Brawler's Guild Strategy

[Sorella]

Since I searched the net for a Shadow Priest-specific guide to the Brawler's Guild bosses and couldn't find one, I figured I'd start one myself.

Here is my experience with the bosses from a shadow priest perspective. Please feel to add your own. :)

General
Overall, many of these fights are movement intensive, so you absolutely want Body and Soul (run speed boost when you PW:S) and you want to pre-pot just before combat begins. Sometimes it's more important for YOU to get away than it is to slow the boss, so glyph of Mind Flay can also be a good choice.

FDCL is good on movement heavy fights, Mindbender is superior if you can stand in one place and burn or have him tank for a bit. Divine insight is better for "most" bosses because you will be moving a lot and when the boss gets to 20% you probably have a kill anyway.

Make sure you use glyph of Dark Binding so you can toss a PoM or renew on yourself without breaking shadowform.

Also, make sure you have a flask, food buff, and go around the room and get other folks to buff you so you have all buffs. Almost everyone will help you out, especially if you trade them a fort buff.

With that out of the way, some specific strats:

Level 1, Boss 1: Bruce
This guy is a joke. All you have to do is watch his cast bar for "Chomp Chomp Chomp". When you see this cast, step through him or sidestep so you're not right in front of his mouth when it hits (otherwise you die). Other than that, it's stand and burn, doesn't matter what talents or spec you have. This is not a dps race, just don't get chomp'd like a chump and you can't lose.

Extra tips: When you get teleported down, pre-pot before combat. Mind blast him as soon as he spawns, then summon your fiend and fade. This will give you a few extra seconds of burn from a distance.

Level 1, Boss 2: Vian the Volatile
Dot him up and stay out of his melee range and burn from a distance. If he gets close, just PW:S and run away. Doesn't matter what spec you have. Dot him up, and watch for his "Fire Line" ability, which is - you guessed it - a line of fire in front of him that'll kill ya. Side step this when he casts at you. Also, don't get hit by the fireballs and do your best not to let HIM get hit by any (they buff his haste). Not a huge priority as it won't kill you, but it will make your life easier if nobody touches those fireballs.

Extra tips: Prepot, fiend, fade works well. Do not silence him as his melee hits harder than his spells.

Level 1, Boss 3: Goredome
Doesn't matter what spec you have, although FDCL and DI are nice because you will be moving a lot. Your ONLY concern here is to keep him at range because he puts a red circle on the ground and 1 second later, charges at it. If you're in it when he reaches it, you die. You want to be as far from him as possible when he drops the circle so it's easy to move out of.

Extra tips: Prepot of course. Fiend off the bat is good and will buy you some time, FDCL + DI will let you dot and cast on the move. Tendrils will root him and I'd highly recommend it.

Level 1, Boss 4: Dungeon Master Vishas
As with the other bosses so far, there is only 1 ability that can really kill you - and it's called "Heated Pokers" (which buffs his melee attacks). He casts this when he yells, "I will tear the secrets from your flesh!" (or something like that) and you must not let him melee you while he has this on and it lasts about 8 seconds and then runs out. You have a few options for how to avoid this:
1. Silence it during the cast
2. Fiend tank him
3. PW:S and run
4. Psychic Scream
5. Psychic horror (maybe) - can someone confirm this works?
6. Tendrils (maybe) - can someone confirm this works?

If your gear is decent, you should kill him in 2 or 3 heater poker phases. This fight is really not hard. Just keep him at a distance, dot, burn, silence the first heated pokers, save fiend+fade for the second heated poker phase, and use one of the other techniques for the next. If you are still in the fight for a 4th, your silence should be off CD. He doesn't cast it often at all.

Extra tips: Prepot, and keep your eye on his cast bar so you can silence or react to heated pokers. Make sure your sound is turned on, because he yells out when he's casting heated pokers which can be used as another cue. As long as you avoid getting hit while he has pokers on, this fight is very low stress.

Thanks for reading, I will udpate with the next levels as I get some more time. :)

Sorella.

[Sorella]

Level 2, Boss 1: Dippy
You will see a LOT of casters die to this guy. He casts "peck" when he gets in melee range. It's like a 1/2 second cast, and then it will one-shot you if it hits. Hitting him can bounce him back but, honestly, the easiest thing you can possibly do here is to talent FDCL and DI, mind blast as he's running in and maybe VT if you can get it, then pop SW:Pain and NEVER-STOP-RUNNING. You won't hit the enrage, don't worry. Just keep going, using your instant procs, 3-orb DP when it comes available, and use fear/fiend when it's up.

