Fated Jailer Defeated by 5-man Heroic and 3-man Normal Mode Groups

By Starym — Nov 8 2022 22:54 UTC

We are pleased to announce another slew of Dragonflight pre-patch achievements! Two small groups of well-known “solo” content players joined forces to take down The Jailer - the final boss of Shadowlands - in his Fated form. A 3-man crew managed to kill The Jailer on Normal difficulty on October 29^th, and a 5-man crew killed The Fated Jailer on Heroic difficulty on November 6^th. Although The Jailer is not quite ready to be killed by a single player just yet in true “solo” fashion, these 5-man and 3-man kills are impressive, given that raids are designed to feature much larger groups.

The 3-man and 5-man Jailer kills feature some real heavy-hitters in the “soloing” community:

3-man Normal mode kill:

Durendil
Thuralion
Thýx

5-man Heroic mode kill:

HeroicSolo
Durendil
Mulini
Teori
Ørnus

So how did they kill The Jailer on Heroic and Normal difficulties with such small groups? Let’s take an inside look and ask the players themselves!

Overview
• 3-man Normal
• 5-man Heroic
Interview

Why do it

How it was accomplished

How long did it take

DF Pre-Patch influence

Personal Highlights

Future Plans

Overview

3-MAN NORMAL

On October 29, 2022, the Jailer was 3-manned on Normal Difficulty by Durendil, Thuralion, and Thýx. Defeating The Jailer rounded things out, as the crew had previously 3-manned Sire Denathrius and Sylvanas Windrunner before the recent Dragonflight pre-patch. Check out their 3-man Normal Jailer kill below:

5-MAN HEROIC

On November 6, 2022, HeroicSolo spearheaded a 5-man group with Durendil, Mulini, Teori, and Ørnus to take down The Jailer on Heroic difficulty. This 5-man squad took 33 pulls to defeat The Jailer, with Phase 1 being the most troublesome due to the Martyrdom soaking. With the single-target DPS output provided by Durendil and the AoE output provided by Teori (both Beast Mastery Hunters), Mulini contributed a huge amount of damage as Guardian Druid, and Ørnus kept everyone alive as a Restoration Shaman. Combining this with HeroicSolo’s Vengeance Demon Hunter damage and a life-saving pinch of Darkness, this 5-man group prevailed against The Jailer on Heroic difficulty. Check out the video below:

Interview

With The Jailer being defeated by a 5-man crew several days ago, what do the players have to say? HeroicSolo, Durendil, and Mulini walk us through some details.

Q-1: So, let’s start with the obvious: Why take on such endeavors?

HeroicSolo: Well, the reason is just, “why not?,” and because strange PvE events have been my hobby since my first days of playing WoW. This entails anything from killing the last raid boss of the actual expansion with just 5 players, soloing Mythic+ dungeons, or doing raids composed of 10-20 tanks, etc. :) The Fated Jailer on Normal mode was killed by just 3 players a little bit earlier, so I thought, “Why not repeat that, but in Heroic mode with 5 people?”

Durendil: For the 5-man kill, as a soloer, I also find killing bosses with the smallest possible group to be very fun. Also, Heroicsolo asked me to join the efforts, and I can’t say no to a fellow soloer. For the 3-man kills, I did Antorus 3-man with a Warlock and Rextroy back in Legion. It was really fun, so I decided to do something similar again with my guildies while waiting for Dragonflight.

Q-2: How did you manage to secure these kills?

HeroicSolo: Durendil, Mulini, and I participated in the recent Mythic+ Soloing Tournament, so 3 of 5 players are strong soloists too (for example, my hobby is soloing low Mythic+ keys soloing in time, Mulini has completed some +20/+22 keys solo, and Durendil is a great Hunter soloist who kills actual *raid* bosses solo). Our combined skills and soloing experience helped us quite a bit in this fight against the Jailer. Our final setup was Guardian Druid, Vengeance Demon Hunter, 2 Beast Mastery Hunters, and a Restoration Shaman. This way, we had Spirit Link Totem and Darkness as raid saves, which was very strong in Phase 1. Durendil had a maximum single-target damage build to kill barriers ASAP, and Teori had a cleave/multitarget build to zerg the orbs affix. Guardian Druid does fantastic amounts of damage, by the way! Sometimes, Mulini did 90k+ DPS until Phase 2.

Durendil: In the 5-man kill, the main issue was destroying the barrier affix, so I went single target and dispelled at the best time, making sure it wasn’t during bombs or other. Also, we focused the add that has less health than the shield on the boss. For the 3-man kills, Denathrius was easy but fun. Sylvanas had terrible affixes and we were extremely tight on the enrage timer, so we optimized DPS and cooldowns on boss and orbs. For The Jailer, we used defensive cooldown rotations to survive his one-shot mechanic 4 times in Phase 1. In Phase 2, our Paladin, Thuralion, carried us, destroying the mind controls in seconds and running around breaking all pillars.

