The Antechamber of Ulduar: Auriaya

We’re going to do something a little different today. Instead of looking at class mechanics or specs, we’re going to look at  Ulduar. As you all probably know, Ulduar 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 Auriaya.

I’ve often seen Auriaya referred to as the Crazy Cat lady and players do so with good reason. In the 10man version of the encounter, Auriaya is accompanied by two cats right off the bat, and in the 25man encounter, she is accompanied by 4 cats. As the fight progresses the raid will also have to deal with Feral Defenders and a swarm of smaller cats as well. The fight isn’t too difficult as a whole but can cause some issues for even experienced raiders and groups as a whole. One mistake at the beginning can mean a wipe, especially since Auriaya’s cats are not very forgiving.

Auriaya

Abilities:

• Sonic Screech – Inflicts 60125 – 69875 (25 man: 190000 – 210000) physical damage. The damage is split between everyone in front of Auriaya
• Sentinel Blast – Inflicts 3500 (25 man: 6000) Shadow damage and increases Shadow damage taken by 100% for 5 seconds. Stacks up to 5 times. Can be interrupted
• Terrifying Screech – Raid-wide fear for 5 seconds.
• Guardian Swarm – Marks a player and summons 10 Swarming Guardians around that player

Feral Defender Abilities

• Feral Essence – Increases damage by 50% per stack. Starts with 9 stacks. Drops one stack when the Feral Defender dies
• Feral Rush – Charges a random player for 927 – 973 (25 man: 2925 – 3075) Shadow damage. Interrupts spellcasting for 6 seconds
• Feral Pounce – Stuns target and deals 602 to 698 (25 man: 972 – 1128) Shadow damage every second for 5 seconds
• Seeping Feral Essence – Inflicts 4500 (25 man: 6500) Shadow damage every second to players standing in it. Appears where the Feral Defender dies.

Sanctum Sentry Abilities

• Savage Pounce – Inflicts 2775 3225 (25 man: 5550 – 6450) damage to the player and an additional 2313 – 4300 physical damage ever second for five seconds
• Strength of the Pack – Increases the damage of all Sanctum Sentries within 10 yards by 30%. This effect stacks

The Fight

I have to say that I truly hate this fight. I had many, many, bad experiences with it, especially when my raid leader wanted me to pull the cats to start the fight. By the way, never let your raid leader have you pull the cats. The Sanctum Sentries that Auriaya starts off with (2 in 10 man, 4 in 25 man) love to pounce when their target is out of range, and the pounces are likely to one shot a hunter. There is no avoiding it, it happens. The easiest way to pull the cats is, quite honestly, having a Death Knight drop Death and Decay in Auriaya’s path. Once the DK has pulled the cats and Auriaya, you can split up the boss and her sentries amongst the tanks. I recommend one tank per cat for an easy kill, but it isn’t necessary. On 25 man, it’s quite easy to have 4 tanks, one for each cat and the main tank has both a cat and Auriaya. You then have the DPS take out the main tank’s cat before moving on to the next cat until they are all dead. It is vital to make sure that the cats are fairly spread out and that you focus fire down the cats to kill them quickly. For each cat within 10 yards of another cat, they gain 10% damage (up to 30%). If you can survive the initial pull and killing off the Sentries, you should have no trouble completing this encounter.

Once the Sentries are down, the fight becomes pretty simple. About once every minute or so, a Feral Defender will spawn, and they, much like the Sanctum Sentries, like to pounce. The Feral Defender can, however, be stunned. As a hunter, you really just need to keep at minimum range for both the Feral Defenders and Auriaya. The purpose of being at minimum range is that Auriaya likes to cast Sonic Screech and Terrifying Screech quite often. While Terrifying Screech is a fear, if you are too far away when it hits, you’ll drift away from the group and be easy prey for a pounce from a Feral Defender. Even if there isn’t a Feral Defender up, being too far from the group increases the raid damage from Sonic Screech because the damage is split between each player in front of Auriaya. Being at minimum range, while annoying at times, allows for a more effective raid stack that can group back up with ease.

During the fight, there should also be a DK on Feral Defender duty. When a Feral Defender dies, it releases a Seeping Feral Essence that hits quite hard, and oftentimes people will get feared into it. If a DK is watching the Feral Defender, s/he can pull it away just before it dies and keep the Seeping Feral Essence away from the raid to minimize damage there as well. As a hunter, your goal is to just follow DPS directions and kill the Feral Defenders and Auriaya as quick as possible. Chances are your pet will die, but in this fight it won’t have much of an effect on you. There is simply too much going on to take the time to revive your pet, especially when it will die again rather quickly.

The Loot:

10 man:

• Ironaya’s Discarded Mantle – Great hunter stats for a 10-man item. I’ve seen many hunters use this all the way through Ulduar 25 while they wait for something better to drop.
• Nimble Climber’s Belt – Great hit and haste if you aren’t capped on either stat yet, but it lacks intellect. If you need it roll on it, but keep in mind it’s designed for rogues/feral druids.

25 man:

• Siren’s Cry – This was one of the best ranged weapons available to hunters when Ulduar was first released. If it drops, roll on it. It’s almost the perfect weapon
• Gloves of the Stonereaper – Great leather gloves for a hunter who isn’t hit capped. I used them for quite some time until I received my t8.5 gloves

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!