At this point you've made it through the Slave Pens and are more than likely attempting to complete the "Lost in Action" quest. Your next stop should be the Underbog which is the second of four instances in the Coilfang Reservoir deep in Zangarmarsh. Even though most of the instances are mainly full of Nagas, the Underbog is more occupied by wildlife than anything else. There are some naga, but predominantly it is full of sporebats, giants, wasps, and other creatures.

The Coilfang Reservoir is a strange instance area as it is an underwater pumping station built for some as yet unknown reason adjoining a complex of caves. Even though it is located underwater they are full of air. The predominant MOB type in the instances are Nagas and aquatic wild life in many different forms. It also houses Lady Vashj as the last raid boss, who was the second naga created and had an appearance in Warcraft 3.

The instances in the Coilfang Reservoir are as follows:

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The first thing to figure out for most players is how to get to the new instances. For that I headed over to our trusty map of the outlands. It shows the instance as being in the middle of the lake in the north area of Zangarmarsh, however this isn't the whole story. This instance is tucked away deep inside a huge pumping station in the middle of the lake. There is also no obvious entrance, instead you must swim to the center of the lake and the building and then swim down... way down. At the bottom you will find a tunnel that leads even further down. Once far enough into the tunnel there is steam entering the water and you will find that you can breath at certain points, allowing you to get deep enough into it to reach an underwater cave full of air. This is the Coilfang Reservoir Instance area.

When you come out of the water you will see Watcher Jhang and a meeting stone along the shore. If you are at least level 62 she will give you a quest to complete in the Reservoir for her. Once you are ready to go into the instance the Slave Pens are the left most instance in the area.

Unlike the Slave Pens there are many more quests in the Underbog, and you will generally end up running it more than once. This is because many players do not manage to get all the quests before going in the first time.

Lost in Action – Discover what happened to Earthbinder Rayge, Naturalist Bite, Weeder Greenthumb, and Windcaller Claw. Then, return to Watcher Jhang at Coilfang Reservoir in Zangarmarsh.

Earthbinder Rayge and Windcaller Claw can be found in the Underbog. Earthbinder can be found in the hall after defeating Gahz'an, which is located after jumping into the water and making your way into the tunnel across from the platform. Follow the tunnel past the split and you will find him in the foliage just before a dead end. Windcaller Claw can be found with the third boss, and is initially seen in the form of a bear called Claw. You must defeat the boss and then DPS Claw down before he will submit and speak to you.

Bring me a Shrubbery – Collect 5 Sanguine Hibiscus and return them to Gzhun'tt at Sporeggar in Zangarmarsh.

I kept wondering "if I don't bring them one, will they say NI to me"? Unfortunately they don't, but its still another fun external reference from Blizzard. The Sanguine Hibiscus can be located as either a drop off various mobs in the instance or as red glowing herbs around the instance floor. This quest requires reputation with Sporeggar, so make sure you complete the quests in the marsh to gain enough reputation to access this one. This quest is repeatable for Sporeggar rep.

Oh, its on – Gather an Underspore Frond and return it to T'shu at Sporeggar in Zangarmarsh.

This is another quest that requires reputation with Sporeggar, so make sure you complete the quests for them in the marsh to gain enough reputation to access this quest. The Frond can be found by looting the giant twisted root found beside the first boss in the instance.

Stalk the Stalker – Bring the Brain of the Black Stalker to Khn'nix at Sporeggar in Zangarmarsh.

This is another quest that requires reputation with Sporeggar, so make sure you complete the quests for them in the marsh to gain enough reputation to access this quest. The Stalker is the last boss in the Underbog.

There are several types of Naga and bog life MOBs in the Underbog, the ones that are critical to know about are the following. .

Bog Giants – Gigantic swampthing like creatures, that are immune to crowd control and hit like a heavy weight champ. Once down herbalists can fight over who gets to loot them as they farmed for herbs.

Fel Ray – These are similar to the sporebats found in Zangarmarsh but cause fear. The whole instance has groups of MOBs in close proximity and it is very easy to get feared into another group of MOBs, because of this they should be dealt with quickly and as far away from other groups as possible.

The first boss that you come across is Hungarfen, who is a huge bog giant, and will make you think you are back in the Slave Pens all over again, since he looks the same as the last boss. While he causes less direct damage, he has some very nasty abilities that need to be watched for if you want to survive the fight.

Underbog Mushrooms - Hungarfen continuously spawns these annoying mushrooms at random locations around his lair. They initially appear small but grow to quite a large size before activating releasing a Spore Cloud. New ones will continue to grow around his room and it is not unusual for 2-3 to be up and active at a time.

Spore Cloud - Once the mushroom bursts releasing is cloud, it will cause roughly 450 nature damage every two seconds to everyone around for roughly 20 seconds. If you are around multiple mushrooms you can get effected multiple times so be careful!

Foul Spores - At about 20% life left Hungarfen will root himself in place and attack with an AoE poison cloud. The cloud affects everyone within about 10 yards and does about 500 damage per tick. Even worse is that for all damage inflicted, Hungarfen is healed for 3-4x that much.

