[10] Hodir hard mode TPS?

The storm cloud is probably more important since if you ever crit you will have outrageous threat. Make sure your ranged and casters are putting up the Singed debuff on the boss since you also benefit. I tanked this with minimal buffs, so if you are trying the same thing, make sure you have MD/TotT on CD on you. Taunt ranged, Salv, etc., AW is good to use with any buffs you have.

I dont understand what exactly these storm cloud things are. I have only seen the white beacon of lights in this fight and last time I did it, I just ran to them and stood under them.

Can somebody explain where these clouds come from and what they are and how I get them please?
Does it matter where i position the boss too?

The shamans will randomly cast Storm Cloud on random people. Those people can bounce close to others to spread this buff.

It's a buff, the position of the boss doesn't matter at all.

Soldierxx wrote:I dont understand what exactly these storm cloud things are. I have only seen the white beacon of lights in this fight and last time I did it, I just ran to them and stood under them.

Can somebody explain where these clouds come from and what they are and how I get them please?
Does it matter where i position the boss too?

There's three elements that alter dps in this fight. The only one that you need to worry about is the bonfire; just make sure you're not out of range for the ranged when they stand around it.

- Storm clouds: Increased critical strike damage - Provided by shaman npcs (Spiritwalker Tara/Spiritwalker Yona or Elementalist Mahfuun/Elementalist Avuun)

- Starlight: Increased attack / cast speed by 100% - Provided by druid NPCs (Tor Greycloud/Kar Greycloud or Eivi Nightfeather/Ellie Nightfeather)

- Bonfire: Players within a few yards of this bonfire get a buff called Singed. When they attack the boss, it stacks up a debuff on him, making him take increased magical damage. Singed itself also does decent dps for casters, even survival-hunters (it procs off explosive shot-ticks). - Provided by mage npcs (Amira Blazeweaver/Veesha Blazeweaver or Missy Flamecuffs/Sissy Flamecuffs)

The two important ones are Storm cloud and Singed. Before you pull, mark the shamans and mages. They're hard to click, but you can type /tar name-of-npc to get to them. On the first pull, break out all the npcs (gives you some time to build threat). After that, only break out mages and shamans. The mages will provide the bonfire and break out additional npcs. The shamans provide storm cloud, and so some proper dps themselves.

- If you get a Starlight near the boss, try to move him so that the melee get some buff-love too.
- Spreading Storm cloud is vital, so make sure your ranged are stacked up
- Ranged should stand *near* the bonfire, not on it. If they're on top of it, it'll fade in a matter of seconds because you'll have ice dropping on it. *near*, not *on*.

Oh, and more dots!

Has anyone tested to tank him with SoB?
I will test it tonight, cause i'm interested in the DTPS and TPS i can generate while standing in a Starlight.
Maybe i can squeeze out some extra TPS...

It can also parry-gib you to hell and back. If you want a buff, get storm cloud.

I've had no problems with TPS on Hodir. It'll also depend on the way you are talent spec'd and geared I've found with Tier 7 2 piece bonus + Tier 8 2 piece bonus helps out as well. I MT a lot in 10 and 25man Ulduar and I have a spec for Single TPS and one for AoE TPS, they actually are different enough to be noticeable. Also, don't use any frost resist gear on 10man Hodir Hardmode, you shouldn't need it. I use Divine Protection during the first Frozen Blows and a Disc Priest uses Pain Suppression on the second.

My Single TPS spec is talented 5/54/12
Glyph of Avenger's Shield
Glyph of Exorcism (sometimes Glyph of Salv for the extra CD, but for threatsake, Exorcism)
Glyph of Divine Plea

I also use the same threat spec for 25man General Vezax and I have no issues with ranged in the shadow crash clouds even coming close to me on threat. Average threat is 8-9k and bursting up to 12k.

Hakuteiken wrote:My Single TPS spec is talented 5/54/12
Glyph of Avenger's Shield
Glyph of Exorcism (sometimes Glyph of Salv for the extra CD, but for threatsake, Exorcism)
Glyph of Divine Plea

That spec is not the most optimal TPS spec. 0/53/18 is the best threat spec there is. No exceptions.

amh wrote:It can also parry-gib you to hell and back. If you want a buff, get storm cloud.

