Flame Leviathan
From EFWiki
Contents |
Boss Abilities
- Flame Jets: A 10-second channeled cast which does a massive AoE around the boss doing about 2000 damage per second.
- Battering Ram: Knocks back its target when in melee range, knocking the target back and applying a debuff which increases damage taken by 100%
- Gathering Speed: Slowly increases in movement speed for 5% per stack up to 20 stacks (100% speed increase)
- Missile Barrage: All machines and players not in one will take 700 damage every 1-2 seconds.
Hard Mode
Players who choose not to destroy towers up to Flame Leviathan will have to deal with their unique abilities named after the four Watchers in Ulduar. These towers will target the ground and place pillars of light colored correspondingly to their spell school. Direct contact with these beams can and should be avoided at all times.
- Storms (purple) - Lightning balls fall from the sky and splash down for Stormstrike damage.
- Flames (red/orange) - Slowly moves across the ground, creating a path of fire in its wake.
- Frost (sky blue) - Instantly freezes any machines on contact.
- Nature (green) - Spawns lashers periodically which have to be killed.
Strategy
A good pre-fight idea is to establish a kiting path and make sure that the Choppers keep tar down on that path at all times.
When the encounter begins, Flame Leviathan will target a random Siege Engine and must be kited around the area. He will steadily speed up as time goes on so it will become harder to stay away from his battering ram. After 30 seconds, Flame Leviathan will target another Siege Engine and chase it instead (or a Demolisher or Chopper if another Siege Engine isn't alive). Other Siege Engine(s) can follow up on its tail and should immediately interrupt Flame Jets using Electroshock. Siege Engines can also use the melee Ram ability between Jets, but should be prepared to turn and kite as soon as, if not slightly before, the target switch. Use Steam Rush as necessary to gain extra ground as needed.
Passengers of siege engines must shoot incoming pyrite ammo hovering in the air. When none are available to destroy, they can focus on Flame Leviathan with a ranged cannon.
Demolishers must stay at a large distance from Flame Leviathan at all times, and should DPS the boss using Hurl Boulder (Hurl Pyrite Barrel should be saved for stuns). Once a passenger has loaded themselves into the catapult, Demolisher drivers should launch them onto the Leviathan as quickly as possible. Be careful not to miss or that passenger may eat a Flame Jet and die. When Overload Circuit is activated and Flame Leviathan becomes stunned, use Hurl Pyrite Barrel as often as possible for massive damage.
A single damage dealer and healer should be loaded into the Demolisher catapult and launched to the back of the Leviathan as soon as the previous stun wears off. Once on the back of the boss, they will be facing one of 4 turrets. Once the turret is killed a button will appear that will, after a 10-second channel, stun the boss, increase it's damage taken by 50%, and reset his speed. The players on the back of the tank will be launched off and parachuted down and should be picked up by a chopper as soon as possible and brought back to a Demolisher. Timing should be exercised in order to ensure that Flame Leviathan gets stunned while on a Tar area.
Remaining Demolisher passengers should work on picking up downed pyrite ammunition and loading it up into the Demolisher.
Choppers should move around quickly and plant oil slicks on the ground in Flame Leviathan's path to slow him down and deal extra damage (if ignited). The longer you go without causing the stun, the more diligent Chopper drivers need to be about keeping tar down in the boss's path. Choppers should also be ready to rush in and pick up stray players that are launched off Leviathan's back or were fired incorrectly by the Demolisher driver. If no one is in need of picking up and tar is on cooldown, use Sonic Horn for extra damage.
Vehicles
At the very beginning of the instance, at Expedition Base Camp, players will be granted a limited number of each salvaged vehicle. There's five of each vehicle in heroic difficulty, and two of each vehicle in normal difficulty. Everyone in the raid gets divided into five roles:
- Siege Engine Driver - Able to ram down buildings, knock back enemies with a silence, and boost speed to ram in or out of harm's way.
