Raids offer the greatest challenge for many PvE players in World of Warcraft. Proper preparation is important for success and makes it easier to get started. With our overview you are ideally equipped.
The first raid in Battle for Azeroth will be Uldir, an ancient Titan facility where the Old God G’huun awaits you. Uldir opens its doors on September 5 for normal and heroic modes, and on September 12 for mythic.
Proper Raid Preparation: Equipment
To defeat Uldir, you should equip yourself in advance with the right gear for the upcoming battles. We have explained in detail how to properly gear up in this guide. To make the best use of your gear, you should equip all available pieces with enchantments and sockets.
The Enchantments of Battle for Azeroth
Ring Enchantments: With Battle for Azeroth you can enchant rings and weapons. Ring enchantments always grant you a small bonus to a secondary stat and are available in 2 variants.
- Pacts increase the corresponding secondary stat by 37.
- Seals increase the corresponding secondary stat by 27.
Weapon Enchantments are back: Weapon enchantments give you a chance to trigger a certain effect or increase some stats and effects directly when attacking or casting.
- Drain: Life Steal +100
- Coast Wave: Chance to apply a healing-over-time spell (HoT) to a friendly target with beneficial spells
- Flow of Elements: Chance to increase elemental spell damage by 10%.
- Stormstrike: Chance to increase attack speed by 15% for 15 seconds on melee and ranged attacks.
In Battle for Azeroth, you can also enchant weapons with “Navigations.” Navigations give you a chance to gain a stack of a buff that increases a secondary stat by 50. At 5 stacks, the buff is consumed and you receive +600 to the corresponding secondary stat for 10 seconds.
- Mastery: Master Navigation
- Haste: Quick Navigation
- Critical Strike: Deadly Navigation
- Versatility: Versatile Navigation
- Armor: Unyielding Navigation
Weapon Enchantments for Ranged DPS: For ranged DPS, there are alternatives that can be crafted by engineers. The weapon enchantments are attachments for ranged weapons and provide four different effects:
- Fire Ammo: Chance to deal additional fire damage on attacks.
- Frost-infused Ammunition: Chance to deal minor frost damage on attacks and slow the enemy by 20% for 3 seconds.
- Sniper Scope of the Lookout: Chance to increase critical strike rating by 650 for 12 seconds on attacks.
- Monelite Sniper Scope of Fury: Chance to increase haste by 650 for 12 seconds on attacks.
Gems for Equipment
Gems for Secondary Stats: In Battle for Azeroth, most pieces of equipment have the chance to be additionally socketed with a socket for gems. You can insert various gems into these sockets that increase your stats.
- Mastery: Masterful Kubilin (+30) or Masterful Tides Amethyst (+40)
- Haste: Reflective Golden Beryl (+30) or Reflective Owl’s Eye (+40)
- Critical Strike: Deadly Solstone (+30) or Deadly Amber Flame (+40)
- Versatility: Versatile Kyanite (+30) or Versatile King’s Quartz (+40)
Unique Gems for Primary Stats: There are also Kraken Eyes, epic gems that increase your strength, intellect, or agility. However, only one Kraken Eye can be present in your equipment at any given time.
- Kraken Eye of Agility: Agility +40
- Kraken Eye of Intellect: Intellect +40
- Kraken Eye of Strength: Strength +40
Proper Raid Preparation: Consumables
If you want to prepare properly for Uldir and get the most out of your characters, you also need to stock up on consumables. This includes potions, elixirs, and buff food.
Alchemy: The Potions in Battle for Azeroth
Potions for Primary Stats: Potions allow you to significantly boost your combat power for 25 seconds. You should use them when you have a phase in the boss fight where you need to deliver especially high performance. Combat potions increase the respective stat by 900 (stamina by 1100).
- Combat Potion of Agility
- Combat Potion of Intellect
- Combat Potion of Strength
- Combat Potion of Stamina
Potions for special effects: In Battle for Azeroth, you also have a selection of potions that produce other effects in addition to combat potions. Which are the best for your class can vary.
- Steel Skin Potion – increases armor by 900
- Blood Eruption Potion – adds a chance to deal additional physical damage on melee attacks to all nearby targets, splitting the damage among all affected targets.
- Refreshing Potion – restores up to 25,000 mana over 10 seconds, but leaves you defenseless and can be interrupted.
- Impending Death Potion – adds a chance to deal shadow damage on ranged attacks that increases with greater distance to the target.
For potions, the same applies: Rank 2 reduces the costs, Rank 3 grants the chance for multiple potions per craft.
Cooking: Buff Food in Battle for Azeroth
Buffing dishes are a simple and often cost-effective way for raiders to strengthen themselves for a fight. Buff food grants a one-hour buff that increases a certain primary or secondary stat.
Food for Secondary Stats: There are three types of buff food in Battle for Azeroth: simple (desserts), improved (large meals), and feast meals. Desserts usually require fewer ingredients and provide a weaker buff, while feast meals can feed an entire raid group.
These are the values you can increase with buff food:
- Mastery: Loa Cake (+41) or Sailor’s Pie (+55)
- Versatility: Mon’Dazi (+41) or Spicy Snapper (+55)
- Haste: Ravenberry Cake (+41) or Swamp Fish with Fries (+55)
- Critical Strike Rating: Kul Tiramisu (+41) or Honey-Glazed Leg (+55)
Note: The numbers refer to the values indicated by the tooltips of the dishes. The buff received shows values of 52 or 70, and the values in the character window may differ again. Once the error is corrected, we will adjust the numbers accordingly.
Feast Meals for the Entire Raid: Feast meals are usually provided for the entire raid and require more and harder to obtain materials, such as rare fish. However, they also increase the primary stat.
- Primary Stat +75: Galley Banquet
- Primary Stat +100: Lavish Captain’s Feast
Higher ranks yield more units of the dishes per craft when producing desserts and large meals. For feast meals, the amount of required resources is reduced.
Runes – for Maximum Increase
If you want to be even more effective with a full equipment, gems in all sockets, and the best buff food, there are runes that work in addition to all other effects.
- Battle-marked Enhancement Rune – Increases agility, intellect, and strength by 60 for one hour. This effect is lost upon death. Enhancement runes are randomly available through world quests, missions, or in the raid browser.
- Vantus Rune: Uldir – Increases versatility against the targeted boss in Uldir by 463 until the raid ID resets. Only one rune can be used per week. The recipe for scribes is dropped by the second boss of Uldir, MOTHER.
Acquiring consumables, enchantments, and gems can be particularly expensive in the early days and weeks of the raid. In larger guilds, it is advisable to gather resources together and provide the entire group with the necessary items.
All done? Then try Uldir with the new races!
