Elemental soloing rares question (MoP)

[Greyarea]

So I have got my shammy geared for enh, but I have more fun as ele doing pretty much everything. Now I tend to go off on what I call 'The Rare Safari' where I go around and kill as many rares as I can that matter (Dreadwastes, Kun Lai, the Wilds and Townlong) to get little baggies and big baggies..or the elusive flavor items.

Now I can kill them all as enh real easy (doing 80-100k DPS on them isn't a problem with CD's, they melt) but as Ele, I have issues. Granted my gear level is much lower, but I think it's just I don't grasp ele shaman defensive abilities as well as enh (also MW5 + heaing glyph makes any damage taken almost instantly healed up whilst still DPSing).

I know the simple solution would be to just go enh and face roll them but I'm wanting to get better at ele soloing the rares. Any advice with this would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

[Pascal]

Uh using glyph of unleashed lightning and being able to kite infinitely doesn't work?

serious question

Like... not trying to be mean. You just... kite them with lightning bolt, toss is any extra dps when possible. Flame shock for lava burst procs, lightning bolt while moving, you literally never have to be still and get hit. If you have to get it away from you, thunderstorm them and heal. Use healing stream totem or healing tide totem if you have to heal and can't stop to cast.

[woopytywoop]

Uh using glyph of unleashed lightning and being able to kite infinitely doesn't work?

serious question

Like... not trying to be mean. You just... kite them with lightning bolt, toss is any extra dps when possible. Flame shock for lava burst procs, lightning bolt while moving, you literally never have to be still and get hit. If you have to get it away from you, thunderstorm them and heal. Use healing stream totem or healing tide totem if you have to heal and can't stop to cast.

this works on most bosses. for monks you have to tank them as a baws, move out when they do spinning crane. Back in melee after that to avoid their 1shot ability as you need WS to interrupt their heal. You also have that rogue type, that is just using AoE when stealths so he gets out before he can do his ambush. The rest is quite straightforward and easy as elemental as long as you can kite and dodge stuff. most stuff dies pretty fast when you pop hero, ascendance, and kite with swg...

[Deleted]

Healing Surge is a lot more effective if used after a spell crits. (http://www.wowhead.com/spell=16164)

I recommend Ancestral Guidance over Healing Tide.

[Seriss]

Don't forget that your earth elemental can tank really well. It's good for monk rares as it'll often keep the monk spinning in place and ensures that there'll be no Chi Burst - as the elemental sits in melee range and thus prevents Chi Burst.

Also, if push comes to shove, you can use Grounding Totem on a Chi Burst if you get one for one reason or another. With Thunderstorm you can temporarily interrupt Healing Mists if you used your Wind Shear for something else too. Of course, the monk will try and cast Healing Mists again as Thunderstorm doesn't count as a 'real' interrupt for those rares, but with a bit of luck, you'll have it ready again by then.

Generally, remember to use your grouding totem, your interrupts (jinyu rares want their torrent to be interrupted; their rain dance can be thunderstormed or dealt with by a capacitator totem), your earthbind totem, your elementals...

Popping heroism along with ascendance at the beginning helps to burst rares down a fair bit before they can really hurt you. Popping SWG along with Ascendance is also something that I often do.

When you don't have a fire elemental up, don't forget to put down searing totem. It'll provide some free dps while you're running away from bad stuff.

[zshikara]

I've also found (in addition to what's posted above me) that searing totem will break stealth of those mobs that stealth for their one shot ability.

[Axon14]

Well, all of the above is good advice. But make no mistake: EVERY kind of rare spawn has a pattern, and you need only avoid the big damage abilities to win.

Jinyu: Avoid rain dance. Do not stop moving during rain dance. DPS at all other times. Heal immediately after you cast a lava burst. take advantage of clear casting.

Hozen: Do not run into bananarang. Avoid it. Stand still or move away during going bananas. DPS otherwise. Throw filth does nothing. Heal when needed.

Pandas: you MUST stay within 20 yards or they will cast chi-burst, which is instant death. Stay w/in 20 yards and simply kite during spinning kick. shock their heal. DPS when the panda is auto attacking. rinse and repeat.

Mogu caster: so easy it barely needs to be said, but avoid void field or w/e, the purple blotch on the floor. Strafe when he casts it. Shadowbolts are okayish damage, so shock them when you can.

Mogu warrior: harder, but killable. DO NOT STAND IN THE ANNIHILATE. Move behind him or out of the field when he casts it. Ignore the add. DPS and heal as needed.

