Nalorakk Strategy Guide (Zul'Aman) - (TBC) Burning Crusade Classic

Author: Pride
Date: April 13, 2022
Updated: April 28, 2022
Expansion: TBC Classic

Zul’Aman Raid Guide

Nalorakk, the Bear Avatar, is one of the 4 Loa bosses that players will fight in the Zul’Aman raid.

He will typically be the second boss that players fight in Zul’Aman, and most players consider him to be the easiest boss in all of Zul’Aman. He is the first boss that requires two tanks — though a Protection Paladin could solo tank him if your raid has sufficient raid DPS. Defeating Nalorakk adds 15 minutes to the timed challenge event.

This guide will offer a detailed, step-by-step tutorial on how to defeat Nalorakk before you bleed out due to his powerful DoTs.

Make sure you’re on Nalorakk’s platform when he is engaged, not on the stairs — you will be locked out if you’re on the stairs
Immediately as the fight starts, spread out so you’re at least 11 yards away from every other player
As much as possible, keep your back against the wall, so you don’t get knocked very far away by Surge

Use your personal DPS cooldowns during Heroism / Bloodlust for maximum DPS, while Nalorakk is in his troll form
Nalorakk cannot target players in melee range with his Surge, so you only have to avoid being within 10 yards of ranged DPS players

Use your personal DPS cooldowns during Heroism / Bloodlust for maximum DPS, while Nalorakk is in his troll form
Don’t be at your maximum range from Nalorakk – he will knock you very far away with Surge
Casters: Nalorakk will repeatedly silence in his bear form, so it’s strongly advised that you save your cooldowns & trinkets for his troll form

Troll Form

Nalorakk’s damage is pretty low so you could help DPS him down during this phase
Make sure both tanks are above 50-60% HP at all times however, to avoid accidental Brutal Swipe
He uses Surge pretty infrequently, so you can just throw a HoT effect on anyone hit by it and let it heal them up
After the first troll form, you’ll have to heal the offtank more as he has the Lacerating Slash debuff from the previous phase

Bear Form

Nalorakk’s tank damage increases significantly here, while his raid damage gets even lower
Spam heal on the main tank if they have both bleed effects at once — Lacerating Slash & Rend Flesh
Nalorakk will typically silence you after putting both bleeds on the main tank, so make sure they have heal-over-time effects

Troll Form

Both tanks need to stack up in front of the boss here, with one tank main tanking while the second tank is a Brutal Swipe damage sponge
If you’re only using 1 tank, it’s recommended that you use mitigation gear & consumables, Brutal Swipe hits hard

Bear Form

If you’re using 2 tanks for this fight, the second tank needs to taunt and take over tanking, as Mangle makes his bleeds very dangerous
Consider using defensive cooldowns to help your healers out when you have both bleed effects at once — Lacerating Slash & Rend Flesh
If you’re using a single Protection Paladin tank strategy, use Divine Shield when you have both bleeds, so you remove them & Mangle
Blessing of Protection will remove Lacerating Slash & Rend Flesh, but not Mangle
After he reverts to his troll form, the original tank needs to taunt and take over tanking, while the bear form tank soaks Brutal Swipe again

Abilities

Troll Form

Nalorakk starts the fight in his regular troll form. In his troll form, he can use Mangle, Brutal Swipe and Surge. Furthermore, he dual wields his axes, causing him to attack twice every 2 seconds — though his off-hand attacks are about 50% weaker than his main hand attacks.

After 45 seconds in his troll form, he transforms into his bear form.

Nalorakk mangles his current target, dealing 60% weapon damage to them and applying a debuff to them, which increases the damage they take from Bleed effects by 100% for 1 minute.

This ability is one of the reasons why doing Nalorakk with 1 tank will be rough. While a decently geared tank can survive Brutal Swipe, having multiple bleed effects ticking for double damage would make this fight very difficult on your healers. Protection Paladins can use Divine Shield to remove the debuff when Nalorakk transforms into his bear form (Blessing of Protection will not work, as the debuff is classified as a Nature spell effect) — so if your raid can kill Nalorakk quickly, you can get away with just 1 tank (the Protection Paladin) for this fight, otherwise 2 tanks are highly recommended.

