The path to Princess Theraras in Maraudon: Pristine Waters

Pristine Waters (levels 41-53) begins south of where a Purple Crystals (levels 39-49) or Orange Crystals (levels 41-51) run would end.

Pristine Waters is the easiest part of Maraudon to get lost in. This is also where you’ll find the most beautiful scenery in Maraudon. There are many winding paths that loop back and over each other at different levels.

When I create these guides I aim to put together comprehensive boss runs – guides that ensure you kill all the bosses in quick succession and give you a satchel at the very end. Unfortunately that’s just not possible in a Pristine Waters run.

This guide will take you on a loop that kills all four bosses. But you’re going to get your satchel midway when you kill Princess Theraras. To kill Princess last would require a lot of extra clearing and backtracking. This run is much shorter, but you may need to convince your party to stick around for the two optional bosses in the run.

The Map

Maraudon Pristine Waters Map with bosses and travel path marked

The bosses are:

1. Landslide
   He’s at the very top level of a long winding path. Once you’ve killed him, backtrack halfway down the path and take a right.
2. Princess Theraras
   Technically she’s the final boss of the instance and will award you a satchel. The path from Landslide logically leads you to Princess and all the groups that I’ve been in have instinctively traveled this direction. I’m not going to buck the trend here!
3. Rotgrip optional, recommended
   There’s absolutely no reason not to kill Rotgrip after Princess. No mobs lie between the two. Face away from Princess and jump off the left side of the path into the water and wait for Rotgrip to swim to you.
4. Tinkerer Gizlock optional
   There’s a bit of clearing in order to get to Tinkerer Gizlock and I’ve yet to find myself in a group willing to kill him. Perhaps his loot isn’t very good? Swim east after killing Rotgrip then follow the path clockwise, over the bridge then north west.

I really did try and figure out a good, logical clearing order which would bring your party to Princess last. I promise, I tried. However the amount of stuff that needs killing between Landslide and Tinkerer Gizlock is a real bummer.

And there’s just no good way to kill Rotgrip before killing Princess T – you’ll be standing on the bridge facing Princess and trying to convince your party members to take a one way detour to kill Rotgrip and Gizlock – I just can’t see that happening.

The other kill order I’ve seen suggested is:

1. Tinkerer Gizlock (there’s another way to get to him on the way to Landslide – taking a route north east off the path. Follow the dotted line marked on this map – thanks Shrike!)
2. backtrack then go up to Landslide
3. go off to kill Princess
4. then fall in the water and kill Rotgrip

Personally I hate the amount of trash you need to clear by taking that route to Tinkerer Gizlock. I know that my path looks really long on the map but most of it is clear of mobs – it’s just a long run with a couple packs in the way. And I can never find the turn off to get to Gizlock along the path marked yellow.

The Run

I’ll admit it’s been weeks and weeks since Pixii and I ran Pristine Waters. I’ve been trying to get my mind around how to do this guide. Unfortunately that means that I don’t remember much about the pugs themselves.

I do remember that all the diemetradons cast a Sonic Burst silence on casters that accidentally get into melee range and it’s just not worth trying to get a Frost Nova off. I remember that the rock elementals break down into smaller rock elementals upon death. AoE ftw!

I do remember that almost every run includes a 2 minute interlude while the party members speculate on just how ugly Princess Theradras is. And on that topic, I’m convinced that the only reason we give her so much grief is because she has the word “Princess” in her name and we start thinking of Snow White, Cinderella or maybe even celebrity princesses like Paris Hilton. Tiny, cute and blonde she is not.

Lathere is convinced that Princess ought to come to Northrend and meet Patchwerk, Rotface or Festergut. I think it’s better she stays single:

Ages ago, Theradras and Zaetar, first son of Cenarius, began a relationship. The offspring of their time together became known to the people of Kalimdor as centaurs, who promptly slew their father for his part in their misbegotten creation.

The Corpse Run

To recover your body after dying in Pristine Water you’ll need to run back to the instance portal in Valley of the Spears, Desolace. However there is no Pristine Waters instance portal – you need to take either of the two Maraudon portals like you would for a Purple or Orange Crystals instance run.

I would recommend following the path to the Purple Crystals portal found at the end of this guide.

