Wotlk - Ulduar - Halls of Lightning (HoL) - Ionar and Loken strat

[Psych]

As it was the double daily for me yesterday, I figured I'd give heroic HoL a try on my 5 druid group (one resto, one bear, 3 moonkin). No issues anywhere up until Ionar (with the exception of the Slag guys which are immune to nature damage, forcing me to either swipe them to death or use starfire...ugh, waste of mana!).

Ionar - initial attempt:

I'd done him on Normal before, and I could heal through everything fine, I was treating it as if I was solo and doing the "run back down the stairs" thing, but would get hit by the ball lightning each time we came back up the choke point on the stairs. In Heroic, however, this caused a wipe almost immediately. Wasn't able to move the guys backwards fast enough, nor would I have been able to get them back into position fast enough had I lasted past the first disperse.

Ionar - second (and successful) attempt:

Now, I have my arrow keys set to control only my slave toons, where W,A,S,D,Q,E control only my tank (main). What I did, was kill the group of guys on the second balcony up, after the first little steps leading to Ionar. Then, arranged my team in a spread fashion, in a line, facing directly up the stairs. They were spread about 5 yards apart, directly in a line so they were all facing Ionar.

Pulled him, did the usual fighting and such, when he throws the balls out or does any aoe damage to a someone, it only affected them or maybe one other guy. When he dispersed, I immediately strafed left with my guys and manually moved with my main. I kept straffing left and moving with the group until the far left guy was almost touching the balcony. Wild Growth'ing as much as I could while moving just to ensure they're topped up. When the sparks came in, the right toon took a few hundred damage from a hit or two, nothing major. Strafe right with slaves, move right with main, get back into position, roughly.

Rinse and repeat!

After such a horrible death on the first attempt this was really nice to nail so easily on the 2nd.

Loken:

I use a very similar strategy for Loken, strafe out as a group the second I see his Nova, super easy. Bunch up on Loken, so no major aoe damage happens, and which means this works fine for melee as well (just don't bother getting behind him, that'd be too complicated for this strategy). Nova starts casting, strafe right with the group and your main, nova goes off, stay put. Loken will come to you, I just move over a bit closer to him when he's settled in for the next beating. Strafe the opposite direction on the next nova, rinse and repeat.

My healer doesn't have the power to heal through the nova otherwise, not boxed at least, so this was good stuff.

Maybe it's been said before but just incase, there ya go, maybe it'll help someone :)

[Bigfish]

Real men take Lightning Nova to the face and ask for more. And Tranquility is your friend.

j/k, but seriously, grats on beating it. Ionar beat me silly before I got him down.

[Psych]

I guess with a few druids you could really chain up tranquilities back to back, one for each nova...my toons have so little hp though, think one nova would finish them off ;)

[warbringer]

I nowadays just spam the DPS button on Loken and eat one lightning nova (which I survive with about 25% health on each toon) and then he keels over. For those of you with a shaman/hunter, a nature resistance totem/aura does miracles here.

[Niley]

but he dies in like 10s before any nova :P

[Fuzzyboy]

For Ionar I just stand still (though spread) while he's dispersed and heal through it. Don't attack, don't move, just heal :-) Once he returns, resume DPS'ing. When done that way he's really really easy.

For Loken just bunch up and DPS. Be full health when he Nova's and chuck AE heals right after (if you have to, pre cast the AE so it hits right after Nova) while continuing to DPS.

[Otlecs]

I always use the balcony at Ionar now. Spread my guys out, go pull with an earthshield up, run like the clappers back to the doorway to the balcony and open up. I just heal through the dispersal.

I still move at Loken, but I'm not sure how useful it is because I still take a whole shed-load of damage. Like the OP, I strafe left/right using a single keybind for all toons.

HoL actually seemed almost impossible when I first tried it. I had a really tough time with both Ionar and Loken, but then I dived into heroics as soon as I hit 80 so that's to be expected I reckon!

Mind you, I thought the same about other heroics - Utgarde Pinnacle and Old Kingdom come immediately to mind - and now they're all easy-mode farming, mostly due to better tactics (often learned right here) than gear!

I really should have a go at Oculus one day. There are some good strategies posted on these forums.

