Hi there! I will talk about Firelands and how to "correctly" do boss encounters. Of course this is again based on the gaming experience in Molten-WoW where my friends, cousins and I play. You might ask why? Because raid leaders nowadays look for players that knows tactics/strategies and have achievements, besides having an item level 370+. It sucks right? How would you get those achievements in the first place if you can't join those raids? Luckily, there are few raid leaders that allows you to join their group if you know the tactics and this is why I am writing this, to help players.
You might ask, what is Firelands? Firelands is one of the areas of the Elemental Plane. The entire plane was crafted by the Titans during the early days of Azeroth and it serves as a prison for the planet's native elementals as well as their ruler, Ragnaros the Firelord. This raid instance can be found in Mount Hyjal.
Firelands have seven (7) bosses. Beth'tilac, a gigantic burning spider brood-mother. Lord Rhyolith, a huge-ass magma elemental. Alysrazor, a former dragon reborn as a fire hawk. Shannox, a flamewalker with two pet dogs: Riplimb and Rageface. Baleroc, the Gatekeeper, a merciless combatant that looks like Balrog of Lord of The Rings *lol*. Majordomo Staghelm, a.k.a. Fandral Staghelm turned Majordomo of the Firelands. Lastly, Ragnaros, lord of the Firelands. So far, I have done three boss encounters in Molten. They are Beth'tilac, Baleroc and Shannox, and I will talk about the tactics on their respective encounters.
Baleroc, the Gatekeeper
Baleroc is easy. It's almost a tank-and-spank encounter that's why most of the time raiders do him first. If you're the main tank and/or off-tank, you should always interrupt whatever spell is casted. Well, not really whatever but the game breaker spell. By game breaker I mean those that would deal huge amount of damage or that would cause an instant death. DPS or damage role should, of course deal huge amount of damage. Raid bosses have greater HP than dungeon bosses. Healers, should of course heal those who are wounded. Please don't play healer role if you won't heal your raid members.
Oh, I almost forgot! Baleroc summons shards that focuses only to one player and it will only deal damage to that one player. This shards MUST be taken by DPS roles because it's not efficient if healers would take damage from it. Yeah they can heal themselves but healers have lesser HP than DPS classes. The main tank should also avoid taking the shard because he's already mitigating Baleroc's devastating slams and it will give the healers a hard time to heal huge amounts of damage. The team should assign 3 members that will take the shards.
What is this shard anyway? This shard is an immobile cone that stacks a damage over time to any unit close to it. If no one's taking that damage over time, Baleroc will activate it and it will deal AoE damage to the group. If your role is to take the shard, stay closer next to it and take up to 9 stacks of the damage over time. Once you have more than 9 stack, the other shard-er must take it so you have to move away from it.
Beth'tilac
Beth'tilac is a bit harder. At the beggining of the encounter, Beth'tilac will climb up to her web and will summon spiderlings below. You can separate the group by 2, having the first group stay on the ground and the other group climb up Beth'tilac's web. It's doable that way but its more efficient when the raid group stays on the ground. You ask why? Because your group can gather in a single location and healers could do AoE heals within it. The raid leader should mark a ground on where the group should stay. Tanks and melee DPS should go around the marked area and kill the summoned spider drones as fast as possible. Healers and ranged DPS should stay on the marked area so they could easily survive this phase. Ranged DPS should also kill the spiderlings as fast as they can. After the summoning phase, Beth'tilac will go down from her web and fights your group. The first thing that the tank should do is to face her away from the group. Beth'tilac casts a spell that deals damage to a frontal cone, so as a tank, you should avoid that from happening. The encounter should be easier beyond this point.
Shannox
Shannox encounter is a bit complicated because of his companions: Riplimb and Rageface. The main tank and/or off-tank should, of course, tank Shannox itself. To deal with Riplimb and Rageface, your group should assign 2-3 kiters for each of the hounds. Kiters must be a Hunter, Frost Deathknight or an Arcane Mage. The kiters' role is to "kite" around these hounds so they won't focus their attack on the tank and/or other players. They should also keep these hounds away from Shannox but not too far for they have a frenzy like skill when they sense they are far away from him. DPS and healers (well, tanks and kiters also included) should look out for the traps laid by Shannox, especially the Crystal Trap. The said trap encases the target and render the affected unit stunned/immovable. If ever that happens, DPS roles should break the crystal to set the affected unit free from it. Do this as fast as you can.