Extra tips: Peck one-shots anything it hits, so don't waste your fiend trying to tank. Use it as a dot instead and allow aggro to stay on you. And DON'T-EVER-STOP-MOVING... SERIOUSLY.

Level 2, Boss 2: Kirrawk
There is only one mechanic here you need to be aware of. He casts a tornado somewhere in the arena, and it will come towards you. If it hits you, you will get thrown up into the air with an automatic slow-fall, but during this slow-fall, he will chain-cast lightning bolts at you and kill you. So as soon as the tornado appears, you need to position yourself so the boss is between you and the tornado. That way, the tornado will come at you and pick up the boss instead. You can stand and burn using your normal rotation when there's no tornado, so this fight is super easy.

Extra tips: If you fail at moving away from the tornado and accidentally get picked up, just disperse on the way down (not on the way up though!) and you'll still survive. You can also silence a lightning bolt or two if you want, but honestly - just focus on getting the boss into the tornadoes. There's no need to over-complicate.

Level 2, Boss 3: Fran & Riddoh
This is a 2-phase fight. Phase 1 is the big melee guy (Riddoh). He lumbers around trying to melee you while his cohort, Fran, occasionally tosses a circle of mines at you. The circle has one opening, so make sure you strafe/run out of that. If you touch the mines, they will explode causing you to take unnecessary damage (though they will not kill you).

For Phase 1, just fiend+fade and start burning, get your dots rolling, and, kite him around the room as you burn. Riddoh doesn't hit "too" hard with his melee, but it can add up if you're not careful. I definitely stood in front of him with a shield and renew ticking to get a hard-cast mind blast and VT refresh several times. If your health starts getting low, just PW:S and kite.

Phase 2 begins when you kill Riddoh and is the easier portion of the fight. Fran stands in place and throws bombs at you, occasionally surrounding you in mines as she did in phase 1. Damage in this phase is 100% avoidable, so just run around and burn her. You should be able to take your time. If your health is high, you should be able to stand still and get a few hard casts off but, if it's low, just keep moving. Fiend+Fade should be up at some point during this phase, use it to get some extra burn.

Extra Tips: This is a fairly long fight if you kite a lot (shorter if you take a little extra damage and burn), so don't forget to watch your longer CDs and use them all when they're off - including your potion which should come available 1 minute into the fight if you pre-potted.

Level 2, Boss 4: King Kulaka
This guy just has a melee attack and that's it. Just dot him up and kite as you burn, trying not to let him get to you -- and when your health is high, you can stand there and burn him a bit before you continue kiting. He won't one-shot you, but he will probably 4 shot you (maybe 5 if your shield/renew/POM is up).

Extra Tips: Make sure if you are going to stand in place and burn him, you have shield + renew + POM up. Fear will also buy you a couple of seconds, and so will fiend+fade. This guy is very easy, but hits harder than anyone else in the level - so keep an eye on your health. If you get in a bind, try to disperse through the last 5 seconds of your fear coming off CD, then fear him and flash heal up while he runs. (Don't forget to go back into shadowform if you do this).

Also - as with most melee-only attackers, Glyph of Inner Fire will give you 50% more armor. I like to run that and Glyph of Renew to get a little stronger heals over a shorter period of time.

[Sorella]

Level 3, Boss 1: Blat
A big slime that copies himself into a bunch of smaller slimes the longer he's alive. The big one is the only one that moves at normal speed - the smaller slimes all move very slowly. As a result of this, all you have to do is not let the smaller ones hit you. PW:S, run away, turn around burn. Then kite & dot. Rinse + Repeat and just focus down the big slime. If the little slimes get close, just run. You're faster than they are.

Extra Tips: You can buy a little extra burn time with Fiend+Fade or tendrils, but it's really not necessary. Just keep your distance and kill the big slime. Melee has a tougher time with this fight. For us, it's somewhat of a joke.

Level 3, Boss 2: Sanoriak
This is a fire guy who has several fire attacks, including one that can kill you. The one you care about is called "Fire Wall" and it fills half of the room (the half that you're on) with a rain of fire. Your options for Fire Wall is to either silence it, or let it cast and run to the other side of the room. Both are acceptable and equally easy to do. Other than that, you can just stand and burn.

Extra Tips: If you are going to try to interrupt with Silence, be sure to read the cast bar because several of his casts say "fire" or "flame" in them. Though, honestly, even if you interrupt the wrong one, you can simply run to the other side of the room when he casts flame wall. Yes, this fight is really that easy. In general though, don't waste time moving. Just stand and burn.

