Since the introduction of Zul'Aman many raiding guilds have been fascinated by the time trial; defeat all four animal bosses within 45 minutes and the last prisoner will gift you with a scary-looking bear mount, plus the adoration of your entire server. This article will take you through preparing for, and succeeding at, the Zul'Aman timed run.
Okay, so you want to get a bear.
Perhaps there are ten people in your guild who, bored with farming or wiping, want a slightly different challenge to take up an evening or two a week. The end goal of getting a bear mount (or ten) is an incredibly fun one to aim for, but it's also a lot of hard work (provided you don't just want to pay 20,000 gold).
The first stage in collecting your very own bear cavalry is to assemble a good team. While you can put together a run with whichever guildies feel like going from week to week, we recommend at least starting with a fixed group that's optimised for success. As you become experienced at running the gauntlet, it won't matter quite as much if the team isn't static.
Choosing your team can be a harsh process; within my guild there were more than ten people willing to go, and who likes saying no? It's up to you how you pick your team, but keep the following factors in mind:
- Skill. Every mistake you make on the run costs you time. You need a team of people who won't make mistakes; on the rare occasion someone does, your raid needs to be flexible and recover quickly.
- Gear is obviously important; while there are tales of people in tier 4 and ZA-level epics beating the timer, obviously the better your gear is the more room for error you'll have. This isn't to say you don't stand a chance if you're not in tier 6, but some things may simply be harder for those with lower ilvl gear.
- Consumables. Your team needs to be willing to go to every extreme to maximise performance, especially if your gear's not top-notch, so check for cheapskates.
Pick me, pick me!
So you've got some awesome people with great gear keen for new mounts. Who do you pick? Raid composition and synergy are extremely important when you're on a timer. Here's some ideas for composition:
- Tanks. Nalorakk and Halazzi need two tanks, Jan'alai needs something that can handle adds, and Akil'zon only needs one tank. This suggests taking one MT and a hybrid offtank who can DPS where needed. Threat generation's important, as is being able to pull well.
- Healers. To maximise raid dps, take two healers. Having a shadow priest vastly reduces downtime, which is crucial; a shadow priest also brings fortitude, shields and dispels, useful if your healers are other classes.
- DPS. You'll want some of the following: casters, DoTs, AoE and melee. Loading up on melee can be disadvantageous due to various targeted abilities, but they don't need to drink; having one group of melee and another casters means you can optimise for synergy. Some groups choose to go AoE heavy with a paladin tank; warlocks can really shine there, if they stay alive.
- Synergy. Choose classes with buffs and abilities that benefit each other. Windfury's a huge DPS boost for melee, a shadow priest helps casters. Most importantly, shamans' heroism or bloodlust is one of the best things you can have to speed up boss kills.
Generally, be smart and aware of what each class can contribute, and it should be fairly obvious how to arrange the best group composition from your players. Let the ones who didn't make it down gently; they can come along later, after all. - What we did: Prot warrior, feral druid, DPS warrior, rogue, enhancement shaman; resto druid, holy paladin, warlock, mage and shadow priest.
- Alternatives: For more speed, we could have replaced the prot warrior with another dps and let the DPS warrior offtank.
- Good things: Two druids meant two innervates and two resses, which we found invaluable. Healthstones and a soulstone on the shadow priest also proved useful.
Subscribe
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
4-05-2008 @ 2:09PM
Eternalpayn said...
Hemo rogue? Or straight DPS?
Reply
4-05-2008 @ 2:34PM
Iron said...
Signet of primal wrath you say? My hunter will give you it for a bear :D
Reply
4-05-2008 @ 2:56PM
Jennie Lees said...
I only signed up for bear runs in the first place for the ring :(
We had our rogue hemo one week but most of the time he was combat swords, if your dps can cope with hemo then go for it.
Reply
4-05-2008 @ 4:34PM
Zala said...
Hmmm... This mount is not as attractive as it once was. This is now a very common mount. At times its even more common in Shatt than racial mounts... And look at some screenshots of a boss kill, when people are mounted. 90% of them are on their bears.
Nothing i would go for. Rather the ZG raptor/tiger, Raven Lord or the White Hawkstrider from Kael'Thas (MgT)
Reply
4-05-2008 @ 5:29PM
Balasan said...
I like it better this way than the other mounts.
It's more like "We beat the ZA timer!" as opposed to "I got lucky on a roll!"
4-06-2008 @ 6:55AM
Bootsanator said...
Maybe on your server. come to my low-population pvp server. I've seen maybe 2, 3 bear mounts...though at least one or two have the phoenix as well :P
I'd definitely love the raven or white hawkstrider, that would be cool.
4-11-2008 @ 5:51PM
Ancalimon said...
does EVERYONE in the group get a bear if they beat the timer? or is it one for the whole group?
4-05-2008 @ 5:46PM
C.A. said...
Spectacular article. Great write ups, screen shots, and videos. This is bookmarked.
Reply
4-05-2008 @ 6:27PM
Meph said...
I'm content to wait until I hit 80 to grab one of these guys for free.
Reply
5-12-2008 @ 4:06PM
Renjiro said...
http://www.wowinsider.com/2008/05/12/get-your-bear-mount-now/
Bear mounts won't be available in the expansion.
4-06-2008 @ 5:22AM
Timmytimtim said...
Great stuff, thanks
Reply
4-08-2008 @ 12:32PM
Tychon said...
Recently having got my bear mount we do things a bit differently.
2 tanks (pally and feral druid)
3 Healers (CoH Priest, Resto Shaman, Resto Druid/Holy pally)
Dps: 1 warlock 1 mage 1 elemental shaman 1 shadow priest. last spot goes to a boomkin, warlock, or hunter. we take 0 melee as we aoe every pull.
The druids help a lot with down time with innervates and bres. do not have to stop for mana rotates the innevates with the prot pally and spriest and holy priest.
We have tried with 2 healers but with AoEing every pull in the slight mistake that someone pulls aggro its nice to have extra heals there.
Dragonhawk trash we kill the first scout and invis pot through the first pull. root the scout and nuke him. with the change to dragonhawk it should be easier for your tank to hold aggro on those birds instead of teleporting the tank.
Reply
4-08-2008 @ 11:39PM
Chronnick said...
Now this is a damn good article.
Let's get more of this kind of writing on wowinsider more often.
Reply
4-21-2008 @ 3:38PM
Paragos said...
My guild has decided to do the same, one group of bear busters until we get a bear mount each.
Our setup is
G1: Prot Warrior, Feral Druid, Enh Shaman, Ret Paladin, Holy Priest
G2: Disc Priest, Shadow Priest, Ele Shaman, Destro Warlock, Fire Mage
Reply