Top 10 things I like about the Flame Leviathan

So our guild went into Ulduar for our first real attempts on the Flame Leviathan, last week (10-man version) – and after a couple of tries, we got him down.  Definitely not a hard fight, once you get everyone on the same page.

But what surprised me most, was that it wasn’t a tedious fight, either.  Where I’m usually less-than-enthusiastic about most other vehicle fights in the game, I found myself really really enjoying this one.

So as a tribute to that, here are my Top 10 favorite things about the Flame Leviathan fight:

10.  The EPIC trash.  You don’t just walk into Ulduar, and suddenly come face to face with the first boss (think Naxx, where you are literally 2-3 trash pulls away from Anub’rekhan).  No, here you have to plow your way through *hundreds* of mobs, before getting to the Flame Levi, guardian at the gates.  Sure, they die fast, but it’s nice for once to have to really push your way through to the first boss of a raid.  It’s a good warm-up to your vehicle’s abilities, and it’s quite a bit of fun.

9.  The tower-skipping option.  I love how when you are running this simply for the regular mode, you can just talk to Brann to start up the fight, and therefore not have to go take out all four towers.  Speeds up the process quite a bit, for those who are raiding on a time limit, and don’t want to spend a full hour on one fight.

8.  FIVE modes.  Now that is an awesome way to scale a fight.  Just as things start to seem a bit too easy for you, you can add another tower into the mix, to keep the fight fresh and challenging.  And you get rewarded with an achievement and special gear, for your trouble.  Much more fun than a starter boss like Anub’rekhan, where you soon start to just kill him, to get him out of the way.

7. The scaling-with-gear.  Everyone already knows about this one, but it’s still worth mentioning.  It’s very cool on Blizzard’s part to reward players for being well-geared, by boosting their vehicle’s power as a result.  It helps well-geared players attempt the hard modes of the fight, while also making the regular modes a bit easier each time, as you gear up through the rest of the instance.

6.  The vehicle ability sets.  Each of the possible roles in the fight, comes with a limited set of only 3 main abilities.  Makes it much easier for newcomers to just hop into a run for the first time, without them feeling overwhelmed by too many complicated options.  And yet, even with only three abilities, they remain quite FUN to use.

5.  Variety.  Between the different vehicles, different roles on those vehicles, and the non-vehicle role of Turret DPSer, you essentially have 6 different options for what your job is, in any given fight.  That’s what I call variety, essentially making it so that you never get tired of running it, cause there’s always something different you could do, next time.

4.  The core mechanics.  I love how the core mechanics of the fight, even though they happen on vehicles, are relatable to things that come up in standard boss fights.  Things like kiting a boss around without letting him touch you, disabling a boss and going into a burn phase, deadly spells that need to be interrupted promptly – it’s cool how these are similar to concepts that the average raider already knows well, while also being just different enough to feel unique.

3.  The “Rescuer” role.  Now here’s something that actually is completely unique.  The task of driving into harm’s way on the Chopper, to pick up a Turret-DPSer and bring them back to their Demolisher, is one of my favorite new mechanics in this fight.  Why?  Because to my knowledge, it’s completely and utterly NEW.  In no other fight in the game, will you have something similar to that.  I mean, picture a battle where raid members are suddenly stunned and vulnerable, knocked out on the floor.  Then, some designated raid members have to stop dps, to run up to the stunned player, pick them up and carry them out of harm’s way, until they get back to their senses and can continue to fight.  That’s not a traditional tank, healing or dps role – it’s something pretty original and cool.  I personally love it, and the flavor it brings to the fight.

2.  The groups-within-the-group.  I like how when you run the fight with 10 players, not everybody gets a vehicle.  Ten vehicles running around with similar abilities would feel too bland, not all that different from Malygos Phase 3 or something like that.  Here, instead, you have people being paired up into subsets.  You have the coordination between driver and gunner on some vehicles, or the communication needed between a Chopper driver and the Turret-DPSer he or she is assigned to pick up.  Players being paired up into those smaller “teams” enhances the special flavor of the fight, in my eyes.

