One of my favorite alts has done the early stages of this quest and I was debating whether to pass on the last stage, so I went back to catch up on all the comments.

Bravo to all of you who completed it! Kudos to those who died several times figuring out how to unstack the odds and report back to us. Many thanks for actually taking the time to tell us about it.

My problem is that all of us have spent a lot of time and mental energy sorting this out. For what? The XP is too low (at any level) and the rewards are....a blue? A green? How about zilchorama?

I am a big fan of chain quests with a good story and I'll spend four times as much time on them as the usual delivery, escort or extermination quests. But this is one of the worst in terms of bang for the buck, particularly after you've done some of the really good later ones, like the Fallen Hero.

My point is only this: the early stages of this chain are fun and have reasonable XP and rewards. The last two stages are not worth your time, no matter how much time you have.

I just soloed this with a lvl 29 hunter. However, it took me about 2 hours. The reason it took me so long is the quick respawns, almost had the boss killed a few times but was killed by a respawned lock and pet.

I followed the advice of the 31 pally, except I rezed on the 2nd floor from the top rather than the top floor. Anyway, kill the patrol first that walks between the top and 2nd from the top floors. Then kill the lock sitting at the bottom of the ramp to the top. Proceed to clear out the top floor, working your way out from the ramp to each side. Kill all that you can, except you don't have to kill one of the locks to either side of the boss. Since the boss will run up to you to attack, you can pull him to the opposite side of the room from the last lock left standing. Make sure you keep him slowed by any means necessary since he will try to run around when his health is low. Loot him as soon as you drop him, because there will most likely be respawns bearing down on you. And you must always, always make sure the room is still clear of all locks, except for maybe that one, before you attack the boss.

I think the level on this mission is way underated, because this one is tough!&nbsp Either that or they forgot the "Elite" part.&nbsp I am level 33 now and still have not been able to do this one.

The problem with this mission is as soon as you go into the tower, half the warlocks and their minions aggro. Even the ones from higher levels of the tower will come down and beat on you. It's not unusual to have 3 or 4 warlocks and their Voidwalkers within a few seconds of me stepping inside the tower. I am going to have to get a group of 3 or 4 together to do this....or wait till I'm level 45 or something like that.

Consider yourself warned.

FINALLY I did it:)
4 times with no luck. The 5th time I used Shadow protection potion.
So-I prowled to the second floor. Used the potion-killed few minions-used 2nd potion-killed the rest together with the boss.
With that potion its a little bit easier-helped me a lot.
So level 31-its doable:)

This quest is way underrated, as several people have already pointed out.&nbsp I went in with a l vel 32 Mage and was killed on the ground floor.&nbsp I decided to rez and make a run up the ramps, just to see how far I would get.&nbsp Not past the 2nd floor...

I went back and climbed to the 3rd floor and rezzed right behind Narassin, tossed down one each of an armor, health and mana potion, then (without any time as the mobs were on me immediately) I hit him with one shot from my wand.&nbsp I died.

I went back again, rezzed just outside the tower (on the west side of it) and killed the nearest cultist.

Being frustrated at the ridiculously difficult nature of this quest, and not having a dog to kick around, I took it out on a handy lvl 14 Moonstalker kitty.&nbsp Did I forget to mention I was PO'd?&nbsp Well, I tried to beat it to death with just my gloves on...Marquis du Queensbury Rules or something.&nbsp I started with an Unarmed combat skill&nbsp of 1.&nbsp When I noticed the kitty wasn't hurting too much (except a few points damage from the Chill effects of my Ice Armor spell as it tried to scratch and bite me to death) I shot it down with my wand.

So far, the only thing this quest has done is cost me time, some assorted potions, and improved my skill at Urnarmed combat to 47, thanks to the damned cat. :-/

I might as well look for more felines...I'm still annoyed and seem to be making rapid gains toward a Black Belt or something like that.&nbsp I wonder how many kitties it takes to get to a skill level of 160 in Unarmed?

