Retribution Paladin - Solo Kael'thas in Tempest Keep

Took me a lot of practice and tons of attempts to get the strategy worked out. The plan is based on Raegwyn's video, but its tougher to execute as a paladin since, well, we're not death knights...
I'm not the first paladin, though I only know of one who did it before.
The video includes a step-by-step explanation of what to do in each phase. I didn't execute it quite right, and nearly died in phase 4 a couple times.
Gear helps a lot here, I remember having tons more trouble in 359 (although my strategy was worse for phase 3). Now I was doing it in 378 but that shouldn't be necessary if you do it right. A PvP trinket is a must, though (unless you're human).
You can see my spec/glyphs as I wait for the second advisor. It is a standard 7/2/32 PvE spec with Selfless Healer; glyphs are standard, with Divine Protection to mitigate the insane amount of magic damage.
I was using a flask, food, drums, scroll and a potion, but all of that isn't necessary once you got it down.
Good luck and have fun! Ashes didn't drop this time, but I'll keep coming.
Music: Stone Sour (Audio Secrecy, Mission Statement, The Bitter End, Come Whatever May)

[@Stilltoomany]

Finally, I have been looking for a video for this for months or some good tips to effectively solo this guy. Now I have some bearing on what I was doing wrong. Many thanks. You sir, are a saint.

[@johannhowitzer]

One neat trick about Capernian I've been using: when she approaches the corner on the OTHER side of the doorway to the last room before Kael, pop Divine Shield and wedge yourself between her and the wall. No trinket use, and Forbearance will fall off well before you would want to use LoH.

[@johannhowitzer]

Tonight: FIRST Kael'thas kill! This video gave me the starting point I needed, thank you. Also, zerging phase 4 is definitely the way to go.

[@eream3]

Ahh, I do see it now. I think the speed made me miss it. Thanks and good video!

[@kakakiua]

thank you so much!!! i made it as Fury warrior following some of your tips! :)

[@d07RiV]

Concerning (3), if you are too close to Taladred, he can teleport you to himself (apparently when he thinks you're trying to evade him, which is what happens when you get knocked back). When I tried to kill Capernian in the hallway leading from Alar's room, it happened every time I got knocked back.

[@Zer0SkiLL789]

Awesome vid man, way to show Ret Pallys can do some work when played right

[@d07RiV]

@thofrancov he doesn't mind control his current tank. The only way to get mind controlled while soloing is to have a pet and let it get aggro. So a hunter or warlock will have to stand behind a pillar to avoid MC, and other classes with summons (like dk) can only possibly lose aggro to pets during disorients, but since disorients hit pets as well, this is hardly ever happens.

[@d07RiV]

Arcane disruption is annoying, but it rarely happens during pyroblast, so you can save your trinket (and bubble) for that. If you always keep up the -50% damage taken buff from the mace, it shouldn't be a problem. Aside from pyroblast, the only other danger comes from the fire patches on the ground, which miss like 95% of the time, but hurt a LOT if they do hit you.

[@d07RiV]

Oh I guess I forgot to switch after p3 =[ Thanks for pointing out. Phases 4 and 5 are way easier than they look in the video if you don't try to zerg him like I did - keep the mace buff up 100% and interrupt as much as possible. I killed him today in 1 try, never went too low on health.

[@WolfTheMadMan]

there's nothing better than a 22k crusader strike to the fucking heart to start the chorus of a Slipknot song. :)

[@d07RiV]

Look closer, it does happen quite a few times. I trinket the first very quickly (see the trinket animation), and bubble the second, next two times nearly killed me (used shield absorb just after third, and LoH after fourth).

[@hawkman8706]

I finally successfully solo'd him after a bunch of tries. There are a few bugs as of 5.0. (How they manage to break old content, I have no clue) 1) The purple shit in the air that gives you the 10% stamina debuff does not reset after a phase 5 wipe. 2) When mind controlled, you do nothing. You stand there. Unless you are a healing spec, in which case you heal the boss, but you deal no damage to anyone else. 3) Twice during my attempts I got knocked back by the mages arcane explosion

[@d07RiV]

Yes, I agree that it would be the best way now, I just didn't have enough dps back then (375ish gear). I haven't been there for a while, though.. got the ashes on my dk on the first kill =)

[@d07RiV]

@DarkestHour6 I suppose gear helps here, although I haven't got past p3 when I was in 359 due to flawed strategy so I can't really compare. Being human or wearing a pvp trinket helps a lot on p4; if you're struggling consider saving it for when you get disoriented in a bad moment, like at low health or with infuser buff almost down. Use bubble for the same purpose, unless you need to LoH soon. Also, when going overly defensive, keep in mind that weapons last only 15 minutes.