I don't quite buy that considering the high rate of attacks from warriors and druids. Hell you could even gain survival from the SoB boost by using some FrR gear without fear of low threat.

Warrior and druids have expertise, we generally don´t :)

1.6 weapon speed raid-buffed is something like 1,4? Cut that in two, 0,7. I dunno, beginning to get a little quick for my taste.

More threat is always good... it's not like tanks are hard to keep alive on hodir.

trellian wrote:More threat is always good... it's not like tanks are hard to keep alive on hodir.

Not talking "oh-noes-i-hit-myself-for-300-with-sob", I´m talking "oh dear, I got parried three times in a row within 2,1 seconds during frozen blows". There´s a certain distinction :)

By all means, try it out. Curious to see the results.

In my last tanking encounter with hodir he hit my with frozen blows exactly once... And you actually believe you would be able to take 3 in a row? I mean, yes... theoretically it is possible. But the odds are so much in favor of us, that i'll take that risk when trying to kill him. Flukes will always happen.

The odds of you getting parried three times in a row are actually 0.4% (taking a 17% chance for the boss to parry you, which a little bit of expertise would get down even more).

I tank 25 man and 10 man Hard modes every week and my threat is usually no problem at all with me pulling upwards of 15k TPS without the need to Salv anyone. I also tank it in 3 Piece FrR gear with 3 Piece T8.5 on.

The strategy we use to help increase my threat is, everyone stacks on the tank in the light beams except for hunters. By doing this you're almost guaranteeing that a Storm Cloud (Shaman Damage Buff) will be casted on the tank at which point I pop wings every time its up. Granted this strategy isn't as easy on 25 man but on 10 man it should be no problem which is the encounter you're have the problem with. If you have rogues in the raid make sure they're Tricks you constantly and Hunters are MD'ing whenever possible. Also don't get hit by Snow Crashes because they greatly reduce your time on target which just kills your threat. When you get one just strafe slightly out of the range of it and then strafe back into the light when its gone. The best way to manage the Snow Crashes is to have the "Projected Textures" turned on inside your Video --> Effects. It will help you see the exact range of the Snow Crashes so you have to move even less. Also just because there is a Snow Crash in the Starlight you're at doesn't mean go run to another one. Try to maximize the time you spend in one by doing what I said with the strafing. It helps out a ton with DPS and TPS because the raids time on target is that much higher. The only bad thing about this strategy is its demanding on all people to watch the Snow Crashes and in the case of a really far away Flash Freeze everyone needs to move to it quickly during cast time however, you should only get 2-3 Flash Freezes at maximum on a Hard Mode attempt so that is just RNG bad luck.

I hope this helps.

Hmmm, let me share with you the way i always stay on top of threat in this fight.

It requires a mage, so if you dont have one, disgregaurd this, but many people take one (he's gotta be able to put out the dps, which...if your going for hard mode, he should be).

Firstly, the mage is on the boss 100 percent of the time, and riding the tank as much as he possibly can before he gets all the buffs. As soon as he gets the storm cloud, we pop hero/bloodlust, and if we have it, throw a tricks of the trades on said mage. The mage will have popped mirror image RIGHT AFTER he gets the stormcloud buff (if you dont already know, mirror image has an effect where the mage causes 0 threat while mirror images are out, but as soon as they go away all threat the mage gained during the period the images we're up is immediatly given to the mage) and the mage then goes balls to the wall dps during the heroism. If he is doing his job right, when the mirror images fade, he will have a MASSIVE threat lead of the tank, at which point the boss will switch to the mage. Your job is to taunt just as this happens, bringing you up to the mages current threat, the mage then invis's and drops all his aggro (if it happens during frozen blows the mage just iceblocks till frozen blows is over then invises as to avoid it getting interupted).

Not only does this solv you problem for the rest of the fight on threat. Tricks of the trade can be used to increase raid dps instead of JUST a threat boost to the main tank.

Anyway, we've just found that to work out extremely well and do it every week that way.