06-28-2010, 06:12 PM
(This post was last modified: 08-15-2010, 04:47 AM by TheDragoon.)
World of Warcraft has a ridiculous number of quests. There is something pretty cool about going to a new area and seeing a bunch of excalamation points on your map directing you through the interesting stories of Azeroth. However, some questlines are particularly epic, many starting interesting raid encounters or providing backstory to help make sense of things that are going on or rewarding a character with particularly memorable items that are held onto long after they outlive their usefulness. Examples from Classic WoW were the Benediction/Anathma questline for Priests, the Hunter demon hunting quests, the forging of Quel Serrar, Thunderfury, the Hand of Ragnaros and the opening of Ahn Qiraj. The latest WotLK manifestation of the epic raiding quest is the Shadowmourne questline by which a hero is given the opportunity to forge a weapon in the vain of Frostmourne and then use it to defeat the Lich King.
For those who don't play on Stormrage, I have been lucky enough to be the designated Shadowmourne quester for the Stormrage Lurkers guild raiding alliance, Avarice. As such, I have been documenting the questline with screenshots and write-ups as I did several years ago for the Quel Serrar quests. There is definitely some cool stuff to the quests, so I thought people might enjoy this summary of our progress. I'll update this as I progress through the various steps of the quest chain. Hopefully this is interesting/helpful!
First off, for good information on the questline, Wowhead and Elitist Jerks have some good summaries.
The first quest you get is The Sacred and the Corrupt.
The Sacred and the Corrupt
Description:
It is against my judgment that I present you this errand, <race>, as it will likely end in your undoing.
Ignore my counsel and embark on the endeavor, and I shall provide you with the knowledge and resources to see it through.
You must return to Frostmourne Cavern and recover Light's Vengeance, Arthas' discarded hammer. Reforged with saronite and etched with the acidic blood of the Lich King's abominations, it will provide the foundation for our work.
Quest Objectives:
Place Light's Vengeance, 25 Primordial Saronite, Rotface's Acidic Blood, and Festergut's Acidic Blood in Highlord Mograine's runeforge in Icecrown Citadel.
Rotface's Acidic Blood and Festergut's Acidic Blood may only be obtained in the 25 person difficulty setting of Icecrown Citadel.
This quest requires you to go to the cave where Arthas first encountered Frostmourne and collect the hammer that he left in the snow. When you do this, Arthas appears and taunts you, summoning wave after wave of undead that you plow through while trying to pick up the hammer. Eventually you fight a stronger undead and when you kill it, you collect his hammer, Light's Vengeance.
To collect the bloods, you enter Icecrown Citadel on 25-player mode and defeat the Unholy wing bosses, Rotface and Festergut to collect Rotface's Acidic Blood and Festergut's Acidic Blood
Primordial Saronite drop in 25-man ICC and can be purchases for 23 Emblems of Frost. Collecting 25 of them is either time-consuming or expensive (I bought about 15 of them when I completed this quest and they were going for 2-2.4k gold).
On turn in, you see the following text:
The Sacred and the Corrupt quest text
The Sacred and the Corrupt completion text
This kicks off a pretty fun event where Darion sets you down the path to creating Shadowmourne:
"So it has begun...."
"Behold! The binding of sacred and corrupt; the forging of Shadow's Edge, a weapon of untold potential!"
"Bend it to your will, and you shall wield unspeakable power!"
"Fail, and your soul shall forever be its slave."
Shadow's Edge
After the event, you are given Shadow's Edge:
Shadow's Edge quest
Shadow's Edge quest text
A Feast of Souls
Description:
Shadow's Edge is among the greatest weapons a <class> could hope to obtain.
Is your lust for power sated, <race>?
<You feel Mograine's penetrating gaze.>
I thought not. A final warning then...
You now embark on the most treacherous leg of your quest. Bridle your aspirations, for if your aims are impure then your life, your very soul, is forfeit.
