Acherontia's Solo Mount-Running Guide for Hunters

[Acherontia]

0. Introduction
(Basic Info, Spec, Pet Choices)
1. Sethekk Halls
2. Zul'Gurub
3. Stratholme
4. Karazhan
5. Magister's Terrace


Hello, and welcome to Acherontia's Solo Mount-Running Guide for Hunters. In this guide, I'm going to cover the basics of soloing old WoW content as a hunter, and offer brief guides on how to run the mount-dropping bosses in Sethekk Halls, Zul'Gurub, Karazhan, Stratholme and Magister's Terrace quickly and efficiently. The maps are -not- mine, but the screenshots and text are. Note this is how I've always done these, and it works for me; you may know of a better way, or one that works better with your style. If you don't, though, you can use this guide as a starting point!

Questions, comments and suggestions are welcome!

Basic Info:

If you're wanting to solo old content, here's what you'll want:

* A decent pet (see the Pet Choice section for more)
* Food and bandages
* Glyph of Feign Death
* Glyph of Misdirection

You can probably do without one or all of these things, but they'll make your life a lot easier. A good pet can hold aggro on multiple mobs--it isn't so much the tanking ability of the pet that's important so much as the talent Thunderstomp, so make sure your tenacity pet has it. Again, you could make do without--Misdirection and AoE works--but it makes it easier. Food and bandages minimize your downtime if you do take a few nasty hits, and Feign Death allows you to skip trash you might otherwise need to clear (or accidentally pull and would rather dump). The glyph allows you do do this more often. The Glyph of Misdirection allows you to MD constantly onto your pet. Also of use might be Lesser Invisibility Potions. These let you skip entire sections of dungeons you'd rather avoid.

A focus macro (such as the following), with your pet set on Focus, will allow you to quickly and easily transfer some threat to your tanking pet. Use this, keeping in mind to watch Mend Pet and your aggro (the Omen threat meter addon is a huge help here), and you should have few problems soloing.

#showtooltip Misdirection
/cast [target=focus,help] Misdirection

Deterrance can be used in a couple creative ways. First of all, if your pet is getting low on health, you can use a Distracting Shot followed by Deterrance (be sure to use the shot first, as you cannot shoot during Deterrance) to tank the mob while Mend Pet ticks heal the pet up a bit. Feign Death once Deterrance has run out. Another way to use Deterrance is if you get into trouble: Deterrance + Dismiss Pet, and then Feign Death, can keep both you and the pet from dying.

For Spirit Beast soloing, a macro like

#showtooltip Spirit Mend
/cast [target=[player,help] Spirit Mend

can easily heal any extra damage on you while your Mend Pet ticks on the pet.

One final note: when moving about through a dungeon, it's generally best to Dismiss your pet until you are ready to fight. The reason for this is that if you get aggro, you can easily Feign Death somewhere safe without worrying about your pet aggroing, dying and perhaps getting you killed in the process. Simply stealthing a pet who can Prowl rarely works; mobs seem to see them anyway, and some buffs castable while stealthed will aggro the pet unless you manually enable and disable them; it's easier just to dismiss and recall.

Spec, etc:

A Beast Mastery spec is generally the easiest way to solo; it allows your pet to do more damage, thus keeping aggro on the mobs, and allows it to take more punishment from the tougher bosses without dying. PvP gear that boasts high Stamina can be helpful in keeping you and your pet alive. For talents, Hunter vs Wild (in Survival; easily obtainable by BM or MM hunters) and Spirit Bond (BM) will help the hunter and pet stay alive longer. For Ferocity pets, Bloodthirsty, Heart of the Phoenix and Lick Your Wounds will help the pet stay in the game longer, and for Tenacity pets, Blood of the Rhino, Last Stand, Guard Dog and Silverback, along with the Avoidance and Stamina talents, will help it rival even a player tank in survivability. Cunning pets boast similar stamina and avoidance talents, albeit less of them, and can also take Cornered for less damage taken at low health. In the end, though, Hunters are strong enough that any spec and any pet, in any gear, when played correctly, can probably solo--well, duo--just about anything that can be soloed. These are simply guidelines for an easier time.


Pet Choices:

There are many pets a player can solo with; in fact, any pet can probably do most of the content required for rare mount runs. However, a few can do it better than others, and for players new to soloing, hesitant about their skill or gear, or simply wanting to play it safe, some pets are a better choice. I will touch on the top choices for Ferocity and Tenacity; there's far too many pet families to go through them all and rate them in a simple soloing guide.

For Ferocity Pets, Spirit Beasts are the obvious choice right now. Their heal is quite strong, and can be used on the player as well as the pet--so for fights with unavoidable AoE or dots placed on non-tank players, the Spirit Beast really shines. Carrion Birds have an AoE attack power reduction similar to a bear or druid tank's Demoralizing Roar/Shout. The benefit of using a Ferocity pet is that fights go faster, and a Ferocity pet can do quite a high amount of damage and threat.

