ZA & ZG heroic guides

[Devonie]

I spent the better part of my yesterday preparing these guides for my guild's website and a friend suggested I post them here (they were originally prepared for me to share with my guild so that may be inherently obvious at some points). I hope they are of some use to someone, and be kind, this is my first forum post on this site. Also for that reason, I had to post a version that fails to link to the spells or item info on Wowhead, and all the pretty colors and formatting, so apologies for that Cheers.


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In an effort to do something other than (try to) be funny on the guild forums, today I’m going to offer up some handy-dandy guides on the two new heroics which dropped with patch 4.1. I managed to get through them both last night; and now after seeing the fights first-hand, thought I would polish up the notes I had and offer this up to my fantastic guildies. First stop…

HEROIC ZUL’AMAN

Before going into specific strategies for the six bosses in this instance, some interesting non-boss related information:

• You need an average equipped gear level of 346 to queue for either of these instances.
• There are six quests to pick up in the beginning of the instance. Do these. Some of them offer epic-quality loot rewards (even if you have better, some still vend for 20+ gold or d/e into a Maelstrom Crystal), along with a nice chunk of gold.
• There are several mini-boss types (which are actually kill requirements for some of the quests above) which may be skipped but are certainly worth killing, aren’t difficult, and drop various things including bags full of trade goods (cloth, volatiles, ore, and so forth). They all had about 1.5m-2m HP and none of their mechanics are particularly difficult enough to be worthy of mention here. Stay out of bad stuff, etc.
• There are epics that drop off of trash, such as:
Chestplate of Hubris
Skullcrusher Warboots
Two-Toed Boots
• While the trash in both ZA and ZG has been thinned out quite a bit from the raid instances, remember this is a Cata heroic that drops 353 ilevel gear, and it’s meant to be hard. Use your CC’s.
• All information points to the fact that you can still get your Mojo on using your Amani Hex Stick
• The Amani Battle Bear mount may be obtained by killing the first four bosses within 15 minutes. I could not find anything definitive about whether all players in the group will receive the bear or if it’s set up like the drake in CoS. I’ve also heard that killing some of the bosses in a certain order extends your time, but I don’t have any confirmation on that either. I’m totally on board to try it and find out Happy

Now the Fun Part

Trash isn’t horrible here if you use your heads. A lot of it can be skipped, but there are the epics mentioned above which do drop (there was also a BoE epic tank piece that dropped last night which does not appear on the loot lists on Wowhead).

Nalorakk

Nalorakk (The Bear Avatar) is the first boss down the paths to the right after coming down the stairs of the entrance. (Note, you can also go left and start with Akil’zon, The Eagle Avatar as well). The boss begins as a troll caster and shape-shifts into bear form in phase two of the fight.

• Phase 1: Watch for big hits to the tank. Nalorakk hits the tank with Brutal Strike, which hurts. Also during this phase, he will target the player farthest from him with Surge. This puts a 20 second debuff on the player he targets which increases damage taken by 500%. Whoever gets hit by this needs to run in to melee range and stay there until the debuff wears off.
• Phase 2: Nalorakk changes to bear form. He hits the tank with Lacerating Slash which causes bleed damage which must be healed through and also casts Deafening Roar on the party. The silence isn’t horrible. It’s periodic and only last two seconds. Otherwise Phase 2 is tank and spank.
• Loot:
Pauldrons of Nalorakk
Armbands of the Bear Spirit
Jungle Striders
Boots of the Ursine
Spiritshield Mask

Jan’alai

Continuing along the right-hand side, Jan’alai (The Dragonhawk) is the second boss in the instance. The strategy to this is similar to the original raid boss. Various mechanics will come up but there aren’t necessarily phases in the fight. Here are the things to watch out for and some ideas on what to do:

• One of the first mechanics you will see is Flame Breath, which is almost the exact mechanic as Maloriak’s Magma Jets in Phase 2 of that fight. The boss will pause for a second, and then shoot a line of flame in a straight line. Move.
• He will also periodically cast Fire Bomb, which is, amusingly enough, the same mechanic as Lava Seed on Phase 2 of the Ascendant Council fight. Little balls appear on the floor and they will explode for 70k + fire damage if you don’t move away from them.
• At least twice during the fight, Jan’alai will summon two Amani’shi Hatchers, who will come up the stairs and run to the eggs on either side. Agree on one to kill (right or left) before the boss is pulled and let the other hatch the dragonhawk adds. Best to kite the boss to the side where will adds will hatch and have the tank throw down some AoE to pick up aggro. The Hatchers had only about 125k HP and as long as two of us focused on the same one, they went down far before they could reach the eggs. You have to let one through to hatch the eggs or towards the end of the fight all of the adds will come out at once, and there are A LOT, and they do fire damage which increases over time. Done this way, and once you get used to watching for fire walls and fire bombs, this fight is pretty fun.
• Loot:
Jan’alais Spaulders
Ring of the Numberless Brood
Boots of Bad Mojo
Hawkscale Waistguard
Amani’shi Bracers

Akil’zon

Akil’zon (The Eagle Avatar) is the first boss from the front of the entrance if you take the paths to the left. Prior to getting to the platform on which you’ll find this boss, there is a fairly short gauntlet of humanoids and eagles, but keep moving because they certainly keep spawning. Also, we noticed they spawn from behind us, so stay close together as well. There are a few different things to look out for in this fight but again no clear-cut phases. Here goes:

• For this fight the tank kept the boss in the center of the platform and ranged stood on the various corners. A number of adds will come out – which are mostly smaller brown eagles and occasionally a large white bird, the Amani Kidnapper. Ignore the smaller birds, they don’t cause much damage and can be killed by the tank’s AoEs. The Amani Kidnapper will pick up a random player (Plucked) and fly around the area with them. The player takes a decent amount of damage at this time. All ranged should immediately switch to the Kidnapper. Their HP is only about 125k or so and they go down quickly. The player who has been Plucked can also dps the bird, as we found out, which is helpful.
• The other major ability that will be cast is Electrical Storm. This will target one player who will be lifted in a bubble of sorts above the rest of the group, which will spawn lighting strikes in various spots on the platform. The safe spot is directly under the bubble. There is a black circle/shadow on the ground so it’s easy to find. When this is cast, everyone run to that black spot and then back to their original places after the channel is complete.
• Two other abilities cast are Call Lightning and Static Disruption. Static Disruption is dispellable, but I believe Call Lightning must be healed through until it drops off.
• Loot:
Wristguards of the Predator
Bracers of Hidden Purpose
Talonguard Band
Feathers of Akil’zon
Leggings of Ancient Magics

Halazzi

The second boss to the left of the entrance, Halazzi (The Lynx) is an interesting fight. Halazzi summons two types of totems and also calls Lynx spirit adds at 66 and 33%.

• Totems – The first totem which Halazzi will summon is the Water Totem which has around 52k HP and can be taken out fairly easily. The totem will spawn a green circle which gives the boss HP and mana, and he should be kited out of it as soon as possible. The other totem, which will be summoned during the Lynx spirit phases is the Corrupted Lightning Totem which also had around 50k HP and does a decent amount of AoE to the party. Take these out quickly.
• At 66% and 33% Halazzi will summon an elite add, the Spirit of the Lynx. The really have no aggro table and will target and rush random party members. This is a tough fight for healers in that regard. Best way we found to handle this phase was to group up close enough that AoE heals could be used. Also, during these phases Halazzi will gain health and mana until the Spirit of the Lynx is dead. Pew pew. Wash, rinse and repeat.
• Loot:
Shimmerclaw Band
Breastplate of Primal Fury
Shadowmender Wristguards
The Savager’s Mask
Wristwraps of Departed Spirits

Hex Lord Malacrass

Hex Lord Malacrass has two adds and some painful abilities.

