[Guide] Scholomance Strategy Guide

[Cypher]

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction
Preparing for Scholo
How to Get There
Quest Chains
Walkthrough

INTRODUCTION

Scholomance (frequently abbreviated to "Scholo" and pronounced as "SKO-lo") is a school of necromancy located on the island of Caer Darrow, once owned by the wealthy Barov family. The school was founded by Kel’Thuzad, who obtained the property from the Barovs by promising them immortality through undeath in exchange for their allegiance to the Lich King. As such, the halls of Scholomance are populated by undead students and instructors, as well as all forms of undead creatures. The dungeon is ruled by Ras Frostwhisper, once a powerful mage in Dalaran who gave over his life to the Lich King Ner’Zhul so he could be raised as an immortal lich. But the school’s headmaster is a mortal necromancer, Darkmaster Gandling.

Scholo is a level 57-60 dungeon that was recently capped at a 5-player limit. Prior to the v. 1.10 patch, the only reason to do five-man Scholo was to complete the few quests it offered. Groups frequented it for the rare item drops from the numerous bosses that inhabit the place, including several tier-0 armor pieces. Post-release 1.10, the team size cap was lowered to 5 but drop rates on rare items were supposedly increased.

Darkmaster Gandling always drops one of the tier-0 head pieces.

In addition to Scholo-specific quests, there are also several reasons to visit this dungeon, notably the paladin epic mount quest, as well as gather quests for epic armor. The Legplates/Legguards of the Chromatic Defier, and the Breastplate of Bloodthirst both require Skin of Shadow, which can be obtained in random spots in Scholo, usually in Illucia Barov's room. The Leggings of Arcana quest requires Frostwhisper's Embalming Fluid (among other things), which of course can be found in Ras Frostwhisper's laboratory.

PREPARING FOR SCHOLO

The entrance to the Scholo instance is behind a locked door that can only be opened with a Skeleton Key or by a rogue with a lock picking skill of around 280. The key can be obtained by completing a series of quests starting with A Call to Arms: The Plaguelands (Alliance) or A Call to Arms: The Plaguelands (Horde) . At a certain point in the quest series, you will need to shell out 15 gold to a goblin in Gadgetzan.

Obtaining the key is not a pre-requisite for Scholo, as long as you have someone to open the door for you. It can also be opened from the inside by clicking on a torch on the wall, so on a good day, you can usually stand right outside the door and ask anyone waiting in the lobby inside to open it for you.

As with all 5-man high-level dungeons, it becomes imperative to balance the roles/classes in your Scholo party. Other than the traditional healer-tank-damage dealer mix, you need to consider the type of mobs encountered in the dungeon in order to make your run smooth, successful and repair bill friendly. Priests are extremely useful not just for healing, but also for shackling undead and using mind-control on summoners, and holy nova on skeleton mobs. Mages and warlocks are useful for crowd control and AoE damage.

HOW TO GET THERE

Caer Darrow is located in the southeastern portion of the Western Plaguelands. You can either swim across Darrowmere Lake to the island, or jump across the tiny inlet east of Chillwind Camp at location 59,83.

The entrance to the instance is inside the main building, through the locked door on the left.

QUESTS

There are only five general quest chains that require you to go into Scholomance. The rest of the quests are either class-specific or armor type-specific so I will not cover them in this guide.
Plagued Dragons (Argent Dawn Rep)

The Argent Dawn suspects that the necromancers in Scholo are breeding plagued dragons so Betina Bigglezink (Light’s Hope Chapel, Eastern Plaguelands) wants you to kill 20 of the Plagued Hatchlings in there. Completing this quest earns you 100 reputation points with Argent Dawn (110 for humans) and on subsequent Scholo runs, you are eligible to loot a Healthy Dragon Scale for 50 more AD rep points (55 for humans).
Barov Family Feud

The Barov family that used to own Scholomance, lives on, but the last remaining heirs are on opposing sides. The Barov Family Fortune is an identical quest given to both Alliance and Horde , but with different quest givers, each one competing with the other for the deeds to the remnants of the Barov holdings. The quest giver for the Alliance is Weldon Barov (Chillwind Point, Eastern Plaguelands); for the Horde, it's Alexi Barov (The Bulwark, Tirisfal Glades).