The weapon you hold is but an empty husk, a mere shadow of what it may become. Only by devouring a thousand souls shall its true potential be unlocked.
Quest Objectives:
Highlord Darion Mograine wants you to use Shadow's Edge to slay 1000 of the Lich King's minions in Icecrown Citadel. Souls can be obtained in 10 or 25 person difficulty.
The next step is to feed 1,000 souls from Icecrown Citadel to Shadow's Edge. This is easy as almost everything (except summoned things) provides a soul, but it is time-consuming. The cool part is at least the Lich King whispers you while you're doing it (he also whispers you throughout the rest of the questline).
A Feast of Souls completion
Unholy Infusion
Description:
Before your weapon can reach its full potential it must be endowed with its signature powers. First among them is unholiness.
You must seek out and defeat the one called Professor Putricide, but his death is not your only goal. You must use his resources against him.
Find a way to absorb his mutated slime. Use the foul substance to infuse your weapon with the power of the unholy. Only when this has been done shall I reveal your next task.
Quest Objectives:
Highlord Darion Mograine wants you to infuse Shadow's Edge with Unholy power and slay Professor Putricide.
This quest may only be completed in 25 person difficulty of Icecrown Citadel.
The quest objective is a bit ambiguous for this quest. The way it really works is that you need to drive the abomination during the Putricide fight in 25-man Icecrown Citadel. The abomination gains energy by sucking up slime from pools that Putricide spreads throughout the area. Like a rogue's energy, it scales from 0 to 100. The pools grow over time but the abomination's slime eating ability shrinks the pools. Energy can be used for two abilities: a slow (costs 45 energy) which can be applied to the oozes and gas clouds that Putricide spawns (which is the main mechanic of the fight, allowing you time to kill them before they destroy the raid), or the Unholy Infusion ability, Shadow Infusion (costs 100 energy) which gives you a 6 minute buff during which time you can kill Putricide and get credit for the quest.
Since the Shadow Infusion requires you to be at full energy and it uses ALL of your energy, the challenge is in doing that while still slowing every add. The best way I have come up with to do this is to not immediately suck down one of the pools Putricide throws out. Try to fill your energy bar to full on the other pool and wait for an add to spawn. As soon as the add spawns, slow it and start sucking up the pool. By the time it's finished, you should be at/near full energy so you hit the Shadow Infusion ability. While you suck that pool, Putricide will probably toss a couple more slime pools out. After you finish using Shadow Infusion, go suck down the other pools and it should give you enough energy to slow the next add.
Once you do handle Putricide, this is the Unholy Infusion quest completion text.
Blood Infusion
Description:
Your weapon is ready to be endowed with the power of blood.
You must face Queen Lana'thel in battle and subject yourself to her Blood Mirror. This will cause Shadow's Edge to drink the blood of the nearest living being. That being would be you, <race>.
Once the blade has been thus awakened, allow the Queen's Frenzied Bloodthirst to take hold of you, feed the blade thrice to sate it, and then give the queen an ignominious death.
May her screams pierce the ears of the Lich King as he awaits his fate.
Quest Objectives:
Highlord Darion Mograine wants you to infuse Shadow's Edge with blood and defeat Queen Lana'thel.
This quest may only be completed in 25 person difficulty of Icecrown Citadel.
The quest is not particularly difficult to do but it does provide a moderate DPS drain on anyone doing the quest. Essentially this quest is in 3 parts:
1. Get the Gushing Wound debuff
2. Become the second to fourth vampire (don't need to be first) and bite 3 people
3. Survive the encounter and kill Lanathel
For #1, the person doing the quest needs to take at least one tick of blood mirror in order to get the Gushing Wound debuff. This does not require off-tanking the encounter since any plate class should be able to withstand one tick of blood mirror at the start of the fight. The simple way most people arrange this is the questgoer hugs the MT on the way in to Lanathel and after that one tick of blood mirror, run farther from BQL than the off-tank and the encounter should progress normally. Gushing Wound is a debuff that deals some minor damage over time and reduces damage output by 10%. After the debuff is applied, it will stack stronger with each time you bite someone, as a vampire. Since this provides a damage debuff, it may be optimal for the questgoer to wait and take the tick of blood mirror shortly before being bitten though the damage applied at the start of the fight is pretty minor so it is probably best to do it whenever it is most convenient. When I did this, I popped Icebound Fortitude, went to Frost Presence and ran up past the MT, then got out. It took a couple tries to get the timing right so I didn't get splatted before I could drop the Blood Mirror debuff.
