Stratholme - Baron ("Undead Side") Walkthrough

Stratholme - Baron ("Undead Side") Walkthrough

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ONE OF THE MOST ENTERTAINING 10-man raids, the Undead side of Stratholme (also known as the "Baron run") has lots of bosses, lots of loot, and can be done pretty quick when compared to other raids. The entrance to Strat UD is in the northern part of the Eastern Plaguelands, and requires the Key to the City (it's rare that at least one person in a 10-man raid won't have it at this point). The main goal of the raid is to reach Baron Rivendare, who drops some major loot, including the leggings for all the rare armor sets. To reach him, however, you'll have to defeat four bosses along the way (well, five, if you count Magistrate Barthilas).

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1. After everyone zones in via the East Gate, the group clears the first groups of mobs in Elders' Square. There's a mailbox here for the Postmaster event, but that's saved for Strat Live raids. Also in this first area is Aurius' chapel, where you can turn in "Medallion of Faith," also generally ignored in 10-man Strat UD raids. Finally, to the left is an open area where a rare mob occasionally appears, but few groups ever bother with it.

2. The raid will clear straight ahead through another gate and spend some time pulling mobs. Generally, the group will stay back, as Rockwing Screechers can fear players out into the open and aggro everything in sight.

3. The raid will move to the right and to the first boss, Baroness Anastari. One person pulls the Baroness, and she will mind control one player in the raid, who grows in size and attacks the rest of the raid while the Baroness vanishes. Everyone attacks that player for a few moments until the mind control wears off and the Baroness reappears; once the Baroness is killed, everyone moves into the ziggurat and clears it out.

4. The raid then backtracks a little bit and takes the path down to the second boss, Nerub'Enkan. In a 10-man group, these pulls are pretty easy, especially if you have decent crowd control (sap, sheep, shackling, etc). Nereb itself is a straightforward battle, and after the second ziggurat is cleared, the group moves through the gates to the right.

5. Once again, the raid will hold in place while the pullers bring mobs back to the raid. Once the area is cleared, it's on to the third boss: Maleki the Pallid, which is another straightforward battle. Maleki can drop some nice loot, including Flamescarred Girdle (+20 FR leather belt), Lavawalker Greaves (+20 FR plate boots), Bone Slicing Hatchet (40DPS, +13Agi +5Sta axe) and Devout Sandals (boots for rare priest set).

6. Moving down from the third ziggurat, you'll find a large gate, and a named NPC: Magistrate Barthilas. Barthilas holds the Key to the City, which allows you to open the gate at the entrance to Strat UD. Once Barthilas is dead and the key has been looted (there's only one key per raid, so players will have to /random for it), everyone moves inside the gate, but stays inside the tunnel area. Once the next event starts, the gate shuts behind you, meaning anyone lagging behind gets left out.

7. On the other side of the tunnel is the Slaughterhouse and Baron Rivendare's ziggurat, but before you can reach it, there are a ton of Venom Belchers and Bile Spewers lurking outside. This is a semi-scripted event -- once you pull one of the abominations, another should come running soon after, so drop them quickly. These mobs may drop Frayed Abomination Stitchings needed for several of the epic armor quests -- generally, players are asked to link the quest in chat to show "need" for the stitchings before rolling.

8. It'll take a little while to clear all the abominations, but once that's done, Ramstein the Gorger will emerge from the ziggurat. This 61+ boss takes a few moments to chop down, and produces a few nice items, including Gauntlets of Valor (plate gloves) and Band of Flesh (16Sta/6Str/3Agi ring).

9. Immediately after Ramstein dies, swarms of non-elite skeletons will come running out to attack. As long as you AoE, it's pretty trivial. Five elite skeleton warriors will then come out to attack, which is a harder battle, but nothing like the Baron to come. Once the elites are dead, the doors to the ziggurat open and the entire raid moves inside, hugging the left wall.

10. The final battle of the Strat UD raid is Baron Rivendare, who puts up a pretty tough fight. The general strategy is that the tanks pull the Baron away from the group to the far side of the ziggurat, so the mages can stay alive and AoE the skeletal minions the Baron spawns during the battle. The Baron hits extremely hard, and it's easy for the attack to collapse if your tank dies and the Baron starts running around freely.

11. The rewards for the Baron can be great: he can drop leggings for all the rare class sets, as well as Bonescraper, a 41DPS 1H dagger, and Skullforge Reaver, a 41DPS 1H sword. The Baron also has two epic drops of interest: the 60DPS Runeblade of Baron Rivendare (2H Sword), and the Baron's Deathcharger epic mount, which, in addition to saving you 800-1000 gold, looks completely badass. Zone out and savor a job well done.