[Guide] Retribution Paladin Solo Kael'thas (Ashes of Al'ar Drop!)

[Kakera]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4djMLLIP01c

What was supposed to be a simple instructional video for a friend ended up with me frapsing the kill that got me my Ashes of Al'ar mount. Originally intended on getting this on my achievement character, but am still quite happy to have gotten it on some character. I will of course keep farming since the fight is actually really enjoyable to solo. I am not the first or even the second to solo this, quite a few retribution paladins have solo'd it and it was even possible in tier 11 I'd say. Here's the strategy I used incase any of you want to solo your mount farming.

I used 7/2/32 with Selfless Healer. The small choices don't make too much of a difference, but grabbing Selfless Healer is important. You'll also want to have Divine Storm and Divine Protection Glyph. You can choose to bring full raid buffs/scrolls/flasks/foods, but as you can see I only used a flask and food buff along with my own buffs but if your dps is lacking then go for it.

Start off by clearing all of the trash in Al'ars room and killing Al'ar. Al'ar is very straight forward to solo, so I won't go into that. Just dps it dead and stay out of fire. I clear all of the trash that leads to Kael'thas on Voidreaver's side only. You do not need to bother with Solarian's side. You also need to pull the 2 Arcane dudes that guard the room the Voidreaver, but you do not need to kill any of the trash that's actually inside Voidreaver's room.

Phase 1:

For this phase I use Seal of Insight, but doesn't really matter for any advisor other than maybe Telonicus. When trash is clear go ahead and pull the boss and start off by running to the entrance, keep your back to the wall for Thaladred's knockback being careful nto get ported out of the instance and simply dps him down as close to the instance portal as you can. Do the same with Sanguinar. You can LoS Sanguinar's fear to avoid using your Human/PvP trinket. Kill him near the instance portal and then immediately run towards Al'ar's room and go left up the ramp, you'll spot Capernian.

For Capernian, I typically pop Avenging Wrath here and get off a quick Hammer of Wrath before she Conflags me, I use my trinket here and get a few melee's off. I like to be able to drop her to sub 10% in order to ensure I can quickly HoW her again before she conflags me when I get her into position. Pull her to the very back of Kael's Voidreaver side trash hallway and kill her in the room and then start moving to Voidreaver's trash area.

For Telonicus the idea here is to kill him right as your debuff has less than 5 seconds on it or so, so you can not be effected by it while running to the weapons for the next phase, and to avoid having to use bubble. Heal yourself, judge and Crusader Strike and use your WoGs to keep yourself topped, and time a HoW on him as your debuff is about to expire, then move towards the place you killed Capernian and get ready to AoE the weapons.

Phase 2:

Swap to Seal of Righteousness and AoE your ass off. Try to clump all the weapons together and blow them up asap.
Focus the Cosmic Infuser first and interrupt the heals. Then focus down the melee weapons, the ranged weapons, and finally the shield. Make sure to loot the Cosmic Infuser and Phaseshift Bulwark. Make a macro that allows you to Equip both Cosmic Infuser and Phaseshift Bulwark, and make another that Equips your main two hander.

Phase 3:

Swap back to Seal of Insight and get ready for Phase 3. Move to where you killed Capernian and get ready to blow her up immediately. The hardest part of this phase is blowing up Capernian before Telonicus reaches you. If you still have her alive before Telonicus applies his debuff to you, you almost certainly won't be able to kill either due to being chain stunned/disoriented. I pop all of my personal cds and use my trinket for Conflag to blow her up immediately, then get on Telonicus. Simply kill him immediately this time, and after you kill him bubble off whatever remaining time is on the Toy debuff. Kill Sanguinar then finally Thaladred, remember to bop his bleed after he dies. After the advisors die start running to Al'ar's room.

Phase 4:

LoS him to get him on the ramp. The reason for moving him to this position is so you can keep your back to the wall when the Phoenix's die, incase they knock you back you won't travel anywhere and get screwed out of kicking a Pyroblast. The first thing he's going to do in Phase 4 is put up his Shock Barrier and cast Pyroblast. I use my macro to equip the Mace and Shield and quickly heal myself for the Mace buff and use the Shield's effect for the first Pyroblast cast. Then I reequip my main weapon and Divine Protection (with its glyph) for the second cast. Next cast is interruptable so kick it. Kick every other Fireball and make sure your Rebuke is up for Pyroblast. Move out of Flamestrike, if you get stunned in one simply use your Trinket or Bubble. Switch to Seal of Truth and pop your cooldowns shortly after the first Pyroblast cast and pop your pot. If you have relevant gear and decent damage you should be able to bring him to 50% hp before he casts a third Pyroblast. Ignore the Phoenix's. As you can see in my video, I only got two eggs by the time I transitioned. If you have dps trouble only kill the eggs. Let the Phoenix's die on their own.