For #2, you need to bite 3 people over the course of the encounter in order to turn the Gushing Wound debuff into the Thirst Quenched buff. Each stack does a small DoT (not a big deal) and a (I think) stacking 10% damage debuff. I am not sure whether the 10% is additive to the +100% damage you gain as a vampire (so you'd do 90% -> 190% -> 180% -> 170% -> 200% damage), or multiplicative (90% -> 180% -> 160% -> 140% -> 200%). The Gushing Wound debuff goes away when you gain Thirst Quenched.
For #3, to min/max the encounter it is best if you can remove the debuff prior to when heroism is used at the 16 vampires point of the encounter. Counting back, that means it is optimal to have the questgoer be the second vampire (first person bitten by the initial vampire):
16 vamps - 3rd bite
8 vamps - 2nd bite
4 vamps - first bite
2 vamps - when bitten
Also note that the questgoer needs to survive, so it is probably best to assign that person to bite the tank if the last set of biting happens before the enrage.
So the overall effect to the raid in this fight, using the min/max steps I noted above is as follows:
First 1:15, no effect (wait for blood mirror until right before being bitten) - Full damage in this period (with short-mid cooldowns)
Next 1:00, small DoT on questgoer, 10% reduced damage (from vampire's +100% level) - 10% less damage
Next 1:00, slightly larger DoT (still not bad) on questgoer, 20% reduced damage - 20% less damage
Until end of fight (~1:15), debuff goes away, allowing full benefit from heroism and cooldowns - Full damage (plus heroism and cooldowns)
Doing some back of the envelope math assuming multiplicative damage debuff from gushing wound and heroism estimated at a 15% damage bonus, it looks like the debuffs reduce the damage output of the questgoer to ~92.6% of the damage they would have done in the fight, otherwise. Assuming the questgoer accounts for 10% of the overall raid damage, then this would result in ~0.74% overall reduction in raid DPS so you need at least that much excess DPS to succeed at this part of the quest.
Frost Infusion
Description:
Shadow's Edge is prepared to receive its final infusion of power.
Sindragosa, the enemy's own mount, must fall. But before she is brought down, you must sustain four of her frozen breath attacks without tasting death.
Without his dragon, nothing shall stand between you and the Lich King.
Quest Objectives:
Highlord Darion Mograine has instructed you to slay Sindragosa after subjecting yourself to 4 of her breath attacks while wielding Shadow's Edge.
This quest may only be completed in 25 person difficulty of Icecrown Citadel.
For Frost Infusion the questgoer needs to survive 4 of Sindragosa's frontal breath attacks and then defeat her. This is most easily done by having a questgoer DK tank her while using Shadow's Edge during the early phases of the fight though it is also easily doable while DPSing. Other classes can probably also do this while tanking but they would need to swap in Shadow's Edge for the breaths and then they would want to swap back to Sword and Board to tank. The breath deals 37-43k frost damage and applies a 50% attack speed / 15% run speed debuff. Humans can Every Man For Himself out of the slow debuff. The damage can be mitigated by wearing FrR gear and using cooldowns. DKs have it easy as they can use AMS/ICB/Frost Presence, Warriors can use Defensive Stance/Shield Wall, Paladins can use Divine Protection (not shield which prevents the application of the debuff)/HoSalvation/HoFreedom (to drop the slow).
