Voidwalker tanks Sartharion 10 with three drakes
by Zach Yonzon 
Feb 14th 2009 at 8:00PM
When I grow up, I want to be like Seche. Or more importantly, I want Grimkrast to grow up like Makgarth. Let me explain. Choren first tipped us off to this a few days back, but because we were in such shock at the whole thing it took me only now to write it up -- the guild Damaged Goods downed 10-man Sartharion with three drakes up with a Voidwalker main tanking Sartharion. They have a video of it but to be honest I couldn't see the Voidwalker doing his job. On the other hand, it turns out Voidwalkers have a knack for tanking dragons with flame breaths that one-shot normal tanks because Township Rebellion's Seche from US Crushridge also did it with his pet Makgarth.
Now I've never dreamed of letting Grimkrast tank anything. He holds aggro about as well as a wet noodle. But then again I've never specced for it, so that's probably my fault. After all, Voidwalkers tanked Illidan back in the day, didn't they? So while The Twilight Zone is arguably the toughest raid Achievement in the game (I personally think it's the Heroic version that's tougher because you need 25 people to not die to void zones instead of 10), it's apparently doable with a Voidwalker. Michael Sacco reported getting Twilight Zone using this method, too. Watch the fun video and follow the link for screenshots of the event. I think it's time to send Grimkrast to the gym.
Filed under: Warlock, Raiding, Achievements
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Zeplar Feb 14th 2009 8:07PM
Insanity.
Falcrist Feb 15th 2009 2:01AM
Reasons why this is possible:
1: This warlock was wearing what is probably THE best in slot items for making your VW's HP and other relevant stats MASSIVE. This includes Deadly Gear, tanking Trinket, proper gems, etc. 90k HP is pretty amazing, even for a demo lock's pet.
2: Sartharion doesn't get attacked by the DPS for like 5 minutes. Otherwise the VW would never ever be able to hold aggro.
3: Pets have a passive 80% resistance to AOE (like Sarth's breath). Add the raid buffs, the Imp Health Funnel mitigation, and the resistance from Void Star Talisman, and you have Flame Breaths hitting for a paltry 4k.
4: Positioning? What positioning? Flame Wall is not an issue, considering they just let the voidwalker Eat Almost Every One. Did I mention the voidwalker doesn't have to worry about Voidzones spawning under him? being a pet and all...
Additional notes:
1: OMFG this is epic. Despite what I just said, there is a massive time investment made here. That's a lot of loots to collect to do this, and it takes some pretty massive balls to invest that amount of time in a project that hasn't been tested. And did I mention skills? There might be some of those involved as well ;)
2: I'm sure Blizz is going to want to change the fight to make this impossible, but I don't see why it's necessary. I can't think of another fight at 60, 70, OR 80 where this would be remotely possible. I also don't know what they would change to make this undoable. You would have to really nerf pet scaling hard to make this significantly more difficult, and that would do more harm than good. Then again, changing the fight mechanics over this seems a little OTT.
3: I'm pretty sure this isn't the first time this has been done. Here's a link to a thread started a week ago about another lock who did this:
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=14990762341&sid=1
TeeO Feb 14th 2009 8:14PM
I believe this is possible because of the voidwalker (and all other warlock pets) have the avoidance buff since 3.0. This increases their resistance to boss aoe damage by 80%.
Correct me if i'm wrong.
Zach Feb 14th 2009 8:15PM
Yes it is, but also note that with buffs and all, the Voidwalker apparently hit some 90k life. @_@
The Elitist Jerk Feb 14th 2009 8:15PM
First thought: Holy shit.
Second thought: HA HA HA HA HA HA HA THIS IS GETTING HOTFIXED SO FAST
Third thought: I wish I had a pet with that much HP and a viable heal to keep him up.
Fourth thought: If I stacked stamina gear with HP/stamina enchants and stamina gems... nah not going to happen.
Fifth thought: FU blizzard I want my pets to tank raid bosses too.