That would be all for now. I hope you guys understand and learned the strategies for each of the said boss encounters. I will update this post once I get the chance to do the other remaining bosses in Firelands. Enjoy raiding! Hooraah!
Monday, November 25, 2013
Friday, November 8, 2013
Magic: The Gathering - Champion Format [Casual]
Introduction
One day, as I was browsing my cards, a wild idea appears! I was always a fan of Commander a.k.a EDH, a format where you choose a legendary creature to build around a 100 card deck, so I tried brewing one. After awhile, I came across with this "budget" casual format, the Noble format. This is somehow a variant of Pauper and Commander Format. I was immediately hooked by the idea. After awhile another wild idea appears! "Why don't I combine the Commander format and the Noble format?" Thus, the Champion format was born.
What is the Champion Format?
Basically, the Champion Format is a variation of the Commander Format and Noble Format. You choose a rare/mythic rare creature card to be your champion and construct a deck around that card. It doesn't have to be legendary, but of course legendary creature is a plus. This format is for the Commander Format lovers but don't have the budget to build a decent deck for it.
Deck Building
Since this is a "house" game format or a casual game format, the minimum number of cards in a Champion format deck is 61 including your Champion. First, you'll need to have a Champion. Your Champion should be a rare/mythic rare creature. It doesn't have to be a legendary creature, but of course legendary creature is a plus.
Like the Commander format, Champion uses color identity to determine which cards can be included in a deck. For example, your chosen Champion is Venser, Shaper Servant. Cards that can be included to your deck are blue creatures, blue spells, blue enchantments and lands that produces blue mana. Of course artifacts can be included too for it is colorless.
Each card in the deck must have a different English name, other than basic land cards. This means you can have only one (1) of each cards included in the deck. You can have at most 4 rares/mythic rare including your Champion, 11 uncommon and the remaining cards must be only common.
Champion is an eternal format. Meaning any legal Magic: The Gathering card is playable in this format. But of course, it can exist in any non-eternal formats like modern or standard.
The only thing that separates this format to Commander is that you are allowed to have any color in your deck when you choose to have an artifact creature as your Champion. Meaning, if you choose Myr Battlesphere as your champion, you can brew a deck with any color identity you want. If you wanted too, all five colors can be included for as long as you follow the "rarity count" in brewing a Champion format deck.
Before I forgot, we follow the lowest printed rarity of a card. For example, Doom Blade is counted as common even though it was recently printed as uncommon. Also, cards like Sengir Vampire that was printed as rare before can't be your Champion for it is printed as uncommon, which is its lowest rarity.
Sideboarding
Sad to say, there are no sideboards in this format. :( Which means you have to build your deck carefully to have an answer for almost every deck created for this format.
How to Play
First, you have to separate your Champion from your deck. Like the Commander format, your Champion is placed at the Command Zone, where it can't be interacted with. You may cast your Champion any time allowed by the standard game rules and any abilities of your Champion may be played as if it was in your hand.
Once your Champion has been cast, it will be treated as a normal creature card and you may choose to return it to the Command Zone whenever it dies or exiled. Like in Commander, as an additional cost to cast your Champion from the command zone, its owner must pay additional two (2) for each time it was previously cast from the command zone. Which means the more time your Champion dies, the harder it will be for you to cast it over again and again.
We apply the Commander mulligan rule in Champion format. In your first mulligan, you draw another seven (7) cards as your starting hand and will be reduced by one (1) in your next consecutive mulligans.
Other than that, the game should proceed as any other MTG games.
Banned List
I have no idea on what cards should be banned but I guess following MTG's Commander banned list will not hurt. Click here to view the current Commander banned list.
