Regardless of what degree we continue Ulduar now that Patch 3.2 is out, thought I'd post about the hard modes we have beat so far in 25m:

- Flame Leviathan 4 towers
- Ignis speed kill
- XT-Deconstructor
- Iron Council medium mode
- Kologarn
- Freya +1 elder

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With Vezax out of the way, we had arrived at the heart of the corruption that had taken over Ulduar - the shattered prison of Yogg-Saron. A palpable feeling of uneasiness swept through the chamber, and it was only heightened by the fact that the Old God was still nowhere in sight. The vrykul known as Sara was still there, suspended above the pool of slime that once held the Old God in chains.

The Keepers teleported to their pedestals around the chamber, empowering us with their aid. We entered the room and found clouds of gas floating around, and from them emerged Faceless Ones. While we battled them, Sara looked on and urged us to continue fighting, encouraging us to delve deeper into our anger and hatred. It quickly became clear that Sara was not what she seemed. We took the Faceless Ones into the middle, letting the explosion of shadow energy from their deaths cause her harm. Eventually, she took enough damage that our suspicions were proved right; Sara was an avatar of Yogg-Saron himself, who rose from the slime in a great fury.

The monster's tentacles spread throughout the chamber, some grabbing victims at random and squeezing the life from them, while others cast debillitating spells. While we fought the monster, channeled rays of chaotic energy shot out and a dark aura that emanated from Yogg-Saron was slowly causing us to go insane.

The Old God's powers were great, and he sought to show us the folly of our resistance by opening portals into his own mind; inside, we saw visions of the past and present, showcasing how insidious his influence truly was. We witnessed the assassination of King Wrynn by Garona during the First War; the creation of the Dragon Soul, presented to the Council of Aspects by Deathwing; and a vision of the Lich King, torturing some poor soul that was somehow familiar to us. Each vision had tentacles of dark influence that we slayed, opening up the barrier that seperated us from Yogg-Saron's mind. Given the opportunity, we threw incredible amounts of damage at it.

When the groups that went into the portals emerged from the Old God's maw, they quickly regained their lost sanity by recharging at beams of light provided by Freya. The rest of our forces continued to deal with the tentacles multiplying on the surface. Each round of damage to the brain caused Yogg-Saron's body to become stunned, giving us a brief respite. However, with only a quarter of his life remaining, Yogg-Saron flew into a rage, calling forth his best guardians while shooting jets of vile energy that tried to crush what little remained of our sanity. By simply looking away from him and using Freya's beams, we managed to keep control of ourselves.

Finally the last guardian fell and Yogg-Saron followed soon after. With his dying breath, he claimed the end of days was upon us and that soon all life on Azeroth would be extinguished. We had no idea of what he meant, but perhaps Brann would know more...

Check out the pic in our Gallery!

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All four Keepers were positioned above the pit that once had the Old God in chains, as they waited for us to make our move. We followed a tunnel off the western edge of Ulduar's main chamber and found a small army of acolytes blocking our path - cultists of the Twilight's Hammer, which revered and protected the Old Gods. We battled through groups of their warriors and elementalists, and then through giant Faceless Ones sent to assist them.

We traveled farther down, the tunnels and passages showing signs of increasing deterioration, until we finally reached the bottom chamber. More Twilight's Hammer cultists were waiting, and after dispatching them we had to face the commander of Yogg-Saron's army - General Vezax.

The giant Faceless One rained down devastating blows against our defenders, while sending bursts of shadow energy throughout the chamber. The magic of Vezax's aura caused regeneration of our mana to completely halt, making things difficult. However, vapors of saronite gas that emanated from pockets of the metal nearby allowed our healers and spellcasters to replenish their energies. The saronite residue was toxic if exposed to it for too long, though. Periodically, Vezax harnessed the energy of his master and increased in size and power, but we still managed to defeat him in the end.

You can see our victory pic in the Gallery!

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There was one Keeper left to rescue and it was Mimiron. Unlike his comrades, Mimiron was not a living being, but the Old God's control was able to affect even gears and circuitry. We entered the Corridors of Ingenuity and fought through packs of Mimiron's creations. Soon we reached a tram that took us far along the edge of Ulduar, ending at the Spark of Imagination where Mimiron resided. He was hard at work on a new machine, a smaller replica of the Flame Leviathan that we destroyed earlier. The Leviathan MKII attacked by using its battering ram in conjunction with a point-blank shock blast. It also coated the ground around itself with land mines. Eventually we caused enough damage that Mimiron drove it to safety and brought out another machine for testing.

The VX-001 was an assault cannon that was immobile, but coould spin sharply on its axis at any angle for 360 degrees. It fired a constant barrage of rocket fire at random targets while pulsating a constant aura of flame. Its deadliest attacks were a pair of missles it launched into the air that would instantly kill anyone upon impact, and a focused barrage of lasers that swept the room in a short arc.

After sending the VX-001 packing, Mimiron hopped into his personal airborn carrier, a flying version of a clockwork gnome's head. The vehicle tossed a ball of plasma at its intended victim, while some of Mimiron's machine guardians were teleported into the chamber. After destroying the assault bots we managed to grab their magnetically-charged cores which we then used on the aircraft, immobilizing it. By doing this, the vehicle sustained heavy damage and Mimiron eventually retreated.

Then came the final test against the combined form of all three machines called V-07-TR-0N. Each one still had its deadliest weapons and used them in a chaotic ballet of destruction. We did our best to counter each machine's weapons, damaging them all equally until the combined unit ceased to function. The failure of his latest creation caused Mimiron's brain to rewire, overriding the Old God's corruption. He agreed to join our cause and we moved on into the deepest part of Ulduar.

Check out Mimiron in the Gallery.

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We fought through a few iron vrykul patrols and came to the Clash of Thunder, where Thorim resided. It was an ancient arena where gladiators used to come to prove themselves worthy to the Keepers. Since then, Thorim had been kidnapped by Loken and entranced by Yogg-Saron and the arena was repurposed into a ring of death. As we entered it we found a group of mercenaries comprised of Horde races battling a giant jormungar worm while Thorim watched from his ledge above.

The worm and the mercenaries switched their focus against us so we killed them. Thorim was displeased at us interupting his sport, but then he recognized us from his time in the Storm Peaks, when we helped him confront his brother. Our presence seemed to break the Old God's hold over him, but then an image of Sif, his murdered wife, appeared and convinced him we were his enemies. In his anger he initiated another arena match, sending dozens of his iron minions in after us.

A gate to the arena's side tunnel opened so we divided our forces, sending half to fight their way to Thorim's balcony while the rest dealt with the battle above. It was difficult but the secondary group managed to reach Thorim and he decided to enter the battle himself, ending the flow of iron dwarves. We killed those that remained and then both of our groups came together to deal with Thorim.

With his hammer Krolmir, he smashed our defenders while harnessing the power of lightning, sending out jets of it at us and gaining a buff that steadily increased his damage and speed. We fought as best we could, finally causing enough damage that his mind awakened and he surrendered. He vaguely remembered seeing Sif again, but knew it was nothing more than an illusion. Although he needed time to reflect, he agreed to join his fellow Keepers in dealing with Yogg-Saron.

See it now in our Gallery!

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