Unearth the Secrets of Ulduar January 19



We finally have a date! Ulduar releases in a week from now, on January 19th. This means that January 17th will be our last raid of Naxx, OS, and EoE. Our first Ulduar raid will be on January 24th.

Looking back at Phase 1

It's been a little longer than 3 months of clearing Naxx, OS, and EoE weekly. As everyone expected, these raids are quite the pushover - both in the "playing WotlK now is a lot easier than back then" and the "Naxx was easy even for its time" sense. Nevertheless, I'm proud of us steadily clearing these raids week after week, even with a fluctuating roster and having to pug spots every week (btw, has anyone seen Kvasir?). Especially our blazingly fast sub 2h clear last week even though we didn't one-phase Noth!

The only thing we haven't completed are the raid achievements, which seemed not to be of great interest to most raiders (sorry, Timmy!). Then again, how could we even achieve "The Immortal"? Tyssar would need to be afk that raid and we'd have to bench Andervous on Kel'Thuzad.

But that's all yesterday's news. Let's leave Naxx behind, and have a look at what the next phase will bring. Are rets actually going to be lower dps than phase 1? Will Superge get some gear without hit on it? Will Rash finally start having fun?

Looking towards Phase 2

For everyone who is missing some phase 1 loot that they really wanna get, it will be easier for you!
The 10 man versions of phase 1 raids are going to drop the 25 man loot. Anyone wanna go Naxx 10, Dying Curse HR?
There is a "Mysterious Titanic Relic" in dungeons, which you can activate to make the dungeon more difficult. Doing so will cause the bosses to drop 10 man phase 1 loot. Get that Surge Needle Ring!

Vault of Archavon is going to have a 2nd boss starting January 25th. It will drop T8/S6 gear.

Then of course there is the new raid, Ulduar. A long-time favorite among WoW boomers and private server enthusiasts alike, Ulduar consists of 14 bosses and is the first time bosses get a "hard mode". Not just simply a heroic difficulty of the raid like later on in the game, but most bosses have certain conditions you have to meet while defeating them to activate the "hard mode" and get better loot.
Some of these hard modes add or change mechanics, and some impose dps checks on your raid that will be difficult to meet with phase 1 gear. We are going to skip all hard modes on the first week, unless we accidentally achieve the ones for Thorim (possible) or Hodir (highly unlikely). Let's get a feel for the raid first, and then mess with the challenging stuff.

While Ulduar won't be super challenging, the fights are definitely more complex. That's why I'm asking you to read up on tactics before the first raid of Ulduar so we all have a general idea of what's happening going in. Joardee on YouTube makes some video guides specifically for classic if you're into that, otherwise there's text guides on Warcraft Tavern. Maybe Wowhead is also going to release a guide, but it isn't up yet.

Another unique thing about Ulduar is Val'anyr, Hammer of Ancient Kings, the legendary for this raid tier. A powerful weapon for healers, it has to be assembled from fragments that randomly drop from bosses, then completed by throwing it into Yogg-Saron's maw and killing him after. To get this hammer asap, we are going to funnel all those fragments to one player. Obviously we want this to be someone in the guild, and we want to reward the most reliable raiders.
This meant the choice was between Stepan and Rash. Val'anyr works poorly for Discipline priests, so we have decided to give the first one to Rash. Congrats!

Lastly, I want to welcome some familiar faces to the classic raid. Starting next raid, we will have Spetsnaz and Stian aka Holyglacio aka Glacio aka Cloudio join us, as resto druid and holy paladin respectively. Welcome!