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Comment by CharlzO

Part of the way into this fight, marksmen will come from behind the group, and start shooting at your party. You can either have party members turn and focus on them as well, or, have a member run to where Willy was, pick up a cannonball and use one of two cannons that are aimed backwards, and try to use them to shoot at the adds. There are 4 stacks of balls on the ground, each giving you one shot. Be warned, it is possible to hit your own party members with the shot, so plan carefully.

(I ran this last night, and didn't realize they could be used as such, until after the fight. Fortunately, our group was able to shift attacks to the adds, and had no issues.)

Comment by 7343

Cannon Master Willey can be found inside Stratholme main entrance (Stratholme Scarlet run)

Comment by Ruben

Probably soloable as rogue with good to great gear. I tried myself as a 70 combat rogue, karazhan geared. always got him to around 6-10 % before he and his adds killed me.

Comment by Stabbasaurus

I'm sure if you're trying to solo this, you're looking for that awesome cannonball runner trinket.
First off, getting there isn't altogether horribly difficult. Watch out for stealth seeing mobs, distract is your best friend. Although the mobs are gray and have a small aggro radius, stealth seeing mobs will detect you as close as regular gray mobs, so it can be tricky. When it comes to the gate that closes and unleashes rats, I quickly move to the left corner, within a few seconds if you aren't detected, most of the rats will run back, leaving you with about ten. Personally, even with blade flurry up, I have a hard time killing all the rats when dealing with energy/swing timers and whatnot, so this makes it a lot more manageable.

To get past the live part of strat, just continue distracts and sap mobs and stealth through them. Once at the end, I took out the final 3 pull before the boss, the adds were aggroing them to me as well, making the fight more difficult.

Blow all your cd's on him, he has 36k hp so it's still a rather tough fight. I would avoid using evasion too early, you're going to want to save it when there's a few adds up.

I managed to kill him in 37 seconds, maintaining 1,003 dps for the fight. I used a health pot/fel blossom and ended with 4,000 hp, however I've died two attempts before that (without having killed the 3 pull). I'm a t4/t5 geared combat swords rogue. So, soloable yes, but you need good gear to keep up the dps and have enough hp to outlast him. If you end up taking 40+ seconds, there will be enough adds that you're going to die very fast. When I was at the point where I almost killed him, i was seeing damage from the adds tick all over my screen.

Out of 5 attempts, I had 3 successful, 1 attempt I didn't manage to vanish fast enough after I killed him, and ran back and looted it. On the 3rd kill I managed to get the Cannonball Runner trinket, then hearthed out and left. Since there's no good way to leave live strat, I'd suggest having enough bag space to take off your gear and die. Be sure to reset the instance while you're running back dead. All in all, good luck, it's going to take some good gear/pots to bring this guy down, but it's not impossible.

Comment by 83723

As a 70 combat daggers rogue (mostly kara gear) I had a hard time with this guy. I came up with a nice strategy that worked every time though.

Kill the group of mobs that Willey is facing or they will aggro when the adds come. When facing Willey, walk up to the left cannon and if you are very careful you can grab the cannon ball without aggroing. I had a better success rate of no aggro when I stealthed up to the cannon balls and then looted. Was still hit or miss sometimes. If you get aggro then vanish and wait the 5 min cooldown before engaging Willey.

Burn down Willey until about 40% or so, then vanish. Before his health resets engage him again. Vanishing makes the adds disappear. Finish Willey off then fire the cannon and you should kill all the new adds in one shot. I usually use a health pot for good measure because I was at low health by the end of the fight.

Happy Hunting

Comment by JikcepIV

Word of warning: The riflemen he spawns don't need line of sight to attack, and seem to be able to attack from infinite range. In other words, don't try kiting this guy.

Comment by 139137

I am a assi/sub rogue you need pretty much good gear to solo this guy , You have to deal with him and the rifle people which sucks i got him down the second try no trinket drop
:(...Going to try again today wish me luck!!!!!

