2 ZA Runs
Over the weekend, I had an opportunity to run Zul’Aman two times. The first run was with group from Mal Katai.
About 30 minutes before they invited me, I had switched from Protection to Retribution. I had been working on a new quest that recently opened for me from the Netherwing called Disrupting the Twilight Portal. It seemed pretty straightforward. Go to Nagand and kill the Twilight mobs. What I didn’t realize until I got over there was that there were 3 or 4 pathing level 72 Elite mobs. The other problem that presented itself was almost all the mobs were caster types.
It seemed like I’d pull Elite every time I was fighting these casters. I managed to solo one of the Elites, but at the end I was almost dead.
After a couple of frustrating runs, I decided to hearth back to Shattrah and portal to Ironforge. Next thing you know, I’m a Ret Paladin. It was far easier to take out the Twilight mobs as Ret and I managed to avoid pulling the Elites.
I wasn’t quite finished with the quest when I got the invite. I explained I was Ret, but Rika who was the group leader said she’d take me anyway. The tanks ended up being Saisuke (Warrior) and a Phalson, a Druid from a guild called Para Bellum.
The run went pretty well even though it was Phalson’s first time in ZA. We only had significant problems on the Dragonhawk boss. Phalson was having some trouble controlling the adds that spawned. After a couple of unsuccessful attempts, I put on my tanking gear and helped gather them up. That worked better and we got him down. Then we proceeded to complete a full clear.
For the first time I saw the The Pauldrons of Stone Resolve drop. I debated rolling on them, but I decided to pass for Saisuke who was using Tier 4 Shoulders. I would use the shoulders in a specialized Block Value set. I think Sai would use them all the time.
Then at Zul’jin, I passed on a Jin’rohk since I had just dropped 150 Badges for my Blade of Harbingers.
Then the next night, I got invited by Raistilan to go to ZA on my Hunter with another Mal Katai group. My Hunter has no business in a high end instance like ZA and pre Patch 3.0 his low DPS would have been a real drag on any group going there.
I actually hadn’t been on him since the Patch so I had to respect him and I’m sure his spec is something of a mess right now. I also hadn’t tamed a new pet so I still had Honorsclaw, my Zulian Tiger with me. I was the only DPS in the group not doing 1k plus DPS.
Maybe I was doing it wrong (in fact, I’m sure I was doing it wrong), but it seemed like Hunter DPS in raids is nothing but Steady Shot spam and hitting Kill Command every cooldown. There’s got to be more to it than that, right?
With my Warrior not yet 60, it looks like I’ll need the Hunter to be my Miner in Wrath.
I hate to feel like I’m being carried in an instance, but I couldn’t figure out anyway to do more DPS with him. Outside of Tier 4 Shoulders, he’s horribly undergeared.
The other crazy thing about the run was that the tank loot was flowing. The tank shield dropped off of Dragonhawk, the tank ring dropped from the 3rd chest, and the tank axe dropped from the Zul’jin. Of course no Hunter type loot dropped. I actually would have rolled on the Axe had it dropped the night before.
I thought it was super nice of Raistilan to invite me.
As soon as we were done I jumped back on Honorshammer, and joined up with Homerjay for Arenas but we decided to run Battlegrounds with Heroes Inc instead.
About 30 minutes before they invited me, I had switched from Protection to Retribution. I had been working on a new quest that recently opened for me from the Netherwing called Disrupting the Twilight Portal. It seemed pretty straightforward. Go to Nagand and kill the Twilight mobs. What I didn’t realize until I got over there was that there were 3 or 4 pathing level 72 Elite mobs. The other problem that presented itself was almost all the mobs were caster types.
It seemed like I’d pull Elite every time I was fighting these casters. I managed to solo one of the Elites, but at the end I was almost dead.
After a couple of frustrating runs, I decided to hearth back to Shattrah and portal to Ironforge. Next thing you know, I’m a Ret Paladin. It was far easier to take out the Twilight mobs as Ret and I managed to avoid pulling the Elites.
I wasn’t quite finished with the quest when I got the invite. I explained I was Ret, but Rika who was the group leader said she’d take me anyway. The tanks ended up being Saisuke (Warrior) and a Phalson, a Druid from a guild called Para Bellum.
The run went pretty well even though it was Phalson’s first time in ZA. We only had significant problems on the Dragonhawk boss. Phalson was having some trouble controlling the adds that spawned. After a couple of unsuccessful attempts, I put on my tanking gear and helped gather them up. That worked better and we got him down. Then we proceeded to complete a full clear.
For the first time I saw the The Pauldrons of Stone Resolve drop. I debated rolling on them, but I decided to pass for Saisuke who was using Tier 4 Shoulders. I would use the shoulders in a specialized Block Value set. I think Sai would use them all the time.
Then at Zul’jin, I passed on a Jin’rohk since I had just dropped 150 Badges for my Blade of Harbingers.
Then the next night, I got invited by Raistilan to go to ZA on my Hunter with another Mal Katai group. My Hunter has no business in a high end instance like ZA and pre Patch 3.0 his low DPS would have been a real drag on any group going there.
I actually hadn’t been on him since the Patch so I had to respect him and I’m sure his spec is something of a mess right now. I also hadn’t tamed a new pet so I still had Honorsclaw, my Zulian Tiger with me. I was the only DPS in the group not doing 1k plus DPS.
Maybe I was doing it wrong (in fact, I’m sure I was doing it wrong), but it seemed like Hunter DPS in raids is nothing but Steady Shot spam and hitting Kill Command every cooldown. There’s got to be more to it than that, right?
With my Warrior not yet 60, it looks like I’ll need the Hunter to be my Miner in Wrath.
I hate to feel like I’m being carried in an instance, but I couldn’t figure out anyway to do more DPS with him. Outside of Tier 4 Shoulders, he’s horribly undergeared.
The other crazy thing about the run was that the tank loot was flowing. The tank shield dropped off of Dragonhawk, the tank ring dropped from the 3rd chest, and the tank axe dropped from the Zul’jin. Of course no Hunter type loot dropped. I actually would have rolled on the Axe had it dropped the night before.
I thought it was super nice of Raistilan to invite me.
As soon as we were done I jumped back on Honorshammer, and joined up with Homerjay for Arenas but we decided to run Battlegrounds with Heroes Inc instead.
Comments
It is too bad that you didnt get any loot for your hunter..but you did get badges..lol
I believe she has copied BRK's build, but needs to respec her pet owl's talents.
Good show on passing those Pauldrons to someone who really needed them - WoW needs more of that kind of thoughtfulness when it comes to the loot.
If you care to try and gear up your hunter before WotLK, try to hit Kara tonight (before the reset) and again tomorrow or afterwards. As I'm sure you know, it's an absolute loot pinata in there right now, and the badges are fabulous as well. The axe off the Scourge boss is good for hunters and a guaranteed drop.
I got my Shaman to 70 just about 2 weeks ago and between 2 Kara runs, Heroics, a ZA and a half, Scourge farming, and one Doomwalker kill, he is in full epics except for trinkets. If I'd had the time to farm more badges (like going to Kara this week) he'd have the Bloodlust Brooch and have the Hourglass of the Unraveller as his only blue.
Good luck in however you decide to play the game in WotLK. I hope you find a niche that suits you.
Fedaykin98