[10] I Choose You, Runemaster

[fudomyou]

I've seen plenty of posts on IC with Steelbreaker last, and Runemaster honestly does seem a lot easier, but I still have a few questions about how it works before my guild tries it on Thursday.

First is the movement and positioning - you want the tank and melee to be as far from the summoning zone as possible, so do you go all the way across the room whenever one spawns under you? Do you rotate around the room with the healers and ranged DPS grouped up in the center (barring rune of death)?

Second is the aoe - I see a lot of guides recommending a frost-specced water elemental-lovin' mage doing most of the grunt work, but our mage in 10-man is a FFB/arcane dual spec, so all we have for slows is maybe a frost trap and earthbind totem. Are they required for 10man, or do you just nuke?

Third is spawn rate - I see "8 or 9" listed as the number of spawns per zone, I also have found "1 or 2 at a time". Do you just assign 2 ranged dps to kill 'em and that's it, or...?

I'm going to assume the kill order is Steelbreaker -> Stormcaller -> Runemaster, but if there's a compelling reason to do it the other way, please let me know. Maybe to get the Can't Do That While Stunned ach?

Anyway, thanks!

[ulushnar]

I did this on Sunday night.

We had three AoEers (a Boomkin, a Mage and a Warlock) take up evenly-spaced positions in the bottom half of the room. They focussed on AoEing the adds when they spawned. The tank moved him around the room, kiting him away from the runes of summoning at all times. If I or the DK had the chance, we'd drop a consec/DnD near the rune to help AoEers.

It was a little hairy, but perfectly managable with practise.

[Belloc]

Quick question for the OP: Have you done Steelbreaker last yet? If not, do that instead. You get the hard mode loot and it's easier. Runemaster last is annoying.

[fudomyou]

We haven't done Steelbreaker last yet - we were going to do Runemaster last because we're about to start Keepers on hard and wanted quest items. Is that pointless until we can down Mimiron on hard anyway?

[fafhrd]

Second is the aoe - I see a lot of guides recommending a frost-specced water elemental-lovin' mage doing most of the grunt work, but our mage in 10-man is a FFB/arcane dual spec, so all we have for slows is maybe a frost trap and earthbind totem. Are they required for 10man, or do you just nuke?

We did this on 10 with 3 hunters and a warlock as the only aoe. No shadowfury, just frost traps hastily placed between the spawns and the raid. It was doable (this was a while back with much less ulduar25 gear to steamroll it), but I would really recommend getting your mage to switch to frost for this if you're having trouble with the spawns, having them run around unrooted and unsnared was horrible. We wiped for quite a while on it before finally getting (which honestly was probably as much to lucky frost trap positions as anything else).

[Belloc]

I wouldn't say it's pointless, but I still do recommend skipping Runemaster last. Steelbreaker last is considerably less complicated and much more rewarding. Not only do you get the quest item, but you also get the hard-mode item. All that, and it's easier

[fafhrd]

Yeah, but... then you don't get to beat runemaster last :S (our poorly chosen wipefest above was well before doing steelbreaker last)

RM last isn't really a gear check, and the strats are so different that it's not even an experience check. Depending on whether you just have good aoe/roots or good single target DPS and heals each fight can be harder or easier than the other IMO.

[Wrathy]

A skilled hunter with great frost traps is all you really need to control the adds as long as your AoE dps is sufficient. As for tanking the boss, if you are faced with tanking runemaster, the few times we did this for the achievement, I would kite him around the four corners of the room (yea yeah i know the room is kinda circular but you get the idea), bouncing from corner to corner and distancing the melee from the voids. Healers and ranged can move freely as long as they stay away from the voids.

As for doing Steelbreaker first, that is all dependent on the gear level of your guild. Hard Mode AoI is very challenging from a tanking and healing perspective. The mechanics that are employed on p3 make it a gear check of sorts, both from the stand point of the ability of a tank to take some massive hits, and from the healers ability to heal both the tank and the AoE damage. Runemaster last is a pure environmental awareness fight, and no where near as gear dependent.

[fudomyou]

Quick update: we finished Steelbreaker last night. After I explained how hard mode loot worked, pretty much no one wanted Runemaster last. Now I understand why no one really talks about ICY, Runemaster Molgeim.

[Belloc]

Grats, glad you went with that

Yeah, Runemaster is only really worth doing for 25-man guilds that want a challenge but aren't ready for Steelbreaker. The difference on 25-man is that Runemaster actually is much easier than Steelbreaker