Warlord Zonozz Encounter Guide: Strategy, Abilities, Loot

• Killing tentacle adds during Phase 2 is your number one priority as a DPS. Ranged DPS should mostly focus on the Eye of Go'raths, which spawn far away from the boss, while melee DPS focus on Flail of Go'raths first followed by Claw of Go'raths afterwards.
• Use defensive cooldowns during Black Blood of Go'rath in Phase 2 to help the healers out.

• Disrupting Shadows should be dispelled as soon as possible, ideally with Mass Dispel.
• Be mindful of Warlord Zon'ozzs' stacks of Focused Anger as they will greatly increase the amount of damage taken by the tank.
• Coordinate raid-wide defensive cooldowns during Phase 2; you should always have at least 1 defensive spell rolling during the Black Blood of Go'rath cast.

• The ball will always spawn in front of Warlord Zon'ozz; this means you may wish to face him slightly towards the raid before the orb spawns, while still making sure that Psychic Drain is only hitting the tank. After the ball spawns you can face the boss entirely away from the raid.
• Always be mindful of Warlord Zon'ozzs' stacks of Focused Anger and save defensive cooldowns when he has many stacks, ideally using a cooldown for each Psychic Drain.
• The 2 Claw of Go'rath that spawn during Phase 2 on heroic difficulty must be picked up and tanked quickly or they will start to kill the raid. Be ready to establish threat on your claw quickly, and always be in melee range of it.

• Phase One
• Focused Anger
• Psychic Drain
• Disrupting Shadows
• Void of the Unmaking
• Void Diffusion
• Void Diffusion
• Black Blood Eruption
• Phase Two
• Black Blood of Go'rath
• Eye of Go'rath
• Shadow Gaze

Warlord Zon'ozz is either the second or third boss available to players in Dragon Soul, depending on which order you decide to engage him. This encounter requires the raid to control the movement of an add called Void of the Unmaking, henceforth referred to as "The Ball" or simply "Ball". The raid will need to split up, with ranged DPS and healers acting as one group, and melee DPS (with a few healers as well if you are low on melee DPS) as the other group. The goal is to entirely control the Ball by forcing it to move when and where you want it to, essentially "ping ponging" it back-and-forth between the melee group and the ranged group.

Start of by having your tank face Warlord Zon'ozz away from the raid to prevent Psychic Drain from hitting more than just the tank. Have your melee group and your ranged group line-up about 20 yards apart so the Ball can bounce between both groups easily. The Ball will spawn in front of Warlord Zon'ozz, making it ideal for your tank to face slightly towards the raid, but angled enough that the Psychic Drain does not hit the melee or ranged groups. Once the Ball spawns, simply turn the boss around and face him entirely away from the raid. Now that we're in position, we'll take a look at Warlord Zon'ozzs abilities before discussing the main mechanic of the fight, The Ball.

Warlord Zon'ozz will buff himself with a stack of Focused Anger every 6-8 seconds, increasing his Physical damage dealt by 20% and his attack speed by 5% per stack. This damage increase will rapidly add up, leading your tank to take more and more damage the longer you are in Phase 1. The tank will also be getting hit by Psychic Drain, a front-facing, conal AoE attack that deal very high Shadow damage to anyone hit and heals Warlord Zon'ozz for 10× the damage dealt. The most important factor to note about Psychic Drain is that the healing is based on the damage dealt, making absorption spells such as Power Word: Shield a necessity right before the Psychic Drain goes off. For this same reason, a Death Knight tank is extremely powerful on this fight, as Anti-Magic Shell alone can absorb upwards of 65,000 magic damage, greatly reducing Warlord Zon'ozzs self-healing. Warlord Zon'ozzs last ability in Phase 1 is Disrupting Shadows, which debuffs random targets with a Shadow damage-over-time (DoT) debuff. When the Disrupting Shadows is dispelled, the targets will take 60,000 Shadow damage and be knocked back; on heroic difficulty this damage is dealt in a 10-yard radius around the player. On Normal difficulty we suggest instantly dispelling the raid with Mass Dispel, while on heroic difficulty you will want the afflicted players to run out of the raid before single-target dispelling them, or simply stay stacked as a raid and heal through the DoT. Players must position appropriately as to not get knocked in front of Warlord Zon'ozz and get hit by Psychic Drain if the Disrupting Shadows debuff is dispelled.

Now we will talk about the main mechanic of the fight, the Ball Void of the Unmaking. Warlord Zon'ozz will summon a Ball at the start of the fight, and after Phase 2 ends. The Ball is immune to damage, has no aggro table, and slowly move across the room in a straight line. If this Ball contacts the outside walls of the encounter room, it will explode in a Black Blood Eruption, wiping the raid. If the Ball comes in contact with a player, it will "bounce" off of that player, dealing devastating Shadow damage with Void Diffusion (henceforth referred to as the "bounce", or "bounce damage") to all nearby players. This damage is divided evenly amoungst any in range of the player who contacted the Ball. If the ball comes in contact with Warlord Zon'ozz, he will absorb it and enter Phase 2, or the "Black Blood Phase". Every time the Ball bounces, it gains a stack of Void Diffusion, increasing the bounce damage by 20% per stack. Additionally each time the Ball bounces, it will also gain a stack of Void Diffusion; this buff increases Warlord Zon'ozzs' damage taken by 5% per stack whenever the orb touches him and he absorbs it.