In the Tenacity department, Turtles are top-notch. They have an ability to reduce their incoming damage taken, which for fighting a hard-hitting or enraging boss can be a lifesaver. Bears are excellent as well, for the same reason as carrion birds: their AoE attack power reduction can be helpful. Worms have an excellent, extremely high-dps AoE ability to help them keep aggro on--and quickly clear--large groups. A Tenacity pet will be extremely hard to kill, although its damage might be a bit lower than a dps-specced Ferocity pet.

In the end, the pet must fit your playstyle and your preferences. I have personally tanked all of the bosses in question with both Ferocity and Tenacity pets, so it is definitely doable. Try them out and see what works for you!

[Acherontia]

Part 1: Sethekk Halls
Reins of the Raven Lord

Sethekk Halls Map

You may be wanting to solo Sethekk Halls for the Reins of the Raven Lord mount. Recently this mount became available to all players; in the past, you needed a druid who'd completed his or her Swift Flight Form quest chain to summon this boss.

Instance Notes: This dungeon needs to be run on Heroic, or the boss will not be present. You must therefore possess the Auchenai Key, purchased at Honored or above reputation with Lower City. On the same note, ALWAYS be sure that the dungeon difficulty is set to 5 Man HEROIC before you enter. You'll see the skull on the portal if it is--if you forget, you may find yourself having cleared to Anzu's empty room! If you realize halfway through that the mobs aren't level 70 and above, and your character isn't drunk, double-check to be certain it's on Heroic. The instance is located in Auchindoun (Terokkar Forest), in an alcove on the eastern side of the complex.

I'm going to give this from the perspective of a speed run, but if you aren't comfortable with the dungeon or a rushing pace, or want rep with Lower City, you're perfectly able to simply clear the trash as you go. In that case, ignore all of the Feigns listed here and simply kill.

Mob Notes: Ravenguards (groups of 2 guarding door entryways) can hit extremely hard. Be sure to leave Mend Pet on your pet and not pull aggro on these. Time-Lost Controllers, if aggrod, can create mind-control totems that will force you to kill your pet; feigning death and then standing while they are still up can re-aggro you to the pack, even if you are a good distance away. Therefore, avoid these packs, or focus the Controllers first (nuking totems as they come, as priority), or if you feign, be sure to wait until all totems are dead before standing again. If you run into any Time-Lost Prophets, be aware that they fear (this is an effect that can be broken with BW/trinkets, and the cast can be interrupted).

1. First Room. Dismiss your pet. Put on Aspect of the Pack. Triple-check for Heroic difficulty, and walk into the instance. Run in and stick to the right side of the wall, move behind the baskets and wait for the two guard mobs to get into place. As soon as the patrol passes (it comes up one side of the hall and goes back down the other), continue to the end of the hall. Change to Aspect of the Hawk, put on Deterrance and run through this room to the left; spinning and Disengaging into the next hall makes it faster and safer. Feign Death here, just beyond the aggro range of the pair of guards. If you're afraid of taking damage, you can simply clear the packs with your tank pet.

First patrol's path:

2. Second Room. In the next room, you'll be going to the right. There's a small pack of mobs with a Time-Lost Controller. You can bypass this pack easily by hugging the wall--if the mobs aggro, just ignore them.

Run quickly around the room to the right, taking the exit on the right side, running past the two guards--and feign outside their aggro range. Do not jump up yet. The brown owl patrolling the hallway will fly directly over your feigned body. As soon as he's gone, jump up and call your tank pet. Kill the owl after it flies back onto you, ensuring the pet's Thunderstomp is out of range of the mobs to either side. Once the owl is dead (or if you can avoid him by sticking to the left-hand wall) dismiss pet (your Feign should now be off cd) and run around the corner to the left, avoiding the pack on the right. You'll see two guards in front of you, and a boss in the center of the round room beyond.

3. Third Room: First Boss Room. Run past the two guards, press yourself against the left side of the room or just past their aggro range, and feign.

Stand up and move around the room, sticking to the left-hand wall; if you avoid stepping across the circular line on the floor, you can skip this boss entirely. If you must fight him, for rep or otherwise, he is a simple nuke fight with summoned adds that can be safely ignored.

4. Fourth Room. The next room is somewhat tricky. You'll want to call pet and kill the two guards at the far end of the boss's room, and then dismiss pet. There should be a pack of tiny birds on the right side, and a larger pack of mobs on the left and far right of the room. There will also be a patrolling blue wind serpent here. You have several options; you can kill the Wind Serpent, pull him and tame/abandon, or simply try and run through to feign on the stairs. However, you can avoid the mobs entirely if you watch their patrol routes for a moment.

5. Stairs and Hall. Avoid or kill the wind serpent on the stairs--it patrols from the very top to the very bottom. There'll be another pack of Ravenguards at the entrance to the next hall; run through and feign beyond them. Here, you'll find another pack of tiny birds in front of you. Pull out your pet again, Misdirect onto it and give it a preemptive Mend Pet; shoot an Explosive Trap into the midst of the birds and begin Multishotting. You might get a bit of aggro but don't worry about it; alternatively you can just stop multi-shotting and let the pet kill them, assisting on it to avoid pulling the lot onto yourself.

