25 Man Ulduar Quick Tips Continued

This is my Quick Tips Continued :)

Ignis the Furnace Master
Prior to the nerfs this fight was pretty tough, we now tank Ignis in the water and the adds are tanked off to the sides and the raid stacks up behind Ignis. The priority here is on speed and timing. We usually have 2 Pally's and myself on the Main Tank spamming, the hits get very hard towards the end (30K each) so be on your toes.

Make sure you have a RaidDebuff mod (i use a plugin for Grid for this: http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/grid-status-raid-debuff.aspx )

Primary Abilities
Scorch - Where we tank him this is not a big problem but just make sure you arent staying in it if the tank looses control of Ignis for some reason.

Flame Jets - Big Stomp basically, causing a debuff for 2600/sec. Your raid healers should be able to easily get everybody up during the debuff. Be sure to not be interupted as you will be spell locked for 8 seconds. I've been on Tank Heals, and have been saving my Swiftmend for Flame Jets, so when Flame Jet cooldown is getting close I cast (or top up) the Rejuv on the tank, while in the air cast Swiftmend.

Slag Pot - Have at least 1 dedicated healer who prioritises the Slag Pot victim, with other healers helping out when they can. Important that people in the slag pot help themself too, if you've got heals, health pots or a health stone use them!

Kologarn
Kologarn is really an awareness fight, be ready to move quickly from Eyebeams. For healers face the door, no need to face the boss at all. We position ourselves one person per square with healers given priority to squares closest the door.

Primary Abilities
Stone Grib - Randomly pick up 3 raiders, make sure you have people focussed on keeping them up.

Focussed Eyebeam - Randomly targets a raider and tried to blow the hell out of them, kite the beam out of the door, try not to run through the raid, and other raiders be sure to move off your square to allow the victim through.

Auriaya
This is an interesting fight but difficult to explain, once the sentries are down we basically stack on the boss unless the Feral Defender is low, stun it and then move the boss around to avoid the Seeping Feral Essence (Void Zone). Rinse and Repeat 4-5 times depending on your dps. Key is to move prior to the Essence spawning otherwise you will die.

Keep your hots up on the tank and max heals especially on the pull as all tanks will take big hits from Pounce.

Freya
All about add management, make sure you make the kill order very clear to your dps. Dots should be used carefully as to not kill the adds you dont want killed. Be aware the lashers have no threat table so you ARE going to get hit, they do little damage unless your unlucky (like I was a couple of times) and get 5-6 on you.

In Phase 2 mushrooms will spawn, it's important to get under them or you will be spell locked.

Their is a lot going on and no doubt it will take you a few attempts to get this fight right but once you've got it it's easy enough. From a healing point of view, nothing too much to worry about, just stick to your assigns and keep your hots up on the tanks :)

Hodir
This is another awareness fight, in a nut shell you should keep moving through as much of the fight as possible as to avoid Biting Cold debuff.

Avoid Icicles falling and when Freeze is called jump onto the large white circles that formed from the larger falling iceicles. If you're too slow you will need to be freed by your dps.

You should jump once on the white area as i've heard reports that running in will not always recognise that you are ON the area.

Thorim
This is a real prick of a boss, basically two seperate fights where one group will stay in arena and the other will run a gauntlet. I've only healed arena so can only really comment on that, basically a shed load of adds will form, we group up in the middle circle (avoiding chain lightnight from towers) and tanks pick up the adds outside of the circle. My role has been to keep hots up on our 3 tanks, mana can be an issue for rest assured that Phase 2 where Hodir comes down is pretty easy.

Their will be a lot of adds, if they start coming into the main group then just avoid the big guys, they cast a whirlwind that will clean us healer types up.

Phase 2 is pretty simple, throughout the fight you will see a chain of lighting coming from the towers to Thorim, move away from the chain as it will explode (wider than the original chain) and kill most people caught in it. The width of the explosion is directly related to the distance thorim is from the tower, so tank him in the middle

I expect this week to have Mimiron down so will post details when we do :)

Progression... I like it

Well last night I got my first look at Ulduar and ill talk about that a little later, this post is really about progression.

A bit of background, I signed up for wow well into BC so missed the majority of progression. I was also a Non-Raider well into the LK expansion due to work and family commitments, so I missed a lot of the first kills (although I managed to get in for KT and Maly first kills - lucky me) but the strats had been worked on prior to this. It has only been since my partner started studying at uni that my schedule opened up enough to allow me to put my hand up for a raiding spot, I refused to put my hand up if I couldnt commit 100%. So I am now a raider which is great! :)

Soooo all that means that this is my first true progression content, the first time i'm looking at never before seen content with a group of people, the first time working through failed strats and dying to the max.

I have to say it's refreshing, to be honest with you all, I have been feeling a little bored with wow in the last few weeks, a couple of things kept me going;

1. was the promise of the above :)
2. was getting my toon to a level where I could give the above a good shot
3. was helping out a friend with managing her guild (where my alt sit)

Ulduar has re-energised me I think, not so much because it's bloody hard (and it is at the moment while we are working on our strats), but because I'm a part of this with a group of people I have spent a fair bit of time with over the last couple of years.

So for those people who are going to give Ulduar a crack some quick tips which should be obvious if you're in a guild who is able to get through some of this content

1. Bring Shed Loads of Buff Food - you'll be dying consistantly until all the strats are out, I'll be farming whenever I'm not raiding but you may be able to just buy it
   
2. Bring your Flasks - you'll be dying consistantly until all the strats are out so flasks will end up being much cheaper AND with the changes they should be cheaper
3. Bring your Reagents - they cost sfa and especially in 10man content you may be the only person of a particular class
   
4. Bring your Patience - people will stuff up, you will wipe, people will say "what the hell was that" alot!
   
5. Bring your Sence of Humor - have a laugh when you do something nub but make sure you dont do it again haha
6. Have Fun - if you not having fun the time to /quit this stuff is great stuff so enjoy it