Stratholme - Scarlet ("Live Side") Walkthrough

Stratholme - Scarlet ("Live Side") Walkthrough

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THE FIRST OF THE TWO Stratholme raids starts off with all sorts of ghostly and undead horrors, and eventually heads indoors to deal with the Scarlet Crusade. If you've been to the Scarlet Monastery, a lot of this will feel familiar to you -- except for the bosses, of course. The entrance to the Live side can be found in the northwestern corner of the Eastern Plaguelands, and requires the Scarlet Key (from the Scarlet Monastery) to open the gate.

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1. From the main gate, the raid goes straight and runs into a mix of elite and non-elite undead. Among these mobs are Ghostly Citizens that, in a 5-man group, can be hit with Egan's Blaster for "The Restless Souls" quest. It's also possible for mobs to drop Plagued Flesh Samples for "The Flesh Does Not Lie."

2. From here, the raid will continue through King's Square and often make two left turns towards a dead end. Here, you'll find the Stratholme Courier, who kicks off the search for Postmaster Malown. The Courier drops 3 keys, randomly chosen from 6 postboxes scattered around Stratholme. When you find and open each of the first two boxes, three undead postmen will attack you; when you find the third, Postmaster Malown will also spawn. Malown is capable of dropping some decent loot, but due to the time involved, many groups will skip Malown unless the postboxes are nearby.

3. In the same dead end with the Stratholme Courier you'll also find a crate marked "Siabi's Tobacco." This triggers the event for the quest "The Great Fras Siabi." When anyone opens this crate, Fras Siabi will appear and attack. It's important to have the area cleared before opening the tobacco box, as Siabi will call any mobs nearby to attack as well.

4. From the dead end, the raid turns around and goes straight down Market Row. You'll go through an underpass, which is actually a trap where the gates close and Plague Rats swarm the group. It's easy to deal with as long as everyone moves as a group and the mages can quickly AoE the rats.

5. After Market Row, you'll go left and through another underpass to reach Crusader's Square, outside the Scarlet Bastion. Here, mobs get tougher to deal with, as you encounter humanoids that will run in fear, with the potential of aggroing more mobs to the fight -- most raids will simply pull mobs back to the group to make sure that doesn't happen. /p>

6. After clearing the area outside the Scarlet Bastion, Timmy the Cruel should spawn. He's a tough level 60 elite, but can drop some nice loot. Once he's finished, enter the Scarlet Bastion, which requires the Scarlet Key to open.

7. From here, the raid moves indoors. The first named NPC you'll find is Malor the Zealous, who's in the Hall of Lights. He doesn't drop much useful loot, but his room does contain the chest that contains the quest item for the "Medallion of Faith" quest, which can be looted in a 5-man group. (You do not need to have the quest from Aurius to loot the medallion.)

8. From here, you'll keep clearing until you come to a hallway with two doors, left and right. The right door leads down through a few corridors, ending with Cannon Master Willey in the Hoard. This is a fun event where players can fire cannons at waves of incoming mobs while everyone else kills the boss.

9. Once Willey is dead, the raid backtracks and takes the door on the left, which may immediately aggro a patrol waiting behind it. There's a long corridor of mobs that follow (hopefully a few Righteous Orbs will drop along the way), leading to the two final bosses of the raid.

10. The first boss, in a room on the left, is Archivist Galford. His room is the site of both "The Archivist" and "Of Love And Family" quests when done in a 5-man group. It's a pretty straightforward fight.

11. Finally, the raid ends in the circular room on the right with a fight against Grand Crusader Dathrohan, a.k.a. Balnazzar. If you don't know what's coming, the fight may appear easy to start, but partway through the fight, Dathrohan abandons humanoid form and transforms into Balnazzar, who... well, you'll see. If you've completed "The Archivist," Balnazzar's head will be available as a drop, which starts "The Truth Comes Crashing Down" and leads to the "Above and Beyond" quest to kill Baron Rivendare on the Undead side. Congrats! You've finished the Strat Live Side raid!