A Story about a Feral Druid...Follow

...and reg. Ramparts.

I recall reading somewhere that it was possible for a feral druid to solo reg. Ramparts. I know that throughout the leveling process in Outland, I had quite a bit of success against same-level elites that would have rapidly narfed most other classes.

After another full Kara clear last night and a fast heroic SV run this morning ('twas the daily) I finally had enough badges to upgrade my well-worn Heavy Clefthoof Vest. Joy upon joys! No more would I be humiliated by anyone checking my armory to see me in T4/5 epics and...a nub 70 blue...

Let's just say that after SV, I found myself bored. I had already done all of the SSO dailies I could stomach and tonight was a night off from raiding for the entire guild. With nothing planned and a bag full of a gold, I decided to see just how far I could get into reg Ramparts. For the record, self buffed stats for this adventure were 15.7k health, 32.8k armor, 40% dodge. No relevant resistances beyond the +25 from GotW. No potions/flasks were used to augment stats, and I didn't use food. Based on my health, that meant Imp. LotP would return ~680 HP up to every six seconds.

One of the great things about going solo in a dungeon is that you don't have to wait for everyone else in the party to **** around and get buffed. GotW + OoC + thorns, drop to bear, and I was good to go.

First pull was the two orcs in front of the bridge. I timed the pull to avoid the solo pat on the bridge and pulled them way back to give myself an opportunity to test the waters. No problem at all...both mobs went down easily, and with a Mangle debuff and a full Lacerate stack, it was just as easy to let one run when he wanted to and focus on the other one. Runners died pretty quick.

I made short work of the first 5 orcs in the dungeon and then it was on to the orc + 2 dogs. I recalled from experience in both reg and heroic Ramparts that the dogs (despite being non-elite and very low on HP) could put up some serious damage numbers, so I burned them down quickly and then focused on the orc. No problem.

Anyone who tanks knows the benefits of LoS. When it comes to ranged attackers and casters, I take no chances. Every time I can deek around a new corner, they lose cast time, and I used that to my advantage on the next pulls with the archers. The rest of the groups leading up to the 3 warlock mobs and their little orc project went down without a hitch, and then I started to get a little nervous. Casters. Elite casters. 3 of them. Bloody hell. They would go down faster than their melee orc companion, but then he has a hissy fit and starts going berserk, so I pulled him and, walking backwards the whole way, drew him to the entrance while working the Mangle/Lacerate x 3 rotation. After he went down, it was easier than I might have thought to drop the casters. Much to my delight, I was resisting most of their casts, and hope of delving deeper into the dungeon was renewed.

Next up was the guy who summons the 3-pack of dogs if you don't kill him fast enough, and his pair of Bonechewer Destroyer buddies. I pulled the dog fellow back almost to the bridge and went to work on him. Dog guy goes down and I start in on one of the Destroyers and, much as I had suspected, several seconds later the pack of dogs show up. This is the point where I learned that their Carnivorous Bite stacks and, much like any other bleed effect, is not mitigated by armor. Almost 16k HP or not, 5 mobs plus a 450/tick bleed was a bit much, and I died shortly after I finished off the first Destroyer. A smarter strategy would have been to focus on the dogs as soon as they arrived, but by the time I realized how much trouble I was in, it was too late.

Meh...one death after already clearing 7 pulls or so was nothing to wig out over, so I ghost ran back to the dungeon, finished of the last Destroyer, and carried on.

It seemed to take forever to clear all of the trash around the area where the first boss patrols, but I got it done. I never realized before just how much the boss stops to talk to the orcs on his patrol route. Yappy ******* wasted so much time...

So there I was. Every single mob in that entire hallway was dead except for the two stationed at the archway leading to the ramp that takes you up to hell. Oh, and the boss with his two healer escorts. I opted not to hesitate. I was sitting on about 60 rage from the last pull, my health was only down about 1k, and it's not like I had 4 other people poised to wig out on me if I rushed the pull and died. FFF on one of the boss' healers and the fight was on. Each of the healers managed to get off a heal...a puny, wimpy, 2k heal., and one of them got a renew on him before I knocked his face across the room with a Mangle crit. It was just me and the boss, and much to my surprise, I was still sitting at about 13k HP.

First boss...down. Z...O...M...F...G...did I just down an Outland dungeon boss...solo? Why yes, yes I did...and I got some blue plate chest piece as my reward. Bliss!

With the boss down, only one thing was on my mind...that rat ******* 5-pull at the top of the stairs. 4 casters. One cranky melee. Die on that pull and anything you killed respawns when they reset. Crap.

LoS, my trusted friend...bail me out of this orgy of shadowy death.

