You’ll meet the great bear guardian first, dire Nalorakk. Be sure to lead many players his way if you dream about riding that wicked looking bear sometime in the near future. Akil'zon is the eagle avatar and master of storms. Unlike his Zul Gurub counterpart, the lynx avatar Halazzi does not have three acolytes that resurrect one another. Jan'alai, dragonhawk avatar puts up a good fight protecting the eggs of the flying hunter. Many will find their doom by the hands of Hex Lord Malacrass but none is as powerful as the master himself, Zul’Jin.

A troll with a dark past

<-250x250 Square - left->Zul'jin's ability as a warrior quickly prompted him leader of his tribe and his need drove him to reunite the wandering troll tribes of Zul’Aman under a single ruler. This extraordinary feat echoed back from the Troll Wars, when the tribes reunited last in the face of mortal danger. Such were the times when Zul’Jin took charge, as Humans joined the High Elves in a crusade to drive the forest trolls back into the wilderness and claim their lands. His raiding parties laid waste to the surrounding areas of Quel'thalas in a time when trolls were weak and defensive. In the conjuration of the Second War, Zul’jin’s plans to unite all trolls under one nation came to a halt however, as he has been captured and tortured, losing his right eye. When his wardens were attacked by a small troll war-party, Zul’Jin cut off his own arm with a fallen spear and escaped to Zul’Aman.

In his rage he searched for new ways to vanquish his foes and found the tools of his revenge in Hexlord Malacrass VooDoo. The totemic spirits revered by the forest trolls in their ancestral shamanistic practices were bound to the greatest and most powerful troll fighters, inside Zul’Aman. Thus the bear, eagle, lynx and dragonhawk avatars were born. As the high elves turned blood elves when Quel’Thalas was destroyed by the scourge and now fight alongside the horde. Forest trolls were always notorious for their war habits, feared by enemies and allies alike, so these events did nothing to smother Zul’Jin’s heart. In his rage, Zul’Jin now turns against the horde and everyone entering Zul’Aman hereby is a foe.

The Zul speaks

“Dis was our land. TROLL land. We Amani was here before anyone! Da' elves and dere Alliance came to drive us out. But we never give up. We never forget... Da' elves took my eye. I cut off my own arm to escape 'dem... and now, 'de fight alongside da' HORDE!? I SPIT on da' Horde! I hate you, I hate you all... But I got a surprise for ya' now, so come on in... De' Amani never give up! We never forget. We never die. 'Dis is our land: you wanna stay, you stay here forever! We gonna bury you here.”

Four spirits pour into one

The wooden doors behind Malacrass’ sanctuary lead to an inner garden where the troll chieftain takes residence. You may think the four avatars defeated, but you are wrong. This matter has always been between Zul’Jin and Malacrass, but the totemic avatars are bound to the Zul alone, for he performed the summoning. That is why we can see them hovering atop the terrace in spirit form, inactive as if waiting for a sign.

As you approach Zul’Jin, he rushes along with a dozen troll warriors that die to three AoE blasts. Le the spank and tank begin! Raiders should spread around Zul’Jin evenly to avoid nasty surprises in the later stages of the fight. In the humanoid form he whirls and hits everyone in melee range so keep an eye on the rogue. He also randomly uses grievous throw which impacts for 3k and leaves a debuff like Rokmar the Crackler in Slave Pens does. The bleeding effect ticks for 2.5k every 2s and disappears if the targeted player is at full health. Be warned that Zul’Jin switches phases every 20% and dps needs to give the tank time to establish agro again, due to threat wipes.

At 80% we have Zul’Jin slightly annoyed by our presence as he calls upon the spirit of the Bear spirit for assistance as he turns into a brown hairy beast. Unlike Nalorakk he casts Paralysis on everyone, debuff which stuns for 4s each 5s and deals up to 4.5k damage unless dispelled. The priority lies with the main tank (due to the recent threat reset) and then healers. Again, luck isn’t a factor so play your cards right and down at 60% Zul’Jin call upon the aid of the Eagle spirit as the bear ghost falls to the ground seemingly dead.