The deeds are scattered in different locations within Scholomance, all of which are described in the walkthrough.
Dawn’s Gambit

As you might have already learned from Betina Bigglezink, it seems that the Scourge who now inhabit Scholo are in the process of breeding a plagued dragonflight. Betina has developed a weapon called Dawn’s Gambit which you can use against them, but this quest is the last in a long series that starts with Broodling Essence , a gather quest given by Tinkee Steamboil in Burning Steppes. The quest chain requires you to collect samples from Burning Steppes, Winterspring and Upper Blackrock Spire, so most people do not have Dawn’s Gambit when they first visit Scholomance, and then they just never bother. If you are a caster, it might be worth doing for the reward Dancing Silver , a staff with +12 Intellect and +29 Spirit stats.
Eva Sarkhoff’s Quests

Right outside the Scholomance building stand the ghosts of Eva Sarkhoff and her husband Lucien. Speak to her, listen to her story, and she will give you the quest Doctor Theolen Krastinov, The Butcher . This requires you to kill one of the six bosses in the Headmaster’s Study. There are two other quests in the series, all of which can be completed in one trip, since Eva is right outside the instance. The second one requires you to kill Jandice Barov . The third one allows you to summon and kill Kirtonos, the Herald .

Completing this quest series is important because it 1) unlocks the Ras Frostwhisper quest chain, 2) gives you access to the vendor Magnus Frostwake, and 3) allows you to loot the Blood of Innocents off Jandice Barov, Krastinov the Butcher, or the Blood Steward of Kirtonos.

One of the rewards for the Kirtonos quest is a trinket called Spectral Essence. Equipping this trinket allows you to see the other ghosts around Scholo, one of which is Magistrate Marduke, who gives you the first quest in the Ras Frostwhisper chain (see below). Another important ghost is Magnus Frostwake (he’s in the smithy), who sells several nice blacksmithing plans as well as the much-desired recipe for Major Mana Potions.

The Blood of Innocents is needed to summon Kirtonos the Herald, who drops the tier-0 warrior boots (Boots of Valor) and other good stuff.
Ras Frostwhisper

This quest series gives you an insight into the past life of the evil lich that currently rules over Scholo. The quest giver is a ghost, Magistrate Marduke, who only becomes visible to you if you have the Spectral Essence trinket equipped (see Eva Sarkhoff’s Quests above). He can be found up in the main building tower in Scholo. To get to him, go into the building, turn right into the doorway opposite the instance door, and follow the stairs up to the tower.

WALKTHROUGH

Before starting, if you are working on your reputation with Argent Dawn, make sure you equip your AD trinket. This allows you to pick up the scourgestones dropped by various undead mobs in the instance. Each boss in the instance also has a close to 100% chance of dropping a Corruptor’s Scourgestone.
Entrance

The entrance is a walkway guarded by four undead mobs. The leftmost and rightmost guards are single-pulls but the middle two are chained. If you have a priest in your party, have him shackle one of the guards while the rest beat up on the first. If not, have a second warrior, paladin or pet offtank it.
Reliquary

The first room you’ll get to is the Reliquary (I always call it the Library because that's what it looks like). There are two items of interest in this room: 1) the Deed to Southshore, which you need for the Barov Family Fortune quest, and 2) the Blood Steward of Kirtonos, a succubus who always drops the Blood of Innocents. Also, if you are after the formula for the Lifestealing enchant on weapons, you might want to kill all the Spectral Researchers in the room.

The deed is in the far left corner of the room and the succubus is in the far right. The best way to clear the room is to pull the first few mobs around the bottom of the right stairs into the entrance and kill them there. Once that’s done, station the group at the right corner and pull the mobs there.

All the mobs are either humanoid casters or spectral researchers. The spectral mobs have a knockback attack so try to make sure your back is against a wall or you’re standing in the middle of the walkway so as not to get knocked back (or off the bridge) into another mob. Some of the casters also use fear so if you have it, cast Fear Ward on the melee guys to avoid having them running into more mobs. Otherwise, make sure you are pulling and fighting the mobs well away from the others. Use a mage or the warlock’s succubus for humanoid crowd control, and a priest for shackling the spectral mobs.
Chamber of Summoning

The next room is the Chamber of Summoning. There are six skeleton piles in this chamber and each pile has a summoner and two other casters standing around it. Once you start attacking, the summoner will call forth non-elite skeleton warriors that go down easily but can just as easily overwhelm the whole group.

Before anything else, single pull the undead mobs patrolling the room, into the small lobby to get rid of them. Once all the patrols are gone, deal with the casters pile by pile.

The best strategy is to have a priest mind control the summoner and have it run into the small lobby, out of sight of the other casters so they have no choice but to follow into the room and switch to melee. This way, you have all three of them in a tight little isolated group, with less risk of them running away or one of your party accidentally aggroing the rest of the room.

You can also have a rogue sap or a mage sheep the summoner and then pull the other two into the lobby. The only thing I don’t like about sheep is that they wander and this room is too closely packed for that. You run the risk of aggroing the next group once you attack the summoner. An alternative might be to counterspell the summoner just as he starts to call the skellies but that leaves the mage open to attack by the other casters.

