Possible Soloing Roadblocks in Battle for Azeroth Content

These are all encounters which are impossible (or nearly so) to solo due to built-in mechanics. Some of them can be done by certain classes (generally Hunters, using Feign Death to drop lethal stacks/aggro and keeping bosses split apart via pet tanking), but most players will find these fights to be impossible without being in a party. There are plenty of bosses that will be very difficult due to high DPS/survivability checks, but those can eventually be surmounted by improved gear and aren’t listed here.

Dungeons

King’s Rest

  • Mchimba the Embalmer: Entomb will reset the fight if he casts it, so you need a LOT of DPS to burn him down before that.

Waycrest Manor

  • Heartsbane Triad: if your DPS is too low, Sister Solena will cast Soul Manipulation, mind-controlling you and resetting the fight.

Atal’Dazar

  • Vol’kaal: you can’t damage him until all three totems have been killed at roughly the same time, which may or may not be possible for a non-ranged player.

Tol Dagor

  • Jes Howlis: Howling Fear is annoying, but the real issue is when Bobby Howlis shows up and stuns you for 30 seconds with Vicious Mauling. Not only are you stunned with nobody to break you out, but you’re taking a LOT of damage from both Bobby and Jes.

Temple of Sethraliss

  • Avatar of Sethraliss: not a healer? Then you have no way of reviving the boss and ending the fight.

Shrine of the Storm

  • Lord Stormsong: he casts Ancient Mindbender early in the fight, which instantly mind-controls you and resets the fight.

Raids

Uldir

  • Zul, Reborn: Aside from all the damage going out, in Phase 2 you’ll be compelled to jump off the edge of the platform via Deathwish with nobody to dispel it for you.
  • Mythrax: you’ll get hit by an Oblivion Sphere almost immediately after starting the fight, which will mind-control you and reset the fight. This seems to be a very common mechanic for this expansion, unfortunately.
  • G’huun: It MIGHT be possible to drop off a Power Matrix before becoming rooted in Phase 1 if you can completely traverse the upper platforms in less than 10 seconds (you can teleport while rooted via Blink, but dashing/leaping/running don’t work). In Phase 2, you’ll be mind-controlled (and likely reset the fight) if you can’t kill the Dark Young adds before they complete two casts of Dark Bargain.

Crucible of Storms

  • The Restless Cabal: you’ll be dead in a matter of seconds due to the stacking effects of Shear Mind.
  • Uu’nat, Harbinger of the Void: Undying Guardian adds have a Shroud of Whispers aura that prevents them from dying unless you can use the Tempest Caller relic, AND they prevent Uu’nat from taking damage when closer than 10 yards to him (which they almost certainly will be) via Sightless Bond.

Battle of Dazar’alor

  • Opulence: the fight resets if you don’t have someone in each of the starting hallways, which is impossible unless you’re a pet class.
  • King Rastakhan: you obviously can’t split damage between the dead and living realms, so this one seems pretty problematic.
  • Conclave of the Chosen: Loa’s Pact quickly makes this fight impossible if you can’t keep the bosses at least 8 yards apart. If THAT isn’t bad enough, Mind Wipe will definitely cause a wipe when it removes ALL your abilities for 30 seconds.

The Eternal Palace

  • Lady Ashvane: this fight is an intense DPS race, and with no way to avoid being stunned for long periods of time by the Briny Bubbles, you’re not likely to succeed.
  • Orgozoa: 10 stacks of Desensitizing Sting will kill you, guaranteed, UNLESS you have a sneaky way of dropping stacks.
  • The Queen’s Court: the bosses will take 99% reduced damage due to Separation of Power if you can’t keep them at least 21 yards apart (much like the Odyn or Coven of Shivarra fights), and you’ll become mind-controlled and reset the fight when you reach 10 stacks of Pashmar’s Touch.

Ny’alotha

  • Il’gynoth: a solo player can’t split into groups to deal with the Organs of Corruption during each Phase 2, but that’s of little consequence since you’ll be dead from Eye of N’Zoth stacks before that happens.
  • Drest’agath: if you move out of melee range to attack the adds, you’ll be yoinked back to the boss via Void Grip and stunned for 5 seconds. This means you can’t kill adds to force Void Infused Ichor orbs to drop, which means you can’t damage Drest’agath.
  • The Hivemind: intense add management is one issue, but the greater problem is the 99% damage reduction from Shadow Veil when Ka’zir has Hivemind control (which is half the fight). Once again, only classes that can keep bosses split apart have a chance at soloing. There’s also the issue of needing to kill the bosses within 10 seconds of each other to prevent Dark Constitution, but most players will never get close enough to the end of the fight to worry about it.
  • Carapace of N’Zoth/N’Zoth: THEORETICALLY soloable, but you are required to dig your legendary cloak out of the attic and equip it, or you will be driven insane the moment you pull either boss, resetting the fight. This drops your gear level considerably, and precludes wearing any Shadowlands legendary cloaks.

There are probably a few problematic bosses that I’ve missed, but I think this list is already substantial enough! If Blizzard follows their usual policy, the mechanics of these fights won’t be revisited for soloing tuning until late in the expansion following Shadowlands, so you might want to roll a Hunter or bribe some friends to help you out until then.

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2 Responses

  1. SpareSimian says:

    Excellent explanation. Maybe we need a chat channel to solicit others seeking these instances (eg. to finish quest lines). I wish Blizzard would add an option to queue for these with others when one is outside their level range.

  2. Dark Kuno says:

    Lady Ashvane can be easily dealt with by either being a warrior (Berserker Rage removes/immunes incapacitates) or simply equipping any ilevel PvP trinket of Adaptation, which will auto-clear CC on a 1min CD.

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