Raid Recovery: Flame Leviathon exploits and ethics for raid solutions

Most of you should have spent substantial time on raid recovery from wipes on Flame leviathan, be it on 2 towers, 3 towers, or even 4 towers. Well, you've watched how 2 players can take down a 10man FL and how 4 players can do that with a 25 man FL.

But today is not about that.

Today is about a bug with Flame Leviathan, that will allow even 1 single player to solo FL-25 with 4 towers, even though it will take forever.

Its an exploit that I've seen quite a bit of places using, and I have mixed feelings about it. Being so widespread, I'm still unsure why blizzard hasn't nerfed it yet considering how quickly they did the Freya nerf. Well, I suppose it is because this time a video wasn't posted that made it to wow.com or mmochampion.

Perhaps if I write about it here, Blizzard will finally do something...

Basically if you've done flame leviathan on 4 towers, you know that is no joke, and is harder than quite a bit of other hard mode bosses. For example XT-Deconstructor is a joke compared to 4 up. However, with the bug, a 25 man team can effortlessly kill a 4 towered Flame Leviathan in 2 to 3 wipe recoveries.

Step 1) Clear trash all the way to the last pack, with people moving back right after the last pull of adds have been killed. You will engage flame leviathan, and the raid group will kite the truck all the way back until the truck exits the boxed up zone.

Step 2) Dps normally, including doing shutdowns and effectively fighting him as normal while ignoring all other adds and laser beams and whatever.

Step 3) Eventually you'll all wipe, and Flame Leviathan will slowly roll back towards his spawn point. At this point you must graveyard zerg all the way to the vehicles, board it and engage quickly, following step 1.

I found out about this after joining a pug (on my alt) that turned out to be raid led by chinese gold farmers, who promptly got their ilvl 239 loot on their own alts.

I personally think that this way of doing this boss isnt ethical as it really defeats the point of the particular game. A problem is presented and there is a solution, but this way of doing it is akin to just typing an instant win code and grabbing the loot.

I'm not sure about other people however, as the other pugs were just happy to get their 2 EoC and a chance at 226 loot, what do you all think of this raid solution?

Also, I would like to give a shoutout to Bosskillers for adding me to their resource page for flame leviathan!

Project: Emblem of Conquest source tables

This particular post will be consistently updated, so feel free to email me or post a comment if you've downed a particular boss and received some information.

Update: More info on Iron Council
Update: Iron Council is also optional
And I also forgot to mention, IC is the only place you can start Algalon unlock quest chain, you must do it on any hard mode for a chance of the quest item dropping.

As some people have asked, so shall you receive!

I've compiled the following Conquest badges table from just about everywhere, but its sort of incomplete. Its goal is to give you a guide to roughly the minimum and maximum conquest emblems you're likely to feasibly get each week!

We'll start off with the easy ones.

In ulduar, there are 14 bosses, one of which is Algalon which I shall totally ignore, since the 10 man version has only been killed once, and No One not even ensida has been able to take out the 25 man Algalon yet. I don't see us mortals accomplishing that feat anytime soon! :D

Of the others, there are 9 hard modes.
The bosses without hard modes are Auriaya, Razorscale, Kologarn and Ignis, of which they drop 1 Emblem of Conquest each on Heroic-25 and 1 Emblem of Valor each on Normal-10

25 hard modes:

In general, each boss will drop 1 EoC on normal mode

Flame Leviathan: 1 EoC
1 up = 2 EoC
3 up = 3 EoC (suspected)

the 1 tower up hard mode is probably the easy 2 conquest badges you won't want to lose. If you need a guide, you can check mine for how to deal with flame leviathan here.

XT: 1 EoC
Hard mode: 2 EoC

Iron Council: 1 EoC
Doing hard modes will bump EoC drops to 2

Freya: 1 EoC
3 adds each give 1 EoC for a total of 4 EoC
If your guild is just starting out but have managed to clear this far, this is another boss to take note of. Its a pretty easy 4 EoC for a normal boss fight.
The hard mode is Sartharion-esque and as far as I know does not give any more EoC. If you're hitting sunday or monday and are stuck on the other keepers, just do a +0 Freya for the easy 4 badges.

The other 3 keepers will drop an EoC each, their hard modes are probably the more challenging ones.

Followed by Vezax and Yogg Saron, who also have hard modes, but also drop 1 EoC each. I've not tried their hard modes.

Thus for a normal guild, you'll want to do both Flame Leviathan and Freya for an easy 2+4 Emblems of Conquest.