If none of these are available, you have no choice but to attack each group at the pile, killing the summoner first, and then the others. Just be very careful not to get aggro from the next group.
The Porch

If you have the quest Kirtonos, the Herald , or just want to kill Kirtonos for loot, gather at the porch right off the Summoning Chamber. Have someone who has the Blood of Innocents click on the brazier to summon him and kill him. The only thing to keep in mind is that he has attacks that disarm and knock you back. Other than that, this is a straightforward fight.

Kirtonos has a 10.4% chance of dropping the warrior Boots of Valor.
Main Hall

The main hall has little pockets of humanoid Adepts and Necromancers mixed with Spectral Tutors and patrolled by Necrofiends and Risen Warders. The strategies used in the Reliquary apply here as well. Pull the first few groups into the Summoning Chamber and then move into one end of the room and pull the rest there.

The Deed to Tarren Mill is in this room, on a table to the right of the Ossuary entrance.

At the other end of the main hall are three doorways. The right one leads down to the catacombs, where you can find Jandice Barov. The middle one leads to the Great Ossuary and ultimately Rattlegore’s room. The left doorway leads to the Viewing Room antechamber.
Jandice Barov

By far the trickiest fight in the whole instance is Jandice Barov. There are three main reasons to seek her out: 1) to complete the quest Krastinov’s Bag of Horrors , 2) to learn how to make Felcloth Bags (24-slot warlock soulshard bags), and 3) various loot drops which include the warlock shoulder piece (Dreadmist Mantle), and a really nice 2-handed sword, the Barovian Family Sword. If you aren’t after any of these, you are probably better off avoiding the crypt.

Jandice is in a room in the far left corner of the crypt. To get to her, you need to kill several groups of Diseased Ghouls, Risen Aberrations and Reanimated Corpses. You don’t have to clear the entire room to get to her. Just make sure you have room to pull and fight her at a safe distance from the remaining mobs.

The Risen Aberrations (skeletons) are immune to magic so mage and warlock AoE spells as well as the hunter volley shots are wasted on them. However, they seem to be vulnerable to the priest Holy Nova spell. Other than that, you are pretty much limited to melee damage against them.

The Reanimated Corpses are slow and easy to kill. The Diseased Ghouls, on the other hand, can be deadly because they explode upon death, emitting a green gas that infects you on contact and causes 350-damage per second, so melee fighters have to be aware of this and jump out of range when the mob is close to death.

As for Jandice, what complicates the fight is the fact that she replicates herself at certain points and that her images seem to be immune to AoE spells. Your best bet is to concentrate all firepower on the real Jandice. To locate her, use the V hotkey to bring up the health bar – her images don’t have one so it will be easy to find her. When she dies, her images will vanish as well.

When Jandice dies, she drops a book next to her that tailors can click on to learn how to make Felcloth Bags.
The Great Ossuary

The Ossuary is populated by groups of plagued dragon hatchlings and their handlers. The best approach is to pull each handler out to the main hall. The hatchlings have a range spit attack but if you duck out of sight, they will follow into the room. Bombard them with AoE spells, making sure that your spell caster is shielded because the hatchlings will surely turn their sights on him. Have everyone else attack the handler.
Rattlegore

Rattlegore is in a room to the far end of the ossuary. He holds the key to the Viewing Room (one-time use) so if you want to go further, you have to kill him. There are several Risen Constructs around him but most of them are single-pull so you shouldn’t have any trouble clearing the area to him. If you get more than one, have your priest shackle the add while you kill the first. Rattlegore himself can also be pulled singly and is a straightforward fight. Don’t forget to loot him for the Viewing Room Key.

The Risen Constructs in this room have a 1.7% chance of dropping the tier-0 rogue piece, Shadowcraft Bracers.
Viewing Room

The Viewing Room antechamber is actually the area below the entrance bridge, so clearing this area will allow you to jump off the bridge from the entrance should you ever need to go back that way again.

This room has the same type of mobs as the ones in Jandice’s crypt so the same tactics apply. Pull each group into the main hall and fight them there. In addition to Risen Constructs, Reanimated Corpses and Diseased Ghouls, the room also has Necrofiends which can cast a web that roots you in place. Clear the area to the right wall because that’s where the Viewing Room Door is.

Once the path is clear, have the whole group move in and open the door to the Viewing Room.

The Viewing Room is filled with neutral Scholomance students. Unless you have Dawn’s Gambit with you, you can pretty much leave this room alone. If you do have it, move the whole party through the gate on the left, and have one person place the box in the center of the room. This turns all the students into aggressive skeleton mobs. Pull them into your little alcove and blast them with AoE there.

