Ulduar - Algalon the Observer - 10m

Algalon's Abilities // 10 man

10-man
Algalon dual wields and his swing speed is extremely fast, with ~18,000 main hand and ~10,000 offhand swings coming every second or less.
Cosmic Smash – Calls an abyssal boulder from the sky that deals 41,438 to 43,562 Fire damage.
Black Hole Explosion – Instantly casts 16,088 to 16,912 Shadow damage to enemies.
Quantum Strike – Strikes at an enemy, inflicting 15,675 to 17,325 Physical damage within a 5-yard radius.
Phase Punch – Massive blow that inflicts 8,788 to 10,212 damage within a 5-yard radius, and slowly fades the target to another plane of existence.
Big Bang – Inflicts 76,313 to 88,687 Physical damage to nearby enemies. 8-second cast with a 3-second cooldown.
Berserk - Algalon the Observer enrages after 6 minutes.
Ascend to the Heavens – Is a 2-second cast that inflicts 655,500 to 724,500 Arcane damage to enemies.


Strategy


Phase 1
Algalon transforms the arena into space and immediately begins attacking the player with the highest threat. Algalon hits very hard and fast; he casts Quantum Strike on the tank with high frequency, so healers must ensure that the tank remains at full health at all times. All DPS merely attack the boss the best they can. Algalon can be positioned anywhere, as he has no frontal cleave or cone attacks.

After 15 seconds, Algalon begins casting Phase Punch on the current tank every 15 seconds and also summons four Collapsing Stars. Once the tank gets 5 stacks of the Phase Punch debuff, that tank is ported out for 10 seconds as if he stepped into a Black Hole, whereupon the debuff is completely removed. Algalon then switches to the second highest on his threat table. Your off-tank should be ready to taunt, with healers ready to change targets, as the off-tank begins taking substantial damage very quickly. Algalon will be Phase Punching the tanks throughout the fight; tanks must keep switching after.

Assign one or two ranged DPS to kill the Collapsing Stars one at a time. Since they slowly lose health on their own (1% health per second), if left alone, they will all explode at the same time and wipe the raid. Alert the healers so they are ready before a Collapsing Star is killed, as the entire raid takes roughly 16,000 shadow damage regardless of positioning (a tank who is too low on health when a star explodes can die and likely cause a wipe). When a star dies, it leaves behind a Black Hole, which is both a void zone and a portal to another realm. Collapsing Stars keep spawning throughout the fight until Phase 2 and should always be killed.

Every 25 seconds, Algalon casts Cosmic Smash on a random player, including a tank. This appears as a red fissure, which explodes after a few seconds. Everyone—not just the targeted player—should move away from the red fissure, as it causes splash Fire damage, based on player distance with the impact point.

Note: On 25-man, Algalon casts three separate Cosmic Smashes on three random players.
Fifty seconds after the initial pull, Algalon summons three Living Constellations that cast Arcane Barrage on random players and have normal threat tables. It is unnecessary to DPS a Living Constellation. Instead, a single player can aggro these and run behind any available Black Hole, as any Living Constellation that passes through a Black Hole dies instantly, causing that Black Hole to disappear. The player assigned to do this should be careful to run around a Black Hole instead of through it to avoid being portaled. Death Knights are an ideal choice for this, as they can stand behind Black Holes and use Death Grip to pull the Constellations into the hole.

Every 90 seconds from the initial pull, Algalon begins casting an 8-second lethal spell called Big Bang. To avoid getting hit by Big Bang, everyone must enter a Black Hole created by a killed Collapsing Star except for one person. For this reason, all players should be aware of the location of remaining Black Holes after Living Constellations are killed. Players need not enter the same Black Hole as everyone else; all Black Holes lead to the same dark realm. Once inside the Black Hole, players take roughly 1,500 Shadow damage per second and must avoid elite adds called Dark Matter scattered throughout the realm until Algalon finishes casting Big Bang, and automatically portals everyone back to the normal realm.

