Prot guide to ZA bear run (10 pulls to victory)

[Deleted]

Here's how I do my runs. Searched if this had been done before but it seems it hasn't. If you find a flaw in this guide, feel free to point it out and I'll happily take your suggestions to improve on this.

This guide will not feature boss strategies. If you do them all like you have to they won't slow you down.

What you need to know
First of all, there is a DPS check. People with as low as 10-12K DPS can make a timed run providing they do what they have to on trash and the bosses.
If bosses take too long to take down because birds aren't being killed, or healer goes oom because people haven't heard of a surge debuff, you're going to fail it. A person dying does not ruin your chances of making it. A wipe will. Mount up between every pull!

This is all your DPS need to do to help make the run as smooth as possible:

Choose their targets in this order: Scouts > Windwalkers > Medicine Men > Flamecasters > Rest
Leave the boxes till the end.
Help interrupt whenever possible. (This one's a given.)
Stay close to you.
If they do enormous burst, wait 2 seconds till you get aggro on a pull.
Use their defensive cooldowns wisely.
If they absolutley need to stop for a drink, that they move up on the boss platform before beginning drinking. This counts for healers as well.

Your healer will also need to be educated about his class, knowing how to maximize their heals and conserve mana.

But now it's on to you!

This map will help you understand my 10 pulls to victory:

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/651/zulamanmap.jpg

Pull 1
As soon as the doors open, run through to the top of the stairs, turn 180* and get the mob on your left. As soon as he becomes targetable, fire off a Judgement, lay down a consecration for the incoming adds, tab target to his buddy, and either taunt or shield him onto you. This is one of the easiest pulls, and if you do lose aggro on anything, it won't put too much strain on healing anyways. You can pull them down the stairs a bit, but that's not advisable if you've got a lot of ranged dps who you're only gonna break line of sight off.

As soon as the pull is over mount up and head over to Pull 2. If the patrol is too close, waiting right at the bottom but still on the stairs is a bigger time saver than engaging.

Pull 2
Throw an Avengers Shield on the first Windwalker (thing to note, they tend to not be on the same side every run so watch carefully) and carry them up the hill. Try having 2 Windwalkers in combat at any time, and they'll be more than enough to handle with the incoming reinforcements of melee adds and birds. Pop a CD when your health starts swinging down and up fast. Use loads of AoE moves, and keep a Windwalker targetted at all times, interrupting any heal. For Blood Elves I'd like to remember you that Arcane Torrent is lovely in these pulls. Keep going further up, and as soon as the Tempest is engaged to the fight, make sure to target him since he isn't tauntable and having him run rampant is quite the mess. Near the end of the fight you should be at the top of the stairs, but still on the stairs, and don't engage the boss until everyone is on the platform.

After Akil'zon follow the blue line and you'll see where it is safe to simply jump over the wall and make a large curve movement to avoid the patrol.

Pull 3
Immediatley jump onto the path to start the gauntlet, lay down a consecration, and get ready to slowly pull them up to the 2 bears. Stay as close to the wall as possible to not pull the pat if they near. When you've got the bears, start pulling them inside the next "chamber" but finish off all you have before running towards the stairs. Place a concecration at the bottom of the stairs, and throw a shield on the Medicine Man as soon as he is downstairs. Again start making your way up backwards as you interrupt any heals the medicine man might cast. And at the top of the stairs, your pack should be dead. Next you engage the two bear riders. Pop a CD as soon as one of them splits up in two mobs, but save your guardian of ancient kings, you're going to need it.

When the bears are down comes one of the hardest pulls in the dungeon. You're going to want to throw a shield at the medicine man, pop your Guardian, and get as much threat as you can. When your Guardian is about to run out, Stun a rider with your hammer of Justice, and pop another cooldown, and as more mobs die, the pack will become more handable. When all is dead quickly pull Nalorakk.

After Nalorakk make your way to pull 4, and make sure your DPS are aggressive on the scouts.

Pull 4
You will not be pulling the 4 man group in the middle of the road, but you will be hugging the right wall to get to the 3 man group there. Have your healer and dps follow closely so you aren't out of LoS for too long, and quickly kill these. There's only one flamecaster so have him targetted and interrupted.

Pull 5
While mounted, simply run through the mobs to the scout and Hammer of Justice him followed by consecration. This will give your DPS time to kill the scout and all the mobs will be on you. There is a tendency of an additional scout patrolling here, and all that can be done about him is having DPS that is aware and goes after him as soon as he shows up. If you're lucky, he won't even be there. This pull isn't hard at all, and you can pull the mobs back to the stone arc.

