Patch 4.1 Content Preview: Rise of the Zandalari
Blizzard finally posted a small preview of the Patch 4.1 content, confirming the updated skin of the Amani War Bear in the process.
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker)
In years past, the Zandalar tribe, encompassing the wise and scholarly progenitors of the trolls, heroically assisted the Horde and the Alliance with thwarting the nefarious activities of their brethren in Zul'Gurub and Zul'Drak. Yet the chaos unleashed by the recent Cataclysm has reshaped the Zandalari's philosophy about the world and the dwindling remnants of their race. Led by a mysterious prophet known only as Zul, the Zandalari have issued a call to Azeroth's embattled troll populations: unite into a single mighty empire and save their race from extinction.

Thus far, the Gurubashi and Amani trolls have answered the summons and received aid from the Zandalari, allowing them to rebuild their respective capitals in Zul'Gurub and Zul'Aman. Not all trolls, however, have so eagerly adopted the Zandalari's grandiose vision of a new troll empire. Vol'jin and his Darkspear tribe are opposed to the warmongering espoused by Zul. To prevent the burgeoning Gurubashi and Amani troll forces from wreaking havoc on Azeroth, Vol'jin has reached out to his Horde comrades and members of the Alliance for assistance. Should the Darkspears' campaign fail, a new troll empire shall rise and bring war to a world already beset by suffering and conflict.



A Threat Fought in Secret

Using a great deal of discretion, Vol’jin has dispatched Darkspear delegates to the capital cities of Stormwind and Orgrimmar calling for all able-bodied adventurers to investigate recent threats that have risen in the jungles of Stranglethorn.

The outlook isn't good. The Gurubashi tribe, their strength renewed, is running rampant throughout Stranglethorn. Players will have a chance to embark on all-new level-85 solo quests in Stranglethorn and will discover exactly what tribulations lie ahead -- Gurubashi leadership is still largely intact and rehabilitated through the new union with the Zandalari. Along the way, players will assist a sassy, headstrong Darkspear spirit-talker named Bwemba, they'll track down the elusive Hemet Nesingwary, and they'll encounter many of the new Zul'Gurub bosses throughout the steaming jungles of Stranglethorn.


Rewards for addressing the issues in Stranglethorn include an adorable panther pet of your own to care for. Players should seek out Vol'jin's representatives in Orgrimmar or Stormwind Harbor to begin their adventure.


Return to Zul'Gurub

This ancient city has once again become the staging grounds for an empowered Gurubashi people to strike against those who they perceive to be invading their ancestral lands. Now backed by the Zandalari, the Gurubashi present all-new challenges for players in this level-85 5-player Heroic dungeon. While players may see some familiar faces in this dungeon, the encounters and fight mechanics have been considerably updated. For allying yourself with the Darkspears, High Priest Venoxis, Broodlord Mandokir, High Priestess Kilnara, Zanzil, and Jin'do the Godbreaker would like to make one thing clear -- your intrusion will cost you. Take their heads and you’ll be presented with a treasure map. You’ll want to seek out its precious booty, including an account-bound ring with a gem so big it’s visible when worn!


Also, for those with a high enough Archaeology skill, an additional boss can be unlocked in Zul’Gurub. Gri'lek, Renataki, Hazza'rah, and Wushoolay will be randomly selected to put an end to those who dig too deep for greater riches. Should your group survive the challenge, you'll unearth a selection of rewards available from any of the four bosses, as well as loot unique to each boss.


The Amani Regrouped

With the aid of the Zandalari, the remaining Amani have reassembled under new, sturdy leadership in Daakara. Zul'Aman has been converted into a challenging level-85 5-player Heroic dungeon. For those who fought Zul'jin back during The Burning Crusade, much of the dungeon will feel similar, but the mechanics have been updated to suit a 5-player group. Akil'zon, Nalorakk, Jan'alai, Halazzi, Hex Lord Malacrass, and Daakara look to bring their tribe out of hiding and into the spotlight as a force to be reckoned with. Challengers beware.


Both Zul'Aman and Zul'Gurub will require players to have a minimum average item level of 346 before they can enter. These two Heroic dungeons will exist in a separate Heroic difficulty tier in the Dungeon Finder, above the current Cataclysm Heroic dungeons. In return, they will offer players item level 353 epic-quality loot. Players can expect to find items for nearly every gear slot available in these two dungeons, though much focus has been placed on offering players itemization for hard-to-fill slots or specializations, such as bracers, helms, shoulders, guns, and wands.


