Halazzi Strategy Guide (Zul’Aman)

halazzi strategy guide (zul'aman) tbc classic
  • Author: Pride
  • Date: April 23, 2022
  • Updated: April 28, 2022
  • Expansion: TBC Classic

Halazzi, the Lynx Avatar, is one of the 4 Loa bosses that players will fight in the Zul’Aman raid. Defeating Halazzi marks the end of the Zul’Aman timed challenge event — if you managed to defeat him within 45 minutes, you now have a fancy Amani War Bear mount, congratulations!

His fight is the most straightforward of any encounter in Zul’Aman, as most of his mechanics simply deal damage, occasionally with a minor twist. However, that’s not to say that he is the easiest; his high damage will make him the hardest of the 4 Loa for underprepared groups, particularly if your tanks and healers have weak gear.

This guide will offer a detailed, step-by-step tutorial on how to put an end to Halazzi, despite his many lives.

Role Summaries

  • Immediately move to your assigned spot as soon as the fight starts
  • Use a Master Healthstone to stay alive if your healers are struggling to keep the raid alive
  • Stay stacked up with the other melee DPS at all times
  • Use your personal DPS cooldowns during Heroism / Bloodlust for maximum DPS, during Phase 1
  • Don’t bother killing the Spirit of the Lynx, focus your damage on Halazzi instead
  • Kill Halazzi’s Lightning Totem ASAP
  • Stay stacked up with the healers & ranged DPS, at your maximum range away from Halazzi, at all times
  • Use your personal DPS cooldowns during Heroism / Bloodlust for maximum DPS, during Phase 1
  • Don’t bother killing the Spirit of the Lynx, focus your damage on Halazzi instead
  • Kill Halazzi’s Lightning Totem ASAP
  • If the Spirit of the Lynx starts chasing you, move towards the off-tank so they can Taunt it off you
  • If you ever get interrupted by Earth Shock, you are standing too close to Halazzi
  • Shadow Priests, Warlocks: Don’t deal self-damage when Halazzi is approaching 75%, 50% or 25% during Phase 1, you will die
  • Hunters: Dispel Halazzi’s Frenzy with Tranquilizing Shot during Phases 1 & 3
  • Stay stacked up with the healers & ranged DPS, at your maximum range away from Halazzi, at all times

Phase 1

  • The only damage coming out during this phase will be on the 2 tanks; make sure they’re topped off at all times
  • Halazzi will periodically enrage — if your raid doesn’t have a Hunter, you’ll just have to heal through it
  • Make sure the raid is topped off as Halazzi’s HP approaches 75%, 50% or 25%

Phase 2

Phase 3

  • The same as Phase 1, except there’ll be some raid damage due to Halazzi’s Lightning Totem

Phase 1

  • Both tanks need to stack up in front of Halazzi in order to split his Saber Lash damage, similar to Nalorakk
  • Halazzi deals high damage during this phase — be prepared to use defensive cooldowns if necessary
  • Keep debuffs like Demoralizing Shout & Thunder Clap up on Halazzi to make your healers’ lives easier
  • If your group has no Hunters to dispel Halazzi’s Frenzy, consider using defensive cooldowns to stay alive for its duration

Phase 2

  • Halazzi deals less damage during this phase & won’t use Saber Lash so tanks don’t need to stack up
  • The off-tank needs to pick up Spirit of the Lynx
  • The Spirit of the Lynx will periodically target random players — the off-tank will need to chase it and Taunt it

Phase 3

  • The same as Phase 1, except the off-tank can help DPS the Lightning Totem down if it spawns in front of Halazzi

Abilities

Phase 1 – Merged Form

Halazzi starts the fight in this form, merged with the lynx spirit. He will transition to Phase 2 when his HP drops to 75%, 50% and 25%.

Halazzi swings his weapon, dealing 47,500 to 52,500 Physical damage to all players in a cone in front of him. Virtually identical to Nalorakk’s Brutal Swipe — the damage is split evenly between all targets and is reduced by armor. Unlike Nalorakk’s cleave however, this one actually hurts, hitting tanks for 6-10k damage, so unless your tank has some incredible gear, you’ll want to have 2 tanks sharing the damage.

