Quick Facts

Screenshots

Videos

Comments

Comment by diamondtear

As you enter the instance, mind control mender for a 30 min/295 spelldmg buff.

Comment by 3316

The Botanica, the blood elf experiment gone horribly wrong! Home of mutated plants, it's on the left hand side facing Tempest Keep, only accessible by flying mount and no, you can't get summons outside. When you release spirit you have to fly back.
With a lot of humanoids, you need a lot of CC and GOOD dps and dps boosts maybe.
It will be a good time-eater. Two hours is the least a moderate party is going to spend in here so think well about setup. It takes more at first till you learn every encounter.
The pulls are easy if you know what to kill first. Always
Stewards or else you'll have arcane missile whirlwind that hits random targets for 1000+ arcane damage, Menders - if mind controlled or if used spellsteal on, these give a 300 spell damage increase buff.
Pull carefully before Sarannis - three at a time.

Commander Sarannis (https://www.wowhead.com/wotlk/npc=17976) does a blast wave at 60% and yells 'You are no longer dealing with an underling', summoning about 3 humanoids to her aid, menders (elite) and two normal. She debuffs to increase arcane damage taken by 1200 and will, obviously, do an arcane blast. Sometimes drops two items.

Pull slowly but surely up to the second boss. Researchers do shocks : mind shock, frost shock, flame shock, virulent poisons and poison shield. Mind Shock is ~ 1000 Nature damage. Botanists are healers most of them, Chemists dropping a cloud of poison and having some flame breath and the vines should be dealt with quickly.

High Botanist Freywinn (https://www.wowhead.com/wotlk/npc=17975) is a special fight. It's complicated to explain but : you need to tank him at the start of the bridge that leads to his corner. He has a lot of abilities which make him difficult. He plants seeds of 3 colours that freeze, root or melee the closest target. Careful with overaggroing.
At ~30s, he turns into a tree and casts tranquility. EVERYONE should move out of his LoS and kill the 3 vines which before he heals for too much. He channelstill the lashers are dead. Nuke tactic works.

Nethervine Inciters are a pain. Pull them when they're rid of the buff (you'll notice them big and red) - kidney shots and poisons aren't nice.

Thorngrin the Tender (https://www.wowhead.com/wotlk/npc=17978) has been long disputed. Tank here, tank there, tank like Firemaw etc. He sacrifices people in his LoS (remember DM) on his starting platform and resets aggro by doing so. Fire resistance is needed although a stamina overkill might help you outlive the hellfire chanelled at his feet:1600-1800 fire damage. Don't be tricked by the ledge unless you've done this before : if your healer can't reach you when sacrificed, you're as good as dead.

Next trash up to Laz makes Botanica ...the Botanica. Mutated fleshlings that accompany the blood elves or that already ate some of them.
Laj (https://www.wowhead.com/wotlk/npc=17980) himself is an endurance fight - he spawns 2 adds from the two pedestals in front of him and teleports himself in his original position so don't move him. Switches immunity to schools of magic from time to time by change of colour - Blue is frost, Red is fire, Green is nature and Black is shadow.

Warp Splinter (https://www.wowhead.com/wotlk/npc=17977) is a long fight. He yells and calls tiny trees that run towards party members. Kill these as he will heal for the total remaining health of treants still alive. I've tanked him while having a MS build too. Don't bother much... Also does an Arcane Volley, a cone frontal nature damage thing of about ~1600 nature damage so don't face him to the party. You can loot the First part of your Arcatraz key off him.

Comment by kerouan

Question: It seems quite easy to skip many of these bosses. Does skipping the bosses affect the end fight at all, ala ZG priests/hakkar?

Comment by 36088

HEROIC Botanica - A little information that I hope will help those who are wondering what's different in this dungeon on heroic mode. For general strategies in this instance, check out dieselgirl's guide.

