[5.0 Edition] The Druid Soloing Guide

[Deleted]

Today a new door is open, the door of ICC 25 (and ICC 25 HM).
I didn't try Valithria and the Gunship at ICC 10 but they don't seem very difficult. Maybe Saurfang 10HM could be a good challenge.
Actually, we can kill :
- Marrowgar 25 (HM is impossible [without an insane dps for pass him before the first storm])
- Deathwisper 25 (HM probably doable in the futur)
- Rotface 25 or Rotface 25HM
- Putricide 25 (I actually wipe at -10%, perhaps in the week).
- Blood Princes 25 or Blood Princes 25 HM
? Sindragosa 25 ?
- Lich King 25 (I really don't have the stuff for the moment, ilvl 486)

Williee, the problem about Conclave is the reset of the boss when you switch of platform. Perhaps... with a really insane dps, he could be doable a day if you : Kill Rohash, Nezir and Anshal in just one minute (Only Rohash Silencing, but we cannot do heal because of Anshal).
Al'Akir is easy. Perhaps the HM could be possible with an ilvl 500+ (like Atramedes).

Edit : Ascendant Council down. Ilvl 486 but the talent Heart of the Wild is (I guess) better than the Nature Vigil. Anyway, I confirm, this boss is not easy.

[Braindwen]

Williee, the problem about Conclave is the reset of the boss when you switch of platform. Perhaps... with a really insane dps, he could be doable a day if you : Kill Rohash, Nezir and Anshal in just one minute (Only Rohash Silencing, but we cannot do heal because of Anshal).
Al'Akir is easy. Perhaps the HM could be possible with an ilvl 500+ (like Atramedes).

I believe their revive was nerfed up to 2 minutes in normal.
Also the reset can be dealt with by simply killing the flower adds anshal spawns. At least, I wasn't having issues switching platforms. Now I just need the gear to bring down the last 25% of anshal's health so there's a reason to switch.

Also, have fun in ICC 25 .
"You need to have killed the Lich King on 25-player mode to enter this instance on heroic", and I really don't care to do that.

[Deleted]

I believe their revive was nerfed up to 2 minutes in normal.

I didn't know
But that can change everything ! (or almost)

[Arctagon]

How is it that Lady Vashj is marked as easy? I have been wiping on her for what feels like hours now. I tried going as Guardian first, and although I gave up trying keep the water elementals from reaching her, so that her buff stack eventually reached 99, I did reach the final phase. I would have made it, had it not been for the stuns too. I eventually switched to Balance, but this only made it harder. As soon as I take my focus away from the water elementals, she gets swarmed by them, and I will need to take my focus away from them due to the elite adds and the poison elementals. Getting feared all the time by the striders doesn't exactly make it any easier, either. And no, I'm usually not able to kill them before they reach me. The time it takes to finally kill them off, the nagas and picking up the cores, Vashj's buff stacks have rocketed through the roof. If I were to focus more on keeping the water elementals away, the poison elementals will despawn before I reach them, as well as getting swarmed by the elite adds.

Right now, I'm pretty stuck at it, as I'm barely able to get any cores before her stacks reach too high. It's quite ridiculous that this fight is marked as easy with this in mind, especially when Rage Winterchill is marked as medium, a fight that's very easy as long as you move out of his DnD.

[Braindwen]

I marked it as easy because 5.0 made it easy. I went back and retried it as balance at 85, and managed to fail half the cores (had to get 8 tainted eles because I kept forgetting to use the old cores, and they're unique). I still managed like 10 stacks total on the boss, and could have gone much higher with balance's health. Heck, with the amount of burst balance has, I'm not sure any amount of stacks would be dangerous. 5.0 fixed the one major problem balance had on the encounter: lacking self-heals.

I eventually switched to Balance, but this only made it harder. As soon as I take my focus away from the water elementals, she gets swarmed by them, and I will need to take my focus away from them due to the elite adds and the poison elementals. Getting feared all the time by the striders doesn't exactly make it any easier, either. And no, I'm usually not able to kill them before they reach me

I do need to look at rage again (I just remembered him being an issue to people at 85, I don't like Hyjal so I never go there), but come on.
Between shrooms, your choice of typhoon/faerie swarm, and ursol's vortex, that bolded part should *never* be happening. I suppose I could mark it as medium since striders could *technically* wipe you if you never bother slowing them, but they die in 2 DoTs/starsurges and balance is an excellent kiting spec.

Striders should be the only dangerous mechanic at 90, so if you can fix that up, the rest should seem much easier.

[Arctagon]

Alright, I tried a more organized approach by setting up a priority system to myself. Water elementals > striders > nagas > tainted elementals. By holding the water elementals as much in check as I did now, I almost never got time to go to the tainted elementals. And the striders are still sometimes able to get to me, even when afflicted by Faerie Swarm. I'm still not fully able to kill off all the water elementals before they reach her, either, and I end up wiping it when her stacks eventually get too high.

If you mean that the striders die from two DoTs (Moonfire/Sunfire?), then you are badly mistaken. With three stacks of Lunar Shower they hit for a little over 10k on the initial hit for me. Striders have 122k health.

[Braindwen]

They die from moonfire+sunfire DoT. Just kite em around while it ticks and keep dealing with water eles that are nearby. If you get a starsurge proc, that'll pretty much always finish them of. If starfall is up, make sure to use it too. It'll waste some stars on Vashj, but it kills off elites/striders very nicely.

I just did it. 3 stacks total, and I could have done 0 if I didn't get a lag spike right as a strider spawned next to me. Granted, nitros make the tainted eles easier, and I'd add at least ~5 stacks from not having those, but in no way can I call that encounter anything but easy.