The timing of this ability is highly erratic — Nalorakk can use it as often as every 3 seconds, though typically he will do so every 10 to 15. That is why it’s recommended that your Protection Paladin removes the debuff during Nalorakk’s bear form, as he’ll just constantly reapply it during his troll form.

Nalorakk swings his weapon, dealing 28,500 to 31,500 Physical damage to all players in a cone in front of him. This ability is similar to Mother Shahraz‘s Saber Lash ability, where the damage is evenly split between all targets hit and further reduced by armor, albeit significantly weaker — typically hitting tanks for 8-12k solo, or 4-6k if two tanks share the damage.

Well-geared tanks will survive this damage even if they don’t split it, particularly Feral Druids with their high health, armor and dodge chance. If your healers are struggling to keep the tank up, or if your tank doesn’t have the best gear, it’s highly recommended that 2 tanks share the damage.

The timing of this ability is pretty erratic — Nalorakk can use it once every 10 seconds, but he’ll typically only cast it once every 20 to 30 seconds, so you are only likely to see it once or twice per Troll Form phase.

Nalorakk targets a random player in the raid and charges them. That player, as well as any other player within 10 yards of them, will take 3700 to 4300 Physical damage and be knocked back very, very far. This ability isn’t very dangerous — the damage is reduced by armor so it’ll only 2-3k damage, usually — but it’s highly annoying, and it can disrupt healers, so it is recommended that players spread out to avoid all getting hit at once.

Note that this ability will only target players outside of Nalorakk’s melee range if possible, so it will typically only target ranged DPS and healers. However, if there are no players outside his melee range, it can target anyone, making stacking up behind him a fairly bad idea.

Used every 15 to 20 seconds.

Bear Form (Shape of the Bear)

Nalorakk transforms into his bear form after 45 seconds of his troll form. In his bear form, he can use Lacerating Slash, Rend Flesh and Deafening Roar. Furthermore, he loses his dual wield ability and attacks 33% slower, so once every 2.66 seconds, but his attacks deal 15% more damage.

Nalorakk will revert back into his troll form after 30 seconds of his bear form.

Nalorakk lacerates his current target, applying a Bleed effect on them for 18 seconds, causing 1735 Physical damage to them every 2 seconds, for a total of 15,615 damage over its duration. As it is a Bleed effect, this damage is not mitigated by armor. The damage is increased to 3470 every 2 seconds if it target is afflicted by Mangle, which is why you’ll want to have different tanks for his troll & bear forms.

Cast every 15 to 20 seconds, effectively meaning that your tank will have this debuff for the entirety of Nalorakk’s bear form and then some.

Nalorakk mauls his current target, instantly dealing 5850 to 7150 Physical damage to them and applying a Bleed effect on them for 5 seconds, causing 2335 Physical damage to them every second, for a total of 11,675 damage over time, or 18,175 damage on average in total.

The instant damage component is reduced by armor and isn’t affected by the Mangle debuff, so it’s not too bad — typically only hitting tanks for about 2500 damage. The damage-over-time bleed component however is absolutely nasty, ignoring armor and being boosted by Mangle to 4670 damage per second, which will push your healers to their limit. This spell is pretty much why you’ll want to have 2 tanks for Nalorakk. If you have a Protection Paladin solo tanking this boss, this is where he’ll want to use his Divine Shield, removing both Mangle and Rend Flesh at once.

Cast every 7 to 12 seconds, so your tank will have this debuff for a majority of the bear form phase.

Deals 1235 to 1365 Physical damage to every player within 50 yards of Nalorakk, and silences them for 2 seconds. Ignores line of sight, so there’s basically no way to avoid this ability conveniently. The damage component is trivla, but the silence can be scary — your healers should make sure your tanks are healthy at all times during the bear form phase, particularly if they have the Rend Flesh debuff, in order to avoid accidents.