[Fuzzyboy]

but he dies in like 10s before any nova :P

You must have some nice gear! My DPS chars are usually at around 4-4.5k dps and he usually starts casting the second nova before he is down, which is like 30 seconds. To kill him 10s before the first nova, that means you're killing him in about 10 seconds, which puts you at at around 50k DPS (he has 512k hp in heroic). That's over 10k dps per char for all in the group including tank and healer - impressive ;-)

[Psych]

Yeah there's no real point in dismissing a strategy because you're team is fully decked out in amazing gear, you don't need a strategy then, just brute force everything ;)

I have one toon with sub 14k health still, I think. A single nova does more than that, he would immediately be killed no matter how epic my healing was.

I really want to get some info out there for those who don't use shamans in their groups. I friggen love shamen, and wish I could slot one in without paying an acct-acct transfer fee to do it (on my main account, with my 5 box tank...alas). Four healing streams and a resistance totem would trivialize almost all encounters, as one shaman almost trivializes all encounters in a single box mode, hehe

[Fuzzyboy]

You don't need awesome gear, just to have your healing set up correctly. With the right setup, you can focus on healing during the disperse-stage and do so very precisely. I've done this with both a shammie (chain heal) and a priest healer (CoH + PoM + PoH) with a mix of blue and lvl 200 AH epics, so no amazing gear required.

As for Loke I've done him the same way in blue/epics alos, but if I hadn't had the nature res totem, I would have probably needed a nature resist hat or something like that.


Yeah there's no real point in dismissing a strategy because you're team is fully decked out in amazing gear, you don't need a strategy then, just brute force everything ;)

I have one toon with sub 14k health still, I think. A single nova does more than that, he would immediately be killed no matter how epic my healing was.

I really want to get some info out there for those who don't use shamans in their groups. I friggen love shamen, and wish I could slot one in without paying an acct-acct transfer fee to do it (on my main account, with my 5 box tank...alas). Four healing streams and a resistance totem would trivialize almost all encounters, as one shaman almost trivializes all encounters in a single box mode, hehe

[Marious]

Dang my shaman gear is not half bad and I still get beat up by Ionar I hate that boss. With that said its my own fault I tend to want to heal with only my priest, and then I have them spread out to far for that to be effective when you have to disperse.

[Niley]

You must have some nice gear! My DPS chars are usually at around 4-4.5k dps and he usually starts casting the second nova before he is down, which is like 30 seconds. To kill him 10s before the first nova, that means you're killing him in about 10 seconds, which puts you at at around 50k DPS (he has 512k hp in heroic). That's over 10k dps per char for all in the group including tank and healer - impressive ;-)
http://img2.imageshack.us/img2/8709/wowscrnshot090609004428.jpg

that's pretty old ss before gear upgrades. 11s is my record now, but dbm rounds it up so who knows what it is exactly.
edit.btw i don't use a tank on some encounters anymore, loken is one example, old kingdom last boss is another(dies before insanity) etc

[Fuzzyboy]

That's pretty sick! :-)

I rarely get my shaman above 6k even with heroism, and you have 7.5k with three of the. 25-man gear helps, of course, but still.


http://img2.imageshack.us/img2/8709/wowscrnshot090609004428.jpg

that's pretty old ss before gear upgrades. 11s is my record now, but dbm rounds it up so who knows what it is exactly.
edit.btw i don't use a tank on some encounters anymore, loken is one example, old kingdom last boss is another(dies before insanity) etc

[Niley]

That's pretty sick! :-)

I rarely get my shaman above 6k even with heroism, and you have 7.5k with three of the. 25-man gear helps, of course, but still.
Look:
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Stormreaver&n=Ishv

This is the 2nd shaman with 7.4k, she has all badges gear/ToC H other than a ring from naxx 25, and next patch everyone will be swimming in t9.
Shaman that did least amount dps is actually the best geared one, got to love rng, and warlock was still wearing some greens :P
Doing good dps these day is all in click macros, and timing them properly.

[Fuzzyboy]

Look:
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Stormreaver&n=Ishv

This is the 2nd shaman with 7.4k, she has all badges gear/ToC H other than a ring from naxx 25, and next patch everyone will be swimming in t9.
Shaman that did least amount dps is actually the best geared one, got to love rng, and warlock was still wearing some greens :P
Doing good dps these day is all in click macros, and timing them properly.

