So, I've read every forum post possible, listened to everyone's methods, and tried every possible group combination that I could manage... all in hopes of getting "Gotta Go". After hours and hours and hours of wipes, and countless respecs, restocking of consumables, praying, and "near" victories (all based on luck), I had an epiphany.

I'm sure many of you have despawned the boss in order to get closer, thus staring DPS faster (at least with melee). Some may have even tried getting behind him and coming in from the back just to get that little extra bit of DPS before he casts. What I realized when despawning him for the 1000th time was that when Anub walked over to me (I pulled from outside the arena) he didn't cast... ever.

So, the light in the attic came on and I asked our Hunter (who was not using Snake trap on any attempt btw) to pull the boss from where I normally pulled (in front of boss, outside of the arena). I had walked around behind the boss (even as a Tauren, if you hug the ledge you won't pull and you can get behind) to get in position. I had the Hunter pull, when the boss got close to him, I Dark Command (Taunt). Anub turned around and walked towards me... then the Hunter Distracting Shot to pull the boss back to him. After Anub took a couple steps back towards the Hunter, I Death Gripped (doesn't yank the boss closer, but forces attack for 3 seconds).

During this entire time, Anub did not cast anything.

So, then we reset the boss and we formulated a strategy. The entire group (except myself) would stand in front of the boss (right inside of where the arena wall comes up). I would walk behind. The Hunter would MD our Mage, and we could start a countdown. At anywhere from 3-1 seconds, our casters would begin DPS, and the MD would hit to the Mage (only reason we did Mage is because he has a tendency to pull aggro anyway, and this is a key facet of our strategy for later).

Anub ran to the front area, and I immediately Taunted him back. He turned and walked to me... full DPS going on the boss the entire time. The Hunter Disrtacting Shot to pull back to himself, and Anub turned around and ran towards the group... full DPS again, aside from me doing absolutely nothing in the back area. After Anub took a few steps towards the group, I gripped to cause him to attack me for 3 seconds. At this point the boss was around 76-82% health (numbers reflect a couple different attempts while we solidified this strategy). I simply walked towards the boss, and he IMMEDIATELY began casting (doesn't matter if it is Pound or Swarm). This is a 5.1 second cast (with COT) and we easily burned through about 30% health in this time, often times taking the boss to 45-47% as he submerges.

This is with no Bloodlust and no Trinkets or Cooldowns except one Bestial from the Hunter (who has a second one for the second phase anyway).

We attacked the adds as normal, wave 1 spawning 2 melee, wave 2 spawning 2 melee 2 casters.

Now, here's where the Mage aggro comes into play:

When Anub resurfaces, he is really really mad at the Mage. I stand to the side (all the way left if facing the boss) and the remaining group stands in the front where they started. Anub comes up and runs to the Mage as I run behind the boss and immediately taunt. The cycle continues until the boss is sub 30% (even 35% is ok at this point if you bring Bloodlust or you have massive cooldowns, none of which we had available). The boss begins to cast, and you burn him down as you did in the first phase.

This technique is easily repeatable, and is most likely the closest "true method" to killing this boss. There is zero luck involved in this strategy, as you can basically "force" Anub to cast when YOU are ready to DPS him down... not when he just randomly decides to cast.

Here was our group makeup:

DK Tank (Suspect)
Moonkin (Kmap)
Hunter (Killtackular)
Lock (Meatskull)
Mage (Daskovacs)

We had 1 slow, and no Bloodlust / Heroism. We did not pop any trinkets for the first phase because we forced the cast below 80% every time.

Obviously, as you can see, we used no healer, but this is simply because we had been trying the "brute force / luck" method all night, and once we realized our new strategy, we didn't have him respec back to healing. The Hunter's DPS was low because he had to stop his rotation in order to Taunt, and we know for a fact that this method can be used with a 3 DPS / 1 Heal / 1 Tank group makeup.

