The Druid Soloing Thread

[Arctagon]

This post is obviously terribly outdated; the principles remain the same, but the rest, the specifics, can safely be ignored. I have no intentions of keeping this first post up to date, but feel free to continue to use the thread as a place for discussion.
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With a new expansion just around the corner, it's time for a new soloing thread. The extensive changes that come with expansions are already out, and the old thread maintained by Braindwen is no longer being updated.

This thread will primarily serve as a place for discussion of the soloing aspect of the game, but I will also try to keep track of what has and hasn't been killed in this post, as well as discuss things that are unique to soloing.


Specialization & Talents

Every spec can solo the vast majority of content, but for fights being tough on survivability, Guardian is the go-to spec, so this is the spec this particular post will be focusing on. Success in soloing requires a balance between survivability and the ability to dish out as much damage as possible in as little time as possible. Guardian has far and away the best survivability, even more so now with the new tanking buff, Resolve. The change of tanking buff does come at the expense of less damage output, but it should overall be a buff.

• Feline Swiftness: Increasing your base movement speed is always going to be beneficial. It helps you to move away from deadly mechanics faster, and spending less time running generally makes your life easier. I will be using this as baseline.
• Displacer Beast: The only use I can see for this is when you need to escape something like a big 360º ability, that would otherwise be difficult to escape in time (which generally never happens thanks to our sprint cooldowns). It also resets your rage. Overall, not nearly as good as its alternatives.
• Wild Charge: It doesn't save you time running like Feline Swiftness does, but it's nice to have on certain boss fights where you need to get to an enemy quickly, like on Yogg-Saron.

• Ysera's Gift: Good for non-Guardian specs, not as good as Cenarion Ward for Guardian.
• Renewal: The only situation this is good is when you need to burst heal yourself, but most of the times you find yourself in such a situation, you are going to have enough Resolve for Frenzied Regeneration to heal at least equally much, and probably more.
• Cenarion Ward: This heals more than Ysera's Gift unbuffed. Throw buffs, trinket/weapon procs and Resolve in, and the difference becomes ridiculous.

None of these are going to have any effect on bosses, but they can be useful for controlling adds or mobs in general, like the trash between Sha of Violence and Taran Zhu in Shado-Pan Monastery or if you're trying your hand at Nerf Scrapbots. Typhoon is the best general-purpose talent, as it works like an interrupt.

• Soul of the Forest: Increases passive damage and rage regeneration. Better RPS than Incarnation.
• Incarnation: Son of Ursoc: Powerful burst talent for damage, RPS and potentially healing. Better damage than Soul of the Forest.
• Force of Nature: Treants seem to be able to taunt bosses when you don’t hold that much threat, but their damage is negligible.

Another tier with talents that don't have any effect on bosses, and once again another tier that can be useful for controlling adds. Avoid Incapacitating Roar, though.

• Heart of the Wild: An amazing talent for burst DPS. Can be used for healing, as well.
• Dream of Cenarius: Best talent for healing current content.
• Nature's Vigil: Good burst healing when paired with Berserk and Incarnation.

These talent choices are purely based on how they fare against bosses in general. Talents that are considered bad against bosses might very well be good choices for certain achievements, like Mass Entanglement (I've grown fond of this talent for that particular purpose) and Incapacitating Roar.

As far as glyphs are concerned, I'd like to mention Glyph of Dash. Glyph of Grace could be worth looking into as well. Everything else is what you'd typically use for end-game content. The rest is preference.


Boss Tracker

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...it?usp=sharing



Feedback is more than welcome—if you spot any typos, have suggestions or the likes, then do let me know!

[Hecow]

Looks good so far mate good job.

[Arielle]

Everything in TOGC 25 (i.e.e 25H) is soloable except Anub. He might be soloable with careful HP management or maybe the right gear but that would be rough.

Everything in 25H ICC is soloable.

Got through most of 25H BWD and then got stuck on Maloriak. If you get Fire first it's fine and just a matter of timing. If you get Ice first it's really rough.

[exochaft]

25man heroic BWD is all soloable for Guardian (I'd recommend killing Chimaeron before Nef since your mastery bubble will never break for the fight). Haven't checked this week, but 25man heroic BoT should be all soloable if they fixed the debuff from V&T (stacking stam and a little luck make it possible, but 25man normal is definitely doable).

