A Guide for Warrior and Paladin Tanks

So you’ve heard from a friend, a guildie, or the internet that it was possible in World of Warcraft to solo Garr, but didn’t think you could do it? You’ve seen that crappy YouTube video of a warrior doing it (EDIT: He’s actually done a new video which is now much clearer), but you don’t think it’s clear enough to make you feel comfortable? Well, worry no more! This guide will give you all the necessary information to handle it so you can be soloing that old world raid boss in no time!

If you need more money to get your equipment look at this guide!

The video is now available here: How to Solo Garr: A Video for Warriors and Paladins By Modus

Why Solo Garr?

There are several reasons to solo Garr, but I think we both know what you’re going there for. Anyway, they include:

Bindings of the Windseeker (Right) - 3%
Tier 1 Helm (Helm of Might, Lawbringer Helm) - 12%
Schematic: Biznicks 247×128 Accurascope - 0.6%
Pattern: Core Felcloth Bag (Sellable) for Core Felcloth Bag (Much more stylish than Ebon Shadowbag) - 1.7%

Defeating Garr stops all Lava Surgers from spawning, making a future group clear easier. With a soft reset, all existing Lava Surgers will despawn.

Bragging rights!

The tanking mechanics look to be set to change once WotLK, and it is not clear whether or not old-world bosses and this gearing strategy will still apply. Better to do it now than risk not being able to do it in a few months.

How Garr Soloing Works

I’ve been in your shoes before, and I know what you’re thinking. How are you supposed to tank Garr, a ?? (your level + 3) raid boss ALONG WITH eight Firesworn, who inflict an Immolate on each hit all by yourself? Well, as Blizzard originally explained the tameable “Ghost Wolf” pet, it’s through a fun use of in-game mechanics like everything in WoW.

Passive Uncrushability Through Gear

Uncrushability in World of Warcraft means, basically, that any normal melee attack made to the tank will always be either a miss, dodge, parry, or block. Since a crushing blow can’t be any of those things, a crushing blow effectively can’t land, and therefore, the tank is said to be uncrushable. Even though Garr is an old-world raid boss, because he is level ??, his attack table is treated as if he were three levels above you. Uncrushability is achieved by assuring total avoidance and block chance of the tank is greater than or equal to 102.4% (100% + 0.2% penalty to each stat / level the mob is above you, or 2.4%).

Garr’s crushing blows are easy to heal through (800-1000 damage), but since you won’t be having a healer, it’s very important that you are passively uncrushable, or within 1-2% of it. Any more than that, and you’re just asking for a difficult try. Garr dispells buffs every 20 seconds or so, but he is unable to dispell elixirs and food, so feel free to include those in your calculations, but don’t count Kings or other buffs because you won’t be able to keep them on yourself.

High Block Value

After accumulating gear to become passively uncrushable, the next step is to maximize block value. After all, a miss, dodge, or parry does no damage to the tank, but a block only reduces damage by your block value. To ensure that you don’t need (or need only little) healing, you want to be sure you’re blocking 100% of the Firesworn’s attacks specifically, but also as much of Garr’s melee damage as possible.

You’ll need about 780-800 block value to remove all damage from the table, but considering you do have a few healing options available, it is normal to have around 650 for your first time. Any less than that, and you may have trouble.

Limited Self-Healing Options

Without a 100% optimum gear set, you’ll still take very minor damage from Garr’s normal hits. Although Paladins have more tools for healing while tanking:
Judgement of Light (Very effective)
Bubble + Bandage
Lay on HandsBoth Warriors and Paladins have these options available:
Figurine of the Colossus
Super Healing Potion
Nightmare Seed / Master Healthstone (If you can bum one off of a Warlock)

Choosing Your Gear

Gear choice is the most important part of Garr soloing in WoW. Block rating, block value, and defense rating are all very important. For this type of situation, Warriors and Paladins wear the same gear. The only differences that relate to soloing Garr is that warriors have an additional 5% chance to block through talents and stats from their ranged weapon, making it much easier to reach passive uncrushability.

