March 26th, 2009 by Kyth
And apologies for my absence: It’s not that there’s been no news, although news has been scarce.
It’s that my time is very taken up with wedding preparations. I’ll be out next week actually doing the “getting married” thing, and then back the following week, when I will be back to having time for StratFu. Luckily Blizzard seems to be giving me the wedding gift I asked them for: not launching Ulduar until after 4/5, so we should be hitting Ulduar with full traction the minute it launches.
To those who have sent me PM’s and emails: I haven’t ignored you, I just haven’t had time. To those wondering about projects I said we were going to launch: same deal.
Many apologies, and just wanted to assure everyone: I haven’t abandoned the site.
Remember, if you’re bored during the day, come hang out with us on IRC!
irc.gamesurge.net — channel is #stratfu
Posted in Fusion and Administrivia | 5 Comments »
March 20th, 2009 by Kyth
Tonight the Iron Council was up on the US PTR’s with the broadcasted request to “please test with Steelbreaker last.” So we did, with our ragtag bunch (only had a 10-man raid — Fusion folks have lives on Friday nights!)
We weren’t exactly stacked:
Heals
Druid
Priest
Shaman
DPS
Rogue
Warlock
Mage
Mage
Tank
DK
Warrior
We were missing a bunch of caster buffs, the rogue barely got any buffs, and we didn’t have any blessings. It was interesting to say the least!
That said, we killed them and got loot:
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: the iron council, Ulduar
Posted in PTR and Upcoming | No Comments »
March 18th, 2009 by Kyth
Well, the much-anticipated “benefit from spirit” is here. GC wasn’t quite true to his word.
He said that the goal was that we wouldn’t have a DPS loss by taking gear with spirit on it, but we also wouldn’t see a dps gain. He’s correct we don’t see a dps gain…
But it’s definitely still a loss to take any gear with spirit.
The changes are:
- Molten Armor now causes 170 Fire damage when hit for all ranks (Up from 75/130/170) and also increases your critical strike rating by 25% of your spirit.
- Molten Armor glyph increases that by 15% (to a total of 40%)
It requires about 380 unbuffed spirit for glyphed Molten Armor fully-raid-buffed to still provide 5% crit.
It’s a good move from a gear-homogenization perspective (how good that design is I won’t go into here.) It’s a “…what?” move from a mage perspective, since it doesn’t really address anything at all with the class, and just brings us closer to parity with what the other cloth classes have had with itemization up until now.
Most interesting is what isn’t in this patch:
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: 3.1, mage, mana
Posted in Classes and Design, PTR and Upcoming | 16 Comments »
March 18th, 2009 by Vykromond
In the 18 March PTR build the Ulduar achievements have been updated, with a few new achievements, most of the placeholders amended, and the metas introduced. First and most importantly, let’s take a look at the meta achievement (link is to WoWhead which currently still has the placeholder achievement):
Heroic: Glory of the Ulduar Raider: Complete the Heroic Difficulty raid achievements listed below.
- Heroic: Orbit-uary – Defeat Flame Leviathan with 4 Orbital Defense Systems active on Heroic Difficulty. (Flame Leviathan hardest mode
- Heroic: Stokin’ the Furnace – Defeat Ignis the Furnace Master in 4 minutes on Heroic Difficulty.
- Heroic: I Choose You, Steelbreaker – Defeat the Iron Council with Steelbreaker as the last member alive on Heroic Difficulty. (Iron Council hardest mode)
- Heroic: Getting Cold In Here – Defeat Hodir without any raid member having more than 2 stacks of Biting Cold on Heroic Difficulty.
- Heroic: Getting Back to Nature – Defeat Freya while she is affected by 25 stacks of Attuned to Nature on Heroic Difficulty.
