ZG: Panter boss (Arlokk)

[eXeel]

Hi all,

We're a casual danish only guild on Chromaggus, who are enjoying trips to ZG for some nice loot, but mostly for the challenge and social factor. Mainly we're interested in one run per week, so we depart every Sunday Noon.

At first, we downed Snake, Bat, Spider and Raptor, with a little help for some temporary well-geared visitors. Then we tried doing it in guild with normal geared folks, which made it a little harder on Spider (dps) and Mandokir (dps, heal). We're at the moment taking the first three, and Mandokir once in a while (in need of a full 20 man raid, normally).

To add some spice to it, we decided to try Panter just after Venoxis, to have time for some trial and error, gathering experience and checking our skills against her.
After 5-7 tries, we got her to 5-8%. The factor that is important now, is offtanks control of panters, fast AoE and then regain aggro on panters, while boss is MTed and dps'ed down.

OUR TACTIC:
• Ranged stands 8 yard away from gong. Offtanks 10 yards away. MT about 20 yards away.
• Offtanks AoE aggro with Dem. Shout. We AoE a little after first vanish and a little before second, to avoid losing healers and dps to rogue panters.
• Paladin bubbles used on healers with Mark, Combat res on dead healers or high dps people. SS saved for wipe.

LESSONS LEARNED:
• Assigning paladins to stand in middle of pens, offtanks in each pen and rest at opposite side of the room than the Gong didnt work. Offtanks lost too many panters, since they ran through the "walls of the pen" and straigth to the raid.
• Instead positioned us as said above, all at Gong, close to constantly get aggro and to AoE fast.
• Chain fear tactic is too reliant on Priest focus on fear, unlucky resists, chaos, proper rotation etc. Then rather choose offtanking, then AoE, then offtanking again. And focus on learning to do it this way, instead of betting on two horses.

WIPE REASONS:
• Panter adds rogue on healers or high dpser. With and without marks. Maybe with time we get better at maintaining aggro and get lucky not to get too many important people marked?
• Arlokks cleave. Raid maybe move close to the Gong, MT move further away, so he has more time to taunt, pull away and regain aggro on Arlokk, so she doesn't get close enough to cleave?

That is basically what I can come up with. The reason it got harder at the end was, that we lose first one Paladin, then the other one (No more BoK, BoL, Armor Aura, heal, bubble to remove mark) and lost a little dps.
Was about 15-17 people, so naturally if we can keep a couple paladins, a couple mages, enough healers, two offtanks, one maintank and great dps, we'll be better off, that we are aware off.

Can you come up with any more tips for us? I think this positioning could work (All close together), better than the other one according to our experiences (Offtank at each pen).
We'll try him again when we get a full, proper raid group and would love to be as prepared as possible, using our newly gained experience and your suggestions for improvement :)

Thanks in advance!

[Tiddly]

We tried a number of tacics for this boss and the one we have stuck with is..

Keep a tank in each pen using AoE taints etc.. and a pala outside the pens near the wall by the gong.. they are there only for healing tanks.. if any panthers escape they usually go for the palas.

All others have there backs to the wall opposite the gong except for the MT..

1st Phase we go all out DPS after 3 sunders, she should be tanked with her back to the party.. once vanished.. go and kill any panthers that are on the palas but leave the ones on the OT's.

Next phase wait for 4 sunders, go all out. when it vanishes kill any escapees.. at this phase the palas may be running out of mana so have a backup healer ready to take over.

keep this up until dead

All players should be agains the wall when vanished..

We don't kill any panthers in the pens until the boss is dead.

we still wipe sometimes if too many escape or a pala dies/oom but for the most part it works quite well

[eXeel]

What gear does your dps'ers have? It seems you get her down very fast, if your offtanks can handle all panters until boss is down. That would of course be easier, but I doubt we at least can keep offtank up that long.

