| Author: Dutchrudder |
Freya
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Strategy
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Freya is one of the four Keeper bosses in Ulduar. She is within the Conservatory of Life, accessed by going through the northern exit from the central platforms surrounding the Prison of Yogg-Saron.
Freya is an add-based fight that imposes DPS and movement checks on the raid. If the raid can keep its players alive and make timely DPS checks, victory is not too difficult to come by. Hard Mode causes the damage of all aspects of the fight to significantly increase.
The difficulty mode of Freya is set before the fight begins, and is determined by how many of her Elders within the Conservatory of Life are killed before the fight begins. The Elders are called Elder Stonebark, Elder Brightleaf, and Elder Ironbranch. All three fights with these "mini-bosses" are very easy, but you can find out about them here. Killing the Elders means that they will not contribute their buffs to Freya. Achievements can be obtained by leaving at least one Elder up, and Hard Mode involves leaving all the Elders up before pulling Freya. Details about Hard Mode can be found here.
Freya is approximately an 8-9 minute long fight. As with all the Keepers, defeating her is necessary to move on to the final bosses of Ulduar.
Contents |
Hard Mode
Looking for the hard mode strategy?
Check out: Knock, Knock, Knock
Movies
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Abilities
Freya uses a small suite of abilities herself (with more added on in Hard Mode), which are described below.
However, the Freya fight pits the raid against not only Freya herself but also her allies. 10-15 seconds into the fight, and every 60 seconds thereafter, Freya summons one of three groups of adds: a single Ancient Conservator, a group of three elementals (Snaplasher, Stormlasher, and Ancient Water Spirit), or ten Detonating Lashers. She summons six of these groups in total. The summoning order is semi-random. Freya will pick one group randomly at first, then pick one of the remaining two groups, and finally the last group. She will then repeat this process, though the fourth group cannot be a repeat of the third group. This is pretty confusing, so here are examples of possible and impossible summoning orders:
Possible: Conservator, Lashers, Elementals, Conservator, Lashers, Elementals
Possible: Conservator, Lashers, Elementals, Lashers, Elementals, Conservator
Impossible: Conservator, Lashers, Lashers, Conservator, Lashers, Elementals
Impossible: Conservator, Lashers, Elementals, Elementals, Conservator, Lashers
The characteristics of the adds are discussed here.
Freya Herself
- Summon Lifebinder's Gift: Somewhere within 60 yards of Freya a Lifebinder's Gift is summoned, which is a non-mobile, non-attacking mob with ?k HP (37k on Normal). This mob emotes 'Lifebinder's Gift begins to grow!' as it is summoned. It continues growing for about 15 seconds. If it is not killed in that time, it performs a powerful heal: Lifebinder's Gift in Normal and Lifebinder's Gift in Heroic.
- Lifebinder's Gift: This is the heal the Lifebinder's Gift tree performs if not killed in a timely fashion.
- Pheromones: This is a debuff the Lifebinder's Gift sometimes places on players just under it. This debuff may have the same effect as the Potent Pheromones debuff given by Healthy Spores (discussed later in this guide), but it is unwise to rely upon it so the raid is best off ignoring it entirely.
- Sunbeam: Freya casts this on a player, pet, or totem in the raid. The target, and all players within 8 yards, is hit for about 8000 (5500 on Normal).
- Touch of Eonar: Heals Freya for 24,000 every second (6,000 on Normal). As trivial as this ability may seem, combined with the Attuned to Nature ability discussed below, this makes Freya essentially unkillable until several packs of adds have come and gone.
- Attuned to Nature: This ability increases the amount of healing Freya receives (from the Touch of Eonar ability) by 4% for each stack. Freya begins the fight with 150 stacks of this buff. The only way to reduce it is by destroying the adds Freya spawns during the fight.
- Nature Bomb: After Freya summons six packs of adds and her stack of Attuned to Nature buffs dissipates, she will stop spawning them and instead use this ability. Nature Bombs (which look like Un'goro bloodspores) are thrown on the ground which explode a few seconds later, dealing damage and knocking nearby characters up into the air. They behave similarly to the icicles on the Ormorok the Tree-Shaper fight in The Nexus.
Freya's Adds
The summoning patterns of the adds are discussed above.
Ancient Conservator
The Ancient Conservator spawns alone. Killing it removes 25 stacks of Attuned to Nature from Freya.