Rare Mounts and More

As with the original iterations of Zul'Gurub and Zul'Aman, players will have a chance to obtain updated rare mounts. The Swift Zulian Panther and Armored Razzashi Raptor are obtained in Zul'Gurub, while the Amani Battle Bear can be earned by killing the first four bosses of Zul'Aman in a limited amount of time.


The interests of the Zandalari no longer align with your own. Vol'jin needs your help to stop this play for power. Will you rise to the challenge?
This article was originally published in forum thread: Patch 4.1 Content Preview: Rise of the Zandalari started by Boubouille View original post
Comments 181 Comments
  1. Ventashar's Avatar
    Pets, mounts, and a BoE ring? I think i'll be set for a while.
  1. Brosemon's Avatar
    I thought the war bear might just be a different colored version of FtH mount....i was wrong. Im so getting it!
  1. thelordymir's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by PavlovGW View Post

    A lot of people didn't get to see Zul'Aman during BC, and a LOT more people didn't get to experience 20-man Zul'Gurub. Just because you've played through it doesn't mean that everyone else has. In fact, I'd be willing to bet my left nipple that the number of people haven't been in those two instances dwarfs the number of those that have. For example, I haven't seen either one of them. I'm happy.

    Nothing was stopping you from going into either instance and doing the content and experiencing the raids, oh was it too easy with your WoTLK kiddie gear and you wanted a challenge? They weren't much of a challenge to begin with anyways other then the timed bear runs, and those were not much of a challenge with people in BT/Hyjal gear. So they reskin an entire instance and a mount, and I'm sure they will reskin some of the items and gear that drop inside as well, because that's what Blizzard likes to do. But eat it up, I'm sure they are happy you are so easily pacified while Blizzard sits there doing minimal effort and reaping in tons of rewards.
  1. mmoc9eeaaea509's Avatar
    Any raider already outgears the instance which is most likely going to make the times run trivial anyway, add to that a 15% buff so as long as everyone has any idea whatsoever going it will be extremely easily pugged too.

    Even if Blizzard do decide to make it difficult, putting it in now means there's ~3 more teirs of gear going to be avaliable in this expansion, making it considerably easier to get every time a new raid comes out, especially considering that 980 VP weekly cap from heroics makes getting raid geared from heroics alone even easier than it was in WotLK.

    I'm not saying it's a bad/good thing, im just saying that yes, it is the new Bronze Drake.
  1. testaburger's Avatar
    I'm a sucker for 'new' content. Especially since I loved za and zg back then. I won't be pugging these, as elitist expectations demand flawless playstyle in 'new' dungeons. Glad I leveled archaeology on my main, now I gotta do it on my alts....sigh
  1. Uselessrouge's Avatar
    dk's says thx
  1. Dannz's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Shambulanced View Post
    Did you even read the bluepost about the instances? The story *IS* being moved forward. Zanzil rezzes some of the priests, while you (if you do northern STV quests) are responsible for Mando'kir's resurrection.

    The zandalar (overseeing council of all trolls) faction is moving from opposing Hakkar to a polar-opposite stance of trying to bring Hakkar back AND wage war upon Azeroth once again. Again, story moving forward--a new prophet is stirring the troll empires (one of the oldest common foes of horde/alliance on Azeroth) into action again after basically sitting back and letting heroes wipe them out tribe by tribe.

    yet... we are fighting the same characters all over again (entire zul'aman), and almost entire zul'gurub again, with slightly updated versions of their abilities...

    "durp, we cba to create new lore, so lets take existing lore we alrdy finished, re-polish it, and call it moving the story forward"... the least they could have done if they wanted to re-use ZG and ZA was to invent new bosses, with new abilities, not the same shit slightly polished

    mandorkin is a great example, the fight is virtually the same, except now he 1 shots people insted of his "gaze", and his raptor actually does something... like killing the ghosts, but it's the same shit, it's unoriginal, blend and boring to re-do what we alrdy did 5 years ago

    i'm sorry you weren't here, but there are prolly millions of us still playing from vanilla times, that are craving for NEW content, not recycled-repolished content

    and no, these dungeons do not count as "NEW", just like onyxia anaversity gift in wotlk was not NEW content... they could have released ZG/ZA as a similar thingy as ony lair in wotlk, rather then a pointless content patch of it's own.
  1. mmocf06effc4be's Avatar
    Hell, as long as they dont release some kind of Spectral Tiger 2.0, they can reskin everything else for all i care! (slight sarcasm)
  1. Lylyth's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by DurbTh View Post
    It wasn't trivial at all, and cmon we all know what expansion we are, it will be difficult for first 2 days and then after QQ from mama's boys its gonna get nerfed to ground

    i'm expecting something like this on release: beat the timed run under 30 minutes to recieve this mount, and 3 days later: beat timed run under 2 hours to recieve this mount...cause franly thats how this game operates now

    and if that isn't enough it's gonna recive 10 nerfs in first month also...so yeah it's gonna be trivial very very soon
    People aren't realizing that it wasn't really the time restraint that made the old War Bear rare. It was that ZA was on a 3 day lock-out and only ONE person got the mount on each run.