Doesnt the panters run from pens and directly through the pen walls and go for the main raid? Our offtanks mentioned that, which makes it really hard to gain aggro before they are out of range. Where do you place the offtanks?
If you stand at hte opening of the pen, do you then place him in the further right corner, the corner closest to the opposite wall of the Gong? Then in theory they have more "time" to aggro them, if they can aggro through the wall, but it still doesn't seem to work for us.

The first 5-7 panters ran right through offtanks and to our raid, when we used that tactic.
That is why we did it the other way. Then offtanks still aggro panters, the only difference is if a healer or something gets marked, I suppose the panters more easily will go for him because LOS. But we cannot use offtanks in pen, if they cannot get aggro there before panters escape to our main raid, if you understand...

[eXeel]

More tips, tricks, suggestions, hints, tweaks? :)
We'll try him again maybe Wednesday (Sometimes we raid 19:00) or Sunday, if enough people log in.

[Tiddly]

I can't ever remember the panthers running through the wall to get to the main party.. always out the other end and onto the palas.

if any happen to get to the main party the maged AoE them and frost nova.. we kill them after vanish unless there are a lot extra.

we usually have 3 rogues and 3 mages, couple of warlocks. The OT's will be using tank gear that they have aquied through Zg and now MC so that will probably help, but the first time we started the tactic we wouldn't have been geared so well.

we have progressed quite quickly because a lot of people learned together and ran instances to get geared before starting.

We have just downed raggy for the first time which I don't think is too bad as we only started raiding ZG 3 or 4 months ago.

[eXeel]

That sounds interesting. Now we're beginning to do it the other way, with the alternate positioning, I'd rather stick with that for some time. If that fails, we must retry with either better offtanks or someone keeping track of them, to see how the panters slip through their Demoralizing Shouts.
Or I must let someone else MT while I try to OT, to experience how possible it is. If that could work, it would be the better choice of strat. But if you cannot hold the panters, it simply doesn't work as well as what we are doing now...

Thanks for your shared experiences :)

[KillerQueen]

We tried a number of tacics for this boss and the one we have stuck with is..

Keep a tank in each pen using AoE taints etc.. and a pala outside the pens near the wall by the gong.. they are there only for healing tanks.. if any panthers escape they usually go for the palas.

All others have there backs to the wall opposite the gong except for the MT..

1st Phase we go all out DPS after 3 sunders, she should be tanked with her back to the party.. once vanished.. go and kill any panthers that are on the palas but leave the ones on the OT's.

Next phase wait for 4 sunders, go all out. when it vanishes kill any escapees.. at this phase the palas may be running out of mana so have a backup healer ready to take over.

keep this up until dead

All players should be agains the wall when vanished..

We don't kill any panthers in the pens until the boss is dead.

we still wipe sometimes if too many escape or a pala dies/oom but for the most part it works quite well


My guild does it similar to this. Except we have paladins in the cages consecrating so the panthers go after them, Although warriors work good too. We have druids healing the paladins because it seems that when the boss comes back she goes for whoever is healing the paladins, and they can go into bear form.

Also whenever someone gets marked they go into the corner where I think there is a torch or something. That way they are out of line of sight and the panthers dont leave the caged area.

[Steamboat]

Our guild assigns a paladin to each pen to consecrate tank the panthers, then we assign a warrior to each paladin to pick up any strays. The paladins heal themselves, but one healer is assigned to make sure that both pallies and both warriors stay alive. That's usually me, it's not too rough. Concentration aura ftw.

I'm not too sure what the rest of the raid does, only we make sure everyone has their back to a wall when she vanishes, that way you can avoid the backstab.

[Twoflower]

we try to offtank whit warriors in the two side rooms, but it never works, so we bomb the panthers down every time the boss vanishes. if there are too many while the boss is around, we have the mages freeze them in place whit a frostnova rotation. If the boss disapears more than 2 times you should look for some more damage dealers.

[Oatmealsmurf]

We do it the same as the first suggestion. We have two warriors off tank panthers in their pens with an assigned Shaman healing just them. DPS is all out after aggro is established ... marked person runs to the niche in between the gong and the wall to funnel panthers in and be killed with minimal danger to the target... and when Arlokk disappears entire raid spreads out to prevent cleave from hitting more than one person. Pop every DPS increasing cooldown you have when arlokk is in human form and she burns down pretty fast. More than two vanishes and you could be in trouble.

