SR Zul'Aman Strat
Kill Order
The general concensus (see WoWwiki)seems to be that Eagle - Bear - Dragonhawk - Lynx is the best way to a bear mount. However, this only gives a 10-minute bonus after the first kill, so groups often follow our normal kill order (Bear - Eagle) in order to have a better chance of getting loot from the second chest.
We need to decide whether to stick with our normal kill order, and if so, when (or if) it makes sense to switch to Eagle - Bear.
Group Makeup
We have been going with 2 tanks, 3 healers, and 5 dps. Most 'bear mount' groups seem to go with 2 healers, so we might want to consider that in the future. Our experience in learning ZA was that having a pally tank makes a couple of key places in ZA a lot easier, particularly the Eagle gauntlet and the Dragonhawk boss (which we never downed until we brought a pally along to tank the hatchlings).
Everyone should have T4+ gear, and should have upgraded every slot to the very best of their ability (enchants, ammo, etc.).
Preparation / Getting Started
Everyone should work out assignments (tanking, healing, CC marks, groups, etc.) before we start. Everyone should be buffed as much as possible (flasks or equivalent elixirs). Everyone should be careful of CC and follow the kill order. We will be chain pulling, which means things like healers covering assignments while one of them are drinking, and people using healing and/or mana potions liberally in order to keep going. Everyone should also have Shadow Protection Potions on-hand for Malacrass, and we can consider making a Cauldron as well.
Example of roster/assignments that we might make before a run (yeah, my name examples are lame, sue me :P)
- Tanky - MT, Marking pulls, Nalorakk Bear form, tanking Eagle, tanking Dragonhawk, tanking Lynx (stays on troll form)
- Pallytank - OT, Nalorakk Troll form, heals/judgements for Eagle boss, tanking hatchlings for Dragonhawk, Saber Lash soaking and Lynx Spirit pickup on Lynx
- Healey - MT healer, Eagle position 3:00
- Healiest - OT healer, Eagle position 6:00
- Healsalso - Raid healer, healer of lead AoE dps, MT healer for bosses, Eagle position 9:00
- Magey - Sheep target moon, lead AoE for Eagle trash and Dragonhawk hatchlings
- Hunter - Trap target square, tranq shot on bears and Lynx
- Spriest - MC target circle
- Warlock/Mage2 - assist AoE for Eagle trash and Dragonhawk hatchlings
- Rogue - MA for Eagle Gauntlet, Kill Dragonhawk Hatcher
Not all of the dps will necessarily get their own role listed, but that should give an idea of the kinds of things we want to have worked out ahead of time.
Walkthrough
We ring the gong, and kill the mobs that spawn at the open door - AoE the small ones, tank and kill the 2 elites.
Head down the steps. Our habit is to kill the patrol, since not killing it has led to problems in the past. Kill the Medicine Man first, making sure to take the totems down immediately.
Bear Boss Trash
Wait for Nalorakk to yell and send a pack of 3 trolls to the bottom of the stairs. CC one and tank the other 2.
Next pull is 2 bears, tank both and then hug the left wall to skip another pack of 2 bears.
Nalorakk will yell and retreat again, the next pull is 4 trolls (Medicine Men, Axe Throwers, Tribesmen). CC 2 targets and tank the other 2. CC targets are Medicine Men (for sheep) and Tribesmen (for hunter trap). OT should be breaking CC on the next mob in the kill order early in order to build threat and keep things moving.
Next pull is 2 Warbringers (Bear riders). These need to be tanked away from each other because of their stacking AoE debuff. When the Bear rider is low in life, the troll will dismount. Kill the troll, then the bear, before moving onto the next mob in the kill order. Don't unload on the Bear until you're sure the tank has aggro on it (this is a good time for a MD or CC to keep the bear off the raid).
