The new Zul’Aman and Zul’Gurub instances are now here with us on the live servers.  Even better they are fun to play and are being very well received by the vast majority of players I have talked to.  Players like the instances for having fun fights, good mechanics, nostalgia value, and for the gear that they drop in them. 

An interesting thing is that they essentially now form a second tier of heroics in the game, even though we do not yet have a second tier of raiding, which is kind of an new twist in the game.  Most of the time new raid content comes out before new 5 player content.

What I want to discuss here though is how the two new Heroic Instances fit into the game gear and progression wise.  Are they a replacement for easier heroics, do they replace easy raids? In short, just how good is the gear and how does it change gearing up for raiding, especially with the Firelands raid just around the corner in the next major patch.

Zul’Aman and Zul’Gurub Gear Basics

Let’s cover a few basic things about the gear that drops in these new instances and the requirements to get there.

• Tier 1 heroics drop item level 346 blue items, ZA/ZG drop item level 353 purple (epic) items, while raids still drop item level 359 purple (true?) epic items.
• Tier 1 Heroics require you to have an average ilevel of 329 to queue for them.
• Tier 2 Heroics require you to have an average ilevel 346 to queue for them. This means you pretty much have all the gear from tier 1 heroics or some crafted or raid epic gear to make up the difference.

These items allow a lot of players to fill the gap while gearing up for raiding.  Currently if you are just collecting item level 346 blue items when you first get into raids it can be a bit of a struggle.  It is completely possible to manage, but it can be difficult for some fights.  This allows players to gain that extra little bit of breathing room before entering their first raids. 

These new pieces also fit some holes that exist in gear progression where there was not a good upgrade for several slots from heroics until late into raiding progression.  This makes it a lot easier for players to fill those holes if their guilds can not yet defeat the later bosses in a raid.

Also an interesting note and consideration, all the items are item level 353 not the 359 required to get your “Cataclysmically Epic” achievement.  So players that earn the achievement will still mainly be raid players and PvP players.

Some Great Items

In Cataclysm so far there have been a few slots that are hard to fill with solid pieces, and for many players those slots have been wrists, wands, and even rings.  In addition some older pieces while available for slots were not itemized as well as they could have been.  This made them not really ideal pieces, yet they had to be used as there were few options until later raid bosses.

While I can’t comment on all classes and slots, I do have some examples from a Paladin Tanks perspective. Consider for example the tanking shield that can be found in the new instances and compare it to the previous best pre-tanking shield the crafted one from blacksmiths.

As you can see new The Shield of the Blood God provides pretty much the same stats as the previous best pre-raid shield the crafted Elementium Earthguard.  The key difference however is that the newer shield provides 122 Dodge instead of 117 Hit.  This is a big difference in mitigation for tanks gearing up for raiding and the dodge is more valuable early on than hit.  The same applies for the new tanking neck piece where you can afford to give up some hit for mitigation. 

While the above shows the issue from a Paladin Tanks point of view, most classes seem to have the same issue with stat allocation on different pieces of gear.  Many players are now running ZA and ZG to get different pieces that better fit their itemization requirements even though they are a few item levels lower than what they currently have.

What’s Missing from the Loot Table?

Each class type seems to be missing something from the instance so gearing up completely here is not a real option.  For example there is no tanking plate legs, no plate dps shoulders of waist, no tanking ring, and many more.

On the up side a lot of what is missing can be found via the Justice point or Valor point vendors, so really we don’t need every item covered.

If these two new instances did drop a piece for every possible spec and slot, then the loot tables would be so large that we probably would never get what we really needed to drop anyway.  The drop tables are already fairly large making them bigger would not have been a good thing.

Considerations for Raid Players

One big thing that ZA/ZG allows for is the raider who is trying to gear up but is having just abysmal luck with drops in a raid.  This can be that what they need just never seems to drop, or it can be that they are low on the loot distribution list (or luck for open rolls) in their guild. These instances allow players another place to still get a few upgrades from while waiting for than next raid lockout to reset so they can try again.

Itemization on some of these items are also very good, meaning that even though they are slightly lower level than raid epics, they can in some cases be better in some situations.  They can also be better in some cases as side grades when certain stats like +hit of +expertise are no longer required.   Players are once again being forced to look at and consider the stats on an item as well as the ilevel, which is a good thing as it forces you to consider the math behind the stats.  While not quite as important as in previous expansions due to the Reforging ability, it can still make a difference.

These new instances also allow players that raid to gear up their alts a bit more even if their guilds do not have alt raid nights or if they can not find PUG raid runs.  Both instances affect many players that like having upgrade paths to keep them busy, but don’t have access to raid on multiple nights.

The Messiah’s Take on Zul’Gurub and Zul'Aman Loot

Initially I was very sceptical of providing near raid level gear, and in some cases even better than raid gear, to players in heroics.  However the more I have considered it, overall I really like the loot that drops from these new (refreshed?) instances at it fills several requirements all at once.  I mean really, look at all these positives:

• It allows players to continue to upgrade even if they can not get into a raid
• It provides more gearing options to fulfil specific needs
• The instances provide additional challenge for players that don’t have time to raid (ok, not gear related, but still important!)
• Allows players to gear a little closer to raid level to allow them into raids easier and with less frustration.  This is important because the next tier of raid will be here soon and Blizzard likes having non-raiders be able to access a tier behind current progression raiding fairly easily, this should allow it
• For purists, this gear will not grant the epic achievement since it is not item level 359.

Looks like so many pluses that it’s hard to think that anyone would have serious issues with this given time to consider it.  I know I had issues when this was first announced, but have since reconsidered.

Reforge This | Gearing up for Heroics | Gearing a Paladin for Raiding
Zul’Aman 4.1 Preview | Zul’Gurub 4.1 Preview