The tactics to beat Hungarfen are fairly simple. The tank needs to keep moving around so that they are not in any of the spore clouds that form, while the rest of the group repositions to avoid past clouds as well. Tank and grind him down until he roots and then everyone needs to clear the immediate area around him, until he releases. At that point, burn him down quickly and your done. While it is easy once you have done it once, for players that are not used to kiting bosses around (IE: many non-raid players) it can be tricky to learn, so take your time and it will come.

The second boss is Ghaz'an who is a giant sea creature that crawls up to a platform to fight a Naga Boss called Overseer Tidewrath. If you are quick enough you can get there to fight both of them, but that generally isn't an option. Ghaz'an will defeat Tidewrath and you will be left fighting him. He is a generally easy boss with the following abilities:

Acid Spit - This attack does about 2k nature damage to everyone in his front arc.

Acid Breath - This attack does about 150 nature damage over 3 seconds to whoever is hit, attacks whoever has aggro. This attack stacks up to 10 times!

Tail Whip - He will whip his tail around causing about 500 damage and knocking everyone behind Ghaz'an back.

The fight is fairly easy, with the only real strategy needed being: stay away from the edge of the platform and his rear and front arcs. Everyone should be to his side, so that they are not knocked back or hit by his acid spit. The tank keeps him facing away from the group and DPS him down. While most groups tank him in the middle of the platform, it is also a viable strategy for the tank to pull him back along the pipes to the ledge you cam from and tank him against the wall there so that you are not knocked back. The rest of the group fights from the walkway to the side.

The third boss is a hunter based boss with a pet bear. Well its not really a bear, its one of the druids your looking for, but shhh, your not supposed to know that yet. The fight is an interesting one because of his abilities and the requirement to off tank the hard hitting bear. Musel'ek's and Claw's abilities are:

Aimed Shot - When the tank does not have aggro on Musel'ek, he will attack someone at range with this attack that can hit for over 2k damage to cloth or leather wearers.

AoE Frost Trap - This is the same as a hunters frost trap but affects everyone in the party for several seconds. It is resistible with enough frost resistance, although it generally isn't a real problem.

Multi-Shot - He attacks every once in a while he attacks everyone with a multi-shot that can hit for up to 2k damage.

Claw's Shout - Claw can debuff everyone nearby, reducing their armor by 25%.

Claw's Charge - Claw charges a random person occasionally, that also causes a brief stun.

This fight works best with an off-tank to hold the bear away from the tank so that he does not get his armor reduced. The tank can then hold Musel'ek away from the group and they can focus on DPSing him down. Whenever Mesel'ek uses his frost trap, he will move to get some distance and start with his aimed and multi shots. As soon as the freeze trap is over, the tank needs to move in and pick him up again. Once Musel'ek is down, the group can focus on Claw. Claw will give up at roughly 20% and you can then talk to him to complete your quest to find the 4 druids.

The last boss in the instance is the Black Stalker who is a giant marsh strider. He is only 2 pulls away from Mesel'ek and right around the corner. The fight is a difficult one for many players to learn due to the many abilities that he has. They are:

Static charge - This is a AoE debuff that the Black Stalker places on a person. It causes roughly 750 nature damage per tick to the person affected and anyone within about 15 yards of them. It is not dispellable.

Chain Lightning - This spell hits the initial target for about 2000 damage and then bounces through other players in range, causeing about 1/2 the damage done to the previous target.

Levitate - The Black Stalker can cast levitate on a player throwing them into the air. It lasts about 20 seconds, and is dispellable.

In addition to all of the abilities above, the Black Stalker can hit very hard. Combined with static and lighting he can drop your tanks health in a heart beat. For this reason it is important to be on top of the healing at all times. It is also important for the group to watch for static charge and the start of a chain lighting cast. On both events, players need to spread out and get away from him.

The biggest issue is usually the levitation ability. He tends to levitate either of the first 2 players on his aggro list, although it can be random at times. If the tank is levitated he needs to be dispelled fast as he will not be able to attack and create any more aggro while in the air. If a caster or healer is levitated it is generally ok to leave them levitated as they will still be in range to be effective. Any melee class will need to be dispelled.

The basic strategy then, is to tank him in the middle of the room, with players spread out around him. DPS him down, while ensuring that the tank is on the ground. If the tank gets levitated, DPS off and wait until he is fighting again before continuing DPS.

While learning the fight it is important to note that he is "leashed" to his room. If you get into trouble with the fight, you can simply run out and reset the encounter.

This instance has some tricky parts that can cause issues for players that have not taken the time to gear up a bit since entering the Burning Crusade. It also introduces a few elements that players that have not had raid experience will not have seen before. Take your time and have patience while learning the fights and you should be ok.

Many of the loot items in this instance will keep you coming back until you have them all. The instance has a quick exit point at the end of the Black Stalkers lair so it makes subsequent runs easy to restart. The whole instance is slightly longer than the others that you will have experienced in the Burning Crusade so far, but can still get completed in less that an hour once you are familiar with it.

I took many additional screen shots which are all available in our gallery here: TenTonHammer visits the Underbog.

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