Ulduar Strategy Notepad

[Kulldam]

Need somewhere to jot my ideas and notes down and figured here as good as any before I forget.

I Choose You, Runemaster Molgeim
Big Guy first, little guy second
Four large circular patterns on floor look about the right size to use for positions vs. Molgeim
One caster+healer at each of four tips, melee in center with Molgeim. Rune of Death spawn should be small enough to only affect the one point out of the five. The other four points can stay in-place and continue DPS/healing. Players in the targeted point simply move to the side to join an adjacent point.
Elemental Spawn portals spawn at a player-marked point, just like Rune of Death. Upon spawn, five seconds or so until elems pop. If elem portal spawns under point, those players move and AE begins on elem spawn point. May need frost trap or Blizzard-specced mage for snare, as explode on impact with another player (and death?)Dwarfaggedon
Tested earlier this morning on Druid, took a few minutes to solo. ANYONE READING THIS -- PLEASE DO NOT GO SOLO THIS, WAIT FOR OUR RAID WEDNESDAY SO WE GET GUILD CREDITFirefighter
Utilize the walls and the space -- the raid should act like they're playing Snake, where you're dragging your tail behind you and want to utilize as much of the space as possible.
Stick against walls whenever possible, especially between phases. Bunch up raid and rotate together as each set of flame spawns occur.
Three spawns between phase 1/2 (three between 2/3 and 3/4?)
Flames have a 'head' just like Snake and chase nearest player. Can be led if player nearest moves every couple seconds.
Most of fight is similar to normal otherwiseRubble and Roll
Kill arms in back and forth manner, never DPS the body until at least five arms and adds have been killed.Lumberjacked
2 tanks/3 healers
Send entire raid to first Elder (probably front guy first). Stop DPS at 10-15% and let the tank and one healer stay behind.
Rest of raid engages second Elder (stunning guy, back-right). Stop at 10-15% as well.
Lastly, first tank/healer team move with raid to back-left elder and engage with raid (8 total). Once 10% health, second-elder team brings Elder into melee range and raid AEs them down.
May require 3 tank/3 healer setup if damage is too high on first/third tank, though will have two healers when tanking two elders.Orbital Bombardment and the like
Tower of Storms seems easiest, as the buff to Flame Leviathan is only 25% physical damage which should never be a factor.
Tower of Flames second, increases flame damage from his AE so interrupts must be quick.
Unknown between Frost and Nature. Depends on adds from Nature, will have to test.Heartbreaker
Ranged/Healers all stack up ~15-20 yards from XT.
Tank XT perpendicular to the ranged/healer group with melee stacked in back. One druid healer in each group (one ranged and one melee) for Wild Growth during Tantrum.
Member targetted with Light Bomb immediately runs out of assigned position and goes behind the MT ~10-15 yards (i.e. West) and waits at smoke-marked position. As soon as their Light Bomb expires, member runs back to position as the Life Spark spawns and agroes the raid (generally a healer).
Ranged DPS immediately attack the Spark (/target Life Spark on primary nuke/attack macro). Earthbind totem/frost trap placed just behind the tank to slow the Spark as it runs toward the ranged/healer group.
If DPS is too low and it threatens to get close, MT taunts the Spark back toward him to allow extra time to finish it off.
Repeat for each Light Bomb.
Member Targetted with Gravity Bomb immediately runs to assigned area to the East, ~25-30 yards away from the ranged group and waits for debuff to expire, causing an explosion. Deals decent damage to targetted player but won't hit anyone else. Leaves a void zone upon detonation, therefore players should stand near the edge of an existing void zone when waiting for expiration of their Gravity Bomb debuff.Stokin' the Furnace
Best recorded kill time for Ignis is 4:22, thus 22 seconds short.
May try tanking him in water, removing the need to move him at all. Should increase DPS a fair amount.
Can also try single-tanking, having Ignis tank pickup adds and giving us either 7 DPS/2 Healer
Lastly, can single-tank with 7 DPS/2 healer but have MT stand in the fire with each golem spawn. Upon going molten, golem resets agro and runs toward healers, who are standing in water, forcing a molten golem to freeze before engaging anyone.Crazy Cat Lady
High avoidance required for both tanks.
One cat per tank, if bleeds continue to stack, have to swap both cats back and forth. Splitting is ideal, as removes 50% damage bonus.Who Needs Bloodlust?
Requires some form of Mind Control - anything other than Priest?I Could Say That This Cache Is Rare
Three healers wastes too much DPS; need to practice with two
Ranged should be in Toasty Fire as much as possible to proc Singed (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=65280) quickly. Ranged DPS should never move out of Toasty Fire except if it despawns or to get onto large rune for freeze.
We need a fast way to recognize who gets buffed with Storm Power and have that player move to the caster/tasty group if needed.
Don't break out the Druid or Priest initially, get the Mage and Shaman and let the NPC break the other two.
Healers should always be in a Starlight beam whenever possible, but especially during Frozen Blows for the 100% haste to allow enough throughput to heal the raid. Ideally we should only see 2 or 3 Frozen Blows phases so mana shouldn't be the issue.Lose Your Illusion
Same basic setup for final phase as Sif is not attackable.
Start with Thorim on Kulldam so Khrashdin can dispel Frost Nova until Taunt/tank is needed. By then, threat from Taunt should be well over DPS and can continue dispelling Frost Nova without worrying about using tank ability every GCD.
Blizzard roams around room similar to Mage dude in Karazhan. As before, raid should be spread and avoiding lightning bursts from Thorim but also avoid blizzard.
Thorim's damage is a great deal higher than normal so healing will be very difficult, may require a DPS to help heal during phase (Ugra, Huggey, etc.).
As phase 3 goes on as Thorim's buff gets higher, cooldown rotation may be helpful. Can Shield Wall > Divine Sacrifice a two-string set of Unbalancing Strikes near the end if needed.Knock, Knock, Knock on Wood
The Elders don't attack during the fight, but give Freya an ability and increase damage/health of Freya and her adds.
In total, with all three Elders, all damage (physical and magic) increased by 50-75% from all sources.
Freya will cast the single-target root that is attackable and must be quickly killed (/target Iron Roots for DPS)
Freya casts Ground Tremor, raid-wide interrupt similar to Ignis so casters must use a focus to watch for the cast.
Freya casts Solar Flare, a beam that deals damage over time to anyone inside. Best to constantly move positions anytime that graphic appears.
Otherwise, fight remains the same. Due to increased damage, important to interrupt the three-spawn adds and not get meleed by the kited add.General Vezax

Try stacking ranged at single point. Everyone runs out on crash and mark target runs out alone mark always right, crash always left or something.
All ranged can use crash.
Hard mode have healers out of melee range and move General on top of Shadow Crash cloud so all casters and melee can use black puddle.

[Khrash]

On "Knock, Knock, Knock on Wood"

"Freya casts Ground Tremor, raid-wide interrupt similar to Ignis so casters must use a focus to watch for the cast."

I have Aura Mastery which removes/prevents all interupts/silences. I just need a 2 second warning so I use it.