6. Fifth Room. Dismiss Pet again. This is another tricky room; there'll be another pack of tiny birds on the right which you could pull back and AoE again first (with pet), but it's quite possible to skip the room entirely. This room also has a couple packs of mobs and a patrolling blue wind serpent; you'll want to run past them (deterrance if you get aggro) and feign either in the corner just before the Ravenguards (if you are getting hit particularly hard) or just past them in Anzu's room, beyond their aggro, if you can make it here safely.

7. Anzu Info. Heal up if needed; call pet. Anzu has two phases: the first is simply a nuke phase; the second has him become Banish-immune while a flock of weak ravens attacks. He will sometimes cyclone you ("Cyclone of Feathers"); this can be reflected (although it invariably 'misses' him) and can miss, but cannot be broken by PvP trink or BW.

8. Anzu himself: Do NOT misdirect at the start (unless you have it glyphed); instead, save it for his first Phase 2 shift. Send pet, and use Bestial Wrath if you have it, and Kill Command; otherwise, give the pet some time to build up a good amount of threat. If you outaggro your pet feign the aggro off, but try to save feign for the second phase. Eventually Anzu will go immune (banished), and you and the pet will probably be stunned for about 6 seconds. A flock of small birds will descend and attack; now is the time to Misdirect (being sure autoattack is off Anzu) and place an Explosive and Snake trap below you. Pop another Mend Pet and either Multishot spam or feign and wait for some birds to die. If you find that you're pulling a lot of aggro, simply assist the pet's target (F key by default). Save your MDs and Feigns for the banish/bird adds phase, which repeats. In the end, I find the Sethekk Heroic trash far more challenging at times than Anzu himself. Once you reach him, it's a fairly easy fight.

9. Aftermath. Loot your crap blue, and hope that next time, maybe, just maybe, the Reins will drop.

You may now either hearthstone out, or clear the next room's boss (an easy boss, simply nuke--be sure to allow him time to go through three "channeling" phases, or he will bug and not drop loot nor open the next door) and make your way out the newly-opened door--the exit is directly across the next room. Be aware that any uncleared trash will still be in your way.

Best of luck on your Raven Lord mount!

[Acherontia]

Part 2: Zul'Gurub
Zulian Tiger & Razzashi Raptor

Good ZG Map

In this part, I will cover three bosses. The first is High Priest Thekal, who can drop the Reins of the Zulian Tiger. The second is Bloodlord Mandokir, a tough fight indeed, who can drop Reins of the Swift Razzashi Raptor. The third, if you have done the required quest chain, is the hydra in the lake, who can drop Tome of Polymorph: Turtle for a good sale on the Auction House.

Instance Notes: This level 60 dungeon is actually a raid, and you are required to be in a raid group in order to enter; therefore, you'll need someone, preferably a trusted friend's alt, to form a raid group with you. Be wary of inviting randomers who offer, as they may sneak in and roll on the mounts without you noticing! The raid itself is located in the far northeastern portion of Stranglethorn Vale, reachable by running directly east from Lake Nazferiti. If you want to do a full clear of the raid, you are capable of doing so as a solo hunter; there are many mobs and bosses that I'm not covering in this guide, however, so you'll need to find a more comprehensive one. Using http://www.wowwiki.com to find the various boss tactics will help. By the way, if you happen to see Voodoo Piles lying about, be aware that looting them will a. aggro nearby mobs and b. often MC you, forcing you to kill your pet. So clear the area, and dismiss your pet, before doing this!

Mob Notes: If you accidentally aggro mobs, most of them are easily defeated. There are four, however, to take notice of. First, and most important, are the Axe-Throwers. These do a spinning attack which can stun you and the pet for several seconds. If you have three or more Axe-Throwers on you at once, this can spell disaster--so do not get cocky and pull full rooms! Next are the Blood-Drinkers. These mobs will damage mobs around them, healing themselves for 5x the amount drained. It's best to simply kill any other mobs with them first so that they aren't healing themselves to full. Third are the Champions, which have a nasty knockback; these can throw you--repeatedly--into far-off packs of mobs if you aren't careful. Keep your back to a wall for these. Fourth, and last, are the Tiger Cubs. These are no threat by themselves and are easily killable, but tend to run off at low health and deliberately (they emote this) draw much larger packs of stronger mobs to you. Please note that the "important" mobs I'm listing are restricted to the area I'll be covering for the three bosses in question. (Also of note are the big Berserkers; they do hit hard and have an AoE fear, threat wipe and knockback, but are fairly easy to take down). Oh, and if you're after a Razzashi Hatchling, the red raptors in here do rarely drop it.

1. The Entrance: I run in, dismiss pet, and then mount up. You can run along the left-hand side of the grass here, right along the water's edge, and make your way straight across the first bridge, and then the second.

