Friday, May 11, 2007, posted by WoW Fan at 1:18 AM
Recommended Level: 63-64
Time Required: 70-120 minutes
Location: Serpent Lake, Northern Zangarmarsh

Quests
[65] Lost in Action
[65] Bring me a Shrubbery
[65] Oh, It's On!
[65] Stalk the Stalker

About the Instance:
The Underbog is the first instance of significant size in the Burning Crusade, and the first run may take well over 2 hours, mainly due to the exceeding long time to get back from the graveyard due to wipes. The instance also introduces a variety of challenging boss encounters, and should be regarded as the first challenge on the Burning Crusade.

Party Makeup:
A off-tank of this instance is almost essential, a secondary healer will also be very useful. These two roles do not need to be filled simultaneously, making a hybrid druid or paladin ideal for the task. Due to the number of bosses capable of assaulting multiple melee targets, ranged DPS is preferred over melee. Due to the long runs from the graveyard, Warlock and Shamans are handy. The latter of which also provides a nature resist totem.

Useful Equipment:
Nothing essential, though nature resistance helps with the bosses.

Finding Your Way to the Instance:
Coilfang Reservoir is located in the center of the large lake at Northern Zargamarsh. The entrance is the huge towering structure located there, you can't miss it. Dive inside, follow the tunnel till you surface in a huge cavern. Slave Pens is west of the Meeting Stone located here.

Slave Pen Layout:
Slave Pens is basically a huge cavern separated by an artificial wall. To make your way through the instance, you'll need to navigate to the far side of the cavern. There are 3 bosses, though this instance should only be attempted when you plan to complete it. There too many trash mobs before the first boss that partial completions are not worthwhile.


Quest Quick Guide:
Underbog hosts four quests. However, three of these require the player to be at least friendly with the Sporeggar of Western Zangarmarsh. This can be done entirely from quests, and should not take too long. It is highly recommended you do so, before going into the instance, since they offer some very nice rewards and faction rep.

Lost in Action:
Continuing from Slave Pens, the last two lost druids are found here. The first is located straight after the dragon encounter, while the second has actually been mind controlled and is part of a boss fight. You'll meet up with boss on the way to the final boss, so there's no way you'll miss either.
Bring me a Shrubbery:
This is essentially a collection quest, which can repeated for extra reputation. Sanguine Hubiscus has a chance to drop off pretty much every mob in the underbog, and is not actually a quest item. Therefore you can buy them, or convince party members who don't have the quest that you need them.
On, It's On!
The mushroom that you need to steal is just next to Hungerfen, remember to right click it before you move on.
Stalker the Stalker
Basically, kill the final boss.

Navigating to Hungarfen:
To get to Hungarfen, players will need to navigate through a huge cavern filled with various underbog wildlife. The toughest of these are the fungal giants, and care should be made to pull each separately. Provided players watch out for the fast moving patrols that circle of the cavern, this part won't be too bad. Hug the right hand side of the cavern till you see a ramp leading upward. Take this ramp. The rest of the cavern, despite its size, is filled with trash mobs. A few more pulls and you will reach an elevated clearing with Hungarfen. The two fungal guards in front of him are not linked, and should be pulled separately.
Hungarfen does a lot of damage, and has the following abilities:

Hungerfen Mushrooms: Hungerfen Periodically drops rapid growing mushrooms on the ground. Once they mature, the will release an AOE spore cloud that deals several hundred damage per second. While individual mushrooms can be killed, they have significant hp and its better to just avoid them. Make sure the tank moves back every time a mushroom is dropped.

Foulspores: At 20% Health, Hungerfen will root himself to the ground and release foul spores over a 20 yard radius. Anything caught in the cloud will take massive damage, which Hungerfen uses to heal himself.
It is essential all players, pets included, get away from Hungerfen when he roots. If only one object is in the cloud, Hungerfen will regenerate about 50% of his life. This is the main cause of wipes. Otherwise Hungerfen is essentially tank and spank.

Loot
Lykul Bloodbands
Manaspark Gloves
Marshlight Gloves
Needle Shrike


Through Nagas and Gha'zan:
Leave the Hungerfen clearing via the second exit, and you'll have Naga to contend with. They're nothing special.... just kill the casters first, and crowd control one or two others. Eventually you'll enter a crevice in the wall, fight more naga, and spot the Hydra, Gha'zan. This boss is generally regarded as the moment of truth in Underbog. If you can kill him, you'll be able to do the rest of the instance. He has the following abilities:

Acid Breath: 2000-2500 Nature Damage in a cone.
Tail Swipe:700 Damage AOE that knocks all players in the area back.
Enrage: Attack speed and damage increase by 50% when Gha'zan has 20% health.
Acid Spit: Frequently targets a member of the party that does 155 damage ever 3 seconds. Can stack up to 10 times. Non-dispellable.

