Zul'Aman Timed Run

[Qiciste]

A guide to successfully running ZA Timed

After long time leeching, I decided to try explain how to get a successful timed run group going and with that contributing to the community.

Setup
Practically any setup will work if you have full heroic raid gear, but a few classes are outstanding over the others for certain reasons:

Tank
*Preferably a Warrior or Paladin.
*Their block helps a lot with the fact that you'll be tanking multiple adds at the same time and will reduce the need for healers to spamheal, thus losing mana and time.
*Pick your tank carefully. A tank sets the pace and if he's a slowpoke, you'll end up not making it, even if execution is perfect.

DPS
*Anything that has strong AoE as well as single target dps.
*Currently Boomkins and MM Hunters shine. This might change, however try to get a physical or spell dps group going. Don't go Frost DK over Unholy if you have a mage and a boomkin in your group, for example. Try to optimize the groups buffs and debuffs on target. Is your best dps a MM hunter? Get a feral druid and a frost DK. Choose your group accordingly.
*A DK can help with the timer thanks to Path of Frost.

Healer
*Anyone that can keep his mana up while healing tank as well as the group
*I feel that currently a Resto Shaman would be the strongest choice for filling this role, as a well geared Shaman has no problems keeping a tank up nor any problems with raid healing. Also, if you don't have a mage in your DPS team you'll need him to provide Heroism/Bloodlust (BM Hunters are not strong at the moment, so Ancient Hysteria ain't worth it)

Marker
*Assign one person in your group to mark Skulls and possibly traps/polymorphs. Preferably not the healer.

Communication
*As always when working with multiple persons, communication is key. Try to use a voice-chat program like Ventrilo or Skype, or the build-in Teamspeak.

Zul'Aman



The first boss you'll be moving towards is Akil'zon.

While killing the first trash start backpedaling, so when you kill the trash you can mount up instantly. Take the stairs to the left and make your way down. Be careful not to pull the patrol, it's a big time waste having to kill them. Continue your way towards Akil'zon. The first mob you encounter is not killable, so do not dismount for that. Try to pull at least 2 packs at a time, preferably 3, while AoE'ing them down. Focus the Amani'shi Wind Walkers as they occasionally cast Chain Heal. A warriors Shockwave is very helpful. At given points there'll be Amani Eagles coming from the direction you are facing and Amani'shi Warriors coming in from the back. Be sure to pick them all up if you're a tank and help with transferring threat if you are a class that is capable of doing that. In total there are 4 packs of Wind Walkers and Protectors that need to be cleared and the Tempest is the last one. He has roughly 1.2m hit points and should be killed while moving upwards towards Akil'zon.

Akil'zon:
Use Heroism/Bloodlust/Time Warp if you have the appropriate class in your group on this boss. If your healer is low on mana let him start drinking before you pull. However do not waste time waiting for him to be full mana, there's no need. Make sure you spread out so there's only one person getting hit by Static Disruption. This needs to be dispelled. When someone gets taken by an Amani Kidnapper, kill the bird first priority.
Note: While being kidnapped you can still DPS! Make sure you help kill the bird yourself as well. Even Hunters can attack it with their ranged abilities while being plucked.

His last ability is Electrical Storm. Any Boss Mod will give a timer for when this is about to happen, so make sure to stack up at around 3-5 seconds before it is cast, so no-one takes any damage and can happily continue DPSing. If you execute this boss fight right, the healer should have no problems with his mana here.
Note: DO NOT free the NPC! Time waste!


Move towards Nalorakk. You can cut one corner by jumping on the wall, however be careful not to pull the patrol at the first yellow line or the mobs that are in the corner!

Once again you should skip the Zandalari's at the first yellow line. Move down below and tank the first set of mobs that jump down at where they become active. Make sure no member is behind them at any time! They will pull the patrol. Focus the Axe Thrower in this pack. Make sure you continue moving towards the next pack every time they are about to die, do not overdo double pulls and drain your healers mana, but don't waste time walking without killing mobs either. After you kill the two Bears there'll be 4 mobs coming down. Make sure you burst down the Amani'shi Medicine Man. Use silences and stuns on this fellow. If you are slow, he'll start putting down Healing and Protective Wards. Especially for spell dps oriented groups, these are a pain in the ass, since they are immune to spell damage. The protective ward has 40k, the healing ward has 10k. If you are the tank in a spell dps oriented group, make sure to look out for them and kill them as you'll be the only one capable to do that.

