With Patch 2.3 almost here (and with a 222MB patch file downloaded in preparation), my thoughts naturally turn to the new announced 10-man level 70 instance, Zul’Aman.

We’ve been told that Zul’Aman will not require attunement to enter, and is placed immediately after Karazhan in the ‘recommended’ progression order.

I’m assuming that this is supposed to address the ennui that players like the Squeakie Priestie are expressing about running Karazhan and Gruuls forever and a day. More 10-man instances, for nice bite-sized progression, might help to shake that up a bit.

I am only a neophyte Kara runner, so I am a long way away from personally being bored with Kara. I’m not particularly worried about what comes next. But I can see where, in a few short months, I very well may be.

On the other hand, I am as curious as my kitty form. I want to know, once Kara is down and we look to the future, what goodies will Zul’Aman hold for me?

Let’s take a look after the break!

There are 6 bosses total in Zul’Aman. The first 4 are kind of the starter bosses, and they are followed by a high priest, and then the high lord muckety-muck himself. Let’s take a look at what each of them drops that MIGHT be considered useful by feral dr00ds.

Bear Lord Nalorakk has one drop that a feral druid might like, Bladeangel’s Money Belt.

Eagle Lord Akil’Zon, as far as I’m concerned, doesn’t drop anything I’d care about as a feral druid.

Dragonhawk Lord Jan’Alai has one drop for feral druids, the Shadowtooth Trollskin Cuirass.

Lynx Lord Halazzi has two drops for feral druids, The Savages’ Choker and the Shoulderpads of Dancing Blades.

Hex Lord Malacrass drops one item specifically for feral druids, the Staff of Primal Fury. (Which does not seem to be on Wowhead yet).

And finally, the end boss, Zul’jin, drops three items feral druids can consider… the Ancient Aqir Artifact, Berserkers Call, and Grimgrins’ Faceguard.

So let’s talk about these items. First off, you can see that the designers have implemented leather with the new change to Heart of the Wild in mind. No +strength anywhere.

The second thing is, while +agi and +sta are well represented, there’s not a lot of +hit, and no +def at all. With the notable exceptions of the shoulders and head piece, there are no +hit items or sockets for customization. Lots of straight DPS style gear, but little I’d want to tank in.

The next thing I see is that, since the gear has no +strength on it, it looks like what the Rogues have come to call ‘rogue gear, feral dr00ds keep away, mine mine!’. Well, that’s not what they call it as an OFFICIAL label, but that sure as hell is how they act if stuff like this comes up on a drop.

A short perusal of wowheads’ item comments shows that some rogues are already getting their ‘pre-emptive strikes’ in on gear perception. I saw an entire thread saying that some of these pieces are “no good for ferals, CLEARLY designed for rogues, a part of the ‘unofficial’ rogue 2.3 set”. And then posting lists of what pieces they are claiming as their ’set’.

I admit, I sometimes wonder why I defend rogues so much, with that kind of loot whore attitude.

Regardless of the justification, what I’m seeing is a whole bunch of gear that rogues are gonna assume is theirs first without question, and will inevitably cause tensions when it comes time to share out drops. With only one piece that is clearly meant for druids, it just leaves me seeing little reason to even want to go in there at all, except for the fun of the new encounters. And let’s face it… once I’ve been in there 3 or 4 times, I doubt I’ll ever want to go back.

Maybe, since this is still PTR stats, the designers will buff this gear to make it more appealing or to be a better stepping stone above Kara, but for right now I’m pretty happy with the gear that can be acquired from Kara, Heroics and Gruuls.

And maybe that Ancient Aqir Artifact armor effect will be affected by Dire Bear armor multiplication. Which WOULD make me want to go in there just to get that sucker and test it out. (Always assuming I’m still under the armor cap by then.)

I dunno, maybe someone else sees something here that specifically looks like it’ll blow our doors off…. but I look at the list, and say “meh.”

Now, back to Shattered Halls!