Comment by 139137

Woot just got killing him, i was low in health pop a health potion and got him down though then vanish heh yess....i got the trinket :P grrrrr time to duel people and kick some butt with my cannon...

Comment by 110266

Very easy as a combat rogue in T5 quality gear. Rush him and cheap shot, then use AR and Evasion as soon as he gets out of the stun.
Nuking like that and vanishing when he dies is a good and easy way to do it.

Just watch out for the guys with stuns if you didn't clear. ;)

Comment by 161871

Easy soloable as a Hunter,

Had to FD 3 times on the way to him. Use Aspect of the Cheetah at the gate to get through before it slams down.

Just burn Willey down with everything you got (he keeps distance, so nothing to worry about aggro).
The spawned adds get me till about 70% health until he's dead.

Got the runner on my 8th or 9th kill.

Comment by 160535

just soloed him as a prot pally in t2 gear. very easy.... just kept seal of light up on him and kept one on myself. I didn't mind taking down the riflemen until after i downed the cannon master. With seal of light i was gaining health faster than i was loosing it. After i downed the cannon master, i didn't expect there to be tons of rifleman, but i just kept spamming consecration... ended up with about 4k health out of 11K.
The path leading to the boss was very slow because there are several groups of three and most of the time the group consists of two defenders and a priest (all of which can heal). I had the same strategy on the groups.... keep a seal of light on my target and another on myself. The fights lasted for several minutes because the mobs heal each other, but once they run out of mana, its a walk in the park.

Comment by Visindyr

He is laughabley easy for a 70 elemental shaman. I dropped windwall totem, and his friends were hitting me for 1 damage each.

Comment by 9646

For Paladins, and possibly Warriors, there is a way you can use the adds to your favor. This is mostly for fun and for the chance to go "Mwuhahaha" than actually burning him down fast.

Early in the fight I blew the canon balls not realizing the adds kept spawning throughout the fight. So faced with an exponentially growing number of adds and Willey still mostly full of life I had to come up with an impromptu solution.

Step 1) Get a Force Reactive Disk, two preferably. They top Petrified Spore Shield here because they deal damage to all in range per hit. So with high mob numbers it out does the Sporegar shield in DPS.

Step 2) Slowly pull Willey, move, let him catch up, move till all the adds are meleeing you along with Willey.

Step 3) Equip Force Reactive Disk.

Step 4) Laugh.

Comment by 97138

As a level 70 if you are willing to run this in Heroic equivalent gear. Expect to die, I focused completely on Willy and when I ran over to the Marksmen there were about 15-20 of them. Trust me, Willy is simple the Marksmen are hell.

Comment by 148247

Not dropping Red Winter Hat 100% from 25th Dec->2nd Jan, killed him once today (25th) and no hat.

Comment by 334191

"It's been fun!" Love his human /bye quotes. XP

Comment by torell95secto

hardest boss as a 74 fury becuz of adds not hard but i find him hardest on live

Comment by shamanfang

can anyone give me strategy tips for a 70 enhancement shammy?

Comment by shamanfang

i think the cannonball trinket would be interesting for PvP

Comment by 370994

Anyone else find it suspicious that Cannon Master Willey drops a Pearl Necklace?

>.>

<.<

Comment by 268064

Since the Random Dungeon option was launched with the latest patch, i'm browsing for tactics on Wowhead because it's usefull again but all i see is: "I solo this on my lvl 80 retri pala and i'm a pwnz0r!"

Please people... If you have usefull information about the fights for groups of ppl around the intended level range, please share!

Comment by 171419

Indeed. In addition to that almost-suggestively sleek, bald cranium of his, many of Willey's tantalizing goodies are suspiciously-titled.

I first noticed this when I made my way deep into Scarlet territory to investigate reports of the Crusade's supposedly "well-endowed" master Willey (I assume the reports were referring to the generous funding he receives for his advanced weapons research). I had orders from the Teens for Light club to check out Willey's weapons and destroy his balls if they seemed too powerful.

