If Zul’Gurub does indeed disappear with the Cataclysm expansion, then many a solo player, incuding us Rets, lose one of our favorite solo adventure playgrounds. Not only does it hold a great source of gold farming, but it guards some very lucrative treasures as well. The question I have is, once Zul’Gurub is gone, will these items be gone forever, or will they be re-implemented into the game in some way or form?
ZG Tiger Mount
High Priest Thekal, also known as the ‘Tiger Boss’, drops the first of three highly sought after items in ZG. Thekal drops the Swift Zulian Tiger, and it’s drop rate is at around 1%.
The fight itself seems complicated, but once you get the hang of it, is relatively easy. One of my first posts on this site was how to solo this boss, and you can find the article here:
Now, when I wrote this, I was using far inferior gear than I have now. For T9 level of gear and below, follow the guide above. For T10 gear, you can do it this way:
- Clear trash in Thekal’s immediate area.
- You have to kill Thekal and his 2 adds within approximately 15 seconds of each other in order to spawn Thekal.
- Use Seal of Command, Blessing of Might.
- Lor’Khan heals, so he gets the brunt of your damage first. Then, in turn, switch to Thekal and Zath.
- When all are at about 25% HP, pop Avenging Wrath and nuke them all down.
- Divine Storm and Crusader Strike will always be available, but you can be silenced, so time your spell attacks accordingly. Divine Storm in combo with Seal of Command is your winning tool here.
- Once all three are dead, Thekal goes into his Tiger form, and just nuke straight down from there. Divine Storm and Judgemeent of Light should keep you plenty healed, but don’t be afraid to Flash of Light off Art of War procs if you need to.
Mastering this fight is the trick. It’s easy once you get the hang of it. If you have trouble getting all three down at once, simple run out of the bosses area (down the ramp and out), and the bosses will reset.
ZG Raptor Mount
This fight is the toughest in my opinion. Bloodlord Mandokir can be a royal pain in the you-know-what. This is solo-able for most Paladins in T9 and lesser gear, but it is far easier with T10. Mandokir drops the Swift Razzashi Raptor, at about a 1% drop rate.
This fight is intense because the Bloodlord goes into a frenzy when his Raptor dies. My method is to kill the raptor first, so I always get his nasty little enrage. For under Ret Paladins under T10, you can follow my post here:
For Ret Paladins with at least 2 T10 and equivalent gear, you can follow the strategy I now use:
- Buff Blessing of Might and Seal of Vengeance.
- Sacred Shield helps, so use it and keep it active.
- Kill the add at the base of the stairs, and run up to the top. You will always be fighting at the back edge of Mandokir’s little tower/temple.
- Kill the Raptor first. You can pop Avenging Wrath here if you would like, or save it for Mandokir’s enrage.
- Once Raptor is dead, Mandokir enrgages for about a minute. You probably won’t kill him in this time frame. Chances are you will finish him off after his enrage is over.
- Mandokir does some nasty damage including a Whirlwind, and can also fear you. If you can interrupt the fear with Every Man For Himself, do it.
- Use Flash of Light often to keep topped off. Exorcism won’t be in your rotation until his enrage is over.
- Keep DPS up and just survive the enrage. After enrage is over, he hits like a baby Ewok, so enjoy your loot!
There isn’t much difference to strats in this fight between gear levels. You will just find yourself self-healing much more with lower gear. Now, I don’t need to bubble, but before I almost had to. Now, I only have time for one Avenging Wrath. Before, the fight lasted long enough for two. Either way, a kill here is definitely a proud moment of victory!
Tome of Polymorph: Turtle
For Mages, this used to be the ultimate treasure. Now, it’s a more trivial item for those wanting a complete Polymorph set. Still, this tome can sell in the AH for anywhere from 1k-3k gold. This does require a bit of prep beforehand, so if you have the time, it’s worth attempting the kill. Personally, I don’t attempt this, because I am more focused on getting the Tiger Mount (have the Raptor already). But others make this a weekly or bi-weekly attempt.
The strat can be found here: Gahz’ranka
Finish ZG While you Can!
Who knows what content will still be available in Cataclysm, but if these bosses do disappear with Cataclysm, the time to get their loot is now!
it will be a sad day if they remove them.
been trying for a while now for either mount
just want to say thanks Khor as ur guides for these bosses is awesome
and i will be trying every chance i get,
did the whole instance last night in under 45 mins
i know it was under 45mins as i got the reset warning after i killed raptor
Dont kill raptor, just focus on Mandokir, DS will take care of the raptor on its own. 7/10 times Mandy dies with raptor at 2-3% health,the other times, the raptor dies right as Mandy dies.
On Thekal I focus Thekal since he silences, then kill the other 2. with seal of cleave this fight takes me about 40-45 seconds (for both phases) so I just blow AW right after the pull.
While your inside, take along a lure from Nat in DwM and fish up 5 mudskippers (or whatever they are called) and summon the fish boss for a chance at the mage turtle sheep, if its removed, the price will go thru the roof.
Ive never been in this raid and have been planning on trying to solo it for the mount drops mainly but also to loot because I hear its a good place to get gold. What im wondering is, is it a good I idea to do a full sweep of trash and bosses or just whatever crosses your path between bosses to get a good/fast amount of gold?
If your new to ZG, and have any desire to work on your Zandalar rep, then yes, I would kill trash for bijous and coins to turn in. Also take the time to grab the quests from the trolls nw of the horde camp in STV. If your just interested in killing the mount bosses then you can avoid all the trash if your careful…the only pack that occasionally aggros me is the 4 champs right outside Mandokir’s room.
At the moment I have titan steel destroyer epic BS crafted Helm and boots and soem other crafted Epics and the rest the BS saronite savage pvp blues
Do u belive I’ll be able to solo the tiger boss?
thx
The tiger boss is pretty easy Salocin. It’s just a matter of timing in order to kill Thekal and his priests within 15 seconds of each other. I really didn’t find Thekal to be too difficult, especially in phase 2.
Mandokir is another story, though… His spike damage output while enraged nearly killed me the first time I tried it. Totally caught me off guard.
Ok thx a lot… the problem is as I’m playing private blizzlike server the mximum I can get atm is t7.5 (25 man naxx)… Its like were a year and a half behind … so when cata comes out I still have a year in which they release more and more raids
… but nice to know that I probably will be able to solo him
I nearly forgot…
There is one more vanity item from ZG that will disappear if the instance is removed: The Razzashi Hatchling.
If you’re going to run ZG, it might be worth it to kill all the raptors in an attempt to get this pet, since the price will probably skyrocket if the instance is removed.
Why don’t you ever use Seal of Truth?
@ Rubywoo – I made this post prior to 4.0.1. The attack approach is different now. I would absolutely use Seal of Truth with the 4.0.1 changes now that Seal of Righteousness and Seals of Command are completely underwhelming.