Serpentshrine Cavern Raid Guides

Serpentshrine Cavern is a 25-player, 6-boss raid located in Zangarmarsh and is a part of the second tier of content available as a part of Phase 2 of The Burning Crusade Classic.

With the most recent change to The Burning Crusade Classic you are no longer required to become attuned to Serpentshrine Cavern to enter the instance but completing the quest line that was formerly required will grant you the unique title "Hand of A'dal". Listed below is our in-depth guide on the quest chain and how to complete it.

Serpentshrine Cavern's entrance is located inside of the Coilfang Reservoir in Zangarmarsh. This area is in the middle of the map on the Northern side in the water.

You will need to swim toward the middle of the lake until you come across the structure in the picture above. After that swim down and you will see a pipe opening, shown below, to swim through. Swim through to the other side to emerge with the summoning stone in front of you.

The instance portal is hidden behind a large waterfall in the center of the Reservoir. When you have completed the attunement quest you will be able to interact with a panel near the waterfall disabling the wall of water and allowing you to walk into the instance portal.

Serpentshrine Cavern is filled with trash mobs that can be quite dangerous if not managed correctly. Below we will include the most deadly mobs and how you should handle each of them.

• Silence
• Sonic Scream

Coilfang Hate-Screamers can be found along the way to the first boss and are by far the most important mob to kill in these early trash packs. The Silence ability will silence everyone within 30 yards of the mob, rendering them unable to cast, and also deals large damage with Sonic Scream. Focusing down the Hate-Screamer is a high priority as the other mobs found in these packs can easily be tanked and ignored. Just make sure to pay attention to where the mobs are facing as the Coilfang Beast-Tamers found in the same pack can cleave!

• Acid Geyser
• Atrophic Blow
• Frenzy
• Initial Infection
• Serpentshrine Parasite
• Spore Quake
• Toxic Pool

Underbog Colossi can be found patrolling all throughout the instance and are very dangerous, so it is extremely important to keep track of them to ensure you do not have to fight them while dealing with another trash pack. The Underbog Colossus is unique in that each colossus will have a random pair of abilities; the possible combinations include:

• Frenzy and Atrophic Blow — This is easy to deal with; just ensure your Hunters are casting Tranquilizing Shot or your Druids are casting Soothe Animal to remove the Frenzy.
• Acid Geyser and Serpentshrine Parasite — Acid Geyser targets an individual and will deal a large amount of damage to them and any allies within an 8-yard radius so it is crucial that the person targeted by this ability gets away from the rest of the group. The Serpentshrine Parasite will deal massive damage (about 2,000 every 2 seconds) to a target and after 10 seconds will spawn a mob that you have to kill quickly before it attacks another player, infecting them with the same debuff.
• Spore Quake and Initial Infection — with this combo the best way to handle it is by simply out-ranging the Quake and making sure someone dispels the Infection as soon as possible as it deals more damage the longer the debuff is active.

• Arcane Lightning
• Poison Shield
• Water Elemental Totem

The Greyheart Tidecaller has three abilities, all of which are important to handle correctly. The most important of their abilities is summoning a Water Elemental Totem; the Water Elemental spawned by this totem will despawn if you kill the totem. It is important to focus the totem itself and not the Water Elemental. Poison Shield is a buff that the Greyheart Tidercaller will cast on themselves and it must be purged as quickly as possible. Arcane Lightning deals a moderate amount of damage and silences everyone hit by it, so spreading helps mitigate this effect.

• Arcane Destruction
• Arcane Lightning
• Arcane Volley
• Blink
• Cone of Cold
• Fire Destruction
• Fireball
• Frost Destruction
• Frostbolt
• Rain of Fire
• Scorch

Much like the Underbog Colossus mentioned earlier, there are different types of Greyheart Nether-Mages. They use either Arcane, Frost, or Fire spells. They deal a considerable amount of damage regardless of what school of magic they end up with and it is crucial to either interrupt them or Polymorph them. The Nethermage will give itself a buff that corresponds with the school of magic it is using and it is important that this debuff is dispelled or spellstolen by your own Mages for a damage increase. These debuffs are as follows: Arcane Destruction for Arcane, Frost Destruction for Frost, and Fire Destruction for Fire.

• Poison Bolt Volley
• Rancid Mushroom

The Serpentshrine Lurkers can be quite difficult to deal with when handling other mobs as well, but they are able to be Banished. Doing so makes things considerably easier and it is typically best to leave the Lurker Banished until the rest of the trash pack is dead. Poison Bolt Volley deals massive damage to the raid and should be dispelled from your raid members as quickly as possible. Rancid Mushroom spawns mushrooms in the room that will explode and do a large amount of damage to anyone in range, so try to avoid them as soon as you see them spawning.

• Hydross the Unstable
• The Lurker Below
• Leotheras the Blind
• Fathom-Lord Karathress
• Morogrim Tidewalker
• Lady Vashj

Leading up to the release of Phase 3 of The Burning Crusade Classic many of the health values in the Serpentshrine Cavern raid have been reduced. Listed below are the most notable changes you are likely to experience.

• Hydross the Unstable's health has gone from 3,794,000 to 3,414,600 (10% reduction)
• Leotheras the Blind's health has gone from 455,280 to 3,794,000 (16.67% reduction)
• Lady Vashj's health has gone from 6,070,000 to 4,856,000 (20% reduction)