Yaungol: You must kite during bellowing rage. When you see him casting it, begin to strafe. Don't get an extra cast in. Stop whatever you're doing and get out. He walks slowly with that buff. DPS with lava burst if you have an instant up. Otherwise move away. They hit for 150k a pop during bellowing rage. Also avoid yanguol stomp. It's an obvious, circular "earthquake" animation. Stay within 20 yards or they charge you, so when you're kiting, just stop once in a while and let him get a little closer, then move again.

Saurok: Keep flame shock up and there's basically no chance of death. Stay w/in 20 yards again or they have a hook. You only need to watch out when they stealth.

Mantid: Annoying. Don't NOT stand still and eat blade flurry. DPS when he is auto attacking and move immediately away from blade flurry. Windsong is a speed buff, so don't worry too much about that one. They also cast tornado. When you see a tornado coming, move to a spot where it won't be too troubling to have the tornado rotating. Basically wherever you're standing, that's where the tornado gets placed. A couple of tries and you'll see what I mean. Anyway, like blade flurry, a tornado is instantgib, more or less.

That's pretty much it. They're not hard to solo one you learn the patterns. Watch for adds. Good luck. Do you understand the spawn behavior?

[Deleted]

Some additional insight for Jinyu:

Rain Dance can be interrupted by stunning with Capacitor Totem or pushing mob with Thunderstorm. Makes Jinyu trivial.

[kaikoraimi]

For better healing, cast Healing Surge when Clearcasting is up (i.e., just after a Lava Burst). Elem has the worst defensive abilities in the game, but is one of the best kiting specs. Pick talents for soloing with kiting in mind. Frozen Power can be very useful to that end, but means you will be casting fewer Earth Shocks and wasting Lightning Shield charges that could have been Fulminated. Call of the Elements is possibly better than Totemic Projection, but being able to throw your Capacitor Totem onto the mob is really useful. Primal Elementalist is the best soloing talent for elem (thanks to the improved earth elemental, mostly), as Elemental Blast can't be cast on the run without SWG; Unleashed Fury is worth considering, especially for fights that you don't want to stop moving for at all. Beyond the mandatory Flame Shock and Unleashed Lightning glyphs, Thunderstorm is possibly the best 3rd major glyph; Frost Shock is reasonable if you have taken Frozen Power; Capacitor Totem also has merit.
The elemental PvP gear is extremely useful for soloing (both the 2-piece and 4-piece bonuses).

[Endus]

I've been farming rares all over Pandaria since launch. Axon's hints are pretty much all you need. I'm destroying everything, and I'm not using some of the techniques mentioned (not that they don't work, they're just not needed).

You don't need Primal Elementalist. Just dodge things. If it's not a Vale/Dread Wastes/Townlong Steppes mob, I probably won't have to heal even without PE.

Some additional notes;

Jinyu; Torrent and Rain Dance are the problem. Save interrupts for Torrent. Kite constantly in Rain Dance, and don't run back to where you just were; the AoE looks random but he's targeting you with the rain splashes, which is why you kite; if you run a circle and pay attention, you generally can't get hit.

Saurok; when they vanish, you need to hit them. Run in the direction they ran and hit Thunderstorm. That usually tags them, breaking the stealth. Beyond that move, they're basically tank-and-spank.


I wouldn't recommend PvP gear, really. If it's higher item level, sure, but otherwise, PvP power/resil do nothing for you for this. If they're heavily hunted, though, you may want PvP gear just to help against getting ganked.

The best strategy for healing is to fire a Lava Burst and Healing Surge yourself twice. This guarantees 2 stacks of Clearcasting, and will restore 50% of your health or so, or more. Also; Healing Tide Totem is often really good for this; the times when you're worried about dying you often can't take the time to use AG properly, but HTT if fire-and-forget. I would recommend AGAINST Astral Shift; you shouldn't be trying to soak the big attacks in the first place.


The only rares I've found challenging are ones that have adds right nearby that you can't take out without aggroing the rare as well, or that one Jinyu in Dread Wastes who's on an island in the middle of a lake. The island's too small to kite Rain Dance on, and the shore is COVERED in quick-spawning Sauroks. I found the easiest way to handle this was Glyph of Lakestrider. Just be aware that coming out of GW is currently bugged with that glyph, and will interrupt your cast if it's not instant.

[Axon14]

Excellent advice above. Additionally, if you see a rare spawn...spawn in front of you, that means all the rare spawns in the zone you are in have appeared. So if you're in dread wastes and Kang appears, all the dread waste rares are up. Kill one and immediately move to another. During the early morning, you can often sweep an entire zone.

