08-02-2004, 03:23 PM
The Scarlet Monastery is a building in Northeastern Tirisfal Glades which houses four small instances, all with fantastic loot and experience for level 40-ish characters. Each instance can be done in less than an hour. Two of the instances require a key, obtainable in the second instance (difficulty-wise), for access. This weekend, a number of Lurkers banded together to perform some raids on the instances to fulfill some quests and get phat lewt.
In phase 2 of the beta, when level 39 was the cap, the Scarlet Monastery was the place to be. Farming was easy and sick. A player could go to specific places in the four instances, kill a boss, and log out. Logging in 10-15 minutes later, they'd spawn in a brand new instance, in the same location, and kill the boss again. Rinse, repeat, and you'd have so much loot that you could get hundreds of gold in short order. This was one of the reasons an item wipe was used by Blizzard at the conclusion of the phase.
With that exploit addressed (users are ported to the start of an instance if they reconnect into a different spawned instance), farming isn't done as much anymore, but it's still practiced from time to time. Level 50 characters can waltz into some of the instances and loot up a storm, but it's not seen so much now.
The four instances are accessed via portals existing at the top of a stairwell, in a chamber. I'll list these in order of difficulty, and reference their location according to how you enter the chamber from the stairwell.
Instance 1: Graveyard. Left side, open portal
This instance is the easiest, containing level 31-35 creeps. It's purely there for drops and loot, as there are no quest npcs (for the Alliance, at least) there. The end boss, down at the bottom of a crypt at the far side of a graveyard as you enter it, is definitely worth killing if you're a caster. He can drop a +7 Intellect off-hand orb, for one thing.
Instance 2: Doan's Library. Right side, open portal
Famous for having some of the only creeps in the game that can actually detect invisibility, Doan resides here, guarded by the two invis-seeing Monks (to prevent mage farming cheese). A mage-class quest can be completed here, along with another book to find for a general quest that starts in Ironforge's Explorers' League area. Doan can drop a very sweet staff, and also has a chest in his end-room where you can grab the Scarlet Key. This key is needed to access the 3rd and 4th instances. The Houndmaster is here as well, a boss you need to kill for a quest that starts in the Stormwind Cathedral's basement.
Instance 3: The Armory. Right side, closed portal (requires Scarlet Key)
The Armory is the home of Herod, a quest-boss for the Stormwind quest and the home of great weapon/armor drops for those mail-users of the group. Herod can drop a fantastic helm for warriors/paladins. As our group found out, Herod can be very difficult to take on unless proper tactics are used - a dedicated tank for priests to concentrate their heals on, and all others staying clear of his spinning attack. Our first attempt failed horribly due to the group being used to tactics that ignore the usefulness of a proper tank while fighting all the lesser creeps on the way.
Instance 4: The Cathedral. Left side, closed portal (requires Scarlet Key)
Home of the last two bosses for the Stormwind Cathedral quest, this one will really test a group of level 40's. Tightly packed creep groups and patrollers force you to be on your toes. This instance is farmed the most, since it has drops that benefit all classes, from great armors to amulets and weapons. Also, it has THREE bosses, and 2-3 good chests for looting. There is a secret door to access one of the bosses - take someone along who knows where it is and can point it out (like me!). :)
The end two bosses in this instance are tricky. The first, Morgrane(sp), is a melee'r who isn't so bad to take out, as long as you make sure you clear the entire cathedral first and don't accidentally wake him up before you do so. He calls in every creep in the cathedral to help him when attacked. Once he's down, however, the high priest Whitemane(sp) arrives. She's popular for being described as the "hottest looking" NPC in the whole game - when you see her outfit you'll see why. Cough. Anyway, she's tricky, for when you get her down in health she sleeps the whole party and RESURRECTS Morgrane. Proper procedure is to stay on the high priest and kill her, then return to re-kill Morgrane. Never good to have an enemy priest around who can heal and resurrect others. :)
Keep in mind that there is a scripting issue sometimes where she's hesitant to do the whole "sleep group and resurrect Morgrane" thing. This is actually BAD, since unless she does that, you DON'T get credit for killing Morgrane and you DON'T get any drop from him (this is because to the game engine, he doesn't actually "die" - just has 1 hp and stays on the floor)! So if the high priest is getting down to a sliver of health and still hasn't resurrected Morgrane, back off and let her do it. Then there's phat lewt for all.
Notes:
1) Bring a rogue or a mage with keys! There are locked chests in these instances which can contain some very nice items. If you can't open them, you're really missing out on some high-end green/blue items.
2) The Scarlet Monastery gives such great exp and loot for characters around level 40 that it's practically not worth doing other quests around that level. However, its annoyance factor for the simple reason that getting there is such a long run can be a deterrent (perhaps designed this way on purpose). Once your bags fill up, the nearest place to sell the stuff is a good 15 minute run away. So make sure you come with bags as nearly empty as possible, and try to allow a good number of hours if you want to do many of the instances at once. This is the best way to go, considering how out-of-the-way the Monastery is from everything else, requiring such a long hike to get there.