Level 3, Boss 3: Ixx
This big beetle starts at 20% health. Therefore you absolutely want Twist of Fate talented because you get extra damage against him for the whole fight (and double SW:Death!)

He only has one ability you care about: "Devastating Thrust". It's a gigantic cone effect that hits 180 degrees in front of him. This means that you have to be 100% behind him when it hits. The kicker is that this cast is extremely fast. Like 1 second. If you are mid-cast in any way and try to run through him when he starts casting this, you will probably die.

So there are two options you have to deal with his thrust:

1. "Circle-strafe" around him constantly, keep a very tight circle - close to his hitbox. This way, whenever he begins to cast, you will already be on the move and will easily be behind him by the time the cast finishes. Just talent into FDCL+DI and use instant-only attacks. You should still beat the enrage easily if you have Twist of Fate talented and prepot + pot.

2. Push a little "into" his hitbox so you are right at his face rather than default melee range. When he starts to cast thrust, PRESS FORWARD IMMEDIATELY and run directly through him. If you choose this option, you cannot even wait 10 milliseconds when you see his cast, and you also must be a little "inside" his hitbox. It's a riskier strat, but it does allow you more "stand-and-burn" time. Personally I went for option #1 because it's 100% idiot-proof. :)

Extra Tips: The bosses are getting a little tougher now, so it's becoming more important to make sure you have flask of the warm sun, a food buff of at least +275 int, and two brawler's pots. Still not required yet - but if your dps is a little low, you can offset it by maximizing your external buffs & stats.

Level 3, Boss 4: Mazhareen
Melee-only kitty who hits you harder as he gets low on health. And by harder, I mean he will 1 or 2-shot you when he gets below 20%. This fight is all about timing your CDs and CC. It's fine to let him beat on you at the beginning while you PW:S and renew. Once he gets to 50%, you need to start being careful. I would recommend talenting Mindbender (for the extra damage) and Twist of Fate to get him from 20% to 0 as quick as possible. Halo is useless on bosses that are in your face the whole time, so I'd recommend Cascade or Divine Star. And don't forget Glyph of Inner Fire to mitigate more physical damage.

You will need to time it so you have at least one "get the boss the F away from me" effect (psychic scream, tendrils, etc...) when he's below 20%. This will allow you to burn him down without having to run around like a chicken with your head cut off. You absolutely cannot let him hit you when he's below 10% health - so you might just need to run around like a chicken with your head cut off.

Extra Tips: Don't forget that you can use Disperse to eat up 6 seconds of your psychic scream CD. Make sure you save a 3 orb DP (and a potion) for the execute phase.

[Sorella]

Level 4, Boss 1: Crush
This guy looks and behaves almost identical to Icehowl from Trial of the Crusader back in WoLK. Big yeti that beats on you and will then jump back and charge. Sidestep the charge, and he will smash into the wall and stun himself for several seconds allowing you to stand and burn him. Rinse and repeat a few times for a kill.

Talents, gear, and rotation don't matter. You will be standing and burning the entire fight with the exception of when he jumps back to charge. At this point, I would recommend putting as much distance between you and him and then side-stepping when he comes at you with a Body and Soul boost from PW:S.

Extra Tips: Eventually DBM will put out a timer for this but, in the meantime, try to figure out the timing of his charge after he jumps back. This will allow you to PW:S and get out of the way. I was able to do this fight on my very first try, so it's very easy to learn and react to.

Level 4, Boss 2: Leona Earthwind
A druid who summons a few plant adds and casts a solar beam that silences you if you're standing in it. By herself, she would be a joke.
The only challenge of this fight is dealing with the adds.

Technically you have two choices - Ignore the plants or kill them. In my experience as a shadow priest, I found it easier to ignore but CC them so you can get as much "stand still and burn" time on the boss as possible. You don't want to be running if you can avoid it.

This means you unload everything on the boss early while there are no adds (staying as far as possible from her), and when the adds start coming, use Tendrils and Psychic scream to buy more burn time on the boss. After this, if the adds are still up, use PW:S and run and disperse until one of your CC's comes off cooldown and repeat.

To do this strategy, you will probably need a 470-something item level. If this doesn't work for you, then you can try burning down the adds. But then again, if you are under-geared, these fights are going to start getting rough no matter how you slice them.

Extra Tips: Just be sure to stay out of the solar beam and make sure you are always putting 3-orb Devouring plagues [preferably with other procs such as trinket and Lightweave, etc...] on the boss.