Cast every 5 to 10 seconds.

Halazzi enrages, increasing his attack speed by 100% for 6 seconds. His Physical damage is already pretty high, and Frenzy pushes it even higher.

Thankfully, Hunters can dispel Frenzy with their Tranquilizing Shot. Groups without a Hunter should instead keep up damage reducing debuffs like Demoralizing Shout / Curse of Weakness (those 2 do not stack) and Thunder Clap to reduce his damage output and help the tank survive.

Cast every 20 to 30 seconds.

Phase 2 – Split Form

When Halazzi’s HP is reduced to 75%, 50% or 25%, he will cast Transfigure, transforming himself to his troll form and summoning the Spirit of the Lynx. While split, he will not use his Phase 1 abilities anymore, instead gaining access to completely brand new abilities.

At the start of Phase 2, Halazzi heals himself to full HP. Getting either Halazzi or the Spirit of the Lynx down to 20% HP will end Phase 2, prompting Halazzi to go back to whatever health percentage he was at before before Phase 2 started – so if you got him down to 50%, triggering his Phase 2, then got him down to 20% after that, he will now go back to having 50% HP.

The exception to this is if he was at 25% HP when Phase 2 started. After Phase 2 ends, Halazzi will instead go into Phase 3.

Halazzi casts this ability when Phase 2 starts. He heals himself to full HP, and causes an explosion, dealing 4275 to 4725 Nature damage to all players. The damage is not extremely high, but your raid should make sure that people are healthy before you transition phases.

Halazzi will summon the Spirit of the Lynx every time Phase 2 starts. The Spirit can and should be tanked, but it will randomly switch target and go for random players every few seconds. Players targeted by the Spirit should be prepared to use defensive cooldowns in order to survive.

In addition to its melee attacks, the Spirit can use 2 other abilities: Shred Armor and Lynx Flurry.

Decreases the target’s armor by 1000 for 8 seconds. Stacks up to 10 times, for a total of 10,000 armor reduced. As this is a fairly substantial armor reduction, you will want to avoid having this debuff on your main tank, so ideally you have the off-tank pick up the Spirit.

Cast every 5 to 10 seconds, but as the Spirit starts chasing random players, it will typically be unable to use this ability on cooldown.

A bizarre enrage effect: for the next 8 seconds, the lynx has 75% increased attack speed, but its damage is reduced by 50%.

Cast every 20 to 30 seconds.

Summons a Corrupted Lightning Totem with 9000 HP at a random spot within 5 yards of Halazzi, lasting 1 minute. While it is alive, the totem will cast Lightning on a random player within 30 yards every 3 seconds, dealing 2565 to 2835 Nature damage to them and chaining to up to 5 nearby players, dealing 30% reduced damage with each chain.

The totem’s damage isn’t extremely high, but your healers will already be stressed for mana during this fight, so it should be killed ASAP.

Cast every 5 to 15 seconds.

A stronger version of the Shaman spell with the same name. Halazzi targets a random player in the raid and instantly deals 3800 to 4200 Fire damage to them, while also applying a magic debuff to them for 12 seconds. The debuff deals 2498 to 2902 Fire Damage every 3 seconds, or10,800 damage over its 12 second duration, for a total of 14,800 Fire damage. As this amount of damage is very high, the debuff must be dispelled ASAP by a Priest’s Dispel Magic or Paladin’s Cleanse.

Cast every 5 to 15 seconds.

A stronger version of the Shaman spell with the same name. Halazzi targets a random player in the raid and instantly deals 4370 to 4830 Nature damage to them, while also interrupting their spellcasting for 4 seconds.

The interrupt can be annoying if Halazzi targets a caster DPS player, or potentially get someone killed if he targets a healer. Thankfully, this spell only has a range of 30 yards, so by standing at their maximum range away from Halazzi, your casters can avoid it completely.

Cast every 5 to 15 seconds.

Phase 3 – Empowered Merged Form

After triggering Halazzi’s Phase 2 with him at 25% HP, and then getting either him or the Spirit of the Lynx down to 20% HP, Halazzi will merge with his Spirit once again — this time transitioning to Phase 3 rather than Phase 1 again.

