Entering Ulduar
bvlgari replica itself was an experience. The instance is, as Blizzard promised, absolutely beautiful (and you can see as much in our gallery of our trip there). The center hub connected to a number of
ffxiv gil different wings, but we were obviously after Hodir, whose wing was coated in ice. Yogg-Saron's prison lay smack-dab in the center of the room, huge broken chains and shattered glass suspended in the air above it. We walked in and saw the big man himself! .
Here's a rundown of Hodir's abilities:
Missy Flamecuffs: A gnome mage. The fires disappear if hit by Icicles or Flash Freeze. Missy will drop fires that prevent players from taking frost damage or being Flash Frozen. .
When finally able to zone in (the Broxigar world server was, to be kind, a piece of crap), we ran through what appeared to be the staging area for the Flame Leviathan fight. Unfortunately, we also had to run past it, since it was empty and no teleporter existed. It was staggeringly enormous, dwarfing even Ahn'Qiraj. .
Ellie Nightfeather: A night elf boomkin. Anyone standing
cheap shoes online within her summoned light circle receives +50% spell and melee haste.
Elementalist Avuun: A draenei shaman. Players within jump range of his Chain Lightning will receive a temporary 100% crit buff when it hits Hodir.
Hodir was in the back of the room. To his left and right were two ice-covered chests -- more on that later. In front of him were four friendly NPCs encased in ice blocks, which were breakable. .
This writeup will be spoiler-heavy. If you don't wish to know anything about this fight, don't click below. You've been warned. .
Freeze: Hodir does an AOE freeze, rooting players in place for a few seconds. This can be dispelled.
Hodir engaged our tank, and the NPCs assisted us. We regrouped after the wipe and tried again. Hodir dropped the ceiling on us a few times before beginning to cast Flash Freeze, which is a long cast (something like ten seconds). Some of us were frozen when it was cast, and some weren't. .
The pace of the fight calms down quite a bit once the basics are understood, like most fights. Utilizing the NPCs is very helpful but not necessary, much like Loatheb's spores once you're properly geared. It's still a DPS race, but the raid
micro bikini damage is very low and should require only two healers on the 10-man version. .
Summon Icicles: Basically a Gruul-style falling ceiling spell. If you're under it, you get damaged and knocked back.
All in all, I'm prety impressed with the Hodir encounter, and if he's a sign of how all Ulduar encounters will be, I couldn't be more excited.
A funny bug (possibly) that we encountered was that if you were jumping when Flash Freeze was cast, you could avoid it completely. Additionally, Flash Freeze can be resisted, like every frost spell in the encounter.
We engaged Hodir and decided to free the NPCs, which turned out to be a good decision, as each had some benefit for our group. Horde and Alliance groups will each have their own NPCs. All of them use normal DPS spam moves in addition to their benefits below:
Frozen Blows: Hodir will gain this ability periodically. It decreases his melee damage by 70% but increases his frost damage by a large amount.
Last night was an exciting night -- the first night of Ulduar encounter testing on the 3.a. Scott Mercer, was on hand to open up the instance portal and guide us to our intended boss (the only boss in the instance for that night) -- Hodir. Lead Encounter Designer Daelo, a.1 PTR.k. .
When we reached the end of the Flame Leviathan area, it was clear that there would be more bosses before you even got into Ulduar proper. Ignis' area, or so I assumed, was to the left right before the Ulduar interior portal.
This
replica watch time, we noticed that mounds of snow were appearing where Icicles fell while he was casting Flash Freeze, which didn't happen otherwise. We stood on the snow mounds and weren't frozen, thus solidifying our strategy. However, if you entered the area where the mounds would fall before they fell (signified by a large white cloud), you'd get hit and knocked back 30 or so yards, usually making the run back to a mound impossible before Flash Freeze finished casting. .
I've talked about Hodir a few times; he was featured in my Ulduar boss speculation post (and I was right), and I went through some of his datamined abilities a few days ago. Getting to finally test the encounter was exhilarating, and getting back into the process of learning a strat by hitting the ground running was something to which I've been looking forward for a long time.
A few minutes into our attempt, Hodir smashed one of his chests in the back of the room, and that's when we figured out the "hard mode" of this encounter. Killing Hodir in the time limit will reward you with two chests of loot and Hodir's basic loot; taking more time will result in one less chest or no chest at all. It's a timed loot run. .
Flash Freeze: Hodir
wow power leveling freezes everyone in ice blocks like what the NPCs were in. If you get hit by Flash Freeze again while already frozen, you die. These can be broken, but they have 20k health in normal mode. .
Field Medic Penny: A dwarf priest. She'll dispel Freezes on you and the other NPCs.
Biting Cold: This is identical to Keristrasza's Biting Cold, but the stack isn't immediately removed when you move around -- it still takes time for the stacks to fall off while you're moving. The damage increases exponentially as it stacks.
I brought my Elune guildies and a deadweight coworker with me for a 10-man attempt.
An issue we encountered was that the NPCs weren't as smart as us and would need to be freed from their Flash Freezes after every cast; this made things a bit more difficult, since that was DPS that wasn't going to Hodir, who had 13 million HP.
I'll be back tonight with more testing impressions, this time from the Iron Council encounter. Gallery: WoW 3.1 PTR: Ulduar
Patch 3.1 brings us Ulduar, dual specs, significant changes to all the classes, and
buy ffxiv gil more! We've got you covered from top to bottom with our Guide to Patch 3.1.