- Heroic: Crazy Cat Lady – Defeat Auriaya without destroying her Sanctum Sentries on Heroic Difficulty. (Requires serious offtank action)
- Heroic: The Immortal, Part Two
- Heroic: A Quick Shave – Defeat Razorscale without allowing her to fly into the air more than once on Heroic Difficulty. (Razorscale time/execution check)
- Heroic: Heartbreaker – Defeat XT-002 Deconstructor after destroying his heart on Heroic Difficulty. (XT-002 hard mode)
- Heroic: With Open Arms – Defeat Kologarn without destroying either of his arms on Heroic Difficulty. (Potentially the hardest way of doing Kologarn if the fight is changed on PTR)
- Heroic: Siffed – Force Thorim to enter the arena while Sif is present on Heroic Difficulty. (Thorim hard mode, although the phrasing of the achievement as it currently stands seems to indicate that simply attempting the hard mode is enough, not necessarily defeating Thorim)
- Heroic: I Love the Smell of Saronite in The Morning – Defeat General Vezax without any raid member gaining mana from Saronite Vapors on Heroic Difficulty. (Vezax hard mode)
- Heroic: Two Lights in the Darkness – Defeat Yogg-Saron with the assistance of two or fewer Keepers on Heroic Difficulty. (Yogg-Saron medium difficulty hard mode; there are two harder modes not included in the meta achievement)
Note that this only includes some hard modes, does not include all of Yogg-Saron’s hard modes, and does not include any Algalon achievements. I think this represents a conscious design decision to make 310% drakes more accessible. The implication of this meta achievement design is that “mid-range” raiding guilds should be able to get 310% drakes by the end of the Ulduar content cycle. This is a somewhat surprising move as PVP drakes are still at the same level of exclusivity as they were and this change would cause PVE drakes to greatly outnumber them. Nonetheless, I imagine many people in non-bleeding edge will be very pleased if this change makes it to live. Meanwhile, hardcore guilds still have extra achievements and loot from Algalon to set them apart.
The Immortal has been notably changed for Ulduar. It is now tracked per-boss (meaning raids can earn it over the course of multiple raid lockouts). The text of the Immortal achievement in Ulduar is as follows:
The Immortal, Part Two: Defeat every boss in Ulduar on Heroic Difficulty without allowing any raid member to die during that boss encounter.
- Flame Leviathan
- Ignis the Furnace Master
- The Iron Council
- Auriaya
- Thorim
- Mimiron
- Yogg-Saron
- Razorscale
- XT-002 Deconstructor
- Kologarn
- Hodir
- Freya
- General Vezax
Note that Algalon is not on this achievement.
Tags: immortal, Ulduar
Posted in PTR and Upcoming, Strategies and Raids | 7 Comments »
March 16th, 2009 by Kyth
Screenshots of each boss, information on hard modes and achievements, plus easy access to the StratFu strats, what more could you want?
I’m a very visual person, so just making this map was good for me to get a sense of where everything was:
StratFu Ulduar: Interactive Ulduar Map
Tags: 3.1, map
Posted in Movies and Media, Strategies and Raids | 1 Comment »
March 13th, 2009 by Kyth
Acclaimed as possibly the best boss that the US has seen, Fusion downed the 10-man version tonight (hard to get people to log in on a Friday.) There’s a lot going on and each phase is different and short enough that you don’t get bored. While there’s a slight favoring of range DPS, if Magnetic Cores are working properly it seems like melee will be just fine on the fight.
The strategy:
StratFu Ulduar: Mimiron Strategy
Good luck!
Tags: mimiron
Posted in PTR and Upcoming, Strategies and Raids | 46 Comments »
March 12th, 2009 by Vykromond
Chaud of WotLKWiki has been data mining today’s new PTR push, and contained within it are the new Ulduar raid achievements. Here are some of them, reposted for your convenience:
Miscellaneous achievements
- The Siege of Ulduar/The Antechamber of Ulduar/The Keepers of Ulduar/The Descent into Madness/The Secrets of Ulduar – Defeat every boss in Ulduar on Heroic difficulty.
- Crazy Cat Lady – Defeat Auriaya while doing something cool on Heroic Difficulty. This is just an unfinished achievement- they haven’t plotted out what they want to do for Auriaya yet.
