Tank Hard!

One of our frequent commentors who always has useful information to add has agreed to come on board as a contributing member.  Please welcome Rochelle as a new member of the staff of TankHard.com!  Rochelle brings more end game raiding knowledge as well as fresh perspective on many aspects of tanking.

Welcome Rochelle!

Next up we have Jan’alai, the Dragonhawk Avatar. This fight is not hard from a tanking standpoint, and is another encounter where the entire raid has to be on their toes to ensure a victory.

Getting to Jan’alai is pretty straight forward. Just clear the trash along the way and keep the Scouts from banging the drums. Bringing a druid to chain root works like a charm for the Scouts. If they happen to get to the drums, they will summon reinforcements which can quickly overwhelm you so keep them from banging the drums at all costs!

As for Jan’alai himself, the encounter can be frustrating or easy, depending on how situationally aware your raid crew is, and what your raid makeup is.

As for tanking Jan’alai, just keep him in the middle area and have your raid spread out around him. Jan’alai will melee hit for about 1800 and can crush. Have everyone spread out for Flame Breath. Flame Breath is a straight line damage which will target a player and fire in that direction hitting everyone in front of or behind the targeted player. As long as people are properly spread out, the breath should not be much of an issue.

The next thing Jan’alai will do is periodically summon everyone around him in the middle of the area and begin throwing bombs all around. You have to position yourself so that you are not near any of the bombs as they will do significant damage when they detonate.

Tip #1: Pull your camera back and high above you looking down toward the ground to make avoiding the bombs easy.

Tip #2: During the bomb phase, stay in close to Jan’alai, he tosses the bombs beginning close in and then away. It will give you more time to get positioned if you are closer in.

About every 90 seconds, Jan’alai will summon 2 Amani’shi Hatchers who will move towards the egg areas to the sides and begin hatching eggs. If you brought a Prot or Ret paladin with tanking gear with you, this will not be too tough. Have a hunter or other ranged DPS burn down one of the hatchers immediately and have your Paladin pick up the 2nd hatcher and DPS him down to about 20%. Let the hatcher hatch 4 sets of eggs, kill the hatcher, then have your DPS kill off the hatchlings. You want to let the hatchers open as many eggs as you can handle during this part of the fight because once Jan’alai reaches 35%, all of the remaining eggs will hatch and you will be swarmed with dragonhawks.

When the remaining eggs are hatched, again have your Paladin round them up and DPS them down. Once you get these down, it should be smooth sailing, just finish off Jan’alai. One thing you should be aware of however is that at 25%, he will Enrage and will start double attacking. You will need heavy heals beginning at 25% until he is dead. This would also be a good time to pop a [item]Greater Stoneshield Potion[/item], and be ready with Last Stand and Shield Wall.

Tip #3: You can eliminate all of the eggs to avoid having any dragonhawks hatched at 35%. You’ll almost certainly require a prot or ret paly for this strategy though.

Tip #4: Make sure you keep the Flame Buffet dispelled/reduced on your AE tank.

Tip #5: If you don’t bring a prot or ret Paly, you can have your Holy Paly healer put up Righteous Fury to aggro the dragonhawks.

Tip #6: This event can be reset, just run back down the stairs to the south if things go south!

Boy, lots of tips for this one! At any rate, he’s not too terribly difficult with the right raid makeup and an attentive raid group. Down him and hope a very nice shield, [item]Bulwark of the Amani Empire[/item]. Don’t forget your [item]Badge of Justice[/item] x 2!

Our next boss for discussion is Halazzi. According to Blizzard, Zul’Aman is tuned for the post Kara raid group. Taking that into consideration, if ever there was an Avoidance fight for the Kara geared tank, this is it. Halazzi can trash your tank in nothing flat. In one encounter, I took about 24k damage in 6 seconds. Look at the following excerpt from that attempt:

