This set of FRAPS videos has been recorded a few weeks ago as the evidence that TBC 10-man raiding instance Karazhan could be solo-ed by lvl 80 DK tank in Blood build. I did it twice. First run was done with the gear of 5.5 GS while second one - with 5.7 GS. FRAPS recording has been done during my second run.

I should mention though that I know this instance very well from my US char - I've been raiding Karazhan as lvl 70 holy paladin for a year or so. My assumption is that if you are going to repeat it you should have good knowledge and experience of the instance (including trash mobs). But, again, I didn't do anything unique there. I'm quite sure other self-healing classes (like druids/paladins) can do it as well. Also, my gameplay is not perfect, I do a lot of unnecessary and thus non-optimized clicks, still using mouse a lot instead of hot-keys etc etc etc. So this is not a handbook on how to solo Karazhan but just an example of some unusual things you can do with your char.

Videos that published here are about killing only mandatory bosses, the ones that are required to get to the final boss of the instance. Full list of the bosses that I defeated in Karazhan is at the end of this battle report.

Moroes

File size: 181Mb, duration: 3:30

You must kill him to be able to start Opera event. It took me a few attempts to find the way to do things right since boss itself with his adds do the damage I can't heal through. Therefore the fight starts with Army of the Dead - they take aggro off me so I could concentrate on killing a healer and not getting too much damage:

Opera Event (Big Bad Wolf)

File size: 625Mb, duration: 9:51

When I defeated Moroes for the first time I went to the Opera Event and got "A tale of forbidden love...", famous Romulo & Julianne. I should admit I was not able to kill them - at phase III it was impossible for me to interrupt healing, do equal damage to both of them AND heal myself at the same time. So I came next week and got Big Bad Wolf. I've managed to defeat him from the first try. I was lucky to get the same event during my second run, so Wolf has been recorded. That is the funniest (and rather challenging) fight in the instance because you have only about 10 seconds to do damage to him and heal yourself (do not forget that you often will be feared during those 10 secs), that is why the entire fight takes so much time. I never saw the third Opera Event - Wizard of Oz - so can't say is it doable for me or not:

The Curator

File size: 387Mb, duration: 6:56

At the end of "vanilla" WoW Blizzard created extremely hard instance for hardcore players - Naxxramas. Besides very complicated encounters and almost impossible gear requirements they also introduced new type of the bosses that we call today "gear check" ones. In other words, a raid needs certain number in DPS and healing abilities plus tanks should have certain stats to kill such a boss. If raiders are below those numbers they can't defeat it and therefore cannot progress in that instance. For Naxx it is Patchwerk, for Karazhan it is The Curator.

I tried to defeat Curator during my first run but failed - I wasn't able to kill a single Astral Flair fast enough so they stuck and did a lot of additional damage to me. At that time I gave up and used Invisibility Potion to sneak in and continue.
For the second run I used several potions/scrolls/food (but no flasks) specifically to defeat this guy. I had to sacrifice my ghoul twice during this fight to heal myself up because DK healing with Death Strike depends on the diseases on the target but Curator is immune to them. Rune Tap healing is insufficient for this fight.
I should admit that as of today this fight is the most challenging one and I'm glad I've managed it :) :

Chess Event

No video

It might sounds strange but soloing Chess is rather hard and boring because of randomness during that chess party and inability to control selected piece of chess when demanded.

Let me explain.

You start the event talking to King and controlling him but he is useless since he can't move. OK, you released from him, been ported to the stairs, ran to another piece, say, a pawn in front of the King, but you can't control it cause a chess piece you could control is random... You probably could control the next pawn but not necessarily - it is, again, random. Medivh chess "strategy" is random as well as Medivh Cheats. By the way, the most dangerous is fire AoE, and most often it is targeted to King's initial position.

I've tried several different strategies and, in the end, found that there is no single one to win this event solo. You just need patience, some time to play it and good luck for randomness. It took me about 45 mins each time and I won it after 7-8 loses using the same approach:

• after you start the event get out of King's control right away and move all pawns you could control in front of your King - that gives some space to move him out of fire AoE later on (if you are lucky and could control your King when it happens... if you are not lucky - heal your King with Bishops if you could control any of them)...
• move pawns in front of Knights and Rooks (again, the ones you could control)...
• move a Knight or a Rook you could control until it could attack Warchief and release from it right away - it will keep autoattack Warchief...
• move another Knight or Rook you could control until it could attack Warchief and release from it right away...
• if you could control your King - move it to the position where he could attack Warchief and release... (if you can't - use another Knights and Rooks (they also somehow aggro Warchief so you may get some spare time to attack Warchief with your King afterwards)...
• find a Bishop you could control and heal your King, do not heal anything else, and attack Warchief if he is close while your healing is on CD.

Rinse and repeat until you finally win this!

Prince Malchezaar

File size: 387Mb, duration: 6:01

Final Karazhan boss is mostly "tank&spank" and no real challenge. Since I'm tanking there were no Enfeeble. From TBC experience I know that the safest from Infernals place is at the entrance, so I moved there slowly and indeed, I was tanking him with my back to the wall (where possible):

Other Karazhan Bosses

No video

I defetead other Karazhan bosses as well.
These are:

• Attumen the Huntsman, as a part of my 100 mounts grind. Still doing it every week for 7 month non-stop - no luck. I saw his mount drop while playing TBC on US server only once though we've been raiding it every week for one year. Fight is very easy so will keep doing it for 5 more month or until it finally drops :)
• All 3 Servants' Quarters Beasts, these are really boring...
• Maiden of Virtue, I thought it will be hard one (as it was in TBC) but it was easy...
• Shade of Aran, failed during my 1st run but defeated him during my second run. The key to defeat was to release Army of the Dead right after he summons Water Elementals and then to kill them without aggro.
• Nightbane, as a part of rather long quest chain. You do not need to carry that Blackened Urn anymore to summon him. It is already at Master's Terrace so you just touch it. If you know the strategy there is nothing difficult in the fight.

I didn't even try 2 Karazhan bosses:

• Terestian Illhoof, do not think it will be a problem.
• Netherspite, never fully understood the strategy and do not want to try :)

Let me finish at this point. I hope you like this report and movies. In the next report I'll talk about non-soloed 40-man instances like MC and AQ40 and will explain why, stay tuned!