The idea with the Ball is to bounce it between the melee and ranged group repeatedly, building up stacks of Void Diffusion to increase Warlord Zon'ozzs' damage taken. However the bounce damage will increase each time the ball bounces ( Void Diffusion) by 20%, which limits the amount of bounces you will be able to do before you must allow Warlord Zon'ozz to absorb the Ball and enter Phase 2. The goal is to give the healers enough time between each bounce to top the raid up, deal with any incoming mechanics, then bounce the Ball back again and continually build up stacks. Getting as many bounces of the Ball as possible in Phase 1 is the main goal of this encounter, which is no easy task with all of the constant, ramping damage increase buffs such as Focused Anger and Void Diffusion. Put a few pulls into Warlord Zon'ozz and try to find a "sweet spot" number of bounces you can get out before your healers start to become overwhelmed. When the damage starts getting too high and healers begin to struggle, have the melee group move away from the Ball and allow to contact Warlord Zon'ozz so he can absorb it and begin Phase 2.

Phase 2 lasts for exactly 30 seconds, during which Warlord Zon'ozz will not auto-attack for the first 15 seconds whilst he summons in the adds and casts Black Blood of Go'rath. Absorbing the Ball and entering Phase 2 will also remove all of Warlord Zon'ozzs' stacks of Focused Anger, giving your tank and healers some much needed breathing room while they focus on keeping the raid alive during Phase 2. On normal difficulty, Black Blood of Go'rath is simply a Shadow damage-over-time that must be simply healed through; try to stay as clumped up as possible with nearby players to allow your healers to top the raid easier. On heroic difficulty, the damage of Black Blood of Go'rath scales with the number of tentacle adds that are alive, which is increased on heroic mode.

On normal difficulty only one type of add will spawn, Eye of Go'rath, which will attack random raid members with Shadow Gaze. These tentacles can not be tanked and must simply be killed as soon as possible to stop their damage. On heroic difficulty two more add types will spawn, Flail of Go'rath and Claw of Go'rath. The first new add, Flail of Go'rath, should be focused first as there are four of them and they deal very high raid damage. The other new add on heroic difficulty are the two Claw of Go'raths that spawn around the center of the room. These two adds must be tanked at all times or they will start to AoE the raid down, instantly causing a wipe; luckily they do not hit very hard and a can be tanked by a Druid in bear form, or a plate-wearing DPS. Have your tank drag Warlord Zon'ozz on top of one of the two Claw of Go'raths so DPS can cleave both targets at once. On heroic difficulty the damage of Black Blood of Go'rath scales with how many adds remain alive, meaning it's imperative to kill one or two of the tentacles early on to reduce the raids damage taken.

You will want to split your raid up into a few groups, with ranged DPS prioritizing the tentacles that are furthest away from the boss, and melee DPS kill the closest one. Save minor offensive and defensive cooldowns for this phase to help burn down the first couple of adds and help your healers keep you alive, and always have a raid-wide defensive cooldown active during the 30 seconds of Black Blood of Go'rath. You will want to use major DPS cooldowns such as Bloodlust on the last Black Blood Phase (Phase 2) of the fight, before the enrage, ideally after clearing out a few of the adds before focusing the boss. Waiting with major DPS cooldowns until the end of the fight will allow you to have stacked up Void Diffusion on Warlord Zon'ozz, greatly increasing your raids damage output. Use any and all remaining cooldowns to push through the last bit of his health before the AoE damage from the adds and boss devastate the raid.

Overall, Warlord Zon'ozz is one of the easiest encounters in the raid on normal mode, while also being one of the most difficult bosses on heroic difficulty in the entire raid that will take most raids many, many attempts to get down.

4.

Warlord Zon'ozz Loot

Normal Heroic

Below you will find all of the loot available for this boss encounter. Use the different buttons to view the different loot between both Normal and Heroic difficulties.

4.1.

Normal Difficulty Loot

Item
Cord of the Slain Champion
Belt of Flayed Skin
Grotesquely Writhing Bracers
Graveheart Bracers
Treads of Crushed Flesh
Seal of the Seven Signs
Finger of Zon'ozz
Horrifying Horn Arbalest
Gauntlets of the Corrupted Conqueror
Gauntlets of the Corrupted Protector
Gauntlets of the Corrupted Vanquisher

Below you will find all of the loot available for this boss encounter. Use the different buttons to view the different loot between both Normal and Heroic difficulties.

4.2.

Heroic Difficulty Loot

Item
Cord of the Slain Champion
Belt of Flayed Skin
Grotesquely Writhing Bracers
Graveheart Bracers
Treads of Crushed Flesh
Seal of the Seven Signs
Finger of Zon'ozz
Horrifying Horn Arbalest
Gauntlets of the Corrupted Conqueror
Gauntlets of the Corrupted Protector
Gauntlets of the Corrupted Vanquisher

Achievement	Description
Siege of Wyrmrest Temple	Defeat the bosses laying siege to Wyrmrest Temple in the Dragon Soul raid.
Dragon Soul Guild Run	Defeat the bosses in Dragon Soul while in a guild group.
Heroic: Warlord Zon'ozz	Defeat Warlord Zon'ozz in Dragon Soul on Heroic Difficulty.
Ping Pong Champion	Bounce the Void of Unmaking 10 times off of players, and then defeat Warlord Zon'ozz on Normal or Heroic Difficulty.

Warlord Zon'ozz is just one of the eight encounters present in the Dragon Soul raid of Cataclysm. If you would like to learn more about the others, please see our other pages for the raid below.