ZA bear mount timed runs

[Sword_of_Doom]

About 3 weeks ago, due to boredom, a group of 10 of us in my guild on Cenarius, decided to try the ZA bear mount timed trial. It went so well, we missed our first attempt by 2 minutes, that we decided we would do it again. The next attempt we beat the timer by 30 seconds. It was so much fun for us that we agreed that we would do 10 runs to get a bear mount for each of us in the group. So far we are 5/10 with our most recent one we had 6 minutes to spare.

Just curious to see if anyone has tried the ZA bear mount time trial?
What route do you normally take?
What is your best time?
Any tips and hints for those who want to attempt this

This really has been one of the more fun things i have done in the game and hope Blizzard has more events like this planned.

[Mordekhuul]

We have been trying for it lately. We are tier 5, ZA and heroic geared, and have been getting 3 chests with 2-3 minutes to spare.

We have been trying the Eagle->Bear->Hawk->Lynx route.

I know we are losing time at various points along the way (obviously). This is what we are trying to improve. It is pretty fun even now though - losing someone on eagle trash or missing a scout and trying to recover fast enough to stay under the timer is a nice challenge.

My group typically runs:

prot paladin (me)
bear off-tank
healadin
resto shaman
tree
elemental shaman
mage
shadowpriest (or warlock or another mage)
melee x2 (dps warrior or enh shaman, sometimes hunter in one of the slots)

Unfortunately we don't have exactly the same crew every week, as well.

[Sword_of_Doom]

We have been trying for it lately. We are tier 5, ZA and heroic geared, and have been getting 3 chests with 2-3 minutes to spare.

We have been trying the Eagle->Bear->Hawk->Lynx route.

I know we are losing time at various points along the way (obviously). This is what we are trying to improve. It is pretty fun even now though - losing someone on eagle trash or missing a scout and trying to recover fast enough to stay under the timer is a nice challenge.

My group typically runs:

prot paladin (me)
bear off-tank
healadin
resto shaman
tree
elemental shaman
mage
shadowpriest (or warlock or another mage)
melee x2 (dps warrior or enh shaman, sometimes hunter in one of the slots)

Unfortunately we don't have exactly the same crew every week, as well.

I would say your doing pretty well. OUr group does outgear you by a large margin, we are almost all full Tier 6 and that certainly helps DPS wise.

Group make up

Prot Warrior MT
Bear Druid OT
Holy Pally
Resto Shammy
Holy Pally
Mage (me)
Rogue
Hunter
Shadow Priest
Warlock

[Pantalaimon]

Hey Sword, out of curiosity, which route do you take?

[Delc]

We've tried 3 times, and our best attempt was about 3 minutes short. Which considering the 5 deaths on Dragonhawk, would have been a mount if we had failed a little less.

We take the eagle, bear, dragonhawk, lynx route.

Few things that have really helped us.
-Don't wait for mage mana. No matter how much they cry, they really don't need a full mana pool for every pull.
-Tab dotting or AoE. If the tanks can hold aggro there is no faster way to kill things. Protadins make this really easy.
-Mind control. The flame casters before dragonhawk can destroy a trash pull.

[Mordekhuul]

We've tried 3 times, and our best attempt was about 3 minutes short. Which considering the 5 deaths on Dragonhawk, would have been a mount if we had failed a little less.

We take the eagle, bear, dragonhawk, lynx route.

Few things that have really helped us.
-Don't wait for mage mana. No matter how much they cry, they really don't need a full mana pool for every pull.
-Tab dotting or AoE. If the tanks can hold aggro there is no faster way to kill things. Protadins make this really easy.
-Mind control. The flame casters before dragonhawk can destroy a trash pull.

The mind control is a great idea. I have run ZA so many times with no priest present that I forget about this tool.

Double flame casters in the trash pull by the last scout hut has prevented a third chest several times.

Double flame casters on the last pull, which is always the case, is very easy to deal with even without it because you have room to work and no fear of scouts walking up (sheep pull on a flame caster. Bring the guardians and kill-target back a good 40 yards to the stairs and kill them there - the sheep is out of range of the guardian's dispels from there).

