Zul'Gurub

= Overview =


 * Introduced in patch 1.7.
 * Strategy guides at the bottom of this page.

Background History
Over a thousand years ago the powerful Gurubashi Empire was torn apart by a massive civil war. An influential group of troll priests, known as the Atal’ai, called forth the avatar of an ancient and terrible blood-god named Hakkar the Soulflayer. Though the priests were defeated and ultimately exiled, the great troll empire collapsed upon itself. The exiled priests fled far to the north, into the Swamp of Sorrows, where they erected a great temple tao Hakkar in order to prepare for his arrival into the physical world.

In time, the Atal’ai priests discovered that Hakkar’s physical form could only be summoned within the ancient capital of the Gurubashi Empire, Zul’Gurub. Unfortunately, the priests have met with recent success in their quest to call forth Hakkar — reports confirm the presence of the dreaded Soulflayer in the heart of the Gurubashi ruins.

In order to quell the blood god, the trolls of the land banded together and sent a contingent of High Priests into the ancient city. Each priest was a powerful champion of the Primal Gods— Bat, Panther, Tiger, Spider, and Snake--but despite their best efforts, they fell under the sway of Hakkar. Now the champions and their Primal God aspects feed the awesome power of the Soulflayer. Any adventurers brave enough to venture into the foreboding ruins must overcome the High Priests if they are to have any hope of confronting the mighty blood god.

Zul'Gurub is a 20-man raid instance located in the northeastern portion of Stranglethorn Vale.

Features

 * Over 120 new Epic and Superior items, including a new five piece set for each class!
 * Players can build up their reputation with the new Zandalar Tribe faction in order to gain a variety of rewards!
 * Tons of Zul'Gurub quests available at the new base in Yojamba Isle!
 * Highly scripted boss encounters unlike any you've experienced before!
 * 3 Day raid timer. (Changed to 3 day timer in patch 1.9)

= Bosses =

Note: most of the bosses have their own detailed Wiki page with fight strategy details.

Also see Strategy Guide, further below.

A map of the instance including the bosses' locations can be found at wowguru.

Aspects
The Priest Aspects all assume an animal form at some point when fighting them. Moreover, if they are left alive they grant Hakkar powerful abilities that make him much harder to kill. This is in contrast to other bosses who do not assume animal forms and do not give Hakkar any abilities (Hexxer, Mandokir, etc.)

High Priestess Jeklik - Bat Aspect
Jeklik begin the encounter in bat form. In this form she has an AoE silence that also damages. She randomly charges people in the group, and summons 4 bloodseeker bats periodically to attack the raid. When half her life is gone she reverts to priest forms. Here she casts Shadow Word: Pain, Mindflay, and Greater Heal. She also summons bomb bats which drop fire bombs on the ground which DoT those inside. Read more here.

High Priest Venoxis - Snake Aspect
Venoxis comes with 4 snake adds. He stays in priest form to begin where he cast Holy Nova, Holy Fire, and Renew. He can also cast Holy Wrath, a spell which jumps from person to person with damage increasing exponentially as it hits people. In snake form his melee damage goes up dramatically, and he releases a poison cloud. Read more here.

High Priestess Mar'li - Spider Aspect
Mar'li has two main forms, like the other bosses in Zul'Gurub. She starts off in her troll form where she can spawn adds. These spider adds quickly gain strength and size if not killed quickly. When she transforms into her spider form she can cast aoe poison spells which affect the entire group and also web everyone standing near her in place. As soon as she webs everyone she will attack the person with the highest aggro that has not been webbed (usually a healer if they are out of range.)
 * High Priestess Mar'li.

High Priest Thekal - Tiger Aspect
Thekal comes with 2 named humanoid adds and 2 tigers. The 2 humanoid adds are a shaman and a rogue. Thekal initiates the fight in priest form, where he can mortal strike. If any of the adds or Thekal dies, the remaining ones will resurrect them. This means all 3 must die simultaneously.