The last pull before the bear boss is one of the hardest pulls in the instance. There will be 2 Warbringers (Bear riders), and 2 trolls (again, they can be Medicine Men, Axe Throwers, or Tribesmen). We generally CC the trolls (sheep, trap, mind control) and kill the bears first. Once the first bear (and rider) is down, a tank may pick up a troll that has broken CC.
Bear Boss (Nalorakk)
Nalorakk switches back and forth between 2 forms: bear form and troll form. He needs to be taunted from one tank to the other when he switches, as the bleeds he uses in Bear form will be doubled if the tank has the mangle debuff that gets applied in troll form.
Troll form: tanks need to stand on top of each other to split the damage from Brutal Swipe. He will charge someone at range but will come back to the tank. Bear form: he has a 2-second silence which can affect healing.
Eagle Trash (Gauntlet)
This is probably the most hectic area in the instance. We have one tank working the front of the group, and one at the back, dealing with the warriors who spawn. Ideally, we have a paladin dropping consecrate and picking up the birds that also spawn (either the OT or a healing pally have been used in the past). DPS have to be smart about kill order here - success depends on the dps moving forward and reacting quickly to the situation around them. In general, we kill the front 2 mobs in each pack (Wind Walker first), then any birds that are on us, then move up to the next set. The rear tank may need help periodically with his/her mobs. When the Tempest is engaged, the bird waves will stop.
Eagle Boss (Akil'zon)
The 2 big abilities that the Eagle has are the Static Disruption, which is lightning that chains to nearby people, and Electrical Storm, which occurs every 45-60 seconds and hits everyone who is not collapsed on the affected raid member for progressively more damage. We therefore spread out in a circle around him, far enough away from other players to not chain the lighning (healers have assigned positions, everyone else grabs a spot where they aren't close to anyone else). When the Electrical Storm is coming, everyone steps in closer to the boss, so that we have less space to run when he casts his Electrical Storm (but this does put us at a certain amount of danger from Static Disruption, so healers may need to heal the raid at this point).
He also summons birds which do damage to the whole raid. They can be dotted by warlocks or killed by other ranged classes (hunters, etc.), or can be ignored and the damage can be healed through. We generally assign a warlock or hunter to the birds.
Dragonhawk Trash
Dragonhawk Path from Pillage, note that I think we might kill one more pack than is listed here.
We take a path following the left wall of the area.
The Scouts need to be stunned/rooted/slowed so that they don't reach the drums and summon mobs. Scouts will spawn in huts, and you need to continually keep an eye out for them, and the whole group needs to stay very close to each other so that scouts aren't woken by stragglers.
Guardians will dispell CC on the other mobs, and the Flamecasters are very dangerous with their fire volleys (which are interruptable). We often will pull the Guardian into a hut in order to break his LoS to the Flamecasters and allow them to be sheeped. Tanks need to warn healers if they're going to do this, so that the healers can maintain LoS. A mage may need to continually cast sheep on a Flamecaster if a Guardian is dispelling it. Mages can also steal their haste buff.
First Pull, 2 Flame Casters, 1 Guardian and 1 Scout. Kill Scout first, MT pulls Guardian away, sheep one Flamecaster, kill the other, then Guardian, then sheep.
Second Pull, Scout, Trainer, 4 Dragonhawks. Kill Scout, CC Trainer, tank Dragonhawks.
Third Pull, 2 Flame Casters, Guardian, Scout and one Dragonhawk, handle same as first pull. The Pillage guide refers to a safe corner, we've played with this at least once before, it's a corner where you stand on grey stone, but I'm not sure if we had more success with that or with just following the left-hand side of the area.
Fourth Pull, at the bottom of the stairs, patrolling Trainer and 2 Dragonhawks.
Fifth Pull, 4 mobs, usually 2 Flame Casters and 2 Guardians. It's possible to use the corners in the area to break LoS, if we can CC or tank the Flamecasters in place and pull the Guardians away and out of LoS. In order to do this, a tank should charge one of the Flamecasters, and hunters or others should pull the Guardians off and out of LoS. Otherwise, use the same method as in the first pull (mage continually sheeps one, tank the 2 guardians, kill the unsheeped Flamecaster, then the Guardians, then the sheep).