[Endus]

Excellent advice above. Additionally, if you see a rare spawn...spawn in front of you, that means all the rare spawns in the zone you are in have appeared. So if you're in dread wastes and Kang appears, all the dread waste rares are up. Kill one and immediately move to another. During the early morning, you can often sweep an entire zone.

So far as I've been able to glean from my own experiences and those of others;

There's one Rare per type per zone. 4-5 rares spawn at once, which ones spawn are random. They spawn roughly one hour or so after the last of the rares in the zone were killed. There's also likely an additional respawn if they AREN'T all killed, but that's been a rare enough occurrence that nobody's being able to math it out.

NPC_Scan is a great addon for rare hunting, but you need to clear your cache constantly if you're using it. You don't just want to hunt these guys for Glorious!, like you did in expansions prior; the bags of goods and the special drops on each are well worth killing every one you come across.

[KCguy]

Just cast as normal, healing if/when needed. Now obivously some are a lot harder than others, so for the tougher rares, just use your earth elemental and blow hero. The faster you can melt them, the better.

[Deleted]

Could anyone provide some additional info about these rares (a wowhead link, an article, anything)? I haven't heard anything about these, and reading these comments it sounds like something that is fun. Thanks!

Edit: one google search. That's all it takes. I'm lazy. And I'm sorry for it
wowhead.com/news=204818/mists-of-pandaria-rare-elites-and-vanity-items

[kaikoraimi]

I've been farming rares all over Pandaria since launch. Axon's hints are pretty much all you need. I'm destroying everything, and I'm not using some of the techniques mentioned (not that they don't work, they're just not needed).
[...]
I wouldn't recommend PvP gear, really. If it's higher item level, sure, but otherwise, PvP power/resil do nothing for you for this. If they're heavily hunted, though, you may want PvP gear just to help against getting ganked.

Firstly, I know that I'm not at the skill level you are, although I am a solid casual raider (normal mode 10-man guild), and I find that some of the techniques you downplay are necessary for me to get the harder kills (especially those damn pandas). The easier kills (i.e., mogu), I certainly agree, blow up quite easily.

Secondly, I mentioned the PvP gear because it is relatively easy to obtain, and the set bonuses can be tremendously useful. The 458 ilvl honor shoulders & gloves have only 20 less Int and ~120 more secondary stats compared to the 463 dungeon blue shoulders & gloves.

[Endus]

Firstly, I know that I'm not at the skill level you are, although I am a solid casual raider (normal mode 10-man guild), and I find that some of the techniques you downplay are necessary for me to get the harder kills (especially those damn pandas). The easier kills (i.e., mogu), I certainly agree, blow up quite easily.

I can't recall any where Grounding Totem was all that useful; the few that have something really nasty cast at you (the Jinyu, for instance), it's typically interruptible or avoidable (bananarang). Similarly, outside of their really strong moves, most of the damage they put out really isn't that high. If you're standing in the stuff that should be dodged, sure, you'll see a major increase in capability by using an Earth Elemental to make them cast it somewhere else, but the better way to go is to just not stand in it.

I'm not horrendously skilled, and what I'm describing is actually a lower skill way to go about killing them. You need your basic rotation, mobility, and Wind Shear. A little self-healing occasionally, but even for the guys in Dread Wastes or the Vale who take forever, that's minimal and usually only if I screw up and get tagged by something.

Secondly, I mentioned the PvP gear because it is relatively easy to obtain, and the set bonuses can be tremendously useful. The 458 ilvl honor shoulders & gloves have only 20 less Int and ~120 more secondary stats compared to the 463 dungeon blue shoulders & gloves.

The set bonuses can be handy if you've got nothing else to wear, but if your PvE gear is higher item level, you'll probably get the kill faster using that. That's all I was saying.

You shouldn't be swapping out a fully-489+ raid set for the 458 honor gear, basically. If it's full Malevolent 483s, maybe you would (I would, just for the chance of someone tryring to gank me to take the kill).

[Deleted]

it of course depends all on your gear ... i know mine is really good but once it is good enough, you can just pop FE, lash, ascend+spiritwalker, after 5 sec pop guidance to top yourself off and you have a clean and fast kill with ascend and guidance? what does not one shot you - you outheal and when the ascend ends - the mob dies in 1-5 sec, depending on your luck with mastery procs etc ... i usually prepot (its cheap so why not?), drop FE, cast EB, FS, LvB, lash, ascend + spirit, 5secs later - guidance and the mob is dead in a moment

[kaikoraimi]

You shouldn't be swapping out a fully-489+ raid set for the 458 honor gear, basically.

My bad, meant to explicitly include the point that ilvl is important. 476s > 458 pvp gear, and PvE sets > PvP sets (barring ganking).