Advice for 8+ Delves from an Average Player

Community General Discussion
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Figured I’d offer some advice to players struggling with Delves. This is mainly for solo players as I have not tried them in a group (and it’s apparently busted for groups right now anyway).

I’m seeing a lot of negativity around delves on the forums and figured I would offer some advice from a casual perspective. Keep in mind this is what worked for me (Fury Warrior now @ 602iLvl) so take with a grain of salt as it might not work for everyone. I’ve completed all delves on 8+ with revives remaining.

  1. Use Brann as a tank. I almost never use Brann’s healing spec. I always keep him in damage and use the Porcelain Arrowhead and Amorphous Relic curios. I heroic throw a mob I want to pull and wait until Brann grabs aggro (usually after 1 Aimed Shot, for reference he is level 29 btw). I do this literally with every mob in the delve. If there’s something I don’t want to tank I use Brann to pull and he can tank instead (this goes for bosses as well). For groups I will generally have Brann grab any melee mobs, and then attack ranged mobs myself since they hit way harder. Worth noting: Aggro in delves seems to be rather strange. Sometimes I will heroic throw at a melee mob (with other mobs right next to it) and it will not aggro the others. Not sure why this happens but I’ve learned to use it as an advantage to pull only 1 mob at a time.

  2. You really need to exhaust your class abilities to do these (at least in my experience). I don’t think there is a single ability I haven’t used on my warrior while completing these delves on high levels. Stuns/interrupts/CC are a MUST and have heavy priority when taking on certain mobs. If you are not comfortable with using CC, you will have a rough time. Defensive CDs are also a must. Many mobs (specifically bosses) have unavoidable, unkickable high damage abilities that need to be mitigated, otherwise you die. Some of them might be over tuned at the moment, but survival is definitely possible.

  3. Skip as many enemies as possible. I heroic leap over many enemies if there is a path to do so. Anything I can avoid fighting, I avoid fighting. I would also mention that pathing plays a huge part in delves at higher tiers and learning what paths to take week over week will make the delve easier the next time it’s completed. I know which mobs to avoid and which ones I can easily dispatch, what order to CC in, etc.

  4. Use items whenever possible. Potions, food, etc. can help you get the edge over an enemy in a delve. Brann will sometimes drop a campfire you can eat at for a stat boost.

  5. Delves are buggy. This is something we really just have to accept at this point. I’ve seen some weird things in my 8+ runs, floating enemies that I can’t reach, mobs respawning on top of each other, casts not interrupting when I know I interrupted, Brann standing there doing nothing, etc. What’s good to know is that (eventually) these will get ironed out, making the experience a little easier.

  6. Delves are hard. Goes without saying, but at tiers 8+ these are meant to be an end game pillar in Blizzard’s eyes. If you’re like me, you will struggle, but progression is not impossible. I’ve gone from thinking these are impossible (first tier 8 experience was waxface in WW, which was a huge slap in the face), to getting through them relatively easily. There are also fights where I’ve exhausted all my CDs and lived with 5% HP. And fights where I’ve exhausted all CDs and the boss lived with 5% HP. Stick with it, and you will find a process that works for you.

TLDR

  1. Use Brann as a tank. Pull with a low damage ability and wait for him to grab aggro.
  2. Learn to CC/use defense effectively.
  3. Skip enemies whenever possible/pay attention to your pathing for the easiest way to progress next time you enter the delve.
  4. Keep in mind delves have many bugs atm. You will die to BS, but until Blizzard fixes the bugs it’s something we have to deal with.
  5. Delves are intended to be difficult at higher tiers and make you use every ability your class has to complete.

Hopefully this helps someone who’s frustrated with the difficulty of higher tier delves.

Edit: For people recommending LOS: I have noticed in my delve runs that LOS does NOT reliably work in most cases, and casters will continue to cast through walls. Otherwise this would be a great suggestion. Try LOS if you’d like, but in my experience it is inconsistent.

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To add, you can change your spec and branns spec in the dungeon.

Spec to clear mobs, then spec for the boss.

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Can’t when you are a tank. So not read anymore of your post

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I figured the advice was simply…

Don’t.

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Also use line of sight. People often complain about not having enough interrupts when walls are a thing.

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Web bolt ignores line of sight. Try again.

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That’s just a lie lol

It’s my go-to and 100% reliable method of dealing with it when it’s unsafe to go into melee

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Then please tell me how it goes thru walls and pillars.

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Couldn’t tell you. I’ve not experienced that in any of my delves. Maybe you found a bugged wall.

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Because I am an old school EQ player and been using LoS for longer then most people that play this game have been alive. And like you it is my FIRST go to when trying to avoid a mechanic. And for odd pulls. Los is your best friend. But every single
Time I have tried it with web bolt. It still hits me.

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Then you missed some really good advice.

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This certainly was viable up until today. He currently, at least for me, cant hold aggro to any degree. Anything and everything pulls off him. Even just auto attacking. A single heal. And in some cases, literally doing nothing. Heck, I tried face pulling some stuff, and he couldnt aggro any of it, on occasion.

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I have been using Brann to heal and doing ok so far. then again the highest ive done is a 6. Only been on the harder ones on hunter or mage. So i dunno… good advise though thank you

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It might be worth switching specs then. I understand if you cannot play another spec (no offense intended, I cannot play prot warrior for the life of me, tried it in delves and do not understand what buttons to push when), like I said definitely not a one size fits all situation and I know for tanks, the recent hotfixes seemed to have messed things up.

That beings said all other points still apply regardless of what role you’re playing. Learning which enemies to CC/CDs/pathing all still important parts of learning how to get through higher tier delves.

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This was nice. I remember when Brann as a DPS would ‘tank’ via threat.

Now? Not so much. It was ‘fixed’.

Brann no longer ‘holds threat’ as apparently that was a bug.

Going to need a strategy now.

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Ignore everything that this well-intentioned post from several patches/hotfixes ago* says.

Sorry. :-/

*Yes I realize that is just 2-3 days.

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Yep. Does seem at the very least my first point no longer applies… Brann is not the tank he used to be which is unfortunate for a lot of classes that will die in just a couple hits. His damage has also been reduced (at least it feels that way) and now he hits like a wet noodle. I will say that the rest of my points still apply, but certainly aren’t as useful.

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Kiting. So much kiting. Casters are now a real chore in higher tier delves.

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While I think what you wrote IS helpful. I cringed when I read you are playing a dps warrior as they are currently outputting insane amounts of damage. I had to check my gut response (it wasn’t nice) and read the rest. Very helpful. Waiting for havoc’s eyebeam and such to get fixed.

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I am glad you found certain things in my post useful. A lot of these tips are applicable to any class. I tried to avoid using class specific information as much as possible since it will not help anyone who’s not a fury warrior.

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