The Lurker Below

The Lurker Below is the second boss of the Serpentshrine Cavern in the Coilfang Reservoir. It is widely considered to be the easiest fight in SSC, earning it the nickname "The Loot Below".

In order to start the fight, raid members must fish in the "Strange Pool" (needs +300 fishing skill). Each cast has a chance to make the Lurker come to the surface. The success rate of this ranges from 1-2 attempts up to fishing for 8 minutes straight. Some people claim that hitting the center of the pool has a higher chance to summon the Lurker, but this is not confirmed.

Phases
This encounter alternates between two phases. The Lurker is only active for Phase 1, which lasts 120 seconds. At the start of Phase 2, Lurker submerges and the adds are spawned. After 60 seconds of Phase 2, the Lurker re-emerges and goes back to Phase 1.

Phase 1 Abilities



 * Melee: Hits tanks for ~4k physical damage.
 * Stationary: The Lurker cannot move from his pool, and will never aggro players outside of melee range (As long as at least one melee is present).
 * Water Bolt: 1-second cast, 9-11k damage, random target. Only used if no targets are in melee range, to prevent exploiting.
 * Whirl: Physical damage to all characters in melee range. 3-4k damage, 5-yard knockback. Occurs every 18 seconds immediately after Spout completes.
 * Geyser: Randomly attacks any player, causing 3-4k Frost damage to everyone within ~10 yards of the target, as well as a ~10-yard knockback to all affected.
 * Spout: The Lurker shoots a spray from his mouth at his current target then slowly rotates 360+ degrees in a clockwise or counter-clockwise direction. Characters hit by Spout take repeated ~3.5k frost damage very quickly and are knocked back 60+ yards. Spout does not affect characters who are submerged under the water. Pets are not affected by Spout. Spout occurs every 45 seconds in Phase 1. Lurker also uses Spout immediately after re-emerging from Phase 2.

Phase 2 adds
Six ambushers and three guardians spawn at the start of phase 2. All forms of crowd control, except mind control, work on all adds.

Coilfang Guardian:
 * 70k Health
 * Melee: 6k-7k on cloth
 * Arcing Smash: 5k-9k damage in a frontal cone
 * Hamstring: Reduce movement speed by 70% for 10 sec

Coilfang Ambusher:
 * 26k Health
 * Melee: 2k-3k on cloth
 * Multi-Shot: Ranged attack on up to 3 players for 2-3k damage on cloth
 * Seem to have no aggro table

Positioning
The Lurker requires only one tank; having an off-tank makes it safer. The tank should stand in the inner ring with his back to the pillar to help prevent the knockbacks. Everybody else should spread out to minimize damage from Geyser. Melee damage dealers should stand as close to the inner edge of the platform as possible, so that the 5-yard Whirl knockback doesn't drop them into the water. Healers should stand at the outside limit of the ring to make it easy to step back into the water to avoid Spout. Ranged damage dealers can stand on the outer platforms.

Phase 1
The combat starts with the Lurker on the surface. It's rather straightforward tank and spank, except for Spout and Whirl. Aggro is hardly an issue—as long as there are targets in melee range, the Lurker does not attack ranged targets except for a random Geyser now and then. The Lurker can also be taunted. After two minutes, the Lurker submerges (which also removes all debuffs from him), adds turn up and Phase 2 starts. The Lurker re-emerges 60 seconds later and Phase 1 starts again.

Spout
Spout is the main reason for wipes on this boss; the whole raid has to learn how to avoid it. Boss mods usually give a 3-second warning, and it's best to immediately jump in the water when the warning comes up. Ranged DPS and healers can continue to do their job while in the water by swimming a little deeper to gain line of sight. After the beam has passed, it's safe to return to the platforms. The tank and everybody close to him need to pay attention—the beam starts at the tank and rotates for a little more than 360°. Each spout is closely followed by a Whirl.

Advanced techniques have the melee group run in a circle around the platform to avoid the beam (while still dealing damage). It's also possible to blink through it, or to use Ice Block or Divine Shield. It should be noted, however, that melee can continue to DPS during a spout by jumping forward into the water immediately surrounding Lurker. This will allow them to maintain more consistent DPS than if they are running in a circle, and the damage they take is very minor provided that they jump back out of the water as soon as the spout passes.

Spout does not affect pets.

Whirl
The second problem during Phase 1 is Whirl. If the entire melee group is knocked away from the Lurker, he starts to deal severe ranged damage to the raid. Thus a tank needs to avoid the Whirl, and be back in melee range ASAP.

Boss mods normally give a warning before a Whirl is incoming. The best solution is to have the MT jump into the water closer to the Lurker. In this case, the knockback brings him back onto the platform without ever leaving melee range. Alternatively, it's possible to back out of melee range before a Whirl and quickly move back in right after.

To make the fight safer, additional tanks can try to do the same as the MT. Since the Lurker can be taunted, it's rather easy to control him once a tank is in melee range.