From here on casters will have a tough time doing anything so melee DPS will be the main source of damage. He does not attack anyone so melee should go all out. Lightning zaps you for 1250 each time you cast a spell, but this mana feedback can be fooled by using spells with long casting times and then pulling an instant cast spell at the same time. This way you only get zapped every 4 seconds, because WoW interprets your chain as one single spell. The eagle hasn’t yet landed and the storms are getting annoying. Small tornadoes randomly patrol the terrace and deal 1000 damage with an additional pushback effect. Healers have problems here and must avoid getting cornered by tornadoes. DPS casters are advised to deal damage only as long as there is enough healing to pass around.

With proper control, Zul’Jin reaches 40% and starts off the gamble phase. The lynx that enforces his look upon the master troll can fixate and attack a random person in the raid, therefore ignoring all other attempts to gain agro. It’s hard to describe the kind of attacks this lynx can pull off. Suffice it to say that evasion will not help, nor parry or dodge. Just use blessing of protection, vanish, ice block or whatever life savers available. As a mage I died in two hits which landed in exactly one second, so not even a warrior’s intervene is enough on cloth wearers. When the lynx isn’t fixating anyone, it does a blade dance like Kargath in Shattered Halls, leaving a stacking bleeding debuff on people hit. This phase is hands down the hardest in the battle, so expect to lose up to three people.

Only 20% hit points to go and Zul’Jin falls, only to rise again as a dragonhawk. The spirit casts a smite type spell randomly into the raid, but it’s an area effect so you need to move out immediately when you get hit for the first time. The holy fire ranges somewhere into 3500 damage and ticks every second, so three of these will most likely see you dead. After fighting the lynx, melees get punished in return when the dragonhawk twists high into the air, for pushback and damage inflicted on everyone within melee range. It’s a race against time by now as you may have one healer dead and the rest with moderate mana issues. Raiders must be spread out to avoid his flame breath ability, pretty much the way Jan’alai hit. Just burn him down as fast as possible and don’t get smited in the process.

As the last few percents of his life are removed, Zul’jin’s power wanes and the four spirits forever leave his body in a final release. The warlord of Zul’Aman is defeated and you can now loot his blood to complete the end quest. I’m positive you’ll be back for another round once the three day cooldown wears off and the instance resets. It’s a great new area to spark interest in the minds of lore and loot hunters. Sunwell Plateau should come out soon enough, otherwise there will be no incentive for players to complete Hyjal and the Black Temple with such generous items available in Zul’Aman.

Apparently this game has generated a lot of debates and talks on the fan communities when it comes to its requirements and tweaks. Some gaming websites even published some guidelines and even hints as to what type of computers can run and bring the eye-candy in this game, because it definitely knows how to “whip” the video cards.

 

The most "amusing" part is that even very advanced and allegedly very powerful computers (like Alienware) still have problems in rendering the game with the highest graphics settings enabled at high resolutions. And you may wonder why – first of all there a huge wave of games that are about to be released or just have been released and they all share the same problem, namely a premature release, without a proper checking of the optimizations that can be brought to the game-engine, and thus they will need extreme or huge resources from the computers so that they would be able to cope with the “heavy load” of amount of information which needs to be processed in order to display a smooth and accurate rendering. That is why Crysis comes with a very lovely “readme” text file on the DVD, where you can find very good tips on how to improve your system in order to get the best you can out of the game experience.

Nevertheless, even if you try setting up or buying a computer with an Intel Quad Core (at top frequency), a 8800GTX Ultra card and 4 GB of RAM – it’s still not enough, not even in SLI mode or CrossFire with two ATI 3870 cards apparently. Yes, it will look great and also perform wonderfully with the specs I just mentioned, but not really with all the highest graphics settings, especially in DirectX 10 mode. And that makes you wonder – what is it with these game designers? What gaming systems do they use? Did they create games for the computers that would be available after a few years?

