February Blog Posts

Krez, one of our hunters, put together this guide to how he made justin.tv show good, high-quality video (on a Windows-based system.)

How to Broadcast

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The latest boss from the US PTR:

StratFu Ulduar: The Iron Council Strategy Guide

Working on screenshots and even a movie this time. More updates as I have them.

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Hey, guys, this isn't a strategy! We're all US-based so didn't get a chance to engage him.

What it is: our collected notes and opinions as well as information we've gathered from other sources, just have a place to look.

Why? Because one, we'd like the reference to see what Blizzard does change between now and live, and two, we like to think about fights even if we haven't had a chance to do them and we figure others might like that as well.

StratFu Ulduar: Thorim Notes

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I got asked to write up a description of how we handled things tonight on the PTR, walking into a boss where we had no information and getting him to the point where we were convinced the next pull we'd kill him (GM's seemed to be also, since they shut off him at that point when many guilds were one pull away from success.)

Raiding on the PTR is a lot about putting yourself in a mind to deal with the usual bugs of raw encounters combined with huge lag and crashing -- and this PTR didn't leave us disappointed in that regard.

The Prep

We've been prepping ever since we knew 3.1 was coming: everyone had instructions to copy characters over to both pvp and pve the minute copies were available. We didn't much around with getting consumables etc. We posted on the forums each time copies were up and even pause both a raid and an interview with an applicant to make sure people copied.

We expected the PvP server to be our preference: more casuals go to the pve server where they don't have to worry about being ganked, and things remain decently quiet on the PvP server because most folks just want to get in and experience the new content.

They're up!

As soon as the PTR's were up, everyone made sure they downloaded each patch as soon as they could, to avoid any delays whenever Ulduar might be available. We formed a guild and gave everyone invite privileges to streamline that obnoxious process.

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The caveat here is this all may change. We don't know what changes Blizzard may make to the fight as a result of tonight's testing. That said, the fight seemed easy but decently balanced and there were no bugs we saw -- so it may go live unchanged.

StratFu Ulduar: Hodir Strategy

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In a good precedent, Blizzard is removing the protodrakes from the current Glory/Heroic:Glory achievements, although they will be part of equivalent achievements for Ulduar:

https://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=15443184457&sid=1

I think this is a good move. It remains to be seen whether the new protodrakes will be the same or different -- since different means they appeal to the achievement-oriented crowd as well.

I'm hoping they learned from feedback during T7 and will remove the Immortal/Undying achievements as well (or rather: not have them show up in Ulduar), although I fear they won't. It's not that we can't get those achievements (obviously we can, we all have protodrakes), but they have the following fatal (I believe) flaws:

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Sapp, who plays as Accountant, a paladin in NI on Detheroc posted today on EJ some fun videos he made from the 3.1 MPQ's. I especially am amused by the Clockwork Giant dancing!

I got bored so I spent a while hunting around in the MPQs looking for cool stuff. Here are some videos I made.

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Updates posted here and Ulduar.com as we get them! We'll be streaming from the PTR whenever Ulduar is opened. Subscribe to our StratFu twitter stream for announcements.

See also:

Freya
Flame Leviathan
Thorim, Hodir, and Ignis
The Iron Council and Mimir
Yogg-Saron

Keep in mind: This is datamined data. Not all of this may be used. Some of it may be misattributed. Assume everything is wrong until you're told otherwise!

Okay. We have no clue what these are associated with, other than that they're in the patch as new spells. Tons of possibilities!

The highlights

Oh to be one of these classes....: Aura of Despair: Prevents mana regeneration from nearly all natural sources. Aspect of the Viper, Judgements of the Wise, Shamanistic Rage, and Spiritual Attunement remain at least partially effective.

Is there a 26,000 HP check somewhere in Ulduar? Flame Jet: Stomps the ground causing geysers of flame to errupt under all enemies. These geysers deal 8483 to 9517 Fire damage, knocking the targets into the air and interrupting any spells being cast for 8 sec. In addition, the targets take 2000 Fire damage per second for 8 sec.

And my favorite ability of them all due to the name:

Fusion Punch: An attack infused with energy that inflicts 100% weapon damage and an additional 8000 Nature damage per second.

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Updates posted here and Ulduar.com as we get them! We'll be streaming from the PTR whenever Ulduar is opened. Subscribe to our StratFu twitter stream for announcements.

Ulduar raids look fun indeed with these bosses. See also:

Freya
Flame Leviathan
Thorim, Hodir, and Ignis
The Iron Council and Mimir
Yogg-Saron
Random fun abilities!

Keep in mind: This is datamined data. Not all of this may be used. Some of it may be misattributed. Assume everything is wrong until you're told otherwise!

Yogg-Saron

Sanity appears to be the key fight mechanic: Indicates your overall level of sanity. If sanity reaches zero your mind will be permanently under the control of Yogg-Saron. Sanity regenerates over time.

Basically, a debuff that you need to track and manage that is increased and decreased in various ways throughout the fight lest you go Insane.

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Updates posted here and Ulduar.com as we get them! We'll be streaming from the PTR whenever Ulduar is opened. Subscribe to our StratFu twitter stream for announcements.

Ulduar raids look fun indeed with these bosses. See also:

Freya
Flame Leviathan
Thorim, Hodir, and Ignis
The Iron Council and Mimir
Yogg-Saron
Random fun abilities!

Keep in mind: This is datamined data. Not all of this may be used. Some of it may be misattributed. Assume everything is wrong until you're told otherwise!

The Iron Council

The original Iron Council guesswork has been replaced by an actual strategy! Please see:

StratFu Ulduar: Iron Council Strategy

The guesswork has been included below, however, for your reading amusement!

Get away from people before you take damage from:

• Rune Detonation: Immobilizes a target with a runic ward that detonates after 4 sec to inflict 11250 to 13750 Fire damage around the target.
• Rune of Death: Summons a Rune of Death at a random enemy target's location. This rune deals 3000 Shadow damage every half-second to anyone within 13 yards of that location. (6k dps on you, yikes!)

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