[Steamboat]

Yeah, we have only been successful on one occassion where we had a 3rd vanish. When she reappeared, only 1 hunter remained alive and Arlokk was at 1%. That was a fun encounter.

[marriedman]

Our guild used to have problems with panther all the time. THen we switched which side of the room we were on:
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Intstead of sitting by the gong, the DPS group sits by the "shield" we have 2 OT groups, war, heal, etc, and the MT in the middle. I'm a lock, so we park our imps in the middle along the fence so the OTs can get the buff.

Any person that gets marked sits directly underneath the shield. The MT runs around trying to find her when she reapears, after he gets enough threat(KTM is god) we go all out each time.

I find that very few panthers escape the pit if you have the marked people sit dirrectly underneath the shield. The DPS group is already there, backs to the wall to avoid the BS.

Hope this helps.

Edit: it didn't like the spaces, excuse the crude diagram but I feel that some people are visual learners when it comes to Video games.

[rgirty]

We aoe the panthers down between vanishes anyone that gets marked goes up and stands beside the gong.

We typically lose a few people but never fail to down the boss and have enough left to rez/rebuff.

It isn't perfect but it gets the job done.

A few paladins/mages/locks can take care of the panthers while the tanks/priests/rogues/hunters dps the boss down.

[eXeel]

The way I see it, we are in the following situation:

• Too low dps. This is caused by us not being a full 20 man raid everytime, last time we were 17-18.
• Positioning. Still need to work on finding the best possible position for us.
• Execution. Each of us individuals and as a group, we need to perform our tasks as flawlessly as possible.

Two of these are pure experience and will come with time, but the dps is harder. If we can't dps him down before 3rd stealth, is it then nearly impossible?
We have what ZG gear we have farmed from Venox, Jeklik and some Marli and a little Mandokir, plus our UBRS and Strat/Scholo etc runs. This gear should be proper to dps him fast enough, right?
If I recall correctly, the classes we had with us was 4 rogues, 3 warriors, 1 druid, 2 warlocks, 1-2 paladins, 2 mages, 1 hunter, 2-3 priests. With the warriors tanking, of course... So the dps we had was 2 mages, 1 hunter, 2 warlocks and 4 rogues.

We will of course try again, but if we are geared in UBRS and 5 man gear, is it then impossible with 18 man to dps fast enough?

[Twoflower]

can't you find 2 more people ? :)

and yes, it sure is possible, it is just harder :) but finaly, if the tactic and the execution is perfect, i dont see any reason why you couldnt do it whit 15 people, or even 10.

[eXeel]

can't you find 2 more people ? :)

and yes, it sure is possible, it is just harder :) but finaly, if the tactic and the execution is perfect, i dont see any reason why you couldnt do it whit 15 people, or even 10.

Sometimes we can, sometimes we can't :) The danish only requirement along with others, and that we don't take in everyone, means we're a bit limited on people. Quality over quantity :)
Okay, we'll keep working on it! But with low dps, we get more stealths and that means more times we need to AoE adds down. How many times before they get too nasty for a raid like ours?

[Dutchgrass]

I was under the impression that the encounter was changed in such a way that offtanking the panthers on the sides was pretty much pointless as they go for the marked player regardless?

We just heal the marked player until it wears off, use AE fear and Frost Nova to keep the adds from killing anyone during the time she is visible. Once she uses Vanish, clump them together and AE them all.

I strongly suggest you bring Flash Bombs next try, it makes the encounter almost a joke.

[Dallana]

The key to this fight is the cage tanks keeping those panthers under control.

I usually cage tank for my guild and it's one of the things thats a little daunting at first, but once you get the hang of it, it's fine. My method is to stand in the cage, facing the centre of the room with a gap between me and the cage - this gap is where the panthers will walk through, they don't go through the walls of the cage although it can seem that way if they're not picked up since they will be in stealth and only appear once they are ready to attack which gives the impression that they are walking through the wall.

