Flame Leviathan Strategy Guide – Ulduar (10)

Ulduar Flame Leviathan Raid Guide Featured Image
  • Author: Passion
  • Date: January 6, 2023
  • Updated: February 2, 2023
  • Expansion: WotLK Classic

flame-leviathan is the first obstacle in your way. A massive tank constructed by Mimiron as a part of V0-L7R-0N, the Flame Leviathan is in position to stop anyone from breaching the Titans first line of defense. Towering above the humanoid races of Azeroth, the Flame Leviathan must be fought using siege vehicles, with our heroes barely able to scratch the behemoth on foot.

This guide will offer a detailed, step-by-step tutorial on how to deal with Flame Leviathan’s overwhelming show of force.

Role Summaries

  • Avoid AoE on the ground, as well as beams of light caused by towers

Driver

  • Maintain 10 stacks of Pyrite Barrel on the boss
  • Run away from the boss when fixated
  • Launch your passenger onto the boss

Gunner

  • Shoot down Pyrite using anti-air-rocket
  • Fire Mortars whenever you have downtime
    • Make sure to shoot frozen vehicles to free them
  • Grab Pyrite crates as much as possible to keep your driver’s ammunition topped
  • Use increased-speed when fixated on by the boss
  • load-into-catapult if you are a ranged DPS assigned to killing turrets

Driver

Gunner

  • As the raid leader in this fight you will want to make sure the pursued player is aware and reacting. Call it out clearly, “X is pursued”.
  • If you do not trust your Chopper drivers, you should call out when it is time for them to grab a player and return them to their Demolisher.
  • Make sure your Chopper drivers are keeping Tar up in front of the boss, call it out if the boss is not slowed.
  • Call for interrupts from Siege Engines when the boss casts flame-vents.
  • If doing the fight on hard mode, try to call out adds spawning.

Abilities

This fight is done exclusively in vehicles, giving all players a new set of abilities to work with. There are more than enough vehicle seats available for a 10-player raid, with 2 Demolishers, 2 Siege Engines, and 2 Choppers. Demolishers are the primary DPS dealers of the fight. Siege Engines are primarily focused on interrupting spells. Choppers primary role is to slow the boss and transport passengers between the boss and their vehicle.

Vehicles

salvaged-siege-engine

ulduar guide siege engine

The salvaged-siege-engine consists of two roles, the Driver and the Gunner. The Driver functions as a tank and close-range fighter, with the key role of interrupting the boss. The Gunner is a long-range fighter, shooting pyrite crates out of the sky and blasting enemies with cannonballs.

salvaged-siege-engines can also carry 2 bonus passengers.

ulduar vehicle actionbars siege engine

Driver

Ram any enemies in front of the vehicle, dealing heavy damage and knocking them back. This ability costs 40 steam pressure. This is your main source of damage as the driver and requires you to be up close with the boss.

Electrocutes all enemies in a 25-yard cone in front of the vehicle, dealing moderate damage and interrupting all casts for 4-seconds. This ability costs 38 steam pressure. This is used to interrupt flame-vents and is vital to have available when needed.

Overdrive the vehicle, granting a short-duration speed boost, damaging and knocking back any enemies your vehicle collides with. This ability costs 40 steam pressure. This is used to create distance if you are being Pursued.

Gunner

ulduar vehicle actionbars siege engine gunner

Fire a cannonball, dealing damage based on accuracy. Direct impact deals massive damage. This ability costs 20 steam pressure. This is your main source of damage, used when you don’t need to shoot down Pyrite.

Fire a missile that explodes on impact with airborne targets. This ability costs 10 steam pressure. This is primarily used to shoot down Pyrite.

