Progressing through Zul'Aman
by John Himes 
Nov 27th 2007 at 4:00PM
Zul'Aman was released with the rest of patch 2.3 two weeks ago today. Due to its place in the progression chain, many guilds were able to burn through it on the first day it was released. Downing Zul'jin is nothing when you're raiding in Hyjal and Black Temple, apparently. Of course, the intended audience for this dungeon seems to be those raiding groups that hadn't seen much action past Karazhan.My own guild has had some success in ZA. While most of us have at least one or two pieces of tier 5 quality loot, we're not up to Vashj or Kael yet, so ZA still holds some challenges for us. We are still dedicated to pushing through the twenty-five player raids, so we haven't spent a lot of time in ZA, but we've been able to take down three bosses without much difficulty. It's a nice change of pace to face encounters where there is a learning curve, but still a lot of room for error. We haven't had much luck at all with the timed aspect of the dungeon, often with silly mistakes costing us those precious few minutes we needed to rescue the prisoner.
My inspiration for this article came the other day when my guild was raiding in Zul'Aman. One of the group members mentioned that she was enjoying the dungeon, but that it would be a rude awakening for any raiding group coming straight out of Karazhan, since it is much more difficult. What have your experiences in ZA been like so far? What level of raiding progression are you at both inside and outside of Zul'Aman? I'm really curious to see how raiding groups coming out of Karazhan have fared in the new instance.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Raiding
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Blake Nov 27th 2007 4:09PM
So which three bosses have you downed without difficulty? We can easily down the bear aspect, but the raid leader decided the eagle aspect was next and we're currently stuck there trying to figure out the best way to deal with the storms and eagles. Perhaps we would be better off facing the Phoenixhawk next?
Or should we stick it out with the eagle aspect? We have just recently gotten Karazhan on farm status, so we're geared through Kara and a some PvP. No T5. Thanks for any advice.
Nrahk Nov 27th 2007 4:25PM
The Dragonhawk is actually quite a bit harder than the Eagle boss, IMO. The hawk adds don't hit very hard, so healers should be able to keep you up through it. Stay spread out to avoid the discharge. When the storm starts raining, everyone should collapse to the middle, and have 2 or 3 people aoe down the eagles then. To avoid the lightning, you just stand in the shadow of the person that was levitated and you shouldn't get hit at all. After that's done, spread back out and repeat.
Turall Nov 27th 2007 4:16PM
The dungeon is a nice challenge, and I think any guild that has Karazhan at or near farm status should be able to take on the higher difficulty level of ZA.
But don't try this dungeon if your group is not suitably geared out. If you're in mostly blues and still in Kara, finish Kara and get your gear before attampting ZA. The many of the first encounters are serious gear checks, especially tanks and healers, and if you can't keep up, you'll wipe constantly.
Matt Nov 27th 2007 4:18PM
My guild has Kara on farm, Gruul is down and almost on farm, currently working on Lurker. We've killed Nalorakk, but we have been focusing more on 25s in order to progress faster. Thanksgiving has made raiding kind of tough for the last 2 weeks.
Teut Nov 27th 2007 4:23PM
Eagle: You need to spread out behind the boss, wide enough so that the chain lightning doesn't hit more than one member.
Get some boss mods which tell you when the lightning cloud comes. 4 Seconds before the timer runs out move together slightly and run to the shadow on the ground of the lightning cloud. Run immedately, dont hesitate.
LEt a hunter take care of the birds, he should do nothing but shooting the birds until the boss has 30% or less, then he should switch damage to the boss.
Note about the timed event: its buggy. IF you down the first boss in 17 minutes the next event should have 23 minutes as you saved 3 minutes from the first. Unfortunately the bug deducts time, ie. you got only 17 minutes for the next.
We downded the 2nd in 14 minutes and for the third we had suddenly only 11 minutes left (17-6, got it?).
I hope Bliz fixes that.
Rudi Nov 27th 2007 4:27PM
In my opinion if your group can clear Kara ZA is doable. But there is a big difference between a group that clears Kara over 3 nights and a group that clears Kara in 1 night.
Ahoni Nov 27th 2007 4:31PM
@Blake
For the Eagle boss do one of two strats ...
1. Run to the person who is being targeted by the storm. Depending upon your graphics settings you might not see this all that well.
2. Everyone collapses onto the tank and boss 5 seconds before the storm. We use this, and have someone call out a warning 10 seconds before. We would rather have everyone in a little early than a little late. One bad storm is usually a wipe on this guy.
As for the birds, a hunter focusing on them is a good idea. AoE doesn't work all that well since they are spread out, but as a warlock, I seed the boss when we collapse. This thins out the herd a little, and we can ignore the rest of the birds.
Blake Nov 27th 2007 5:45PM
Yeah, we understand the basic concepts, but we've only had a two nights of tries on him. The level of coordination seems to be killing off some of our slower players. I guess I just get frustrated because I have BigWigs installed and have no problems avoiding the storm and spacing myself out and when someone who doesn't run BigWigs or doesn't understand the fight wipes us, there's not much I can do.
Thanks for the hunter tip. We have a lock, but he's not afflic. spec, so he can't dot them up easily. We'll also try the seed during the storm.
Back to the topic at hand, we can clear Kara in one night, so we are sufficiently geared and it seems to be more of a coordination and cooperation issue. I figure once our "slower" members learn the fight and get it down, we shouldn't have problems. It is nice to have another 10-man to be working on other than Kara. Our guild isn't quite to the point of a 25-man past Kara, so this gives us something to do. Our 10-man is the most progressed of the guild and we're working on Gruul as a guild (got him to 25% last night) - constant improvement each week.