*** ps. Next up: the dreaded Sunken Temple **

Razorlash is the second and final boss in Maraudon: Orange Crystals

With the introduction of the Dungeon Finder in Patch 3.3 Blizzard have segmented some of the lengthy classic dungeons. Maraudon has been split into 3 separate dungeon runs: Purple Crystals (levels 39-49), Orange Crystals (levels 41-51) and Pristine Waters (levels 41-53).

Both Purple and Orange dungeon runs logically lead onto Pristine Waters. If you compare the maps between this guide (for Orange) and the map that I created for Purple you can really how the two entrances lead towards Celebras the Cursed and then onwards south towards Pristine Waters.

The Orange Crystal run will be the second part of Maraudon that you visit using the Dungeon Finder. This time around we’re killing evil plants. And slugs.

Maraudon: Orange Crystals is actually a very nice length dungeon to run. It contains two bosses: Noxxion and Razorlash.

The Map

Maraudon Orange Crystals: Map with path and bosses marked

The bosses are:

1. Noxxion
2. Razorlash
   The final boss. Congratulations, you made it!
3. Celebras the Cursed optional!
   Technically Celebras isn’t part of the Maraudon: Orange instance run at all. Once you’ve killed Razorlash, the game will award you for completing the run. However, if some of your group members want to do the quest to kill/talk to him and get his staff, I’ve included the path to reach him.

The Run

Beware groups of slimes/ooze. These critters deal huge amounts of damage to player in close proximity. Fortunately, they also move incredibly slowly. There are a couple of groups of slimes that will need to be cleared along the way towards Noxxion. They shouldn’t be tanked or melee’d, just have your ranged DPSers kill them from afar.

There are quite a few centaur patrols (usually in pairs of 2 hunter-y type females) that will make you life difficult you’re not looking for them.

And the big blackened lashers are nasty for casters – particularly healers – because they do a knockback with a stun/interupt quite frequently. At the beginning of the instance you’ll always fight these one at a time. In the groups after Noxxion (the first boss), which are a mix of less dangerous brown lashers usually with 1 evil, dark lasher – it’s a good idea to focus firethe bad one.

The Bug, er Slug

There are a couple of pipes that spew out worm/slug things in Maraudon: Orange. The first one, the annoying one, is in the large open space (the third light blue arrow on the map) before Noxxion’s cavern. When the pipe works correctly you can clear up to it, and click on it and bash it until it sort of collapses. Once you’ve bashed on it, it will stop spawning slugs.

Unfortunately in my runs, bashing on the pipe had no effect. This means that after you progress past this room slugs will continue to creep up behind the group and latch onto your healer. They seem to stop once you kill Noxxion.

Hopefully Blizzard will fix this soon. It seems to be a known problem.

The Corpse Run

The one truth that applies to any of the three Maraudon instances is this: the spirit run back is absolutely awful.

However, if you do wipe inside Maraudon: Orange Crystals you have a few options:

• Drop group. Awww, giving up so easy?
• Spirit run back to the Maraudon: Purple instance portal (if you know the way there better). As a reader pointed out, you’ll be kicked to wherever you were before the group was assembled, alive, at which point you can use the Teleport to Dungeon option.
• Spirit run back to the Maraudon: Orange instance portal.

If you’ve chosen to run back to the Maraudon: Orange instance portal the good news is that, technically, it’s about the same distance to run to the Maraudon: Purple instance portal. Assuming you don’t get lost. It’s still a god awful long distance. Here’s how to do it:

1. Run north and west from the graveyard up towards the Valley of Spears. On your map there are two huts drawn in, you want to aim for the southern one. Keep an eye out for the summoning stone. Then look up towards the north west and you’ll see a giant gargoyle looking entrance with some closed stone doors – run in.
2. Inside the cavern. Walk half way across the bridge and turn left and jump right off. Follow that tunnel!
3. You’ll get to a wide open room with Purple Crystals marking the left side of the room, Orange Crystals marking the right and an altar/wall decoration thing in the center. Go right, towards the Orange Crystals (if you can’t make out the colours in spirit form, go right when you reach the wide room with crystals on the far left and far right).
4. Follow this map:

Maraudon: Orange - path to instance portal and/or spirit run

I always get lost finding the Orange instance portal, so I looked around and found a map drawn by someone who actually knows the way! The above map is modified from this crazy, all-quests-in-one, map/guide.

Not a very pretty picture. Do you know how long it would take me to fly out there to take another?