[Rofldat]

My thoughts(post here mostly for future self-reference):

Orbitals:
Since I've read contradicting posts of whether leaving towers up actually activate the obital defense or deactivate them, but I've seen what they'd look like when they're up in videos, I'd like the group to clear up to Flame Levi area, at which point I can see if we'll need to destroy or not destroy the towers to get it
and I think we can do 2/4 with Thorim/Mimiron up

Stokin' the Furnace
Whichever tank generate better threat on the move should pull, and DPS should start hitting him as soon as possible, while not going over cap while the tank slowly move Ignis into position

Siffed(and possibly Lose Your Illusion)
On first boss have the DPS keep attacking through the shield if the healer's comfortable healing them and tank(I should be able to heal some back with Death Strike, but will need 1-2 heal overall)
Probably have Kinzie start to run to Thorim as soon as the second boss reach 1-2%, with Sprint(which means Khrash or Kull will have to call 2nd phase incoming as soon as the second boss drop)

Rare Cache:
Tank in a corner, because this way the NPCs will have to get near that corner to hit Hodir(so they'll be close to each other)
ranged DPSs should stack up within Toaty Fire and Starlight aura, but such that even if Icicle fall on them, it won't hit Toatsy Fire
-healer should try to get a different Starlight, due to Stormcloud
(alternatively, the ranged DPSs could stand closes to melee, so if mage NPC drop the fire near them it might helps the melee as well)
the person with Stormcloud should run into the stacked range DPS to maximize its benefit

Unbroken
If Kull 'accidently' do normal mode again, we can try it :P

Nine Lives
Doesn't look like anything complicated, similar to Kolo's 25 Rubble and Roll achievement, we'll just have take it slow

Not-So-Friendly Fire
Everyone stack up in one spot(the body's hand blast will hurts like hell) and step back slightly when rocket fires
since it doesn't require Mimiron kill...well, the thought of Mimiron doing a raid wipe with 1 rocket sounds like an amusing experience to laugh about

Smell of Saronite
Have healers stand at range instead of DPSs, every DPSs stay close to Genera
On Shadow Crash, the healer call or it and Tank move General to the position of puddle, the healer who was targeted(and others, if needed) reposition while tank is moving General
AVOID going near Saronite Vapor, Heart Strike cleave accidently killing a vapor will make me sad

Getting Back to Nature
Hope the last 'wave' to spawn is the giant tree guy, then burn Freya down(I'll just have to use Blood Strike to avoid killing the tree)

They're Comin Out The Walls
everyone spawn em as we run in, massive AoEs before they AoEs us to death(any melee in range can expect to get ice block

[Kulldam]

Orbitals:
Since I've read contradicting posts of whether leaving towers up actually activate the obital defense or deactivate them, but I've seen what they'd look like when they're up in videos, I'd like the group to clear up to Flame Levi area, at which point I can see if we'll need to destroy or not destroy the towers to get it
and I think we can do 2/4 with Thorim/Mimiron up

If you talk to the non-dwarf dude to start Hard Mode, it activates all four towers and killing a tower then removes that effect for Flame Leviathan.


Stokin' the Furnace
Whichever tank generate better threat on the move should pull, and DPS should start hitting him as soon as possible, while not going over cap while the tank slowly move Ignis into position

Very good idea as I think he's tauntable so we can swap when needed.


Not-So-Friendly Fire
Everyone stack up in one spot(the body's hand blast will hurts like hell) and step back slightly when rocket fires
since it doesn't require Mimiron kill...well, the thought of Mimiron doing a raid wipe with 1 rocket sounds like an amusing experience to laugh about

There are a few things we can try for this one and see what works. One that is probably the easiest without requiring a "wasted" attempt by using two full-time tanks or what not, is to have you, Rofl, tank the Bot as we enter phase 4 in Frost Presence and wait for a rocket strike on or nearby you, then Chains it as it enters the strike zone which should give you time to get out.

Another possibility is if the Bot is CCable, we could have Bondok trap it frozen and stand on top of the trap and wait for a rocket.


They're Comin Out The Walls
everyone spawn em as we run in, massive AoEs before they AoEs us to death(any melee in range can expect to get ice block

This one is going to require some testing I think, but my guess is we'll want to use 2 or 3 tanks and at least 3 healers so we can handle the damage while we're gathering up the spawns. The volleys are going to be a bitch but maybe if we have Kinzie spec for 3 sec interrupt on Fan of Knives we can interrupt the majority of the volley damage.

[Kulldam]

More notes on I Could Say That This Cache Is Rare
Paladin/Druid is ideal for healing
Break out Mage/Shaman/Druid immediately for most up-time on buffs at start and after every Flash Freeze.
Don't break out the Priest initially, let the Mage do it with her 10-second DoT.
All ranged DPS should start fight in Toasty Fire to stack Singed (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=65280) quickly (Note: May only apply from spell attacks, need to confirm), then leave one assigned ranged DPS to stay in fire the entire fight to keep the buff going. Important that this person has large debuff indicators for Hodir to see countdown on Singed stack. Usually constantly casting will keep refreshing the stack for assigned Singed player, but it's important to refresh the stack before Flash Freeze so during movement to large rune and getting back into a fire after doesn't allow the stack to drop. Singed lasts 25 seconds, so assume 5 seconds of movement to a large rune before Flash, then 10-15 seconds to break the Mage NPC from block, that should give 5-10 seconds for Singed player to get back into the new Toasty Fire and reapply the stack duration.
Have assigned "meet up" players when someone gains the Storm Cloud (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=65123) buff. We will raid mark two players (Kilwenn and Kinzie likely). When any particular player gains Storm Cloud, they are to immediately run to one of the two marked players' positions to let others gain Storm Power (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=65134). If a melee or tank gets Storm Cloud, they move immediately to Kinzie's position and wait for all other melee to get the buff (Storm Cloud will leave the initial target once all four charges are passed on). Likewise, if a ranged DPS or healer gets Storm Cloud, they move immediately to Kilwenn's position as do all other ranged DPS to grab the buff. We'll call out in Vent who gets Storm Cloud so as long as people remember the icon of the player to move to, it should be a quick process to transfer the buff and get back to positions.
After looking at tons of videos to confirm, Frozen Blows occurs about once every 60 seconds (cooldown must be 60 seconds), so we should see two casts only during the 3 minute achievement since the first is delayed for a while into the fight. The first one we'll have Khrash use Aura Mastery (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=31821) which will give the raid 260 Frost Resist for half the duration, which should cut down on the raid damage a great deal (and give me near 500 Frost Resist, making my incoming damage near-negligable for the first Frozen Blows). We'll also put Wildhide in a group with 3 ranged DPS and the tank (most of the ranged if possible), so on the second Frozen Blows, after 3-6 seconds into it (therefore getting Wild Growth off on melee and a Rejuv or two), he can Barkskin and Tranquility (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=48447) his group, which will let Khrash concentrate on his own group (mostly melee). Since Khrash will have Beacon on me, I'll get most of the healing required from that + the Tranquility. Assuming these two things work, that should make Frozen Blows a great deal more manageable.
Every Ranged DPS should be in a Starlight (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=62807) beam at all times. The only exceptions are: 1) At the start of the fight when we're breaking the Mage/Shaman/Druid and all casters are in Toasty Fire to get Singed stacked quickly and 2) When moving to a large rune for Flash Freeze or sidestepping a small rune cast on top of them. Otherwise, it's crucial to be using that Starlight haste at all times. Note that Starlight beams last 60 seconds, so when an Icicle is about to drop on your current beam, simply side step it as it lands and step back into the same beam. You should only find a new beam if your current one drops or a fresh one has spawned close enough that moving to it will only take a second.
Although it goes against what we've practiced on this fight up until last night, I think we need to ignore the Biting Cold (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=62038) debuff for the most part in order to get our DPS high enough. This doesn't apply to melees or the tank as they can do normal stuff while jumping/moving, but healers and especially ranged DPS will probably find a huge DPS increase by only dropping Biting Cold stacks after 4 or 5 stacks or when Frozen Blows starts (that seemed to work well and I think it's a good practice to help healers out a bit). Otherwise, staying still in your Starlight seems the best course of action to maximize DPS.
We should ideally use Bloodlust approximately 10-20 seconds after the first Flash Freeze. If possible, we'll wait for the first Storm Cloud (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=65123) buff to be cast on a ranged DPS or healer then immediately lust, which will give our casters Beam Haste + Bloodlust Haste + 135% crit for nearly the full duration (assuming Beam and Lust haste stack).

[Kulldam]

More notes on I Could Say That This Cache Is Rare

One thing I'd like to try that could potentially really boost our DPS but would require a great deal of attention by all DPS to avoid Icicles is to have the entire raid (except the two healers) stack on top of the tank. While tanking, once we got Singed up as needed, I'd run to the nearest Beam and stand in it, and all DPS stack on top of me in the same beam. Obviously this would require DPS to move out of the beam fairly frequently to avoid Icicles, but DPS would still be able to attack while side-stepping out to avoid the icicle, save a GCD casters would lose when moving. The obvious advantage is we'd have 7 DPS + tank getting 100% haste most of the fight and we'd always get the crit buff passed immediately (or within a couple seconds if either healer was targetted, as the healers would be positioned behind Hodir to either side, in a triangle formation familiar to melee DPS. Further, there'd be a 50% chance I, as the tank, would get the Crit buff on any given cast which should nearly remove the threat issues of the fight (my crit rate is not great, but Heroic Strike is around 25% crit due to talents, and with haste that'd be going off once every 0.8 seconds or so, which would be a huge threat boost). ...dunno, might work...

