To preface:  If you are reading and plan on implementing this guide, then I assume that you already know the general lay of the land of ZA.  What each boss does, what trash pulls look like, how loot works, the whole shebang.

 

PART 1 – Group composition

 

The key to a solid mount run is a well-balanced and synergistic group.  That is to say, it is a huge benefit to have classes that complement each other (e.g. Warlock and Shadowpriest, Enhancement Shaman and Fury Warrior).  When doing your first mount runs, you will want a few things:

 

1.  T5+ quality gear, with flasks and consumables.  If you are still decked in full Karazhan and limited/early badge gear, you will not have the health, mana, dps, or damage mitigation to make this a successful mount run.  If you are in predominantly T5 and badge gear, you will have better chances but it is still difficult.  Wearing 50/50 T5/T6 or better is highly recommended.  Regardless of gear, full consumables are highly recommended (and in my Lava Crab runs, required) – flasks (or elixirs if that’s better for you), food, scrolls, weapon oils, the whole nine.

 

2.  TWO healers, and ONLY TWO healers.  One should be an AoE-style healer (resto shaman, CoH priest), the other should ideally be a strong single-target healer (resto druid, holy pally).  Having HoTs are a DEFINITE plus.

 

3.  A prot paladin tank.  While not “required” this makes life a LOT easier.  Mount runs ARE doable without a prot pally, but having one handy makes everyone’s job much easier.

 

4.  A hybrid off-tank (fury warrior or feral druid), particularly if you have a prot pally as your main tank.  A prot pally in full T5/T6 quality gear won’t be taken down by the trash very easily at all, and for much of the trash and one of the bosses you do not need two tanks.  If you bring double prot warriors for your tanks, expect the trash to take longer – and trust me, you’re racing the TRASH more than the bosses.

 

5.  Amazingly enough, you don’t need a lot of AoE, particularly with a prot pally.  1 traditional AoE class (warlock or mage) is generally enough.  Of course, you can do this with more or less depending on who is available and what balance must be struck, but one is definitely plenty.  If you do not have a prot pally, 2 is likely a better idea.

 

6.  Shamen are incredibly useful on these runs.  Heroism is a helluva buff to use on each boss and will make the bosses go a LOT faster.  I like having two shamen on my runs, but I have done it with as many as 3 and as few as 0.  They are an incredibly potent class to bring to ZA, though, and I highly recommend bringing two of them on your first runs if possible.

 

Now then, my “usual” group looks like this:

 

Group 1 – healer/caster group

 - Resto shaman

 - Resto druid

 - Mage (usually frost)

 - Shadowpriest

 - Prot paladin

 

Group 2 – “dps” group

 - Enhancement shaman

 - Feral druid

 - Rogue

 - Rogue

 - Hunter (usually BM)

 

Each group’s class makeup complements the whole of the group (shadowpriest restores mana and health to everyone in their group, resto shaman provides mana restoration and spelldamage to everyone, etc).  There is no “wasted” synergy in the groups (e.g. a marks hunter with casters, a warlock in the melee group).

 

PART 2 – The approach

 

Basically, it’s a balls-to-the-walls suicide run.  There is no waiting to drink, except briefly before bosses.  There is no waiting for loot – do not organize a mount run unless you are expressly certain that NO ONE that is coming needs a lot of gear from Zul’Aman.  Getting an upgrade or two along the way is fine, but loot should not take long.

 

I save Heroism for the bosses, and I use it early.  If there is a distinct “dps” group, chock full of melee, then Heroism is often best used with them; I like to chain-Heroism that group during a boss fight (move 1 shaman in, have them pop Heroism … after that Heroism is done, move the other shaman in and have them use their Heroism), giving them nearly a minute and a half of extremely-fast attacks.

 

I keep looting on “Group Loot” the whole way through the run.  Bosses must be looted swiftly if at all – in the early Lava Crab ZA mount runs, we did not loot bosses whatsoever.  No badges, no epics, no nothing.  It easily saves 20-30 seconds, time which may be better spent getting to the next objective, particularly if you don’t need any loot.  Regardless, in later runs we would loot the boss (including badges) very fast.  People would roll NEED on an item if they needed it (for any spec or purpose), otherwise everyone would pass.  The disenchanter(s) would roll GREED so that if no one needed the loot, they could disenchant it later.

 

Mobs along the way are looted quickly if at all.

 

DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT release ANY of the three prisoners on the way to the final chest.  Releasing them takes time; run back after you have obtained your mount and free them, they’ll wait for you.  They won’t despawn.

 

Realize that you have 45 minutes to get the mount – have people go to the bathroom and grab a snack/drink before the run gets underway, that way you can have 45 uninterrupted minutes of play to get to that mount.

