The Ulduar thread!

[Noobta]

For 10man we misdirected one to OT, then MT picked up second one. 25man we had MT pick up 1, OT pick up 2, and another OT pick up 1. I'm pretty sure they used CD's at first, and we just burned them down. After that it's just interrupting sentinel blast and making sure void zone doesn't drop in raid.

[Korietsu]

Freaking irks the hell out of me that all of our DPS are pulling 3500+ with most at 4500+, and we still can't beat the enrage on XT-002 in 25's.


Meanwhile, our 10's is knocking at Yogg-Saron's door. With some luck tonight on Mimiron we might get to see him!

Get better DPS. I'm pushing 4.5k and i'm in mostly 10's gear. No reason for 25 man raiders to not be pushing at least 4k at the minimum. Also, blow armies before the first heart phase, then bloodlust on the heart. Bloodlusted army of the dead is hawt.

[aurik]

Someone in IRC mentioned that his shadow crash is zero yard range now, nothing on the forums about a hotfix, find out next week ya? Some of these hard modes look pretty daunting.

Did a bunch of Vezax attempts last night and the night before. Many times we had shadow crash hit the melee, or the tank get a mark while we were just straight-up tanking it.

Thing also hits like a fucking truck, 13k+ is pretty painful in 10-man where the tank only has ~36-37k hp.

Eventually got him down.
http://i40.tinypic.com/2uoqpap.jpg


Didn't really get anywhere on Yogg. Got him to phase 2 once. I think our positioning strategy sucks tho: we are standing at the door in order to avoid clouds, which is a long long way from Sara. Too far...

[FailureMidgard]

Did a bunch of Vezax attempts last night and the night before. Many times we had shadow crash hit the melee, or the tank get a mark while we were just straight-up tanking it.

Are you sure nobody was moving? We had marks and crashes target melee when someone was just 1 step away due to General being moved, or them moving. Never had one on melee when he was stationary (and in 25man, we had ~22 people in melee range).

Didn't really get anywhere on Yogg. Got him to phase 2 once. I think our positioning strategy sucks tho: we are standing at the door in order to avoid clouds, which is a long long way from Sara. Too far...

Assuming your DPS can keep up with spawns fine (ours was 2-3x more than needed, I assume most any group that can get to Yogg can keep up with DPS), have either a druid or DK in full DPS gear just chill out near the middle (30 yds from where you kill it), and taunt the 1 you're DPSing off at like 25-50% (this # is really dependent on your raid...my 10man happened to have 2 locks and a shadowpriest, I assume if we had less DoT DPS, we coulda let it go lower than 50 before taunting, but it'd nearly die on it's way there with what we had). Have 1 ranged DPS you trust down closer to the center to kill it off once it's there. And the main group may still need to move off the door a little.

Anyway, once you figure stuff out, the DPS requirement for Yogg10 in P2 is pretty lenient.

[Noobta]

Mind posting a basic strat for Yogg? Hopefully getting to him tonight, but I can't find any info on him other than videos, which don't explain a lot.

[aurik]

Are you sure nobody was moving? We had marks and crashes target melee when someone was just 1 step away due to General being moved, or them moving. Never had one on melee when he was stationary (and in 25man, we had ~22 people in melee range).

Yea it was really shocking when the tank got marked, we were just standing it up near the beginning of the fight. We only kited during the rages. Same with shadow crash, though maybe the melee were standing at "long range". We eventually went back to casting from range, because shadow crash is easy to avoid.

By the end of the fight all 3 healers were completely gassed; you can see I was meleeing for clearcasting procs. Doing it without any mana regen at all, and dealing with the saronite animus, seems unbelievable on 10-man.

Assuming your DPS can keep up with spawns fine (ours was 2-3x more than needed, I assume most any group that can get to Yogg can keep up with DPS), have either a druid or DK in full DPS gear just chill out near the middle (30 yds from where you kill it), and taunt the 1 you're DPSing off at like 25-50% (this # is really dependent on your raid...my 10man happened to have 2 locks and a shadowpriest, I assume if we had less DoT DPS, we coulda let it go lower than 50 before taunting, but it'd nearly die on it's way there with what we had). Have 1 ranged DPS you trust down closer to the center to kill it off once it's there. And the main group may still need to move off the door a little.

Anyway, once you figure stuff out, the DPS requirement for Yogg10 in P2 is pretty lenient.

We were alternating tanks picking up the adds, and then having the tank run them to the center, which made clouds really fucking annoying. Also, they stop and cast aoes a lot, so it could take upwards of 8 seconds to get them to the center. Also, it was really really late by the time we got to yogg, I'm hoping we have clearer minds when we try again.

[FailureMidgard]

Mind posting a basic strat for Yogg? Hopefully getting to him tonight, but I can't find any info on him other than videos, which don't explain a lot.

Sure, spoilered incase people don't want to read it. Anything specific to # of players/etc is 10man only.

