Blood DK Solo Guide

[Elro 47]

After seeing the wonderful guide on protection paladin soloing started by Fouton, I've decided to start a thread on soloing old content as a Blood DK. I've soloed some bosses myself, and plan to do more, and I hope other DKs with some experience in soloing will share what they know as well.

 

This guide will generally assume a basic knowledge of relevant fight mechanics. 

 

This guide assumes you have read the Blood Death Knight guide, and understand the principles of Blood tanking, both self-healing and doing damage. Assume the use of Blood Presence unless stated otherwise, and talents are at your discretion unless stated otherwise.

 

Obsidian Sanctum: Reins of the Black Drake (10)

This fight is simple in terms of execution. Clear the trash around the room, without pulling any of the 3 twilight drakes hovering on 3 of the 4 sides. Once you've cleared all but those drakes, run in and attack Sartharion. Make sure Bone Shield is up for RP generation, pop Dancing Rune Weapon, and simply do as much damage as you can, single target. Keep your Blood Shield up with Death Strike, and use Soul Reaper when the boss goes below 35% health. If the damage is getting rough at the end, you can pop a cd to stay alive, but this shouldn't be necessary.

 

Eye of Eternity: Reins of the Blue Drake and Reins of the Azure Drake both drop on 10, at same rate as 25.

This guide assumes you're doing this fight on 10man, for the sake of ease. For the first 50% or so of Maylgos' health, your goal is simply to dps him down as fast as possible. Intercept and kill at least one of the sparks that comes in, and stand in the ground effect it leaves behind for a 50% damage boost. When Malygos flies up and catches you in the vortex, use Blood Boil to get a little extra damage off, as well as keep your diseases from falling off. When the phase changes, pull down the adds, kill one, and steal his disc. From there, simply fly around and kill all the adds that spawn. This is easier if you have Glyph of Outbreak, so you can quickly apply diseases without wasting the runes. Phase 3 is the most difficult, but still easy once you get the hang of it. Start out by using Revivify 5 times (your number 3 button), and then rotate using 1 1 2 3, in order to stack the Engulfing Flames debuff on the boss, and keep our healing buff active on yourself. Don't waste energy using your other abilities, and be sure to stay out of the lightning clouds.

 

Firelands:

 

Alysrazor: Flametalon of Alysrazor

The hardest parts of this encounter are probably the pre-boss trash, and the flying mechanic. For the trash, run up to the casters and kill them quickly, interrupting as you can, and using AMS to soak any spells they get off for extra RP. Ideally, you will be able to kill them as the birds are starting to launch their barrages of lava breath. Simply kite the breath over to one of the egg piles, and let it do most of the work, then move it to the next pile, and finally kite it to the birds themselves. Everything should go down quick. Pull Staghelm to activate the boss, and when combat starts, run to the left and forward, and use AMS to soak up the aoe damage. When Alysrazor moves forward, run behind her and pick up the first 3 feathers to get airborne. Hit every flaming ring you can to refresh your flight buff and get the stacking haste buff. When it hits 25 stacks, you'll also get a 75% crit buff, which improves your damage output by a decent margin. It's ok if you don't kill her in the first flight phase, you most likely won't. Just fly down and go through the rings where you can to keep the haste and crit buffs active, and attack her when she falls to the ground. Pop Dancing Rune Weapon here if you can, and burn her as much as possible, while she takes extra damage. When she flies back up, jsut grab 3 more feathers and repeat the process until she dies.

 

Shannox: 

In order to summon Shannox, simply kill trash until he releases. I advise avoiding the Unbound Pyrelords as they are more difficult to solo. I believe it is best to kill Alysrazor first, as you can then pull Shannox into the arena the Alysrazor fight takes place in, and not worry about trash pulling mid fight. Start out by dpsing Shannox down to between 8-10M health, in order to minimize time spent fighting him in enrage. Then, ignore Rageface, as he does nothing but melee if you're the only target, and focus on burning Riplimb, using Death and Decay, procced Blood Boils, and Heart Strike to cleave onto Shannox. The reason downing Riplimb is so important is if he's left alive, the stacks of Jagged Tear become too damaging with both him and Shannox applying the debuff. Once he dies, Shannox enters a form of enrage, and you must rotate defensive cds in order to survive as you burn him down the final 5-8 million health. Use AMS when you can when he casts Magma Rupture to mitigate the damage and provide RP. I personally prefer using the Runic Corruption talent, as the high RP generation allows for Rune Strike spamming, giving you fast rune regeneration. Without decent gear, this fight will be extremely difficult, if not impossible. I myself barely managed it with a 509 equipped ilvl. Don't be surprised if you die after killing him, from the Jagged Tear debuff he leaves on you.

