Brawler advice

[Morlis]

[pet]Clock'em[/pet] requires rank 4 brawler. I think this one will give me fits, so I have been avoiding it.

Looking to see if any class is better at this than others. I have a 90 Hunter and Shadow Priest both iLvl 470ish, 83 Death Knight, 68 Mage, and I am willing to level up just about any class to try this. I have seen some hunters have a lot of trouble with these, I think I would be the same way on my hunter, for soloing I rely pretty heavily on my pet to tank, and they just don't hold up here.

I have the brawler ticket already. I tried the first battle on my Priest and took a couple tries but I beat the gator. I did not go further and feel that it may take more skill than I have at being mobile and DPSing at the same time. Which is why I also avoid PVP since I can't seem to keep up with moving and DPS at the same time.

I read somewhere in 5.2 the mechanics of the fights might change some, hoping this means easier! I don't recall where I even read that or if it's even remotely true.

Any thoughts?

Morlis

[Talmar]

I knocked out through Rank 4 on my Hunter. Had a few issues with a few of the fights but tweaked my action bar a bit and played with pets and it eventually worked out.

I'm at iLevel 480 on my hunter.

You definitely have to be mobile. A tank pet like a beetle or turtle just won't put out the DPS. I found either my Shale Spider or Corehound was needed for the passive buff's. Shale Spider grants +8% AGI and Corehound has the Haste buff you can click on.

I created a few burst dps macro's as well.

Still, some fights my pet dies pretty quick, i.e. the T-Rex boss, so I had to phoenix him back up while using concussion shot and traps to keep away. Lots of strafe shooting. Changed out some glyphs and talents on a few of them to better utilize disengage.

I found some gear actually made a difference. Rank 1 and 2 were pretty much cake other than the T-Rex. When I faced him I was still all in blues. I needed to get some better gear as I was getting him so close but just couldn't knock out that last 500k until I got some LFR gear.

As a hunter you really have to use your toolbox on these fights. I was using traps and manually casting my spider's web wrap for interrupts and Concussive Shot for dazing. For Ixx I had to manually move my pet around during the fight. All while keeping up DPS.

I may go back to tackle Rank 5 and up at some point but I got Clock'em and was quite happy.

Good luck to you,

[Quintessence]

Here are two Wowhead guides that I found useful:

Brawler's Guild Guide
Boss information

Good luck!

[Laraven]

I am a also a hunter, and found the fights easy. Ixx is a pain until you figure it out. Once you understand what it is you need to do it's over pretty quick. The whole thing took me less then 2 hours to complete for the pet.

[Spyro]

Used my Hunter. Got some tips from Icy Veins. Make sure you pre-pot!

[Morlis]

Thanks for the tips everyone. Up to 8 kills now. that puts my shadow priest at rank 3. I tried the self replicating slime once and did not DPS fast enough and was killed by the Fire Shower. I'll try again soon, that 4 kills to finish this one.

Morlis

[Gendou]

Thanks for the tips everyone. Up to 8 kills now. that puts my shadow priest at rank 3. I tried the self replicating slime once and did not DPS fast enough and was killed by the Fire Shower. I'll try again soon, that 4 kills to finish this one.

I had the same problem with my shadow priest. Just focus on the main slime.
You can pretty much stand and eat the damage from the swarm for quite a bit.
I know some people like to kite them, but they don't do too much damage at first, and being able to cast on demand is good.
Psychic Scream to get some room if you need it. If you start to take damage, just bubble and run to the opposite corner.
Rinse, repeat. He'll die with room to spare. I found that pre-potting with the Brawler pots helped a LOT on these fights.

Right now I'm on the R3 Bug boss with the massive frontal-cone instagib. Guh.
I know people say to circle-strafe, but as an LFR Shadow Priest, I don't have the DPS to stay on the move.
So I'm standing just inside his hit box and then running straight forward when he starts to cast.
Having DBM helps - there are Brawler cues, and having the audio/visual warning is nice.

Also, as a Shadow Priest, this guide is very useful.