Mulini: Normally, I play Blood Death Knight. Because the group wanted to play 2 tanks and a healer, there was no need for a defensive tank, so I went with Guardian Druid instead.

Q-3: When all was said and done, how long did the kill(s) take you?

HeroicSolo: It took 33 attempts, several of which were at 7-10% of boss health just because of lack of DPS/stupid deaths/failed soaking in Phase 3. And ~50% of the attempts failed pretty fast in Phase 1 because of a failed Martyrdom strike soaking.

Durendil: The 3-man Normal mode kills took around 45 minutes for Sire Denathrius (5-minute tries), 3 hours for Sylvanas (12 minute tries), and 3 hours for The Jailer (5 minute tries). However, I had theorycrafted the strategies beforehand, especially for The Jailer. I’d say it took 7 tries for Denathrius and about 15 tries for the others.

Q-4: How big of a part did the pre-patch changes have in your ability to secure these kills?

HeroicSolo: The biggest change in the Dragonflight pre-patch was the increase in Guardian Druid’s DPS. It was pretty high in Patches 9.2.5 - 9.2.7, but now, Guardian Druids can reach crazy numbers if they choose the Venthyr covenant and exercise the proper skill level required. In Patch 9.2.7, Blood Death Knight did very strong single-target DPS, but now, it seems like Guardian is much better than Blood at both single-target and AoE DPS output. As for self healing, Blood Death Knight is still better. Also, Vengeance Demon Hunters can now take Darkness and Chaos Nova abilities from the talent tree, and both abilities were pretty useful versus the Jailer; we used Darkness in Phase 1 when we soaked Martyrdom strikes, and Chaos Nova in Phase 2 and Phase 3 to stun mind-controlled players.

Durendil: For the Heroic 5-man Jailer kill, it probably would have been the same for me compared to Patch 9.2.7. For the Normal 3-man kills, we defeated Sire Denathrius and Sylvanas Windrunner before the pre-patch. However, Sylvanas would have been way easier with the increased DPS from the pre-patch. We did Jailer after the pre-patch launched, and I would have certainly died without the new talents. Theoretically, with a battle res and a better Phase 2 performance, we still could have done it, but it would have taken an hour or two more.

Q-5: Aside from this, what are some of your favorite things you have managed to accomplish in WoW?

HeroicSolo: Soloing and 10/20 Demon Hunter raid events have been my favorite activities in this game since 2012. During the past few months, I’ve tried to popularize WoW in Ukraine as well as create a Ukrainian community in WoW! I’ve created a Ukrainian Mythic+ Discord community and organized 3 Mythic+ charity tournaments in Patch 9.2.5 - 9.2.7. My guild, Knaipa Variativ, helps me with that, and I’m glad to be a part of a big and friendly Ukrainian WoW community with hundreds of players. There are also several other Ukrainian guilds that have helped me with events or participated in tournaments such as Tauren Milfs, BAYRAKTAR from Silvermoon, and so many more.

Durendil: Well, there's been a lot of soloing since the Lich King, so a full list would be really long. In Shadowlands, my favorites have probably been Denathrius and Kael’thas, which wasn’t very hard, but it’s fun to heal bosses as a Hunter. Another highlight of mine is that time I accidentally found a mount in Plaguefall and suddenly 500 people were asking me where I found it, what I was wearing when I did, and if my computer was turned North or South.

Q-6: Any plans for future 5-man raid kills (or perhaps solos)?

HeroicSolo: I’m planning to solo more Mythic+ dungeons (I’ll probably do some Mythic+10 in time), and in Dragonflight, I’ll organize some Demon Hunter only/tanks only raids and Mythic+ runs. 20 tanks vs. Fated Mythic raids are possible too!

Durendil: For 5-man or less kills, I probably will say yes if Heroicsolo or a fellow soloer asks me to collaborate again. In Dragonflight, I plan to solo the bosses in BFA Mythic that still stand, and all Shadowlands bosses in Mythic. Videos will be on my YouTube channel.

Mulini: I already soloed Shriekwing Normal and Sludgefist Heroic, but I’m currently trying each one a difficulty higher.

About the Authors

Starym is an old-school raider with a wide history of World Firsts under his belt. He is a long-time news writer and interviewer for Icy Veins and formerly Manaflask. Having raided in the Race to World First (RWF) until the end of The Burning Crusade, he has been covering the events since Cataclysm and the RWF has become his greatest passion in WoW. A (Tauren, obviously) Warrior main at heart, when pushed, he will admit to loving Diablo more than WoW and, thus, should be punished.

VitaminP (VP) is the Content Manager of Raider.IO and has worked for the organization since the formation of the News Section in November 2018. Although VP is currently focused on pursuing her Masters of Business Administration, she specializes in tanking classes and has loved doing competitive Mythic+ on and off since early Legion.