Ulduar Take II

I hit 10man / 25 man Ulduar.
Ulduar hits me back.

All of the mobs die, but one of the PuG raid-members triggers Easymode Flame Leviathan. No Achievement. Just 1 short of the Rusted Protodrake.

Next week, Abraxus comes back for his FL Achieve and I have my Dk fill in for the rest of the instance. I take over as tank. We one-shot the rest of the instance. As a consolation, my DK wins the Celestial Antechamber key and gets the Starcaller title.

Woot!

A week later, the same crew ask Dischord to tank their 25man Ulduar run. I also have my Protection paladin geared up and ready to go. I substitute Sindell and we rock the house.

A couple hours later, we get the 25man Ulduar Drake and I win the roll for the 25 man Celstial key. I get myself the the Astral Walker title, plus I'm Main Tank for my first full 25 man run!

Not a bad couple of runs in Ulduar.

For those of you naysayers, remember the fights are still deadly. Gearscore doesn't fix massive AoE and stupidity. XT-002 uses tantrum that removes 95% of your health. Not just a fixed number. Both drakes and titles feel well earned. I also got to team up with some people that I wouldn't mind hanging out with again.

I'm getting fed up with my own guild.

XT-002 ( 25 man )

"That's one awfully big robot!" Raath said counting his ammo.
"Wonder what it drops?"

XT-002 has a couple of fun Gimmicks. Watch the Tankspot Video if you have tactical questions about it. Mine's more of a personal account of pitfalls and personal triumphs.

Step 1 Clear the corners. Big robot brings big adds. Best to clear what ya can.

Step 2 Assign a spot for Light Bombs and Gavity Bombs. Light bombs deal raidant energy. Gravity bombs leave a black spot of damage in their wake. Light right. Gravity Bombs Left. MT and OT switch out. Ranged DPS does alot of split DPS. We're assigned Bomb detail and add control. I wouldn't run my cat off a boss to charge a time-bomb. Too dangerous. Rather just pew pew pew it down and resume dps. Bring your cat out of Boss range for short range AOE Tantrums or keep a Mend going. DPS the bombs that walk up from the 4 corners. Someone should call it. If you get a gavity bomb, run away to a side. If you get a light bomb, run away to the other side. Resume DPS.

Step 3 When XT-002's heart pops out, nuke it down but not all the way. If you have alot of DPS, you CAN trigger hardmode. That boosts the robot's damage output, makes the Light/Gravity bombs hit harder, heals XT-002 to Full, and taxes the healers greatly. Otherwise, any damage done to the exposed heart transferrs to the Robot. Rinse repeat, and the robot goes down. Trigger hardmode and the robot gets REALLY pissy.

We stuck with regular mode XT. Hardmode is.... Way hard. We lost our MT/OT with our 25 man pug in regular mode. The remaining DPS had to finish him at the end.

Twisted Visage dropped and I won the roll. Woot!! That thing is best in slot for alot of un-capped Hunters. My other weapons are +Haste/+ArPen. Since I'm hit capped, the weapon is overkill, but with Tier 9 pants, I lose 59 Hit and will want it back badly. Luckily, this thing has alot of +Hit/+Crit to make up for it.

Get gear beacuse you need it, or Get gear because of what you plan on getting soon, or Lastly get gear because every other hunter on server has one. 5,000 other hunters can't be wrong. This thing does look great. I got it enchanted and keep it for my future Tier 9.5 set. Just waiting on a Epic Lv245 item Tropy from ToC25 to get my Triumphant Windrunner pants. Then.... Boom!! Tier 9 two piece bonus. Both items will cost me 105 Emblems of Triumph. I'll be able to afford it soon. Soon.... my precious. Lol. If VoA 10 / VoA 25 go my way, I'll just GET the pants/gloves.... but I'm never that lucky. It's always Shaman or Rogue gear.

Ulduar 25 - Flame Leviathan

Super Tank!

Like the Super Kitty, Super Toilet, and the Super Bike.... this is one wish we wish you didn't make there, Timmy Turner.

The Flame Leviathan is a big ass tank. So darned big that we had to get into vehicles and destroy that thing with the combined might of tanks, pyrite, rockets, seige vehicles, and motorcycles. What a mad melee. Great fun tho. The vehicular combat of the first encounter doesn't even need a proper class balance or healers. Just folks that know how to operate machinery.... You've all had 10 levels of WotLK vehicles to learn. Griffons, then dragons, to tanks, and such. Now you're doing it with style for Level 226 Epic drops.