[Stabya]

I used Icy Veins, which was a nice guide complete with Video

I dont want to douse your enthusiasm, but Clock Em, while Cute, is a very one dimensional battle pet, that I dont think is very useful.

[Contesa]

I did it on my priest, even tho my druid is my main, since I figured ranged would be better for me than melee. I am famously fail at kiting, and the chars are about equivalently geared. I stopped at Level 4 after I got the pet for now, but will eventually try more for the achievements. I used Icy Veins for tips, didn't check HTP so thanks for that link, Gendou. I would have had less deaths if I was better at moving, but it didn't take too many tries even for me, so I'm sure you'll get it Morlis!

Armory-stalking your talents from your Warcraft pets link (I hope you don't mind!), I had Angelic Bulwark vs. your Desperate Prayer. I liked that it would automatically kick in and give me one less button to click during the chaos, but that's just personal preference. Desperate Prayer is sometimes better, so not necessarily a suggestion, just food for thought. Good luck!

PS Gendou, I absolutely cannot strafe (related to why I'm fail at kiting, dizziness issues. I actually unbind the strafe keys on all new characters first thing). So I got past Ixx by hugging his hit box and walking straight thru him like you're talking about. It will work, but it will take a few tries until the game and you agree on the timing of when you walked thru him, which can be frustrating. There was one boss I got mad at and said "screw this, I'll take a break and come back tomorrow" and did fine the next morning, and I think it was him.

[Mehetabel]

As anyone had a go on a ret pally and if so how have they found it? I've been too nervous to try it yet but I'm going to have to at some point.

My main issue is that I'm a healer and I've never really played dps, except to level some alts which get forgotten as soon as they hit max level. I've waited until I've been able to get some offspec gear from guild raids etc which is all well and good but it's more my skill (or lack thereof) at dps that worries me!

[Morlis]

VICTORY!!!! I now have [pet]Clock'em[/pet]! Thanks again for the advice everyone, I checked all the sites folks listed for any tips. My toughest fight was the last one to beat to get rank 4, Mazhareen, I probably died 15 times to her wicked low health mad DPS. Had she been like 3rd out of gate, I may have given up, but being last one I needed gave me extra hope that it was possible to beat her.

Anyone else going for this, don't let it get you down. If I can do it most anyone who plays can do it. My key was gear up as best I could, I didn't try it till I had all the daily sets from 90 done. The final reward for a bunch of them is a purple item. Also did Sha when ever I saw people shouting for more, purple boots from the first time you loot and random chances for more purples each week. If you do dungeons in heroic mode, you probably had no problem with this, I tend to avoid pick up groups due to bad experiences in the past. "don't you know how to play your class?", "your DPS is Fail", Blah blah. Jerks who want a fast win rather than help someone who doesn't know it as well as they do.

Tips I gleaned from all sites I looked at:
1) DPS is king, Healing classes just can't put out the damage, Tanking classes while better tend to fall short some times.
2) Moving and DPS is a must for many of the fights.
3) Gear absolutely helps (this goes without saying but, I have been called captain obvious by several of my friends)
4) Buffs help a ton too. If a buff raid is going try to get in, I even set one up one day (unlike me)
5) the Potions that are sold give 4000 of your primary stat and are inexpensive to purchase, they last 25 seconds and cool down is a minute. Many fights I used a potion before the boss spawned so it would be avialable again before the end of the fight.

On a final note, I don't have immidiate plans to go back and get rank 8, its nerve wracking enough with a nice reward but without something I absolutely must have... the motivation is just not there to go back. Besides some of those fights look insane in the higher ranks.

Morlis

[Contesa]

My main issue is that I'm a healer and I've never really played dps, except to level some alts which get forgotten as soon as they hit max level. I've waited until I've been able to get some offspec gear from guild raids etc which is all well and good but it's more my skill (or lack thereof) at dps that worries me!

