Revenge. I wanted to taste Zul’jin blood. (Especially from his 10 Badge Vial.) The last time PTD hit ZA, Zul’jin wiped him and his group out. Sure, we only took two shots, but still, he wiped us out. I hate to leave dungeons unfinished, and I could almost hear his mocking laughter as we called it quits and left. It was embarrassing.
Well, last night was my chance at revenge. The wife’s Mother is in town, so it afforded me the opportunity to sign up for a rare weeknight raid. I have my eyes on the nice healing headpiece that the Dragonhawk drops, as well as badges for the Gavel.
We had a solid group: our two best tanks (warrior and pally), myself the tree along with our top CoH priest and a shammy for healing, and good DPS. We went in trying for the first two timed chests. Thus far I don’t believe we’ve been able to get the third, but I see that changing soon.
I won’t go into huge detail, but we one shot all of the aspects in this order: Bear, Eagle, Dragonhawk (no headpiece, sob) and Lynx. We did wipe once on the trash leading to the Dragonhawk, but other than that we were smooth.
The real tests start after the four animal bosses are down, though. That Hex Lord fight can be tough. It turns out our mix of NPCs was decent, and it only took us two tries to take him down. The first wipe was my fault, as I was standing a little too close to the Hex Lord and he went all Magey frost bolty on my barky butt and took me down. They actually almost finished the job without me (I went down VERY early) and got him down to 6% or so before wiping.
Oh well.
We tried again and this time took him down pretty smoothly, with only a couple of deaths. That is one tough fight, but it is also quite enjoyable. Up to this point, I was leading the healing charts, but our priest cheated and racked up the heals with CoH during the Hex Lord fight(s). No matter, the only meter that really matters is the "win" meter, and we were up on that one.
Next came my second look at Zul’jin. Last time, if you recall, I had trouble with the third phase tornadoes. Again, on our first try we had trouble with that phase, but did squeak through it. We didn’t have enough people survive to continue though, and decided to wipe it and try again.
On the second try, I finally got a good tip on how to handle the tornado phase. Keep a triple stack of lifebloom on myself at all times. That allows me to toss LB on anyone who needed it without fear of the damage taking me out. It worked like a charm. (The tip came from the Shadow Priest who was with us, whose main is a Tree, and he is usually the tree in ZA runs. My only question, Ease, is why didn’t you tell me before the FIRST attempt? 
)
We got through that phase rather nicely on that attempt, and for the first time I got to see the Lynx part of the fight. Man, does Zul’jin go nuts on people during that part. My ability to help keep people up during his claws of fury attack or whatever is somewhat limited, but I did what I could. A couple people went down during that phase, including one of the healers, but we got through it to his last phase.
Honestly, I don’t even know what was going on in that last phase. I was busy trying to keep the tank up, and avoiding the fiery pillar thingys. After a couple minutes or so of rolling lifebloom and rejuv, Zul’jin went down. Yay!
There was a time when ZA was released that the guild ran it at least 2 days a week. I was never able to come, as they ran it on Monday and Tuesday, which are bad nights for me. For a time we gave up on ZA, but it looks like we’re picking it back up again now that our gear is better thanks to T5 and T6 raiding. Anyhow, as it turns out, this was only the second time we had cleared ZA in one night. Yay for us! And all together we’ve only cleared it around 4 or 5 times total. I’d say we are a LOT better now than we were then, though. I’m glad I was able to be a part of this run.
I think I can now safely say that I REALLY like ZA. It’s challenging, there is great loot, and a decent number of badges for the time investment. Sure, you get more in Kara, but Kara is mostly trivial to us at this point. About the only time I find challenge in Kara anymore is if I’m in a PUG or trying to heal it alone. ZA takes solid contributions from everyone to succeed. You can’t carry a newb through ZA like you can Kara. (I suppose maybe you could for the first couple aspects, but overall it’s not feasible…they would die a LOT.) I look forward to more runs in the future, and since it reset this morning I’ll see if I can get something thrown together on the fly tonight.
Oh yeah, I suppose you’d like to see what I saw in terms of loot. I picked up a nice belt for my kitty DPS set in Bladeangel’s Money Belt. My kitty set is probably approaching T5 quality. I need to get some enchants on a few things and pick up a good pair of DPS legs, but that’s about it. This should help me level when Wrath hits, since I will most likely go feral to level. I passed on the Staff of Dark Mending, but maybe I should have taken it. It’s a very, very nice looking staff, but I’m saving up for the Gavel as I mentioned earlier, and I’ve always been a proponent of a one hander and off hand versus a staff. Besides, after last night I’m up to 125 badges. Yay! The other stuff that dropped I paid little attention to, as it was mail or plate or uninteresting to me. I know our Shammy got a pair of shoulders and another healy mail piece, and some fancy shield dropped off the lynx boss.
So that’s all for now. I had a great time, got a nice off-spec piece, and a handful of badges. Next time I hope the Dragonhawk drops my helm!
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Ease actually started as a shadowpriest, as I’m sure he’ll point out. And I’ll try not to take personal offense that Din and Mags are better than Darch and I for tanking
PTD great job I read today the bear mount is going away before WLK comes out
. PTD did you try the trick I told you about? Please let me know. I did it last night and lost the roll on the bear mount for the 10th time sigh. I recently went all resto on my druid thanks to you. Could you please give a little insight on why you chose the talents you have? Is insect swarm that good? Is Improved Tranquility not worth the points? I seem to use it a lot.
@Zhen
Yeah, 2 of our 4 best tanks.
@PMEL
We did not try that trick. I mentioned it before the run, and posted it in the thread, but I guess the plate wearers didn’t want any extra deaths. We were only going for the first 2 chests anyhow, which is easy enough regular. I think we’re trying a speed run this week, maybe then we’ll use it.
As far as talents, I generally avoid any talent that boosts either HT or Tranq. I use both so infrequently I can’t see the point of spending precious talent points on them. I have IS and some balance talents mostly to ease soloing and dailies, but I do also occasionally lend my meager assistance to DPS to raid bosses when we have them close to dead and the healing seems covered.
With tranq in particular, I only use that in “oh crap” moments, and I don’t think I’ve ever had a problem with the aggro generated from it. The fights are usually close to over when I use it anyhow. If tranq affected people around me, like other raid members, and not just my party, I’d use it more. As it is I find it very situational.
When I grow up I want to be like you
. My main is a hunter for a long time. I have to say I love playing a druid. Tell your plate wearers to suck it up for the team. OR they could just take the shield and weapon off to reduce damage. I might have missed it but do you use any resto macros? What is your healz rotation? Do you have a guide for the recently converted healz? I am sorry about all the questions. If you need any help with hunter questions I will be happy to answer them.
Shadow priest… tree… two different joys, one ultimate goal: success.
I must admit, PTD, I watched you on that first eagle phase on Zul’Jin more than I watched anything else (I was dead. I’m sure I did something stupid to wind up that way). It’s not often I get to see another tree in action, and when I do raid with another one, the minute methods are almost always different. Rejuv or LB? Regrowth or rejuv/swiftmend?
Sometimes, though, proven methods have to be shared, and a tree’s imperviousness to the eagle phase lends itself to uber tree-healing that can’t be ignored. Besides… my shadow priest wanted to see Zul’Jin down for the first time, and your being the tree in that run made it possible.