Just admit SD was a fail concept

Gameplay Dungeons, Raids and Scenarios
21

Sanguine depths is one of the tougher dungeons in pugs especially. Coordinated groups go smoother but still hit rough patches.

For first boss, make sure you are staggering orb soaks. Also immunities are super super useful here if you have any as they can solo the charge, reducing the healing your healer needs to output.

Invis skips are also king here. Depending on where you want prides I usually invis skip just before the bridge (this includes the pack before AND including the mini boss). Those overseers are rough though and if you lack kicks you can opt to skip the second and third overseer pack and just pull the mini boss instead (this will give pride, otherwise you have to pull the room to the left before the bridge to line with second boss still)

Second boss is rough. If it’s tyrannical you will want to stagger cooldowns for add spawns. If you have any classes with aggro drop (rogue hunter and I think mage can do it or night elves for ally) and they can stop the castigate immediately after it starts.

Third boss is another immunity cycling game. This fight is a lot lighter on your healer if you have enough immunities to cycle on the burst she does. This leaves more orbs for the group and very minimal outgoing damage after.

Gauntlet sucks pretty bad but make sure dps are using personals and health pots when available to save your healers mana. There are points they can spam drink if dps burst the dogs.

That awful trash pack before the gauntlet can be invis’d but in a pug this can be quite risky and a wipe means gg. You can instead choose to skip the very last pack of the gauntlet which a roughly the same mob makeup.

Last boss bleed can be dodged if you are the second person and are moving. This will also save a lot of mana for your healer in case someone gets a double stack. Basically always be moving and pray you get lucky.

A lot of pugs don’t know the tricks in there and that’s what really breaks the keys. I see a lot of people in 15’s/16’s not line prides with every boss. I also on my druid tank notice people complain when I do invis skips and respond with “nobody ever does it like this” which simply is not true and I alert them prior to dungeon start and nobody says a word until it gets messed up .-. Pugs will be pugs I guess

Side note though, I’m not arguing against the fact this dungeon is overtuned by any means. I’m just saying if people change the standard way they run it with pugs it becomes more manageable.

You should have pride for each and every boss. After second this means pulling more until you have 74-75% before dropping into third boss room.

22

On Tyrannical weeks, I totally agree. On Fortified weeks, the group and I will discuss, prior to the run, whether or not it might be better to have Pride for certain trash packs instead.

To your point of the risky invis skip of the trash pack before the gauntlet, I have a no-skips route that I recently used (last week - Fortified) in a 14 which gave us Pride just before that pack. We opted to use Pride for that trash pack instead of boss 3. Granted, it wasn’t a 15, though.

1 Like
23

I never use skip routes in SD, especially with pugs. One wipe or someone releasing by accident is a huge risk to take. You can easily time, from experience, a +18 with the most simple and straight forward route. The key is that the group needs to interrupt and avoid avoidables.

2 Likes
24

Ever since they fixed the pull were we have to pull all 3 instead of 2 its been a pain because of peoples positioning.

Second boss isnt really hard. your dps just needs to kill the add quickly and for the orbs that come around mark the tank if you are having trouble and follow his side. Tank should be moving boss back and forth.

Dont know what tank you run with but they should be hitting defensives like shield block or word of glory on Iron Spikes and then the only real healing is after the AOE burst. If they get hit by circles that is on them for being bad.

The trick with the gauntlet is to do it in 3 pulls. 1st pull i usually have Pride so i pull first 2 packs in gauntlet and next 2 packs there is a lantern to use. Clear out the last single pact before gargoyle and youre done.

Bleeds are not that bad. Its people ignore the wicked rush. people need to stand away so she doesnt dash through people and apply more wicked blades. Just like the CN boss fight. AOE what you mean? When she creates after image? Usually not a problem but positioning can cause issues or is it her Gloom. Ive never had or seen anyone have an issue getting into the bubble unless they failed to get into it.

unfortunately affixes has push weeks and others are not.

Most of it sounds like mechanical issues.