Your gem choices should (optimally) be Thick Lionseyes or Thick Dawnstones, unless you are meeting a valuable socket bonus (like with Iron Gauntlets of the Maiden). The best meta gem for an optimal set would be (naturally) the Eternal Earthstorm Diamond, if you can find places to use the required gems.

To give you a good start, here’s a link to a good Garr-soloing set with no 25 man loot:
70 Blood Elf Paladin

Here’s the gear used in my video:
70 Blood Elf Paladin

How to Get There

Garr is located in Molten Core, which is in Blackrock Mountain, a sub-zone between Searing Gorge and Burning Steppes. There’s a one-step attunement quest called Attunement to the Core, which is soloable by level 70 characters. A video is available here (PoV of a rogue. Just kill any mobs you accidentally pull). You must be in a raid to enter, so invite a friend, make it a raid, and zone in by talking to Lothos Riftwaker, the blood elf in the small room at the bottom of Blackrock Mountain.

Once Inside, Get to the Safe Spot

Once inside, you are going to work your way to the Safe Spot. It is a small island in the river of lava that is a good area to eat and drink before taking the next step.

Walk up to the first two giants. Immediately to the right of them, along the wall, is a ledge that no mobs can reach you from. Run up to the giants (they will aggro), and then hug that right-side wall as you jump down below. If you aimed well, you should be on a ledge against the wall, and not in the lava river. Before you continue, look behind yourself at the giants until you leave combat and they reset. Now, eat and drink to full. Run straight ahead and check for Core Hounds at the bottom of the ledge in front of you (there’s a tunnel running right through there). If there aren’t any, jump down and go a little bit down the tunnel on your right. Turn left quickly, and then run across toward the lava river. Go left (should be a little uphill) to dodge a little of the trash, and then you should see the small island in the lava river. Jump into the lava, and out onto the island. The easiest place is on the left side of the island. Any mobs you have accidentally aggro’d will reset.

This is a little more difficult to explain, but you can see me do it in my video. A map is pictured below:

Soloing that Surger

After you’re back at full health, begin jumping down the lava river. Follow it left into Ragnaros’ Lair, and keep jumping until you reach an edge you can jump onto on the right side of the river. If you stay at the edge, the patrolling Surger here won’t aggro. Eat back to full health, then wait for the Surger to patrol away. Then, jump up and run quickly alongside the small ledge (that drops into the river). Run as far as you can, and stay as close to the ledge as possible. If you get far enough, you should see that same Surger patrolling back past you. You should be far enough that he doesn’t aggro, and if he does, simply jump into the lava until he resets and then try again.

Once that annoying Surger patrols away again, run quickly down the tunnel to see another patrolling Surger. Unfortunately, we have to kill this one, as he is unavoidable. Aggro him, then back against the wall next to the corner of the lava river. In this position, that Surger we just dodged won’t aggro, the patrolling Core Hounds won’t aggro, and the knockbacks from the Surger you’re tanking won’t throw you anywhere. Melee away! Generally, this takes about twenty minutes.

NOTE: You should swap in a different shield for this Surger. After 2.5 hours or more on Garr, you’ll be testing the durability of your main shield enough.

NOTE: The respawn timer on Surgers is reported to be 28 minutes.

Using Invisibility to Reach the Waiting Spot

NOTE: Core Hounds see though Invisibility. Stay away from them.

Ensure no Core Hounds are patrolling nearby, then approach the Giants against the wall on the left. When you’re about 10 yards away, chug a Lesser Invisibility Potion or Invisibility Potion and keep running. Hug the left wall, and run to the opening of the tunnel on the left. You are now in what I have deemed as “The Waiting Spot.” The idea is to be directly between the opening of the tunnel and whatever trash mob is on the side that you came from. You should be able to see Garr clearly from here. There are two non-linked Core Hounds that patrol in a semicircle around Garr, but those are of no issue to you while you are waiting (for what? See the next section).