[Kinzie]

They're coming out of the walls:

I'm guessing it would be pointless to have an addon keep track of each mobs cast bar since with that many Faceless so i'd just spam constantly?

In that case, zomgFoKspam!!!

[Rofldat]

On Rare Cache:
-Toasty Fire work off Spells and Ranged Attack, by what I saw from the buff icon when I was dead(the icon was on my buff bar, very warm fire indeed, even the dead can feel it)
-Healers(and everyone else, for that matter) can ignore Biting Cold if they have Toasty Fire buffs, since it prevent the frozen effect of Freeze(not Flash Freeze, it's the frost nova thing) and biting cold
-The Melt Ice casted by the mage will melt the ice in 10 seconds, since the mage cast this very much instantly after she's freed, it might be better for overall DPS to let the spell do the melting(if we have full 30 stack of Singed up before 1st flash, that's a lot of DPS we lost from people turning around to target the ice) and all DPSs(especially melees, since we lose more DPS running back and forth) stay on Hodir
-if we go with "everyone stacks up" idea, I'd say we can do it similar to how we do Maly phase 3, where everytime an Icicle aim for the group, everyone go 'right'(and then 'left' into the light again, if possible.) This should keep the icicle from spreading out and catch some people on accident when they're getting back into position

Also, for progressing toward 4 towers Levi, I would suggest:
-Confirm the time it'll take for us to do Mimiron + Thorim tower(then expect about double that time for 4 tower, since Levi will have more HP and take reduced damage)
-Attempt either Freya alone or Freya + Hodir(since Hodir's beam work like Thorim, we're basicly observing Freya's beams in action)
-Revise strategy by what we learn at that point(I have a clue about how Freya's tower might work, but I want to see it in action to confirm)

[Bondok]

On General Vezax:

Utilization of Shadowcrash will need to be extended to more then 2 people, especially during HardMode Attempts. The Buffs are invaluable and will help retain mana and increase damage output.

Shadow Crash
Magical damage dealt increased by 100%.
Casting speed increased by 100%.
Healing done reduced by 75%.
Spell and ability costs reduced by 75%

Something to consider, is every healer/ranged DPS useing Shadow Crash will need to split up like Kulldam suggests but stacked in two groups on the far edges. Once a Shadow Crash is cast (hopefully everyone is using BigWigs for the Raid or Say Annoucement) the group moves left or right. As well tanking will need to stay in range of the Shadow Crash puddles so healers don't LOS and Ranged can stay on GV during the encounter.

During a Life Leach, a toon should move back out of the groups, not left or right which will help keep DPS/Healers from running into a Life Leech/Shadow Crash situation. If there is a case of LL and SC together the raid will have to adjust accordingly after LL is done, most likely moving to the new SC location.

This is mostly for HardMode, but can be used for Normal as well.

[Rofldat]

A possible setup on Flame Levi hard mode:
2 Siege Engine
2 Demolisher
1 Chopper + passenger

one passenger of Demo is the turret killer, and the chopper passenger is the secondary turret killer

plan:
as soon as Flame Levi break the door open, every passengers should be firing at it(you have 4-5 seconds from Levi charging in to it starting to chase someone, and you can probably do 200-400k damage from passenger shots alone during this time)
the 2 Demo shoud be on different side on the area, so if Levi turn to one the other can keep firing
the Demo with turret killer should launch him right away, and the Chopper should drive up to Demo so the second turret person can jump on the demo and start refilling pyrite
after Shutdown, bike pick up the turret killer, and once Levi start moving again, launch the 2nd turret killer, and 1st turret killer jump in the demo again to refill pyrite
this should give both demolisher the option to use pyrite constantly(instead of one keeping its pyrite only for shutdown)

the damage from the missing chopper should be neglegible compare to it

this is assuming the turrets retain 64k HP, if they get bonus from hard mode as well then using 2 person to kill turrets(so one demo will have to go without passenger)

also, the damage scale with gear level, so ideally the 2 person with highest gear level should be demo driver(or the 2 highest person who know what to do)
--the demo without passenger to refill pyrite could use Pyrite only to refresh the stacks, the debuff have 12k dmg/sec/stack so at 10 stack so keeping the DoT up will definitely be more crucial(the impact is about 60k base damage)

[Kulldam]

More notes on Lose Your Illusion

Blizzard appears to hug the outside of the room such that there is enough space between the Blizzard's edge of effect and the center circle where melee/tanks are that ranged/healers can stand to avoid Blizzard entirely but still avoid jumping Chain Lightning from melee.
Continue using 6-point setup for ranged as before, but position tanks at north side of room (with back toward balcony) in a triangle formation with melees in groups to the back right and back left, respectively. Melee DPS will have to move to avoid Lightning Bursts, but tanks can stay in one spot full-time.
Place healers at East or West positions to minimize required movement to avoid Lightning Bursts

[Kulldam]

More notes on Firefighter & Mimiron Normal

I almost feel stupid for not thinking of this sooner, but Phase 3 Bomb Bots: We should fucking use pets! They'll take virtually no damage and a macro bound to a main attack key would work perfectly:



/petattack
/petattack [target=Bomb Bot]
/cast Shadow Bolt


Or whatever spell is appropriate, I don't know these days if DK pets get the same AE resistance that Warlock pets do? At any rate, the above should automatically attack bomb bots if available else attack current target - adjust accordingly.

[Kulldam]

More notes on Lose Your Illusion

Need feedback from Khrash and Wild mostly, and possibly Rofl: I'm pondering whether we could do Thorim Phase 1 with a fake tank or two in the gauntlet. That is, could Rofl in DPS gear/Frost Presence or myself in DPS gear with a shield/Defensive Stance tank the mobs in the gauntlet without severe damage? I'd really like to attempt Phase 2 Hard Mode with only a single tank which would give us an extra DPS player, which may give us the edge we're looking for. Otherwise we're letting Thorim's buff-stack get too high.

[Khrash]

More notes on Lose Your Illusion

Need feedback from Khrash and Wild mostly, and possibly Rofl: I'm pondering whether we could do Thorim Phase 1 with a fake tank or two in the gauntlet. That is, could Rofl in DPS gear/Frost Presence or myself in DPS gear with a shield/Defensive Stance tank the mobs in the gauntlet without severe damage? I'd really like to attempt Phase 2 Hard Mode with only a single tank which would give us an extra DPS player, which may give us the edge we're looking for. Otherwise we're letting Thorim's buff-stack get too high.

Id think Rofl could tank Gauntless in Frost Presence though I think Wild needs to pipe here as hes the one healing me usually in there.

I know the trash isnt a problem... its the 2 mini-bosses...

[Rofldat]

From what I looked at the log, none of the mob hit harder than 5k on Khrash, so I'd expect 6-7k on me(with crit possible), obviously they'll also hit me more often than Khrash
the only worry is the Smash from the first miniboss(hit Khrash for 13k, if that crit I might die)

Also, on Hodir
the Singed effect also proc a 3000 fire damage(can crit for 150%, and benefit from the Singed debuff) as well, I think the extra proc on this might be better in term of DPS bonus for some of the casters?

[Kulldam]

From what I looked at the log, none of the mob hit harder than 5k on Khrash, so I'd expect 6-7k on me(with crit possible), obviously they'll also hit me more often than Khrash
the only worry is the Smash from the first miniboss(hit Khrash for 13k, if that crit I might die)

Sounds reasonable; blowing IBF or another cooldown if needed will probably last long enough to nearly outright kill the miniboss considering the extra DPS we'll have in there. Further, we can always throw Huggey or Ugra in the gauntlet to provide backup heals for the minibosses and DPS the rest if needed.


