edgeofhearing
New Member
I've been working on soloing TBC dungeons over the past few weeks and wanted to share some thoughts in case someone might find them helpful! I've been using Priest (faceroll) and Arcane Mage (nightmare difficulty), so for the dungeons I've done I can offer those perspectives.
Old Hillsbrad Foothills
This place has a chance to drop a lot of socketed cloth, so I've done it a lot. Priest is generally fine to do this in shadow spec, just dot up the packs and mow everything down, keeping PW:S up. Riflemen are the priority kills because they deal more damage than the other mobs, but nothing you need to tunnel, just kill them first when you're done dotting. Occasionally I'd get low on mana on the final boss because I couldn't just rely on PW:S through the waves beforehand.
For Mage... before getting the Ooze, I could solo (slowly and methodically) through the first boss. Poly the riflemen and save them for last in each pack. For the first boss, just ice block when he starts whirlwinding so you don't get hit by the stun and big damage (blinking away doesn't help). The escort was tedious but doable if you time things right and let Thrall tank just enough. Not something I'd want to farm. It's much better now that I have the Ooze (which is good, because the second boss's socketed pants are better than the first boss's). The third boss is hard even with the Ooze; the waves are too fast, hit too hard, and often go straight for you, skipping Thrall. The few times I tried it I had horrible Ooze proc luck, and since I could get what he dropped elsewhere I moved on.
Shadow Labyrinth
This place has some versatility-rich socketed cloth shoulders, and feet/bracer socketed quest rewards (which sadly lack secondary stats). For Priest, shadow spec with multi-dotting was fine for most of the dungeon (note: I haven't bothered getting an Ooze for my Priest), but not Murmur. In Shadow I wouldn't be able to kill him fast enough before his stacking debuff would kill me, whether I was at the edge of the room or in his face. But when I switched to Disc he never debuffed me and I (slowly) soloed him without incident.
For Mage, I wouldn't solo this without Ooze, but I never tried. You can safely skip the first room with Invisibility (I generally save the Bloodthorn Loop for resets in case I do something stupid), but when I would do that I would usually get ambushed by an assassin later on. If that happened during one of the 6-packs in boss 2's room (which you need to clear), that's a wipe. The rest of the dungeon is pretty straightforward (kill or poly the Cultists first because their interrupts are brutal), and hope you get an Ooze proc for Murmur.
Auchenai Crypts
This place sucks for casters due to boss 1's cast time debuff. I just did it in the group finder once for my Mage (the quest 3-socket chest is great), and priest could beat boss one reeeeeally slowly (but safely) with Holy Nova spam. I only did it once, and it was my first stop, so I forget which mobs caused the most trouble (there was one with an interrupt or stun that I found I needed to kill first).
Mana Tombs
Generally an easy shadow-spec solo for Priest. I would focus on burning down the raiders first because their damage was much higher than other mobs. There's also an annoying mob later on in the dungeon with a cast time debuff. Take on the big void creatures on their own, and either burn fast or pull them to a safer area because they silence->fear.
Blood Furnace
It's a good thing this one is easy, because it has some pretty big cloth drops (gloves, belt, chest). Shadow was fine for the Priest with one note: I recommend tunneling the mobs in the 3rd and 4th waves before the second boss rather than multi-dotting; their stun can be pretty rough if all four are still up when they get to you. Psychic scream is very useful here.
For Mage, save your Arcane Surge for the 4th wave and you'll be fine (with Ooze, always with Ooze). I really only tried Plaguefall and Old Hillsbrad without it, and that was enough for me.
Hellfire Ramparts
Tunnel down the wolves; their tuning is screwed up and they will one-shot you. Also, the final boss's dragon has a burn attack that will do millions of damage. I never figured out what to do, but based on my Murmur and group finder experiences it's possible it will only hit some specs (I think I was trying in Disc at the time). Haven't tried on Mage yet.
The Mechanar
This is the only blue-quality socketed cloth helm source I'm aware of. Fortunately the quest green triple socket helm is pretty equivalent in power, even if you don't proc an upgrade.
It's a fine solo for Shadow, but Mage had difficulty on the waves before the last boss, even with Ooze. Any time a dungeon's tempo messes with your own tempo (longish mage shield cooldowns, arcane charges, time for eating/drinking), that's very annoying. It's doable, but you need to use your Invisibility and Bloodthorn Loop for resetting whenever you fail to get the ooze proc you need. Fortunately, resetting the gauntlet does not cause the whole thing to start over. There are some mobs in the gauntlet that have a nasty high damage knockback - I think they're the Astromages, but wowhead doesn't list a knockback ability for them.
