November 19th, 2007

Zul’Aman part 2 - The Lynx, the Dragonhawk and the Hexlord

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

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.