Baron 45 min Run Guide (Dead man’s plea)

A Dead Man’s Plea aka Baron 45 Min Run

I have managed it serveral times with different group setups and I can give you the following guidelines

Here is a map of the optimal route

https://www.wow-pro.com/files/guidepics/gauntlet.jpg

P.S. I didn’t make this map in ANY WAY, I have nothing to do with it, I was just lucky to pick it up. Full props go to the creators who are indicated on the pic. Hope it was ok to post this here.

And here is a video of a nearly flawless baron run

Baron 45 min Run

• Have a well balanced group with people who you know. If you can’t get that, at least make sure that you are together with people that listen and that are reactive. Communication is extremely important and if people look as if they go afk or can’t keep from chatting around instead of hitting mobs, just don’t make an attempt with them. This sounds harsh, but many people I grouped with didn’t realize that this run was different from a normal Baron run. They were going at normal pace and looking around instead of pulling, being stuck in combat mode and asking the group ‘ready???’ before every pull, to then finish a chat sentence they were sending to a buddy in guild chat before actually pulling. Then at the end they wondered why the run failed.
• Try to stick to people that you consider as skilled. Skilled people is a vague term yes, but with skilled I mean the following things
  • being always present at any moment of the run, immediately ready to react
  • being able to LISTEN
  • being conscious of their environment

  These are crucial skills and almost every player is able to adapt these at least for a 45 minutes run, some are just too lazy or don’t feel like making an effort, if that is the case, don’t make an attempt with these, 45 Baron run requires effort from EACH group member, if one doesn’t feel like it… then that’s too bad for him. I know that it is hard sometimes to get hold of such people but it is worth the effort, the more your party members correspond to the above mentioned features, the less tries it will take you. Just a briefing before going into the dungeon can already awaken these abilities in a lot of players, so it’s always worth a try. If you find a good player, put him on your friends list and so on… you will finally end up with a group able to do this.

• The group constellation Despite what a lot of people think you don’t need a cookie cutter group to manage this, but of course the less skilled your group is, the more you depend on the perfect class combination. What you should have in any case however is this
  • A Warrior (Can be Offensive or Defensive specced, doesn’t matter, make sure offensive warriors have a shield and a one hand weapon on them for tanking the Baron at the end)
  • A Priest (Ideally have a priest to heal the group, priests can shackle undead on top, simply very useful)
  • One good AoE class (ideally take a mage with you, you can AoE a ton of things in this side of the dungeon, much more than many people assume… just need a good healer. This is also important for skellys at Baron later)
  • DPS
  • DPS (can be substituted with a support class like pally if need be, paladins are actually not bad at all for Stratholme if they are smart and use their AoEs against undead on AoE pulls)

  Keep in mind that you can take two AoE classes for example, like Warlock and Mage and you can pretty much AoE 40% of Stratholme Undead Side, you just need a good healer who CHAIN heals the ONE person who gets aggro from AoEing.

• Brief people exactly before the run and really make sure that everyone must make an effort for this, else it simply can’t work. Just tell them to NOT chat around, NOT go afk, ALWAYS pay attention and fully concentrate, with some luck you’ll stumble on people who’ll manage this.
• If you want, this is optional though, tell everyone to get potions, at least mana and health ones. The more the better of course, especially if your priest tends to get low mana fast, so having support from potions is always good. Stuff like Mongoose Elixir or Flask of Supreme Power etc… are really optional, despite what many people think this is not vital imo.
• Make your mage summon enough drink and water BEFORE entering, as asking for stuff inside the dungeon is not an option.
• Once you zone into Stratholme Undead by the Service Gate make sure everyone is present and ready to follow. If someone wants to do the Medallion of Faith quest tell them to not do it, as this quest seems to make it impossible to do the 45 minute run thing, it just bugs out the quest at the end, I don’t know if this got fixed yet.
• Clear past the three groups of undead and zombies that block the way to the first gate, you CAN AoE these and you should, just have your mage go inside with a Power Word Shield, spam Arcane Explosion and have the priest chain heal the mage with spam flash heals (and only the mage btw). If there is other AoE classes they should use AoE too of course.
• Now don’t open the gate yet, opening and going through it will give you the Baron “Ultimatum” buff. If you didn’t do this already tell your group to strictly keep to the following rules
  • No Afk whatsoever.
  • No unnecessary chat or chat with friends outside group, FULL FOCUS.
  • They must be prepared for CONSTANT PULLING, even while casters sometimes drink to regain mana, melee classes should continue pulling. This whole 45 minute thing really only becomes possible if you constantly pull, long mana breaks are really a big no-no. This is why it helps really if you have a well equiped priest that doesn’t get oom fast.
  • You will, through this run, skip a lot of groups of mobs. A TON of stuff can be skipped to optimize your path and to get to Baron ASAP, far more than some people think, this is perfectly illustrated on the map above. So make sure that really everyone pays attention and that your puller (the warrior since he doesn’t need to drink between pulls) knows the optimal pulling path. Seriously, it’s so frustrating to do your best to skip a group and one person runs straight into it because he didn’t pay attention… make sure this doesn’t happen, I can’t stress this enough.
  • If shit hits the fan at some point and you get multiple mobs, again, consider AoE with constant healing on the mage (or the one AoE class that has aggro). Especially if you have several AoE classes, just make sure to heal properly. Back then we managed at some point to AoE 3 elite ghouls along with a bat and even though the priest healed his butt off, we managed and progressed much faster. Keep in mind though that this is very mana intense.
  • Max DPS. Ok this sounds evident but actually it isn’t really. Seriously EVERY dps helps, even the priest wanding or dotting when he has nothing to do, using dmg shields and trinkets… GIVE YOUR BEST. Play every trumph card you have.
  • Have people always ready to sheep or shackle or better even pull with these spells, less damage saves mana. Counterspell casters that don’t want to come, make sure your priest is at a GOOD distance when you fight the banshee type of mobs as these silence. Also don’t and really don’t fight bats close to other mobs, pull them back a LARGE chunk, trust me, getting feared into adds is like the death cause of 60% of the groups in this dungeon.
  • Loot If it’s possible, don’t loot. You can loot boss mobs if you want but just skip loot on trash, it will make you go much faster, even though it is painful, I know… but this run requires some sacrifize. Oh and clear up BEFORE you enter who is the Dis Enchanter and who hence will take blue loot from bosses that noone wants to then ROLL FOR IT AFTER THE RUN. This is so important, I saw many groups discussing about loot and rolling around for DEs after each boss mob on Baron Runs… – I know loot is often the subject where people get touchy but it can’t be helped, I think it is pretty clear why time wasting on loot is not an option for the 45 minute run on Baron.
  • Be fast, constantly pull, skip what you can, max out your DPS, don’t waste any time in any form… These are the most important points.
• When you enter with your group and once you get the ultimatum buff from Baron, go as fast as possible and follow the map… you only have to get to Baron and engage it within these 45 minutes.
• (If you need help on how to kill baron refer to Jame’s Stratholme Guide

Hope this helps, if you want to know anything else just ask.

-Snowflake