We used a nova rotation for a long time without too many problems (pre-MC gear). Main party hangs at the opposite end of the gong where the mages are. When someone gets tagged they start running circles around the main section of the room. When they are up by the gong, a mage nova's the panthers. Even without coldsnap 2-3 mages can keep enough panthers off the runners to take the priestess down.

We recently moved to the much cleanier, and efficient way of throwing a tank in each pen (MC, post-MC gear). As mentioned earlier bear form works fine. Throw some thorns up for the tanks. Range DPS class stay back in the gong cubby and nuke. If you get called out usually the tanks can intercept the panthers, or just move to the tank so he can grab them off you.

Well, other people have given lots of tips. I can also suggest using Advanced Target Dummies, they sometimes help. We still do Arlokk the same way now, but we did it for the first time with trash gear. Anyway, here's my sucky map.



EH = Emergency Healer. Assign this person to save one of the two pen healers if they get mass aggro/Arlokked.

Have a warrior in each pen. We've always found Demoralising Shout works fine unless someone's Marked and doesn't move fast enough, but that's just us. The warrior should be healed by a druid (or paladin, but I'm not sure Shaman can fill that role). When Arlokk comes back, as noted above, she loves to run over and smack people responsbile for HoTs running on the warriors in pens. Have a backup healer positioned by the gong, ready to keep up the pen healers if they get panthers long enough for Arlokk to despawn and the raid to kill the panthers on that pen healer. When you're just about to ring the gong, have the warriors pop Bloodrage so they can spam Demo Shout for the first few panthers and start building up the rage.

Start the main tank roughly in the middle of the room, where Arlokk spawns. This should be the same place every time. Start the rest of the raid (i.e. not pen warriors or healers) by the Gong. When you ring the gong, have people move over to the shield wall (if casters and priests) or over to Arlokk (if melees). They can DoT or instant as they run, to avoid losing precious DPS time. The shield wall is very important. Most of your raid will need to be there, most of the time. The thing about the shield wall is that, if someone is marked, and hugs that wall, the panthers won't path out of the pens and hit them - they'll just stick to the warriors in the pens. If the person leaves the shield wall, the panthers will flood in and annoy you. If you're just starting ZG, obviously you want the smallest possible amount of annoyance. Brief everyone (except tanks and pen tank healers, and melee DPS assigned to Arlokk) that if they get Marked, they run to that wall - and stay there. They can do whatever from there. If the gong healer gets marked, have him switch position with another healer who is on the MT, assuming your MT can survive that. All this work is slightly reducing the DPS you will do to Arlokk in exchange for greatly reducing the number of panthers that are reaming your more fragile raid members (after all, being reamed reduces raid DPS far more than moving for a few seconds).

When Arlokk disappears, spread the (non-Marked) people away from the shield wall. This is because occasionally Arlokk will spawn there and cleave someone if they were healing, and since your fragile people will be at that end of the room, it's bad to have them together. Generally, again as noted above, he'll go for druids in the pens. We found our best-geared druid gets Arlokk probably 9 times out of 10, probably because his HoTs heal for more than the other pen healer. So, he eats the cleaves, hopefully lives, and the warrior grabs Arlokk.

With a couple of Combat Mana potions for the healers (or cheap equivalent) you should find the reduced damage your raid suffers from hiding Marked people away from panthers allows you to kill Arlokk over 2 or even 3 vanishes.