Here are some tips using this method (and workarounds):

DK Tank preferred (2 taunts is good - not required: see below)
Shaman (Bloodlust / Heroism is good for second phase)
1 of any type of cast slow (CoT, Mind Numbing, Hunter Trap)
Taunt #2 (doesn't matter what, as long as it is ranged).

As you can see, this clearly opens up the group makeup further than what was initially expected.

Now, if you do not have access to a DK tank (or DPS who can hit Frost Presence for adds phase) then you can adjust the strategy to have everyone switch positions (group is behind Anub, tank is in front) and the tank pulls, then the group behind lights up the boss and gains aggro, then you taunt back etc. This also works fine (we tested it a number of ways).

The reason I recommend a Shaman is for the second phase. This makes burning through the last 30% elementary with any group makeup. Again, we did NOT have a Shaman, I am simply recommending it for those that have access. Elemental would be very strong here, though Resto is very good as well. The additional DPS that totems (and Fire Elemental) bring overall is just very appreciated.

Also, we brought full consumables and flasks... however, later in the evening (still bashing our heads against the wall doing the "luck" method) we stopped using them. You do not need any consumables if your DPS is sufficient. If it is a little bit low, or you are definitely going to try the 3 DPS and 1 Healer (assuming your healer DPS's during the Pound Phase), then I'd definitely consider any boost you can get.

A Hunter is handy due to Distracting Shot, and overloading your top aggro-puller with even more aggro (for the phase 2 surfacing). Again, not required, as this player will most likely have top aggro anyway, seeing as the tank does almost nothing except during the adds phase, and a pitiful amount of damage during the "burn" phase (80%-49%, 30%-0%).

A Warlock is also recommended for a couple of reasons. CoT (or some type of casting-slow) is very helpful and may even be required at this point. In addition, you CAN cast dots on the boss after he "wipes" them, but before he submerges. We've often seen him submerge at 53 only to come up at 45% when everyone applied their dots perfectly. You generally have enough time to get about 2 on him.

Do not forget the importance of a countdown in the beginning so all DPS can begin hitting the boss at the same time. The more DPS you get on the boss before he starts running, the less time you have to keep him moving.

I hope that this post is helpful to all of the people that have tried this achievement over and over again only to give up. Our group (and guild) is very proud to have seen it done after all of the "fixes" but before the upcoming "nerf " (increased time). We believe that we accomplished this goal using a legitimate strategy at the absolute hardest time to do it: no Mage spellsteal crit buff, no double and triple stacking slows (for 7-9 second cast times), no gripping the boss from underground (yes, it used to work!).

We almost won it with luck / brute force numerous times, but it is by luck that we ultimately learned to do it without the RNG.

Congratulations to all that have done the achievement using whatever method that worked, and I hope our method can save people 100's if not 1000's of gold in respecs, repairs, and consumables (our bills were insane).


TL:DR: Keep boss moving until you want him to cast... then get close to him to force a cast.


- Suspect / Minim of Vital: Dark Iron


EDIT:

This is how you do it with a melee group using the concept of the aforementioned strategy. It is actually much easier than one would think.

DPS as normal until the first cast comes. You do NOT need to obliterate the boss at this point. When the first cast happens (if Anub's health is too high), everyone moves away from the boss, and the tank moves as far as possible (usually to the front of the arena). Make sure a taunt is in effect. Anub will come out of his cast and run across the arena to the tank. The goal is to allow him to make contact at 80% or less health (also 30% or less). He will engage the tank again and start casting. Melee follow behind and DPS... and burst him once the cast begins.

Just because he casts once (giving you plenty of time to DPS and for the tank to build threat), does not mean he will not cast again. Force him to walk to the tank (melee DPS moves away, make sure tank has aggro) and he will run over to the tank and cast again (burst the remaining percentage).