And doing rage, he's also easy, so I'll get that one fixed up.

[Arctagon]

I just don't get how you do it. I'm only able to keep the water elementals off for a little while until it becomes overwhelming. It also seems that I don't have good enough gear for the striders to die from the DoTs. What I do when the striders spawn, is that I cast Faerie Swarm on them, then Moonfire and Sunfire. Should I do this on the nagas as well? How are you dealing with them?

I guess I will only have to keep trying until I make it, even though I don't see that happening anytime soon. There's at least no way that I can call this encounter easy as it is now.

---------- Post added 2012-12-10 at 02:05 AM ----------

And I finally made it. I gradually became better at handling everything. The problem I had when everything else went pretty well, was to get to the tainted elemental in time. When it spawned, I tried to clear the platform of all the water elementals and any potential elites before I got to it, which ended up in missing out on a lot of them, which in turn made more water elementals being able to get to Vashj, both because time passed and because I'm not able to clear the water elementals while I'm on the stairs.

Over time, I stopped hard casting anything at all and just used the same method I used for the striders to clear the nagas. I also prioritized the tainted water elementals more, so I often didn't clear everything on the platform before going to them.

On my last attempt, I think I managed to get to all the tainted elementals before they despawned, not wasting any of them. I ended up having Vashj on 27 stacks when I entered phase 3, which I thought was acceptable. Due to boomkins being so ridiculously slow to DPS with (or due to my lack of boomkin skills, probably a combination), she went down so slowly, and I had to heal myself a lot. I had a hard time keeping up with the damage income, so I went into bear form in the end, and I was about to die myself as I delivered the killing blow.

The relief was pretty big, and a sense of contentment filled me. Now I just need to do this raid every week ahead for a little while, so I get better at this.

Oh, and Braindwen, I still think this fight should be classified as something more difficult than easy, as I assume the list you have up is intended for people not already familiar with the bosses.


Edit: One-shotted Gruul's Lair, and it is the first time I set foot in that raid instance.

[Torque21]

I would have to agree that Lady Vashj should definitely be marked as medium.

[Braindwen]

Fine. I disagree with that, but whatever, if I really want to get my opinion across, the easiest way would just be to make a 0-stack video or something.

Will switch it up next update.

[Arctagon]

But you're already familiar with the fight. Did you find it as easy as you do now when you first tried it? I studied your latest Lady Vashj solo video, as I was thinking it could be helpful to see how others did it, and I definitely wouldn't mind you uploading a more up-to-date video, in which you won't let her receive any stacks at all.

The reason I think Lady Vashj should at least be marked as medium, is the 'intensity' of the fight in phase 2. There are so many things one needs to do at the same time. Multitasking like this is never easy to do if one has never done it before, but this wanes over time as one adapts and gains more practice. Nothing's quite difficult if you're already good at it, but that doesn't mean we should mark every single boss as easy, right?

[Alzu]

I don't really understand either how you can make Lady Vashj a hard fight. You just sit in middle and dot everything that moves while focusing the striders. Just run quickly to the tainted elementals and kill boss. I did it at 85 on my 2nd attempt or so. With only knowing the core mechanics to the fight. What are you guys doing then if it gives you such big headaches?

[Deleted]

Hello,

Today, I will not speak about Lady Vash, I'll just do a call about a new side of PvE soloing... the heroic dungeons of Mist of Pandaria ! (But I know they will become easier in the futur, with the gear...).

For the moment I can just propose the Temple of the Jade Serpent Heroic, and, trust me, it's hard (especially the end) : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKaP8...ature=youtu.be


Oh finally, I don't wanna kill the matter If you find difficulties to down the Vash, it's because this fight requires a rhythm. For the difficulty medium... Maybe we can, but when the tactic is knows, this encounter is really easy.
Moreover, it was doable at the lvl 85 (during TdF if I good remember), it's just a question of kite, never be touched by the big mobs, with FS (talent) and Ursol Vortex, it's not a great challenge .

[Stuporman]

Does anyone have any advice on Ulduar 25? I have done FL and Ignis, but I keep running into the enrage timer on XT at ~25% due to too many scrapbots reaching him before I can swipe them down. I tried as feral but the damage ramps up too fast. Any possible advice for how any of you have handled this fight?

[Deleted]

For XT 002 on 25 men, you just have to move the boss and destroy the bombs during the tremble. 29% at lvl 85, no difficult actually. The fact to kill a bomb destroy all the adds within 5 yards about (i don't have the numbers of these datas). Don't forget to burst the heart during the hearthphase (75, 50 and 25%).

[Deleted]

Flametalon finally dropped! I recommend to everyone that's not already doing it, go and solo Alysrazor! It's probably the most fun encounter to solo, and it seems a lot less buggy since the patch.

[Arctagon]

I'm currently running through Naxxramas, and I noticed that every time I down a boss, the cooldown of HotW resets. I do remember having read something about cooldown resets some time in the not-so-long past, but can someone more knowledgeable elaborate on this? Information and details around this and when it was implemented, would be nice.

[Braindwen]

Some CDs reset when a boss resets (kill/wipe/whatever). I think it's a MoP thing, mostly for long CDs like rebirth, tranq, etc. It's a bit weird which ones it decides to reset, though. I only really notice NV resetting, I don't think stuff like MoU/SI/Inc reset.

[Trubo]

Since MoP went live, most big cds get reset between boss wipes and boss kills so as to minimize downtime. Can't think of any druid cds that don't get reset.

[Williee]

None of the 3 mins one, at least berserk resets when killing/wiping to a boss. I know for sure hotw and nature's vigil reset. I use hotw for most boss fights, and solo content that last less then 1 minute.