Sunday, February 10, 2008

February 10, 2008
9
It's sunday, i'm bored and, oh hey that sounds familiar.
Let's try cleaning out scholomance.


Scholomance is profitable too !

Before starting, put any items that are non essential into your bank or mail them to an alt. Scholomance is loaded with undead / humanoids and the droprate on random gray trash is crazy. As i mentioned earlier, everything is worth money and the gray stuff you get here is about 40s-2g a piece, don't leave anything behind. You'll also find a good score of lvl 55+ greens which have a chance to give Greater Eternal Essences, these sell for about 15-18g on my server.

Also, if you still need Argent dawn reputation, great! Each corruptor's stone is worth 150 reputation, you'll be exalted in no time. I did this run about five times today, and got about 8k reputation from it.

Make sure you pick up the quest from outside if you haven't done it already, the item [Spectral Essence] will allow you to repair and sell junk outside. This will save you a lot of time in the long run. (and thus bigger profit)


The Reliquary

Make sure you kill the tutors in this room as they can drop the enchanting formula called "lifestealing", currently there's two of these on the Auction House for about 120-140g. Most runs you'll see zero drop, sometimes one, and in extreme exceptions more than one. I just got three in one run, but none the other times today. RNG go figure.


Chamber of Summoning

After the first room you'll come into the hall with the "Scholomance Dark Summoners", these have a ~12% chance to drop a dark rune which sells for about 20g ea. I recommend putting them on the AH three at a time, as these are a quest item for horde paladins.

If you have a Blood of innocents from last run, take a quick turn to the balcony and kill Kirtonos the Herald. He hits pretty hard, can disarm, and has a knockback ability. Two blue items = 2x7g, and usually a corruptor's stone.


Jandice

I usually don't bother with jandice, but there's no real reason not to.
Stealth past everything, and get behind her. She's immune to garotte to just hit her in the face and pull her further into the alcove. Jandice can be tricky as you may remember, but with the arrival of cloak of shadows she should be no problem.
When she splits herself make sure you have nameplates active, and look for the one that's half on health then keep attacking that her. Using evasion is probably a smart choice at this point.
A little bit later she'll start casting a spell on you that must be dispelled as fast as possible. The ghosts don't hit hard on their own (35-40 dmg), but with the curse on you they each hit for about 100 damage extra, this will take your health down rather fast. If you can't kill her before a second split you should considder the quality of your gear.


Rattlegore

When done with that, you'll need to go into the large room, across, and into the room with the dragonlings. Don't bother going all the way across and jump straight into the first hole on your left. Kill 1-2 skeletons, then pull rattlegore. Use evasion if you feel you need it, but you should be fine without. Take the key and head back to the big room.

As a pure caster you might have some trouble with the skeletons in this room (magic immune) but rogues / druids should be fine. Unlock the door and you'll come into the viewing toom which is full of neutral mobs. Don't bother clearing these, as they have a substantial load of health and you'll be spending too much time here. Head across the room and down.


Ras Frostwhisper

Ras is an easy fellow, as a caster a single expose armor should put down his armor pretty low, and he's stunnable and can be interrupted. Two blue items, 100 rep, and usually a stone makes him quite worthwhile.

Head back up and right to the main area. You'll now enter the "Headmaster's Study" where you will be confronted by two levels with each three doors.


The Headmaster's Study

In order to summon the headmaster, you need to kill the boss in each of the 6 areas and clear the Coven room. Meaning, if you don't have a druid buddy, or an extra weapon with fiery weapon enchant, you won't be seeing the headmaster. I'll explain why in a few.

Lady Illucia Barov, The Ravenian, Instructor Malicia and Lorekeeper Polkelt each have a 44-46% chance to drop a Dark Rune.


Hall of Secrets
Top left. Lorekeeper Polkelt.

While you may remember this room being a major pain for a five man group, the mage always dying due to lack of heals, and the healer getting aggro afterwards, possibly wiping you. This room should be quite easy for a rogue. Simply stealth past everything and position yourself behind the boss. Now, wait for the center zombie to move away from you as far as possible then garotte the boss and pull him to the wall. At most two zombies should add, but these will be easily taken care of with a Blade Flurry. The boss is stunnable and quite a pushover. Cloak of Shadows to get rid of any debuffs after, and stealth back.

I once accidently pulled the boss and 6 adds, but still managed to kill them even though evasion and blade flurry were both on cooldown.


Hall of the Damned
Top center. Doctor Theolen Krastinov.

Stealth past the zombies, garotte the boss and get a 5p expose armor on him as soon as you're able. Save your Evasion for when he enrages at 50% and you should be fine.


The Coven
Top right. Instructor Malicia.

This is where things get tricky. The boss herself is a pushover really, but if you wish to fight the headmaster you have to clear this room. (Don't know why but he simply won't show up unless you do)
Some of the mobs in this room turn into a black undead ghost around 25% of their health, and become completely immune to all physical attacks, as well as poison.
Basically you're fucked here without a druid, or a good stack of explosives. (EZ-Thro Dynamite comes to mind

Also be careful if you decide not to kill the packs and just go for shards, if you interrupt her she has a tendency to run off and pull the pack closest to her.


The Shadow Vault
Bottom left. Lady Illucia Barov.

If you're looking for a Skin of Shadows, aside rattlegore's room you might get some from the Risen Bonewarders here. I highly doubt you are though. Illucia barov is one of the few bosses here that can't be stunned, but even so you shouldn't have much trouble with her or her room. Kill, loot, continue.