Surprisingly...happily...excitingly...it worked and I cleared the 5-pull with a Frenzied Regen for insurance. All that stood between me and the last two bosses were four static trash pulls, two patrols, and 2 guards in front of either boss.

They died. They all died. Not fast...never fast...but fast enough. (Fast enough being equivalent to, "before me".)

Next on deck was Omor. Yes, Omor. Caster. Shadow. Boss. 55k HP. Bastid. From my experience, there are three things that give groups trouble in this fight. One, the curse. The curse of bombing bombness that screams to people, "Welcome to Outland dungeons! Yes, you do have to move from time to time!"

Second, the AoE shadow bolt volley that helps healers realize that they still have to work on boss fights and helps dps realize that you can't always count on the healer to bail you out. Hope you brought bandages...

Finally, the fel hounds. Silenced healer in a standard group means trouble. Lucky for me, silence means jack to a feral druid, and so I trounced the mages guarding Omor's platform, rebuffed, Enraged, and charged in.

Omor the Unscarred...down. I don't remember what he dropped...I just remember it was blue and it wasn't me. I did wind up popping a Frenzied regen (55k HP is a fair bit to chew through), but beyond that, the fight was mostly uneventful. No Maul used...hate Maul. Mangle/3 x Lacerate until a dog spawned, then replace Lacerate with Swipe. On a couple of occasions, he had two fel hounds up, but they hit like pansies and died fairly quickly.

And so it was, still with only one death and having cleared every single mob in the dungeon save the two guards linked to Vazrudan/Nazran and the big man on the bigger lizard. Fire damage...sucks. Fire breath...sucks even more. But hey, I didn't come this far to bail without at least trying, right?

The two orcs barring access to Vazrudan's platform went down easy...I was only down about 300 HP when Vazrudan came down, so I charged to meet him and started working a circle around the platform. It helped to keep him moving, as on a couple of occasions I was able to avoid Nazran's fireballs altogether. Then, the transition. Orc = ok. Orc + dragon = bleh. Down comes the dragon and in his usual manner, the first thing he does is puke fire all over me. I'm down to about 11k HP (I only managed to avoid some of the fireballs before the dragon landed), Vazrudan is still swinging like a madman, and things started to look a little grim.

Vazrudan goes down. It's just me and the cranky dragon, and he's just as fond of the flaming puke as he has ever been. Frenzied Regen go! Still not enough. I'm down to about 8k HP, Vazrudan is still sitting above 20k/33k HP, and I'm forced to make a decision. Pop out and risk taking a big hit or two for the sake of tossing a couple of heals, or say goodnight.

<3 2pc T5 set bonus.

I actually wound up popping out, drinking a super health pot, popping a Rejuv + insta-cast Regrowth, and then going bear. I popped out once more for another instant Regrowth before the end of the fight. Between 2 shapeshifts, 2 Regrowths + a Rejuv, and my pathetic feral mana pool, I had a feeling that if I wasn't careful, I was going to pop out, toss a heal and then be stuck without enough mana to drop to bear again...and potion still on cooldown. I was sitting at about 5k HP and figured I was done for and then I looked at Vazrudan's HP. 4k.

4k.

Vazrudan...down.

6 greens, 15g in milk money, 4 blues, 85 Runecloth, and epic bragging rights.

Today, I became the latest feral druid to solo reg. Ramparts.

Suck on that, Mr. Shield Wall.

Bite me, Mr. Consecrate.

Rawr.

Edited, Aug 10th 2008 3:09am by AureliusSir

You didn't realize you could solo ramps? Don't tell anyone, but you can solo BF too.

Sarcasm aside, congrats. It is a bit nerve-wracking to start trying to solo (or duo with a class that can't heal) things like that. Ever duo durn with a warrior? Good times, good times. Also, if you need sha'tar rep, you can duo the first 6 or so pulls in bot easily with a hunter/rogue/lock/mage/anything that can heal. Just stop once you hit the greenmenders (or w/e they are called), you won't live through that without a bunch of lucky resists unless you brought someone who can heal. That reminds me...I should go try bot with a holy pally.

Where was I? Oh yeah, your health is too low for t4/t5.

Thia really makes me wanna go play my feral druid again...

Myself (feral) and a resto shammy have often duo'd the fish boss in ZG (the poly turtle book sells for heaps - it just won't drop for us >: ) as well as raptor boss for a chance at the mount (no luck again). We tried the tiger boss but the axe throwers before him just lock the shammy down and he can't heal me. The panther boss was crazy - the amount of numbers scrolling up your screen when you have hundres of panther hitting you at once :)