If everyone enters the Black Holes and Algalon has no player in the normal realm to target, he kills the raid with Ascend to the Heavens, then disappears. For this reason, one player must remain in the normal realm to eat the Big Bang. A player protected with a Holy Priest's Guardian Spirit, a Shadow Priest casting Dispersion, or a tank blowing all cooldowns are all capable of eating the Big Bang. Note: Big Bang ignores immunity effects such as Hand of Protection, Ice Block, and Divine Shield.

Entering a Black Hole also resets all threat of the player. If the currently Phase Punched tank stays outside to eat the Big Bang, the off-tank can taunt to gain all the threat he had upon return to the normal realm, ensuring that the rest of the raid doesn't pull aggro.
This phase continues until Algalon reaches 20%.


Phase 2
When Algalon reaches 20%, Collapsing Stars and Living Constellations despawn and stop respawning, and all open Black Holes disappear. Algalon continues to cast Quantum Strike, Phase Punch, Cosmic Smash, and Big Bang.

Algalon then summons four new Black Holes in a square pattern. Every 30 seconds, four Unleashed Dark Matters will spawn, one from each Black Hole. The off-tank needs to pick these up and tank them to the side for the rest of the fight, and DPS must burn down Algalon before these adds pile up and become too much to handle.

When this phase begins, consider swapping tanks, as the current tank will very likely have the Phase Punch debuff and the off-tank will have a hard time surviving if he has to tank the adds and Algalon together. If you swap once the Black Holes spawn, you'll be given about 45 seconds to defeat Algalon before a forced tank-swap which should be long enough. Players also need to keep alert about Cosmic Smashes as Algalon will still be using this.

Once Algalon reaches 1-2%, he is defeated, all adds and Black Holes despawn.

Ulduar - General Vezax

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.’

Ulduar - Yogg-Saron

Part 1 & 2:


Part 3:


Yogg-Saron

Overview

There are three phases:

Phase 1, the raid is together up top and fights the Guardians of Yogg-Saron to force him to appear.

Phase 2 the raid splits into two groups, one group staying up top to fight his tentacles and the other taking portals into his mind to attack his brain directly.

Phase 3, the final phase, the raid is reunited and work together to kill him.

Phase 1: Guardians

This is the "door strat" for Yogg. Alternatively if your raid is good at clouds, it's easier to simply have everyone in the middle.

The raid should enter Yogg’s room and remain close to the door.

The green clouds that swirl around the room will spawn Guardians of Yogg-Saron on a set timer. They will also spawn Guardians if a player runs into the cloud. Keeping the raid at the door minimizes the chance that a raid member will step into a cloud.

The goal of phase one is to kill Guardians while they are standing next to Sara, in the middle of the room. Killing them near Sara will cause damage to her, eventually reducing her HP to 0 and transitioning the fight to phase 2.

Most of the raid should remain near the door for this phase with only a few people moving up. The tanks who drag the Guardians to the middle as well as a few assigned ranged DPS/interrupters and possibly a healer should be the ones moving forward in this phase. The assigned ranged dps must finish killing off the Guardians after the tank has them positioned.

Interrupts on Dark Volley are needed both while they are tanked and while they are being moved to Sara: an Immortal pausing too long to cast could die out of range of Sara and not damage her with their Shadow Nova on death.

Two tanks seems to work best for most of this phase with a third tank as backup for any spawns that happen while both other tanks are out of camp dealing with dragging Guardians to Sara or making their way back.

It's absolutely critical that the entire raid dodge clouds and avoid spawning extra Guardians.

After Sara’s HP is reduced to 0, Yogg appears and phase 2 beings, kill off any remaining guardians as quickly as possible and prepare for tentacles.

Phase 2: Portals and Tentacles

In this phase you will have two distinct groups. A group that remains “up top” at all times, killing tentacles, and a group that will break off and go down portals.

Keep in mind that you do not have to send as many people down portals as is possible, the goal is to keep the top stable while getting the brain to 30% fast enough to avoid the enrage timer.

Both groups need to keep a careful eye on their sanity! There's no reason for anyone in either group to go insane as long as everyone plays well and pays attention.

