• Psykal

Just quoting for emphasis, we've had a few attempts now and after getting a bear last night I'd say these are spot on. We used 2) and 4).

Group setup was as follows.

Protection Warrior
Feral Druid
Arms Warrior
Rogue
Restoration Shaman

2x Destruction Warlock
Shadow Priest
BM Hunter
Holy Priest (CoH)

I don't know if that qualifies as group stacking but it wasn't intended if so. We're 5/5 and 8/9 with 2-3 people with their 2t6 bonus, so our gear is okay but far from "full T6". Most of us are wearing 70% ilvl 128 gear.

We finished with seconds left on the timer and made quite a few errors. I'll describe them to give you an idea of how much leeway the event gives you.

1) 3 deaths at end of the Akil'zon gauntlet due to (I think) confusion on who to attack. Should probably kill the Tempest first because of his nasty Chain Lightning.

One ran back, one had a Soulstone and one got a 10 second res. Cost us a minute or so.

2) On Nalorakk trash, in the group before the boss I tanked the 2 Medicine Men for a good 20 seconds with Binding Heal before dying but got a combat res when the feral's mob died and we lost no time. However, we wiped on the boss himself at 70-80% to a taunt resist. We reset him, ressed the 2 dead DPS, had to wait for the 2 tanks running back before engaging again and must have lost 3-4 minutes total.

3) One scout hit the drums. No one died but that's 30s+.

4) Another 3 DPS died on the Halazzi trash. I ressed the 1st and 3rd with Inner Focus while they killed the next pack. The 2nd was combat ressed merely to save time, since by now we knew it would be really close. Not much time lost on these deaths, 30s-1m.

It was quite intense. I kept asking for Innervates in between trash mobs to save time and there were virtually no breaks. When we reached Halazzi we didn't even stop, I just got an Innervate and the MT charged in. Although we probably lost 5 minutes to errors I think the recoveries went quite well.

Most mana users consumed 10-20 mana pots, mostly on trash.

Without Salvation all of the DPS was threat capped and there were lots of aggro pulls.

A shadow priest is not necessary but this was already taxing on my mana, and harder to heal than any of the t6 content I've done so I would feel highly uncomfortable without one. I don't know how it was for our locks but they were chain potting too so I guess it is a big deal. That being said the Resto Shaman didn't have one and potted less than me, maybe I just suck.

Anyway, what a great encounter, really well tuned. I'd love to see more stuff like this. Also, the reward is perfect -- not some best in slot piece of gear but a really cool vanity item that you can show off in Shattrath and Arenas/BGs. It's not necessary for anything but it is a nice mark of distinction if you can call it that.

 

Thanahtos

I really have to disagree with the common conception that you *need* Tier 6, or you *need* two healers. We did it with 3 healers with our Balance Druid off-healing for Dragonhawk, being consumabled up seem necessary though...

Stacking the groups seems required though, having each group get buffs helps a ton. The casters get a Shadow Priest, the Warlock get Moonkin Aura for ISB uptime, the Moonkin and Shadow Priests get Curse of Shadow, and a Resto Shaman to top one group off. The other group has Leader of the Pack, Totems, Battle Shout, Bloodlust...

 

Derketo

So you actually did it with 2 healers and a balance druid?

I'll be alright when we get to pass out time.

 

Arthurion

Hi,

i'm the protection Paladin(moviemaker) in the video mentioned by El_Savor.
I don't use any FR Gear at the Hawk Boss. I don't even use FR Aura. I'm using Retribution Aura to get maximum Aggro while spamming Consecration, so the AOE DPS can start asap.
Once i played with another Group and AOE tanked the Hatchlings in my Healgear (with Healspecc) while spamhealing myself.
I can say the difference is huge. Without tanking gear the Hatchlings crit quite often so you are definatly hard to heal.

We are playing with 3 Healers and Prot Paladin and still have 5-6 minutes left so you really don`t need to play with just 2 Healers.
I think you would waste more time with 2 Healers that need to drink very often.

btw i love blizzard sct (was using grayhoof's sct for a very very long time)

 

galzohar

Seems like even as holy with fire gear, the blocking from redoubt and base dodge/parry alone is a nice damage reduction if you just don't heal. I'd definitely be mixing in some tank gear next time I try a timed run though on top of the full FR gear (which according to the dmg distribution reported here does provide a better damage reduction than tanking gear).

