Zul'gurub 2nd night, 6 days after release (first part)

On the 14th I raided ZG for the first time but couldn't try all bosses. Yesterday I joined an alt guildrun again and I could try most of the Zul'gurub content, with almost a full clear. Here is my experience.

We started at 20:15 ST with about 18 players, most of which were socials or new raiders. Our tanks (Epix and Rocksteady) were in good mood that night which lead to quick trash packs aggro that also died fast. This means it was difficult to see if there were issues with abilities or unlinked packs, although there were occasions where packs got separated and it seeemed abnormal (like tiger packs near Thekal). I was happy to notice that the big trolls did use their aoe-fear, something that felt missing on my previous tries.

We moved to Jin'do and pulled him into the pit (this time I thought about changing my helm beforehand, :D). A couple totems got summoned (with some staying for a bit too long, wake up melees!), mind-controlled players added a bit of chaos to the fight, which got dragged on due to Healing totems actually doing their job. I could not see if the shades interrupted players or hit for too much.

No trashpacks from outside Arlokk's room got in combat with us, she did not one-shot the raid with instant whirlwinds (I actually didn't notice any), she even gouged the tank, but she did hide for a very long amount of time (40s). Most panthers attacked the player that was marked.

Thekal cleaved the tank and had an attack speed buff that looked like a Bloodlust, we got gouged and blinded by Zath, Khan tried to heal Thekal and used his lightning shields. Then he switched to tiger-phase, the tigers spawned, he force-punched us in the face multiple times and charged random players. Nothing special I noticed.

Mar'li, working as expected, adds spawned, she charged, the 30 yards aoe worked, she did web the tanks and melees. Strangely she did charge a tank that may have been webbed. The spider spawns did not get stronger or bigger over time but it is difficult to say if they should have when they last less than 7 seconds.

On Mandokir I had no idea what to do besides not getting aggro, not standing near the boss and not doing anything if I ever got a fixate. Strangely that seemed to be plenty enough (Blizzard is good at making me think the encounters are harder than they look like in Vanilla). His whirlwind was instantaneous and lacked animation and spellcast (and hit for over 3-4k on cloth which is probably overtuned). He did not use Mortal strikes. I got double-feared after a charge (okay...?) and we had a couple of fears after charges, as expected but not otherwise. We had decided to keep most melee out because we had heard of chain-fear bugs when more than 1 player is in melee, this seemed to work well.

Overall on this first part of the raid most bosses did look like they worked with their expected scripts and abilities. Some details of spells may be incorrect (like charges supposed to select the players farthest away instead of random, etc.) and some timers may need a bit of work but I had a hard time noticing those and I was satisfied with the experience.

What stuck me the most were the instant hard-hitting whirlwinds that could easily wipe a raid, the harder-hitting abilities (crushing tanks in T2 gear on Kronos when ZG was done by UBRS players on retail) and Arlokk staying hidden until God knows how long (which is not even a bug, she did hide for that amount of time back then).

Part 2 incoming.

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