanks should reposition these bosses when this occurs to remove them from getting the buff and allow your DPS to get the buff.

* Steelbreaker will be fusion punching your tank. When this occurs he will need additional heals and a dispel.

Phase 2 - 2 Bosses Up

After your raid has killed the first boss the other two bosses will gain new abilities. If you are killing the bosses in the order suggested above then you’ll have Molgeim and Brundir up at this point.

Boss Specific Notes

* Molegeim now has Rune of Death. Massive green AoE rune on the ground, deals 6,000 damage per second to those players standing within it. Move out of it.

* Brundir now has lightning whirl. Randomly tosses lightning bolts at raid members, heal through it.

Phase 3 - 1 Boss Up

At this point only Brundir is left up, so let’s take him down! With Molegeim now dead Brundir gains a new ability, lightning tendrils. Using these tendrils he will lift up into the air. Anyone standing nearby will take massive amounts of nature damage…so, don’t stand near the boss if you’re not a tank.

You can keep Brundir in the same location by rotating taunts with 3 tanks. Thus allowing your range DPS to deal more damage. In addition, Brundir will occasionally drop to the ground, allowing melee DPS a chance to get some DPS in.

At this point it’s simply a matter of continuing to burn Brundir down and keeping heals flowing. Keep it up and you’ll have Brundir down in no time.

The Iron Council Hard Mode Strategy - TBD

To complete The Iron Council on hard mode you must kill Steelbreaker last.

[Holyssa]

Kologarn is the 6th boss of Ulduar. He’s located along the Shattered Walkway.

Kologarn Abilities

* Health Points: 20,900,000 (heroic), 5,200,000 (normal)

* Overhead Smash - Decreases target’s armor by 25% for 30 seconds. Stackable up to 4 times.

* Petrifying Breath - Channeled cast that deals 18,750-21,250 nature damage per second, 4 second channel. Applies a debuff that increases damage taken by 20% for 8 seconds. This ability is used only when no players are within melee range.

* Focused Eyebeam - Launches beams into the raid from his eyes, deals 3,700-4,300 nature damage to players within a 3 yard radius.

* Left Arm:

o Health Points: 5,200,000 (heroic), 1,200,000 (normal)

o Shockwave - Hits the entire raid, dealing 11,563-13,437 nature damage.

* Right Arm:

o Health Points: 5,200,000 (heroic), 1,200,000 (normal)

o Stonegrip - Stuns a random player, deals 3,700-4,300 damage per second until that player dies or until 450,000 damage has been dealt to the arm.

Kologarn Boss Strategy

First and foremost, it’s important to know that Kologarn will remain completely stationary, you cannot turn him what-so-ever. If there are no melee players within his range Kologarn will cast petrifying breath (detailed above).

In order to tank Kologarn you’ll need 3 geared tanks. These tanks will stand on top of each other and participate in a taunt rotation. After one tank has 2 stacks overhead smash another tank should taunt, allowing this debuff to drop. Repeat as necessary. It’s of absolute most importance that all 3 tanks stay alive.

In addition to simply dealing with the main boss Kologarn also has 2 arms. These arms have special abilities that deal out damage to the raid. The left arm will hit the entire raid for 12,000 damage periodically. The right arm will periodically pick up a player and deal damage to them until that arm has taken 450,000 damage. Healers will need to focus heals on the player in the arm’s grasp.

If you kill an arm a set of earth elementals will spawn. These should be killed promptly. The left and right arms are both on a 60 second respawn timer. In respawning health is siphoned from the boss to regenerate the arms.

[Holyssa]

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)

[Holyssa]

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.

[Holyssa]

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%

[Holyssa]

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.

[Holyssa]

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.

Edited May 7, 2009 by Holyssa

[Holyssa]

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.’

Edited April 15, 2009 by Holyssa

[Holyssa]

Yogg-Saron

((RESERVED SPOT))

[Holyssa]

Algalon the Observer Tear Drinker

((RESERVED SPOT))

[Holyssa]

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:

A movie from a mage's PoV. Found on Wowhead. Offtank's comments:

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:

Why? Less adds, and no one becomes debuffed/killed by Squeeze.

Auriaya:

- This is for the 10-man! Will post 25-man when it's up, but please watch this. The toughest part is the pull.

Hodir:

Thorim:

Freya:

Mimiron:

General Vezax:

Yogg Saron:

Part 1:

Part 2:

10-man:

Edited May 12, 2009 by Holyssa

[Holyssa]

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))

Edited April 21, 2009 by Holyssa