Arlokk (Panther Boss)

[Halfacre]

Hello everyone,

I rarely post, but I've reached a level of frustration with the Arlokk encounter that I came to ask your advice. My guild has been progressing through ZG fairly well, but we seem to have reached a road block with this fight.

I have read different strategies and looked at a few videos but we still seem to be having issues. There are a couple of issues causing the greatest problems.

1. Panthers all over the damn place. We have 2 off tanks positioned near the pens but they can't seem to hold the aggro. Any time a priest/healer throughs a heal on them the panthers seem to leave.

2. Healers getting waxed by Arlokk once she appears. We throw shields on the priests, but it still doesn't seem to help. Arlokk always seems to appear and then just 2 shot the priests, druids in succession.

A few questions:

How can the tanks keep the aggro of the panthers?

Are pally's necessary for this fight? We have a shortage of pally's in the guild and the one's we have are rarely on for raids.

Is it better to aoe the panthers down after each disappearance or just never touch the panthers at all? I read there is a cap of how many will utlimately appear. Would be nice if each off tank could simply hold each pack, but again they never can seem to hold them.

Any advice on how to keep the healers up?

I'd appreciate any and all advice. The best we've done so far is get Arlokk down to 29% but by that point all the healers were down and panthers were swarming all over the place.

Thanks : )

[Wasabee]

Our guild had the same issue and here is what we did.

One way - 2 pallies

-----------------
|X..................X|
|..|...............|..|
|..|...............|..|
|_|EEEEEEEEEE|_|

Ok x = Pally
E = everyone else.

The panthers don't hit very hard....for Mail and Plate (Leather can take a bit and clothies...too soft.)
Pally spams consecration and heals himself.
Everyone DPS the Bijeazous out of her when she is up.
"Loose Panthers" - let an OT round them up...do not kill while Arlok is up.
She disappears...run to the center and AOE the panthers down. (Loose ones a priority).
Someone gets marked...pally casts blessing of sacrafice...have them run to the pallies...if they are in the middle...if the are closer to the E's have them stay back there.
All Clothies backs to the wall...they can get 1 shotted...Like a backstab w/ 5 point evisecirate (sp?).
She is up..resume positions...Repeat steps.

The trick is to get her the 2nd time around...going into a 3rd inning...it's tricky.

Second way - Same position but have "tanks" where the X's are and healers in the middle of the x's so they can cross heal. Have the pallies or other "support" healers heal. the "tanks" (Tank = Druid in bear or Plate Wearer)

"Loose Panthers" - let an OT round them up...do not kill while Arlok is up.
She disappears...run to the center and AOE the panthers down. (Loose ones a priority).

After she disappears...AOE them...Someone gets marked...have them stay where the E's are...All Clothies backs to the wall...they can get 1 shotted...Like a backstab w/ 5 point evisecirate (sp?).

She is up..resume positions...Repeat steps.

Sheilding the cloth wearers = Good
Fear = Good
Priests to heal Pen holders = Overkill and waste of a healer

3 keys.

1. Don't get "overwhelmed" mentally by all the panthers...think of them like level 1 kobolds...but keep them away from the cloth wearers.

2. DPS the snot out of here when she is up...kill panthers when she vanishes

3. Cloth has to stay "backs to the wall" before she respawns. Mark here with a raid icon...it helps.

I hope it helps. We wiped on her like 3 seperate runs for over an hour and a half. We used the pally method...downed her first shot. Second go we took her the second method...first shot. Wednesday they took her down with no issue (second "way").

I play a Disc/holy priest. So I stay with the E's...and I bubble, fear, and Fade when I get panther aggro...

Our guild has some "epics" from ZG and some from MC and Ony (less then ZG). and I believe all have blues...at the least.

We have downed Hakkar 2 times since we started getting a solid team...

[Dynatos]

The way we approach it is similar, but markedly different, to the above poster.

We set up a self-sufficient "panther group", consisting of (depending on availability) 2 Druids, 2 Paladins, and one other. One Paladin keeps up Devotion, and the other Concentration. The Druids are in hybrid healer-tank gear.

The goal is to have one of either the Druids or the Paladins take the initial mark, preferably a Paladin (Consecration spam), and hold the Panthers (near the gong area) throughout the fight; the rest of the group keeps that "panther tank" alive.

Sometimes it doesn't work as intended and a Druid gets the initial aggro. In that case, the Druid is expected to sit around in bear form and keep the aggro while the Paladins and the other Druid keep him up. A further complications occurs when 2 members of the panther group get aggro (ie, really sloppy execution). It doesn't happen often, but the group should be able to keep itself up anyway.

In the meantime, the remaining 15-16 raiders are where the above poster mentioned, near the wall. They perform a standard tank-and-spank routine in Arlokk.