Activate the vehicles shields, absorbing Physical, Fire, Frost, and Arcane damage for 5-seconds, on a 1-minute cooldown. Use this to mitigate damage from any source.

salvaged-demolisher

ulduar guide demolisher

The salvaged-demolisher consists of two roles, the Driver and the Gunner. The Driver functions as a long-range damage dealer, hurling pyrite, boulders, and their partner at the opponent. The Gunner plays a support role, shooting pyrite crates out of the sky and loading them into the catapult.

ulduar vehicle actionbars demolisher

Driver

Launch a boulder, dealing heavy damage within 8-yards of the impact. This is your backup damage ability, used for adds and any time you don’t have pyrite available.

Launch a blob of pyrite, dealing massive damage and placing a damage over time effect on targets within 8-yards of the impact. This ability costs 5 pyrite and can stack up to 10 times. This ability costs 5 pyrite. This is your primary damaging ability and is the most damaging ability available for this fight. Stacking pyrite on the boss deals massive damage if you can maintain your stacks, but requires your gunner to keep your pyrite supply high.

Ram any enemies in front of the vehicle, dealing heavy damage and knocking them back. This ability has a 4-second cooldown. This is primarily a last resort if you get overwhelmed by adds, knocking them back and creating distance.

Launch your passenger at your crosshair, be careful, you have limited ammunition. Using this allows your former passenger to attack Flame Leviathans turrets directly.

Gunner

ulduar vehicle actionbars demolisher gunner

Fire an explosive blast, dealing damage based on accuracy. Direct impact deals massive damage. This is your basic attack when you have nothing else to focus on.

Fire a missile that explodes on impact with airborne targets. Use this to shoot down Pyrite for you to grab.

Infuse your engine with liquid pyrite, giving 100% increased movement speed for 20-seconds. This ability costs 25 pyrite. Your driver cannot give themselves a speed boost when they are Pursued, so it is all up to you. Press this whenever you are pursued so your driver can create distance.

Load yourself into the catapult. Desperate times call for desperate measures. This will enable your driver to launch you at the boss, giving you a chance to destroy the bosses turrets and overload the boss. Once you have finished on the boss, call for a Chopper to give you a ride back to your Demolisher.

salvaged-chopper

ulduar guide chopper

The salvaged-chopper Driver is a skirmish fighter, deploying hit-and-run tactics with a frontal cone attack and slowing pools of tar.

ulduar vehicle actionbars chopper

Honk the horn, sending a sonic blast in a 35-yard cone in front of the chopper. This deals moderate damage and costs 20 energy. This is the basic attack for Choppers. This will never be a priority, but it is your only damaging ability so use it whenever you happen to have enemies in front of you. Try to avoid being out of position to use this.

Drop a pool of tar underneath yourself, lasting for 45-seconds and slowing all enemies within it. This can be ignited with Fire damage and has a 15-second cooldown. This is used to slow the boss when it is pursuing a player, and is a key component in their survival.

Hit the gas, increasing your movement speed by 100% for 5-seconds. This ability costs 50 energy. This is a sprint for Choppers. You will never be pursued as a Chopper so use this to either reach a player to ferry them back to their Demolisher, or to quickly dart in front of the boss to drop tar.

Heal your passenger to full health over 4-seconds. This ability has a 1-minute cooldown. Press this whenever you grab a player, just to make sure they’re healthy.

Flame Leviathan

Deals Fire damage every second for 10-seconds to all enemies within 50-yards of the boss. This can and should be interrupted using electroshock.

Flame Leviathan rams its target, dealing damage and applying a stacking debuff, increasing the target’s damage taken by 50% for 20-seconds. This is handled by kiting the boss, not allowing it to attack the player.

Flame Leviathan periodically gains a stacking buff, granting 5% movement speed and stacking up to 20 times for a total of 100% increased movement speed. These stacks can be removed by killing all of the bosses leviathan-defense-turrets to overload it

Flame Leviathan lets loose a salvo of missiles, targeting random vehicles and dealing moderate damage to them.

Every 30-seconds Flame Leviathan will target a random salvaged-siege-engine or salvaged-demolisher, chasing them. The targeted driver will need to kite the boss through tar dropped by salvaged-choppers until the boss swaps targets again.