- Conservator's Grip: While the Ancient Conservator is alive, no one affected by this 50,000 yard range aura can attack or cast any spells. This might make the fight impossible if it were not for the next ability:
- Summon Mushrooms: Every 8 seconds, a set of mushrooms (called "Healthy Spores") will be summoned no further than 60 yards away from the Ancient Conservator. These mushrooms are critical to remove the Conservator's Grip.
- Potent Pheromones: This is the buff applied by the mushrooms when a player is standing under them.
- Nature's Fury: This is a debuff the Ancient Conservator places on one player every 10-12 seconds. It deals about 6000 (4500 on Normal) damage to the player and anyone within 8 yards every 2 seconds for 10 seconds.
Three Elementals
The three elementals spawn simulataneously. Killing each one removes 10 stacks of Attuned to Nature from Freya. All three elementals must be killed within 10-12 seconds of each other or they will regenerate and reappear at full health. Any of the three elementals can be stunned.
Snaplasher
The Snaplasher has twice as much HP as the other two elementals, something to keep in mind when attempting to kill all three roughly simultaneously.
- Hardened Bark: Every attack made against the Snaplasher, whether it is a magical, melee, or ranged attack, and no matter how much it hits for, applies a stack of Hardened Bark to the Lasher, which increases its damage dealt by 10%. Hardened Bark falls off in 4 seconds. On 10-man mode, it also decreases the Snaplasher's movement speed by 5%. This means that hitting the Snaplasher 20 times immobilizes it completely in 10-man.
Storm Lasher
The Storm Lasher's spellcasts can be interrupted.
- Stormbolt: Deals about 9500 (about 6500 on Normal) damage to one target. 1.5 second cast.
- Lightning Lash: Deals about 7500 (5500 on Normal) damage to a target and chains, increasing its damage, to 4 successive targets (2 on Normal). 2 second cast.
Ancient Water Spirit
- Tidal Wave: Targets a player within 40 yards and charges towards them, dealing about 8500 (6000 on Normal) damage to them and players within the charge path, and causing a strong (40 yard) knockback effect.
Detonating Lashers
Each one of the ten Detonating Lashers removes 2 stacks of Attuned to Nature from Freya.
- Flame Lash: The Detonating Lashers' primary melee attack. Not generally notable since the Lashers don't melee for very much, but it is partially resistable.
- Aggro drop: The Detonating Lashers reset their aggro extremely quickly, perhaps as frequently as once every 3-4 seconds.
- Detonate: The signature ability of the Detonating Lashers, which occurs as they die. It deals 7000 (4500 on Normal) damage to all players within a 15 yard radius.
Strategy
(This strategy assumes all Elders were killed prior to pulling Freya. For Hard Mode information see KnockKnockKnock.)
Basic Freya Facts
The pull of Freya is very simple. Once aggroed, she takes several seconds to gather energy before approaching the puller. This gives time to preposition in her area if so desired. We recommend tanking Freya far enough away from the river in the Conservatory of Life that players are unlikely to ever have to go into the river or lake. Rummaging around in water for mushrooms or needing to swim back to the raid is no fun.
You cannot kill Freya right away as she will easily outheal any damage with her own self-healing combination of Touch of Eonar and Attuned to Nature.
Consequently, you must deal with the periodic add summons to reduce her stacks down to a manageable level (ideally, 0).
Freya herself is not a tremendous threat to the raid. She will melee the tank for moderate damage, cast Sunbeams which must be avoided by players, and summons Lifebinder's Gift trees. A few players or a small team should be dedicated to moving quickly to and disposing of these trees. Ranged DPS are generally preferable as they lose less DPS in the act of moving to and from tree killing. Trees are summoned throughout the fight.
Dealing with Add Packs
The add packs, which Freya summons once every minute on the dot starting about 10-15 seconds into the fight, present the primary challenge when facing Freya.
Each type of add group requires a unique approach. The raid should be killing each pack of adds before or as the next pack appears. Falling behind will cause the raid to go south in a hurry. Bloodlust/Heroism can and should be used to "catch up" if the raid begins to fall behind on add packs.
Add packs will always appear on or very close to Freya.
Dealing with the Ancient Conservator
Immediately when the Ancient Conservator spawns, Healthy Spore mushrooms will begin to form around it. All players must go to a mushroom, taking care not to pile too many players under the same mushroom but to have mushroom coverage for everyone in the raid nonetheless. A player affected by Conservator's Grip is entirely helpless and useless, and going to mushrooms quickly prevents this from happening to you.