Once Arlokk is dead, the 50+ panthers are AoE'd. Cheer, and share in the epic lootz.

[bpaige]

My guild uses the pally method and I am a pally so that puts my ass on the hot seat......pallys go into cages take off salv and buff righteous fury on themselves..also put on concentration aura......raid losely groups in the middle. ! dedicated healer for both pallys standing near the wall in line of sight of everyone incase someone needs a spot heal.

Pallys drop consecrate and put on seal of wisdom and whack away at the panthers...everytime consecrate is up...throw it down again...after I got the hang of of it, I have no...and I repeat no loose panthers. I continue just to seal of wisdom myself and tap back mana off the panthers so I can continue to spam consecrate.

Now for the rest of the raid, DPS the crap out of her when she is up, if you get marked...yes marked, run to the gong, and call for help/recieve sheilds/heals....

When she disappears, melee dps rounds to the cages and single target assists me in killing the panthers, keeps all dps on one so if some pulls aggro off of me on that one...no big deal its only one. We kill some panthers.

She pops back up, every pounds her again, you really have to get her down on the 2nd one or your healers will go oom your pallies will die then you are fubar.

I suppose you could attempt the same thing with warriors and their shouts and cleave type abilites, but I think pallies are more effecient at this situation.

If a pally drops....fear bombs and keep the panthers feared and burn the priestess down, then deal with the panthers.

We've been very successful at this... it works...some others may do it differently, but this is what I suggest.

[Halfacre]

Thanks all for taking the time to respond. You all made some very good points to take into our next attempt.

Thanks again!

[Dallana]

I'd kill to have Pallys for this fight!

Our (Horde) tactic:

Put all the Tanks into a group with a Lock (For Blood Pact) Our MT and OT take on Arlokk and we put a Feral Druid and another OT in the cages with a Shammy and Priest assigned to each one. If you line the group up opposite the gong wall, Arlokk doesn't tend to Ambush the people in your group but the healers on cage duty are at risk.

Shamans have to put down threat reduction totems all the time, as the DPS will be going hard and if too many panthers become stuck to the healers, it's game over.

DPS as hard as possible after 2 sunders until the first vanish. Then pull all the panthers into the centre and AOE them to death.

Arlokk may re-appear next to your cage healers. The MT and OT (4 Tanks are helpful on this fight) should each take a side and get ready to pick up Arlokk.

Again after 2 sunders, DPS like crazy. You need to kill her fast as the longer it goes on, the more panthers there are and the more risk of wiping. Use the 2nd vanish to clear any loose panthers and make every effort to get her down before she vanish's a third time. Tell the Rogues to watch the cleave effect and use bandages/pots and as long as they stay alive, you should have enough DPS to get her down.

[darkraaf]

-----------------
|P..................P|
|...|...............|..|
|W|.......MT.....|W|
|_ |EEEEEEEEEE|_|

This is how our guild is doing it.

Warrior in front of the spawning points, with a pally right behind him. The pala's job is to keep the warrior alive. The warrior needs to control the spawns. As a warrior i keep the spawns at me by spamming piercing howl and demo shout.

Make sure to send in another pala or healer if one goes down (yes, he will aggro some panthers)

[Mort]

My guild is at Aralok too, and having a hard time with her, to say the least.

We've tried several different tactics, but I fear part of our problem is that we dont have enough well equiped raiders to realy lay down the dps on her.

But quick question: if a person gets marked, will he/she stay marked untill he/she is dead, or can Aralokk change the mark? Can more than one person be marked at a time?

Mort

[Dallana]

The mark will change every so often. Probably something like 20 seconds I think it is.

Only one person can be marked at once and the mark will always go to the highest mana user on Arlokk's threat list.

[Wasabee]

The other trick to this is not to use too many people for the panther management. 4 people is alot (use Primary Healers and Primary tanks/DPS) and you are crippling the effectiveness of your main team. Make sure you use secondary teams for the panther management. They don't hit that hard for mail and up, so with the reduction in damage done, a secondary healer is fine. Plus if the secondary healer (usually something better then cloth) the can hold/tank the panther a bit without too much trouble. (until they can get the panthers back to tanks/aoe time.)

[j1mb0x99]

We use a very different method. We have a warlock stand in the middle of the room and constantly spam hellfire. We have a couple healers keeping him up and the panthers constantly target the lock. As for alrokk herself, we dps her down like the rest above had mentioned. However, we are fairly well geared so we can have the warlock sustain constant hellfire and have the healers be able to keep him up.

-JiM

[FodderCannoned]

We use a very different method. We have a warlock stand in the middle of the room and constantly spam hellfire. We have a couple healers keeping him up and the panthers constantly target the lock. As for alrokk herself, we dps her down like the rest above had mentioned. However, we are fairly well geared so we can have the warlock sustain constant hellfire and have the healers be able to keep him up.