Each breath you take provides the Frost Infusion debuff which deals ~500 dps to the questgoer, per stack. After 4 breaths, you lose the debuff and gain the Frost Imbued Blade buff which lasts 6 minutes (during which time you need to kill Sindragosa). As such, it's best that the 4th breath is taken toward the end of phase 1/2 in order to assure that it is active at the end of the fight to give quest completion credit. Most people suggest taking 2 breaths in the 2nd ground phase and 2 breaths in the 3rd ground phase in order to apply the buff just before phase 3, only require 2 cooldowns for breaths per ground phase, and minimize the amount of time that the Frost Infusion debuff is active.
I did this quest while tanking Sindragosa with Frost Resistance gear. Note that you must have the Shadow's Edge when taking the Frost Breaths in order to get the Frost Infusion debuff from thefrost breaths.
Also note that if the questgoer is tombed when Sindragosa dies, it appears that it does not give quest completion credit. Therefore, if the questgoer gets tombed toward the end, the raid needs to break him out before killing the boss.
The Splintered Throne
Description:
The Lich King's throne once served as his prison. Kil'jaeden himself crafted the vessel of icy crystals from the twisting nether, its sole purpose to hold Ner'zhul's vengeful spirit.
When Arthas struck the crystal with Frostmourne, he released Ner'zhul's soul, allowing it to merge with his own. Splinters from that impact are now scattered throughout the citadel.
I shall require those shards, held only by the Lich King's most powerful servants, to seal the power contained in your blade.
Quest Objectives:
Highlord Darion Mograine wants you to collect 50 Shadowfrost Shards.
Shadowfrost Shards may only be obtained in the 25 person difficulty setting.
This quest is probably the most frustrating and time consuming part of the questline. The shards seem to have a drop rate somewhere around 25-35% from normal bosses though they are guaranteed drops from heroic mode bosses (so if you have killed Arthas it should go a bit faster). Some weeks you can get a ton of shards, other weeks you can get none (which I did on a couple occasions, sadly). Note that if you use a Master Looter, the ML should be able to see the shards and can assign them to the Shadowmourne questgoer.
After the shards are collected, there are a couple quests to step through and an in-game event where you imbue power into Shadow's Edge turning it into Shadowmourne.
Empowerment
Highlord Darion Mograine speaks to you purposefully.
Shadow's Edge is prepared to receive its final endowment of power.
The time has come to attempt the forging of Shadowmourne!
Stand Clear, death knight, and steady yourself.
It is complete
Where most would falkter, you have overcome.
You have withstood the torment of the Lich King himself and now Shadowmourne is yours
Wield this mighty weapon and direct the souls that empower it.
Go forth, and defeat the Prince of Darkness.
Shadowmourne...
Description:
Congratulations, death knight.
Against insurmountable odds you have weathered the storm.
I trust that you shall find your reward proportionate to your confiction...
After creating and infusing Shadow's Edge with 1,000 souls, Unholy, Blood and Frost powers, AND collecting 50 Shadowfrost shards, Darion Mograine finally gives you Shadowmourne!
The Lich King's Last Stand
Description:
Shadowmourne; a newly forged weapon already steeped in this world's history, reborn into an unrivaled destiny.
With this weapon you bear a solemn responsibility, and the time to carry out that charge is at hand.
Take this weapon of myth and legend and march on the enemy. Avenge the countless heroes lost in his merciless campaign. Bring rest to their tortured souls.
Steel yourself, <class>, and guide Shadowmourne to fulfill the purpose of its creation.
Quest Objectives:
Highlord Darion Mograine in Icecrown Citadel wants you to kill the Lich King.
In the thrilling conclusion, Darion tasks you with killing the Lich King. Are you up to the task?
Though Shadowmourne is already done before this point, this quest also makes 25-man Arthas drop a Sealed Chest (once) which provides some awesome rewards that will never become unusable due to gear inflation (as Shadowmourne will be, come Cataclysm).
The rewards include:
Reins of the Crimson Deathcharger - Mount like the Death Knight class mount, but red.
