| Author: Vykromond |
Kologarn
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Strategy
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Kologarn is a boss in Ulduar just past the stairs up from the Antechamber. He is fought on the semicircular platform preceding The Shattered Walkway. Kologarn must be killed to access the second part of the interior section of the instance, containing the Watchers, Auriaya, General Vezax, and Yogg-Saron. When Kologarn dies, his body forms The Shattered Walkway which allows access to this area of the instance.
Kologarn has 15.5 million HP. His two arms count as separate monsters and each has 2.3 million HP. He enrages at ? minutes.
Kologarn can be taunted.
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Abilities
Kologarn and each of his arms all have abilities they use. Kologarn also strikes in melee for about 20-25k on plate equivalent with a 2 second swing timer that he can skip to cast spells; the arms do not melee independently of Kologarn. Speculatively, Kologarn does not appear to gain parry haste.
Kologarn
Petrifying Breath: Kologarn only uses this ability when no one is in melee range. It's basically a "wipe faster" move. Someone should be in melee range of his main body at all times (preferably a tank).
Focused Eyebeam: Two beams, one from each of Kologarn's eyes, appear to the right and left of a targeted player, then converge and follow the player, dealing 4000 damage every second in a 3 yard radius. Focused Eyebeam will not be cast on players standing in melee range of Kologarn's central body (not his arms).
Overhead Smash: Once every 10-15 seconds, Kologarn uses this ability, which deals damage and applies the stacking debuff Crunch Armor to his target.
One-Armed Overhead Smash: Kologarn's Smash diminishes in power when he loses one of his arms. It still applies the same degree of stacking armor reduction.
If both of Kologarn's arms are destroyed, he will channel Stone Shout until one of them respawns. This is a fairly significant AoE, dealing about 3000 DPS to all players in the raid.
Right Arm
Stone Grip: Grabs 1-3 random people from the raid not including the MT into Kologarn's right hand and deals 5500 (4000 on Normal) damage to them per second. The tooltip reads that 480,000 damage must be done to the Right Arm before Stone Gripped players are let free, but many guilds, including Fusion, have reported players being let out earlier. The Stone Grip debuff on a player reads "May break from damage to Kologarn's Right Arm," which may indicate that being freed from the arm is a random chance increased up to 100% as damage is done to the arm. Additionally, when one Stone Gripped player dies the rest are released.
If enough damage is not done to free the Gripped players quickly (about 10-15 seconds) after they are Stone Gripped, Kologarn instantly kills them with the ability Squeezed Lifeless.
When the right arm dies, Kologarn's HP decreases by 2.3 million (550k on 10-man), and 4 Rubble adds spawn with 130k HP (52k HP on 10-man) that hit for about 4k melee damage and also cast Rumble, an AoE damage move. Rubble can be stunned. The right arm respawns in about 15-30 seconds.
Left Arm
Shockwave: The left arm periodically (about once every 25 seconds) sweeps across the raid, dealing 12k Nature damage.
When the left arm dies, Kologarn's HP decreases by 2.3 million (550k on 10-man), and 4 Rubble adds spawn with 130k HP (55k on 10-man) that hit for about 4k melee damage and also cast Stone Nova, an AoE damage and vulnerability move. Rubble can be stunned. The left arm respawns in about 30 seconds.
Strategy
Handling the arms
The arms contribute two primary abilities to the fight: Stone Grip (right arm, which is on the left as you face Kologarn) and Shockwave (left arm). Shockwave presents only a minimal danger as sufficient raid healing should be able to cover it. Consequently, most guilds do not attack the Left Arm. The right arm presents a danger because Stone Grip does significant damage and players left inside it for too long get Squeezed Lifeless. While it is possible to ignore both arms and only DPS the Right Arm when necessary to free Stone Gripped players, the easiest strategy is to kill the right arm whenever it's up.
In this strategy, at the beginning of the fight all DPS are on the right arm. When the right arm dies, DPS uses AoE abilities to kill the spawning Rubble, then switches to Kologarn's body. Upon the right arm's respawn, all DPS switches back to the right arm.
Raid composition
We recommend 3 tanks, 6-7 healers, and 15-16 DPS for Kologarn progression.
Healers
Although Kologarn has an enrage timer, he is not an extreme DPS race and raid and tank damage are somewhat higher than on some other Ulduar fights. 6-7 healers may provide a good balance.
Tanks
The best tanks to use on Kologarn are Death Knights and Druids. The boss attacks slowly and for large amounts, particularly with Crunch Armor up. The combination of attack pattern and the nature of the debuff make Warriors and Paladins slightly inferior main tanks in a min/max context on this boss (but still usable).
Only 2 tanks are required to be on Kologarn. The second tank should taunt the boss when the first tank accumulates 2 Crunch Armor debuffs, and the first tank should taunt when his or her debuffs expire. If the next tank to taunt is Stone Gripped, the current active tank can choose to utilise survival cooldowns.
