Ready Check: Faction Champions, pt II
by Michael Gray 
Oct 8th 2009 at 1:00PM
Putting it together
Putting all these guys together can be difficult. See, the problem is that you don't always get the same set of the characters. Like I said, which ones you get is random each time you fight them. (Though, once you're assigned a group of champions in a given raid ID, you'll still meet the same team every time you enter.)
You fight 6 champions in 10 man, each having about 400k hit points. In 25 man, you'll fight 10 champions, and most will have about 2.5 million hit points.
So, general tips are the name of the game here.
- Don't get frustrated. Many folks feel that the Faction Champions encounter is the most difficult fight in the Trial of the Crusader. This is not an accident. The fight is somewhat random, and even more importantly, requires a vast change of mindset.
- Choose carefully between tank specs and DPS specs. I've found protection warriors, with their vast array of stuns, make excellent PvP toolboxes for this encounter. But on my paladin, I prefer to switch over to my retribution spec for the sake of more damage, more damage, and more damage. You can taunt (on normal mode), but it's got diminishing returns that will quickly render that ability useless. The damage might just be better.
- Focus on the same target. This is a great opportunity to practice your /assist skills. Since a significant part of this encounter revolves around "killing them faster than they kill you," getting as much damage as possible on a single target can make a huge difference.
- They've got Mortal Strike -- you should too. The ability to debuff healing done is not a normal raid ability. But in this encounter, it can bloody well be key. While I'm not sure many raids will be able to simply blow through enemy healing in every case, dropping the champions' healing in half will help.
- Interrupt, silence, and interrupt more. This is probably de rigeur for many raids. But if you can spare a rogue or shaman to shut down their healers, that will make a big difference in how quickly you can kill your target.
- Dispel, spell steal, purge. A lot of raid encounters involve dispelling, but that dynamic is taken to a new level in this PvP-like encounter. If that retribution paladin blows wings, for example, you'll want to get it off as soon as possible.
- Don't go out of your way to AE. The champions get a buff called Champion's Aegis. This keeps area effect attacks from being particularly useful against them.
- Keep your bubbles handy. The enemy champions will usually try and "train" one of your raid members. (That's what I advised you do them up above.) Be ready with a Hand of Protection, Pain Suppression, or other life-saving ability.
- Prep to be crowd controlled. Just like a good Arena team, the enemy will frequently use their class specific crowd control abilities. You'll be sheeped, frogged, and otherwise locked down. You may consider using your PvP trinket if you have the option.
- They will trinket, but Resilience does you no good. Resilience will not reduce the amount of damage that the Faction Champions do, but they still have the ability to trinket out of abilities you use on them.
- Kill the one in the dress. Just like in the Arena, if they've got the healers up, you're not going to get a lot of effectiveness. Lock down the healers (stun, interrupt, crowd control), and blow the hell out of them quickly.
- Fear bomb them! Psychic Screams are your friends, as are Intimidating Shouts. Not only do these abilities interrupt whatever the champions are up to, it also sends them scattering. When the fear effect wears off, it'll take the champions precious time to reposition themselves to attack.
Once you have an idea of who you're fighting in the opposing team, it will get a lot easier. You'll be able to pick and choose macros and targets to coordinate. Keep at it, and you'll get it.
Ready Check is here to provide you all the information and discussion you need to bring your raiding to the next level. Ready Check appears once a week with writer Michael Gray.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Goodbar Oct 8th 2009 1:15PM
In 10 man regular I find this to be the most fun battle in the game. As a Discpline Priest I basically spam Dispell & Mass dispell. When possible I bubble as many people as I can. We have a pretty regular team that works very well together and have been very successful in this.
Como Oct 8th 2009 3:02PM
Advice for any guild trying this on 25 man hard mode. This fight will kick your ass if you are not prepared. Some tips from how our guild has downed this fight:
1) Do not even attempt this fight unless you have a very specific raid comp that has been thought out a head of time. Seriously, you will want specific specs for certain people.