Following which you'll get an extra
3 EoC: XT, Kolo, IC,
5 EoC: XT, Kolo, IC, Razor(optional), Ignis(optional)
7 EoC: XT, Kolo, IC, Razor(opt), Ignis(opt), Hodir, Thorim

10 EoC: the above + Mimi, Vezax and Yogg

so the range would be about 5 to 13 EoC from hard mode 25s a week.
If your guild has progressed well, it would get 16 EoC + a week.

Then you'll want to do Emalon for the freebie 2 Conquests

You probably won't be able to break 20 EoC a week with just the above however, so you'll probably have to do the Normal-10 modes for more EoC

Its pretty good to do the hard modes since they are the only way you'll see runed orbs and EoC drop in the 10 man versions.

Flame Leviathan 1 Tower Up
You simply must do this one, its the easiest 2 EoC you'll ever see.
Don't waste your Ulduar 10 save without getting this down.

XT hard
Drops 1 EoC I believe, its easier now

IC hard
Never tried it, but should drop at least 1 EoC

Freya Hard
Just do with 1 up, my friend told me there was either a bug or intention, that when you do with 3 up, you'll still only get 1 EoC and 3 EoV.

Thorim, Hodir, Mimi, Vezax, Yogg
Very likely 1 EoC each

With the 10 man modes, you'll probably one to rush out a FL-1up clear before tuesdays to get that 2 EoC out, if you're running with a good team though you'll probably pick up about 5-8 extra EoC for a total range of 7-10 extra EoCs on top of your 25 man ones.

Feel free to correct me wherever I have wrong information or a typo elsewhere.

For those with Alts, if you play it right, you can end up with 6-9 emblems for an undergeared lvl 80 toon. Just do Emalon, FL 10 and 25, as well as buy a slot from any guild/pug that reaches Freya for the 3 Adds.

If you're looking to purchase stuff with EoCs:
18 - Runed Orb
(they'll be the only way to liquidate EoC a few months down the road)
16 - Necks
23 - Waist, Gloves
32 - Legs
58 - Conquest Heads and Chest

Pvp Gear:
46 - Shoulders and Gloves
58 - Chest Legs and Head

Flame Leviathan Hard mode reduxed, upgraded and updated: Towers, Loot, and resets

Update:
I'm currently trying to compile a list of the Emblems of Conquests that you can obtain per week, if you would like to help out, please click here

I'm typing out this update so as to more pertinently and directly address certain questions which result in people arriving at my previous post on how to kick flame lev butt with towers up. As well as to answer certain questions that I did not have or provide answers for before.

We'll begin with one I was severely amiss to have neglected:

How do I activate Hard mode???
Yep, I wrote the whole previous article without talking about this.

Well, the way to do EASY mode is to simply talk to Brann Bronzebeard, who will automatically transfer you to EASY mode, following which you just steamroll a path to Flame Leviathan and face roll :D or if you're pugging it, wince in frustration

If you're looking to pay some repair costs, the HARD mode is activated by talking to the Lore keeper of Norgannon, he will then activate all 4 towers. There are now 4 towers in the clear path to Flame Leviathan, simply DESTROY the towers you DO NOT want to see Flame Lev use, and leave the towers you want up.

If you intend to do hard mode, and it just so happens that THAT person in your guild just had to talk to brann, having everyone exiting the instance, and forming a new raid group with a new instance id or doing a reset, should theoretically work.

Why should my guild do hard mode?
You don't really have to, but here are the benefits

If you're doing 10 man, you should really do at least 1 tower up, because that will give you TWO emblems of CONQUEST instead of 1 emblem of valor, yes there is no typo, you read that right. You get a ilvl 226 emblem like a 25 man raid instead of the ilvl 213 valor emblem.

If you're doing 25 man here is where it gets really interesting!

(?) stands for unconfirmed, if you have a screenshot, or loot data, please feel free to update me
I'm compiling these data from what I've heard from friends and other guilds

Towers up | no. of 226 items | Emblems of Conquest
0 up | 2 items(?) | 1 EoC
1 up | 3 items | 2 EoC [Confirmed]
2 up | 4 items(?) | 2 EoC
3 up | 4 items(?) | 3 EoC (?)
4 up | 3 ilvl 226, 1 ilvl 239 | 3 EoC (?)

Take note that while Titanguard is ilvl 232, it drops from all modes of Leviathan as all Ulduar weapons will begin from ilvl 232.
Also, while not confirmed but highly likely, each tower up will increase significantly the chance of a fragment of val'anyr. It is possible that runed orb will replace this in 10 man.

