Want an Amani Battle Bear? Tips and Tricks to Completing the Speed Run in 4.1

Posted 2011/04/28 at 1:16 PM by perculia

Amani War BearAmani Battle BearDungeon GuideGeneral Advice

As with most speed runs, make sure you have a well-balanced party, but also take reliable players that you know will remain focused and won't die to avoidable things. Minimize all possible RL distractions that could cause an afk. Try to get as many key synergistic buffs as possible covered in your party--Bloodlust/Heroism/Time Warp is great, as well as a form of CC, replenishment, possibly an in-combat rez, Tricks of the Trade for chain-pulling, and Stampeding Roar for speed boosts. Remember to bring a Troll Tablet to complete Zul'Aman Voodoo which will grant Amani Power.

Map out your route in advance instead of wasting time during the timed event discussing the strategy. Loot items without fuss instead of debating their merits--you can trade the items after the event is over--and save the special chest items, gold, and hex sticks until after the run is complete. Most importantly--don't panic and lose focus. It's possible to pull an extra scout or lose a player to a sloppy trash pull and still win if you recover quickly.

Combat Tips

When starting the encounter, you will have 15 minutes. After killing the initial pack by the gong, mount up and head down the left staircase towards Akil'zon, skipping the trash that patrols between the central staircases, as well as the pair of mobs at the foot of the hill to Akil'zon's altar. When activating Akil'zon's gauntlet, drag several groups of Amani'shi Wind Walker and Amani'shi Protector up the hill instead of fighting two at a time, taking care to interrupt Chain Heal. Engage the Amani'shi Tempest at the top of the stairs as soon as possible to prevent new mobs from spawning.

Defeating Akil'zon will add 5 minutes to the timer. Chain pull the trash packs to Nalorakk, taking care to once again avoid the initial patrols, riding on the grassy hill between the two staircases if necessary. If you stun their mounts at roughly 30%, Amani'shi Warbringers on Nalorakk's altar will not dismount and add precious seconds to your time spent in combat. Defeating Nalorakk will add 5 minutes to the timer as well.

In addition to being on top of killing the Amani'shi Scouts on the way to Jan'alai, patrols with low HP that summon extra mobs if not killed quickly, you must master handling the previously skippable Zandalari Hierophant and Zandalari Juggernaut, nasty trash mobs that are immune to CC. The Zandalari Juggernaut is buffed with Tectonic Plating which triggers Minor Quake--move away! They can also cast Ancestral Call. Both mobs can cast Blessing of Zandalar which makes them immune to damage. They are then buffed with Glory of the Zandalari, which allows them to cast various uninterruptable sigil debuffs on the party: Sigil of Death, Sigil of Flame, and . The longer they stay alive, the greater chance they have to stack debuffs on party members which will drain a healer's mana and slow down the party. These debuffs can be removed without causing additional damage to the player via self-immunities.

There is much less trash on the way to Halazzi in 4.1 and much can be skipped save for a patrol with Tamed Amani Crocolisk and Amani'shi Beast Tamer by the lake. If you have a Death Knight, you can skip this pack too by using Path of Frost to ride over the lake. Don't aoe and aggro extra neutral Amani Crocolisk though. Interrupt the Beast Tamer's Domesticate.

The path curving around Halazzi's altar is now a gauntlet with three spawn points for packs of Amani Lynx--continue running through instead of AOEing one group down at at time. Use cooldowns on the tank and heavily AOE multiple sets down at the base of the stairs by the entrance to Halazzi's room.

Decide in advance if you plan on killing Halazzi's Water Totem or moving him away from the green healing circle. Split dps is bad. It's riskier, but to save time, keep up the Water Totem and have everyone stand in its Refreshing Stream and ignore the Spirit of the Lynx. Your party will take extra damage, but the healing from standing in the Refreshing Stream will help offset it and you will ultimately save some time by continuing to focus Halazzi. Your tank must be alert and keep dragging Halazzi out of the green puddles so that he doesn't heal.

If you fail the timer, it's not the end of the world. Your group can continue requeuing for a "Random Rise of the Zandalari Heroic" and have unlimited attempts per day.

If you successfully complete the timed run, free Kasha the prisoner inside Halazzi's room. She will run around spawning piles of gold and eventually blast open an urn to reveal Kasha's Bag. Inside is a Amani Battle Bear for one lucky player to win the roll on.

