Dâr Narbugud/Guide: Zholuga

Trash Mobs

Upon entering the left (red) doorway from the crossroads, a sloping passageway leads to a room with 3 Snarling Overseers and 2 Lesser Fungal Fumaroles.

After defeating them a ramp leads to a large room with four groups of mobs that include the following:

Some of these mobs have the Aura: Bloodbound buff which transfers damage dealt to the Dark-maw Masters to other nearby allies. This increases the time it takes to defeat the Dark-maw Masters unless they are separated from the rest of their group. The Dark-maw Masters also gain a stacking Incoming/Outgoing Damage buff whenever an ally is defeated nearby.

In the center of room is a Greater Fungal Fumarole. The raid should remain behind in the first room up the ramp while the tank pulls one or two groups of mobs at a time from the lower room, careful not to aggro the Greater Fungal Fumarole.

Once the groups of mobs are cleared, the raid should come down and engage the Greater Fungal Fumarole, which is similar to Lesser Fungal Fumaroles in that it spawns Fungal Spores, but it also has Gas Chamber, a ground-centered stacking AOE Acid DOT which delivers significant damage at high tiers, so it should be defeated quickly.

Preparation

Only a single tank is needed for this fight, but if the main tank has a limited number of Taunt targets a second tank may be required to gain aggro on all of the Banes that spawn. Everyone in the raid should have Hope Tokens to counteract the bosses' Gloom effect which applies +5 Dread.

Zholuga cycles through three stances throughout the fight, Blue stance, Green stance, and Red stance. The stance appears as a glowing aura around Zholuga. Each stance grants different abilities to Zholuga and debuffs to the raid.

The raid can control how long Zholuga stays in each stance by clicking on runed pedestals around the edges of the room. Each time Zholuga activates a stance, one of the runed pedestals around the room will glow with that stance's colour. Clicking on it ends Zholuga's current stance and advances him to the next stance in sequence (Blue → Green → Red → back to Blue). Each runed pedestal can only be clicked on by specific classes as follows:

Runed pedestal colour	Can be clicked by
Blue	Brawler, Burglar, Hunter, Lore-master
Green	Captain, Mariner, Minstrel, Rune-keeper
Red	Beorning, Champion, Guardian, Warden

The raid leader should assign specific players to click runed pedestals throughout the fight as appropriate (only one player needs to be assigned for each colour). Clicking on a runed pedestal requires a 2-second induction which will be interrupted if the clicking character is attacked.

Note: This fight can be reset by the entire raid running out of the room.

Blue Stance

"Mistress, lend me your courage!"

Soon after starting the fight, Zholuga will enter Blue Stance, which activates the following effects:

Provides an -Incoming Damage buff to Zholuga
Increases Zholuga's threat from damage (which makes it difficult for the tank to hold aggro)
Summons Banes (Elhudan) which apply stacking debuffs (maximum five stacks) to characters in melee range:

Mob	Debuff Effect	Description
Caster's Bane	None	None
Defender's Bane	Defender's Bane	Reduces Run Speed and increases Incoming Damage
Fighter's Bane	Fighter's Bane	Reduces Run Speed and Melee/Ranged Damage

Because the debuffs applied by the Banes make the fight very difficult if they stack up, most raids will want to get Zholuga quickly out of Blue Stance and into Green Stance.

Note: Zholuga will continue to summon Banes continually for the rest of the right regardless of stance.

Green Stance

"Mistress, grant me your wisdom!"

A few seconds after Zholuga is removed from Blue Stance he will enter Green Stance, which increases Zholuga's threat from healing and activates the following effects:

Zholuga's Exploit (Acid DOT applied to a random raid member)
Virulent Contagion (Acid DOT applied to a random raid member which appears as an eye above the character's head and must be run away from the group as it will spread its effect to nearby raid members upon expiration)

Because the Acid DOTs in Green Stance do a lot of damage (especially if someone with Virulent Contagion doesn't run away from the group and ends up spreading the DOT), most raids will want to get Zholuga quickly out of Green Stance and into Red Stance.

Red Stance

"Mistress, give me your strength!"

A few seconds after Zholuga is removed from Green Stance he will enter Red Stance, which activates the following effects:

Increases Zholuga's damage and reduces his Attack Duration

Of the three Stances, Red is generally considered to be the easiest for a raid to manage, since most of Zholuga's outgoing damage will be on the tank as long as they don't lose aggro.

If no one clicks on a runed pedestal Zholuga will stay in Red Stance until the end of the fight, but if someone does click one he will begin the cycle again in Blue Stance.