So you want a bear mount huh?

[Arcdelad]

I don't know about everyone else, but when I am in a battleground and I see a druid using the [item]Staff of Beasts[/item] AND riding a bear mount it makes me vomit partially digested crud all over my keyboard...

Becuase I don't have the cashflow to keep buying new keyboards, and becuase we as a guild are very capable of getting these mounts, we are going to be pushing hard from here until WOTLK release to get as many people mounted up.

The following are some points that anyone wanting to go into ZA should be aware of as well as some general strategy...we also have a lot of people who have been able to go into successful pugs and succeed in here, as well as people like Airtotem who do it routinely on another server - dont be shy guys...pipe up with corrections or additions.

....and if you send a $200 check payable to "Arc de lad" I will let you pretend to ride me for 2 whole hours in-game...no lie!

General Strategy

• We should be able to do this with only TWO healers - this seems nuts, especially to those who have healed this, but the general rule for getting bear mounts is that you only take two healers so you can get that extra DPS slot in there to help move along faster. IMO all four bosses required for the bear mount can be done with two healers...hex lord CAN be done with two, but its not pretty (just ask gren lol), and Zul Jin is purt neer impossible with only two, BUT the first four bosses can be done. Having a shadow priest for DPS would help
• We need two tanks - 3 of the 4 bosses require two tanks - the bear boss, dragonhawk boss, and lynx all need two solid tanks.
• A hunter is virtually required - the bear mounts and the lynx boss all frenzy which is dispellable by tranq shot...its possible to heal through it, but then again we are going in with only two healers, so having tranq shot can help a ton
• Bringing along a ret pally, arms/fury warrior, or feral druid can help with the eagle gauntlet run, since they can "bring up the rear" and catch some adds
• CC stands for crowd control! It does! Mages, hunters, balance druids, and warlocks are all highly desirable for DPS becuase of their high output and effective means of CC for this instance
• One person needs to be on master loot duty so that the raid leader can focus on pushing the raid momentum forward. Preferably this person is a non-mana using person like a rogue, warrior, or feral druid so that mana users can drink up when needed instead of worrying about loot.
• Know thy loot tables - God actually forgot this one...you will get exactly 10 seconds to roll on any boss loot before the ML runs off...if noone says anything within that time it will be DE'ed promptly. KNOW what you want going into the run, and if it drops, roll FAST. All timed event chests will be left alone until the timed event attempt succeeds or fails.

Timed event

Kill order: Eagle boss, Bear boss, Dragonhawk boss, Lynx boss

Eagle Boss

After Harrison Ford dies (and he SHOULD after that abomination called Indy 4), the tanks should pick up the two mobs, and DPS should AOE down the rush of non-elite adds, then kill those two ASAP. AVOID the roaming pat group that walks around after the steps.

For the gauntlet, the two tanks should focus on the two "sentries", while an offtank stays behind the group to pick up the trolls that come spawn from the back. The flow should be - kill X, kill skull, THEN immediately pull next two. The off tank should try and pull his guys into the AOE to kill them off, and any DPS with a good AOE spell should feel free to use it on those damn birds.

When you get to the scout, kill him ASAP (to stop adds from spawning), THEN wrap up remaining mobs. After they are dead, head to the top of the steps and mana up FAST. Once I see mana in healers at full the MT will be pulling - make sure you are INSIDE the line at the top of the steps. Also make sure you are not queued up for an arena match (cough goss cough).

For the boss, ideally we have a tank with some good NR gear - hunters should pop their NR aura as well.

Positioning

Melee - all melee need to be spaced as FAR away from each other as possible to avoid splash damage from his lightning attack. The boss has a decent sized hit box, so if the tank is in the "N" position on the compass, other melee should be "E", "W", and "S" as FAR BACK as possible. The goal is to not be close to any other melee.

Ranged - All ranged and casters should be standing on the edge of the rectangle on the ground, spaced AWAY form each other. Everyone should pick a spot, memorize the location, and then come back to THAT spot always after a lightning storm. If it helps you, urinate on that spot so you can find it by scent (it works for me).

Strategy

Like the economy and giving birth, this fight is all about expansion and contraction. The boss will periodically cast a lightning storm on a random non-MT party member - there is a pretty wide saftey zone around that particular person, so its imperitive that EVERYONE head to that spot ASAP - it is marked on the ground by an easily detectable dark spot - you can also just see where the lightning is heading and go there as well. Anyone who DOES NOT go to that spot will die.

The first lightning storm is very unpredictable, BUT if everyone is paying attention and gets to the spot fast its remarkably easy to dodge. The flow of the fight is that he will cast lightning storm, everyone contracts in to that spot, and then when the storm is over you IMMEDIATELY spread back to your spot...if you DONT spread back out, he is going to blast everyone with a chain lightning attack and the healers will be cursing you.

