Ulduar: The Iron Council Boss Strategy Guide – World of Warcraft

General Information

The Iron Council were the 5th boss encounter of the newest World of Warcraft raid instance Ulduar. They are similar to the outer “Councils” (Kael’Thas in The Eye, The Council in the Black Temple). However, their Health Points are not shared! This means, you have to beat any single one of them.

Every member of The Iron Council has 10.000.000 Health Points for a total of 30.000.000 Health Points. Update: For normal Mode each Boss has 3.000.000 Health Points for a total of 9.000.000 Health Points.

Abilities

Steelbreaker

• High Voltage: Inflicts 3000 Nature damage every 3 sec. Instant
• Fusion Punch: An attack infused with energy that inflicts 18850 to 21150 Nature damage and an additional 15000 Nature damage per second. 3 sec cast
• Static Disruption*: Deals 7000 Nature damage to enemies in an area and increases Nature damage taken by 75% for 20 sec. 50000 yd range, Instant
• Overwhelming Power: The target becomes overwhelmed with power increasing damage done by 200% and causes a Meltdown after 25 sec. 60 yd range
• Meltdown: The target melts down killing themselves and dealing 29250 to 30750 Nature damage to friendly units within 15 yards.

Stormcaller Brundir

• Chain Lightning: Strikes an enemy with a blast of lightning that inflicts 7400 to 8600 Nature damage. The bolt will arc to additional nearby enemies, inflicting 20% more Nature damage to each successive target. 1 sec cast
• Overload: Focuses all the caster's energy into a single ball of lightning. This ball grows for 6 sec until it finally explodes, dealing 25000 Nature damage to all enemies within 30 yards and knocking them down.
• Lightning Whirl*: Spins around throwing off bolts of lightning at random enemy targets. Each bolt deals 7069 to 7931 Nature damage. Lasts 5 sec. Channeled
• Lightning Tendrils**: Tendrils of lightning shoot out of the caster's chest, lifting them into the air. These lightning tendrils deal 5000 Nature damage to all enemies around the caster every second. (He will follow a player as he flies over the raid)

Runemaster Molgeim

• Lightning Blast: Unleashes a large blast of lightning, dealing 14138 to 15862 Nature damage to all enemies within 30 yards of the caster but killing the caster in the process. Instant
• Runic Barrier: A shield of runic power surrounds the caster, reducing all damage taken by 50% and inflicting 2000 Arcane damage to attackers. Instant
• Rune of Power: Summons a Rune of Power under a random friendly target. This rune increases damage by 50% of all friendly and enemy targets within 5 yards. Lasts 1 min.
• Rune of Death*: Summons a Rune of Death at a random enemy target's location. This rune deals 5000 Shadow damage every half-second to anyone within 13 yards of that location. 50000 yd range, Instant
• Rune of Summoning**: Creates a Rune of Summoning near a random enemy. This rune will periodically summon Lightning Elementals, which will rush towards random enemies and explode.
• Lightning Blast: Unleashes a large blast of lightning, dealing 14138 to 15862 Nature damage to all enemies within 30 yards of the caster but killing the caster in the process.

* Ability will be unlocked when 1 boss is killed
** Ability will be unlocked when 2 bosses were killed

Achievements

As Ignis the Furnace Master, the Razorscale encounter is also tied to some Achievements.

Heroic

• Heroic: I Choose You, Runemaster Molgeim -
  Defeat the Assembly of Iron with Runemaster Molgeim as the last member alive on Heroic Difficulty.
• Heroic: I Choose You, Stormcaller Brundir - Defeat the Assembly of Iron with Stormcaller Brundir as the last member alive on Heroic Difficulty.
• Heroic: I Choose You, Steelbreaker - Defeat the Assembly of Iron with Steelbreaker as the last member alive on Heroic Difficulty.
• Heroic: But I'm on Your Side - Defeat the Assembly of Iron while under the effect of an Iron Boot Flask on Heroic Difficulty.
• Heroic: Can't Do That While Stunned - Defeat the Assembly of Iron without allowing Stormcaller Brundir to damage anyone with Chain Lightning or Lightning Whirl on Heroic Difficulty.

Normal

• I Choose You, Runemaster Molgeim - Defeat the Assembly of Iron with Runemaster Molgeim as the last member alive on Normal Difficulty.
• I Choose You, Stormcaller Brundir - Defeat the Assembly of Iron with Stormcaller Brundir as the last member alive on Normal Difficulty.
• I Choose You, Steelbreaker - Defeat the Assembly of Iron with Steelbreaker as the last member alive on Normal Difficulty.
• But I'm on Your Side - Defeat the Assembly of Iron while under the effect of an Iron Boot Flask on Normal Difficulty.
• Can't Do That While Stunned - Defeat the Assembly of Iron without allowing Stormcaller Brundir to damage anyone with Chain Lightning or Lightning Whirl on Normal Difficulty.

