Classic Raider - Zul'Gurub Part 2

Zul'Gurub...soloed. Yup I did it, and it's not hard, once you learn the raid. I didn't have much time to spend on WoW this weekend due to RL stuff but I did manage a few hours logged and decided to take some of that time to attempt Zul'Gurub again. As you may have read in my last post on this raid I didn't have to tough a time until it came to Hakkar and then the High Priest Thekal (aka tiger boss). This time through I knew a little more on the bosses and had a respec as well. This time around I did not spend as much time clearing trash as I did the first time, not because I expected problems doing so, just because I didn't have the time needed to do so. I killed all the High Priest bosses before Hakkar but I did not call Gahz'ranka this time and didn't kill the rest of the bosses except for Bloodlord Mandokir (for the attempt at the mount) and then Jin'do the Hexxer after Hakkar just to kill time and clear the rest of the bosses. I did clear all the bosses the last time so I consider this instance complete as far as soloing goes. I will be running this instance again for farming Zandalar Tribe rep(for no real reason other then to become exalted with them).


Upon entering the instance I pretty much went strait to High Priestess Jeklik (aka the bat boss). I cleared a couple of the groups around her but not all of them. I'm not sure how you traditionally get her down from where she stands but I just stand there and use Death Grip. It doesn't pull her down but it does get her attention and she comes down to fight. I didn't really have to many issues with this boss. Took me a little longer then I wanted to because of her healing ability but then I got into a grove with Mind Freeze and started using that to interrupt her on those. It took me around 10-15 minutes to down her because of this. At no time during the fight was I in real danger of dying, and I have to tell you I am really in love with the change I made to my spec. Basically I took out Blood Worms and added those points to Death Rune Mastery. I didn't take that ability at first because I figured I would be using Death Strike whenever my Frost and Unholy rune were available but with this change it gives me so many more options. If I am good on health I don't use Death Strike, it's not a real powerful attack, instead I use it either for Heart Strike (for the DPS increase) or another of my Blood healing abilities (i.e. Vampiric Blood, Mark of Blood, Rune Tap etc). It gives me so much more flexibility and I think it will retain it's usefulness even in the higher level instances, we'll see. So Bat Girl goes down.

I just followed the instance map around (Thanks Cartagropher) and up next was High Priest Venoxis (aka the snake boss). Pretty much a tank and spank he went down fairly quickly trying to keep away from the poison clouds. Next up on the map was High Priestess Mar'li (aka the spider boss). This one was wicked easy I don't think I cleared any mobs around the boss before taking him on, most of them paid me no mind when I was making my way up to him. Whenever he would call spiders I would drop a DnD and a couple seconds later they were dead. Getting webbed (prevents spell casting) is a bit of a pain but not terrible since most blood attacks are not considered spells but attacks instead, the only problem that arose is when my diseases were about to run out and she webbed me, easily solved by re-applying diseases afterward but still that's two runes used instead of one.

I went next to Bloodlord Mandokir, now this boss isn't really necessary to kill Hakkar (and I think none of them are really...might have to try that too) I wouldn't mind getting the raptor mount that has a (very slim) chance to drop from him. So up till now I had been in my blood spec but with my DPS gear to clear mobs quicker and the first time I took him on he killed me. Not sure what ability he was using but he killed me fairly quickly (overconfidence when will I be rid of you). Switched to may tank gear next try and was still getting lower on health then I felt I should, so instead of attacking Mandokir I switched to DPS his raptor, downed him quickly and went back to Mandokir. After that I didn't have a problem and was able to keep my health above 1/2 the rest of the time with little to no problem. I will be running this fight again and again until I get the mount.

This post is getting a little long so I'll finish up again in another (well that and I don't have much else to write about this week so I'm trying to stretch it out).