A Resto Druid's Guide: Flame Leviathan

.

The first part in the series Ulduar: A Resto Druid's Guide! =O

Flame Leviathan: the first boss in Ulduar. Note: he is a huge machine. And you fight him using machines! Machine vs. machine.... Rawr!

Writing this was a little odd, because there really is no "resto druid perspective," due to the vehicle mechanics. I'll try anyway!

There are three different types of vehicles: Siege Engines, Demolishers, and Choppers. This entire fight is vehicle based - you won't be using any of your normal abilities. Even if your vehicle bites the dust and you're just running around on your own, you can't heal the other vehicles - they are immune to heals. Probably because they're metal? You no can fuse steel with rejuv D: The only time you might be able to use your own ablities is if you're catapulted up onto the boss, but 1. You probably won't be up there (maybe, but most likely not), and 2. I'll talk about that later on.

Siege Engines: These have the most base health out of the three vehicles. Think of them as the tanks. They ram into things, and can also do a spell interrupt when Flame Leviathan channels Flame Jets. They can carry up to three people with them: one manning a turret gun, and two passengers.



Demolishers: These have a lot less base health. They can catapult players up onto Flame Leviathan. They also can dps from a distance. I like to think of these guys as clothie pew pewers - mages, or warlocks. They can carry up to two passengers, both of which have the option to use an ability which loads them into the catapult; however, only one should be using this option. Passengers can also shoot down ammo (Pyrite) from the sky, and then grab it with a hook once it's on the ground.


Choppers: Look like small motorcycles. Similar to the demos in health points. I picture them as melee with a twist. They don't do much damage on the boss, but they do get up in melee range to lay down tar that slows him down. The tar can also be ignited by demolishers to cause damage per second to the boss. The Tar ability has a decently long cooldown, so don't sit in melee range if you don't have to - FL does this 'flame jet' ability that will knock your socks off if you're too close to him. Choppers also pick up raiders that parachute down off of FL, and have the ability to heal them.


So: As a resto druid, what vehicle will YOU be in? Well, it depends a lot on where your raid leader wants to put you. Popular strats have resto druids in many different places. Kinky! Most likely you'll be a driver or passenger in a demolisher, or maybe manning a Chopper. In our most recent raid, I was on Chopper duty. Biker bitch gang FTW!

What about being catapulted? Weeeeeee! Well, you probably won't be catapulted - you can toss anywhere from 2 to 4 people up there, although I believe you can put even more up there (I've heard people putting up to 7, I think). The thing is, it's a balance - the more people up there, the faster the turrets die, and the faster he gets stunned. However, once he's stunned, you want as many people as possible in Demolishers wailing on him, because his damage taken is increased by 50% when stunned. If a lot of people are busy parachuting down, then not as many people are in demos DPSing. Secondly, I wouldn't think you'd want to toss more than 5, because there are 5 choppers, and choppers can only pick up one person at a time. Anyone who has to wait around for a chopper to come back for them has a high potential of a one shot death, *especially* if you're rocking out the hard mode.

Our raid leader put 1 healer and 3 ranged dps, however, I don't think the healer is really needed - the damage up there is really minimal. Besides, if they do take a bit of damage, the choppers have an ability to heal them to full once they're picked up after parachuting. Note: once the turrets are dead, just WAIT for the game to parachute you down. Don't jump off or anything. It will automatically disengage you.

Moral of the story? Be prepared for many different kinds of roles!

Here is a diagram I made regarding who does what and where during the actual boss fight:


But before you can even get to Flame Leviathan, you have to fight through his little army first. This is actually good, because it lets you try out your vehicle abilities. Now, if you talk to the Loremaster dude at the beginning, then it's during this stage that you determine just *how* hard you want hard-mode to be. Talking to him will activate the four towers, of which you can then destroy any number. I.e, having one tower up will be a lot easier than having two up, which will be a lot easier than having all four up. It's your choice =)

Now, keep in mind that I have yet to do hard mode (we're trying it in a 10 man this Thursday), so I can't report first-hand what it's like just yet. I'll update this once I get a feel for it. But here are the basics:

The four different towers give Flame Leviathan various buffs. What do these buffs do? Well, all of them straight-up increase the overall damage output of the encounter. They also each do something unique: The Tower of Life summons adds to play with the raid. The Tower of Flames ignites people, and leaves behind a trail of fire (omg don't stand in the fire!). The Tower of Frost ice traps nearby raiders, and the Tower of Storms does extra damage to raiders who are near the impact site of this hammer that FL starts to use.

Essentially, hard mode means you need faster DPS and better coordination. You can't heal any of the vehicles, which essentially means you will die fairly quickly if you don't 1. play skillfully (i.e, don't stand in the fire, interrupt Flame Jets, use tar wisely, etc), and 2. kill him asap.

Loot that drops for trees:
[Glowing Ring of Reclamation]

Look forward to the next installment of Ulduar: A Resto Druid's Guide! about Razorscale!

EDIT: Tar does NOT actually slow Flame Leviathan down. See this post here.

.