The Bioware team made a name for itself in the computer gaming business as one of the best RPG developers, albeit on the fantasy line, but what we see today furthers from the beginnings. To the delight of role playing and sci-fi fans everywhere, Mass Effect finally hit the shops today as an Xbox only release. In the later years Bioware was synonymous with Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and Jade Empire, but should you ask the question again in one year, the answer might as well point out at Mass Effect. The action RPG title is the kind of game where a stuffy story line meets tactical combat as you get immersed deeper into the plot thinking about an interactive sci-fi movie experience.

Bioware turned Mass Effect to high definition, along with signing some pretty impressive names in the voice talent department. Seth Green, Marina Sirtis and Lance Henriksen get the job done, so don’t feel ashamed if it feels like Alien 5 somewhere along the way. Starting off into the game you take up the role elite human Spectre agent, Commander Shepard, upholding the law until you turn rogue to uncover a mystery beyond the boundaries of conventional thought. The role playing factor turns up in a non linear story where you are faced with the consequences of your own moral actions. In the end these too will influence the outcome of the scenario, where you are tasked with stopping a threat so great it could destroy all life in the galaxy.

>Mass Effect managed to get the attention of the SCI FI Channel and will have a featurette tonight, November 20^th 11 p.m. EST. The special it’s called “Sci vs. Fi: Mass Effect” and will explore the ways that technology and human ingenuity came about to create the premises encountered in the Mass Effect storyline. Somewhat like a look behind the scenes, with more information available on the official site.

Mass Effect has been rated M for Mature by the ESRB. There is a limited collector’s edition available and includes pretty trinkets like the “Galactic Codex: Essentials” fiction book, the “A Future Imagined” artwork book, four documentaries about the creation of the game on a DVD and 10 songs from the game’s soundtrack.

The good games also bring very nice and interesting graphics, but the fans may also like the music tracks from them. If you happen to be a fan of the Hitman game series, here's a piece of good news: the soundtrack for the game Hitman: Blood Money has become available as a download that can be purchased on the "Sumthing Digital Website" and now you can get it from iTunes digital store as well.

<-125x125 Button - left->“Jesper Kyd’s unique and emotionally intense scores for Hitman are synonymous with the main character Agent 47 and revered by fans as an essential signature of the blockbuster action/stealth video game series” (...) “Due to popular worldwide demand, we’re now making the Hitman: Blood Money soundtrack available for digital download on iTunes as well as Sumthing Digital, alongside his BAFTA award-winning soundtrack for Hitman: Contracts”, said Andy Uterano, President of Sumthing Else Music Works. A notable song from the collection is "Ave Maria".

Zul’Aman has an eerie look about it when you’re a ghost. No matter how well geared or how skilled you are, there is still a huge surprise factor in new instances. Such is the case now, when we fight, die, but in the end overcome the challenge, accompanied by a smile and a warm feeling. If you can do this, it only takes three hours all in all to clear the forest troll capital, even with wipes, but you’ll want to go there again for the cool factor. Witnessing the might of Nalorakk the Bear Avatar and the gauntlet which precedes the Akil'zon Eagle Avatar fight, the need to push forward grows stronger. Some of those brave enough to venture thus far into Zul’Aman would rather kill Halazzi the Lynx Avatar before Jan’alai the Dragonhawk Avatar, but we chose a different approach.

Scouts and patrols

<-250x250 Square - left->The right way lies beyond the Bear Avatar terrace. Small packs comprised of two troll hunter types and two mages guard the way to the Jan’alai, along with a fifth, the scout. Amani’shi Scouts are the targets of choice here, since they spawn relatively fast and rush to a nearby drum to call reinforcements at the first sign of trouble. While handling 4-troll packs is not a problem, killing the scout and 2 more warriors can raise the challenge level considerably. It’s not a gauntlet in the real sense of the word, but more of a fight against spawning times. As it was with the previous boss, raid members need to advance as one, clumped up, and be on a watch out for new scouts coming from the front or the rear. So load up the most powerful ranged attack at your disposal and nuke the scout first as he has just 6k hit points. Entangling roots work like a charm here, but a warrior charging and performing hamstring is just as good.