Those are the only ones I've done so far. If you've got any tips or tricks I'd love to know!
Old Hillsbrad Foothills
This place has a chance to drop a lot of socketed cloth, so I've done it a lot. Priest is generally fine to do this in shadow spec, just dot up the packs and mow everything down, keeping PW:S up. Riflemen are the priority kills because they deal more damage than the other mobs, but nothing you need to tunnel, just kill them first when you're done dotting. Occasionally I'd get low on mana on the final boss because I couldn't just rely on PW:S through the waves beforehand.
For Mage... before getting the Ooze, I could solo (slowly and methodically) through the first boss. Poly the riflemen and save them for last in each pack. For the first boss, just ice block when he starts whirlwinding so you don't get hit by the stun and big damage (blinking away doesn't help). The escort was tedious but doable if you time things right and let Thrall tank just enough. Not something I'd want to farm. It's much better now that I have the Ooze (which is good, because the second boss's socketed pants are better than the first boss's). The third boss is hard even with the Ooze; the waves are too fast, hit too hard, and often go straight for you, skipping Thrall. The few times I tried it I had horrible Ooze proc luck, and since I could get what he dropped elsewhere I moved on.
Shadow Labyrinth
This place has some versatility-rich socketed cloth shoulders, and feet/bracer socketed quest rewards (which sadly lack secondary stats). For Priest, shadow spec with multi-dotting was fine for most of the dungeon (note: I haven't bothered getting an Ooze for my Priest), but not Murmur. In Shadow I wouldn't be able to kill him fast enough before his stacking debuff would kill me, whether I was at the edge of the room or in his face. But when I switched to Disc he never debuffed me and I (slowly) soloed him without incident.
For Mage, I wouldn't solo this without Ooze, but I never tried. You can safely skip the first room with Invisibility (I generally save the Bloodthorn Loop for resets in case I do something stupid), but when I would do that I would usually get ambushed by an assassin later on. If that happened during one of the 6-packs in boss 2's room (which you need to clear), that's a wipe. The rest of the dungeon is pretty straightforward (kill or poly the Cultists first because their interrupts are brutal), and hope you get an Ooze proc for Murmur.
Auchenai Crypts
This place sucks for casters due to boss 1's cast time debuff. I just did it in the group finder once for my Mage (the quest 3-socket chest is great), and priest could beat boss one reeeeeally slowly (but safely) with Holy Nova spam. I only did it once, and it was my first stop, so I forget which mobs caused the most trouble (there was one with an interrupt or stun that I found I needed to kill first).
Mana Tombs
Generally an easy shadow-spec solo for Priest. I would focus on burning down the raiders first because their damage was much higher than other mobs. There's also an annoying mob later on in the dungeon with a cast time debuff. Take on the big void creatures on their own, and either burn fast or pull them to a safer area because they silence->fear.
Blood Furnace
It's a good thing this one is easy, because it has some pretty big cloth drops (gloves, belt, chest). Shadow was fine for the Priest with one note: I recommend tunneling the mobs in the 3rd and 4th waves before the second boss rather than multi-dotting; their stun can be pretty rough if all four are still up when they get to you. Psychic scream is very useful here.
For Mage, save your Arcane Surge for the 4th wave and you'll be fine (with Ooze, always with Ooze). I really only tried Plaguefall and Old Hillsbrad without it, and that was enough for me.
Hellfire Ramparts
Tunnel down the wolves; their tuning is screwed up and they will one-shot you. Also, the final boss's dragon has a burn attack that will do millions of damage. I never figured out what to do, but based on my Murmur and group finder experiences it's possible it will only hit some specs (I think I was trying in Disc at the time). Haven't tried on Mage yet.
The Mechanar
This is the only blue-quality socketed cloth helm source I'm aware of. Fortunately the quest green triple socket helm is pretty equivalent in power, even if you don't proc an upgrade.
It's a fine solo for Shadow, but Mage had difficulty on the waves before the last boss, even with Ooze. Any time a dungeon's tempo messes with your own tempo (longish mage shield cooldowns, arcane charges, time for eating/drinking), that's very annoying. It's doable, but you need to use your Invisibility and Bloodthorn Loop for resetting whenever you fail to get the ooze proc you need. Fortunately, resetting the gauntlet does not cause the whole thing to start over. There are some mobs in the gauntlet that have a nasty high damage knockback - I think they're the Astromages, but wowhead doesn't list a knockback ability for them.
Those are the only ones I've done so far. If you've got any tips or tricks I'd love to know!
I probably just suck. Would love any tips!