WoW SoD Phase 5: Zul'Gurub Raid Boss Guide

Earlier today, Blizzard released a blue post announcing that Season of Discovery Phase 5 will go live on September 26. As always, MMOJUGG will provide comprehensive guides for the new raids. Stay tuned for more updates. Today, let's dive into the Zul'Gurub raid boss guide.

Zul'Gurub was introduced in World of Warcraft's 1.7 patch as the game's first 20-player raid. The latest Season of Discovery Phase 5 update has been redesigned to accommodate 10 players, with a maximum capacity of 20 players. The loot quality in this raid is a mix of blue and purple items featuring many valuable gear pieces. Additionally, the raid drops two types of mounts. Besides direct gear drops, Zul'Gurub offers exceptional enchants that require Voodoo Dolls and Primal Hakkari Idols, which can only be obtained within the raid.

In the 1.7 patch, the Yojamba Isle in Stranglethorn Vale also introduced the new Zandalar Tribe reputation. By increasing your reputation, you can exchange for Zandalar sets for each class and various other reputation items, making it one of the must-grind reputations.

In summary, the overall difficulty of Zul'Gurub is not high, making it an excellent raid for upgrading specific gear slots. Even if you have completed Blackwing Lair, running Zul'Gurub every reset for the enchants and mounts are still worth running.

Before discussing this boss, it's important to mention that there are quite a few Bat Riders on the way to this boss. These mobs will self-destruct when their health is low. When you see the system prompt that the Bat Rider's eyes are glowing red, melee players should immediately move away.

Upon entering the battle, the boss will first fight in bat form. The skills in bat form include:

Sonic Burst: Silences players within melee range and deals a base damage 900.

- Casters should avoid the boss, and healers should keep melee DPS healed.

Summon Bat Swarm: Summons a group of small bats.

- Mages should quickly use AOE to deal with them.

Dive Bomb: Dives at an enemy not in melee range, dealing physical damage and stunning for 2 seconds.

- Heal the affected player.

After a certain period, the boss will switch to troll form, using a different set of skills:

Shadow Word: Pain: A DOT that ticks every 3 seconds for 15 seconds.

- Dispel it immediately.

Blood Curse: Curses the target, increasing the physical damage they take by 95.

- Dispel it as soon as possible.

Summon Bat Riders: Summons several Bat Riders that throw Molotov cocktails from the air.

- Avoid the fire patches on the ground.

Greater Heal: A slow-casting heal that restores up to 65% of the boss's maximum health.

- Interrupt it at all costs.

Psychic Scream: Fears 5 random targets within melee range, causing them to run around uncontrollably.

- The main tank should have fear resistance, and players should avoid fire patches after the fear ends.

New in 1.12: Mind Flay: Flays the minds of multiple targets, dealing shadow damage.

- Interrupt or heal through it, but save interrupts for the boss's heal.

This boss is not particularly difficult. As long as each class performs its role, it should be a relatively easy farm. The only critical point is to interrupt the boss's healing.

This boss enters the battle with four minions and initially fights in troll form. The minions can be controlled with Polymorph, so it's recommended to sheep them one by one and kill them, although strong AOE can also be considered to take them down directly.

Holy Wrath: Unlike the Paladin skill, this ability damages the targeted player and then jumps to nearby enemy units, increasing damage with each jump.

- Ranged players should avoid standing too close to each other.

Renew: Occasionally casts a healing effect on himself, restoring a small amount of health over time.

- The healing amount is very low so that DPS can easily out-damage it.

After reducing his health to 50% in troll form, Venoxis will switch to serpent form, using the following skills:

Poison Cloud: Summons a poison cloud around the boss, damaging players within it.

- The tank needs to frequently move the boss out of the poison cloud to ensure melee players are not standing in it while dealing damage.

Summon Serpent: Periodically summons a serpent to join the battle.

- The serpent's direct damage is not high, but applies a high-damage debuff. It's best to deal with it as soon as possible.

In Phase 1, ranged players should spread out. In Phase 2, melee players should prioritize moving away from the poison cloud before dealing damage. This boss is relatively easy to farm if everyone performs their roles correctly.

Upon engaging this boss, small spiders will continuously spawn. If left unchecked, these adds will deal increasing damage over time, so it's crucial to eliminate them quickly.

Initially, Mar'li will be in troll form and accompanied by a Tribal Speaker. The main tank (MT) should hold the boss, while the off-tank (FT) pulls the Tribal Speaker away for priority elimination.

