WoWGrrl's World

Where Oh Where Has My Zul'jin Gone?

It's 15 minutes past our normal Official Raid Start Time and I'm sitting here waiting for Zul'jin to come up.

I've logged into the raid vent server and have marked myself "here, but not here", which is a habit I've gotten into lately since I'm not the pre-raid chatty type - too much work to do in other windows!

The Officer Team hasn't logged into the Raid Vent yet - I assume they're on whatever social vent server they hang out on prior to raids. Most everyone has a social vent or two they hang out on when not raiding - our Raid Vent server is pretty barren on off-raid hours.

I'm thinking if there weren't new bosses being released to the game, we'd be finding out that the raid night has been called entirely and that we should stop waiting, and go about our business in other ways and come back for a good raid tomorrow. [edit - and in fact, the raid was called rather close to Official Start Time, on the forums, but I finished this entry before looking there]

But, there's new stuff to tackle! Koralon the Flame Watcher in the Vault of Archavon, and Anub'arak from Azjol-Nerub in Dragonblight makes a special appearance as well!

Introducing The New, Improved Anub'arak

When I first heard that Anub'arak was in the Crusader's Coliseum, I thought "OH great! Another 'Anub' to remember and keep straight in my mind! As if the guy in Azjol-Nerub and the guy in Naxxramas weren't already hard enough to keep straight!".

You see, I have problems remembering completely arbitrary things: What Ulduar portal is associated with what boss (aside from Freya and after Kologarn which both make rational sense) is one of them, and remembering these weird-ass names that are hard to pronounce is another.

Thankfully, I've since found that Anub'arak is actually the SAME Anub'arak dude as in the Northrend Dragonblight instance of Azjol Nerub, and therefore I don't have to remember a new Anub.

Why Is Anub'arak Coming Back Now??

I guess his stomp hasn't killed enough melee who are too silly to learn to melee from behind, and tanks who are too silly to move out of the way?

Seriously tho, I'm not much of a lore buff, so I have no idea why Anub'arak is making himself known here, now. If someone wants to leave a comment about that, I can take your comment and turn it into a full post later on!

The Battle Against Anub'arak

From the description I'm reading on WoWWiki, the battle against Anub'arak in the Crusaders' Coliseum shares some similar elements with both the Anub'arak and Anub'rekhan fights. The burrowing, the swarms, the adds...

The main difference is that in the raid version of the fight against Anub'arak, success will depend upon the raid's ability to keep the ground "permafrosted" below the boss, and the Tank's ability to keep the boss situated on a permafrosted area so when Anub'arak goes to burrow under the ground he finds he cannot.

Or, when he DOES burrow, the permafrosted ground serves as protection to the raid group from the attacks Anub'arak launches from under the earth.

Frost damage is going to be big here, but I'm not sure if there's any useful resist gear or enchants that can help you make the fight easier without severely gimping your stats.

Does anyone have any suggestions on that?

Raiding Achievements With The Demise Of Anub'arak

If you've been lucky enough to get into successful raids that have taken on the bosses up to this point, you're ready and raring for Anub'arak to be released, because you've been told he's the final boss of the Coliseum and therefore, there'll be an achievement associated.

Here's the Achievement that everyone in our raid group will get once we take Anub down:

Call of the Crusader (25 player) (corrected from Grand Crusader I had listed before)

It will be good for our server and world rankings yet again... except for the fact that our realm is down and other realms are getting a head start on their raids! No wonder we can't get world firsts! ;) ;) ;)

Anub'arak Loot

Loot from this boss is amongst the best in the game, depending on what mode you end up taking him on in.

Our guild will be taking him on in Heroic 25-player mode since that is what we do with our three-day Official Raids schedule, and in this mode there's some damned pretty upgrades for our Ulduar25 Hard Mode-geared teammates.

Gear that I'm hoping will drop so I get a chance to roll on it (or a guildmate gets it and I have less competition when it drops next time) includes:

[Suffering's End]
[Handwraps of the Lifeless Touch]
[Lurid Manifestation]

Damn, look at the spell damage on that one-handed Mace!

Looks like I'm going back to the Main Hand/Offhand thing, when for so long I've been toting a staff from Ulduar25 - [Rapture] if I am not mistaken.

I'll miss how great it was to NOT have to chase down my offhand in my mess of bags when I re-equip my weapon after fishing!

Ah well, life is hard...

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Related posts:

1. How To Destroy Koralon The Flame Watcher
2. Situational Awareness Training in Ahn'Kahet

Tagged as: Achievements, Anub'Arak, azjol-nerub, crusaders' coliseum, koralon, koralon the flame watcher, level 80 priest gear, progression, Raiding, raiding tips, server progression, trial of the crusader, trial of the grand crusader, zul'jin raiding