Cast every 10 to 20 seconds, so you will typically only see this ability 1 to 2 times per bear form phase.

Raid Composition & Preparation

No special preparation is required for this boss — he’s very straight-forward as far as raid boss encounters go.

This fight is one of the easiest to heal in all of Zul’Aman, as there’s practically no raid damage for healers to take care of, so they can just focus on healing the tank with no other real responsibilities. It could easily be healed by 1 well-geared healer, but at least 2 healers are recommended.

Restoration Druids have a small advantage over other healers in this fight, as their healing-over-time spells are extremely strong at dealing with Nalorakk’s damage-over-time effects efficiently, as well as keeping the tanks healthy when Nalorakk uses his Deafening Roar. Any class of healer can get the job just fine, however — just remember to keep your healing-over-time effects on the main tank during Nalorakk’s bear form.

Caster DPS players have a slight disadvantage in this fight, due to the annoyances of Nalorakk’s Surge and Deafening Roar. That disadvantage is very minor however — there’s no real considerations to be made as to DPS classes and specs for this boss.

If your raid is using a single main tank for this fight, and particularly a Protection Paladin using Divine Shield to remove Mangle, it is highly recommended that your DPS players use DPS consumables, such as flasks, buff food etc. You’re aiming to end the fight before Nalorakk transforms into his bear form a third time (3 minutes and 15 secconds into the fight) and uses Rend Flesh on your tank, as things could get ugly then.

This fight is doable with 1 tank, provided they have good gear or they’re a Protection Paladin, as they can use Divine Shield to remove Mangle during Nalorakk’s bear form, to avoid taking excessive bleed damage.

However, it is highly recommended that less experienced groups use 2 tanks for this fight. One tank tanks Nalorakk’s troll form while another tanks his bear form, and both tanks stack up on top of each other during his troll form to share his Brutal Swipe damage. Feral Druids are great for this fight, but any combination of 2 tanks works just fine.

If you’re using a single tank, it’s highly recommended that they use +stamina consumables, elixirs etc, as they’ll be taking a lot of damage and that can give the healers a little breathing room. Nalorakk’s damage in general isn’t too high however — his attacks cannot even be crushing blows — so if you’re using 2 tanks it’s recommended that they use DPS / threat consumables instead.

The Pull

Nalorakk will constantly taunt you as you’re fighting the packs of enemies leading up to his platform. Once you’re there, there’s 2 more packs to clear — be careful when pulling the 2nd pack, so you don’t accidentally pull Nalorakk immediately afterwards.

You can safely buff up and regenerate mana on the western side of Nalorakk’s platform, just past the stairs, as his aggro range isn’t particularly big. Once your group is ready to pull, have your Hunters use Misdirection on the tank and pull. If your group doesn’t have any Hunters, the main tank can just run in — Nalorakk will typically not use any abilities right at the start, so it’s safe for them to do so.

Note that like most Zul’Aman bosses, Nalorakk’s platform will be locked up the moment you engage him. Therefore, your raid should all make sure to be on the platform when you’re pulling — don’t be on the stairs, or you’ll be locked out of his arena and thus be unable to help your raid.

The Fight

Nalorakk is an extremely straight-forward boss fight that consists of two “phases”, or forms — troll & bear form. He will rotate between those two forms for the entire fight, staying in troll form for 45 seconds and bear form for 30 seconds at a time. Nalorakk is an extra nice guy, and will typically not use any abilities for 10 seconds after switching form, so your raid has ample time to adjust to the new form.

Troll Form

Nalorakk will start the fight in his form. You will want to position as follows for this form:

Everyone spreads out in the room. Ranged players should never be within 10 yards of another player, so as to avoid having multiple players get hit by Surge. A raid boss mod can help you stay apart by typing the /range 10 command in chat. Furthermore, it can be beneficial if ranged DPS players stand with their backs against the wall, like the crafty Warlock in the screenshot above — that way, they don’t have to run as far before they can attack Nalorakk again.