Key abilities in troll form include:

Summon Spiders: Continuously summons small spiders throughout the fight, enhancing their damage over time.

-  Quickly deal with each wave of small spiders as they appear.

Drain Life: Drains life from a target, transferring approximately 3500 health to the caster.

- This magic debuff can be dispelled to interrupt the boss's channel, or melee players can interrupt it.

Poison Volley: Shoots poison arrows at enemies within 100 yards, dealing damage and applying a poison effect that ticks every 2 seconds for 10 seconds.

- Maintain team health and dispel the poison debuff.

At 75% health, Mar'li transforms into a giant spider, gaining additional troublesome abilities:

Enveloping Webs: Immobilizes all enemies within 20 yards.

-  Ranged players should stay more than 20 yards away. After the boss uses this ability, she will lose aggro on webbed targets and charge toward ranged players. An off-tank should be ready to take over and pull the boss back to the melee position. The main tank can taunt the boss back while the off-tank moves away.

Alliance-specific: Use a Paladin to cast Blessing of Freedom on the main tank to remove the immobilization effect.

All DPS should prioritize dealing with the adds. In spider form, the off-tank should be prepared to take over when necessary, and healers should manage the damage from Poison Volley AOE.

The key to handling this boss is always to pay attention to the chat window. Overall, the boss isn't difficult, but frequent mistakes by team members can significantly increase the challenge.

Bloodlord Mandokir starts the fight mounted on his raptor. Upon entering the battle, he will dismount, and the raptor will assist him in combat. The main tank (MT) should take the boss, while the off-tank (FT) pulls the raptor away to be killed first. After the mount dies, the boss will become enraged, temporarily increasing his attack speed and damage. Healers should be prepared, and the MT can use defensive cooldowns to mitigate this.

Key abilities include:

Whirlwind: Deals damage to all enemies within range.

- Melee DPS should quickly move away when the boss starts this ability to avoid taking damage.

Threatening Gaze: Fixates on a non-tank target. If the target performs any action during the gaze, it will take significant damage when it ends.

- When targeted, immediately press ESC to cancel all actions and monitor your debuff bar and chat window.

Level Up: Gains experience and levels up after killing a player, increasing his damage and size.

- Avoid dying to prevent the boss from leveling up.

Enrage: Gains a 1-minute enrage effect after his raptor dies, increasing attack speed by 65% and physical damage by 50.

- Healers should be ready for increased damage, and the MT should use defensive abilities.

If everyone knows the strategy, this boss is relatively easy. However, frequent mistakes can lead to a cycle of deaths and the boss leveling up, making the fight much harder.

Upon entering the battle, Thekal is accompanied by two minions and two tigers. The two minions and the boss can resurrect each other, so you must bring their health down to low levels and kill them simultaneously.

Zealot Zath: Uses Gouge to incapacitate the main aggro target.

Zealot Lor'Khan: Uses Healing and Lightning Shield, which can be interrupted and dispelled.

After killing all three together, the boss will transform into a giant tiger after a few seconds, reviving with a large AOE and knockback.

In tiger form, the boss will summon two elite tigers every minute. DPS needs to deal with them quickly, or they will attack the healers based on aggro.

Charge: The boss will charge at the second-highest aggro target. An off-tank should be ready to taunt the boss after the charge.

The boss deals high damage, putting significant pressure on healers. In the first phase, ensure all three targets die simultaneously.

The boss fight begins by ringing the gong in the boss room. Before this, you can freely position and strategize in the room.

The fight is fast-paced, requiring attention from healers and AOE control classes.

During the fight, the boss summons numerous panthers and uses a marking skill to mark a player. The summoned panthers will ignore the aggro list and attack the marked target, so healers must keep that player healed.

Panthers will continuously spawn throughout the fight, so focus on rushing the boss rather than dealing with the adds. Use engineering bombs, Frost Nova, and other control effects to manage the adds.

After some time, the boss will disappear, allowing DPS to handle the adds. When the boss reappears, repeat the previous steps: rush the boss and control the adds. When the boss's health drops to 30%, she will disappear again, and DPS should repeat the AOE process.

Gouge: Incapacitates the main tank for 3 seconds.

Arlokk's Mark: Randomly marks a player, causing all adds to ignore aggro and attack the marked target.

Ravage: Deals normal attack damage plus around 500 physical damage and stuns the target for 2 seconds, usually used after reappearing.

Additional Tips:

The boss deals physical damage throughout the fight so that mages can use Amplify Magic on the raid.