Muradin's Favor - Turns you into a Frost Dwarf (like how the Iron Boot Flask turns you into a Iron Dwarf).
Jaina's Locket - Opens a portal to Dalaran.
Tabard of the Lightbringer - Blue tabard with a silver fist which has an on-use ability to do a bright glowly light effect.
Sylvanas' Music Box - Plays the Lament of the Highborn (that song that the TBC Forsaken quest chain leads up to).
For those who don't play on Stormrage, I have been lucky enough to be the designated Shadowmourne quester for the Stormrage Lurkers guild raiding alliance, Avarice. As such, I have been documenting the questline with screenshots and write-ups as I did several years ago for the Quel Serrar quests. There is definitely some cool stuff to the quests, so I thought people might enjoy this summary of our progress. I'll update this as I progress through the various steps of the quest chain. Hopefully this is interesting/helpful!
First off, for good information on the questline, Wowhead and Elitist Jerks have some good summaries.
The first quest you get is The Sacred and the Corrupt.
The Sacred and the Corrupt
Description:
It is against my judgment that I present you this errand, <race>, as it will likely end in your undoing.
Ignore my counsel and embark on the endeavor, and I shall provide you with the knowledge and resources to see it through.
You must return to Frostmourne Cavern and recover Light's Vengeance, Arthas' discarded hammer. Reforged with saronite and etched with the acidic blood of the Lich King's abominations, it will provide the foundation for our work.
Quest Objectives:
Place Light's Vengeance, 25 Primordial Saronite, Rotface's Acidic Blood, and Festergut's Acidic Blood in Highlord Mograine's runeforge in Icecrown Citadel.
Rotface's Acidic Blood and Festergut's Acidic Blood may only be obtained in the 25 person difficulty setting of Icecrown Citadel.
This quest requires you to go to the cave where Arthas first encountered Frostmourne and collect the hammer that he left in the snow. When you do this, Arthas appears and taunts you, summoning wave after wave of undead that you plow through while trying to pick up the hammer. Eventually you fight a stronger undead and when you kill it, you collect his hammer, Light's Vengeance.
To collect the bloods, you enter Icecrown Citadel on 25-player mode and defeat the Unholy wing bosses, Rotface and Festergut to collect Rotface's Acidic Blood and Festergut's Acidic Blood
Primordial Saronite drop in 25-man ICC and can be purchases for 23 Emblems of Frost. Collecting 25 of them is either time-consuming or expensive (I bought about 15 of them when I completed this quest and they were going for 2-2.4k gold).
On turn in, you see the following text:
The Sacred and the Corrupt quest text
The Sacred and the Corrupt completion text
This kicks off a pretty fun event where Darion sets you down the path to creating Shadowmourne:
"So it has begun...."
"Behold! The binding of sacred and corrupt; the forging of Shadow's Edge, a weapon of untold potential!"
"Bend it to your will, and you shall wield unspeakable power!"
"Fail, and your soul shall forever be its slave."
Shadow's Edge
After the event, you are given Shadow's Edge:
Shadow's Edge quest
Shadow's Edge quest text
A Feast of Souls
Description:
Shadow's Edge is among the greatest weapons a <class> could hope to obtain.
Is your lust for power sated, <race>?
<You feel Mograine's penetrating gaze.>
I thought not. A final warning then...
You now embark on the most treacherous leg of your quest. Bridle your aspirations, for if your aims are impure then your life, your very soul, is forfeit.
The weapon you hold is but an empty husk, a mere shadow of what it may become. Only by devouring a thousand souls shall its true potential be unlocked.
Quest Objectives:
Highlord Darion Mograine wants you to use Shadow's Edge to slay 1000 of the Lich King's minions in Icecrown Citadel. Souls can be obtained in 10 or 25 person difficulty.
The next step is to feed 1,000 souls from Icecrown Citadel to Shadow's Edge. This is easy as almost everything (except summoned things) provides a soul, but it is time-consuming. The cool part is at least the Lich King whispers you while you're doing it (he also whispers you throughout the rest of the questline).