Group Setup - It should be said that crowd control is needed, and I would recommend 2 CC's or more. A hunter in the group is amazing here, because he can trap any kind of mob. When we cleared this yesterday (with the exception of Thorngrin), our group setup was:
Druid (Feral), 2 Rogues (1 imp sap), Hunter, Priest
Although everyone thought we needed more CC, we did just fine.

In the order you will likely encounter the mobs, I will list all notable ones:
Protector - Tank & spank.

Mender - Still gives the nice buff when MC'd.

Tempest-Forge Peacekeeper - Without a doubt the toughest trash mob in the instance. Make sure your tank has some Arcane Resist gear for the fight, as these guys hit for about 7k arcane and additional melee damage. The healer will need to be spamming heals on the tank, and a rogue or two stunlocking this mob helps a lot as well.

Steward - Hits considerably hard. Stun or poly when he spins before he hits the group for ~3500 damage.

Falconer and Bloodfalcons - Falconer doesn't hit too hard, but needs to be CC'd first. The falcons hit for about 1000 damage on cloth/leather.

Commander Sarannis - Same as non-heroic, except she hits considerably hard. The adds still consist of the Mender & 3 non-elites.

Pulls up to Freywinn - Nothing changed from non heroic, except that the mobs hit about twice as hard.

High Botanist Freywinn - The one noticable thing here is that he still hits like a total wimp! Use the same strategy as non-heroic. Once again Wound Poison/MS helps incredibly to negate his tranquility heal.

Pulls up to Thorngrin - The only difficult ones are the four-pulls. A warlock or hunter are amazing and almost necessary for CC here. Without their buff, the reapers and inciters hit for around 1000-1500 damage on the tank, but if the tank has to hold aggro on all four he probably won't last long. If you have a bunch of melee dps, burn the Reapers first (AE Cleave), otherwise burn the Inciters first.

Thorngrin - I HIGHLY recommend skipping this guy, unless you've got an ideal group with ranged dps and an offhealer. The flame AOE ticks for ~2500 damage, and the sacrifice will kill anyone who doesn't receive a heal.

Pulls up to Laj - Keep the Gene-Splicers CC'd (because of Death & Decay) and burn the little fleshlings first. Rogues need to pay attention when imp sapping here, because the fleshlings are immune to distract.
Fear-Shriekers and Horrors are pretty straightforward kills, just pull them far back - they don't hit excessively hard. However, Hunter CC is once again an amazing help here.

Laj - No considerable difference here, once again see diesel's guide.

Warp Splinter - War Stomp hits for 2500, and he hits about twice as hard as non-heroic. Other than that, use whatever works for your group, but burning the adds is definitely recommended.

Good luck.

Comment by 41820

er...is this some kind of Dire Maul east? but allot harder? :)

Comment by 44899

about how much rep per run does this intance give?

Comment by 43910

You can eat and drink during the Warp Splinter battle, if you run to the bridge between Laj's room and Warp Splinters'. You will go out of combat, eat/drink, and go back in :) very nice for healing, might be a good idea to tank this boss between his circle and this bridge so healer can constantly drink.

Comment by 47509

Confirmed that you can stealth to the end boss in heroic mode. Now to find a group worthy of it...

Comment by 49128

So I tried Botanica and we could not kill last boss at all...had feral druid/mage/priest/paladin/rogue and still nothing? Alos replaced Warlock and paladin? still could not kill him

Comment by 38711

Best intance for Shatar reputation building?

Comment by 39663

For heroic EZ-mode, bring a shadowpriest and MC the Chemists. Have your tank bunch them up and then chuck a poison vial + flame breath potion on them (Chemist abilities). AoE's an entire group in matter of seconds. The chemist usually needs a heal or two to survive with ~2k hp left.

Post Thorngrim, MC the Gene-splicers and chuck down Death and Decay on the floor. Tank all mobs inside it and watch them die as they run to kill the Gene-splicer.