[Sword_of_Doom]

Hey Sword, out of curiosity, which route do you take?

Eagle > Bear > Dragonhawk > Lynx

Some tips.

For the Eagle run we kill the Caster and pull the protectors and warriors in a big pack until we get to the Tempest. Kill Tempest then AE down the pack.

Dragonhawk we allow the hatcher to unhatch a whole side have our Bear Druid AE taunt and we AE down the whole side. Repeat for other side. That fight literally takes 3 minutes or so that way.

[Skandranon]

What route do you normally take?
What is your best time?
Any tips and hints for those who want to attempt this

This really has been one of the more fun things i have done in the game and hope Blizzard has more events like this planned.

Eagle-Bear-Hawk-Lynx is the one that's worked for us. Some people chatter about going from Eagle to Lynx and hopping through a hut window, but my general feeling is that you lose time in transit equal to or greater than the trash packs you skip.

You can basically do this run with any ten people so long as there's general group synergy, and you don't need T6 gear to do it (you can compensate with consumables). Our group setup changes every week and we tend to end around the same time, 7ish minutes left.

[Concillian]

The mind control is a great idea. I have run ZA so many times with no priest present that I forget about this tool.

Double flame casters in the trash pull by the last scout hut has prevented a third chest several times.

Our most successful runs (which are only 3 chests in timer) have had 2 priests and no mages. So MC was our primary CC

On this 2nd to last pull by d-hawk, the tank runs them around to the stairs where we are relatively free of scouts, then we MC and blow it up.

[Mordekhuul]

Our most successful runs (which are only 3 chests in timer) have had 2 priests and no mages. So MC was our primary CC

On this 2nd to last pull by d-hawk, the tank runs them around to the stairs where we are relatively free of scouts, then we MC and blow it up.

I'm doing one of my 2-hour ZA blitzes tonight, in fact, with Shadowpriest in tow.

I'm not a MC pro. If she MC's one flame caster, won't the other one's AOE push back her MC channel and make it end early (if we don't interrupt the flame caster effectively)? I'd hate to wipe because our SP gets gobbled by a broken MC before we can react.

[Concillian]

I'm doing one of my 2-hour ZA blitzes tonight, in fact, with Shadowpriest in tow.

I'm not a MC pro. If she MC's one flame caster, won't the other one's AOE push back her MC channel and make it end early (if we don't interrupt the flame caster effectively)? I'd hate to wipe because our SP gets gobbled by a broken MC before we can react.

Yeah, every time you get hit while MC-ing it takes a big chunk off the channeling bar, just like drain life or whatever.

Everytime I've been we've had me and Xarhud + 2 additional healers, so we MC both. I don't know how dangerous it is to have just one MC'd. They don't one-shot me, but I try to have around 10k buffed health in my healing gear because I don't like dying to random damage. But re-application isn't generally a problem. It can cause some close calls, but we've been able to handle them, Tiga is generally very good with intervene on an early break.

[Klaus]

Yeah, every time you get hit while MC-ing it takes a big chunk off the channeling bar, just like drain life or whatever.

Everytime I've been we've had me and Xarhud + 2 additional healers, so we MC both. I don't know how dangerous it is to have just one MC'd. They don't one-shot me, but I try to have around 10k buffed health in my healing gear because I don't like dying to random damage. But re-application isn't generally a problem. It can cause some close calls, but we've been able to handle them, Tiga is generally very good with intervene on an early break.

If the 2nd flamecaster isn't controlled, it gets very painful for me. Ideally, that mob is also MC'ed, because then you can use the awesome haste + AOE they have. Next best is a sheep, because at least then I can hold the mob, but I can't use the AOE. In that example, I let him melee the mob (they hit pretty hard, actually) and use their flameshock whenever it comes up (this is a single-target spell).

Alternately, you can try to pull the Razuvious trick - keep the other flamecaster out of LOS of the MCing priest. I'm not sure if that's possible in this case.

