Ready Check is a twice-a-week column focusing on successful raiding for the serious raider. Hardcore or casual, Vault of Archavon or Ulduar, everyone can get in on the action and down some bosses. T

Welcome back to Ready Check. We took some time last week to take a look at the changes that patch 3.2 brought to raiding in Azeroth, but now we're back to burning through Ulduar. Today, we'll take a look at Mimiron, and then start working on the final portions of the instance with General Vezax.

So far, you've wrecked the Flame Leviathan. You euthanized Razorscale. You gave a cold shower to Ignis the Furnace Master. You marvelled at Deconstructor. When it came to Kologarn, you damned well shall pass. The Assembly of Iron said court was out of session, and Auriaya and her small legion of adds gave you no pause. You've asked Hodir, "Who's your Daddy?" You've entered the mountain, and tackled Thorim.

If you've gotten this far into Ulduar, you're doing pretty good. You've had a lot of opportunity to enjoy some fairly fun and interesting fights. You'll especially remember Flame Leviathan and Deconstructor, of course. Both of these fights are pretty awesome. I remember the first time I saw each of those bosses, and being thrilled with the creative, sort of steam-punk style. Mimiron is more of that same, fun style.

Mimiron is the creator of both those bosses, and is appropriately ensconced in the area called "The Spark of Imagination." As interesting as Flame Leviathan and Deconstructor were, you ain't seen nothing yet. Mimiron is a four phase fight. Each phase is almost completely different from the others until the final phase. At that point, everything you fought in the first three phases combines to form V-07-TR-0N, and you fight them all together. (It's a Voltron reference, son.)

We normally cover the abilities first, and there's no reason to change that now. We're going to do the same here. However, to help it make sense, the four phases are:

1. Leviathan MKII -- The upgrade to Flame Leviathan (and you have no vehicles this time)
2. Assault Bot -- A cannon robot that shoots plasma at you
3. Aerial Command Unit -- He flies, and attacks you!
4. All previous three enemies combine for one, big Voltron!

Okay, so all that being said, let's start breaking down the phases. Also, fair warning now: Mimiron is one of the encounters that healers least enjoy. Saying that the encounter is "healing intsensive" is to put it mildly. Abilities first:

Leviathan MKII

• Napalm Shell – A casted ability that does moderate Fire damage to any target within 5 yards of the impact point. It also places a DoT on anyone it hits which continues to burn for 8 seconds.
• Plasma Blast – A powerful blast that will nearly kill its target, doing significant damage for 6 seconds.
• Proximity Mine – Places a mine that will explode on contact.
  
• Shock Blast – An ability that does incredibly huge amounts of Nature damage to targets within 15 yards.

VX-001 (Anti-personnel Assault Cannon)

• Heat Wave – Instantly deals moderate Fire damage, with another short terms DoT to targets within 80 yards.
• Rapid Burst – Deals notable damage to all targets in front of VX-001.
• Rocket Strike – A 4-second duration ability that deals instant kill Fire damage at two targeted locations.
• Spinning Up – The VX-001 starts spinning for 4 seconds and P3Wx2 Laser Barrage is cast. The P3Wx2 Laser Barrage deals significant Arcane damage to targets within 80 yards in front of VX-001.
  

Aerial Command Unit

• Plasma Ball – Thrown at the target who currently has the highest threat, dealing powerful damage.
• Summon Adds - The ACU will summon Bomb Bots, Assault Bots, and Junk Bots. Assault Bots drop the Magnetic Core. Droppping this magnet under the Aerial Command Unit temporarily brings it to the ground and disables it. While disabled, it takes an additional 50% damage from all sources.
• Assault Bots summon a Magnetic Field which roots the target and increases damage taken by 30% for 6 seconds. Can be dispelled.
• Bomb Bots which Explode for very high Fire damage in a 5 yard radius.

V-07-TR-0N

• Proximity Mine – Summons a mine that deals heavy Fire damage when triggered. The proximity mine can be disarmed by Rogues.
• Shock Blast – A 5-second ability that deals deadly Nature damage to targets within 15 yards.
• Hand Pulse – Deals Fire damage in a large radius.
• Rocket Strike – A 4-second cast that deals instant-death level Fire damage at two targeted locations.
• P3Wx2 Laser Barrage – Deals Arcane damage to targets within 80 yards in front of VX-001.
  

