Raptors, Tigers, and Bear Mounts — Oh My!

General, Raiding

I have friends in-game who are connoisseurs of collections; if it can be collected, they’re driven to do so. One friend of mine enjoys collecting various minions, vanity, and companion pets and I wouldn’t be at all surprised to find that she has her profile posted at WarcraftPets.com. Another friend of mine collects recipes, specifically enchants; even though she’s unable to use many of the items due to the fact that they’re bind of pickup and she’s a cloth wearer, she still goes out of her way to collect them. Reputation collectors also seem to be very common among my friends. These people are driven to be exalted with every faction that they encounter, whether or not they can benefit from that standing; for pre-The Burning Crusade factions, this can be a weighty undertaking.

And then, there are the extremists: those who collect mounts.

I call them extremists mostly due to the fact that it’s a very expensive and very time-consuming hobby¹. For example, a good friend of mine and fellow raider is fervently collecting every mount in the game available to him — often acquiring the same blasted mount multiple times but in different colors just so that he can claim that his collection is nearing completion. Not only that, certain mounts require reputation grinds or even multiple runs of specific instances just for the possibility that it might drop.

Random number generator be damned!

I don’t have a driving need to collect anything in game. Very few of the vanity pets interest me; recipes are collected on how they benefit me and others; reputations are for benefits and nothing more; and I’m more than happy with a serviceable mount. That hasn’t, however, kept me from trying to participate in weekly runs for the Amani War Bear!

Armed with the knowledge that the mount will no longer be available post-expansion, a select group of people within the Drunken Badgers has expressed interest in acquiring the mount. They have been kind enough² to invite me along as their second healer. We’re hoping to run once a week, up to the point where we no longer need to do so. If anything, it’s an opportunity for us to spend an hour and a half smashing some trolls, acquiring badges and off-set loot, and hopefully having a blast!

Our first run was this past Saturday, following the first day of my priest’s 25-man raid. The group consisted of the following:

• Protection paladin
• Protection warrior
• Holy paladin
• Holy priest sans Circle of Healing
• Balance druid
• Beast Mastery hunter
• Enhancement shaman
• Demonology warlock
• Fire mage

Our gear is mostly Tier 5 and above, with many of us sporting full sets of the new badge loot released in patch 2.4. Since some of us know of people who have done it in less appropriate gear³, we’re pretty confident that our goal is more than just attainable. Also of note is the fact that we’re running with two healers while most non-timer groups elect to bring three healers; between talking to people who have completed the timers numerous times in the past and doing quite a bit of research, we’re of the opinion that electing to bring two healers and a hybrid damage class that can heal when necessary will help us obtain our goal. In this case, the Balance druid is serving as our crutch third healer as needed.

So, overall, how’d we do? I’d have to say not too bad, especially considering the fact that many of us haven’t stepped foot into Zul’Aman for months since we dropped it in favor of 25-man progression.

Akil’zon <Eagle Avatar>

We had a bit of a mishap during Akil’zon. Due to the fact that we hadn’t been inside the instance for a while, someone forgot to collapse onto the Eagle Avatar right before his Electrical Storm, resulting in one or two deaths. Despite that unfortunate incident, we were more than ahead of our proposed timeline and — based on my experience running with a group that has successfully done all four chests — moving successfully forward.

Possible improvement(s): In the future, we’ll need to review the boss strategy before we actually encounter him and collapse at the appropriate time. Having a clear Ventillo channel at the time might help avoid silly mistakes like that.

Nalorakk <Bear Avatar>

Nalorakk was, of course, ridiculously easy. We managed to get to him in record time due to two simple tricks:

1. We purposefully avoided the patrol between the Eagle and Bear Avatars, which most likely saved us about thirty seconds, and
2. Following the first group that attacks the raid, our wonderful Balance druid cast Hibernate on the closest Amani Bear, allowing us to sneak by stealthily and save even more valuable time.

The Bear Avatar was, as I noted, a quick and painless fight.

Possible improvement(s): I’m hard pressed to think of any. Crowd control was managed extremely well, our healers were absolutely on ball, and things were smooth. The only thing I can think of is the downtime we had just prior to pulling the boss; I believe that we took maybe fifteen seconds to set up for the fight, which I don’t think was entirely necessary.

Jan’alai <Dragonhawk Avatar>

By far our largest time lost was spent trying to get the the Dragonhawk Avatar. First off, just after downing Nalorakk we took quite a bit of time to discuss our strategy for the roving Amani’shi Scouts that patrol the area. When we did move forward it was with flawless execution — until we got to the first junction. Then we somehow managed to have two of the Scouts summon help, which left us locked in place for far too long. After that things moves much smoother.

Looking back on the boss fight itself, I think things went well. I remember doing a lot of frantic heals, which typically is the case for that fight anyways. I think that perhaps two people failed the avoid Fire Bombs, which resulted in at least one person dying.⁴ Otherwise, it was good; our Protection paladin managed to successfully hold all of the Dragonhawk Hatchlings when we let each side be hatched entirely.

Possible improvement(s): Patrol management, patrol management, patrol management: hitting two Scouts locked us into place for easily a minute or two, which was valuable time that could have allowed us to complete the time trial in time. We may want to discuss ways of avoiding the Fire Bombs so that all raid members stay alive and are capable of participating in the fight.

Halazzi <Lynx Avatar>

Our biggest problems of the evening came about heading towards Halazzi. First off, somehow one of our raiders ended up dead along the way. I think it was the result of someone moving too close to the hut by the water, which pulled the group guarding the entrance there. This was especially painful, not only because we lost valuable time fighting these trolls, but the person who died didn’t wait to be ressed and instead released, ran in, and asked for a summon — which we had all sadly forgotten was impossible within Zul’Aman, ouch! While we didn’t want for him to rejoin the group, his absence was very apparent while clearing the packs of lynxes prior to the building.

At this point, we may have made the timer, our incidental boo-boos aside. Unfortunately, we couldn’t quite remember how long it took to down the Lynx Avatar. One of our raiders said it took almost seven minutes⁵ to fight, which left us thinking that we couldn’t make the timer at all. So, rather than pull a single group in the room with Halazzi, we ended up pulling two and taking one hell of beating.

With that wipe, our chance of getting a bear mount that week vanished like some unnamed sneaky rogue bastard!

Possible improvement(s): We really need to avoid pulling any extra groups. If someone dies during any time other than a transition between Akil’zon and Nalorakk, that person should wait for someone to resurrect him or her; I feel dumb in retrospect for having forgotten that summoning is impossible in Zul’aman. Also, even though we might be close to hitting the timer, we really should exercise caution and not cut corners to save time.

Dénouement

Overall, the run was a lot of fun! Even though we failed to get that final timer, I’m more than certain that we’ll be getting that mount in the near future. Even better, we managed to snag some nifty loot and then went on to down both Hex Lord Malacrass and the Warlord of the Amani forest trolls himself, the mighty Zul’jin. This was especially nifty because two members of our little raid had never been beyond Lynx before, so they were able to see new content for the first time. Which is always an awesome feeling.

Related Posts

1. Further Incentive to Snag an Amani War Bear
2. Amani War Bear Spotted!
3. The Cookie That Disappeared!