World of Warcraft's brand new Classic expansion, Wrath of the Lich King Classic is launching very soon! One of the main things that you'll be doing early on in the expansion is dungeons. If you played Wrath back in the day, or if you're playing for the first time, you might be interested in a guide to help you get through some of them. That's where our The Culling of Stratholme dungeon guide will come in handy.
The Culling of Strathome is one of the last leveing dungeons in the expansion, and it's located in the Caverns of Time. It's a dungeon that tells a tale of Arthas on his way to becoming the Lich King.
While you're here, if you're looking to figure out what class and spec you want to play in Wrath Classic, be sure to check out our DPS tier list, Healer tier list, and Tank tier list. Also be sure to check out our speed leveling guide.
The Culling of Stratholme dungeon guide
Upon entering the dungeon, you'll scale up some wood ramps, and Chromie will be at the top with a quest for you. She will give you a quest item, the Arcane Disruptor, to use on some crates throughout the dungeon. This will progress the dungeon. Head up the stairs, exit the tavern and head down the path, revealing the plagued crates. Once all five are done head towards town.
After some lengthy RP, you'll finally be able to head into town to start taking down scourge. Now you'll notice a couple of things at the top of your screen. First is a timer counting down from, and secondly a Scourge wave counter counting up. Let's focus on the Scourge counter. On your map, you may see a white flag somewhere along the path. You'll need to go to them and kill them. You'll know that it's the right pack because they have more substantial mobs than the random zombies around.
Partway through, the first boss, Meathook will spawn and patrol the path. You'll have to take him out and then continue through with the rest of the waves. After all 10 are down, the next boss, Salramm the Fleshcrafter will spawn and patrol the pathway as well. Here are the breakdowns for the first two bosses.
Meathook
Meathook is is a fairly easy Patchwork style fight. He only has two abilities on normal and a third on Heroic.
- Constricting Chains
- Disease Explusion
- Frenzy (Heroic)
There isn't really anything too crazy mechanics wise to worry about here, just burn through him as quick as possible.
Salramm the Fleshcrafter
Salramm the Fleshcrafter is the second boss and he does summon adds to this fight. Here are his abilities.
- Shadow Bolt
- Steal Flesh
- Summon Ghouls
- Explode Ghoul
- Curse of Twisted Flesh (Heroic)
This fight isn't too crazy. Tanks should be aware of Steal Flesh and have a defensive cooldown ready for that. For the Curse of Twisted Flesh, which is a Heroic only ability, this is a curse, so it can be removed by the healers and should be done so.
After this boss is downed, head down the main path to the right, and you'll see Arthas standing in front of the Tavern. Talking to him will start an RP segment that leads to the next boss. For this, you should stick with Arthas as much as possible, dealing with the mobs that spawn in the tavern and attempting to talk to him to move the roleplay along. Eventually you will reach the next boss.
Chrono-Lord Epoch
The next boss is Chrono-Lord Epoch, a lord of the Infinite Dragonflight. He has four abilities on normal with a fifth on Heroic. Here's his abilities.
- Time Warp
- Time Step
- Wounding Strike
- Curse of Exertion
- Time Stop (Heroic)
Main abilities here to worry about are Curse of Exertion, which as it's named, is a curse. This should be dispelled quickly as it increases the cost of the affected player's spells and abilities by 100%. Outside of that, there isn't anything that's too ground breaking here. After the boss is dead, be sure to talk to Arthas, and he will open up the passageway behind the bookshelf and you can proceed.
At the end of the passage you'll, be met with a burning street filled with scourge. You're going to have to plow your way through these as fast as possible. By the end of the street, you're met with two options. If you still have a fair bit of time on your timer, and you're on Heroic, you can go for the secret boss. The other option is to go for Mal'Ganis and finish the dungeon. To get to the secret boss, continue down the street, and you'll see it as you round the corner.
Infinite Corruptor
The Infinite Corruptor isn't a difficult mechanical boss, rather, the difficulty comes from beating the timer to get to it, and it being a little bit of a damage check. The boss has two main abilities to deal with.
- Corrupting Blight
- Void Spike
Corrupting Blight deals 8% of the target's max HP as damage to the target every three seconds. If the fight goes on long enough it could become quite a burden on the healer, so you'll want to deal with this quickly.
The reward for this encounter is the Reins of the Bronze Drake, which is a flying mount for the game.
Mal'Ganis
The final encounter is Mal'Ganis. This is a pretty straight forward fight as well as far as final encounters go. Mal'Ganis has four main abilities.
- Sleep
- Mind Blast
- Vampiric Touch
- Carrion Swarm
None of the abilities here are really major concerns, just blast through him as fast as possible to finish out the dungeon.
And that's the dungeon! This dungeon is definitely more of a lore focused dungeon, and while the bosses don't present much challenge, the story is cool, and the race to the secret boss makes this dungeon unique. Be sure to stay tuned to our other dungeon guides in Wrath Classic as well. That being said, while you're here, if you're interested in more Classic content, be sure to check out our guide for the must have addons for Wrath, as well as our guide to making your very own Death Knight.