Tentacle group

This group deals with the spells cast by a hostile Sara:

* Brain Link
* Psychosis
* Death Ray
* Malady of the Mind

For Brain Link, the two afflicted people simply need to stand together for the duration. If one takes a portal it's broken with no ill effects.

Death Ray is a killer only if you aren't paying attention: simply run away.

Complete descriptions of the abilities are listed in the abilities section.

There are three different types of Tentacles that spawn in phase 2, listed in priority kill order:

* Crusher Tentacles
* Constrictor Tentacles
* Corruptor Tentacles

Crusher Tentacles

Crusher Tentacles are kill priority number one for your ranged dps.

They are the most dangerous tentacle and must be dealt with as quickly as possible. The goal is to never have more than one up at a time, and ideally to have enough time between spawns to kill other tentacles.

These Tentacles each channel Diminish Power on the raid (including those in the portal.) Diminish Power reduces the amount of damage done by 20% and will stack up to 4 times (one per crusher alive) if crusher tentacles are allowed to pile up.

They will not channel this ability if there is someone in melee with them however, so a free tank can help keep the raid free of the debuff. Their damage also increases each time they take damage, so the tank needs to be adept at dancing in and out to avoid dying when damage gets high.

The raid can also reset the damage buff by pausing dps for a moment; based on your raid dps this may not be necessary.

Constrictor Tentacles

Constrictor Tentacles simply grab members of the raid dealing damage to them while the player remains in their grasp.

These are melee priority number 1 and ranged priority number 2.

Free your raid members as quickly as possible by killing the tentacles, while following the priorities. Ranged should keep in mind that they can continue casting while in the Constrictor and can thus continue killing Crushers or help free themselves if a Crusher is not active/in range.

Corruptor Tentacles

Corruptor Tentacles cast a multitude of debuffs on raid members (dispellers and interrupters need to be ready to help deal with this). These are last on the DPS priority list.

They can cast:

* Curse of Doom
* Apathy
* Black Plague
* Draining Poison

Portal Group

Portals spawn roughly once every 90 seconds and the assigned portal group must get down the portals as quickly as they can (one person per portal).

You may want to send down a healer with the DPS down the portal to help offset any damage taken while in the portals.

Once down the portal the images/tentacles must be killed as quickly as possible. In addition to the images, there are skulls down the portal which will attack any players who look at them (dps as much as possible with your back to them).

The skulls cast Lunatic Gaze at those who are facing them while in the portals. This deals shadow damage and decreases sanity.

After all of the images/tentacles are dead, a path will open to the Brain of Yogg-Saron. The brain must be killed as quickly as possible in the allotted time, getting it to 30% will transition the fight into phase 3.

The brain channels Induce Madness, starting with the spawning of portals and lasting for 60 seconds. If anyone is still in the portal after the 60 seconds have passed and the channel is complete, they are immediately driven insane and mind controlled by Yogg.

In order to be safe, you should allow for around 5 seconds of time to get over to the portal back to the top and click on it.

It is important that while the portal group is up top that they make sure to check/refill their sanity and kill as many tentacles as possible in order to reduce the total number of tentacles alive in phase 3 as much as possible.

Phase 3: Boss and Immortals

After the brain is brought to 30%, phase 3 begins. Yogg is now directly attackable.

Any leftover tentacles from phase 2 will remain active unless killed so it is important to be as caught up on tentacles as possible.

During this phase, Yogg will spawn Immortal Guardians. These must be tanked and dpsed down to 1% so that they can be finished off by Thorim’s Titanic Storm ability.

The Immortal Guardians do less damage to the tanks as their HP goes down, so keeping on top of DPS on them will reduce tank damage significantly and increase the tanks ability to be mobile for picking up new spawns.

While DPS on the Immortal Guardians is important it is also important to kill Yogg. He has roughly 15-16 million HP in this phase and must be killed before the 15 minute enrage.

We use melee on the Immortal’s with ranged DPS helping in order to keep them under control. It is generally a good idea to have ranged DPS with “execute range” abilites/damage buffs on Yogg as much as possible.