Of course I've seen prot paladins in full tanking gear tank it before although I'd rather not run with a full prot pally on those runs considering the DPS it'll cost. To be honest I'm not sure he was easier to heal with 3 healers in the raid as I was with full fire/pvp gear and not healing with 2 (other) healers in the raid. Remember that the fact something is possible doesn't make it the best way to do it the first time. The only thing that might be a problem is threat as both the fire gear and the tanking gear doesn't have much spell damage compared to the pvp gear (although I did just pick a T4 helm). With just concecrating without a frost trap or earthbind they seem to run past me sometimes... At least the first few probably becuase when there are less mobs out healing aggro is shared between less mobs so it's harder to pick them up, but afterwards healers don't generate as much threat per mob and conc picks them up easy. And AOErs don't seem to be dying.

I just wonder how much spell damage I can really sacrifice for tanking stats.

 

Emily

I find that often the boss will port everyone in for his fire blobs before all the hatchlings are securely out of the corridor and on me, leading to a bit of chaos as I try to pick them all up again after the port. It's not wiped us yet, but I'd like to clean it up a bit; any tips?

 

Tuhalu

You may not have intended to aggressively stack the groups, but you only lack a second shaman (as dps) and a Paladin (as tank or healer) to be fully stacked with complementary classes and buffs.

 

Thanahtos

No, we ran with a Holy Paladin, Holy Priest, and Resto Shaman. The balance Druid off-healed while the Paladin put on some tanking gear for the Dragonhawk boss fight.

 

Runnerist

My group just finished our 3rd timed run with 6 minutes left, our group setup revolves around the casters, mainly the mages.
go E->B->DH->L using the huts window after DH to loss a good minute, but at the moment i think it's not needed, unlike the 1st run where we had a minute left.

We run with
-Prot warrior with t5 gear -Fire mage 4/5 t6
-Prot Paladin 4/5 t6 -Fire mage 4/5 t6
-Resto Shammy 4/5 t6 -Shadow priest 4/5 t6
-Resto Druid 4/5 t6 -BM hunter 4/5 t6
-Destro Lock 4/5 t6 -Resto Shammy 4/5 t6

So we clearly out gear the instance, except out warrior, but he gets the job of off tanking mobs/bosses, and main tanking DH. I rotate the 2 shammies in grp 2 for the DPS group, and sometimes switch the warlock with the Spriest but sometimes i let it ride with the priest just for the mana. I like the hunter in the Spriest group because he goes oom so quick and buff the group gets as well as him being BM. We do CoE for bosses just because me and the other mage benefit more over all in damage compare to the lock and priest and since we have a pally MT CoR doesnt benefit as much. and for trash we use CoS just so we dont have any down time, as well as shammies chaining mana tide on mobs/bosses really helps alt with the mana of grp 2, the healers and the prot pally.

We don't go at trash too aggressively, but on bosses were pretty solid, especially with 3 healers, on Bosses
Some WWS's
- Wow Web Stats - 5 minutes
- WWS Loading... - 6 minutes
- Wow Web Stats -20 seconds
- Wow Web Stats -7 minutes
- Wow Web Stats -9 minutes

Hopefully ill be posting a Video soon of our run, and I'll be updating the WWS as well.
Video should be coming next run Prot pally should be capturing it in his PoV.

Amazing event and will probably be doing it even after the 10 have bears just because I like the idea of getting faster and faster, testing speed and efficiency.

 

◊ Regen

Trust me, unless you are extremely lucky it will take more than 10 bears to get all of the "originals" a bear.

Haven't run a stacked group in awhile (best Synergy/Geared) but still enough that it doesn't matter, Lynx dying with 9 mins+ remaining, can hopefully start selling bears after another... 4 O-o (Have gotten around 14 so far)

I'd be extremely impressed if anyone is able to finish it with 15 minutes remaining (Probably not until Sunwell is done)

 

• Chicken

By the time the fire bombs spawn there'll be enough hatchlings up that even a single tick of consecration is enough to solidly outaggro the healers. The important part is to work with the timing so that you have enough time after getting teleported to run back and drop another Consecration and then still have a few seconds left to find a safe spot.

It's one of those things you get a feel for after a while.

buff /bʌf/ Pronunciation[buhf]
–verb (used with object)
- to reduce or deaden the force of

 

Fola

Supporting the statement that there is some leeway and that it does not require T6 we got our first Bear Mount last run (first 2 healer run). Much like an earlier post we went the route of consumables and a 2 healer setup (absolutely no T6 gear). Gear included crafted gear/Tier4/Badge Loot/Tier 5 (average gear level somewhere close to T5). We finished the timed event with 4 minutes 30 seconds to spare on Lynx.