To my shock, the first thing I saw as I came upon Willey's hangout was his brazenly-displayed blue moon — clad in skimpy leather, with eye holes, no less! (I assume he had helm graphics turned on). Recovering my senses, I spread my legs (to steady my position, lest he try to unbalance me) and grabbed hold of Willey tightly, ready to choke and shake him until he turned purple if he didn't cough up what I was looking for.

"Wait!" he exclaimed, "Let me put my party hat on before things get out of hand!"

"I'd rather use our mouths and my head to solve this angry moment," he continued, surprisingly friendly, "and only rely on the weapons we're packing as a last resort." He even offered to scratch my back if I scratched his (lots of flea-infested rats in Strat, I assume). I didn't have much of an itch to scratch, so I declined. But I was willing to try giving this ass some peace, so I relaxed my grip on Willey's throat. He narrowed his beady eye and engaged me in a heated oral intercourse.

Attempting diplomatic negotiations, I enlisted my older, more skilled friend's aide to delicately explore the contents of his pants and found what you'd expect — his junk, some recreational drugs, a bit of ointment (ew, I didn't ask), and a lot of miscellaneous cheese. Something fruity caught my eye, and I offered Willey my pie in exchange for his banana. But he was having none of it, and things were both coming to a head and going nowhere fast — they were even getting violent. My friend, always looking to avoid trouble, seemed to have vanished completely.

Basically, as soon as it became clear mere tongue-wagging couldn't release our tensions, Willey quickly unbuckled his restraining belt — and I found myself suddenly face-to-face with Willey's portable Howitzer! The barrel was pointed right at me, and so close to my nose that I was cross-eyed. Even worse, several of his best friends were coming up behind me — and each one already had their significant projectile weapon out!

I had to think quick, and try to deny this Willey the ammunition he needed to release his fearsome payload. I grabbed Willey's (surprisingly small...) blue balls in a death grip, and soon found myself in possession of a brand-new pearl necklace and several handfuls of magical liquid. Willey deflated downward into a limp, soft heap on the tile floor, unable to recover from his gentle but firm trouncing by my Unholy hands. For good measure, I turned around and finished off his friends, then set about stripping off his boring clothes and pawing at his junk.

To my surprise, it turns out the fellow was secretly after my heart — I was glad I had given that Willey the ferocious beating I did! Yet, for some reason — some strange reason, I just couldn't put my fingers on — the whole incident had left me feeling bad... and dirty. Maybe it was the yelling. Maybe it was the killing. But I needed something to cleanse my soul and make me feel better.

Then something caught my eye, something poking out of Willey's clothes — a bit of Willey I had somehow missed during my thorough looting. It was Willey's caster staff (it was far too long to be a mere wand)! Having found Redemption, I no longer felt unclean. So I went home and pretended nothing happened when Mom asked about it — you know how it is. I'd probably be grounded (or even worse — lose faction!) for getting into strange situations with elite Willeys!

Comment by Cayslia

Ran this tonight with dungeon finder as the healer. The adds are all ranged, and like to aggro on the healer, and they can shoot through the walls, so it's no use trying to hide from them. My druid was standing near Willey's original location behind the cannons, and still was getting the worst of the ranged attacks through the corner I was hiding behind. As far as I can tell, they will not move from their spawn point because they don't have to.

The tank and I didn't have a problem with Willey himself; it's the adds that will wipe the party. One or two people should probably man the cannons. Otherwise, the tank will have to pull Willey over there to get the adds off the healer and ranged dps, but I'm not sure how well this will work since it seems a lot of them spawn at once.

Comment by Lovestar

Oh, dear.

Our Willey's all shriveled now. :(

Comment by TheRealLink

While Willey himself wasn't too bad aside from trying to outlast his HP, the additional mobs that come down the hall made this fight interesting. Wanted to use the cannons but was too focused on the crazy repeated ticks of 25 HP constantly from the arrows to go play with the cannons. Once he died though, the other mobs disappeared. Lasted moderately well as a 67 Night Elf Fury Warrior alone but he still packed a punch overall.

Comment by hubretr

does he still drop the shadowcraft shoulders?

