Zul'Farrak - Do I just fail?

I finally got around to attempting a Zul'Farrak run at level 48 with my paladin/paladin/mage/mage/mage and despite outleveling the instance I found it really challenging (read: wipe fest)

I finished the stair bit fine but wiped on the first two bosses. The cheif took out my mage and holy paladin before I got him down and Gahz'rilla owned me.

Considering I have never run ZF normally I'm not sure if I just suck or it is generally just difficult.

Here is my tanks armory if that helps

Has anyone else run this at a similar level without much trouble?

Just out of curiosity why the 2 pallys and 3 mages? That could be your problem. I could see having one tank, but why the 2? I use 5 shaman with no tank and just did ulda at 35 and found it really easy. I love how I can reincarnate if I wipe.

Tank/healer/dps does require a lot more patience on bosses.

What's your normal pull strat on those? Might be good to see that so we can evaluate if there's something you could add to the process.

pally tank
pally healer (and OT in a pinch, good call there IMHO)
mage dps x3

I am not saying I have the answer, just offering some help.

Ghaz is mostly a few tricks. No adds. Make sure you clear out where you will fight him (I usually do the end area where he walks out). DONT turn him or move him or he might get you close to another group and add them. He throws you so be ready for 1000-1500 damage. That is a lot, so be ready for healing, healing is key on him. He ice blocks someone, but not sure who, so be ready for a cleanse. You might try a bubble and remove bubble macro followed by a taunt so you can get out almost anything. It should be something like CancelAura. I am a defensive person, so I would judge light on him so each hit heals you. Maybe even seal of light to help even more.

The Chief? Guess that is the guy after the stairs. He drops aggro, but not sure why. Just be ready for it. I usually focus on his friend and then just focus on him. Be ready on mages to iceblock to protect if comes at them. Not really a good way to do that, just all iceblock at the same time or reach over to that chars keyboard and hit a key. He hits HARD, so I would be defensive again, judge light and seal light also.

Don't feel bad though, once you learn how to do things, they will be helpful later (ST boss throws, ST boss drops aggro, etc). And you are learning how to use your group make up instead of just getting free leveled up and not learning what to do. Keep it up. Good luck.

Are most bosses immune to taunt?

I think my main problem is I panic and start doing stupid crap. If I actually remembered to use my bubble/taunt/ice block etc I think id have more success. I have a feeling I forgot to use mana shield too (last time I run an instance at 5am)

I also didn't realise cleanse would clear ice block, that would have made life easier too.

Just shows it may not be the best idea to start multiboxing when you are new to a game but its just so fun :)

I think I''ll try again now im 49 and might fraps it so I can watch back my mistakes.

Update: My run at 49 went pretty well. I did wipe once on trash but that was me being a tard mostly + hex. Managed to take all the bosses without a death apart from 1 on Ghaz with falling damage. A neat trick I found my accident is to fight him under the archway leading to that area so you don't get sent flying. Shame it didnt save my healer but was much better overall.

zf does require a bite of lvl and gear in addition to a bite of tactic

i tried zf when 3 of my shammys where 35 the other two where 55, i had a hard time with the trashmobs and failed in a epic way with the first boss
i did go back when my 3 slackers where 40 trash where easier, but i failed at first boss 2 times.
my 3 attempt where at 42, cleared zul farak easlely enough except the stair figth now my girls are 44 and i still feel the mana problem with this section of the figth

i usually does less instant cast myself and just do one round on ligthign bolts on each mobs let my new found friends from the cage deal with the injured mobs
and i found that this is the best way for me atleast.

else then that, kill melee first, if any nova totems drops out, just nuke them and confintue with melee and do casters when melee is dead.
when a mob is rude enough to frog your main, just step back with your slaves and continue the killorder as if your main where not frogged.

totems i usually use is totem of wrath and aoe totems, 1 mana and 4 heal totems and the grounding totem to reflect caster dps back at the casters.
"only when the trashmobs or bossfigths require it ofc. if you got trouble with trash try some stoneclaw totems now and then?

btw i been in zf for 2 lvls and then some bars. and only 2 of the cool masks have dropped, anyone else notices a low droprate on the masks?