1. And the thing I love most about Flame Leviathan…  The actual story behind it.  So many raids have you simply walking through the front door of the instance, completely and utterly unguarded from the outside.  Sure, you’ll face swarms of trash packs inside the places, but it’s still somehow wrong that you can just walk into the lobby of Karazhan, Naxxramas or any other place, and pretty much throw a dance party there, without attracting the attention of any guards.  It’s fine for getting your group set up inside the place, but it detracts from the story and realism.  Yet here, you literally have to use siege vehicles and mount an epic offensive, blasting your way through a veritable legion of guards outside the Ulduar instance, before getting to the front door and bursting through it.  Then just when you think you’ve successfully made it to the gate safely, the boss comes crashing through the gate, ready to destroy you with turrets firing in every single direction.  Now THAT is a battle with a large scope, and an epic feel.  Makes you truly feel like this assault on Ulduar is a big event – you aren’t just sneaking into a big instance this time around, you’re bashing down the doors and taking on anything in your path.  That’s what I call great storytelling, to really set the pace for the rest of the raid.

So there you are – my Top 10 things I like about the Flame Leviathan fight.

Hopefully all of you get to experience it sometime soon – and hopefully you enjoy it as much as I did.  Because in my eyes, Blizzard hit a homerun on this one.

Can’t wait to get a better look at what lies inside Ulduar, next.

Noblegarden Experience

Asshattery, QQ’s, rudeness flocked the servers when The Noblegarden became active.

Well that is what I heard.

When I began my quest to obtain “the Noble” title I did not come across those individuals. Don’t get me wrong I had a few ninja some eggs and I saw some amusing general chat. “Dude, stop stealing my eggs!!” “ This is my spawn point.” yadda yadda yadda. But I kept to myself and nothing really happened. It was quite peaceful.

After circle the Falconsquare a few time collecting eggs, I found nice egg spawn area by the repair guy’s cart which spawned 1-4 eggs around the cart. If other players grabbed the eggs before me I knew they would respawn quickly which is probably why there was not much QQ when I was on. Of course things change as the day goes on.
I farmed the spot for two hours. I managed to get the Elegant Dress, the Suit (pants 3x and shirt 2x), the rabbit (2x), the robe (2x) and 160 chocolate pieces. This allowed me to only spend chocolate on the flowers and the Easter egg to complete the Noblegarden achievements. The RNG worked in my favor. Got to love that.

Then the last hour the RNG worked in a different way. A female dwarf would not drop on my server.

I spent walking, running, riding throughout Daralan looking for a female dwarf to give bunny ears. I even camped the alliance inn waiting for a female dwarf to walk out. I could not find one until I ventured to the mailbox by the flight master. There I saw a female dwarf. I quickly gave her bunny ears and I completed the achievement.

After 4 hours flying to various locations, farming Easter eggs, and searching for a female dwarf I am now Immune the Noble.

-Salud

One thing I found out about the Argent Tournament…

…I am horrible at jousting.

-Salud

Goodbye Raid PUGs?

Prior to Patch 3.1, it seemed that just about anything in the game could be pugged.

For myself, that was a blessing.  Our guild is more casual in nature, and limits its raids to the 10-man stuff.  We don’t plow through content, but we see enough success to keep us happy.

Yet, from time to time, I get that itch to run a 25-man.  Why?  Part of it is curiosity, to see the fight from a different perspective.  Part of it is the chance of perhaps getting the occasional gear drop that is superior to the 10-man stuff I’m used to.  Part of it is also the achievement-junkie in me, who likes to add the occasional Heroic raid achievement to my ever-growing list of accomplishments.

Before, this plan always worked out well.  I’ve pugged Vault25, OS25, Naxx25, all with pretty good success.

Since the introduction of new content in the patch, though, I’m beginning to wonder if my days of Raid Pugging are nearing an end…

A couple of examples from the past week:

Emalon the Storm Watcher

Used to be that you could complete a Wintergrasp fight, hop into the first 25-man Vault group being formed, and expect to get Archavon down without much trouble.  Some DPS-ers might be slacking, but the better ones in the group could pick up the slack.

Well, Emalon has now put an end to that approach.

I tried pugging this one a couple of nights back.  And we didn’t even get to the boss at first – we wiped on TRASH.  Regroup and go back in, get to the boss…  And wow, did the DPS discrepancy show, this time around.  Even with everyone knowing the fight pretty well (the leader did a good job of explaining it – myself already knowing the strat) – the DPS in that pugged group were just not capable of switching to the proper add fast enough, or generating enough damage to take it down in the time required.