During Phase 3, Halazzi will use all of his regular Phase 1 abilities, but add Lightning Totem to the mix, so all in all it is not particularly scary. There are some reports of Halazzi previously having an Enrage effect during Phase 3, but this appears to not be the case in Classic TBC.

Raid Composition & Preparation

Halazzi deals high damage to tanks and modest damage to the raid, so it can be very beneficial if everyone has a Master Healthstone ready to use in emergencies, relieving some of the pressure off your healers.

Halazzi’s encounter is the most healing intensive of the 4 Loa, and among the most healing intensive in all of Zul’Aman in general. it will be extremely difficult even for very well geared healer to solo heal this fight, so it’s highly recommended that you have 2. Groups with weaker tanks, healers or DPS may even want to consider having a hybrid class player switch to healing here, as they might struggle with just 2.

Most of the healing difficulty will be in keeping the tank alive, particularly if they don’t have the best gear, so it can be very beneficial to have 1-2 strong, mana-efficient single-target healers like Restoration Druids (who will shine in particular thanks to their ability to heal both tanks easily) or Holy Paladins here. There’s also a good amount of raid damage going around, so 1 AoE healer, such as a Restoration Shaman or Holy Priest, will make things a lot easier.

It is strongly advised that your healers use +healing consumables for this fight, such as Elixir of Healing Power and Golden Fish Sticks. The damage is so high, that every little bit counts.

There are no particular DPS requirements for this fight, and both melee & ranged DPS have a similarly easy time here.

Having at least one Hunter will make things a little bit easier on your healers, thanks to their ability to dispel Frenzy with their Tranquilizing Shot.

An extremely well geared tank, particularly a Feral Druid, could possibly solo tank this fight, but your healers would most likely have several heart attacks trying to keep them alive. It is thus strongly advised that you use 2 tanks for this fight, allowing them to share the damage of Saber Lash, similar to the Nalorakk fight.

Any 2 tank classes / specs work here, but if your raid doesn’t have the best geared players, it can be very beneficial to have a Protection Warrior using Demoralizing Shout & Thunder Clap to reduce Halazzi’s damage output slightly. You could of course have a DPS Warrior do it too, but who are we kidding, neither of those spells are part of their DPS rotation, so results will vary.

It would be very wise for your main tank to use mitigation gear & defensive consumables for this fight, particularly if they don’t have the best gear in general. Your off-tank however only needs to be tanky enough to survive a single Saber Lash, so they can focus on DPS gear & consumables, or if your healers are struggling, maybe consider using avoidance gear, as dodging or parrying Saber Lash will help your healers out a lot.

The Pull

There are 3 trash packs inside Halazzi’s room that must be cleared before engaging him: 2 static packs and 1 patrolling pack. Be careful when pulling them – Halazzi has a large aggro range, and it is very common for people to accidentally pull him while trying to pull the trash.

After you’ve taken care of the trash packs, ress any dead players, buff up and regenerate mana at the entrance to his room.

halazzi 0

Once your group is ready to take on Halazzi, have your Hunters pull him by using Misdirection on the tank. If have no Hunters, the main tank can just run in — Akil’zon will typically not use any abilities right at the start, so it’s safe for them to do so.

Note that unlike most bosses, Halazzi has no chill — he will only wait 5 seconds before using his abilities. Thus in order to avoid randomly losing the tank to Saber Lash, both tanks should be prepared to run in together, while the rest of the raid quickly follows.

This will be ideal positioning for the entire fight:

halazzi 1 2

You will want to tank Halazzi roughly where he was originally standing, with both tanks in front of him so as to share Saber Lash‘s damage, and the melee stacked up directly behind him. This will allow your healers and ranged DPS to stand at their maximum range away from Halazzi, thus being out of range of his Earth Shock. Everyone being stacked up allows AoE heal spells to heal everyone at once, making your healers’ lives a lot easier.

The Fight

Halazzi starts the fight in his merged Lynx & Troll form, known as Phase 1 or Merged Form.