Comment by NefastusAmph

To easily deal with the adds on this guy, right-click on the stacks of cannonballs to loot one, then right-click on one of the cannons. It will shoot down the hallway and most likely kill all the adds. If you're quick about this, they'll only get off a shot or two before dying. Of course, after his Nerf for Cata, he's pretty much a pushover, adds included.

Comment by Thottbot

Yeah, prepatch you could've done solo-runs on him easy, but now that anything undead sees you like you aren't stealthed at all... no way. He's a pretty easy boss, just don't stand ahead of the cannons. Killed a few cloth wearers on accident. :D

25ish runs, no Shadowcraft, gettin' angry.

Comment by Thottbot

what if you sprinted past all the skeletons, then vanished, waited for cooldowns, and repeated until you got to the scarlets. possible?

Comment by Thottbot

Im beginning to think im cursed... Still no shoulders for my sc set - only need those and the chest from ubrs...

...think I have done about 20 runs and I have never seen the freakin' shoulders drop... the 10& drop rate.... not in my world...

Am I the only one with this louse drop rate record?

Comment by Thottbot

i kept track for some reason just to see how long it took....52 damn runs before i got em

Comment by Thottbot

Dropps a red Santa hat during christmas holiday season. Its BOP but white / no roll.

Comment by Thottbot

do u need the scarlet key to get to this guy? or 300 lp will do fine?

Comment by Thottbot

i'm on a flight to ESP right now and i'm going to try and get Shadowcraft SHoulders. I'll tell if they drop. I did it already and all i got were Cannon balls. i Got mad but the percent doesn't seem too off i hope. i want these alo. they look tight.

Comment by Thottbot

Ive killed this guy about twenty something times and no SC shoulders! what the hell is going on.

Comment by Thottbot

Like omg I went in with my druid yesterday to get those other shoulders and 3 SC drop out of 5 runs :< Yeah I got one of those too, but come on - no int on SC you know.
BTW mad exp with 5 man ;)

Comment by Thottbot

He now drops a resto druid hat called Helm of the New Moon. It's like Insightful Hood from DM.

Comment by Thottbot

He can now drop a cloth Shoulders
Mantle of the Scarlet Crusade
65 Armor
+11 STA
+11 INT
+12 SPI
+20 Healing
Lvl 56

Looks very cool, red/silver.

Comment by Thottbot

Also now drops...

Diana's Pearl Necklace
+8 Stamina
+8 Intellect
Equip: Increases your chance to hit with spells by 1%
Equip: Increases Dmg and Healing by 9

Comment by Thottbot

Is this guy found Strat live or undead side?

Comment by Thottbot

There is no love for the feral druid. As such, they must scrounge up hex-mex feral ensembles from wherever they can. AP, crit % and dodge are all valuable to a kitty and a bear (they melee, just like a rogue). And energy conservation in kitty form is always appreciated.

I have both a rogue and a feral druid, and can understand well the latter's frustration with respect to being #$%^&ed at for "stealing" SC - when there's stuff-all comparatively specced gear out there for them either. Not all druids are healbots, or should be. They are the ultimate utility class, and as far as i can see don't get enough respect.

Having said that, if i were on my druid, and there was a rogue in my group assembling an SC set, i would probably not roll against him... sigh.

Comment by Thottbot

When you think about it they ARE stealing the SC because last time I checked rogues can't cast. Its not fair because they have their wildheart, and you don't see rogues rolling for it because we don't need it at all. It does nearly nothing. And its not fair that druids get 2 sets when we only get one. I don't care is a druid rolls for shadowcraft as long as no rogue needs it. BTW hunters, there is a reason you can wear mail.

Comment by Thottbot

It's really very terrible drop rate on this spaulders... :(
I've done about 30+ runs and i saw everything but not the SC spaulders! :(((

I've also seen two times "Willey's Back Scratcher" wich has less drop rate then spaulders.....

WTF? )8r

Comment by Thottbot

He always kills me at around 7% when I try to solo :( 70 Rogue.

Comment by Thottbot

And if anyone could please rate up this post so it gets seen....

