From ZG to ICC, I did them all. Why, when I said there’s no point as I don’t need the money? Stepping away from the Garrison was the breather I needed. However, soloing sometimes comes with anger, especially when there’s a fight that I can’t seem to do.
And that boss fight, was Blackwing Depths. For many months it’s been my bane. Soloable, definitely. Ridiculous boss mechanics? .. Yep.
Razergore, the first boss. They gave him a buff to help soloers complete the encounter. Yet it just didn’t seem enough for me. Either I accidentally target and kill him, or the adds do. I’ve watched so many Hunter solo videos, not one of them helped me. It was a rage fest, literally screaming at my monitor.
Then I watched another, who claimed has a guaranteed way to do the fight. He explained how most of Razergore’s abilities when controlling him, don’t work. Except for one, which sleeps dragons. He says to use this, as the dragons that spawn are the ones that keep killing Razergore.
So I did, trying to remain as calm as possible. The forth go, I was all “Ugh… this fight punishes mouse ability users” Did it again, and realized I had only a few eggs left to kill. Fucking FINALLY MANAGED TO COMPLETE THE ENCOUNTER!!! WOOT!! 😀
Got to see the rest. The rooms with the whelps and the slow speed chambers, are quite annoying. Also, this is a pretty big place.
The final boss confused me. You have to speak to the guy in this to start the encounter. Then he disappears, saying “Let the games begin!” Suddenly I’m being swarmed by endless waves of drakkin. I’m over-abusing Barrage to hold them back, constantly running out of Focus.
Finally the main boss shows up, and I kick his scaly ass. But as he’s monologging his death, suddenly a group of undead spawn infront of me and attack. Barrage finishes them off. That was a “WTF?!” moment there. But I lopped off his head and threw it into my bag.
I am not, repeat, not doing this raid EVER again… at least that’s a promise I can keep.
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Onyxia, was a lot easier than I thought the encounter would be. Yet, it was very… odd. Something was wrong with her speech. It wasn’t following her creature yells. I heard things like “Now kill it very fast!” and stuff. Just weird sayings.
My guess, it’s from the echos of failed raiders that she ate. But I got her head at the end. Woot for that! Was going to turn it in.. “But first, I gotta take a selfie!”
So I ran over to her face, and tried to take a picture with me and my spirit beast, with her cold dead eyes staring at us. But before I could take the shot, her corpse disappeared. 😛
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Tried to do the Heart of Fear for the first time. 10 man. Normal. Was curious no one did a solo run video of this place. But I thought for sure it should be doable. I read about the first boss; how you have to use a melee weapon to stop an ability. Thought about to ‘just bitch-slap him with my fishing pole’ could stop it.
Doing the initial trash, it was pretty rough. The adds, they can gank you. I had to run while attacking to kill them. Even had to use Freezing Trap as CC. Been many years since I had to do that for my soloing runs.
The first boss, I knew was trouble for me as I saw my pet’s health dropping (and mine as well). He killed us shortly after.
Asked on the forums about this place and if it’s even soloable. Was told doing MoP raids is near impossible right now, even when well-geared. So that answers my question. At least I tried, yes?
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Now we move on to the Bastion of Twilight. I tried to do it in Heroic to give myself a challenge. It’s also the first time I attempted to solo a raid in Heroic(or even did any raid in Heroic). There’s a creepy, metallic skull over the instance portal when you activate.
Yet it said I couldn’t. Checking, it said I got to do it in Normal first. Ehh. Oh well!
Did the dungeon as in the beta, until I got to Cho’gall.. who’s boss mechanics were nothing like. He kept using an invisible casting bar of this ability that can cause me to bow to him, which takes me out of combat and resets the encounter.
This happened everytime I attempted. Furious and demanding answers, I checked YouTube for any videos explaining this “new” ability I didn’t have to deal with in the beta.
Nothing. Not even mentioned in Heroic, as something a soloer needs to watch out for. All I read from the Dungeon Journal, is this encounter can be interrupted. Yet I can’t interrupt something I can’t catch; DBM sure wasn’t doing it.
I asked in the WoW forums, yet also still trying to kill this bastard. Finally somehow, I was able to pop Counter Shot at JUST the right moment (he didn’t auto-cast his ability) and I fucking downed him!
Checking back in my thread, someone replied about five minutes after I left the raid instance. They said to try to get rid of my pet and do it that way, as Cho’gall might see my pet as being another player.
That’s something to consider doing if I do decide to do the raid again. As for doing it in Heroic, I actually doubt I’ll survive. Probably need 640+ gear.
