I managed, after 8 weeks of progress / farming, to kill solo Daddy D himself.
It was the hardest solo since KJ Mythic, I'm glad I had a great boss this expansion too.
I also put a play-by-play strategy in the subtitles for the first time. The main strategy is in the description.
Here's the introduction, to give an idea of how fun he was :
He took 734 tries. I’d say about 75-80% were P1 wipes though. He took a long time because I tried 3 different main strategies, and kept optimizing them then switching strategy and using what I had learned.
To illustrate, my best % in AoE spec was 8%, after a « perfect » try, around pull 300. I switched to Single Target (ST) spec and, having lost survivability, optimized survival and dps until I got another perfect try at 6%, about pull 450. So I switched to ST Execute spec, with even less survivability, and got a perfect 380k (4%) try around pull 600.
But around pull 700 I decided to go back to AoE spec, but with all the dps and survival optimizations - and killed him with 3 seconds to berserk. Even if the AoE spec had the least single target, because I had perfected my P2 dps and reduced how many cabalists I had to kill (survivability), and P2 is an AoE phase, I managed to get him to 41% while only using 1 burst in P2. Having an extra burst in P3 meant that the AoE spec did the most ST dps (plus other factors - see below for more details).
First, an overview of the fight :Phase 1 lasts until 71%. A the 3:00 mark, you take -100% healing and a DoT. You have to transition him before you die. However, if you want to get to p3 at 7:40 (so you can have 3 bursts), you also have to transition him before 3:19.
Phase 2 lasts either until 41% or 3:45. If you don’t have enough dps he could enter phase 3 at 45% - and you need even more dps. You also have 12 cabalists, and the more healing you have the less you have to kill (survival = dps gain).
Phase 3 lasts until the berserk, at 12:00. It’s an instant wipe due to the AoE. 4min10 after he starts attacking, you will have the -100% healing AoE. This phase has the highest damage requirement.
In conclusion, here are the objectives :
- Phase 1 : transition him before 3:19. Be full health before the 3rd ravage. Position the boss as to deal 0 ST damage to the adds.
- Phase 2 : kill as few cabalists as possible (survival = more boss dps). This is also the hardest phase in terms of survival. Doing all that and getting the boss to but 41% is quite hard.
- Phase 3 : Kill him before berserk. Pet takes a lot of damage - don’t let it die.
The hardest part of this fight is doing a perfect phase 2 that sets you up for victory.
Healing your pet is a dps loss if done outside « downtime ». Using mend pet at the right time is very important for dps, but hard to execute - and if your pet dies, you lose too much dps.
My gear/spec :I am ilvl 280 - not BiS gear, but nearly. As a hunter, a lot of my self-healing came from mend pet + exhilaration with leech. With 2 pets, it is doubled. I had leech on 2 pieces, giving me 6,24% extra leech. Then I get either 10% or 15% leech from my pet. Wild spirits also was a healing cooldown with my leech.
I tried 3 specs :
- ST : best dps in P1, middle dps in P2, middle dps in P3. Middle survival (2 pets) : you have to kill 8/12 cabalists in P2.
- Execute ST (1 pet but execute at 35%t) : worst dps in P1, worst dps in P2, best dps in P3. Worst survival (1 pet) : you have to kill 9/12 cabalists in P2.
- AoE spec : middle dps in P1, best dps in P2, worse dps in P3. Best survival (+5% leech, 2 pets) : you have to kill 7/12 cabalists in phase 2.
So, if the AoE spec has the worst dps in P3, why was it the one that, finally downed the boss First, you only have 6 2-minute cooldowns. In ST spec, I needed 2 in P1, 2 in P2, and therefore only had 2 in P3. But the AoE spec has the most damage in phase 2, since there are 2 targets. And having 2 less cabalists to kill meant I only had to do around 100k singe target instead of 300k :
- 4 cabalists die of cleave/AoE that I was already doing on Remornia, so no dps loss
- if I targeted a singe cabalist with 4 cleaves of the boss, he did 75% of the work
- if I can ignore 2 cabalists from the last spawn, I don’t have to go through the mirror : i slowly dps down with as much cleave as possible the last 2 cabalists I have to kill.
So I managed to get 3 burst in phase 3.
Also, having a second burst at 9:40 meant I could ignore a cabalist - I could survive 4 cabalists for 2 minutes, but not much more, so having a burst earlier was great. Note that with the 2/2/2 spec, I had to hold off my cooldowns for the 11:00 mark since I had to wait for pot/sigil (trinket).
But with a burst 1min20 sooner, I could both ignore an extra cabalist and it also meant I reached 20% faster, and had access to kill shot - a significant dps increase.
Finally, the AoE spec has the most downtime - and therefore loses the least dps if you add mend pet to the rotation. Also, your pet has more leech so he heals himself more.