Most bosses require high dps, so bringing two healers is not an option, unless you shift the group around specifically to kill Thorngrim (can't imagine why though, as he drops the same loot as on normal but is quite challenging on heroic).

Comment by 46861

Can someone post average times for normal and heroic?

Comment by 106461

I realize that you can simply look at the gear in another tab, but I'd like to note something. If you're a Druid looking to farm Sha'tar Rep and/or get geared for Heroics/Kara, this is a fantastic instance to run.

Feral Druids have gear like:

https://www.wowhead.com/wotlk/item=28321 - Enchanted Thorium Torque (Neck)
https://www.wowhead.com/wotlk/item=28343 - Jagged Bark Pendant (Neck)
https://www.wowhead.com/wotlk/item=28325 - Dreamer's Dragonstaff (Staff)
https://www.wowhead.com/wotlk/item=28347 - Warpscale Leggings (Legs)
https://www.wowhead.com/wotlk/item=28339 - Boots of the Shifting Sands (Feet)

I'm Resto myself, so I was more interested in gear like:

https://www.wowhead.com/wotlk/item=28340 - Mantle of Autumn (Shoulders - and easily the best shoulders pre-Kara/PVP)
https://www.wowhead.com/wotlk/item=28348 - Moonglade Cowl (Head - Dungeon Set)
https://www.wowhead.com/wotlk/item=28322 - Runed Dagger of Solace (Dagger - good welfare PVP healing dagger, and decent until the Sha'tar Healing Mace...yay TK Rep!)
https://www.wowhead.com/wotlk/item=28370 - Bangle of Endless Blessings (Trinket - arguably the "must have" Trinket for Resto Druids, as it buffs Innervate and Tree Form and procs very regularly)

Comment by 53124

you need a flying mount to get there:(

Comment by Rarehunter

As of patch 2.3, this heroic dungeon yields the most Badges, assuming you do a full run.

Comment by 100217

in 2.4 you' be able to summon, if you meet the req.

Comment by 142139

Alchemist's Master of Potions quest item Botanist's Field Guide drops here from second boss High Botanist Freywinn

Comment by 172016

pattern cobrascale gloves drops on heroic should upgrade your list of items

Comment by IAmTheWalrus

Just wondering what kind of gear a hunter would need to run this. My hunter's name is Ironhead on the realm Daggerspine. If somebody could search me on the Armory and let me know about my gear, that would be great.

I don't think its good enough, but it would still help if somebody could check it and respond to this. Thanks!

Comment by 66977

wowwiki holds the honor at:
Full Clear ~2,300 rep
Full Clear (heroic): 3,245 rep (and 5 badge of justice w/o the daily)

On an interesting side note, if you can dps High Botanist Freywinn fast enough he will never get his heal off, as it is time based. On normal difficulty he has 92,000 hp and does his heal approximately every 30 seconds; this requires 3067 dps for the group on normal, which would be t4/t5 content depending on which dps classes you bring - imo easily doable.

Comment by 221133

Just cleared the full zone on the 3.0.2 PTR (build 8982) with just a Resto Druid and a Ret Pally. Very easy run with two 70s. Warp Splinter took a bit of time to kill with all the tree heals.

Comment by 146819

I recommend bringing a Priest along (doesn't matter if they heal or DPS) whenever possible. One mob, the Bloodwarder Mender (https://www.wowhead.com/wotlk/npc=19633) makes a VERY good target for Mind Control; Not only do they have a pretty powerful Greater Heal (9000-11000!), they also have a buff called Holy Fury that adds 295 spell power for 30 minutes! My advice, if you don't want to use them to do your healing, is to CC them until the end of the battle, MC them, buff the casters, and kill them when you're done.

Comment by N00bking

Just a sidenote
You can skip all the sub-bosses on your way to Warp Splinter if you need to.

Comment by Hotmilk

Mechanar and Botanica do not require level 68. With the aid of a warlock, I've run guildies through both at level 66.

Comment by 304276

Guys,today when we was there(on heroic) the last boss dropped gladiator chest for warlock!

