Ulduar Take 2
Three weeks ago, my guild had its first trip into Ulduar, as a farewell present to our raid officer who’s now in the frozen north until August. As I am in her footsteps now, I decided to return to Ulduar, after our failed attempt at killing Malygos two weeks ago. I didn’t really post about it, because phase 3 is full of fail. He’ll die soon enough.
Last time, we managed to kill 3 bosses in Ulduar, Flame Leviathan, Razorscale and XT-002. Ignis was more than we could handle. But that was then, and this is now!
Flame Loothiathan actually took us two tries, because the first try we waited too long with the turrets and the vehicles got demolished. The second try was a smooth operation though, so all was good. We then moved on to Razorscale who was 2-shot. The first try we had waaaaay too many adds for us tanks to handle, but the second try was a lot better. I actually like phase 1 better than phase 2, it’s more dynamic. Stressful, but good. Phase 2 is ugh. I hate Grobbulus, I hate Gluth, and phase 2 Razorscale is like that, only on crack. It was messy in the end, with a tank death, but we got her down.
We moved on to XT-002, and that fight was fun, and a flawless kill. I seem to struggle a bit with actually locating the Pummelers, as I was on adds duty. I would find one and miss the other, but Misdirect saved the day. Not only did we kill XT flawlessly, we all got us a fancy achievement as well. Good times.
I decided to skip Ignis and move on to Kologarn instead. Gosh, he was easy. I didn’t really expect him to be that easy. I had read up on him and believed that we had to swap aggro as tanks, but the debuff never stacks in Ulduar-10, so all I did was tanking adds, while running from crazy eyebeam pew-pew. That was exciting. 
I have to say, Kologarn showing up when you enter his room, that’s pretty fabulous. Another very nice one-shot.
We moved on to Auriaya, which took a godly time, because her trash? Sucks. Just two trash groups, but they kicked our asses and laughed at us. And I loved it. Because lame trash like the trash in Naxx is boring. I would have preferred not wiping so much, but getting those two groups down felt like it would deserve its own epic loot. On Auriaya herself, we managed to mess up that pull. Her kitties pounced, tanks were pretty much dead from the start. Ouch. We were running out of time as one of our healers had to go, so we decided to give it one more try. The second time the pull worked like charm, the kitties went down, and from there on, I tried to gain the Feral Defender’s attention (didn’t work) and popped Berserker Rage when she feared. Not too hard when the pull works.
Amount of tank loot on day 1: zero
The next raid day, I thought it was time to re-visit our nemesis from our initial raid, Ignis. Last time, none of our strategies worked out, but even in our first try, we were already better. It was doable, I knew it. The second try was full of bad luck (adds tank in slagpot), but on the third try, we nailed it. It was very intense, less for me as Ignis tank, but for the add handlers. Our pally tanked the adds, my partner was a boomkin instead of bear that day and rooted them in the Scorch, and our warlock brought them to the pool and shattered them. Felt absolutely awesome to get him down. In my screenshot, you can see that I had to pull out all the stops at the end, and having a 49k health pool there, makes me giggle a bit. Also, whatever that golden glowy stuff is, it’s pretty.
From there, we moved on to Assembly of Iron. Originally, I had slotted myself as healer, but changed that because I wanted to do that fight, and we had no interrupts but me. It took us quite some time to figure out the fight. The first tries were wipes learning to deal with Fusion Punch and Overload on the tanks. Then we had some tries where Fusion Punch would not be dispelled even though it was spammed. The first time we got Steelbreaker down, we quickly learned how to deal with Phase 2, giant green runes of death and positioning. We wiped again, but it was educational, and the next try we got all three of them down. Looking at my WoL report, I have really subpar threat, way too much white damage, but I was so focused on interrupts. I had to set up a giant glowy icon for my cooldowns on interrupts, it was intense. Stormcaller Brundir is definitely made for warrior tanks, with three stuns and two interrupts (if you have Gag Order). The only part I had problems with was dragging him out of the Runes of Power. Those often happened right after I silenced him, aargh.
We then proceeded towards Hodir. I am not sure I can call it proceed. Raid Leader who doesn’t know the trash, plus snow mounds plus pathers with big aggro range = carnage. I think it took us at least an hour to clear to Hodir and we were running out of raid time. That’s some interesting trash there alright. We then tested the waters on Hodir, and we have our work cut out on him. But just like on Ignis the previous raid, I now have the time to analyze our mistakes, and work out a more cohesive strategy. I am full of ideas already.