I did solo this last night with my 34 (then 33) druid. Used catform, sneaked all the way to the top of the tower, decloaked and killed him suicidal. Ran back, ressed, looted the corpse, died. Ran back again, ressed just outside the tower, got the loot and got to the guy with the head. The annoying part was when I discovered that upon completion of the last step, to speak with Delgren at Maestra's Post, I was left with 14 xp to level to 34. 14! That's not even 0.01% of the total exp, and I'm in the middle of a grey area! /cry... But then I did the escort quest with his friend, killed all the level 24's and got 575 exp, which was sufficient for me to level. So now I'm 34 ^^. And yes, the quest IS difficult, took me 3 failed tried before I came up with the above "solution"... but good luck peeps. Probably not easily soloed by any other class than rogue and druid in catform, and darn difficult to get to the end of... but give it a try. Would recommend getting help though ^^.

Hope this helped.

and oh, the journal page... it's just a recount of his ideas and motives for doing the whole cult-thingy. Quite interesting to read, but nothing else to it. Just sell or chuck (or keep it if you like ^^)

I soloed this at 31 rogue.
Notes:
* Sap the warlock, kill voidwalker, kill warlock
* use mind-numbing poison + crippling poison - The mindnumbing poison will cause the warlock to have slow cast times on their shadowbolts and the cripling poison will make them run slow.
* For get killing the mobs on the lower level

1) Sneak up to the level under the last floor and kill the wandering gaurd and the other mob (this should remove the wandering gaurd from coming up and agro'ing)
2) kill the 2 near the stairs
3) kill the one on the right hand of him (you can do this without drawing aggro)
4) you will have the warlock on the left and your target. Sap the warlock and kill your target.
5) Vanish or run like hell.

This one was a real challenge.&nbsp Here are some tips.

1) Always take out the caster first.&nbsp They have less health and cause far more damage.&nbsp Then do the Voidwalker (caster's demonic pet).

2) You have to move quickly.&nbsp The mobs respawn rapidly.&nbsp Make certain you have a good supply of food, water, bandages, and potions.

3) If you find yourself struggling, buy or make some shadow protection potions.&nbsp The casters spell damage is shadow.&nbsp I used one in the final fight.&nbsp It probably wasn't necessary, but I wanted the insurance.

4) For a Druid or Rogue, use stealth and start with the most damaging attack possible on each caster.&nbsp You want to eliminate the caster ASAP.&nbsp The value of melee is it slows their casting rate.

5) The casters move.&nbsp When they move, chase them down as fast as possible to minimize their casting and to keep your DPS as high as possible.

6) Some of the mobs patrol.&nbsp Be aware of that so you don't take an add.&nbsp If you get two, you will probably need to run, and hope you don't get more adds.

7) For the mobs on either side of the boss you will need a distance pull.&nbsp You don't want to agro the boss, too.&nbsp Use an instant cast spell when they have moved as far from the boss as possible.&nbsp Then, run down a level and the caster and pet will follow (line of sight, pull).

8) I found the boss easy, but I used a Shadow Protection potion, and cast Regrowth and Rejuvenation prior to opening up with Starfire & Moonfire, followed by going into cat form, and going all out with DPS.

Good luck.&nbsp This one wasn't easy for my level 30 Druid.

By the way, my gear is all greens with one blue from Gnomer.&nbsp This is not a twinked toon.

After several failed attempts with another player, I completed this solo with my level 31 Bal/rest Druid without dying. (Leveled to 32 during the quest) The first three times I attempted this was with a lvl29 hunter, but it seemed her pet or the fact that there were just more of us aggroed large numbers of locks and voids and I got results similar to many of the postings above.&nbsp I saw the prowl/stealth technique above but I hate dying to achieve a quest - so I went back alone a little later.&nbsp The trick is just to be careful - but I will give a step by step in case it proves useful.

First I think it is better to go into the tower when it is at full strength - no one has been there recently.&nbsp Going in a few minutes after someone else has been there makes the respawns difficult to predict and can lead to trouble.&nbsp Once you have killed the rogue guards outside, go up the steps to the tower and wait.&nbsp Through the opening you will see the first lock/void - but there is a patrol that comes through here as well.&nbsp If you wait you will see the patrol pass right in front of the entrance way - wait a few seconds after it has passed and attack the lock stationed in the room (it is best to take out the lock first as they do more damage - this is easy if you're a caster/ranged - if not it might be easier to take the void first as the locks movie around a lot - its also better to bring them out to you) I used a combo of starfire/moonfire/insect swarm followed by a couple of wraths with a regen thrown in there somewhere - I then would switch to cat form to finish off the void, occasionally moonfiring him first for good measure. After that, walk in to the tower wait and finish off the patrol in the same fashion as they come down the stairs.

