User:Serillian/General Ymirdall

General Ymirdall is the tenth boss encounter within Uldris. He has led the Iron Army into battle countless times before and plans to do so again. He currently resides within the Armory, watching his troops prepare weapons for the massive army from atop his balcony.

Background
General Ymridall is the favored leader of the Iron Army. Known for being ruthless on the battlefield, Ymirdall has taken to instructing his pupils into creating devastating weapons which serves as a part of his training to his followers. With the recent invasion of the Facility, Ymirdall has ordered his students out of his armory in order for him to face all intruders in battle personally and unattended. Ymirdall is considered the best warrior among the Iron ranks of Uldris, proving to be formidable in both unarmed combat and weapon fighting. His skills will be used to inspire his Iron brethren, who will look up to Ymirdall whenever they engage in combat.

Abilities
General Ymirdall gives his enemies the benefit of the doubt when combat begins and as a result, goes berserk after 10 minutes.




 * 787,000 (10-man Normal)
 * 1,140,000 (10-man Heroic)
 * 1,967,500 (25-man Raid Finder)
 * 2,361,000 (25-man Normal)
 * 3,420,000 (25-man Heroic)
 * 3,420,000 (25-man Heroic)

Ymirdall Blades
General Ymirdall begins combat with his favorite Blade Axes.





Rune-shaped Sword
General Ymirdall picks up a powerful sword to replace his axes when he goes to get a new weapon.





Storm Hammer
General Ymirdall picks up a mighty hammer crafted from the storm lord.





Shield and Sword
General Ymirdall fetches his sword and picks up a shield to defend himself.





Dual Blades
General Ymirdall goes for his iron swords to display his ferocity.





Stormrune Halberd
When General Ymirdall goes for his fifth weapon rack on Heroic difficulty, he picks up a mighty halberd to slaughter his foes.



Strategy
General Ymirdall begins in the middle of his armory room. He starts off with his Ymirdall Blades and the abilities granted by it. When he goes to get a new weapon, he will not return to the blades for the remainder of the encounter. Around his room are Weapon Racks to which Ymirdall will retrieve his other weapons from during the encounter. Each individual weapon will grant him a unique set of abilities different from other weapons. He will wield any single weapon for 1 minute naturally unless players destroy the Iron Braziers that are near the racks. Destroyed weapon racks prevent Ymirdall from getting a new weapon from that rack. Players may destroy these braziers to set the weapon racks on fire to allow Ymirdall to continue using the same weapon and abilities. However, this causes him to go into a soft enrage until he changes weapons.

Ymirdall Blades
At the beginning of the fight, Ymirdall uses his axes against the raid. His auto attacks will do 50% increased damage for the duration of the "Axe Phase". The boss' first ability is the Ferocious Slash, which deals damage to all players in front of Ymirdall with both weapons. This will hit non-tank players pretty hard so only the current tank should be taking hits from this ability. Ymirdall will also use Iron Strike. This deals solid damage and grants Ymirdall the Iron Assault effect. This grants him an increasing chance of performing another Iron Strike with his offhand weapon. This adds extra damage on the current tank, but nothing too dangerous. Ymirdall will use his axes for minute before going to another weapon rack. However, if a weapon rack he is going to is destroyed, he will gain General's Fury and continue to use his axes for another minute. General's Fury periodically increases his damage dealt until he changes weapons. Players must be careful not to destroy any braziers by accident before Ymirdall goes for a new weapon.

Rune-shaped Sword
When Ymirdall goes for a weapon rack, there is a chance for him to pick up a two-handed sword (the weapon he picks up from a weapon rack is random). While he wields the sword, his attack speed is increased by 50%. His first attack with this weapon is the Unbalancing Strike which causes a tremendous amounts of damage and ends up rendering the tank target snared by 50% and taking 300% more damage. A cooldown will be needed to survive this attack followed by a tank switch. In addition, each time Unbalancing Strike hits a player, Ymirdall will use Thunder Roar which hits everyone in the raid and knocks them down. This damage doesn't increase from the Unbalancing Strike effect. Due to this combo, the tank that ends up taking the Strike must have a shield (Power Word: Shield or Power Word: Barrier) or some similar effect to survive both hits which will come in under a second. After this, the process must be repeated for the next tank otherwise the first tank will be killed by a melee swing from Ymirdall. Just like with his axes, if Ymirdall wields this sword for more than 60 seconds because a weapon rack was destroyed, he gains General's Rage which improves his attack speed until he switches weapons.

Storm Hammer
When Ymirdall goes for a weapon rack again, he may pick up a two-hand mace. This causes his melee attacks to deal additional Nature damage per swing but increases all damage done to him by 100%. Whenever this Phase comes, DPS cooldowns and Bloodlust or similar effects should be used to damage him as much as possible during the one minute (or two if the choice is made for him to keep the hammer for another minute) Ymirdall wields this weapon. While wielding the hammer, Ymirdall will use Lightning Crack which is basically a Chain Lightning that arcs to nearby players on each melee swing. This calls for more healing on the raid as the damage goes up. General Ymirdall will also use Storm Volley that hits several players in the raid. This is on a short cooldown so more healing will be needed for the duration of this weapon's phase. If he wields the hammer for more than a minute, he will gain Discharge which grants him AoE damage to the entire raid. This is the least threatening of all "soft enrages" as it can be healed through quickly.

