Alright let’s cover what you need to know for the scourge invasion event that happens at the start of Phase 6.
Video version of this guide:
What is the scourge invasion and why do I care?
At the start of phase 6, you’ll see scourge appear in a few places around Azeroth as part of the Naxxramas launch event. The main thing you’re trying to get from this event is the ‘Consecrated Sharpening Stone’.
They are by far the best weapon buff you can use for Naxxramas (outside of windfury for horde mainhands), beating out both elemental sharpening stones and instant poison.
These are the rough dps gains from using Consecrated Sharpening Stones vs undead mobs:
- Horde dagger: +21 dps
- Horde sword: +27 dps
- Alliance dagger: +32-33 dps
- Alliance sword: +40 dps
These Consecrated Sharpening Stones are only available for the length of the invasion event. We don’t know how long the event will last since it ends after a certain amount of victories in the mini events throughout the world.
Talking to others, it lasted a few weeks at least in old vanilla days, but it’s likely we could see the event speed through quicker with the increased WoW classic population sizes. Basically, you should get these ASAP if you want them.
How do I get these Consecrated Sharpening Stones?
You get them in exchange for 8 Necrotic Runes at the Argent Outfitter. These runes drop from mobs killed during the scourge invasion event.
FYI – You also need to turn in 10 Necrotic Runes for the pre-quest which will allow you to purchase these sharpening stones from the NPC.
Horde will need about 36 sharpening stones for 3 months of raiding (assuming you raid Naxx for 3 hours each week). Alliance will need double this amount (72 stones) since they use them on both weapons (horde have windfury mh).
That’s roughly 288 necrotic runes for horde or 576 for alliance if you want to be really sweaty and use them for 3 hours every Naxx raid for 3 months.
Note: Hardcore guilds will probably be down to 60-90 min runs once they get geared and settled into Naxx, so your stone usage will go down a lot if you’re in a hardcore guild. Salad Bakers have a 1 hour 8 min run on youtube that you can see here.
These stones are possibly also sellable (by applying them via the no-trade window), so some people may be farming these to sell as well.
What about the Undead Slaying Set?
There’s this 3 set for rogues:
- Tunic of Undead Slaying (drops from ‘Shadow of Doom’ in Necropolis event)
- Wristwraps of Undead Slaying (drops from rare spawns in the Necropolis assault event areas)
- Handwraps of Undead Slaying (exchanged for using 30 necrotic runes)
It gives you 2% increased damage to undead, but unfortunately the set gives up too much stats. Basically, it sucks for anyone in good raid gear and you end up losing anywhere from 30-40 dps from all the lost stats.
How do I get Necrotic Runes?
These drop off various scourge invasion mobs in 2 main spots:
1: Invading scourge appear in Undercity and Stormwind
They are neutral so they do not attack you unless you attack them first. You can kill these mobs if you see them around town, but they’re not going to be your main source of Necrotic Rune drops.
There are 2 types of mobs you’ll see:
Pallid Horror
These seem to be level 60+ elites. You cannot solo them, but you can hit them as the NPCs kill them. After they die a ‘Faint Necrotic Crystal’ spawns which gives you a quest that lets you pick up a free ‘Consecrated Sharpening Stone’.
It seems anyone around the crystal can pick up the quest, even if you weren’t the one who killed the Pallid Horror.
Flameshocker
These are level 55+ elites. You can solo them with half decent gear, but they do have a bunch of hp so it takes a little while. These have a chance to drop Necrotic Runes.
2: Necropolis invasion assaults
Necropolis will spawn in 6 zones and they continuously spawn a large amount of invading scourge below them. They are basically a mini-event involving killing a bunch of scourge to spawn a bigger scourge guy who you kill to beat the event.
This is going to be the best way to farm Necrotic Runes and it’s likely you’ll want to farm up teams of other farmers to try secure a section to yourself and win the ‘tags’ on the scourge mobs.
You can find these Necropolis in 6 zones:
- Eastern Plaguelands
- Burning Steppes
- Blasted Lands
- Tanaris
- Azshara
- Winterspring
There are multiple spawn spots in each zone, here are some locations I found on wowpedia (they appear to be correct as I ran around checking a few spots on ptr):
How the Necropolis invasion works:
The Necropolis assault event is about destroying the necrotic shard in the middle of the necropolis area.
Here’s how it works:
- Check your map for the active assaults and/or talk to the Argent Dawn NPC in town to see which zones have active Necropolis assaults
- Kill the scourge mobs around the shard to damage it
- Four acolytes will appear and try to heal the shard when it reaches zero
- Talk to the acolytes and use 8 necrotic runes to turn them into an elite mob ‘Shadow of Doom’
- Kill the ‘Shadow of Doom’ (note: careful of tag stealers – you need to be first to tag it even if you summon him) – he also has a chance to drop the Undead Slaying chestpiece
- Loot your 30 Necrotic Rune from the ‘Shadow of Doom’
Once this event is over the Necropolis assault will end (it will respawn later after a cooldown).
Event rare spawns:
Some rares can spawn during the event too. They are the Lumbering Horror, Bone Witch, and Spirit of the Damned. They drop extra necrotic runes and also the undead slaying bracer.
Letter quest drops:
While clearing the scourge, you’ll see a bunch of letters drop which give you a quest. There are 6 possible letters from what I’ve seen and turning them in to their respective quest NPCs will allow you to get special food/drink that gives you a heart over your head.
Besides the heart above your head, it has no extra benefits over level 45 food/drink.
Haunted Memento:
This can drop from the invaders that you kill during the event. It’s a pet-like item that summons a scourge haunt to follow you around when you have the item in your inventory.
It’s just a novelty item that serves no real purpose, but collector’s might want to pick one up.
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