Second, sheep or mind control a mage, while the other is burned down. Be ready to resheep often since they can dispel themselves somehow. The best way to deal with mages is to chain interrupt their main cast, an area of effect fireball volley, because in conjunction with the self buff it’s a devastating combo. That buff can be dispelled however, although I recommend spellsteal since it raises running speed by 500% and triples casting speed for 15 seconds. Other than that, be sure to keep your eye peeled to the many patrols in the area and you’ll kill the ten packs in no time.

Jan'alai the Dragonhawk Avatar

Climbing up the stairs that lead to Jan’alai, the dragonhawk avatar, I noticed his terrace has a special layout. The left and right wings are filled with dragonhawk eggs, soon to hatch and reinforce his brood. Just charge in when ready and tank the boss in the middle. Be sure to spread out evenly around him to avoid the flame breath he casts on random raid members. 5k damage is not a big deal if it hits one player, but can be deadly should three get caught in its wake. The tank and spam is interrupted suddenly by Jan’alai cry for the hatchers, as two trolls enter the scene heading towards the egg areas. The troll heading left is to be killed on sight, while the right troll spawns up to 6 small dragonhawks. Don’t worry, the hatchers have low hp. The offtank will get some hatchling attention in the mean time, as the mage/warlock area of effect team goes in for the big kill. Unfortunately your time is limited so never allow the right troll to spawn more than six hatchlings or you’ll find yourself doing the bomb game with adds running around.

Every one in a while he teleports the raid to his current tanking position and starts spawning small fire bombs to the ground at random locations. You have roughly 5 seconds until the bombs are in place and explode for roughly 5k damage, so stay clear of the danger zone. The blast area is less than 2 yards in radius, so you basically don’t get hit unless standing on bombs. Jan’alai should enrage 5 minutes into the encounter for a small DPS boost, but nothing that can kill your tank. When he’s at 36% be sure to cut off all damage done to the boss and wait for the teleport. Only once the bombs have exploded are you allowed to bring him down, because at 35% he spawns all the remaining eggs into a massive hatchling army. What can I say, it’s hell to tank 10+ hatchlings running around and killing cloth users, unless the tank is a paladin. Otherwise, it’s possible to reset the boss if everyone goes down the stairs, the way you came. Be sure to go the right way though, because stairs on the other side are broken and you can’t climb back the jump. Just do your best and AoE the hatchlings down to size fast. If you manage to pull this off, Jan’alai is a good as dead since he has no more raid wiping abilities up his feathers.

Halazzi the Lynx Avatar

There is a great monolith in the middle of Zul’Aman, not essentially different from the giant heads from the isle of Sumatra, staring off in to the distance. The path to Halazzi the Lynx Avatar lies to the left. I had a strong deja-vu feel from the old Zul’Gurub days while clearing the trash here. It’s hunters with lynx pets blocking the road, along with patrols and scripted events which spawn even more lynx. After two gauntlet sessions, fighting here is as relaxing as it can get. Getting shredded down to size by lynx spawns in the jungle will get you killed, so be sure to let the tank lead the way. Halazzi can be reached at the top, waiting for you in his dark chamber. Upon reaching his lair, the third quest in the Zul'Aman chain is now complete as you inspected all of the totemic avatar terraces. Be sure to turn it in and get the sequel which involves exchanging some mean words with Hex Lord Malacrass.

Halazzi is to be tanked in the middle of the room. Everyone needs to be spread around evenly to avoid extra damage from the chain lightning so generously released by his corrupted lightning totem. Be sure to burn the totem down every 30 seconds as it gets released. In addition, all tanks need to be on top of each other to get his special ability which lashes into a small area for massive damage. One tank could get one-shoted, so two are advisable. Don’t be fooled by his relatively low hit point pool because the battle is quite long.

