Scholomance - Walkthrough

Scholomance - Walkthrough

Scholomance, inside Caer Darrow, has always been a popular raid location and remains so today. The final boss, Darkmaster Gandling, drops the helms for all the rare armor sets, as well as some other pretty nice loot. Gandling is also just one of many bosses inside the instance -- there are many named NPCs to kill and several paths to take. What follows is a common path many 10-man groups will take through the instance.

1. The entrance to Scholomance can be found at Caer Darrow in the Western Plaguelands. To get in, someone in your group will need the Skeleton Key, which is acquired through the "Araj's Scarab" quest chain.

2. The opening room features a few guards, who can easily be pulled in pairs. If you have a priest that can shackle undead, it'll make your entire trip through Scholomance much smoother.

3. The first big room is the Reliquary, where you'll find the first of the four deeds for "Barov Family Fortune." Since you can't pick these up in a raid, most groups will ignore the majority of this room, going down the left staircase and through the gate in the corner. There are a few mobs that can fear and create some havok, but as long as the group is pulling back to the first room, it should be a snap.

4. Down the stairs to the left and through the gate is the Chamber of Summoning, filled with 6 groups of mobs, as well as several patrols. Off to the right is The Porch, used to summon Kirtonos the Herald, which requires that someone in your group has the Blood of Innocents. Not many people carry the Blood (you need to have killed the Butcher and Jandice in 5-man before it'll drop for you), so the event isn't done that often.

5. The next room has many more groups of mobs to clear, and is a hub of sorts, branching off in several different directions. Straight across is the Great Ossuary, which leads down to Rattlegore, who drops the Viewing Room Key. To the right is the path down to Jandice Barov, and to the left is the path to the Viewing Room. (The second deed for "Barov Family Fortune" is also in this room.) Although some raids may skip it, lets assume you're heading down to Jandice for this raid.

6. Head downstairs to the Sunken Catacombs. There are a lot of Diseased Ghouls down here, and a few rows of other assorted mobs to clear before you reach Jandice Barov. the Ghouls emit a nasty poison when they die, so they should be saved for last and everyone should get away from the cloud when they die. In a 10-man raid, this room isn't that hard, and Jandice can drop the Dreadmist Mantle, as well as the Barovian Family Sword (52DPS 2H). To the right of Jandice's spawn point is a torch that can be activated; pull it, and it'll open a door to a chest later on.

7. Backtracking to the central hub room, your next stop is the Great Ossuary, filled with roughly 20 Plagued Hatchlings (non-elites) along with their handlers (elites). In a 5-man group, these are the mobs you need to kill for (duh!) "Plagued Hatchlings." Most raids will opt to pull the hatchlings back to the main hub room until they're cleared out.

8. Once the Great Ossuary is cleared, it's down to kill Rattlegore. His room is filled with lots of elite guards, but you only need to pick off a few before you can pull Rattlegore safely. He also has a few nice drops, including Shadowcraft Boots. More importantly, he drops the Viewing Room Key, which allows you to continue through the instance. (Everyone may have to check the body for it.)

9. Go back up to the main hub room and open the gate. In the next room are a few roving spiders and four groups of mobs, all with those nasty diseased ghouls. It's a hassle, but not that hard as long as they're pulled one group at a time. To the far right is the Viewing Room Door. Open it up. You'll also find a chest here, which you got access to via the torch in Jandice Barov's area.

Clearing this room is a key moment; if you wipe any time after this, you can go through the instance entrance, run directly to the right and drop off the bridge to this room, allowing you to ignore any respawned mobs in the first few rooms. This isn't so much a big deal in a 10-man raid, but in a 5-man run, reaching this room means you can simply drop to this room and continue where you left off if you suffer a wipe.

10. The next area is the Viewing Room, which is filled with Scholomance Students who should appear yellow (neutral) to you. There is an event here to complete the "Dawn's Gambit" quest in a 5-man group, but it's rarely done -- simply ignore the students for now. There's a door on the left that leads to the Headmaster's Study, but for now we'll head to Ras Frostwhisper through the door on the far right.

11. Down the ramp is the Laboratory, home of the lich, Ras Frostwhsiper. He hits extremely hard, and can knock players all over the room, but shouldn't be too hard for a 10-man raid. He can also drop some pretty nice loot, including Magister's Mantle (cloth set piece), Iceblade Hacker (42DPS 1H axe) and Bonechill Hammer (41DPS 1H mace).

In a 5-man group, you'll find the third deed to "Barov Family Fortune" in this room, and it's also where you'll square off in your final fight for "The Lich, Ras Frostwhisper," a much tougher tumble in which you turn Frostwhisper human before killing him.

12. Backtracking to the Viewing Room, the raid moves through the door it ignored earlier and down to the Headmaster's Study, the last stop of the raid. There are six rooms with six sub-bosses down here, and you'll need to clear them all out if you want to get to the fight with Darkmaster Gandling.

Room 1 (bottom right) - Most raids will opt to clear the three bottom rooms first, starting with the Vault of the Ravenian on the lower right. The first fight, with the Ravenian, is a pretty straightforward battle.

Room 2 (lower center)- This room, with Lord Alexei Barov, is much harder, even in a 10-man raid. Barov has two tough guards that protect him; many groups will opt to shackle one guard and split Barov and the remaining guard. In a 5-man group, the final deed to "Barov Family Fortune" can be found on a stone slab next to where Barov stands.

Room 3 (lower left) - The Shadow Vault has Lady Illucia Barov waiting in the back. Illucia has a number of spells she can cast, including possessing one party member so they attack the rest of the raid.

Room 4 (upper right) - Moving upstairs, The Coven has Instructor Malicia protected by a bunch of Scholomance Occulists.

Room 5 (upper center) - The Hall of the Damned is the home of Doctor Theolen Krastinov, a.k.a. the Butcher. While the Butcher hits hard, he shouldn't be any match for a 10-man raid.

Room 6 (upper left) - The final room is the Hall of Secrets, with Lorekeeper Polkelt. There are a LOT of roving corpses to clear here, but otherwise it shouldn't present much of a challenge.

13. Once the sixth boss is cleared, Darkmaster Gandling appears in the center room by the stairs. Aside from hitting extremely hard, he also has a fun trick: he will occasionally teleport someone to one of the six rooms, which is why it's important that they're all completely cleared before killing the final mini-boss. If you get teleported, some fake level 60 elite guards appear to block the exit - just kill them fast and get back out to Gandling.

Once Gandling is down, he'll drop a helm for one of the rare armor sets, and can also drop a few other nice items, such as Witchblade (41DPS dagger), Silent Fang (41DPS 1H sword) and Bonecreeper Stylus (63DPS wand). School is officially over, so hearth or port out and enjoy the loot.