Mandokir
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Know Your Lore: Zul'Gurub, a historical survey
The World of Warcraft is an expansive universe. You're playing the game, you're fighting the bosses, you know the how -- but do you know the why? Each week, Matthew Rossi and Anne Stickney make sure you Know Your Lore by covering the history of the story behind World of Warcraft. The Gurubashi trolls were once the greatest empire of jungle trolls in the world, rivals to the great forest troll empire of Zul'Aman to the north and a power to be reckoned with. Their tens of thousands of years of history have seen wave after wave of humiliation, defeat and loss, and they are without a doubt responsible for much of that defeat. They have consorted with powers not to be trifled with and driven their neighboring troll tribes into slavery or exile. The empire of the Gurubashi, centered in their great city of Zul'Gurub, was founded after the great war with the Aqir that forever divided the insect state into the distant northern Nerubians and the southern Qiraji. While this defeat was near-total for the arthropod empire, it also fractured troll society forever. Before the war, the Zandalar tribe had stood preeminent, although it was the Amani and Gurubashi who led the charge against the Aqir. Theirs was the hereditary rulership of all troll tribes, theirs was the way of scholarship and it was to them that the hereditary priesthood of the trolls derived its furthest development. Yet none of these facts could prevent the division of the trolls. After the war, a weakened and shaken Zandalar tribe found itself no longer the center of troll society. It still ruled the ancient birthplace of all trolls, it was still respected ... but the power had forever shifted to the Amani and Gurubashi, and it was not to shift back for tens of thousands of years. (Spoilers for the Zul'Gurub 5-man are in this post.)
Patch 4.1: Guide to the new Zul'Gurub
Of the two "new" troll-themed 5-mans going live in patch 4.1, Zul'Gurub seemed by far the easier with the groups I had on the public test realm (PTR), though both it and Zul'Aman require an average ilevel of 346 in order to queue through the dungeon finder. However, if you're going to pug this content, be advised that there are a number of different mechanics that can wipe groups quickly. Shifting Perspectives readers will be familiar with elements of this article, as I wrote a guide to Zul'Gurub for druid tanks and healers in late March. I've expanded that here and have also tried to include a sense of the instance from a less class-specific viewpoint. Because the instance's mini-bosses have fairly simple mechanics (and regrettably, I never landed a group that did all of them), I've ignored them here in favor of the instance's five "real" bosses.
Patch 4.1 PTR: Running the new 5-man heroic Zul'Gurub
As we've learned this past week, two troll dungeon favorites are returning to Cataclysm as 5-man heroic dungeons for players level 85 to tackle, complete with new stories, new encounters, and a whole bunch of new mechanics. Today, I did a fairly complete run of Zul'Gurub with a great group of random players on the PTR servers, completing most of the encounters and bugging out poor old Bloodlord Mandokir. Click through for my first impressions, boss mechanics, and some difficulty assessments. This post and gallery contain fight and potential story spoilers for the new Zul'Gurub. %Gallery-117659%
One Boss Leaves: Sapphiron vs. Mandokir wrap-up
It's going to come as a surprise to very few of you (about 11% of you) that Sapphiron came out ahead of Bloodlord Mandokir in our most recent match of Two Bosses Enter. I suppose it's not unexpected, as Mandokir's greatest strength (his ability to grow in power as he kills people) would do him little good in a one-on-one match with Sapphiron. In this fight, Mandokir was little more than a powerful meleer, and eaten alive by Sapphiron's death-from-above approach. The exact results of the fight are as follows: All I can say is ouch. It looks like the Bloodlord is heading back home to Zul'Gurub with a badly bruised ego -- though after eating a few raid groups (who no doubt don't take him seriously, because he's old-world content) I'm sure he'll be right back in the game. Our next match, between Ahn'Qiraj's Moam and Zul'Gurub's Hakkar (yes, after this one-sided fight, our brackets have been rearranged to, hopefully, make for more interesting battles in the future).
Two Bosses Enter: Sapphiron vs. Bloodlord Mandokir
This week, Two Bosses Enter starts its second round of boss deathmatches. We started this game back in June with 32 bosses to chose from and now we're down to a scant 16. Some of our results have already surprised me -- and I have no doubts that more surprises are in store as our next round of battle begins. Our matchups for this round are as follows: Sapphiron vs. Mandokir Moam vs. the Twin Emperors Ragnaros vs. Ossirian Kel'Thuzad vs. Archimonde Vaelastrasz vs. Hakkar Illidan vs. Chromaggus Vashj vs. Huhurahn Gruul vs. C'Thun Today we'll consider the first fight of the next eight: Sapphiron against the Bloodlord Mandokir. Who wins and who loses? Read on and decide for yourself!
One Boss Leaves: Rajaxx vs. Mandokir wrap-up
Last week we considered a fight between General Rajaxx and Bloodlord Mandokir, and the results of the vote were quite clear: Bloodlord Mandokir emerged vitorious, and by a wide margin. As you can see by the vote results, it wasn't even a close fight: Of the people who commented on the battle, all seemed to think that Mandokir's ability to level up off of kills would render him completely unstoppable after he eliminated Rajaxx's army of minions. Those voting for Rajaxx felt that his Thunder Clap ability, which halves the health of anyone nearby, would manage to take Mandokir down anyway.So another battle is finished, leaving the overall standings as follows. And our next fight starts tonight -- so stay tuned!
Two Bosses Enter: Rajaxx vs. Mandokir
Two bosses enter... but only one gets to leave! We've made a list of 32 of the most interesting raid bosses in World of Warcraft and are going to pit them against each other, one at a time, until there's one ultimate victor remaining. And who gets to decide who wins? You, of course! Each of our winners will be decided by your votes.Interested yet? For this week's fight we're matching up Ahn'Qiraj's General Rajaxx (not to mention the General's many soldiers!) and Zul'Gurub's Bloodlord Mandokir. To find out a bit more about these two -- and for a chance to voice your own opinion -- keep reading!
Around Azeroth: Bloodlord Mandokir
For those out in the audience who have never visited the Bloodlord Mandokir in Zul'Gurub, I will explain this shot, sent in by unlucky reader Leviathan of Kul Tiras. In this shot, you see Mandokir hovering over a knee-height human. Now know that he starts the fight the size of an ordinary troll -- but every time someone in the raid group dies, he gains a bit in strength and size. If that doesn't sound bad enough, there are also spirit healers encircling the courtyard, who will offer to resurrect you if you fall during the battle -- so you can have people dying over and over again. By the time Mandokir is the size you see him in this shot, though, I'd say it's past time to call a wipe. Do you have a unique shot of Azeroth that you'd like to show off to the rest of the world? Tell us about it by e-mailing aroundazeroth@gmail.com! You can attach a picture file or send us a link to one -- and don't worry about formatting, we'll take care of that part.
