Bug Battle Tank: Silithid Harvester

Just yesterday, I experienced Beetlemania for the first time! It was groovy baby, yeah!

The handsome fella pictured above is my Orc hunter, whom I’ve not mentioned on here for quite some time. In fact, I’d had him set aside for almost the entire expansion up until now. I was having some fun with him back in WotLK, but then he became a victim of the Cataclysm dungeon recalibration – thus making all of his previously awesome gear, that I’d worked so hard to get… useless. Between the need to replace all of his gear, and my desire to devour the higher level expansion content, I ended up shelving him for awhile.

At any rate, a few weeks back I decided to indulge my inner dirty Hordie, so I started leveling him again. He’s now wreaking his brand of green terror upon the demons of Outland, with his most recent victim being Arazzius the Cruel.

For those of you unaware, or maybe need a memory refresh on this guy, Arazzius the Cruel is an elite demon that hangs out at the Pools of Aggonar in Hellfire Peninsula. He’s the big bad you have to kill at the end of a long quest chain which will reward you a really sweet trinket — Bladefist’s Breadth being the one I was after, of course.

Once I finished up with the prerequisite quests, it was go time. In my usual, lone-wolf-I-can-do-this-myself fashion, I marched straight to where he was, sent my bear in on him, and started handing him a beatdown… well… that’s what I was hoping for, at least. I knew it was a 3 man group quest, but c’mon… I’m a hunter… and a Beast Master no less. I know it’s red in my quest book, but so what..? I could take this chump easy, right..?!

Wrong.

After clearing out the mobs that patrol around his platform, I sent my trusty bear on him and started the fight. It did not go well. I didn’t even get him below 50% before he nuked my bear into oblivion then started after me.

Arazzius is a level 63 elite, has over 44k HPs and hits like a freaking truck. He also summons a couple of Infernals during the fight, which cannot be CC’d, which by the way, also applies to Arazzius. He can be silenced, but he is immune to stuns such as Intimidation.

After getting my ass handed to me, it was time to re-strategerize. 😉

I swapped into my MM off-spec, thinking that maybe I’d be able to take him if I had Silencing Shot. He casts this Pyroblast attack which devours massive chunks of health, so I figured if I could interrupt it… Wrong again. You can silence him for a moment, but then he just starts queuing up the spell immediately afterward. Also, my damage as MM was pulling more aggro.

After wiping a few times on this fight, I realized that I was going to have to enlist a sturdier pet. My first thought was a turtle, but then I remembered… Beetles have the same ‘shell shield‘ ability as turtles – it’s called Harden Carapace – and even better… there’s a unique rare beetle that resides in the Southern Barrens. Most of you guys know I’m a sucker for unique rares, so if that’s an option… you bet it’ll be my choice.

The Beetle I was after is called Silithid Harvester. He spawns just north of Desolation Hold, and is not very hard to spot. He’s got a very outlandish, Mardi Gras look to him – clad in bright green, with purple and gold accents.

When I first dropped in he was nowhere around, so I logged out and figured I’d try later on in the evening. At 10pm (12am server) I logged back in and there he was!

I tamed him up and we headed to Outland for round three with Arazzius.

My earlier attempt as a Beast Master failed, as did my second attempt as a Marksman – both times using a bear. For my third try, I decided to go BM again, but with a quick glyph swap. In place of my Glyph of Disengage, which is one of my go-to PvP glyphs, I threw in a Glyph of Mending for some added heals. I also switched up my pet talents a bit, giving him a little added armor and some resistance. Arazzius’ fire attack hurts bad.

This attempt went very smooth. I concentrated less on my DPS during the first half of the fight, and more on maintaining a rolling HoT on my pet. Once the Infernals came up, I quickly burned one of them down, lessening the amount of damage my pet was taking during that phase. Once the second infernal despawned, I blew my cooldowns and brought the pain.

I finished at 65%, which was the result of one hit from Arazzius. Yes, he hits very hard. My bug made the difference, standing toe to toe with him and never going much below 50%.

This was a pretty fun and challenging encounter, especially given my level and current gear. I have zero heirlooms, with a mix of ‘old world’ blues & greens, a Helm of Narv (which is awesome for the +hit), and a few Outland quest reward items.

From what I’ve read, all of these old Outland group quests are getting nerfed in 4.3, allowing players to steamroll big bad guys like Arazzius. While I do think it’s nice to be able to level without the need for group help, you gotta have at least a few challenges, right..?

I’m so smitten with me new mate (aptly named, Ringo), that I think he and I may have to see what sort of challenge awaits us in Hellfire Ramparts. I may have to bump up to 59 for my next talent point, but I certainly want to try soloing it. Should be fun!

Fo those of you wanting to know what sort of build(s) I’m using for encounters like this one, here ya go…

• My Beast Mastery Spec at 58
• My Beetle Build at 58

Hopefully you guys enjoyed this tale of a man and his rare beastie – overcoming the odds, and conquering where other classes fear to tread.

It’s great to be a hunter!