In World of Warcraft, players are often willing to go to extremes just to say they've done it. Some might spend all their time grinding out hard to get achievements while others will run a raid boss hundreds of times in hopes of getting some rare loot. But Rextroy is of a higher caliber. He beat the first raid boss of Antorus, The Burning Throne all by himself—and it only took him a measly eight hours. His reward? I'm not sure exactly. Bragging rights? I guess?
Jokes aside, it's still a herculean feat of theorycrafting considering this boss is meant to be tackled by groups averaging about 15 people. Soloing bosses isn't unheard of, but typically it's done in older raids after players have earned new gear that is beyond the levels Blizzard originally intended. But Garothi Worldbreaker, the boss that Rextroy soloed, is a part of the newly released Antorus, The Burning Throne raid. So beating him alone is nothing short of extraordinary—if only because it took him a whopping eight hours and 11 minutes.
Fortunately, Rextroy recorded the whole thing and sped up the video so it's only 13 minutes long. What's amazing about this, however, is his strategy wasn't easy even though it makes use of an obvious exploit. As he describes over at Wowhead, the eight-hour brawl was fraught with peril that required absolutely precise timing. Even one mistake could insta-kill him and he'd have to start the eight-hour marathon again.
"It was not [a] faceroll either, having to pay attention all that time," Rextroy writes in his explanation. He plays a Protection paladin, a tank that comes with quite a few abilities for mitigating damage or avoiding it entirely. One of those abilities, Divine Shield, is on a five-minute cooldown, and Rextroy had to use it extremely carefully in order to survive the fight.
Also worth mentioning is that Rextroy's paladin is extremely well geared, rocking level 963 armor with 79 traits unlocked on his Artifact weapon. He also needed some rare trinkets to help get the job done, as they often provide extra abilities your character can make use of.
Ultimately, Garothi was only killable thanks to an exploit (which I'm sure is now going to be patched out) wherein his deadliest abilities only hit within 60 yards of him. Most of his arena is within that killzone, but Rextroy found a small pocket just beyond that he could retreat to when he had to. Still, I cannot fathom the kind of endurance it would take to sit at a computer for eight hours, timing when to attack and when to run just right to kill this guy. It's an incredible display of theorycrafting.