Level 4, Boss 3: Dominika the Illusionist
An arcane mage who makes a 1-hitpoint copy of herself every few seconds. The copy will just pelt you with mild arcane damage - but when there are 10 adds doing that, it can add up.

Strat for this fight is simple. Stand in place and unload on the boss. Ignore the adds until you notice your health going down quickly, then Halo to clear the room (since the copies only have 1 health). Continue burning and the boss should be dead before you need another Halo.

If a second set of adds is becoming a problem you can either use your other CDs and heals to survive until halo comes off CD again, or you can try to tab-target and mind sear them away. I wouldn't recommend single targeting them down, though - save that for the boss.

Extra Tips: Your goal here is to push as far as possible before blowing Halo to clear the room, so make sure you have your Glyphed POM, Renew, and Shield up whenever possible. It's also good to try to time it so you halo just as a new add was summoned as opposed to just before a new one comes out.

Level 4, Boss 4: Deeken
This fight is 100% raid awareness, or "How well can you perform your rotation while constantly moving out of stuff?"

Basically several walls of bubble/electricty appear at the outer edges of the room and move inward. This creates a "moving maze" that you have to constantly navigate, as you dps the boss.

Hitting the maze will not one shot you, but if you find yourself trapped, be sure to jump over a wall. You will take less damage from doing that than you will if you walk through it. But even better - just don't let the walls hit you. Keep renew and PW:S rolling if you're taking damage, and save dispersion for an oh-sh#t button if you're low on health and get trapped.

I was able to do this fight on my first try, but I watched several shadow priests have trouble with it. I think it all comes down to how comfortable you are DPS'ing while moving. As with other on-the-move fights, FDCL+DI are great. I'd also recommend glyph of inner sanctum for spell damage mitigation.

Extra Tips: As this is more a survival fight than a dps race, try to focus on the maze. If you die on this fight more than 5 times, I would recommend doing one or two attempts with ZERO dps - just purely avoiding the walls [and healing] until you hit the enrage timer.

[Sorella]

Level 5, Boss 1: Millie Watt
This boss only has 2 mechanics. The first is that she casts lightning pools on the ground. They're small and very easy to avoid. The second is that she will polymorph you with a spell called "Megafantastic Discombobumorphanator".

All you need to do here is stand at the back of the room (start on one of the side walls or near a corner) and strafe sideways when she puts a lightning pool at your feet. Don't go too far, just outside the edge of the previous pool because you will be doing this several times and you will need a fair amount of space.

Watch her cast bar for the polymorph name listed above. It has a long cast, so it's very easy to see. When it's about to hit, pop into a lightning pool. They hit hard, so you only want to take one tick (which will break the polymorph).

What I'd recommend is when she starts the cast, put POM, PW:S, and/or Renew on yourself and then hop into the lightning pool for a tick.

Other than this, you will mostly be standing still and burning a single target, so your talent choices really don't matter. You will need to do about 50k to beat the enrage here.

Extra Tips: You can also use a PvP trinket or the "Every Man for Himself" racial, etc... to break the poly (once) if you screw up. The only trick to this fight is learning how to time the polymorph so you hop into the lightning pool just for one tick, break the poly, and get out. It won't kill you take an extra tick or two, but you will probably have to put extra heals on yourself if that happens. Fortunately, we're priests though, so this fight is very easy. :)

Level 5, Boss 2: Fjoll
This is purely a "move out of stuff" fight. Boss stays in the middle and you run around burning the boss while avoiding purple flames and purple circles on the ground.

Sound easy? It is, but there will be a LOT of purple stuff to avoid. You won't be moving constantly, so talent yourself accordingly for a reasonable amount of stand-and-burn with moving every couple of seconds. I did this with Mindbender and Twist of Fate.

Last kicker is that he will occasionally Death Grip you in, sometimes right into fire around him or, even worse - a purple circle. If you stay away from him, there shouldn't be a purple circle on him (it appears under your feet), but there may be fire at his feet. If this happens, just get out of it quickly or use disperse.

You'll need to do around 50k dps to beat the enrage.

Extra Tips: This is very straightforward. Make sure your camera is all the way out so you can see as much of the room as possible. I would recommend using the following console command to get the most distance out of your camera (you should be using this for raiding anyhow) :)

Type the following:

/console CameraDistanceMaxFactor 4

And then zoom your camera out. You won't notice it if there is a wall or solid structure in the way - so try it outdoors first to make sure it worked.

