Magnakilro's Guide to Solo Farming the Vitreous Stone Drake

[Magnakilro]

Hello one and all! Remember a long time ago....in a galaxy far far away.....I made guides for a few treasured mounts and pets? Well....I have finally found a mount for me to make a guide for!

The mount in question is known as the Vitreous Stone Drake. This drake drops off Slabhide, the second boss of Stonecore, on both difficulties. Obviously, we're focusing on reg.

What you'll need:

1: lvl 85 for access to Camoflage

2: a turtle or beetle (best to get one of the lvl 84 beetles in uldum unless you have a turtle or beetle of your own at lvl 85)

3: a spirit beast (you don't have to get one...but it makes things easier...)

4: BM spec (duh)

5: Glyph of Misdirection

6: Glyph of Mending

7: Mostly ilvl 346 gear or better

Once your decked out in this stuff, let's look at the spec:

Hunter spec: Fill EVERYTHING to max rank in BM tree except Crouching Tiger, Hidden Chimera, then go to Surv tree. Max out Hunter vs Wild and Improved Serp Sting. Then put a point in Trap Mastery.

Pet spec: Beetle/Turtle: fill tree, ignoring Serp Swiftness, Spiked Collar, Boar Speed, Culling the Herd, Lionhearted, Great Resistance, Last Stand, and Intervene

Spirit Beast: a basic dps spec may work, or you could take a slight tank approach like I did which is, fill tree, ignoring Dash, Improved Cower, Spiked Collar, Boar Speed, Culling the Herd, Lionhearted, Charge (reccommended that you actually take this....it could help...my spirit beast was lvl 82 when I did this so I didn't have the point to spend on it), Rabid, and Shark Attack.

Once those specs are obtained, and you have everything else needed...your ready to begin!

Head to Stonecore, make sure its set to reg.

Now that your in here...this is what you do:

Step 1: Take out spirit beast, then pop Camo and walk past the first trash pack

Step 2: Kill all of the little earth elementals (they have like 4k hp)

Step 3: Camo past second trash pack

Step 4: Now it gets difficult....on the 3rd trash pack, look for the Earthshaper. Once he's targetted, place an Ice Trap at your feet, MD to pet, put a mend on it, then send it after the Earthshaper. Kill the Earthshaper FAST (the kill is easier when it transforms).

Step 5: When the Earthshaper dies, FD and let pet die.

Step 6: rez pet, then swap to turtle/beetle

Step 7: set an ice trap at feet, use MD on pet, cast Mend, then send the pet at the remaining adds.

Step 8: Kill the remaing trash in the group, remember to keep MD and Mend up at all times. Pop FD if you get attacked.

Step 9: heal up, switch back to spirit beast

Step 10: repeat steps 4-8 on the 2nd trash pack.

Step 11: You should now be at the starting trash pack with Millhouse Manastorm in it. Bring out your Spirit Beast, and nuke down the Earthshaper. When he dies, FD, let pet die, then rezz it.

Step 12: Kill the other Earthshaper (if there is one), then FD, let pet die, rezz it. Swap to a better specced dps pet.

Step 13: Burn Millhouse down to 50%. He will run off to Corborus's spawn point. FD, let pet die, rezz, switch to turtle/beetle

Step 14: Head to Corborus, and pop Camo. Sneak past him into the cave on your left, sneaking past numerous trash mobs till you reach Slabhide's room.

Step 15: Dodge falling stalactites (aka...stay away from shadows on the floor) till you reach a flat surface with a teleporter. Slabhide will spawn here shortly.

