Pimp Your Druid: Soloing Kael’thas Sunstrider

It’s that time again, this time its the 5th installment of the Pimp Your Druid series. No, we’re not talking about the Tempest Keep version of Kael’thas (maybe by Cataclysm!), no we’re talking about the Magister’s Terrace version which drops the chicken mount, a Swift White Hawkstrider. In addition, MGT has the bonus of also dropping a Phoenix Hatchling and the ever so sexy Orb of the Sin’dorei, a 3 for 1 deal!  We’re ramping up the difficulty here and we’re getting into the more challenging content to solo. Have no fear though, it’s still nothing an average geared druid can’t do.

Prerequisite

• Items only drop from heroic version of Magister’s Terrace (MGT)
• If you aren’t attuned to heroic MGT, then you need to complete MGT on normal first (Questline: Hard to Kill)
• Unlike past experiences, I’d say you should be lv 80 to attempt this
• Attempt this as kitty spec/gear only if you have superior gear, otherwise bear spec/gear is the safer choice

What gear do I need?

Folks, this is not an easy one. I’ll be upfront with you all there may be some of you out there that won’t be able to do this. Before I get any comments saying this is a joke in T10, remember that these posts are addressed to the general public that may not have the best gear or much experience in soloing content. As mentioned above, unless you have top notch gear you’re probably best off doing this in bear spec/gear, this isn’t to say it isn’t possible in cat spec/gear but it just makes things easier.

Getting There/Clearing Trash

Unfortunately, you can’t just simply stealth to KT and smoke him, there is a bit of trash clearing and all the earlier bosses that must be killed before you can get to your final destination. So lets go step by step on how to tackle the trash/bosses on route to KT.

1. Selin Fireheart

From the beginning of the instance to just as you enter his room, you can skip all this trash. Just stealth and go straight to the entrance of his room. There you will see 3 packs of trash, you must kill all 3 packs as they aggro as soon as you engage Selin. They don’t hit very hard but it is a mix of melee/casters so the best thing to do is taunt, and pull behind the wall so that all the mobs LOS onto you and you can kill them all at once. Repeat this three times to clear the room. For Selin himself, there is nothing special, hes just a regular tank and spank, keep wacking him until he dies.

Use the wall to pull the casters in

2. Vexallus

From Selin’s room to Vexallus there are lots and lots of mana wyrms. DO NOT PULL THEM ALL AT ONCE! If you’re like me you’ll probably think it might be fun to pull all of them at once. Remember that there is an AOE cap which results in hitting each wyrm for a lot less than you are expecting to hit them for. While you may not die, its actually really annoying and takes a long time if you pull them all at once. Pull 1-2 packs at a time and clear them slowly to avoid any delays.

Watch the aoe cap!

For Vexallus himself, there is only one ability of note to be wary of which is he creates Pure Energy at 85%, 70%, 55%, 40% and 25%.  In Bear Form, you must kill these ASAP for two reasons. First they do dmg to you and the more than are out the more overall dmg that will be done to you. Secondly, when they die they increase your dmg/size done by 50% which also stack. So in essence the faster you kill them off, the less dmg done to you and the more dmg you to do Vexallus. Note, you must do direct dmg to the Pure Energy in order for them to die, aoe dmg (swipe) does not work. The easiest way to deal with these are to tab target and maul the Pure Energy. Switch back to VExallus until the next spawn occurs and repeat until he is dead.

3. Priestess Delrissa

From Vexallus, to Priestesss Delrissa’s room you can skip all the trash. Steal through and go straight to the Priestess and her groupies. Its best to park yourself behind them and engage from there. This fight is variable depending on what you get in terms of a composition. The key to this fight is to prevent Priestess Delrissa from healing, if she gets her initial heal off chances are you may have a tough time in killing her.

Personally I like to throw a couple of hots on myself first, and feral charge right into the Priestess. Pop berserk and start Mangle spamming her, within a few seconds she’ll already be very low but here is the key. As she starts her first heal cast you must interrupt it, hit Bash to stun her and kill her off. If you miss, you can continue to keep trying but what I do at that point is I just move away from the spawn point and hit Shadowmeld (our best friend!). Let your cooldowns reset and try again. All the other groupies are irrelevant as she is the one that causes the most problems, once she is dead the rest should follow shortly.