Yeah, I use click macros as well, but I'm not hitting 7.5k even if I do a manual rotation - I still have a lot of lvl 200 epics though, but I doubt thats a 1.5k difference. I may need to review my macros :P

[Niley]

Yeah, I use click macros as well, but I'm not hitting 7.5k even if I do a manual rotation - I still have a lot of lvl 200 epics though, but I doubt thats a 1.5k difference. I may need to review my macros :P
come see us in IRC if you have any questions :D

[TheBigBB]

This Ionar strategy worked for me on the second try. Thanks! I hadn't tried Heroic HOL before because I was nervous about this boss, but I cleared it in just 45 minutes. The final boss was the easiest one for me, too. I just bunched up and burned him while spamming AOE heals.

UPDATE: I tried it with my B-team, less geared half of my 10 box team, and I one-shotted the whole thing with the crappy team. The Ionar strat is just rock solid.

[Meshuggenah]

For Ionar, spread out your shamans in a square with the tank in the middle. When you chain heal (if you get the spacing right) the heal will bounce between your shamans/tank and keep everyone full. The sparks also trigger water shield, so mana isn't a problem for this fight. Spam that chain heal ^^

I think the only limiting factor for Loken is you need 15(?)k hp per DPS. When you see him start casting nova, wait till it's at about 2 seconds then start casting chain heal. As soon as nova hits, your chain heal will go off and you'll be nearly full again. It's not a hard fight as long as you have enough HP to soak up the nova.




Look:
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Stormreaver&n=Ishv

This is the 2nd shaman with 7.4k, she has all badges gear/ToC H other than a ring from naxx 25, and next patch everyone will be swimming in t9.
Shaman that did least amount dps is actually the best geared one, got to love rng, and warlock was still wearing some greens :P
Doing good dps these day is all in click macros, and timing them properly.

I really don't see how the hell you manage 7k, even with cooldowns. That's pretty nuts. My shamans are actually better geared than yours (full t9, with i232 and 245 weapons/shields) and they rarely top 5-6k even raid buffed. More often is around 4k raid damage in movement fights, which they almost all are now. The warlocks curse would up your damage, but certainly not enough to account for 2,000DPS. Infact I don't even think I've seen solo BiS geared ele shamans pull that kind of single target DPS. I'd really like to see what your click macro setup is like.

[thedreameater]

[QUOTE=Fuzzyboy;233395]For Ionar I just stand still (though spread) while he's dispersed and heal through it. Don't attack, don't move, just heal :-) Once he returns, resume DPS'ing. When done that way he's really really easy.QUOTE]

Easy my fucking ass.

Don't try this kids unless you have stupid gear. FUCK Ionar.

[Fuzzyboy]

[QUOTE=Fuzzyboy;233395]For Ionar I just stand still (though spread) while he's dispersed and heal through it. Don't attack, don't move, just heal :-) Once he returns, resume DPS'ing. When done that way he's really really easy.QUOTE]

Easy my fucking ass.

Don't try this kids unless you have stupid gear. FUCK Ionar.

You don't need especially good gear to do it this way. The trick is to

a) be spaced far enough aparty that the debuff he applies (which does damage to players near the player with the debufff) doesn't reach the next player and

b) to use a nature resistance totem

If your all teammembers can cast heals, use the heals on yourself while he's dispersed, if you have only one healer, you need to be in position to do AE heals (for instance PoH works really well for this encounter).

[thedreameater]

[QUOTE=thedreameater;251855]

You don't need especially good gear to do it this way. The trick is to

a) be spaced far enough aparty that the debuff he applies (which does damage to players near the player with the debufff) doesn't reach the next player and

b) to use a nature resistance totem

If your all teammembers can cast heals, use the heals on yourself while he's dispersed, if you have only one healer, you need to be in position to do AE heals (for instance PoH works really well for this encounter).

Thanks for the advice, will try tonight.. Man, I was fuming after this fight. I can kill the golem boss from gundrak without a care, but could not stay up during this.