 

PART 3 – The strategy

 

From here on out, it’s a pull-by-pull strategy, with approximate “time that should be left” markers.

 

You rang the gong, two mobs and heaps of non-elite adds at the top of the stairs.  Kill the elite mobs and AoE down the adds while you’re at it.  Go down the stairs towards the left (to the Eagle boss) – scout ahead with a druid or a hunter to see if the 2-mob patrol (two Shaman type mobs) is around; if they are pathing towards you as you run down, kill them, otherwise skip them and clear them later.

 

EAGLE BOSS GAUNTLET

 

Have your MT tank everything except for the Shaman mobs (Amani Wind Walker) and have your OT tank ONLY the Wind Walkers.  Focus fire the Wind Walkers down first – as soon as a wind walker is dead, pull the next group and kill that group’s Wind Walker.  AoE down the birds/warriors/Protectors gradually along the way, as they do become a threat.  Once you have killed all four Wind Walkers in the gauntlet, pull the Tempest at the top of the stairs and focus-fire him down.  Clean up any additional adds after the Tempest is dead.

 

TIME LEFT:  19-18 min

 

EAGLE BOSS – you know how to kill him.  Have the group collapse onto the main tank and use nature-resistance spells (Aspect of the Wild, Nature Resistance Totem, etc) to deal with the sparks.  Once his storms are done, run back out and spread out.

 

TIME LEFT:  16-15 min  (Eagle boss adds 10 to this, making it 26-25)

 

Run out of the Eagle boss’s area and make your way towards the Bear boss, killing the 2-shaman patrol if they are still up.

 

First group at Bear is Axe Throwers and Tribesmen.  If you can, MC an axe thrower and use him to help clear down the group.  It’s only 3 mobs after all.  Once the last mob in the group is being dps’ed down, immediately pull the two-bear group behind it, sheeping or sleeping one of them ideally.  Once the bears are down, hug the wall to your left and jump into the hole in the wall, staying left so as not to activate the next pull.

 

The next pull usually has 1-2 Axe Throwers, 1-2 Tribesmen, and a Medicine Man.  MC an Axe Thrower and dps down the Medicine Man first, using your MT to tank almost all of the adds and your OT tanking the Medicine Man.  Once this group is down, move up the stairs and you’ll encounter a pair of Warbringers on bears.  One tank on each of them (spread out so their damage buff they use doesn’t spill over across both of them), dps one down first, then his bear afterwards.  Move on to the other guy and kill him.

 

The last pull before the bear boss is 2 Warbringers, and a mix of Medicine Men and Axe Throwers.  MC an Axe Thrower (if there is one), sheep or dps down a Medicine Man first (if there is one) and/or an Axe Thrower, then work your way around the Warbringers and their bears.

 

TIME LEFT:  17-16 min

 

BEAR BOSS – you know the drill, two tanks on him to suck up the cleaves.  Save the big damage cooldowns (Fire Elemental Totem, etc) for this boss.  Simple tank and spank.

 

TIME LEFT:  14-13 min (Bear boss adds 15 min, making this 29-28)

 

From here on out you get NO time extensions.

 

First off, ALWAYS WATCH FOR SCOUTS.  If they hit any drums they will suck up 20-30 seconds off your timer EVERY TIME.  They summon 2 Warrior adds that have heaps of health.

 

First thing you see on the way to the Dragonhawk is a lone Scout.  Kill him fast and CC him as often as possible (roots, frost nova, conc. Shots, hamstring, etc).

 

Next group is a Scout along with a mix of Flame Casters and Guardians.  Kill the Scout first, as always.  If you have only one Flame Caster, sheep him or have a rogue stunlock him and kill him after the Scout – they break sheeps early quite often.  If there are two or more Flame Casters, sheep one and stunlock the second.  Kill Guardian(s) last.

 

After this group there is a Scout, Beast Handler, and a heap of Dragonhawks.  Kill the Scout, MC the Beast Handler and AoE down the hawks … once the hawks are down, let the Handler go and DRAG HIM WITH YOU as you move into the next area, to the left towards a series of huts (if you go to the right, towards a heap of handlers and dragonhawks, you are taking the long way and will suck up a LOT of time).

 

There’s one lone Scout on a hill, kill him.  Behind him there is a group with a Scout, 1-2 Flame Casters, 1-2 Guardians, and a Dragonhawk – kill the Scout, then the Flame Caster(s), then the Dragonhawk, then the Guardian(s).

 

Now, before you move up the temple steps there is often a patrol with a Beast Handler and 2 dragonhawks – if they are close when you approach the stairs, pull them up to the platform at the top of the stairs and kill them there.  Otherwise, skip them entirely.

