The DK Solo Thread 3.0

[Kraeth]

Not even at level 100? Won't it be possible to go Frost and spam Death Siphon then?

The damage rampup might be too high since the squish-bonus won't affect MoP content.

[falagar112]

Not even at level 100? Won't it be possible to go Frost and spam Death Siphon then?

Had to get past Vizier to give blade lord a go - I can confirm, yes there's no way on earth you are doing this right now. For reference, even inviting a healer and have him try to outheal the song of the empress got us killed in <15 seconds. And you can't burn that much damage in that timeframe. And that's just p3 -> last phase it's even harder.

Ended up doing it normal way, 4 people, break mind controls (who have a LOT of hp nowadays, just saying) to get my save

ps:


as mione mentioned, still doable and probably even easier now, with 8.3m hp

[Nomisno]

So I just did Stone Guards and Feng on a 564 dk, haven't changed any part of my gear yet. Didn't use consumables, Feng dealt quite some magical damage, but still both were exremely faceroll. WTF.

[falagar112]

Ji'kun also down - just did nests until 2 spawn at a time then outhealed everything on the platform till it died, not that hard.
PS - almost outhealed my own damage numberwise... 12 minute kills + soft enrage

[Tatsh]

So I just did Stone Guards and Feng on a 564 dk, haven't changed any part of my gear yet. Didn't use consumables, Feng dealt quite some magical damage, but still both were exremely faceroll. WTF.

You can probably do Heroic Stone Guard as well honestly, it was a walk in the park for me and I never even used the painting mechanic

Also, is it possible to solo Jin'rokh anymore? I've heard he just resets now when he tosses you, any way to get around this?

[Monteverdi]

Anyone having problem with LK tonight? I keep getting DC'd at the very end of the RP. Have disabled all addons.

[Creatinebrah]

do people think DK's will still be kings of solo in WOD or will a new class "out-solo" DKs?

[Magdalena]

Hello everyone.

I took the time to run multiple 25H Cataclysm instances today, matching the same ones that I did last week. The goal was to compare this to my experience last week, when Patch 6.0 came out.
I’m putting down all my “notes” here for various Cataclysm encounters, in the hope that it helps anyone who wants to kill these bosses.

As we know, there were there major changes implemented since last Tuesday:

1. Death Siphon was nerfed against old content. Previously, it was benefitting from the enormous damage bonus we gain against any pre-MoP content, and thus behaving like a no-cooldown Lay on Hands for DKs.

2. The bonus damage done modifier applied to old content was reduced significantly. On October 14th for WoTLK content, it was something close to 75 times the damage we’d normally deal- now it’s closer to 25 times (number credit here goes to Aelobin’s estimation). Numbers for Cataclysm encounters are still a work in progress.

3. To compensate for the drastic reduction of bonus damage dealt, creature health was drastically slashed in all pre-MoP content. I believe Aelobin estimated a roughly 50% nerf to most content, though specifics elude me.

Preliminaries:

1. I ran all content on 25H both out of curiosity, and because it’s immensely profitable. Even after reporting it last week, 25H Cataclysm encounters continue to drop 125g each, along with numerous vendor items. This makes each boss worth roughly 250g, which more than pays for various consumables/repairs, and can also net a tidy profit .

2. To draw an accurate comparison, I tried to run as much as Unholy this week, as I could. I wasn’t Unholy 100% of the time like last week, but it was close enough- I’ll go into specific cases where I went Blood below. My healing talent as Unholy was always Death Siphon.

3. As a general rule, I will note that all Cataclysm 25H bosses took longer this week than they did last week. This is an understandable consequences of the drastic nerf we saw, and is thus not worth mentioning on a boss-to-boss basis. In some cases the length was increased by only a few seconds due to better play on my part + health nerf, in others it was longer.

4. Trash felt similar in almost every case to last week: One or Two-Shottable. Nothing changed there, for whatever reason.