Phase 1:

Spoiler: show

There's a bunch of Yellow clouds in the room. They "activate" in 1 of 2 ways:
1. One activates every X seconds. This slowly speeds up the longer in the phase you are.
2. A person gets too close/inside a cloud.
An active cloud will spawn a big ugly add a short bit later, then deactivate itself.
Big ugly adds do 3 things: MC people (no cast bar, trinketable, dispellable), Some sort of Shadow Volley (~2sec cast iirc, interruptable), and explode on death.
In the middle of the room is an NPC, Sara. She does 2 things: puts a dot on the raid, puts a dot+enrage on the enemies (tranqable).

The goal to phase1 is to have 8 mobs explode within range (~15 yd I think) of Sara. She is a green target to you (not attackable), but will take damage from explosions. P1 ends when she hits 1 hp.

My suggestion is have most the raid near the door, only 1 tank with tank gear on. As adds spawn, that tank picks them up, DPS them down, make sure 1 person is interrupting (and any dispellers are watching for MC). When the mob gets "low", a tankish person near the middle taunts off and pulls the mob to Sara. Low really depends on your raid comp. Like I said earlier, my raid with 1 spriest and 2 aff locks needed to stop DPSing the target around 50%. If you have more melee, you may want to go to 30 or lower. You also need 1-2 ranged people to be in ranged of the center. 1 good ele shaman is perfect for this. They can interrupt volleys as he's running to the middle with a ranged interrupt, they can kill the mob when it gets to the center rather quickly (esp if they already had flameshock up before it got taunted), and they can heal that center tank after explosions. Do note, that center tank -shouldn't- need tank gear. PvP gear on the other hand isn't bad at all (crits are the only thing that should be lethal, and the stam on pvp gear isn't bad). Anyway, you could also have 1 mage + 1 paladin doing this together.

Summary: interrupt, dodge clouds, make sure the mobs die in the center. Easiest way to get it to the center is a taunt chain, as you can taunt across clouds fine, as long as the player doesn't run in the cloud. A DPSer can still taunt fine, and should be able to survive.

Finally, it's probably best if you "force" activate 1 cloud right as you engage...they spawn a lot slower early on, and since its 8 kills to enter P2, you can enter P2 sooner/before the fast spawns get too fast/out of control.

Phase 2:

Spoiler: show

Outside, 3 different tentacles spawn. Raid wants to stay generally together.
Constrictor Tentacle - 20k HP, grabs a person and keeps em immoble. First priority to kill, die fast.
Crusher Tentacle - 400 or 600k HP, forgot which. If nobody is in melee range, it channels a -20% dmg done debuff on the entire raid (stacks if multiple crushers up). Every time it gets hit, it gets a stacking buff that increases damage done. Best way is to just ranged them down, don't go in melee. If you get 2 up, the tank offtanks 1, kill other (so only 1 stack of -20% dmg). Second priority to kill.
Corruptor Tentacle - 60k HP I think. Last priority unless you have a good afflic lock (Which is ideal, but not a big deal in 10man). Anyone that can do a lot of damage for 1 global (dots basically) or melee should be on these. They cast some random annoying debuffs including curse of doom, a snare/slow, and a thing that randomly stuns. All are removable/cleansable.

Other things outside:
Random -12% sanity + low dmg.
Occasionally 2 people will get a beam connecting them. If they are too far apart (beam is red), they take dmg + sanity loss. If beam is yellow/gold, you're fine.
Sanity wells are green beam things in the 4 corners (assuming you talked to Freya and got her help).

Inside:
4 (i think) portals spawn when he opens portals. Send 1 healer, and 3 dps (melee first, since they can't kill crushers) inside. When you get inside, there's 1 of 3 illusions. From the time portals open up, you have 60 seconds inside. Each illusion has 2 things going on:
1. "Yellow" (as far as aggro goes) mobs. When you hit one, it turns into an influence tentacle. Influence tentacles have some damage reflect. Have to kill them all.
2. Floating skull things. As long as you look at them, you take dmg + sanity loss. DPS with your back to them, ideally.
Once all influence tentacles die, the illusion shatters and Yogg is stunned (all tentacles are stunned outside...any melee/tanks outside can help DPS crushers during stun). A path opens to the brainroom for people inside. When you target the brain, it's channeling some spell with a 60second total cast time. There is also a portal near the brain. If you don't use the portal before the channel finishes, you get perma-MCed, so make sure you get out with a few seconds to spare. Otherwise, go all out on the brain.

Once you get back out, check sanity, etc. Rinse/repeat. Note portals will be up like ~10sec after you get out (maybe 15-20, idk, it's faster than the p2 start -> first portal pop).

P2 ends when the brain (and Yogg, who's HP is linked to brain) hits 30%.

Ideally, if you want the easiest time in P3, you want 0 crushers up...basically, the last portal you take (when the brain will hit 30%), have DPS inside shatter illusion, then wait at the brain and have it hit 30% as late as possible so the outside crew has as much time as possible to get down crushers while they are stunned.

