Scourge Invasion Guide – WotLK Pre-Patch

• Author: Pride
• Date: September 12, 2022
• Updated: September 12, 2022
• Expansion: WotLK Classic

The Scourge Invasion event has finally begun and we’re here to help you navigate it! It is incredibly similar to the Scourge Invasion event that happened in Classic with the launch of the Naxxramas raid, so players who did that will be familiar with how it works, though there’s some small differences here and there. There’s a handful of useful items you can obtain during this event, and it only lasts until WotLK Classic’s launch on September 26, so if any of these rewards look good to you, you’d better hurry!

To begin with, we recommend you that you visit an Argent Emissary in any Alliance / Horde major city, and pick up the following quests:

• Light’s Hope Chapel (Scourge Invasion)
• Chamber of Secrets (Karazhan)

Next, fly to the Light’s Hope Chapel in the Eastern Plaguelands and deliver Light’s Hope Chapel. This will allow you to pick up the following quests:

• Under the Shadow (Scourge Invasion)
• Shadows of Doom (Scourge Invasion)

You need to complete Under the Shadow & Shadows of Doom in order to be able to purchase items from the Argent Quartermaster vendor, so we recommend that you fly and pick them up before doing any invasion!

Note: As of right now (Monday, September 12) the event is bugged. Invasions do not end — simply wait 5 minutes in your current zone after an invasion finishes, and another will begin. Furthermore, some cities and locations are missing the Argent Quartermaster NPC — if you cant’ find him in your current location, try a different city.

The Scourge Invasion

If you check your map while the event is under way, you will notice purple skulls marking certain areas. Those areas are under attack by the Lich King, so you should go there ASAP! In specific, the following zones can be invaded: Blasted Lands, Burning Steppes, Eastern Plaguelands, Tanaris, Azshara and Winterspring. Up to 3 zones may be invaded at a time, and when all 3 invasions finish, new ones spawn briefly afterwards. Blasted Lands is the easiest zone to get to, as you can take a portal taking you to the zone from any major city, but it’s usually the most crowded as a result.

You can tell that the zone you’re in is currently being invaded if there’s a floating necropolis in the sky above you.

Next, you’ll want to head to one of the following spots, depending on which zone you’re in:

Undead Slaying

Once you’re there, you will see a Necrotic Shard, a crystal powering the scourge, surrounded by undead enemies. Or you may see a party of players killing said undead enemies! If you can’t see a Necrotic Shard at your current spot, it means it has been destroyed, and you should move to a different spot.

The next step is simple: kill the undead that spawn there! They have a chance to drop Necrotic Runes, which you can exchange for rewards at Argent Quartermaster NPCs, found in major Alliance & Horde city, as well as outside the Light’s Hope Chapel in the Eastern Plaguelands — these rewards are listed below. Furthermore, they have a chance to drop the infamous Haunted Memento, which causes a Shade to Haunt you (Haunted), following you around at all times! This item can only be obtained during this Scourge Invasion event, making it highly sought after.

Periodically, a rare elite mob will spawn among the regular enemies (a Bone Witch, Lumbering Horror or Spirit of the Damned). These drop the leg slot item of the new Blessed sets (explained below), which makes them very valuable targets. Keep an eye out for those, specially if there’re other people nearby — only the players that manage to tag them get their loot!

Every time you kill undead enemies near the Necrotic Shard, its HP goes down slightly. Eventually, it will reach 0, at which point 4 Cultist Engineers will appear and begin repairing it. If you speak with the Cultist Engineers, you can use 8 Necrotic Runes from your bag in order to reveal their true form: the Shadow of Doom! These are elite enemies and deal significantly more damage than the regular undead there, though most classes can easily solo 1 of them — some can even solo all 4 at once. Killing them rewards you with a whopping 30 Necrotic Runes, and additionally they have a ~50% chance of dropping a chest slot item of the new Blessed sets. Note that only the player / group that paid the 8 Necrotic Runes can get loot from the Shadow of Doom they activated, though if the NPC fully resets (f.e. by evading after running too far away), anyone can now tag it and get its loot — so make sure you don’t reset it by accident!

As long as at least 1 Cultist Engineer remains alive, undead enemies will keep spawning by the Necrotic Shard. There’s no penalty to leaving them alive whatsoever. So if you just want to farm some Necrotic Runes, or get the leg slot items, you can just ignore the Cultist Engineers and keep killing the undead as normal, until you have gathered as many Necrotic Runes, Haunted Mementos and legs as you need.

When all 4 Shadow of Doom enemies are killed, the Necrotic Shard gets destroyed, and undead enemies stop spawning around it. You have successfully defended that zone from the Scourge once all 6-9 Necrotic Shards in the zone have been destroyed. At that point the Lich King will yell that he’s terribly angry at you and he will be back later. You cannot rest easy just yet however — shortly after that invasion is over, the Lich King will begin a new invasion in a different zone!

Vampire Slaying

The Scourge has also managed to invade Karazhan! The Argent Emissary sends you on a quest (Chamber of Secrets) to investigate Karazhan. There, you will find a new boss, Prince Tenris Mirkblood, found at the top of the stairs right after Attumen the Huntsman‘s room. We have a guide showing you how to get to Tenris’ room & complete the Chamber of Secrets quest below.

This vampiric elf is a relatively easy boss, with few mechanics to speak of. Tenris will occasionally cast Blood Mirror on a random player, copying their appearance and causing that player to also take any damage that Tenris himself takes. Simply stop DPSing him until the Blood Mirror debuff fades. Periodically, he will summon floating red orbs called Sanguine Spirits — you must kite the boss away from them, as they explode on death or if they reach their target, and you cannot damage them in normal ways. Last, he will periodically cast Blood Swoop, charging a random player and applying a debuff to them, which should simply get healed. Make sure your party is healthy, or the charged player may die!

Killing Tenris allows everyone in your raid to loot the adorable Vampiric Batling pet. Furthermore, 1 lucky person will be leaving the raid with the Arcanite Ripper, a two-handed axe which can also be used as a make-shift guitar! Equip it and right click it in your character screen to play a killer guitar solo! Finally, go into his room after killing him and click on the glowing parchment on his desk, in order to complete the Chamber of Secrets quest and collect your last reward, the Monster Slayer’s Kit trinket.

As Tenris is pretty easy, it’s completely possible to kill him with a group of 4-5 people — having 10 people just makes it faster. That way, you can ensure that a specific player gets the Arcanite Ripper, avoiding the drama of having to decide who gets this event-exclusive item, going away on September 26.

Rewards

Blizzard added new sets to the game with this event, named the Blessed Undead Slaying sets. There’s 4 versions: cloth (caster DPS / healer), leather (physical DPS), mail (physical DPS) and plate (physical DPS). The cloth version in particular is extremely strong, as it has very well distributed stats — but all 4 versions offer a 6.11% damage buff against Undead enemies when 4 pieces are worn, which is amazing in Wrath of the Lich King, as most enemies are Undead! They’re particularly handy for your alts, thanks to their high item level and decent stat allocation.

NOTE: You need to complete Under the Shadow & Shadows of Doom in order to be able to purchase items from the Argent Quartermaster vendor!

Here’s how you obtain the items:

Furthermore, there are a few more items you can obtain during this event. These are all also exclusive to the Scourge Invasion event, so if any of them strike your fancy, buy them ASAP! The tabard is the same one that players got during the Classic Scourge Invasion as part of the launch event for the Naxxramas raid, so you can skip buying it if you have the old one.

All in all, it will cost you 126 Necrotic Runes in order to complete all of the quests and buy every single event-exclusive item.