Comment by Aristonj

This cant be lvl 68, cus me and a friend (both lvl 67 dps) went in right now. We have already killed 5 lvl 70 elites, so.

Comment by 436173

The quest list here is very much incomplete.

One of them is Capturing the Keystone, which supposedly drops from the first boss (Commander Sarannis) if you have the quest.

ax222 already mentioned that Master of Potions (Alchemy specialization quest) leads here.

Also, as N00bking mentioned, the quest How to Break Into the Arcatraz requires a key fragment from Warp Splinter. This quest is also indirectly required for gaining attunement to enter Karazhan, since that requires the Third Key Fragment from the Arcatraz.

Are there others missing from the list as well?

Comment by Thottbot

Is attunement required?

Comment by Thottbot

how hard is this instance? is it harder than mech? i'm looking for any easy/medium instances for my new pally i'm trying to get to 70.

Comment by Thottbot

thx for the info. much appreciated.

Comment by Thottbot

How much Sha'tar Rep. does a Regular Full Botanica Run give you?

Comment by Thottbot

Can be tricky the first time or two, or if you have a guy who doesn't know what he's doing. But as long as everyone knows the strategies for the bosses this is pretty easy.
Got from 10k Revered Sha'tar to Exalted yesterday just running this over and over. Completed in under 2 hours pretty easily with a group who knew what they were doing (not great equipped).

Comment by Thottbot

This is a note to players for the second boss -

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD - when the boss does his Tranquility Technique get out of the way and kill the three little trees he sprouts quickly because they heal him.

As a Strategy - tank him at the front of that long pathway leading to the boss. When he goes into tranq mode - he will turn into a big tree and heal himself - The only way out - is to kill the three little trees that he sprouts. Simply when the three trees come out - go around the corner behind the glass panel and the little trees will follow - kill them quickly and the boss will turn back to normal. Rinse and Repeat.

And please - everyone go around the corner - because if you have one person just standing there - the little trees will stay by the boss healing him. If you think you can just all stand there and push through it - you will wipe. you will wipe all the time. Just go around the corner everyone and kill the little trees then go back to spank and tank little boss.

And if some arse wants to write a comment after this one - saying that they just pushed through it and killed the little trees next to the boss - well bravo for you - but for most groups just go around the corner and it'll make life a lot easier.

Comment by Thottbot

AM I the only one who doesn't know where this is?No one posted any coords & I can't find it anywhere.

Comment by Thottbot

The Botanica is directly north of the main palace. The south one is The Mechanar and the one above them both is The Arcatraz. The Eye is the one in the middle of them all, a 25 man raid zone.

As far as instances go The Botanica is longer than average and more difficult than average. The only requirement for zoning in is the ability to fly to it.

There are at least two quests that you can complete/advance there:
https://www.wowhead.com/wotlk/quest=10704/how-to-break-into-the-arcatraz
and
https://www.wowhead.com/wotlk/quest=10257/capturing-the-keystone

Comment by Thottbot

whats the order of bosses here?

Comment by Thottbot

I think this is BY FAR the easiest TK instance there, its longer, but gives tons of rep and is very easy. 2nd boss can be a little tricky, but 1st boss is a tank ad spank, 3rd boss is kinda hard but dies really fast, and 4th boss is a joke, and 5th boss is ok. Way easier then mech or Arc IMO.

Comment by Thottbot

After grinding the reputation needed for the crest of sha'tar i found out just as the person above me said that the easiest place of the 3 instances to farm rep is Botanica. Sure it'll take some time to finish it, 5 bosses is quite alot.

But as always it depends how experienced your group is. If you a some1 that knows what to do you'll raid the place, if not it'll be a little tricky.

Clearing to first boss is easy however, you might notice that there's a mob that does alot of damage when he/she spins around. You want to kill them alone, not with more enemies around.