Shield and Sword
When Ymirdall picks up a shield and sword, he gains the Shield and Sword effect. This reduces his damage taken and damage dealt until he switches weapons. Ymirdall's main attack is the Sundering Cleave which deals moderate damage but reduces Armor by 10%. This stacks so tanks must taunt off each other when this ability reaches more than 5 stacks. Only one tank should be hit by this ability due to it being a cleave attack. Ymirdall will also use Annihilate on the tank as well which deals decent damage at first, but the ability's overall damage increases for each stack of Sundering Cleave on the player so the Armor reduction stacks must be kept low on both players to prevent this ability from hitting too hard, even through the damage lowering effect of Shield and Sword.

The DPS needs to be aware of when Shield Buffet becomes active. Ymirdall will raise his shield which signals the activation of this ability. This ability causes him to block and deflect all melee attacks and magical/ranged attacks respectively. Each time he does so, he gains 1 charge of Shield Buffet. Players must stop DPS when this ability goes out to prevent Ymirdall from generating too many charges. As long as Ymirdall has Shield Charges, he can use his Shield Strike ability that damages the tank for increased damage per charge of Shield Buffet. As with other weapons, the longer he has this weapon (more than 60 seconds) he will gain Iron Defense which further reduces the damage he takes. This should never be applied to Ymirdall as it will prolong the encounter and possibly bring him closer to the 10 minute enrage timer.

Dual Blades
The last arsenal of weapons that Ymirdall is capable of wielding (on LFR and Normal difficulty) is the Dual Blades. These iron swords grant him a 25% chance when melee attacking to perform an additional melee strike. Ymirdall will start off with his Blade Dance attack. This causes him to whirlwind around the raid towards random players while attacking anyone near him. This ability's function is a combination of Hagara's Focused Attacks ability and Warchief Kargath's charge attack. Ymirdall will charge random players while constantly attacking any nearby players every 0.5 seconds with both weapons. This means that anyone who gets hits at least once will take two-four hits rapidly before being able to react. A good method for avoiding this attack is to have everyone spread out around the armory room and constantly keep moving until the ability ends. His other attack is Blade Twisting which causes him to rapidly attack the tank while parrying all melee attacks from the front. Only the tank should be hit by this ability but they should cancel they melee attacks until the ability is finished as to prevent Ymirdall from gaining a "parry haste" which allows him to hit the tank up to three times in rapid succession following the ability's channel.

If Ymirdall keeps these weapons for over a minute, he gains Blade Fury which further increases his attack speed and causes his melee attacks to strike additional players. The attack speed bonus and the amount of targets hit increases until Ymirdall switches weapons. The order in which Ymirdall picks his weapons is completely random and he may start off picking up the Shield and Sword or pick the Rune-shaped Sword. Regardless of which weapon he chooses first, players must be ready to react properly to his abilities and be ready to prolong or switch his weapons when the moment calls for it. General Ymirdall enrages after 10 minutes which is more than enough time to experience each of the weapon's mechanics. Several pulls may be needed, but it helps in the end when the time comes to down the boss.

Heroic Changes

 * Ymirdall will pick up a new weapon from a fifth Weapon Rack every 20% health lost which grants him a unique set of abilities different from his other weapons. This Weapon Rack cannot be destroyed. In addition, Ymirdall changes weapons early if he is near an unburned Weapon Rack.
 * Ymirdall will gain the Stormrune Halberd effect when grabbing a weapon from the new weapon rack. This weapon grants him a special set of abilities that is different from his other weapons.

Storm Hammer

 * While he wields the Storm Hammer, Ymirdall's Lightning Crack ability will increase the Nature damage taken by all players hit by it.
 * Storm Volley will leave lightning fields at the location of the targeted players after hitting them.

Shield and Sword

 * With his Shield and Sword, Ymirdall will use Sundering Cleave quite rapidly which now has no cooldown.

Dual Blades

 * Ymirdall's Blade Twisting attack now allows him to continue his melee attacks for the ability's duration. This adds increased damage to the tank.

Quotes

 * Intro
 * yell
 * yell
 * yell
 * The Iron Bladeworkers rush out of the room without a second thought, past the players.
 * yell


 * Aggro
 * yell


 * Weapon Rack Destroyed/Unable to Change Weapons
 * yell
 * yell
 * yell
 * yell


 * Rune-shaped Sword Pick Up
 * yell
 * yell


 * Storm Hammer Pick Up
 * yell
 * yell


 * Shield and Sword Pick Up
 * yell
 * yell


 * Dual Blades Pick Up
 * yell
 * yell


 * Stormrune Halberd Pick Up (Heroic)
 * yell
 * yell


 * Player Killed
 * yell
 * yell
 * yell
 * yell


 * Berserk
 * yell


 * Death
 * yell

Achievements

 * Uldris, Titan Facility - Defeat the bosses of Uldris.
 * Heroic: General Ymirdall - Defeat General Ymirdall in Uldris on Heroic difficulty.
 * An Arsenal of Weapons - Defeat General Ymirdall on Normal or Heroic difficulty without destroying any Weapon Racks.
 * Live By the Sword; Die By the Sword - Defeat General Ymirdall on Normal or Heroic difficulty while he has wielded the following weapons at the time of his demise:
 * Rune-shaped Sword
 * Shield and Sword
 * Dual Blades