01-13-2005, 03:58 PM
The Scarlet Monastery is a building in Northeastern Tirisfal Glades which houses four small instances, all with fantastic loot and experience for level 38-42ish characters. Each instance can be done in about an hour. Two of the instances require a key, obtainable in the second instance (difficulty-wise), for access.
Since a few Lurkers are of the right age to hit up the Monastery soon, I'm just reposting this with updated info from the last time I posted it during beta, when the rules were a bit different.
In phase 2 of the closed beta, when level 39 was the cap, the Scarlet Monastery was the place to be. Farming was sickening easy. 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.
Anyway, you can't do that anymore, but that doesn't stop the Monastery from being a great place for all classes to level up and find good loot. I've been running it a few times this week to get my fill of blue items. The Monastery is always popular because of the loot and because the general size of each instance allows for relatively quick runs. Some groups will beat one of the four instances, reform, and do it again. Usually this is done for the last instance, but it can technically be done for any of them. It's not unheard of to spend an entire afternoon up there jumping around with groups just to milk the loot and experience.
If you're a mage, there are three quests that tie to the Scarlet Monastery. For everyone else, there are two. The two quests are Mythology of the Titans, given in the Explorer's League area of Ironforge, and In the Name of the Light, which is a quest chain that technically begins in the Stormwind Cathedral's basement, but that's just a delivery quest to start things off in Desolace. You will need to meet with Brother Anton in Nijel's Point in Desolace and kill 30 Undead Ravagers before heading over to Southshore to pick up the Monastery part of the chain. It's worth doing, because the quest reward for In the Name of the Light is your choice of some pretty nice items, and of course a wad of experience points.
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. However, the quest reward for In the Name of the Light features the option for an even better off-hand orb. Due to this, the fact that the monsters are pretty low level by the time Alliance characters bother making the long trip up to the Monastery, and the fact that there are no quest rewards there, this instance is typically skipped.
Instance 2: Doan's Library. Right side, open portal
The mage-class quest can be completed here, along with the Mythology of the Titans book for the Ironforge quest. This instance must be done to get the Scarlet Key, which opens the doors to the last two instances. Doan can drop a very sweet caster staff, the Illusionary Rod, and the chest in his end-room is where the Scarlet Key is found. The Houndmaster is here as well, the first boss you need to kill for the In the Name of the Light quest. As with all Monastery instances, don't forget to grab all the chests you find along the way - they almost always have at least one green item.
Instance 3: The Armory. Right side, closed portal (requires Scarlet Key)
The Armory is the home of Herod, a quest boss for In the Name of the Light and the home of great weapon/armor drops for those mail-users of the group. Herod can drop a fantastic helm or shoulderpads for warriors/paladins. Herod does extreme melee damage, and squishy casters need to stand well clear of him during the battle. When he starts his spinning move, he does mass damage to anyone standing near him, and becomes temporarily invulnerable. The moment he is aggroed, a line of guards spawns outside of his chamber to prevent escape, so make sure everyone's inside the room before starting. After Herod dies, the fight isn't over - I won't ruin the surprise for anyone running it for the first time, but suffice to say that you can't relax after the boss falls.
Instance 4: The Cathedral. Left side, closed portal (requires Scarlet Key)
Home of the last two bosses for the In the Name of the Light quest, this one will really test a group of level 40's. Tightly packed enemies 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). Everyone needs a Quest Minion, remember?
The end two bosses in this instance are tricky. The first, Morgaine, 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 bad guy in the cathedral to help him when attacked. So if they're all dead, he's not going to get much help. :) Once he's down, however, the high priest Whitemane arrives. She's popular for being described as the "hottest looking" NPC in the whole game - when you see her, uh, dominatrix outfit you'll see why. Cough. Anyway, when you get her down in health some, she sleeps the whole party and RESURRECTS Morgaine. Proper procedure is to stay on the high priest and kill her first, then return to re-kill Morgaine. Whitemane is much more dangerous, being a tough spellcaster who can heal, turn party members against each other, and has enough mana to do both forever. Never good to have an enemy priest around who can heal and resurrect others. If the party has a minion or somesuch that can keep Morgaine busy while the rest of the party whacks Whitemane, all the better.
Keep in mind that, at least in beta, there was a scripting issue sometimes where she was hesitant to do the whole "sleep group and resurrect Morgaine" thing. This is actually BAD, since unless she does that, you DON'T get credit for killing Morgaine 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 Morgaine, back off and let her do it. Then there's phat lewt for all.
There's also a cheesy method in this fight - pull Whitemane far enough away from Morgaine, and when she resurrects him he has nothing to aggro and will just stand there. Maybe this is fixed by now, but I don't consider it all that honorable. You're supposed to fight them both at the same time; that's what makes it a good fight.
After the two of them are finally down for good, everyone can jump for joy at the great loot that is dropped. Morgaine drops melee loot, and Whitemane drops caster loot. Also, there is a chest in the back of the chamber that Whitemane opens up during the battle, containing even more loot!
Notes:
1) Bring a rogue! 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 green items.
2) Getting to the Scarlet Monastery is such a long run that it 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. A solid group can clear the three quest instances in about 3 hours.