25man heroic FL is soloable, with a little luck on Baleroc in terms of face tanking (again, haven't done it this week, they may have fixed it). Throne of the Four Winds is soloable on 25man heroic. I've managed up through Hagara on 25man heroic in DS, ran into a DPS check with Ultraxion since you need to kill him before the first Midnight or he kills the aspects due to lack of bodies.

All of ICC is soloable as Guardian on heroic 25man, as well.

I've killed through Feng on MSV 10man, Gara'jal is rough since the shadowbolts don't give Resolve. Vizier in HoF 10man isn't soloable unless someone can circumvent the MC mechanic, as it resets the fight on the 3rd platform (otherwise, the fight is cake). Protectors 10man may be soloable, I just messed it up a couple times trying to get the healing buff on myself, as it went on the boss and healing for tons... probably not worth trying to solo at this point.

Forgive the random-ish order, I was just scrolling up and figuring out what I solo'd last week.

[Deleted]

Some fights that have been done by either me, or others after the nerf to soloing so still possible now.

Al'akir 10H (Balance)
Ji-Kun 10N (Balance)
Elegon 10N (Balance, requires BiS gear to burst him into a transition before the add spawns, video on Youtube)
All of ICC 25 HC

[Slippykins]

Sticking this and unstickying Braindwen's thread.

[Arctagon]

Everything in TOGC 25 (i.e.e 25H) is soloable except Anub. He might be soloable with careful HP management or maybe the right gear but that would be rough.

Yeah, guildie of mine soloed TotGC 25-man just as I soloed it on normal last week.

(I'd recommend killing Chimaeron before Nef since your mastery bubble will never break for the fight).

Is it even possible to engage Nefarian before killing Chimaeron? Also, have you soloed the 25-man heroic raids you mention in your post yourself? If so, can you tell me exactly what you have and haven't killed?

Vizier in HoF 10man isn't soloable unless someone can circumvent the MC mechanic, as it resets the fight on the 3rd platform (otherwise, the fight is cake).

Yes, you need to get outside his hit box so he starts channeling Song of the Empress. As far as I know, only monks can survive that much damage from range.

Some fights that have been done by either me, or others after the nerf to soloing so still possible now.

Al'akir 10H (Balance)
Ji-Kun 10N (Balance)
Elegon 10N (Balance, requires BiS gear to burst him into a transition before the add spawns, video on Youtube)
All of ICC 25 HC

Ah, of course. I even watched the Elegon video myself, just forgot about it.


Updated the intial post. If anyone has the opportunity to do Baradin Hold, that would be nice. Can't do it myself, as the opposing faction is always in control of the area.

[Dechno]

If anyone has the opportunity to do Baradin Hold, that would be nice. Can't do it myself, as the opposing faction is always in control of the area.

Did 10N easily, even Alizabal. She hurt a bit but wasn't that fatal. Could try 25N later.

Edit: Got down the first two on 25N but Alizabal's Seething Hate is dealing quite a lot of damage. Managed to bring her down to ~50%, might be doable with better gear and rotating CDs correctly.

[Etamalgren]

If you guys have Juggernaut's crystal, use it. It's pretty beastly for keeping you healed during these fights, since it heals based on the scaled damage, not the base damage.

I did H25 BoT up to Cho'gall, but Sinestra's wrack tore me a new one.
As far as I know, H25 BWD's also doable, but for Maloriak, you'll probably have to kill the prime subjects before going after him.
Anub'arak H25 is also doable... but you're going to be in for a long and nerve-wracking fight. You'll have to keep your health below 8-10k to keep the healing that Anub does under control. I'd recommend not using juggernaut's crystal for this fight, though. It makes bursting a moot point, since you get more health back from more damage, which gets changed into more healing for Anub.

[Hypasonic]

So, Shannox 25 heroic as balance. Anyone with any tips? Sure, "go spec guardian" but I'd rather not, besides I have no agi gear, I assumed (Incorrectly may I add) that my DoTs would simply break Face Rage, but I was wrong. Then I thought the tree's would break it, again I was wrong. Nuking shannox before you get stunned seems impossible, and so too does nuking rage face.

I actually thought the tougher boss would be rng-baleroc, but I can't even get to him now, much disappoint. So any tips would be appreciated. I'll go in and faceroll it on my paladin for now.