A Feast of Souls completion
Unholy Infusion
Description:
Before your weapon can reach its full potential it must be endowed with its signature powers. First among them is unholiness.
You must seek out and defeat the one called Professor Putricide, but his death is not your only goal. You must use his resources against him.
Find a way to absorb his mutated slime. Use the foul substance to infuse your weapon with the power of the unholy. Only when this has been done shall I reveal your next task.
Quest Objectives:
Highlord Darion Mograine wants you to infuse Shadow's Edge with Unholy power and slay Professor Putricide.
This quest may only be completed in 25 person difficulty of Icecrown Citadel.
The quest objective is a bit ambiguous for this quest. The way it really works is that you need to drive the abomination during the Putricide fight in 25-man Icecrown Citadel. The abomination gains energy by sucking up slime from pools that Putricide spreads throughout the area. Like a rogue's energy, it scales from 0 to 100. The pools grow over time but the abomination's slime eating ability shrinks the pools. Energy can be used for two abilities: a slow (costs 45 energy) which can be applied to the oozes and gas clouds that Putricide spawns (which is the main mechanic of the fight, allowing you time to kill them before they destroy the raid), or the Unholy Infusion ability, Shadow Infusion (costs 100 energy) which gives you a 6 minute buff during which time you can kill Putricide and get credit for the quest.
Since the Shadow Infusion requires you to be at full energy and it uses ALL of your energy, the challenge is in doing that while still slowing every add. The best way I have come up with to do this is to not immediately suck down one of the pools Putricide throws out. Try to fill your energy bar to full on the other pool and wait for an add to spawn. As soon as the add spawns, slow it and start sucking up the pool. By the time it's finished, you should be at/near full energy so you hit the Shadow Infusion ability. While you suck that pool, Putricide will probably toss a couple more slime pools out. After you finish using Shadow Infusion, go suck down the other pools and it should give you enough energy to slow the next add.
Once you do handle Putricide, this is the Unholy Infusion quest completion text.
Blood Infusion
Description:
Your weapon is ready to be endowed with the power of blood.
You must face Queen Lana'thel in battle and subject yourself to her Blood Mirror. This will cause Shadow's Edge to drink the blood of the nearest living being. That being would be you, <race>.
Once the blade has been thus awakened, allow the Queen's Frenzied Bloodthirst to take hold of you, feed the blade thrice to sate it, and then give the queen an ignominious death.
May her screams pierce the ears of the Lich King as he awaits his fate.
Quest Objectives:
Highlord Darion Mograine wants you to infuse Shadow's Edge with blood and defeat Queen Lana'thel.
This quest may only be completed in 25 person difficulty of Icecrown Citadel.
The quest is not particularly difficult to do but it does provide a moderate DPS drain on anyone doing the quest. Essentially this quest is in 3 parts:
1. Get the Gushing Wound debuff
2. Become the second to fourth vampire (don't need to be first) and bite 3 people
3. Survive the encounter and kill Lanathel
For #1, the person doing the quest needs to take at least one tick of blood mirror in order to get the Gushing Wound debuff. This does not require off-tanking the encounter since any plate class should be able to withstand one tick of blood mirror at the start of the fight. The simple way most people arrange this is the questgoer hugs the MT on the way in to Lanathel and after that one tick of blood mirror, run farther from BQL than the off-tank and the encounter should progress normally. Gushing Wound is a debuff that deals some minor damage over time and reduces damage output by 10%. After the debuff is applied, it will stack stronger with each time you bite someone, as a vampire. Since this provides a damage debuff, it may be optimal for the questgoer to wait and take the tick of blood mirror shortly before being bitten though the damage applied at the start of the fight is pretty minor so it is probably best to do it whenever it is most convenient. When I did this, I popped Icebound Fortitude, went to Frost Presence and ran up past the MT, then got out. It took a couple tries to get the timing right so I didn't get splatted before I could drop the Blood Mirror debuff.