- Siege Engine Passenger/Gunner - Fires down pyrite ammo in the air and assists in shooting targets on the ground.
- Demolisher Driver - Launches long-range fireballs and special pyrite barrels that deal massive damage.
- Demolisher Passenger/Gunner - Salvages pyrite ammo and refills the demolisher, can also load the player into the demolisher to be launched.
- Chopper Driver - Plants inflammable oil slicks and can quickly pick up any players on foot to protect them from danger.
Passengers can pick up explosives to throw at enemies, and once you engage the boss, can be thrown by demolishers on top of him. In case of a wipe, the boss will take a few minutes to despawn after which the vehicles will respawn as well at full health.
Synopsis
- Establish kiting path
- Flame Leviathan will target a random Siege Engine every 30 secs.
Siege Engine Driver:
- Targeted Siege Engine must kite Flame Leviathan over ignited tar.
- Additional Siege Engine should follow behind Flame Leviathan interrupting Flame Jets and use Ram between Jets. Gain distance from Leviathan BEFORE 30sec is over and it changes targets.
Siege Engine Passenger:
- Shoot incoming pyrite ammo hovering in the air. When none available focus on Flame Leviathan with a ranged cannon.
Demolisher Driver:
- Demolishers must stay at a large distance from Flame Leviathan at all times, and should DPS the boss using Hurl Boulder (Hurl Pyrite Barrel should be saved for stuns).
- Launch passenger onto the Leviathan as quickly as possible. Be careful not to miss or that passenger may eat a Flame Jet and die.
- When Flame Leviathan becomes stunned, use Hurl Pyrite Barrel as often as possible for massive damage.
Demolisher Passenger:
- Demolisher passengers should work on picking up downed pyrite ammunition and loading it up into the Demolisher.
Choppers:
- Choppers should move around quickly and plant oil slicks on the ground in Flame Leviathan's path to slow him down and deal extra damage (if ignited).
- Choppers should also pick up people who are not in a vehicle and bring them to their vehicle. This is mostly important for Demolisher passengers which have been launched and destroyed a cannon.
Circuit Overload Sequence
This is a semi-optional element of the Flame Leviathan fight that we usually ignore due to its alleged complexity and the fact that it's not really needed outside the hard modes.
I just wanted to take this chance to explain this particular strategy element, based on the BossKillers strategy guide as well some personal experiences from 10-man.
I do this, hoping that one day we'll perhaps attempt the hard mode of the encounter (which, honestly, is not that hard), in which case executing this overload sequence is mandatory in order to succeed.
Copied from Bosskillers:
Meanwhile, the raid needs to execute a series of events that I'll call the Circuit Overload Sequence in order to keep Flame Leviathan from stacking his "Gathering Speed" buff and eventually catching and killing everyone in the raid. The basic idea here is that the four assigned Demolisher symbol pairs each launch their mechanic onto the top of Flame Leviathan. They then destroy the four Turrets found on the top of the boss, which causes a Circuit Overload automatically. This stuns Flame Leviathan for 10 seconds, removes his stack of Gathering Speed, and causes him to take +50% damage for the duration of the stun. The mechanics are launched into the air with parachutes and then need to be recovered by their assigned Chopper driver, healed while in the passenger seat, and ferried back to the correct Demolisher
Circuit Overload Step 1 - Loaded for Bear
Each assigned mechanic from Assignment 1 loads themselves into their Demolisher's catapult. In order, Star, Diamond, Moon, and Cross launch their mechanic onto the top of Flame Leviathan. This should be called out in raid warning or over voice comms:
"Star firing. Diamond firing. Moon firing. Cross firing." This way no two players are launched at the same time - simultaneous player launches can cause one of the players to "miss" Flame Leviathan and end up on the other side of the arena where they will likely die.