Also, on Hodir
the Singed effect also proc a 3000 fire damage(can crit for 150%, and benefit from the Singed debuff) as well, I think the extra proc on this might be better in term of DPS bonus for some of the casters?

Better than what though? It's certainly not better than the crit buff or haste buff so really as long as one person is keeping Singed stacked, most DPS shouldn't focus on being in the fire unless they can be a haste beam at the same time.

[Rofldat]

Better than what though? It's certainly not better than the crit buff or haste buff so really as long as one person is keeping Singed stacked, most DPS shouldn't focus on being in the fire unless they can be a haste beam at the same time.

the moonlight buff, by my thought process(feel free to prove me wrong, I do prove myself wrong sometimes too, my brain can be a little...crazy...at times), it was that:
Toasty Fire:
-you only need to free the mage(who will free other NPCs 10 seconds later)
-you can ignore biting cold thanks to the fire, so casters only have to move when icicle is falling on them/flash freeze is coming
-the bonus is 3900 Fire damage with full Singed stack, I'm not sure of the others' playstyle, but 3900 damage to each spell might work out to be better than 100% haste for some people(I might be wrong and that 5400 crit singed I saw was from someone with the crit bonus, if so it's just 3000 bonus)
-more people putting up Singed = the stack go up faster, though if I recall you already told the DPS to get full stack asap(and one person on the task of keeping up the stack), so this is probably a null point
-Toasty Fire have a bigger radius, so it let the DPS spread out and only 1-2 need to move when icicle is falling on them

Moonlight:
-100% haste, plain and simple, though doesn't translate to 100% increase to DPS due to cooldown(Lava Burst) and DoTs(Merth) does not benefit from haste
-unlike Toasty Fire, it does not disappear when icicle fall on it



also, I had this probably silly idea during one of Hodir's attempts
basicly, the icicle fall will knockback the NPC as well, so if a DPS stand behind the NPC during the encounter, when icicle fall on that person it'll send the NPC 'forward', if aimed properly this should be toward Hodir
this way with some positioning early we can send all the NPCs into the same area(though it relies heavily on luck of having the people behind the NPCs being targeted by icicle)
(the idea was from when the mage got sent into the wall right next to Hodir from an icicle)

[Rofldat]

My thoughts on Obit-uary, seeing as I had the opportunity to take almost all seats during that night(missing only Demo passenger)

Siege Driver:
-Your damage will be crap, don't bother using Ram, keep your energy/GCD for Steam Rush and Electroshock(with my gear, Ram/Rush was doing about 20-25k each)
-Try to stay still as much as possible, your passenger's view will get turned as you turn, so you spinning around too much can cause your passenger to lose accuracy on those adds(and when the mortar miss the marks, the damage drop by a large amount (100% damage for exact location, 50% for first outer radius, and 25% for further out)

Siege Passenger:
-Your mortar will hit quite hard, but please use it to hit Levi only if you have spare steam for when the adds spawn.
-Your rocket can aim straight up, this give you better range on shooting down pyrite barrels. If possible, shoot them down for the Demolisher.
-Your steam and your driver's steam are not shared. You can have 0 steam and your driver will still be able to use his abilities just fine.

Chopper:
-Your damage is worse than the Siege Driver, just save your energy for speed boost and just drop those tars(My sonic horn did about 6-8k, the tar tick for 6k).
-During speed boost, you can run through Mimiron's flame without taking damage(if you run straight through it)
-After you pick up the guy who just fall off Levi, heal him up regardless of whatever his HP might be, just to be safe.

Demo Driver:
-You can use 2-4 mortar between each pyrites to safely keep the stack up, if you're running low on pyrite barrels.
-You cannot kill those trees on you, pray your passenger or the siege passenger shoot them down quickly(you can Ram them, but that will do around 24-25k, which will take 3 hits before the small tree die)


I can't be certain on this, but it seems possible for the passenger of a vehicle that got hit by Hodir's beam to use rocket/mortar under the vehicle to melt the ice.

[Wildhide]

I've got a couple quick notes that might prove useful for Steelbreaker last on Iron Council:

-Static Disruption (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=63494) apparently prefers targets at range, much like Shadow Crash and Mark of the Faceless from Vezax. Also, according to EJ, the magic number of ranged is 3 (same as Vezax), so the healers/melee can pile up on Steelbreaker while the ranged stay spread and ensure the debuff stays under relative control.

-The heal from Electrical Charge (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=61902) can be reduced by any healing reduction effects, so it would probably be worth it for Kinzie to swap in an offhand with wound poison just before a tank dies from Overwhelming Power (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=61888). I am assuming that the loss of ~3 globals for Kinzie will be worth the 300k less health Steelbreaker will heal himself for.

Oh, one last thing...

Engineers are getting a mind control "enchantment" for their helms next patch, as I am sure you have heard. So, getting Who Needs Bloodlust? will be possible without a priest. Yeah.

Here's the engineering changes if you haven't seen 'em yet: Poof (http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=18031199669&sid=1)

[Kilwenn]

Oh, one last thing...

Engineers are getting a mind control "enchantment" for their helms next patch, as I am sure you have heard. So, getting Who Needs Bloodlust? will be possible without a priest. Yeah.

Here's the engineering changes if you haven't seen 'em yet: Poof (http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=18031199669&sid=1)


So now the question is: Do we have any raiding members that are Engineers? I know Khrash(Hunter) is but I think that is it. I thought it would be usable by Engineers only but I could be wrong.

[Kulldam]

So now the question is: Do we have any raiding members that are Engineers? I know Khrash(Hunter) is but I think that is it. I thought it would be usable by Engineers only but I could be wrong.

Ugra and Kinzie both are I believe so we should be golden.

[Kilwenn]

Doh, forgot about Ugra(no offense) being one. I had no idea Kinzie was one though. Sweet.

[Rofldat]

On can't do that while stunned (Stormcaller can't hit anyone with Whirl/CL):

We should have Merth or Kinzie use Curse of Tongue/Mind-numbing poison on him, to increase the time we have to interrupt him/let everyone's interrupt come off cd

Also, he can be silenced, so at the start if I can get in range then I can Strangulate him for 5 seconds.

(I'm gonna take a big guess and go with it working like the Set Us Up The Bomb, where the spell can't happen for it to count, rather than it not hit players, so I don't think having Ugra drop Grounding Totem will be of use)

[Kulldam]

On can't do that while stunned (Stormcaller can't hit anyone with Whirl/CL):

We should have Merth or Kinzie use Curse of Tongue/Mind-numbing poison on him, to increase the time we have to interrupt him/let everyone's interrupt come off cd

Good idea, hopefully he isn't immune.

A few more thoughts on...

Deforestation (http://www.wowhead.com/?achievement=2985)

Based on the description this one doesn't require finishing the fight so we should definitely do this one our next raid.
I'd say the ideal thing to do would be use two tanks and when the first 3-pack spawns just ignore it completely and have an OT and a healer (probably have to run a third healer for this) run far as hell away from the raid so the 3-pack can't really AE anyone.
The rest of the raid carries on as normal until the second 3-pack which the Freya-MT picks up. The OT/healer team bring the original 3-pack back and we bunch up similar to when killing the little guys. As long as tanks maintain agro, a 40 or 50% damage reduction cooldown will be enough to survive the Snaplasher damage while we AE all six down at the same time.