For #2, you need to bite 3 people over the course of the encounter in order to turn the Gushing Wound debuff into the Thirst Quenched buff. Each stack does a small DoT (not a big deal) and a (I think) stacking 10% damage debuff. I am not sure whether the 10% is additive to the +100% damage you gain as a vampire (so you'd do 90% -> 190% -> 180% -> 170% -> 200% damage), or multiplicative (90% -> 180% -> 160% -> 140% -> 200%). The Gushing Wound debuff goes away when you gain Thirst Quenched.
For #3, to min/max the encounter it is best if you can remove the debuff prior to when heroism is used at the 16 vampires point of the encounter. Counting back, that means it is optimal to have the questgoer be the second vampire (first person bitten by the initial vampire):
16 vamps - 3rd bite
8 vamps - 2nd bite
4 vamps - first bite
2 vamps - when bitten
Also note that the questgoer needs to survive, so it is probably best to assign that person to bite the tank if the last set of biting happens before the enrage.
So the overall effect to the raid in this fight, using the min/max steps I noted above is as follows:
First 1:15, no effect (wait for blood mirror until right before being bitten) - Full damage in this period (with short-mid cooldowns)
Next 1:00, small DoT on questgoer, 10% reduced damage (from vampire's +100% level) - 10% less damage
Next 1:00, slightly larger DoT (still not bad) on questgoer, 20% reduced damage - 20% less damage
Until end of fight (~1:15), debuff goes away, allowing full benefit from heroism and cooldowns - Full damage (plus heroism and cooldowns)
Doing some back of the envelope math assuming multiplicative damage debuff from gushing wound and heroism estimated at a 15% damage bonus, it looks like the debuffs reduce the damage output of the questgoer to ~92.6% of the damage they would have done in the fight, otherwise. Assuming the questgoer accounts for 10% of the overall raid damage, then this would result in ~0.74% overall reduction in raid DPS so you need at least that much excess DPS to succeed at this part of the quest.
Frost Infusion
Description:
Shadow's Edge is prepared to receive its final infusion of power.
Sindragosa, the enemy's own mount, must fall. But before she is brought down, you must sustain four of her frozen breath attacks without tasting death.
Without his dragon, nothing shall stand between you and the Lich King.
Quest Objectives:
Highlord Darion Mograine has instructed you to slay Sindragosa after subjecting yourself to 4 of her breath attacks while wielding Shadow's Edge.
This quest may only be completed in 25 person difficulty of Icecrown Citadel.
For Frost Infusion the questgoer needs to survive 4 of Sindragosa's frontal breath attacks and then defeat her. This is most easily done by having a questgoer DK tank her while using Shadow's Edge during the early phases of the fight though it is also easily doable while DPSing. Other classes can probably also do this while tanking but they would need to swap in Shadow's Edge for the breaths and then they would want to swap back to Sword and Board to tank. The breath deals 37-43k frost damage and applies a 50% attack speed / 15% run speed debuff. Humans can Every Man For Himself out of the slow debuff. The damage can be mitigated by wearing FrR gear and using cooldowns. DKs have it easy as they can use AMS/ICB/Frost Presence, Warriors can use Defensive Stance/Shield Wall, Paladins can use Divine Protection (not shield which prevents the application of the debuff)/HoSalvation/HoFreedom (to drop the slow).
Each breath you take provides the Frost Infusion debuff which deals ~500 dps to the questgoer, per stack. After 4 breaths, you lose the debuff and gain the Frost Imbued Blade buff which lasts 6 minutes (during which time you need to kill Sindragosa). As such, it's best that the 4th breath is taken toward the end of phase 1/2 in order to assure that it is active at the end of the fight to give quest completion credit. Most people suggest taking 2 breaths in the 2nd ground phase and 2 breaths in the 3rd ground phase in order to apply the buff just before phase 3, only require 2 cooldowns for breaths per ground phase, and minimize the amount of time that the Frost Infusion debuff is active.