After dying once, Thekal respawns as a Tiger. In this form he can charge, flurry, enrage, and Force Punch. Force Punch is an AoE attack around Thekal that does ~1000 damage. He often does it twice in a row. Furthermore he spawns 2 tigers periodically throughout the fight. Read more here.

High Priestess Arlokk - Panther Aspect
Arlokk is spawned by hitting the gong in her room. She starts in priest form using shadow word: pain and standard melee attack. Immediately upon engaging her panthers spawn from each cage, about one every 5 seconds. She will immediately 'mark' somone that the panthers will all attack. After one minute she stealths.

The panthers will continue to spawn while she is stealthed. She will return to battle roughly 30s later, opening up with 2 whirlwind attacks. She will then disappear again after one minute and the cycle continues until she is killed.

Optional Bosses
The bosses below are considered 'optional' because they do not give Hakkar any abilities. Leaving a single priest alive makes Hakkar precipitously harder to kill and are therefore 'required' to kill him.

Bloodlord Mandokir
Mandokir begins the fight on his raptor mount. He dismounts and both the raptor and Mandokir engage the raid. Mandokir can whirlwind, cleave, charge (which also deaggros), and he can also 'watch' someone in the raid. While 'watched', that person's spells and attacks generate much more aggro. Finally, when someone dies they are automatically resurrected, but also cause Mandokir to become larger and more powerful (he levels up). Read more here.

Jin'do the Hexxer
Jin'do is the most complicated and difficult fight in Zul'Gurub. Jin'do is a shaman who can use mind controlling and healing totems. Furthermore, he summons shades which can only be killed when someone is subsequently cursed by Jin'do. Finally, he randomly polymorphs people or teleports them into a pit of undead skeletons. He is required for the quest A Collection of Heads.

Read more here.

Spawnable Bosses

 * Gahz'ranka

Gahz'ranka is summoned by doing a quest for Nat Pagle that begins in Zul'Gurub. Down by the waters there is an abandoned camp with a clickable box which gives you the quest, then you need to go to Dustwallow Marsh and chat with Nat Pagle, come back and do some fishing and then you can summon the boss.

Edge of Madness
Inside the Edge of Madness there is a tablet behind the alter, where alchemists can learn to make Gurubashi Mojo Madness (materials : 1x Blood of Heroes, 1x Massive Mojo, 6x Powerful Mojo, 1x Black Lotus) use this to extinguish the Brazier of Madness and spawn one of four random bosses. Looking at the bosses tablets along the walls inside, you can figure out which will spawn by finding the one with the caption "so and so is close to the edge of madness".

Coming up to the edge of madness you will be pulling a bunch of Imps. They come in 3 pulls and when you kill them they spawn 2 Voidwalkers who can do some pretty good damage. They can be Banished and Enslaved so bringing a warlock for this section is nice.

Loot tables for these bosses are nothing fantastic but what they do drop are the pieces for the class specific epic trinkets Listed Below that are part of the class sets.

The Four bosses are as follows:

Gri'Lek

 * Gri'Lek's Blood
 * Gri'lek is a berserk troll / warrior. His special ability is to go 200% his size and he will start hitting people for 5000+ damage... but while in this form he moves slow as a rock. As soon as he starts to grow he will target 1 person, announce who he's targeted so that u can keep up some strong dps while hes big. Have melee keep their distance and make sure the targeted player also keeps his distance and you can kite him. He also has a tremor ability which will AE stun and root someone. Make sure you are keeping your main tank dispelled right away when he gets root. You can fight him like you fight any berserk trolls in the zone except for when he uses his special ability.

Renataki

 * Renataki's Tooth
 * Renataki is a rogue. His special ability is to use vanish and he will randomly appear and ambush someone which will do quite a bit of damage. He is not that hard of a boss, just throw a few rogues on him and have them tank him and you can DPS him down. His vanish will not break on dots.

