The tower containing the Theramore Deserters is south from the Shady Rest Inn. Take the road east from the Inn and take the first road that leads south. The tower is very near the road on the left, or the east side of the road. Cosmos loc is 35,54.

When you go inside the tower, Balos Jacken will immidiately aggro (just one 38 mob).

I did this on my 39 RET specced Paladin. I believe the quest is a bit buggy. I killed a path to the tower door, then Divine Protection I ran into the tower and up the short steps to the very end. For some reason this reset all the aggroed mobs. Balos will return to the small landing on the stairs. Killed him solo. Returned to top of stairs. For some reason this is a safe zone of sorts. Waiting on DP timer... then ran out.

Hope that helps some of you ^^

Okay, I did this as a 36 Enhancement Shammy. I ran past Balos up the steps (stops right behind) him and died. I reincarnated and by some miracle was able to keep myself alive to finish the quest.

Otherwise, i wouldn't be able to reach Balos before repops get me.

Did this on my level 37 hunter. I used Eyes of the Beast on my pet and had him aggro the entire room. I then ran up the steps past the npc and feigned death on the broken steps. I then stood back up and res'd my pet. I was then able to sit there evading all of his attacks until I was at full hp / mana. I then walked down onto the steps and fought him. Easy if you can make it to the broken steps no mobs can hurt you.

As a lvl 37-38 mage I tried this quest many times but always ran into problems with respawns. In the end ran in to the tower & died. Rez'd right at the very top of the stairs in the tower & managed to eat, drink & buff. It kept putting me in & out of combat but Balos couldn't touch me. Once ready, moved close to Balos & easy kill. Don't get too close to him though otherwise you pull 2 other mobs. Ran out/blinked with mana shield on & job done. I guess I could have done this to get onto the top of the stairs! Good luck

Yeah, at 1% health and ready to die, all the mobs went into evade mode. They cannot attack you on the edge of the steps. So run through all the mobs, into the tower, and once you get to the end of the steps just wait for them to reset. Once they do, edge down until Balos attacks. Kill him, then run out. If you get too close to Balos, you'll aggro a mob or two below, so stay near the wall and as near the steps as possible.

Did on my 41 rogue, actually forgot about it, stealthed in, beat Balos into submission, only had one add. He went to get help so I vanished. Easy if you can stealth, watch the add, he will get help.

I tried this quest today on my 37 priest found it very hard to do. At one point i got pissed and just ran in there and found out that if you stand at the top of the stairs just above Balos they can not attack you. I healed up and moved down far enough that he wouldnt evade my spells and had no problem with the other NPCs in the tower. Quest complete.

I tried this as a lvl 36 prot pali 2k/2.5k health/armor (respectively). Stupidly I didn't read EVERY comment just where it was. I pull 3. 3 melee mobs vs 1 prot pali is just ezmode. 3 more mobs aggro some how and one runs for help.

So I pull them to the road LoH to live, then drink/eat up. I head toward the tower pull one guy walking around and another I SWEAR I just killed. Then the fun started they started to respawn as I was fighting it was then about 8-10 on one...needles to say I was a dead pali.

I was about to try the run up and talk but as I'm typing this a son of hakkar looking mob ate my face and now I need ot repair.

I ended up getting killed and then when I went back to body to resurrect, I just stood behind Balos Jacken. Don't have to kill him, just get him below 20 or 25 % and he'll turn green to finish the quest.

No deaths needed, just a bit of stamina. I tried a few times to fight my way in but the mobs respawned far too fast to keep up with them - got about four down before the first came back at me because I was still in his aggro range.

Completed it after reading the above, but without dying. Run in and veer slightly to the left, run up the slope and onto the steps behind Balos, and the mobs start evading. From these wooden steps I was able to step off them and burst Balos down before stepping back on them to make the others to evade again. Once Balos turned friendly I could complete the quest from the steps and accept the next part before running out.

Note for shammies: I managed to use ghostwolf while stood on the wooden steps so ran out in that form, never though to use it on the way in though as I figured it would be 'indoors' anyway.

Have uploaded some screenshots, they should be there once approved.

EDIT

3900xp from handing it in at Balos

As a druid (shapeshift and prowl) it was easy at lvl40, just attack the target and hope the rest turns friendly before u die.

My well geared hunter (lvl 38) and well trained pet only made till the opening of the tower before we died. Some gifts of naaru and mend pet and potions didn't hold up against the crasiest respawn rate of the game... Not looting the body's doesn't help either, they respawn before u know it.