-JiM

I wish we used this method, I also want our guild to try the imp method some time too, just cant convince them ever

[Skahr]

What we always have done is have 1-2locks stay near the gong at ALL times, have hunters keep flares up in or near the pens, the panters all come out of stealth, lock or locks aoe the entire time, with a healer on them AT ALL TIME. DPS bosss till it disapears. rinse and repeat. simple as that :) while the boss is gone everyone single target dps the panthers...have the MT stand just outside the aoe chaos area so he/she can pull the boss back out right after it pops, otherwise locks have aggro and it is not good.

EDIT: Just realized this is almost exactly what Jim posted :wink: Works like a charm tho.

[LordXeper]

We do the 2 tank in cages healed by 2 Pallies method.

Wait for 2-3 Sunders then nuke her as hard as possible. During vanish times we pick up any loose panthers and ignore the pally/warrior combos. We tend to get her after her 3rd vanish. Raid dps is about 3000-3500 at that point (tier1/tier2 geared). Normally we still have Ony/Zandalar buff up by the time we arrive at her.

[Skahr]

I forgot to mention...last week we did this with NO LOCKS, and used pallies / mages for the aoe. Dropped her after only 2vanishes. ;)

[SirBazturd]

I've seen it both ways. 1 tank in each pen with dedicated healer (If you need more than 3 healers to keep up these 2 tanks, you may be in a bit of trouble).

Also done the Shaman and Druid group in between the 2 pens. Druid in bear form, or shaman in a pinch (if the healers can handle it). Earthbind and flameshock to keep the panthers from the main group.


The first way is easier, but less fun, since I'm a shaman. :grin: One of the few boss fights a shaman gets to mix it up in melee range.

[kalpothyz]

We have very little trouble with Panther and use a different method. (Horde)

Have everyone in the middle. Have shamans put down earthbind totems at the corner of the cages. As she appears DPS like crazy, spam heal the marker target and make sure they stay up and ignore the pather adds until she dissappears. (Even priests need to DOT and smite when everyone is at full health

Once she has gone AoE the adds. Warriors build up rage on adds and rogue get energy back for when she reappears.

When healers get aggro shield/fade/go into bear/kite with earthbind.

[RWGreen]

My guild has little trouble with this fight. We are Horde, so no pallies. Here's how we do it:

1 proto spec warrior in each pen, and one healer dedicated to each pen tank who stands with his back to the opposite side wall up in the gong area (make sure line of sight is okay.) Each warrior will be in def stance, and pick up the panthers as they spawn. At the beginning it's hard to get them all (3-8 will get through on each side depending on how good the warriors are with quickly targeting and taunting/demo shouting/hitting them. But after a little while, the tanks will have enough rage to hold the rest of the panthers with chain demo shout.

The rest of the group is up in the gong area killing the boss, with a 3rd tank on the boss. When she vanishes, everyone needs to get backs to the wall. Throw a shield on whoever is marked.

As with any strategy, it takes a little time for everyone to get used to their roles and how to execute them. The worst thing you can do is change strategies after 1 or 2 wipes. Pick a strategy and stick to it. Practice makes perfect!

Note: I'm a pen tank, so I have a special perspective and some tips for pen tanks: Use bloodrage as soon as the event is triggered. The panthers seem to spawn and go up the inside of the pen, so face that way. Tab target the panthers as they stealth by, and either whack/taunt/demo shout them. As I said before, it's toughest at the beginning, and some are going to get through. You need the +30% threat generated from def stance and anticipation to hold the panthers with your spammed demo shout, so put the points there is you haven't already. There are a finite number of panthers that will spawn. At some point, ALL of them will be on one of the two pen tanks, and the only time more will spawn is when you kill one.

[Aswer]

We have a slightly different tactic, which works like a charm and we seldom have any deaths. Have a mage on each of the side walls, in front of the cage entrances (but not inside). Earthbind totems near the outer cage corners. Have the marked person shielded and run to the mages alternatively, rounding up properly all (or most) of the panthers, and the mages will frost nova. The mages, if at all experienced, will know to move just out of reach of the panthers melee while these are nova-ed, as they will hit the closest target. Once they are free, they will go to the marked person again, who should already be near the other mage. The earthbind totems will make the cycle perfect for the frost nova cooldown. Heal and shield marked. Everyone, even these mages, should DPS too. So, the mage, after having done his nova, should lay out at least 5 or 6 spells on Arlokk before its his turn to nova again.

Once Arlokk vanishes, have all clothies next to the gong with their backs to the wall, and the 2 or 3 tanks ready, one right next to the clothies, and the other tanks in a straight line thorugh the middle towards the entrance, around 10 yards between each, to pick up arlokk quickly. Heavy DPS on Arlokk at all times, she should go down after the first vanish.