[@d07RiV]

@yachesinaduck Phoenixes die by themselves, cause that's what phoenixes do (like in wc3, they dmg themselves until they die, then they turn into an egg). Kill eggs, though it doesn't matter really. They can knock you pretty far back when they respawn, though, if they don't miss.

[@d07RiV]

@michaelbull1994 Prot isn't a good choice here because (1) phase 3 requires a lot of burst to get advisors (especially the first one) down before others arrive, and (2) almost all the damage in phases 4/5 is magical, so prot doesn't really have an edge here. In fact, ret does better due to lower cd on WOG.

[@benderbg]

Never give up, this is very soloable. But you will need to master every phase, have decent gear, lots of practice and some luck (mostly when you're fighting the girl add, wait for her cc before you pop wings and make sure you fight her in that small room before kael or she can throw you through the wall and you end up at the entrance). Apart from that learn to refresh buff from mace on time, on pyro use shield and glyphed divine prot, kill eggs when they spawn and you are done. No mount yet :(

[@d07RiV]

@thepawnagerz видео сделал по английски потому, что, скажем 90% играющих в вов (всех, не только русских) говорит по англ, и где-то 10% - по русски (цифры конечно из головы, но не думаю, что они так сильно отстоят от действительности). Тем более, по тому что я делаю тактика вроде ясна. Если ты сюда пришёл с форума, там я уже всё подробно расписал.

[@d07RiV]

Something like /use Cosmic Infuser I'm not sure I actually used a macro, you can just drag them to your bars once you pick them up and they'll stay there.

[@DarkestHour6]

Tried to solo Kael a few times as 359 ret pally. I can consistently get to p4 no problem, but i just don't seem to have the healing power to get through it. I've got the pyroblasts down, the eggs and the cosmic infuser buff, but the disorients and fireballs just tear through me. Best I've done is 60% through p4

[@HerraEtana]

Btw if you are dwarf, you can use racial to clear bleed from slow add.

[@d07RiV]

@Fr0ZenEffecT what for? I stopped farming this because I got lazy, and I usually log out in prot gear/spec. I could post it, but it becomes really long unless you want russian characters.

[@hawkman8706]

(continued) while I was against a wall, but instead of just hitting the wall, I went through a wormhole apparently and was instantly teleported to the entrance of the instance. Shit load of bugs. Oh, and also when I was 2 manning, the staff was only working about half the time. I saw at least 3 instances where I was standing elbow to elbow with my partner, the "blue shield" buff was there, but I still got disoriented.

[@johannhowitzer]

/equip Cosmic Infuser /equip Phaseshift Bulwark But I've been zerging Kael on phase 4 and it seems to work better. I hotkeyed both the Infuser and my zweihander, so at the start of the fight I can pop WoG and get the buff, then DPS like mad. The Infuser's damage is super-crappy. By zerging tonight I made it to P5 for the first time, got him to 7% and he got me (because I forgot I needed to heal during gravity phases).

[@yachesinaduck]

Just wondering, how did the Phoenix add die? didn't see u target, was it just Seal damage? btw awesome job, it's nice to know rets can do it, even if with much better gear than mine :') it'll piss my bro off tho cuz his warr still can't do it :D

[@RaegwynSoloing]

wow great job

[@d07RiV]

I heard a lot of people saying last phase bugs out and after you get tossed up in the air you just fall straight down and boss keeps casting meteors, but I've been lucky enough to never  see that, on neither of my characters. Maybe I'm doing something differently, or just getting lucky. I got my mount on my DK on the first try (after doing it many times on a paladin), so I haven't done it in a long time, can't say if anything changed. Saw people complaining about MC though lately..

[@hawkman8706]

I don't understand, in the last phase when the you're "flying" (I say that because he doesn't let me fly, just blasts me up and I fall, and then just walk) and when the netherbeams are out, all he does is spam fireball at me, not nether whatever he was casting at you. Did they change something? Without hitting him, I can't heal through all the fireballs.