Go up the stairs to the mid level- there is another pair standing by another staircase - repeat.&nbsp (don't forget to stop by the chest on the way up tho these guys) Continue up to the library level just below the top level - proceed carefully as there is a patrol that circles from the top level down to this one.&nbsp If patrol is not there - wait until they come down from top level - repeat as before.&nbsp Next proceed carefully about two thirds of the way up the final stair case - this is the trickiest part.&nbsp There is a pair to the right of the stairs and a pair to the left - it is very easy to aggro both of them if you're not careful.&nbsp The one to the right seems impossible to attack from the stairs because of ridiculous "line of sight" problems - however the one on the left's void can be targeted when he is near the railing.&nbsp Moonfire or draw him however you will and back down the stairs a little so as not to draw the other pair (be careful not to fall off).&nbsp In this case I finished off the void before the lock because of line of sight issues - just a regen then into cat - did have to come out to cast regrowth before I finished off lock.&nbsp Again I found it easier to finish lock with casting - they run around a lot if you melee which increases risk of aggroing others - make them come to you or stay still.

The rest is pretty easy just back up to the top kill the pair on the right wihout running around and then the two pair on either side of the named guy - they are easty to pull as long as you're careful.&nbsp By the time I had done all this the patrol had popped back.&nbsp I just stayed out of the way (prowl can help here) waited for them to go downstairs, followed them and killed them.&nbsp Run back up attack the named guy quick before any other respawns - he's easy, but he will try to run when low.&nbsp You could fight your way out in the same fashion or stealth out, but it was late so I just hearthstoned back - got my reward later.

Also If you're doing a lot of casting like me, be sure to bring a good supply of sweet nectar or whatever you're drinking these days so as to reduce you're time between attacks - this is key. Hope this helps someone - I found it very rewarding to do this way.

One reason this is an easy quest for Rogues is because it's almost exactly like the lvl 20-25 poison quest we had to do.&nbsp Also because it's a classic assassination.&nbsp Stealth to the top of the tower, time your attack so you don't draw attention to yourself, then Vanish (using flash powder) after you finish the assassination/looting.

Too bad the quest rewards suck for a rogue (a two hand sword we can't use and a cloth armor that's useless for us), but it's worth it for the XP and rep...

Its a pain in the ass , that's my comment..:'(

Can be found at 56,26

After 10+ attempts to solo this quest with my 31 warrior and not making it anywhere close to the top of the tower, I was just about ready to dump it when a level 50 druid came in and cleared the tower out for me.

As a warrior, its difficult to pull the warlocks since they will just sit there and spam shadow bolts on you over and over for around 150 dmg a pop...very painful if not dealt with quickly.&nbsp They also like to run away from you to setup their casts which can cause problems since there are plenty of other mobs walking around above you that will agro.&nbsp You need to take your time to assure no adds, but these mobs spawn so fast that you can't move too slow.

No idea why they put a 30+ quest out in darkshore...since its difficult to find anyone in the area to help within this level range...

I just defeated the leader of Dark Strand cult and claimed his head.
We were me Druid lv24 and priest lv 30.
It wasn't exactly a piece of cake but it was satisfying to complete.
When trying to clear the top floor is really hard to pull them one by one... 3 warlocks with their minions came. I went bear tanking most of the mobs and when health was low used an item called Light of Elune that made me immune for 10 secs,&nbsp fully healed and bear again until all died.

Also was scary that once we killed the leader some of the warlocks were respawning already :x

Whew! I just soloed this as a 31 shaman and I had to do more graveyard runs than I'd like to admit. The warlocks do run around a lot, so the challenge is to pull them away from other enemies, or else they'll pick up adds. Of course, they're casters, and it's in tight quarters, so while you try to pull them away, chances are they'll be tossing shadowbolts at the back of your head.

I suspect ranged characters (nukers and hunters) will have better luck with this place. They can CC the voidwalker pets if need be, and then just out-DPS the warlocks. The warlocks don't run around, I assume, if you're not getting up into melee range.

