To avoid extremely long wait times for even an attempt, the following is a method to adapt to the current situation in regards to the Legion Raid, Valtan Hard Mode and maybe Normal Mode…
The solution is to use heavy armor 3 and purple pots especially if your class has some sort of self-shielding/self-healing mechanics.
People are so obsess with 2 supports or demanding for high DPS in hard mode when you don’t necessary need either of those. The ghost phase at the end has its own enrage timer which is around 3 to 4 minutes so there is no real need to rush to ghost phase with more DPS.
The end goal is to focus solely on survival where most of the raid members make it to ghost phase to have more chances of countering which will explained later in this post of why its so important.
Most groups or the average group currently will definitely have their HM Valtan enraged regardless of what they do. One mistake and someone falls to their death and as fewer people are alive the less dps is done to the boss. The solution for this is to focus solely on survival and counters to charge up sidereal Thirain skill to pass HM Valtan.
Basically most current situations should go like this…
- Prior to transfer to ghost phase 15/16ish bars, pop sidereal Balthorr to cheese his pizza/slam/columns. You know to use it after the very first pizza slam if everybody stacks at 9 and moves away and goes back, then the raid leader can use it immediately afterwards.
- In ghost phase now, try to stay in the sides or back right next to ghost Valtan while focusing on getting the counters/breaking armor. Better to be at his sides 7/8 or 4/5 because his X/T rock mechanic will knock you off if you’re directly behind him or one shot you if you’re not using heavy armor when hes enraged.
- Armor is gone, use a dark bomb and then sidereal Thirain when Valtan does front/back/front mechanic whereas the raid leader is at his side position to avoid knockback and to aim properly.
- 20ish hp bars are left, focus on survival and counters again while dealing damage without any skill animation lockdowns and while trying to position yourself at his sides back at 7/8 or 4/5.
- 10-15ish hp bar + enrage mode, sidereal Thirain should be charged up sooner from constantly going for ghost counters pop it easy win from the side of Valtan when hes doing front/back/front mechanic.
TLDR: It’s a marathon and a focus on conserving hp potions/knowing mechanics to take less damage overall. Hence Heavy Armor 3 + Purple potions is very recommended despite supposedly doing “less dmg”. Doing this, most groups would maybe have a couple of people running this strat and see a higher increase of how often they reach enrage Valtan or entirely passing it.
Here are the notable normal mechanics that will stumble you over in the processing of getting to ghost Valtan or during ghost Valtan + if you haven’t looked at the available cheat sheets yet
Stagger Check: Break his shield with normal attacks or skills that do not have the stagger affix and then use stagger skills. If you group fails to do so, the moment the orange bar disappears, just time stop it.
Reflection Check: Don’t attack him when he has his axe at the back+looks like its charging up and position yourself at the hilt not at the blade portion. For example, if the boss was looking at the north, then the blade portion behind will be to the right side at 4/5 and the hilt portion where everybody should stack up is at the 7/8.
Jebait Check: Don’t chase after him if he jumps around because he could spin and knock you off.
Breaking corners check x35: Go to the immediate opposite side and hug the edge until he spins back into the middle.
Time Stops are your friend
Grab Check: Move to the side of them when you see him raising a hand then directly to the side of him again when hes about to use the yellow breath
Counter Check at 60: Count to 3 immediately after the animation or pre-use your stagger or listen to the 2 grunts and immediately use right in the middle of the 2nd grunt. Better to be slightly early than on time/late.
Counter Check 3x: 1 person counters, silenced so run away, 2nd person counters silenced so run away, 3rd person counters run away. Do it in duos to have a backup to counter. The people who countered & run away should just go into a far corner and stand still.
Orb check: NESW get the orbs and don’t move to not take dmg while one person hugs the boss to counter it.
Raised Ax Glowing = don’t stay in front of him
Raised Ax Not Glowing = stay in front of him
Jail Check: Look for whoever has a purple bar under them and use a flame grenade or a skill that does multiple hits rapidly.
Edit: Here is an example where Heavy Armor 3 would have made the difference of surviving and giving more opportunities to get the counters without having to worry that much about healing/less pressure.