To deal with marked panthers, assign a warlock tank with high-health gear to use Hellfire and have healers keep them healed. The entire raid should stay within the Hellfire range to avoid worrying about the Panthers.

During phase transitions, the raid should position their backs to the fence to ensure the boss reappears within the fence, giving the MT enough time to regain aggro.

This boss isn't tough. Engineering bombs and flash grenades can effectively control the adds. Focus on rushing the boss and dealing with adds when the boss disappears. Healers should keep an eye on the marked player's health.

Jin'do is a boss that requires everyone in the team to know their roles well. In simple terms, it means everyone must perform their duties while also being able to switch targets efficiently.

Before the fight: Ensure the entire team has shadow resistance.

Hex: Jin'do transforms the highest threat target into a frog and then attacks the second highest threat target.

- This can be dispelled or handled by the off-tank.

Jin'do's Shadow: Jin'do curses a player, causing a DOT that deals 200 damage every 2 seconds and summons a Jin'do's Shadow. Only the cursed player can attack the shadow. The shadow's normal attacks deal only 1 physical damage but interrupt spell casting and deal an unavoidable 600 shadow damage.

- Jin'do randomly curses players during the fight. The cursed player can attack Jin'do's Shadow for 15 seconds. During this time, focus on the shadow instead of the boss. Do not dispel the curse.

Teleport: Randomly teleports a player to the skeleton pit in the boss area.

- The skeletons in the pit have low health and respawn quickly. Assign a mage to handle the skeletons. Use AOE to clear them immediately after a teleport.

Healing Totem: Jin'do summons a healing totem that heals him for about 3% of his health per second.

- Destroy the totem quickly to prevent excessive healing.

Mind Control Totem: Jin'do summons a mind control totem that controls a player. The mind control is only broken when the totem is destroyed.

- Destroy the totem quickly. Consider using long cooldown control abilities like Fear before the fight to avoid controlling teammates after being mind-controlled.

DPS players must remember to switch targets, whether a totem or a shadow. Do not focus solely on DPSing the boss.

Hakkar is the final boss of this raid. Before engaging Hakkar, if any High Priest bosses are still alive, Hakkar will gain additional abilities. Hakkar does not drop extra loot for having all abilities, so players should clear the instance and defeat all bosses before facing Hakkar.

During the fight with Hakkar, a skilled hunter is essential for pulling mobs. Cherish every pulling hunter.

Mind Control: Hakkar mind controls a player. In version 1.93, the controlled player is always the highest threat tank, losing all threats during control and regaining it afterward. The total control time is 10 seconds.

- The main tank (MT) should use an Intimidating Shout beforehand. Maintain threat chains, and mages should quickly polymorph the controlled tank.

Corrupted Blood: Deals 875-1125 shadow damage and leaves a Corrupted Blood debuff, causing 200 damage every 2 seconds.

- This effect no longer spreads after version 1.93, so keep melee players healed.

Life Drain: Stuns all targets and drains their life to heal Hakkar, cast every 90 seconds.

- Always monitor the DBM timeline. Before this skill is cast, hunters should pull the rapidly respawning Sons of Hakkar from below the boss platform into the team. DPS should quickly kill them and stand in the cloud left by their death to gain the Corrupted Blood debuff. Hakkar's Life Drain will damage him instead of healing during this debuff.

Hakkar's melee damage is high, so healers need to watch the tank's health. The kiting hunter must keep an eye on the timeline and not pull mobs too early or too late. Mages should polymorph the mind-controlled tank immediately.

High Priestess Jeklik not defeated: Hakkar gains Sonic Burst, dealing 1200-2000 damage and silencing for 8 seconds.

High Priest Venoxis not defeated: Hakkar gains Venom, causing an additional poison effect that deals 800 damage every 2 seconds after Corrupted Blood.

High Priestess Mar'li not defeated: Hakkar gains Crushing Blow, stunning the main target for 6 seconds and clearing the threat.

High Priest Thekal not defeated: Hakkar gains Frenzy, increasing attack speed by 150%.

High Priestess Arlokk not defeated: Hakkar gains Gouge, incapacitating the main tank.

This boss is summoned through fishing. Here's how to do it:

Find Nat Pagle's Measuring Tape: On the path between High Priest Thekal and High Priestess Arlokk, there's a way down to the river. You can find Nat Pagle's Measuring Tape in the jars and pots there. Please take it to Nat Pagle in Dustwallow Marsh to complete a quest and buy Mudskunk Lure from him for 1 gold each.