 

Beth'tilac:

This fight is a real pain, but I felt a sense of accomplishment upon completing it. The key is in never dropping from the top level until you enter the final phase. Taunt the 2 Spinners that show up at the very beginning of the fight, and take one of the webs up. From here on, until the transition to the final burn phase, you just focus on dpsing Beth'tilac, and avoiding the holes left by the falling meteors. When she runs to the center and casts Smoldering Devastation, pop AMS 1-2 seconds before the cast goes off to soak most if not all the damage, and get a nice amount of RP. This phase is simple, it's the next phase that makes this fight a nightmare. When you drop down, it is extremely likely that Beth'tilac will swallow some Spiderlings and heal. This is obviously a bad thing, but it's very hard, if not impossible, to prevent. From here on, it's just an all out burn, with rotating defensive cds to survive. With the Widow's Kiss debuff, your healing is reduced, and this creates a sort of enrage before you can't recover from the damage she pours onto you. Just try to kill her as fast as possible, use Dancing Rune Weapon on cd, and if you have one, use a DPS trinket and/or potion to make it go smoother.

 

Rhyolith:

This fight is a bit hectic, but once you get the hang of it, it's not so bad. Focus on steering the boss by hitting the correct leg, and just aoe the adds when they show up. If Rhyolith is walking the way you want him, you can take some time here and there to focus down the Spark of Rhyolith to get rid of his fair amount of damage. When you get his armor buff down all the way from running him through volcanoes, just keep beating on one leg to spin him around in circles, until he finally enters phase 2. This phase is just a burn, kill him as fast as you can, use any cds as needed if the damage gets too high. 

 

These are the only bosses I have currently soloed that bear any recording, but I will attempt more soon. Hopefully I can down some of the other Firelands bosses, and Dragon Soul bosses, as I get more gear and put more time into it. All input is greatly appreciated, from tips on bosses listed, to strategies for other bosses not yet entered. I give credit to Fouton for the inspiration of making a soloing guide, and Raegwynsolo, who is one of the best DK soloers out there, for inspiring me to take on the solo challenges.

Edited January 1, 2014 by Elro

[Fouton 266]

<3 May your soloing take you to a new excitement, new heights, and bring you the mounts you've always wanted. 

[Elro 47]

Well, I have currently hit a wall in Firelands soloing with Baleroc...Decimation Blade hurts, a lot.

[ragebarr 153]

Might be worth to add VoA, since there's the Grand Black War Mammoth from there.  Not much of a strategy involved, I usually just pull all 4 bosses at once and DS + the occasional small CD keeps me alive.

 

I do like your guide though :) Been focusin mostly on warrior soloing recently, but I might get on my DK a bit more and see what I can get done.

[Elro 47]

Thanks for the tip, rage :) I haven't gone into VoA since 4.3, I had almost forgotten.

[Belloc 6]

Well, I have currently hit a wall in Firelands soloing with Baleroc...Decimation Blade hurts, a lot.

Have you tried doing it with the Alysrazor fight buff?

[Oltier 471]

Have you tried doing it with the Alysrazor fight buff?

AMS on first, and Death pact before the 2nd helped me a lot. Plus, I haven't tried this but theoritically Glyph of Icebound Fortitude should also help you out. ;)

[Elro 47]

Belloc, Oltier...you two rock. Can't try with the Alysrazor buff until next week, but...BACK TO THE FIRELANDS!!

[Storm 426]

Sarth 25 is pretty easy in frost spec as long as you can pull about 100k dps.

[Elro 47]

I bet it is, but right now, I'm just Blood for soloing, until I get better dps gear, and figure out what fights I feel like using it on.

[Antenora 3]

Well, I have currently hit a wall in Firelands soloing with Baleroc...Decimation Blade hurts, a lot.

 

I hit Dancing Rune Weapon and hope for a parry.

 

If it doesn't. hit IBF and VB.

 

 

OS 25 - I actually specced Frost for that. I was able to burst him down within the 1st drake's timer.

Edited March 9, 2014 by Antenora