Level 41 shaman made it with more work.
Balos is inside tower with 2 mobs there. Around tower 4-6 mobs. You can perhaps see him up the broken trap inside tower.
Make decide which mob you fight. The timed respawn rate is 2 minutes, also without looting body.
That means don't loot bodies to save every second.
It's better to maximize your mana and stamina. You need it to fight to the tower. Don't fight all another mobs which is not in way, it's just waste of time and high aggro risk thanks to high respawn of 2 minutes.
Use best food for fast health regenation. Or use bandage. Try maximize dps to avoid new aggro, kill fast, they run away at low health.

Once damaged Balos and done quest part, just run away as possible from the tower. The mobs outside are still red.

Attempted this on a 38 shadow priest...the respawn rate is about a minute, even without looting the bodies. Very hard to do, especially if you have to drink after every 2-3 fights. After about a half hour of attempting to clear the place to no avail, I brought out my 70 shaman.

NOTE: if you use this method, do NOT bother clearing the entire place with your high level toon if your alt is just sitting on the road, because by the time you run your alt to the tower, things will already be respawning. I made this mistake a few times before realizing it doesn't work.

I ran my priest into the tower near the stairs (but not close enough to aggro Balos) and let her die. Then I ran back to my priest's body without rezzing. I logged onto my shaman and cleared out the inside of the tower (except for Balos) and the 3-4 mobs standing outside of the tower entrance. Then I quickly relogged my shadow priest, rezzed, ate/drank quickly and then started beating the !@#$ out of Balos. Managed to turn in and receive the follow up quest before things started respawning, then ran like hell out of the tower.

Very frustrating quest. But if you complete it you get about 7.8k of exp (3.9k exp each when talking to Balos and then Vimes afterwards).

Confim the above method
(Run into tower to the top of the wrecked wooden stairs, mobs reset).
Tried it with my lv36 Shaman, worked a treat.
(Didn't bother trying to run out, just Hearthed. :)

Soloed him with ez at lvl 36 with warrior.
Trick is to run in (u don't need to kill anybody), dosen't matter if u die of not.
Pass him and jump to the broken stairs.
Now the trick is to do it the safe way or the quick way.

Safe way:
once u get out of combat (might take a while) start eating and regaining lost hp.
Then when your full recovered, jump down (far from Balos) and kill one or all of the mobs.
if u killed all the mobs eat down there or run up eat and drink, run down and kill the last one.
Yes there spawn time is nuts, but if ur fast enough it will go smooth.
Since u have killed all there, just attack Balos and wait till he turns green.

Quick way:
Regain the lost Hp from when u ran in.
try to jump to Balos (without pulling others) and beat him down till he turns green.

The mobs around this tower kept evading on me. The evade bug combined with the quick respawn time made this quest impossible to solo. What a bunch of bull*!@#.

Really i don't know what r you talking about, I tried with my paladin lv34 and I didn't get any problems, this was an easy quest

lvl 38 WARLOCK: Impossible to kill the mobs, they run away and come back full health, and all mob at once. Respawn is too fast on this to do it as a Warlock alone.
I read some tips from above and completed quest like this:

I used my VoidWalker to go in ahead of me and pulled EVERYONE to attack him. I ran by un-noticed and when up to the broken wooded steps. (Had to sacrifice my VW, but I was almost untouched.)
Regen/and called forth a fellhunter and we came off the steps. I sent him out to drop Balos & friends melee damage, and I focused on killing Balos. 2 other guys ran up, but I was able to defeat Balos fast enough that I could jump back up on the steps before the other guys finished me off. (lost my fellhunter to the mob) called forth another VW, used it as a decoy and ran out like I did coming in. I still got chased and died on the road.

Experienced as a well-geared (PvP blues) 40 affliction warlock. The bugged element to this is the definition of zones for the mobs on the stone approach to the tower. If you are off of the stone and they are on it, constant evades as I tried to land spells on them, even though I registered as in combat. When I was on the stone, I was able to engage them, but if one of the mobs ran (for example from Fear spell) then it would start evading, also seemed to cause all other engaged mobs to evade at same time. Worst case was I had 3 of them, all nearly dead from DoT's. All evaded, 2 of them instantly re-aggro'd at full health, and me at about 20% mana. Survived though!

General suggestions: use a succubus and ensure that your soulstone is up.

Comment for Altaurel: stick with it - the Shady Rest Inn chain has some excellent XP and rewards.

i did this quest solo with my level 34 mage. Easy-peasy if you just follow Stickelbacks instructions. Ran in with mana shield and went to the broken stairs to eat/drink/buff/fight. Thanks, Stickelback!

I did soloed this one a lvl 39, affliction lock, decently geared. I felt it was pretty simple.

Use your VW (or other minion, whatever) and use your long range spells and pull one at time to you. I hit them with corruption and then the rest of my dots and life drained/ or drain souled. When I wanted to speed it up, I added in shadow bolt.

They do respawn quick so make sure you keep an eye out. Check things out with the Eye of Kilrogg before hurl yourself in there.

Perhaps this was fixed in the patch... because it didn't seem that hard to me.