!0 man tentative loot tables: (by popular request)
0 up | 2 items | 1 Eov [Confirmed]
1 up | 2 items | 2 EOC* [Confirmed]
-
4 up | 2 items + 1 232/226(?) | ? EOC
Would also appreciate further data, thanks anonymous!

Towers to leave up, Recommendations and Advice

All towers will summon moving beams of certain colors that will AT LEAST do a 15k damage AOE, so its a case of DO NOT STAND IN THE FIRE :D. Furthermore, each tower up will add 50% HP AND DAMAGE to Flame Lev

I'll first explain what the towers do:
Towers | Beam Color
Thor, Storms | Yellow
This is the easiest tower by far, and has no special effect, however I *think* it 1-shots passengers who are flung through a beam into the giant yellow fire truck leviathan.
Hodir, Frost | Blue
One of the tougher towers by skill, but easiest on gear. All movement speed is reduced by 20%, only siege engines should be worried by this, and the beams gain the ability to iceblock in its aoe. Iceblock can and MUST be removed by tarring + ignition.
Freya, Life | Green
This tower summon lasher adds, simply ask your demolishers to focus fire on them. They add a bit of extra damage to the raid, and that is about it.
Mimiron, Flames | Red
Pretty much the killer, the beams leave a flame path that deals 15k damage per second. If you're unlucky the flame beams will route into your Fire Truck Kite path, and then your siege engines die, horribly. If not, your raid might be stuck with a fire wall blocking their way, or have one popped right behind them as Fire Truck closes in.

How should you go about them? i.e. What towers should you start leaving up in order of difficulty.

Y, G, B, R
Thorim, Freya, Hodir, Mimiron

Any tips on Preparation?
Do Eye of eternity 25 man first, followed by Vault of Archavon both 10 and 25 man if it is up. This way you get ilvl 219 to ilvl 232 (pvp) gear that you can use to Pimp your cars. Ignore all set bonuses and whatsoever before boarding your vehicles! Only ilvl is considered in the creation of your car. You can be a plate warrior and wear cloth healing gear. (Not that you should roll on blanketing robes of snow if your healers need it, they will scream! and rightly so)

And that's it, GL in pwning Fire Truck's engines!

Flame Leviathan Hard mode guide with towers, for the less hardcore

I've recently made a more updated version and Q&A about this post here so you might want to check it out.

I had a rant about managing my guild and about ulduar, but i thought it would be better if I wait until i had cooled down a bit more before i made any decisions.
To get my mind off that, here's a how to guide from my PoV on how to tackle Flame Leviathan using a mixture of people types in a guild that isn't so hardcore. This doesn't have a lot to deal with gold making though, and more about me leaving my thoughts on how to do flame leviathan down, so bear with me!

Basically, Flame Leviathan with 0 towers up, isn't even really a boss fight, its more like Archavon, but easier. Its a Pinata Train! So skipping that, I'll move straight to 1 tower or 2 towers up.

Here's a breakdown of this long post:
a) Preparation
b) In Combat
c) Recommended Towers to leave up
d) Looting the flame leviathan
e) Leviathan the loot pinata, and how it can make you richer

Preparation:
What I had my guild do, was run 2 25-Eye of Eternity, yep 2.
2 x 20 people, the first run was a skeletal crew of tanks and healers with quite some alts thrown in for good measure. The second round had about 23 people, filled mostly with the remaining people and some family/friend members that had logged on. All in all, it will drop 8 ilvl 226 items. For the people who need it, they got their items. We got off with 5 ilvl 226 items that will be used for the flame leviathan fight that would otherwise be disenchanted.

The reason for this is, while Flame Lev. is gear dependant, it only looks at the ilvl of your gear, not the itemization. So you can be a plate wearer and chock in leather healing gear that is ilvl 226 and your vehicle stats will rise. (yes i wore robes of blanketing snow to tank flame leviathan, all our healers had it, and leather stuff, and mail stuff)

Because of that, and previous gear from OS3 and KT25, i ended up with about 1800k HP on my siege tank. For other vehicles, your HP and DMG will also scale up along with your gear ilvl.

