[5.0 Edition] The Druid Soloing Guide

[Arctagon]

Berserk did not reset for me. But yes, I think cooldowns over a particular threshold in amount of time will reset every time one kills a boss or wipes to it. I use HotW for pretty much every boss, whether I kill it before the buff expires or not. If I can choose between killing a boss fast or slow, I'd often choose fast.

[Arctagon]

I spent pretty much the entire day in Ulduar yesterday, mostly because it was a first-timer from XT-002 and beyond for me. I spent so much time on silly things, like trying to acquire If Looks Could Kill (10 player) and Rubble and Roll (10 player) simultaneously, with the lasers sometimes behaving strangely, and also getting to Thorim the proper way. Staying Buffed All Winter (10 player) also seems to be bugged, as I wasn't able to get it, so a few attempts went away to that as well.

I'm wondering, is there any way to get to Thorim and trigger normal mode of the fight? Nothing I did worked, and I went out of ideas.

Finally, Algalon is not soloable at the moment, just so we have that clear. FoN just won't taunt him. If they would, my plan was to make them taunt him at one stack of Phase Punch in order to delay the second, so that the fifth stack wouldn't line up with constellations, which I think would make it hard for FoN to taunt the right target. Then, at four stacks, which should be lined up with Big Bang, he should be tanked at the edge of the platform, and when he begins the cast, run across the platform (or along the edge), to the opposite side. When Algalon comes after you, pop FoN and run to the opposite side again, and you should have stayed away from him long enough fro the stack of Phase Punch to drop. He should be dead before he's able to stack up to five again. If not, FoN should be ready to delay a stack or two.

So, if FoN actually did taunt him, or if we had something to distract him for a little time, I'm pretty sure this encounter with be easy to solo. We're so close. :c

[Deleted]

Already the meta-achievement was doable at Cataclysm, exept Hodir HM. For the specials achievements... it's different.
About If Looks Could Kill (10 player), it's doable but it's difficult to try another achievement in the same time.
About Thorim, he must be in hardmode, but you can do all his achiements in HM, exept ''Who Needs Bloodlust'', you need a priest for it.
About Algalon, I think, but I'll try, he's doable if you just have enough of dps. Why not catform? the fight only takes 1min15 for 8000k !

[Williee]

Probably not much, but here are full clear videos of AQ 40 and Black Temple.
For those who have issue with specific boss, check the description to skip to the boss you want.

AQ 40
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cc9lWsA429Q

Black Temple
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgAf0CoGDrY

[Arctagon]

The only reason I failed on If Looks Could Kill (10 player), was because the lasers moved very strangely sometimes. Plus, as you said, I was doing another achievement at the same time. Otherwise, I could just have burned him down before he was even able to use his lasers much. :b

Yeah, I thought I could only do him heroic mode if I went solo. Too bad. And yeah, I ought to bring a priest some time. What a lame achievement.

I for one am at least not able to sustain 100k+ DPS for over a minute. I might be able to do it if I'm fully buffed and use potion. Although, I think it takes approximately 45 seconds for Phase Punch to reach 5 stacks, and he has 8367k health. In order to beat that, you need 186k DPS.

I just soloed Halion for the first time, and I noticed that his Corporeality went up and down, making it very hard for me to out-DPS his healing. I was under the impression that outgoing damage was what influenced Corporeality, but it seems like it's outgoing DPS? So if the DPS is constant he will never go up in Corporeality? Anybody with more insight than me here?

[Deleted]

186k... I'll attack him tonight

About Halion, I don't really know, usually he does : 50 > 40 > 50 > 60 > 70 > 80 > 90 > 100 = BURST. The corporeality is a mystery !

[Braindwen]

About Halion, I don't really know, usually he does : 50 > 40 > 50 > 60 > 70 > 80 > 90 > 100 = BURST. The corporeality is a mystery !

That it is. Sometimes it plays nice and shoots straight up to 100, sometimes it doesn't want to go up at all. I think waiting and not attacking until his buff is up ~90 helps, but I haven't done the fight enough to be sure (only ever done it as a DK at 85).

[Arctagon]

I just watched Mione's solo of Halion heroic, and he was having the same issues. Like his description says, 'Apparently, some invisible "companions" are pushing Halion into the Twilight Realm for an unknown reason.'.

[Deleted]

His name was Algalon. I wanna sing the music until the end




Druids, our strenght is not the dps, it's the movements.

[Arctagon]

Nice. Congrats with that. You would never have made it if it wasn't for engineering, though, so I'm still not going back to him, since I haven't got that profession.