Raid Composition & Preparation

This fight is done purely in vehicles. This means that individual roles are not used and no composition changes will impact the fight as long as your team consists of 10 players.

The vehicles are impacted by the driver and passengers’ average item level in most slots, meaning that the higher item level in each slot, the better your vehicle. To take advantage of this, simply make sure you equip the highest item level gear you have in every slot, except for your Ranged, Off-Hand, Tabard, and Shirt slots. Gear equipped in these slots will not count for the vehicle’s stats. The quality of the item also matters, with Epic items providing a significant boost over Rare items.

The item level of the driver increases the vehicle’s maximum health as well as the damage of the driver’s abilities. The item level of the passenger only increases the damage output of the passenger’s abilities. The actual stats of these items does not matter at all. The vehicle decides its stats when a player enters it, meaning if you swap gear while piloting a vehicle, nothing will change. You will have to hop out of the vehicle and back in to refresh its stats.

It is worth noting that while for most players their stats will not matter at all, players assigned to be loaded into the catapult and flung at the boss will not want to sacrifice too many stats in the hunt for item level increases, as they will be DPSing out of the vehicle.

Because of the way this scaling works, it is recommended to have your highest item level players driving Demolishers, and then Siege Engines, then passengers in Siege Engines. Your lowest item level players will typically want to be in Choppers, where the scaling will have the least impact.

Demolisher passengers should ideally be ranged DPS classes that can self-heal, such as Balance Druids and Shadow Priests. This is so that when they are on top of Flame Leviathan they can keep themselves alive and not have to leave the boss early.

Hard Mode

The optional hard mode for Flame Leviathan is activated by not destroying the four towers leading up to the boss. Each tower left standing increases the bosses health by 40%, stacking multiplicatively, almost quadrupling Flame Leviathan’s health with all towers up.

Each tower also has a unique buff that they provide the boss, impacting the fight in different ways.

  • tower-of-life
    • freyas-ward
      • This ability decreases Fire Damage dealt to Flame Leviathan by 10%, as well as periodically spawning plants from the corners of the arena that will attack player vehicles.
  • tower-of-flames
    • mimirons-inferno
      • This ability boosts Flame Leviathan’s Fire Damage dealt by 50%, as well as causing meteors to periodically fall from the sky in a set path.
  • tower-of-frost
    • hodirs-fury
      • This ability causes white markers to follow players, occasionally stopping and calling down a frost meteor, dealing heavy damage, and freezing them until they are thawed out with an ice attack.
  • tower-of-storms
    • thorims-hammer
      • This ability boosts Flame Leviathan’s Physical Damage dealt by 25%, as well as causing beams of light to appear and deal massive damage to anyone underneath them.

Every tower left standing increases the rewards. With all four towers up you will receive an item from the hard mode loot table in addition to the regular drop table.

The Gauntlet

The boss event begins with talking to the lore-keeper-of-norgannon, activating the four Defense Towers. Players will then be able to enter vehicles, either salvaged-demolishers, salvaged-siege-engines, or salvaged-choppers. There are 5 of each kind of Vehicle. With 10 players, you have enough for every salvaged-siege-engine and salvaged-demolisher to have both a driver and a gunner, as well as every salvaged-chopper having a driver.

The gauntlet involves fighting through the legions of Iron Dwarves, Iron Giants, Vrykuls, and various mechanical creations. None of these enemies are particularly noteworthy, except Ulduar Colossus, which cast Ground Slam. This ability should be interrupted by salvaged-siege-engines with electroshock.

During the gauntlet, there will be Liquid Pyrite tanks floating in the sky. These will need to be shot down by the vehicle gunners and loaded into the vehicles. Try to stock up on as much pyrite as possible before you reach the boss.

You will also be able to find 4 towers in this gauntlet. These are the optional hard mode, and each one destroyed makes the fight easier but also less rewarding.