[Fuzzyboy]

No problem - if you have a paladin/dk + 4 shaman team, have all the shamams cast a nature resist totem (that way you're sure noone is out of range) and make a macro like this: /cast [@player] Lesser Healing Wave to use while he's dispersed. Sometimes the lightning bolts will eat your nature resist totem, so have a hotkey to recast if you want to be on the safe side :)

[Fuzzyboy]

Oh, and be sure that your characters are spaced wide enough apart - _I cannot stress this enough_. I remember once I got a little lazy on the spacing and he wiped me in like five seconds :)

[crowdx]

So on regular on Ionar I spaced all my guys in the area at the bottom of the steps, one basically in each corner, all within healing range. I then tanked him and during the spider things I just healed the group, it was close but no deaths. How much harder does the spider guys hit in heroic?
I need to finish HoL and wondering now should I do it all in heroic or do it regular first, i downed all the bosses 5 boxing regular excpet Loken who I had to leave for RL stuff before I got to him. :-(

[offive]

Ionar got the nerf bat a bit, a hotfix is supposed to have gone in to limit him to only one dispersion. Same thing with the last boss in Drak Theron. I have not done either since the supposed hotfix.

Ionar, in the Halls of Lightning, will now only disperse once during the course of the fight.
Prophet Tharon’Ja of Drak'Tharon will now only steal your flesh one time during the encounter.

[Iceorbz]

Ionar got the nerf bat a bit, a hotfix is supposed to have gone in to limit him to only one dispersion. Same thing with the last boss in Drak Theron. I have not done either since the supposed hotfix.

Ionar, in the Halls of Lightning, will now only disperse once during the course of the fight.
Prophet Tharon’Ja of Drak'Tharon will now only steal your flesh one time during the encounter.

Never found prophet hard in the least lol.

[daviddoran]

Never found prophet hard in the least lol.

No, but all the zombie modes just slowed things down immensely... IMO they could have just shortened the subsequent de-fleshing emotes, or make it instant... having to have 4 seconds of nothing to do got kinda boring....

[thinus]

Priest vs Loken = easy mode

My Loken fights at the moment go like this:
- Pull (everyone on follow behind the tank)
- DPS Key till boss dead.

My "dps" macro on the priest looks like this:

/castsequence [@Player] ,,,,,,,,Prayer of Healing
/cast [@Player] Prayer of Mending

Prayer of Mending whenever it is off cooldown and Prayer of Healing every now and then, adjust commas to suit your button press rate. The Prayer of Mending will jump around so I just cast it on the priest, you can target your tank instead if it will make you more comfortable.

Loken hits for so little on my tank (not uber geared 1x T9) that the PoM and PoH easily keep the tank topped up as well as the group.


PS: I have a Disc Priest but I think Holy would work just as well.

[aaarn]

Ionar got the nerf bat a bit, a hotfix is supposed to have gone in to limit him to only one dispersion. Same thing with the last boss in Drak Theron. I have not done either since the supposed hotfix.

Ionar, in the Halls of Lightning, will now only disperse once during the course of the fight.
Prophet Tharon’Ja of Drak'Tharon will now only steal your flesh one time during the encounter.

The hotfix completely trivialized this encounter. Just spread your toons to the 4 corners of the room you pull him too. Once he disperses, have each toon spam heal themselves.

[crowdx]

As an update I finished HoL yesterday. I did Loken with my toons at the pillars and tanked him in the circle, just healed through the AoE and nuked him. Was surprised how easy it was :P

[angeldeelite]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iBoBiA5GMU my girls doing ionar heroic :D

[jinkobi]

The Prophet in DKT is cake bro.

Engage the boss with your tank and take your slaves off follow. Make sure everyone is topped off before he gets to 50%. At 50%ish he turns you into skeletons. Spam 4 and use your mouse to click on 2 to keep him on your tank.. When he throws poison on the ground move your team out of it.

Ionar I use to actually dread him but he's very easy once you know what to do. Maybe he was nerfed I don't know. Main thing is try to keep everyone topped off till he disperses then run to the statue room- reposition team and heal as needed. He'll round the corner and be at less than 50% DPS him out.

Loken is a pure tank and spank fight. I got the achievement for killing him in less than a minute on my first kill.

[Bloodcloud]

As an update I finished HoL yesterday. I did Loken with my toons at the pillars and tanked him in the circle, just healed through the AoE and nuked him. Was surprised how easy it was :P

Since I got it with the LFG Heroics, I thought I'd give it a try.

Thanks for the Ionar "4 quarters Strategy! worked like a charm.

Nature res totem + Healing totem, + Priest AOE healing FTW :)

Only 2 wipes in the whole instance and that on the trash :( (Slag and Corridor with statues)

general tips (even with one shammy)

General: NR totem
Volkhan: FR totem
Ionar: NR Totem
Loken: NR Totem

Did it the day after with no wipes ... -> Added to my farm list :)