Entering Zul'Aman

Well my guild Sarcophagus over on Vek'nilash made our first exploratory run into Zul'Aman last night to basically see where we stood in terms of our gear vs. the instance. In an unfortunate turn of events I had to respec to Protection to off-tank for the run. This was not my first time in there as I had been in there with a previous guild, but still have not made it past the bear boss. With all that being said let's look at some of what I consider to be the stats to shoot for to begin Zul'Aman as both a tank and a Fury Warrior.

Read on for more...


Protection Stats (unbuffed)

15,000 Health
15,000 Armor
490 Defense
18% Dodge
18% Parry
25% Block


Now these are all just a little higher than what I have on Swathcutter right now, which in all seriousness indicates I am not ready to tank in ZA. The goal here is to get the biggest health pool possible to avoid dying from the very spikey burst damage you will encounter in the dungeon. A good example would be the 2 pulls prior to the bear boss with the riders in them. They hit for a good 1-3k on a normal hit, when they throw that debuff on you though you will be taking anywhere from 4-6k a hit.


Dual Wield Fury (unbuffed)

12,000 Health
100+ Hit Rating
30% Crit Chance
1900 Attack Power
Weapons: 90DPS +

Now on Swathcutter I sit at around 160 Hit Rating, 27% Crit, 1900 AP, and 154 Armor Penetration. I like the extra +hit and I think the drop in % Crit is worth the trade off for the Armor Penetration. Raid buffed it is not uncommon to see my AP hit over 3,000 with Mark, Kings, Battle Shout, Rampage stacked, Hourglass proc, etc. I found once my AP started peaking over 3k I really started to pull ahead on the dmg meters. What I would give to have a shammy in my group!!

Now about the weapons, I would recommend a 2.5 Spd or slower MH, but as for the OH I think that is a play style decision. Personally I prefer the smoother rage generation the fast off hand provides even though the current school of thought is that two slow weapons of the same speed will maximize DPS for Fury Warriors. I am in sore need of a MH upgrade for my Harvester of Souls, and I am current using the Gladiator's Quickblade as my OH weapon which should last me a while. Get the best available to you and put +20 Str on them. If you can afford it you can go with Executioner MH and Mongoose OH if you like as well.

Back to Karazhan

Later this week we will head back to Karazhan and work on our gear some more so we can make another good attempt in ZA in the future. Hoping to get Netherspite down this week!