Avoid patrols of snakes and trolls as you go; they are fairly slow-moving with a small aggro range. Once you're across, make a right (ignore the alcove full of snakes dead ahead), then curve around to the left, sticking to the left-hand side of the wall. Curve to the left, then cross the road to take the first right; take the left-side fork where the road splits, going under the archway. You will find yourself climbing a steep hill here; avoid the Gurubashi Berserker if possible. Follow the road up into the large open area, curving around (following the path) to the left until you see a doorway with four Gurubashi Champions guarding it. Avoid patrols in this area; make your way past the four trolls. You can get past them with luck; without it, simply feign on the other side (as quickly as possible to avoid their long-range knockback).

2. Mandokir's Room: Bloodlord Mandokir is a hard solo fight with several quirks. You may wish to clear his room (carefully, pack by pack and with your back to the wall for humanoid groups) if you're unfamiliar with the fight or wish to play it safe. The Bloodlord has a nasty fear, among other things, that can easily send you careening into multiple mob packs if you aren't careful on positioning, or are unlucky. If you go the route of clearing the room, also kill the Gurubashi Berserker that periodically patrols in, and through, the area. It walks nearly to the bottom of Mandokir's ramp and can quickly complicate a bad situation.

3. Mandokir: See the ramp, with the Vilebranch Speaker at the bottom? Once you kill him, the Bloodlord aggroes.

So get your pet out and shoot the thing, and immediately Misdirect your pet and place a fire trap at the bottom of the stairs. Run to the top as quickly as you can, trying to position yourself so that Mandokir and your pet are at the top, with you at the back of the little room up top. You'll NEED LoS on your pet enough to use Mend Pet.

If you try and hide, the boss is *supposed* to teleport you to him. However, you can avoid most of the danger listed below if you position your pet to one side of the ramp, run up the stairs, and hop down onto a ledge overlooking your pet. As long as you are careful with aggro, you will be out of danger and able to mend/shoot at your leisure. I've had this method either work, or fail entirely; it seems down to luck, but it can be a much, much easier tactic if it does work. If you choose to stand on the same level as Mandokir, however, you'll need to be aware of the following.

The boss will periodically cast Fear, wipe his threat, and often Whirlwind. These things are all dangerous; use PvP trinket or BW to break the fears if it looks like you may hit mobs, or run into his WW at low health. When he wipes threat, Feign Death or MD the pet again. Stay away from melee range or his WW will hurt! His raptor will also attack--this isn't tameable, so don't spend time Beast Loring it.

Nuke either one down first (there are reasons some people say one or the other, but in the end the difference isn't great at level 80).

4. Surviving Mandokir: If you need to bandage, wait until his charge, and if possible his fear, have just been used, to reduce the likelihood of either interrupting your bandage cast. Make sure Mend Pet is always ticking. If you're going to die, go feign death in a corner somewhere; sometimes your pet will solo him, other times it will die and you can revive pet. Sometimes, even with the best preparation, you'll get unlucky as far as charge, WW, fear and threat dump, and you will die. This doesn't mean it's impossible by any means; you just got unlucky, it happens. Sometimes you will finish at full hp; sometimes you will die. Due to this RNG, I consider Mandokir one of the harder bosses to solo. You CAN avoid some of the stuns by not taking -any- action during the frequent debuff "Threatening Gaze," but he seems to charge anyway sometimes, and you'll have the debuff more often than not anyway. I prefer to simply nuke through it, but if you are having trouble, try holding off during the debuff.

Be aware that you cannot eat while in his room once he's been aggroed once; for some reason you are forced to stand every few seconds, interrupting food consumption. Do NOT waste buff food in this way!

In Summary: Stay near the top of the stairs, keep LoS on your pet & Mend ticking, stay out of melee range, and nuke as much as possible.

[Acherontia]

5. To Thekal: Dismiss pet and mount up. Head back out of Mandokir's room, going the way you came (down his tower's ramp, to the right, curving around to the right until you get to the steep ramp). Hang right, passing the various Adders (sticking to the left side of this trail, you can pass all the trash without aggroing). You'll pass the entrance to the Edge of Madness on your right, a path down to the water on your left, and a couple Berserkers in the road that you can bypass. Around the next corner, on the right you should see a large group of tigers. Watch carefully to ensure that the frolicking Tiger Cubs don't run into you--they race across the path back and forth, and may aggro all of the nearby mobs onto you.

6. Thekal's Room: More Tiger Cubs race to and fro here. Pick them off if you're going to clear trash; otherwise, dodge them and run straight ahead to the next big stone "doorway," and stop just inside. If you want to clear trash, the safe route is to dismount, call pet, MD the pet, and then open with a Freezing Trap one one of the Axe-Throwers. Nuke the other two down, then kill the trapped one, then the tigers. This trash dies easily, but the Throwers can present trouble by stunning you and your pet. When you're ready to fight the boss, position yourself inside his smaller area, just outside the building. Keep your back not toward the open area (the final form of Thekal has a knockback), but toward either side (North or South). Note: I'm giving the -real- tactics of actually fighting Thekal. There are ways to bug it, but this isn't covered here, as it's completely different and requires twice the space. I also prefer not to do it, because doing it as intended is just as fast if not faster, and the "bug" version often bugs for me anyway, screwing things up and making it take even longer.

