Zul'Gurub

At a glance

Forever planning status: Zul'Gurub has no confirmed release or final rules in the WoW: Forever sources checked. Use these inherited Classic encounter plans to organize possible future progression. Raid size, access, resets, tuning and loot still need Forever confirmation before the encounter plan is used live. Confirmed Forever class changes are noted separately; a class having a control spell does not establish that it works on every inherited raid target.

Inherited Classic baseline:

Zul'Gurub is a level 60, 20-player raid in northeastern Stranglethorn Vale. There is no personal attunement. In original Classic it resets every three days, so check the actual reset calendar before scheduling a second run.

Five priests or priestesses empower Hakkar while alive: Jeklik, Venoxis, Mar'li, Thekal and Arlokk. Clear all five for the normal Hakkar strategy. Mandokir, Jin'do, Gahz'ranka and the rotating Edge of Madness encounter are optional. The first five can be routed flexibly; the order below is a practical encounter checklist, not a mandatory linear path.

Do not import the later five-player dungeon's mechanics or Season of Discovery changes.

Before you go

Bring two main tanks and a third player able to off tank, around four or five healers as a starting point, reliable interrupts and poison, magic and curse removal. Thekal's three trolls and Mandokir's raptor make extra tank coverage useful. Adjust healing to the group's gear rather than treating this as a fixed composition rule.

Carry mana and healing potions, bandages and ordinary role consumables. Visit Yojamba Isle first for class quests and the bijou introduction. If you want Gahz'ranka, arrange the lure and five fish before the raid, or a prepared fisherman to collect them. If you want Edge of Madness, bring Gurubashi Mojo Madness and check which boss is available.

Forever preparation: The developers confirm continued access to Classic consumables. Check current item tooltips and stacking rules when preparing them. Traditional world-buff use inside raids still needs policy confirmation; do not require a collection circuit or count those effects in your guaranteed raid budget.

Threat buffs: If your roster includes a Paladin, assign Salvation by job: its current Forever effect reduces generated threat by 30%. Mass Salvation affects the target's whole class. Check both tank and backup-tank buffs, then have the Paladin use Revoke to remove Salvation from those tanks before pulling. See the Paladin guide for current utility.

The route and trash

Clear patrols before settling near a boss. Pull Hakkari packs under control and kill dangerous casters before their spells or healing multiply the fight. Batriders near Jeklik can explode at low health: melee back out rather than finish every pack standing on top of them. Move out of poison and watch the river's crocodiles before taking a water shortcut.

Assign coins, bijous, Primal Hakkari armor tokens, idols and dolls under a declared loot policy. They do different jobs. A Jinxed Hoodoo Pile can also produce enemies, so do not click unfamiliar objects while the group is recovering.

High Priestess Jeklik

In bat form, tank her away from the ranged group and keep healers outside the nearby silence where possible. A designated ranged player can bait charges away from the healer cluster. Off tanks collect the bat waves, then the raid AoEs them before returning to Jeklik.

At 50% she returns to troll form. Assign a firm interrupt rotation for Great Heal and other dangerous casts. Avoid the fire left by bombing bats and remove hostile magic effects from players. Do not lose the heal interrupt because all melee chased a bat.

Wipe and recovery: unhandled bat waves or repeated Great Heals prolong the fight until mana runs out. Check add pickup and named interrupt backups before another attempt.

High Priest Venoxis

Control and kill the four opening snake adds before committing damage to Venoxis. In troll form, Holy Wrath chains for increasing damage, so keep most players spread and limit unnecessary bodies around him. Ranged should not rush him into the next phase while melee are still dealing with snakes. Assign a Priest to Dispel Magic or a Shaman to Purge his Renew, and remove Holy Fire's magic damage-over-time effect from players with a Priest or Paladin.

At 50% he becomes a serpent. Move him out of poison clouds while keeping his front away from the raid. Cleanse eligible poison effects and prepare tank healing for his stronger finish. Melee follow the tank's controlled movement, not a shortcut through the poison.

Wipe and recovery: chaining Holy Wrath or fighting inside clouds kills players faster than simply adding healing can solve. Re-establish spacing first.