Step 16: Engage and kill Slabhide. Slabhide has a little over 2 mill hp. The main problem with this fight is LoS. Slabhide has a breath attack, but as long as your not in front of him, you're fine. He also has an attack that causes a dust cloud at your feet. Get away from it, as it will take off 10k hp after a few secs, and leave a lava puddle that takes away like 5k per tick. Just dps Slabhide, keep mend up on pet, ad dodge dust clouds/lava. After a while, Slabhide will fly into the air, causing stalactites to fall. Dodge the shadows and call pet back to you. Find an opening in the shadows to send your pet through when he lands. The stalactites will remain in the ground when Slabhide lands, which cause LoS problems. Try to stay within LoS of your pet so you can mend and Slab so you can dps. Aside from the stalactites, this phase is exactly like when you pulled him. After a bit, he'll fly up again, all previous stalactites despawning. He'll drop another set. Then land again.

In summary: P1 (Ground Phase): dodge Dust clouds and lava, keep mend up on pet, dps Slab.

P2 (Air phase): Heal pet, call pet back, avoid shadows, dps Slab. (this goes for ALL air phases from this one till the end)

P1.5 (post-Air phase): same as P1, but you hafta keep in mind that stalactites can put you outta LoS. Try to keep the boss and pet in LoS at all times.

Note: Slabhide can NOT die while in Air Phase. He will stop at 1 hp. He will be killable when he lands.

Step 17: Loot the boss. If you get mount, wet self in happiness, then fly off into the sunset

Step 18: If no mount, leave the instance using the teleporter. Reset, then start back at Step 1

Step 19: ?

Step 20: Profit

Hope this helps!

Note: I have personally tested this method. It works beautifully. My gear is all ilvl 346 except for shoulders (ilvl 333) and boots (Quest greens). Spirit Beast was lvl 82, Beetle was lvl 84.

Editted to correct a few errors (thanks for pointing them out Acheronita!) also, thanks to the same person, I wanted to clarify the reason for skipping trash.

By killing the trash packs from back to front, its not only easier due to Milhouse not being part of them, thus making it one less elite, but it also means you only need to fight Milhouse once! You don't even need to kill the first trash pack if you can burn him down to 50% fast enough.

Edit 2: As of Patch 4.0.6, during the initial trash packs...if you pull the second pack, it will cause Millhouse's group to aggro on to you. Here's how I handled it:

1: Killed the 3rd trash pack as per the guide

2: On the second trash pack...I just killed the Earthshaper

3: I went back to Millhouse's pack and killed the Earthshaper(s)

4: Burned down Millhouse in first pack

5: Since the second trash pack is still there, you WILL hafta burn down Millhouse a second time. Do so. The rest of the run should go as per the guide

Note: Slabhide stays grounded longer as of 4.0.6

Also note: Since this is on Reg...you CAN reset it and go thru again. Just exit the instance, right click your portrait and choose "Reset All Instances" then click Yes.

[Sarayana]

Man! I really want to try this now!!! Thanks for the awesome guide.

[Royi]

wow, incredibly nuts and awesome

Give it a few patches and this should be even easier with ilvl 500 gear or whatever it will cap at.

[Magnakilro]

I'm happy you pplz are enjoying the guide already! XD

Just remember....Step 17 is the most important! =P

Also....just a note....there is NO way to completely bypass the adds at the start...you HAVE to fight them to cause Corborus to destroy the wall blocking the way to Slabhide....

[Comett]

Awesome guide!

I'm a nicely geared level 85 hunter (all 346+) but I actually found it impossible to manage in BM spec for some reason. The spirit beast for trash idea was great (I just did a normal dps spec), but when I got to the boss I couldn't heal through my turtle's damage, even though turtle is specced for tanking. I swapped to SV and my extra dps burnt the boss fast enough through each phase that my healing could keep up. I'm not entirely sure why I couldn't do it though lol. It was definitely a struggle even in SV x_x Perhaps my soloing skills aren't up to par hehe. Oh well, got there in the end - no mount drop yet. I'll see if I can get brave enough to try again later. That trash at the start is annoying x-x

Edit: Silly Comett didn't use the mend pet glyph. With that it would have been a breeze hahahaha.