The Encounter

As mentioned under the general information, the three members aren’t linked together and are more similar to the trash mobs in Temple of Ahn’Qiraj Classic World of Warcraft raid instance.

However, there is a little difference: When one of the boss dies, all the other get full HP. So there is no point in focusing on all three and killing them almost immediately to avoid them getting the additional skills unlocked.

Every time a boss dies, the other bosses will get one or two new abilities, making them harder.

Stormcaller Brundir is special, in the way that he can be stunned and taunted. However, he becomes immune to taunt and stuns when he's the last survivor of The Iron Council.

More coming soon…

Tactic and Setup

If you’re going for easy mode, I’d suggest killing Steelbreaker first, then the Runemaster Molgeim and do Stormcaller Brundir as last Boss.

Phase 1 (all Bosses alive)

You should choose your tanking positions wisely. Tank Steelbreaker and Molgeim in the front corners of the room and tank Brundir far away from the raid, to prevent AoE damage.

Some notes:

• When Brundir casts Overcharge, the tank should move away, to prevent taking to much damage and make the live easier for the healers
• All classes with interrupt should try to interrupt Brundir's chain lightning casts
• From time to time, Molgeim will drop a rune of power under Brundir and Steelbreaker. This will buff the boss and increase it's damage. The tanks should reposition the bosses when this happens, so that they are not in the buffing area of effect anymore, but your raids damage dealers are in this buff area to benefit from increase damage
• Steelbreaker uses fusion tank sometimes. When this happens, the tank will need additional heal and dispel, so be careful here!

Phase 2 (1 Boss down)

After killing the first boss, the encounter will go in phase 2 and the remaining bosses will get additional Abilities (see Abilities listing above).

Phase 3 (2 Bosses down)

After killing the second boss (Molegeim), Brundir is the only one left. He gains another ability (see above). When he use his new ability, he will lift up and do massive damage to everyone around him. When he does this, run away (unless you're the tank). Sometimes he will get back to the ground, where your melee damage dealers can do some damage. However, for this tactic a raid composing of many ranged damage dealers (Huntes, Mages, Warlocks) would be the best solution for getting the first kill.

Just continue until he's dead. 

Hard Mode

Kill Steelbreaker as last of the tree Iron Council Members.

Hard Mode guide will be added when it's available

Ulduar: XT-002 Deconstructor Strategy (+Hard Mode) Guide

General Information

Forth boss in the newest World of Warcraft raid instance Ulduar. He’s the first mechanical Boss (power to the Gnomes!!) and has approximate 25.000.000 Health Points on Heroic and 5.250.000 Health Points on Normal. It’s also know that he as an optional Hard Mode for the hardcore raiders!

Notice: While it’s possible to kill most of the bosses in any order, this is usually the chronological order (if you don’t skip any bosses)

Abilities

• Tympanic Tantrum: Deals 10% damage every 1 sec for 12 sec. Nearby enemies are also dazed for the duration. 2 sec cast / Channeled
• Light Bomb: Charges the target with divine energy, causing them to sear nearby allies for 9 sec.
• Gravity Bomb: Charges the target with dark energy, causing them to explode and pull in nearby allies after 9 sec. (Gravity Bomb)
• Gravity Bomb: Pulls enemies within 10 yards into a gravity well, dealing 19000 to 21000 damage. Instant

Hard Mode Abilities

• Heartbreak: The heart of the XT-002 Deconstructor has been severed, removing the combat limitations of the XT-002 Deconstructor. Damage increased by 30%. Health increased by 40%.
• Void Zone: Summon a Void Zone that deals 7500 Shadow damage to enemies that stand within it. This is spawned by Gravity Bomb
• Life Spark: In hard mode, Light Bomb also spawns an add called Life Spark. This add will repeatedly cast Static Charged
• Static Charged: Deals Nature damage to all enemies within 500 yards every 3 sec.

Achievements

Heroic

• Heroic: Nerf Engineering - Defeat XT-002 Deconstructor without him recovering any health from XS-013 Scrapbots on Heroic Difficulty.
• Heroic: Nerf Scrapbots - Defeat 20 XS-013 Scrapbots within 12 seconds using XE-321 Boombots on Heroic Difficulty.
• Heroic: Nerf Gravity Bombs - Defeat XT-002 Deconstructor without any raid member dying from a Gravity Bomb on Heroic Difficulty.
• Heroic: Must Deconstruct Faster - Defeat XT-002 Deconstructor in 205 seconds on Heroic Difficulty.
• Heroic: Heartbreaker - Defeat XT-002 Deconstructor after destroying his heart on Heroic Difficulty.

