BIG, detailed, and complete ZA timed guide

[Opey]

FIRST OFF: Yes, I remember there was a ZA guide on this site before, and I read it but im sure it wasn't the same as this one. Why? because a mate and me compiled this! Why did i put this much effort into such a large guide? because I finally want to get out of noob status on mmowned, where i've been member for like 3 years now. So here you all go:

Reason for this
---------------------

The number of groups that typically fail in Zul'aman is huge. I don't even wanna remember the number of groups I've joined with one of my alts, only to fail before the first boss. The worst part is, most of them have NO idea of what they're doing and sadly, even people I know that have run the place 20 times don't know as much as what classes they should bring. While that doesn't make them bad, it does mean they're the type of players that can't see the big picture. Some people just focus on their role and don't even try to learn the whole thing. Whether that's good or bad, it's beyond the point of this guide, but if you're one of those guys, this might help. If you've done a ton of timed runs, this "guide" isn't for you, so just go do something else, like putting on a few more pounds. Today, me and Foxglove joined something advertised as a "bear run". I bet him 50g we'll wipe before the first boss and sadly, I won. How I figured that out - group setup, raid chat AND I was asked about stats before joining (more about that later on). While this doesn't help you get your bear, you might make 45g (-5g repairs), so I'm glad I mentioned it if you need the money. Hey, don't laugh, it's like 4 dailies.

Since a lot of people seem to be after getting a bear, for some reason I don't fully understand, I'll crit a bit with this "wall of text". Let's just hope it helps some random people out there. There are PLENTY of good players around that simply don't get a chance to shine, since 1 person is enough to wipe a whole raid in ZA.

"But these are not good reasons". OK, here's truth - after the pro nihilum za guide, it was suggested that instead of making fun of scrubs, I'd be doing the "community" (lol) a service by actually giving some USEFUL advice. Fine, let's try that.

With that out of the way...




Recommended setup
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This isn't a MUST HAVE. It's just a group setup I found optimal for my runs, the hard way, through god knows how many wipes. More discussion about it below, but keep in mind, you DON'T ABSOLUTELY NEED THIS, IT'S JUST SOMETHING I FOUND TO WORK PRETTY WELL.


Group 1

protection warrior(MT)
enhancement shaman
combat rogue
protection paladin(OT)
hunter OR fury war

Group 2

destro warlock
fire mage
shadowpriest
resto shaman
holy paladin


"BUT WHY ISN'T MY CLASS THERE?!111"

Simply put, because you fail at life. No, seriously, if your class/spec isn't listed, it's because that's what *I* recommend, nobody's forced to follow this guide to the letter. Well, either that or you fail at life.




Setup and class discussion
--------------------------------------------


Prot Warrior: obviously you'll need a main tank. That's his function, nothing else.
Enhancement shaman: provide a boost to melee dps with WF/UR and bloodlust. A warrior with windfury should be able to keep up high tps, allowing high dps in return
Combat Rogue: pure dps and stuns on the scouts on your way to Jan'alai. Not 100% necessary, not even close, in fact.
Prot Paladin: In this group setup, a prot pala is pretty much needed. The eagles on the way to Akil'zon will need to be tanked with just 2 aoe classes. Same goes for the dragonhawks at Jan'alai. If possible, pick one with offspec holy gear in his bags, there will be fights where only one tank is needed and the extra healing he can provide, no matter how small, should help, even if all he does is spam some FoL on the raid.
Hunter or fury warrior: Both have their own benefits, it's up to you to choose one, depending on your MT's gear / tps. If you feel your tank is kinda squishy, you might as well have a tranq shot in reserve. Both should provide good dps and party/raid benefit. Hunter spec: both survival and bm work. You'll notice I'm not saying much about the dps war. That's because there's not much to say. Either pick a fury war (plenty of them around) for personal dps + shout or pick an arms war for BF, IF AND ONLY IF you know he's really good at it. If you can't provide the warrior with a wf totem, just don't bother bringing him, really. "But I don't know what to choose". Fine. Go with a fury warrior then. You'll save yourself a huge liability on Hexlord and gain a small edge in ZJ p3.

Destro Warlock - SoC the boring adds (eagles at Akil'Zon, dragonhawks at Jan'alai). Have banish for Hexlord.
Fire mage - aoe the boring adds (see above). Sheep the flame casters (or steal the haste buff or both). Have a sheep at Hexlord. While the flamecasters problem can be solved with a simple mind control, when that breaks early, the priest that was doing it may not appreciate the repair costs, just like the rest of the group that probably ended up dead as well. But really now, 0.75s fireballs are just <3
Shadowpriest - provide extra mana for the casters and mass dispel for ZJ phase 2. Also have shackle for Hexlord, thus ending up with 3 CC classes there. Fear ward can come in handy there as well, not to mention misery is pretty good.
Resto shaman - typically, you'll need SOME "aoe healer/raid healer" there. While it's not mandatory (a lifebloom spamming druid that's good at it can do just as well and never run oom), caster totems + bloodlust generally help A LOT, not to mention brain heal is OP in some cases.
Holy paladin - spam fol/hl , as needed and provide concentration aura, as well as a second blessing. Having kings in addition to light / bow / bom / salvation on people always helps.

