Patch 4.3 PTR: Streamlining changes for Zul'Gurub and Zul'Aman
by Matthew Rossi 
Oct 4th 2011 at 7:00PM
Patch 4.3.0 PTR Notes
Zul'Gurub
Zul'Aman
- Players now only have to kill two of the four initial dungeon bosses (High Priest Venoxis, Broodlord Mandokir, High Priestess Kilnara, and Zanzil) to face Jin'do the Godbreaker.
Zul'Aman
- Players now only have to kill two of the four Troll avatars before they may face Hex Lord Malacrass.
This means you'll only need to kill two of the bosses to get to the end in the case of ZG, and two plus Hex Lord to get to the end of ZA. The good news is, this will make these dungeons go a lot faster. The bad news is, good luck convincing a group to kill Dragonhawk or Kilnara. This is a fairly big sign that Blizz expects us to be saying goodbye to these instances as soon as we can get into the new Twilight 5-mans.
I'm all for it, myself. I hate running ZG now; it takes forever. But I can definitely see people objecting to the way this will force them to miss out on mount changes or loot from bosses no one wants to do.
Brace yourselves for what could be some of most exciting updates to the game recently with patch 4.3. Review the official patch notes, and then dig into what's ahead: new item storage options, cross-realm raiding, cosmetic armor skinning and your chance to battle the mighty Deathwing -- from astride his back!
Filed under: News items, Cataclysm
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Othgan Oct 4th 2011 7:03PM
I still need the one-handed sword off Zanzil so I can transmogrify my weapons into swords. People better run him, though it will probably be Venoxis and Kilnara (for mount).
MysticalOS Oct 4th 2011 7:15PM
one would think so, but somehow i doubt it, people will go for speed even if it means passing up a mount. they're just gonna go "well it's not gonna drop anyways" they'l do the 2 fastest/eastest bosses and that'll be that
Swifteye Oct 5th 2011 10:20AM
I'm guessing that there will be a whole lot of Mandokir/Zanzil runs... Zanzil can be a bit of a pain if the group doesn't know the fight, but for some reason I've seen a LOT more fail on Venoxis. I could be wrong, but I'm betting that many people will be all too happy to skip him.
discfor1 Oct 5th 2011 6:50PM
Almost certainly it will be Venoxis and Mandokir. First 2, limited trash, then run past Gub, for final boss.
Ad134 Oct 4th 2011 7:04PM
Goddammit! Zandalari heroics are meant to be challenging and long! Cataclysm is slowly becoming Wrath again...
razion Oct 4th 2011 7:10PM
... and that's... uh, supposed to be... bad or something?
MusedMoose Oct 4th 2011 7:16PM
Seconding what razion said. I had a ton more fun in Wrath heroics than I have in Cataclysm heroics, and last time I checked, this is a game, so it's supposed to be fun. ^_^
I mean, I remember a particularly epic group I ran with once, we just plowed through things bantering the whole way, and we cleared four dungeons in a row before someone had to leave. Such a great time. I have a hard time picturing that happening in the Cata heroics.
MysticalOS Oct 4th 2011 7:18PM
hard heroics had their place at launch. at launch they were great. but grindy long heroics you've run a hundred times that you still run for valor on like 10 alts, no thank you, give me a speedy run please. I htink blizz got it right this expansion, they were a great challenge and launch experience, getting volcanic drakes while wearing blues was a meaningful acomplishment not like the wrath dungeons being faceroll from day one.
But we are 9-10 months into expansion now. there comes a time old heroics should be nerfed.
however I do think the new heroics should be a challenge and i do hope it doesn't stay the way it is on PTR right now cause if it stays a joke i'll be largely disapointed. you nerf them later, not right out the door.
Blayze Oct 4th 2011 7:48PM
Having three of these heroics instead of two won't make much of a difference to how quickly people get bored of them. Being able to cap VP on stuff that doesn't take a week to do, though? That's the good part.
shatto.a Oct 4th 2011 7:53PM
Wrath-length dungeons + Cata-style difficulty and mechanics = happy shatto.a.
Edymnion Oct 5th 2011 9:39AM
Yeah, a return to Wrath style dungeons is a *GOOD* thing.
I cannot tell you how many times I've gone "A fresh ZG? Oh hell no." and dropped group. I would rather eat the 30 minute deserter buff than have to suffer through an hour in there with failgroup after failgroup, wrack of a 500g repair bill because the healer decides to run around like a chicken with it's head cut off on Jin'Do, and have everyone but me ignore the berserkers on Zanzil.
For what they are, its great to have them as a mini-raid. But what they turned into was "you have to run these things every single day to get your gear". If my guildies had been geared enough to do guild runs every day, it might have been different, but I pugged my way through those things, on multiple toons. Those things are nightmares to run every day with pugs.
Its a GOOD thing they are making them shorter. Long difficult dungeons are fun when you aren't forced to pug them every single day just to keep current. Then they become chores, work. Nobody runs those things anymore because they enjoy them, they run them for the vp and the gear. And when you don't need the gear anymore, you really can't stand to look at those anymore.
John Oct 5th 2011 9:39AM
I think Ad134 was being sarcastic.
I hope...
Bellajtok Oct 4th 2011 7:19PM
Mount lovers, take note. You will never see any mount in these dungeons while in an RDF group again.
Schadenfreude Oct 4th 2011 7:43PM
I'll be happy to get through them faster, but ughhhhh I still need my bear mount! Our successful runs have generally been in partial pugs because of the LFD buff.
Hopefully we'll be more powerful in 4.3 and we'll be able to farm mounts for e'body.
Infinite Duck Oct 4th 2011 9:13PM
That was my first reaction, "Bye-bye bear mount..."
Ballmung Oct 5th 2011 2:07AM
You mean I have to find a group of people and specifically farm for these mounts?
I can find people in guild. Or I can wait until Pandaria and lvl 90 to farm the mounts. Less people to fight over them too.
Killik Oct 5th 2011 4:57AM
Be interesting to see which bosses end up being the ones skipped. I can see people still doing Mandokir for the raptor, but Kilnara is a definite miss.
Matt84 Oct 5th 2011 8:31AM
We still don't know that the next expansion is called Pandaria or has anything to do with that subject. They may be planning to use the name for a book or something. Personally I am still hoping for the Emerald Dream, not a bunch of stupid pandas. The level cap may not be 90 either, it could be 95. The five level thing didn't exactly go over too well with most people.
Shinae Oct 5th 2011 10:52AM
Not like I've ever seen the raptor or panther drop anyway, despite running these dungeons many times.
bendolfin Oct 4th 2011 7:24PM
In the next expansion I prefer a large number of 3 boss dungeons. Quicker is a bit better IMHO, Wrath was fun and not overly long.