    Now, you can do H ZA as many times a day as you want (via Random DF) and if you take the same 5 people you'll all have within 2 days.

    ...then you can all start on your alts obtaining the mount for the next two days!
  1. Dread Pirate Roberts's Avatar
    Sorry, Blizz, but it's hard to believe that the Zandalar would go from being all "Help us kill these other trolls!" to "We gunna kill you for helping us kill those other trolls!!" in like 6 years.
  1. zrankfappa's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by tusker View Post
    Yes, I did. Thanks for not helping.
    like you read mine ... you read the first line and ignored the rest. Did I not tell you what you wanted to know?
  1. VanishO2's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by PavlovGW View Post
    I don't know about the rest of you, but when I saw that we're getting another Hemit chain, I spilled tears of joy across my desk. And here I thought that we had seen the last of his fantastical quests in Wrath!

    BLESS YOU, BLIZZARD.

    Oh, cool bear, bro.

    EDITEDITEDIT:



    A lot of people didn't get to see Zul'Aman during BC, and a LOT more people didn't get to experience 20-man Zul'Gurub. Just because you've played through it doesn't mean that everyone else has. In fact, I'd be willing to bet my left nipple that the number of people haven't been in those two instances dwarfs the number of those that have. For example, I haven't seen either one of them. I'm happy.
    You'll never get 100%, so there will always be something that someone never saw. Wich doesn't mean that it should be recycled. A lot of players experienced ZG, be it at lvl 60 or just doing rep grind/mount grind runs. The same way ppl do MC for example... should we get a revamped heroic 5-man MC? No.

    Ppl solo (or almost) TK for the mount, should we get heroic 5man Tempest Keep? No.

    Same for "player favorites" (as they judged ZA/ZG) like Karazhan, AQ40... no need to recycle it as 5man heroics. The game story must move on as some ppl love to claim... so, new stuff, please, before we get to fight Bolvar in the "fan favorite" Heroic 5-man Icecrown Citadel.
  1. Umbranex's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Falrinn View Post
    According to Vol'jin's dialog in the Ghostlands, Rastakhan is at least complicit with Zul's message.

    On a related not the term "Zul" generally means "great", so Zul'Gurub probably translates roughly as "Great City of the Gurubasi". This means the new prophet of the Zandalar is literally called "Great Prophet".
    I think Blizzard is taking a page from Lord of the Rings with this storyline, Prophet Zul (Grima Wormtongue), a servant of Deathwing/N'Zath (Saruman), manipulating King Rastakhan (King Théoden).
  1. ZiiSqueak's Avatar
    Oh good! I'm glad the bear is that green armored skin that I loved so much but never got to see in-game!
  1. Lily Crowley's Avatar
    The Amani bear is still a recolour, but a MUCH better one than the first one we saw!
  1. Brosemon's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Rivermark View Post
    What a lie. Changing color is not an update.
    Actually it is. If it said, "Players will have the chance to obtain new, never before seen mounts!", thatd be a lie.
  1. Kiro's Avatar
    Haha... So they just slightly changed one of the few mounts they have EVER taken out of the game because it was special? Seriously, how can anyone stand up for this ridiculously sheer laziness is beyond me. Only people who will say "yay" are those who didn't play while it was in the game, and those that weren't good enough to get it back in the day. Seriously, this is sad, pathetically sad at that.

    Come on guys, people have to take a stand already. Open your eyes and see how lazy and pathetic this is becoming, and that blizzard just doesn't really care, nor holds their word (bear was a one time deal!).
  1. zrankfappa's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by tusker View Post
    Yes, I did. Did you answer my question? Not at all.

    I can speculate just as much as you can, assuming it'll be trivial with guild groups, and others/pugs will QQ it's too hard, etc. I agree with that. But.. saying, "That depends on how long they give you, how good your gear is, and your skill." doesn't help. That's a statement you could say about almost *anything*. Thanks for trying, though.
    But ... you asked for someone to speculate. Asking if something is trivial is a subjective question completely dependant on a persons opinion.

    Is knitting a hat trivial?

    my grandmother would respond: yes
    i would respond: no

    Was the questioned answered?

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