Sample Deck List
These are the latest Champion decks that we use:
And that's it! I hope you guys loved the idea of the Champion Format. I would love to hear from you if you ever tried playing this format with your friends, relatives or in your local game store! Have fun brewing!
Deck Building
Since this is a "house" game format or a casual game format, the minimum number of cards in a Champion format deck is 61 including your Champion. First, you'll need to have a Champion. Your Champion should be a rare/mythic rare creature. It doesn't have to be a legendary creature, but of course legendary creature is a plus.
Like the Commander format, Champion uses color identity to determine which cards can be included in a deck. For example, your chosen Champion is Venser, Shaper Servant. Cards that can be included to your deck are blue creatures, blue spells, blue enchantments and lands that produces blue mana. Of course artifacts can be included too for it is colorless.
Each card in the deck must have a different English name, other than basic land cards. This means you can have only one (1) of each cards included in the deck. You can have at most 4 rares/mythic rare including your Champion, 11 uncommon and the remaining cards must be only common.
Champion is an eternal format. Meaning any legal Magic: The Gathering card is playable in this format. But of course, it can exist in any non-eternal formats like modern or standard.
The only thing that separates this format to Commander is that you are allowed to have any color in your deck when you choose to have an artifact creature as your Champion. Meaning, if you choose Myr Battlesphere as your champion, you can brew a deck with any color identity you want. If you wanted too, all five colors can be included for as long as you follow the "rarity count" in brewing a Champion format deck.
Before I forgot, we follow the lowest printed rarity of a card. For example, Doom Blade is counted as common even though it was recently printed as uncommon. Also, cards like Sengir Vampire that was printed as rare before can't be your Champion for it is printed as uncommon, which is its lowest rarity.
Sideboarding
Sad to say, there are no sideboards in this format. :( Which means you have to build your deck carefully to have an answer for almost every deck created for this format.
How to Play
First, you have to separate your Champion from your deck. Like the Commander format, your Champion is placed at the Command Zone, where it can't be interacted with. You may cast your Champion any time allowed by the standard game rules and any abilities of your Champion may be played as if it was in your hand.
Once your Champion has been cast, it will be treated as a normal creature card and you may choose to return it to the Command Zone whenever it dies or exiled. Like in Commander, as an additional cost to cast your Champion from the command zone, its owner must pay additional two (2) for each time it was previously cast from the command zone. Which means the more time your Champion dies, the harder it will be for you to cast it over again and again.
We apply the Commander mulligan rule in Champion format. In your first mulligan, you draw another seven (7) cards as your starting hand and will be reduced by one (1) in your next consecutive mulligans.
Other than that, the game should proceed as any other MTG games.
Banned List
I have no idea on what cards should be banned but I guess following MTG's Commander banned list will not hurt. Click here to view the current Commander banned list.
Sample Deck List
These are the latest Champion decks that we use:
- Force of Nature - This is a mono green ramp type of deck. Yeva, Nature's Herald is this deck's champion. This is what I currently use.
- Rakdos Rampage - Rakdos (Black Red) aggro deck. Helped my cousin to brew this one.
- Avenging Battalion - A Boros (Red White) battalion deck lead by its champion, Firemane Avenger.
- Undead Army - Dimir (Blue Black) zombie themed deck lead by Grimgrin, Corpse-born. Currently used by another cousin of mine.
- Infini-Tap - A deck that will tap every creature on the board. Stoic Angel is the champion of this deck.
- Rubble Rush - Gruul (Red Green) deck with some Infect shenanigans. A full aggro deck.
- Lawful Redemption - An Azorius (White Blue) life gain deck with unlimited life combo.
- Eternal Cycle - An Orzhov (White Black) permanent control deck. This one is aggro-control type of deck lead by Treasury Thrull.
- AEther Tide - A mono blue control champion deck lead by AEtherling. Creatures are mostly unblockable for sure damage.
And that's it! I hope you guys loved the idea of the Champion Format. I would love to hear from you if you ever tried playing this format with your friends, relatives or in your local game store! Have fun brewing!
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