5. If I mention a mechanic that felt broken or unintended, you can bet I’ve already reported it. Let’s hope they get fixed!


Bastion of Twilight 25H:

Halfus: I went Blood for this boss. Even as Unholy last week, he hit VERY hard. Death Siphon’s brokenness back then saved me, but I decided not to take any chances. As long as I didn’t let Blood Shield be broken, damage was very low here.

Valiona and Theralion: I was quite irritated to find that Blackout on V&T remains broken.
Here is a screenshot of my combat log from when Blackout was applied: https://twitter.com/MagdalenaDK/stat...48491445518336

Luckily, we can AMS the application of the debuff, and the fight damage is quite trivial without it being a factor. It’s worth noting though, that boss mods bug out if you AMS the first application- for instance, DBM removed the timer for the next time the debuff was supposed to be applied because it didn’t go out. You will almost certainly have to deal with at least 2 Blackout applications on V&T, so be warned that the second AMS will have to be manually calculated by you
If you want to brute force it as Blood, AMS the first application and just use Rune Tap + IBF for the second explosion- barely tickles.

Ascendent Council: No noticeable differences from last week. Most abilities deal trivial damage, and the Elementium Monstrosity dies very quickly before unavoidable AoE does too much damage.

Cho’gall: Felt similar to last week as well. Pretty much a Tank and Spank- he spam summons Elementals and also calls a pair of Adherents early into the fight. Blood Boil will knock them out very quickly, and the boss will go from 25% to 0% very fast.

Sinestra: The reduction to our damage output compared to last week made an old bug rear its ugly head on this boss. The bug can basically be described as this: If you don’t put out a certain amount of damage on Sinestra when she’s battling with Calen, she will not bring down the Egg Barrier despite her emotes saying she has. This will result in Calen eventually dying and the fight resetting.
I solved this by staying on her even as she cast Twilight Extinction (it barely tickles), and popping Gargoyle + Heroism drums as soon as her battle with Calen began. This finally made her lower the Egg Barrier, and the fight proceeded as normal. I’ll note that the Twilight Spitecaller debuff (which ticks for a % of your health) is also squished, so it’s become a non-issue.


Blackwing Descent:

Omnotron Defense System: As easy as last week. Nothing to really report.

Magmaw: Also very easy. Because he took a bit longer, I got Lava Parasites + Bone Construct, but the boss was near dead when they spawned.

Chimaeron: Only important thing to watch out for is Massacre- it will bring you down completely, and you are almost guaranteed to die if he goes into Phase 2 with you at low health. Make sure you’re healed up for the last 20% and he’ll fall over before dealing serious damage.

Atramedes: Same as last week. An easy Tank and Spank.

Maloriak: Because Maloriak was slower to die compared to last week, the last 20% was a bit dangerous. The boss gets very big thanks to all the Released Abberations, and begins hitting very hard. Glyph Icy Touch to dispel his healing serum, and be sure to have Death Runes available for a quick Death Siphon if needed. Aside from that, nothing really different.

Nefarian: Lava has been buffed around the whole world in World of Warcraft…. Including Nefarian. This leads to a situation where P2 lava hits for large amounts of your health, and you want to get out fast- don’t even think about swimming through it.
I did it as Unholy last week, but found that the damage output was too high this week and ended up doing it as Blood.


Throne of the Four Winds:

Conclave of Wind: This was the only encounter which I switched back to 25N for. Conclave deals insane amounts of AoE damage to us, and is very tough to survive.

One SS of damage: https://twitter.com/MagdalenaDK/stat...16498422874112

Another SS: https://twitter.com/MagdalenaDK/stat...21793295466497

This wasn’t just the AoE damage from not being on their platforms, but even direct damaging abilities. It’s completely unsurvivable as Unholy, and requires RNG as Blood- for instance, I used ERW + Army on Nezir’s platform to keep him engaged as I ran past to Anshal.
Could I have killed this boss as Blood on 25H? Probably, but it would have been close.

