How to make combat a little bit faster.

[Kurald Galain]

it was over 1000 hp of bite PC, PC turn, PC turn, PC turn, bite ( maybe move a bit), PCPCPC, bite, PCPCPC. Repeat that FOR LIKE 2 hours. There was no choice, no finesse, no tactics. We surrounded it in round 1 and beat it over the course of 2 hours. So boring.

Right. One thing DMs should learn in 4E is to call off combat once the outcome is obvious. Usually after three or four rounds it is clear who's going to win; unsurprisingly, this is also when both sides probably don't have any more tricks up their sleeve (i.e. no encounter powers left).

Almost always, by this point the PCs will have won, so the DM should wrap up the battle and declare victory. Rarely, it'll be clear by this point that the PCs are not going to win this, so the DM should make that very obvious and tell the PCs to run away and regroup.

Slogging it out for another our is boring to all involved.