While you may go with a different setup (and be even more successful), I'll discuss this one.





The logic behind some things you may not agree with.
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Why have a melee group: ZJ phase 3 is MADE OF FAIL. Running around kiting tornados and being unable to nuke as a caster there (unless your healers are extremely good) sucks. Having 3 melee there that ignore everything and just happily hack away at the boss helps a lot. It's pretty good to have them on Akil'zon as well, the casters can "spread" a bit more, while the chance of getting a loser that won't move on storm will be reduced.

Why I choose a prot paladin offtank instead of druid or hybrid dps warrior. Simply put, they're the best aoe tanks around, at the moment, when they know what they're doing. They also have a great advantage over bringing a feral druid or a second warrior as offtank - they can heal pretty good in holy gear, even as prot, while providing a second blessing / aura. In this group setup, you NEED a prot paladin. Of course, if, for example, you're going with 3 locks and a mage, a prot paladin isn't REALLY required for aoe tanking, since the mobs you're gonna aoe will die before you even realize what happened. Yes, 3 x soc + AE/blast wave really gets the job done on that, but will make you cry on ZJ p3.

Why a prot warrior MT instead of a druid: because I can and because prot warriors deserve some love for all the effort they have to do, constantly. Get over your stupid swipes and mangle and lacerate, we don't like you. Also your ass is too big and you all look the same. HA! (Well, there's also shield block, but let's not go there)

How to choose random people
-------------------------------------------

If this is what they call a pug, you'll have to choose some random people sometimes, people you don't know. Let's go through that for a bit, it makes me cry to know how many people have no clue whatsoever of what they should look for when they invite people.

Prot warrior: Look for a tank that has been working on +hit/+expertise. AVOID tanks gemmed for full stamina (12 or 15 stamina gems). Don't even consider one of those, just send him back to karazhan or wherever he came from. It's true that having a meatshield can help, but then again, having a meatshield that just stands there and can't do high tps cause he missed the boss or got some unlucky miss/dodge/parry streak will gimp you. If you're going for a timed run, you'll HAVE TO nuke and you won't be able to do that with a 600 tps tank. Sadly, there are many of those around. There is one exception to the rule above - tier6 tanks. Those can be gemmed with sta/sta/sta gems since t6 quality gear generally has fairly balanced stats (hit/parry/dodge on a single piece, for example). Of course, the MT should have over 490 defense.

Enhancement shaman: Look for one with over 30% crit and over 1500 AP unbuffed. Those are pretty low figures, take my word for it. While his AP doesn't really matter for wf / bloodlust / unleashed rage, it's better to have one that brings personal dps to the table as well, along with group buffs. Typical enhancement shaman builds for PVE are 2/45/14 , 0/47/14. Those are not necessarily the best, but something around that usually means that shaman has at the very least a clue of what he's doing.

Combat rogue: Yes, combat spec. Ignore the 1000 subtlety rogues that will ask for invite. Look for a rogue with a 19/42/0 or 20/41/0 spec, as well as high hit (over 250 is a usually a good sign you're talking to a PVE rogue, not to a gimp). PVP gear is a big no-no.

Protection paladin: There's not much advice I can give you here. Look for a crit immune paladin with at least 15k hp unbuffed.

Fury war: a 17/44/0 build is usually a hint at a PVE freak, which is something you want. 30% crit and 1800 ap , along with some hit tend to be good signs.

Bm hunter: I'd love to provide some advice for this, but I really can't, due to lack of knowledge. I'd say look for a hunter with 142 hit rating and fairly high crit/ap, but can't provide specific figures for them. Just remember - if you're bringing one, don't whine when your healers get snake traps at hexlord or when your tank gets trapped and raid wipes. In all fairness, if you made it to hexlord, you probably killed the lynx boss already, so the timed event is done and one extra wipe won't affect the chance of getting your dumb ugly bear.

Destro warlock: 0/21/40. Any other build is simply screaming "I'm a noob". At the minimum, you'll want to get a lock with ~11% hit and 20% crit, over 1000 damage unbuffed. Of course, having a 16% hit and 30% crit lock with 1300 dmg never hurt anyone (besides the tank's ego when they show what real TPS is) but you can't always hope for that and from my experience, locks have a hard time reaching hitcap until tier6 gear. Some compensate with hit from badge gear, but they usually have to sacrifice a ton of crit for it.