Stop the heal!

Once you’ve killed the Priestess, continue stealthing into Kael’Thas’s room and kill the trash pack that is within his room as they will aggro if you engaged KT. Once this is all done you should be ready to begin engaging KT.

How to Solo Kael’Thas Sunstrider

Lets quickly review all the abilities that Kael’Thas has (in heroic mode):

• Fireball: Hits the target with the highest aggro for 4950 to 6050 in heroic.
• Phoenix: A phoenix is spawned in a random location while moving slowly to the target with the highest global threat (or the target who is kiting it). While moving, it deals damage to all who are near it and should be kited away from the group by a ranged class. When the phoenix dies, an egg spawns that must be destroyed as quickly as possible, or the phoenix will respawn and could lead to multiple mobs in the group.
• Flame Strike: A large circular shape will appear on the floor. After 5 seconds, it deals 9000 Fire damage each tick to any who stand within it.
• Gravity Lapse: Pulls all players to where Kael’thas stands and enables the players to float in mid air while avoiding damage-based bubbles. It also deals 300 damage per tick. Players who stand on the ground during this phase will be sent straight into the air.
• Pyroblast: Heroic only, hits the target with the highest aggro for 45000 to 55000 Fire damage if not interrupted.
• Shock Barrier: Heroic only, this shield absorbs 10000 damage and must be taken down as quickly as possibly, as you cannot interrupt the Pyroblast with it up.’

Kael’Thas is a two phase fight, in the first phase, he will have the the ability to cast Fireball, Phoenix and Flame Strike. Phase 1 will last for either 60s or until he reaches 50% health. If the fight duration reaches 60s before 50% then he will Shock Barrier and Pyroblast. This should never happen as you should be able to output enough dps to push yourself into Phase 2. However if it does happen you can do one of 2 things. First you can try and break the Shock Barrier and interrupt the Pyroblast or secondly you can just Shadowmeld and reset the fight back to square one. This is something that I didn’t do but if you are having trouble with dps you can do this to help yourself out. In kitty stealth, engage Kael’Thas by pouncing on him and building up 5 combo points. Once you’re up to 5, run out and Shadowmeld. This will reset the encounter but keep your 5 combo points up. Restealth and restart the encounter once more but this time open with a Rip so that you’ll have a 5 cp rip active instantly.

This is the flame strike, get out of it when he casts it

While you are burning him down to 50% you should be wary of the abilities mentioned at the beginning (Fireball, Phoenix and Flame Strike). There’s not much you can do about Fireball so you’ll just have to absorb this. The Phoenix spawn while a nussance you can just let that wack away as well. The one ability that you can mitigate is Flame Strike. Similar to all other void zones in WOW, it will drop a big red ring around the area that it will be dropped. Make sure you move away from this to avoid taking this damage. Make sure to pop Barskin on cooldown to reduce the damage taken. If you’re starting to get really low, pop Enrage + Frenzied Regeneration and get yourself up to a healthy amount of health.

Now, assuming you’ve done all this, Kael’Thas should now be at 50% and will enter phase 2 of the fight. Here, he will begin casting Gravity Lapse which creates massive orbs that damage you on contact. It is also important to note that you cannot touch the floor as it will punt you straight back up into the air. Instead, this is actually a gift in disguise as it gives you time to heal yourself back to full. Just float far away from the orbs and heal as much as required. If you’re impatient like me, you can weave inbetween the orbs and drop a couple of combo points in but that really isn’t necessary. After about 30s, he will drop you back to the floor and become stunned. Now is your chance to unload! Shift into kitty form pop Berserk and go to town on his ass. You may not be able to bring him from 50% down to 0% but you should get a healthy chunk complete. After the stun is complete he will cast Gravity Lapse again and once again run away from orbs and heal yourself to full. Repeat this process until he is dead!

Keep your distance and you should take minimal dmg

So far, I am 2/3 (Hatching + Orb) but have yet to get the mount. 33 attempts ain’t so bad in comparison to my 130+ for Anzu (qq). Happy farming as always, next up on the list, how to solo Baron Rivendare!