Oh, and the boss guy is just a plain ol' warrior type; no specials that I saw. Easy as pie.

this quest is defitnly not a lvl 31 quest!
no matter what everybody says it is for most classes impossible to do exept for rogues maybe
and the spawnrate of the casters is insane....
i killed the 2 in the hall went up the stairs and killed the 3th when the first one from the hall attacked me, i run outside and all the low lvl's where back...this simply stinks...do this when your at least 4 lvls above the 31

I was helping 2 lvl21's and a 27 do the quest the other day.&nbsp Every time we would engage one, the entire floor would agro from the stairwell.&nbsp However, if they stayed down a floor and I went up just myself(lvl 33), I could get only one a time.&nbsp From that experiment, I'd say don't bother at lvls lower than 30 unless you can stealth or have a group capable of taking the entire floor at once.&nbsp At >lvl30, its pretty easy as you should be able to just fight one at a time.&nbsp Another hint is dont chase the casters, they'll only run about 5 or 10 yds from you to cast the spells, chasing lets them keep running in that direction and agro's more.

i did this on my own, first try, as a warlock. its all a matter of taking everything slowly, and one at a time. it was easy with a pet, because you can send the pets after the voidwalker, and take on the warlock. like the tortise and the hare says, slow and steady wins the race.

Managed to solo quite easily as a lvl 34 priest (shadow-spec). Just pulled the warlocks carefully one at a time and did that the whole way up. Cleared the top floor in the same way before attacking the boss one on one. Came only close to dying once on the way out when I got attacked from one of the wanderers while fighting another warlock.
Happy questing!

Solo'd as a lv34 warrior.&nbsp Died a couple times when I got too much "attention", but otherwise got to the pansy upstairs (who didn't cast anything...) and killed him.

Made my way up by being clever and avoided like 3 locks (smaller aggro bubble from lv diff probably helped).&nbsp The gang up top took a couple deaths and fast running to get rid of... :)

Getting out was easy - jump!&nbsp The minions won't really get you and you'll only take a couple bolts.&nbsp Then run like hell.&nbsp :)

When you went inside tower, pull if possible 1 on 1. Use shadow protection for the tower.
Kill casters first, they do high damage. Then voidwalkers.
If you reach the top floor, there are 4 casters who can walk around.
Thus its better to pull them 1 on 1 and always walk downstairs! That method works better.
If you see cast reaction message (with SCT mod) run now downstairs.

Then there is one mob which you can kill more easier without casters around :)

But if you're finished, the bottom layers of tower is already filled with respawned casters. You have two choices: fight or run.
Because the respawn goes fast, the option to run is better. You can jump quicker down and run away. Don't follow all stairs. Before you know, there are already casters behind you!

Yay..i did it!
It's a tough one...only druids have real chances at a low level.
I finished this quest at 29 being a night elf druid and using my alchemy skill using some potions of Strength and Armor while fighting in Bear form..and to be honest 4 deaths.

Strategy was:
sneak to the top of tower and pull each pair of Warlocks, Void one by one. Start in Bear and when you finish Warlock or Void use Bear stun to get a free heal from Regrowth and fight to the end.

A tip: if warlock runs to depart from you dont follow it cus will returns to your position . Probably many followed them and aggroed other Npc too.

P.S you also need a good equipment to resist the damage. :P

Just soloed as 29 hunter.

the trick for me was to kill the 2 warlocks at the bottom floor, always send pet in first. After that i had no trouble walking in withouth aggro, use eyes of the beast to control your pet, walk him up to the first warlock then let him run down far enough for you to be in line of sight. Do this all the way up, i had no trouble doing this, not even with the top level, i could easily get the 2 at the stairs, regain health and mana.
Last thing, send your pet to one of the warlocks next to Athrikus, this will also aggro him, but that's allright as long as you remember to slow down the warlock so it doesn't run !
Kill the warlock, then Athrikus and last the voidwalker, and voila you've got the head. No harm done :)

Towers are really frustrating.

I see my pet and who he's fighting, but since its on a curve it says target is not in line of sight, but I can see him.

Hard quest at 29.

Feel like I could do it if I could navigate the tower better.

Did this way too easily as a Level 32 Rogue. Stealthed up to the top of the tower. Had mind numbing poison on my main dagger and deadly poison on my off hand dagger. Went right behind Arthrikus and hit with Ambush followed by Gouge. His health was already over 1/3 gone I'd say, so the rest was just a standard pummeling. Only agro'd one Warlock and Pet near him when he was about two hits shy of dying, so it was no problem handling the adds once I'd grabbed Artie's head.