- The Immortal, Part Two – Within one raid lockout period, defeat every boss in Ulduar on Heroicl Difficulty without allowing any raid member to die during any of the boss encounters. Thankfully, as Immortal is a poorly-conceived achievement, Blizzard has announced that it won’t be included in the Ulduar 310% drake metas.
- Glory of the Explorer – The Ulduar meta. The achievements this contains have yet to be revealed.
General Vezax
- Heroic: Shadowdodger – Defeat General Vezax without any raid member being hit by Shadow Crash on Heroic Difficulty. This is simply an execution check.
- Heroic: I Love the Smell of Saronite in the Morning – Defeat General Vezax without being affected by Saronite Vapors on Heroic Difficulty. Supposedly this is General Vezax’s “hard mode.”
- Heroic: Never Stand Near the Faceless Dude – Defeat General Vezax without allowing him to regain health from Mark of the Faceless on Heroic Difficulty. Another potentially tricky execution check involving players not standing within 12 yards of Vezax when he casts this AoE spell.
Yogg-Saron
- Heroic: She’s Not Bad for an Old God – /Kiss Sara in Ulduar on Heroic Difficulty. Just a fun achievement the entire raid can knock out in phase 1 of Yogg-Saron.
- Heroic: Drive Me Crazy – Defeat Yogg-Saron without any raid member going insane on Heroic Difficulty. Most likely an execution check.
- Heroic: He’s Not Getting Any Older – Defeat Yogg-Saron within 22 minutes on Heroic Difficulty. Ghostcrawler has confirmed that the time on this achievement is a placeholder.
Algalon the Observer
- Heroic: Observed – Defeat Algalon the Observer on Heroic Difficulty.
- Heroic: Supermassive – Defeat Algalon the Observer while destroying 4 Black Holes within 10 seconds on Heroic Difficulty. Black Holes are likely some sort of add in the encounter. The achievement title is a reference either to the astronomical phenomenon of supermassive black holes or the rock band Muse’s song of the same name.
- Heroic: He Feeds On Your Tears – Defeat Algalon the Observer without any raid member dying on Heroic Difficulty. A sort of “mini-Immortal” for Algalon. I suspect this one is required for the Ulduar meta.
Tags: algalon, general vezax, Ulduar, yogg-saron
Posted in PTR and Upcoming, Strategies and Raids | No Comments »
March 12th, 2009 by Vykromond
Chaud of WotLKWiki has been data mining today’s new PTR push, and contained within it are the new Ulduar raid achievements. Here are some of them, reposted for your convenience:
Hodir
(check out our Hodir strat!)
- Heroic: Cheese the Freeze – Defeat Hodir without any raid member being hit by Flash Freeze on Heroic Difficulty. A basic execution check.
- Heroic: I Have the Coolest Friends – Defeat Hodir without any friendly NPC dying on Heroic Difficulty. Requires players to babysit the annoying and not-very-useful NPCs, but as long as the raid isn’t going for the hard mode timer this doesn’t seem like a very difficult achievement either.
- Heroic: Getting Cold in Here – Defeat Hodir without any raid member having more than 3 stacks of Biting Cold on Heroic Difficulty. Requires that no player be Frozen or Flash Frozen for very long, nor staying in place for more than one or two spellcasts. Probably not very fun.
- Heroic: Staying Buffed All Winter – Possess the effects of Toasty Fire, Storm Power and Starlight at the same time on Heroic Difficulty. As the fight currently stands, this achievement is very, very RNG since there’s no reliable way to ensure the NPCs will be very close to each other or who gets Storm Power. Hopefully the fight and this achievement will see some revision.
Mimiron
- Heroic: Mind the Mines – Defeat Mimiron without anyone in the raid triggering a Proximity Mine on Heroic Difficulty.
- Heroic: Strike Out – Defeat Mimiron without anyone in the raid being hit by a Rocket Strike on Heroic Difficulty.
- Heroic: A-bomb-inable – Defeat Mimiron without anyone in the raid being hit by a Bomb Bot on Heroic Difficulty.