Starting at 75% Halazzi transforms into his shaman embodiment and calls upon the spirit of the lynx for help. Naturally the offtank takes the lynx and from here on it’s tank and spank. Random healers be sure to closely watch health levels because the shaman often uses a flame shock like ability which hits for 5k and ticks for 2k. Dispels are in order. Phase two lasts until the lynx dies, so be sure to ignore the shaman while dealing damage. I was surprised to see Halazzi up and running again once we downed the pet, so expect this phase switching to occur at 50% and 25% too, for a total of 1.2 million hit points. The only way you can wipe here is by ignoring the corrupted lightning totem of slacking at dispelling the flame shock.

Malacrass - Big name, small Voodoo

Zul’Jin is the one who called upon the avatars of the ancient order and imbued their essence into his now fallen comrades. Yet his shamanistic magic alone could not have pulled off such a feat without help from the dark tidings of Voodoo. Hexlord Malacrass bound the spirits to the world of flesh and now must pay the price. It is said he carries with him some of the best trinkets in the game, bar those who only Illidan possesses. His chambers lay a couple of steps back and the gate opens only once the four have been slain. Malacrass holds mindless abomination-like Amani berserkers to guard him, probably bound by the same hexes used to contain the avatar spirits. Everything about this chamber has the taint of Voodoo about it, including his four minions.

Once the battle starts, they need to be subdued one way or another, usually by crowd control abilities while the deadliest are killed first. The Ogre should always be sheeped, along with the Serpent beast, the Bloodelf healer killed on the spot, the Imp banished just like the Elemental, while the Undead is shackled. The Dragonkin can be sleeped by a druid. You only get four of these picked in a random fashion and it’s common practice to kill three and keep the fourth crowd controlled (be sure to leave the sheep for last). They drop fast and can’t wipe the raid on their own.

Malacrass is a different deal altogether. In phase one he puts up a nice tank and spank fight, but when reaching about 80% or so, he starts throwing shadow bolts towards every raid member. It’s a channeling type spell that hits for 500 unmitigated shadow damage each second for 10 seconds. While 5k damage doesn’t seem like much, it affects the whole raid and spell pushback drives down healing a lot. This is the moment when people die, especially if random healing takes away too much attention from tank healing duty. Tanks can just *plop* to general frustration. We did however find a workaround by using Black Temple shadow resistance gear to get 150 SR unbuffed. Upon adding the priest buff, you mitigate at least half the damage Malacrass causes. It may be too much to ask though, so jus be sure to pop a healing potion each time the going gets rough.

Once he’s done casting, the Hexlord draws upon the power of each raid member, decreasing their damage by 1% while boosting his by 10%. It’s a soft enrage timer and you should expect at least three of these. Not only that, but one unlucky player gets his soul drained as Malacrass borrows some of the class’ abilities for one minute. Pretty much if a healer gets drained, he gains the ability to Heal; if a mage gets drained he hurls random frostbolts or fireballs. Usually Malacrass doesn’t hit that much in melee, but after the third draining this can get really nasty while impersonating a warrior or a rogue so luck is a factor. The borrowed paladin consecration hits hard too. Healers should cope with whatever damage type the raid is going to receive as there is no real need for 9 customized strategies according to the skills he steals. You might want to keep an eye out for mind controls if the priest gets drained. Having a healer out of the battle for a couple of seconds can end the fight fast. In the end, Malacrass falls and his shinnies will belong to you now.

I found the encounter to be the most interesting in all of Zul’Aman and pretty much as hard as the one waiting before you - Zul’Jin. But nothing is more stimulating that watching the hex lord’s loot table. There is a very potent dps caster trinket matched only by two rewards from Black Temple, along with other interesting items. Go ahead and turn the quest in, because his death has a small gold reward as well. Beyond the wooden doors guarded by Malacrass lies Zul’Jin’s garden.