[@IntelligentBystander]

This is pretty easy to solo as a ret pally, the hardest part for me was fighting 4 of kael's lieutenants at once, i seperate them all, caster chick away from all when i kill them during the initial phase. When killing the caster i pvp trink her disorientation and dps her down, pop wrath and guardian and dps the shit out of her. Later i bubble the other three and dps one down asap, then after that with two of them you just kinda do the best you can do dps them down between cc's

[@d07RiV]

The video was done with 378 gear, if you have some decent gear from this tier you should be able to simply zerg him in phase 4, trinketing everything. About the gravity lapse, I've never seen that happen =(

[@johannhowitzer]

Two things I am having major problems with. The one that's stopping me solo is Arcane Disruption on phase 4, which I don't see in this video at all. Disorient during pyroblast is a huge deal, and I only have one trinket... Second is a glitch with Gravity Lapse on phase 5, where it just throws you up and doesn't let you swim, so you come crashing down. I got killed from 75% HP that way tonight. Any advice is welcome.

[@d07RiV]

Should be doable now, but you might need some dps gear to kill adds quickly enough (don't try to tank them all at the same time, you'll just get chain CC'd). There's no reason for that though - most of the damage taken is magical, so prot wouldn't take much less damage, whereas ret has much better healing.

[@eream3]

I solo'd this just a bit ago after watching your video. One question, I kept getting disoriented by KT's arcane disruption. I don't think I saw it affect you once. Any insight?

[@risch72004]

why do you have devotion aura in kaelthas fight? isnt it better with resistance aura?

[@d07RiV]

@kaggeres I never tried it as prot, don't see the point though - almost all of the damage you'll be taking is magical, and self-healing is quite a bit worse as prot due to long WoG CD. With current gear, and 2/2 Last Word/Selfless Healer this should be a joke as ret.. probably just burst kael to 50% within 30 seconds or so, trinketing/bubbling disorients.

[@d07RiV]

Pretty sure you can kill Caperninan in bubble, so its fairly trivial now.

[@wtfmrkratos]

For some reason it won't go to 10m mode, it stays in 25. I've been so damn close, but i can't get KT down. maybe 5.0.4 bugged it.

[@benderbg]

Why are you using devotion instead of resistance aura in p4 and p5? You could have mitigated lots of fire dmg.

[@Andyx89]

ok i killed alar np, but kt still causing me lots of trouble, i get way more cced then you do in p4 and i can dodge first set of pyroballs without getting one like u said but after that its over

[@johannhowitzer]

Ok, at 2:35 you use Inquisition, but I can't figure out how you have any Holy Power at that point. Any from the first battle with Thaladred will have run out by then, and you don't use Holy Wrath or Divine Storm or anything that would generate Holy Power... it's just Inquisition and go. ???

[@d07RiV]

Oh well that's definitely broken. Have you tried ticketing it? (Inb4 "thank you for reporting this issue our dev team is investigating it").

[@d07RiV]

Do you have any pets? If your pet gets aggro, you can get MC'd because you're not his target anymore. This is very likely to happen during disorient because your aggro drops to 0.

[@Fr0ZenEffecT]

@d07RiV just wanted to see if you got the mount :D

[@MrVeelon]

@d07RiV hay can you give your char name. just so i can see the build you use. i just got back into wow and will be farming keal as soon as possible

[@Nurseos]

just cause of memory) i usually forget to change them to)

[@Andyx89]

did u kill al'ar first? cuz thats whats wiping me atm

[@bacari88]

What are the names of your addons?

[@Fr0ZenEffecT]

could you put up your armory link?

[@d07RiV]

Not really, they just had a fixed number of players for each raid. Kara and ZA were the only 10 mans.

[@SensationalBanana]

Seems that melee are pretty much screwed on this. He'll cast the MC despite you being alone now. Pet classes have it as easy as before, melee/none-pet classes will have to bring another person.

[@d07RiV]

Unless something was changed in 5.0.4, he's really easy.. don't stand in fire pretty much sums it up, current damage/healing is ridiculous.

[@HerraEtana]

I am pretty sure you are :)

[@bamazudi]

Just soloed him but the ashes didn't drop. :/ Was hoping that would be my reward for soloing. :p

[@thepawnagerz]

@d07RiV понятно, да я и не игрок данной игры и не с форума, но что и как там знаю, поэтому видео просмотрел даже с интересом ) просто вот по мне былоб приятней читать русские буквы, чем инглиш )

[@HockeyBoy00087]

@michaelbull1994 i can solo as prot . . . just to much effort though easier to get a group and ninja the mount

[@Ret4life]

ok i got to kael but he put the Charmed debuff and it reset the whol encounter.. it happened twice? What the fuck? i tried using the pvp trinket as well.

[@thofrancov]

Why doesn't he get Mind Controled?

[@Proppis]

8 yrs later now you can kill with 1 hit xD

[@Karsonius]

i cant do this shit at 90 with a 443 ilvl -_____-

[@indefinableification]

it'd be nice instead of crappy music.... you talked through what you were doing and why. mute button, thank you very much.