Alright, now I'm stuck on Gunship. I'm able to deal enough damage for the mage to come out instantly, and when I'm back on my own ship again, my ship have already lost almost 50% HP. After having watched some Gunship solo videos, I'm almost beginning to wonder if Blizzard have buffed their damage, because right now there's just no way I am able to solo this.

[Deleted]

Engineering ? I think you can kill him without, but it's a little bit more difficult with the timers. I have a few seconds of Stampeding Roar when the debuff fades. Moreover, you can take distance with the boss during the cast of Big Bang.

[Braindwen]

Engineering ? I think you can kill him without, but it's a little bit more difficult with the timers. I have a few seconds of Stampeding Roar when the debuff fades. Moreover, you can take distance with the boss during the cast of Big Bang.

^
Just did it as feral. I purposefully avoided using nitros, and still managed a reset. I got a bit lucky, admittedly (he transitioned into phase 2 right after his big bang cast, so he stood still an extra few seconds), but it shouldn't be necessary.

Besides, you'll likely be able to burst through his health before it matters soon enough.

Alright, now I'm stuck on Gunship. I'm able to deal enough damage for the mage to come out instantly, and when I'm back on my own ship again, my ship have already lost almost 50% HP. After having watched some Gunship solo videos, I'm almost beginning to wonder if Blizzard have buffed their damage, because right now there's just no way I am able to solo this.

Riflemen, marines, and sergeants are the dangerous targets. The burning pitch attack they all have is devastating to the gunship. They won't use it if they recognize that you're on your ship and not in a cannon though, instead they'll just attack you.

If you don't have it on, I'd recommend game sound for this fight. Adds spawn well after they're yelled for, so you can be there and waiting for them before they become active.

Priority is: Melee adds on your boat (marines/sergeants), shooters on their boat (riflemen), sorcerers. Mortars are irrelevant and can be safely ignored. If you're careful about clearing the dangerous adds out whenever they're active, you should have no problem with ship health. It's slower, but the encounter itself is very easy.
E.G. just did it to check, my ship ended around 45-50%. About 1/3-1/2 of that lost health was right at the beginning when I screwed up a bit (I didn't expect the melee adds to be summoned that quickly, so I jumped over to clear out the riflemen and had to let the melee adds wreck my boat for a bit).

[Arctagon]

I had the riflemen down pretty much always. I was shooting at them while I was in the cannon, while I jumped over, I made sure to hit a point that would make the impact hit three of them, and if they still weren't dead, I would Thrash them once on my way to the sorcerer. During my first attempts, I ignored adds altogether, and I wasn't that far from making it. I was actually closer than when I did go for the adds. I thought that I didn't need to, as Williee had no problems doing it that way. I figured I should try to go for the melee adds as well, though, so I will go back to the encounter again.

Edit: I went for all the adds this time, and I still barely made it. No matter where I was, in the cannon, on my ship, on their ship, attacking adds or not, they were spamming Burning Pitch. No wonder I took as much damage as I did even before I went for them.

[traen]

His name was Algalon. I wanna sing the music until the end

10man ulduar is not even a challenge for us any more.

I managed to solo most of the bosses in 25man ulduar, but algalon hits like a truck. I wonder if we'll be able to down him before 6.0.

[Arctagon]

I cleared ICC earlier today, except for Valithria. Has anybody here, except Williee, done this fight as Feral or Guardian? I think Feral is slightly better than Guardian for this fight due to PS procs, even though they don't come in abundance. I managed to get her up to 11m/12m HP at what I'd call a good attempt. I think I simply don't have the gear at the moment to be able to solo this fight. On a perfectly executed fight, with superlative RNG up my rear, I think I might be able to do it, but I'm just not waiting for that one attempt. I'd rather just wait until I get better gear.

10man ulduar is not even a challenge for us any more.

If you are saying Algalon is not a challenge, then I'm beginning to doubt that you've even tried him on that difficulty.

Edit: It took a little while before I noticed, but SWEET PANCAKES, MIONE JUST POSTED IN THIS THREAD!

Edit again:

If you want an easy reset (at least that's how I do as DK), you take the cosmic smash and use goblin glider

That gave me an idea! But then I saw the duration. :c Gah, I'm yet again reminded of what I'm missing out on for not going with engineering.

[Braindwen]

I cleared ICC earlier today, except for Valithria. Has anybody here, except Williee, done this fight as Feral or Guardian? I think Feral is slightly better than Guardian for this fight due to PS procs, even though they don't come in abundance. I managed to get her up to 11m/12m HP at what I'd call a good attempt. I think I simply don't have the gear at the moment to be able to solo this fight. On a perfectly executed fight, with superlative RNG up my rear, I think I might be able to do it, but I'm just not waiting for that one attempt. I'd rather just wait until I get better gear.

