Ulduar Algalon (10-Man)

[Ciderhelm]

Welcome back to the Ulduar raid guide. My name is Darksend, an author at TankSpot.com and in this video I will cover the 10 man strategy for the hard mode only boss, Algalon the Observer.

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The first thing you will notice is the timer at the top of the screen. From the time you first engage him you only have 1 hour before he despawns for the rest of the raid lockout. Note this timer starts when you first engage him not when you open the door so take some time to study the room and to make sure everyone knows what do to before pulling the first time. If you are in combat with him when the timer ends he will wipe the raid by casting an ability called Ascend to the Heavens and despawn. Ascend to the Heavens is an ability he does both when his timer expires and he despawns but also if no one gets hit by or survives big bang. If it is triggered by the second cause he will not despawn, but it hits everyone for 700 thousand including people in black holes.

What makes this encounter challenging is the amount of damage going out, both the melee damage being done to the tank and the various sources of raid damage.

Approximately15-20 seconds into the encounter algalon will spawn 4 collapsing stars. These stars have no aggro and float slowly but randomly around the room. They deal 1% of their health to themselves every second. When they die they do an explosion for 15-20K shadow damage to everyone in the raid. It can be partially resisted so make sure to have a paladin or priest for shadow protection. A ranged DPS needs to be assigned to kill these. That person needs to time it so that the explosion is staggered with cosmic smash. This allows the healer maximum time to top everyone up. That person must also communicate to the raid when a star is about to die. They must also make sure to call out if anyone will be near the star when it explodes so that person can move away. This is because the stars leave a void zone also known as a black hole on the ground when they die. This void zone is a portal into the dark matter realm.

Running through the void zone is the only way to avoid Big Bang. Entering this realm is a complete threat drop on algalon. You cannot enter this realm with any kind of immunity such as AMS or Divine Shield and using either of those abilities as well as Cloak of shadows while inside will port you out immediately. While in this realm you suffer 1-2K arcane damage a second. This realm is also populated by adds called dark matter which will melee you while inside so make sure to kite them as best you can. This port lasts 10 seconds before you are returned to the normal plane.

In addition to collapsing stars, algalon also spawns constellations. They start spawning about the same time the first tank gets his fourth stack of phase punch. They have agro in the sense they will follow the highest person on threat but the person they follow is not neccessarily the person they cast on. Instead they cast arcane barage on random raid members. Whichever tank is not currently tanking should be taunting these and dragging them over black holes. By doing so both the constellation and the black hole despawn. you must be smart about which ones you close though as you do not want people to get hit by big bang because they had too run to far to the black holes that are still up

Every 90 seconds Algalon will cast Big Bang. It deals between 70-90K damage. as mentioned earlier someone must stay out and soak big bang to prevent him from ascending. there are several ways of doing this. This person does not have to be the top agro they simply have to be outside when the cast finishes. One way of doing it is tank cooldowns, but this prevents tanks from using cooldowns while tanking algalon himself and could result in tank deaths from normal melee damage. Another way to do this is shadow priest with dispersion. Yet another way to do this is external cooldowns on the tank such as GS or PS. GS is the most effective as it keeps you at full health since it is guaranteed to proc. When big bang is finished casting you get ported out immediately regardless of how long you should have left being phased so make sure that you position yourself to not be on top of a black hole again when you come out or you will be phased again right away.

The final source of raid damage is cosmic smash. Every 25 seconds a random raid member will have a red fissure placed under them. This can target the tank as well so be prepared to move the boss if it happens to you. You have 4-5 seconds to move away from it before it explodes. Smash deals fire damage based off how far away from it you are. Additionally, if it is directly under you at the time of the explosion you will be shot up into the air and most likely be killed by fall damage. Make sure to have a paladin or shaman for either Fire resist aura or totem as it is resistible.