7. Thekal's Fight: The fight starts with three priests/priestesses and two trash tiger mobs. MD your pet, launch an Explosive trap into them and shoot a few Multi-shots to get threat established. The trick to this fight is that all three bosses must die with in a few seconds of one another, or they will res one another at full hp. When they die, Thekal will reappear in a tiger form (which is easier than the other three combined, in my opinion) and put up one last fight. The three mobs silence, blind, gouge your pet, and most irritating of all, Zealot Lor'kan will periodically pop a 1/2 hp bar heal on one of them. Your best bet is to nuke her down to 1/3 or 1/4 hp, and then work on one of the other two for awhile; this way, if she pops a heal, it's likely only on herself. You can then burst her back down and go back to work on the others. You CAN interrupt her heal; Intimidation or (I assume) Silencing Shot should do it. Both of her buffs, including a Lightning Shield, can be purged with Tranquilizing Shot. Once your pet has full aggro, you can set her to Focus and try to interrupt her casts, but often it can be quicker simply to nuke and let her heal. Just make sure that she dies first, with the other two close behind--the last thing you want is a last-minute heal when the the other two are down. Save your Feigns and Deterrances for when your pet is Gouged or Blinded, and keep Mend Pet up as much as possible.

Sidenote: if Thekal has any MS effects upon him when he first dies, his Tiger form will res with that much less HP (50% MS = 50% hp, 25% MS = 75% hp, etc).

8. To Ghaz'ranka: If you're a fisherman and have done the quest to buy Mudskunk Lures from Nat Pagle (or perhaps if you buy them off AH; they aren't bound, but I can't find information on whether you can summon without having done the quest), you can summon this extra boss. You'll need to bring the lure with you. Killing it gives a chance to loot a coveted Tome of Polymorph: Turtle, which can sell for hundreds or even thousands of gold. It's a quick and easy side boss that I suggest doing when you do your mount run. First, you'll need to run down to the water and fish up five Zulian Mudskunks from the "Muddy Churning Waters" pool.

You'll find lone Hooktooth Frenzy fish and packs of Zulian Crocolisks threatening your path, but neither are hard to kill. You will probably have to fish out 2 schools to get the 5 Mudskunks. Re-equip your weapon and head to Ghaz'ranka's ramp: to get there, head RIGHT when you leave Thekal's room, taking the next ramp down left to the water. The landing is called Pagle's Pointe, and is situated just across the river from the Northeastern point of Hakkar's temple.

9. Ghaz'ranka: Kill any Hooktooth Frenzies in the water just around Pagle's Pointe. Swim into the river, and face West/Northwest, putting your pet a bit in front of you. Be sure you're both in deep water; the boss can toss you up into the air, causing you both to take heavy fall damage if you're not careful.

If you DO take a throw over land, use Disengage just before you hit the ground to break the fall. Right-click the Mudskunk Lure and MD your pet 5-10 secs later. Feign Death if there's an aggro dump, keep Mend Pet up and nuke. He's a very easy fight in the end, and as the following image shows, well worth the few minutes he takes to fish up and kill!

[Acherontia]

Part 3: Stratholme
Rivendare's Deathcharger

Map of Stratholme With My Route Marked Out

This guide isn't so much a Hunter Solo guide as a "quick Strat run" guide. This dungeon isn't challenging for level 80 or even many 70 players, but it's useful to have a path laid out for the newcomer regardless. You can leave your pet away and use Aspect of the Pack for most of this.

Instance Notes: This level 60 dungeon can be found in the Eastern Plaguelands, at the far north. In order to follow the quick farming guide I'm going to lay out, you'll need the Key to the City. This drops off of Magistrate Barthilas, who can be found just inside the Undead side when you clear the Living side for the first time. Once you have the key, you can then enter Strat via the back gate, called the Eastwall Gate, nestled in the hillside far to the east of Stratholme's main entrance.

Mob Notes: The Strat run can easily be done in less than ten minutes, and nearly all of the trash skipped. Therefore, this guide will be very brief. However, there are three mobs to take note of: the Gargoyles can fear you; the Banshees can silence you (iirc; might have been the fiends) and the Crypt Fiends can root you. Regardless, the Gargoyles patrol fast and thick, so be careful where you tread, and be ready to cancel Pack and feign out of harm's way.

1. The Back Gate: Come on in. Dismiss your pet and hit Aspect of the Pack/Cheetah. Use your key on the first gate, and head around this room to the left. Yes, you can catch and kill the Magistrate here if you try hard enough, but there's no point, and it'll aggro the mobs. Head across the room, open the next gate; go through the hall, turn right (there's no choice here) and open the third gate. Stick to your left, now, and avoiding all mobs, head to the big glowing Ziggurat before you. There is a Crypt Fiend boss here; call pet, kill it, head into the Ziggurat, and kill all of the acolytes. Sometimes you'll miss one--be sure to watch for the red text shouting "A Ziggurat has fallen!" or something to that effect, and if you play with sound, listen for the whistling-wind sound of the magic channeling to cease. If you do miss one, you have to come all the way back, so don't!