High Priestess Mar'li

Kill the starting add and every spawned spider promptly: they become more dangerous if left alive. Interrupt Drain Life and cleanse poison. Keep a second tank with the ranged group outside Enveloping Webs range.

When Mar'li webs the melee group, those players lose threat and cannot move. The waiting ranged-side tank picks her up immediately and brings her back safely. Waiting for the root to expire before acting leaves healers exposed.

Wipe and recovery: a web with no free pickup tank sends her through the ranged group. Place the backup tank before the pull and confirm the pickup call.

Bloodlord Mandokir

Tank Mandokir and Ohgan separately. Choose whether to kill the raptor first or hold it while killing the boss. Killing Ohgan causes a strong temporary enrage, so tanks and healers reserve cooldowns; holding him requires dedicated tank and healer attention, including his bleed stacks.

If Mandokir watches you with Threatening Gaze, stop movement, attacks and casts until it ends. Everyone else continues their assigned job. Use a designated ranged bait player for charges, and keep melee alert for his close-range attacks.

Chained Spirits can resurrect fallen players, but deaths strengthen Mandokir. Do not treat the encounter's resurrections as an unlimited recovery plan.

Wipe and recovery: repeated gaze failures create both deaths and a stronger boss. Explain the stop-action response and reconsider the raptor plan before restarting.

The Edge of Madness

A 300-skill Alchemist can learn Gurubashi Mojo Madness from the tablet in this area. The inherited recipe uses 1 Blood of Heroes, 1 Massive Mojo, 6 Powerful Mojo and 1 Black Lotus per craft. The potion is tradable; its user need not be the crafter. Each summon consumes one potion at the Brazier of Madness after clearing the room. Check the current crafting window for batch yield before buying supplies for several summons.

Only the boss on the current rotation is available. The four bosses supply different pieces for class trinkets, so completing a trinket takes different rotation visits, not four summons of the same boss in one night.

Wipe and recovery: identify the actual rotating boss before assigning its mechanic. The same positioning does not solve all four encounters.

High Priest Thekal

Assign tanks to Thekal, Zealot Lor'Khan and Zealot Zath; kill the ordinary tigers first. Face Thekal away from the group. Priests or Paladins remove his Silence from affected healers; Priests or Shamans strip Lor'Khan's Lightning Shield. Interrupt Lor'Khan's Great Heal and keep a pickup tank or plan for Zath's Gouge and Blind. Balance damage across the three trolls, then kill them within the short resurrection window. Killing one and spending a long time on the others makes them revive.

Thekal rises in tiger form for phase 2. Tanks recover him after knockbacks and threat disruption, keeping backs toward a safe wall. Handle any additional tigers and reserve healing and defensive cooldowns for his enrage at 20%.

Wipe and recovery: an uncoordinated first-phase kill is the main avoidable reset. Call health percentages, stop on the low target and use one shared finish call.

High Priestess Arlokk

Ring the gong only after everyone is in the room and the tanks are assigned. Pick her up immediately. She alternates troll and panther behavior, vanishes and can disrupt the active tank's control. A second tank watches her return while melee avoid unnecessary close-range damage.

Mark of Arlokk draws panthers to a player. That player moves toward the agreed collection area, with tanks, crowd control and healers supporting them. Focus Arlokk while she is available when adds are controlled, and use her disappearance to clear or control the panthers. A marked healer cannot simply ignore a lethal swarm because the boss is visible.

Wipe and recovery: an unsupported marked player or an unclaimed return from Vanish snowballs into deaths. Assign both responsibilities before striking the gong.

Jin'do the Hexxer

Destroy Powerful Healing Ward and Brain Wash Totem promptly. The first restores enemy health; the second mind controls a player. Priests or Paladins remove the tank's Hex magic effect promptly, while a second tank stays ready if control is lost.

Do not remove Delusions of Jin'do. Cursed players can see and kill the Shades of Jin'do that other players cannot target. Every affected player, including a healer when safe, helps clear visible shades.