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Going to the last two highlights, Icecrown and Dragon Soul, let’s talk about Icecrown first. Did it on 10 man, normal. Just like before.
When I got to the Gunship encounter, and heard how the Horde were “coming in fast” yet didn’t see them, I started thinking the encounter’s bugged again. Then I saw them at the last few seconds of the fight starting.
Attacked the ship with cannons, then noticed I couldn’t attack. Already I reached the stage the cannons freeze and I got to take out the adds on our ship, then go to theirs?
So I did, then hopped over. Suddenly, the Horde Gunship begins to depart as if I completed the fight, yet the same dialog about manning the guns is happening.
I jump back over, and the Alliance Gunship is heading up to the next encounter. I’m sitting there in shock. I mean… WOW. That was the fastest I took down that ship!
Somehow I may had did somekind of accidental exploit that the Horde Gunship suddenly hits 1% health and gets out of there.
The next boss fight went just as scripted. Yet the rest was a bit buggy. It still went on, but when we pulled in, the Horde Gunship was already at the dock. And when the guy died, the Horde Gunship bails off and flies away. I definitely glitched something.
Then the Horde commander suddenly appears and does his scripting, yet there’s no gunship. He takes the corpse of his son and disappears near where the gunship would be. Weird…
The rest of the raid went as planned, all the way to downing the Lich King.
Read later that there is a slight exploit, that if you attack within the first second of the fight with a charged shot, you’ll one-hit complete it.
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And finally, Dragon Soul. I thought the fights would be just like in the WoD Beta, and the only real issue I’ll have is the Spine of Deathwing. ….. I was wrong. Horribly. Wrong.
Basically, I had forgotten that in LFR, there is no 10/25 man option. It’s 25 man only.
The first part of the raid, went just like the beta. Except for the final boss. She suddenly encases herself in a bubble that makes her Immune, and I’m being randomly attacked by lightning. There’s also these four small pillars attached to the bubble.
An elemental shows up. I kill it near one of the pillars. It takes it out. I’m all “Yes! Take down the pillars and the shield will drop!”
I wait for several minutes. No more elementals spawn. And on top of that, her Enrage timer is ticking down. That timer, if you don’t kill the boss by then, wipes the raid.
I’m facepalming, not knowing what the fuck to do. I get ready to go read up on this encounter and how to beat it. A minute later, suddenly her bubble breaks and she’s attackable again. So I pop every cooldown I got and kill her.
The second part of the raid, which involves dealing with the problem aka Deathwing, the first fight, I don’t get why the drakes are doing so much. They’re literally covering the floor in goop that slowly drains my health. I barely have anywhere to go when I take the final one down.
Then it’s time for the first boss, Ultraxion. One of the most pride-filled dragons I ever did hear. Again, I had barely any room to move around because of the AoE left over. During the fight, I noticed how pathetic my attacks were on him. When he was at 65%, he’s casting Hour of Twilight.
I’m like “WTF?! This isn’t right! I should be fucking downing him by now!”, and he kills me. First time I’ve ever wiped in that raid on a solo (that wasn’t the Spine of Deathwing).
I try it again, knowing I don’t have the AoE to worry about and the fight should be normal. He’s gleefully taking my health down with his beam attack. Something is NOT right here! And he kills me again with him being 13% health left…
I’m freaking out with my own pride on the line (my soloing pride that I can do ANYTHING) and make a post, wondering if Beast Mastery really is shitty in raids. At this time, I had forgotten LFR only has 25 man.
They do tell me something about the fight got buffed because players were saying it was too easy, or something like that. Not the answer I want to hear, but the only answer I’m going to get.
So… Dragon Soul’s unsoloable to me now. I’m hearing so many doing it in Heroic and stuff, except they have far better gear than me. This, is very upsetting. I expected to do the same things I did, with the same level of difficulty as on the WoD Beta.
This does prove that getting gear has a purpose. But to me, it’s just not worth mindlessly grinding mobs for months on end, just to do a raid I could do on the beta.
EDIT: I made a thread Tuesday morning, asking Blizzard why did you all make LFR unsoloable now, yet also did it in a calm way (asking them to reconsider). Someone posted saying “Dude, do it on Normal. It’s piss-easy!”, followed by others saying the same thing.
So… that is definitely something to do. I will try this. Do Dragon Soul 10 man normal for the first time in my WoW life, and see how ‘piss-easy’ it really is. Plus if I beat Deathwing, I’ll have a whopping 1% chance to get a new flying mount that looks like Alexstrasza.
One even said that 25 man Heroic is easier to solo than LFR. This I very much doubt. There’s no possible way LFR is harder than Heroic.