2. Banshee and Malekei: Dismiss pet. Make your way back to the right, then head around to the left where the road splits. You'll see another ziggurat past some mobs; skip past them, get onto the boss's platform--it's a banshee, and if you take too long, she'll Mind-Control you and kill your pet. Call pet, nuke, clear Ziggurat, dismiss pet. Again, be sure all acolytes are cleared! Then go out, heading right, and make your way along this narrow hallway until you see another ziggurat on the right. This third and last one features as a boss a human mage named Malekei the Pallid or something similar--you can climb up the railing on the right side of the stairs and skip the trash, or quickly AoE it down. Once you clear this last ziggurat, you'll see a yell to the effect of "The last of the crystals has fallen! The Slaughterhouse is vulnerable!" This is your cue. Dismiss pet and run to the right. Be aware that this is where you'll probably need your one Feign Death, as many mobs patrol closely together here. Try and get a bit down the hall past them before you do feign. You'll see a massive open gate ahead; get inside. If you have lowbies or friends with you, be sure they accompany you beneath the gate; this closes behind you, locking other players out, once you engage the enemies beyond.

3. The Slaughterhouse: This is a large, open courtyard with a ziggurat at the center and many Abominations wandering about. Once inside, call pet, switch Aspect to Hawk and kill the Abominations. You can send pet to each in turn and then MD + AoE them down, or you can two- and three-shot each of them. One type spits AoE poison; the other launches small oozes, often four or five. One Multishot kills the lot. Once these are all dead, Baron Rivendare will yell for Ramstein the Gorger to come out. You can kill this ugly brute in a few seconds, but if you're lower level or badly geared, he does do a stun on the "tank" (pet) and will charge you instead, so be ready. Once he's dead, a swarm of low-health skeletons will charge from the small locked door to the left side of the large room. (This tunnel has a portal at the end, by the way, but it's unusable--ignore it.) A trap or a couple multishots combined with MD will easily destroy these.

4. Rivendare's Ziggurat: Next, the Black Guard will spawn. If you have a way to aggro these through the door (AoE for example), DON'T. This will bug the ziggurat doors; the mobs will run through, leaving the door permanently locked.

Be patient. After a moment, the doors open and the four or five Black Guard mobs will come out; kill these and head into the ziggurat. MD your pet, mend, and run in alongside him (the door closes behind you).

Nuke down Baron Rivendare; he will spawn adds that heal him if not killed, but a well-geared hunter will kill him before this ever happens. If you're undergeared, combine an explosive trap and multishot and you're good to go. Be prepared for lots of this...

[Acherontia]

(Images To Come)


Part 4: Karazhan
Midnight's Reins

This brief guide is only for the first boss--Attumen the Huntsman and his steed Midnight--and really doesn't require a map.

Instance Notes: You will need the ability to open the gate. Rogues can lockpick, blacksmiths can use skeleton keys, and Engineers may be able to blow the lock. However, you can run the quest chain for the key yourself if you have no other options. In addition, some models of player character can go behind Karazhan, leaping up on some rocks and pressing against the rear of the tower, and fall through to underneath--then run to the instance portal from behind. Other models can't fit through the gap. This level 70 dungeon is actually a raid, and thus once again you'l require a raid group to enter. Again, be certain that you don't invite some seemingly friendly stranger who might turn up and roll on your mount.

Mob Notes: The undead horses can fear you; the Stablemasters can heal the horses or themselves.

1. Trash. First and foremost, know that this is a fairly difficult fight; although it is straightforward, during Phase One the boss hits quite hard and can down an undergeared hunter's tank pet--or a mismanaged or badly-specced pet. There IS a trick to ensuring the pet doesn't take too much damage, but we'll cover that ahead; the point is, bring a good tank pet! Once you come into Karazhan, open the wooden door and just curve around to the left. You'll see some undead skeletal horses here. Begin pulling them and carefully killing each group; use MD and pull back a bit to avoid nasty fear-induced situations, focusing down any Stablemasters first. Be aware that the larger (4+ mob) packs should be cc'd to some extent, and that your pet may die--if this happens, run away a bit and feign death. The trash respawns in about a half hour, so clear quickish and be ready to re-clear should you take too long.

2. Attumen. Once the trash is cleared up to the yellow-named horse, Midnight, you can stop a moment and breathe. Heal your pet up, wait on any cooldowns, and then send pet. DO NOT use Misdirection yet! Once your pet is nicely settled in, begin working Midnight's HP down. Once Midnight is at 95%, Attuman will come running--THIS is when you use your Misdirection. Make sure to lay into him until the MD is up; he isn't tauntable, and so if he comes for you first, things get messy. Add to that the fact that if you feign death before your pet is on his threat table, he will sometimes reset entirely--vanishing completely, unable to be killed for loot until the instance soft-resets (30 minutes with nobody inside--or possibly manually reset if other bosses are alive). Attuman in this phase hits very hard.

