The Antechamber of Ulduar: The Assembly of Iron

We’re going to do something a little different today. Instead of looking at class mechanics or specs, we’re going to look at the latest raid available to you guys. Ulduar, as you all probably know, is similar to Naxx in the way that it is divided into four sections. This section is called The Antechamber of Ulduar and comes after you break into Ulduar. We’re going to be taking a look at the bosses within the Antechamber of Ulduar who are blocking your way to the Keepers of Ulduar. Today, we’ll be focusing on The Assembly of Iron.

The Assembly of Iron is a different fight from most, partially because of the fact that it involves 3 bosses at once. For this fight you encounter Stormcaller Brundir, Runemaster Molgeim, and Steelbreaker. Each of the three bosses has their own abilities and when you kill one, they cause a Supercharge to be placed on the remaining bosses. When a boss receives a Supercharge, more abilities are activated, causing them to become progressively harder. You also can’t hurt one boss and then kill another in an attempt to make the fight go faster because Supercharge also fully heals the remaining bosses.

Steelbreaker

Abilities:

• High Voltage – Deals 1,500-3,000 damage to the raid every 3 seconds
• Fusion Punch – Causes 18,000-35,000 nature damage to the target and deals 15,000-20,000 nature damage every second for 4 seconds. Can be purged/cleansed by priests/paladins
• Static Disruption – (1 Supercharge) Deals 3,500-7,000 nature damage to enemies within 6 yards and increases Nature damage taken by 75% for 20 seconds
• Overwhelming Power – (2 Supercharges) Increases damage done to the target by 200% and causes Meltdown after 30 seconds
• Meltdown – (2 Supercharges) Kills the target and deals 29,000-31,000 damage to anyone within 15 yards

Runemaster Molgeim

Abilities:

• Runic Barrier – Reduces all damage taken by 50% and inflicts 2,000 arcane damage to any attacker. Lasts 20 seconds. Can be spell stolen.
• Rune of Power – Summons a Rune of Power under the feet of a random target (one of the bosses). Increases damage of anyone who stands in it by 50% and lasts 1 minute.
• Rune of Death – (1 Supercharge) Summons a Rune of Death under the feet of a random player. Inflicts 3,500-5,000 shadow damage every half second for 30 seconds to players within 13 yards.
• Rune of Summoning – (2 Supercharges) Summons a Rune of Summoning near a random player. Spawns Lightning Elementals who run towards a random player and cast Lightning Blast.
• Lightning Blast – (2 Supercharges) Inflict 9,000-16,000 nature damage to all players within 30 yards of the caster. The Lightning Elemental despawns after casting this attack.

Stormcaller Brundir

Abilities:

• Chain Lightning – Inflicts 4,000-7,000 nature damage to the main target and arcs to nearby players. Can be interrupted.
• Overload – Inflicts 20,000-25,000 nature damage to players within 30 yards of the caster. Overload is channeled for 6 seconds prior to the blast and also applies a knockback.
• Lightning Whirl – (1 Supercharge) Inflicts 4,000-8,000 nature damage to a random player every second for 5 seconds. Can be interrupted.
• Lightning Tendrils – (2 Supercharges) Chooses a random target and starts flying towards them. Players near Brundir take 3,000-5,000 nature damage every second until they get away. Changes targets throughout the ability and cannot be stunned or interrupted.

The Fight

For a non-hard mode fight, the kill order is always Steelbreaker, Molgeim and then Brundir. The fight is fairly simple, so I’ll cover two versions of this fight that I have experienced. As a hunter, it’s up to you to decide whether or not you should have Aspect of the Wild up. It can be quite helpful if your raid is taking a lot of nature damage, but it isn’t always necessary. During the first few attempts that my guild had of this set of bosses, we had at least three hunters, so I would often volunteer to keep Aspect of the Wild up. Now that The Assembly of Iron is pretty simple for us, we tend to run without the buff, but it’s always nice to have.