While most of our guild are currently way over-equipped for ZG, this is anyhow the tactic we used when we were mostly in blues too, albeit with more deaths and wipes (currently mostly both at zero, sometimes a foolish or careless clothie dies, but rarely now).

[AeroJonesy]

They key to keeping your healers alive is definitely having them put their backs to the wall when Arlokk stealths. She's a rogue-ish boss so she can backstab you. If you're standing free, she'll do an auto-attack and a backstab near instaneously and wipe out whoever is highest on her aggro list (probably a healer). With backs to the wall, she can't backstab.

[Cerberus]

My guild has little trouble with this fight. We are Horde, so no pallies. Here's how we do it:

1 proto spec warrior in each pen, and one healer dedicated to each pen tank who stands with his back to the opposite side wall up in the gong area (make sure line of sight is okay.) Each warrior will be in def stance, and pick up the panthers as they spawn. At the beginning it's hard to get them all (3-8 will get through on each side depending on how good the warriors are with quickly targeting and taunting/demo shouting/hitting them. But after a little while, the tanks will have enough rage to hold the rest of the panthers with chain demo shout.

The rest of the group is up in the gong area killing the boss, with a 3rd tank on the boss. When she vanishes, everyone needs to get backs to the wall. Throw a shield on whoever is marked.

As with any strategy, it takes a little time for everyone to get used to their roles and how to execute them. The worst thing you can do is change strategies after 1 or 2 wipes. Pick a strategy and stick to it. Practice makes perfect!

Note: I'm a pen tank, so I have a special perspective and some tips for pen tanks: Use bloodrage as soon as the event is triggered. The panthers seem to spawn and go up the inside of the pen, so face that way. Tab target the panthers as they stealth by, and either whack/taunt/demo shout them. As I said before, it's toughest at the beginning, and some are going to get through. You need the +30% threat generated from def stance and anticipation to hold the panthers with your spammed demo shout, so put the points there is you haven't already. There are a finite number of panthers that will spawn. At some point, ALL of them will be on one of the two pen tanks, and the only time more will spawn is when you kill one.

This is how we do it. The positioning of the tanks in the dens is essential to not let to many escape and I guess we use earthbind, but flare might help as well. We have the marked person run to the other side of the room behind the tanks as the panthers seem to run past the tanks easier when the marked person is on the opposite side (with the rest of the raid) of the room from them. We kill of any panthers that escape the tanks, but let the tanked ones stayed alive while she is vanished.

[Baboon]

We do a frost nova rotation with mages. The marked one runs in a circle around frozen panthers. The can stay alive, bored warriors are free to kill some if they want.

[pyros templar]

we we used - quite sucessfully - mage FN rotation tactit with AOE...

The mages stand on the opposite side of the room and use AOE to draw the panthers, FN to keep them in place, and CoC to mass crit. This requires 3 (or 4) mages, and has worked charmingly (actually I only remember one wipe on a total of 4 encounters).

[Fynious]

My guild pretty much has ZG on farm status and we never have issues with this boss unless people are screwing off. From what I have seen there are three or four key things to this fight.

1. Positioning of the 2 warriors at the corner of the pens. These warriors need to spam taunts and keep as many of the panthers on them as possible as this makes the fight pretty trivial.

2. Positioning the "marked" player. When we fight this boss the marked player stops casting/fighting what ever and moves to the back wall away from the panthers in the center. This makes it so the panthers have no LOS to this player. We do get some panther through but not many.

3. Casters assisting on Panther adds. When the boss is hiding all melee dps and caster dps assist on the panther adds at the back wall. Dps these down as fast as possible without using to much mana. We generally clear them all out before the boss comes out of hiding. The MT will not assist in clearing of panthers as he is always looking for the boss to appear and get aggro back asap.

Other then those 3 items.. the fourth item would be for the rest of the raid to just do their jobs. Just like any other fight.

Fyn

[Eonblue]

I kinda browsed through the post and for the most part our guild does it the standard way with casters in the back and two OTs takin panthers in the pin. One thing that we do differently is that we do not ever kill panthers as they will just respawn and word has it they respawn hitting harder. There is no way to keep all panthers on OT and they will spill over and head to casters at which point it is the LOCKS job to fear each one as they head back while priests concentrate on heals. We have great dps so the lack of lock dps on boss while fearing is going on isnt really an issue.
So fear panthers as they attack casters and dps like hell when she is up.
We rarely if ever have deaths in the fight using this stragedy and havent been doing this long we just got to and killed hakkar for the first time in the last two weeks and have only been at for about the same time. I hope that helps :)

[Fercil]

One thing that we do differently is that we do not ever kill panthers as they will just respawn and word has it they respawn hitting harder.

Back in the earlier days of ZG they did indeed act like this, after priestess disappeared for second time all panthers that spawned after that were elites. This was however changed ages ago.