The trick is to make absolutely certain that neither he nor Midnight ever gets to the side of, or behind, your pet. Move your pet, recalling and resending it or manually using "go to" with the pet on passive, and position it so that both bosses are in front. Keep Mend up, and nuke hard, but watch your threat. Stay fairly close to the boss; he has a nasty Charge if you get far away. Also watch the curse he places--it increases your chance to miss by 50%, so if the pet gets it for very long, your threat may be an issue. Be ready to feign in that case--or if the pet is going to die. Attumen takes gear and a bit of practice, but in the end he's perfectly viable for any hunter to solo. Once Attumen (or Midnight, whichever you choose to dps) hits 25% hp, he will mount on her and fight you as one boss. At this point he is significantly easier, dealing much less damage; you can relax now. Good luck!


(Images for Kara to come!)

[Anyia]

Nice guides! Will have to head back in to Karazhan I think!

[cowmuflage]

You forgot AQ40 lol. Oh i know its not soloing but i do these with my GM whos a pally and it makes things easyer. Well around the raptor boss with that sickness you get? yeah pallys make that easy.

[Acherontia]

Part 5: Magister's Terrace
Swift White Hawkstrider

Instance Notes: The Swift White Hawkstrider is available only from MgT Heroic. It drops off of the last boss, Kael'thas Sunstrider. This dungeon is completely linear, so I've not bothered with a map; there's only one route you can take through to the end. In order to run this on Heroic mode, please note that you will need to become attuned. You do this by completing a quest chain begun on the Isle of Quel'Danas (also the location of the dungeon) and running it on Normal mode to complete several quests inside. See this link for more information on the required chain. I bring both a Spirit Beast and a Tenacity pet to this instance; the heals of the Spirit Beast are helpful in a couple of places.

Mob Notes: Nothing, really. When you first enter, you may wish to check on the group makeup of Princess Delrissa's event, and reset if it's too much for you; otherwise, nuking healers in each group if you're having trouble is all that is necessary for trash.

1. First Hallway. Dismiss your pet. Put on Aspect of the Pack. You'll be looking down a long hallway with a tree in the center; before you, two guards line the path, with a pull on either side halfway down, a patrol, and a pack at the end.

You're going to skip this all quickly; it takes between no and two Feign Deaths depending on how unlucky you are. You can simply run past the first two guards if you're lucky; if not, just Feign shortly after them. Run forward, moving around the tree (skirting up against it) to the right, and avoiding the patrol (you can jump onto the hedges lining either side--you can't fall off, don't worry--to avoid the patrol). At the end of the corridor, if you get lucky, you can skip the pack at the end, too. If not, feign. You can opt to clear all trash, if you prefer, for rep or to be safe.

2. Selin Fireheart's Room. There's two large packs of mobs on either side of this room, one pack of 2 in the middle, and a boss. The boss locks the door if you aggro, and all mobs attack. Misdirect onto your pet, send it to one of the packs (or pull back if you're not feeling safe) and kill.

Repeat with the other side of the room and the two mobs in the middle, and then kill the boss. You can safely ignore any boss tactics at level 80. This boss is a very easy kill.

3. Mana Wyrmlings. Proceed down the hallway after Selin Fireheart (the door to the right side of the room, on his platform, previously blocked with a forcefield, opens when he dies). Use Autoshot if possible to clear these Wyrms; they buff you with a +damage buff, and so you want to have full focus and a long-lasting debuff when you reach the next room. Here, there are several huge packs of Wyrms. MD and Mend, send pet and AoE. If you have a low-end computer or a bad connection, things can get ugly here; sometimes turning your back will help (after launching an MD'd Explosive Trap; just mend pet and feign if necessary to dump Mend aggro).

Once these are all dead, your path is clear to the boss.

4. Vexallus. As someone notes in this thread, this is smoothly done with a Ferocity pet. The boss sends out low-hp energy orbs that, when killed, both apply a DoT and a +damage buff. You can simply mend pet, send your pet onto a handful of these, and then nuke the boss--or do it yourself.

With decent gear, the boss dies too quickly for it to matter much, but I've found it smoothest to use the pet--and for fun, you can see how many orbs the pet can take before the dot begins to really hurt it, as after a few, it becomes staggeringly large!

5. Hallway + Courtyard. Dismiss pet and continue. You'll now pass through a grassy balcony-type area; if you're doing this on Normal, for the attunement, you use the Orb and then talk to Kalecgos, who lands before you. On Heroic, skip it and continue to the next hallway, which has a couple of wandering Constructs. You can safely skip around these--I stick to the left side of the wall, cross the hall halfway down, and dip into the corridor to the right.

Now you'll see a courtyard ahead of you. There are many packs of mobs here and one patrolling enemy. Wait until he's out of your way, then skirt forward and a bit to the right, then cut directly left between the center and the left-hand pack, running straight to the wall.

Turn right, moving behind the tree and hedges, and follow the wall until you're out.

Now call your pet and kill the Construct that's patrolling about; you'll need the space.