 

Once you are at the stairs, there is a group with a mix of Flame Casters and Guardians, at the base of another set of stairs leading to the top of the pyramid (and to the boss).  IF YOU DID NOT KILL THE PATROL (Beast Handler and 2 Dragonhawks), when you pull this group kill them ON THE STAIRS LEADING TO THE BOSS.  Otherwise, fight them where you arrive on the platform.  As always, CC a Flame Caster or two, and kill the casters before the Guardians.

 

TIME LEFT:  25-21 min

 

DRAGONHAWK BOSS – one tank (typically our Feral OT) tanks the boss, the other (typically our Prot Pall MT) tanks the adds that the Hatchers summon.  Here’s the trick – when the boss summons the first set of Hatchers, KILL ONE IMMEDIATELY but DO NOT TOUCH the other one.  I repeat, DO NOT KILL THE OTHER HATCHER or dps him at all.  He will hatch ALL of the eggs on both sides by himself – allowing him to do this will save you ~30 seconds.  He will go to one side to hatch eggs – have your add tank move to the entrance to the bridge and wait for them.  Use some form of AoE snare (Frost Trap or Earthbind Totem) to help the add tank grab all the hawks, and use ALL forms of AoE to kill the adds (that includes Blade Flurry for rogues and Whirlwind/Cleave for Warriors) – there should be very limited dps’ers on the boss for the whole fight.  Once all of the eggs have been hatched, finish off the Hatcher and dodge bombs for the rest of the fight.

 

TIME LEFT:  22-18 min

 

Jump off the Dragonhawk’s pyramid on its north side and head towards the Lynx boss, killing the Flame Caster/Tamer patrol along the way.

 

Here’s where it gets interesting.  There is a lot of adds in here, and you can skip most of them (2-3 pulls at least) by using a trick that we call “hut hopping”.  Jump onto the wall to the left of your group (facing the Lynx boss trash) by running towards it at an angle, aiming to land just to the left of the troll-faced statue with big teeth.  Once you have landed on the wall, hop onto the grassy area behind it and pull the first group of cats.

 

Once the cats are dead, move up towards the first hut.  BE CAREFUL!  There is a patrol that you can face-pull if they are too close to you here, so step back if you see them.  Once they have patrolled away from the hut, JUMP INTO THE WINDOW and out the window on the other side.  Once on the other side, mount up and ride north, around the side of the next hut you see and sort of along the wall and trees.  Once you see the temple (it won’t take long), head east, hugging the temple’s steps along the way.  Voila!  You have skipped a LOT of trash.

 

Next patrol you see is a Crocolisk Tamer and two Crocolisks – pull them away from the water and AoE them down, taking special care with heals because the Crocolisks will randomly aggro onto group members and they hit VERY hard.  Once this patrol is down, follow the path to the northeast.  Watch for the Tamer patrol – pull them if they are close, otherwise ignore them for now and pull the first group of 5-6 cats (invisible).  I would mark one cat with a SKULL and have focus-fire dps’ers on him first, then AoE down the rest; it gives your tanks time to establish aggro without really slowing down dps at all.  Kill the next group of cats if you have time, otherwise have a rogue Distract the Tamers (or CC one of them) as they aggro onto your group.

 

After the second group of cats and the Tamers, you’ll hit the last group of invisible cats.  Kill them then the Tamer patrol behind them.  Then move up to the steps, where you’ll find a Beast Handler, a Tamer, and two cats at the top of the steps.  Pull them down and kill them (Tamer then Handler then cats) before entering the temple.

 

Inside the temple there’s 3 groups – one patrol with two Guardians and two groups, each with a Flame Caster, a Guardian, and a Beast Handler.  Pull each group one by one first, killing the Flame Casters in each group first.  Let the patrol aggro onto your group as they patrol near the entrance to the temple.

 

TIME LEFT:  MUST BE 3 min OR MORE (typically 12-8 min left)

 

The Lynx boss requires about 3 minutes to kill with a 6 dps group.

 

LYNX BOSS – usual routine here, spread out and two-tank him to mitigate the Saberlash he does.  NEVER EVER stop dps’ing Halazzi himself.  Don’t switch targets to the Lynx Spirit he summons every 25%, as it will slow your dps down considerably.  Kill the totems as they are summoned.  Once Halazzi hits 20% just ignore the totems and grill him down.

 

I always put the loot on Master Loot for this boss, simply so that you know no one will ninja the mount.

 

One thing to note – wipes happen from time to time.  Typically, with a solid and strong group you can deal with ONE full wipe and still have enough time on the clock.  A few little errors here and there are also fine (a Scout hitting the drums, someone randomly dying on a boss or on trash, etc), but they CAN and DO add up, so keep dumb mistakes to a minimum.

 

Assuming everything has gone well, congrats on your first successful Bear Mount run!