Also one of the quests rewards at the end of the Tabetha/ Hyal chain is a sweet pair of pants. Leggings of the Long Road. Perfect for a lock.

Use above mentioned tactics if you are a under 40 level solo warrior, I hadn't read this forum when I tried. I hack-n-slayed my way through this one with a L40 Fury Warrior. Took bunches of damage inside the tower, 3 foes plus Baros waits inside the tower. Watch out for respawn gaurds coming in during Baros battle.

Finally after several attempts I beat down ALL foes in and around the tower and completed the mission. Tough fight! Definately group up to make this easier.

Have fun.

Pretty tough quest to complete solo as a hunter. If you do have to do it solo, here is what I did as a LVL 35 hunter:

• I killed the Lieutenant and the deserters on the path leading up to the tower.
• Than I killed the 2 on the outside of the tower (not in the grass but around the actual tower). This will usually pull 3-4 more, so make sure you can fight 3 to 5 on 1.
• Once that was complete there are 3 in the tower, along with the Balos Jackson, aim for him and keep shooting, you will likely be mauled by the 3 inside the tower, but if you are quick enough, you can make him green.
• Once he is, you need to go to him and accept the quest. Keep in mind the 3 will continue to attack even if you defeat Balos, so accept quick.
• I died than respawned outside of the tower. I died a few more times trying to get to the road, but once I was there, I was free and clear, quest complete.

Just did this on my new lvl 33 Ret paladin. The respawn rate for these mobs is retarded. Anyway, since I don't stealth on this toon, I just hacked my way up the ramp, then died just inside the door - this allowed me to rez on the wood just Balos Jacken. When I rezzed, did a quick Holy Light, BoW, and used sword & board, casting SoL and judging Wisdom.. Got him down, but when he quit and gave me the follow up quest, four of his henchmen from down below suddenly spawned right next to him and kicked my butt. Since I was going to die anyway, I just grabbed the quest and ran as far as I could before dying on the ramp. This allowed me to rez somewhat near the road. Insane respawn rate on this quest. By the time I'd gotten back from the gy, the mobs were all back. Nutty.

Those wooden stairs really are a safe zone. I ran up there and rezzed. The dude turned and stared at me, wanting to come get me, but didn't while I sat and ate/drank. No DP or anything. He just waited for me to come after him.
PS don't try to fight him from the wooden stairs. You'll do him minor damage but his health will pop right back up, meanwhile yours will go down, down, down. I had to hop onto his platform to keep his HP from regenning over and over-never went below 1500 while I stayed on the stair, but it dropped fast when I joined him on the platform.

Pull the mobs out to the road 1-2 at a time. Do not loot. Rinse and repeat to avoid the insane high respawn rate.

theres a bug when you run into the tower run up the destroyed stars as high as you can go then every 1 will reset thenyou can get the info without having to kill the mobs

Level 35 Ret Pally and Level 36 Prot Pally walked in and mopped up. Simple.

Make sure you are at least 39-41 to do this quest, it's pretty hard.
On my level 39 mage I owned a couple of the Deserters outside so i could get in. But when I got in 3 of Balos' guards attacked me. Luckily before they killed me I got to the steps where Balos is and then I was able to resurrect there and kill him without any guards getting in the way. When he is nearly dead he surrenders and you finish the quest on him. Don't do what I did though and attack the guards after the quest was finished, Baros goes red again. If you want a tip, I'd use your hearthstone or if your a mage, a portal out of there.

I just got Balos down to 10 HP (not 10% of HP, but 10 HP) before he turned friendly. Is it possible to kill him? Not that youd want to if youre on the quest, but is it possible?

Solo'd (all 4 mobs including https://vanillawowdb.com/?npc=5089 Balos Jacken) as a level 34 ret Paladin (I dinged while killing the mobs out front). Hand of Protection was on CD....I did have to use LoH, but no mana or health potions. I did die leaving (even though I popped HoP)...

Now, I will say that I had a tough time getting in there at level 33 and I died 2-3 times. I got in there once, and managed to kill a single mob, though I did die in the process (and LoH was on CD that time, but Hand of Protection wasn't). When I was finally able to get back in, I was level 34 and LoH was off CD. I'm assuming this would actually be possible at level 33 with LoH, but I don't know for sure.

So yes, while it is tough, it's certainly doable (at least for a Ret Paladin) solo.

At level 36, I did not find this difficult at all. Respawn rate *is* rather fast, but picking them off one at a time is easy, and Balos was no problem.

Did it with my 30 something Mage with patch 3.1 or so.

Cleared around the tower, cleared to the tower, respawn wasn't a problem.

They must have fixed it.

Soloed with level forty rogue. Very easy, just sapped and went past everything in stealth up to Baros and brought him down for quest completion.