Normal

• Nerf Engineering - Defeat XT-002 Deconstructor without him recovering any health from XS-013 Scrapbots on Normal Difficulty.
• Nerf Scrapbots - Defeat 20 XS-013 Scrapbots within 12 seconds using XE-321 Boombots on Normal Difficulty.
• Nerf Gravity Bombs - Defeat XT-002 Deconstructor without any raid member dying from a Gravity Bomb on Normal Difficulty.
• Must Deconstruct Faster - Defeat XT-002 Deconstructor in 205 seconds on Normal Difficulty.
• Heartbreaker - Defeat XT-002 Deconstructor after destroying his heart on Normal Difficulty.

The Encounter

One more tank and standard tank and spank fight... at least for most of the time.

Some facts:

• Spread out, to prevent AoE damage.
• After being hit by gravity bomb or a light bomb immediately spread out to minimize damage
• Healers look for tympanic tantrum. It deals 120% damage to all raid members over time (12 seconds)

It’s not a bad idea to assign healers to individual groups, as to ensure all players receive a heal.

At 75%/50%/25% (in other words: Every 6.250.000 Health Points) he will spawn adds with approximate 2.000.000 Health Points.

Tactic and Setup

One important thing is, to widely spread as there is much AoE damage.

It's also useful to have many group healers in your raid.At least 1 per group to get the group up when he casts tympanic tantrum.

Other than that, it's similar to the Reaver from The Eye. Simply move and don't stand to close to others when you get gravity bomb or light bomb.

Every 25% of his HP, adds will spawn. It's very important to kill this adds quickly, as they will heal him otherwise (XS-013 Scrapbots are the ones who heal him).

If you attack the heart during the add spawn, the damage did to him will be doubled. If you're not doing the Hard Mode (see below) DON'T KILL THE HEART!! As this will enable the Hard Mode and heal up the boss to max HP (in addition to 25% more max HP and 25% more damage). So get the Heart only down to 10-15% and go to on the adds.

XE-321 Boombots cause AoE damage when they explode. They do 50% of the HP if an target and can be used to blow up the other Bots.

XM-024 Pummelers have nothing special. It's best to kill them after boombots and scrapbots have been killed.

Hard Mode

To enable Hard Mode of this encounter, you have to click him while he' changing Phases (on 75/50/25%). This will open his heart which becomes attackable. Destroy it and beat him in this Hard Mode. While his heart is opened/attackable, he will deal significantly more damage and gain extra abilities (check list above!). Destroying his heart increases his health and damage by 25% as well as heals him up to his max. Health Points.

Notice: It doesn’t matter in which phase you activate the Hard Mode. You can do it at any of the 3 phases (75/50/25%). However, it’s better to do it on the first, as he will regenerate 100% once the Hard Mode is activated.

So activating it a 25% doesn’t benefit you at all. The opposite is the case, it’s more dangerous, because your healers and damage run low on Mana and the risk of a wipe is much higher!

Hard mode tactic

The tactic for this boss is quite easy. You’ll only need 1 tank and one off tank. The main tank will tank the boss and the off-tank can be a druid or Death Knight who will tank the Pummelers and the sparks.

The boss himself is tanked in the middle of the room. The group has to split into 2 lines pointing to the boss (which looks like the like the letter V on it’s head => /\)

On top of the “arrow” is the main tank, tanking the boss. The reason for this: In hard mode he has two additional abilities. The Gravity Bombs (the dark ones) will also create void zones and the Lightning Bombs (the light/white ones). They will do AoE damage to everyone around it and after a few seconds spawn a lighting spark which will walk around and do additional damage to the raid.

People who get the Gravity Bomb run to the right side of the arrow /\ (at least 15 yards away but still in heal range) to place the void zone out side of the raid and run back once they placed it.

People who get the Lighting Bomb walk to the middle of the /\ arrow and wait until the spark spawns. The off-tank takes the spark and tanks it while some of the ranged DDs (5-6 Ranged DDs should do it) nuke it down.

Repeat this until he’s down.

Quick Mana Regeneration as Hunter – World of Warcraft Exploit

This comes very hand if you need to fill up your mana very quickly by using the Aspect of the Viper. As everyone knows, every second you’re using the Aspect of the Viper, you’re losing DPS!

Losing DPS is bad! So our task is to reduce the amount of time we’re in Aspect of the Viper to an absolute minimum.

That’s where this little exploit comes in. However, it will only work in AoE fights. Here’s how it works:

• Wait until your group/raid pulls a good amount of mobs (i.e. Noth adds in Naxxramas)
• Turn your Aspect of the Viper on
• Throw a Saronite Bomb into the mob group
• See your Mana fill up

Basically the more mobs you hit with it, the faster you get full. Can be very useful in raid, or battlegrounds (especially Wintergrasp, when you’re defending and there is a bunch of Horde/Allies outside the keep)