Ulduar Hardmode

Credit for this guide goes to Syrvantez of Laughing Skull

Iron Council – “I Choose You, Steelbreaker!”

The requirement for this achievement is to kill Steelbreaker last when killing Iron Council Hard Mode. In order to do this you absolutely MUST have the following:

• At least two tanks that can take major hits
• At least one or more priests
• A reasonably high amount of raid dps

This fight is not as complicated as many make it out to be, and it is significantly stressful on the healers. Begin the pull by assigning your best big-hit mitigation tank to go after Steelbreaker, and your other tank to take care of the remaining two.

Begin the pull and dps in on Runemaster Molgeim. Molgeim is a preferred dps target over Brundir as you will not have to worry about moving the bosses out of the Rune of Power. It is a tossup, however, if you are extremely ranged heavy and have very alert tanks. Upon Molgeim’s death, Steelbreaker will begin casting Static Disruption occasionally. This is typically inconsequential on dps as long as you are properly interrupting lightning whirls and running out of overloads, but it’s important to keep an eye on nonetheless.

Upon Brundir’s death it will become a significant dps race. It is vitally important to save all CDs for Steelbreaker, as you are very limited on time. Steelbreaker places Overwhelming Power on the current aggro target, which behaves similar to Burning Adrenaline (for those who have done Vael in BWL). A 200% damage increase will be active, and a 60 second instant-death timer will be active. The instant death will cause AoE damage to all players within 15 yards, so obviously in the few remaining seconds, the tanks must transition and the soon-to-die tank must run away from the raid.

At this point there are two very different ways to finish this fight. First off, an MS affect (Furious Assaults, Mortal Strike, Aimed Shot, Wound Poison, etc.) should be placed on Steelbreaker. In either case, there will be several constants.

One mechanic that you will quickly notice is that upon any raid member’s death, Steelbreaker will heal 15% (7.5% with MS effect up) of his maximum health and gain a 25% damage increase. This means that it is vitally important for all raid members (and tanks) to be topped off at all times. Due to the damage increase, there should be a life-saving rotation going on for fusion punches. The first tank on Steelbreaker has a choice, in method #1 he will save his CDs and method #2 he will blow them as soon as the first fusion punch (following Brundir’s death) occurs. Only 1 CD per fusion punch need be used, any more than that will lessen your chances of tanks surviving through the entire Overwhelming Power duration. After the tank’s CDs are gone (and depending on how close he is to instantly dying) the priest should use Guardian Spirit, pallies can use Divine Sacrifice, bubble + Blessing of Sacrifice, and so forth. The two different methods for
finishing the fight both depend on the group’s composition.

Method #1: This strategy involves having at least one druid in the raid that can Rebirth the first tank after he has died, and allow one more possible tank transition.

Method #2: This strategy is a much riskier one, and has several different possibilities. If there are only two tanks and no druids available for Rebirth, the dps must be high enough (feast, flask, etc.) in order to kill Steelbreaker before he second tank dies. It is worth noting that this approach typically requires a shaman for Bloodlust/Heroism.

Optional: This option is extremely helpful if you have a skilled enough dpser to pull it off. During a tank transition, have a ranged dps purposely pull aggro and have the tank taunt the boss back to him once the hunter gains the Overwhelming Power debuff. Once this is done your ranged dpser will do a tremendous amount of dps, but will die and heal the boss if he is not killed in time, so again this is a very risky move, but can pay off if executed correctly.

Auriaya “Hard Mode” – “Crazy Cat Lady”

The “Hard Mode” is in quotes as this achievement does not benefit your loot table in the way that killing other bosses hard mode does, and thus is only useful if your team is going for the proto drake.

This is considerably easier on 10 man as opposed to 25 man, and thus will be much more easily accomplished. Your setup must have at least two tanks, and preferably consist of 3 healers. Have your group all stand near the stairs (not on them) right around the middle. The pull is most easily done by a hunter MDing Auriaya to the tank, at which point the hunter quickly LOSes the boss to avoid pounce death. There are two different approaches to this achievement that we’ll go over.