The best thing to do is Bloodrage as soon as the gong is activated and when you see the first panther walk through the gap between the cage and you, right click it. repeat for the 2nd and 3rd panthers and then start using Demo Shout every time you see a new panther. Try to right click it as well but once you have a few on you this becomes more difficult. Once you have around 5-6 you should be able to spam Demo shout to keep aggro and won't have to worry about it.

Don't bother AOE'ing the panthers in between vanishes. The maximum amount of panthers that can spawn is 40 and once you hit that number, no more will spawn. What you are doing when you AOE them is essentially exchanging a load of panthers that a Tank has under control, for a load of panthers that he doesnt and that can be nasty for your healers.

Also the healers on the cage tanks (We use 2 Shammies, but we're horde so I guess Pallies are your equivalent!) need to rank down their heals, The Tanks aren't going to be taking masses of spiky damage and it's better to rank down and heal constantly rather than blast several big heals once every so often - make sure they get Mana pots as well. This kind of tactic really comes into play in the bigger instances and it's worth doing here.

Stand everyone else at the other end of the room from the gong and if they get marked they'll be out of the aggro range of the panthers. Get the other healers to keep up the MT and DOT as well. Rogues should be ready with the vanish button in case they pull aggro (we go on 2 sunders) and also use bandage as she has a nasty 360 degree cleave - dead Rogues do no DPS!

Be patient with the tanks in the cages as well. This kind of thing is quite difficult to get the hang of at first but positioning yourself in the manner above will help a LOT. Its very rare for us nowadays to lose any panthers and if a couple do get loose, DPS then down when she vanishes.

In so far as DPS goes, a third vanish isn't that much of a problem provided you can keep the panthers under control and cage healers can conserve their mana. However it might be worth investing in a few buffs for this fight to give yourself a little boost. Get the Rogues/DPS Warriors Elixir of the Mongoose, Giants, Winterfall Firewater etc. Get the Cage healers Mageblood Potions etc. and get the DPS casters Arcane Elixirs etc.

[Pongle]

I've seen it done like this.

Ranged bunch up (healers, hunters, the lot), one warlock spams hellfire once a few tigers show up - he doesn't stop, if he's marked another lock takes over. 3 healers on MT, 1 healer on Hellfire Lock, 3 healers on Marked Folks.

Works well if your mages do alot of dps.

[Dutchgrass]

I've seen it done like this.

Ranged bunch up (healers, hunters, the lot), one warlock spams hellfire once a few tigers show up - he doesn't stop, if he's marked another lock takes over. 3 healers on MT, 1 healer on Hellfire Lock, 3 healers on Marked Folks.

Works well if your mages do alot of dps.

I'm going to assume you're Alliance, because without a Paladin to give the Warlock Concentration Aura, Hellfire is not really viable.

[det]

We are MC geared with bits from BWL...but also run ZG for six months now. Wipes on panther are always a possibility. Tactics (if you can call them that)

-All at gong, sound it. earthbind totems in middle of room.
-Tank gets aggro, we nuke. Players who get targeted by panthers get a shield an run circles around the totems.
-When Arlokk vanishes, Frostnova and AoE panthers..they die really fast.
-Move to other side of room (where door is) and when she re-appears (usually in the gong area); rinse and repeat..we usually have her after she vanished twice.

Design flaw for your own raid: We have Shamans, you have Paladins.

[eXeel]

I have an update. Tonight we killed her! After one failed try, where I was giving the raid tactics to stand by the Gong, and one mistakenly hit it. So we were unpotted, unprepared and unpositioned... But got her to 30% or so :D

Second try we buffed up, drank potions, positioned us, went through tactics and began. It was first time for a bit of them and we made some mistakes, but still we managed to get her to a couple of percentage with a few people left.
She ended up killing all but Nanett, our beloved hunter babe and just as she charged Nanett and she had to begin melee, Arlokk fell to the floor. Beaten.
Soo close!