Players must also be cautious of Nature's Fury. A player afflicted with this debuff must immediately run to an area where no players are standing. If necessary, this may mean leaving the area of mushroom coverage- but the player must be in range of heals, or they will die.
Dealing with the Detonating Lashers
The immediate impulse with Detonating Lashers, since they're in a large pack of 10, is a storm of AoE to kill them as quickly as possible. However, their Detonate ability makes this approach highly problematic- if too many die at the same time, they will instantly kill players around them. Consequently, we recommend an approach of "partial AoE" to bring the Detonating Lashers to a moderately low HP total, followed by single-target DPS to bring them down one by one in an orderly fashion. The raid may try to kill the Detonating Lashers wholly one by one, but they may find themselves falling behind the one-minute time limit.
Raid members should be within a reasonably close radius of each other, perhaps in a circle no more than 25 total yards across. Due to the constant aggro resets that the Detonating Lashers make, a very spread out raid will find Lashers running all over the place chaotically, making DPS (particularly melee) much more difficult. Clumping the raid on one exact spot is not advisable because it opens the raid up to massive damage from Sunbeam and Detonate combinations.
Since the period when several Detonating Lashers are exploding simultaneously may coincide with raid damage from Sunbeam, it may be advisable to use Divine Sacrifice (if a Protection or Retribution Paladin with the talent is present) or healing cooldowns such as Tranquility, Hymn of Hope, etc. to make sure the raid lives through explosion damage.
Dealing with the Elementals
DPS should be split up and accorded to handling the Elementals. Keep in mind that all three Elementals must die mostly concurrently; if 10-12 seconds pass after the first Elemental dies and at least one other is still alive, the first one will be resurrected.
Some ranged DPS are best equipped to handle the Snaplasher. The more it gets hit, the more dangerous its melee becomes, so a traditional tank cannot hold it for very long. However, on 10-man, after it gains 20 stacks of Hardened Bark, it will become immobilized. This does not act like a Frost Nova; the Snaplasher will not automatically melee players in melee range unless they are on top of the aggro table. Consequently, if extra DPS is needed on the Snaplasher due to it having more HP than the other two Elementals, melee are safe to join in once a ranged DPS has established a strong threat lead. On 25-man, the Snaplasher is not immobilized from Hardened Bark. Consequently, on 25-man, DPS should switch off the Snaplasher once its stacks grow to a high amount, and switch back off once Hardened Bark falls off (4 seconds).
DPS who are capable of interrupting spell casts, and particularly melee DPS, are best equipped to handle the Storm Lasher, which also requires a tank (but does not deal much damage to him/her). Of the two types of cast, Lightning Lash (which has a 2 second cast) is far more dangerous because it deals more damage to multiple targets, and should be interrupted as much as possible.
DPS who can keep a mob stunned as much as possible, and/or ranged DPS, are best equipped to handle the Ancient Water Spirit. Its Tidal Wave ability cannot be interrupted, and is very annoying as it causes the Ancient Water Spirit to run all over the place. The more time the Ancient Water Spirit spends stunned, the less time it can spend using Tidal Wave.
As the HP of these adds drops down, players should be mindful to slow or stop DPS on their target, or switch to another target, if necessary to ensure that the elementals die within ten seconds of each other.
After the Add Packs
Once the sixth add pack has been disposed of, Freya will no longer summon adds. However, she may begin to summon Lifebinder's Gifts with greater frequency.
Additionally, she gains a new ability, throwing exploding green seeds on the ground. The raid must avoid these seeds as much as possible, while DPSing Freya who is no longer able to keep herself healed to full in the absence of “the healing buff”.
As long as the raid pours its DPS into Freya, avoids green seeds, and doesn’t have a lapse in killing Lifebinder's Gifts, Freya will be successfully defeated. Like the other Keepers, she turns friendly at a low percentage of health and loot is obtained from a chest in the room.
Raid Composition
No more than three tanks should be used. One tank is necessary to pick up Freya and another needs to handle Conservators. A third is very useful to tank elements of the larger add packs. Snaplashers in Elemental packs generally do not need a dedicated tank as they become rooted in place.
We recommend about 6 or 7 healers. While Freya has a "berserk" timer of about 10 minutes, hitting it generally means that something went very wrong in the fight and that many players were lost.
