The Excavation Site: Wetlands dungeon entrance is a few yards south of the spiders’ cave, near the Dun Algaz tunnel. This path goes uphill at /way 52.80 65.90. At the top, you’ll find a campsite and the dungeon portal.
The Excavation Site: Wetlands dungeon is an outdoor level 26-32 environment that matches what you’d expect in the zone if you are familiar with the Dragonmaw encampment and Whelgar’s Excavation Site. The dungeon also matches the fauna: crocolisks, spiders, elemental bog, and raptors. However, I’m confused about giant turtles, because they are nowhere in the Wetlands. These turtles are only found in the Lost Marsh within the dungeon and outside the portal.
Excavation Site: Wetlands Dungeon Strategy
The Lost Marsh
You will feel intimidated by the vastness of this secluded lake filled with a myriad of crocolisks, but no pressure. You should ignore most of them. Simply follow the land in the middle of the lake and only kill what’s within aggro range. Hold back at the last lake islet and wait for a giant crocolisk. Alternatively, type /target saltspine. It is usually swimming in the lake.
Saltspine has an odd hitbox due to its long shape. DPS players should avoid standing too close to its head. You may get in the way of its frontal AOE damage. It’s a very straightforward encounter. You should have no problems killing the first boss unless you didn’t clear the area of crocolisks or the boss sneaks up on you while fighting a bunch of them. It’s a good idea to /target Saltspine and mark him before pulling crocolisks to prevent accidental aggro.
Stalker’s Thicket
This is by far the source of multiple wipes in the dungeon. The Stalker’s Thicket is filled with tall grass. If players stand on the grass, raptors might spawn. Stick to the path, and avoid standing on the tall grass. As Brann Bronzebeard repeatedly says in the Midnight expansion’s Delves: “Don’t stand on it!”
Worst-case scenario, and there’s an 85% chance it happens… the raptor boss, Shadetooth, fears everyone, and you land in a whole world of trouble when multiple packs of raptors spawn from standing on the grass. I imagine the developer who designed this encounter twirling their mustache and cackling whenever they look at the encounter’s player death count stats. Evil design and intent. The team wipes in this encounter are a true learning process.
The raptor boss patrols the Stalker’s Thicket back and forth, stopping by the edge of the lake. Shadetooth has two raptor companions. Don’t try to pull Shadetooth to the islet where you killed Saltspine (the crocolisk). Shadetooth will swim after you, but the two companions won’t, causing Shadetooth to despawn. If that happens, wait on the islet until it respawns. If you ignore my advice, know that Shadetooth will respawn near the edge of the lake, and if you went deep into the Stalker’s Thicket, Shadetooth will come behind you and wipe the team if you pulled raptors.
If your team has a Shaman, they should put down a Tremor Totem to prevent Shadetooth’s Fear ability from wreaking havoc by spawning Thicket Lurkers when players stand on the grass. Ask the Shaman to do that. The Thicket Matriarchs also cast Fear.
A team without a Shaman should follow these instructions. From the islet where you killed Saltspine, swim across the lake and stand on the shore. Turn your sight to your left. You will see a couple of groups of Crocolisks. Kill all of them. Now you have the perfect kill zone for Shadetooth. No tall grass. No Thicket Lurker raptors spawn when Shadetooth casts the Fear ability. After five wipes and no Shaman, I analyzed every possible method. We tried the islet idea. It backfired spectacularly when Shadetooth despawned and shortly after respawned behind us. Clearing crocolisks to make room to pull Shadetooth was a successful strategy for no Shaman on the team.
The last part of James Halloran’s questline in Menethil Harbor, Highland Hides, sends you to the dungeon for raptor hides. Horde players get a quest titled Changing Tastes. Your team might want to stand on the grass only to spawn more raptors for hides — but hopefully after Shadetooth is dead. I’d understand if you kick Shadetooth’s corpse a few times just to make sure he won’t fear you anymore. “Oh, the trauma!”
Lost Dig Site
The Lost Dig Site is filled with Dragonmaw orcs and fire elementals. There is no boss in this area, but it serves as a location to complete a few quest objectives.
There is a quest in Lakeshire titled “Songblade Search.” You will find a dwarf here inside a tent. The dwarf starts a new quest titled “Fallen in the Fen,” which rewards a mail or cloth belt. You really need those two quests for their 6334 XP each.
If you have completed the quests from the elemental bog, Rethiel the Greenwarden’s last quest, Horrors in the Highland, sends you to kill the Highland Horror. You can find that corrupted elemental bog in the circular area to the north of the Lost Dig Site.
If you are a Horde player, there is a quest titled Open the Maw asking you to kill those Dragonmaw orcs.
Without a dungeon map, some players get confused in the Lost Dig Site. Kill the orc in the tower and jump down behind it. Follow the path up the hill and kill the spiders. Hopefully, your team has a druid with Cleanse Poison.
The path leads to the Site of the Guardian where you will find many groups of spiders. Be careful not to overpull or aggro nearby or patrolling spiders. The poison is hard on healers’ mana, trying to heal through all of that to keep the tank alive.
Site of the Guardian
Caitlin Grassman in Menethil Harbor gives you a quest titled Lost in the Thicket Things to find Ardin. You will find Ardin Grassman on top of a scaffolding in the Site of the Guardian. Talk to him to start the encounter.
A few seconds later, the Relic Guardian boss will come online and become interactive.
The boss casts an AOE fire damage similar to immolation. Healers must be alert to keep their team alive. Stay away from his frontal flame attack if you are DPS or a healer. If this is the first time killing the Relic Guardian, he drops an item named Titan Relic. You need to click the item in your bag to begin a quest titled “Lost Relic Carry” (Alliance) or Elder Knowledge (Horde). If you delete the quest on purpose or by accident, simply click the item in your bag again to start the quest.
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