• There will be two adds, which may be any of the following: Darkheart(Undead), Fenstalker(Elemental), Gazakroth(Demon), Koragg(Undead). Lord Raadan(Dragonkin), Slither(Beast), or Thurg(Humanoid). If possible, CC one of the adds through the whole fight, as they only have about 70k HP and the first will go down in swift fashion.
• Malacrass will cast Spirit Bolts which we got through fairly easily by grouping up for AoE heals.
• He will also cast a channeled spell Siphon Soul, which will allow him to use an ability of the party member upon whom it was cast for 30 seconds. We were not able to interrupt this cast. The worst part of this is that it appears there are a number of spells and abilities he can “steal” from players and you have no idea what you’re going to be hit with until it’s already happening.
• As the fight continues, all members of the party will gain stacks of Drain Power which makes the fight harder because all party members take more and deal less damage. Certainly a fight worth using hero/bloodlust/time warp for.
• Loot:
Shadowtooth Trollskin Breastplate
Hex Lord’s Bloody Cloak
Soul Drain Signet
Waistband of Hexes
Pauldrons of Sacrifice
Reforged Heartless
Miniature Voodoo Mask

Daakara

The final boss in the instance, Daakara, presents a fight similar to the fight in the Level 70 Zul’Aman raid against Zul’jin. There are three phases to this fight. Phase 1 is a hero burn with two abilities, and Phases 2 and 3 consist of Daakara transforming into an image of one of the first four bosses in the instance.

• Phase 1 – Ranged doesn’t have a lot to worry about on this Phase as far as things to look out for, just keep a fair distance from the boss. Melee and the tank both need to look out for Whirlwind, which is just what it sounds like, so GTFO. Healers need to watch for anyone that gets hit with Grievous Throw which deals a fair amount of bleed damage on a random party member.
• Phases 2 and 3 – At both 80% and 40%, Daakara will transform into the spirit of one of the first four bosses (whose shadowy figures surround the platform upon which he is fought). Depending on which two he transforms into, there will be different mechanics to watch out for. They are as follows:
• Eagle – In this form Daakara will cast Energy Storm which will summon tornadoes which have to be dodged. If you get hit by a tornado, you take damage from Zap, so try to avoid these as you would on any other boss which spawns tornadoes. (P.S. Bringer, I think it’s totally unfair that Blizz has taken it upon themselves to have tornadoes in every single raid/5-man instance because seriously, we know you’ve had enough). He will also summon a Lightning Totem with low HP that should be taken out as it does decent AoE damage to the party.
• Bear – In Bear form, Daarkara will cast Creeping Paralysis, which appears to affect the entire party. There are 6 seconds available to dispel. Staying in a group will make this easier. After this is cast he will randomly target players with Surge and Nearly Overpowered Blow. It looks bad on paper but this seemed fairly easy with a druid healer.
• Dragonhawk – The Column of Fire, Flame Whirl, and Flame Breath abilities only require that the party be aware of their surroundings. As we’ve all heard before…Fire Bad, Mkay?
• Lynx – In Lynx form, Daakara summons two adds with fairly low HP which must be taken down quickly. Two abilities of note in this form are Lynx Rush and Claw Rage which are healing intensive and a little scary.
• Loot:
Collar of Bones
Amani Scepter of Rites
Headdress of Sharpened Vision
Skullpiercer Pauldrons
Tusked Shoulderpads
Hexing Robes
Mask of Restless Spirits
Amani Headdress
Legguards of the Unforgiving
Mace of the Sacrificed

HEROIC ZUL'GURUB

The other raid instance brought back from the dead in the form of a 5-man dungeon in Patch 4.1 is Zul’Gurub. Again, don’t expect as much trash as in the raid, but use your CC’s wisely. Some information of note that’s not related to the bosses:

• There are still two mounts available in this instance: the Armored Razzashi Raptor and the Swift Zulian Panther, although I was unable to find out exactly where these might drop.
• There are also several quests which may be picked up at the beginning of this instance which are certainly worth doing for both quest rewards and gold. In addition, there are mini-bosses that are required for those quests who have some great drops, including Maelstrom Crystals.
• There are cauldrons throughout the instance. If you see these, you need them for something nearby. For instance, at the beginning there is a green cauldron by the first mob which will give you a buff for poison resistance, which will keep you from taking damage as you run down the path ahead. The poison cauldrons are also useful for fighting snakes. Fire cauldrons give you a buff/spell similar to the warlock’s Hellfire, and the frost cauldrons give you a buff which freezes and causes a lot of damage to your target.