Putting it all together

Mimiron is kind of an odd fight. It is fairly difficult to explain until you see the phases. Then, once you've seen them all, it sounds more difficult than it actually is. But it's still more difficult than you'd think. See? Weird. It's both difficult and not. It's a paradox.

The fight still evens out into four different phases. We'll start at the top and go through each four of the phases.

Phase One

When the fight with Mimiron starts, your ranged spell casters and healers want to immediately spread out around the circle of mines. Don't touch them. (As a rule, don't stand in fire, eyebeams, or anything of that ilk -- so certainly don't stand in the mines.) Melee DPS characters go into the usual position, behind the Leviathan tank. Even though he has no hands, you still want to get behind him.

Expect all of your healing to be fervently targeted on the tank. Non-tanks should have health potions (and bandages if you possess the skills to pull First Aid off) on hand, to try and lighten the load on healers. After each Plasma Blast, expect a Shock Blast shortly thereafter. The tank should be ready to pull back at the signs of Plasma Blast, and then immediately pull back in. Try not to move the way Leviathan is facing -- keep him in the same direction. After the Napalm Shell, healers might need to help top off the rest of your raid. Again, other than that, you'll be keeping your heals firmly on the main tank.

Phase Two

After you've taken down the Phase One Leviathan, you'll face down the Anti-personnel Assault Cannon. Do your best to have everyone spread out evenly in a circle around Mimiron's current incarnation. Obviously, melee is going to need to be right up against the cannon. Other than that, however, do your best to spread out.

Rapid Burst does relatively light damage, but it's going to do that damage to everyone who is in front of Mimiron. The big news during this phase is Rocket Strike. (If you've been watching the official forums, you'll have seen more than one complaint about Rocket Strike.) When the red circle appears on the ground, get the hell out of the circle. If you don't, you're going to die.

When you see Spinning Up activate, get out from in front of the cannon.

There's no real tanking, per se, during the fight. Just do your best to burn it down as soon as possible.

Phase Three

Try to congregate in about one-third of the room, to help manage your general aggro and location. If you have a Warrior who can Spell Reflect, they can bounce back Plasma Balls to great effect. Otherwise, you're going to have wide and varied methods for keeping ranged aggro, determined by the nature of your tank.

Have someone kite the Bomb Bots. Your reflexes need to be well-honed for this, of course, but you need to pick it up at range as soon as it spawns. You probably want a macro to do so, but if you're especially quick at mouse target selection, that's fine too.

As you kill Assault Bots, pick up the electromagnets. Use them to force the air unit down to the ground, where you can then blow it up.

Phase Four

And I'll form the head! Okay, sorry, I got a little carried away there. But how could you not? After downing all three previous phases, Mimiron's minions will all form V-07-TR-0N. Each of the sections are independently targetable, but start out at 50% of their previous health.

Each one has a power from their previous phases, which were spelled out above.

Just like during the Leviathan phase, melee should stand inside the circle of mines, while ranged fighters should stand outside the circle of mines. Position your folks "behind" Mimiron.

Don't stand in red circles, they're still an instant kill. And just to add an extra level of difficulty, they happen twice as often as before.

You must kill all three sections of Mimiron within 10 seconds of one another. If you do not do so, they will respawn. For most raids, a respawn means that you need to do it all over again.

Mimiron can be very frustrating, because of the immense amount of timing and practice that it can take. With four different phases, a raid needs to be flexible and responsive. As soon as each phase ends, you'll need to swap to the next tactic. It's nearly four different boss fights in one. However, this is the fight whose success I found most rewarding once I got it down.

As a final note. Pressing the red button activates Hard Mode, where everything gets harder. We'll cover that soon.

We'll see you over the weekend for General Vezax.

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Ready Check is here to provide you all the information and discussion you need to bring your raiding to the next level. Ready Check appears twice a week, with writers Jennie Lees and Michael Gray.

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Tags: guide, guide-to-raiding, hard-mode, mimiron, mimiron-guide, mimiron-hard-mode, raid-guide, raiding-guide, raiding-hard-mode, ulduar, ulduar-guide, ulduar-hard-mode, ulduar-mimiron, wow-guide, wow-raid-guide, wow-raiding

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Guides, Ready Check (Raiding)