Sixth thought: Shit, I need to get this done with my guild.
mike Feb 14th 2009 10:23PM
Seventh thought: I should reroll as a warlock.
Shockna Feb 15th 2009 3:31AM
Blizzard would have to be pretty damned stupid to nerf this. Some of us aren't lucky enough to know a bear tank for 10 man 3D, so this is our only option to manage it. I don't really care what some of you are bound to say about "skill" or any asinine comments about it; it's tough to survive a 45k breath when you only have 37k raid buffed.
The Claw Feb 15th 2009 7:45AM
Shockna, you're supposed to survive the breaths by using cooldowns, not by having 50000+ health after the debuff..
Zeplar Feb 14th 2009 8:22PM
Most fun thing I did w/ a voidwalker, was right after 3.01, before wotlk, my dad's warlock and my feral druid killed Varedis in SMV, by bouncing aggro between the voidwalker and myself.
francis Mar 2nd 2009 11:31AM
you should see the things before commenting others
Prot Feb 14th 2009 8:41PM
Okay, as a tank I'm a little bummed about this. How long until I become obsolete.
Now, will this lead to a new feature on WowInsider? Something that could be called:
SO EASY A VOIDWALKER COULD DO IT...
vazhkatsi Feb 15th 2009 2:32AM
as a warlock i can tell you, the only reason the drake is still on voidy there is because no one is attacking sarth, the voidy is just holding it there until they finish up the other drakes.
Andrew Feb 15th 2009 7:41AM
Right. The voidwalker is actually a horrible tank in any "normal" situation, very few warlocks actually use it, it doesn't have the threat generation. I hope this doesn't lead to the VW getting nerfed, because it's been in need of a buff for a while now.
vazhkatsi Feb 15th 2009 2:13PM
i doubt it will get nerfed, because the only fights where this is possible are ones where you need a tank to take a mob and just hold it while you deal with other things, the voidy probably had somewhere around 200k threat on sarth by the end, enough to keep ahead of healers but no dps.
Hokuto Feb 14th 2009 8:51PM
I still think Sarth 10 3D > Sarth 25 3D. Managing so many stuff going on at once with 10 people was much harder than keeping the "mentally challenged" people from standing on teh red stuff on the floor.
And even if the Flame Breath wasn't considered AoE damage and so avoidance wouldn't mitigate it, Imp. HS and the immense amount of magic resistance would make up for it. It's like being on a fire resist set and a mini pain supression up all the time. Ok, a void's avoidance is pretty bad, but melee hits are the least of a tank's problem on that fight; surviving a 50k breath (on heroic mode) is.
Zul Feb 14th 2009 11:38PM
TBH who cares...
Procris Feb 15th 2009 6:50AM
You cared enough to post Zul? But yeah, the 10 man version is harder [in my opinion]. Its much easier to do sath 3d with 25 people. More people is better for a fight such as this. You are pretty limited with who you bring for those 10 spots in the normal version. Personally, i've never seen people complaining about not having hard content, have this achievement. Yeah Naxx is easy as hell but then again, so was Kara.
Pretty insane that a Warlocks pet managed to tank this but then again, when you take all things into consideration, the pet is taking less damage than an actual tank would and has a lot of time to build up aggro (5 mins did they say?). This actually seems like the best way to do the fight, until/if they nerf it.
Hiruma Feb 14th 2009 8:58PM
but oh nooooooooo
Hunters were too overpowered....
ROT IN HELL BLIZZARD
W01ph Feb 14th 2009 8:59PM
At some point in the video, I'm pretty sure I see a pally in tank position... is he there as backup? or is he actually tanking? and the omen on the video has a pally pink line at the top of the list as well... I may be a cynic, but something about this vid doesn't seem right... perhaps the vw only tanks while the drakes are up, and then the pally takes over after...
W01ph Feb 14th 2009 9:11PM
watched the vid again... should have done so before first post, can see the vw tanking at the start of the fight, but the pally does take over at some point, looks like around the time the last drake goes down... still pretty impressive action