Algalon has two melee abilities, the first is called Quantum strike. This ability is just a normal physical abilty that he does on the tank every few seconds, dealing approximately the same damage as an offhand swing. His second melee ability is called phase punch. Phase punch is on a 15 second cooldown and inflicts a moderate amount of arcane damage. It also applies a 45 second duration stacking debuff to the tank. When this debuff reaches 5 the tank is automatically ported as if they had gone into a black hole. The advantage to this is it also removes the debuff completely but they are then stuck in the dark matter realm for 10 seconds. Phase punch cannot be dodged, parried, or missed.

At 20% phase 2 starts. All black holes will despawn and 4 new ones will spawn at the 4 corners of the room, NW NE SW SE, about 1/2 way between the outer edge and the center of the room. do not be standing in those spots come the transition. He will still cast big bang in this phase and those portals still will phase you to the other realm but they now periodically summon an add, now called unleashed dark matter. The offtank needs to pick them up while the DPS all burn algalon. Stars no longer spawn but Cosmic smashes and phase punches still happen so make sure the tank does not get a 5 stack and get ported in accidentally. This is the ideal time to use heroism or bloodlust if you did not use it off the pull. His enrage timer is 6 minutes, this lands just before the 4th and final big bang.

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[Darksend]

reserved for answering questions

Great vid -- I appreciate the fact that Tankspot posted an Algalon strat asap b4 a few of the other hard modes for guilds at that stage in progression.

Quick question: for your CD rotation on Big Band soakers: obviously GS & dispersion are the best choices to go with but as not all 10mans are stacked with Holy & Shadow Priests what would be the most reliable rotation with minimal priests available? Since the dmg isn't the same each cast (stated btwn 70k-90k) is relying on Shield Wall/IBF enough to mitigate the attack every time? Also, would keeping with a traditional tank CD be better than using a SP (if CD limitations allowed) be preferred bc of the aggro wipe and the high DPS/threat nature of the encounter?

In this video we went warrior with SW LS fully glyphed and talented, then myself with barkskin SI, then the warrior's cooldowns were back up and he took the 3rd. There was no 4th and I very foolishly hit SI at the end of the cast instead of the beginning. Had i used it as soon as he started casting the second big bang it would have been up for the 4th.

Our DK uses 4pc AMS and IBF both of which had a shorter cooldown than the 90 second big bang. Unbreakable armor and Vamp blood can be used by the DK on the boss as neither is needed for him to survive big bang. I do not raid with a paladin tank so I am not sure how much health they survive with when they use divine protection sorry but it should be enough.

A DK can take every single big bang, they are the only one of the 4 tanks who can do that without external cooldowns

As for dispersion we have our shadow priest on stars in 10 man so threat is not an issue when he does it. The warrior or myself simply taunts back and he goes back to stars.

[Ciderhelm]

As a heads up, the movie is already up for Donors. My router disconnected midway through the YouTube upload, so it has a bit to go still as it's being uploaded again and needs to encode after that.

[BluTrigger]

Great vid -- I appreciate the fact that Tankspot posted an Algalon strat asap b4 a few of the other hard modes for guilds at that stage in progression.

Quick question: for your CD rotation on Big Band soakers: obviously GS & dispersion are the best choices to go with but as not all 10mans are stacked with Holy & Shadow Priests what would be the most reliable rotation with minimal priests available? Since the dmg isn't the same each cast (stated btwn 70k-90k) is relying on Shield Wall/IBF enough to mitigate the attack every time? Also, would keeping with a traditional tank CD be better than using a SP (if CD limitations allowed) bc of the aggro wipe and the high DPS/threat nature of the encounter?

[Dtain]

Wow this was perfect timing we just unlocked Algalon this week and are set to attempt him on Monday!

Thanks again!

[Ewanar]

Great quality vid, I understand the workings of the fight now!

One question, what does GS stand for? In talking about cool downs. I just can't think of it!

[Darksend]

Guardian spirit

[Mattomeo]

Our guild is not really at Algalon yet, but was wondering since we normally very slim on hte numbers of priests we got, but we do have more then enough paladins around.
Could a paladin use his bubble to survive the big bang? or does it casue him to wipe the raid since the paladin is immune?