Once that’s done, move back into the viewing room and pull the two bosses, Marduk Blackpool and Vectus, separately. Again, straightforward fight, no tricks needed.
Ras Frostwhisper

Frostwhisper’s lab is through the gate at the far end of the Viewing Room. There are four main reasons for making a trip to the lab. First, the Deed to Brill is in this room. Second, alchemists who have any of the flask recipes need to use this lab to brew their potions. Third, Frostwhisper drops several rare armor pieces, including the mage tier-0 shoulder piece, the Magister’s Mantle. Finally, those who have the quest The Lich, Ras Frostwhisper will need to kill him.

There are three groups of humanoid and spectral mobs near the entrance to the lab. Pull them out to the foyer, using the usual crowd control tactics.

If you don’t have the quest to turn him human, just engage Ras in a fight and kill him, keeping in mind that he is immune to frost spells. If you have the quest, use the keepsake on him to turn him human while your tank is keeping him busy. The only complication I’ve ever run across with this quest is when the tank has the keepsake because Ras keeps interrupting him while he tries to channel the transformation. Once Ras turns human, pour all your damage on him and kill him.

Don’t forget to pick up the Deed to Brill before you leave, if you need it.
Headmaster’s Study

Make your way back into the Viewing Room and enter the gate on the right into the Headmaster’s Study. This is a 2-story square room with corridors running on all sides and rooms off of it housing six bosses. You need to kill all six in order to spawn Darkmaster Gandling.
Hall of Secrets – Lorekeeper Polkelt

This is my least favorite room. Reanimated and Unstable Corpses surround Polkelt. The best way to handle them is to pull each group out into the corridor and kite the slow-moving corpses, casting AoE spells and moving further once they get too close. Again, make sure your melee fighters move out of range before the unstable corpses explode.

Polkelt has a 3% chance of dropping the tier-0 warlock gloves, Dreadmist Wraps.
Hall of the Damned – Dr. Theolen Krastinov

Krastinov is surrounded by Diseased Ghouls and Risen Aberrations. Again, keep in mind, the skellies are immune to AoE spells other than Holy Nova, and the Diseased Ghouls explode in a deadly green cloud upon death.

Krastinov has a 2% chance of dropping the mage tier-0 gloves, Magister’s Gloves.

If you have the quest Doctor Theolen Krastinov, the Butcher , make sure you destroy Eva and Lucien Sarkhoff’s remains here.
The Coven – Instructor Malicia

Malicia’s room has a few pockets of humanoid casters and undead warriors. Note that the occultists in the group turn into Shades when their health gets low. The Shades are immune to physical damage so melee fighters should switch to the next target and leave the mages and warlocks to deal with the shades.

Malicia casts a Curse of the Grave when she dies. This curse does no damage at the start, but will inflict 2000 damage on the cursed person when it expires. So make sure you either remove the curse quickly, or top up your health so you don’t die.
The Shadow Vault – Illucia Barov

Illucia’s room is populated by Risen Bonewarders, which can be pulled singly out into the hallway. For the most part, this is a simple fight, except for the mind control spell which Illucia sometimes casts on one of your party members. If you can’t remove the spell, have a mage sheep the MC’d member to prevent him from doing damage.

There is usually a Skin of Shadows on the dais where Illucia stands, so loot it if you need it.
Vault of the Ravenian – The Ravenian

Again the Ravenian is a straightforward fight. Pull the skeleton mobs into the hallway individually before taking on the boss.

He has a 2.5% chance of dropping the druid tier-0 waist piece, the Wildheart Belt.
Barov Family Vault

Alexei Barov is another tough boss. Before you get to him, you need to take out the two single-pull skeleton guards out front. Alexei himself is standing in the back of the room between two other guards. He has an AoE damaging aura so it’s best if your tank can position him so he will be within the casters’ line of sight but out of the aura range. Have a priest shackle one guard, and have a pet, warrior or paladin off-tank the other. The healer will need to spam heals on the main tank because of the damage aura. Everyone else should focus their damage on Barov until he’s dead. Then take out the off-tank’s target, keeping the other guard shackled until the first one is dead.

Alexei drops the paladin tier-0 bracers, the Lightforge Bracers.

The Deed to Caer Darrow is on a table behind him.
Headmaster’s Study - Darkmaster Gandling

As soon as all six bosses are dead, the headmaster Gandling will spawn in the middle of the hall on the first floor of the study. The only trick Gandling has up his sleeve is a teleport spell which sends a random member of your party into one of the six rooms you just cleared. When this happens, kill the guards in the room (easy fight) to unlock the door and get back into the fray.

Darkmaster Gandling always drops one of the tier-0 head pieces, hopefully one that someone in your party needs.