My level 40 priest, CleoBoltra, is usually up for an SM run. Just ask me when I'm on. :)
-Bolty
In phase 2 of the beta, when level 39 was the cap, the Scarlet Monastery was the place to be. Farming was easy and sick. A player could go to specific places in the four instances, kill a boss, and log out. Logging in 10-15 minutes later, they'd spawn in a brand new instance, in the same location, and kill the boss again. Rinse, repeat, and you'd have so much loot that you could get hundreds of gold in short order. This was one of the reasons an item wipe was used by Blizzard at the conclusion of the phase.
With that exploit addressed (users are ported to the start of an instance if they reconnect into a different spawned instance), farming isn't done as much anymore, but it's still practiced from time to time. Level 50 characters can waltz into some of the instances and loot up a storm, but it's not seen so much now.
The four instances are accessed via portals existing at the top of a stairwell, in a chamber. I'll list these in order of difficulty, and reference their location according to how you enter the chamber from the stairwell.
Instance 1: Graveyard. Left side, open portal
This instance is the easiest, containing level 31-35 creeps. It's purely there for drops and loot, as there are no quest npcs (for the Alliance, at least) there. The end boss, down at the bottom of a crypt at the far side of a graveyard as you enter it, is definitely worth killing if you're a caster. He can drop a +7 Intellect off-hand orb, for one thing.
Instance 2: Doan's Library. Right side, open portal
Famous for having some of the only creeps in the game that can actually detect invisibility, Doan resides here, guarded by the two invis-seeing Monks (to prevent mage farming cheese). A mage-class quest can be completed here, along with another book to find for a general quest that starts in Ironforge's Explorers' League area. Doan can drop a very sweet staff, and also has a chest in his end-room where you can grab the Scarlet Key. This key is needed to access the 3rd and 4th instances. The Houndmaster is here as well, a boss you need to kill for a quest that starts in the Stormwind Cathedral's basement.
Instance 3: The Armory. Right side, closed portal (requires Scarlet Key)
The Armory is the home of Herod, a quest-boss for the Stormwind quest and the home of great weapon/armor drops for those mail-users of the group. Herod can drop a fantastic helm for warriors/paladins. As our group found out, Herod can be very difficult to take on unless proper tactics are used - a dedicated tank for priests to concentrate their heals on, and all others staying clear of his spinning attack. Our first attempt failed horribly due to the group being used to tactics that ignore the usefulness of a proper tank while fighting all the lesser creeps on the way.
Instance 4: The Cathedral. Left side, closed portal (requires Scarlet Key)
Home of the last two bosses for the Stormwind Cathedral quest, this one will really test a group of level 40's. Tightly packed creep groups and patrollers force you to be on your toes. This instance is farmed the most, since it has drops that benefit all classes, from great armors to amulets and weapons. Also, it has THREE bosses, and 2-3 good chests for looting. There is a secret door to access one of the bosses - take someone along who knows where it is and can point it out (like me!). :)
The end two bosses in this instance are tricky. The first, Morgrane(sp), is a melee'r who isn't so bad to take out, as long as you make sure you clear the entire cathedral first and don't accidentally wake him up before you do so. He calls in every creep in the cathedral to help him when attacked. Once he's down, however, the high priest Whitemane(sp) arrives. She's popular for being described as the "hottest looking" NPC in the whole game - when you see her outfit you'll see why. Cough. Anyway, she's tricky, for when you get her down in health she sleeps the whole party and RESURRECTS Morgrane. Proper procedure is to stay on the high priest and kill her, then return to re-kill Morgrane. Never good to have an enemy priest around who can heal and resurrect others. :)
Keep in mind that there is a scripting issue sometimes where she's hesitant to do the whole "sleep group and resurrect Morgrane" thing. This is actually BAD, since unless she does that, you DON'T get credit for killing Morgrane and you DON'T get any drop from him (this is because to the game engine, he doesn't actually "die" - just has 1 hp and stays on the floor)! So if the high priest is getting down to a sliver of health and still hasn't resurrected Morgrane, back off and let her do it. Then there's phat lewt for all.
Notes:
1) Bring a rogue or a mage with keys! There are locked chests in these instances which can contain some very nice items. If you can't open them, you're really missing out on some high-end green/blue items.
2) The Scarlet Monastery gives such great exp and loot for characters around level 40 that it's practically not worth doing other quests around that level. However, its annoyance factor for the simple reason that getting there is such a long run can be a deterrent (perhaps designed this way on purpose). Once your bags fill up, the nearest place to sell the stuff is a good 15 minute run away. So make sure you come with bags as nearly empty as possible, and try to allow a good number of hours if you want to do many of the instances at once. This is the best way to go, considering how out-of-the-way the Monastery is from everything else, requiring such a long hike to get there.
My level 40 priest, CleoBoltra, is usually up for an SM run. Just ask me when I'm on. :)
-Bolty
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