It wasn't a completely flawless execution, but it was our 1½ try that evening (Second evening taking on Arlokk), so I was impressed enough. Satisfied. Now we just need to get her down safer and maybe with a few less people or lower dps.
That is needed if we must get her on "farm", and then to learn Tiger and take on Hakkar. Thanks! :)

[Dutchgrass]

Grats on the kill.

Really though, bring Flash Bombs. Easy to make and extremely effective.:wink:

[waylanderr]

Sorry this thread is long so I didn't have time to read it all.

Try not concerning yourself with killing panthers but rather immobilizing them.

Have 3-4 mages down by the gong, rest of party down by the crates, backs to the wall. Whenever someone gets panther aggro they run to the mages. The mages have a frost nova rotation to keep the panthers anchored down at that end of the room. This works because there is a set amount of panthers in the room at any one time I believe.

I've done tanks in the pen strat as well. just give them each a paladin to heal them and that works too. Remember when she pops the second or third time she will go directly for one of these paladins [they should bubble or get two shot by her].

Gratz on your success. I kinda think the panther and the mobs clearing to Hakkar are harder then the Hakkar fight itself.

[eXeel]

Sorry this thread is long so I didn't have time to read it all.

Try not concerning yourself with killing panthers but rather immobilizing them.

Have 3-4 mages down by the gong, rest of party down by the crates, backs to the wall. Whenever someone gets panther aggro they run to the mages. The mages have a frost nova rotation to keep the panthers anchored down at that end of the room. This works because there is a set amount of panthers in the room at any one time I believe.

I've done tanks in the pen strat as well. just give them each a paladin to heal them and that works too. Remember when she pops the second or third time she will go directly for one of these paladins [they should bubble or get two shot by her].

Gratz on your success. I kinda think the panther and the mobs clearing to Hakkar are harder then the Hakkar fight itself.

I'm really glad to hear this. Maybe it's more of a matter of opinion, but to get different people's view on the difficult comparison is very helpful.
We'll definately try to get made some flash bombs, which will come in handy when priests, offtanks etc are out of fear.

We did it with all the raid by the gong, since that was what the more experienced people in the guild had done in earlier guilds and there was a majority vote on that. So fine by me, as long as people agree...

Therefore the mage frost nova rotation isn't as viable. Maybe we can just send them out to the sides or somewhere. I'll think about that :)
Thanks once again... I'll soon bother you with Tiger tactics, after we've tried a bit and know where our problems are! wowwiki will help me until then.

[det]

Gratz on the kill.

Hakkar is an incredible technical fight (again) and as long as you get the self-poisoning routine dow, easy as cake. Also, if you muck it up, just run down the steps and he resets...

Now..Jin'Do is a different matter...

[Dallana]

I'll soon bother you with Tiger tactics, after we've tried a bit and know where our problems are! wowwiki will help me until then.

I would say if you can do Arlokk you shouldn't have too many problems on the tiger boss. Biggest problem is keeping him under control in Phase 2.

[Tiddly]

Agree. the first stepis pretty easy with getting them down and dead in 10 seconds.. the next phase has never been anything but mayhem for us :) we still kill that pussy cat every time but its never clean and easy like the rest.

[Dagul]

Hi

Server: Norgannon,
Race: Horde

We have a very different approach in downing her. We didn't actually deploy any Warrior or any Mages or any AOE in the cage all of us were all backed against the wall (well except for the hunters) and when the Gong starts.

We AOEd the living heck outta her. and when the panter mobs come we frost them in one neat group in the middle and AOE the livin hell outta them. so by the time the Panter boss appears we started DPSing on her (rinse and repeat people and she goes down like a sack of potatoe). Granted its a bit chaotic but it works and our mana pull still has 20% left

[WatcherZero]

Yeah, only downside of this strategy is the number of panther spawns is proportional to the amount killed, the more you kill the more spawn. IF your not dpsing the boss down just as fast you will get overwhelmed by fresh full health panthers.