Fire mage: 164 hit rating, 1000+ damage, 30% crit buffed. Seriously, that's so easy to accomplish it's not even worth considering a lower geared mage. 10/48/3 is the typical build for a pre-t6 mage. Sure, if you get a better geared one, one that went for icy veins, that should work as well.

Shadowpriest: Well...this one's pretty easy. Just make sure he's hitcapped including talents (I doubt there's a shadowpriest lacking hit around, with all their hit from talents, but who knows) and he has tons of damage. I can't provide you with a "typical talent build" for them, they vary quite a lot, since most good SPs respec all the time around their hit rating from gear. As a minimum, look for one with 1100 damage. Yes, there's no excuse to have low damage when you're going for pure spelldamage and not crit/haste/hit, as other classes might have to.

Resto shaman & holy paladin: build hardly matters with these 2, I don't think I've ever seen a badly talentend holy paladin, their talents are simply pretty much foolproof. Same goes for the shaman. They might have picked a pvp talent in their pve tree, but that won't necessarily make them bad. 2000+ healing is pretty good to have. Although lower healing bonus works, 2000 is simply a sign that the guy has been working on his gear and has at least seen something more complex than karazhan.




"BUT I CAN'T FIND THESE GUYS ANYWHERE, THERE'S NO PROT PALA IN THE QUEUE , GOD, HELP"
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Ok, at times, finding specific classes can be hard. Yeah, you can actually wait 30 minutes for a prot pala and still not get one or all the rogues will be in pvp gear. Keep in mind - there is no ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY CLASS. As a general rule - take a bit, give a bit, in other words: work around compensating. The setup I've recommended isn't necessarily THE BEST THERE IS, balance things according to your resources (resources = people, in case you're checking your gold right now)

Example: you have no protection paladin. You can still do it. Try to remember why you wanted one in the first place - that's because they're awesome aoe tanks. What can you do then? That's easy, solve the aoe problem. Since a warrior won't be able to hold agro on 10 mobs at once (even challenging shout is a joke when it comes to that), you'll just have to bring mad aoe instead. I've just been to a ZA run this morning with 3 locks and a mage. Mobs died so fast they didn't have to be tanked.

Example: can't find a resto shaman. Right. Well, you wanted him for raid healing/aoe healing, not for his sexy tail. Just get a COH specced holy priest. They won't have mana tide or bloodlust, but they can do a decent job with keeping your raid up at Hexlord. Can't find one either? Right. Well, get a resto druid, but make sure he's good. Basics - it makes little difference whether you have a incoming chain heal that will hit 3 people (assuming they're positioned fairly close to each other, thanks for that, Blizzard -.-) or 3 lifeblooms ticking on them, unless you get REALLY REALLY unlucky. Sure, you'd like to have a resto shaman chain healing the tanks at Nalorakk and Halazzi, but sometimes you just can't have that and you have to settle for having 3 hots + hl spam on them.




"WHY ARE THERE NO TACTICS HERE OMG"
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You make and adapt tactics according to the group you end up with. There's more than one way to skin a cat. Besides, if you don't understand the fights 101%, you shouldn't be attempting to form and lead a raid in the first place.

There are about 10 websites dedicated to boss killing, with clear tactics, pictures, movies and everything else I can't provide here. It's pointless to try and replace their work by making the wall of text slightly bigger.

Final words
-----------------

When gathering those people, word your questions carefully or you'll get a fail group.

Unfortunately, it's common nowadays to have PCT newbies running around in ebayed tier6 gear asking about "stats". Frankly, if someone asks me about "stats", in 90% of the cases, I'll tell him to get lost and stay away from me in the future. First of all - you can and should check armory, so you shouldn't have to ask. Second of all, IT'S RUDE. If you're asking about my stats, you're just making it clear you're a newbie and I won't bother playing with you, simple as that. This brings us to the warrior part again - don't be one of those people that spam random warriors with "hp?". Whenever someone asks me that, I reply with "no, compaq/dell, kk". HP is not what makes or breaks a good warrior. TPS AND EXPERIENCE ARE THE THINGS THAT REALLY MATTER. Sure, ideally you'd want a tank with high stamina, huge tps and loads of experience, but typically, those tanks don't need to join a pug, so get what you can. The one thing you SHOULD ask the guys you're inviting is...how experienced they are. If you're aiming to get the bear, you don't want someone that doesn't know what a scout is or what bombs are. Typically, you'll get some liars. What can I say, that's hard to prevent. Try to decide for yourself if their gear and brain level really reflects the experience they mentioned and how. It might be easier to just ask "what would be your dps on a tank/spank fight?". Gear used to be a guarantee that a random person knows what he's doing, but even since ebay, towel&co and china gold, that's no longer valid.