Group Composition (Bosses):
Protection Paladin
Restoration Shaman
Shadow Priest (me)
Holy Paladin
Fire Mage

Shadow Priest
Frost Mage
Destruction Warlock
Elemental Shaman
Feral Druid

Group Composition (Trash)
Protection Paladin
Restoration Shaman
Shadow Priest
Shadow Priest
Fire Mage

Holy Paladin
Frost Mage
Destruction Warlock
Elemental Shaman
Feral Druid

Shadow priests were grouped together on trash to remove drinking time for the protection paladin and the shadow priests. Overall the 2 healer setup was much less strained than our 3 healer runs with 1 shadow priest. I was very skeptical about going to 2 healers (given our healers gear level), but things like the flame casters die so fast they don't even get an AoE off. In reading the thread and comparing to the T6 groups overall I am very pleased with our groups performance.

In line with the conversation about Fire Resistance on Dragonhawk, we hatch one whole side at a time and the Prot Pally wears 0 fire resist.

 

Malan

The porting with the dragonhawks will be less of an issue in 2.4, they're changing it so that you only get ported if you're "too far away", presumably that means if you're trying to completely avoid the fire breath by tanking the hawks all the way in the back of the hatchery areas.

Shitting up every single thread on EJ since '06

 

royaljester

Well his run has just the 10 originals and then the run I'm apart of has another 11 originals (shammies being all nice and switching out) and then after that, I think both groups are kind of set on possibly selling them for around 10k. We'll see, how have others faired with that? I know that DnT sells them for around 5k, but we felt, at least in our group, that only 500 a person didn't seem like enough considering the mount. I dunno, maybe we're shooting too high...


Also, how are you guys getting 9+ minutes let? 2 Healers? We run with 3 and 6-7 is about the best we've had and thats really pushing the group, perfect scouts, and no bad pulls. How are you guys getting that?

 

◊ Regen

Yeah, been running 2 healers every time except our first bear (haven't failed yet). And there is still room for improvement with 9 minutes left such as bloodlust being used by mindcontrol, a few trash deaths, a minute or so combined looting badges, non optimal group (ran without enhance shaman a few weeks). Everyone still elixirs, but I doubt even haste pots, etc. I'm not sure if +15 minutes is possible at the moment (Have also never done window jumping or w/e the hell that entails).

EDIT: I don't see 10k as being too hard to get depending on server pop... for at least the first few. 5k would definitely attract more people though.

 

Mordekhuul

He always ports us during the first wave of hatchling as well. I make sure I am spamming consecrate, and usually the timing works out so that he ports us just after I dropped a fresh one.

Either way, as soon as he ports, I look at my minimap and orient myself to the east (we always break east eggs first), then run over and consecrate at the mouth of the bridge, always catching the hawks just as they are emerging.

Its never an issue to pick them up.

The more interesting kills have been the times where someone forgot to kill the hatcher and he broke the left side as well while we were busy killing the east side and avoiding fire orbs, but that is usually managable as well.

 

galzohar

After the port you generally have enough time to go up to the hawk pack and toss another concecrate before you get to a safe spot which is usually enough. A frost nova and/or frost trap (and/or earthbind totem?) should make it that much easier, too. Beware though, the hawks "daze" and will make you run slower so make sure you know where your safe spot is, which can be hard to see with all these hawks covering the area. Most important thing to do when you get ported while doing the hawks is not panic

 

Denogran

Dazing only happens if you're not defense-capped (between 475 and 490 depending on the birds' level). If you're tank-specced and/or have a decent amount of tanking gear, this shouldn't be a problem.

 

Feeble

I have a few thoughts to add or ... maybe just reiterate.

Recently - a guild on my server has been obtaining bear mounts via the new exploit that's out. Taking advantage of bugs has always upset me, so I set out to get bear mounts the legit way. My guild is currently only 5/6 and 2/4 so we're not amazing gear-wise.

I picked up a few friends from a Hyjal/BT gear that were bored to fill out an aggressive group setting that I liked from earlier in the thread.

For a lot of us we had only been to the isntance a couple times - so I wasn't expecting to beat the timed event the first time. Here's the setup I used.

Prot War - t5
Feral Druid t4 / t5
MS war (me) s3 gear with some t4
Enhancement Shammy t6
Rogue s3 gear with some t4

Mage t6
Lock t4
sPriest t6
HPally t5
RShammy t6

Considering our gear levels not being insane we did awesome for the first two bosses. We went eagle first and blew him up with ... I think 13 minutes to spare, which I believe is right in the ideal time-frame.

We ended up pulling a couple of extra scouts which wiped us, so we blew the timer =X We're going to try again soon though, so hopefully we can make it work

 

vorda

We've been having that on our last 3 bear runs (even though I we still managed rather comfortly). The first two times I bubbled off the debuffs in between but since that often let a few hawks get loose, I decided not to this time.

Let's just say you better either have quick healers or some luck resisting debuffs if you try it like this and get flamed. (I do hawks in a mix of t6 healing and tank gear)

 

Indomitable

So when ZA first came out we went in and cleared it on our first night in about 5 hours. Now we have it down to being cleared in a little under 2 hours if not a little over 2 hours.

