Urban Legend Post: Kill the Big Add (Mojo Rising Edition)

With the new Justice Point/Valor Point structure, many of us will be doing more Zuls than we care to think about. I personally am grateful for the nerfs, and feel no shame in considering them a time-saving boon.

On the last Zul'Gurub fight, I heard from a player from a player from a cousin, to kill the big troll thing (Gurubashi Spirit is his formal name), as soon as it body slams a chain. This may just be a game urban legend, you know, where it cannot be proven or disproven, and the hook was still in the door! Oh, wait. wrong story. The reasons are two-fold: first, it is an important mechanic of the fight. The second reason is purely hypothesis: more ghost spirit adds spawn the longer the Gurubashi is up. 

Doing further substantiation of this theory, I came across this forum post (see link/credit below):

Here is a strat for the final boss of Zul'Gurub, Jin'do the Godbreaker:

This should keep the fight smooth and controlled throughout, without too much chaos or danger to either tank or healer.

Before the pull, kill both Gurubashi Spirit Warriors on each corner next to where you start. Mark your tank and your healer. This makes phase two easier.

Phase One:

Pull Jin'do, and begin to beat on him. When he casts Dead Zone (reduces magic damage taken by 90%, and also casting speed by 90%), the tank should back up until Jin'do is well out of it, then run through and turn, so that he is just back inside the bubble, and Jin'do is still outside.

When he casts Shadows of Hakkar (a powerful magic aoe), everyone should move inside, including the healer, as the damage will otherwise likely kill them.

Rinse and repeat, until 70% hp, when Jin'do runs off and the group enters the Spirit World.

Phase Two:

This is the hard one. You will now be faced with three Hakkar's Chains, each protected by a Brittle Barrier that makes them immune to normal attacks. These barriers must be broken one by one, in order to allow the group to damage the chains themselves, and once all three are destroyed, the encounter is complete.

Where the Gurubashi Spirit Warriors were killed in the normal world, you will now see a Gurubashi Spiritin the spirit world on the outer lower corners.

These large adds are taunted by the tank one at a time and used to break the barriers on the chains with their Body Slam, allowing the group to dps them. Be wary of the purple zones left behind - they increase damage taken by 100% whilst inside. This is dangerous for the tank especially, but also helps dpsing the barriers. The large adds become more dangerous over time, due to a stacking buff called Frenzy. If one is left up for too long, it will kill the tank.

However, in addition to this, there is a constant rain of slow falling Shadow Spikes (60-70k hit), which look like the familiar Shadow Crash missiles. Where they are going to fall is marked by a pulsing white graphic, so they are easy to dodge if one is keeping an eye out for them. Note, however, that if they hit a non-tank whilst in a purple zone, they will one-shot you!! Be extra careful in there!!

Lastly, there is a steady stream of annoying Twisted Spirits coming onto the upper platform from the lower edge. They almost always aggro to the healer, and can become a real headache. They only have 29.4k hp, so can easily be killed, but melee VERY hard - 40-60k hits. Ignore them for too long and they will soon overwhelm the group.

Strat for Phase Two:

As soon as phase two starts, the tank runs to taunt one of the big Gurubashi Spirit adds, and drags him to the nearest Chain. The healer stays close to the tank at all times, for protection from Twisted Spirits. The dps split to stand on the other two chains.

Be sure to ALL stand close enough to the chains so that when the Body Slam comes, it breaks the barrier on the chain the group member was standing near. Do NOT however stand motionless and get hit by a Shadow Spike.

As soon as the Body Slam goes off and the barrier is broken, kill the big add asap, to prevent stacking of frenzy killing the tank. Once he is dead, this frees the Tank to run around picking up and killing any Twisted Spirits around, whilst the dps destroys the unprotected chain.

When this chain is destroyed, the tank goes and taunts a second big add, dps continue to kill Twisted Spirits, everyone avoids Shadow Spikes.

Once the big add is up on the platform, the cycle starts again. Tank, healer and big add on one protected chain, dps on the other until body slam goes off. Avoid purple zone, kill big add, destroy chain, clean up small adds.

And once more for the last chain, with everyone stacking on it for the slam.

From Tsunami, http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/2456909064

I think sometimes, myself very much included, we get fixed on one strategy and are not as flexible or adaptable as we should be. There are so many factors to each fight, everything from a tiny amount of undergearing, the doorbell rings, step left when should have gone right. I am beginning to think at the beginning of a boss fight, when the dungeon guide asks, "Know the fight?" that is a trick question. Yes, we all know the fights for each instance they happen, and yes, they are basically the same. But be open to the nuances and shades of a group, and be open to suggestions. So, until I can prove this conjectured theory, it may behoove us to just kill it as soon as it breaks chains. It can't hurt, and may indeed help. And if you've ever watched a friend's status go in and out of "Zul'Gurub" to "Northern Stranglehorn" and back again, you know it's become a spirited fight.

Open forum: Do you have any tricks of the trade you've come across? I would love to hear them. Don't know how much mojo one girl can take: it's reaching Austin Power's levels.

Postscript: Found this comment about the Twisted Spirits: http://www.wowhead.com/npc=52148/jindo-the-godbreaker "If you keep dying to too many spirits, consider killing the Gurubashi Spirit once he destroys a barrier, and destroy that chain, AoEing down the adds in the process. Repeat for each chain."