Dire Maul East Strategy

This Dire Maul east side walkthrough assumes you zoned in from the courtyard entrance. On the map that entrance is to the west. The first thing to do is talk to Pusilin the imp who will run off further into the instance. No need to go chasing after him full speed, we will encounter him again later. Before you clear around this upper ledge in this first area I will describe some of the Mobs you will be dealing with.

• Treant Patrols - These groups of 3 treants should be pulled as early as possible so that they dont add later while fighting another mob. They aren't too difficult to kill and are weak to fire spells (negative fire resist). You will encounter them at a few points in this area. Just keep an eye out for the patrols before pulling the bigger stuff.
• Phase Lashers - These plants shift different attacks and resistances throughout the fight. Their color will help indicate what element they are currently using. Purple is arcane, red is fire, blue for frost and black for shadow. Arcane seems to be the most deadly and casters should watch what resistance they have and change elements if possible. They can be a tough fight and since some elements use a lot of AoEs ranged characters should stand back a bit.
• Giant Warpwood Treants - These big guys hit hard and have a lot of HP. They also have a huge aggro range so sneaking by is risky. Just pull the other mobs that are nearby and grab these last. Make sure the treant patrols are cleared and you should be able to handle him alone.
• Whip Lashers - These groups of 8 non elites can be quickly handled with AoE or still easily handled without it.

Note: Since most mobs are elementals, warlocks are really handy (banish ftw)

Also I should mention the green clickable ground spawns. Many of them are trapped and may spawn 4 easy non elites, a poison gas cloud or a rooting trap. They are similar to the supply crates in stratholme. If not trapped you can loot them for Thornling Seeds and Runn Tum Tubers.

Now that you know what you're up against you can safely clear along this ledge. At the South East corner you will find Pusilin the imp again and again he will run off when you talk to him. Also the side enterence is right there at the south east corner. Clear to the north and at the north east corner Pusilin will be waiting for you. Talk to him again to have him run off to the east down the tunnel. You can safely follow him to the east down this tunnel, but will encounter one stealthed saty along the way.

(Ed. note: been a bit could use some help describing the satyr rooms and the pulls here. I don't remember the satyrs as being any challenge at all)
At the end of this tunnel will be a large room with many satyrs. You need to clear to Pusilin talk to him again and he will run up to a balcony on the south side (#5 on the map). Once you reach the balcony talk to Pusilin one final time to begin the boss battle with him. He uses some fire spells and calls non elite imps to join the fight. An aoe class is handy here to handle them with quickly. After killing him your reward will be the Crescent Key, Recipe: Runn Tum Tuber Surprise and if you are lucky a class book. Also he drops a Book of Incantations for the Pusillin and the Elder Azj'Tordin quest.

With Pusilin dead you can head west down the tunnel you came in from. You want to go back to the south door that leads to another room full of satyrs. You can just take a left and stick to the left wall skipping many of the mobs in this room. You will come to a door on the left, just pass it for now and instead head up the ramp in front of you. Up here you will find another boss, the warlock Lethtendris and her pet imp. It is easy to take the imp out fast while the warrior builds aggro on Lethtendris. Then change focus to her and finish her off. She drops a few nice items as well as Lethtendris's Web for the quest of the same name. Alliance Quest/Horde Quest

Now you can head back to that path on the left that you skipped earlier. Heading down this ramp will lead you to the room with Hydrospawn. You will need to clear some satyrs (also some non elites, can't remember what type). It should be pretty similar to stuff you have handled before. Once you can get a clear pull on hydrospawn you can grab him, just pull him back a fair bit because he will knockback. Also he has a drowning debuff that is a stacked stamina debuff, the longer the fight is the less HP your warrior (or anyone standing close enough to get AoE debuffed by it) will have. As long as you stay far away from any mobs to make the knockback problem a bit less he shouldn't be too much tougher than any other high level elemental. Also he is needed for the Arcane Refreshment quest for level 60 water.

Continuing north past the hydrospawn pool, you'll find another ramp that loops down to Zevrim Thornhoof. He frontloads quite a bit of damage including a nasty curse, so be ready with big heals at the start.