Pull 6
Your DPS need to take out the first scout asap and throw your shield of the righteous at a flamecaster in front of you immediatley. Lay down another consecration and pop a smaller cooldown. This pack is also not that hard if your healer can handle an occasional high damage peak on the party. And these can be minimised by smart use of interrupts and stuns. You'll be pulling this pack back as well towars the stairs.

Pull 7
Throw your shield at a flamecaster and pop your Guardian of ancient kings. Keep flamecasters targetted and interrupt while pulling the pack to the stairs of the boss. Your guardian will help you survive when you have an unlucky combo of a flamecaster flame move and the earthquake patch of the Juggernaut. Again each picked off mob makes the pack substantially more handable.

Pull 8
Engage Jan'alai and make your way down following the red line on the map and avoiding the patrol. When you reach the lynx pack, shoot something at the elder lynx and drop a concecration for the adds. they should go down smoothly.

Pull 9 (not actually a pull)
This isn't an actual pull. You can skip this if you have a group member with a water walk ability (Priest levitate is not a good option). Basically what you do is you follow the road until you see the crocodile tamer, and make a short curve around him into the water. You'll lose minimal time and can run straight to the lynx packs.

Pull 9 (The circle with the missing number on the map >_<)
You have to really use your head for this one. You basically run as far as it takes to make them spawn, you grab aggro quickly and start moving backwards to the next spawn point, ONLY going far enough to pull the next ones when an AoE ability comes off of CD. As the pack gets bigger use more CD's, but try saving your guardian for the next pull. If you have to choose using it or dying, it's better you use your guardian and take a chance on the pack. You can pull the lynxes up to the next stairs but don't go on them yet. And when the lynxes are close to dying, don't use your concecration anymore so you'll have it for the next pack.

Pull 10
The last pull. Run up the stairs and lay down concecration there. Throw something at a trainer and pop your guardian if you still have it. Interrupt their mind control ability and use hammer of justice on a lynx to minimise time you or your healer will be stunned. Since the next boss is a joke, you can pop anything you have left if you want certainty.

Now engage Halazzi and release the crazy lady for a bear!

Good luck

[Deleted]

Thanks for sharing!, I'll definitely use this guide when tanking on my pally

[Vanderhuge]

If you have them, you should use CC on the cats on the final pull before Halazzi. They can be targeted/trapped from the bottom of the stairs, and it's better to be safe than sorry and wipe on the final trash pull.

[Kaleid]

If you are running low on time after Jan'alai (Dragonhawk boss), you can use a simple trick to get to the end quickly. For this you need a Shaman in your group. A Warlock's Soulstone would also work. The person using the self-res also needs to be able to cast Mass Resurrection.

When you get to the invisible lynx packs, run straight through them all the way to the boss' room. Your group will die. Now, whoever can self-res should do so and cast Mass Resurrection.

Grats, you just passed all the trash in 30 seconds.

[Deleted]

If you have them, you should use CC on the cats on the final pull before Halazzi. They can be targeted/trapped from the bottom of the stairs, and it's better to be safe than sorry and wipe on the final trash pull.

I agree, the stuns can result in some huge damage spike if you're tanking all four mobs, or aggro loss if for some reason you don't have enough threat by the time you're stunned.

It's a nice guide, but I'm not sure how happy I am about the pulling-back part. Most melee dps I get in the Dungeon Finder can't seem to register the pack moving and end up not doing any damage for several seconds before realising they need to move forward. Besides, most packs are so close you hardly have to pull them back at all, and others you can simply mount up after.

But of course, if this guide works for you, I'm sure it'll work for others as well, cheers

[Deleted]

It's a nice guide, but I'm not sure how happy I am about the pulling-back part. Most melee dps I get in the Dungeon Finder can't seem to register the pack moving and end up not doing any damage for several seconds before realising they need to move forward. Besides, most packs are so close you hardly have to pull them back at all, and others you can simply mount up after.

Well I think the melee dps would be more to blame for this than the tactic. You'll always save time if you are able to do two things at the same time, i.e. moving/killing things, than killing things, and then wasting time on moving, no matter how fast oyu are able to move. Another example of moving mobs back to save time is the achievement 'Faster than the speed of light' where you pull the elemental boss you are killing towards the next one to shave off a good 2/3 mins of the timer.