Make sure to discuss your personal tactics BEFORE hitting the gong and starting the event. You want to tell your warrior to be in the back, while the paladin is in the front, for the Akil'zon gauntlet and you want to tell them that before the wipe, not after. Same thing goes for moving before the storm or moving after the storm - make it clear before you end up corpse running, once the timed event starts, there's not much time to discuss things and eventually answer "why" questions. Decide how many dragonhawks you're gonna hatch at once before getting there, don't end up sitting on that ledge arguing about it.

In some cases, despite your best effort, you _WILL_ fail the timed event. Tough luck. Sometimes the storm won't hit on time, it will be faster or slower. Sometimes your paladin tank disconnects on Jan'alai, 10 seconds into the fight. Sometimes the server goes down. You can't avoid EVERYTHING, you can just hope for the best. HOWEVER, should the worst happen, try to make the best out of it. OK, so your whole raid got disconnected, storm hit 10 seconds too fast and wiped your raid and your cat was on fire and you had to pour some gasoline to extinguish it. What can you do? Look at it as an opportunity to fix things, when necessary. Maybe that's just what you needed to get rid of that one annoying whiner in the raid, of the "xD" spammer or of the "I want prio on X" ebayer you couldn't spot before the raid started. Just kick them. If necessary, cancel the raid. It's down to this: I personally have more respect for a raid leader ending a crap raid, having the oO to kick someone that annoys 9 people at the risk of failing, than for someone tolerating every random moron that has made a goal of pissing everyone off. Take this with a grain of salt, my views are rarely the "wide accepted" or "politically correct" ones. Still, the message remains: make the best of what you have.

Macros: In some cases, you'll need to make a few macros and use them. Unfortunately, some people still live in the La Vendetta / Deadly Boss Mods era, so they keep failing despite their best intentions. Using a macro that does a few raid warnings like "MOVE BEHIND THE BOSS" at Akil'zon or "MASS DISPEL NOW" in ZJ p2 might compensate, when you're not sure of your raid' s ability to handle things. It's lame, it makes kittens cry, but if it helps you prevent wipes, do it.

A few class specific "tips":

If you're a mage or a priest assigned to CC duty on Hexlord: refresh that poly/shackle before the spirit bolts. Locks won't be able to refresh theirs, due to banish mechanics, but you can at least make sure that should "the worst" happen, you'll have 1 add that needs to be taunted, not 3.

If you're a warrior on ZJ, phase 4: please, for the love of god, stop standing there doing nothing when a non-plate wearing class gets clawed. Whether you're fury or prot, just take a few steps back and intervene towards the end. It DOES make a difference, if 2 x bop aren't quite enough for your raid.

Whatever other class you are, there's always that extra something that separates the pro from the average. I've seen mages die to being knocked in the air and taking fall damage on Akil'zon. Blink, Iceblock, Slow Fall, hello? Same goes for priests (well, ok, if you're a priest, don't try to iceblock) not to mention paladins. Dude, you have that bubble for a reason (besides showing what a weakling you are in pvp, I mean). Use it.

Last thing: this "guide" won't make you a good raid-leader, no guide can do that. It's meant to shed some light on a few decisions and help a bit, but if you're the type of guy that wonders "wtf is tps" right about now, you've wasted your time reading it and the last thing you should be doing is forming any raid.

[EcHoEs]

I didn't read it , but I see that you have put alot of effort into this. For that, you gain +3 rep

[miele]

Didn't really find this guide helpful, since the setup is common sence, and I expected some tricks to guarantee a bear or atleast a try on it with a good group. +rep anyway for the work you've put init

[Nartan]

Copy Pasted from WoW-Europe.com Forums -> ZA, the not so pro and not so funny guide

[haggle]

Nice find, eaven tho it's a repost from the WoW forums, thanks.

[Submit]

Repost = Phail, If ur gona repost atleast say its a Repost from a diff site and ill +rep u. If u dont say its a repost IMA FLAME YOUR A$$

[Haitamo]

-_- ,,,,,,,,,,,,,faiol

[XinuX]

This is so sad

[pewpewlazerz]

maybe he posted on wow forums?

[Suy]

maybe he posted on wow forums?

Mabey, mabey not! -.^ Who knows? * Shrug *.

[urowndad]

if he was the one posting on wow forums, why not tell us instead of just posting here making us think its the first place its posted?

[Happy2k]

Aint giving rep for such copy/paste, at least not without linking source - thats pure fail.

And really.. if you have the gear to make ZA timed, you should have the knowledge in setups too. Unless youre an ebayer.

[Tankotron]

Ok so you guys are telling me that EVERYONE in the damn world looks at eu wow forums?

Thank you for posting it on MMOwned.

[grim412]

:repost:

:gtfo2:

[monkeytree]

Not that helpful but i guess if it works for you it works.