Basically, with the fight being such a DPS race, we were doomed from the start, by undergeared players who thought that they could just hop in for the run, without having the gear for it.

And then there was last night…

Flame Leviathan

I got invited to a Flame Levi pug, which included a handful of people I’d run with before, in Naxx and such.  Many of the other names were new to me, though.

And let me tell you, the performance was pretty sad, for the most part.  Again, many of these people were clearly undergeared for the run – vehicle health is based on the driver’s gear iLevel, and some were quite low.  But even that aside, there was just no coordination from half the players, who seemed to have thrown logic out the door when placed inside a vehicle, for a change.  Common sense things in a normal run, like “Don’t stand in front of the boss” and “Use interrupts on big spells” were just ignored or overlooked, by almost everybody.  It’s like entering the vehicle made them forget that they were in a 25-man raid, and they thought it was just a Wintergrasp Pew-Pew Fest.  Which, given how easy the Flame Leviathan fight actually is…  was pretty sad to see.

So yeah, with all this in mind…  How do I feel about pugging raids now?

I think I may take a break from them.

I mean, sure, this is only week one.  Maybe some people didn’t realize what they were getting into.  Perhaps in a month’s time, Emalon and Flame Levi pugs will be more coordinated, and the raid leader will look some people’s gear up, before sending out the invites.  Could definitely be that in the rush to see the new stuff, people are signing up for runs they have no business being in.  I wouldn’t be surprised to see either of these bosses being a bit more pug-friendly in the future, even if I doubt the majority of Ulduar could be handled by the average pug group.

But personally, I think I’m going to stick to my guild 10-mans for the next little while.  Not sure if I can afford all the extra repair bills…

Anyone else have better luck pugging either of these bosses this week?

Introductions

Hey there everyone!

Just to quickly introduce myself, I’m a guildmate of Salud / Immune, both of us being officers for the <Initech> guild, on the Cairne realm.  With our guild running 10-mans exclusively, we often find ourselves as the two raiding tanks, coincidentally both being Prot Pallies.

And with us having Naxx10 under our belts already, we’re looking forward to dipping our feet into 10-man Ulduar soon, so I should be able to offer some thoughts and insight into what I think of those fights, from a paladin main tank’s point of view.

So yup, I’m happy to be joining the site and look forward to posting thoughts here on a regular basis.

/cheer!

The Holy Light is Growing

I’ve added a new blogger to the Holy Light to provide a different insight about the Paladin Class and anything else he inclines.

His name is Anzak.

Everyone welcome him to the bosom of The Holy Light.

Dual Spec

Leykis Wrote

”Any insight on what the dual-spec thing is? I’ve been trying to find info on it but I am apparently the last to know!”

There are plenty of websites to find that information but I found one sight that goes into a lot of detail from the basic information to the latest updates. Check it out Wow Insider’s Dual Spec Guide, it is a good read.

3.1 is Here

Complete list of 3.1 Patch Note: CLICK HERE

Lake Wintergrasp

o All players who attack a siege vehicle should now get credit if it is destroyed.
o Daily quests “Slay Them All!” (Horde) and “No Mercy for the Merciless” (Alliance) have had their PvP kill requirements reduced to 10 from 20. NPCs defending the fortress and south towers now count toward these dailies as well.
o The number of NPCs defending fortress has been increased.
o Siege Engines now have Steam Pressure as a resource type (replaces energy).
o Siege Engines now have the Steam Rush ability from Ulduar.
o The southern Siege Factories can be captured.
o The time between battles will be saved should a realm shut down. If Wintergrasp is active when a realm shuts down, the game will restart from the beginning when the realm is once again live.
o Towers in Southern Wintergrasp now have more defensive cannons.

Did my QQ Wintergrasp post sparked some of these charges? hmmm….

—————————————-

If you kept up with the PTR most of these changes are no surprise.