Step 1 Repair your stuff and re-arm. Brann and his personal army have a vendor, reagent, and repair dudes there. Ulduar 25 is a long instance. Hit them up then get into a tank for mayhem.

Step 2 Start the circus and attack the ground troops. Iron Dwarves die by the handful. Explosions, rockets, Evil gnomes on helicopters, and giants to nuke. Motorcycles create oil slicks to snare foes. Tanks shoot flames into them to create fire pits. Everyone else just shoots madly in circles. Primary targets are Giant constructs, then Turrets, then ground troops. It's just mayhem. As long as folks aren't AFK, you can roll over anything here with focused fire. First time at the controls and you'll figure out 3 easy buttons to operate your choppa. I had someone show up late and she rode "shotgun". Sure it's also called riding "bitch", but since the game has SO FEW female gamers, I chose to take the high path and be respectful. The first and second vehicle slots do all kinds of jobs. On every vehicle except the motorcycle. For that, she just hung around. There's an eject button that launches the player, but I'd rather not pitch the pally healer into a fire-pit or wedge her under the 10,000 ton Leviathan. We just dropped Oil slicks and ran around nuking smaller foes with our Air-Horn of doom. Great fun.

Step 3 Layer the "Doorway" with pyrite charges. There's a steady stream of pyrite being ferried around by propeller. Shoot it down and the Explosive charge will parachute to the ground. You want to keep that handy in the battle area. It's ammo for your tanks. Shoot down 20+ charges and then trigger the two door guards. That starts the Leviathan fight.

Step 4 "Run away Little girl!" One tank object becomes fodder for the Leviathan's wrath. The leviathan gives chase. You run away in a circle. The rest of the raid shoots pyrite and sets the tank on fire. Like 17 charges of 8 stacks each. Burn baby burn.

Motorcycles make oil slicks to slow down the Leviathan. Those catch fire and also burn the big guy as well. Try not to get smashed by it. DPS again. Down goes Super Tank.

Collect your Phat Lewt. Welcome to Ulduar 25!

Zero Hunter skills needed. Just remember, getting out of your vehicle is deadly before the gates are cleared. Those turrets and casters hit hard and your bike has 50k health. After seeing the amount of cannon fire, napalm, bullets, and Mad Max vehicular gnomeslaughter... you'd want to stay in your tank until the first event is wrapped up. After FL goes down, the rest of the place is open for exploration.

I'd be Geared to at least Naxx level. You could to Uld 10 in all Lv 187+ Blues, but you better be a Cracker-Jack team of professionals. As the number of idiots increases, the gear requirements increase and flawless execution of strategy becomes necessary. With a bunch of Lv 200 Epics on each character, the place becomes easier.

At our level, an average Pug should be able to grind 3/5 of Ulduar 25 man. We hit a few achievements, but nothing in Hardmode. Hardmode Ulduar 25 is for the established guilds with a few guests. All the raiders ARE epicced out and your DPS needs to be 3k or more.

Mimiron Down

Ulduar, stronghold of the Northrend giants. Ancient tomb of Yogg-Saron, elder god of madness. This place has some great encounters and some challenging bosses. Also, there's fantastic loot to be had for those that dare challenge them. In the lineup, Mimiron is 8th on the kill order. For difficulty, he's 3rd from the worst. The elder god Yogg Saron and Alganon the Watcher are fighting for the top spot. Not many casual gamers get to see him killed.

This isn't the guild's first kill of Mimiron, but it's mine. The Tankspot video for Mimiron is awesome. See it, learn it, then prepare to die at least once applying that knowledge. This is a seriously hard fight. Mimiron is 4 phases. 1) Tank phase 2) Assault Cannon Phase 3) Helicopter Phase 4) Mega-multi OMFG that's alot of hurt phase. Survive all that and you'll win.

In my humble opinion, this fight is just ridiculously hard on Hunter pets. My poor raptor died alot more than I'm used to seeing. The whole fight has a ton of sudden-death one shot damage. Lots of kinds of sudden nuclear damage.