I can see the encounter being much easier at Level 100, but found it strange that it was so much harder relative to Al’Akir- not in terms of mechanics, but raw damage output. It fell over on 25N as Unholy, so /shrug.

Al’Akir: Boring and easy compared to Conclave’s damage output. Really nothing much to report, his damage output was trivial and easily dealt with.


Firelands:

Shannox: Pretty easy Tank and Spank fight, except for one issue.

Blizzard hasn’t fixed the same issue from last week, where Shannox’s Jagged Tear debuff deals completely unmitigated damage: https://twitter.com/MagdalenaDK/stat...66720175902720

Because the fight took longer, this means it can actually get to dangerous levels. Therefore, the faster you zerg the boss, the safer you’ll be.

Beth’tilac: Similar to last week, the only thing to worry about is making sure she’s at 1 health by the time she descends her web. If she doesn’t die near-instantly at the bottom, she will consume Spiderlings and regenerate massive amounts of health. This, in conjunction with Cinderweb Spinners all stunning and dealing huge damage to you, will probably result in a wipe.
All you need to do is have her positioned slightly away from the center of the web where she will descend before she hits 10%, and shave the health off before she heads down.

Lord Rhyolith: Non-DKs have reported that turning Rhyolith has become harder since the nerf to bonus damage. I personally didn’t notice any difference, but I did have DoTs ticking on both legs- maybe that helped? The only difference from last week is that his lava streams are properly squished and won’t one-shot you.

Alysrazor: Similar to last week, I killed her in the first air phase. The only reason anyone would fail is if they didn’t pay attention to their Molten Wings and missed enough Rings of Flame for it to run out.

Baleroc: Baleroc spawned Shards of Torment for me this week, something he definitely didn’t do last week. Luckily, their AoE pulses are fairly weak and outhealable (I didn’t try soaking them at all). If anything, the boss’s white damage is more dangerous. I am told that Decimation Blade has NOT been squished, and that getting it is generally a death sentence. See this tweet: https://twitter.com/Achloryn/status/524839382512320512
My DPS was high enough to only get one blade (which is always an Inferno Blade), so the boss didn’t feel too different.

Majordomo Staghelm: Lower damage compared to last week meant the fight dragged on longer, thus Majordomo was actually able to get to 100 Energy. I didn’t kite too much, but made judicious use of Death Siphon. Cats were easy to handle with Blood Boil.

Ragnaros: Surprisingly, not much more challenging compared to last week. Transition phases are probably the most dangerous times due to Sons of Flame, but they die very fast. AMS will trivialise the damage of one or two hitting the hammer.
The only oddity on this fight is that Ragnaros will immediately cast Empower Sulfuras when he emerges from the lava. You’ll have no Entrapping Roots to take him into, and will thus want to have both AMS + IBF available- even with the damage reduction, he will deal very heavily magical damage.


Baradin Hold:

Argoloth: Trivial. Meteor Slash deals a decent amount of damage, but nothing too scary. Fire on the ground wasn’t too painful even with the debuff, and the boss died very quickly.

Occu’thar: Also trivial. Complete Tank and Spank.

Alizabel: Like Valiona and Theralion, Alizabel’s Seething Hate debuff bypasses all damage reduction and is a guaranteed one-shot if it ticks. I deflected its application with AMS and unlike with V&T, DBM kept the timer up to let me know when to AMS for the second application- which was barely a second after Skewer ended, so be sure to hit it immediately!


Conclusion:

That’s pretty much everything I can think of. As I mentioned during the beginning- in any instance where I’ve found abilities dealing unusually high amounts of damage or being unaffected by mitigation, I’ve passed reports along. Sadly, I know Aelo’s been doing the same since Beta and his advice wasn’t heeded.

It’s fairly safe to say that almost anything that seems hard right now will be easier by Level 100, and that the overwhelming majority of pre-MoP content is very trivial to deal with now. I look forward to Mists of Pandaria bosses providing bigger challenges for us to overcome in Warlords.

