The pocket guide to Scarlet Monastery

Scarlet Monastery is an instance for level 38-42 players. It's located at the northeastern corner of Tirisfal Glades. Reaching it is not very easy for Alliance players, but it's a fun instance with rewarding loot. You'll find it worth the trek from Southshore, the nearest gryphon.

WOW wiki entry
large map
in-game map from Atlas

Quests

There are just two alliance quests in the Monastery.

Mythology of the Titans / Ironforge, Hall of Explorers / Mae Paledust
This is a single-step quest that can be shared.

Down the Scarlet Path / Nijel's Point, Desolace / Brother Anton
This is a quest chain. It starts in Desolace with a quest to kill 30 Undead Ravagers. They're level 39 undead. You can find them at the south end of the zone, near the Magram camp. After that, you're sent to Southshore, where Raleigh the Devout tells you that the Scarlet Crusade isn't so nice after all. He sends you to (surprise surprise) kill all the named mobs in the monastery. The reward is a very nice weapon of your choice.

Walkthrough

The Monastery has four sections, each entered separately. You can do the entire thing in one play session, or break it up over a series of weeknights. Each one is fairly short. They each have a separate theme.

Two of the sections, Cathedral and Armory, require a key to enter. Rogues can pick the lock with 175 lockpicking. The key is found in a chest at the end of the Library section.

You might find it handy to put your hearthstone in Southshore briefly. You'll want to turn the main quest in right after finishing, but you probably don't want to have to fight your way out again, then make that long ride back down to Southshore.

Graveyard

This is the lowest level section. There are no quest targets here, so you can skip this section if you like. It's the unlocked instance entry on the left (if you're facing the two locked doors). There are no quest targets here (the horde has one, I think) but a couple of named mobs might drop nice loot. The entry section is a torture chamber. Amuse yourself taking out the inquisitors. Next is the graveyard. The undead here can group, and inside the crypt you can aggro several at once. At the very bottom of the crypt, kill Bloodmage Thanos.

Library

This is the unlocked instance entry on the right. There are two named quest targets in here: Houndmaster Locksey and Librarian Doan. Locksey is in a little room to the side of the courtyard; Doan is at the very end. The quest book is in this section as well.

Work your way down the hall, killing everything steadily. You can leave mobs in some of the side rooms alive if you don't want to bother with them, but be careful you don't aggro them accidentally. Watch out for the occasional patrol. The pulls come in twos and threes. Use crowd control to break them up. Sap works wonders here, and polymorph is handy as usual. Priest mind control is great here. You might find it sensible to take melee fighters out of the way with crowd control, then take down casters as fast as possible. If you have no CC, concentrate on casters first anyway. Many mobs in the Monastery heal themselves or each other. You don't want to let them prolong fights if you can help it. Use spell interruptions and stun to keep them from casting.

The Mythology of the Titans is a book in the very first section of the library proper. It's on the floor against the north wall.

Doan is all alone in the circular room at the very end. If you kill everyone in the room before him, he stays alone. You like fighting elite bosses by themselves, so you will sensibly kill everything in that room. Doan has a nasty AoE. He signals that he's going to cast it by showing a glowing purple shield around himself. If you see that, back off. It's easier to get away from it if you've moved him to the wall to fight.

After you kill him, loot the chest on the floor for the Scarlet Key.

If you've worked quickly, the section might not have respawned. Run back to the entrance. Be careful as you approach the exit! You might be able to barrel through any respawn and escape out of the instance.

Armory

This section has one quest target, Herod, at the very end. The mob makeup has changed a bit. There are more high-armor mobs here, and they're slightly higher level. Keep your pace deliberate. Don't rush. Plan your pulls. Watch for patrols. There's nothing tricky here until the very end.

Many of these mobs will run at low health to call for help. Don't let them run. Use Crippling Poison, Judgement of Justice, or Hamstring. Have your ranged strikers watch for fleeing mobs. You can quickly end up fighting way too many mobs if one of them flees.

Herod is a fun fight. You can skip this section right now if you don't want to be spoiled for it? Still want to know? Okay. Keep your healers and ranged attackers up on the path around the pit. Melee fighters should jump into the pit. Herod has a spinning attack that he announces before he does it: Blades of Light. If you hear that or see the message, get away. Immediately. Especially if you're a leather-wearer. He'll chew right through your health. After he dies, a whole ton of little mobs will run in to avenge him. Don't panic. They have low health. Paladins can fire Consecration, or use some other AoE damage spell. They go like popcorn!

The run to the section exit is once again a race against the respawn. I have never won this race, so watch out. When you see respawn, back up. Don't get caught between two waves of it. Plan on needing to fight.

Cathedral

The last two named quest targets, Mograine and Whitemane, are in this section. It's the highest level for the instance.

Kill your way to the open area with the large fountain. You should have the techniques down cold now. Clear the wanderers blocking your way to the fountain, then run straight ahead into it. (Your herbalist will no doubt want to harvest the liferoot growing smack-dab in the middle.) The fountain route avoids a lot of trash mobs on the side that you don't want to bother with. Plenty of killing is ahead of you anyway. Pick a side, and go up the steps on that side. You'll have to kill something on the way. Get back into the fountain, upper level. From that safe spot, pull mobs one at a time. Clear the open area in front of the cathedral steps. Work steadily. If you take a very long time, you might face respawn before you're ready to enter the cathedral.

When it's clear, position yourselves on the cathedral steps. Send your puller (rogue, hunter, warrior) into the cathedral to pick out targets. Pulls are mostly twos and threes. Crowd control helps, and you should know the drill on that by now. Let your puller control the pace of the fights. He or she should keep an eye on mana bars, and pause when your casters need time. When the puller says it's safe, move the group just inside the cathedral to avoid any respawn outside. Don't wander around inside yet, even if the main area is clear. Don't get too close to Mograine!

Move to the right wall. Clear around the corner to the right. There's a little room to the side. Clear that. Look around. See anything you can frob? Oh look, a suspicious torch... High Inquisitor Fairbanks is unconcious on the floor. The Scarlet Crusade is working with the undead? How odd. And look! Fairbanks wakes up, and he's grumpy as heck! Kill him. Enjoy his loot.

Head back to the central area and across to the left, once again giving Mograine a wide berth. Clear out the mobs on this side, including the ones in the two little rooms. Leave no one in the cathedral alive. Parties have wiped to bring you that piece of advice. Do not ignore it.

Buff up and get ready for Mograine. It's a fun fight. Skip the rest of this if you don't want spoilers.

Still reading? Okay. This is how the fight goes: you kill him, then High Inquisitor Whitemane pops out and rezzes him. She'll keep rezzing him if you leave her alive, so you need to kill her first. Then take him down a second time. She's a caster and he's an armored melee fighter. You might want to keep your main tank on him throughout, and have your damage dealers concentrate on taking her down quickly. It can be a long fight. The loot they drop is worth it, though.

Congratulations! You've finished the Scarlet Monastery! Stone back to Southshore and turn in your quest. Fly back to Ironforge, turn in the book, and enjoy your loot.