06:47′41.140 Halazzi’s Saber Lash hits Bizzam for 7489 (443 blocked)
06:47′41.516 Halazzi’s Melee parried by Bizzam
06:47′42.362 Halazzi’s Melee parried by Bizzam
06:47′42.472 Bizzam gains Shield Block
06:47′42.926 Bizzam’s Devastate parried by Halazzi
06:47′43.317 Halazzi’s Melee hits Bizzam for 2462 (443 blocked)
06:47′44.665 Halazzi’s Melee hits Bizzam for 1108 (443 blocked)
06:47′45.448 Halazzi’s Melee hits Bizzam for 3010
06:47′45.573 Bizzam’s Melee parried by Halazzi
06:47′45.651 Halazzi’s Saber Lash hits Bizzam for 8036
06:47′46.842 Halazzi’s Melee hits Bizzam for 2735 (443 blocked)
06:47′46.857 Halazzi’s Melee misses Bizzam
06:47′47.327 Bizzam dies

I have seen Sabre Lash come as quickly as 4 seconds apart. It CAN be dodged or parried, so avoidance becomes quite big in this fight. If not for the randomness of Sabre Lash, this fight would be quite a breeze. As it is, it is a very random encounter where a roll of the dice can be the deciding factor in a victory or defeat. Your healers will have to keep you topped off at all times to prevent a rapid succession beat down.

Let’s Tank the Lynx!

You will need 2 tanks for Halazzi. The Sabre Lash needs to be divided between your two tanks just like on Nalorakk. Chain chugging [item]Greater Stoneshield Potion[/item] will help with the damage. Again, have your mage put Amply Magic on you to help with heals. Bring a hunter on this encounter as well, for Halazzi will Frenzy which can be removed with the hunter’s Tranquilizing Shot. While your at it, have the hunter also keep up Scorpid Sting for the -5% to hit debuff.

Halazzi basically has 3 phases. He will alternate between Phase 1 and Phase 2 until he reaches 25% health at which point he will enter Phase 3 and remain there until dead.

In Phase 1 Halazzi will Sabre Lash and Frenzy. Sabre Lash must be split by the 2 tanks standing up front and center as it will otherwise hit a single tank for about 18k damage, almost ensuring the death of said tank.

At 75%, and then again at 50%, Halazzi will enter Phase 2. During Phase 2, Halazzi will split into a troll spirit and a lynx spirit. Your offtank will need to pick up the lynx spirit while the main tank holds onto Halazzi. Halazzi will begin dropping Corrupted Lightning Totems which need to be destroyed as soon as they appear. Have your DPS be sure to make a macro like such:

/tar Corr
/startattack

which they should hit whenever a totem is dropped so that they can quickly target and begin attacking the totems when they drop. The Main tank is in a great position to call these out as Halazzi does have a cast bar for creating them. Halazzi will also perform Flame Shock which should be dispelled from whoever gets the DOT. While not killing off the totems, everyone should be focusing on the Lynx. When you get the Lynx to 20%, the Lynx will rejoin Halazzi and he will re-enter phase 1 again.

Once you get Halazzi down to 25%, he will enter Phase 3 which is basically the same as Phase 1, but with the addition of the Corrupted Lightning Totems. If you get this far, just finish him off and collect your rewards! You will get [item]Badge of Justice[/item] X 2, and some shots at more DPS oriented drops [item]Skullshatter Warboots[/item] and [item]The Savage’s Choker[/item]. I as of yet to get Halazzi down within the timer for extra drops, but maybe soon!

Akil’zon is the second boss in Zul’Aman if you are killing in the order the timers require. If you are not concerned with the timers, then you are free to do whichever boss suits you!

Akil’zon is pretty straight forward where tanking is concerned. There really are not any tricks other than just keeping him positioned. This fight comes down to the rest of the raid.

The raid needs to be spread out to avoid Static Disruption from chaining to multiple raiders. It is very important to make sure nobody is close enough for this to chain to the tank. This can become particularly problematic for other melee as it can be difficult to remain in range for combat, but far enough away from the tank to prevent chaining. The Static Disruption places a debuff on the person that will increase nature damage by 25%.

Akil’zon will create an electrical storm every 45 - 60 seconds. When this is performe, on member of the raid will be lifted into the air and held there. Everyone else must run underneath that person to avoid taking massive electrical damage. Watch for the purple ‘drain life’ effect Akil’zon will fire at the effected person, then run like the wind to get beneath that player. The storm will last for 8 seconds or so and then you will need to move back to Akil’zon and resume tanking as usual.