After dispatching Zevrim, return to the hydrospawn pool; from there, proceed to the SW, into an adjoining room with another up-ramp. That ramp will take you up to the couryard where you'll find Old Ironbark (you could see down into this courtyard on entering the instance). Beware of patrols of three treants that move very fast. You must speak to Ironbark to open the door on the north end of the courtyard. If you have a rogue/druid along, you they can stealth to Ironbark, speak to him, then everyone can hug the east wall to the door on the north (again..beware the super fast patrols).

Once the door opens, proceed north; You'll eventually make your way around to Alzzin the Wildshaper. In his chamber, you can hop up on the rail and skip the mobs on the way down the ramp. Alzzin is protected by three lashers that you need to clear first. Once the fight begins, he'll shift shapes. In tree form, he has very high DR, high resists (just nature?...vulnerable to fire?) and meles hard. In wolf form, his DPS is very high, and he applies a nasty DoT. At about 1/5 health, he will summon some non-elite minions (have your warlock/mage save mana to AoE these guys).

Once dead, Shards of Felvine will appear behind his original position (on the ground, near the vines). Loot them quickly, as they will disappaer in a few minutes.

There are always two rich thorium veins to mine on the way out too...

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Addition: How to pwn east side in 20 minutes or less.

This is from memory, so it may not be all inclusive. But, some of us have found we can kill all the major bosses in east in about 20 minutes or less (you do miss the giant imp guy for your DM key though). Given that all bosses from hydroNooB to prince tortellini all have about the same drop rate for books, this is a great way to maximize your chances for book drops without having to get pwned in the face by serious competition like Kromcrush or the prince. Remember to look for dusky tomes at each boss point.

1. Go in the south door (it's off to your east, before you ever get into the arena courtyard.

2. pull the group of mini-lashers back to the entrance, AOE. watch the patrol patterns, and if you feel safer doing so, pull the single patroller to your left, then the single static lasher to your right. then, have your puller go forward and grab the tree to the right. you have to pull him, as he's got a huge aggro radius. pull him all the way back. ensure you time it so you don't also get the 3 lasher patrol.

3. Timing between patrols, jump over the balcony, right at the corner. try to jump out and to your right. You are now standing in the lower courtyard by the door to hydrospawn's room. There's one low level satyr patroller in the passage. kill him, then have the party wait in the room at the top of the passage.

4. The puller then sticks to his right and enters the big room. hugging the right wall, he gets to hydrospawn's pool and pulls him ALL THE WAY BACK to the entryway, where the party leisurely pastes him without having to worry about being knocked back into satyrs.

5. Go to the hydrospawn's pool. do a 180 degree turn so the way you came in (SW corner) is to your right. now, look to the left (SE). pull the single satyr you can see toward the centerline. He's a caster, so use the column in hydrospawn's pool to LOS pull him. He has a pack of imps with him. AOE the imps while you tank the satyr.

6. When he's dead, go between the two colums, stick to the right, go behind the tree, along the wall, and up to where lethandris and imp are. kill the patrol on the passageway. kill bosses. go back to hydrospawn pool.

7. Facing north, go to the NE corner of hydrospawn's pool. then run across to the eastern wall. hugging the wall, go north and up to Zevim's (the sacrificer guy) room. kill the single patrol on the way. pull and kill the single satyr and his imps. fight Zevrim. get lewt. res the mage if they were the one to be sacrificed. jump over the balcony and back to hydrospawn's pool.

8. retrace your steps to the SW. you're now standing where you jumped down. Send a stealther to talk to the tree guy, so he opens the door.

9.now, it's time to play frogger. Turn to your right (north), and while watching the timing of the patrol, run along the wall until you get to a lasher. melt his face, med up, and study the pattern of the next patrol. while still sticking to the wall, run all the way to the end, kill the lasher there. to be sure of not aggroing the patrol, pull him into the corner. Turn the corner (west), and while sticking to the wall still, run through the door. Time it between runs of the 3-pack of lashers

10. Follow the passage to the big room with the last boss. using the supplied rocks, jump up onto the balcony railing. the railing by the 2nd tree is a little easier to jump up. Run all the way to the bottom. Kill the 3 lasher packs at the bottom. As soon as the first lasher pack is down, move to where ti was, to avoid the tree patrol that roams the balcony.

11. Kill the last boss, get phat lewt, and mine your 2-3 rich thoriums