Guides The Slave Pens

The Slave Pens
By Eldredd

Level: 62-64
Players: 5
Located: Zangarmarsh - Middle of Serpent Lake
Heroic Attunement: Buy key from Cenarion Expedition at revered.
Description
The Slave Pens is the first instance available to you in Coilfang Reservoir and the third instance you are likely to see in Outlands. It is a little bit more chalenging than Hellfire Ramparts or Blood Furnace and if you show up unprepared you will be making the long run from the graveyard before you get very far.

The pulls in this instance are very basic as long as you pay attention to where the Pats are going and get them far enough away from their neighbors so they don't aggro. Most of your pulls are all linked, esp. the crabs, so once you hit one prepare to have to fight them all.

Quests
There is only one half of a quest for this instance and the NPC is located right near the meeting stone as you enter the cave. Two of the NPCs for this quest are found in The Slave Pens and the other two are found in The Underbog.

Recommended Party
Standard group composition rules apply to this instance.

Well geared Bear/Warrior is needed. These bosses hit hard and will easily one shot clothies if they get loose.
Priest/Resto Druid is needed for main healing as the boss fights can be long and a good mana pool is a must.
Mage/Lock for CC. I am sure this instance could be done without CC but I surely wouldn't want to try.
Druid/Paladin for cure poison is a MUST.
Walkthrough
The path through the instance is straight forward for the most part with a few little bumps along the road. The patrols are faster moving than the ones in Ramparts though their pathing is just as predictable. The pulls are also pretty standard though the MOBs in here have a few tricks that you have to be wary of.

Champions - These guys can AoE Fear so make sure when you pull you leave enough room between you and the next group.
Enchantresses - They can MC players but they also die very quickly. These should be the groups first target.
Crabs - These guys move fast and attack in large groups. By themselves they are weak but with all 6 of them on a single tank he will go down very quickly. With a good tank and a well placed Frost Nova they can be AoE'd down nicely.
Slave Handlers and Slaves - They call slaves to assist them when attacked. While the slaves are weak they can be really annoying as adds. Once you kill the Handler the slaves run free so always focus your DPS on him.
The path to the first boss is pretty straight forward. You will enter a room with a group on the left and stairs on the right. The first boss Mennu the Betrayer paths up and down these stairs. I personally prefer to take out the left group and pull him into that corner. In my experience he will NOT aggro the Naga at the bottom of the stairs when you pull him so I would recommend taking him out first. NOTE: Running under the stairs to check out what is in the corner WILL aggro Mennu.

Mennu the BetrayerMennu is a very simple boss as far as strategy is concerned. The tank pulls him into the corner and the rest of the group gets out of range of the Nova Totems. Have one person in the group designated to Totem duty (Fireblast, Moonfire, whatever) as these totems have a few hundred HP and are very easily killed. Without totems he is just a MOB with a lot of HP and can be easily burned down by a competent group. I want to emphazize again, kill the healing totems INSTANTLY.

(NOTE: I don't have loot pictures yet - Still working on getting them)

Wastewalker Shiv http://www.thottbot.com/ i=57107
Spellfire Longsword http://www.thottbot.com/ i=56629
Princely Reign Leggings http://www.thottbot.com/ i=56896
Trackers Belt http://www.thottbot.com/ i=57059
Vest of Living Lightning http://www.thottbot.com/ i=57108
Up the stairs from where you fight Mennu is where the first lost druid is. He is lying on the floor dead pretty much right in front of you.

On the way to Rockmarr you will come to a bridge where you can look down and see the boss. I have not attempted this BUT I assume that jumping down is a REALLY bad idea. You will come to a room where you have to jump down into the water and swim forward to get back on land. If you jump into the middle it is deep enough where you will not take any damage. Do NOT allow your priest to Levitate off the bridge because he will float right into some Naga pats and chances are that you will grab all three of them.

Rokmar The CracklerRokmar is another pretty straight forward boss. Your tank can grab him and you can fight him easily in his little cave. Besides being a standard Tank and DPS type boss he does have a few abilities of note. He will shoot AoE Frostbolts at the party that do a nice little bit of damage. DPS classes can bandage or you can have a secondary healer spot heal the DPSers because your main healer is going to have to give 100% attention to the tank. Rokmar has a Grevious Wound attack that does a large amount of damage over time to the recipient and the only way to remove it is to heal the target to full. This attack is the reason that the main healer has to focus 100% attention on the Main Tank or anyone else receiving a grievous wound because they will drop fast. He has a knock back attack that can toss the tank around a little bit and does remove aggro when he uses it. Finally he has an Ensnare attack that functions as a slow effect on the target. This on the MT can make Aggro generation difficult but shouldn't be a problem with an experienced tank. This attack on a main healer however can be deadly and the secondary healer should be ready to assist when this happens.

At 20% Rokmar enrages and really starts dishing out the damage. This is the time to use those trinkets and burn him down fast before the healer goes OOM.

(NOTE AGAIN: No loot pictures yet)

Runed Fungalcap http://www.thottbot.com/ i=56630
Coilfang Needler http://www.thottbot.com/ i=57185
Coilfang Hammer of Renewal http://www.thottbot.com/ i=57109
Bogstrok Scale Cloak http://www.thottbot.com/ i=56894
Calming Spore Reed http://www.thottbot.com/ i=57271
After Rokmar you continue to clear in a linear fashion through what is left of the instance and you will come across the second lost Druid in a cage. Make sure you are ready for a fight as soon as you free him because freeing him spawns a Naga patrol. TIP-Have everybody but one person stand at the mouth to this cave before talking to the druid. If you have a mage, have him let the druid out and then blink to the party. If the druid gets in combat, he's very squishy and is not targettable for buffs or heals. If he dies, there goes your NR buff. As soon as you take care of these Naga you will get a nice little buff from the Druid that will increase all stats and give you a good chunk of Nature Resistance for the final boss.

QuagmirranThis boss is a big `ol Fungal Giant and he hits like a ton of bricks. He is not a very difficult boss strategy wise and a coherant party should have no problems taking him down. He has a nasty cleave attack that will do a good chunk of damage so Rogues need to make sure not to get in front of him. He has an AoE poison attack that also does a large amount of damage to everybody in the party and needs to be de-poisoned immediately. The Druid buff will help offset this damage but the healer needs to be focusing on the MT so once again Bandaging and a Secondary Healer will be good for this encounter. His third attack is a poison breath type of attack so keeping him facing away from the party during this attack is key. Hold aggro, DPS steady and keep the MT alive. When he does his squat and poison move, he will deliberately turn and try to spray the party. Save your taunts for this moment to spin him back off the party and tell DPS to lighten up for the few seconds of poison spray. (Loot Forthcoming)

Unscarred Breastplate http://www.thottbot.com/ i=57143
Spore-Soaked Vaneer http://www.thottbot.com/ i=56897
Scorpid-Sting Mantle http://www.thottbot.com/ i=56631
Deft Handguards http://www.thottbot.com/ i=57407
Azureplate Greaves http://www.thottbot.com/ i=56895
That is it for the Slave Pens. Up next for me is a walkthrough for The Underbog that I will try to write next week at the latest. Feel free to edit anything that I may have missed or give me any feedback you have about this walkthrough.

Written By: Eldredd <Rage of Fire> - Uther (US) Minor Edits by Vampyrate <The NERVous Horde> - Bloodhoof (US)