Well one thing to remember is that it's not like Challenge Modes. Your gear does matter. Which may sound like bad news since your gear is only off-spec "hand-me-downs", but the bright side is that if it's too hard when you first try, you can come back after patch 5.2 when you've had time to get more (and higher quality) offspec gear. So I say give it a shot, and if it's too frustrating, take a break. I was nervous too but nobody laughed at me when I died. Then again I went at an offtime my first try And don't forget that you will eventually be able to outgear it if you need the extra boost.

and Grats to Morlis, very happy for you

[Talmar]

VICTORY!!!! I now have [pet]Clock'em[/pet]! Thanks again for the advice everyone, I checked all the sites folks listed for any tips. My toughest fight was the last one to beat to get rank 4, Mazhareen, I probably died 15 times to her wicked low health mad DPS. Had she been like 3rd out of gate, I may have given up, but being last one I needed gave me extra hope that it was possible to beat her.

Congratulations. Leaning [pet]Clock'em[/pet] is a very cool feeling. I remember doing it and feeling like I accomplished something.

I love his boxing gloves.

[Myrna]

Finally got rank 4 as Mage. Some are quite hard as Mage so I thought i'd do a write up about them.

For reference, my ilevel was 472 but in the end it was 477. Most of my stuff is LFR, crafted or quested. I used a flask w/alchemist bonus and pre-potted as soon as I teleported with the INT potion. I highly recommend Deadly Boss Mods if you don't have it. Really helps.

I also started as Arcane until mid-way in Rank 2. I re-speced fire in anticipation of 5.2.

OKAY here we go.

Rank 1

Bruce
Straight up DPS race, I blinked away during Chomp Chomp Chomp and just burned him down.

Vian The Volatile
I blew all my cooldowns and burned him down pretty fast. One thing to note is that I have Arcane Blast glyphed so it automatically applied Slow, along with Counterspell which let me cast it while casting (sup dawg!). Overall, not TOO difficult for ranged classes I believe.

Goredome
Staying out of the charge was trivial for me, but i'm very very used to being "slippery". Mirror Images helped a lot here, if I had John-Dar's trinket here it would have probably helped immensely too.

Dungeon Master Vishas
It was a game of keep away, glyphed frost nova and talented frostjaw due to the lower cooldown and activation. Note: I totally forgot Deep Freeze even exsisted, so I never used it until rank 4. Glyph of Slow helped a lot too. And as always, Mirror images helps to soak a lot of damage.

Rank 2

Dippy
Trivial for Arcane; my blast is so fast he never got close. I just paced myself so he wasn't stuck to a wall.

Kirrawk
First guy to give me major trouble. His twisters have a much larger range, and if you're lagging you're screwed. This is the first fight I considered fire but I managed out in the end. Burning all my cooldowns when I was safeish and keeping nether tempest on him at all times.

Fran and Riddoh
I respeced Fire for this fight, mostly for the Alter time combo. in short, it goes like this: Proc heating up after a crit, inferno blast to proc Pyroblast! buff, then blow Presence of Mind and Alter Time. I got a macro for that combo since PoM is off GCD. After it's simply casting instant Pyroblast twice, hitting the Alter Time macro again and Pyroblasting twice more, ending with a glyphed Combustion which has the bonus of stunning him. This does about a million damage over 6-10 seconds and usually wins me matches. The other reason is Scorch; it can be cast while moving.
The fight itself is timing. I did it like this; target Riddoh and fireball until first goblin device wait until the mines drop THEN blink and then ATPyro combo, using images for mitigation again. Once Riddoh is down, spam Scorch while running around Fran since he constantly tosses stuff at you. Took me a few times.

King Kluaka
DANG HE'S HUGE. He hits like a truck dual weilding two-handed trucks. Like bruce, it's a race but also a game of keep-away. Glyphed frost nova, Frostjaw, Dragon's Breath and Combustion all help here. I glyphed Frostfire bolt here for added slow as well.

Rank 3 *sob*

BLAT.
He splits a lot and his clones move slow. Mark or Focus him asap so you don't lose him, then nuke him down and play keep-away a lot. in retrospect Ring of Frost would have been better here.