Dragonhawk (Jan'Alai)
The key thing here is handling the hatchlings, people getting used to the firebombs, and positioning of the boss and the raid so that the flame breath doesn't hit more than one person.
We've had our best successes with a paladin tanking the hatchlings, using consecrate, frost nova, and frost trap to gather them and AoEing them down. We typically hatch 1/2 of the eggs each wave (or a whole side if the OT is feeling cocky!). Everyone gathers on the platform with the OT except the MT, MT healers, and the dps assigned to kill the hatcher on the other platform. Two dps need to be assigned to kill the hatchers at the appropriate time (one to kill the off-side Hatcher after 0-1 eggs, one to kill the Hatcher where the OT is after the agreed-upon number of waves of eggs have been hatched). The Hatchlings are the first dps priority, the only thing more important in the beginning of the fight is not dying to the firebombs.
If we don't have a pally tank, we hatch the eggs at a much slower rate, generally one side's Hatcher is allowed 3-4 ticks (6-10 eggs), but the rest of the strategy is similar.
The Dragonhawk will Enrage at 5 minutes or 25%, his damage and speed both increase by 50%, healers will have to heal through this. This is different from the Berserk he does at 10 minutes.
Lynx Trash
I'm not really sure how to describe the shortcut route, other than to say that it involves jumping through hut windows. But we still have to fight some trash, as follows:
Lynx packs: Tanks on the elites, kill elites then mop up the little guys, some of these packs are stealthed Lynx + Handler packs: Tanks each take Handler + Lynx, kill both Handlers then the lynx Beast Tamer + 2 Crocolisks: Tanks each take Tamer + Croc, kill both Tamers then the Crocs Lynx room patrolling Guardians: pull and kill Last 2 packs: 3 mobs consisting of Flame Caster, a Guardian and Handler mobs. Similar to the Dragonhawk trash, CC the Flamecaster (continually sheeping) and kill the Guardian first.
Lynx Boss (Halazzi)
Halazzi is tanked inside his room, generally in front of the ramp, where the floor tiles turn blue. The 2 tanks stand on top of each other to split the Saber Lash damage. They must run in together, and both need assigned healing. Everyone else spreads out, with ranged staying out as far as possible. He also frenzies in this form, hunters can remove with Tranq Shot.
Each 25%, he'll split into troll and lynx spirits, the OT will pick up the lynx spirit, and MT and damage will stay on the troll. During this phase, he drops Corrupted Lightning totems that need to be killed immediately (targetting macros can be useful). The Flame Shock that he casts on raid members must be dispelled quickly. When the troll spirit is down to no health, he'll go back to his original form.
Malacrass Trash
Berserkers have knockback, so tank against a wall.
Last pack before Malacrass is 4 trolls, Tempest, Handler, Medicine Man and Flame Caster. CC Medicine Man (because of his totems), burn Flamecaster, then Tempest, Handler, then sheeped Medicine Man.
Hex Lord Malacrass
This is a dps race. You need to kill Malacrass before his Drain Power increases his damage too far. Shadow Protection (from potions usually) helps against his Spirit Bolts, as will any group healing spells. Healers have to deal with a lot of raid damage on this fight, and mana will be more of a problem than normally.
We tank him on the left side of the room, tank moves up and down the left side as necessary to avoid traps, consecrates, etc. OT initiates pull and pulls adds to the right side of the room, CC adds as necessary and kill them as quickly as possible.
Depending on who he drains, the abilities can be dangerous, with consecrate and heals generally landing at the top of the list. Heals with cast times are interruptable.
Zul'jin
We haven't killed this guy yet, so we'll add notes as we learn more about the fight.