[Umaril]

My guild is just now finishing up clearing through the normal modes of ulduar 10. It would be very usefull if someone would post what they think should be the order of hard mode progression.

Ex. Start with XT hardmode
Follow with Hodir hardmode and so on...

Thanks in advance!!

[KnThrak]

We found the Hodir Hardmode to be extremely tough, but then AbA has never been a guild known for our insane DPS output. ^_^

The first one we did was Heartbreaker. It requires good damage from two ranged DPSers, and at least IMO has become slightly easier in the new version of XT-002 since a single ranged can use a Bomb-chainreaction to clear all the adds spawning in the heart phase. Much easier than having to briefly dedicate multiple DPSers to it. The new graphic effects do their share to no one missing the bomb, too.

Oh scrap that, Steelbreaker was first. Needs good control, but otherwise extremely easy.

The next we're currently working on would be Orbit-uary - towers individually are easy, the combinations get messy on Storms + Ice and Ice + Fire, seriously limiting your options.

And then I guess Thorim. We can trigger him, Sif is currently stomping over us still.


If your raid has good DPS, go 1 Tank + 2 Healers + 7 DPS and blast Hodir, if people handle the buffs correctly he should be easy enough.

[AngerIssues]

Went XT -> Hodir -> Thorim -> FL -> IC -> Vezax -> Freya -> Yogg -> Mim

[marklar]

easiest: IC, XT, hodir
medium: FL, general, thorim
hard: freya (only the flower wave is hard)

hodir is easy IF you have the dps for it. if not, you can't do it - but that doesn't make it hard

FL gets much easier once you do it the first time, and learn to keep your pyrite stacks up.

working on firefighter tonight, so i have no feedback on it yet...

[Muffin Man]

My group went in this order:
XT, FL, Thorim, Hodir.

We've only given IC a few serious attempts, but I'm pretty confident we can get him.

We had the first three hardmodes on farm before we got Hodir... don't ask me why since it's supposed to be 'easier' than Thorim.

Thorim was an interesting one, first few tries he got up past 10 stacks (I think he hit 12 last week). But this week the biggest problem was getting through the gauntlet in time and after force wiping we got Thorim down in under 10 stacks (so our dps was higher on Thorim but not the gauntlet, composition problems maybe?).

[Ion]

XT, FL, Hodir are all reasonably straightforward. IC can be tough to get the hang of and is pretty intense for healers. Thorim is...I dunno we one shot it but that wasn't really EASY.

Freya, I disagree about the flower wave being the only hard one...the 3 guys wave is rough too.

I haven't done firefighter but I've heard it's pretty rough (harder than anything except yogg0/1).

I've heard different things about general (haven't done that either), depending on who you talk to it's either easier than normal or just an exercise in frustration.

[Mr.Winkle]

I think it really depends on how you currently fair with the fights.

For example we easily did FL+3, so FL+4 isn't much more of step up. Remember vehicles scale with i-level so if you have some T8.5 now or even better totc loot then your demolishers should have >1mil hp.

If you've done "must deconstruct faster" then you have the dps for XT hard.

We haven't attempted thorim hard however we regularly 2 heal the fight and usually use a 6 -4 split and almost hit the hardmode timer, so with a 5-5 split we'd activate it easy, obviosuly completeting it is a different matter, but assuming your tanks swap quickly that shouldn't be to tricky.

We seem to struggle with Hodir, not to sure why, think people just really need to use buff to there fullest.

If you have resto druids who can abuse the shadow crashes then vezax hard may be relatviely straight forward too.

[Kabonk]

To be honest: Vezax stands and falls with what healers you have available.

If you have either a resto-shaman or disc-priest you already won. Let ONE of them solo heal till the animus spawns (with penance and shield or earth-shield and riptide ONLY) and then stay on the tank while the other healer (preferably a holypriest or resto-druid) keeps the raid up.

I personaly find XT, Steelbreaker, Freya and Vezax to be the easiest encounters if your raiders are able to execute the encounters proper.