Paladin

o Auras will now persist through death and affect a 40 yard radius.
o Blessing of Kings is now trainable at level 20. Removed from talent trees.
o Divine Plea can once again be dispelled.
o Exorcism: Now can be used on any target and has a 100% chance to be a critical strike when used on Undead and Demons.
o Hand of Sacrifice: The damage transferred by this ability is now capped by the paladin’s health.
o Forbearance reduced to a 2-minute duration.
o Sacred Shield: This effect cannot be cast on more than one friendly target at a time.
o Seal of Blood/Seal of the Martyr: The damage done by these two seals has been increased but the damage done by their judgements decreased. The balance is now roughly 60% from either seal and 40% from a judgement on total damage done. The total damage done should be roughly the same. Please note that the 3.0.9 tooltips had incorrect values for the damage done, but the tooltips should be much more accurate in 3.1.0.
o Shield of Righteousness: Base damage and scaling factor increased by 30%.
o Spiritual Attunement: Removed from trainers. It is now available deep in the Protection tree for 2 ranks at 5/10%.

Holy

o Aura Mastery: Now grants anyone affected by Concentration Aura immunity from Interrupt and Silence mechanics, and increases the effectiveness of all other auras by 100%. Lasts 10 seconds. 2-minute cooldown.
o Blessed Hands: Now reduces mana cost of Hand of Freedom, Sacrifice and Salvation by 15/30%, and improves the effectiveness of Hand of Salvation by 50/100% and Hand of Sacrifice by an additional 5/10%. Moved to tier-4.
o Enlightened Judgements: No longer increases the range of Judgement of Justice. Moved to tier-10.
o Improved Concentration Aura: The resistance to Silence and Interrupt mechanics granted by this talent now becomes active when any Aura is used, not just Concentration Aura.
o Infusion of Light: Now increases the critical chance of your next Holy Light by 10/20% instead of reducing cast time. Moved to tier-10.
o Judgements of the Pure moved to tier-9.
o Pure of Heart: Now reduces duration of all curse, disease, and poison effects by 15/30%.
o Purifying Power: Now reduces the cooldowns of Exorcism and Holy Wrath by 17/33% instead of increasing critical strike chance.
o Sacred Cleansing moved to tier-8.

Protection

o Ardent Defender: Reduced to 3 ranks for 10/20/30%.
o Avenger’s Shield: Base damage and scaling factor increased by 30%.
o Blessing of Sanctuary: Now only grants mana on dodge/parry/block. In addition, will only grant mana if that is the active power type of the friendly target (Bears and Cats won’t gain mana).
o Improved Devotion Aura: The additional healing granted by this talent now becomes active when any Aura is used, not just Devotion Aura.
o Divine Guardian: Now increases the effectiveness of Divine Sacrifice by an additional 5/10%, and increases the duration of Sacred Shield by 50/100% and the amount absorbed by 10/20%.
o Divine Protection: Cooldown reduced to 3 minutes.
o New Talent: Divine Sacrifice: Causes all party/raid members affected by one of the paladin’s auras to transfer 30% of all damage taken to the paladin (maximum of 150% of the paladin’s max health). Lasts 10 seconds. 2-minute cooldown.
o New Talent: Divinity: Increases healing done by and to you by 1/2/3/4/5% (tier-1).
o Guarded by the Light: Now makes Divine Plea 50/100% less likely to be dispelled.
o Improved Hammer of Justice: Reduced to 2 ranks for 10/20-second cooldown reduction.
o Holy Shield: Base damage and scaling factor increased by 30%.
o Judgements of the Just: Now also reduces the cooldown of Hammer of Justice by 10/20 seconds, and increases the duration of the Seal of Justice stun effect by .5/1 second.
o One-Handed Weapon Specialization: Reduced to 3 ranks for 4/7/10%.
o Sacred Duty rank 1 now increases stamina by 4%.
o Shield of the Templar: No longer increases the damage done by Holy Shield, Avenger’s Shield, and Shield of Righteousness. Now grants 33/66/100% chance to silence your Avenger’s Shield targets for 3 seconds.