Hazza'rah

 * Hazza'rah's Dream Thread
 * His special ability is to spawn giant plant, dinosaurs, or stitches type things that have the ability to 1 shot low HP classes. The spawns have about 500hp but if not downed quickly Hazza'rah's 2nd ability, random AOE sleep combined with mad dmg from the spawns results in a mess. Pretty hard to tank but if you have all range dps on the spawns (hunters are great with multishot) its a pretty easy fight. He also has a pretty mean mana burn, so casters be aware of where he is at all times as he does move around alot.

Woosholay

 * Woosholay's Mane
 * Has a poison cloud around him that resembles that of High Priestess Venoxis, so melee has to keep his distance as well as a hurricane (druid aoe nature spell). Keep him tanked facing away from the raid due to frontal lightning strikes. When he does his hurricane move him but make sure you keep him facing away from the raid.

Hakkar the Soulflayer
Hakkar is the final boss in Zul'Gurub. The surrounding priests grant him abilities if they are not killed:
 * Hakkar
 * Jeklik - 1200-2000 AoE damage + 8s silence.
 * Venoxis - 800 damage poison to the raid.
 * Mar'li - 6 second stun and complete aggro reset.
 * Thekal - Enrages, increasing attack speed by 150%.
 * Arlokk - 2 second Gouge (aggro wipes the main tank)

Hakkar has never been beaten with all 5 aspects active. Read more here.

After killing Hakkar, 2 random epics will drop as well as the Heart of Hakkar. This can be turned into the Zandalar tribe for one of 3 trinkets:
 * Zandalarian Hero Badge
 * Zandalarian Hero Charm
 * Zandalarian Hero Medallion

Turning in the heart also buffs everyone in Stranglethorn Vale with Spirit of Zandalar: 10% movement speed, 5% dodge, and 15% to all stats 2 hrs. Persists through death.

Recommended Route
From experience this is the most efficient path to take through the instance.
 * 1) Come in and go straight, across the first bridge turn right and head up and kill High Priestess Jek'lik.
 * 2) Go back down and across the second bridge to and you'll find a room containging High Priest Venoxis.
 * 3) Behind Venoxis's Room take the right path, and continue going up. Here you can go straight up and kill Broodlord Mandokir or take a right through the path with spider webs to High Priestess Mar'li.
 * 4) Here those who plan on doing the edge of madness, should do it now to get it out of the way.
 * 5) Down the path to your right you'll find High Priest Thekal.
 * 6) After Thekal off the path to the left you'll find the camp to spawn Gaz'ranka, kill him now to get him out of the way as well.
 * 7) Then come's High Priestess Arlokk
 * 8) Kill Jindo now, leaving him to after hakkar on a late night often results in the rogues leaving (in my case).
 * 9) Back down the ramp, and over the bridge to Hakkar, and you've cleared all of Zul'Gurub.

= Loot = Outside of normal boss drops, there are turn ins that can be done with the Zandalar Tribe for additional rewards. This loot requires the "Paragons of Power". The Paragons of Power collectively refer to 3 separate items: Primal Hakkari items, Coins, Dolls, and Bijous.
 * Primal Hakkari item - 1 random Hakkar item will drop from any boss (except Hakkar)
 * Bijou - random drop from trash mobs.
 * Coin - random drop from trash mobs.
 * Punctured Voodoo Doll - from actionable 'Hoodoo piles' scattered throughout the instance. These are class specific.

The rewards are class specific and follow this theme:
 * 1 Rare belt from "A Collection of Heads" quest at any faction level.
 * 1 Rare armor set piece at Friendly requiring 10 coins 2 bijous and 1 Paragon.
 * 1 Rare armor set piece at Honored requiring 10 coins 2 bijous and 1 Paragon.
 * 1 Epic armor set piece at Revered requiring 10 coins 2 bijous and 1 Paragon.
 * 1 Epic trinket set piece at any faction level requiring items from the Edge of Madness event (Spawnable bosses.
 * 1 New Amulet of improving quality at each faction level. The exalted amulet is part of the class set as well.
 * Head and Leg enchants available at Friendly requiring a completed Arcanum, a Hoodoo doll, and a Paragon of Power.
 * Shoulder enchants available at Exalted.