[Mordekhuul]

We did a 2 hour run last night. We were in experiment mode, even knowing it might mean losing chests, which was fun.

First, with my pally and a bear off-tank, we pulled pretty much the entire Eagle gauntlet on up and killed Tempest before much else. I think we got one wave of eagles, maybe two. That saved some time, just stopping to nuke any casters that refused to be trained up the hill.

I tanked eagle while the druid dps'd in cat, as usual.

We lost about 6 minutes to a freak wipe on Bear boss, but oh well. Had like 16m left on the timer after Bear died on 2nd pull.

When we got to the last scout hut, with the 4-pull near the stairs, we had double-flame caster, of course.

We tried sheeping/MC'ing one and running the rest of them to the far wall (a safe spot where scouts don't roam), but underestimated the decimation the 2nd flame caster would put out as we moved him. Was worth a shot though.

After we ran back in (no wipe protection up, ankhs down, etc), we chain pulled up to chicken-hawk (as we call him) and pulled him with maybe 5 minutes on the clock. He died about (not kidding) 3 seconds after the timer expired.

Anyway, not wiping on bear boss and killing the 4-pull by the last scout hut efficiently would have left us around 11-12 minutes on the timer after Dragonhawk died, I believe.

We then took a break, looted chests, and timed our push through Lynx trash.

Took us just over 12 minutes to get to Lynx and pull him. Yikes. Looks like we need to improve there before we even worry about trying to make bear timers.

Missed

[Sir_Die_alot]

This may seem like a bizarre idea and against most tank's philosophy but I actually like to execute tank if there is some kind of timer and its getting cut close. Do it in battle stance you only take 10% more damage than you would have which really isn't bad but you add another heavy dps to the group, name me a class that hits harder than a warrior with a full rage bar spamming execute. :shuriken: I've done this on bosses from Murmur to Archimonde with success.:)

[Taelas]

This may seem like a bizarre idea and against most tank's philosophy but I actually like to execute tank if there is some kind of timer and its getting cut close. Do it in battle stance you only take 10% more damage than you would have which really isn't bad but you add another heavy dps to the group, name me a class that hits harder than a warrior with a full rage bar spamming execute. :shuriken: I've done this on bosses from Murmur to Archimonde with success.:)

Ehh.

There's a huge risk involved. You can't Shield Block. You take 10% extra damage. Die, and even if the boss is on 1%, you can take your entire raid down with you.

In order to do it to minimize risk, you have to cut it close to the point where he dies, at which point it's debatable if it actually adds anything other than a few seconds. If the boss doesn't crush, naturally that's different.

[Concillian]

If the boss doesn't crush, naturally that's different.

AFAIK, bosses in ZA don't crush, do they? I think all the ZA WWS reports from us with Druid tanking have expired. I know Nalorakk doesn't crush, but I thought all the bosses didn't.

[Taelas]

AFAIK, bosses in ZA don't crush, do they? I think all the ZA WWS reports from us with Druid tanking have expired. I know Nalorakk doesn't crush, but I thought all the bosses didn't.

Nalorakk and Halazzi don't crush, the rest do.

[Lissa]

Nalorakk and Halazzi don't crush, the rest do.

I thought one of Nalorakk's forms does crush and the other does not (seem to recall bear form crushes, thus the reason a lot of people use Warrior or Paladin for the bear form).

[Sir_Die_alot]

Its a risk of course, but it really isn't that much more damage incoming. Obviously avoid doing it versus bosses that 2 shot you but adding another solid dps to small groups can be a huge help, especially if you're trying to kill something 3 seconds faster.:)

[Taelas]

I thought one of Nalorakk's forms does crush and the other does not (seem to recall bear form crushes, thus the reason a lot of people use Warrior or Paladin for the bear form).

Nope. No crushes at all from him. He uses bleeds in bear form, however, and bleeds ignore armor -- which makes a druid a poor choice for the bear form.

SDA, I just don't see the point in trying to kill something 3 seconds faster when you risk corpse-running.:)