During this phase Yogg will cast a beefed up version of the phase 2 spell, Lunatic Gaze. This damage and sanity reduction is avoidable by facing away from Yogg when he casts the ability.

Tanks and healers should position themselves with their back to Yogg as much as possible, and DPS need to be quick at turning around when the spell goes off in order to reduce raid damage and keep their sanity high (the better you handle turning around quickly, the better raid dps will be, as people will not have to waste time refreshing their sanity at a well.)

During the time when they are turned away from Yogg, ranged can continue to assist in killing immortals guardians as long as they are tanked a bit away from Yogg to allow for space.

Yogg will also attempt to heal Immortal Guardians who are engaged with the raid using Empowering Shadows, a very powerful hot. This makes it important to focus dps as much as possible to get spawns killed off before they can be healed.

This phase really breaks down to quick tank pickups in order to prevent deaths and then finding a dps balance that allows Yogg to be killed quickly while also keeping the Immortal Guardian spawns manageable.

After people have had a chance to learn the fight, turning around should become second nature when Lunatic Gaze is cast, and long term this ability should not cause much issue.

Common Problems

Raid Leader Note: It is a good idea to do some vocal reminding over vent during the encounter to encourage players to do a “Sanity Check”)


HARDMODE VIDEO:



elcome back to the TankSpot Ulduar raid guide! My name is Aliena and in this video I'll explain the strategy used for One Light in the Darkness, the hard mode of the yogg saron encounter needed to complete Glory of the Ulduar Raider.

If you'd like more information or would like to learn more about downloading this movie, click "more info" on the movie information box on YouTube to head directly to TankSpot! Also, be sure to subscribe by clicking the Subscribe button to the right so you will be automatically notified as we release movies.

You can choose to have any or none of the Keepers assist you in the Yogg fight after defeating them. For One Light in the Darkness, Thorim is usually the Keeper of choice to be left up.

With the rest of the Keepers not assisting, you lose the following buffs and abilities compared to normal mode:
* A 30% damage bonus, as each keeper gives you an extra 10%
* Mimiron's 20% movement speed increase
* Freya's 20% healing received bonus
* Sanity Wells - there will be NONE at all
* Hodir's 20% reduced damage taken buff
* Hodir's occasional ice tomb saves

Tentacles in phase 2 will attack twice as fast and cast three times as fast.

With Thorim left alive you do however retain a 20% health bonus and the Immortal Guardians in Phase 3 are killable.

The most important part about making this fight work for you is precision and team work. Your raid members need to carry out their assigned jobs and be prepared to deal with random RNG happenings such as a constrictor tentacle right before a portal spawn.

Apart from added difficulty, the fight stays exactly the same. For instance, you still have to kill 9 Guardians of Yogg-Saron close to Sara to trigger phase 2.

Whether you dance around the clouds like our raid is doing here or have your raid assembled at the entrace of the room is up to you. Cloud dancing does speed up the entire phase by a lot though, and you have a lot less AoE damage going out.

Make sure to have all melee move away from a guardian before it explodes. Failing to get out in time can very easily mean a death. You also want to try and avoid having raid members touch a cloud. While you should reasonably be able to deal with an extra or two, it's essentially wasted time and could be an obstacle later on especially while you're still learning the fight.

Your raid should always be moving as a group. In phase 1, your ranged members will have to move as a group as best as they can so no one accidentally moves away from a healer and gets Sara's Blessing cast on them. In phase 2, you'll split your raid into an upstairs and a downstairs team that also always needs to move together as best as they can.

If you have a hunter or a rogue aboard, they should watch for guardians that receive the Sara's Anger buff and tranquilize them.

When Sara's health hits 0, phase 2 is triggered. This part of the fight is all about targetted and efficient DPS. Of course, the "stay out of bad stuff on the ground" rule still applies. Your upstairs team should have the following priority system for killing tentacles:
Constrictor Tentacles before Crusher Tentacles before Corruptor Tentacles. Shadow priests and warlocks should be rolling dots on everything they can possibly reach.