Dacool561 Nov 27th 2007 4:39PM
My guild jsut cleared ZA yesterday. All i gotta say is F those tornados -_-
Dan Nov 28th 2007 1:05AM
Those tornado's are ridiculous, and all luck. lame to the extreme.
Thyhammerr Nov 27th 2007 5:06PM
from what i've seen, ZA doesn't like nubcake tanks and nubcake casters..
Even if you have TOP DPS and Top tanks, if group cooperation and understanding isn't there, welcome the repair bill..
Regards,
Thysmage
Magtheridon
Jhonum Nov 27th 2007 5:15PM
My guild has Kara, gruul, and the first few bosses of SSC on farm. Just last weekend was the first time that we downed the lynx boss. We have the bear done under the time limit and almost had the eagle as well. It is definatly a different feel than Kara.
I would say that guilds that have mostly or all kara gear should do fine. If you don't, then work on Kara some more.
Stephen Nov 27th 2007 5:20PM
Downed the Bear on the first trip, Bear and Lynx on the second. Struggled on the Dragonhawk and we've been too melee dps heavy for an Eagle attempt. None of us have raided past Gruul yet. The first 4 ZA bosses are possible for Kara geared groups, just not very easy. I only wish there were more bosses or a second wing so we could drop Kara from the schedule.
Epiny Nov 27th 2007 5:35PM
My guilds first run got to Zul'Jin in 6 hours and then wipped on him for 3 more. The second run we downed the first 4 bosses in 3 hours then healer logged due to work. Third attempt we downed the first 4 bosses in less than 3 hours again then pwn'd Zul'Jin.
We have not raided past Kara before this... other than the random Grull pug people attend.
Balgair Nov 27th 2007 6:47PM
My group has had Kara on farm for a while but not really gone beyond (killed Gruul a couple of times and we occasionally borrow a higher-geared player to fill in a gap, but basically we're all in Kara-level gear), and so far we've got the first four bosses down - dragonhawk was a pain to get used to and lynx is very much a gearcheck for the tanks, but it's at least manageable for us. We almost got the bear boss down within the timer today as well, had him at about 7% when the sacrifice was made :-(
Hex lord is another matter though, as a healer I spend nearly the whole fight struggling with mana until finally I'm put out of my misery by dying (our best is about 78%). I'm about as well-geared as is possible without doing 25-mans so it's going to be tricky to get him down... however we're making noticeable progress, albeit rather slowly, so we should get there in time.
It's a very fun challenge anyway, needs a lot of concentration but it's really satisfying to kill each boss when they're not at all easy for our gear level. Only not-so-good thing is the sheer number of mana pots I'm going through, it's a taste of the hardcore raiders' life I guess!
Shumina Nov 27th 2007 8:48PM
These comments are heartening. We've been banging our head against ZA since it came out. Downed the bear once or twice. Not too shabby since we're only about half all geared with Kara. I like the instance. Throwing more 10-man raids our way would be a brilliant idea. 25-mans are hard to put together without a hard core raiding guild.
Teut Nov 28th 2007 3:34AM
The Hex Lord is a Healer Skilltest. If the healers dont know their job you will fail on this one.
As a Priest before the AoE comes set the Prayer of Mending on yourself. If you have 2 Priests with you put them into different groups.
After POM cast your biggest group heal you have, recast again, otherwise after the 4th or 5th AoE people will die in your group.
After the AoE is done bring everyone to 100%. If you don't they will die with the next AoE he does.
If you have a Warlock let him distribute his healstones (no idea how they are called in english). Tell everyone to take those ONLY on command. The Healer should give that command (usually with the 4th or 5th AoE)
Its a tough boss but since we put some tricks out we down him real fast even with new people along.
Draelar Nov 28th 2007 4:20AM
We've downed the bear boss on the first night there, I think. We're now proudly wiping on Akil'Zon, the eagle boss. I think we're very close to getting him down, as we really improved our storm handling the last time we were there.
We've got Kara resoundingly on farm status (although still in 2 nights, not 1) and are also wiping on Gruul, but we're also improving there.
J0ust Nov 28th 2007 7:03AM
My guild is farming Kara, lacking numbers to get into Gruul and beyond so we're really enjoying ZA right now. It's a step up in terms of intensity; dynamic trash gauntlets are fun, and the boss encounters, for me as the tank at least, are far more intense than the Kara bosses. We've downed the bear, Eagle, and Lynx Avatars but are currently struggling with the Dragonhawk - seems like a fight that requires coordination, which may sound obvious, but the encounter variables (eggs, hatchers, and bombs all in a very tight, confined space) make it a very, very intense fight - I'd estimate it's probably cost me almost 100g in repairs, so far (damn my expensive plate!) but when we down him it will be sweet indeed.
Advice I would give (it's been said before but it really is true and bears repeating): this is NOT the place to bring undergeared people (particularly tanks and healers). You really *do* need to be in Kara standard gear for this; otherwise you're going to get mashed and get frustrated. What you may have got away with in Kara - a few green items here and there - is not going to get you far in ZA. This is a step up in challenge and that *does* include your gear.
bk Nov 28th 2007 1:25PM
Our guild has Kara and Gruul on farm. So far we've downed the 4 avatars (bear, eagle, dragonhawk, lynx), with the lynx being the easiest so far and the dragonhawk being the most painful.
ZA is a very healing intensive instance, as you need lots of mana to outlast the fights, esp if you have kara-level gear.
The dragonhawk boss was the most painful so far because of all the hatchlings to deal with, and the ~4.5k fire damage blasts to random people. I'm the pally tank so I'm watching the hatchers, gathering up all the hatchlings, and then avoiding the time bombs - crazy fight :)