- Heroic: I’ll Form the Head! – Force Mimiron to combine the parts of his greatest creation within 20 minutes on Heroic Difficulty. The time requirement could be a placeholder, or else the fight could be really really long.
- Heroic: Set Up Us the Bomb – Complete the following Mimiron achievements on Heroic Difficulty. This likely combines some or all of the preceding Mimiron achievements and is probably included in the 310% drake meta.
Thorim
(check out our Thorim strat!)
- Heroic: Don’t Stand in the Lightning – Defeat Thorim without being affected by Lightning Charge on Heroic Difficulty. This is an execution check for the final phase of Thorim when he’s inside the arena.
- Heroic: I’ll Take You All On – Defeat Thorim, the Ancient Rune Giant and the Rune Colossus on Heroic Difficulty. I have no personal experience with the fight, but this seems like the default approach- not exactly sure what’s going on with this achievement.
- Heroic: Who Needs Bloodlust? – Defeat Thorim while under the effect of Aura of Celerity on Heroic Difficulty. We’re not currently sure what gives the Aura of Celerity in this fight.
- Heroic: Siffed – Force Thorim to enter the arena and defeat him while Sif is present on Heroic Difficulty. This is Thorim’s “hard mode,” and requires engaging him within 3 minutes after starting the fight.
Freya
- Heroic: Con-speed-atory – Defeat Freya within 2 minutes of engaging a creature in the Conservatory of Life on Heroic Difficulty.The time is almost certainly a placeholder, as the Freya fight itself takes more than 2 minutes and this achievement seemingly starts counting upon the first trash pull in her area.
- Heroic: Deforestation – Defeat 2 Ancient Water Spirits, 2 Storm Lashers and 2 Snaplashers within 120 seconds on Heroic Difficulty. This involves prompt killing of the “large” add packs that appear during the Freya encounter.
- Heroic: Getting Back to Nature – Defeat Freya while she is affected by Attuned to Nature on Heroic Difficulty. This involves leaving up some of the constant little Ally of Nature adds Freya summons during the encounter, and thus needing extra DPS to “beat” her healing.
- Missing: achievements related to leaving the Elders up, Freya’s “hard mode.”
Tags: freya, hodir, mimiron, thorim, Ulduar
Posted in PTR and Upcoming, Strategies and Raids | No Comments »
March 12th, 2009 by Vykromond
Chaud of WotLKWiki has been data mining today’s new PTR push, and contained within it are the new Ulduar raid achievements. Here are some of them, reposted for your convenience:
The Iron Council
(read our Iron Council strategy!)
- Heroic: I Choose You, Runemaster Molgeim/Stormcaller Brundir/Steelbreaker – Defeat the Iron Council with Runemaster Molgeim/ Stormcaller Brundir/ Steelbreaker as the last member alive on Heroic Difficulty. These are the difficulty modes associated with the Iron Council. The current assumption is that Stormcaller Brundir last is the easiest difficulty, followed by Runemaster Molgeim and Steelbreaker
- Heroic: But I’m on Your Side – Defeat the Iron Council while under the effect of a Steel Boot Flask on Heroic Difficulty. “Steel Boot Flask” is most likely a typo for Iron Boot Flask. Unless something is changed about the behaviour of Iron Boot Flasks with druid forms, this achievement will be very difficult for Druids to attain.
- Heroic: Can’t Do That While Stunned – Defeat the Iron Council without allowing Stormcaller Brundir to cast Chain Lightning or Lightning Whirl on Heroic Difficulty. Involves having a dedicated interrupter or two on Stormcaller Brundir, but otherwise not very difficult, particularly if Stormcaller Brundir is killed first in the lineup.
- Heroic: Overload Overlord – Defeat the Iron Council without any raid member being struck by Overload on Heroic Difficulty. Not very difficult, as Overload has a long cast time. A basic “idiot check” achievement. Probably best to do with Stormcaller Brundir dying last, as the majority of the raid will not be close to him until the time he stops casting Overload altogether.