Once again, here’s the fun part:
High Priest Venoxis

This is one of the more interesting and frustrating fights in the instance. It requires a great deal of awareness by the entire party. There are two phases to this fight.

• Phase 1 – Venoxis is in humanoid form and has two major abilities which he casts at random party members. The first is Whispers of Hethiss, a channeled spell which does quite a bit of nature damage to the target. This is an interruptable cast, and it should be interrupted quickly. The other ability is Toxic Link which links two players together via a green beam. These two players should run away from each other quickly and also avoid other party members. When it explodes it does AoE damage to anyone nearby. Also, if the players are too close, it hits hard enough to likely cause a wipe (which we found out the hard way). The fun part, is that while this is going on, Venoxis is also drawing a maze of poison and throwing out random slime puddles which deal a ridiculous amount of damage. Don’t stand in the slime and don’t cross the maze.
• Phase 2 – Venoxis will change into serpent form and gain new abilities. The maze will disappear and this is an excellent time during which to use hero/bloodlust/time warp. He will drop green pools which the tank needs to kite him away from. He has another ability Breath of Hethiss, which deals frontal cone damage and needs to be avoided, even by the tank. According to Wowhead, he also casts Bloodvenom which summons tendrils which target a single player and cause AoE damage to the party, but I do not recall seeing these adds last night. He will become Exhausted at which time he takes additional damage and can be killed rather quickly.
• Loot:
Belt of Slithering Spirits
Signet of Venoxis
Serpentine Leggings
Coils of Hate
Breastplate of Serenity

Bloodlord Mandokir

The Bloodlord Manodkir and his raptor friend prove to be a fairly interesting and pretty fun fight. The fight contains several different mechanics which occur on and off. Here goes:

• There are spirits all around the pit in which you fight Mandokir and they are your friends. At a couple of points during the fight, the boss will cast Decapitate at a random player which will kill them instantly. One of the spirits will come to you and resurrect you back into the fight.
• Another ability the boss will cast is Bloodletting, again at a random player. It effectively drains half of the target’s HP and grants it as a heal to the boss. Healers need to watch for a player being affected with this and heal them quickly when it drops off because the same person may be re-targeted again.
• Yet another ability is Devastating Slam which will show crumbling ground that you need to move out of quickly. Spikes will come out of the ground, and they hurt, bad.
• The boss will dismount the raptor, who needs to be killed by dps immediately so he does not reach a spirit. The raptor goes down easily. The boss will resurrect the raptor at various times and dps needs to switch targets and kill it.
• At 20% Mandokir gains Frenzy which increases attack speed by 100%
• Finally, if any party member dies, Mandokir gains yet another buff, Level Up which increases damage by 20% and stacks for every party member that dies. Don’t die Happy
• Loot:
Amulet of the Watcher
Deathcharged Wristguards
Bloodlord’s Protector
Touch of Dischord
Hakkari Loa Drape

Edge of Madness

There must be a high-level Archaeologist in the group to summon this boss. That person must click on the various artifacts until one of each activates. One of four bosses will be summoned, they are:

• Renataki – a troll rogue with 2 main abilities. Ambush targets a random player and reduces HP by 90% for 2 seconds. Thousand Blades is like a rogue’s fan of knives and does a great deal of damage. Everyone should move when this is cast.
• Hazza’rah – is a troll shaman whose abilities are Nightmare which summons adds, and Consume Soul which is actually cast by the summoned adds and will one-shot a targeted player if the add reaches them.
• Wushoolay is also a troll shaman who will cast Lightning Rod on a player who needs to move away from the group. He will also cast Forked Lightning which does frontal cone damage and Lightning Cloud which does AoE damage under a cloud of lightning and needs to be avoided.
• Gri’lek is a troll berserker who does melee damage. He also will randomly target a player and chase them. He doesn’t move very fast but the targeted player needs to avoid letting the boss get close. He is a pretty simple tank and spank fight.
• Loot:
(The first four items may drop from any of the bosses and the remaining drops depend on which boss you get)
Handguards of the Tormented
Zulian Voodoo Stick
Lost Bag of Whammies
Plunderer’s Gauntlets
Gurubashi Destroyer
Thekal’s Claws
Renataki’s Soul Slicer
Arlokk’s Claws
Troll Skull Chestplate
Kilt of Forgotten Rites
Fasc’s Preserved Boots
Amulet of Protection