Phase 1 – Merged Form

Phase 1 is an extremely simple “tank & spank” — Halazzi’s only mechanics are Saber Lash & Frenzy, which only the tanks and healers need to deal with… by well, tanking him and healing the tanks, respectively. With both of your tanks stacking in front of Halazzi, Saber Lash‘s damage shouldn’t be a big deal, provided your healers take care to keep both tanks healthy at all times. If you have a Hunter, they can dispel Frenzy with Tranquilizing Shot — otherwise your healers will just have to heal through it, though damage reduction debuffs like Demoralizing Shout / Curse of Weakness and Thunder Clap can help.

The lack of any noteworthy mechanics will make the first Phase 1 the best time for your raid to use Heroism / Bloodlust along with personal DPS cooldowns. Your DPS players will have full uptime to nuke Halazzi — just make sure you’re watching out for your threat.

After you get Halazzi down to 75%, he will trigger Phase 2 for the first time.

Phase 2 – Split Form

Halazzi will begin this phase by casting Transfigure, healing himself to full HP and dealing ~4500 Nature damage to your entire raid — so make sure everyone’s healthy beforehand. Afterwards, he will summon his Spirit of the Lynx companion, which your off-tank should pick up. Note that the Spirit of the Lynx will randomly drop threat and start chasing someone else — it’s okay for your off-tank to follow it around and Taunt it in order to save your squishy casters and healers. Halazzi won’t use Saber Lash (or Frenzy for the matter) during this phase, so it’s okay for the off-tank to not be in front of him.

Besides the Spirit of the Lynx, not a whole lot has changed in the fight. Halazzi will occasionally cast the following spells:

  • Earth Shock: Deals damage and interrupts casting for 4 seconds — your healers and caster DPS can outrange it by standing at max range
  • Flame Shock: Deals damage and applies a damage-over-time effect, which should be dispelled immediately by a Pries / Paladin
  • Lightning Totem: Summons a totem that uses a Chain Lightning type spell — DPS players should kill it ASAP

None of these abilities are particularly threatening and Halazzi doesn’t even use them very often. Provided that the Spirit of the Lynx is handled correctly, this phase will be a breeze. Getting either Halazzi or his spirit down to 20% HP will cause Phase 2 to end. The spirit has less HP than Halazzi, so it’d normally be a better target to focus down, but doing so is very annoying due to its aggro reset ability. Thus your DPS players should focus their damage on Halazzi and ignore the Spirit of the Lynx — even cleaving it is completely pointless, so just let the off-tank holds threat on it.

When Phase 2 ends, Halazzi will go back to the health % he had when this Phase 2 started, so if this was your first Phase 2, he will go back to 75% HP.

Phase 1 – Merged Form… Again

And so the fight resumes in Phase 1 yet again, this time with Halazzi starting at 75% HP. He will go back to only using Saber Lash & Frenzy, so your off-tank needs to go back to standing in front of Halazzi to share the cleave with the main tank. The Spirit of the Lynx will despawn, though any Lightning Totem that were up when Phase 2 ended will still be active, and should be killed ASAP.

There’s nothing new here; it’s just Phase 1 again. This time, you have to get Halazzi’s HP down to 50% for him to trigger Phase 2 again. During Phase 2, get him or his Spirit of the Lynx down to 20% HP, and he goes back to Phase 1, starting at 50% HP. Get him down to 25% HP, and it’s time for Phase 2 one last time. When you get him or his Spirit of the Lynx down to 20% HP for the 3rd time, he will transition to Phase 3 instead of Phase 1.

Phase 3 – Empowered Merged Form

Halazzi starts Phase 3 at 25% HP. He has all of his Phase 1 abilities, with the addition of a single Phase 2 ability: Lightning Totem. You’ll want to kill the totem quickly in this phase so it doesn’t target the tank, but besides that, it’s just more of the same. If you got this far without losing a significant amount of players to the Spirit of the Lynx & your off-tank is still alive to soak Saber Lash damage, chances are you have won, as this part isn’t particularly hard. The only thing that could go wrong during this point of the fight is if your healers go out of mana, but that’s nothing that a few Super Mana Potions can’t fix.

Congratulations on defeating Halazzi and hopefully claiming that awesome Amani War Bear! With this, all 4 of the Loa bosses are defeated, and you can proceed into the inner sanctum of Zul’Aman, taking on the final two bosses!

 

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!
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