Back in the day, Someone, a blogger who is no longer with us, would do the oddest thing; go into instances where the mobs were still green, and solo them. Along the way they crafted a great guide which is still available, here.
However, since that guide, things have changed somewhat. The talent trees have changed, pet talents are different, pets are different, the instances are different.
Last night I journeyed into Auch. Crypts, just me and my pet, to see how far we could go and if it was a challenge to us in our gear. I am a level 80 hunter, SV spec at the time, in ilvl 187 blues. So, nothing fancy, and a bad spec to boot. It was actually alot of fun, you had to do all sorts of kiting and tricks you forget about from 70 to 80, because they are so infrequently used. Anyway, point being, soloing instances can be alot of fun.
Pets and attributes:
You want a Gorilla. Flat out, end of statement. Until they give another pet AOE damage, the gorilla is absolutely key to soloing instances. Used to be a boar was great, because of charge/growl. But they nerfed it into oblivion, so now boars are only decent against single targets.
Generally you want to maximize your pet tanking attributes. They are armor, stamina, and dodge. There are others, such as AP and expertise. However a tanking pets #1 responsibility is to stay alive, #2 to keep threat against all mobs, #3 is to do damage (note that #3 helps with #2).
Anyway pet armor (i think) is calculated: (Base armor for the level + armor bonuses)*Thick Hide coefficient (1.2 with 3/3 points).
Armor bonuses are 35% of hunter's armor, Natural Armor ability+Armor buffs
Basically pet stamina and armor scale with you. So as you get level 80 purples your pet gets better, thanks to increased armor and stamina you are wearing. In 80 blues my pet has 17000 HP, not sure about armor. This is close to a T4 or T5 geared level 70 tank, which ends up being about right to do level 70 instances.
Talents
I agree with Someone in that a BM build is pretty good. I did it in a SV build, but there was a lot to recommend against it. The pet ends up taking a lot of damage, and you aggro like crazy, with nothing in reserve to gain back aggro. This is my suggested talent tree.
Here's what Someone wrote, and I modify.
4/5 Improved Aspect of the Hawk: This boosts your dps substantially and one of the key dps talents.
5/5 Endurance Training: you can't go wrong with 10% more HP on your pet and 5% more on you. Someone's formuli are no longer accurate, but Great Stamina, a pet talent, does stack (as far I know).
3/3 Thick Hide: Your pet is going to be tanking and getting another 4.6% of physical damage reduction at the cost of only 3 TPs is also a good value for the money. (Yes, it's 20% armor extra but that equates to only 4.66% of Damage Reduction: see my (Someones) post on this subject)
2/2 Focused Fire: 2% more damage, 20% more pet special crit chance. This boosts pet dps and allows you to do more dps in turn.
1/2 Improved Revive Pet: Would be nice to have 2/2. This is just a time/mana saver. In some instances, a bad pull, whatever, your pet dies. When that happens, run to a clear area, let the pet die, and FD. After that, revive pet, rinse and repeat.
5/5 Unleashed Fury: 20% more damage on your pet can't hurt, can it? :)
1/2 Improved Mend Pet: You get a 25% chance of clearing diseases, poisons, curses, magic effects. That includes sleep effects and rooting effects! I may go 2/2, it's really not a bad idea, with the key being less CC issues, and less mana burn. With soloing, you will burn through mana like crazy, so more mana efficiency with this is very good.
5/5 Ferocity: 10% more crits for your pet means 10% more chances for Ferocious Inspiration and more damage and aggro from your pet as well.
1/1 Intimidation: MUST HAVE! Whatever you screw around on my recommendations above and below, DON'T get away without this one and the following one! Stopping a heal can be de difference between making it through a fight (don't forget you'll most likely be dealing with 3 elites at once!), or not making it alive. Someone is absolutely right, this is critical, that and BW is the whole point of going BM.
2/2 Bestial Discipline: Another MUST HAVE! No way you can get away with too little focus! When you switch targets, you WANT your pet to already have enough focus to get aggro quickly.
Spirit bond: While I didn't pick it, i can see how it would be a good thing, esp if you are doing level-appropriate stuff with a healer. Spirit bond + IMP means more healing throughput and more pet longevity.
0/2 Animal Handler: 5 or 10 more expertese is good, reduced CD on masters call is good too. But I'm not sure its worth two points.
4/5 Frenzy: Significant dps boost to your pet.
1/1 Bestial Wrath: This is how you break CC on your pet. It also gives a substantial dps boost. Use it every CD.
3/3 Catlike Reflexes: Another must have for tanking with your pet: 9% dodge for him, 3% dodge for you, all for just 3 TPs!
3/3 Ferocious Inspiration: 3% more damage for 10s (when your pet crits) at only 3 TPs is a good usage of TPs, but also dependent on having your pet crit a lot, so don't neglect the previous TPs that boost your pet's crits. More importantly FI is a raid buff and is important for raids.
2/2 Invigorate: You gain mana back when your pet crits (1% mana back). This is a good thing. It also scales, the more mana you have, the more you get back.
5/5 Serpent's Swiftness: Another key talent in BM builds: 20% faster ranged for you and 20% faster melee for your pet means mob down in 20% less time (not exactly due to the other shots you use, but close enough!) This also equates to 20% less damage on your pet/you since the mob dies 20% faster!
1/1 The Beast Within: Yet another key talent: not only your pet doesn't get CCed, you don't get CCed as well under the effect of this (or you can remove it).