High Priestess Kilnara

Kilnara is in the basement of a building, and is surrounded by four packs of four panthers each which are sleeping in open pens on either side of her. There are two phases to this fight. But notable before discussing the phases is that you will want to pull the packs of panthers one at a time and AoE them down before you get the boss down to 50%. If you don’t do this, all of the remaining panthers will wake up and join the fight. This is no bueno. Kill the panthers.

• Phase 1 – Kilnara casts an interruptable Shadow Bolt which should be interrupted as much as possible. Tears of Blood is another interruptable cast which deals AoE damage. Lash of Anguish will be cast on a player and is a DoT which deals massive amounts of damage over 10 seconds and may be dispelled. When she casts Wave of Agony you will see a purple wave and need to get behind her to avoid a lot of shadow damage, and Wail of Sorrow which needs to be healed through.
• Phase 2 – Kilnara will take the form of a panther, and any adds not activated and killed in the first phase will automatically join in the fight. The ceiling also drops glass shards which cannot be avoided and must be healed through. Two main abilities in this phase are Ravage which targets a single player with bleed damage and the AoE ability Vengeful Smash. When Kilnara gets to around 15% HP she will Camouflage and then reappear a couple seconds later somewhere else in the room.
• Loot:
Claw-Fringe Mantle
Sash of Anguish
Arlokk’s Signet
Leggings of the Pride
Roaring Mask of Bethekk

Zanzil

This is quite honestly my favorite fight in the new heroics. There are three different phase-like transitions in the fight that he will switch between at various times. Notice the three cauldrons when you enter the area in which Zanzil is located.

• Before discussing the transitions, there are some abilities which Zanzil will continue to cast throughout the fight. The first is Terrible Tonic which targets a random player for 30k nature damage. The other is Zanzili Fire which is essentially a line of purple arcane fire that jets out in a single direction (think phase two in Maloriak again) and must be avoided.
• When Zanzil casts his Zanzil’s Resurrection Elixir one of the large troll berserkers which are strung up around the edges of the area will enter the fight and must be dps’d. To accomplish this, the entire party should run to the blue cauldron and gain Frostburn Formula.
• When Zanzil’s Graveyard Gas is cast, the party must immediately run to the green cauldron and get Toxic Torment or they will die quickly from nature damage.
• Finally, when the “other” Zanzil’s Resurrection Elixir is cast, he will summons zombies which can be AoE’d down by obtaining Burning Blood from the red cauldron which is much like a warlock’s hellfire.
• Loot:
Zombie Walker Legguards
Bone Plate Handguards
Spiritbender Spaulders
Zulian Slasher
Plumed Medicine Helm

Jin’do the Godbreaker

There are two distinct phases to this fight, which is fairly simple once the mechanics are familiar.

• Phase 1 – This phase involves some movement by the party and a lot of kiting by the tank. Jin’do will summon a Deadzone which is a large purple bubble. When he casts Shadows of Hakkar the entire party needs to be in the bubble to avoid massive shadow damage. The trick here is to try to keep the boss outside of the bubble while everyone else (including the tank) is inside the bubble. Once the cast stops, everyone needs to move out of the bubble immediately because it decreases both damage done and damage taken by 90% while inside. Phase one then consists basically of kiting the boss and moving the party in and out of the bubbles during Shadows of Hakkar.
• Phase 2 – Jin’do will go to the platform and three Hakkar’s Chains will appear which are surrounded by purple bubbles. There are two different types of add which will spawn in this phase: Gurubashi Spirit and Twisted Spirit. There will only be one Gurubashi and several Twisted Spirits up at a time. The Twisted Spirits may be killed easily (less than 30k HP) and should be killed when possible. The Gurubashi Spirit should be kited by the tank until he targets a player. When he targets a player he will use his ability Body Slam.
Also during Phase two, Jin’do will cast an ability at random players (quite often) which causes a white circle to appear around that player. Move immediately out of that circle because it indicates that a Shadow Spike is on its way and they deal quite a bit of damage which is simple to avoid.
STRATEGY: At phase two the tank should quickly mark kill order on the chains. Everyone should stack near the bubble which is the current target. Don’t stack on it because Shadow Spikes will most certainly be headed your way. When a player is targeted by a Gurubashi spirit the need to get as close to the bubble as possible because the Body Slam ability will break the bubble. Do this until all bubbles are broken. Once a bubble is broken on a chain, ranged can begin dps on the chain even though the group moves to an area close to the next bubble. When all of the bubbles are broken and the chains are dps’d down, you win. Hooray!
• Loot:
Legacy of Arlokk
Jeklik’s Smasher
Jin’do’s Verdict
Twinblade of the Hakkari(main hand)
Shield of the Blood God
Twinblade of the Hakkari
Vestments of the Soulflayer
Mandokir’s Tribute
The Hexxer’s Mask
Zulian Ward

