Zul’Aman Bear Boss Strategy

Nalorakk is the first boss of Zul’Aman and is known as the bear avatar of the dungeon. While it is the first encounter it is by no means an easy fight. More than anything is encounter requires both very attentive tanks and healers with quick reaction.

Bear Boss Strategy

Nalorakk has two forms, troll and bear. These two forms will alternate throughout the fight and require a separate tank for each stage. For simplicity purposes let’s go through all of the attacks you’ll be dealing with in each stage.

Troll Form

Brutal Swipe – This is a physical damage attack that deals 28,500-31,500 in a 180 degree cone in front of the boss. Now obviously this would be too much damage for even the best geared tanks, so it’s of utmost importance that both tanks stand on top of each other. This will split the damage between the tanks, making it a manageable amount for your healers to handle

Surge – The bear boss will charge a target, knocking them back and doing 3,700 to 4,300 damage. Nalorakk periodically will use this ability, typically on the ranged classes standing furthest away from him. For this reason it’s important healers stand between tanks and ranged DPS, so they can continue to heal without interruption.

Mangle – Causes all bleed effects to do 100% damage for 60 seconds. Only a factor between transitions, not much you can do it avoid this. If a tank gets mangled they should make certain to call it out in raid chat or on your voice communication server. This way healers can increase healing on that target in the event he gets hit by a lacerating slash or rend flesh.

Bear Form

Lacerating Slash – Causes the target to bleed for 1735 damage, ticks ever 2 seconds for a duration of 18 seconds.

Rend Flesh – Deals 5,525 to 7,475 physical damage and also applies a 2335 damage bleed, the bleed ticks every 1 second for 5 seconds. As I mentioned above, you need to be very aware of both of these bleed attacks. If you take a mangle and a bleed immediately after you’re going to be feeling it. Informing your healers immediately of these debuffs is crucial.

Deafening Roar – This ability will deal 1235 to 1365 to all members of your raid. Additionally, it also casts a 2 second silence on your raid. This is the major make or break point for the healers in your raid. Granted, 2 seconds is quite short, if a tank isn’t properly HoT’d up and is taking large amounts of damage they could easily die. The bear boss will roar twice during his bear phase, be aware of this and plan ahead.

Bear Boss Tanking Strategy

In order to properly tank the bear boss you will need two tanks, one of each of Nalorakk’s two phases. While any tanking class is capable of doing either phase it is preferential not to have a protection paladin tank the bear phase. This is due to the deafening roar ability, which will silence the paladin, preventing him from using his most potent threat producing abilities.

The most important aspect of this encounter revolves around the tanks maintaining proper positioning. If both tanks are not standing in front of the bear boss during a brutal swipe then the damage will not be split, likely killing the tank in one shot.

General Bear Boss Mechanics

The only other major point you’ll want to be aware of is the engage timer. Nalorakk will enrage after 10 minutes, that said, the only way you’d hit this timer is if your damage dealers were severely lacking. Just maintain the raid’s focus, settle in, and get done what has to be done.

Now, enough boring mechanics…onto the loot!

Bear Boss Loot

Badge of Justice (Drops 100% of the time, everyone in the raid gets one)
Fury
Fury of the Ursine
Bladeangel’s Money belt
Jungle stompers
Robes of Heavenly Purpose
Pauldrons of Primal Fury
Mask of Introspection
Formula: Enchant Weapon – Executioner

Druid Macro Guide

When it comes to macros, the druid class has seen both extremes. From the classes initial conception, which literally required dozens of macros to effectively operate in both PvP and PvE environments, to the more simplistic druid we see today. After years of tweaking and adjustment this type of mass macro creation is no longer environment (thank God!), as many shifting abilities are now automatic.

Also, if you’re interested in druid focus macros, make sure you check out my other guide here.

Restoration Druid Macros

Nature’s Swiftness Heal
/cast Nature’s Swiftness
/stopcasting
/cast Healing Touch

Mouseover Healing Macros
/cast [target=mouseover] Healing Touch

/cast [target=mouseover] Rejuvenation

/cast [target=mouseover] Lifebloom

Simply adjust the spell and you’re good to go. These macros are simply amazing and I’ve used them on my shaman as a raid healer to incredible effectiveness. This allows you to simply hover over frames and pop heals off as fast as your mouse can move to the next raid frame (as opposed to having to click the frame).

This method of raid healing really gets awesome when you take advantage of another user interface mod for raids called grid. Grid is pretty simplistic, but that’s even better for us. It’s simple, it’s easy…simply hover and start dropping heals and HoTs across the raid. Checkout the full Grid user interface guide.

In addition, you could also handle other spells, buffs, etc. in this same manner.

Innervate Protection Macro

/castsequence reset=30 [target=player] Innervate, Thorns(Rank 1), Mark of the Wild(Rank 1), Rejuvenation(Rank 1)

Feral Druid Macros

Taunt + Auto Attack Macro
/startattack
/cast Growl

Mangle + Auto Attack Macro
/startattack
/cast Mangle

This type of macro helps druid’s to overcome one of the biggest mistakes I’ve seen while raiding…failure to quickly engage auto attack. Simply putting a one line /startattack line before each of your primary attack abilities will do a world of good…not only for feral DPS, but for feral tanking. Many player’s view these as “unnecessary”, and believe me, those are the players who aren’t topping the DPS charts and are letting other player’s in the raid die due to their tanking failures.

Take Potions in Bear Form Macro
#show Super Healing Potion
/use Master Healthstone
/use Super Healing Potion
/cast !Dire Bear Form

I really like this macro simply because it’s so damn fast. Even if you are tanking this is a nice macro to have for those panic situations. Simply take a step away from the boss, spam this macro and you’ll be healed to full in a snap.

Replace the master health stone / super healing potion with what ever potions you’d like to consume, or add additional consumables in there. Since the first /use macro will pull you out of bear and take the pot, you consolidate several steps together, making this macro nearly instantaneous.

Mangle Trinket Macro
/startattack
/use Moroes’ Lucky Pocket Watch
/cast Mangle

Just replace Moroes’ Lucky Pocket Watch for your current tanking trinket(s). Also, for cat druids check out the macro below.

Feral DPS Trinket Macro
/startattack
/use Bloodlust Brooch
/cast Claw

Same as the above macro, change the trinket name / attack name to those of your choosing. The same will apply to any spec. These are great macros to help put several button combinations together.

General Druid Macros

Totem Sniping Macro
/targetexact Wrath of Air Totem
/targetexact Mana Spring Totem
/targetexact Poison Cleansing Totem
/targetexact Windfury Totem V
/targetexact Mana Tide Totem
/targetexact Grounding Totem
/cast Moonfire(Rank 1)

Hilarious macro to really piss off shamans. Spam this while you’re kiting in PvP situations to really punish a shaman’s totem forest.

Self Druid Buffing Macros
/castsequence [target=player] reset=10 Thorns, Omen of Clarity, Mark of the Wild

Simple Druid Buffs
/castsequence reset=target Mark of the Wild, Thorns

Balance Druid Macros

Trinket + Starfire Bomb
/use Hex Shrunken Head
/cast Starfire

Just change the name of the trinket to your own spell damage trinket.