Method #1: 2 Tanks, one Sanctum Sentry each. This is one relatively simplistic option but can be very difficult if you have AoE or cleaving melee (DKs, dps warriors, etc.).

Advantages include:
• Easier healing
• Fewer tank switches

Disadvantages include:
• Greater possibility for sentry death/achievement loss
• Slower dps (assuming cleaves/AoEs are not used)
Method #2: 2 Tanks, one on Auriaya, one on the two Sanctum Sentries. This is a much more sure-fire way to get the achievement, but it’s much more difficult to pull off. Unless your dps is simply amazing, you will have to perform at least one (if not more) tank transitions.

Advantages include:
• Safer achievement earning
• Faster dps (assuming cleaving/AoE effects)

Disadvantages include:
• More tank switches
• Tougher healing
• Significantly more difficult healing

Both of these methods are viable, and either way the dps will focus on the boss from the start, blowing CDs after the sentry or sentries are out of the way.

For method #1, dps must be much more cautious about their abilities, ranging cleaves (hit the boss but not the sentry), keeping AoE to a bare minimum (kill the swarms and stop), and so forth. Method #1 also allows us to easily switch out sentries, so when one gets low, the tanks can taunt the sentries, getting the low hp one out of range. A DK’s Death Grip is very useful here, as it will prevent pounce and provide an instant taunt.

For method #2, the dps is much less limited in nuking the boss, but at some point, the tanks will most likely have to trade mobs. Ideally a pally or DK will begin tanking the boss (while having a dps warrior zerk the fear and pummel the cast) so on the first transition, both mobs can be very easily taunted. Be sure that the mobs are close enough to prevent the tanks getting pounced.

For both methods, your healing will be extremely intense, with many raid members taking damage. You can choose to ignore the feral defender and just focus on the boss, or kill the feral defender; it all depends on how well your healers can hold the raid up. In many cases it’s decided to kill the defender once, and less geared groups can potentially kill the defender in one area, and move the raid away from the defender’s LOS, preventing his pounce from doing raid damage.

For both methods, healing will require (at the very least) one healer on the Auriaya tank, one on the sentry/sentries tank, and a raid healer. If a shaman is in the raid, all the healers and the tanks should be in the same group with them to tone down the time spent without healing and the potential for the tanks to get hit in the back.

Kologarn “Hard Mode” – “Disarmed”

The “Hard Mode” will give the achievement necessary to obtain the proto drake, but no extra loot will be granted.

For this achievement, the fight will be done fairly normally, with the right arm being destroyed first, then the boss being brought down. When the boss reaches ~30% or so, make sure that you have both arms down to ~20% or. Split your dps to bring both arms down together, as you want to get them within 12 seconds of each other’s death. Once this is done, simply finish off the chest prior to the arms respawning.

XT-002 Deconstructor Hard Mode – “Heartbreaker”

This achievement is fairly easy to execute. First you need only have one tank, and having 3 healers is recommended. Perform the fight normally until the first heart phase, at which point you should kill the heart before it goes back into XT. Once the heart has been destroyed, XT will gain his health back and increase is max hp by 50%; he will also do 15% more damage than before.

The two primary differences are the sparks and gravity bombs. When a raid member gets light bomb on them, they should move to a spot away from the rest of the raid, and wait for the debuff to expire. When the debuff ends, a spark will come out and do some nature damage to the entire raid until it is killed. Have a hunter kite the spark away and another ranged dps or two dps it down. For gravity bombs, raid members should move a sufficient distance (12 yards or more) away from every other person and drop the gravity bomb in a pre-determined area. The gravity bomb will deposit a void zone that deals significant damage to anyone standing in it.

If the dps is sufficient to kill the heart, the only limiting factor will be mana. You will want to have your healers using their most efficient heals and using innervates/hymns tactfully.