Th VW has been nerfed if you didn't know so that won't be happening anymore.

have you done 1, 2, or 3D sarth?

True, but now we can replace that voidwalker with the gear we have from Ulduar, which will, essentially, do the same thing. Different means, same ends.

I can tell you now hard mode is much harder than just straight up fighting bosses.

I've been in ulduar25 with my guild 2 nights running and we tried out half a hard mode (defeating just 2/ 4 turrets first) on Flame Leviathan just to see how 'hard' hard really was and I can say that we had it noticeably 'harder' than normal.

...hard *twitch* ...

Yes, the hard modes are not hard in terms of relativity or opinion. They are HARD. Two seconds into any of the hard modes on these and you'll understand that Blizz did their homework and really pulled out all the stops to make Ulduar "hard modes" hard.

Seishi, i noticed that alot of the fanboys for wowinsider downvoted your post, so i beefed it up a little. If i have to, ill delete cookies and do it till its 3 stars.

My post, pertaining to yours, is that its exactly like you say. Its all really the same. All bosses now, before ulduar, were "hard" at some point. Sure, people just went in and did it, cause we had a pre-emp strat to work off of. All those people who went into naxx the first times and made all the strategies made it easier for anyone in wrath with 2cents, just to google a strat video or something.

Ulduar is only hard for some, because its NEW...as in, brand new, fresh off the dev's plates. It is new, no strategies, and i expected no less from blizzard. They finally have given us what we asked for. An original instance, unique fights, and a worthy challenge for our player base. I agree with the people that say this instance is tough. I would be a fool to think it was easy. But, to say its nearly impossible is just as foolish. All it takes is time, persistence and patience.

From my experience, I would call Sarth 1D, 2D and 3D far from trivial. It requires a lot of focus to avoid the lava waves, and quite a bit of offtanking and dpsing down adds. Add 1, 2 or 3 drakes each giving debuffs and the encounter is going to be harder.

Yes, I do know that all 3 drakes appear in the encounter at different times, but you still got the debuffs to think about.

@Clbll, read what I said. A voidwalker tank made the encounter trivial, yes they rectified that with the patch, but does it matter anymore? No. Cause now we'll have all this shiny new Ulduar gear to compensate. And while they removed the glory of the naxx raider achieve and mount, they still let us get the Sarth 10 and 25man drake. Is that fair? No.

@Super, thanks, I agree that the main reason it seems harder is that its new, give the number crunchers and achievement freaks some time, and we'll see plenty of "Ulduar hard-mode for dummies" pop up.

And moondah, +50% health and +25% damage a hard mode does not make, neither does adding an eight minute time limit. The only "Hard Mode" encounter I'd say is deserving of it is The Iron Council. Its unique, at least in terms of the current expansion.

A hard mode should be hard, not because of simple buffs, but because the encounter changes radically.
Alganon for instance, you have to kill the four watchers in their hardmodes to get to him. Instead of a quest, killing him should reward you with a hard mode for Yogg-Saron. Not just lower sanity, or more damage. But the titans themselves intervening. They come down and start attacking Ulduar, adding in new, random elements into the attack. Parts of the ceiling come crashing down atop players, but can be used to break those who have fallen under Yogg's sway by making it fall on him. Beams of energy rip across the ground, damaging anyone foolish enough to stay in its path, even after its done. As time goes on, the titans get closer and closer, more and more attacks are unleashed, until they break into the area the players in and wipe the slate clean. An instant wipe, including Yogg. Sure people would complain that they only get one shot, but thats the only way it would truelly be hard.