While it was Molten Core and Blackwing Lair that initially defined the World of Warcraft raid world, it would eventually be the 20-player Zul’Gurub challenge that would have a greater impact on future expansion raids with its design and systems.

After Blizzard announced that Phase 4 of WoW Classic would launch in April with the four dragon world bosses Emeriss, Lethon, Taerar, and Ysondre and the 20-player instance Zul’Gurub, we not only gave a comprehensive preview of all the upcoming content of the vanilla relaunch, but also already summarized a lot of important information about Zul’Gurub (including numerous screenshots) in an extra article.

However, we feel that we haven’t really elaborated on the special position Zul’Gurub holds in the history of WoW (buy now) and how much the home of the Gurubashi trolls has shaped the raids of the subsequent expansions. Zul’Gurub was not only a version of its two predecessors, Molten Core and Blackwing Lair, that was boiled down for small communities, has a comparatively low difficulty, can be entered without a pre-quest, and doesn’t require resistance gear – a great way to get a taste of WoW’s raid territory for the first time. Also, many new things were found in Zul’Gurub’s design and systems at the time that should have a noticeable impact on future raids in WoW.

Very different from MC and BWL
If you look for differences between the first two raids of WoW on the one hand and Zul’Gurub on the other, of course the visuals immediately catch the eye. After the ubiquitous gray-black-red of the dark black rock, a colorful open-air jungle awaited us in the home of the trolls, with waterfalls, all kinds of creatures, and varied troll bosses instead of dragons and elementals that you can explore on the back of your mounts.

Zul’Gurub is also much more open in other ways than the previous two raids. Multiple paths lead through the instance, and not only can you decide which order you want to tackle the bosses in, you can skip enemies entirely, summon several optional rogues, and even challenge the boss Hakkar first if you want (who will be much stronger). .

Last but not least, one of the differences is that Zul’Gurub was only meant for 20-player raids. It’s not for nothing that the developers already significantly reduced the size of raid groups with the first expansion, The Burning Crusade. The challenge of getting 40 motivated players together night after night, having fun pulling together and farming the existing raid content for weeks or months on end was simply too great for many communities – read more in the article The biggest challenge in Classic right now is not business management, but …Zul’Gurub has shown for the first time in an impressive way that it can be done differently, smaller. The effects of this successful attempt are still felt today – Blizzard never went back to 40-player raids.

For casual AND hardcore raids

With its small raid size, almost non-existent barrier to entry, and easy difficulty, Zul’Gurub is aimed primarily at beginners, casual players, or stragglers looking to gear up for the more difficult challenges. Nevertheless, at the time, the developers managed to provide enough reasons for regular visits even for communities that master Molten Core and Blackwing Lair half asleep.

Just think of the powerful head, shoulder and leg enchantments linked to Zul’Gurub’s reputation, which are significantly better than the options available up to that point. In addition, there are class-specific trinkets that are very powerful in certain situations, such as Renataki’s Amulet of Cunning for rogues or the Blood Vine Robe, which, despite its rare (blue) quality, is an important upgrade even for very well-equipped raid mages – the plus for the chance to hit a spell, thank you. Here are the three parts of the craftable set:

Bloodvine Vest
Bloodvine Leggings
Bloodvine Boots
And even after earning all that, Zul’Gurub is luring players of all stripes into the jungle with two more very rare drops: the two mounts Swift Zulian Tiger and Swift Razzashiraptor , which should pave the way for a variety of coveted raid drop mounts. Another reward system that the developers have picked up again and again in later raids are the class-specific tokens that can be captured from some bosses, which can then be exchanged for parts of the corresponding class sets at an NPC merchant.

What is WoW Classic?

World of Warcraft Classic is a true recreation of the original WoW as you know it from 2006. All parts of the game – from combat mechanics and talent trees to character models and zones – have been recreated, contributing to the authentic experience.

Getting Started

All players with an active World of Warcraft subscription or game time on their accounts have access toWoW Classic at no additional cost.

1. Open the Blizzard Battle.net Desktop App and select World of Warcraft from the menu.
2. Select World of Warcraft Classic from the Version menu. If you have more than one World of Warcraft account, you’ll see a second Account drop-down list. In this column, select the active account you want to play with.
3. Click the Install button. The progress bar will tell you when your game is ready to play.
4. Click the Play button when the installation is complete.

You will need to select the realm you want to play on from several different realm types. Make sure you choose the same realm as your friends – in World of Warcraft Classic, you can only group with characters that are on the same realm as you!

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