[Fiercethirst]

may i add a slight change for the jin-do encounter to include hunters? is that the slam is random choosen players and most of the time for my groups that i do as a hunter i pick off spirits by myself while dps focus on chains while having healer at one chain hunter at the other and the other 3 stacked on the last chain maximizing slam chance on them... it makes it alot easyer and you dont suffer the killer adds if a slam happens to miss only a suggestion and i generally use first big guy double slam no dps on it he slams first chain 2 dps kill chain tank tanks big guy i pick off spirits then he'll slam a second player generally one near a chain after second chain immunite is gone nuke big guy tank pick up adds and kill them while nuking last 2 chains they take 100% increase dmg from big guys aoe debuff....its just a suggestion then pull up last big guy stack on last chain he breaks it kill him clean up ghosts tank runs around killing dps kill last chain wham bam thank ye ma'm

edit i forgot to add by the time he picks you for a slam if your more then say 15yards from the target you wont make it.

otherwise very very nice sir

[Zues]

Great guide, love it. Could only get better with links to the items.

[Rukah]

Goog guide, if only people HAD to read it before entering there >.>

[isadorr]

Goog guide, if only people HAD to read it before entering there >.>

That would be really nice since people are too lazy to read most guides on anything so its highly doubtful they will read this though it is a great guide which should be helpful for faster runs with a lot less deaths.

[Devonie]

Thanks for the positive feedback! The best compliment I had on it before posting it here was, "Yeah that's not too bad for a girl :P" If my restrictions are lifted as far as posting links, I will edit to add those in if I am able. The original post is all coded and whatnot for the links.

Fiercethirst, I will look at that fight and find a way to integrate your suggestions, that sounds like it will work well. I think the reason we were doing it the other way was to allow for AoE healing, but on Tuesday Healbot was still broken and that was the most effective way to handle that situation. I can certainly see the benefit of having everyone stay near separate chains. I know on my mage I was able to handle quite a few of the smaller adds as well. We also kept the Gurubashi Spirits up until the tank basically killed him so we only had two during the fight as well. Thanks again for the suggestions!

[NearMadness]

Devonie,

My guild and I took the time to dissect both ZA and ZG on our own the night of release (which, yes, includes wiping intentionally on boss mechanics, clearing all the trash, etc, etc).
At any rate, I can tell you we spent an inordinate amount of time investigating boss encounters for exploits, etc, and while I can't offer any insight into the "time" based achievement/ reward in ZA, I can offer some helpful hints based on our experiences that you hadn't already mentioned.

ZA -
Halazzi:
DON'T destroy the water totems. Whether functioning as intended or bugged, they are currently healing both mana and health pools of PLAYERS who stand in the AoE. As of a few hours ago, I was still receiving ~6k health and mana per tick from the totems Halazzi is being so kind to supply us with. Yes, this means the tank still has to kite the boss in awkward ovals around the room. NO, the tank CANNOT try to stand in the healing totems AoE, Halazzi likes to cheat and start healing himself sometimes before he's actually standing in the AoE. And lastly, Yes, this does make the Tank's kiting path a little more difficult and it may require a duck around one of the pillars. But its worth it to keep up all of your party members, and supply your healers/ casters with inifinite resources.
Definately still destroy the Corrupted Lightning Totems and the Flametongue Totems, as he likes to drop these sneakily and start whalloping the tank seemingly without explanation.

