Sign inScholomance
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Scholomance is the Scourge's school of necromancy, hidden in the crypts beneath Caer Darrow, an island keep in Darrowmere Lake at the southeastern edge of Western Plaguelands. It is a level 60 dungeon with bosses from level 58 to 62, and it needs a key to enter. In Classic it was one of the most farmed dungeons in the game, for its Dungeon Set 1 pieces, its rich trash loot and its long list of quests, and it is where Darkmaster Gandling, the school's headmaster, waits behind six classrooms of instructors.
Background
Caer Darrow belonged to the noble Barov family. When the archmage Kel'Thuzad began gathering followers for his Cult of the Damned, he promised immortality to anyone who would serve the Lich King. The Barovs accepted and gave the keep and its ancient crypts to the cult. The cultists repaid them by killing them, and the family now haunts the school as undead servants.
Under the castle, the cult built an academy to train necromancers for The Scourge, teaching the plague and the raising of the dead to living students. Kel'Thuzad has since moved on, but the school still runs under the lich Ras Frostwhisper and the headmaster Darkmaster Gandling. Two surviving sons of the house, Alexi Barov (now one of the Forsaken) and Weldon Barov (on the Alliance side), each want the family's deeds back and each want the other dead.
Getting in
The Scholomance door is locked. Players earn the [Skeleton Key] through a quest chain that starts at the Bulwark (Horde) or Chillwind Camp (Alliance) in Western Plaguelands:
- Scholomance (Alliance) or Scholomance (Horde) sends you to Alchemist Arbington or Apothecary Dithers.
- Mold Rhymes With... or Mold Rhymes With... sends imbued skeletal fragments to Krinkle Goodsteel in Gadgetzan for a key mold.
- Fire Plume Forged or Fire Plume Forged: forge the key blank at Fire Plume Ridge in Un'Goro Crater.
- Araj's Scarab or Araj's Scarab: kill Araj the Summoner in Andorhal for his scarab.
- The Key to Scholomance or The Key to Scholomance finishes the key.
Rogues with enough lockpicking skill can also open the door for the group.
Bosses
Levels and drops are from our database (patch 1.12).
Loot
Gandling is the main reason most groups came. He drops the helm of every class's Dungeon Set 1, the blue armor sets usually called Tier 0, and has a rare chance at the epic staff [Headmaster's Charge]. The instructors in the side rooms share a table with other Set 1 pieces, and Ras Frostwhisper, Kirtonos and Jandice each add a set piece or two of their own.
The trash was valuable too. Scholomance's necromancers and summoners dropped coin, Runecloth and Dark Runes, and a fast player could clear to the Great Ossuary for a solid profit. Patch 1.4 added about twenty new rare items to the dungeon's tables.
Chest pieces such as [Deathbone Chestplate], [Necropile Robe] and [Cadaverous Armor] belong to four five-piece armor sets (Deathbone, Necropile, Cadaverous and Bloodmail) whose other pieces also drop in the school.
Quests
- Kirtonos the Herald: Eva Sarkhoff on Caer Darrow sends you to pour the [Blood of Innocents] into the brazier on the school's porch, which summons Kirtonos the Herald. Her other quests, Doctor Theolen Krastinov, the Butcher and Krastinov's Bag of Horrors, are for Doctor Krastinov and Jandice Barov.
- Barov Family Fortune and Barov Family Fortune: Alexi Barov (Horde) or Weldon Barov (Alliance) wants the four family deeds, held by bosses in the school. The follow-up, The Last Barov or The Last Barov, sends you to kill the other brother, and rewards a [Barov Peasant Caller].
- The Ras Frostwhisper chain: Magistrate Marduke tells the story of the man Ras Frostwhisper was before he became a lich. You recover his keepsake in Stromgarde, take it to Stratholme in Menethil's Gift, then use it in the school to make Ras mortal in The Lich, Ras Frostwhisper.
- Argent Dawn quests: Betina Bigglezink at Light's Hope wants plagued hatchlings killed in Plagued Hatchlings, and sends you to place Dawn's Gambit in the Viewing Room and defeat Vectus in Dawn's Gambit.
- Judgment and Redemption: the paladin epic mount chain ends here, with the Death Knight Darkreaver summoned in the Great Ossuary.
- Dungeon Set 2 (patch 1.10): Kormok is summoned in the school with the Brazier of Invocation.
Strategy notes
- The Viewing Room is locked until Rattlegore drops its key. Inside, Vectus and Marduk Blackpool oversee a room full of students; using Dawn's Gambit there changes the fight and is required for the quest.
- Jandice Barov splits into illusions. The real one is the only one that takes damage; area-of-effect attacks find her quickly.
- Ras Frostwhisper freezes and fears the group. With the quest keepsake used on him he becomes a mortal human and is easier to kill, and the quest needs it anyway.
- Darkmaster Gandling only appears after all six instructors in the rooms around the Great Ossuary basement are dead. During the fight he teleports players into those rooms, where undead guardians rise to attack; the teleported player has to fight back out or wait for help.
- Occultists in the Gandling area turn into Dark Shades, immune to physical damage, if they are not killed quickly. Mages and other casters should be ready.
History
Scholomance was in the game at launch. It was first built for larger groups: patch 1.3 limited it to ten players, patch 1.6 removed a number of spawns to make it more manageable for five, and patch 1.10 capped it at five. Players who had cleared it in ten-person groups remembered the change as the "Scholo nerf."
Its name comes from the Romanian legend of a school of black magic run by the Devil under a mountain lake, the same legend Bram Stoker used in Dracula. In Mists of Pandaria the dungeon was rebuilt with new bosses, and Gandling returned as its headmaster.
Sources
Categories: Dungeons and Raids