For the timed run our best attempt has been 3 chests (at dragon hawk for the 3rd chest going to lynx) with 11 min to go.

On this run we did have 4 alts in the raid and I wasnt expecting for it to go so good, this week I plan to try with the same people but instead of the 2 of the alts have them on their mains.

This is the group I am planning to go with and wanted some feedback on what you guys think of the set up. (My guild currently has Illidan on farm and 70% of the group is decked in t6 or t6 quality gear)

Group 1
1. Feral Druid (Main Tank)
2. Arms Warrior - Slam (Off Tank)
3. Enhancement Shaman
4. Ret Paladin
5. Resto Druid

Group 2
1. Mage
2. Warlock
3. Elemental Shaman
4. Shadow Priest
5. Resto Shaman


With the 2 shamans in group 2 we will beable to have TA and the DPS totems down as well having Salv I felt this would be a nice dps increase.

The Enhance shaman and shadow priest are the other 2 alts but are geared in t5-t6 gear and put out amazing dps.

The Feral Druid is the best Feral on the server, the Slam warrior has MH-BT gear, ret paladin is in mostly PvP crit gear with Soul Cleaver, Resto Druid and Shaman(me) are in full tier 6 if not better, Elemental shaman is in full t6, warlock is in full t6, mage is in t6 if not better gear.

The people I have picked are some of our guilds best dps and healers.

The route we usually take is

Eagle --> Bear --> Dragonhawk --> Lynx.

Like I said above our best attempt was 11 min after killing Dragonhawk with 4 alts in the raid.

 

◊ Regen

When I finish Dragonhawk with 20+ usually end up finishing with 8+, 15 mins after dragonhawk should be safe for a first bear run.

 

Gonz

We recently tried the four chest clear for the first time, and as you'd expect, warlocks really shine.

Our setup:

Group 1:
Prot Warrior
Enhancement Shaman
Arms Warrior
Feral Druid
Prot Paladin

Group 2:
Resto Shaman
Holy Paladin
Destruction Warlock
Destruction Warlock
Shadow Priest

We had 2 deaths during the plow, but no wipes, and finished with 2 minutes to spare. We also lost our prot paladin during the first wave of dragonhawks due to someone not killing the hatcher before he began to hatch the other side. This caused our paladin to take a bomb out of panic. I think we have a lot of room for improvement but it really is not too difficult to pull off even with a few mistakes.

WWS: Wow Web Stats

As you can see, our dps was not spectacular, some even dropped below 1k on a couple bosses. If i have any advice for people having trouble with this, is bring as many warlocks as you can! Also, I am sure it may be doable with 3 healers, but that is overkill. Healing this zone is very easy, even without full t6 gear.

 

Fydar

I timed the whole run, and even with a 2min break after Lynx we killed ZJ right at the 1hr 25min mark.

 

Blutelf

We have finally succeeded thanks to some very helpful tips found in this thread. 3 healer setup, only two minutes remained as Lynx died.


Group 1:

Prot Warrior
Off Warrior (Kara/ZA Alt)
Sword Rogue
Enhancement Shaman (usually MM Hunter)
Destruction Warlock

Group 2:

CoH Priest (S3/T5) (usually Resto Shaman)
Resto Shaman
Holy Paladin (myself)
Shadow Priest
Frost Mage

Overall only somewhat T6 geared raiding mains were invited. An exception was made for the Off Warrior alt who earned senior status during our learning runs. The CoH Priest is a Gladiator level PVPer and kindly agreed to substitute for the run.

We run a two shaman setup for Bloodlust rotations into the melee group. I helped with consecration at Eagle trash, Dragonhawk's eggs and Lynx trash. Having worn no prot gear at all it was very risky and there has been a lot of health bar fluctuation in the raid in general, so I am not too happy about it as it means we cannot run a 2 Healer setup as long as we do not have this sorted.

Mistakes we've made:

One healing aggro related death during Bear trash (shaman ankhed), pulled two scouts prematurely leading to reinforcements, and the off warrior stood in a bomb during the bombing of the second half of Dragonhawk's eggs. (rezzed during badge looting). We also pulled the first pat after Dragonhawk.

Progress:

Overall though, I am quite happy that we have made it this far in a reasonably quick manner. It has only been our fifth run and as the lineup shows, we have had two players helping out today that were not present in any of the previous runs. We progressed from two chests on the first run, to barely making three chests on run 2, to easily making three chests on run 3, to missing the timer by 2 minutes on run 4 and making it with 2 minutes left now. That's quite a nice improvement and I definitely will be pushing everyone to go even faster.