Daakara:
Something of a failure on our experiment in taking the instances apart here, but I'll offer the note because its relevant.
Eagle Aspect: I'm not sure whether its an AOE effect of the Totem, an effect of being zapped by the Totem, something related to being hit by the tornados, or something different altogether. But we did note a nasty little debuff appearing on our casters whose tooltip states: Causes the caster to suffer 12k damage for every spell that is cast. Obviously if you've got casters and a healer with you this is a vicious debuff... not sure what it's source was, but the work around for myself was tranq. (as a druid healer) because its 1 cast, unfortunately our mage ended up giving her life to the cause of greater dps, but it was his last animal aspect and nothing a little b-rez couldn't cure.


ZG-
Always kill the mini-bosses with the yellow "!" next to their dragon portraits, if you're running with a guild group at least... these elites are guarenteed to drop a variety of goodie cache's. Ie: The Hive Queen - Drops a stash of herbs. The VoidWalker dude - Drops a Maelstrom Crystal; Glub - drops a stash of fish (usually rare-ish or hard to catch varieties suitable for feast making and what not). There's another that drops either gems or ores, and one last one whom I believe offers up a stash of potions/ flasks. Don't snub your nose at free loot as I always say. Yes, they will drop their "cache" or package everytime they're killed. YES, this does include if you venture into a "locked" dungeon and kill of the respawns. >.> Because, at least the Hive Queen and Glub (or Gub or whatever his name is) count as trash mobs and re-pop on the same timer as the instance trash, so we assume the others do as well, though at the moment this is untested. Obviously it goes without saying, if this works, farm up your Maelstrom crystals/ mats/ etc. now before Blizz shuts down this potential exploit!

High Priest Venoxis:
We found that the best make-up of the group for this is two ranged classes, a tank (obviously), a healer (derp derp), and one melee. To this end, you can place the healer in the "safe space" or "cubby" just to the right (as you face Venoxis) of the snake alter at the "back" of the boss's room. Place one ranged by the large snake statues at the far left of the room, and place the other ranged at the far right side of the room, just north (again, if you're oriented at the back of the boss's room) of the doorway. Have the tank pull and hold Venoxis at the bottom of the stairs off of the left banister. We found, if you're placed in this way, the "toxic link" attack will link up and immediately dissolve doing much much less damage.

PS: Jumping (yes, this includes not-so Heroic Leap and Pounce) or rather attempting to jump over the lines which indicate the boundaries of the maze will still get you very dead. Also, attempting to stand outside of the maze (ie: any location outside of the pattern drawn by the maze initially) will also get you very dead. On the plus side, the maze appears in the exact same pattern on the floor every time. So once you've picked or memorized your safe spaces, you're golden.

High Priestess Kilnara:
Happens to say "Feel my Agony" everytime she is in the process of casting "Wave of Agony" which is the purple tidal wave of potential pug wipes. So if you're like me, and playing sans add-ons/ mods, there is an indicator. No excuse for making your healer's mana take the hit for failure to strafe on your part.
Also - Don't let anyone pick up and then throw one of the temple rats into the fray while you're dps'ing the panthers during this encounter as it is part of an achievement related to this boss and will cause these nasty little kitties to become "blood thirsty". Hopefully you realize that this is not a good thing unless you've cleared the attempt with your healer and the group at large.

Zanzil:
If your healer feels comfortable handling the damage without driving themselves into mana starvation, have all of your melee pick up the Red Cauldron buff and get your ranged on that blue cauldron immediately at the fights' beginning. These abilities do seem to be doing/ supplying additional dps to the boss (for now, no guarentees that this will last), and it also provides your group with a way to suckerpunch Zanzil where it hurts right off the bat. Although, do note, that the blue cauldrons buff with not freeze Zanzil, it does appear to bolster dps.