Damn, it’s fantastic to be a tank. Be it as main tank, as caster tank, as adds tank. My one true love in-game. I will soon speak about my thoughts of Ulduar in the eyes of a tank, later this week. I have more to say that doesn’t fit in this story-time post.
Oh, btw. Tank loot on day 2: zero. Cry with me, tanks of the world.
Awww too bad about the lack of loot. I assure you there’s tons in there
Tips for malyp3: get people to practice the daily. Also, use a /follow macro in phase3: everyone sets up a macro and binds a key to it “/follow “. Then, after you land on your dragons, hit the key. One person – – has to be the one to position the whole raid far enough away, and rotate around out of the spark damage. Much easier that way. You can even practice the entire follow mechanic on Aces High.
I used to mess up the trash all the time on Hodir. Finally I got used to it, so I’m very careful pulling in there now. Good job on all the other bosses.
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You should come raid with us. All we get is plate, especially when we had 2 druids tanking. Our spriest has a tank alt, and he cried every time loot dropped that his warrior could have used. One of our DPS DKs decided he must now have a tank spec, as he got all the tanking plate (and he already has a warrior tank).
Grats, ladies! You’ve caught up to my guild now! WTB: more warrior tanks for tanking Iron Council….the only time we’ve successfully killed them was with a warrior tank.
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I’ve been loot starved for a while. I still have shoulders, bracers and boots to replace on my tanking set, surprisingly enough my DPS set (which I hardly ever play) is all purples… figures.
.-= logtar´s last blog ..WoW MeMe Burn Out =-.
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Awww – it’s lovely to read the tales of someone who loves tanking as much as I love healing! And I can’t believe you got no Plate – all I ever see is Plate – wanna swap?
.-= Sephrenia´s last blog ..Has WOW got boring? =-.
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Suggestion for XT002 – tank him on the left hand side, between the piles of trash. Adds will only come from the trash piles on the right side, so you have loads of time to pick up the adds. Makes it much easier.
I feel your pain with the loot.
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/cry about the tank loot.
We actually don’t have much luck with it either. Didn’t in OS, Didn’t in Naxx, Didn’t in Malygos. No luck thus far in Ulduar from what I hear. I went to pugs on our off-weeks though and tank loot dropped like crazy.
Yesterday we took a fresh 80 through Naxx-10. 7 pieces of tank loot! ><;;
.-= Naissa´s last blog ..Speaking of Healers… =-.
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i totally feel you on the loot thing. Ariaya droped her shield last time, but i lost the roll to my OT.
Also, don’t feel bad about the trash. My guild wiped on every unknown keeper trash pull at least once.
With the exception of one Freya patrol.
Which we one-shoted.
There was much cheering.
yeah… Ulduar trash is scary cool. And the best is still to come! You’ll have fun with the Thorin trash. Their my favorites after the Mimiron ones.
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Nice blog.
I am a tank, but i can not cry with you. Ulduar 10 and 25 have been very good 2 me. Last 2 raids i got the shield of Aureya and the mace from Thorim.
About Hodir, be aware with that small white things on the left and on the right of the path, if you get close will apear some adds. You need to kill the big guy and then aproach with carefull to get a control release of adds.
The rest is tank and spank.
Big hug
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Grats on all the downed bosses!! We havent been able to kill Ignis, havent gotten past Kologarn. Sounds like you have a group that works well together!
.-= RJK´s last blog ..Tanking Weapons Comparison =-.
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Argh, I hate reading your progress posts because it makes me very jealous! We’ve been trying for many weeks and have only barely beaten Kologarn (after 6 attempts) and no progress on Ignis after 15+ attempts. You are making it sound easy, I just hope you appreciate what a great group you have
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admin Reply:
June 18th, 2009 at 2:52 pm
I think Ignis is definitely too difficult for his early placement in Ulduar. As he is optional, I would skip him until you have Antechamber solidly down. We had 3 people devoted to controlling the constructs. He has no enrage, so you have all the time in the world to take him down. I’d be happy to post about our strategies next.
Our raiders are all very solid and I know I am blessed with playing with a smart group of girls who know to adapt. Wishing you the best of luck!
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