Valiance: Unlocking Old Scholomance and Naxxramas

Valiance is an undead warhorse at the end of one of the longest legacy secrets in the game. Along the way you bring back the original Scholomance and Naxxramas as account-wide legacy dungeons, collect scourgestones the classic way and finally trick Instructor Razuvious' understudies into riding a horse they shouldn't.

Before you start

• Someone in your group needs the toy Krastinov's Bag of Horrors. It drops from Doctor Theolen Krastinov, who sometimes appears after Rattlegore in Mists of Pandaria Heroic Scholomance. You don't need it yourself.
• Buy 3 Dark Runes and 5 Essence of Undeath, and for later 1 Righteous Orb and 4 Truesilver Bars. All are on the Auction House.
• Argent Dawn reputation helps at the end. Honored is the minimum, and Exalted makes the Naxxramas unlock free.

Part 1: Memory of Scholomance

Eva Sarkhoff's ghost

Run the modern Scholomance in the Western Plaguelands (entrance 69.8, 73.5) and kill Darkmaster Gandling. Stay in his room, climb back to the top level and go into the centre room. In the back left corner is a pile of bones.

The player with Krastinov's Bag of Horrors uses it on the bones and the ghost of Eva Sarkhoff appears. Cancel the toy's transformation first, or Eva is too scared to talk. She gives you an Inert Spectral Essence. Repair it with the 3 Dark Runes and 5 Essence of Undeath to get the Spectral Essence, a trinket that lets you see the ghosts you need for the rest of the chain.

Before leaving, pick up Eva's Femur from the bones. Then go back to the Viewing Room before Gandling's chamber: on the lower level, beside the corridor back to Gandling, are a purple brazier and two bookcases. On the left bookcase, on the right side of the middle shelf, is Eva's Journal.

The five candles

Walk out of the dungeon and talk to Eva again. She asks for five candles, each traded from a ghost in and around Caer Darrow. Wear the Spectral Essence to see them.

1. Authentic Andorhal Candle: take The Deed to Andorhal from the wall of Andorhal's town hall (44.0, 69.2) and trade it to Magistrate Marduke by the wagon near the Scholomance entrance (70.5, 74.0).

2. Stinky Candle: pick up the bucket of Caer Darrow Fountain Water at the fountain (68.8, 78.9) and give it to Joseph Dirte on the upper level of the town (68.0, 74.8).

3. Ghost-Warding Candle: in the Eastern Plaguelands, take the Trampled Doll by the meat wagon in Darrowshire (35.7, 83.7) and bring it to the ghost child Sammy by the Caer Darrow fountain.

4. Imported Candle: in the old inn at Corrin's Crossing (55.0, 64.2), take the painting of trees by the stairs, The Road Ahead, and trade it to Artist Renfray in the house by the Caer Darrow docks.

5. Tobacco-Filled Candle: enter Stratholme by the main gate (the living side, with Balnazzar and Timmy the Cruel on the map). Turn left twice to a fountain and check the cart behind it for the Undelivered Shipment of Smokes. Rory, who wanders the Caer Darrow docks, trades the candle for it.

The ritual

With all five candles, Eva's Journal and Eva's Femur, go into the building with the Scholomance entrance but turn right instead of left. Stand on the grate surrounded by bones and use Eva's Journal. When the channel finishes, you earn Memory of Scholomance and old Scholomance is unlocked for your whole account.

Part 2: Wards of the Dread Citadel

The Argent Dawn Commission

Enter old Scholomance through the book in the summoning circle. In Rattlegore's room under the Great Ossuary, a Cracked Argent Dawn Commission sits on a bone pile in the south-west corner. Repair it with the Righteous Orb and 4 Truesilver Bars, equip it, and finish the dungeon. With the commission on, Gandling drops Darkmaster's Scourgestone. Hand its quest to Duke Nicholas Zverenhoff at Light's Hope Chapel, and from then on bosses drop scourgestones while you wear the commission.

The Hand of Naxxramas

Back to living-side Stratholme with the commission equipped. Loot supply crates for at least three Stratholme Holy Water, and kill the invisible Eyes of Naxxramas until one drops a Ward of Naxxramas. In Crusader's Square, don't enter the cathedral: turn left to the Dread Ward of Naxxramas vortex and throw holy water at it. The zone yells "The living? Here?!" and you get Sleight of Hand: five minutes to finish the next part.

Go through the Festival Lane gate to the undead side. Kill Nerub'enkan, Baroness Anastari and Maleki the Pallid, plus the Thuzadin Acolytes in each of their ziggurats. Then clear Slaughter Square, kill Ramstein the Gorger, the two waves that follow and the Black Guard Sentry, and finally Lord Aurius Rivendare (loot him for a chance at Rivendare's Deathcharger). On the way back out, the Hand of Naxxramas appears near where the waves spawned. Use the commission's To Dust on it.

Archmage Angela Dosantos

Report to Archmage Angela Dosantos at Tyr's Hand (72.6, 74.8), or Light's Hope if she isn't there. With Argent Dawn at Honored or higher she offers The Dread Citadel - Naxxramas. At Honored it costs 6 Large Brilliant Shards, 5 Arcane Crystals, a Righteous Orb and 60 gold. At Revered it's 3 shards, 2 crystals and 30 gold. At Exalted it's free. You earn Wards of the Dread Citadel, and old Naxxramas opens for your account through a crystal portal in Plaguewood (35.7, 23.1).

Part 3: Zackett Skullsmash

Build the Makeshift Grappling Hook from three parts inside old Naxxramas:

• Faerlina's Sewing Kit, a guaranteed drop from Grand Widow Faerlina.
• Construct's Hook, by a slime vat on the right in the second room of the Construct Quarter.
• Abomination's Chain, which you can fish up from any slime in Naxxramas.

Kill Stalagg, Feugen and Thaddius. The grapple points in Thaddius' room lead up into the rafters, where the vendor Zackett Skullsmash is asleep. Wake him with holy water for Inconvenience Fee: 20 Invader's Scourgestones (Stratholme and Scholomance bosses), 5 Corruptor's Scourgestones (Naxxramas bosses, with the commission equipped), 3 Dark Runes and a cup of Black Coffee. Hand it in and he moves to the central ring of Naxxramas, where he trades Death's Bargaining Chips: one per Corruptor's Scourgestone, or one per ten Invader's.

Part 4: Valiance

Buy Rotten Delicious from Zackett for 30 Death's Bargaining Chips. In the Military Quarter, go into the stables behind Instructor Razuvious, where Valiance stands in the middle stall, and feed him the Rotten Delicious. He may kick you a few times first.

In Razuvious' arena, click one of the two purple Obedience Crystals by the stairs to mind control a Death Knight Understudy. Ride the understudy back to the stables and mount it on Valiance, ride into the arena, then cancel the mind control from your portrait. The understudy stays in the saddle. Kill Razuvious and both understudies and loot the Reins of Valiance.