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Excavation Site: Wetlands — WoW Forever Dungeon Guide

A dig site in the Wetlands that Blizzard describes as trapped in time, for levels 26–31, with mist rolling down from the mountains and titan constructs running loose.

Giant bones in marsh grass at Excavation Site: Wetlands in World of Warcraft: Forever
Blizzard’s own screenshot of Excavation Site: Wetlands, from the BlizzCon press kit. Image: Blizzard Entertainment.

Levels are from Blizzard’s September 15 Kaivax post; the rest is checked against the What’s Next panel video and recap. Last reviewed: . The beta section follows Wowhead’s walkthrough of and the beta client, build 1.60.1.70790; reviewed .

What the beta shows in Excavation Site: Wetlands

The beta client names 4 bosses, and Wowhead found 11 quests, more for the Alliance than for the Horde. The quests open at level 24, but the last boss is level 31, so come at 26 or later.

Bosses

  1. 1

    Saltspine

    Clear the area first. Tendon Rip slows the tank heavily; Dust Storm cuts the hit chance of anyone within 10 yards by 25%, so casters stay out of melee range.

    • Glinteye Slippers Cloth boots
    • Saltscale Girdle Mail belt
    • Supple Bellyskin Leggings Leather leggings
  2. 2

    Shadetooth

    Comes with two Thicket Hunters: crowd-control them or kill them one at a time, and dispel their Infected Wound. He fears for 5 seconds and enrages at 30% health. Fight in the cleared cove to the left so the fear doesn’t send anyone into the tall grass, where raptors spawn.

  3. 3

    Highland Horror

  4. 4

    Relic Guardian

    • Level 31
    • Final boss

    Starts when you press the Archival Panel to its right. A gear and level check: Thunderclap slows everyone within 10 yards, and the tank is knocked back and sometimes stunned for 5 seconds. It can be stunned and slowed.

    • Titan Relic

Quests

  • 11 quests

  • Changing Tastes

    • Horde

    From Borstan, the Cooking trainer in Orgrimmar. Rewards a trinket.

  • Open the Maw

    • Horde

    From a Deathstalker Agent hiding in the hills by the entrance.

  • Elder Knowledge

    • Horde
    • Starts from
    • Titan Relic

    Loot the Titan Relic from the last boss.

  • Earthen Echo

    • Horde

    Follows Elder Knowledge: a choice of a cloak or weapons.

  • Highland Hides

    • Alliance

    From James Halloran in Menethil Harbor, after Daily Delivery.

  • Songblade Search

    • Alliance

    From Dorin Songblade in the Redridge Mountains.

  • Horrors in the Highland

    • Alliance

    From Rethiel the Greenwarden in the Wetlands, after his earlier quests.

  • Lost in the Thicket Things

    • Alliance

    From Caitlin Grassman in Menethil Harbor.

  • Heartwoven

    • Alliance

    Follows Lost in the Thicket Things. Rewards the same trinket as the Horde’s Changing Tastes.

  • Lost Relic Carry

    • Alliance
    • Starts from
    • Titan Relic

    Loot the Titan Relic from the last boss.

  • Prehistoric Prism

    • Alliance

    Follows Lost Relic Carry: a choice of a cloak or weapons.

Where this comes from

Boss names and their order are the beta client’s own (DungeonEncounter, build 1.60.1.70790). The client names four encounters; Wowhead’s guide covers three and says nothing about Highland Horror, though the Alliance has a quest called Horrors in the Highland.

Tactics, quests and loot are from Wowhead’s Excavation Site guide of October 2 and its quest list of October 3. The trash before the second boss is the dangerous part: raptors spawn when you walk through tall grass, and a Thicket Matriarch at low health calls more. Stay on the path and fight in the open.

Wowhead recommends levels 26–32, close to Blizzard’s 26–31. A full wipe means a long run from the only graveyard in the Wetlands. The Titan Relic is in the beta client’s item table; the other rewards aren’t yet. All of it is beta content and can change before launch.

What Blizzard has said about Excavation Site: Wetlands

The What’s Next panel showed an excavation above Whelgar’s Excavation where something has gone wrong: strange mist drifts down from the mountains, lights flash on the horizon and the titan constructs on site have turned hostile. The Explorers’ League has an interest in what is buried there.

The name took two steps. Blizzard’s panel recap only called it “a mysterious excavation site above Whelgar’s Excavation”; Kaivax’s September 15 dungeon table gave it the official name Excavation Site: Wetlands, at levels 24–29. Blizzard’s October 1 beta notes, the build that opened the dungeon to testers, list it at 26–31, which is the range this page uses. Blizzard’s dungeon overview of October 21 gives 24–29 again; until Blizzard settles it, this page keeps the beta notes’ range, which fits the level 31 last boss.

Jay Hartman, who built it, said on the WoW Forever Podcast episode 3 that it is a small dungeon on purpose, and the first place where difficulty steps up. So far only its physical-damage disease has been lowered; the raptor boss’s bleed is intended.

It is one of five new dungeons with an official screenshot in Blizzard’s BlizzCon press kit.

Loading screen art of Excavation Site: Wetlands: a dirt track under a great tree, with a barrel wagon and stone ruins in the hills beyond
The loading screen of Excavation Site: Wetlands. Art © Blizzard Entertainment, from the WoW Forever beta client (build 1.60.1.70450).

Where Excavation Site: Wetlands is

The dungeon sits in the Wetlands, above Whelgar’s Excavation — the dig in the south-east of the zone that Classic players already know.

At 26–31 it comes after the two low-level dungeons and overlaps the City of Dalaran at 28–33. The dungeons and the new WoW Forever zones share one level chart on the dungeons page.

The other new dungeons

All nine in level order, and what changes for dungeons in Forever, are on the WoW Forever dungeons page.

Not announced yet

  • The loot
  • How many players the dungeon is built for

Sources

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