[Deleted]

So, Shannox 25 heroic as balance. Anyone with any tips? Sure, "go spec guardian" but I'd rather not, besides I have no agi gear, I assumed (Incorrectly may I add) that my DoTs would simply break Face Rage, but I was wrong. Then I thought the tree's would break it, again I was wrong. Nuking shannox before you get stunned seems impossible, and so too does nuking rage face.

I actually thought the tougher boss would be rng-baleroc, but I can't even get to him now, much disappoint. So any tips would be appreciated. I'll go in and faceroll it on my paladin for now.

Have you tried using 25+ stacks of the Alysrazor buff then zerging him down?

[Hypasonic]

Didn't even think to do that for shannox lol, yeah was cake cheers

[Saiyendra]

Wow, this is great! Perhaps you could put the doable bosses in a spreadsheet?

[Hypasonic]

Just finished FL 25 HC as balance, had to cheese shannox/baleroc with birdie buff so take that as you will, surprisingly Major Domo was the "hardest" boss in terms of healing, luckily I had the focusing crystal so that just about kept me up in the end.

I took some SS's of most of the boss kills, completely forgot about shannox and alysrazor but they went down easily enough.

http://imgur.com/a/kx132

[Arctagon]

Everything in TOGC 25 (i.e.e 25H) is soloable except Anub. He might be soloable with careful HP management or maybe the right gear but that would be rough.

Yeah, guildie of mine soloed TotGC 25-man just as I soloed it on normal last week.

It seems I was wrong. He gave me the impression that he was soloing it, but I asked him today, and he said that he brought a friend. Sorry. I've put Anub'arak TotGC 25 as not done again.

Did 10N easily, even Alizabal. She hurt a bit but wasn't that fatal. Could try 25N later.

Edit: Got down the first two on 25N but Alizabal's Seething Hate is dealing quite a lot of damage. Managed to bring her down to ~50%, might be doable with better gear and rotating CDs correctly.

Mm, yes, I suspected Alizabal 25N would be troublesome. Thanks for checking it out.

Wow, this is great! Perhaps you could put the doable bosses in a spreadsheet?

I was considering it, but I want the information to be explicitly in the post so people don't have to click on links and navigate to places in order to see the information. That being said, it does take up a lot of space now—I wanted to put the different expansions into tabs to condense all the information, but the forums don't allow me to do it—so if people would rather have the information presented in a spreadsheet, then I will make it happen.


I've updated the intial post with notes from Vanilla and TBC, some minor tweaks, and kills.

[sinso]

TOGC 25 managed to solo as boomkin 586. just let anub hit me to 10% before i pushed him into phase 3 pop ca/incarnation, barkskin, naturs vigil and land some nice crits. NV was keeping my hp at 1-2k so he didnt heal for alot and was enough to keep me alive

Also did all of BWD BOT TOFW And Dragonsoul 10 heroic solo (spine did as resto pre bug fix cause i needed dispell, should be able to boomchicken it now)

[Hypasonic]

Just finished BWD 25HC as balance, all bosses fairly easy apart from nef himself, made a hash of it in the end (Balance is my offspec) but got it down atleast. Was one of the closest kills I've had lol, I died but my dots somehow managed to finish him off before it reset.

Screenies of boss kills except Nef:

http://imgur.com/a/l0F9k

Video of Nef kill, nothing fancy:

[artem123]

Just finished FL 25 HC as balance, had to cheese shannox/baleroc with birdie buff so take that as you will, surprisingly Major Domo was the "hardest" boss in terms of healing, luckily I had the focusing crystal so that just about kept me up in the end.

I took some SS's of most of the boss kills, completely forgot about shannox and alysrazor but they went down easily enough.

http://imgur.com/a/kx132

how did you do baleroc? just curious, had issues with trying it

[Hypasonic]

how did you do baleroc? just curious, had issues with trying it

I got the buff from Alysrazor encounter (fly through the hoops in the air) you get stacks of a buff (debuff?) that increases your haste, and when you get 25 stacks you gain another buff (debuff? :P) that gives you 75% crit. It's doable without getting 25 stacks, but may aswell get them because it just melts Baleroc then.

[artem123]

I got the buff from Alysrazor encounter (fly through the hoops in the air) you get stacks of a buff (debuff?) that increases your haste, and when you get 25 stacks you gain another buff (debuff? :P) that gives you 75% crit. It's doable without getting 25 stacks, but may aswell get them because it just melts Baleroc then.

Ahh alright, i remember doing that before. tried it this week and it reset. im guessing you just repeat it after for shannox too then?