Preview of Phase 4 of TBC Classic1

. More than just Zul'Gurub 2.02. The first arrival3. The animal quartet4. Details of the time race5. Malacrass and Zul'Jin6. What's still to come with phase 4?7. when will phase 4 come?8. troll recycling with CataclysmFriends of

cultivated nostalgia, we are slowly approaching the finale of WoW: Burning Crusade Classic! But before we can enter the Isle of Quel'Danas and stuff Kil'jaeden back into the hole, we first have to pay a visit to the Ghost Lands. There, the troll raid Zul'Aman will open its doors with the upcoming content phase 4.

More than just Zul'Gurub 2.0

In vanilla WoW, the Blizzard developers had already brought a troll instance to Azeroth with Zul'Gurub, which perfectly succeeded in appealing to experienced raid guilds and raid newcomers alike. And it was precisely this balancing act that Zul'Aman mastered wonderfully in Burning Crusade.

Random players are thrown into the air by the ELECTRIC STORM of Akil'zon. All players who are not UNDER the affected player then receive high damage. Source: buffed

On the one hand, nine friends and pieces of equipment from Karazhan are enough to celebrate first successes in the Troll Raid of the Spirit Lands. Perfect for twinks and small communities! Rewards include gear and weapons that are better than comparable loot from the Serpentshrine or the Fortress of Storms. Such upgrades are a great way to prepare Twinks for the Black Temple, the Battle for Hyjal, or the final content phase. On the other hand, the developers have included a special time challenge that lets you earn additional goodies - including a Tier 6-level ring and the then highly coveted Amani Warbear.

The latter mount, unlike the mounts from Zul'Gurub, comes with a 100% guarantee if you kill the first four bosses within the time limit. However, only one of the raid can bag the bear. In fact, there were several progress guilds at the time that eventually sold the War Bear to interested players, sometimes for a five-figure sum of gold, which was still a fortune in the TBC era.

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The first journey

Zul'Aman is located in the southeastern part of the Spirit Lands, which is one of the starting regions of the Blood Elves. Followers of the Horde are best to take the route via Silvermoon. Fighters under the Alliance's blue lion banner fly from Ironforge to the Chapel of Hopeful Light in the Eastern Plaguelands. From there, you will ride north to enter the Spirit Lands.

A flight point awaits both factions before the instance, which is important for future journeys. Also, bag all the quests here, because the rewards are numerous: besides gold, you'll get a bag of twenty squares as well as badges of justice, of which you can never have enough.

The animal quartet

In the first combat phase, Nalorakk attacks with the attack BREATHING, which increases bleeding effects by 100%. Source: buffed

Just six bosses await you in Zul'Aman, which are spread out over a wide area in the open-air instance. Four of the meanies rely on animal aspects that grant them special abilities. Nalorakk is the lord of the bears. He can withstand a lot, distributes bleeding effects and strikes with a brutal paw strike. In addition, he charges random players. Akil'zon is an eagle god who uses lightning and wind attacks and sends birds after you.

Jan'alai challenges you in third place. The Dragon Falcon avatar uses a flame breath and fire bombs. In addition, brood guards keep appearing, running to the dragon falcon eggs in the side areas to hatch them. After that, it's on to lynx god Halazzi, who likes to go into a frenzy and torment tanks with his saber slash. There are also annoying ghosts, dangerous lightning totems and a life-stealing flame shock.
Only if you clear the four animal gods within the time limit will you get the full bonus loot! Here you can see the lynx avatar Halazzi, who has some shaman moves in store. Source: buffed

Time race details

You have to defeat these four animal gods as quickly as possible to earn the war bear. The clock doesn't start ticking until you talk to Harrison Jones in the entrance area of the instance. From then on, you'll have 20 minutes to kill the first of the four baddies. If you succeed, you will save one of the four hostages and thus extend the time window for you: Nalorakk adds 15 minutes, Akil'zon another ten minutes.

In total, you have exactly 45 minutes to free all four prisoners. Sounds like a lot, but in November 2007 it was challenging even for experienced players. Nice: Even if you don't rescue all the hostages, additional loot beckons. Each troll you rescue is linked to its own loot box. However, you can only find the fancy bear mount in the fourth crate.
Witch Lord Malacrass is not only flanked by several henchmen, you also have to clear out his bodyguard beforehand. By the way, here you can see the 5-player version of Zul'Aman from Cataclysm. Source: buffed

Malacrass and Zul'Jin

We have left out the last two bosses. After defeating the beastly quartet, you can challenge Hexlord Malacrass in the east. Like Moroes from Karazhan, he is flanked by random minions that you control or kill. In addition, there are shadow volleys from the boss, who also gets stronger and stronger as he drains your powers. In the finale, you'll face Warlord Zul'Jin, who uses warrior skills and is supported by the other animal aspects. Five phases in total await you here!

What else is coming with Phase 4?

Zul'Aman came to the live servers with Patch 2.3, and in addition to the raid, it included guild banks, PvP Season 3, faster leveling up to 60, a rework of the Paladins' Retribution talent tree, a redesign of the Alterac Valley, fresh items for Badges of Justice, and numerous tweaks

.

You get the idea: most of this content is already live in TBC Classic. To compensate for this, Phase 4 will introduce a new feature that didn't exist back then: The Blizzard designers want to introduce the recipes for the Great Drums of the Leatherworkers with Zul'Aman. Unlike the current drums, the improved versions have a range of 40 meters instead of 8.

Goods for badges of justice

As indicated above, G'eras in Shattrath has an expanded offering for Badges of Justice with the upcoming phase. You can find a large portion of the new gear in our guide WoW TBC Classic: Farm Badges of Justice for later phases

.

Also cool: The forged mace Dragonmark

is no longer assigned to the weapon hand in phase 4, but one-handed. This means that especially Furor Warriors and Amplifier Shamans can use the epic peacemaker twice. This will give a big DpS boost. 01:48
WoW: Burning Crusade Classic: The official goosebumps trailer

When is phase 4 coming?

Shadow Resistance reduces the damage dealt by Hexlord Malacass' Shadow Bolts. Source: buffed Until now there is no official date for phase 4 of TBC Classic. However, patch 2.5.4 has hit the PTR in the meantime. In the original Burning Crusade, patch 2.3 (corresponding to phase 4) was released about half a year after patch 2.1 (corresponding to phase 3). At that time, patch 2.2 only brought class adjustments, the voice chat feature, and changes for the Tempo value to the live servers. If we convert that to TBC Classic, Phase 4 wouldn't come for another five months, so maybe July.

After all, Phase 3 didn't start until January 17, 2022, and the same goes for the new PvP season. That very season should also run for a few months so that arena fans can have their fun. But: Since most raid groups are already farming Illidan and Archimonde week after week, that would be a very long drought period. Especially since phase 4 is very unspectacular apart from Zul'Aman. We therefore expect a release sooner.

Troll recycling with Cataclysm

Not everyone in the WoW community was excited about it for a long time, but with WoW patch 4.1, the time had come on April 26, 2011: Blizzard reheated Zul'Gurub and Zul'Aman as heroic 5-player dungeons. This had already worked well with Naxxramas in Wrath of the Lich King. The difficulty of the instances was also hotly debated at the time. Some found the bosses far too easy, others cursed the hard hits of the trolls. In the end, though, the two nostalgia trips were just an in-between snack somewhere between the big raid challenges and the normal "Heros". By the way, the 10-player originals from Vanilla and TBC no longer exist in retail WoW since Cataclysm.

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