So...just pay attention. Be ready to shrink in during lightning strikes, then expand back out right after. If we have a lock he is enough for the annoying birds with SOC, if not ignore them. This boss doent have a huge health pool, so he should be dropped fairly quickly.

Bear Boss

After the eagle boss drops, you have 10 seconds for loot, then BOOK it to the roaming pat group we forget earlier...kill them ASAP then move on and get ready for the first part of the Bear boss groups...the first group consists of three trolls...when there is only one troll left the next group (two bears) will be pulled...any CC should keep on their toes and CC appropriately to keep the raid smooth and the mobs contained. Right after the bears die the netx group will be pulled - it consists of 4 trolls. IMMEDIATELY after these die, two bear mounts are heading your way. The tanks need to keep them spread so their demo roars dont overlap- kill order is: kill X, sheep the bear when they seperate, kill that troll, KILL the bear, THEN move to next mob.

After these die, you have 5-10 seconds for mana, then the hardest of all groups is coming - it consists of two trolls and two bear mounts...the two trolls need to be cc'ed (trap, fear, sheep, etc etc), and the two bear mounts should be dealt with first JUST as we dealt with the last two.

When all four mobs are dead, I will be pulling the boss when I see healer mana topped out.

This boss is fairly straightforward. Any melee dps needs to be behind the boss at all times to avoid his cleave, and both tanks need to be on top of each other in front of him to split the damage. This fight takes precision taunting from the tanks - healers should focus on keeping any hots up on the bear form tank and that tank should have a higher health pool and physical resistance. If a mage has time, AMP magic can be put on the tanks for this fight to help out the healers. Also, any damage reducers should be used to help out like curse of weakness, demo roar, demo shout, etc etc.

Any tanks who have questions on how to tank this feel free to ask me.

Dragonhawk Boss

After the bear boss drops you will have 10 seconds for loot, then go down the ramp and turn left to get to the dragonhawk gauntlet.

For this gauntlet its CRITICAL that EVERYONE, including healers, watch out for any scouts wandering towards the group - a pally healer, for example, can HOJ one to buy some killing time. The best way to avoid the issue of repoping scouts is to just KEEP MOVING. DO NOT dawdle in the back - the group should clump up by the tanks and keep forward movement going - this ensures that the ones in the back will keep walking and wont hit the drum to summon more mobs.

Generally the groups consist of 1-2 flame dudes, 1-2 handlers, and a scout...kill the scout, sheep/contain the flame dudes ASAP...if you cant they need to die FAST...handlers need to be...handled (lolol - i crack me up!) fast too...

Again, kill group and move forward as a group to the next one...dont hang back you caster types!

When you get past the scouts, there will be two handler / dragonhawk groups...if its convenient grab them and kill them - they have a penchant for patting up the steps and causing wipes if you dont, although it is possible to skip them.

When you go up the steps on your left, hug the left wall and DO NOT pull the group on the other side of the stairs....and if possible, fight close to the stairs by the boss to avoid pat problems if needed...

Boss

This boss does NOT hit particularly hard on the MT - this is a finesse fight and everyone needs to be paying close attention to their surroundings and perform well.

The boss is going to call up two "hatcher" trolls - they are going to head to the left and right of the platform and start popping eggs if you let them....one needs to die ASAP, the other should be left alone and should be allowed to open up ALL OF THE EGGS on one side of the platform...a pally tank here does wonders, but if allo the pally tank dies from an explosion he should be banished! forever!

All of those adds need to be killed ASAP - any class that can OT some should be on the lookout for any that mages or locks steal and grab those away from those guys...during the course of this the boss will launch a bunch of cluster bombs around the platform - its pretty easy - DONT stand in one, instead stand in a clear spot and park it. Its that easy. There should be no reason anyone moves during a flame wreath gets blown up.

The next round of hatchers, kill one again, and let the other one hatch HALF of that group...once he has hatched half, kill him. The third wave of hatchers should hatch the remaining ones, and then its all on the boss - again, making sure to avoid his bombs.

Lynx Boss

Loot will expire in 10 seconds, then head down the platform and hang a right - there will be a pat of two that you need to just avoid. There is a nifty shortcut that consists of jumping through two hut windows, then darting into the croc infested water and swimming to the very end - doing this method cuts out about 4-6 groups and saves a TON of time.

There will be alternating groups of pats and groups of lynxes that jump out at you - these are all very easy to deal with - just keep momentum going forward at all times and keep up with the tanks. Once you get to the boss and his room is cleared, healers need to mana up, and then the tanks need to go in unison to pull the boss. This boss is purely physical damage and DOES NOT CRUSH, so amp magic should be applied if possible and a druid tank is ideal for tanking the combined form.