This leaves room in the raid for between 15 and 16 DPS. Freya rewards a balanced composition of melee and ranged classes, with coordinated raid buffs.
For Normal (10-man) Freya, we recommend 2 tanks, 2-3 healers (3 if any Elders are left up), and 5-6 DPS.
Healer Tips
It is highly recommended that you add the Nature's Fury debuff to grid or have some other way to see who has it quickly. Nature's Fury in combination with one of the other abilities like Sunbeam has high gib potential.
It is especially important that healers do not spend time silenced during the conservator phase. A good way to think of this phase is that movement and positioning is like chess, you have to plan ahead. As the mushroom you are standing under grows, keep one eye on your raid frames but be scanning the vicinity for your next move. If you move quickly from mushroom to mushroom you can successfully not get silenced at all.
The detonating lasher phase is very dangerous as two explosions can easily kill a low HP class, and multiple can kill a well geared tank. Be ready to burn cooldowns like pain suppression, guardian spirit, hand of sacrifice and nature's swiftness to prevent deaths.
Comments
If you are asking a detailed question, please use the StratFu Forums instead.
Apr 18 2009 11:54 am
Anyone have a good vid for this ? We came to this boss at 18th of april, and i can't seem to find a good vid, that shows the basic moves / abilities from the boss. Just some techno dubble speeded ptr movies. Thanks
Apr 18 2009 12:03 pm
For 3 Elders up do the elders actually engage during the fight a la drakes in 3D? Or do they just provide the buffing auras?
Apr 18 2009 12:45 pm
Lytebohlt- the elders do not engage. They have a "Drained of Power" debuff on them that prevents them from joining the fight.
Apr 19 2009 2:40 am
There's a small discrepancy I think... Freya's sunbeam attack on both normal and heroic modes is a simple ranged aoe nuke, and does not persist on the ground. I don't think it heals her adds when a nearby player is hit with it but I can't confirm. I think the healing part might be confused from the columns of light Elder Brightleaf spawns, although this ability is probably given to Freya when the elder is still alive.
Apr 20 2009 10:19 am
We had most of the fight down in 10 man but what we've found is before ranged starts attacking the Snaplasher Elemental, have your tank hold on to it until its at 60%-70% health. It runs much too fast for ranged to pick it up immediately. Once its at that range, have a hunter MD to his pet or distracting shot and begin kiting it no more than 10 yards away from the other 2 elementals. If you kite it too far away, it wil be difficult for the other elemental DPSers to quickly see its health and if needed, switch to it and DPS it down in time before the resurrect.
Apr 22 2009 12:16 am
A note on the Hardened Bark debuff of the Snaplasher, it does not decrease movement speed on heroic as it is a different debuff than linked on this page (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=64190). We stopped dps between 40 to 50 stacks to let it fall off (a 4 second window of no damage done is enough). I guess you could also rotate cooldowns on the tank when stacks get high but haven't tried that.
Apr 22 2009 9:03 am
Thanks L4 and Undying. When I was editing this writeup I used my experience from 10-man hard mode; without much experience on 25-man non-hard mode I left some specific things in. Fixed now!
Apr 24 2009 9:35 am
I've never done this fight before but from looking at WWS reports it seems like the lifebinder's gift mob is actually called eonar's gift? And it has 65,000 HP.
Apr 24 2009 9:37 am
On, sorry, here's the link to that http://wowwebstats.com/wzbp4psvino15?s=112446-166458&a=Gxf1300081cc00c63e#inst
May 05 2009 11:40 pm
Arr, me freya you dead!
May 27 2009 11:08 am
If Freya has no mana she will not drop exploding seeds in phase 2. Hooray for bored priests and their lovely mana burn!
Jun 24 2009 2:16 pm
Kyth, your book report on Freya+3 is late! Detention!
Jun 29 2009 8:19 pm
Does Ground Tremor have a set time it goes off or is it cast randomly. I know its a two second cast and has a cool down but can you predict it when it happens so us Resto druids can prehot?
Jun 29 2009 10:19 pm
Every 9 seconds she uses one random ability. This may or may not be Ground Tremor.
Aug 07 2009 9:39 pm
"Ancient Water Spirit. Its Tidal Wave ability cannot be interrupted..." Maybe this has changed from when teh strat was written, but on hardmode tonight I was shield bashing it no problem.