I did it as feral, and I agree on the lack of PS procs. Trying it without respeccing out of DoC i very nearly did it, then I respecced out of DoC into HotW and laughed (at myself, for not respeccing) at having half the fight done 45 seconds in. The rest was just trying to use as many abilities as possible to kill stuff so I could actually get decently high combo points, and healing in between with just normal heals.
Agi buffs are very handy if using HotW, it makes your heals stupidly powerful.

[Arctagon]

I agree on the Agi buffs. I didn't want to use any potions or flasks or foods (or anything, really, except MotW), but I suppose it will be necessary if I want a 'kill' at this point. What kinds of heals are you using? I always cast Rejuv before I start spamming HTs, and try to keep Rejuv up as much as possible. It seems the total amount of healing of a Rejuv is bigger than that of HT, unless the latter crits. Are you seriously able to get her up to 9m during HotW? I wasn't even able to get her to 8m during that time. It's not like you'll be able to heal for the entire duration anyway, because supressors spawn before that.

On a side note, Saurfang was a proper bitch. I actually brought flasks for that fight, after I realised that I could need it. He went down on my ninth attempt. I realised that I should probably save HotW for his frenzy, because I wouldn't be able to survive for too long after that, plus it would be too hard to out-DPS his healing at that point. The first attempt I actually survived until he enraged. :b I also had a 100k wipe; he summoned beasts when he had 100k-200k left, and I thought I could make it by focusing him. Oh, how wrong I was. When I decided to move the burst to his frenzy, I had two consecutive attempts where I accidentally popped HotW way before I should, ruining the fight, but that happens, though. After that, I finally made it. Hopping into cat form right after he frenzies with almost no HP left, popping HotW, Berserk and pot, tossing up an NS + HT heal, which crits me for 786k, and then burning him down. That was kind of fun. How the scales abruptly tipped from his to my favour like that.

[Braindwen]

I do recall getting her to 9M during Heart. I just ignored suppressors during it since it's such a huge healing increase that I didn't want to waste a second of it. Heart healing reduced by 40% is still worlds better than normal healing.

Yes, I was rolling rejuv and spamming HT otherwise. I think I had my caster weapon on as well. In fact, I might have left that on all fight to make things die slower and let me get more PS procs.

I don't know how saurfang works as guardian atm, I'd imagine it's just a lot of SD spam. Again, I did it as feral when I cleared the place, and I thought that was a pretty bad idea. I had to kite him during the frenzy to let my energy regen, or he'd just kill me faster than I could get PS procs. Had to do the same thing for Princes, for that matter.

Edit:
0-stack Vashj recorded, down in 4 pulls. I must say, while the fight itself isn't hard, it can be a tough fight if you add your own challenge to it .
I'm done with finals, and have a ton of free time anyway since no one wants to go near the guy with the cold, so expect an update in the next few days. All 5.1 changed bosses, ICC, some difficulty changes, and some changes to the spec sections (specifically all this HotW hubbub everyone keeps bringing up). Let me know if there's anything else to fix.

[Williee]

For saurfang and princes, I did them as guardian w/ hotw. I pretty much killed princes before or around hotw duration ending. As for saurfang, he was about ~40% or so, then bear form the rest, using sd and heals sparingly.
Wish shadowmourne was obtainable by druids, I would definitely put in work for it on my druid if I could do the questline

[Arctagon]

Princes? Blood Council Princes? Perhaps there's something I don't know, but I one-shot them without the slightest problem. I just burned them down with HotW. Maybe they didn't last long enough for me to see the problem with them. Oh well.

When do you think you will have the video up, Braindwen? And will you try to upload soloing videos a little more frequently now that you have the time? Last video was two months ago. :c

In regards to the update, just remember to change Winterchill's difficulty to easy. He honestly doesn't deserve medium at this point. I'm a little doubtful as to whether High King Maulgar deserves medium as well, as I one-shot him on my first visit in Gruul's Lair. Then again, it depends on where you draw the line between easy and medium. If easy is where you can blindly jump into the encounter, knowing nothing more than the name of the boss, and still succeed, then I agree that these encounters might deserve medium (I haven't tried doing High King Maulgar in a different way, though).

Wish shadowmourne was obtainable by druids, I would definitely put in work for it on my druid if I could do the questline

Same here. It would be so amazing. I might do it on my DK just to experience it.