This is probably the most logical solution assuming the developers meant for the achievement to be attained without luck. The boss will not cast if anyone is within 15 yards. The boss will cast when someone is within 15 yards... but a second cast is random when someone is already in range and a cast has just completed. Sometimes he will cast again, sometimes he wont. The goal is to always make him walk somewhere before you want him to cast. If you want him to cast sooner, get in close sooner. If you want him to cast later, ping pong him or force cast, then run again (making him walk yet again).

With this method, you can light him up right away, check his health, if it's too high, move away before the cast

First.

I say you missing Lux in there, that would make things easier :D

<3333333333

Edit: so, pretty much, I'm never going to get this achievement.

Did it with
1 pally tank
1 enh shammy(heals when mobs are out and for BL)
1 BM hunter
1 Rogue for the cast slow
1 ret pally

The prot pally helps cus their skills are bugged and they can do tons of dps.

Took us 1 try, we got a few buffs in dalaran that the group could not provide. 2 of us got the mount with the kill (me and the ehn shammy) and the protadin got it the next day cus he was still at the whims of the RNG for the VH water boss.

Wow -- Brilliant.

One thing I do not understand is how your groups DPS made up for the lack of you DPSing during boss phase. Or were you DPSing?

DPS doesn't really matter... you just force the cast when you want him to cast. If he is still above 80% or so... don't move in close!

Well, DPS matters a little because you still have a 2 minute timer to get below... but yea, during the boss phases, I did almost no damage until the cast (when I stepped in to force the cast, and did as much DPS as I could).

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Q u o t e:
Wow -- Brilliant.

One thing I do not understand is how your groups DPS made up for the lack of you DPSing during boss phase. Or were you DPSing?

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Here's the WWS of it, if you feel it will help: http://wowwebstats.com/o4txy3bvcgtdg

DPS only matters in the sense that you need to get him to under 50% life before he comes back after the first submerge and the final 26%-0 burndown. The most important aspect of this achievement is executing the control. If you have the burst DPS for this, you will most likely have the sustained DPS to make sure the entire thing is over in 2 minutes.

You obviously still need high DPS to burn over 26% HP in 5.1 seconds. DPS was a little gimped for our makeup, yes, because the tank is never in range until he moves in to force the cast, and the hunter had to taunt. The tank will be in range to attack only when it matters: at 76% and 26% so he can force a cast.

While we didn't do this on our successful attempt, Eclipse-proc'd Wrath spam is some very nice burst damage without the gamble of Starfire's long cast time (remember, you control when he casts and you can always tell your hunter to stop DPS until Eclipse procs -- the proc lasts a significant amount of time and you only need a small portion of it to guarantee a 20% harder-hitting wrath spam as he's submerging, and steady shot spam is easy to stop/continue), and when he submerges you can toss up a moonfire / insect swarm to ensure he goes under 50%. It is true that he clears all debuffs during the submerge, but he is still targetable for a couple of seconds so if you're fast you can get in at least 2 instant casts. If he yells while submerged and you get 2 waves of adds, you did it correctly.

Obviously the above paragraph is specific to me and the group we used, but the lesson here is to analyze your group makeup and time the biggest burst DPS possible, while timing the cast at the correct time. Keep cool, stay in control of the fight, and whenever an attempt fails you can blame your execution instead complaining about the RNG.

Follow the strat to force another cast at 26-30% and save your real cooldowns for the second burn. I recommend on-use trinkets. Check the time on them and sync it up so your trinket buffs expire when the achievement timer does.

Just focus on forcing the cast at the right time by using Minim's strat. This is still a DPS race, but we've eliminated the luck portion by showing how the cast can always come at the perfect time. Whether or not you can burn him in the time allotted will still be dependent on your gear.

Sorry for the mystery man bullshit earlier. We knew people who only had this achievement left for their drakes, and we wanted finish our 20 minute Oculus and lock in a server first before releasing the strat.

