Zul'Brin Warpbranch and NEW HEADER!

This post serves two purposes. As the title indicated, I want to pull your attention to the header of the blog, which now sports a brilliant and awesome new logo for the blog. This one was designed and created by my good friend (and guildie) Athorist, who's also been a supporter of the blog for a long time. I cannot express my gratitude enough for taking the time out to create this for me. It really makes the blog look so much cooler! I hope everyone who reads this agrees.

Thank you so much!

Oh right, I should have a rarespawn as well.

This post also features Zul'Brin Warpbranch!



Finding the witchdoctor

Zul'Brin Warpbranch is a rare mob troll found in the Eastern Plaguelands in the Eastern Kingdoms.



Zul'Brin can be found in Zul'Mashar, a small troll enclave in the upper region of the Eastern Plaguelands, just Northeast of the exit to the Ghostlands. Zul'Brin can spawn in several different spots here, including on the large ziggurat-like temple. He is not undead like some of the trolls nearby, and thus registers as a humanoid if you can track those. He has a rather long spawn timer, and is thus somewhat hard to locate.

Hexxed!

Zul'Brin is hostile to all player characters, so anyone encountering him need to be ready for a fight. Should you choose to engage him, you'll find that Zul'Brin is something of a pushover. He has several spells at his disposal (chain lightning which jumps between enemies, a direct-damage flame shock, a healing wave to heal himself or others and a hexx spell to turn an opponent into a frog) but with as little health as he does, he stands little chance against even a single well-prepared adventurer.



As with many other mobs, the only thing that can cause problems here is by running into Zul'Brin at low health, or allowing the fight to get messy. Often he spawns near at least one Mossflayer Scout, annoying mobs which shout for help immediately when aggroed. This could potentially result in lots of adds joining in. But Zul'Brin himself doesn't do this, and will likely die very fast.




When defeated, Zul'Brin yields nothing special apart from the usual green-quality drop. While the robes he wear are attainable by players and look rather fetching, Zul'Brin does not specifically drop them.

Da hexxer's story

Zul'Brin is one of the Mossflayer tribe of forest trolls. One of the forest troll tribes who defected from the Horde after the departure of the legendary warlord Zul'Jin, the Mossflayer are hated and despised by other trolls and the Horde in general. Further, it seems from the mobs found here and their choice of living place that the Mossflayer are at least dabbling in necromancy and the creation of the undead.



Furthermore, forest trolls usually kill and eat sentient beings (even other trolls), something which serves to further make them outcasts. The Mossflayer came south from the Ghostlands, possibly in order to learn more about the undead. With his powers and appearance, it seems that Zul'Brin is the head shaman of the tribe. He is the spiritual guidance of the trolls, whereas the warlord (whom we will adress later) is the secular one. What loas Zul'Brin worships, if any, is unknown, though it would likely be a degenerate and terrifying form of worship.



In Zandali, the purest form of the troll language, adding the word "zul" as a prefix to a troll's name means "master of voodoo". How perfectly appropriate for Zul'Brin, who is a shamanistic witchdoctor! His surname "Warpbranch" is wonderfully evocative as well, bringing up images of twisted, dark voodoo rites performed by the campfire in the plague-haunted land.



I should also note that Zul'Brin received a new model (like most forest trolls) in patch 3.0.2, becoming much more muscular. From what I can tell, this change also hid his face behind the voodoo mask you can see in my screenshots, a change which makes him look more like a witchdoctor.

I really like this guy. He looks really cool (most trolls do), has a great get-up, a great name and he fits his little slice of lore perfectly. This is the kind of rarespawn that set me off on my quest to find them all, and well worth looking up!

Until next time, stay away from the voodoo;

~Dragonshade