Move further up and there'll be two Amani'shi Warbringers coming towards you. Mark a skull and kill them. At 30% they'll try to dismount their bear. Once again a Warriors Shockwave is very helpful here.

After that you'll have one of the hardest trash packs in the instance. This pack consists of a Amani'shi Medicine Man, an Axe Thrower and two Warbringers. As a tank, feel free to chain your strongest cooldowns on this pack, as you won't be needing them on the boss fight anyway. Once again focus the Medicine Man, keep it silenced/stunned/interupted and kill the Axe Thrower afterwards. Try to stun the Warbringers at 30%. Let your healer start drinking before you pull if he finds it necessary.

Nalorakk:
Nalorakk has two phases. In the first phase he'll charge the person that is the furthest away from him, do damage and apply a debuff that increases Physical Damage taken by 500%. Naturally, you do not want to be hit twice in a row (or overaggro with the debuff on you. Yes, experience). Have a rotation preferably only including ranged. If you don't have 3 ranged, have a melee step out last.

In phase two he'll apply a mean DoT to the tank and occasionally silence the group. Rinse and repeat, nothing special.

Move towards Jan'alai.
Amani'shi Scouts are the biggest pain in the ass in the area between Nalorakk and Jan'alai. If they do not get killed they will spawn Reinforcements. This is a time waste you do not want. There are scouts in pretty much every pack. A tricky one is the scout behind the second pack of trash, the Amani'shi Trainer and his Dragonhawks. He is quite a distance behind them but will get triggered on the pull. Having a ranged who knows the position of the Scouts and knows the moving paths of the patrolling Scouts can save your timed run. Kill the Amani'shi Flame Casters as soon as possible and keep them interupted and purged/spellstolen. If they get off a Firebolt Volley it could mean a tank death and if they get off multiple it's definitely a wipe. The last trash pack before Jan'alai consists of two Amani'shi Flame Casters. This is the only pack where a CC should be placed and it should be used on one of the two Amani'shi Flame Casters. Be aware, when you break the CC the Amani'shi Flame Caster instantly buffs himself with the attack speed buff and starts casting a Firebolt Volley. If you are the tank, when you see the CC break just instantly do your interupt and you'll most likely have him interupted. A Silencing Shot/Strangulate/Belf Racial etc. could also do the trick.

Jan'alai:
In my opinion the most difficult of the four. There are a few mechanics that should be taken into consideration:

Flame Breath: Jan'alai will regularly do a Flame Breath, standing in this for longer than a second is very undesirable.

Summon Amani'shi Hatchers: Hatchers will come up the stairs, trying to hatch the eggs on the left and right of Jan'alai. Kill one side and leave the other to start hatching the Dragonhawks. They will apply a debuff to the tank, increasing Fire damage taken. This should be dispelled occasionally. At a percentage of health I've forgotten and can't seem to find (I think 50%), Jan'alai will himself hatch all the remaining eggs. If your healer and tank are very good, both geared as skill wise, it's also a possibility to tank all the Dragonhawks at once while your DPS AoE's them down.

Fire Bomb: What do you think? Don't stand in them.

This is by far the most hectic boss fight and will require a decent amount of awareness if you want to do him fast and secure.

Once this boss is dead and you have made no (major) mistakes so far, you should be good.

Move towards Halazzi.
Skip the Zandalari Patrol by going up the stairs towards the fifth boss and jumping down into the Lynx pack. Kill these, mount up and skip between trash towards the path that goes by the lake. At this point you should use your Path of Frost/Waterwalking/Elixir of Waterwalking. If your DPS is very strong you can also take out the patrol, but it's favorable to skip them.

On the path behind the patrol you'll get ambushed by a pack of Lynxes. You want your tank to be in front, since they do hurt and getting ambushed as a DPS or healer could mean a dead player and time loss. Keep moving with the Lynxes, having 1½ pack at a time shouldn't be a big problem. In the last pack before Halazzi you'll have two Lynxes, a Beast Tamer and a Handler. Even though this pack doesn't require CC, I'd recommend trapping a Lynx. Tank damage can spike if you don't and an unlucky Mind Control can wipe you. Break the CC after one Lynx is dead or leave it up until the trash is dead and backpedal the Lynx to Halazzi.

Halazzi:
Easy fight.

