A Rogue in Ulduar – Ignis the Furnace Master

This is part of a series of posts about the role of rogues in Ulduar.  The focus is on 10-man raids, but on occasion mention will be made about 25-man strategies as well.  This is not meant to be a general strategy guide.  It is completely targeted at rogues, their abilities, and their strengths in specific combats.  Much of what is written could apply to other melee dps as well.

If you are looking for a more general overall strategy guide, try Bosskillers or StratFu or WoWWiki.

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Ignis is another optional boss in the early part of Ulduar.  Many raids skip him, in part because of the trash leading up to him.  After recent nerfs the trash is not as hard as it once was.

The first trash mobs are the giant Molten Colossus.  They are difficult to heal through because everyone takes damage and they can silence the healers.  For rogues, you can CoS the DoT away after his Pyroblast.  Your tanks will separate them and you can single target dps them down.  Healers will try to use line of sight at the corners to avoid the silence.

The real annoying trash for melee are the Magma Ragers.  They are the air elemental-looking mobs at the bottom of the ramp.  You will see them cast Superheated Winds.  It spawns a tornado that does fire damage and throws you up in the air.  If you are unlucky, you can get trapped between the tornado and the wall and take multiple hits from it, most likely killing you.  Try to stay away from the wall if possible.  Run from the fiery tornados – they will follow people so they can be avoided.

The other trash mobs – Forge Construct – is not a big deal.   The raid needs to group up on them to avoid a charge, but as melee you’ll be right on them anyway.

Then you’re at Ignis.  He’s a big guy with a fanny pack.  OK, its not a fanny pack.  Its a heated cauldron of molten metal.  Crotch pot.  Whatever.

This fight takes quite a bit of movement.  The tank will hold Ignis until he Scorches an area in front of him, creating a large area on the ground that does fire damage to anyone that stands there.  The tank will move Ignis to a new location and hold him there.  He will scorch the ground again, and the tank will move him.  You just keep following behind him, dpsing all the while, and avoid the scorched areas.

While this is going on there are lots of other things happening that you have no part of.  Adds will spawn.  An off-tank will be dragging them into the scorched area until they become Molten, and then moving them into the water so they become Brittle.  When that happens, a ranged class will one-shot them.  Don’t volunteer for that. When they blow up they do damage.  Make sure you are not near them when they die.  In fact, you can probably ignore that entire process and focus on Ignis.

One way you can help is if the off-tank has trouble picking up an add.  You can TotT to help direct it to the off tank.  It shouldn’t be needed, though.  An alert tank will be able to taunt the adds as they spawn.

Every so often Ignis will grab a raid member and drop him into the crotch cauldron.  It can’t be avoided.  That person will take damage and needs heals.  When its your turn to be in the pot, you can’t melee him, but it turns out that you can FoK to hit him until he drops you.  So sit there, call out for healing, get healed (hopefully), and spam FoK a few times.

As a neat side effect, when you are dropped out of the crotch pot you will have a haste buff for ten seconds.  Take advantage of that by using some cooldowns during that time if you have any available.  In addition, when another dps class survives a turn in the crotch pot you can TotT them to give them a damage buff during their haste boost (as long as their threat is not too high).

Ignis also has an ability called Flame Jets.  You’ll see the raid warning and then you will shoot up in the air and take some fire damage.  When you land you’ll have a fire DoT on you that you can Cloak out of to help your raid healers.  Flame Jets is a big concern for casters because it silences them if it hits mid-cast.  Rogues don’t have that to worry about, either.

When you’re not in the pot, and you have no role in handling adds, you are just following the boss around doing lots of damage.  Stay out of the scorched areas.  That’s it.  This fight is complicated for the off tank, and rough on healers, but easy on melee dps.

The 25-man version isn’t any different.  More adds, more damage, etc, but the mechanics are the same.

A lucky rogue can grab the Gloves of Smoldering Touch from 10-man Ignis.  There’s a nice gun too, the Rifle of the Platinum Guard, but your hunters will want that before you.

The 25-man version can get you the Cindershard Ring or Flamestalker Boots (probably the best boots other than a rare LW crafted item).