It’s time to speed up your Collector’s Bounty runs and head right to the desired boss! Well, for some raids anyway.
Disclaimer
While this method has been used for a long time, Blizzard’s stance on this has always been a bit unclear. It’s not really an exploit as it just uses regular game methods, but you never know. Keep in mind there could be some risk involved, even though we haven’t seen anyone get banned for it (so far).
Save Your Spot at Your Boss of Choice
First off, this method doesn’t work for all raids. There’s a special Icecrown Citadel method below which does work, and it’s been confirmed as working for at least the Sanctum of Domination (but just for the Nine boss, not Sylvanas on Mythic), Nighthold, Black Temple, Battle for Dazar’alor, Ulduar, and Tazavesh Mythic at least. It does not work in Dragon Soul (enjoy Spine some more). Some other raids have actual skips to the endboss which are account-wide, but some players may not have them.
The method is a little complicated, mostly requiring a LOT of logging out and in. You’ll need an alt you won’t be finishing the raid on (at least until the end of the reset) to save your place. That character then basically becomes your anchor, with others joining their custom group in a specific ways.
There are also reports of it working only once and then the new character also being stuck on 12/12, but we can’t know if that was player error or if the method is just a little random. Many players did report it working over many alts, however.
The Method
Here’s how to do it:
- Clear the raid to the boss you need on your “anchor” character.
- You may want to open two WoW clients for each character, but it’s optional.
- Hearthstone out so you can log out faster.
- Create a Legacy group with the anchor.
- Log in to the next character you want to kill the boss for the mount.
- Find the custom group and ask to join.
- Log back in to the anchor and accept the join request.
- Log back to the new character and enter the raid quickly.
- Wait for the party leader to switch to the new character after 90 seconds (you can usually also move to the boss you need to kill while waiting). You have to be in the raid with the new character before the 90 seconds expires.
- Kick the anchor.
- That’s it – head to the raid and you should be in the same lockout as the anchor.
Icecrown Citadel Is Special
ICC has a bit of a custom version of this. With the 10-man and 25-man and Heroic versions, there are extra steps needed to get it right. And you’ll need to keep more than just the Lich King alive. Jag- explained it perfectly, giving Mordy83 the credit for the method, so here’s how to do it. They use their own terminology for the characters and the log in/log out process.
The Method
“SAVER: A character saved to the instance for weekly runs.
RUNNER: Alts that run weekly and skip bosses.
- Choose a SAVER you won’t run weekly (e.g., a weaker or less-used character).
- Ensure they can create custom groups (level 50+ required).
- This can’t be done Cross Faction, unsure about Cross Server.
- On the SAVER, set the Raid to 25 NORMAL and clear all but two bosses, including the Lich King.
- Example: I use a Warrior who didn’t finish the healing boss.
- If you finish this boss, make sure another remains alive alongside the Lich King.
- With these two bosses left, use this saved instance for your RUNNERS.
- On a RUNNER, enter the Raid on 25 HEROIC, kill Lord Marrowgar, take the teleporter behind him back to the entrance, and exit the raid.
- /Camp the RUNNER and log to the SAVER.
- Create a custom group on the SAVER, then /Camp again.
- Ideally, log the SAVER in a town for instant logout, and keep them in Raid 25 NORMAL for future groups.
- Apply to the custom group on the RUNNER, /Camp, switch to the SAVER, invite the RUNNER, /Camp, then switch back to the RUNNER, accept the invite, and re-enter the Raid.
- Accept the “10/12 Bosses Defeated” popup, kill (or heal) the remaining boss, and leave the group.
- If the healing boss is alive, teleport to Sindragosa’s Lair, mount up, head to the spider room, and use cooldowns to reach the elevator quickly.
- You can leave the group 45 seconds before killing/healing the boss in order to save time.
- In the case of the healing boss, you can leave the group 5 seconds before the elevator takes you up.
- This syncs with getting kicked to the graveyard after healing the boss, saving you time running out.
- Once kicked, mount up, re-enter the Raid (now on Heroic), and proceed to the Lich King.
- Repeat from step 4 weekly for each RUNNER.
- Ensure the SAVER extends the saved instance each week and is in Raid 25 NORMAL mode when starting these runs.” – Jag-
If you use this and it works for you, head on over to the reddit thread and thank them!
You can also check out this thread for other, less reliable methods and time saves:
Good luck!