The legendary paladin Rextroy from World of Warcraft has solo killed another raid boss. He survives the boss fight for over 2 hours and emerges victorious.
Rextroy has long made a name for himself in the WoW community. However, in Dragonflight, not much has been heard from him – aside from a world boss solo kill and recently the victory against the council of the primalists, there has been little from him. But just before the start of season 2, he wants to prove himself again and defeats “Dathea, Ascendant” in the (still) current raid Vault of the Incarnates.
What were the problems during the boss fight? There were several issues in the fight against Dathea.
- The boss has a few DPS checks where adds need to be killed. As long as they are alive, they strengthen the boss, making the damage eventually simply too strong.
- The boss casts a “tank buster”, a stackable debuff that deals increasing damage while also pushing the tank further away each time, until he is thrown off the platform.
- In enrage, there is a strong knockback effect that lasts until all players are pushed off the platform and simultaneously takes damage.
How did he solve the problems? For each of these issues, Rextroy had different solutions – and some are quite curious.
- The adds could just be destroyed in time. However, for the last set of adds, Rextroy had to be launched onto a different platform. There, the mobs were still within reach while he was safe from the boss’s enrage.
- Rextroy discovered that the stackable debuff that Dathea actually applies to tanks is never used when the tank stays just barely out of melee range permanently.
- He initially tried to reduce the knockback effect with a trinket from Mechagon, but then an item from patch 10.1 was the solution: the Shellhorn.
With the Shellhorn, one summons the riding snail “The biggest slimy of the city” and uses it as a mount – which even works in dungeons and raids. This makes Rextroy immune to knockback effects, but it prevents the paladin from using spells and abilities. However, that’s not an issue, as the snail itself has melee attacks! Thus, it deals about 5,000 damage with one attack.
Rextroy’s plan was now to keep summoning the snail and dealing damage until his health points were so low that he needed to heal himself. Then he dismounted, healed himself, and repeated the process.
Rextroy has become known for using small animals (like the legendary frogs) in his videos. However, the frogs had already been nerfed by Blizzard a while ago – so it was time for a new creature. The snail is a worthy successor.
Isn’t that forbidden? In principle, exploiting such – quite obviously – unintended mechanics is considered a violation of the terms of use. However, Rextroy has been in contact with Blizzard for years and always reports discovered exploits to the developers. He waits for the “okay” before publishing a video. Usually, the corresponding exploits are then fixed for a long time, so imitators have no chance to benefit from this exploit.
What do you think of such methods? A cool success or an exploit that should be harshly punished?
A reward in WoW only exists if you still own an item from 18 years ago!