Enjoy your bear!

Comment by alpha5099I'm still a bit unclear on how you get this. If you complete the gauntlet, does everyone in the group get the bear, or is it like Culling of Strat and if you do it in time the mount drops and everyone rolls?Comment by perculiaIt's not specifically a tip to winning, but I added in the looting mechanics. It works like Culling of Strat where only one person walks away with the mount. When you free the 4th prisoner, she spawns a bag with the bear inside that everyone can roll on.Comment by 755075This post was from a user who has deleted their account.Comment by Gijftw@Alpha5099,
"Inside is a Amani Battle Bear for one lucky player to win the roll on."Comment by perculiaTo be fair, I edited that part in after his comment and replied to him--it's not exactly a tip, but with all the new info over these past few days, it's worth repeating in case it got lost :)Comment by waxxyyLooks like it will become very common in a close future as the Bronze Drake has become.Comment by ztkraptorHey nice guide.
I am curious, did you practice this on the PTR? Was that how you were able to get such a detailed guide up so quickly?Comment by ProblimaticHey nice guide.
I am curious, did you practice this on the PTR? Was that how you were able to get such a detailed guide up so quickly?Comment by perculiaI didn't practice it on the PTR, but I had a bear soon after the BC version was released. I ran it 5pm on patch day (rogue) with a priest healer, pally tank, ret and boomkin. Our healer DCed for a few after the 3rd boss, so the timer ran out as we were killing Halazzi. After raid, I went back in with a paladin tank, paladin healer, mage, and fury warrior and we beat the timer with 4 min left. We were all familiar with the instance from 70 and discussed the differences (streamlined trash, zandalari hierophants, etc) before pulling. We're also mostly in ilvl 372 gear so that helped as well.

I've been helping wowhead a ton with the 4.1 content, so I wish I could run ZA more often!Comment by OverZealousExcellent as always perculia!Comment by InterestAwesome guide. Will definitely keep it to heart when I attempt these runs.Comment by GnubSo much Blacksmith-potential with the title... yet, none. Aww. :<

Nice guide never the less :DComment by AzrileI was going to get a group and organize this type of run... but then I thought of the bronze drake and said why bother. More than likely in a month, most pugs will be completing it and everyone will pass on the bear. Plus, I am a druid, I rarely ride anything, so this is mostly just a plus1 for the achievementComment by 195945This post was from a user who has deleted their account.Comment by SallaraI got cheated out of the mount. Killed Nalorakk and Akil'zon with lots of time to spare. Killed the dragonhawk guy. What's this? No time added?
We would've made it. We killed Halazzi 2 minutes after timer expired.Comment by 585478This post was from a user who has deleted their account.Comment by InterestI got cheated out of the mount. Killed Nalorakk and Akil'zon with lots of time to spare. Killed the dragonhawk guy. What's this? No time added?
We would've made it. We killed Halazzi 2 minutes after timer expired.Comment by LiquoidI got cheated out of the mount. Killed Nalorakk and Akil'zon with lots of time to spare. Killed the dragonhawk guy. What's this? No time added?
We would've made it. We killed Halazzi 2 minutes after timer expired.Comment by 219238Just an idea:
How about an all-stealth/camoflage-sneaky-sneaky-hide-in-the-bushes-party?

Druid tank
Druid healer
Any combo of Rogue, Hunter (camoflage), Feral druid or Balance druid as dps.

I would expect some mobs are immune to stealth and would be have to be killed, but I bet most are not and could be skipped.Comment by 430274Just did this with my guild, we ran with a Prot Paladin, Elemental Shaman, Arcane Mage, MM Hunter, and Resto Druid. We also used a scroll to give out the priest buff.

1) While it discriminates, having all ranged dps was kind of helpfull, especialy on the bird boss.

2) Having an Arcane mage will save you a lot of time on the last boss since he can just sit in the mana totem and spam arcane blast. Ours wasnt even that geared and he pulled 24k dps.

3) Water walk past the part with the crocs.

4) Pull the Lynx two groups at a time.

5) On the boss with the eggs, we just killed both adds and burned the boss down, then the tank and healer both stacked CDs to survive all the adds, we mass ressed people who died righta way.