Pulling The Boss

Shortly after you have killed the last group of enemies, the boss will enter its arena and the fight can be started. Outside the entrance to the boss arena, there are two repair platforms that can be used to heal your vehicle and refill pyrite if needed. Start driving into the boss to initiate the fight.

The Fight

10 flame leviathan arena 1

Flame Leviathan is a simple enough fight. There is no threat table to worry about, instead Flame Leviathan will fixate on a specific player’s salvaged-demolisher or salvaged-siege-engine for 30 seconds. During this time, the boss will chase that player, almost certainly killing them if it reaches them.

To stay alive while fixated you will need to kite the boss around the arena, this is done with a combination of speed-boosts and the slow provided by tar.

10 flame leviathan arena

salvaged-demolishers are the primary source of damage during this fight, and will ideally want to maintain 10 stacks of Pyrite Barrel on the boss at all times. This requires the passenger to consistently grab Pyrite scattered around the arena.

salvaged-siege-engines are necessary to interrupt flame-vents using electroshock. This requires 38 Steam Pressure, so the drivers will need to keep an eye on their resources so that they have enough Steam Pressure when flame-vents is cast.

salvaged-demolishers are able to launch their passenger at the boss. Players that are on top of the boss are able to destroy the leviathan-defense-turrets, and once all turrets are destroyed the boss will be stunned for 20 seconds, and take 50% increased damage. This also removes all stacks of gathering-speed, which is necessary to be able to kite the boss.

Launched players should exclusively be ranged DPS, as melee DPS will only be able to reach one turret, while ranged DPS can reach both. After the boss has been overloaded, players will need to jump off the boss and be ferried back to their salvaged-demolisher by a Chopper.

If you are attempting hard mode, the boss will have a few more tricks in its arsenal. Each tower provides a unique buff to the boss, alongside a 40% health buff per tower.

The tower-of-life gives the boss freyas-ward, dealing constant Nature damage to all enemies around Flame Leviathan and summoning Ward of Life and Writhing Lasher from green beams in each corner of the boss arena. The boss will also be buffed with tower-of-life, decreasing the fire damage it takes by 10%. This constant bonus damage primarily means the group will have less room for mistakes during the fight.

The tower-of-flames causes Meteors to fall from the sky, slowly following a set route. These are easily avoidable but will absolutely decimate anyone hit by them. Flame Leviathan will also deal 50% increased Fire damage with this tower up.

The tower-of-frost causes pale beams of light to appear, following players. The beams will stop moving on top of vehicles, calling down an icy comet on top of them and freezing them, dealing constant damage. Frozen vehicles will need to be hit with Fire damage to break the ice, freeing them.

The tower-of-storms causes pillars of light to briefly appear and after a small delay deal heavy damage to everyone caught in the beam. This also causes Flame Leviathan to deal 25% increased Physical damage.

Here are some of the main things that can typically go wrong in this fight:

  • Passengers in vehicles go AFK or otherwise do not participate, leading to their drivers dealing significantly less damage.
  • Chopper drivers don’t slow the boss effectively, letting it catch up to fixated players.
  • Siege Engine drivers fail to manage their resources, letting the boss cast flame-vents freely.
  • People generally don’t put in the effort because it is a vehicle fight.

Achievements

Congratulations on defeating Flame Leviathan! Time to ditch the vehicles and make your way to the next fork in the road.

 

About the Author

Passion

I love MMOs of all shades, especially the nitty gritty numbers parts of them. You might recognize me from the Shadow Priest discord, otherwise I play a little bit of everything, especially games with support roles available.
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Ashen
Ashen
1 year ago

Only note I have is Choppers do not have this ability in the pre-nerf P2 Ulduar.

HKqq
HKqq
Reply to  Passion
1 year ago

Looks like they don’t have the ability to bring pyrite to other vehicles. On the PTR they were not able to, going in live tonight will know more soon.

bobo
bobo
4 months ago

Thanks! This guide helps a lot for newcomers!

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