Lumberjacked (http://www.wowhead.com/?achievement=2979)

I've probably spent more time thinking about this achievement than any other I've seen in Ulduar to date and suspect it should be pretty fun to work out.
Unfortunately, even with all the spell data for each Elder's abilities, there are a few key unknowns that will drastically affect our strategy. The main question is simple: Will Elder abilities with unlimited or unknown range, such as Thorn Swarm (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=62285), randomly target anyone in the raid, regardless of their distance from said Elder? If so, will they only target players who have performed a harmful action and thus been added to the Elder's threat list, or are all raid members assumed valid targets regardless of who engages?
If the Elders consider all players separate entities, and thus will ignore other raid members who do not engage them, then a 3-team split seems the best choice. One tank, one healer, one DPS for Brightleaf and Stonebark, and the same plus an extra DPS for Ironbranch. The extra DPS on Ironbranch is so one of the DPS is always free to kill the Roots cast on any of the other three people. Once all Elders are low health, the raid converges slightly closer together and we countdown to Lust to finish them all off.
If, however, the Elders will target anyone in the raid regardless of their location or threat generation on said Elder, then we'll have to use a rotational strategy. I'd wager Stonebark is the easiest since he has no real dangerous abilities other than his Fists of Stone which can be completely avoided by tank kiting and no self-heal, so the entire raid starts on him and gets him to our designated low health (20% or whatever).
Myself and a healer (Ugra or Huggey) will stay behind on Stonebark while the rest of the raid engages Ironbranch. Once he's low, Khrash, a healer, and a DPS stay on Ironbranch to handle roots. It's important to note that Ironbranch healing may be the most difficult due to Impale (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=62310) so we'll have to test things out and see if one healer is capable of keeping a tank up. Have any of you Druids ever tried shifting out of Iron Roots (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=62438)? If so, work or fail?
At this point, the original Stonebark team meets up in front of Brightleaf and engages with the remaining raid members (should be myself, my original healer, a second healer, and 3-4 DPS (depending if we can manage Iron Roots from Ironbranch with only 1 DPS present or if two are needed).
Since Stonebark really doesn't do much (other than a minor AE every so often, the raid simply stays spread and never enters beams from Brightleaf, ignoring the small damage boost to gain survivability). Since Stonebark will require kiting due to Fists of Stone (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=62344), single-tanking both he and Brightleaf should work out fine since Brightleaf requires kiting most of the time as well.
As before, once Brightleaf is getting low, we kite Brightleafe/Stonebark toward the middle of the room a bit and call for a lust and burn when all three are within killing (obviously the Ironbranch team will need to have Ironbranch lower than the other two with only 1 or 2 DPS present).


Nerf Scrapbots (http://www.wowhead.com/?achievement=2933)

We've not really tested this one much but I suspect if Bomb Bots are rootable, we could simply tank XT in the very center of the room (thus same distance from each pile) and do him "normal" until adds spawn.
Then we have a Druid assigned to each corner and they'll root the Bomb Bot when it reaches a given location (marked by smoke) for each path. One Druid will watch two piles and root the first Bomb Bot that comes from either pile.
We ignore the Scrapbots completely so they reach XT and heal him up, but since we're DPSing the heart low each Heart phase, we're likely to have XT near a heart-trigger point regardless.
Once all three Druids have a Bomb Bot rooted in place, we wait for the next wave of Scrapbots and as they pass on top of the rooted Bomb Bots, we countdown ranged DPS to all quickly nuke the Bombs and boom, 20 kills in 12 seconds.
If rooting doesn't work though, heh, then we'll have to try some sort of kiting strategy as Kilwenn has suggested before and that'll be mostly experimentation to figure out. If we tank him on top of one trash pile, that may give us enough distance from the other three or at least far two piles that we can kite around the outside of the room when Bomb Bots and scrap have spawned on that side and may gather than up in a tight enough clump to get credit for 20 kills via Bomb explosion. Hard to say without testing.


Shadowdodger (http://www.wowhead.com/?achievement=2996)

This is probably going to be the most annoying achievement for most of you that hate the General Vezax fight, but it all hinges on our ranged DPS to completely avoid Shadow Crash obviously.
The best setup is likely the one we used last time for our normal kill - Tank in the center with four ranged DPS at each far corner. This should completely eliminate any "crossover" shadow crash hits and therefore, anyone who does get hit only has themself to blame.
The downside of this achievement is when we set out to do it, we're going to do it no matter what. If anyone gets hit, I will immediately call a wipe (that is, take my shield off and watch General pummel the fuck out of everyone), so the better ranged are at dodging the less time we'll have to spend.


Take Out Those Turrets (http://www.wowhead.com/?achievement=2909)

We should spend 15 minutes or so getting everyone credit for this achievement next Wednesday. It should be very simple really: Load up two people that need credit into demos while the other six people stay completely outside of FL's room. We countdown and Demo passengers use a Speed Boost then immediately load themselves to be launched. Demo drivers engage FL with 15ish seconds left on boost (while naked just in case) and immediately launch passengers who kill off a turret each. Demo drivers meanwhile turn and run out of the FL arena just before the wall forms. Turret people will have about 15-20 seconds to kill a turret each before FL reaches the wall and leashes himself.
At this point the turret killers most likely die but can easily be ressed or they just run back. Since FL leashes, everyone else in the raid survives and we repeat for the next two turret killers. Should only take 5 minutes or so per set.

[Kilwenn]

Lumberjacked

Have any of you Druids ever tried shifting out of Iron Roots? If so, work or fail?

I am pretty sure I tried to blink out once and I couldn't do it. I was able to Ice Block it though.

Nerf Scrapbots

All of the scrap bots are rootable. When we first starting doing XT we had one fight that I rooted a bombbot and got 11 scrapbots with it before we wiped. I don't think it will be hard, will just take some practice and maybe a little luck on bomb spawns in relation to scrapbot spawns.


Shadowdodger

This is easy. I have done it twice with no hits. Just need to setup like we did for the last kill.


Let's go tonight!!! I need to kill something.

[Kulldam]

Let's go tonight!!! I need to kill something.

Do Loremaster; that'll quickly cure you of your desire to play!

On the plus side, never a lack of something to work on.

[Rofldat]

Con-speeda-tory:

The most 'legit' option is to clear the left side adds and engage Freya in hard mode 3 elders. Since based on some comments the adds are not linked to her.

A less legit option that Blizz seems to have let be is to spend one night clearing out the elder(s), then after the trash respawn (or wait the next raid day) quickly clear them and kill Freya(or kill a minimum amount and engage her)

We should be able to attempt this achievement twice in a night (or once with 0 elder) by going for Freya first, and if we fail we go to clear the other 3 and attempt Freya one last time before calling it a night

(we could also try to do Getting Back to Nature achievement on the same night if we do 0 elder, we could do it on the tree guy or the 3 adds, I can off-tank the water spirit or storm lasher and kinzie and kick (using macro) the other one, and have Ugra kite snaplasher away and we should be fine)

[Kyrudun]

Just so you know, the trash in Freya's room is not linked to her, so you can skip the mixed pack on the far right and the lasher pack on the left (assuming that you fight her right in the middle by the river).

[Kulldam]

Some notes for Algalon:


Big Bang (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=64443), which seems to occur every 90 seconds, is likely to be one of the more vital things to figure out.
Since it deals 88,687 physical damage worst case, and I'm at 40,405k HP fully buffed and Khrash is around 39,569k, we must find reliable ways to soak the hit.
Without access to a Priest for cooldowns or Dispersion, we only really have tank cooldowns.
For my turn, Last Stand (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=12975) + Glyph of Last Stand (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=43426) + Repelling Charge (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=39292) will give me a 2 minute cooldown up to 56,455 HP. Shield Wall (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=871) + Glyph of Shield Wall (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=45797) + Improved Disciplines (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=12803) gives me a 2 minute cooldown of 40% reduced damage.
This calculates out to: 56,455 - (88,687 * (1 - 0.4)) = 3242.8 HP remaining on me after Big Bang (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=64443), which is super low. However, Algalon remains stationary during the cast so the tank soaking the hit can run to the far side of the room which will give a few seconds time after the hit to allow Enraged Regeneration (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=55694) to tick plus since we'll be using two Druid healers, we'll have double-stacks of HoTs up before the Druids phase out prior to the Big Bang (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=64443) hit. That should be sufficient to heal me up after the hit.
For Khrash things are much smoother, assuming my calculations are in fact additive rather than multiplicative. If so, Divine Protection (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=498) + Hand of Salvation (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=1038) + Glyph of Salvation (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=45747) will give him a 3 minute cooldown 70% damage reducer, and assuming Big Bang really is 90 seconds between casts, it will be right on the edge but a macro to spam cast both Hand of Salvation and Divine Protection should be up in the event of a second round of soaking.
This calculates out to: 39,569 - (88,687 * (1 - 0.7)) = 12962.9 HP remaining.
Since the first Big Bang comes ~90 seconds into the fight and 90 thereafter, and Algalon has a 6 minute enrage, we can assume we'll realistically see 3 Big Bangs before we win or wipe. Since Khrash has a much more stable HP level after Big Bang soaks, we'll have him soak the 1st and 3rd and I'll soak the 2nd, which should lead us into the final phase before enrage at that point.
It's apparently possible to get a 4th Big Bang just before the enrage, which almost instantly wipes the raid afterwards, so the entire raid would simply stay out for the 4th case and try to DPS him down before the cast ends.
More details on the fight to come when we're a little closer to attempts.

