Skul

Skul is a rare skeletal mage who sometimes walks the streets of the living side of Stratholme. He does not appear on most runs, and when he does he is easy to miss among the ordinary undead, but his three named drops made him a small prize for groups lucky enough to find him.

Background

Skul has no story in the game. He is one of the many undead that The Scourge left to hold the burned city after the Culling, a skeleton in tattered robes with a talent for frost magic. Warcraft Wiki describes his spawn rate as extremely infrequent. He can turn up in the area near the Stratholme Courier and Fras Siabi, or on Festival Lane, on the main gate side of the city.

Our data lists two spawn points for him, which matches those reports: a group might pass either spot on a normal run toward the Scarlet Bastion and only then notice that one of the skeletal mages has a name.

Abilities

Skul is a frost and arcane caster.

• Frostbolt: frost damage that slows its target.
• Frost Shock: instant frost damage and a slow.
• Arcane Bolt: a bolt of arcane damage.
• Frost Armor and Chilled: melee players who hit him may be slowed.

Strategy

Skul has far less health than the dungeon's named bosses, about 13,000 in our data, and goes down quickly to a focused group. His frost spells slow the tank and anyone in melee, so interrupting his casts and dispelling the slows keeps the fight short. The main risk is pulling him together with a patrol of other undead in the streets. A group that spots him should clear what is around him first, then pull him on his own. Being undead, he also takes full damage from the [Stratholme Holy Water] that players find in crates around the city, a handy way to finish him if he is pulled along with others.

Loot

Drop chances are from our database (patch 1.12). He drops one of three items, each a third of the time.

[Skul's Ghastly Touch] is a wand, [Skul's Fingerbone Claws] are leather gloves and [Skul's Cold Embrace] is a plate chest piece. All three carry his name, which is unusual for a rare spawn. He also drops a [Corruptor's Scourgestone] for the Argent Dawn and Runecloth.

Quests

Skul is not the target of any quest. His Corruptor's Scourgestone counts toward the Argent Dawn's repeatable quests, such as Corruptor's Scourgestones for Duke Nicholas Zverenhoff at Light's Hope Chapel.

Later history

Patch 4.0.3a lowered Skul to level 47 when Stratholme was retuned for Cataclysm, but he kept his rare spawn and his three items.

Sources

• Skul - Warcraft Wiki
• Stratholme (Classic) - Warcraft Wiki