Circuit Overload Step 2 - Fry 'Em
The players so fired should attack and destroy the four turrets on top of Flame Leviathan. Being on top of the boss deals damage to them every tick (around 2,000 damage/tick) and players should be ready to heal themselves or healthstone to stay alive. Once all the turrets are dead, all four mechanics should channel the exposed Overload Circuit. This will stun Flame Leviathan for 10 seconds, reset his Gathering Speed stack, and increase his damage taken by 50% for that time.
At the same time, all the mechanics are flung into the air and drift slowly towards the ground...
Circuit Overload Step 3 - Pickup Line
Assigned Choppers should immediately locate their assigned symbol/player in the air and move to his approximate landing spot. This is the Chopper pilot's top priority and they should be in place as soon as the mechanic lands so he can board immediately. Once aboard, the Chopper pilot should ferry the mechanic back to the appropriate Demolisher as fast as possible, and use the Chopper's First Aid Kit ability to heal them from any damage they may still be suffering. Drop them off, now fully healed, at their assigned Demolisher!
Circuit Overload Intermission - Saddle Up!
After the mechanics are returned to their respective Demolishers, they should take time to shoot down nearby Pyrite Satellites and lasso in new pyrite crates to refill their driver's pyrite bar before loading themselves into the cannon again. This should refill the Demolishers with a full 50 energy - enough to keep a Pyrite stack rolling for up to 100 more seconds. After a few seconds in the mechanic seats, everyone should be ready to go - go back to Step 1 and repeat this entire process.
(End of quote)
In a nutshell:
- overload causes the FL to reset its Gathering Speed debuff as well as get stunned and take additional damage for 10 seconds.
- the sequence is activated by destroying all four turrets at the top of the FL.
- 4 players are shot on top of the FL in order to do that.
Now the guide above claims that players on top of FL receive damage over time for as long as they're up there. On 10-man this hasn't been the case, so it's either 1) a flawed strategy guide or 2) different mechanics apply to 10- and 25-man.
On 10-man, the 2 players on top of FL receive no damage at all and they're free to stay up there for as long as it suits them. However, at the moment the turrets get destroyed, the players are launched from the top of FL with parachutes - at that point they get vulnerable to FL's AoE that's present throughout the whole fight, meaning ~3000 damage every 3 seconds. Mind that gliding down to the ground takes a moment, still, it's entirely possible for the players to survive the fall as long as their choppers will be in place waiting for them.
While on top of FL, players are rooted. On 10-man, after destroying my turret, I could only watch Kelia destroy hers, as I have no ranged abilities (well, one, but that's not the point). If the players on top of FL in 25-man indeed receive damage over time like the guide says they do, then a healer or an off-spec healer, preferably, is a must. Ranged dps players also have an advantage there as they can help finish off other turrets after they're down with their own.
Adapting this strategy for our raids, with no voice-comms, we'd need to do the following:
- assign marks for players that are to be shot on top of FL
- if possible, assign marks for the choppers as well (we'll need 4 players and 4 choppers, so should be doable)
- ideally each player should have a designated chopper for pickup and the chopper drivers should be aware, to which demolisher must they deliver their passengers (e.g. focusing the desired demolisher)
- for coordination, one player should prepare a batch of macros to govern the launching (I can do that if needed). /whispers tend to work better than /rw, as they're harder to miss. Basically one would need to /whisper the 4 demo passengers, telling them to load on top of their demolisher's gun, also warning the demolisher drivers. Several seconds later, another set of whispers, telling drivers to launch their passengers - one by one (not simultaneously). After that, it's just about chopper drivers being ready to pick up the 4 players after the overload has been triggered (which no one can miss, as we all get a big /rw and some emotes at that point)
- about boarding vehicles - the 4 players that trigger the overload have to manually enter the choppers, just like any other vehicle. When the chopper is near the demolisher, a passenger can jump straight into the demolisher's passenger seat directly from chopper's passenger seat - simply left-click on the demolisher, there's no need to leave the vehicle prior to entering another one. It would be dangerous, as it would leave you vulnerable to the FL's AoE.
