So which three bosses have you downed without difficulty? We can easily down the bear aspect, but the raid leader decided the eagle aspect was next and we're currently stuck there trying to figure out the best way to deal with the storms and eagles. Perhaps we would be better off facing the Phoenixhawk next?

Or should we stick it out with the eagle aspect? We have just recently gotten Karazhan on farm status, so we're geared through Kara and a some PvP. No T5. Thanks for any advice.

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The dungeon is a nice challenge, and I think any guild that has Karazhan at or near farm status should be able to take on the higher difficulty level of ZA.

But don't try this dungeon if your group is not suitably geared out. If you're in mostly blues and still in Kara, finish Kara and get your gear before attampting ZA. The many of the first encounters are serious gear checks, especially tanks and healers, and if you can't keep up, you'll wipe constantly.

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My guild has Kara on farm, Gruul is down and almost on farm, currently working on Lurker. We've killed Nalorakk, but we have been focusing more on 25s in order to progress faster. Thanksgiving has made raiding kind of tough for the last 2 weeks.

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Eagle: You need to spread out behind the boss, wide enough so that the chain lightning doesn't hit more than one member.

Get some boss mods which tell you when the lightning cloud comes. 4 Seconds before the timer runs out move together slightly and run to the shadow on the ground of the lightning cloud. Run immedately, dont hesitate.

LEt a hunter take care of the birds, he should do nothing but shooting the birds until the boss has 30% or less, then he should switch damage to the boss.

Note about the timed event: its buggy. IF you down the first boss in 17 minutes the next event should have 23 minutes as you saved 3 minutes from the first. Unfortunately the bug deducts time, ie. you got only 17 minutes for the next.
We downded the 2nd in 14 minutes and for the third we had suddenly only 11 minutes left (17-6, got it?).

I hope Bliz fixes that.

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In my opinion if your group can clear Kara ZA is doable. But there is a big difference between a group that clears Kara over 3 nights and a group that clears Kara in 1 night.

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@Blake
For the Eagle boss do one of two strats ...

1. Run to the person who is being targeted by the storm. Depending upon your graphics settings you might not see this all that well.

2. Everyone collapses onto the tank and boss 5 seconds before the storm. We use this, and have someone call out a warning 10 seconds before. We would rather have everyone in a little early than a little late. One bad storm is usually a wipe on this guy.

As for the birds, a hunter focusing on them is a good idea. AoE doesn't work all that well since they are spread out, but as a warlock, I seed the boss when we collapse. This thins out the herd a little, and we can ignore the rest of the birds.

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My guild jsut cleared ZA yesterday. All i gotta say is F those tornados -_-

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from what i've seen, ZA doesn't like nubcake tanks and nubcake casters..

Even if you have TOP DPS and Top tanks, if group cooperation and understanding isn't there, welcome the repair bill..

Regards,
Thysmage
Magtheridon

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My guild has Kara, gruul, and the first few bosses of SSC on farm. Just last weekend was the first time that we downed the lynx boss. We have the bear done under the time limit and almost had the eagle as well. It is definatly a different feel than Kara.

I would say that guilds that have mostly or all kara gear should do fine. If you don't, then work on Kara some more.

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Downed the Bear on the first trip, Bear and Lynx on the second. Struggled on the Dragonhawk and we've been too melee dps heavy for an Eagle attempt. None of us have raided past Gruul yet. The first 4 ZA bosses are possible for Kara geared groups, just not very easy. I only wish there were more bosses or a second wing so we could drop Kara from the schedule.

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My guilds first run got to Zul'Jin in 6 hours and then wipped on him for 3 more. The second run we downed the first 4 bosses in 3 hours then healer logged due to work. Third attempt we downed the first 4 bosses in less than 3 hours again then pwn'd Zul'Jin.

We have not raided past Kara before this... other than the random Grull pug people attend.

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My group has had Kara on farm for a while but not really gone beyond (killed Gruul a couple of times and we occasionally borrow a higher-geared player to fill in a gap, but basically we're all in Kara-level gear), and so far we've got the first four bosses down - dragonhawk was a pain to get used to and lynx is very much a gearcheck for the tanks, but it's at least manageable for us. We almost got the bear boss down within the timer today as well, had him at about 7% when the sacrifice was made :-(

Hex lord is another matter though, as a healer I spend nearly the whole fight struggling with mana until finally I'm put out of my misery by dying (our best is about 78%). I'm about as well-geared as is possible without doing 25-mans so it's going to be tricky to get him down... however we're making noticeable progress, albeit rather slowly, so we should get there in time.

It's a very fun challenge anyway, needs a lot of concentration but it's really satisfying to kill each boss when they're not at all easy for our gear level. Only not-so-good thing is the sheer number of mana pots I'm going through, it's a taste of the hardcore raiders' life I guess!

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These comments are heartening. We've been banging our head against ZA since it came out. Downed the bear once or twice. Not too shabby since we're only about half all geared with Kara. I like the instance. Throwing more 10-man raids our way would be a brilliant idea. 25-mans are hard to put together without a hard core raiding guild.

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The Hex Lord is a Healer Skilltest. If the healers dont know their job you will fail on this one.

As a Priest before the AoE comes set the Prayer of Mending on yourself. If you have 2 Priests with you put them into different groups.
After POM cast your biggest group heal you have, recast again, otherwise after the 4th or 5th AoE people will die in your group.
After the AoE is done bring everyone to 100%. If you don't they will die with the next AoE he does.
If you have a Warlock let him distribute his healstones (no idea how they are called in english). Tell everyone to take those ONLY on command. The Healer should give that command (usually with the 4th or 5th AoE)
Its a tough boss but since we put some tricks out we down him real fast even with new people along.

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We've downed the bear boss on the first night there, I think. We're now proudly wiping on Akil'Zon, the eagle boss. I think we're very close to getting him down, as we really improved our storm handling the last time we were there.

We've got Kara resoundingly on farm status (although still in 2 nights, not 1) and are also wiping on Gruul, but we're also improving there.

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My guild is farming Kara, lacking numbers to get into Gruul and beyond so we're really enjoying ZA right now. It's a step up in terms of intensity; dynamic trash gauntlets are fun, and the boss encounters, for me as the tank at least, are far more intense than the Kara bosses. We've downed the bear, Eagle, and Lynx Avatars but are currently struggling with the Dragonhawk - seems like a fight that requires coordination, which may sound obvious, but the encounter variables (eggs, hatchers, and bombs all in a very tight, confined space) make it a very, very intense fight - I'd estimate it's probably cost me almost 100g in repairs, so far (damn my expensive plate!) but when we down him it will be sweet indeed.

Advice I would give (it's been said before but it really is true and bears repeating): this is NOT the place to bring undergeared people (particularly tanks and healers). You really *do* need to be in Kara standard gear for this; otherwise you're going to get mashed and get frustrated. What you may have got away with in Kara - a few green items here and there - is not going to get you far in ZA. This is a step up in challenge and that *does* include your gear.

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Our guild has Kara and Gruul on farm. So far we've downed the 4 avatars (bear, eagle, dragonhawk, lynx), with the lynx being the easiest so far and the dragonhawk being the most painful.

ZA is a very healing intensive instance, as you need lots of mana to outlast the fights, esp if you have kara-level gear.

The dragonhawk boss was the most painful so far because of all the hatchlings to deal with, and the ~4.5k fire damage blasts to random people. I'm the pally tank so I'm watching the hatchers, gathering up all the hatchlings, and then avoiding the time bombs - crazy fight :)

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