Scouting Stratholme
Stratholme spat plenty of challenges out at us for poking our heads in to Stratholme on this, the first run for Scorpinar’s group. A few of us have battled through Stratholme on farming runs and even some Caverns of Time instances, but it was Kaseido who last tanked a level-appropriate group, and she is now 80. It’s been some time.
Scorpinar keeps an eye out for patrolling Scourge.
We took in the first half of the instance: largely its Scarlet-occupied quarter, with some detours to Alonsus’ Chapel in order that Kalonike might initiate herself as a paladin of the Blood Knights. The trail is a diverse one, exposing parties to both the 10-strong mobs of Scourge and some tricky human foes in the Scarlet Crusade. It calls for some fine-grained tanking, as evidenced by some unfortunate traps by rambling abominations and ghouls, and a lot of AoE damage; my thorium helm is tipped to Kalonike and Clarkson for some explosive light- and fire-based explosions!
Future Tense face Cannon Master Willey.
There are some truly exhilarating fights to be had in this zone, many of which throw in mechanics unseen in previous dungeons. Bosses may summon swathes of additional fighters, take possession of your melee damage-dealer or even transform themselves mid-fight, but there are rewards to match this commitment. Not all of our rewards came in the form of loot, either:
Clarkson breaks loose into demon form.
Clarkson levelled up to 59 and then 60 within this single run, breaking out into the impressive demonologists’ Metamorphosis spell to sweep the respawning Scourge from our exits. Knowing that we now have a melee/caster hybrid on top of our retribution paladin, Kalonike, should make further challenges very interesting indeed!
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- Future Tense face Cannon Master Willey.
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- Clarkson breaks loose into demon form.
Sinnyo