(if your guild can't take down eoe easily, you might try running ulduar 10 for ilvl 219 gear too)

Actual Fight:

Basically, the fight has 3 phases
1) Siege engines kiting Leviathan around
2) Demolishers launching passengers onto Leviathan in the meantime to take down the 4 turrets
3) Blowing cooldowns on leviathn during shutdown, and picking up people from phase 2, following which you go back to phase 1

For the siege engines kiters:
Kite it like Grobbulus or Anub'rekhan fight, around the entire room, Leviathan will randomly select one of you siege engines (or if you're unlucky a demolisher). Simply use the boost (button3) to clear corners, and get your ass away from leviathan. Those who are not kite targets, press button 2 to interrupt flame jets (its channeling, so activate enemy cast bars). Each kite lasts for about 30 seconds, generally, 5 seconds before kite target change, you would have your siege engines spread a bit, and start running the opposite way.

For Demolishers:
Stay at max range from Leviathan, while waiting for your guild leader to call out for launches. After you launch your passengers, wait till phase 3 starts, and fire away with your saved up pyrite barrels.

For Choppers:
You have the toughest job in this fight, this role is best reserved for people who are good at playing action games, but have horrible gear. You need to spread tar in Leviathan path (generally a good way is to tar the current kite targets actual location, since leviathan will go to that spot anyway) and also to pick up the parachutes in phase 3.

With towers up, whether you succeed or not depends on how many shutdowns you can get on Leviathan before all your siege engines and demolishers die.

You will want your two best (ilvl 226 geared) kiters on the siege engines. And your most agile (in terms of reflexes) player on the choppers. The launchees simply have to be geared enough to take down the turrets while withstanding they heavy and constant incoming damage. Keep your demolishers far away and launch as soon as possible each time. Have choppers tar the area and the shooters in siege engines and demolishers fire on the tar.

With the basic gist of the fight out of the way, here's what happens when you have additional towers:

Mimiron: Flame paths succeeding fireballs
Hodir: Ice beams and iceblocks
Thorim: Lightning bolts
Freya: Lasher Adds

Generally, here's what towers you should leave up depending on your group composition (and i don't mean by class)

Group with people that react quickly, but has terrible gear (because they are alts/just came back/using pvp gear) i.e. skills > gear
Do Hodir first, it slows speed down by 20% and ice beams activate that iceblocks targets. So long as your choppers melt the iceblocks fast enough (just tar and incinerate), it acts as 20% slower movespeed on the fight as a whole. It means you just need 0.2 more shutdowns than as normal.

If however, you have a bunch of tired people filled with ilvl 226 epics, you should opt for leaving thorim up. Thorim basically increases the damage sustained by your raid by incredible amounts , but ilvl 226 equipped players should be able to take the extra incoming damage. Otherwise the fight is equivalent to normal mode.

(Do note that for every tower up, Flame Leviathan gets more HP and does more DMG)

Using those 2 as starting points, the next one you should try leaving up is Freya.
The lasher adds can be resolved by simply having your demolishers burn them down everytime they come up, which is pretty easy for anyone to do.

Once you have successfully done those, lets get ready to loot the pinata train!

Each Additional tower increases the chance of Fragments of Val'anyr dropping.
My guild had the luck of two having dropped so far.

I have never done 0 tower up before however
But on 1 tower up 3 ilvl 226 items drop
I assume that at some point, an extra ilvl 226 item drops and later it will get converted to a ilvl 239 item. Could someone help me confirm this?

(for people doing 10 man, you might be interested to know that 2 Emblems of Conquest drops when you have even just 1 tower up)

And you should try keeping a person with engineering in your raid, they can salvage the train for around 16 random bars (I think my engineer got titanium bars) as well as random eternals. A friend has told me that titansteel bars also drop.
And thats about it, tell me if you find this guide helpful, or have any ideas on how to improve it.



Gold making element:
Flame leviathan with 0 towers can be easily pugged. And it has a chance of dropping Iron Riveted War Helm, pretty much the best dps plate helm you can get from the Auction house at the moment. Which you can probably sell for 8-11k gold depending on your server mileage.

The ideal way to do it is, organise a ulduar raid on monday nights for puggers, and invite them only if they accept that you have reserved the BoE helm. Make sure they understand that Iron Riveted War Helm is reserved for you, before they join, so that it is fair and ethical for both you and them. Zone in, kill Leviathan, loot him and run out. People will join because they get an easy 2 runed orbs, as well as a chance of ilvl 226 items that is MUCH easier to get than from Emalon. And it is the last day before reset, and a lot of puggers that have done naxx will be unable to find slots for ulduar simply because they just aren't very good. You can employ the Archavon people to zerg Leviathan and still be able to down him. If you're lucky, you get the helm and you can sell it the next day. If not, you get at least 2 runed orbs on your alt before reset.

http://www.wowhead.com/?item=45107