Classic Raider - Zul'Gurub Part 2 cont.

I left off the last post with Bloodlord Mandokir and the next boss on the map that I needed to tackle was High Priest Thekal (aka the tiger boss). Now this was one boss my last try I just couldn't kill. The healing and resurrecting him and his two adds do was not wearing me down with hits, but with play time. I spent approx 30 minutes non stop fighting him and his cronies and just couldn't kill them all within 10 seconds of each other. Inevitably one of them would be left with enough HP to last and resurrect one of the others, and then the third. This is actually what lead me to respec, not being happy with my DPS output. As I mentioned in my last post I love the respec (adding Death Rune Master in place of Blood Worms) as it not only helps my DPS (more HS) but also allows me to add my healing abilities in easier without having to wait for Blood Runes.


So this time I was ready for Mr. Tiger Boss and his cronies. I took out one set of the mobs around him, just as I walked in I aggro'd a tiger and some other adds came over to help him out. Then just walked right up and started the fight. I fought them right on the stairs. My strategy this time was to DPS each one down individually to about 25% health, without any AOE. This was supposed to include not using pestilence to refresh and spread my diseases, since that would affect the others. Well that didn't work out perfectly and occasionally I did use pestilence but in the end it turned out OK. I didn't get them all down on the first try, I killed two of his adds and couldn't down him quick enough, but the second try I did. After I had each of them low on health I would alternately attack each of them. Mostly HS, so HS one got the next HS him go to the next. HS does do damage to two mobs but it seemed to work out OK. I also used Mind Freeze to stop the healing spells that Zealot Lor'Khan casts. You have two options with this, you can set her as your focus and then watch for the cast bars or, as I did, just watch for her casting and target her then interrupt. The last post I put up on Zul'Gurub there is a great comment by someone names Anonymous that includes a handy macro for this. I have to admit I didn't use it this time as running the instance was kind of a last minute decision but I would like to farm this boss for the mount and I think the macro will make it easier. After the phase 1 he transforms into a half tiger half man thing. From then on I just DPS'd him with no problems. Unfortunately no mount...yet.

The last minor boss after tiger man that I had to kill was High Priestess Arlokk. I can't stress how easy she is to solo. No worries at all, nothing special to do or look for, when she disappeared and panthers started pouring out it took me a few seconds to kill the panthers that were already around me but very shortly I was standing around waiting for the two panther adds to run to me. No issues, easy kill.

With all the High Priests down I moved on to Hakkar. Now last time he kicked my a$$, this time I was back with vengeance on my mind. In my excitement to give Hakkar another go I only cleared one trash mob around his platform. Once on top I started the fight, this time no blood worms came out so now Mind Control and reset. Just to test this as the cause of my previous attempt I called my ghoul at the start of the fight and sure enough Hakkar MC'd me and reset after I killed my own ghoul. So no ghouls or army for this fight. Turns out I didn't need them, at all. The only thing they would have helped me out on was more DPS because it took me literally 20 minutes to kill him, really I checked the clock. I didn't need to pay any attention to how he was attacking me or what abilities he used. All I had to do was stand in one place and grind. And then, Hakkar was dead. A little bit of a let down since I had already gotten the achievement on a run with some guild mates and friends but sweet none the less. I had soloed Zul'Gurub, my first raid complete. But I'll be back, probably not to kill Hakkar but definitely for gaining some rep with the Zandalar Tribe, some easy gold, and the mounts from the raptor and tiger boss.

After killing Hakkar I decided to clean up a little of the trash/bosses that we're left. After all I was already in the instance so I might as well make it worth my while. I proceeded directly to Jin'do the Hexxer clearing some trash along the way. He's a pretty easy fight I killed his shades when I could see them, he would banish me to the dancing skeleton pit (after a few of which I just stayed there and fought him there). Nothing special. I cleared some more of the trash and then left the instance to farm heroics for badges (need to keep improving my tank gear for the higher level instances).