[Rofldat]

With a 6 min enrage, and phase 2 starts at 20% HP, I think a 4th Big Bang would marks a wipe signal and every one can watch the firework before they die just to save the time.

Also, would it be easier to just have Khrash uses http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=10278 and/or http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=642 on his 2 Big Bang?

(the video linked from Big Bang spell seems to suggest that you can have the other tank pick up Algalon after he finish Big Bang cast(I can't tell if he taunts before entering black hole or after BB), so the HP after soaking Big Bang shouldn't be a problem as long as you're far enough to not get slap right after the bang)

[Wildhide]

Algalon Poo

Damage reduction effects are multiplicative. Just ask all the people trying to do Sarth 3D while trying not to get blown up by flame breath.

And to Rofl...
Big bang ignores immunity effects, so with Hand of Prot he would simply go bang (pun intended).


If Blizzard was going to design so many fights with predictable high damage moments, why didn't they balance all the healers with regards to tank-saving cooldowns? asdfasdfa

[Kulldam]

Damage reduction effects are multiplicative.

Well in that case we're looking at something like:

39569 - (88687 * (1 - 0.5) * (1 - 0.2)) = 4094.2 HP remaining

So either way both tanks are going to be teetering just after the hit, but we should be able to recover as mentioned. We'll also both absorb a little bit from Sacred Shield (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=53601).

Another thing I saw mentioned in a comment but not sure if it's valid is having Kinzie use Feint (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=48659) + Glyph of Cloak of Shadows (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=45769). However, even if it would work, it would require Kinzie to have at least 26,606 HP fully buffed, which I'm not sure if he does?

[Kulldam]

Some notes on One Light in the Darkness:

Looking at Freya's raid-wide full-time buff, Resilience of Nature (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=62670), it seems, just like learning Freya Hard Mode, we've accidentally practiced the "harder method" leading up to One Light, by leaving out Mimiron and Hodir.

One Light will therefore be completely identical to our Two Light kill tonight, except we will not have a method to refresh Sanity and will deal 10% less damage. However, 10% is fairly minor and the 20% less healing is also pretty irrelevant as there are very few occasions 20% extra healing saves someone in the fight (either the landed heals are plenty, or they couldn't be healed for whatever reason at all).

Hopefully Blizzard GMs stop gaying Kinzie and we get all his gear back by Sunday/Monday when we'll next do Yogg and can give this some real shots. There will be some luck involved, but if we perform as we did tonight it's basically a win (Phase 3 will simply take 20-30% longer as those DPSing Yogg will have to turn around as soon as his Gaze cooldown is up, rather than wait for the cast).

Pimpin'.

[Kulldam]

Notes on Firefighter:

Watch this movie (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xeik1bdA5F0) from about 1:00 to 3:30. They do all of phase 1 with Mim on the wall, which I don't think works as well as our method of keeping him middle. However, notice how they bunch up near the wall right after the first Flame Suppression. I think this is a great tactic we should implement. We'll basically have the ranged/healers spread into the NE quadrant during the first 60 seconds of Phase 1, then once Flame Sup. hits, have the ranged/healers group towards the southern entrance while we drag Mimiron to the NE quadrant where the ranged was just located (at this point, all fire will be gone). This should place everyone fairly tight against the wall but remain in heal/dps range and give us another 45 - 60 seconds to finish DPSing Phase 1 down before a second fire spawns or the first fire following the suppression requires too much movement.

The clear advantage, as you can see in the video, is we can theoretically control where the fire is going into Phase 2 and keep it away from the center/second ring where we'd normally be positioned on a normal-mode kill. This will of course drastically lower incoming damage to the raid during the majority of Phase 2 and any fire spawns will only require slight sideways movement from the nearest ranged DPS or healer rather than having a third of the room nearly cut off in most of our previous attempts.

Finally, it should make avoiding Spinning Up simpler as any direction doesn't pose a serious threat of firewall.

[Kulldam]

Notes on Lord Jaraxxus:

Fel Fireball
Every 10-12 seconds casts a DD/DoT on the MT called Fel Fireball (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=66532) (Heroic: Fel Fireball (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=66964)), which is interruptable. Deals heavy damage and leaves a DoT which is dispellable and deals damage per second for five seconds.

Fel Lightning
Every 12 seconds casts a chain-lightning-type ability called Fel Lightning (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=67029), jumping up to 2 times (thus three targets total). Jump distance is unknown right now, but the room layout should lend itself to some proper spacing. Damage does not increase each jump but instead deals 7863 to 9137 (Heroic: 9713 to 11287) to each target hit.

Legion Flame
Every 30 seconds, Jaraxxus will random-target a player with the Legion Flame (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=66199) (Heroic: Legion Flame (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=68127)) debuff, which deals fire damage per second for six seconds and leaves a short trail of fire if targeted player moves while debuffed. Due to our positioning (see below for details), anyone targeted with Legion Flame should back peddle (may be sufficient speed to not take extra damage from your own fire trail) away from their assigned position until the six seconds of Legion Flame is over.

The flame trail left over from Legion Flame stays active for 60 seconds. Therefore, two fire trails will be up at all times once the fight is in full-swing. To keep positioning stable, once a player is targeted by Legion Flame, back peddles toward the wall, and loses the Legion Flame debuff, that player must immediately run back to their assigned position but stand slightly to one side. This will place that player directly next to one of the flame patches, but this presents no danger at all as the fire is stationary. Once the 60 second duration ends for those flame patches, the player should simply side step back onto their original assigned position.

Incinerate Flesh
Every 20 seconds, Lord Jaraxxus will random-target a player with the Incinerate Flesh (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=66237) debuff (Heroic: Incinerate Flesh (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=67050)), which reduces targeted player's damage output by 50% and absorbs heals on the player. The player must receive 30,000+ (Heroic: 40,000+) healing within the 12 second debuff duration or the debuff will expire and cause Burning Inferno (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=67059) (Heroic: Burning Inferno (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=67060)), which DoTs the entire raid over 5 seconds for 12,000ish damage. To limit the amount of wasted healing, we should come up with a pattern each healer is to repeat on every player targeted with Incinerate Flesh. For example: Wild/Khee cast 1xLB, 1xRegrowth, and 1xNourish each (or 1xRejuv, 1xNourish, and 1xSwiftmend, etc.). I don't know the exact numbers each of those heals produces but we'll want to figure out something that covers the required 30k healing assuming all non-crit heals.

Nether Power
Every [unknown] seconds, Lord Jaraxxus will self-buff with Nether Power (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=67107) (Heroic: Nether Power (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=67108)), increasing his magic damage dealt by 20%. This ability can stack up to 5 times (Heroic: 10 times) unless it is spell stolen/dispelled/purged.

Mistress of Pain
20 seconds into the fight, Jaraxxus will spawn a Nether Portal. After 10 seconds, a Mistress of Pain will spawn from the portal, which is a normal mob that uses an armor reduction ability on the tank and will randomly charge a raid member with Spinning Pain Spike (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=67101), dealing damage equal to about 50% of the players max health. The offtank will pick this up and move it to the MT position in front of Jaraxxus to be killed by ranged DPS (melee DPS will need to remain on Jaraxxus to interrupt Fel Fireball).

