Difficulty comparison of normal boss vs first few heroic bosses

[Mattachine]

Anyone has an idea whether the last few bosses in Normal mode is harder than first few bosses in Heroic? We have gotten all the way up to Xhul'horac (Normal) and wonder whether we should give first 2 bosses in Heroic a try. Thanks.

[galaxyquest]

First boss is very easy as long as your raid knows the priority targets.

2nd boss is easy as long as raid prioritizes survival > DPS and kills bombs quickly (which is easy, they have low HP).

It doesn't hurt to try.

[Zelendria]

First boss is easy IF you can make the DPS check while focussing the right targets otherwise it won't be easy at all.

[beelgers]

I'd say that Xhul'horac Normal is about the same difficulty as Heroic Hellfire Assault if that's what you're looking for.

[Baconeggcheese]

first two bosses on every difficulty are push overs, but they also drop less useful loot for the raid.

[beelgers]

First boss is easy IF you can make the DPS check while focussing the right targets otherwise it won't be easy at all.

Yeah if you have people AOEing or otherwise padding it's going to be a nightmare for you. Otherwise, yeah, pretty easy.

[omni]

For an average guild, the first couple of bosses on Heroic are a big step up from the first 8 normal bosses (excluding Tyrant, she's harder). We stomp the first 8 on Normal and are still having problems with Iron Reaver Heroic as a lot of guilds are (we're fully Heroic BRF geared).

[Deleted]

For myself i find Normal Mode to easy.

[Taalyn]

If you can kill Xul'Horac normal you understand what to do on HFA Heroic and can likely down it.

[Kaneiac]

We found HFA to be easier than Xhul'Horac, but only ever so slightly. Iron Reaver gave us trouble though, for some reason, apparently our tanks can't figure out how to taunt swap properly on artillery (???????) so the boss kept running around like a fucking looney.

[Kazuchika]

We killed Xhul on normal and then the next week proceeded to basically steamroll the first four bosses on heroic with little issue. Reaver took a couple pulls just to adjust our strat but after that it was a joke.

[Madone]

We found heroic Hellfire Assault very challenging at a 689 avg ilvl, but when we went back in at a 694 avg ilvl everything just melted and it seemed very easy. There's basically a dps breakpoint in there - if you're doing enough dps to not get behind the waves as they come out you'll find the fight very easy. Give it a shot - if you don't kill it within an hour it's probably just an issue of needing more gear (vs. an issue of needing to tweak strategy), in which case you'll need to farm normals a bit longer.


Edit: and once you have enough gear to kill heroic HFA, you'll have enough gear to kill everything up to and including heroic Gorefiend; Iron Reaver is probably the hardest of the first six heroic bosses, but only because it takes a few pulls to learn positioning; gear that is good enough to kill HFA is good enough to kill the first six heroics.

[bicycle]

Hellfire Assault Heroic is easier than Tyrant, Xhul, Mannoroth, and Archimonde. Iron Reaver Heroic can be easy, but you should look at your logs to see how many artilleries and barrages people are eating. If you're eating them and simply healing through it on normal, that boss will be a nightmare on heroic. If you kill Iron Reaver, you should also be able to kill Kormrok and Council fairly easily.

Kilrogg and Gorefiend are harder than anything of the lower difficulty.

[beelgers]

We found HFA to be easier than Xhul'Horac, but only ever so slightly. Iron Reaver gave us trouble though, for some reason, apparently our tanks can't figure out how to taunt swap properly on artillery (???????) so the boss kept running around like a fucking looney.

To be fair, I've had DPS crying to me about moving the boss around when in reality it was barrage that is moving the boss and out of the tank's control

- - - Updated - - -

Hellfire Assault Heroic is easier than Tyrant, Xhul, Mannoroth, and Archimonde. Iron Reaver Heroic can be easy, but you should look at your logs to see how many artilleries and barrages people are eating. If you're eating them and simply healing through it on normal, that boss will be a nightmare on heroic. If you kill Iron Reaver, you should also be able to kill Kormrok and Council fairly easily.

Kilrogg and Gorefiend are harder than anything of the lower difficulty.

I actually found Kilrogg to be the easiest heroic boss. I guess it depends on your group's strengths.

[Stayzy]

Our guild got 3 bosses into heroic before we had Tyrant and Xhul in normal down. We also nearly killed mannoroth norm after 2 pulls but we didnt have time to get that kill. Mind you this all happened on the same night (first pulls on Xhul, Tyrant and Mannoroth and heroic Korm), so we surprised ourselves a bit.

Purely from my experience, I'd say if you can kill Iskar without major problems, you should be good to kill at the very least HFA heroic. Only thing with HFA is to make sure to focus the right targets at the right times and not pad meters. Reaver heroic isnt so bad so long as you make absolutely sure to avoid barrage, blitz and minimise artillery damage and kill bombs fast. Kormrok was fairly straightforward as well, and we only got one pull on Council and we think that should be down next lockout too.

But yea, when you jump into heroic, just make sure people know the fight mechanics and focus down priority targets and you should be golden. Sounds to me you can get HFA down. I think we didnt try heroic until our raid ilvl was around 695, but looking back we could have tried a bit earlier. All depends on your raid.

Hope that helps

[Bigbazz]

Later normal bosses are harder than the early HC bosses, Archimonde in particular is harder than most of HC.

[Deleted]

First 5HC bosses are easier than XhulHorac IF you have enough ilvl (ilvl vs mechanics).

Archimonde Normal is harder than first 11HC bosses.

[Uoyredrum]

Xul'horac is probably the 2nd -3rd hardest boss in normal and I'd say he's harder than any of the heroic bosses up until Kilrogg. If you can do him on normal, you can do the first few on heroic as long as everyone understands the fights. Just bear in mind you'll probably have to tweak your strats a bit compared to normal.

[Wilderness]

first two bosses on every difficulty are push overs, but they also drop less useful loot for the raid.

Agreed. If you can clear through the first 2/3 or 3/4 of N HFC, you’ll be able to get at least the first couple of bosses on heroic down.

However, you will get better gear for your raid by progressing on the last few bosses in N HFC – better itemization, better weapons/trinkets, more tier, etc. I would focus more on that than trying to push through the easier heroic bosses.

[dixincide]

As long as you have the ranged DPS you can put a good dent into Heroic if you're taking down Xul