You can have anywhere from one to four brain phases but with a bit of practice at the fight you should shoot for two at the most. We send a melee team with a hunter downstairs. Assign a portal to each of your downstairs DPS ahead of time. They have to be ready at their portal as soon as they spawn. Each of them should also be assigned to specific areas of the room downstairs. You should aim to burn down the Influence Tentacles downstairs in no more than 20 seconds to give your upstairs team enough time to clear every mob up top without the annoying Diminish Power debuff from Crusher Tentacles.

Do take care to avoid the Death Rays on the ground. From the time you see them popping up until they start moving around you have approximately 5 seconds, that should give even your slowest raid member enough time to put a safe distance in between them and a ray.

You can no longer be targetted with Malady of the Mind or Psychosis if you have less than 40 sanity left, but you still want to avoid chaining Malady as best as you can. If someone close to you gets targetted with it, run away from them.

Once your downstairs team pops out of the brain room, have a healer meet up with them to heal them and then have them take care of nearby corruptor tentacles until they have to move back to their portal positions.

Dispels, cleanses and decurses up top need to be quick and thorough. You simply can't afford to have someone impaired in their movement or take a chunk of extra damage. Have healers or other people that are assigned to cleanse debuffs set up macros or keybinds ahead of time. If possible, have a ret paladin in your downstairs team so he or she can cleanse black plague and Apathy off any unfortunate soul that took a portal but got a debuff at the last moment.

Assign a meet-up spot upon triggering phase 3 so your downstairs team has the shortest possible path to the rest of the group.

In phase 3, healers should keep their back turned to Yogg Saron at all times. We primarily have ranged dps and dot classes on Yogg himself while melee work on the Immortal Guardians. Depending on whether DPS on the Guardians or DPS on Yogg is lacking, we may ask someone to help out temporarily.
Watching your sanity is of extreme importance as you can't just walk over to a sanity well and refill it. Don't chance it if you're low on sanity and keep your back turned when Yogg's Lunatic Gaze cooldown is up.

Tanks need to be able to pick up any guardian that spawns before it reaches the person it initially had aggro on. They should also keep guardians at least 20 yards away from Yogg so that Empowering Shadows only heals the guardians and not Yogg himself. As long as the guardians die quickly and don't build up too much, it's a controlled phase that just requires some execution and communication.

Ulduar - Mimiron

Phase1: Leviathan MKII

Ranged should spread out around him just outside the circle of mines. Melee other than the tank should group up behind the MKII inside the circle of mines. He will cast plasma blast every 45 seconds. All healing should be on the tank unless someone is likely to die otherwise. Shock blast usually follows closely after plasma blast. The tank should run directly away from the front of the MKII and then reengage along the same vector after the blast, and hopefully face him the same direction.

Ranged DPS/Healers who are hit by Napalm Shell do not need to move after being hit. The flame effect is only graphical.

Healing on this phase is priority on the main tank, then people hit by Napalm Shell.
This phase requires a melee tank.


Phase 2: VX-001 Anti-personnel Assault Cannon
Ranged can stay at a distance from the boss and everyone should spread out equally around the mimiron, as soon as the mines have despawned (be careful - sometimes mines appear to despawn but are still active).
Rapid Burst does minimal damage compared to the other attacks, but that deals damage to all targets in front of VX-001. Rocket Strike causes a red target to appear on the ground. People must move out of this target within 3s or they die. Only one rocket is fired each time in Phase 2. As soon as the dps observes that the VX-001 casts Spinning Up, everyone must move behind it. Standing in front of P3Wx2 is instant death.
During the Laser Barrage melee should stand at the edge of the cannon's hit box as meleeing from the center can move you into the laser barrage.
Healing in this phase is mostly AoE.

This phase is untanked.