It is possible to have a tank in the water the whole time. This makes him immune to Spout, and he doesn't have to be alert on Whirls. The water inflicts about 380 damage per tick, but the bigger problem is that there may be line-of-sight problems for the healers. To avoid the LOS issue, the MT healers can stay under water, too. One shadow priest in their group is enough to keep their health and mana up. When using this technique, everybody must be alert to exit the water during phase 2.

Whirl deals only about 1k of damage to pets, and no knockback.

Geyser
Sometimes the Lurker will randomly target someone in the raid for Geyser, which deals 2.5k-3.5k frost damage and knockback (10 yards) to the target and those nearby. Spread out to avoid having too many people hit by Geyser.

Phase 2
Each time the Lurker submerges, he spawns a total of nine adds: two ranged Coilfang Ambushers on each outer platform, and three melee Coilfang Guardians on the inner ring. All these adds can be Crowd Controlled.

Usually, each platform has one group of the raid assigned to clear the Coilfang Ambushers, while the melee group deals with the Coilfang Guardians. Each of the groups should use CC and kill their adds. Mages should note that these mobs cannot be polymorphed until they are standing in their place; trying to sheep them as they are nearing the islet results in an error message. When the platform groups are done with their packs, they need to help on the Guardians.

The Ambushers can basically be tanked by any class (the more armor the better). There is one dangerous effect to be aware of: If an Ambusher gains aggro on a healer (or damage dealer) on another platform, he starts to evade until the healer comes over onto their island. If the Lurker emerges while an Ambusher is still evading, the Lurker despawns.

Similarly, the Guardians can gain aggro on raid members on other platforms, but they simply teleport and attack in this case.

One minute after submerging, the Lurker comes back whether or not all adds are dead. After re-emerging, he starts out with a sequence of Whirl, Spout and another Whirl. It's very difficult to master this while there's an add around. The best bet is to keep the add CC'd until after the sequence (or even longer).

Alternate strategy #1 for phase 2
New Coilfang Guardians spawn on the transition to phase two only to replace dead Guardians from prior spawns. Thus it's possible to keep the Guardians sheeped (or otherwise CC'd) during the whole fight. Of course, Guardians breaking their CC can mean a one-shot death for the mage, followed by the healers in the raid, so it is important to refresh sheep every 15–20 seconds. The mages should also be soulstoned.

On top of that, hunters can put a freezing trap on the outer platforms, at the points where the Coilfang Ambushers enter. This way the raid has to deal with at most three mobs at the same time, making the healers' job much easier.

Alternate strategy #2 for phase 2
This strategy is similar to Alternate strategy #1. Our raid found that sheeping the Coilfang Guardians resulted in dead mages, so we took on the oppisite approach. We sheeped the Coilfang Ambushers instead and killed the Coilfang Guardians. That kept our mages alive and kept the dps going.

Rezzing
It is possible to use Levitate or Water Walking while rezzing, but the rez targets may quickly die again from the Scalding Water. A second healer should be ready to immediately get the rezzed players health up again and/or have the priest cast Power Word: Shield on the newly rezzed target before healing them again.

Tips
As the Scalding Water debuff deals Fire damage, Mages can use Fire Ward to lessen the damage they take during Spouts.

Bugs
The Lurker can get into a state where he does a constant Spout even though there is no casting bar and he still uses his other abilities. It occurs when the last add dies during a Spout. To not have the bug happen ensure that the final add is killed before or after a Spout, NOT during. This is supposed to be fixed in an upcoming patch. See the blue posts in http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=105971962&pageNo=1&sid=1#0 for more information

There is also a current bug where the melee adds can spawn on the various islands and one- or two-shot the DPSers. This occurs when someone uses a consumable while the adds are moving into position. The aggro generated causes the melee adds to teleport to the island where the aggro originates as they're coming in, and it looks like they're spawning on that island. As long as no one uses any consumables (that includes bandages) until the tanks have aggro on melee they will not bug out.

At the start of the Burning Crusade a bug existed where if the Lurker Below was killed while casting spout, the boss could be looted, and after a Soft Reset it would respawn. Many guilds used/abused this bug to farm the boss repeatedly.

Notes and trivia

 * The lurker's name may be derived from the  monsters, Lurker Below or the Lurker Above. The latter is also known for dwelling in dark caverns.
 * The Lurker Below was the first and initially only fish-like kraken to appear in World of Warcraft. This changed with the introduction of Tethyr, a second kraken with the same model, in patch 2.3.0.
 * The Lurker Below appears as HS The Lurker Below (a legendary card) in the Ashes of Outland expansion for Hearthstone. Its flavor text reads: "Throw it back! THROW IT BACK!"
 * In the Battle of Dazar'alor raid, a similar creature named De Lurker Be'loa can be pulled from the water near the Stormwall Blockade.