Monday night is Raid Night. So are Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. By "raid" we’re talking T5 progression: currently, Serpentshrine Cavern and occasionally The Eye. We’re not talking 10-mans or T-4.
Last night (Monday) we had around 26 people in The Oroborus online; one of them wasn’t the Raid Leader. (As it turns out, Real Life interefered; completely understandable and excusable.) Even if he’d been on, we didn’t have a build; several of the people online don’t raid (we’re a raiding guild, so I still don’t get that, but that’s beside the point). So at 8:15 server time, the GL calls the raid. I was bummed; I expect some others were too. After all, we got Leotheras to 1 percent on Sunday: Every one of us was confident we had his number and that a kill was sure to happen.
Talonis did a full clear of Karazhan on Friday night, but Osprey hadn’t been yet, and he needs badges. I was hoping we could drum up support; however, my friend Kat also wanted to hit Heroic Magister’s Terrace for a couple drops for her mage. We only needed a tank and another DPS (figuring Katika and Swissy, plus Osprey). Then I got a whisper from our target tank: "Want to heal Zul’Aman?" Truthfully, I didn’t. In fact, I really REALLY wanted to got Kara; I have bad memories of MgT.
It became evident pretty quickly we weren’t going to get a tank: Two were in Sethekk Halls helping another guildmate get epic flight form, the other was working on the ZA recruitment. Finally, Katika and Osprey relented and joined the ZA group.
It was our first visit there, and I will confess that up to then, I really had no burning desire to go there. Once in though, I was struck by how well it was designed. I won’t say the instance is beautiful, but it’s pretty. So we got in, and apparently someone started something (lots of gong-banging) (it may have been Katika accepting the quest outside; I really have no idea). So after a lot more gong-banging1
Two pulls in, our pally tank disconnected. He’s in Texas; no doubt was negatively affected by Edouard. After 20 minutes or so and some more trash pulls, we replaced him with one of the tanks who had been in Sethekk. (Of course, the original tank logged on a couple minutes later, but he was cool with not rejoining us.) We still needed a third healer; our GM agreed to join us, then made the observation that the two of us already there should have no trouble healing the entire instance. It was nice to get the vote of confidence, but since at least four of us had never been in ZA before, I was very happy to have both the experience and the extra heals the GM brought (and [spell]Circle of Healing[/spell] in ZA is a Very Nice Thing!).
We had almost no problems with the trash pulls. The only boss who gave us much trouble was the Lynx, but after one wipe, we got him down (well, our bear tank and Katika got him down; the rest of us were dead). Then we got to the Dragonhawks. Of course I’d read accounts of this fight (especially when trying to complete ZA for the Harrison Jones event.) This.Is.A.Tough.Fight. After 4 or 5 attempts, people had to leave, so we called it. Still, I considered the evening successful: We got to see most of ZA; I generally had fun; and my fear of the unknown (in this case, Zul’aman) is now considerably less.2
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In order to open the doors to Zul’Aman, you need to talk to Harrison Jones (a cross between Indiana Jones and Harrison Ford). Once everyone has gathered for the instance, you can prompt Jones to help you open the doors. He’ll toss on his signature hat, move over to the gong, and ask people to help him hit it. Once five people do it more or less simultaneously, the doors open and the timer for the first boss begins.
I really like Zul’Aman. The gear there is itemized really differently, the bosses have abilities that are very unique when compared to most raid bosses, and the three day reset allows you to go back frequently during the week. Plus the challenge of the bear mount timer is awesome fun; with a geared group that has some experience, you can easily do a full run in around an hour!
Two healers in Zul’Aman is a little iffy. We run with two dedicated healers (a Holy paladin and my perky priestess), but we also have a Balance druid to fall back on for those fights where we need a little assistance. Mind you, these are timer runs and we had to trim off a little of the fat to get optimal DPS so that we could make timers.
Cynra’s last blog post: Wherein Cynra Enters the 21st Century
Ahh…very nice synopsis, Cynra!
Normally, I know a bit more about a place before I go in; however, I really wasn’t planning on ZA last night. And by no means were we trying to do a timed run (at least, I hope we weren’t!)
I agree with you about liking the drops and the bosses: Some different challenges there! (Even some of the trash–such as scouts–make it “interesting”!)
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