Level 5, Boss 3: Probuskus
This is probably the first real challenging fight for anyone who is around 475-480 item level.

Mechanics are simple - He casts "Torrent", a channeled beam that will kill you and "Rain Dance" - a "fill the room with puddles of hurt".

To avoid Torrent, you only have two options: Silence or Dispersion. You can try to fiend+fade, but that won't buy you much time, and it's not worth it. The boss has his own enrage before the room enrage hits, so you won't even need to worry about a third torrent.

For rain dance, just move if a puddle comes at your feet. It's random, so it's very possible to get lucky and not have to move much.

I actually did this fight with Twist of Fate and DI (I didn't use FDCL, but my item level was about 484 at the time). You may want to use FDCL if you move a lot.

The way you do this boss is to stand still as much as possible and burn. Try your best to only move if you have to. Standing & burning is definitely preferred. Silence the first torrent, and disperse the second.

You need to do about 60-65k dps to beat this guy. It may be tough for folks who are under-geared.

Extra Tips: Make sure you have flask + pre-pot + pot. Also make sure you have your dispersion macro'd so that it cancels dispersion at the same time as the cast. This way you can press your dispersion button to disperse, then press it again immediately when you don't need it anymore and can get back to burning the boss.

Here's the above macro for those who need it:

#showtooltip Dispersion
/cancelaura Dispersion
/cast Dispersion

Level 5, Boss 4: Leper Gnome Quintet
This fight plays exactly like when you were leveling and accidentally pulled a group of 5 mobs. Only problem is that they're all elites. :) All you have do is burn them down before the enrage timer hits (and avoid dying).

CC and multi-dot will be necessary here. Use Psychic Scream on CD, and void tendrils to root the ones close to you.

Other than that, just pick one and focus it down while multi-dotting onto another 1 or 2 at most.

FDCL+DI is good since you will be multidotting, and I'd recommend Cascade as your L90 talent since the bosses will mostly be up in your face.

Pretty easy fight overall, but you will need to push about 60-65k to beat it.

Extra Tips: Don't be tempted to run around. Stand and burn and only move when you root and need to step out of melee range. Glyph of Mind Flay is not good here because it's better to fear and then slow them down when they're running back toward you. Also, try to sync your multi-dotting with trinket procs and other dps-increasing effects.

[Sorella]

Level 6, Boss 1: Yikkan Izu
(will fill this in soon, I'm currently at or past Level 7)

Level 6, Boss 2: Akama
(will fill this in soon, I'm currently at or past Level 7)

Level 6, Boss 3: Smash Hoofstep
(will fill this in soon, I'm currently at or past Level 7)

Level 6, Boss 4: Unguloxx
(will fill this in soon, I'm currently at or past Level 7)

[Sorella]

Level 7, Boss 1: GG Engineering
(will fill this in soon, I'm currently at or past Level 7)

Level 7, Boss 2: Dark Summoner
(will fill this in soon, I'm currently at or past Level 7)

Level 7, Boss 3: Battletron
(will fill this in soon, I'm currently at or past Level 7)

Level 7, Boss 4: Meatball
(will fill this in soon, I'm currently at or past Level 7)

[Sorella]

Level 8, Boss 1: Epic Maximus
(will fill this in soon, I'm currently at or past Level 7)

Level 8, Boss 2: Disruptron Mk. 3R-Alpha
(will fill this in soon, I'm currently at or past Level 7)

Level 8, Boss 3: Millhouse Manastorm
(will fill this in soon, I'm currently at or past Level 7)

Level 8, Boss 4: Zen'shar
(will fill this in soon, I'm currently at or past Level 7)

[Domi]

All fears work so far up to rank 3 as I am not further.

Dippy each time you hit him gets knocked back. So I just PW:P him to keep him away then used pet with fade then used fears. If he gets into melee and casts peck u r dead.

[Freezy3]

Battletron was buffed up to 9.6mil hp making the enrage very painful to meet. The best way I found was to get full raid buffs and dps as hard as possible.
The way the fight works is he will spawn a bunch of spheres around him, when you do any spell through them they explode for 90-95k. You want to make 3 or 4 explode to make a gap that you can freely attack him from and then move with the rotation. Its definitely one of the harder enrage timers as a priest and you need fairly good gear to be able to pull it off. I myself was able to do it before they nerfed the prelusting and even then it was on the very edge of the enrage. This was with ilvl489 gear so... yeah

I used Glyph of Mindflay to increase runspeed and Glyph of Mind Spike to reduce the cast time of Mindblast for that extra dps increase.

Best of luck!