Armor Sets
By turning in different combinations of 10 coins, 2 bijous, and 1 Primal Hakkari item, different classes can receive class specific items from NPCs in Yojamba island. There is also a reputation requirement for each set piece.

Each class has 5 pieces in their set: 2 rare armor pieces, 1 epic armor piece, 1 epic necklace, and 1 epic trinket. The Primal Hakkari items required for the epic armor piece drop at a lower rate from most of the bosses in Zul'Gurub (Primal Hakkari Aegis, Kossack, and Tabbard).

Epic Trinkets
For each of the class epic trinkets you need the Punctured Voodoo Doll for your class, and one each of the quest items from the summoned bosses at the Edge of Madness (Gri'lek's Blood, Renataki's Tooth, Hazza'rah's Dream Thread and Wooshoolay's Mane). There is no minimum required faction.

Each trinket has a 3 min cooldown and is one part of five of the class Zul'Gurub set.

Class-specific Amulets
For every new level of faction, each class gets a free Amulet whose quality is dependent on the level of faction achieved. You receive your first amulet from your class' NPC at Friendly. At subsequent faction levels you receive a new amulet. Keep this amulet, because they are required to receive further upgrades. Amulets have no sell price. If you junk one, you can get it back by talking to the NPC again. Dhask

=Faction Recipes= The Recipes can be bought at Rin'wosho the Trader on Yojamba Isle in the far northwest of Stranglethorn Vale. All recipes are BoP. All results are BoE.

Alchemy

 * Greater Dreamless Sleep Potion - Friendly
 * Major Troll's Blood Potion - Honored
 * Mageblood Potion - Revered
 * Living Action Potion - Exalted

Blacksmithing

 * Bloodsoul Gauntlets - Friendly
 * Darksoul Shoulders - Friendly
 * Bloodsoul Shoulders - Honored
 * Darksoul Leggings - Honored
 * Bloodsoul Breastplate - Revered
 * Darksoul Breastplate - Revered
 * Important note 300 Blacksmithing is required not only to make but get the set bonuses

Enchanting

 * Brilliant Mana Oil - Friendly
 * Brilliant Wizard Oil - Honored

Engineering

 * Bloodvine Lens - Friendly
 * Bloodvine Goggles - Honored

Leatherworking

 * Primal Batskin Bracers - Friendly
 * Primal Batskin Gloves - Honored
 * Blood Tiger Shoulders - Honored
 * Blood Tiger Breastplate - Revered
 * Primal Batskin Jerkin - Revered
 * Important note 300 Leatherworking is required not only to make but get the set bonuses

Tailoring

 * Bloodvine Boots - Friendly
 * Bloodvine Leggings - Honored
 * Bloodvine Vest - Revered

=Enchants=

Class-specific Head/Leg Enchants
For creating these enchants you need to be friendly with the Zandalar Tribe. Furthermore, you need a completed Dire Maul Arcanum of the indicated type and a Punctured Voodoo Doll specific to the class. The list below includes the items necessary for the Arcanum. The final turn-in requires the Punctured Voodoo Doll, the Dire Maul Arcanum, and the Primal Hakkari item.

Shoulder Enchants
You need to be exalted with the Zandalar Tribe and turn in 15 Zandalar Honor Tokens to get the enchants for shoulder items.

More Info

 * Official Zul'Gurub Preview
 * Official WoW-Europe.com Preview
 * Official Zandalar Tribe Vendor Rewards
 * Official Zandalar Tribe Class Quest Rewards
 * Preview at WoW Guru
 * Zul'Gurub Guide at Goblin Workshop

=Strategy Guide=
 * Zul'Gurub strategy guide including all bosses.
 * Clickable map and boss loot tables The map hyperlinks to strategy guides and loot tables when each boss is clicked on.
 * ZG Strategy Guide at WhatAboutPP (original http://www.whataboutpp.com/zgs/ offline as of Dec 2005 - may not return.)

&copy;2005 Blizzard Entertainment