Phase 3:

Spoiler: show

Immortal Guardians spawn from all over the room. THEY WILL 1 SHOT NON TANKS (or activate Hodir, if he's up). Make sure your tank is decent at targetting and taunting before it gets in range of people. Even if 1 pops in the raid, it doesn't acquire a target and attack for ~1-2sec, it shouldn't hit someone if your tank is decent. Immortal Guardians have a stacked buff that makes them hit insanely hard (expect a tank to get hit for ~80% of his HP). The stack reduces as they take damage. So, DPS needs to be fast switching to em. I suggest tanking them by Yogg, and take advantage of incidental damage (chain lightning, multishit, WW, wandering plague, etc). They don't spawn too fast in 10man.
The skull from inside periodically spawns above Yogg. Turn around when it does. Sanity loss and dmg if you don't.
Yogg has a heal he targets on a guardian, it shouldn't be an issue.

Goal for P3 is just to kill Yogg and keep guardians controlled. Suggest keeping full dots on Yogg, + anyone who is bad at target switching. Other DPS control guardians. That's about it.

[Noobta]

Thanks a lot, hopefully we get him down tonight.

[FailureMidgard]

We were alternating tanks picking up the adds, and then having the tank run them to the center, which made clouds really fucking annoying. Also, they stop and cast aoes a lot, so it could take upwards of 8 seconds to get them to the center. Also, it was really really late by the time we got to yogg, I'm hoping we have clearer minds when we try again.

The taunt method is a lot better, IMO. Lets you taunt it right across a wall of 3 clouds easily. Also lets you only use 1 tank with tank gear for DPS later on.

And, 1 mage or shaman or something should be able to interrupt volleys while running. They should never cast more than once while moving between the 2 spots.

[Noobta]

What healers would you recommend? We have Pally(Holy/prot), Priest(holy), Shaman(enh/resto), Shaman(Ele/resto), and another holy paladin.

[FailureMidgard]

What healers would you recommend? We have Pally(Holy/prot), Priest(holy), Shaman(enh/resto), Shaman(Ele/resto), and another holy paladin.

I honestly don't think it matters much at all. I really like the ele shaman doing the center, since he can solo heal it (it's really just healing after an explosion) on the "tank", and interrupt the moving one, and kill the thing in the center (auto 18k crit assuming the ele shaman put up flame shock before it started moving), and purge MC off the center tank.

The more buffs the better though. I'd make sure you have at least 1 shaman, priest for fort+sprot is good (though if you have a spriest, moot point), at least 1 paladin is good. *shrug*.

[Arcana]

Finally on to the watchers, we tried freya at first, we're having issues getting the small lashers down, the random aggro is a pain in the ass. any ways to deal with this?

[Ishido]

Got Ignis and X2 down last night on 25 man. As expected Ignis went down when we finally got more than 4 "real" healers in the raid, and X2 when people started listening when we said "DPS as hard as you can and make sure he doesn't get scrapbots."

Also doing good DPS as feral was fun.

[Naramaska]

Finally on to the watchers, we tried freya at first, we're having issues getting the small lashers down, the random aggro is a pain in the ass. any ways to deal with this?

We had our hunters drop frost traps and people spread out--that means the lashers spend more time running to and from people rather than punching and exploding.

YouTube - Ulduar - Freya Explanation and Guide (3.1/Live servers)

That's how we did Freya on 10's, hopefully it should help you out some.

[Denchi]

Killed Freya and Thorim today in 25-man. We probably could have rushed through to Yogg, but we spent a long time working on hard modes.

I'm not really sure that's the best way to go, but our guild leader is pretty confident we can get a few hard modes this next reset, even with our current gearsets, so we'll see what happens. Would be nice to spend the first week gearing up, then the next week pushing it, but *shrug* I'm fine just having fun with the new fights. Definitely some great new mechanics and very entertaining.

[Boyiee]

My guild had a lot of trouble with Ignis on 10man, I feel like the fight is overtuned. We have 3 really good healers, and 2 great tanks. Most of us have been up to and cleared Muru in sunwell in TBC (hard muru).

OT just eats so much damage, adds spawn kinda quick, seems so much easier on 25.

XT we played with a little, so much going on I don't think people are staying on the boss long enough. Seems like a pretty high DPS requirement for a 10man. If you have just 10man gear, Ulduar seems too hard. Thank god most of us pugged 25's and have mostly bis so this week we should do much better with our main group. Feels like this instance is going to get a big nerfstick all around, like one of those reduce all bosses health by x% nerfs.

[Noobta]

Got vezax to 30%, but some people left because they didn't want to do trash again. Yogg next week I guess.

[Ishido]

Council, Kologarn, Auraiya, Hodir down 10 man. So far Ignis was by far the hardest. Other than that the fights seem of appropriate difficulty.

[Eaglestrike]

I'll admit I haven't done Ignis yet (tried him a few times, he was bugged, went to the rest of the instance) but Mimiron is by far more difficult than the other watchers/keepers/whatever they're called.

[Tymon]

I'm hearing that Vezax is a lot harder on 10-man because the damage is basically the same.

Not really hearing anyone having horrible problems on him on 25man right now