After the first Electrical Storm, Akil’zon will summon eagles that fly around and wreak havoc on your casters. I single out casters as they will get hit much harder by the eagles than other more durable characters. The eagles are typically just a nuisance to other armor wearers.

Finish off Akil’zon and you will pick up 2 x [item]Badge of Justice[/item]. There really aren’t any tank specific drops from Akil’zon, but there are a couple of situational items. The [item]Akil’zon’s Talonblade[/item] looks to be a great threat weapon, and you can pick up the [item]Bloodstained Elven Battlevest[/item] for your DPS set.

A note about the gauntlet trash before Akil’zon: The gauntlet can be quite a chore. If you are lucky, you brought a paladin with you. They are great for aggroing up the adds that come while moving up the ramp. As the MT, your job will be the non-cc’able pairs of mobs you will encounter as you move up. Keep aggro on the Amani’shi Wind Walkers and the Amani’shi Protectors. Kill the Wind Walkers first as they can heal. Have your other tank type pick up the Warriors that come from behind, and have your Paladin hold all the eagles while your AE DPS takes them down. Keep moving up the ramp and engage the Amani’shi Tempest to stop the adds from continuing.

Zul’Aman has brought us several new 10 man bosses. Each of which brings us new little twists to experience. Some are tough, and some not too bad. Over the next few posts, I’ll discuss how I’ve been approaching each of these bosses.

First up is Nalorakk. He is the Amani Lord of the Bears and is the first boss you will encounter when you enter Zul’Aman.

It is arguable that getting to Nalorakk is harder than actually downing him. The two pulls right before you engage the boss can be rough. The two bear mounted Amani’shi Warbringers hit pretty hard and have a nasty stacking debuff that will cause the tank to take more and more damage. Top it off with a bone crunching Enrage and you are looking at a wipe just waiting to happen for the ill prepared group.

When fighting these two waves just before Nalorakk, you will need to have two capable tanks. When you pull, have the tanks separate the two riders to avoid them stacking the Ferocious Roar debuff on both tanks. Also, these guys cleave, so face them away from the raid and all other melee should attack from behind. Focus fire these down and be prepared for the troll rider to dismount at around 20% health. At that point, CC the bear via fear or trap and finish off the troll. Then take down the bear before going to the next rider. Again, be ready for the Enrage as the tank will take a pounding when the Enrage is up. Look for them to grow bigger and gain a reddish hue.

Once you have cleared the trash, you will be at Nalorakk himself. This fight isn’t all that tough if your tanks have sufficient gear. I do not know where the break point would be, but I have no problems tanking with 15k unbuffed hp and 16.5k armor.

Tip: Have your mage put Amplify Magic on both tanks. This will help with the healing.

Nalorakk has two forms, troll form and bear form. You will need two tanks. Your beefiest tank should plan to tank the bear form as bear form does the most damage. That is not to say that the troll form is a push over. You will need to have a decent tank for troll form as well. Have both tanks stand on top of each other for the fight. The troll form has a Brutal Swipe ability that will do a set amount of damage divided among the number of players hit (up to 2 I believe), so have both tanks up there to split the damage.

Nalorakk has a charge like ability while in troll form. He will target the person farthest from him, so have a hunter stand behind the rest of the raid to take the charges.

When Nalorakk switches to bear form, quickly Taunt him onto your second tank. While in bear form, Nalorakk can also perform Deafening Roar, which as the name suggests, can silence your raid, including your healers. Have your healers keep you topped off during this phase as an ill timed silence could spell the end for your tank. Bear form lasts about 30 seconds and then he will transform back to troll form and your other tank will Taunt him back.

Continue this process until he is defeated! Congrats! Now of course you are interested in the phat lewts, amiright?

Nalorakk will drop a [item]Badge of Justice[/item] and if you are lucky, [item]Jungle Stompers[/item]. And if you defeat Nalorakk within the time limit, you also have a chance at [item]Pauldrons of Stone Resolve[/item].

Tip #2: A note about the timer. You must DEFEAT Nalorakk before the time expires, not just ENGAGE him. If you are fighting Nalorakk when the time expires, your poor sacrificial troll will be set ablaze right before your eyes and you will not have a chance at the timed loot drops.