Catch Zulian Mudskunks: In the murky water fishing spots within Zul'Gurub, you can fish up Zulian Mudskunks. Catch 5 of them.

Summon Gahz'ranka: With Mudskunk Lure and 5 Zulian Mudskunks in your bag, use the lure at the fishing spot west of High Priest Thekal's boss area to summon Gahz'ranka.

Frost Breath: A frontal cone frost breath that slows affected targets and drains their mana over time.

- Only the tank should stand in front. Casters should avoid the front.

Gahz'ranka Slam: Knocks all nearby units into the air, reducing their threat.

- All melee players will be knocked into the air, and their threat will be reduced. There are two simple strategies to handle this:

Clear Piranhas and Stand in Water: Clear the piranhas in the boss summoning area. Everyone stands in the water. The MT positions the boss with its back to the group. After the knockback, everyone will have reduced threat but won't take fall damage due to the water, keeping the MT's threat highest. But Hunters can only melee due to distance issues.

Use the Hut Pathway: Pull the boss near the hut pathway before the boss area. Ranged casters stand on the hut's walkway, which has totems to prevent high knockbacks. After the MT is knocked back, the off-tank (FT) takes over. When the FT is knocked back, the MT resumes tanking. But some players might move around too much.

Summon Geyser: Summons a geyser that knocks all players on it into the air.

The simplest strategy is for everyone to stand in the water to absorb the knockback. Since the threat is reduced for everyone, the MT will always remain the highest threat. Clear the piranhas in the water beforehand, as they can be quite painful for cloth-wearers.

This boss location can summon one of four bosses. Alchemy professionals can learn the recipe for summoning the boss from the wall at the Edge of Madness: 1 Major Mojo, 6 Powerful Mojo, 1 Blood of Heroes, and 1 Black Lotus. Each creation allows for three summons but only one summon per instance cooldown (Seems can summon more in sod phase 5, need to discover the machinic).

Forked Lightning: Deals 1100-1500 nature damage to enemies in a frontal cone.

Chain Lightning: Deals around 800 nature damage to one player, then jumps to nearby players.

Lightning Cloud: Summons a storm cloud that deals 800-1100 nature damage per second to players within its area.

This boss deals with various natural damage but has only around 290,000 in health. DPS should focus on dealing maximum damage. Alternatively, you can drain the boss's mana to prevent skill usage, but with over 30,000 mana, it will take some time. Ranged players should spread out. This boss is not difficult for well-equipped teams.

Earthquake: Stuns players within range for 2 seconds.

Entangling Roots: Roots a player in place, dealing significant nature damage every second for 10 seconds. It can be dispelled.

Avatar: Enters a rage state, increasing physical damage by 500% but reducing movement speed by 50%.

Pursuit: In the Avatar state, the boss randomly targets and chases a player.

Normally, this boss is a simple tank-and-spank. DPS should focus on dealing with damage and dispelling Entangling Roots. Before the transformation, all melee DPS should move away to avoid being killed. The boss chases slowly and can be easily kited. Always dispel the root effect.

Vanish: Disappears in a cloud of smoke (ignores Hunter's Mark and Faerie Fire).

Ambush: After vanishing, Renataki targets a random player who appears behind them and deals great damage.

Thousand Blades: Throws spinning daggers, dealing up to 1600 damage per second for 6 seconds. Damage decreases with distance from the boss.

Gouge: Paralyzes the current main target and resets their threat.

Essentially a rogue boss. The vanish and ambush combo can one-shot cloth-wearers. If you get one shot, it's just bad luck. The presence of Gouge requires an off-tank to take over the threat.

Mana Burn: Burns a player's mana, dealing damage equal to half the mana burned (cannot be cast if the boss has no mana).

Illusions: Summons are three illusions of players that only attack those three players. The illusions have low health but high damage.

Mass Sleep: Puts all players to sleep, reducing their threat.

After engaging the boss, Warlocks and Hunters should immediately drain the boss's mana. After Mass Sleep, the boss will attack the MT, waking them up. Illusions spawn at the boss's location, so other ranged players should stay as far from the boss as possible. Prioritize killing the illusions.

Each of the four bosses at the Edge of Madness drops their corresponding green materials. These can be combined with class-specific voodoo dolls to create unique trinkets for each class.

That's all for the Zul'Gurub boss strategies. Stay tuned to MMOJUGG for our upcoming guides on Blackwing Lair.

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