The only other positioning requirement for the troll form phase will be that your tanks stack up on top of each other in front of the boss, if you’re using 2 tanks. By stacking up, they will be splitting Nalorakk’s Brutal Swipe damage 2-ways, which makes things a lot easier for your healers. If your tanks have good gear, however, you could just let 1 tank take it alone while the other tank stays behind Nalorakk with the melee DPS and helps out with some DPS of his own — that way you both increase your raid’s damage & reduce Nalorakk’s damage, by reducing parry haste.

Besides that, this form is more or less a “tank & spank”. Your raid should use Heroism / Bloodlust right at the start, along with personal DPS cooldowns. You’ll have to deal with Deafening Roar‘s silence effect in his bear form, so now is the best time to use them. Your healers could even help DPS a little bit in this phase, as there’s generally very little damage coming out, besides some moderate damage on the tank that 1 healer can deal with and the occasional Surge.

After 45 seconds of his troll form, Nalorakk will transform into his bear form.

Bear Form

Positions will remain the same for Nalorakk’s bear form phase, with one difference: if you’re using 2 tanks, the 2nd tank should now taunt & start tanking the boss instead, while the previous tank moves behind the boss and switches to DPS mode — there’s no more Brutal Swipe splitting damage in this phase.

Nalorakk’s bear form (Shape of the Bear) is even more straightforward than his troll form. However, he ramps up the damage on tanks quite significantly — though he loses his dual wield ability, attacking once every 2.66 seconds rather than twice every 2 seconds, he hits 15% harder and has access to 2 powerful bleeds effects in Lacerating Slash and Rend Flesh. Your healers are the only ones who will really notice this change, in practice.

After the 10 second grace period after the transition, Nalorakk will start using his bear form abilities, typically in the following order: Lacerating Slash > Rend Flesh > Deafening Roar > Rend Flesh > Lacerating Slash > Deafening Roar. Thus, your healers will need to make sure that your tanks are constantly topped off when the tank has both bleed effects on them, as they’re soon going to be silenced and will be thus briefly unable to heal.

If you’re using a 1 tank / Protection Paladin strategy, it is recommended that your Protection Paladin uses Divine Shield (and cancels it right away) after the first Rend Flesh, thus removing both bleed effects and Mangle, ensuring that they can comfortably tank the remainder of the bear form phase. If this is the second bear form, they can use Blessing of Protection to remove both bleed effects, but as Mangle is a Nature effect, it won’t be removed — the next set of bleed effects will hurt, and thus it would be a good idea for them to use defensive cooldowns & trinkets then.

After 30 seconds of his bear form, Nalorakk will revert back to his transform, and thus begin this cycle anew.

Troll Form… Again

With Nalorakk back in his troll form, your group should assume troll form positions once again, with both tanks stacked up on top of each other in front of Nalorakk so as to split Brutal Swipe‘s damage. The tank who previously tanked his troll form taunts him and takes over tanking once more, while the bear form tank essentially just serves as a Brutal Swipe damage sponge again. The bear form tank likely still has the Lacerating Slash bleed effect on them as it persists for a long time, so they’ll need some more healing than the first troll form, in order to comfortably tank Lacerating Slash.

And that is the entire fight — you have now seen all of Nalorakk’s mechanics. He’ll repeat this “dance”: 45 seconds of troll form, followed by 30 seconds of bear form, repeat. If you’re using a 1 tank strategy, you’ll ideally want to kill him in 3 minutes to 3 minutes and 30 seconds, before his third bear form complicates things for you. Everyone else will experience smooth sailing after making it both of Nalorakk’s forms without any deaths.

Congratulations on defeating Nalorakk! His death will extend your timed challenge timer by 15 minutes, and put you solidly at the half-way mark of getting that fancy Amani War Bear that everyone in your group would love to ride!

About the Author

Pride

Classic WoW is my jam, with a passion for PvP. Most know me as Baranor, the ret paladin guy, but I'm secretly a druid main, don't tell anyone. In my free time I play Switch games, particularly JRPGs. Some day I'll be making my own games and I humbly hope you play those too!