Sanoriak
I honestly don't remember much. I think I beat him on my dry run, using images to eat his nukes and ATPyro comboing, along with glyphed counterspell to stop his flame wave, which is what you need to worry about.

MOTHER. BLEEPING. IXX.
He's huge and you have 1.5 seconds to get out of the cone (devastating thrust) or you die. Deadly Boss mods is CRITICAL here, as it'll give you a timer when its cooldown is up. What's cheap is that he's HUGE and his targeting circle on the ground is also a hitbox for his instant kill, so you need to stay really, really, REALLY close to his middle. My basic idea was nuke until first thrust, BLINK ASAP and if I survive, start ATPyro combo. At the 1-2 second mark for Thrust i'd use mirror images to keep him in one direction and run since blink is on cooldown. On the 3rd thrust blink would be ready and after this, if he wasn't dead I would be. It took me 750g in repairs to kill him, and even there I think it was luck with Pyro crits and a large Ignite/Combustion dot. I hate this one. A lot.

Mazhareen
VERY difficult, but fair. UNLIKE THE LAST ONE YES I'M BITTER. Since she hits much stronger the weaker she gets (200k+) it's a legendary game of keep-away. I nuked her but held my cooldowns until about 30-40%, then frost nova'd and blinked away. I did the ATPyro combo at this point too, along with my cooldowns, used images when she got close. Frostjaw'd then Deep Freeze, which I remember existed at this point, blinked away and dragon breath when she got close again, nuking as much as I could all the while. Note: I have /stopcasting macros on all my survival abilities, like Dragon's Breath.

Rank Clock'em

He's cute and damm useful! Great Counter to magic-using dragons.

Hope it was useful to someone, even if you're not mage you probably could get ideas and such from this I hope. @.@

Stupid Ixx.

[Gendou]

Stupid Ixx.

Word.

[Morlis]

MOTHER. BLEEPING. IXX.

As a shadow priest I died only once to this one. I just stayed right under him and when ever the big cone came I moved forward a few steps and was out of the cone. The time I died I really underestimated how fast that cone will go off. After that I just interrupted what ever spell I was doing and moved right away.

I did see a mage use the Ice Block skill successfully. She would turn into the ice and it wouldn't do her any harm. I assume she used it when blink was not available.

Congrats on your Clock'em Myrna!

I didn't mention in my tips that I also used the Flasks that give 1000 intelligence and would usually last 3 to 4 fights depending on how many others were in line. I also made some food that would give 300 intelligence which would only last to the next fight if I lived. I went through about 30 of those.

Morlis

[Myrna]

I did see a mage use the Ice Block skill successfully. She would turn into the ice and it wouldn't do her any harm. I assume she used it when blink was not available.

You know, I just assumed this wouldn't work since it never blocks any other instant death attacks. Huh. Would mean that Ice Block + Cold Snap would be invaluable for the fight tho.

Thanks!

[Badpathing]

I guess I am a bit confused by all this. Brawler's guild did not even become remotely challenging until Rank 7..maybe a couple of Rank 6 fights made me pay attention...but certainly not Rank 4.

[Myrna]

Thing with mage is I can't take many hits, and those hit even harder than usual. Add to the fact that most of the brawler mobs can't be snared or rooted makes for a bad combo for me, sadly.

[Dragonwizard]

I guess I am a bit confused by all this. Brawler's guild did not even become remotely challenging until Rank 7..maybe a couple of Rank 6 fights made me pay attention...but certainly not Rank 4.

Gear and class makes a huge difference for these fights. Someone that is just quest/heroic geared might not have enough dps to beat some of the enrage timers. And Ikk as a ranged goes against everything ranged dps has been trained NOT to do, stand on top and in front of the boss. So with a couple of fights like Ikk and the last rank 3 fight (the cat) with the dmg increasing as its health decreases if the person didn't read up on it or at least see someone else fight it they wouldn't know to save CDs until it gets lower in health.