Phase 3: Aerial Command Unit
Everyone should move into one third of the room, as marked out by the lines on the floor. The Healers and ranged except for the ranged tank should be in the back middle as far away from the bot spawns as possible. A warrior can use Spell Reflection on the Plasma Balls throughout the phase and maintain good threat which will endure into phase 4. This avoids most of the damage from the Plasma Balls and allows proper allocation of a DPS class. The ranged tank needs to immediately pick up the boss. The melee tank(s) should start picking up the smaller bots that start spawning around the room, staying away from and killing the Bomb Bots that the Aerial Command Unit drops. He can be seen casting "Bomb Bots' when he drops a single bomb bot to the floor below, it will then chase a random player until killed or meeting with that player and exploding. Bomb bots can be slowed. The following macro can be used by DPS, Healers and even Tanks with instant ranged attacks to ease the burden of bomb bots. With the raid as a whole using it bomb bots can be destroyed easily before they reach the raid.


/cast [target=Bomb] [Instant Ranged Ability]


Alternatively a plate DPS can stand under the Command Unit and taunt the Bomb Bot as it lands. The bot will move to them and explode. This damage is easily sustainable (25 man) with fire resistance and healers aware of when the bot is incoming. The rest of the raid should stand back from this bomb soak with melee moving in when the Command Unit is grounded. Be aware that if you move in while not on full health you may be caught in the blast of the last bomb dropped before grounding so hold on for a heal before moving in to DPS. No bombs will be dropped during the ground phase. This approach will allow more predictable healing of bomb damage and save DPS time trying to kill it (as it will kill itself).
The Deadly Boss Mods addon is very useful during this phase. It will automatically change the loot setting to Free For All during this phase and will return it to its previous setting at the end of the phase. This is so electromagnets can be picked up by melee. They drop off the Assault Bots. Once picked up, this item should be used underneath the Aerial Command.
Melee dps should be focusing on the small bots until he is pulled down by the electromagnet. At that point all dps should be on the Aerial Command Unit. Ranged dps should be on the bombs that spawn under the Aerial Command Unit and on the Aerial Command Unit otherwise.
Healing on this phase is focused on the range tank and melee tank(s).
This phase is range-tanked.


Phase 4: V-07-TR-0N
Each of the previous phase's targets have their own health pool and can be targeted separately. All three targetable sections begin this phase at 50% health.
The main tank needs to pick up the MKII the same as in Phase 1. The ranged tank needs to pick up the Aerial Command Unit the same as in Phase 3. From what we could tell, there is no threat reset between the phases. The VX-001 remains untanked.
The raid should stand either directly behind or directly in front of the main tank. Ranged should be outside the land mines, Melee should be inside.
Due to the timing of the cooldowns on the current live realms, the first and third shock blasts happen very near in time to the P3Wx2 attack from the middle section. It is essential that the tank move away and approach back along a vector that does not pass in front of the VX-001. The P3Wx2 seems to start to the side of where the MKII is facing. Everyone should move behind the VX-001.

2 Rockets spawn at a time during this phase. They are still a one shot kill.
Dps should be split up between the 3 sections. All sections need to die within 10 seconds, else they respawn. Melee cannot reach the aerial command unit.
Healing should be split up between the Leviathan's damage on the melee tank, the Aerial Command Unit's damage to the ranged tank, and the raid damage done by the VX-001. The Leviathan will no longer Plasma Blast the melee tank or Napalm the raid, and the VX-001 will no longer Heat Wave the raid.








Firefighter


DO NOT PUSH THIS BUTTON!

The Firefighter Hard Mode is initiated by pressing the Big Red Button. This will dramatically change the encounter. All of Mimiron's normal abilities will continue.

Note: If your raid members still die with any regularity to Proximity Mines, Shock Blast, Rocket Strike or Laser Barrage DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS HARD MODE.

Firstly all vehicles and bots in the encounter gain 30% damage and health.
Secondly every 30 seconds three patches of flame will spawn near random players (this makes the spawn locations of the fire controllable). These flames hit for 10,000 fire damage per second. They will slowly creep towards the nearest player (this makes the Fire's location controllable). These flames spawn in all phases and continue spawning between phases.
Thirdly the room will self destruct after 10 minutes, putting a new enrage timer on the encounter.