Barov Family Vault
Bottom center. Lord Alexei Barov.

The two guards at the door can hit pretty decent, but you should be able to dispatch with them without the use of blade flurry, save it for Alexei.
If you have an item that increases your shadow resistance, such as [Medallion of Karabor] use it, you won't need much but a tiny bit will help you resist a lot more of his aura. As the boss has two adds, you'll want to use blade flurry to kill at least one, evasion is recommended as well.


Vault of the Ravenian
Bottom right. The Ravenian.

The skeletons pull at 1-3 at a time and do decent damage. Make sure you clear at least one side and the one in the center to give yourself enough room to pull the boss.
The Ravenian himself can pack a decent punch and you'll probably want to use evasion on this fight. I've tried and can tell you not to bother attacking him from the water and skipping the skeletons, he'll go into evasion mode. Just clear one part of the room and pull him to a corner near the door.


Darkmaster Gandling

Once all six bosses are dead, and the coven has been cleared Gandling will yell "school is in session" to announce his presence. He'll occassionally teleport one member of the party into a side room and hilarity will ensue. I'm not yet sure if he also does this when you're completely solo, (I had a mage buddy come in and clear the coven as i don't have a fire enchanted weapon yet) but shall find out in due time.

The Darkmaster drops two blues and sometimes other random items.


Scholomance
It turns out scholomance is quite profitable if you run it a few times but try to make sure you have a LOT of bagspace available. Due to the number of gray and green items you'll probably end up going to town every 2-3 runs unless you have at least 40 slots available.

I've done the place about 20 or so times now, and on average i make 200-300g per hour. My path unlike above does not include the spectral researchers, jandice or gandling because these take quite a bit of time. An average full clear takes about 20 minutes and i end up with about 80-90g in items and trash worth on such a run.
A bind-on-equip blue, several dark runes, 6-7 shards, and some greens is a fairly average run.

Well that's it for scholomance, rince and repeat as much as you like, enjoy !

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

"The boss herself is a pushover really, but if you wish to fight the headmaster you have to clear this room. (Don't know why but he simply won't show up unless you do)"

Gandling wont spawn if there is anything left in any of the six rooms as that would interfere with his ability to Teleport you around them.

I've not tried the run for a while, and there seem to be mixed comments about the shades on various sites, but I'm unconvinced that a (eg) Fiery weapon enchant will help as they generally require a successful melee hit to proc (the reason why the Shades wont take poison damage).
It -is- possible to kill them before they pop, but you wont manage it often enough for it to be a vaild tactic. However, Oil of Immolation (and/or bombs) do the job nicely.

Soloing Gandling is hilarious, and a very nice runecloth grind - he'll teleport you to a room, realise he has nothing to do and run after you.
You have plenty of time to kill and loot the temporary mobs in the room. Then just wait for Gandling to turn up and port you again. You can keep this up more or less indefinately, until you get bored or he runs out of mana, then just finish him off.

bbr said...

Cheers for that, i was planning to try enchanting my old S1 swords with fiery proc, but if you're correct that'll be a waste most likely.
As i'm an engineer i could bring some bombs though.

I know for a fact that he'll spawn if you leave the zombies alive in the topleft room, so there's definitely no need to clear all the trash in those 6 rooms, except for the bosses obviously.

I also know for a fact that you "have" to kill the trash mobs in the coven. The rest isn't much of an issue, but when i gather up some grenades i'll go and see how much you can actually leave alone to actually spawn gandling.

BBR.

Anonymous said...

Ah, that kinda puts the "wont spawn cos he can't teleport" theory out the window. I'd never actually left anything else alive, so just assumed that was the reason. Oh well.

G'luck with yer boomkabooms! :)

Anonymous said...

So, did Fiery work or?

I got Malchazeen and a Warp Splinter's Thorn in bank that I'll enchant with fiery just for this purpose, if it does work that is.

bbr said...

Won't have time to try it until the weekend i fear.
We've been busy raiding BT and HY :)

Spending money on repairs rather than earning it.

Anonymous said...

Well, wiping means progressing and learning I hope. So it's not for nowt... or however one would say. :)

bbr said...

OK, i went ahead and enchanted a spare [Claw of the Phoenix] with fiery enchant.
I had the mob to 1% before it shifted forms and spend about a minute poking it with shiv to no avail.
Immune to all attacks, and fiery weapon didn't proc once.

Time to stock up some regular explosives, or if you're not an engineer EZ-thro dynamite works as well.
At most you'd have to train the two ghosts around the area while waiting for the cooldown.

Also, i just killed all six bosses and left mobs in all the rooms. Then had a mage come in for the coven room. Gandling did indeed spawn at that time, so the coven is the only "mandatory" room. However he teleports you everywhere and anywhere, which will result in a likely wipe. So it's still recommended to clear other stuff as well :P

Anonymous said...

I played around in Scholo tonight and discovered some more techniques for killing the mobs in Malicia's room. Deadly poison stays on them, continuing to do damage, after they shift forms. You basically spam Shiv, canceling auto-attack each time, until you get a good stack. Once they shift, let the poison tick until it's about to drop off and then hit Envenom. I've been able to kill most of them this way, but they'll occasionally have a few health points left. At that point, I either use a bomb or a Holy Water from Strat to finish them off.

Deathara said...

Now with Killing Spree, you have no trouble taking the occultists (that become unkillable). Just make sure you take them out each time with killing spree, wait for cooldown and repeat.