We'll start with Zul'Aman, since I already griped about Akil'zon.
This guy....is definitely a test of coordination and awareness. The fight goes like this:
Once you engage Akil'zon, he'll randomly blast somebody with Static Disruption. This inflicts roughly 35,000 nature damage on impact and leaves a debuff that increases nature damage to the affected target by 25% (and yes, it stacks). At fairly regular intervals during the fight, an Amani Kidnapper will swoop in and pick up a random party member. The bird does steady and pretty moderate damage to the player in its grip and must be killed IMMEDIATELY. Amani Kidnappers are your kill priority whenever they're up. He'll also cast Electrical Storm. He'll select a random party member and launch them into the air. The lightning storm will radiate from this person and it does a hefty amount of damage. The idea is to stack under the person he's chosen to lift for the storm.
Seems easy enough right?
Yeah...maybe. But the Static Disruption has to be dispelled. It's pretty hard, if not impossible, to just heal through that debuff on all party members. So that will be devouring your healer's mana pool for the entire fight. The best thing you can do to help support your healer would be to stand 12 yards away from other party members.
But his hitbox isn't that big...So if you've got 2+ melee dps in there along with your tank...your healer is going to want to throw their computer through a wall and punt bunnies all at the same time. This spell will "splash" to everyone within 10 yards or so. So if you're a rogue and you're standing on top of your tank...and he targets you with it...you're going to get your tank hit with it too. See? Not good. Melee need to figure out how to be as far apart as possible while still being able to blow up the boss. Oh, and as an added bonus.../range isn't even working right now for most of us. I can /range 10 and be standing on top of someone and it'll never show up. Good times...good times...
An important note about the Amani Kidnappers though is that they CAN be DPS'd by the person who has been "plucked" by them. So that means, if you get snagged, you can blow the bird up. Healers can also heal themselves and other party members from inside the bird's grip. That's important to know. If your healer doesn't know this, gently educate them. GENTLY...don't be a jerk.
Now let's talk about this Electrical Storm business...It's a fairly simple mechanic. You get a warning that he's about to cast it and you should all start heading to the center of the platform. Note that I didn't say stack up. That's just asking for a wipe. But when you see DBM or whatever boss mod you're using call out Electrical Storm, start moving toward the center. The fewer ticks of the storm you take, the more your healer will adore you. Trust me.
Another pretty important thing about the combination of Electrical Storm and the Amani Kidnapper...I've been stuck in the bird's grip as Akil'zon starts to cast the storm while I've been trying to heal this fight. DPS just left me up in the bird's claws. The math looked like this:
Healer in bird's claws + taking bird claw damage + electrical storm damage = Dead Healer
Dead Healer = Dead Group
And guys, if your healer gets snatched up by a bird, they're PROBABLY not going to be dpsing themselves out of it. The fight is very healing intensive. Break your healer out of the bird's grip ASAP or you're doomed.
If all of the above isn't fun enough for you, there are smaller brown eagles that randomly peck at everyone during the entire encounter, doing a decent amount of damage to the player they hit. Fun, right?
One of the things I'd like to really ask of all of you dps/tanks...on this fight...be forgiving of your healer. It's tough to heal through. There's a lot of damage incoming and the debuffs that need to be cleansed...this is a pretty stressful fight even for a really well geared healer. Be kind to your healers and give them a chance to sort it out. Most healers, after a few tries will figure out how to handle it and you'll be fine.
So that's Akil'zon in a nutshell. I'll be working on the rest of Zul'Aman when I get a chance.
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