Phase One:

Aoe Lightning strike around the tank. Pull back your pet early. 1) The lag involved with recalling your pet will gaurantee that it won't clear the Lightning field. 2) There's a ring of landmines around the tank. 3) Did I mention land-mines? The Forward firing plasma burst isnt' a problem because your pet always runs to the back of the tank for attacks. Sadly, that also gives him a longer distance to run back to You when Lightning strike occurs.

Plasma Charge. AoE Fire damage. OMG does this hurt and the wind-up is pretty sudden. The fire ball is huge when it hits and usually leaves a nasty dot on you and your pet as well as a couple other people nearby. This is enough to kill your pet. Even with a Mend asap. Seriously, if you get hit, hope for a heal over time or YOU'LL be the dead one. Did I mention that charge is an AOE? You don't even have to be the target. It could be a buddy standing nearby. Boom... and you're limping away using your Phoenix ability to bring back your DPS pet.

Phase Two:

Super tank not enough? Oookay. Let's hit up the Super Assault Cannon. Random damage in a circular firing arc. Annoying amounts of direct damage ( 2k to 4k ). Fire based AoE at the base of the cannon hurting melee DPS for 2K every couple of seconds. That's enough to eat your pet with a constant Renew on. The big red rockets on his back. Those fly off randomly and create a red shadow on the ground. That's where doom will be. Mid cast, mid shot, mid spell... I don't care what it is. Run away and stop casting. It's sudden death damage for DPS. Nobody survives that's not a tank.

Then the Cannon "spins up" and does a Laser Barrage. Anyone and Anything in front of the cannon is dead. No question. Only the Paladin bubble / Ice Block will save you. The stream of death will arc around the room pretty fast. Get in close and strafe BEHIND the cannon on this phase. If you don't, the distance to run [ From our Geometry class, children ] becomes increasingly longer and the cannon will catch you. Then he resumes, his normal DPS abilities.

Alot of guilds burn cooldowns for phase 2. Nobody likes it. The little dude talks smack while operating the cannon killing your friends.

Phase Three:

He's got a helicopter? Seriously? No, it's not the Epic Flying mount you get from 25 man Hard Mode Yogg-saron. It's the Other Flying head of pain and suffering. Bring some Ranged DPS.

Helps take the edge off. Robots will spawn and rund around. Assault bots, Trash bots, and Bomb Bots. The bomb bots have 20k hitpoints and explode for 10k AOE. Those hit your pet and it's hurt bad. Just avoid the shit. While all this madness is occurring, Mimiron is flying around shooting people for 3K shadow damage. Eventually the scrap bots drop an Electromagnet. Loot it ( Free For All Loot here) and place it below him. This will bring the copter down for an extra 100% damage while grounded.

Whale away at him. Beat him like he owes you money. Really, but don't forget the bomb bots and Scrap bots. If you kill the Copter early, and leave 40 robots up... you'll regret it. Deal with the adds, and AOE when they become numerous. Just be sure to capitalize on the ground phase with max DPS. Do what you can to Survive the bomb bots with some mana / health remaining.

Phase Four:

Just when you thought it couldn't get worse. The Tank comes back. The Assault Cannon comes back. The Helicopter comes back. All at 50% health and fused into a super-mega-machine of doom. Split your dps into 3 groups. High, Mids, Low. Then clear the remaining robot trash.

Mt will tank the power-shovel. Lightning bursts will still occur. The Assault Cannon will still "spin up" and shred half the room. Landmines plus Lightning bursts. Rockets and more adds. This fight just plain sucks.

Now it gets worse... You have to DPS all three parts down to 2% then kill them within 15 seconds of each other or the unit will self-repair to 50% health. If one part self-repairs... you're done. Retry this encounter.

Beat this guy with a single living pet from start to finish and I'll give you a cookie. You'll have work hard to keep him out of harm's way. Too much sudden death / AoE to keep mine alive for more than 50% of the fight. Hell, it's work to keep a Hunter alive thru the AoE and sudden death gimmicks. Word to the wise - Stay Mobile! Much harder to nuke a running Dwarf.

In the end, we got him. Priest Tier helmet + Stun Baton dropped ( caster mace ). We're on the fence on wether we should extend the raid lock to get a crack at the General or Yogg-Saron. The General is beastly. Yogg Saron reminds me of C'Thun. I'm hoping we re-start Ulduar so I can get the DPS Cloak drop from Kologarn, or the Melee DPS ring from Razorscale. More walk-thrus next week. Wherever we end up.


- Raath