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Q u o t e:
This isn't too bad. Well, the intelligence involved that is, still takes group stacking and blabbity blah

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You're right. This is most easily done with a ranged group. However I feel like I have to point out that it's not like we stacked 2 mages and a warlock to summon them. Our strat should allow more flexible make ups than the previously announced exploit / luck zergs. Paladins, DKs, Warriors and Druids will need to be the tank (or moonkin in my case), and shamans will have to be elemental. Rogues will have to make do with a stacked group that benefits their Honor Among Thieves for maximum burst damage. (ie, they're screwed and have to go for a lucky zerg).

The money spent enchanting, respecing, reglyphing and repairing was well worth getting this extremely difficult execution-based achievement after it has been hotfixed to make it so much harder than it used to be at launch. Death Knights used to be able to grip him out of submerge, it was retarded. Not to mention metanoia, stacking cast time debuffs, etc. This achievement in its current state is as hard as it ever will be, seeing as a nerf is incoming soon. Once we devised the strat, we had a blast trying to execute it perfectly. It was more satisfying than our first Kil'Jaeden kill.

Plenty of people were complaining about how a major lore character like Anub'arak got shafted by being a boss in a leveling instance, and that this game is too easy. Well, he's the hardest 5-man achievement in the game (at least now, after all the hotfixes and before the nerf) and is most likely the last thing standing in between you and an awesome mount. I don't call that getting shafted.

I highly recommend you guys to go for this achievement in its current state, and if you are already, I recommend you guys stop banging your head against a wall trying to get lucky and find something tangible you can blame instead of "damn it, it's all luck, he never casts it at the right time". Now you can measure your progression based on how well you executed the strategy instead of hating on an invisible dice roll. I guarantee you the reward is worth it.

At the very least, you'll have a very nice comeback the next time a level 1 forum troll gives you shit.

"Where's your post hotfix, pre-nerf [Gotta Go!], huh?"

Tried for 3 and a half hours, Ret Pally/Frost DK/Enh Shaman/Combat Rogue/Surv Hunter. Got close a few times, but the chance involved was insane. (One time... got him to 38% first phase, then the Hunter's Gun broke and I died.)

I know I suck and what not, but I was under the impression that Glory of the Hero wasn't supposed to be this hardcore. Why have ways to do this achievement been taken out, when the achievement is intended to be easier? If the objective is to make it easier, why not use the Hotfix fixing the achievement?

Baffled a bit with the reasoning on Blizzard's part there.

Thanks for the strategy however, I will have to try this if the patch doesn't come out on Tuesday.

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Q u o t e:
fail-proof strat:

don't be horrible.

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lol@ you still tooting your horn thinking that your RNG luck makes you good. You think you're hot !#@% for completing the achievement, we get it. You can stop posting your elitist little comments now.

i hate to point out (as much as i hate elitist too) that any group can get the luck within a 10ish tries, not every group can do the dps required when they get the RNG. you can also control his cast to a certain point like what we did was if he cast pretty fast off the bat (around 90%) we would take him low to 80% blow all our GCD 15+ second cooldowns (anything that will last 5 seconds + the length of the cast) and hope he cast within 5 seconds of popping them, or if he didn't cast we would blow cooldowns at 80% and prey he cast. 6 out of 10 times he would cast within the 5 seconds after we blew cooldowns. when he comes up you don't have AS much control but he seems to chain cast more when he comes up

Nice done! Props to our fellow hordies on Dark Iron!

Updated to include melee method.

Yes. As long as he is moving and no one is in his range, he won't cast. If he is already casting, and the cast is about to end, have everyone move away, and have the #1 aggro move to the furthest possible location in the arena.

I'm curious, since this seems like a brilliant strategy, but difficult to execute... are there any videos available of a successful attempt done with this method?

The biggest problem we had was controlling him again when he resurfaces. If we've pushed him to about 40% or less before the first burrow... that's 2 sets of adds. That always gets a little bit crazy, so people tend to be out of position as he's coming back up... thus, GG on controlling him.

Feels like only a week or two until this is nerfed... getting it done before then would be great. We'll keep at it.