Kologarn
(read our Kologarn strat!)
- Heroic: With Open Arms – Defeat Kologarn without destroying either of his arms on Heroic Difficulty. As discussed in our strat, with the way Kologarn currently is on the PTR as of 12 March 2009, this is actually the default approach.
- Heroic: Disarmed – Destroy both of Kologarn’s arms within 12 seconds and then defeat Kologarn on Heroicl Difficulty. This achievement will take more effort than Open Arms, since Kologarn’s Stone Shout does quite a bit of damage and there will be a lot of Rubble up concurrently (see strat for details).
- Heroic: Rubble and Roll – Defeat Kologarn with 6000 Rubble creatures alive on Heroic Difficulty. The number of creatures is a placeholder. This achievement can probably be done concurrently with Disarmed.
- Heroic: If Looks Could Kill – Defeat Kologarn without any raid member being hit by Focused Eye Beams on Heroic Difficulty. Another “idiot check” achievement to see how quickly your raiders move.
Tags: kologarn, the iron council, Ulduar
Posted in PTR and Upcoming, Strategies and Raids | No Comments »
March 12th, 2009 by Vykromond
Chaud of WotLKWiki has been data mining today’s new PTR push, and contained within it are the new Ulduar raid achievements. Here are some of them, reposted for your convenience:
Razorscale
- Heroic: A Quick Shave – Defeat Razorscale without allowing her to fly into the air more than once on Heroic Difficulty.
- Heroic: Minimal Casualties – Defeat Razorscale without any friendly NPCs dying during the fight on Heroic Difficulty.
- Heroic: Iron Dwarf, Medium Rare – Defeat 1000 Iron Dwarves with Razorscale’s Flame Breath within 2 seconds on Heroic Difficulty. The numbers for # of dwarves and # of seconds are most likely placeholders.
Ignis the Furnace Master
(read our Ignis guide!)
- Heroic: Shattered – Defeat Ignis the Furnace Master while shattering 77 Iron Constructs within 5 seconds on Heroic Difficulty. The number of Iron Constructs is definitely a placeholder. The challenge of this achievement seems to be coordinating the movement by the Construct tanks into Scorch and then moving all the Constructs over to a pool and shattering them close together in time.
- Heroic: Hot Pocket – Survive being thrown into Ignis the Furnace Master’s crucible on Heroic Difficulty. “Crucible” is likely the replacement or an earlier name for the “Slag Pot” mechanic. This is an RNG achievement that will be picked up by members of the raid over time.
- Heroic: Stokin’ the Furnace – Defeat Ignis the Furnace Master in 2 seconds on Heroicl [sic] Difficulty. Time is obviously a placeholder.
XT-002 Deconstructor
(read our XT-002 strat!)
- Heroic: Nerf Engineering – Defeat XT-002 Deconstructor without him recovering any health from XS-013 Scrapbots on Heroic Difficulty. This is a “strong play” achievement; it’s very possible to destroy all the Scrapbots before they reach the boss.
- Heroic: Nerf Scrapbots – Defeat 1000 XS-013 Scrapbots within 12 seconds using XE-321 Boombots on Heroic Difficulty. The number of Scrapbots is a placeholder, the time might not be. Since Boombot explosions can affect Scrapbots this is a matter of timing and some RNG (Boombots that spawn in the right places at the right times).
- Heroic: Nerf Dark Bombs – Defeat XT-002 Deconstructor without any raid member dying from a Dark Bomb on Heroic Difficulty. Dark Bombs was likely the playtest name for Gravity Bomb.
- Heroic: Must Deconstruct Faster – Defeat XT-002 Deconstructor in 20.5 seconds on Heroic Difficulty. The time is likely a PH.
- Heroic: Heartbreaker – Defeat XT-002 Deconstructor after destroying his heart on Heroic Difficulty. This is XT-002’s “hard mode,” described in our strat.
Tags: ignis, razorscale, Ulduar, xt002
Posted in PTR and Upcoming, Strategies and Raids | No Comments »