A player teleported into the skeleton pit moves out; the assigned AoE player clears the skeletons. Do not chase the boss while totems and invisible shades accumulate.

Wipe and recovery: automatic decursing can remove the raid's only shade killers. Exclude this curse from the normal cleanup call and establish add priority.

Hakkar the Soulflayer

Confirm all five priests are dead before using this normal strategy. Keep two tanks at the top of threat because Cause Insanity mind controls the current tank, and Hakkar cannot be taunted. Control the affected tank safely and maintain the handover without a damage dealer overtaking both tanks.

Before every Blood Siphon, a designated puller brings a Son of Hakkar from the side stairs. Tank it, kill it shortly before the expected Siphon and have the whole raid collect Poisonous Blood from its death cloud. The inherited poison lasts one minute; killing the Son too early can leave it expired when the cast arrives. Do not cleanse this planned poison before Siphon. Stop Poison Cleansing Totem pulses and let any active Abolish Poison finish before collecting the cloud: both current Forever spells automatically remove poison. Poisoned blood causes the siphon to hurt Hakkar instead of healing him.

Spread again afterward for Corrupted Blood and keep the next Son pull organized. Healers cover the raid through the siphon while the tanks preserve their threat order.

Wipe and recovery: one player in the cloud is not enough; everyone needs the timed debuff. Check who missed it, who cleansed it or whether the Son died too early.

Gahz'ranka

Prepare the summon before raid night:

1. Loot Nat's Measuring Tape from the tackle box at Pagle's Pointe beside the river south of Arlokk's temple in Zul'Gurub.
2. Return it to Nat Pagle in Dustwallow Marsh, then buy a Mudskunk Lure from him.
3. If catching your own supply, bring a 300-skill fisherman, a fishing-skill pole and strong lures back to Zul'Gurub. Fish 5 Zulian Mudskunks from Muddy Churning Waters pools.
4. Return to Pagle's Pointe and use the lure with the five fish to summon Gahz'ranka. Simply casting into a pool does not summon him.

The completed Mudskunk Lure and the fish are tradable in this baseline. Buying or arranging that prepared supply is an alternative to fishing during the run; put one lure and all five fish on the designated summoner before starting.

Tank him facing away from the raid and account for his knockbacks and Frost Breath. Fighting in the river can reduce dangerous launch and fall behavior, but keep healers in range and manage breathing. A tank and healer still need to be ready when the lure is used.

Wipe and recovery: a careless summon or tank knockback can kill people even on this easier optional boss. Wait for the reset, regroup and check whether the boss is still present before using another lure.

Loot highlights

The rare mounts come from Mandokir: Swift Razzashi Raptor, and Thekal: Swift Zulian Tiger. Gahz'ranka can drop Tome of Polymorph: Turtle. Hakkar's weapons, Jin'do's healing and casting items, and the rotating class trinket components are useful reasons to plan the optional route.

Heart of Hakkar binds on pickup and starts a one-time quest. Assign it to a recipient who still needs that quest, use the Heart and deliver it to Molthor on Yojamba Isle. Choose one Zandalarian Hero Badge for defensive use, Zandalarian Hero Medallion for physical damage, or Zandalarian Hero Charm for spell damage and healing. Time the activation for the intended protection or damage window: Badge declines when you take hits, Medallion when your attacks hit and Charm when you cast spells. Compare the actual effect with the recipient's role before completing the choice.

Primal Hakkari armor pieces redeem Zul'Gurub's own class set at the required Zandalar standing. Coins and bijous build reputation; Primal Hakkari Idols and class-specific Punctured Voodoo Dolls are separate head/leg enchant materials. The bind-on-pickup Idols come from Mandokir and Jin'do; the class-specific Dolls come from Jinxed Hoodoo Piles and can be traded. At Friendly, take one Idol and the correct Doll to Zanza inside the raid per head or leg enchant. A Doll is Unique, so obtain a second after the first turn-in when enchanting both slots. Exalted shoulder signets instead cost Zandalar Honor Tokens on Yojamba Isle. See the Zandalar Tribe guide for standing gates and exact reputation conversion math.