Infernals
1 minute 20 seconds into the fight (thus 1 minute after the Nether Portal spawn), Jaraxxus will spawn an Infernal Volcano, which spawns 3 Infernals nearby that deal a small radius fire damage pulse around them (unknown damage/range) and will be tanked by the OT near the MT position and killed by ranged DPS. Occasionally, each Infernal will randomly charge a raid member and hit them with a small flame burst dealing ~4-5k damage before moving back to the OT.

Positioning
Positioning should be something like the following:
http://www.voximmortalis.com/files/images/lord_jaraxxus_positioning.jpg

Due to Fel Fireball requiring dispel, we'll start by having Khrashdin MT Jaraxxus while I deal with the adds. Using two tanks is only a matter of convenience as keeping proper position in the center while picking up the Mistress/Infernal adds for a single MT would be difficult. It's difficult to say what the overall raid damage will be like, but if it proves too severe, we can opt for a single tank setup and use three healers.

Our positioning layout is designed such that Fel Lightning, depending on the jump distance, will never hit more than two people (melee DPS or MT/OT). Further, if we setup correctly, the distance between any given green dot (Druid healer) and either opposite side yellow dot (ranged DPS) will be 35 yards or less, allowing both healers to heal all raid members at all times (important to deal with Incinerate Flesh).

When a melee or the OT gets Legion Flame and must back peddle, the other melee DPS or tank should be able to simply side step slightly so they are standing next to the flame trail.

Debuffs to add to Power Auras/Grid

Fel Fireball
Incinerate Flesh
Legion Flame


Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kA_sfHABAtw

[Kinzie]

I know we talked about me speccing for FoK interupts for phase 1 yogg awhile ago and I'm not sure if we're still planning on that but next mini patch 3.2.2 they are nerfing the talent. It will no longer interupt spellcasting

[Kheelan]

Looks like we should plan on doing that achievement fairly soon then.

[Kulldam]

We should work that out this week. Speaking of They're Coming Out of the Walls (http://www.wowhead.com/?achievement=3014), looking a bit more closely at the abilities, namely Dark Volley (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=63038), there may be a few different ways to handle this in the event the FoK method doesn't work.

Essentially, the Volley range is 35 yards, so we could essentially force only tanks to eat the damage while healers and ranged DPS outrange it and AE everything together.

Even still, the damage would be fairly hefty at 8-9k a pop before resists, so eating it wouldn't be ideal, but it's a possibility.

Splitting into 2 or even 3 tank/healer/DPS teams spread around the room might work as well.

We shall see...

[Kinzie]

Sounds good. I'll toss that into my talents for Sunday/Monday.

[Wildhide]

Random note for Algalon:

Ardent defender (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=31852) will allow Khrash to eat a bing bang every 2 minutes without using any active cooldowns.

Combine this with the fact that Paladins are generally stronger tanks on Algalon, and we should have a little bit of an easier time on him.

[Kulldam]

Random note for Algalon:

Ardent defender (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=31852) will allow Khrash to eat a bing bang every 2 minutes without using any active cooldowns.

Combine this with the fact that Paladins are generally stronger tanks on Algalon, and we should have a little bit of an easier time on him.

As we were discussing, this should allow us to theoretically use Khrash to soak all Big Bangs between this and his normal CDs. I'll have to look a bit deeper into the timing of tank debuffs throughout the fight (the attacks Algalon uses that force tank swaps), but ideally we can split tanking so I'm tanking 60 out of 90 seconds between Big Bang casts and Khrash is tanking either end (thus the final 30 before a Big Bang and the follow up 30) or whatnot.

There is one major downside to using Ardent defender (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=31852), in that in the event it procs during normal battle for whatever reason, we'll need a backup plan to soak that Big Bang (such as me blowing my CDs or what not). It also may be ideal to have me spec back into 60% damage reduction Shield Wall for this fight since we're expecting 3 Big Bangs at most before we wipe/get the kill and Khrash can soak all of them or at least 1st and 3rd.

This would turn the Big Bang formula for me into:


59,832 - (88,687 * (1 - 0.6)) = 24357.2 HP remaining

Anyway, bottom line is we have a lot more options now which should only help.

[Rofldat]

Some ideas on Firefighter I see from reading around:
Ignoring phase 1-2 since they're pretty much basic.
Transition 2-3
-stay near/in the middle to have the fire stay there, to give more room to kite during phase 3
Phase 3
-one option is to kill all emergency bots, as Mimiron can spawn only so much fire, killing them all will limit the amount of fire in the room as well as letting the head tank stay in one corner.(probably Guidon, since he can misdirect any assault bots coming after him to Kull)
-(not applicable to our group, yet) an arcane mage, with mage armor and the resist talent, can resist a large chunk of the head's damage
Transition 3-4
-Leave up only 1-2 emergency bots so they deal with the fire (assuming they will only attack players when there's no fire around), ideally we will be able to use normal mode position if the 1-2 emergency bot work fast enough(and only move from the usual AoE/Frost bomb)

[Kulldam]

Notes on Algalon:


We really need to get Collapsing Stars down quickly, especially the first set of four. That seems to be the hump in that if we don't manage that, we'll get behind on the spawns of Constellations. Obviously this comes down to Guidon primarily and obviously you're still getting upgrades, so anything you can do to maximize your damage on stars before the first Big Bang will be very helpful.
I can't think of anyway around it, we're going to have to put Ugra on MT healing duty. Ancestral Healing (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=16240) is just too strong to ignore when we're dealing with such massive spike potential on the tanks. Plus, Ancestral Awakening (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=51558) procs and Chain Heal (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=55459) jumps from MT will help with raid heals a bit. Lastly, we lose a great deal more overall raid DPS when we don't have Huggey's 13% magic damage buff from Earth and Moon (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=48511) rather than the 136 SP loss of trading Totem of Wrath (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=57722) for Flametongue Totem (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=58656) Ugra, how is your healing gear right now? If you need help with gems or enchant mats please let me know ASAP and if you need to practice healing a bit I'd be glad to help so you can be ready for Sunday/Monday.
With this setup, Kheelan will be on MT heals with Ugra, and Wild will be on raid healing and Constellation management, which is preferable to having the OT do it since we'll need all the extra DPS we can muster to beat the enrage timer.
Everyone please take the time to look over some more information and especially videos (many can be found in HD streaming by clicking here (http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=algalon+10&search_type=&aq=f)).
Guide: Please watch this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7on7ewqMkc8) and this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvlqYydsEn8) for some good Hunter PoV examples. Notice how they blow through mana very quickly at the start to burn down the stars with a good 10 seconds left before the Big Bang so the raid healer can recover everyone's health before they enter the Shadow Dimension. Also notice in the first link at 4:15 how an unexpected star collapses and drops the raid low so he pauses killing his current star target until the raid is healed back up.
Wildhide: Please check out this movie (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4qdfWpNFEM) which is a decent view of Druid Raid Healer PoV also managing Constellations.
Everyone: Please watch this movie (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4qdfWpNFEM) (the same one I linked to Wild above). Notice how the raid generally stays somewhat close together to maximize the efficiency of group heals such as Wild Growth and Chain Heal. That is something that may prove very useful to us.
Lastly, I may have everyone throw on a Flask of Stoneblood (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=46379) these next attempts to provide a bit of a buffer to random gibs (namely Constellation barrage + Star Collapse simultaneously). Some people probably don't need it (Rofl comes to mind), but most of you are fairly low HP DPS and it could make or break surviving a burst.

[Kulldam]

Notes on Alone in the Darkness:


As most of you (should) know, Alone in the Darkness is basically identical to our One Light in the Darkness fight, except we have 20% less health (fairly big chunk for me as the tank, but not as much for the rest), we deal 10% less damage of course, and most importantly, the Immortal Guardians in phase 3 will never die which requires some trickiness to avoid having them all heal each other too much or even worse, heal Yogg.
The ability in question is Empowering Shadows (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=64468), which Yogg casts every 45 seconds on 1-2 random Immortal Guardians that have been in the fight at least 20 seconds or longer. As you can see, it heals the target Guardian and any other enemies within 20 yards for a huge amount of health over 20 seconds.
There are two main strategies used for this fight and both are fairly viable, so I've outlined both strategies below and how they might best work for us.