2) Hungering cold right off the bat, is an absolute must. With cc having dr you will need all of it and need to burn trinkets.
3)Most people above say kill the healers first. IMO on hard 25, this is not possible. We have an excellent healing team (not to be gloating but it is probably better geared then most of the readers out here and we have the legendary mace too, almost on the second one). The healers need to be locked down with cc until you can kill a few dps 1 or 2 should suffice but your millage may vary. Simply put your healers will not be able to keep you alive while all their dps are up for long.
4)DK's are super useful, death grip your dps target to the back of the raid where it is relatively safe. We actually double death grip right off the bat and that allows us to get our first target to half before healers even get a chance to start healing. Having your dps target in the center where the crap his the fan is going to get your dps killed quickly.
5) Have a cc rogue macro a shadowstep then blind to the lock for when he starts hellfire. He doesn't do it often but when he does it hurts, bad.
6)This is 100% a heads up fight, only use your trinkets/cloaks/evasion type skills for when you actually NEED it.
7) You WILL get trained for long periods. Last night I was literally trained for over 45 seconds, blew all my cd's(not at once but over time), and was kiting them around frost traps and I still ended up taking 250k damage over that time. If they have any thought that they can kill you they will do what ever it takes.
8)Frost traps in the center is great for kiting, just be careful you know which ones are yours if they have the hunter up.
9)No one can survive a train if they try to tank it. Period, even if you wear plate. Run away.
10) PvP gear is great for those who don't have a choice where they are in the raid( melee cc'ers, no res doesn't work but having 32k hp on my rogue certainly does lawl)
The key to this fight is killing a few of their dps'ers before they can kill you, after 1 or 2 are dead, if your raid is in good shape the rest becomes mopping it all up. This is a heads up fight first and foremost and if you are not paying attention you will die. This is don't stand in the shit when the shit is actively coming at you lol.
I may edit this if I can think of anything else.
Zach Oct 9th 2009 1:41PM
Thanks for the comments, Como. My guild ran 25-heroic last night; we 1-shotted Beasts and Jaraxxus and then ran into the wall of Faction Champs. It's quite possible that our comp just wasn't there (for example, we didn't have a single Priest). We were trying to kill the Resto Shaman first - when we got him down we would switch to the Rogue, but by that time we usually had a few people dead and it was an uphill battle. When we tried killing a DPS first (usually the Rogue) we just couldn't get him down. I don't know why exactly. Maybe your tips will help next time we try it. :)
Sharten Oct 10th 2009 1:25PM
I've found that its one of the funnest bosses in the entire game. I always love it as a warrior when we get the Holy paladin, because as protection its possible to get nearly every single heal interrupted if you do it right. CC is finally back in the game as well for this boss, and our over excessive amount of hunters has come in handy, as well as our 2 brand new warrior tanks (Of which I am not one of). Burning down the other healer, or one of them, then moving on to dps and saving a healer for near the end works very well. I hope everyone has the best of luck and much fun with this fight :D
Danfish Oct 8th 2009 1:25PM
As a feral tank it is incredibly easy to keep one of the hard hitting melee occupied and the heck away from the rest of the raid that he could be off two shotting. At least on normal difficulty. Between taunt, cyclone, roots, stun, etc, you should always have some cc ability up on the mob that isn't on diminishing returns.
Valt Oct 8th 2009 1:26PM
"Don't get frustrated."
Best advice for this fight. All guilds I've been in contact with about this encounter has been VERY frustrating at first because
1) they steamroll your clothies/healers or
2) You cant burn down the healer (mostly happens if theres less dispellers and tree druids..)
After couple tries its pretty straightforward. But still fun(and chaotic for sure) due dimishing returns playing tricks on you and different setups.
My guildie makes funny comments how the healers there are so similiar to pvp people. If you silence the tree druid he just stand there doing nothing and infinitely casts nourish being immortal as they are.