The two tanks should stand exactly on each other...if done correctly they should look like the same player almost...except dont look like kaylasb...hes just ugly and lame looking in all that cheesy pally plate. Healers need to be on top of keeping the MT alive - the lynx hits hard and fast and will go into frenzies which can be dispelled by a hunter with tranq shot...he will frenzy more than the the CD on tranq shot, though, so just do the best you can...

After 25% damage is done, the two will split - at this point, ALL DPS should focus on the Lynx form (tanked by the OT) and ignore the troll form. When the lynx gets to zero health, the two recombine and you need to kill off the next 25%...these 25% damage increments should come FAST - he is pretty soft and drops health easily.

Two things during the split should be observed:

1) Totems - these need to die ASAP - all dps should switch to the totems when they drop as prompted by the raid leader or big wigs...failure to kill them asap may result in your death - and utter humiliation! ha!

2) Shocks - these are more of a lengthy debuff than a "shock", but they are dispellable and should be dispelled RIGHT AWAY. They should not even be up one second if the healers are doing their job.

For the last 25% of the boss' health, he is going to stay combined and do massive damage AND drop totems, so make sure you kill the totems and keep the tanks alive.

Thats it! Congrats on your bear mount! Tyban will never get one as he doesnt roll higher than a 12.

[fiere redfern]

LOL - excellent guide, Arc. 

[Melonni]

Thorough guide. =) Strong DPS is also required for this to work. Would be nice if everyone would be pushing 900++ DPS consistently (on trash, and higher on bosses)

Question about the ambush groups of Lynxes (4-5ish) while clearing to Lynx boss - are they to be AoE'd or single shot - or does it depend on the amount/power of the group's AoE? I've tried AoEing them at times and usually burn my mana completely dry and I waste time drinking a lot.

[Gutboy]

TL; DR


(just kiddin dude  )

Seriously, a lot of good info. I haven't been able to line up with a ZA raid very often lately, and when I can, they seem to fill up fast, but I am interested. I would also respec DPS to get in on one, if it's already fully tanked.

GB

[Arcdelad]

lol...no idea what that means GB your reference is lost!

I think we may structure the weekly ZA's (x2) so that one is for seasoned ZA people to do timed event attempts and the other is an introductory to learn the instance, but were still kind of hashing stuff out.

Mel - since the goal is to chain pull all the way to the lynx boss id say go single taget spell to save time, but then again i dont know how effective your aoe is since my mage is only level 1 - and a bank alt at that. I cast a mean frost armor though walking from the bank to the AH!

[fiere redfern]

lol...no idea what that means GB your reference is lost!

"Too long; didn't read" - took me forever to figure out what that meant, myself, haha.

[Airtotem]

Yes, those lynxs are AOEd down.   We normally have our pally tank mount up and grab 2 groups of those lynxs as long as the pat is clear, so our warlocks/mages AOE down like 9-10 at a time.  He is pushing 20k+HP also, but i'm sure hes just barely a little better geared than our best pally tanks. 

Once we get to the last pat before the stairs to the lynx boss, that is when they normally take their drink break.

The instance and timed event is about drinking at 20% mana when you are out of combat and pulling when you are at 45% mana, lol

Our group makeup usually went something like...
pally tank, balance druid, feral druid, 2 shaman of any kind, hopefully resto for chain heals, but mainly for heroism for both groups, since you can pop heroism and have it ready again for each of the 4 bosses.  Also, 1 mage, 1 warlock, 1 rogue, hopefully 1 priest, preferably shadow but a healing priest does just fine.  Our groups 2 healers were usually 1 shaman and 1 paladin.   The hunter isn't as important as you think, because, if your group's DPS is what it should be, then chances are, you will get the Lynx boss down 25% before he even has a chance to go into Frenzy, especially with heroism up. 

[Tolwen]

Great guide Arc, tnx!
I was thinking the other day, wouldn't teamspeak/ vent make ZA a whole lot easier? specially for those who haven't been there a lot?

[Nixphire]

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=9336866249&pageNo=1&sid=1

[blizzard]

Q u o t e:
Will bear mounts still be available when the new content patch hits?

No. This item will no longer be available with the release of the next content patch. Mind you this patch will happen before the release of Wrath of the Lich King. [/blizzard]

[Melonni]

 

[usonian]

Why would the ability to get a bear mount after completing a task in an instance be removed after a content patch?  I don't understand.

[khader]

Patch referred to is more than content - it will bring some of the class changes for WotLK.  Guess Blizzard feels the class changes wouldn't be fair to those who got the bear 'the hard way'.

[Arcdelad]

because a group of us level 80's could do it in 20 mins 3 times a week and cheapen the reward...

[usonian]

So while we're at it, let's take warglaives out of the game since they'll be easier to get once we turn 80.  We don't want all those rogues crying that they did it the hard way...

[Arcdelad]

warglaives may not be as good as the level 78 elite quest reward though