Any approach where one or both of the Arms will be killed requires an additional tank. As Rubble can be stunned, the tank best suited for this purpose is a Warrior due to Shockwave.
DPS
Melee classes are somewhat disadvantaged on Kologarn as of 7 March 2009. Since the entire raid faces the boss, melee cannot get behind him (except perhaps by standing inside his model, which is likely unintended as it requires standing on the "bridge" formed when he dies) and are thus susceptible to being parried and losing DPS.
Positioning
The raid should be spread around the semicircular platform in front of Kologarn with enough room for individual players to maneuver should they be targeted by Focused Eyebeam. Focused Eyebeam is not unlike the Sunwell boss Felmyst's laser in that the best way of avoiding it is for the targeted player to head in one direction while those in the oncoming player's/beam's path get out of the way.
Melee DPS should be positioned with the main tanks, in front of Kologarn's primary body. His three parts all share a hitbox, so melee can hit the Right Arm from their central position, and standing in front of Kologarn in melee range prevents the melee from being targeted by Focused Eyebeam.
Some enterprising guilds may wish to nullify Focused Eyebeam entirely by placing the entire raid within melee range of Kologarn's body, but this is a bad idea as Overhead Smash has an 8-second cast interruption effect upon players within melee range.
Hard Mode
Kologarn does not have a Hard Mode. The achievement Disarmed is on the Glory of the Ulduar Raider meta achievement.
Video
Alpha
The guild Alpha of Ysera has generously made a high-quality video of the Kologarn fight as it existed on 7 March 2009 available at FileFront.
Forlorn Legacy
Forlorn Legacy also made their videos available:
- Streaming: http://blog.forlornlegacy.net/videos/ptr-video-kologarn/
- HD (1680×1050, H264): http://media.forlornlegacy.net/fl-kologarn-ptr.avi
Comments
If you are asking a detailed question, please use the StratFu Forums instead.
Mar 08 2009 3:00 am
Forlorn Legacy also has an HD video out, we used the "Right Arm Free" strategy. I personally believe that this is the correct strategy, seems stupid to leave 3 people gripped for the entire fight... Streaming: http://blog.forlornlegacy.net/videos/ptr-video-kologarn/ HD (1680x1050, H264): http://media.forlornlegacy.net/fl-kologarn-ptr.avi
Mar 08 2009 9:45 am
Thanks Aurelius, I'll add those links to the page!
Mar 09 2009 12:41 pm
Thanks. We tried this boss a few times (weren't quite able to get a full group in) but we figured out most of what happened above. We were thrilled when we got the "right arm" down and killed the adds, thinking that it would be easymode from here on...only to see the right arm quickly respawn.
One thing I wasn't able to test was the distance for the "Right Arm" and body (since I was tanking). Would it be possible to position the melee so that whirlwinds, fan of knives, etc would hit the arm and main body? If so that may be the way to go.
Sidenote-Raid leaders will HATE this boss. "Get on the right arm! No, the RIGHT ARM! HIS RIGHT, NOT YOUR RIGHT!". Mark the arms before you go crazy guys, and refer to them as "Skull arm and X arm", try hard to ignore their real names.Mar 14 2009 1:21 am
Awesome video, this will help alot for the guilds that are aiming to clear it fast. Good job on it :)
ps. A question for Aurelius, what unitframes do you use?
Thanks and nice video :)Mar 24 2009 3:52 am
Just one question (which I suspect I know the answer to) but I'm assuming you can't do anything when you're trapped in the arm? And that a pally bubble, Ice Block, etc. doesn't work to free you?
Apr 13 2009 5:26 am
[quote]Sidenote-Raid leaders will HATE this boss. "Get on the right arm! No, the RIGHT ARM! HIS RIGHT, NOT YOUR RIGHT!". Mark the arms before you go crazy guys, and refer to them as "Skull arm and X arm", try hard to ignore their real names.[/quote]
Or simply say that right arm is the left and the left is the right... it doesn't change anything except it is a more reactive approach for players.Apr 15 2009 8:19 pm
How does Squeezed Lifeless work?
Apr 15 2009 11:07 pm
You have a time limit for "rescuing" people from Stone Grip. IIRC it's 15 seconds. Once you run out of time, everyone in the Stone Grip dies.
Apr 16 2009 7:29 pm
Squeezed Lifeless seems to be killing our raid members within about 5sec on 10man at the moment. Can only but assume it's a bug. Sometimes it works and we can get our people out though. Just seems to be random and inconsistent.
Apr 16 2009 10:19 pm
After several attempts on this boss he does not appear to have the regular high parry chance (13.5% I believe), melee with only the soft expertise cap of 26 (6.5%) never received a parry. To that end melee is not disadvantaged. :D
Apr 16 2009 11:38 pm
Can anyone tell me how much damage you have to do to rescue player from Stone Grip? Last night doin' it 10man vers. I noticed that some were thrown out almost instantly, while others were griped for as long as 10+ sec. and some even died at the end. Every time all DPS nuked hand. Thank you.