-Bolty
Since a few Lurkers are of the right age to hit up the Monastery soon, I'm just reposting this with updated info from the last time I posted it during beta, when the rules were a bit different.
In phase 2 of the closed beta, when level 39 was the cap, the Scarlet Monastery was the place to be. Farming was sickening easy. 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.
Anyway, you can't do that anymore, but that doesn't stop the Monastery from being a great place for all classes to level up and find good loot. I've been running it a few times this week to get my fill of blue items. The Monastery is always popular because of the loot and because the general size of each instance allows for relatively quick runs. Some groups will beat one of the four instances, reform, and do it again. Usually this is done for the last instance, but it can technically be done for any of them. It's not unheard of to spend an entire afternoon up there jumping around with groups just to milk the loot and experience.
If you're a mage, there are three quests that tie to the Scarlet Monastery. For everyone else, there are two. The two quests are Mythology of the Titans, given in the Explorer's League area of Ironforge, and In the Name of the Light, which is a quest chain that technically begins in the Stormwind Cathedral's basement, but that's just a delivery quest to start things off in Desolace. You will need to meet with Brother Anton in Nijel's Point in Desolace and kill 30 Undead Ravagers before heading over to Southshore to pick up the Monastery part of the chain. It's worth doing, because the quest reward for In the Name of the Light is your choice of some pretty nice items, and of course a wad of experience points.
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. However, the quest reward for In the Name of the Light features the option for an even better off-hand orb. Due to this, the fact that the monsters are pretty low level by the time Alliance characters bother making the long trip up to the Monastery, and the fact that there are no quest rewards there, this instance is typically skipped.
Instance 2: Doan's Library. Right side, open portal
The mage-class quest can be completed here, along with the Mythology of the Titans book for the Ironforge quest. This instance must be done to get the Scarlet Key, which opens the doors to the last two instances. Doan can drop a very sweet caster staff, the Illusionary Rod, and the chest in his end-room is where the Scarlet Key is found. The Houndmaster is here as well, the first boss you need to kill for the In the Name of the Light quest. As with all Monastery instances, don't forget to grab all the chests you find along the way - they almost always have at least one green item.
Instance 3: The Armory. Right side, closed portal (requires Scarlet Key)
The Armory is the home of Herod, a quest boss for In the Name of the Light and the home of great weapon/armor drops for those mail-users of the group. Herod can drop a fantastic helm or shoulderpads for warriors/paladins. Herod does extreme melee damage, and squishy casters need to stand well clear of him during the battle. When he starts his spinning move, he does mass damage to anyone standing near him, and becomes temporarily invulnerable. The moment he is aggroed, a line of guards spawns outside of his chamber to prevent escape, so make sure everyone's inside the room before starting. After Herod dies, the fight isn't over - I won't ruin the surprise for anyone running it for the first time, but suffice to say that you can't relax after the boss falls.
Instance 4: The Cathedral. Left side, closed portal (requires Scarlet Key)
Home of the last two bosses for the In the Name of the Light quest, this one will really test a group of level 40's. Tightly packed enemies 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). Everyone needs a Quest Minion, remember?
The end two bosses in this instance are tricky. The first, Morgaine, 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 bad guy in the cathedral to help him when attacked. So if they're all dead, he's not going to get much help. :) Once he's down, however, the high priest Whitemane arrives. She's popular for being described as the "hottest looking" NPC in the whole game - when you see her, uh, dominatrix outfit you'll see why. Cough. Anyway, when you get her down in health some, she sleeps the whole party and RESURRECTS Morgaine. Proper procedure is to stay on the high priest and kill her first, then return to re-kill Morgaine. Whitemane is much more dangerous, being a tough spellcaster who can heal, turn party members against each other, and has enough mana to do both forever. Never good to have an enemy priest around who can heal and resurrect others. If the party has a minion or somesuch that can keep Morgaine busy while the rest of the party whacks Whitemane, all the better.
Keep in mind that, at least in beta, there was a scripting issue sometimes where she was hesitant to do the whole "sleep group and resurrect Morgaine" thing. This is actually BAD, since unless she does that, you DON'T get credit for killing Morgaine 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 Morgaine, back off and let her do it. Then there's phat lewt for all.
There's also a cheesy method in this fight - pull Whitemane far enough away from Morgaine, and when she resurrects him he has nothing to aggro and will just stand there. Maybe this is fixed by now, but I don't consider it all that honorable. You're supposed to fight them both at the same time; that's what makes it a good fight.
After the two of them are finally down for good, everyone can jump for joy at the great loot that is dropped. Morgaine drops melee loot, and Whitemane drops caster loot. Also, there is a chest in the back of the chamber that Whitemane opens up during the battle, containing even more loot!
Notes:
1) Bring a rogue! 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 green items.
2) Getting to the Scarlet Monastery is such a long run that it 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. A solid group can clear the three quest instances in about 3 hours.
-Bolty
Quote:Considering the mods here are generally liberals who seem to have a soft spot for fascism and white supremacy (despite them saying otherwise), me being perma-banned at some point is probably not out of the question.