[MonkH]

my guild haven't actually tried it but i remember reading somewhere, it goes through a paladins bubble .

[Aranacule]

You say the stacking debuff cannot be dodged, parried or missed yet can it be absorbed as the stacking debuff can on the trash before thorim by using a Disc priests shields?

[Rennadrel]

Looks like he didn't feed on your tears :P

[ttocs]

Our guild is not really at Algalon yet, but was wondering since we normally very slim on hte numbers of priests we got, but we do have more then enough paladins around.
Could a paladin use his bubble to survive the big bang? or does it casue him to wipe the raid since the paladin is immune?

It goes through a Paladin's Divine Shield and a Mage's Iceblock. DK's can tank them with cooldowns, however.

[Churles]

Our guild is not really at Algalon yet, but was wondering since we normally very slim on hte numbers of priests we got, but we do have more then enough paladins around.
Could a paladin use his bubble to survive the big bang? or does it casue him to wipe the raid since the paladin is immune?

Our paladin tank used his "shieldwall" and the hand of salv glyph to take the hit.




Also of note:
Another guild on our server was clearing ulduar when a member who just got their key opened the door to algalon. Thinking that his timer didn't start until he was engaged, they continued clearing. He later despawned.

In other words: DON'T OPEN THE DOOR UNTIL YOU ARE READY TO FIGHT

[Vindicatar]

High end guild on your server didnt notice a timer ticking down? o.O

[ttocs]

The timer doesn't appear (and typically doesn't start) until you first engage. Opening the door starts an event, though, and based on that a soft reset of the instance probably despawned him.

[Splug]

The fourth big bang occurs after his berserk. It might be survivabile with enough cooldowns combined, but the base damage is roughly 200+k if I recall correctly. SI/Barkskin may not be enough alone.

IBF alone is enough to survive most big bangs. The very top of the damage range can be lethal in conjunction with an arcane barrage or two, so power word: shield is a good insurance measure.

Darksend, I noticed you backing into a corner during big bang #2. He doesn't seem to melee for about 3 seconds after the cast finishes, giving your raid time to phase back in. We've found it's safer to just wait close to him (and in my case, spam off death strikes) to remain closer to the healers and raid - though it looks like you're backing up to where the raid is porting back in.

-Splug

[Darksend]

The only way to survive the 4th big bang with 100% certainty is GS.

The reason I was running away was because we tell everyone to run to the middle while inside for healing and to make sure they do not get sucked in. We run away as the tanks to make sure that we do not drop a smash right where the entire raid is going to zone out in case it does not load on their screen. Also frenzied regen is an extremely powerful cooldown to use after taking the damage, glyphed it increases all healing taken by 20% including its own healing and healthstones (7.7K crit healthstone in that gg). By running away it allows time for people to load and for frenzied regen to tick

[SnowWar]

Hi guys,

Our guild have finished U10 hard modes (on farm) and done allot of them in U25 (a few on farm) also but we seem to have a problem with Algalon

In your opinion how should the healing be done?
We currently using DK & Warrior tanks with 2 x Disc priests on tank & a Resto druid on raid.

The resto basically needs to spam the raid 100% of the time to keep people up (and yes people are u25 geared) and then there are very little time for him to hot the tank also. Is it just a matter of being more carefull with cosmic & stars or do some maybe have some advice?

Thx

[Krog]

This guy kinda reminds me of Prince in Karazhan ...

Ok , so his job is to annihilate the tanks , nicely done during our first tries yesterday ...

We do it with two healers :/ thats how we work , is it enough ? ( alga10man )
Comp : Disc / Druid healers
Hunt/War(arms)/Mage/Lock/Chamelem/Palaret dps
Warrior/Warrior ( or DK ) tanks.

We have problems with the incoming damage on the tanks , but we are on our first tries so ...

Should tanks stack avoidance or Stam ? ( 45k buffed , both of us )

[Tempestas]

With the amount of damage I would say 3 healers on the fight and that is what I have seen used all around for the fight.