[Alkasis]

Spine of Deathwing heroic solo

tactic
Blood Corruption: Death(debuff) - Rune tap+AMS or Icebound Fortitude Counter

[Saiyendra]

Wow, thank you for the amazing write-up, Magdalena! I found the Firelands 25H section especially helpful.

(I'm just wondering why you didn't include Dragon Soul in your runs?)

[Arctagon]

Excellent write-up, Magdalena!

3. To compensate for the drastic reduction of bonus damage dealt, creature health was drastically slashed in all pre-MoP content. I believe Aelobin estimated a roughly 50% nerf to most content, though specifics elude me.

Personally, I didn't see the point in reducing the health in previous content. The damage we deal is more or less the same as prior to the patch, so the fights would remain basically the same. Why reduce the health? Anyway, what I wanted to note, is that health reduction appears to vary from boss to boss. Based on my own experience, I'd estimate the health reduction to be roughly (50±15)%.

[Deleted]

@Magdalena

As I wrote a few pages back, the blackout cooldown is 45sec, might want to add that.

[Ktperry]

Hey is it possible now for Frost to solo LK25hc?

[Deleted]

Of course it is, you take close to zero damage, and his health goes down very quickly. You still need to be aware of the shadow traps in phase 1, and the frozen orbs during the transitions.

[Ktperry]

Of course it is, you take close to zero damage, and his health goes down very quickly. You still need to be aware of the shadow traps in phase 1, and the frozen orbs during the transitions.

When i solo it on my pally i just stay at the stairs during p1, so traps dont kick me, and on transition i stay there aswell, and orbs doesnt kick me.

[Monteverdi]

When i solo it on my pally i just stay at the stairs during p1, so traps dont kick me, and on transition i stay there aswell, and orbs doesnt kick me.

I used to just use my goblin glider as fuck-up protection. Turns out, this is not longer possible as goblin glider can no longer be activated during boss encounters. Just an FYI to you engis out there.

[Arctagon]

goblin glider can no longer be activated during boss encounters. Just an FYI to you engis out there.

I know. It made me sad when I found out. As if that wasn't enough, Nitro Boots works like a potion now, so you can only use it once during combat, and the cooldown won't start ticking until you leave combat.

[Monteverdi]

I know. It made me sad when I found out. As if that wasn't enough, Nitro Boots works like a potion now, so you can only use it once during combat, and the cooldown won't start ticking until you leave combat.

I KNOW. The nitro boots change is killing me Engineering used to be cool.

[Deleted]

25H Madness, last phase. Is there anything that can be done to counter the bloods that heal him other than sheer outdamaging their heals? Every time I get him near dead 30 of those things crawl into him and get him back to 30%.

There are way too many to kill them all and they spawn too fast to nuke him between spawns. I could try glyphed D&D slow + Remorseless Winter + killing as many as I can, but if that doesn't work I'm out of ideas.

[Tatsh]

25H Madness, last phase. Is there anything that can be done to counter the bloods that heal him other than sheer outdamaging their heals? Every time I get him near dead 30 of those things crawl into him and get him back to 30%.

There are way too many to kill them all and they spawn too fast to nuke him between spawns. I could try glyphed D&D slow + Remorseless Winter + killing as many as I can, but if that doesn't work I'm out of ideas.

Glyph Death and Decay, take the Chillblains talent, and Outbreak the first blood that drops so you can spread diseases to the rest of them. Unless you are super crunched for time clear all adds before each wave, they spawn at 15%, 10%, and 5% health, so only push Deathwing past those totals when your DND is up and you have plenty of runes. Also never DPS him more than 5% at a time unless you are 100% sure you can kill him before a Congealing Blood reaches him.

Also, could not kill Ultraxion 25m HC this week as Frost, is it easier as Unholy?

Best of luck and happy mount hunting!