I did this quest while tanking Sindragosa with Frost Resistance gear. Note that you must have the Shadow's Edge when taking the Frost Breaths in order to get the Frost Infusion debuff from thefrost breaths.
Also note that if the questgoer is tombed when Sindragosa dies, it appears that it does not give quest completion credit. Therefore, if the questgoer gets tombed toward the end, the raid needs to break him out before killing the boss.
The Splintered Throne
Description:
The Lich King's throne once served as his prison. Kil'jaeden himself crafted the vessel of icy crystals from the twisting nether, its sole purpose to hold Ner'zhul's vengeful spirit.
When Arthas struck the crystal with Frostmourne, he released Ner'zhul's soul, allowing it to merge with his own. Splinters from that impact are now scattered throughout the citadel.
I shall require those shards, held only by the Lich King's most powerful servants, to seal the power contained in your blade.
Quest Objectives:
Highlord Darion Mograine wants you to collect 50 Shadowfrost Shards.
Shadowfrost Shards may only be obtained in the 25 person difficulty setting.
This quest is probably the most frustrating and time consuming part of the questline. The shards seem to have a drop rate somewhere around 25-35% from normal bosses though they are guaranteed drops from heroic mode bosses (so if you have killed Arthas it should go a bit faster). Some weeks you can get a ton of shards, other weeks you can get none (which I did on a couple occasions, sadly). Note that if you use a Master Looter, the ML should be able to see the shards and can assign them to the Shadowmourne questgoer.
After the shards are collected, there are a couple quests to step through and an in-game event where you imbue power into Shadow's Edge turning it into Shadowmourne.
Empowerment
Highlord Darion Mograine speaks to you purposefully.
Shadow's Edge is prepared to receive its final endowment of power.
The time has come to attempt the forging of Shadowmourne!
Stand Clear, death knight, and steady yourself.
It is complete
Where most would falkter, you have overcome.
You have withstood the torment of the Lich King himself and now Shadowmourne is yours
Wield this mighty weapon and direct the souls that empower it.
Go forth, and defeat the Prince of Darkness.
Shadowmourne...
Description:
Congratulations, death knight.
Against insurmountable odds you have weathered the storm.
I trust that you shall find your reward proportionate to your confiction...
After creating and infusing Shadow's Edge with 1,000 souls, Unholy, Blood and Frost powers, AND collecting 50 Shadowfrost shards, Darion Mograine finally gives you Shadowmourne!
The Lich King's Last Stand
Description:
Shadowmourne; a newly forged weapon already steeped in this world's history, reborn into an unrivaled destiny.
With this weapon you bear a solemn responsibility, and the time to carry out that charge is at hand.
Take this weapon of myth and legend and march on the enemy. Avenge the countless heroes lost in his merciless campaign. Bring rest to their tortured souls.
Steel yourself, <class>, and guide Shadowmourne to fulfill the purpose of its creation.
Quest Objectives:
Highlord Darion Mograine in Icecrown Citadel wants you to kill the Lich King.
In the thrilling conclusion, Darion tasks you with killing the Lich King. Are you up to the task?
Though Shadowmourne is already done before this point, this quest also makes 25-man Arthas drop a Sealed Chest (once) which provides some awesome rewards that will never become unusable due to gear inflation (as Shadowmourne will be, come Cataclysm).
The rewards include:
Reins of the Crimson Deathcharger - Mount like the Death Knight class mount, but red.
Muradin's Favor - Turns you into a Frost Dwarf (like how the Iron Boot Flask turns you into a Iron Dwarf).
Jaina's Locket - Opens a portal to Dalaran.
Tabard of the Lightbringer - Blue tabard with a silver fist which has an on-use ability to do a bright glowly light effect.
Sylvanas' Music Box - Plays the Lament of the Highborn (that song that the TBC Forsaken quest chain leads up to).
-TheDragoon