Fourthly Mimiron will gain new abilities and a new type of bot in phase 3:

Leviathan MK II: Flame Suppressant. Once per phase 1 the Leviathan MK II will extinguish all existing fires and slow the casting speed of the raid by 50% for 8 seconds. Removable via Ice Block and Divine Shield.

VX-001 Anti Personnel Assault Cannon: Frost Bomb. The VX-001 will drop a very obvious blue bomb on a random area of the room every ~45 seconds or so in both phase 2 and phase 4. This will explode after 10 seconds, dealing 50,000 frost damage to nearby players and extinguishing all fires within 30 yards.

Emergency Fire Bot: These spawn from new blue beams in phase 3. They have a Deafening Siren which will silence all nearby players within 15 yards. This acts as an aura. They will run around the room seeking out fire patches and extinguishing them with a 15 yard radius Water Spray that does 20,000 frost damage to any players hit, knocking them back 200 yards. They spawn rapidly, have very little HP and are very dangerous should the healers become silenced so a ranged DPS or two should be assigned to exclusively killing them.

The main difficulty to Firefighter is controlling the fires. You want to stay near existing fires so that fires will overlap and give you more of the room to work with. Most of the room will be covered in flames by the end of phase 3. If you do not control fires well you will run out of room and burn to death. Always try to stay together and keep the fires overlapping and to the outside edges.

Ulduar - Hodir

Fight Tactics:

This is a single-phase fight that remains the same from beginning to end when Hodir is at 1% health. Making effective use of the friendly NPC buffs can increase raid DPS tremendously, and is necessary to complete the encounter in hard mode, which requires killing Hodir within 3 minutes. Note: Turn on the "Projected Textures" option in the game video settings for this fight (as of patch 3.1.1, this option is on by default), as much of the avoidable raid damage requires seeing the glowing white target circles on the ground.

Once the encounter begins by pulling the boss or attacking an iceblock, all players must be aware of Hodir's Biting Cold aura. This aura cannot be outranged and will stack a DoT debuff every few seconds whenever a player is not moving. The amount of damage done every tick increases rapidly with every stack of the debuff, so players that accumulate more than a few stacks will likely die. Moving will only remove one stack of the debuff every second, so players who have multiple stacks of the debuff must remain moving for several seconds before the debuff is completely removed.

Throughout the fight, Hodir will randomly cast Freeze, a Frost Nova-type spell centered on a random member of the raid. The targeted player—along with any other players within 10 yards—become rooted for 10 seconds. Dispel this as quickly as possible. Priest Mass Dispel works well for this. Paladins can help free players with Hand of Freedom and Mages can Blink to free themselves. Gnome characters can also use Escape Artist, so gnome mages have two escapes from this root effect. Humans can use Every Man For Himself and Rogues have Cloak of Shadows and Vanish. The major problem with Freeze is if it prevents players from moving out from under an Icicle, or to safety from Flash Freeze. It may be worth saving one's personal escapes for these situations.

Icicles will fall from the ceiling onto players randomly during the fight. They are visually cued by snowflakes pouring down before they land and, with projected textures, a white target circle on the ground. Players have a few seconds to move from the area before the Icicle hits the ground, causing significant damage to all players in the area and knocking them back around 30 yards if they are not already rooted by Hodir's Freeze spell.

Periodically, Hodir gains a self-buff called Frozen Blows. It reduces the physical damage he does, but in turn buffs frost damage to his attacks (up to 40,000 unresisted). While Hodir has the Frozen Blows buff, he also deals 4,000 frost damage to the whole raid every 2 seconds, so healers will have to be prepared when they hear Hodir roar. If the raid is employing a frost resist tank, he needs to watch for the emote tied to this and immediately taunt him. Healers also need to be paying attention for the emote to switch targets onto the frost resist tank. When the buff wears off, the original tank must taunt back immediately and the healers must switch back right away again.