* First boss --> Tank and spank, there will come some adds but do not panic, they are all normals exccept for a mender that heals. You want this mender to be cc'd. Easiest way is to have a mage sheep her or a hunter to trap her. If you fail to cc her, no worries she doesnt pose much of a threat anyway.

Clearing to second boss is also very easy. You'll get to fight vs mob groups of 4 and a big flower, cc is nice here. Some tips are, Kill the flower first and nuke down the chemeist fast. When i ran it i always wanted to have the chemist cc'd to be killed last.

* second boss ----> very easy when done the right way. This is phase fight, how many depends on your dps. Firstly you want to tank her at the middle of the bridge, do not overaggro. After a while she'll turn into a tree. Now, every should run around the left corner asap. Do not stay and nuke the little adds she spawns untill every1 is around the corner. Nuke the adds fast cause she heals her self during this tree phase. After the adds are dead, simply run back and let the tank pick up the boss again and start dps.

Clearing to third boss demands some knowledge about the following mobs. Do NOT pull the goats and whatever when they have a red glow, as you can see if you target them, you'll have a buff that increases attack speed and damage done. Pull them after the buff dissapears.

* Third boss---> The healer has to know what to do. This boss doesnt have much hp so its a relative short boss encounter. Tank him in the middle of the room and get out of his fire aoe spell. From time to time he sacrifices one of the group to be placed where the boss stood from the beginning. It's very important that this person get healed by the healer since he/she WILL die if not^^

Clearing to 4th boss. Got only 1 thing to say, Get of of the red cloud.

* 4th boss =Joke If you have 2 ranged in the group tell eachone of them to take care of the left and right add the boss spawns from time to time. Tank the boss in the middle and keep him there. Dps = Hit him... Hit him..Hit him.. like 100times and he's dead =)

Clearing to 5th boss is only about 2 aoe packs nothing speciall.

* 5th boss ---> He's big but not hard. I've tried many tactics on him and the easiest way to kill imo is to tank him where he stands, turn him way from the group. Ranged dps and the healer has to stay on max-range due to the aoe. You also want the dps to take care of the adds (flowers) that comes, they will heal the boss. This is however not neccesary. If you have a well geared group and nice dps you could ignore the adds and just keep on nuking the heals he get.

Boss dead gj and repeat this like 12 times and voila you'll have a pretty good shield =)

Comment by Thottbot

How much rep does this instacne give on heroic mode.... and non heroic mode....also if ya happen to know how much rep the other 2 give ( bot and mech ) in heroic and non heroic that would be great thanks =]

Comment by Thottbot

72, 55

Comment by Thottbot

Can you run this instance without particularly good gear?

Comment by Thottbot

if u dont have a flying mount, can u get a lock summon?

Comment by Thottbot

A lock will not be able to summon you to the Tempest Keep Instances. You'll need to be att lvl 70 and have a flying mount.

Except for druids who get their flight form at lvl 68.

Comment by Thottbot

Can all bosses be skipped to get right to Warp Splinter?

Comment by Thottbot

mhm yeah tards. Notice that the post was prolly made before the 2.4 patch where the changed the locks summon possibilities in the Tk instances. They can now summon people from the inside of the instance.

Comment by Thottbot

My guild has made this our de facto daily heroic. We have only been running Kara for a little over a month, so we're not OP by any stretch of the imagination. Just bring a decent tank - none of the bosses hit that hard, a strong healer and (preferably) 3 ranged dps, with at least one AoE. Once you get the strats down, you should be able to do this in your sleep. 5 badges in 90 minutes.

Comment by Thottbot

are there any quests pertaining to Botanica? and can you tell me what they are called?

Links

The Botanica

Tempest KeepThe ArcatrazThe BotanicaCommander SarannisHigh Botanist FreywinnThorngrin the TenderLajWarp SplinterThe MechanarThe EyeTempest KeepNetherstormKael'thas SunstriderExodarThe Botanica

The Botanica

Related

Contribute