Funniest comment on wowhead about them was that some guild left tree druid last because he was easily CC'd.. in end they had couple tanks, couple dps' and healers left and had to wait combat res for 2 times in encounter to kill resto druid..
blanksage Oct 8th 2009 4:51PM
Or just purge the druid of his HoT's. We leave him for last and the raid /dance with him. He's useless. This fight is one of the craziest and most fun right now. Gives me good feelings for 3.3.
Saroth Oct 8th 2009 1:28PM
Rogues are of significant use in this fight. Unlike standard raid bosses, on normal (not sure about heroic) gouge and both the shots work as interrupts along with kick. My raid puts me solo on the holy paladin if we draw it and I can lock it out for the entirety of the fight. It seems because I hold off on dps I tend to draw very little aggro, and not having to deal with one of the healers lets the raid get to the dps all that much more quickly. If your raid chooses to drop the paladin or priest, you can always switch to your dps too :D
Additionally, combat rogues drop wound poison on targets, giving another "mortal strike" to your raid which can be invaluable early on. We had a little trouble with these guys at first, but once you get familiar with their mechanics they aren't too hard to deal with. Kill order and cooperation are critical.
breaklance Oct 8th 2009 1:31PM
My own comments, I have no idea why this fight is so hard to pug to be honest while my own raid plows through these guys even on hardmode, but...
The shaman and druid healers are the most powerful and should be dealt with in that order, followed by the priest, the paladin can be let to roam free in all honesty. Only thing you want to interupt on him is his Holy Light but he is often just spamming pets(seriously).
As far as dangerous dps, the ret paladin and the shadow priest are probably the most dangerous. Like said about the paladin popping wings and stunning a cloth is very bad. Meanwhile the spriest is dropping 4k per tick SW:P and 6k mind flay hits, nasty but not unhealable by any stretch.
Big keys to this fight is....healers being aggressive in dispells. Both offensively and on your own team. That means shamans and prieists spam purge/mass dispell when no one is about to die, and all healers getting those diseases, poisons, and curses off your crew. The other big key is being focused and knowing the kill order your group wants. While in 10 man having 1 healer alive can still seriously delay your kills, in 25man its not so important to kill all the healers. Be aware of who is hurting you, DBM is pretty clear now in announcing when the warlock is doing his deadly Hellfire, but as for anything else you need to be aware of who is hitting you and run away, slow them, or use a cc on them this is particularly important for clothies.
Prot warriors can be particularly well in locking down anyone, as taunt will make them change target, and the numerous stuns, fear, disarm, and your own protection.
Hokuto Oct 8th 2009 1:34PM
We did the heroic 10 man version recently. I didn't feel so frustrated in a long, long while.
BRING YOUR PVP TRINKET!
Sedna Oct 8th 2009 1:39PM
Thank you for a great article AND for some great comments afterwards. Two points from me:
1. After weeks of wiping on this fight on 25, I was shocked by how much easier it was on 10-man. (Both guild runs; on 25 we haven't been able to get even one healer down until recently, while on 10-man we oneshot this boss with no deaths. In the words of Keanu Reeves, "Whoa.")
2. Sekrit tip one of our guildies dug up- the healers will tend to preferentially heal the pets if they're damaged (particularly the hunter pet, we haven't tried it with the lock pet yet). While you don't want to kill them (pets can be rezzed in 25-man at the very least), having one player focus fire on a pet can trigger heals on it, and subsequently reduce the healing on enemy targets.
Good luck!
vaarsej Oct 8th 2009 1:48PM
normally we kill the dps first, because the healers can't do much to the raid.
hexzerosix Oct 8th 2009 2:32PM
Agreed. When my guild first started trying this out we emphasized killing the healers and had no success at all, we couldn't down anyone. The next week we went after the DPS, specifically the Rogue or Warrior first, and now we one shot it without a single death. We have our warrior MT spec to arms and he spams mortal strike or whatever it is warriors have that reduces healing done to the target, it then effectively becomes a dps race. once you get the main damage dealers down the rest are a breeze. My experience is mainly 10 man for this fight, and no one in my guild uses a PvP trinket for this fight.
as a lock i used to hate this fight as it disgusts me to look at the meters and see my DPS below 3k when im used to 5k, but now that they drop super easy the fight is much more enjoyable. I find that as a clothie once one of the guys aggro you i just start to kite them away from the main ruckus or move in any direction and after a few steps they usually drop pursuit, i don't think ive once used my teleport ability either.
its a lot of fun to get all the DPS down and have two healers up healing away on themselves knowing that they can't do anything, time to do some victory laps.