While Hodir, Thorim and FL seem to be easier if you have the ability to brute force them via upgrades through Emblem-, ToC- or Ulduar25-Gear.

The only fights that realy require some kind of good mix between "good raiders that execute fights proper" and still do good dps are Yogg+1 and Mimiron.

------
Edit:

If you are struggeling with Hodir make sure you do the following things:
+ Have your ranged clump up, while all others spread out
+ Make your healers run to the ranged dps if they get the crit debuff (especialy the healers should never spread the critbuff to another healer)
+ Tank Hodir near the rare-chest so NPC clump up and their buffs fall into a closer aproximity of each other.
+ Make sure 1 ranged dps (preferably a hunter) always stays near the fire to keep the magic-taken debuff on hodir up
+ Make sure your ranged dps hump pillars of light but only if they don't loose too much dps while running there

If you have heroism available do it after the first flash-freeze.

Still not making the timer?
Let your dps-classes use a dps-buff pot (haste-pot / wild magic) just before the pull and then during heroism again.

If your still not making the timer but your healers are good consider running with just 1 healer. (You basicaly need a good holy-priest to solo heal hodir all others can't put out the raid-healing that freezing blows requires, or at least with that ease...)

[Haur]

It all depends on your guild members their classes and skull of the people.

(giving examples for a fresh guild like op said, dont say omg we can do x boss with y ammount of classes)

Easiest prolly is XT, you need 1 tank 3 healers 6 dps (doesnt matter what), as long you can kill heart with bloodlust you will do it. If you cant, you need to get 2 healers, getting one more dps but that will make things much more harder on healers.

Flame Levi needs 10 people that can focus and do things correctly. Since most people hate this kind encounters, it will prolly be done at later time.

IC requires 2 tanks (one is nice to be pala to clean him/her alone), 3 healers, 5 dps. Im talking full hard mode since is easier then middle hard, this is all about dps. If you have it enough you will do it, if you dont you will fail. Have dps saving mana and have all cooldowns ready to pop when p3 starts, also you should time circle you all dps starts p3 with bloodlust standing in blue circle.

Hodir requires 1 tank, 2 healers, 7 dps, most of dps should be ranged, maybe 1 or 2 melee maximum. Have all ranged bunch up on healers, standing at fire, so they dont need to move to loose debuff and cast all time. When dont correctly you will see silly numbers like 10-15k from mages, locks, ele shamans and chickens. If you dont have many ranged hard mode might be impossible.

Thorim 2 tanks 3 healers 5 dps. People need to avoid ALL lightning and spread, having more ranged then melee helps here also.

Vezax 1 tank 3 healers, 6 dps, Need interuptor like rogue / dk / warrior, prefered 4 ranged to make 2 ranged group.

Freya save for later.

Mimi save for later.

Yogg save for later.

So for answer what to go it depends on your guild, people and classes.

We are 10 man only guild and did: XT, Hodir, Thorim, IC, FL, Vezax (in this order) so far.

[Kazdane]

We started on this two days ago (save Deconstructor that was done a few weeks ago) following the normal order (FL, Deconstructor, Steelbreaker, Hodir, Thorim).

If your 10-man raid is well geared (17-18k raid DPS at least with 5 DPS, 21-22k with 6 DPS), you shouldn't have too many issues.

We wiped a few times to Leviathan+4 (handling the plants was the harder part for us). For us, the hardest part of Deconstructor is actually killing the heart in time rather than killing him (1 tank, 2 healers, 7 dps), if the raid reacts quickly enough Life Sparks won't do much raid damage.

On Steelbreaker, I took the 1st and 3rd Overwhelming Powers (our OT Paladin took the 2nd). He was dead at around 2:15 (2 tanks, 3 healers, 5 DPS). We had a hunter standing at max range to soak the Static Disruptions and everyone else hugging Steelbreaker. Dispelling Fusion Punch is key to the fight. After the 2nd tank death, depending on your HP and avoidance, it might be wise to use cooldowns, since Steelbreaker will hit you for roughly 16-18k (not that big of a hit), but Fusion Punch will be hitting already for around 36-38k.