When Hodir starts casting Flash Freeze, three large icicles will begin to fall (two on Normal). The areas where these icicles will fall are immediately marked by a mound of snow and a large white targeting circle on the ground. Players should get next to, but not inside one of these large circles as soon as possible. After several seconds the large icicle will crash into the ground causing tremendous damage to anyone in the circle and knocking them 30 yards away. After the icicle has hit the ground, all players have only a couple seconds to run into the circle where a large icicle has just fallen. Any NPCs or players who are not in one of the large circles will be frozen in an iceblock by the Flash Freeze. Players and NPCs in iceblocks should be freed immediately prior to resuming DPS on Hodir.

Overall, this fight is mostly a test of endurance. No players should get more than a couple stacks of the Biting Cold debuff. Very few should ever get hit by falling Icicles. And no one should get frozen by Flash Freeze.

Ulduar - Freya

Phase 1
Every minute waves spawn in a random order:

Wave Type 1:
Storm Lasher, Ancient Water Spirit and Snaplasher. They have varying HP from 500k to 1M and yet they all need to be killed at about the same time, otherwise 12 seconds after death they resurrect (reminiscent of the High Priest Thekal raid boss adds). All three adds can be stunned and interrupted. Reduces Attuned to Nature stacks by 10 each.

Snaplasher: Has a debuff that every time an attack is made against the Snaplasher its damage is increased by 10%. Can stack up to 99 times. In 10-man each stack will also reduce its movement speed by 5% so once the stack reaches 20 the Snaplasher will be immobilized at which time tank and melees should move away and let ranged classes dps it down safely. In 25-man they need to be picked up by an off tank and start getting DPSed. The off tank has to monitor the stacking buff and once it reaches ~50 all attacks must stop. If no attacks are made against the lasher for 4 seconds the debuff will reset. Stacks will increase only once per executed attack or spell, not on periodic, reflective or procced damage, thus DoTs and channeled spells are the safest way to deal damage against the Snaplasher as well as spells with a long cast time or two-handed melee weapon strikes.
Unlike many mobs, Snaplashers (on 10-man) will not melee a target next to them if the person highest on their threat list is out of melee range. In a melee-heavy raid, the DPS can work on the other adds first while the tank builds up threat and periodically lets the debuff fall off. When ready, the tank can simply walk away and the other DPS can hit the snaplasher with impunity.
Another option is to kite the Snaplasher with a high-threat class like a hunter, helped by any slowing ability (Slow from Arcane Mages, Hamstring, Crippling Poison, etc..). This way you can go all out on DPS on it, as it has the highest amount of the three, and completely cancels the effect of its debuff; this method also frees up a tank so in a typical 3-tanks raid allows better control of the other two adds.

Storm Lasher: Casts damaging nature spells and a chain lightning that hits up to 5 (10-man: 3) other players. Should be stunned and interrupted as often as possible.

Ancient Water Spirit: Periodically surges forward in a straight line and knocks back any player in its way. Should be tanked facing away from the rest of the raid.

Wave Type 2:
Detonating Lasher: They come in a waves of 10, spawning in a circle around Freya.
They have 234k HP, are untankable, and randomly run from player to player. When one dies it does a short ranged AoE for 8k~ (around 15 yards) which makes AoEing them all at once on one spot a bad idea.
Reduces Attuned to Nature by 2 stacks per mob.


Wave Type 3:
She will also spawn a bigger add at some point, an Ancient Conservator with 2.2M HP. This is wave type 3. Just off-tank him and kill him to remove 25 stacks from Freya. He periodically uses Conservator's Grip to silence and pacify all members of the raid. Staying under the Healthy Mushrooms that spawn during this time in the zone will remove and protect against this debuff. A paladin using Aura Mastery with Concentration Aura can offer temporary protection from this debuff if no mushrooms are near. He can also cast Nature's Fury on a random player who will damage all nearby players for 10 seconds, so he should quickly move away from the rest of the raid.
Reduces Attuned to Nature by 25.


Phase 2
The waves will stop spawning, Freya has the same abilities as phase one with the exception of the healing augmentation buff. It is a tank and spank phase. Freya will begin throwing out Nature Bombs in this phase and raid members must be careful to move away or they can prove lethal. If too many raid members are lost it may become impossible to DPS through Freya's Touch of Eonar.