Written by mek
Introduction
This encounter probably has the least finesse factor and the highest RNG factor of all of the Ulduar hardmodes. The aim is to kill him in less than 3 minutes, BigWigs has a timer that u can use to track this achievement. It’s all about optimising your damage and ultimately doing a huge amount of boss damage without people dying. It’s very simple and all the mechanics are the same as normal difficulty. The main issues are that not only do you rely on luck regarding how the NPC’s behave but also luck on who gets buffed with what and the positioning of the various buffs. However since this fight was reduced to 3 minutes it has become significantly easier and should no longer present much of a problem!
NPC’s
There are 8 NPC’s on this fight that are designed to assist you, if done correctly they provide huge damage buffs that with a bit of luck will guide you to success. It’s important to understand the capabilities of all these NPC’s and how best to utilise them before the rest of the fight is dicussed.
-Mage-
There are two mages: Missy Flamecuffs and Sissy Flamecuffs as Alliance. Veesha Blazeweaver and Amira Blazeweaver as Horde. Mages are the most important npc’s to keep alive and keep operational.
Toasty Fire: The Mages place fires on the ground, these are useful for 2 reasons: Firstly you cannot be frost nova’d or be affected by Biting Cold while standing near them. Secondly your magic attacks will apply a stacking debuff and also deal and extra 3k damage or so. This stacking debuff (called Singed) stacks up to a total of 25 times giving 50% magic damage taken debuff. This is an extremely important debuff to keep up.
Melt Ice: This is cast on players or NPC’s who are frozen with Flash Freeze, this is an extremely effective way to do this since it removes the freeze in 10 seconds and means players do not have to dps the frozen target.
Fireball: These NPC’s also deal damage, it’s not much but it’s the most of all the npc’s in terms of personal dps
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by Zach Yonzon
Flame Leviathan
First up is Flame Leviathan. Obviously, none of the usual strategies will apply here but one key point players should remember is that the vehicles scale with gear. This means having to prepare an outfit set optimized for the encounter. One thing to note about vehicle scaling is that it doesn’t look at stats, just iLevel. Optimizing a gear set for this means putting the highest iLevel item you have in every slot. For “pure” classes, this is usually their normal set-up, but for Paladins who keep several sets of gear, an iLevel-optimized outfit can be composed of healing items, a few tank items, some DPS items, and even PvP gear. Players can use AddOns such as RatingBuster to determine an item’s iLevel and outfit managers such as Outfitter or Blizzard’s new in-game equipment manager to quickly swap gear.
Vehicle strategies are everywhere, but Retribution Paladins who would prefer to do something familiar should hop on a Salvaged Siege Engine, which plays the most like melee. The difference is that this isn’t a DPS role, and steam pressure should be kept in reserve for Electroshock to interrupt Flame Vents and Steam Rush to create some distance when Flame Leviathan targets the player. It’s still more about learning the fight and vehicle roles and less about any particular class.
Ignis the Furnace Master
This is a very good fight for Retribution Paladins, despite the need to move the boss around. This is because Ignis’ most devastating attacks are easily avoidable by melee — Scorch won’t be a problem as long as players manage to keep behind the boss and Flame Jets won’t interrupt anything as everything is instant cast. Even the geyser knockback (or up) won’t make a difference because players staying close enough can keep hitting the boss.
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by Chase Christian
the Keepers, the real meat and potatoes of Ulduar. These bosses drop our coveted Tier 8 (complete with its fantastic 4-piece bonus!) and other loot that you’ll want to get your hands on. These fights are also more technically complex, and so you’ll want to be prepared before attempting to down these bosses for the first time.
Hodir
Role: DPS
The Hodir fight is characterized by massive raid damage, both incoming and outgoing. The adds on the fight provide two buffs of great interest to Rogues: Starlight and Storm Power. With these two abilities, Rogues can gain a massive amount of haste and critical strike damage. While active, Rogues are amongst the top DPS classes in this encounter. Mages have the additional benefit of Singed, but can have a lower uptime due to movement to avoid being afflicted by Biting Cold. Be sure not to use Cloak of Shadows to try to avoid moving out from under Icicles, as they will still knock you back even if resisted.
I have two suggestions that will make Hodir significantly easier for you. The first is to Feint every time Frozen Blows becomes active, as it will mitigate much of the damage you take. This is key to giving your healers some breathing room while dealing with the hardest part of this encounter, very similar to the XT-002 fight. Secondly, keep moving throughout the entire fight. Even slight sidesteps will keep the Biting Cold debuff from building up on you. You also want to be keen to move into Starlight beams or near Toasty Fires when available, as this will let you make the most use out of the buffs available. You have 180° behind the boss to work with, maneuver yourself to the best possible location.
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by Lodur
Hodir is a fight that requires a lot of movement. This boss is a big cuddly snowman who likes to spread the love, and the iceblocks. This fight will keep you on your toes.
Notes about the fight:
- Lots of movement
- Raid wide damage
Abilities
Biting Cold – This is an aura like affect that pulses through the entire raid. This is much like the ability from Keristrasza in the nexus, you need to keep moving to keep it from stacking up on you. Each stack increases the periodic damage it deals.
Freeze – This deals about 5k frost damage to all players within 10 yards of the target, it also roots the targets in place.
Flash Freeze – This encases the entire raid in blocks of ice. This is prevented by standing on snowdrifts.
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