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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 Propulson

this mob is not even in the instance at all

Comment by sivla

Since patch 6.0.2 this npc has gone, despite the bonus to kill him. They removed him probably a few patches earlier...and they have been to bone idle to remove BONUS to kill him ..but hard to do when he is not in the game lol

also there is a small problem with the Scholomance dungeon since everything was tuned to stat squishes.

The Risen guards are a super pain in the backside to kill for a level 90...they take ages to go down...clearly blizzard never bothered even looking at this dungeon when they went all out to tune everything else. Scholomance is simply undoable for a level 42 pug dungeon finder group, they would be super raped just by the guards at the gate..ridiculous considering its only a level 42 dungeon.

Back to strathome, on the bastion side, works as intended on this patch, yet to see what happens when running a low level alt through the other side.

Comment by 1239045

Overview of (somewhat glitchy) Bonus Objectives of Stratholme (Live Side / Main Gate) as of 6.0.3:

Killed outside the Scarlet Bastion (in any order):

The Unforgiven
Hearthsinger Forresten (Has a yellow nameplate and is ghostly. Always present but hard to see, especially if you're looking for a red name.)
Timmy the Cruel

Spawned after opening 3 mailboxes. Mailboxes on both Live and Dead Sides count towards the total, but if you kill him on the Dead Side, you won't get credit for it:

Postmaster Malown

Inside the Scarlet Bastion :

Commander Malor *(Kill before Balnazzar)
Willey Hopebreaker *(Kill before Balnazzar)
Instructor Galford

*Note: If you do not do not kill Commander Malor and Willey Hopebreaker before killing the final boss, Balnazzar, they will disappear after he is killed and you won't be able to complete the bonus objectives.

Final Boss:

Balnazzar

Comment by Dirkster

As a result of the announced changes, this NPC was renamed from Cannon Master Willey to Willey Hopebreaker.

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Willey Hopebreaker <Cannon Master>

This NPC can be found in Stratholme .

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

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After killing this NPC you will gain:

60 reputation with Huojin Pandaren

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Yarr!! A guide on how to look like a bombastic Pirate in World of Warcraft

Heroic		Mythic
Deadly		Important
Tank		DPS
Healer		Interruptible
Magic		Curse
Poison		Disease
Enrage

Willey Hopebreaker <Cannon Master>

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