For the normal mode of this group of bosses, your job is to DPS Steelbreaker first, but the easiest thing to remember is to kill them in size order from biggest to smallest. You should have 2-3 tanks, one for each boss being the best method, and then you just position yourself away from Brundir and keep an eye out for Runes of Power that Molgeim will be spawning. Brundir will cast Overload so make sure you keep some distance. If a Rune of Power is near Steelbreaker, get in it and DPS. Runes of Power are great for popping all sorts of cooldowns to take advantage of the 50% damage increase. There isn’t much to worry about on Steelbreaker as a hunter, so just go all out until he goes down. When Steelbreaker goes down both Molgeim and Brundir will receive a Supercharge, allowing them to use more abilities. You should then move on to Molgeim and begin DPSing him, still watching for any Runes of Power. The only thing is that now you don’t want to get in it right away because Molgeim will also spawn Runes of Death which deal out a heft amount of damage in a short amount of time. Once the Rune of Death has been spawned, it’s safe to enter the Rune of Power and resume DPS on Molgeim. Once Molgeim falls, Brundir will receive his second Supercharge and gain access to his final ability, Lightning Tendrils. Again, just go all out DPS and stay away from Overcharge. When he casts Lightning Tendrils, the raid should spread out so the majority of people can avoid the ability. If you can stay alive through the Tendrils, then Brundir will land and you can resume DPSing. It’s a simple fight and shouldn’t take much time to get used to.

The second version of this fight that I have taken part in is a semi-hard mode where you leave Molgeim up as the last boss. You still take out Steelbreaker first and then move on to Brundir. Brundir will be significantly easier because you will have access to Rune of Power and he won’t be using Lightning Tendrils at all. Again, just avoid his Overcharge and you can down him without a problem. With Molgeim up last, he has access to his Rune of Summoning which is a rather devastating ability to say the least. A small purple rune will appear on the ground and small Lightning Elementals will appear out of it. They move fast so they need to be snared by Hunters/Mages, although my experience with using Frost Trap ended up with me exploding and dying a horrible death. My guild only gave this version of the fight two attempts before we decided to just down the Assembly of Iron on normal mode and move on.

The Loot:

10 man:

• Rune Etched Nightblade – If you dual wield, this is a great weapon. It has your agility and stamina, as well as Crit and AP.
• Leggings of Swift Reflexes – Leather pants that I would say are nice for hunters if your feral druids/rogues already have them or don’t need them. Haste, Crit and nice chunk of agility. You can’t really go wrong here.
• Circlet of True Sight – A mail helm with hunter friendly stats. It’s also got hit rating for those of you who aren’t capped yet.
• Perilous Bite – (Hard Mode) A nice dagger for those of you who dual wield.
• Loop of the Agile – (Hard Mode) Haste, Crit, AP and Agility. Can’t go wrong here if you need a ring.

25 man:

• Iron Studded Mantle – Nice hit rating and AP. Plus it’s itemized for hunters/shamans. Great upgrade.
• Rune Edge – A sexy sword with nice hunter stats. I had it until my guild leader asked me to petition it to a DK because it’s apparently Best in Slot for them. If your DKs have it and it drops, go for it. It’s equivalent to Twisted Visage and Lotrafen, Spear of the Damned.
• Drape of the Lithe – Nice cloak with hit rating, haste and AP.
• Fang of Oblivion – (Hard Mode) Another nice dagger for those of you who dual wield
• Shoulderpads of the Intruder – (Hard Mode) Nice shoulders if your feral druids/rogues don’t have them. You could probably even roll against them and have good reason to do so.
• Greaves of Swift Vengeance – (Hard Mode) Nice boots that are itemized for hunters/shamans. Nice hit rating on them as well.

We’ll be continuing this guide for all the bosses of Ulduar, so keep an eye out for later bosses in future articles. If you’ve got special tips that your group uses to defeat these bosses, be sure to leave them in the comments!