Simply keep working the mechanics. Move out of Flame Strike, slowly move up the ramp for each one. If you get stunned in one simply Trinket or Bubble. When he puts up Barrier equip your Mace and Shield and use the Shield's effect, reequip main weapon and then Divine Protection for any remaining casts. Interrupt when possible and rinse repeat until phase 5.

Phase 5: You win here. Simply run up to where you killed Capernian originally at the back end of Kael's trash and wait for him to stop his RP. When he puts you in the air simply stay near the ground so you don't take fall damage. Trying to deal damage to him when you're in the air is pointless really, so just wait to pop cds until you come down. If you get any stacks of the debuff that decrease your health % you can simply bubble them off. Pop your cooldowns and blow him up asap. Remember to trinket if you get stuck in Flamestrike while stunned. Collect your loot and hopefully Ashes!

[Ferledon]

Very nice =)

[Earsofpower]

You should put that this is a guide on how to solo in the title

[fruitypebble]

Congrats, that's impressive.

[Kimiko93]

Gj mate, and yeah as said above, why not make a a guide instead? or Creating a compendium of different tactics you've used to solo bosses, would've love to read something like that^^

OH and Congrats on the mount

[Caninese]

Very nice, grats

[Kakera]

Gj mate, and yeah as said above, why not make a a guide instead? or Creating a compendium of different tactics you've used to solo bosses, would've love to read something like that^^

OH and Congrats on the mount

To be honest this is the only relevant boss I've attempted to solo. I'm not sure I want to get into the whole soloing thing because I know how aggravating it can be from watching the pros do it. But it's something I might consider if I get bored enough after Dragon Soul.

[Caio]

congrats and thank you for sharing

[asher1611]

Not trying to necro. Just that tonight I started attempting to solo Kael. I need to get some things straightened out, but your guide has been a big help.

So thanks. I look forward to downing him next week.

[Zodiacx92]

Just went and performed this exact strat and downed Kael on the 2nd try. Only thing I'd like to say is that the stacks there at the end cannot be wiped with bubble, only prevented... he got me down to 10% health just a second before I threw my last hammer into him. No mount though

Nice guide though. Will be doing this every week from now on.

Edit: So... I lied... Bubble wipes the stacks completely he was just building them a lot faster than I thought he would. XD Still no mount on 2nd run though GL Everybody

[darknessice]

I'm definitely giving this a try. Thanks for the info.

[Hopesedge]

Can you do a Video Tutorial on this? Normal speed > Ect. Great video, Congratulations on Mount and err.. Yeh ^^

[jamestoo]

gz , also i hate you

no but rly gz

[squarefaced]

soooo going to do this.. Got my ashes on my first ever TK run, but it would be nice to rub it in people's faces "oh ashes dropped but I guess I'll have to destroy it since I soloed"

[Dannyk]

Thanks for this guide/video. Because of it I also got the mount on my first kill

[thegoodrogue]

I solo it every week, as prot though. Can't seem to do it as ret. Oh well, still one-shot it every week. I use a PvP trinket for kiting the mage back to close room, and for disorients for kael.

I use ret gear with prot WoG spec.

[Scoliopteryx]

I tried to do this but I just keep failing

My first attempt wasnt too bad, I got to the Kaelthas phase then he just totally ripped me apart.

2nd attempt, the advisors all came at me the second I downed the weapons, so I was stunned most of the time and couldn't do anything.

3rd attempt, I tried in prot spec, and I just gave up because the last advisor nearly already killed me, so I wouldnt of survived the weapons etc..

Might try again later, or stick to guild groups >.<

[Dawgsnstuff]

Managed to solo this without going outside of Kael's room, it saves a lot of time
Killed capernian on the Kael's end of the room, and others on the other end.
When they got resurrected I nuked capernian down with CDs and then nuked telonicus, after that it is easy, took remote toy off with bubble after killing telonicus.
I slacked a bit with the last one to get CDs rdy for Kael, and when Kael 'activated' I was behind pillar, so he had to run to me, interrupted first Fireball and nuked him to 50% with CDs, he didnt even get to cast his first pyro xD
On the last phase I was again behind a pillar, so he had to come to me, nuked him for a while, and dont dps him during the air phase, or you get nasty stack, also the air phase seems to bug sometimes that you fall down AND take fall damage, but I had bubble rdy for the last phase again, and also got other CDs rdy, and it wasnt that hard, but I suggest staying behind a pillar, and try to get him down fast, last phase is very failable as retri, wasnt a problem as feral or hunter.

[xlord]

i tried this boss as prot pala and a friend who's a mage.
we can activate the boss but kinda wipe as soon as he does his mind control.

would it be easier to do it on my own or are we doing something wrong?

[Regen]

Slightly off-topic: What's that bag addon including the MS/FPS widget on it? Looks nice and I need it

On-topic: Congrats and thank you! Will be trying daily!