25

I have noticed sometimes in the gauntlet when the boss goes to warp after losing 10% hp, she’ll immediately reagro and bring the adds with her. We’ve also had the reverse where she doesn’t reset position and stands there so we get to beat on her, but the adds are making their way down the hall. The gauntlet is a cool idea, but it could use some combing over for bugs.

1 Like
26

I’ve done 18 with no skips on two of my toons and it was hellish to get through. Taught my group the skips on my 19 and it went relatively better in terms of prides and packs. Granted I don’t pug my high keys, I don’t even attempt pugging more than 17. We made mistakes in my 19 hence the close timer but was not a result of skips

27

15 and below you can do whatever you want in this place and still time it. It’s good practice to learn different routes with skips if you’re looking to go higher. I’m coming from a place of 20+.

My group tried to argue with me when I was teaching them the pride for all bosses route on a fort week. My healer loved it so much more after I got them to do it and now they won’t do it the other way. Pride for all lets you skip some of the annoying trash which works out better. Third boss starts trucking for no reason if she takes too long pride on her is so so nice. Tyrannical weeks are mostly dead weeks in this place on high keys even if you do line prideful the damage is just absurd

28

What is your pride-for-all-bosses route? Would you mind linking it or something?

29

Honestly I would say Tol Dagor is more annoying than SD simply because of the buggy walls and floors. Like being able to “aggro” enemies on the other side of a wall because you moved too close to the wall was beyond stupid. Then you had twilight dev in S4 pulling enemies above you, even bosses. Thankfully I have yet to experience any of that that with SD.

1 Like
30

that’s dodgeable.

31

I don’t like skips either. Usually someone that messes it up and I don’t believe it really saves that much time.

I don’t do sanguine higher than a 15 though so on higher difficulties it might be necessary. Game isn’t really balanced around keys that high and players have to be more coordinated than in a pug

32

yeah.

week 1 people says SD is harder, so people stop doing SD, so people get less used to SD mechanic… and the situation just become worse and worse.

Meanwhile people spam HoA and mist and get used to those ( still hard to find someone to do the puzzle while fighting…)

the highest completed SD key is within 1 level of the highest overall key.

Is it the hardest dungeon in SL? is it like King’s rest ( and not tol dagor… TD was free IO during BFA once you got the cannon part down). yeah… but one of the 8 dungeon will be the hardest one.

the orb on the first boss can be kited in order to not soak any of them at all, the castigate on the 2nd boss can be invised / FD / cloak / AMS / …, save some juice for the add, the bleed on kaal can be dodged.

it’s not impossible. nobody want to do it because nobody ever do it… vicious circle.

33

60% pride on 2nd boss. 75% before going down net you 80% pride on 3rd boss, you invis to the gauntetl and get 100% there.

3 Likes
34

roughly this but if youre scared of gauntlet wipes you can opt to skip the last pack of it instead of skipping the one leading up to it idk how to link it on forums

1 Like
35

This is a good suggestion (skipping the final gauntlet pack). :slight_smile: I may give this a try! Thank you!

1 Like
36

The pack before the gauntlet is a different composition of mobs that is harder than the pack at the end, that’s why people want to skip it. There is the argument that you’ve got pride for one and not the other but the pack at the end is probably only ever an issue for groups that didn’t dodge ground spikes and that just became a whole lot easier.

37

You can use invise pot during castigate?

38

mage invis. vanish

1 Like
39

SD is by far the hardest dungeon in both BFA and Shadowlands in terms of trash and boss difficulty. You get spammed by mobs that have one hit kill mechanics, bosses that are some of the hardest ones ingame, and the awful gauntlet at the end. Couple this with the Venthyr mandatory requirement and you find yourself sitting around for 20+ minutes at a time trying to find somebody who has that covenant.

It’s like Blizzard deliberately went out of their way to make this one the hardest dungeon ingame.

1 Like
40

Hardest part of SD is the camera angle + cramped rooms/ceilings.

4 Likes