Raze Oct 8th 2009 1:51PM
This... actually sound really cool. I was under the impression that raiding was just 5-mans with better graphics and on a larger scale. This sound completely unique from anything I've done in any 5-man, yet.
Kemikalkadet Oct 8th 2009 4:04PM
It's actually quite similar to a fight in MgT, so its a mechanic that's been around far longer in 5-man form than a raid encounter.
Squeek Oct 8th 2009 2:01PM
Just some advice from someone who's been there:
Before these were nerfed, they were really hard. The biggest problem you'll face is that every time you wipe, someone will pipe up about the kill order, and you'll change it. You'll keep changing it. Don't keep changing it.
Things to note:
1) Crowd Control is not the most important part of this fight. The most important part is choosing targets carefully, knowing enemy abilities, and keeping the enemy raid and your raid spread out. The most important CC here isn't fear or banish or cyclone or anything. It's just keeping the enemies right where you want them. Frost Trap/Earthbind Totem work wonders here.
2) Healers should die first, unless you can lock one out completely (as a rogue above me mentioned). Make sure that you're taking away all of the healer's abilities from the one you're killing. Meaning, if you're killing the shaman, smash his totems (especially Healing Stream!), dispel Earth Shield and Riptide, and interrupt LHW. Same goes for all the other healers. Dispel, interrupt, and CC.
3) Caster enemies should die second. Melee enemies are so easy to kite around the room, especially if you have a DK or druid doing it. Chains of Ice/Death Grip spam will be all you need, or Entangling Roots/Cyclone. You can keep the rogue/warrior/enhsha/dk/retadin completely out of the fight like this.
4) Anyone who has taken any damage will become the focus-fire target. They will attempt to use everything they can against that target, so get a shield on them or heal them to full immediately. In our raid, it tends to be the warlock every time. He takes 70% of the damage of the entire raid. It's pretty sick.
5) Make sure you know what you're dispelling or where you're attacking. Don't dispel Unstable Affliction. Don't stand next to the Warlock (hellfire!). If the warrior is anywhere near the raid, he's going to Bladestorm. Be prepared for Pally bubbles (Mass dispel) or Ice Blocks or Deterrence or Cloak of Shadows. All four of these abilities mean "stop dps and find a new target" or "stop dps and wait".
6) Dispel Heroism/Bloodlust. Seriously, don't even wait, dispel it immediately. Or spellsteal it.
If you do that, you have a good chance of winning. Just keep the raid aware of things your target is doing if they're important (like, "warrior's bladestorming, stay away from [raid mark]" or "warlock's hellfiring, stay away from [raid mark]").
Prisa Oct 8th 2009 2:06PM
I might be wrong, but I think the Faction Champs only use Trinkets on Heroic version.
Slaytanic Oct 8th 2009 2:13PM
No, you are correct. Have a DK rush in at the beginning and use Hungering Cold right off the bat. While this won't do much to slow them down, it WILL force them to all pop their trinkets at once, leaving them vulnerable to later CC.
crschmidt Oct 8th 2009 2:09PM
Mana Burn links to Penance.
Slaytanic Oct 8th 2009 2:10PM
And more advice:
This is NOT a quick fight. It is a slow, methodical, endurance match. Especially 25-man H, our matches are about 10 minutes. Do NOT attempt to rush in for the quick kill, you will burn your resources too quickly and leave yourselves vulnerable. Don't despair if you lose a couple members, and don't celebrate too quickly if you manage to get 2 of them down.
Be EXTREMELY self-aware and stay calm.