Hodir issues 10 man

We are slowly getting into Uld 10 and having a blast. Hodir we are experiencing a few issues. I am MT so have frost resist gear on and currently sitting at 417 (excellent rating). Our problem lies when he starts doing Frozen blows it becomes interesting. As far as strats go we free up all the NPC's everytime they become entombed. I normally tank him just to the right of where he starts and facing away from the raid. I just jump (like Nexus) and hold him there. Of the 6 attempts last night we had him down 2 times to 8% health when I suddenly died. Is there a better way to do this or maybe just watch the video and follow that instead? The whole battle seems easy enough and other 4 times we failed was due to runes under healers and the most inconvenient times.

Are you using any cooldowns for Frozen Blows?

I pop both my Dodge trinkets when this happens. Usually LOH if the healing hits too low and never have tried bubbling. Holy shield is on rotation and it never has been off when he hits.

How about using your Bubble Wall?

Any priests in the raid? Get them to use Guardian Spirit if holy or Pain Suppression if disc. Holy paladins? Hand of Sacrifice.

Edit: Might help a bit if you told us what you actually died to. Just saying "I just died" doesn't help. Check your combat log to find out if you didn't get enough healing from your healers, etc.

Nikachelle wrote:How about using your Bubble Wall?

Any priests in the raid? Get them to use Guardian Spirit if holy or Pain Suppression if disc. Holy paladins? Hand of Sacrifice.

Edit: Might help a bit if you told us what you actually died to. Just saying "I just died" doesn't help. Check your combat log to find out if you didn't get enough healing from your healers, etc.

Our healers consisted of Holy Paladin, resto druid and resto shaman. I will try the bubble wall when we foray back into it Sunday and see how that works.

My log ends in the same with Frozen blows killing me when the health combination/damage spike is on the low end.

I normally tank him just to the right of where he starts and facing away from the raid. I just jump (like Nexus) and hold him there.

Don't forget that the npc Boomkin gives your raid a nice dps boost that should be taken advantage of. When you see a shaft of light, kite Hodir until he is in range of it. Then your melee dps can stand in the light and reap the same benefits that your ranged get from it.

If you're getting him to 8% a the boost to raid dps could make the difference for you. But other than that use your cooldowns (bubble, trinkets, whatever you need/have) during frozen blows.

It's important to always use SOMETHING during a Frozen Blows while learning the encounter, even if it's just a trinket. Also, watch your healers, there is a ton of raid damage going out during Frozen Blows, and it's very easy to be distracted.

When learning, I alternated Monarch Crab, Valor Medal and Bubble Wall, as Frozen Blows show up around 50 seconds or so from each other, so a pure 2 minute cool down won't be usable on every other one.

Also, for healing distractions, tell your raiders that if they get Flash Frozen, they are essentially dead. It'll stop healers spamming heals on the Biting Cold that stacks and allows them to focus on the rest of the raid. This will also have the benefit of causing people to suddenly learn the Flash Freeze mechanic when there is no one to bail them out when they tunnel vision.

The disc priest in my raid put a priest bubble on me, when the freezing blows start. I didn't save my combat log, but the damage was really diminished - I don't think I took any damage at all.

We have this theory, that if you take no damage from the melee part of frozen blows, then the additional frost damage from frozen blows won't hit you. Has anyone else tried that?

(Of course, we all wiped a bit later, because I dropped the from the regular melee hits anyway.)

Lid wrote:The disc priest in my raid put a priest bubble on me, when the freezing blows start. I didn't save my combat log, but the damage was really diminished - I don't think I took any damage at all.

We have this theory, that if you take no damage from the melee part of frozen blows, then the additional frost damage from frozen blows won't hit you. Has anyone else tried that?

(Of course, we all wiped a bit later, because I dropped the from the regular melee hits anyway.)

If an attack during Frozen Blows is dodged, parried, or misses, there will be no raid damage accompanying that attack. I'm not sure if full blocks or absorbs have the same effect.

Nikachelle wrote:Any priests in the raid? Get them to use Guardian Spirit if holy or Pain Suppression if disc. Holy paladins? Hand of Sacrifice.

Holy Paladin can rotate Aura Mastery (they should always be the one with FR up) and RaidWall (DS/DS) also.

I end up doing these as we run 2-healers + hybrid, and on Hodir I'm the hybrid

From my experience you just want to stack your health as high as you can. We had a druid doing our tanking (who usually heals) for a while until our DK got geared enough. (I still switch to healing on this fight). You definitely want 40k+ health, even on 10s. And of course the frost resist. For this fight we always died from one of two things for a long time: 1. DPS dying for stupid reasons and hitting the enrage. 2. Tank going splat during Frozen Blows.

Keep at it, blow cooldowns for it. Coordinate with the rest of your raid for cooldowns during frozen blows (E.g. if you have another paladin they will have HoSac if not DP).

If you are dying to melee hits with 3 healers they are just flat out failing.

Outside of Frozen Blows there should honestly be very little raid damage happening. If your members are taxing the healers and taking their attention away from you due to taking the falling snow and flash freezes then I suggest people just need to master the basics of the encounter better.

You definitely need to coordinate cooldowns (lately we've rotated between my bubblewall / PS from disc priest) but wearing frost resist and being at def cap - you should be fine, especially with 3 healers. You also don't need 40k hp, I tank hard mode without frost resist with ~30k unbuffed (generally dont even get Kings) and 2 healers.

Biggest DPS increase IMO would also be to free the mage and get the debuff stacked up and letting your casters freecast with the fires

I wear 485 FR to minimise the damage taken during frozen blows. Sure, you take more damage outside the blows, but then the raid isn't taking AoE damage so healers can keep you up. During the frozen blows you will take less damage, which makes it easier on the healers.

PS use the PvP trinket to stay uncritable (and also let you escape an ice block if you fuck up)