For those of you who are annoyed with the running around of the warlocks, I can recommend using a fixating spell/skill while you deal with their minions. For rogues I can recommend Sap.

A dirt cheap trick, should you die, is to take advantage of the fact that WoW doesn't look at the altitude of your spirit when dead. Which means you can basically go all the way to the top of the tower & respawn. Each warlock/minion can be dealt with one by one, just be careful that they don't aggro the warlock on the spiral staircase.

We tried it yesterday, i was in a group of 5
1 lvl 20 guy
one 23
2 27's
one 29

and we hardly even made it into the tower...
is it just us being to weak, or are we doing something wrong

I done this as a level 32 hunter after the patch for all the new pet abilities and made it up top and killed him no problem, just take out the casters first and let frost trap slow their pets.
When you get to the top you might end up having 2 casters and Athrikus on you so be careful, it happened to me and i still managed to take them all down.

I did this yesterday with a 34 Priest as a 32 Warlock. It took us a couple tries, but we finally made it to the top.

Our strategy was to take on the casters one at a time. I would banish the voidwalkers and then we could take out the caster no problem. The patrols were kind of tricky, but once we were at the top we could take out the helpers one at a time.

Completed as a 30 rogue. Died 3 times in total but could probably have done it without dying if I thought it through more. Anyway, I find sapping the warlocks, killing the pet then dealing with the warlock works well. An add usually means I have to vanish. I could probably have sapped the warlock on one side of Arithkus, which would have aggroed him over and killed him before vanishing.

He spawns back very fast however.

soloed this as a 29 warlock, banish + succubus did the trick, either i banished the add and took down the caster 1st or the other way around, be careful about pulling and if you can pull 1 lvl lower of the top floor you can even fear the add there when u cleared it without having to worry bout adds.

idk how easy this quest is for everyone else, but as a hunter is really hard solo. i'm lvl 30 and the warlocks and minions aren't that hard except that you can't ever aim at them properly. there usually isn't a clear line of sight because of all the levels and the tower is really small. it wouldn't be so hard, except for the confinement.

Very easy as a lvl 32 druid.

I just stealthed in, killed a couple of minions on the way up just for a laugh. At the top, I stayed in catform, took out the minion, and the spell caster at the top. They were pretty easy as a cat, and didn't aggro Arthikus. I had plently of time to heal up, and stealth over and take out Arthikus in just a few good strikes.

He runs around a bit though, but if you keep the pressure on him he doesn't get time to really cast much in the way of damage on you. He hardly even touched me at all.

^_^

Yeah what are you supposed to do with the journal page you find?

wat do we do with the notes?

Just soloed as a 29 druid, the trick well the thing i do lol was kill one of the two warlock closer to him, and well then you die, but when you return you can pull without any adds and loot his head. ;)

Easy to solo as a Mage. Be sure to use Counterspell on the warlocks to reduce damage. They'll then run towards you to melee, so frost nova them and their minion, then DPS. Repeat for each. Just be careful of the threat from counterspell, although I didn't have any problems.

I tried this several times and finally soloed it at level 35, as a priest. It was still yellow. At L30, the two warlocks at the base of the tower were still able to combine and kill me. Tonight the right warlock would just evade, but I think that I could have taken the pair.

The warlocks will always attack before their minions. Routine was shield, dot, dot, manaburn, manaburn, wand if needed. re-shield, dot, wand the minion. Only one warlock would attack at a time. I was able to single pull all warlock/minion pairs, just walking around the tower. If I could not easily target the warlock, I would let them attack to establish a target, as the warlock would always attack before sending their pet. If you attack from a distance with a spell or probably an arrow, attacking the warlocks adjacent to Athrikus did not aggro him, although that might have been a level thing - a lower level might have a higher aggro radius. In any case I never want to go into that silly tower again, at least with this toon.

There were respawns before I started down the tower. I could go down one stair while they were on the other without aggroing and kill the ones I had to. I would not do that on the way up because I was worried about him calling his minions for help but there had already been repops on the lower levels that did not interfere.

Yep, not too hard. Just solo'd him 3 times as a level 33 warrior while waiting for a party member to come along.

It's possible to pull a voidwalker and warlock on their own each time and work your way around to the main dude.