Apr 17 2009 1:00 am
Anyone else experienced Squeezed Lifeless after 3 sec of Stone Grip? On live.
Apr 17 2009 6:47 am
Well we had some issues with the right hand itself... griped ppl were not released no matter how much dps we did on it... i was tanking the boss and i saw each grip ppl just continue dying. I also heard that the boss' grip is bugged and he will kill ppl no matter how much dps u deal to the right hand.
Apr 17 2009 3:43 pm
Watch out for the gap between the boss and the edge of the floor, our MainTank missed it.. so thought i'd put it in the notes ;)
Apr 19 2009 10:29 pm
we keep getting petrifying breath cast on us with full group up and 2 tanks on him in range is this a bug or are we doing something wrong?
Apr 20 2009 7:12 am
Arms only have 2300k HP on Live Server. Ulduar 25.
Apr 20 2009 11:43 pm
About counter spell for casters in melee range: We was trying few times with stacking most of the raid @ boss. There is no counterspell UNTILL you kill right hand (we was always killing this hand). So considering you have good enought dps to free ppl from grip each time it hits, it may be way easier to just stick on dpsing boss and just switch to hand for a while. IF we manage to take him down this way i will let you know.
Apr 21 2009 6:37 am
Does anyone know how many HP the adds have? (25 Man)
I read alot about this boss lately and we will attempt him this week. I am trying to determine if 6 AOE casters (Hunters/Mages/Locks) are enough to down these.
It would help a lot if I knew how much health they had... (25 man)Apr 21 2009 7:40 am
6 AoE casters are plenty. I don't recall offhand how much HP they have (I'll get a value for you tonight) but it's not much.
Apr 22 2009 9:17 am
Rubble HP info added: 130k on 25-man, 52k on 10-man.
Apr 22 2009 7:39 pm
Petrifying Breath happens when no one is within melee range of Kologarn's body.
Apr 23 2009 8:20 am
You can actually get away with just putting 1-2 AoE classes on the adds with a decent AoE tank. They go down fast enough. If you have a DK tank I noticed they fly down due to the nature of high damage from these tanks and we only put one person on the adds with a DK.
When each add dies it explodes so one is good because with too many people on adds they die to close together and the tank will likely go down with them.
Theo..Apr 23 2009 12:57 pm
Also regarding the melee penalty due to fighting in front. It appears this boss cannot parry at all. I am right at 26 expertise and didn't see a single parry or dodge in 20 attempts. Furthermore, my spirit wolves do not obtain any of my expertise, and over 650 or so swings saw about a 6% dodge rate (expected for 0 expertise) and not a single parry. http://wowwebstats.com/z265w2z2vi1n5?s=bosses&a=x280000000906550
Apr 23 2009 8:12 pm
A holy priest's notes on the fight:
-Body and Soul helps greatly in avoiding the eyebeams, if people who get the beams call them out.
-Squeezed Lifeless only seems to happen once. It can be negated with guardian spirit, in which case, the gripped person will remain gripped, but no longer be in danger of being squeezed lifeless. I'm not sure if this will prevent him from grabbing other people or not; if it does, it could eliminate a large portion of the fight's difficulty by sacrificing a DPS to his arm, albeit with significant RNG involvement.Apr 24 2009 8:49 am
If thats true about him having lower parry rating than most bosses then yes most melee wont be disadvantaged, but that doesnt help us kitty cats :(
Apr 24 2009 12:06 pm
He casts petrifying breath if his main aggro target is not in melee range. If someone out threats your tank, or an add tank AE taunts the Rubbles, while in range, you are likely to get breathed.
Apr 24 2009 12:09 pm
Petrifying Breath happens when the Main Aggro target is not in melee range. I just wanted to add this so people don't assume a melee just standing there will prevent this from happening.
Apr 27 2009 7:51 pm
First of all, great site guys - keep up the good work! Only a minor notice: it says in the preface that Kologarn WOULD have hard mode but in the end notes that does not have one.
Apr 28 2009 10:11 am
The adds have around 400K hp I believe. I have about 3-4 people drop some aoe's, i do about 2-3 blizzards before there dead. Also another good strategy is to have instant casters like restro druids in melee. Works for hunters as well, affliction locks and anyone else that doesn't use cast timers. As a caster I time my attacks around the smash we have only 6-7 people in the back that dodge the beams.
Apr 30 2009 5:15 am
is it true he doesnt silence till an arm dies?
May 23 2009 10:59 am
On our 10 kill last night both tanks got the focused eyebeam so the information about the beam not targeting inside melee range is incorrect or we had a glitch.
May 28 2009 4:16 pm
This fight lowers us kitty cats' dps by a sufficient ammount. It is impossible to get behind him therefore not allowing us to use shred and forcing us to use mangle in lieu of shred which reduced my dps from 5.6k (against other bosses) to 4.6k. 1000 dps, now thats alot. Come on blizz, what was going through your mind (I like the style of the fight though just wish there could be a way to get behind him so good job and bad job in the same fight)