If you attack cannon master, he WILL aggro any mob you didn't clear, much like the cathedral.

Comment by Thottbot

Just tried to solo as a 70 rogue, just so you know, kill the group before him, he spawns a 60 add that will aggro that whole group and pretty much kill you.

Comment by Thottbot

I notice few posts of any use from a tactical standpoint so I'll add the following:

The Cannonmaster summons in about a Kajillion lvl 60 rifflemen that don't do that much damage individually, but let them add up and you're dead meat.

The Cannonmaster has the ability to stop casting and knockback and yes, he *will* knock you back into places you cannot get out from if you're not careful.

To destroy the adds you must grab a "Scarlet Cannonball" from the stacks next to the Cannonmaster and load them into the cannons... destroying the adds currently summmoned in a big earth shattering type kaboom.

The cannonballs are unique so you can only grab one per person at a time.

You can grab the cannonballs from the stacks in shapeshift form, but to load them into the cannons you've got to unshift and go into "Please don't kill me too quickly" mode.

The adds can shoot through walls... they can shoot through the entire Scarlet Bastion as it turns out. Getting out of LOS or kiting the CannonMaster away? Not an option.

The cannon master will shoot you rather than mele if you attempt to range him.
----------------------------

Having said this, I soloed the entire place on my druid before getting here. I even killed Timmy! (after dying 3x, the first because I underestimated him greatly, the second because the damned game wouldn't shift back to bear after healing... I blame the game of course) and after doing UD and killing my way through horrible disease ridden groups of mobs I decided to stealth through here.

I read the things about the Cannonmaster calling in every mob in the area so I cleared everything up through his door. The groups of Scarlet Defenders (paladins) and Scarlet Preists (duh?) were particularily... fun. Esp the 3 defenders and a preist one (omg I'm stunned... omg I'm stunned again...)

I came for the cannon trinket and I was gonna get the trinket damnit.

Wrong!

I admire the fellow who got him to 8% on his rogue. I figured "if a rogue can do 8% a druid can kill him easy". I understand hubris is a sin but must the punishment be so severe? I died here numerous times. The best I managed to do was 12% the first time through.

I'd have been okay but loading the damned cannons requires you to shift out of bear form. This makes this fight pretty tricky if you intend to use your feral skills.

While I'm sure someone out there has managed it I certainly can't. I musta had my party of one wipe here 8x before calling it quits. What I learned of use was that at lvl 70 you can stealth right to the bastion provided you just stay out of agro range and avoid the supply crates. Dash through the gates since mobs spawn in that will see your stealth.

I reccomend you try this as at least a 2 man job. As I said , you may succeed solo but I imagine it's infinately easier with 2. One guy kill the Cannonmaster, the other just sit at the cannon all day and blast the hell out of adds. That'd make it really easy, esp with some healing capacity at cannons. See if any guildies want the little cannon too and head off for farmin'!

Good luck!

Comment by Thottbot

God i hate this guy, im a 70 Druid with decent gear, but i couldnt kill him. The first attempt i stealthed to him and attacked him not knowing he spawns a person that aggro's the grp near him. I got him down to about 40% til they all killed me. So i said fine i'l kill the group of 3 before him, cant be that hard im 70 after all. Wrong, between the the two bastards taking turns stunning me and the priest shielding them, and them all healing each other its a pain in the ass. And if when i u finally get one down really low he runs away while u get stunned and the next group comes in and kicks your ass some more. I love how the fighters in the Scarlet Crusade risk death to fight the Scourge but run like pansies from a bear, everything would be much simpler if mobs just fought to the death, lol. Well that was my long and kinda pointless rant, hope you enjoyed.

Comment by Thottbot

i just killed him with a friend (even though we wiped 4 times trying to get to him) and he didnt even drop the stupid red winter hat... Depressing :(

Comment by Thottbot

Solo cleared all the way to him on my 70 MS warrior with Deep Thunder + Mace spec. Those stuns come in handy on the healing mobs. Kill the healers first, ignore the casters as you'll resist 90% of their spells. The disarming mobs can be a pain.