6. Princess Delrissa. This is a PvP-style encounter, with several minibosses who do not obey ANY threat rules and who use both crowd-control and heals to attempt to kill you. At level 80, this is easily the hardest boss--depending on Delrissa's group makeup, which changes randomly each run. I use a Spirit Beast for the heals, with a macro to heal me when I'm getting low; attempting to "tank" this is useless since, as mentioned, the bosses don't obey threat/aggro rules. You may wish to clear the surrounding trash for room to maneuver; an accidental pull of a group generally spells death. If you're very careful and wearing a PvP trinket, however, chances are you'll be okay. The Princess is a Shivarra Priestess, and casts PW: Shield and Renew. Purge this with Tranquilizing Shot if you're having trouble downing her. She comes with several random minibosses, and to complete this fight, you must kill them all. You will likely find Deterrance, Disengage and Feign Death useful here, as in real PvP.

See this link for information on each add and tactics. I generally begin by mending & sending pet at Delrissa, and throwing a freezing trap at Apoko (a Broken Shaman) if he's there. Nuking Delrissa down asap should be your top priority, as if she gets time to heal, things can get sticky. Apoko should die next, and Kagani Nightstrike (a Blood Elf rogue who tends to stunlock) and Warlord Salaris (a naga Warrior) should be next on your hit list. If you get a group with all of these, you may find it difficult or even impossible; you can actually check to see the group makeup as soon as you enter MgT and leave to reset (for a different group) if it's too much for you to handle. Use your own crowd-control abilities to assist you in this fight.

7. Kael'Thas. After Delrissa, there is a hallway and one more pack of trash. After this, Kael'thas makes a long-winded speech--if you wish to skip this and are confident, simply pull him before the last mob in this last trash pack dies. Otherwise, he will go immune to make his speech--if you'll need time to heal or switch pet, just let him.

I use a Spirit Beast for this fight as well. The extra damage is useful, the healing for the Gravity Lapse phase is nice, but really he just doesn't need a tank pet. You will want to MD and Mend, send pet and begin nuking as hard as you can; if you take too long getting him to phase 2, he will cast a Pyroblast that may kill your pet. Having Heart of the Phoenix or Cower at the ready (i.e. off autocast) if your damage is particularly low may be wise. If and when Kael'thas spawns Phoenixes, you may choose to nuke them down or simply run away; their Hellfire-like move eventually kills them anyway.

Once Kael'thas is at 50% hp, he changes to a Gravity Lapse phase. For this portion, your pet will be on the ground eating his face; keep Mend Pet up. Your job is to swim around in the air avoiding the big purple arcane balls, and to take potshots at Kael when you have time. Save Fervor for this if you can; you'll find that the gravity resets now and then, interrupting some of your Steady Shot casts. Try to stay low to the ground toward the end, or the fall damage may hurt. When Kael dies, this phase ends; if he doesn't die before the end, he will go into Phase 3 and you'll have a few seconds to nuke him before he goes back to Phase 2. You should kill him in Phase 3, however, as he becomes weakened after channeling Gravity Lapse and takes 50% more damage.

Once Kael'thas is dead and looted, you can scoot around the ramp behind him and use the Orb to teleport back to the Isle of Quel'danas.

[Magnakilro]

You only need to kill the mobs before the first boss...tho the ones after have better drop rates.

[Acherontia]

No guide is required for those few, though

[Shadowkaizen]

This is a great guide. I have been hearing a lot of petopians say they are having a hard time soloing stuff and I just want to log into thier realm and help them. I have been soloing these for a long time now and I was actually starting to think about writing a guide of my own until I seen this. This is a lot better than what I had in mind and I applaud you for your work.

Remeber my fellow Petopians...we are hunter...and there isn't much we can't do!

[Arwyn]

Thanks for sharing the info.

[Mustafah]

Nice guide. will try when I am lvl80. Thanks for sharing it.

[Rhyela]

Awesome job, thank you! I used the guide to solo the ZG mount bosses tonight and while things didn't go quite as smoothly for me as laid out here (my own fault), I did manage to pull it off. Quite a rush for a first-time soloer. Neither mount dropped sadly, but at least I know I can be back at it next reset!

Thank you times a million!

[cowmuflage]

Well Acherontia all you really needed to say was to kill the blue guys ONLY. Its pointless to go after the dogs as your more likely to get your pet killed. Anyway its an easy 4 mounts to add to your mount collection and heck of alot easyer to get than the other drops!

[SpiritBinder]

Very nicely done

The pictures are a real treat as sometimes text, no matter how much explaining, still cant not really explain what a picture can. I do very similar runs myself but no longer have to do Kara or the raptor boss as the RNG gods have blessed me on those ones. It might be worth adding the white hawk strider later on too.

At the moment running it of heroic can be rather difficult if your not a seasoned extreme solo'er, but when cata comes out and lvls go up, it think it will be very doable, maybe even U.P. for the blue proto? ... I'm getting excited

Great guides once again

[cowmuflage]

UP might be a bit a bit of a strech really. lol don't get your hopes up.

[Acherontia]

I'd heard rumors that UP was already being solo'd. By hunters? Dunno. >.< You can skip the first two bosses though can't you? And the protodrake boss is just a matter of gear really.

I SHOULD add the Magister's Terrace one, eh!? I utterly forgot about him; and to think I just started farming him the other day I'll do that one once it's routine; may have learned some tricks by then

[cowmuflage]

yes you should put that up