- Level
- 26+
- Group Size
- 5
- Bosses
- 4
- Location
- Wetlands
- Continent
- Eastern Kingdoms
About Excavation Site: Wetlands
The dwarves at Whelgar's Excavation set out looking for prehistoric fossils and lost tablets of will, but they drastically underestimated the Wetlands' hostility toward a dry pair of boots. From the beginning, the expedition was a monument to dwarven stubbornness: relentless downpours caved in the trenches, packs of speckled raptors treated the camp like an all-you-can-eat buffet, and Prospector Ormyrr Whelgar’s crew kept right on swinging their pickaxes into the hillside—until they broke through the water table into masonry far older, and far more lethal, than old lizard bones.
Tumbling down through the cracked strata, the resulting dungeon descent is anything but dignified. Parties must first fight through the overrun surface camp at the Lost Dig Site and carve a path through the feral ambush inside Stalker's Thicket. Then comes the real trial: the Lost Marsh, a cavernous, pitch-black subterranean bog where the stagnant water rises past your belt. In the murky gloom, half the fight is telling whether that silhouette drifting through the reeds is waterlogged driftwood, the ancient crocolisk Saltspine, or Shadetooth’s hungry pack maneuvering for a flank.
Should your group make it across the mire without drowning or becoming dinner for the Highland Horror, the footing finally climbs out of the water onto dry, cyclopean stonework. Looming in the cavern's heart is an entrance unrecorded in Ironforge's finest archives: the Site of the Guardian. As it happens, whoever built this vault left no guest book—and the tireless Relic Guardian waiting within has spent several millennia looking for an excuse to throw mud-covered intruders right back up the shaft.
First Run
- Tucked into the rocky ridges behind Whelgar's Excavation Site in eastern Wetlands. Alliance can take the main roadway east straight from Menethil Harbor; Horde players can ride south from Refuge Pointe across Thandol Span.
- Tuned around level 26 according to client AreaTable data. While you can zone in right at 26, the interior challenges ramp up quickly; bringing level 27 or 28 companions avoids painful resists and crushing blows.
- Navigating the waist-deep waters of the Lost Marsh severely degrades line-of-sight and invites sneaky patrol adds. Pull packs backward onto dry stone ledges before bursting them down.
- Boss spell compendiums are not yet unsealed in the beta client. Clean, disciplined pulls remain the golden rule to prevent messy corpse runs through the marsh.
Veteran Notes
- Confirmed in client DB2 files in sequential order: the crocolisk Saltspine, the raptor leader Shadetooth, the swamp monstrosity Highland Horror, and the ancient construct Relic Guardian.
- In Build 69913, dedicated dungeon quests and interior minimaps have not yet been hooked up; this is a pure, unassisted exploratory run for now.
- Completely uninstanced entrance in open contested territory, fully accessible by both Alliance and Horde five-man groups without pre-requisite attunements.
Changes in Forever
- No More Trans-Continental Treks. Classic left Eastern Kingdoms adventurers stranded in the mid-twenties with no local five-player content, forcing boat trips to Razorfen Kraul or under-leveled Scarlet Monastery runs. Excavation Site bridges this route seamlessly.
- First-Clear XP Windfall. Matches Forever’s core philosophy: mindlessly grinding dungeon trash is gone, replaced by a massive milestone XP payoff upon full completion. A single full run at level 26 is one of the highest-yield leveling moments in the bracket.
Bosses
4 bosses wait in Excavation Site: Wetlands.
- 01Saltspine
- 02Shadetooth
- 03Highland Horror
- 04Relic Guardian
Getting There
- ContinentEastern Kingdoms
- ZoneWetlands Levels 20–30 · Contested territory