Strategy 1: The Pull-Out Method (if you impregnate Yogg-Saron, your child will have tentacle cock and/or tits):

<iframe src="http://docs.google.com/present/embed?id=dccp4mjw_42d8zmpspj&interval=30&size=l" frameborder="0" width="700" height="559"></iframe>

Explanation

This was really the first strategy conceived for this fight primarily because it doesn't take away much overall raid DPS to deal with Empowering Shadows.

The idea is: The tank grabs all Guardians as normal and a DPS burns them down to 1 HP (since they cannot die outright in Alone). Eventually, 1 or 2 Guardians get Empowered and 10 seconds later will heal everyone in 20 yards. Therefore, 1 or 2 people (Hunters or Tank-capable classes) will each pick a Marked Guardian and taunt it far away from Yogg and the unmarked pack, let the heal go off, then bring it back to the pack. Now only 1 or 2 Guardians at max are being healed.

Pros:

Requires 1 additional DPS (not counting full-time Guardian DPS) for 15 out of every 45 seconds at most.
Tank-gib chance much lower than other method as most Guardians will be at 1 HP at all times regardless of how long the fight lasts.


Cons:

Requires a great deal of movement for both Mark assigned DPS and MT, which could risk insanity.
Can be hectic and difficult to perform, as 10 seconds from time of mark to properly assign both Marked Guardians and ensure the two DPS are not targeting the same one can be difficult, especially under the pressure of this fight.
No reliable interrupt method for Drain Life, which while not a huge HP boost and should be DPSed down by Swipe, still increases tank damage intake.


Strategy 2: The Bust-In Method (gross dude, gross):

<iframe src="http://docs.google.com/present/embed?id=dccp4mjw_43kjb2vf7&interval=30&size=l" frameborder="0" width="700" height="559"></iframe>

Explanation

This method is very basic in execution: choose some consistent AE DPS (i.e. non-mana users that can sustain forever) that can outdamage the 11,000/sec heal Guardians will get when Empowering blooms and simply have them AE DPS nearly full-time, or at least for the full duration of Empowering.

Pros:

Very simple to execute -- once we try it once we'll be able to tell quite quickly if it can be successful
Virtually no movement from anyone except occasional movement from melee DPS, so accidental Insanity chances are very low.
If prior to 3.2.2, will provide a reliable interrupt for Drain Life which will lower tank spike damage and greatly lower raid damage.


Cons:

Drops raid DPS on Yogg a great deal, by possibly requiring 2 additional DPS for 30 out of 45 seconds.
Tank spike chance *may* be higher with this method than with Strategy 1 -- hard to say how much health Guardians can heal up with melee AEing during Empowering.


Kinzie/Kheelan: Can you estimate for me what your single target DPS might be when spamming Fan of Knives/Swipe respectively? Our goal is 11250 * 0.50 (with Wound Poison) or 5625 total DPS on each Guardian during Empowering Shadows. Any feedback?

At any rate, it's entirely possible both strategies are viable for us, it will likely just depend on the speed of our P1/P2 and therefore how much time we have going into P3. Obviously Strategy 2 is simpler to execute/more reliable and thus would be easier to do if the rest of the DPS would be able to drop Yogg in time.

We shall see!

[Kheelan]

With myself and Kinzie AEing we can easily hit 5625 dps, might even be possible for one of us to hit that dps mark.

[Kulldam]

Notes on Alone in the Darkness:

Found an addon that helps Phase 3 by raid marking Marked Immortal Guardians with Raid Icons.

Everyone please download/install: http://www.voximmortalis.com/files/addons/Yoggles_Parallel.zip

No setup required, it's very basic, but will check targets/mouseover targets/etc. at regular intervals and set raid icons in a specific order. This will allow us to quickly and reliably have Khee/Guide target different Marked Guardians and taunt them away if we elect to try that strategy again this evening.

If interested, the full details of this addon can be found here (http://www.stratfu.com/blog/2009/08/fusions-yogg-saron-mod/).

[Rofldat]

A recap on what I think is the plan we have/I think we should have for next day of Alone in the Dark.

1. Kinzie will FoK to put wound poison on all guardians when marked guardian appear.
2. Me and Khee pull one each away, Kull and the rest stay next to Yogg(so the AoEs will hit Yogg too)
3. After Empowering Shadow hits, both myself and Khee will move back so Kull can taunt the mob off us. Then AoEs proceed.
-If the 10m version is http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=64468 , with a wound poison on the guardian's healing about 6k/s. I should be able to keep the guardian from healing too much before a taunt come my way, so it might not be necessary to taunt mine before Khee's, or even the new spawn.
-With ideally only up to 4 guardians at high HP(again, both me and Khee can probably cut a decent chunk of its health while it's on us), it might not be necessary to call everyone on AoE and let the people with more direct damage ability(Ugra, for example, since with enough guardians around his CL probably won't hit the ones with high HP) to remain on Yogg full time instead.

This way should let Kull remains in one position and the occasional AoEs can still hurt Yogg(like how Kull tank the adds on Anub near him)

[Kulldam]

Notes on Herald of the Titans:

We really need to try using Thawfore as a Holy MT Healer for this fight. I've put together a fairly decent Herald gearset for Thaw to work on, which can be found by clicking here (http://www.wowhead.com/?profile=18014722). Thaw, we need to go over your current banked gear to see how much of this you have (or similar).

With Thaw healing, we'll also have Ugra MT healing for 10% Physical Reduction and Mana Tide, so Kheelan will Feral DPS (assuming Khee has a Herald Feral set?).

The above set may not be a BiS set, but close enough, and plugging it into Rawr (with matching talents and glyphs), shows full-time HL spam will not be possible without Judgement of Wisdom/Seal of Wisdom procs (which we kind of knew). However, Rawr doesn't have Mana Tide Totem models and since Mana Tide is 5 min cooldown and thus can be used twice in 6 minutes, it's hard to say how accurate the times are.

That said, Rawr estimates the following output stats:

Health: 23,951
Mana: 31,967
Spell Crit: 47.08%
Spell Haste: 41.55%
Total Healed: 3,637,106 healing
Total Mana: 137,122 mana
Average Healing per sec: 10,103 hps
Average Healing per mana: 26.52 hpm
Holy Light Time: 173.4 sec
Flash of Light Time: 100.9 sec
Holy Shock Time: 0.0 sec
Sacred Shield Time: 12.7 sec
Beacon of Light Time: 6.4 sec
Judgement Time: 27.0 sec
Holy Light Healed: 1,796,797 healed
Flash of Light Healed: 501,805 healed
Holy Shock Healed: 0 healed
Sacred Shield Healed: 160,067 healed
Beacon of Light Healed: 459,720 healed
Glyph of HL Healed: 718,719 healed

That includes normal raid buffs and Flask of Distilled Wisdom + Fish Feast. The important things are the Holy Light Time vs. the Flash of Light Time. Keeping Sacred Shield/Beacon/Judgement up is a fairly trivial amount of GCD usage, but with the calculated stats, Rawr estimates about 36% of the fight time must be spent casting Flash of Light rather than Holy Light.

Again, however, this doesn't include two Mana Tide boosts nor occasional melee swings for mana procs, so it's likely much lower Flash of Light cast time than Rawr estimates.

Either way, having a Holy Paladin and Resto Shaman on Tanks will probably provide the HPS we need to survive the tank damage on this fight, while letting Wild continue to do raid healing with occasional Beaconed Holy Lights from Thaw when collapses hit the raid.

We should also start using Amplify Magic (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=43017) on the tanks which is something I always forget about but is ideal for tanking this fight since it's all incoming physical damage.

Depending how much of a set Thaw already has and if Kheelan has a decent Feral Herald set, we'll likely plan on doing this a week from now, Sunday the 22nd or Monday the 23rd, rather than this coming Wednesday, to give us a few more days to collect gear if needed.

[Kheelan]

I should have all my older feral gear still. Also if I am dpsing that is two innervates available as well and even innervates from Skotty possibly.