[SpiritBinder]

Wow Magnakilro, I was thinking when I 1st saw this drake, was "so this is the new blue proto, how neat". I guess I'll just have to farm UP this expansion for the proto, and this one in the next exp.... or maybe not : D

Can't wait to try this at home later after work

Thankyou Thankyou Thankyou!

[Vephriel]

Ooooh, I'm definitely going to have to try this! Thanks for the great guide as always. ^^

[Lupis]

OOoh, great guide! I'm going to have to try this, once I have some free time. Thanks!

[Siliverin]

oh sweet thanks for posting this!! i know what im gonna be doin xD

[Araela]

Step 17: Loot the boss. If you get mount, wet self in happiness, then fly off into the sunset

Hahaha! Love it.

Thanks for this - I may have to try it out!

[Malackai]

I have been soloing this boss for a couple of days now.

But for the packs I actually use SV spec with a Turtle/Beetle. somehow if u use a dps pet it tends to get messy
That way your able to CC 2 mobs easily. I tend to trap with the launcer and shoot of a wyvern at the second mob then i let the pet charge in to tank the remaining two mobs.

Most of the time my trap cd is resetted before one of the two mobs charge at me and ill be able to trap that one as well.

since the 3 packs are randomized when you enter the instance aka either 2 earthwarders or 2 beserkers or 2 warbringers in one pack. I tend to reset the instance if the milhouse pack has 2 beserkers.

for clearing the packs
I Trap the earthwarder and sleep either a Beserker (if there are 2 of them in the pack) or a Warbringer (the one that enrages). I always kill the Warbringer first and Earthwarder last since you can interrupt his transformation and even his aoe attacks

for the Milhouse pack I still stay SV but then I bring a dps pet out. and nuke him down as fast as I can and Fd or run out.
after that i switch to BM and camo to slabhide

[amrasillias]

thanks for the guide, looks a lot similar to this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SI4eGS_LDEQ
(for those in need of visual aid )

[Golden]

I just did this with no problems whatsoever. ^^ As my pets I was using a Spirit Beast and a Beetle, both level 85 and specced for max survival. My gear is on average ilvl 339. As shown in the video that was linked earlier in this topic, I used Scatter Shot and Freezing Trap along with Intimidation to interrupt the caster trash's transformation.

No mount. :(

[SpiritBinder]

Thanks again Magnakilro, tried last night a few times over. The 1st time I was as nervous as buggery and mucked up a few times, but by the 4th, it was smooth sailing.

[Nightsights]

great guide, thanks!

tried it tonight after raid, ilvl 355, SV spec.

didnt have glyph of mending so pet died twice during the fight, but it was just as he went into the air phase and luckily none of the shards fell where i was standing, so was able to revive my BurninHatred. after getting him down to around 10% and my pet was almost dead i distracting shot and deterenced, giving my pet a chance to heal up since cower and shell were both on cd.

when i went to loot him i was shocked, took me about 10 sec to realized i got the mount 1st run.

[amrasillias]

That is sick! Congratz! Now I wanna try it too

[Astratia]

Amazing guide, and going to have to try this :3

-crosses fingers-

[Lupis]

First run didn't get me any drops, but the experience was great. Wiped two or three times trying to figure it out, then it was just watching my pet's health.
Yeah, also, turns out I didn't have Glyph of Mending. No wonder my pet was dying so fast!
Also, Slabhide? 13 minute kill. xD That took a freakin' long time.

[Gilnean]

Just did my first solo run.
Switched pets between Terrorpene and Karoma.
Haven't died once, wasn't hard to pull off. Just watch out for the packs with the Mage.

[Mehira]

I've done a few solo runs when I haven't been busy doing dailies and other things, and I'm slowly getting the hang of the trash packs and what not. Sadly, no mount (and it's nice that the boss fight is only ~6 mins long for me). Just have to make sure my Terropene doesn't get caught under one of the spikes and gets trapped there... had it happen to me once, and I had to FD when I couldn't heal him because of LoS issues.