Killing this guy requires careful planning. If you have nature resist and nature protection potions, use them here. The tank should engage 10 seconds prior to the rest of the party, and swivel the dragon so that his flank is exposed to the party. Melee DPS classes must engage the dragon on the flank to avoid both tail swipe and the breath.

The primary healer will need to concentrate on keeping the tank alive, while the secondary healer tops up the rest of the party, who'll be bombarded by Acid Spit. If no secondary healer is available, hope your party has enough DPS so that non-tanks can survive on bandages alone.

At 20% Health, Healer's will need to be prepared to give boost of healing to the tank. This is a good time for shield wall or frenzied regeneration. DPS classes will need to go all out and burn Gha'zan.

Note: During the Beta, there was an additional Naga Taskmaster Boss that you could kill. He has been removed since release.


Loot
Cloak of Healing Rays
Hatebringer
Luminous Pearls of Insight
Studded Girdle of Virtue
Talisman of Tenacity



To Kill Swamplord Mussel'ek:
Drop down into the water from Gha'zan and look for an opening crevice in the pool. Climb through the hole and one of the two druids will close by. He tells you that his companion has been mind controlled by a hunter named Mussel'ek. Take the only exit and you'll have more mobs to contend with. The Fen Ray are a bunch of very nasty flying mantas that are all capable of using an AOE horror effect. Since it's the same of the Warlock's Death Coil, it cannot be dispelled, and berserker stance will not help. Pull these guys far back, and keep the ranged DPS and healers far away. Caster's will need to be prepared to get messy, especially when off tanks are not available. The main tank will probably spend his entire time running around.

Mussel'ek himself is not too difficult, but he has with him, Claw, the mind controlled druid. The Druid is in bear form, and is essentially a tank who does little damage. Get the off tank to tank Claw, while the main tank deals with the hunter.

AOE Frost Trap: Mussel'ek can freeze the entire party for 3 seconds while he runs off to shoot from afar.
Aimed Shot: Give Mussel'ek too much space and he'll aim shot a caster for 2500 damage.
Multi Shot: Expect party members to be randomly hit about 1.5k damage multi-shots.


Provided the main tank switch dances to charge the Hunter, and you have an off tank, the fight isn't too hard. If there's no off-tank, the tank will have to beat up on Claw a little to keep aggro while everyone focuses on Mussel'ek, and the fight gets exponentially trickier. Once the hunter is down, Claw is easy. He'll transform back into a druid once you've reduced him to 5% life and thank you. Since Muilti-shot does a lot of collateral damage to casters, this is a DPS fight, and the hunters should be burned down fast. This is especially true if you have no off-tank... since the bear will eventually hit the healer.


Loot
Tunic of the Nightwatcher
Cloak of Enduring Swiftness
Truth Bearer Shoulderguards
Zangartooth Shortblade


The Black Stalker:
Only 10 minutes longer and you'll have reached the lair of the black stalker. This is a tough boss, but nothing harder than Gha'zan. He has no adds, and the following abilities:

Levitate: A random party member is lifted into the air and far away from the fight. Afflicted melee classes become useless, but ranged classes may still be able to fire off their spells.
Chain Lighting: A 1000-1500 Damage Chain Lightning that targets the tank, followed by nearby targets.
Static Charge:The afflicted target and nearby allies take 750 nature damage every 3 seconds.


This encounter is random, which is why flexible party members are a must. Having a secondary healer or tank ensures that it isn't good game once your key party member is eliminated. Hybrids will need to keep an eye out to see what is necessary. Therefore it recommended druids etc wear a balanced set of gear for this encounter, to be ready to take over either healing or tanking should one of the other be disabled.

To avoid Chain Lighting, the tank should tank the stalker as far from party members as possible. Due to static charge, the entire party should spread out around the Black Stalker. The Black Stalker does sufficient damage to occupy the primary healer, and in cases where only one healer is available, DPS classes may need to fend for themselves (unless they have Static Charge).


Loot
The Stalker's Fangs
Skulldugger's Leggings
Pauldrons of Brute Force
Shamblehide Chestguard
Robes of the Augurer


Thats the complete guide written by Majere. Have fun!




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