• Do not kill Water Totems. Ranged should stand in them.
• Ignore the Lynx he spawns.
• Kill Lightning Totems. Immune to spell damage.
• Use Heroism/Bloodlust/Time Warp

Free the captive and loot your mount!

If executed perfectly with Heroic Raid Geared players, this can be done with approximately 4 to 5 minutes left when Halazzi bites the dust. The better DPS you bring, the more you are allowed to screw up. If your gear consists mostly of Heroics, you'll need a near perfect execution to pull off a Timed Run.

I know this is a wall of text, but I hope it helps out people who are struggling to get their Amani Battle Bear!

Enjoy!

[haggle]

Well written guide. Will probably help a lot of people. +rep

[Qiciste]

Well written guide. Will probably help a lot of people. +rep

Thanks. I know a lot is common sense and a few tricks that can speed things up, but it took me and my group some runs to get optimal runs going using these tactics and tricks.

[qpalmz]

You mention killing the first group of mobs and then mounting. You can actually mount inside the gate and just run past. The non elite mobs will follow, but the elites should reset. Using this method you can start the gauntlet for the first before the sacrifice timer even shows up.

[TehVoyager]

i have to disagree with some of your guide.


Bear tanks are great for Bear runs. there savage defense update in 4.1 gives them good damage mitigation, plus there talents to reduce damage, plus spell damage, and AMAZING damage output abilities make up for the lack of a shield *
(*in the hands of a bear tank who doesn't lick perineum)

Also, BM hunters, when specced correctly, will preform at the same level (1-2k less but that isn't overly major) as MM on single target, and blow them away on multi target (Bestial Wrath + multishots?)

Really, i wouldn't say anything about the "class" of the player. focus more on the SKILL of the player.

[Qiciste]

i have to disagree with some of your guide.


Bear tanks are great for Bear runs. there savage defense update in 4.1 gives them good damage mitigation, plus there talents to reduce damage, plus spell damage, and AMAZING damage output abilities make up for the lack of a shield *
(*in the hands of a bear tank who doesn't lick perineum)

Also, BM hunters, when specced correctly, will preform at the same level (1-2k less but that isn't overly major) as MM on single target, and blow them away on multi target (Bestial Wrath + multishots?)

Really, i wouldn't say anything about the "class" of the player. focus more on the SKILL of the player.

I'm not really familiar with Bear tanks, so you could be right on that part. Do disagree with the BM hunter part. I'm fairly sure they can't manage 27k single target damage as it is right now.

Of course skill is more important, but certain specs and classes have very nice synergy regarding buffs they provide and some specs are currently just proven to be higher on damage output then others.

[TehVoyager]

My BM hunter who is about 60% blues, and a guildie BM hunter who has all his 351 ZG/ZA gear (except the bow) both pull around 20k in our alt raids.

and MM can pull 27k... in full epix and with a butt ton of practice and skill.

BM is perfectly acceptable for ZG mount runs. they provide useful buffs and they pull decent DPS. unless... well you know the "pants on head" part

[Qiciste]

My BM hunter who is about 60% blues, and a guildie BM hunter who has all his 351 ZG/ZA gear (except the bow) both pull around 20k in our alt raids.

and MM can pull 27k... in full epix and with a butt ton of practice and skill.

BM is perfectly acceptable for ZG mount runs. they provide useful buffs and they pull decent DPS. unless... well you know the "pants on head" part

I do not disagree with you that BM is acceptable. MM is just stronger with the right mind/gear/theorycrafting. This could be done with 3 Survival Hunters or 3 Affi Locks, don't really matter as long as you know what you are doing. It's as I stated before just so that some classes and specs have a nice synergy and some specs provide higher dps than others. That being said, you can do it with nowhere near full epic gear, but you'll need to be flawless. More gear, better synergy, higher dps, less tank damage, more healer regen, they all allow more room for errors. For example on one of my runs we managed to pull both patrols and I missed a scout, and we still had 2 minutes on our timer. Why? Because our healer and tank could handle the extra damage taken and our dps could handle the extra damage that needed to be done thanks to ****-ups.

BM is perfectly acceptable for ZG mount runs. they provide useful buffs and they pull decent DPS. unless... well you know the "pants on head" part

Yes, but this is the first time that I try to explain that I said things that I considered optimal. Nevertheless, BM with a Core Hound could provide a good boost to a group without a shaman/mage.