This post is obviously terribly outdated; the principles remain the same, but the rest, the specifics, can safely be ignored.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.
__________________________________________________________________________________________
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 The extensive changes that come with expansions are already out, and the old thread maintained by Braindwen is no longer being updated.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!