1/3 Longevity: Reduce CDs on pet specials, TBW, Intimidate. I may go 3/3 in this next time I respec, it looks really good.
Kindered Spirits: Straight pet DPS boost, no brainer.
Beast Mastery: 4 more pet talents. Plus exotic pets! Pretty good. However there aren't that many pet tanking talents.
Pet Talents
Here is my pet talents for my gorilla. Its only at 16 talents.
Keys:
Great Stamina, Natural Armor, Barding; all these increase the primary stats of your tank; stamina, dodge, and armor.
2/2 Blood of the Rhino: Increases healing to pet by 40%, this is critical.
2/2 Guard Dog: Increase amount of aggro from growl, increases pet happiness from growl. This is critical too.
1/1 Taunt. This is your 3rd pet aggro ability (Intimidate, growl being other two). This is a life-saver when Intimidate is on CD. Further, this is not a threat dependant attention getter. I tanked several bosses in level 80 instances (non heroic), when the tank went down (or was about to). The reason we survived is because I immediately threw up taunt, growl, and intimidate, buying time for the group to dps down the boss.
The Rest: This is only 12 points. The others can be used to increase pet dps. Really the last 4 points (17 to 20) don't give you much in terms of tanking ability, thus you may consider skipping Beast Mastery.
Gear
Generally your typical hunter gear is fine for soloing instances. Remember that armor and stam are good things. Try to avoid leather gear due to the armor, unless its designed for ferals (+agi and +sta). +int is very nice too, and is typically found on blues/purples at max level.
Buffs and Consumables
Generally you want to eat some type of food for the stamina boost. Rhino dogs are fine. Really almost any food you would normally eat are good. Also pet food is good, Kiblers bits or (the other food I'm blanking on from Dalaran cooking daily). Food gets expensive though, so my recommendation is use the normal food like rhino dogs which are typically cheap to get.
Scrolls of stamina are a good idea for your pet. These are actually dirt cheap on the AH typically, so think about that.
Mana pots: You really want a stack of these if you are about out of mana.
Health Pots: Again these are a very good idea.
Bandages: Again, good idea.
Food: You will absolutely need a few stacks of level appropriate food. Its typical in my experience that you will take some damage from trash mobs, and have to heal up between pulls.
Drink: Drinks are a good idea too, but you can regen mana using aspect of viper. use a drink before big trash pulls and before bosses.
Trash pulls
Typically most mobs come in groups of 3-4, depending on the instance. Usually the mobs are melee, casters, or healers, or some combo of the three. You will need to know which mob does what. Go to Wowwiki or buy the Dungeon Companion 2 book. You can mark them if you wish for a kill order. Generally, healers go down first, ranged second, melee third. This is due to the aggro order; if ranged get aggro on you, there is not a good alternative (i'll discuss below). Melee on the other hand, will run up to you, where you can freeze trap them.
To start the pull, I will first put down a freeze trap, send in the pet, do a misdirect/multishot, and start dpsing the healer or ranged down hard (use rapid fire/TBW/trinkets). About halfway through the pets life, do a mend pet. Hit it earlier if your pet is taking too much damage. I typically do a serpent sting/arcane/ss rotation. This may not be max dps but it's pretty good. If you have 3+ mobs up and are OOM, take a mana pot. If you have only 1-2 mobs remaining, consider switching to viper to regain mana.
Generally unless the trash are nonelites, do not use volley. It takes too long. You want to minimize your tank damage asap, that requires single target dps. Volley on the other hand will do damage equally to all mobs, meaning they basically all die at the same time. However with say 10 or 20 non elites you can use volley and an explosive trap to great effect. Just remember to keep the pet mended and watch your threat.
Bosses
Bosses can also be hard because they require you to dps them down before they splat your tank. Keep the mend pet on before you pull, and don't let it fade. Use all your CDs, all your tricks to max dps. Use Taunt if you pull aggro (often they are immune to intimidate). FD often. You may/will need to regen mana somehow, either viper if your pet can handle it, or mana pots. Make sure you know the general strats for them. You simply may not have enough dps to get the boss down; in that case recruit friends or go to a lower instance.
I have aggro, what do I do?
By and large this is the major problem you will face. You can FT (freeze trap)one mob indefinately, either by SV talents or by trapping and moving. You can have your pet regain aggro by taunt/intimidate. If the pet is CCed, hit TBW. If you are CCed, hit Master's call.
Remember your aspects! If you need to have a mob pounding on you, switch to aspect of Monkey. Lastly your #1 option is Feign Death. Use it halfway through the pull, or when the melee/casters start attacking you. If you use it once and it's not resisted generally you are fine for the rest of the pull. However, often times you will need to get rid of one or two mobs so be prepared to take the aggro. Generally I let one mob beat on me, trap another, gorilla holds 2 or 3.
Last thoughts
Surprisingly, soloing instances can be fun and rewarding. Its typical to come out with several greens and stacks of cloth. I am not saying that the profit will be equal to doing dailies, probably not. It will require patience. I recommend new 80s doing up to level 65 instances such as crypts. Fully epic 80s may try Nexus or level 70 dungeons. Leveling 70s should be able to do level 60 instances fine such as Scholo, or Ramparts or Slave Pens.
Lastly make sure your gear is repaired, and you have several stacks of food and water and a full ammo bag (20 slot or more). These are all critical. If you have to hearth to get more stuff from Dalaran the trash will respawn by the time you get back.
1 comments:
Excellent article. I am learning a lot. Your pet talent tree isn't linked correctly. You need to lock the build before you link. Otherwise it shows up as blank.
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