Once cleared I had a friend come on his 70 rogue and me on my 64 rogue, just nuked down the cannoneer and then grabbed a cannonball each and blew the adds away - nothing much to it really.
Collecting the SC set for kicks, but the shoulders didn't drop so I'll be back for them again sometime.

Comment by Thottbot

I'm able to solo him, but its very very close.

Class: Rogue
Level: 70
Gear: PvP/ Few Kara Pieces
Specialty: 45 Combat, 16 Assassination (Disarm/5%crit/5%dodge/5%Parry are life savers.)
Health: 96500
Weapons: S1 Gladiator Sword's (Mongoose)
Crit Chance: 28%

Once you enter the lower section, stealth over to him. Kill the 3-4 level 57-60's infront of him, or they will aggro when you fight him.

Once cleared, throw on any Elixir's (Agility worked for me, kicking my Crit up to almost 30%) and stealth behind him... yes behind him. Make sure you have Deadly Poison on Main Hand and Instant Poison on Off Hand. Simply right click and begin spamming Sins. Strike on him until he is about 90% life left. The adds will start to be painful at this point... so use Evasion/Adrenaline Rush, pop any trinkets you have, and dps him to hell, IGNORING the add's. Disarm him whenever possible, and keep your back to the wall, this way if he knocks you back, you stay in the same spot. If you need to, use a healing potion. If all goes well, he should die and you should barely live, but the fight is not over. Due to ignoring the add's, they will hit you for about 400 damage every .8 seconds, so the second he dies, use Vanish. After 5-8 seconds of being stealthed, the Add's will leave and Whala~ You have your 2x Blue's and your Bullets.

Character name: Nvm
Server: Kargath

Comment by Thottbot

96,500 health? WTF? most bosses dont have that much

Comment by Thottbot

Cannon Master Willey has gotten me a couple of times, so I thought I would add comments to help other hunters that wish to solo him. It's really not hard once you get it down. I'm a well geared 70 MM/Surv hunter, here's my method using aspect of the cheetah and no buffs and I didn't even have to burn a health pot:

Hunter's mark, mend pet, send pet, set my sting. Ran up and put a snake trap at his feet, then grabbed a cannonball and loaded the cannon. (I stayed in the corner next to a cannon for the duration of the battle). Heal pet again, and another sting and let the arrows fly. I didn't gain aggro until he was half health and then I promptly feigned death. (My pet had gained enough aggro that he never came back to me after that, even with some pretty solid arrow crits). Loaded another cannonball, heal pet, and fired away. Bye Bye Willey. Now you gotta deal with the rest of the riflemen. I feigned death, but they were taking so long killing my pet I just jumped back up and worked on them. There are quite a few of them, but they don't do that much damage and I finished them off with little concern. I don't know if they would have disappeared when my pet died or not. *btw, you cannot load cannonballs after Willey dies, I did try that to no avail.

I've gotten so much valuable info from other players here, I just hope this helps someone. Sunone - Emerald Dream

Comment by Allakhazam

Finally managed to solo this guy today, now I can clear the entire strat Live. (not bad for a marksmanship hunter)

Comment by Allakhazam

This guy isnt that hard, but you need to have tactics here!

The canons are there to be used. As soon as your warrior charges, send your healer to behind the cannons. Then all others kick the hell out of Willey. Whilst you fight him several mobs will attack, once a group appears, the priest picks up a cannon ball and fires a cannon, all the mobs die.

Remember, Willey isnt a tough bugger, so use DPS on him rather than stunns. Time is crucial here, so the faster you kill him the easier.

Good luck with killing him!

View in 3D Links

Willey Hopebreaker <Cannon Master>

StratholmeMain GateThe UnforgivenHearthsinger ForrestenTimmy the CruelCommander MalorWilley HopebreakerInstructor GalfordBalnazzarService GateBaroness AnastariNerub'enkanMaleki the PallidMagistrate BarthilasRamstein the GorgerLord Aurius RivendareWilley HopebreakerStratholme

Willey Hopebreaker <Cannon Master>

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