Can you solo Legion raids in Shadowlands? Yes! But there are a few things you should know first

Yes, you can now solo Legion raids, and Blizzard has even updated the Legacy Loot system so that Legion raids use it. And yes, even with the Shadowlands class changes and level squish, most of these raids are still fairly easily soloable, with some notable exceptions. Depending on your class and spec, you may be better at soloing, but at least up to Tomb of Sargeras I’d argue that there’s not much you can’t solo in Legion raids.

However, before I pack up my metaphorical desk and leave, I should tell you that it’s not always as simple as walking in and soloing everything. Some fights are still difficult to solo due to mechanics or outgoing damage can still be very high, or sometimes both. A lot depends on your class and spec and, frankly, how much time and effort you’re willing to put forth — if you’re looking for an easy romp where you stomp everything flat, Legion raids may still be a bit out of that area, although the higher your ilevel, the more flexible they are.

Patch 9.0.1 introduced the level squish, and that did have an impact on what you can and can’t do, but it’s not as extreme as I’d feared — I’ve done up to ToS and managed fairly well. Maybe bring a friend or two to Antorus, the Burning Throne, if you’re looking for mog gear before Shadowlands drops.

But for now, here’s what you need to know about soloing Legion raids.

When you set out to solo

Certain specs are better at soloing than others. Tank specs, especially ones with a lot of on-demand mitigation or self-healing and/or some solid burst DPS, are very strong for soloing, as are DPS specs that can do a solid heal or absorb some damage when needed. It’s also possible to adjust your Azerite abilities to increase their damage mitigation — Gemhide comes to mind here, as does Resounding Protection — but if you’re a Holy Priest, you may have to consider switching to Shadow or Disc for some fights. This varies on a case-by-case basis. The most important advice I can give you, especially if you’ve never done this content for whatever reason, please look up the mechanics. A fight may demand a significant amount of DPS, or some serious mitigation to get through a phase, and you need to know that going in. Kil’jaeden is still a hard fight, and you can’t just ignore what he dishes out. This is still true in the pre-Shadowlands period, at level 50 — it will likely become easier once we’re all at level 60.

The first thing to remember when doing these raids is that there are multiple difficulty levels available to you. All Legion raids have LFR, Normal, Heroic, and Mythic difficulties and you can run all four of them in a week, so if there’s a gear appearance you’re looking for that happens to be shared between them, keep that in mind. Usually, however, gear is pretty varied — the Mythic appearance on a piece of gear will be very different, with added colors and even extra complexity to the item’s overall look. For example, the class sets that drop from the Tomb of Sargeras look very different on Mythic, so if you’re farming the more restrained looks, you’ll have to confine yourself to Normal or Heroic.

Fight mechanics can often still be difficult

One fight that’s super annoying is Odyn in the Trial of Valor raid. The raid opens with Hymdall and Hyrja who have this very annoying damage shield when they’re standing close together. Since you’re alone, they stand right on top of each other, and the only way to get them apart is to wait until one of them starts casting their big, annoying spell and use any ability you have that covers a lot of distance to get all the way across the room so you can do some damage and potentially kill one of them before the other finishes casting and runs back over. It’s painful how often this doesn’t work, and keeps you locked into the first phase of the fight. This fight is soloable — I’ve done it — but if you can’t get and keep those two apart long enough to burn one of them down, it can be astonishingly painful. Odyn himself is much, much easier than his two person warm-up act. Both Emerald Nightmare and Nighthold are pretty easily soloable by now, with some fights a bit tricky but not overwhelmingly so.

Basically, any raid fight with weird mechanics can be a challenge to solo. The Demonic Inquisition encounter in Tomb of Sargeras is soloable, and once you get used to juggling the Unbearable Torment and knowing when to Confess, it’s not really that bad, but it does have a learning curve and you won’t likely be able to just steamroll them dead before it comes into play yet. Another boss I’ve had trouble with — in that I haven’t soloed it yet — is Aggramar in the Antorus raid. I know people who have done it, and I can see how it would be doable, but I haven’t accomplished it yet. I managed it with two friends, but that’s my personal best on my Arms and Fury Warriors — I’m working on gearing up a Prot Set to give it a more solid attempt soon.

If, for example, you’re trying to do the Balance of Power questline? It’s not only soloable, it’s been soloable for the entirety of Battle for Azeroth — Nighthold has a few fights that are a bit challenging but you can pretty easily clear most of the raid every week. Gul’dan himself is not a terribly difficult fight to solo for most classes, especially once you’re above ilevel 66. By the time you’re at or near normal Ny’alotha gear, it’s quite simple to complete. Yes, this is in pre-Shadowlands terms. You can absolutely do Balance of Power right now.

Those little details still matter

Also, and this one’s a bit embarrassing, but make sure you can get to the raids. Argus requires you to unlock a quest chain, and if you haven’t done that chain yet, you’re going to have to before you can get to the entrance of Antorus. My new Lighforged just found this out the hard way. Also, if you want to go LFR difficulties, you can’t just go to the instance and set it to LFR difficulty, the way you can for Normal, Heroic and Mythic — you have to find Archmage Timear in Legion‘s version of Dalaran, as seen above. He’ll send you to whatever wing of whatever LFR you want.

So yeah, if you’ve wanted to dive into Legion raids for a while now, whether because they’ve got Legacy Loot now, or for old achievements or quests like Balance of Power, it’s doable. Think about how it was to run Hellfire Citadel at the end of Legion, and you’re about at the same level of difficulty — hard enough that it won’t be sleepwalk easy, but definitely within your abilities. Some Antorus fights will be a lot easier with a friend or two — I’d prefer to bring a small group for Mythic Antorus or Tomb of Sargeras. But doable. Definitely go ahead and dip your toes in.

Originally published 5/21/2020, updated 10/7/2020