On Hodir, I tanked him in my normal gear (if your gear is similar, you'll have much less hit and expertise in your Frost Gear). 1 tank, 2 healers, 7 DPS (1 melee, 6 ranged, since we wanted to measure how important was bringing them to the raid). If you're having threat issues, try this: Vigilance a warlock or a mage. On every Flash Freeze, Intervene (if you're a warrior) the DPS highest on threat (it will dump 10% of their aggro). You can use taunt too if needed to bring Hodir back. The beginning is probably were keeping aggro is harder. We did this in roughly 2:25, so you can probably bring 2-3 melee without completely punishing your raid.

Thorim: 2 tanks, 2 healers, 6 DPS. Split your raid in even groups. On 10 man, you can pretty much AoE your way in both areas. We got to Thorim with 50 seconds left on the timer (and I guess there's even faster ways to do it). Thorim itself will hit harder, and you'll want to start swapping him earlier (4-5th charge?). Sif herself is more of an annoyance than an actual issue if DPS is high. I believe we did P3 in 3 minutes. Blowing Shield Wall and Last Stand towards the end of the fight since Thorim's damage output was high enough to become a problem.

We haven't downed Freya yet, but it seems to be a rather punishing fight if you're heavy on casters. and I can't comment on Vezax, Yogg or Algalon.

We are a 25 man guild and have a bigger roster than 10 man guilds (and probably much better gear since we raid Coliseum 25 too), but I hope some of our experiences are helpful out there. My guild is nothing stellar, but we're luckily doing rather well in hard modes (we've downed Beasts too, and Jaraxxus doesn't seem a big increase in difficulty).

[KnThrak]

After extensive runs the last two days:

Flevi +4
The plants were the killer for us. It only became better once my GF and me (the two Demo drivers) kept shooting at each other's feet every few shots, clearing all the plants off the other Demo.
It was quite ok then. Did one shutdown post-Thorim'sHammer, later read some people do it with 1 Chopper only and a "hanging" gunner in the Demos. Trying that next time, sounds much easer. We did it with a full garage.

XT-002
2 Hunters > this hard mode. Really. They can freely stand behind the raid group, Distractshot the Light Bombs over and freely ping pong them between them. Even 2-3 bombs at the same time would be manageable given good reflexes - though we never needed that. Two hunters makes this really easy. ^_^

Iron Council
The first Hard Mode we ever did, and utterly easy from my perspective. Triangle setup, someone yelling for Overload and Whirl on TS, goes down in seconds. Didn't even need a second tankswitch.

Crazy Cat Lady (I know, I know... but it ain't easy)
Used three tanks. The main tank would periodically pull an add off the one addtank, who'd let their bleed drop, then taunt off the second addtank, who'd let their bleed drop, who'd taunt the free add off the MT again.
This was hectic as hell, but worked out fine. Very very close though.

Thorim
1 Shot, with 1 DPS, 1 Tank and 2 Healers alive. We screwed up at the end and all ended up in the southern corner. If you pre-assign positions, the 10man is easy enough since there's plenty room to use. In fact clearing the tunnel and keeping the arena up seemed tougher than the boss.

Freya +3
Urgh. This was... messy. The detonating lashers seemed ok - just run early and accept 1-2 remain when the next wave spawns and they're easy enough. The elementals were a lot of pain until we had a Hunter Distract-Shot the Snaplaser at ~10 stacks, so it's well away from the melee when it roots.
Keep kiting Freya in a large circle and the Solar Flares become a nonissue, helped us a lot.

Hodir
Missed it by 2 seconds. GNAAAAAAA!!!! ^_^
Freed Mage once, Boomkin and Shaman every time, worked ok for us. Seriously, he pacified *right* after the cache expired. It's just a lot of DPS necessary and ideally a few CDs to blow, Raidshieldwalls, Divine Hymn precast for more +Healing, such stuff.

Mimiron
Giving me nightmares now. Not done him, Phase 1 and Phase 2 blew my healer mind already. :S