Jin'do:
Gave us a run for our money as we tried to complete the encounter every which way from sunday.
Important notes: The Twisted Spirits currently gain a stacking "frenzy" effect the longer there is an active Gurubashi Spirit on the platform; if you spend too much time mopping up the Twisted Spirits without engaging a Gurubashi Spirit, one will "release" and come looking for you and your party; and last but not least, the Gurubashi Spirit's "Body Slam" ability will leave a nasty AOE on the ground for 20 seconds (I think) after they have landed on or at their target. MELEE BEWARE, this AoE will very much kill you and no, there isn't a darn thing your healer can do to save you. For this reason however, the better you are at getting the Gurubashi Spirit to "Body Slam" directly on the chain's protective bubble the more likely it is to do more damage to the chain for you with that very same AoE. Win-win.

My/ Our Suggested Strategy:
Hopefully you've got two ranged DPS in your party, because the Twisted Spirits tend to tear apart anything (even you, plate wearing dps'ers) they come into melee range with.
Phase 1:
Tank kites the boss out of his "Anti-Magic" shields, when you see him begin to cast "Shadows of Hakkar" everyone (the tank included) ducks inside and let's him cast 3 or 4 purple chain lightning attacks at the shield in vain.
And lastly, we marked the mid, left and right fields of Jin'do's platform with those colorful raid marker projections and then marked the assigned Dps group members with the respective symbols. haha, nothing like a little game of matching to make sure everyone's where they're supposed to be, elimates a lot of confusion. Just be sure to explain to PuG's that the chains may not pop up EXACTLY on their assigned raid marker, rather somewhere in their assigned 1/3 of the platform.

IMPORTANT:
I believe the anti-magic shield's tool tip actually reads "decreases damage done by 90%, decreases damage received by 90%, and increases cast-time by 90%" so your casters need to be made aware that they can't just camp out inside of the safety of the bubble, unless they have the luxery of spamming only instant casts and still producing viable dps/ heals.

Phase 2:
Avoid the dust clouds marking where the Shadow Spike missiles are headed like the plague. For this reason, we chose not to stack on one chain as a whole group. We found that if everyone is piled around one chain and its protective bubble the platform tends to get way to cluttered with adds, too many people are all too often taking 60k hits from the Shadow Spikes, and even if you're able to get a "Body Slam" off on the chain, someone else will either blunder into the resulting AoE and die, be overwhelmed by adds and die, or be knocked back off the actual boss platform... and die. To this end, we recommend spreading out. Put a ranged dps and a healer in the middle, a melee dps at either the far right chain or the far left, and the remaining dps'er at whichever chain is unoccupied. The tank will then kite the add up, and join a dps at either the far right, or far left chain and wait for the body slam. AFTER the body slam we found its much less stressfull/ difficult to annihilate the Gurubashi Spirit and do your best to clear off the adds before having your tank pull another. To this end, if your "body slam" misses a chain, everyone will need to help kill off the Gurubashi Spirit as though the "body slam" had gone off flawlessly and you'll be putting a strain on healers by lengthening the encounter.

You can choose to use this time to dps down the exposed chain as well if you like, but never loose focus on the adds or you'll likely be serving up your healer on a silver platter. This is another Admiral encounter a la H DM or H VC (if you're old school) and as such you can not ever ignore the Twisted Spirits. We found assigning the ranged DPS located in the middle of the platform to be on constant "add" duty worked out well, it also helped in keeping the adds off of the healer, which we much appreciate.

Remember: The longer any one Gurubashi Spirit is active on the platform the harder the Twisted Spirits are going to hit. If you try to use the same Gurubashi Spirit to "body slam" all three chains, be aware the same Twisted Spirits that were hitting you for 18k at the fight's beginning will be hitting you for ~58k by the time you're ready to wipe them out and begin dps on the chains...

Phase 3:
We use this as a burn phase, our ranged dps continued to mop up the Twisted Spirits, while our tank and the other 2 dps'ers hacked away at the chains one by one. Much less stressfull without that Gurubashi Spirit lumbering around. You do still need to watch out for those darn Shadow Spikes though. We saved our cooldowns for this phase, because we can. If you find yourselves getting overwhelmed by the adds following a "body slam" (ie: while your dps is occupied in killing the Gurubashi Spirit) use your cooldowns then.