With the introduction of the Dungeon Finder in Patch 3.3 Blizzard have segmented some of the lengthy classic dungeons. Maraudon has been split into 3 separate dungeon runs: Purple Crystals (levels 39-49), Orange Crystals (levels 41-51) and Pristine Waters (levels 41-53).

Maraudon has a really odd structure. If you were to travel to the zone portal by foot – it’s underground in Desolace below the Valley of the Spears – you can follow the purple glowing crystals jutting out of the walls towards the Purple Crystals instance portal, or you can follow the orange glowing crystals jutting out of the walls to enter Mauradon via the Orange Crystals instance portal: two separate start points into the same instance.

Both Purple and Orange dungeon runs logically lead onto Pristine Waters. It’s kind of a Y shape – two instance runs leading to one final section.

The Purple Crystal run, containing the lowest level enemies and thus first in the series, will start you in a blue shadowed area called The Wicked Grotto. I hope you’re ready to kill some imps and demons!

The good news? Purple Crystals is a super fast instance run. The bad news? Purple Crystals is a super fast instance run. There’s only one boss to kill in order to receive Blizzard’s little completion box and a pat on the back for a job well done. You’ll probably finish your first run thinking: is that it? Never fear, I’ve included the directions to an extra boss if you’re left wanting more.

The Map

Maraudon Purple Crystals: Map with path and bosses marked

The bosses are:

1. Lord Vyletongue
2. Celebras the Cursed
   Technically Celebras doesn’t really fit into the Purple Crystals run at all. Once you’ve killed Lord Vyletongue, the game will award you for completing the run. However, the next boss you come to in the original Mauradon (pre-segmented) is Celebras, and the poor guy isn’t part of either the Orange Crystals or Pristine Waters segments either. So I’ve tacked him on here. Plus some of your group members might have the quest to kill/talk to him and get his staff.

Still Want More?

As I mentioned above, you’ll probably kill Lord Vyletongue, get your satchel and stand around saying “so… we’re done?” to your other similarly bewildered party members. If you, and rest of your party, want to get more XP returned for the time spent in queue you can keep heading west towards Celebras the Cursed.

If you’ve killed Celebras and still want more, you can head south then east and jump off the edge when you reach the waterfall to begin a Pristine Waters run. Be careful, though. Blizzard defines the appropriate level for Pristine Waters as 41-53 but from experience I wouldn’t try this unless your tank and DPSers are all level 44+. The hydras in the water are about level 46 and you’re going to be in a word of hurt if you’re missing more than hitting.

The bosses in Pristine Waters are level 48 elites.

The Corpse Run

The absolutely worst part of Maraudon is the spirit run back to the instance portal. Avoid wiping at all costs!

If you’re a Warlock, be diligent about keeping your soulstone up on the healer. If you’re a soulstone’d healer, be very careful not to use your soulstone until you’re absolutely sure it’s safe and the area around you is clear of enemy mobs. Shamans with their self-ressurection would be a godsend here, too. Unfortunately none of my runs happened to include a Shaman.

If you have no other option, here’s how to get back:

1. Run north and west from the graveyard up towards the Valley of Spears. On your map there are two huts drawn in, you want to aim for the southern one. Keep an eye out for the summoning stone. Then look up towards the north west and you’ll see a giant gargoyle looking entrance with some closed stone doors – run in.
2. Inside the cavern. Walk half way across the bridge and turn left and jump right off. Follow that tunnel!
3. You’ll get to a wide open room with Purple Crystals marking the left side of the room, Orange Crystals marking the right and an altar/wall decoration thing in the center. Go left, towards the Purple Crystals (if you can’t make out the colours in spirit form, go left).
4. Follow the crystal tunnel. When you get to the bridge, head straight across and continue to follow the path towards the left.
5. Continue through the tunnel until you reach a wide open cavern with bridges in the distance. Turn immediately to your right and you should be able to see the instance portal!

Here’s those instructions in picture form:

Slideshow: Getting to the instance portal. Click and press "play" to see all steps.

Step 2: Entrance

Step 3: Jump!

Step 4: Follow the tunnel

Step 5: Keep following...

Step 6: T intersection - go left!

Step 7: Bridge

Step 8: Follow the path

Step 9: Keep following...

Step 10: The cavern

Step 11: Turn right

Step 12: You made it!