Get a Bear Mount: 10 Tips on Beating the Zul’Aman Timer


Image courtesy of Daino_16

The Zul’Aman timer run is one of the most difficult challenges in the game. If executed perfectly, you’ll find yourself with a brand new bear mount along with a host of other extra epic goodies. You have exactly 45 minutes to kill the first four bosses in Zul’Aman if you intend to get that bear mount. I haven’t been able to get a bear mount yet myself, but I’ve learned a few tricks after talking to a couple of guildies and from my own experience.

Be Overgeared

This is a real big no brainer. If you plan on beating the timer, you should be almost out of T5 level gear and into Black Temple/Mount Hyjal gear. That means your Kara/Gruul/Mag gear has got to go. In fact, you shouldn’t even need ZA gear.

Know the fights

Again, also a no brainer but there is no time to explain. You have to know the encounters by heart because it simply takes too long to explain it.

2 Healers

Yes, you read that correctly. Bringing three healers is almost essential just to completing the instance. To bring 2 healers would almost be suicide! But believe me, by bringing only 2 healers, that extra DPS will go a long way in netting a bear mount.

Prot. Paladin, Feral Druid, Fury Warrior

This is the suggested tanking group. Your Prot. Paladin’s going to shoulder most of the load. Your Feral Druid will be switching back and forth from DPS to tanking as necessary. Your Fury Warrior is just going to lay the smackdown on everything. Trust me on this. If you can find an awesome DPS warrior, you’ll be amazed at how fast trash can drop and go down. Furthermore, less down time without having to get mana back.

Group Make Up

Consider running 2 Warlocks and 2 Shadow Priests to increase longevity and overall damage. This was recommended to me by a Guildie who has successfully done it.

Skip the Chests

Yes, seriously, skip the chests. Don’t open them until after you success or your failure. The clock is ticking while you handle the extra loot. Just get everyone to get their badge, and haul ass to the next one. The chests will still remain there untouched and unopened while you’re plowing through the bosses.

Group Loot

While we’re speaking about loot, don’t use master looter. I’m assuming that there is little if any upgrades for you in this instance. Set it to group loot instead of master loot so that you don’t waste precious time handling rolls and timers and such. If a player wants it, hit need. If not, pass it. Get your DE’er to greed it. Except you might want to consider master looting the bear when you get to it

Use your cooldowns to minimize downtime

I’ve mentioned it before but you cannot skimp out on cooldowns. This is especially true as a healer. Remember our Shadowfiends have a 5 minute cooldown between use. Innervate is 6 minutes for Druids. Heroism is 10 minutes. Evocate is 8 minutes. You get the idea. Be very liberal in their use. You can’t spend a lot of time drinking. It’s literally pull, after pull, after pull.

Shortcuts

Check out these screenshots:

Zul'Aman Shortcut Outside Lynx

Zul'Aman shortcut path for Lynx

Recognize the location? This is the area leading up to the Lynx boss. There are a couple of huts on the left side that have no mobs inside them. Those windows might look small, but rest assured you are small enough to jump through them. Anyway, there are 2 such hits. The one shown above is the first. The diagram above is a very crude reconstruction. But hopefully, it will give you a better idea of what you need to do. If executed properly, you will bypass about 2 pulls which should save you between 1 minute to 2 minutes.

There’s another shortcut amongst the trash pulls leading to Dragonhawk. I’ll see if I can nab a few shots of it or even make a quick video about it in a future post.

Stable Core

If you plan on doing this run, you have to find a stable group of people to run with. Start off doing non-timed runs but try to keep the people the same. You don’t want to pug any players at all. Get the team chemistry going. I’ve communicated with my other healers enough to know who is healing who without having to ask. But playing with 9 other people you are familiar with is a good thing to do.

Good luck! I expect screenshots of you on your bear when you pull it off!

8 thoughts on “Get a Bear Mount: 10 Tips on Beating the Zul’Aman Timer”

  1. lol, how often is the druid in tree form the first to the next pull? 😛

    Shifting back and forth is a pain and uses mana, but the need for speed is alot more important at that phase of the run.

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  2. Interesting! I’ve never seen past the Bear boss, I’ve only been in there a couple of times. But I will keep these in mind if we ever get serious about tackling ZA.

    In other news…I wanted to mention re. your last Twitter.. you should look up the Sean Connery episodes of Celebrity Jeopardy on YouTube if you get a minute. There you will find such classics as “An Album Cover” = “Anal Bum Cover”, and in fact, “Therapists” = “The Rapists” Enjoy! 🙂

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  3. There is a missing trash pack that must be killed before the huts as well as a pat that runs perpendicular to the start circle you have towards the freedom line.

    So far my optimal group has been

    Prot Pally Warlock
    Feral Druid Warlock
    Fury War SPriest
    Rogue Holy Priest
    Elemental Shaman Resto Druid

    Prot Pally enables the Fury warrior to go nuts in all situations. The Prot Pally will tank: All of Eagle, 1 Phase of Bear, Only tanks dragonlings of dragon hawk, Only tanks cat on lynx, Main tanks all of Hexlord, and all of Zuljin.

    The Feral Druid tanks all else and when not tanking will dps.

    Our best time right now is 41 Minutes. 4 Bears so far and 6 to go.

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  4. just want to point out that you dont have to be “overgeared” to beat the timer. My guild has done it and we dont have t6 gear.
    we have very good gear but not everyone has t5 and no one has t6.
    Its the skills of every player, good communication and preparation and how they cooperate during the whole timed event. voila, a bear mount.

    Reply

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