Retribution

o Benediction now affects Hand of Reckoning.
o Divine Purpose: Moved to Improved Retribution Aura’s position.
o Divine Storm: Damage increased.
o Fanaticism reduced to 3 ranks for 6/12/18% bonus and 10/20/30% threat reduction.
o Judgement of the Wise: The immediate return of base mana from this spell has been increased to 25%, up from 15%.
o Repentance no longer resets the paladin’s melee swing timer.
o Improved Retribution Aura: This talent has been removed.
o Righteous Vengeance reduced to 3 ranks for 10/20/30%. The damage done by this talent no longer receives modifications from effects that increase or decrease damage done by a percentage. Now triggered by Crusader Strike as well.
o Sanctified Retribution: The bonus to damage done granted by this talent now becomes active when any Aura is used, not just Retribution Aura.
o Sanctified Seals: Renamed Sanctity of Battle. Now also increases damage done by Exorcism and Crusader Strike by 5/10/15%.
o Swift Retribution: Now grants its haste bonus while any aura is active.

Glyphs

o Glyph of Beacon of Light: Increases the duration of Beacon of Light by 30 seconds.
o Glyph of Divine Plea: While Divine Plea is active, you take 3% reduced damage from all sources.
o Glyph of Divine Storm: Your Divine Storm now heals for an additional 15% of the damage it causes.
o Glyph of Divinity: Now Lay on Hands grants 100% bonus mana, and that amount of mana is granted to the paladin and their target.
o Glyph of Exorcism: Changed to 20% bonus damage.
o Glyph of Hammer of the Righteous: Your Hammer of the Righteous hits 1 additional target.
o Glyph of Holy Light: Can no longer critically strike and has had its range updated.
o Glyph of Holy Shock: Reduces the cooldown of Holy Shock by 1 second.
o Glyph of Lay on Hands: Now reduces the cooldown of Lay on Hands by 5 minutes.
o Glyph of Salvation: When you cast Hand of Salvation on yourself, it also reduces damage taken by 20%.
o Glyph of Seal of Blood: When your Seal of Blood, Seal of the Martyr, Judgement of Blood, or Judgement of the Martyr deals damage to you, you gain 11% of the damage done as mana.
o Glyph of Seal of Righteousness: Increases damage done by this seal by 10%.
o Glyph of Shield of Righteousness: Reduces the mana cost of Shield of Righteousness by 80%.

Bug Fixes

o Beacon of Light: This spell no longer duplicates the heal on yourself if your target is currently immune to being healed due to being on a vehicle. It will simply not duplicate the heal. In addition, Divine Plea will only penalize the original heal instead of applying the penalty a second time on the duplicated heal.
o Blessing of Sanctuary: This spell can now overwrite a Greater Blessing of Sanctuary that has less than 10 minutes duration remaining.
o Blessing of Wisdom: It is no longer possible to have the icon for this spell and Greater Blessing of Wisdom active at the same time (which didn’t give any benefit, but was confusing).
o Combat Expertise: This talent will now properly increase spell critical strike chance.
o Hammer of Justice: This ability will now still interrupt casting even if the victim is immune to the stun due to diminishing returns.
o Hammer of the Righteous: Now does correct damage with heirloom weapons.
o Holy Shield: Damage from this ability now increases properly from attack power.
o Judgement of Command: Fixed incorrect combat log tooltips.
o Righteous Vengeance: Effects which modify damage done will no longer be applied a second time to the damage from this talent.
o Sacred Shield: Now scales properly from spell power granted by Sheath of Light.
o Seal of Vengeance/Corruption: The bonus damage applied a target which already has the maximum stack of debuffs is now properly affected by Judgements of the Pure. In addition, fixed some missing tooltips in the combat log.
o Sheath of Light: Critical heals from Lay on Hands will now trigger this talent

Tomorrow?!!

Patch 3.1 here tomorrow? Well that is the speculation.

Wryxian an EU Dev states

*Wryxian carefully checks the thread title before posting*

The patch is definitely coming… shortly.

Q u o t e:
This will be incredible….if it still happens. I’m sceptical due to the severe lack of info on this from any kind of Blue or other person in the know….so i’ll reserve my happiness and joy until it actually gets implemented.!

The “severe lack of info” might simply be because we announced it, gave further details about it, put it up on the PTR for testing and now we are basically on the verge of releasing it.

We certainly haven’t been quiet about it. It is coming. And it is coming… soo… er… promptly.

Personally I believe that patch will come out next week but I would not mind tomorrow…

Happy Easter