[Paladin] Solo Gahz'ranka for fun and profit!

[Kauppaneuvos]

(Taken from MainTankadin)


Gear required, passive uncrushable or very near (96%+), about 700 block value
70 Blood Elf Paladin check for gear

By now, everyone knows how easy it is to solo Garr with a passive uncrushability set and sufficient block value. Since he drops one of the Thunderfury bindings, there is at least that incentive to kill him. However, it's really a vanity item now, and the only other reward is the knowledge and bragging rights that you've schooled a 40-man raid boss while being afk almost the whole time.

But what if there was another pre-expansion raid boss you could solo who dropped something unique, something valuable, a non-soulbinding item so rare that you could sell it for ridiculous amounts of gold.

Like, say, [Tome of Polymorph: Turtle]?



Gahz'ranka actually turned out to be harder than Garr, ironically. One reason for this is that he uses a frost breath that can't be blocked or mitigated by armor. Oh, and it burns mana. However, that's more something of an inconvenience. The real problem is that he likes to toss you around and up in the air high enough for you to take falling damage if you're not in the water where the fish can get you.

Ugh. So what is a paladin to do, given all these obstacles?

For starters, you can tank him someplace where the fish can't get to you. Aggroing a fish is basically certain death since they place a -75% armor debuff on you, after which Gahz will make short work of you regardless of how good your gear is. Unfortunately, it's hard to avoid them in the water, especially with Gahz knocking you all over the place.

However, you're not going to be able to afk on this fight like you can on Garr. He frequently spawns massive geysers that will toss you around now and then even if you're wedged in tightly. To make sure you're in a safe position, tilt the camera so that you're looking down on your character from behind. If the camera zooms out so that you can see yourself clearly, you probably need to back up quickly.

What's really annoying is that he sometimes follows up a geyser immediately with his knockback attack (Gahz'ranka slam), which will send you up in the air and make you take major fall damage, as well as cause positioning issues. I placed my back to the corner and walked backward a geyser was incoming. Still, he managed to toss me three times during the attempt where I killed him. You have to be careful when you do get tossed that he doesn't evade and regenerate health, which can be very frustrating.

As for the relatively minor issue of the frost breath: it does about 500 damage on average and burns a significant amount of mana, and he uses it fairly frequently. If you're passively uncrushable and he isn't able to hit you through block, JoL should be enough to ensure that it doesn't kill you. Frost resistance aura might help here, and it's probably a good idea to use it if the lack of devotion aura doesn't let him break through block. If you're really desperate, you can chain chug frost protection pots, but this is an expensive route to take. Regardless, you're probably going to be perpetually out of mana for this fight. Keep in mind that divine shield requires mana.


Where to tank him?
At the top tier of the Temple of Bethekk. Tank him in one of the alcoves along the side and you'll almost never be knocked out of place.




Now the hardest part..

Actually getting Ghaz'ranka here is a more complicated task. First of all, there are a number of patrols that path along the path to the temple. Two Gurubashi berserkers and a couple trios of panthers will be in your way. There is also a stealthing panther whose patrol path crosses in front of the stairs to the temple.

This actually isn't very problematic, since if you can kill Ghaz'ranka, you can kill these guys with ease. The berserkers do a knockback, so you'll want to have your back to a wall, but they won't fear if you're alone. The panthers will occasionally knock you down, but they hit for trivial damage anyway (around 200 unblocked at most). Use the PLG and sanctuary to kill them quickly.

Secondly, Ghaz'ranka doesn't like to wander far from Pagle's Point. The first tactic I tried was mounting up and aggroing him, then letting him chase me to the temple. That lasted until about the top of the ramp, then he reset. You can use a mounted pull to get him to the top, but you have to be fighting him on foot to pull him any farther.

This is the most dangerous part of the fight, since you won't have a roof over your head. I highly recommend strafing while making sure that he's in your frontal arc. You don't want to get hit from behind by him the whole way. Fortunately, he will stop frequently to use his frost breath, giving you a reprieve before resuming the chase. The knockback effect of his slam also seems to have a limited range as well, as I was hit by it but not tossed.


Other Notes

Ghaz'ranka does substantially more frost damage than I first thought, so it might not be possible just to go AFK with JoL on him. I recently reworked my passive uncrushability set to include significantly more block value (740 now). He barely hits me through block now, but he's still able to slowly whittle down my health unless I peek in to seal light and use my figurine now and then. I have 17.6k armor in that set, and I don't have spell warding, which would probably help. I'm admittedly barely geared for this, though.

Anyhow, I hope this helps. Good luck to my fellow turtle-seekers.








Video from Gahz'ranka solo: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ty1XtmCHva4"]YouTube - Hank vs. Gahz'rankha[/ame]


GL doing Gahz, that tome is worth of thousands !

[Opirity1]

thanks for sharing this , sadly i tdont got a pala +rep

[Fezz0]

how long does the whole fight take?

EDIT: +rep for a nice job

[Kauppaneuvos]

how long does the whole fight take?

Roughly about 1h

[Obama]

This is a good find. +rep

[frutmestoofvlees]

Roughly about 1h

Could you tell me what gear you're using? maybe a list, or armory?

Btw, well done lol...

[Vannaka]

Doable on a Hyjal MT?

Will toss you an armory link if you ask, with my tank set on

[korvkamera]

I tried to get the tome with my friend a long time ago, but we couldnt summon him :P

[mrheh]

Right where he spawns, next to where all the booze is on the ground, theres a little bit that sticks out next to a tent iirc that you stand under and he can't throw you in the air at all. I used to do this on my mage with a pala friend, never got the damn tome though rofl.

[Numbencore]

Nice guide,
but no need to travel just stand under the statue's nose and you'll be fine aswell

[SmotPoker]

waste of time if it takes 1 hour to kill him

[Haaskis]

waste of time if it takes 1 hour to kill him

But he got pretty decent rate to drop polymorph tome, witch sells for like 2k gold in AH.

[furyn]

Nice one. +Rep!

[Madwow]

awesome dood

[alstann]

awesome man