As you may have noticed, my main goal on WoW right now is probably getting that 100th mount. With four to go, the pickings are getting a little slim. So today after i helped obtain a victory in Tol Barad and did those dailies i bought myself some new PvP boots and decided to try my hand at normal Vortex Pinnacle again.
I will never get a world first solo kill. At the same time, i'm no stranger to running content alone. I will try anything at least a couple of times (case in point,
that annoying demon in HFP that and Colossi chain that require/d a group). I have tried one manning and two manning both of those with varying results (depending on what class i'm playing). I finished the Champion of the Naaru quest chain mostly alone (the bits that didn't require a group, and i think i 2-manned the last part with an acquaintance). I have ground a lot of rep alone (or in PUGs). I used to solo Strat for the mount run back in Wrath and have been soloing old raids more and more.
But solo a dungeon that is part of the current xpac? That isn't possible, is it? Well, as it turns out, maybe it is to a point. My first attempt at soloing VP, i failed miserably. Trying to down Grand Vizier Ertan was
not working, let alone even getting to Altairus, which was my main goal. I want
that mount! So i gave up, discouraged, but something in me just kept niggling. I know that i'm rusty, haven't been playing every day for the past year, have taken breaks, etc., but surely i'm not
that fail as a hunter? This is my main we're talking about, the character that i've been playing for the better part of four (five?) years. So i started doing some more research. How can i down this drake without hacks?
Which is when i realized that i had made a very lame mistake. See, i have a soloing/PvP build, but i was trying to solo Ertan in my PvE gear. I think i only read this on one website out of about ten that
Resilience (paired with Stamina) is the stat that makes or breaks your attempt to solo most instances. In other words,
wear PvP gear. If there's no enrage timer then you're set, and enrage is usually not an issue at all when soloing old content as much as survival (when that's an issue xD). It's easy to kill these bosses, but can you survive long enough to do it? Luckily, i just so happened to have five pieces of PvP gear that i upgraded most of in anticipation of doing
lots of Tol Barad...and because i just happened to be a little bored. (In case you're curious, that's three pieces season 10, one piece season 9, and one piece season 11). So today i grabbed some stuff off my alchemist alt and headed back into Vortex Pinnacle.
What i packed:
Mythical Healing Potion x7
Elixir of Mighty Fortitude x5
Dense Embersilk Bandages
Skewered Eel
one battle elixir that was a seasonal reward as i recall...it gave me attack power and growth?
Trash
Just ignore them. Camouflage will get you past everything except those two Howling Gale orbs that you have to shoot at a couple of time...lest they throw you off the ledge. You don't die, but you do get sent back to the beginning. Which is an important time saver to be aware of when you're ready to reset the instance and go again.
Grand Viz
Truly is easy once you get the hang of it. Keep your pet healed, stay away from tornadoes, use maybe one bandage, Chimera Shot whenever it's up. I've read that you don't need a tank for this, i felt that i was taking too much damage if i held aggro. Basically manage your aggro and watch where you're standing and be patient. If you get hit by a lot of lightning, this is tough. Downed three times today.
Altairus
So much going on here. First off,
this guide helped me so much, but it leaves a little out. As you probably realize, you want to stay upwind as much as possible. Disengage can help, but not as often as you'd like. However, even more importantly,
you have to deal with Chilling Breath. This is one of those mechanics that is pretty much a non-issue if you can self heal or are in a group. Why? Because he randomly targets someone with it once every... 30s?...only, because you are alone, you get targeted every time. (Note: I cannot find any confirmation about how long you have between each Chilling Breath.) So he will hit you with ~25k damage (in my gear) upwards of twice a minute. With ~140k health i can only get hit 5.5 times unmitigated/unhealed before i will die.
Fortunately, Chilling Breath has a 2s cast time and there are three tactics you can use to survive it. If you feign death soon enough (after he has started casting, before the cast is halfway through), he will hit your pet or give up instead (i'm not sure which, but it didn't hit me). If you feign death too late, it will hit you for the full amount. If you are
glyphed for Raptor Strike and can dance in, hit him, dance back out (all while being mindful of which direction the wind has just turned or is about to turn), then you can negate 20% of that damage. I tried using Aspect of the Wild on one of my attempts, but i couldn't tell that it helped appreciably. Disengage does not help with this, he turns as you fly across the screen, his maw following your fleeing leap (not to mention this skill is better used to get upwind).
The only skill that makes you completely immune to Chilling Breath is a well timed Deterrence. If it's up, he gives up until next time his cooldown is up. Now, the aforementioned guide says you can use Deterrence twice... that's not strictly true if you are MM (which is
the spec i based my solo/PvP spec off of courtesy of Warcraft Hunters Union). A well placed Readiness will give you two Deterrences in a row and you will probably get a third when you need it most. I would not want to do this fight without a health pot. Chimera Shot and don't forget to use Rapid Fire.
Other than that, remember to heal your pet, try to get upwind as quickly as possible, but Chilling Breath is going to be the thing that hits you hardest. If your pet dies or you want to reset... stay where you are. Running away is not going to help, as if you run off the platform then he will hit you with lightning that's worth 2/3 of your health to begin with. Feign death where you are (assuming that it's not on CD!) and he will despawn. Then run off the platform and rez your baby. I managed to get to him for the first time and after about 5-6 attempts i had gotten him down twice and used up my health pots so i decided to call it a day.
As you can see, i'm using a bear for his damage reduction. It's not a reduction of damage taken, rather of damage caused
by all nearby enemies, not just what's done to the pet itself or by one enemy. It has a short cooldown so it can always be up (assuming the focus is available). It's 10% rather than 50%, but it's more consistent. (
Petopia ftw) I may try a different pet in the future, but i anticipate this fight becoming much easier for me after a few more kills are under my belt.
Happy hunting! And may the odd be...no wait.