I think that the '100 trolls' event is all about pacing yourself for the elites and ignoring the mooks if you can. At level I pretty much assist the npcs with mass wanding and regen/bandage up for the elites. With your toons would stun spam the elites and dps hard the elites do drop them fast.

I am not a fan of AoE in this counter, I see people trying AoE in this encounter at level and it just seems to ruin the flow / pace of the encounter.

Your 5boxing, just coordinate mass assists with bolts and follow up with some wanding to finish off the mobs. Assist the warlock when he aoes if your consumed with aoeing.

You should also clean the trolls below quick and then use the key, if your slow at level then you might get adds that can be horrid and can frog spam you which is horrid.

if the NPCs start going down the stairs too early, you should run down the stairs and grab a mook and run back to the top. The NPCs will join you up there and start waking down from there again.

You want to drain the trolls fully before aggroing the bosses. When I fight the bosses at level I let the npcs grab them, dot up the bosses and work on the adds. Then finish the bosses.

You know you have to talk to the goblin afterwards and then the human if your doing the quest right?

You can fight the hydra in the water too, which helps with the kick.

Although I didn't have much of a problem with ZF, the one thing that I found that caused 99% of my problems whenever I "went back" to instance was that the defense rating on all of my characters was absolutely abysmal because they never got hit doing normal leveling.

This gets you always crit or crushing (200%, 150% damage respectively).

While I did this with a boomkin and 4 shamans, I'll try to throw my insight in here, too.

The only thing I really had any issues with was the stair event. Now, how I did this solo way before MB was I just pally tanked and had the group healer heal me. I BoL and judged on the elites while just throwing a low level concecrate and rank 1 (I think all I had was r1) holy shield when redoubt proc'd. I'd clear so fast that I'd usually have time for a full health/mana food stop before the next group spawned.

With my multibox team, I ran oom all the time, barely kept everyone healed. I managed to keep the little goblin and the captain alive, but the others died (lost little chunks of XP :-( ) while killing the boss at the bottom.

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Originally Posted by Anemo

Are most bosses immune to taunt?

I think my main problem is I panic and start doing stupid crap. If I actually remembered to use my bubble/taunt/ice block etc I think id have more success. I have a feeling I forgot to use mana shield too (last time I run an instance at 5am)

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I just noticed you said you bubble, are you Divine Shielding or Divine Protection? You definately never want to tank a boss, panic and then Divine Shield yourself. When the boss gets a 'immune' response from you he is going to instantly head straight for whatever else is there. Regaining aggro after that might not be so easy or predictable.

Unlike other tanks, a pally has a taunt which works against taunt immune mobs, at least in some situations.

If you have no threat (ie, have just bubbled), then you're as out of luck as the next guy.
However, if a DPS has done too much damage and taken threat, you can Blessing of Protection them.
And you should be #2 on threat, which means #1 out of the non-immune characters.

I just went to Mauradon for the first time after having ZF on farm and it was a wipe fest there learning all the new mechanics and pat paths. I think a bit of a learning curve is to be expected.

For ZF, Antu'sul and Ghaz are tough. I started skipping them after I got the gear I needed. My Ghaz kill was probably just luck. I like farming the zombies for xp and I was farming the last boss for the leather head piece that is a rare drop.

I learned a lot about pooling rage on trash pulls to have a close-to-full rage bar when you start boss encounters. That helps a lot for picking up adds (I have a druid tank).

For the stairs, let the NPCs do the bulk of the work throughout the fight. If you AOE or cast HOTs, the new adds will agro on your toons but if you give them a sec, the NPCs pick them up. I just whack one with the tank, frostbolt, then heal when there aren't any new adds to agro on my healer.

For the last phase, I just stay on the stairs and shoot frostbolts with my mages - you can do the whole thing from the stairs. Just burn em from a distance one by one. It's weird encounter..the more you try to "do" the less effective you are xD.

Don't let the guy that blasts the door at the end die! Also, after the event I made a UI change and reloaded my UI and all the NPCs disappeared including the blast guy. Don't know if that was a one off quirk, but be careful.

GLHF!

The NPCs will hearthstone out after a while, make sure you speak with the goblin before they do. Also, 10 yo necroposting