The Argent Dawn

Welcome to the Plaguelands folks, wipe your damned feet. Out here its about four things, Death Knights, Scarlet Crusade, The Argent Dawn and the Scourge. There is a lot of lore out here, so if that's something you're into, don't rush through the areas.

The Plaguelands is made up of two areas, WPL - Western Plaguelands and EPL -Eastern Plaguelands. WPL harbors the Ruins of Andorhal and Scholomance, EPL has four outdoor PvP tower control points and Stratholme.


The main HQ for the Argent Dawn is at Light's Hope Chapel in EPL. They have a small outpost with a flight point in WPL called Chillwind Camp for the Alliance, and the Horde have a small encampment on the WPL/Tirisfel Glades border called the Bulwark. Each place has Argent commanders that you can turn Scourgestones in to. But, as always I'm getting ahead of myself...so why Argent Dawn? The Argent Dawn is one of two requirements needed for an Argent achievement, that aside, Argent Quartermasters also carry a variety of recipes for armor crafters-Blacksmiths, Leatherworkers and Tailors. Sorry Jewelcrafters and Engineers...you got left out. I believe this is the main reason some have more Rep with them than others. Those players without a 'need' to grind Argent Rep, seldom do. On to what they are all about...

The Argent Dawn and the Scarlet Crusade were once under a single banner. When you can get to Light's Hope Chapel, you will see the two groups share a tenuous truce. Sitting in the Chapel you can hear them argue across the large central table. Both once felt each server the cause for the light and to justice.

However the Crusade, made up mostly of enlisted soldiers and Knights of the Silver Hand, has an Arthas-like zealous drive to kill all undead, Scourge or Forsaken. Undead, Plagued or Undead sympathizer; it matters little to them, they all need eradication. If you disagree with their methods or cause, then you are a sympathizer, and they will likely add you to the list. The Argent Dawn high command split off from them when it their zealous nature and methods became apparent. Since the Argent Dawn opposed their methods, they too became an enemy of the Scarlet Crusade.

The Argent Dawn wants to accomplish similar goals. They wish to remove the Scourge and Burning Legion forces from all of Lordaeran and the Eastern Kingdoms. However, the Argent Dawn forces are small in number and cannot rely on straight forward blood and guts battling. Therefore they rely heavily on the guerrilla tactics of hit and fade. They focus on the leaders of the Scourge in the hot spots of the Plaguelands, Scholomance and Stratholme. Taking out the leadership and supply trains for the Scourge in the Plaguelands and removing the cause of the plagues is foremost on their agenda over wholesale slaughter of everything in their path.

Now to the meat of the matter - Neutral to Exalted with the Argent Dawn. I, myself, recommend starting at level 50. The main reason being that most of the places where you could grind Scourgestones and Rep are Level 50-60.

You can obtain an Argent Dawn Commission trinket at Level 50 from the Quartermaster or Scourgestone quest giver in either Chillwind Camp in Western Plaguelands or the Bulwark area of Tirisfel Glades. The Commission trinket, when equipped, allows Scourgestone to drop off the Scourge in the Plaguelands and the dungeons of Scholomance and Stratholme. Naxxramus is also listed among possible places to get Scourgestones.


The Scourgestones can then be turned in (in varying numbers) for Valor Tokens. Scourgestone redemption gives 50 Rep and Valor Token redemption gives 100 Rep, so for every 10 Valor Tokens you get, you can get 1500 Rep. Obviously you want to get the higher stones that require less to get the Valor Tokens.


Corruptor's Scourgestones are fairly hard to come by until you can start running the dungeons. Araj the Summoner being the only mob in the Plaguelands that I know of that CAN drop it. Bear in mind however that Corruptor's stones are uncommon and BOP. He resides in the central square of the Ruins of Andorhal, amongst several (and I mean SEVERAL) other Scourge minions. His death is required for two quests. One is which you retrieve his phylactery shard and the other is for the Scholomance key. The Ruins have several quests in and around them, however most do not directly apply to Argent Dawn Rep, so unless you need the quests for Lorekeeper or XP, you can skip many of them.

Once you have the Commission trinket you should probably grind Scourgestones and do basic quests for the WPL until Level 55. At Level 55 you can start the questline to get the Scholomance key you see above. The chain starts with the Scholomance quest and will only provide you with 500 Stormwind Rep, so other than giving you a key to a much needed dungeon, it's largely useless to grinding Argent Dawn Rep as it offers nothing towards Argent Dawn Rep. By the time you finish the questline, you will hopefully be Honored with the Argent Dawn and you can pretty much leave the Ruins of Andorhal alone.

From here I recommend heading to Darnassus for the Alliance and Zoram'gar Outpost for the Horde. From these locals head to Blackfathom Deeps. This little dungeon is largely ignored by most, however the Horde can do a quest here for 1000 Argent Dawn Rep and the Alliance has 3 quests for a total of 3000 Argent Dawn Rep. From there the Alliance should head to Desolace, there are 2 quests there for a total of 1200 Rep. After these have been done head back to Chillwind Point and The Bulwark and pick up the Cauldron Quests. There are four cauldrons in WPL and the questline is eight quests long. They are fairly involved and require interaction with a supplier for reagents needed to shut the cauldrons down. You'll also need to kill alot of Scourge for more reagents, so collect those stones while you're there! All told the questline will yield you 3600 Argent Dawn Rep and they are reapeatable for 50 Rep per cauldron. If you get tired of just grinding stones, then headed out to the fields and shut the cauldrons down too. You'll probably want to work your way to Level 60 between WPL and EPL doing cauldron quests, area quests and killing the Scourge in general. Until you reach Level 60, most trash mobs will give you 10 Rep and named (boss) mobs will give you 50 Rep. With questing, scourgestone turn-ins, cauldron quests and the 8000 Rep from the above quests [will take longer as a member of the Horde as there is just far fewer quests] you should be really close to Revered.

It's time to gather 5 players and run Scholomance! There is one questline that starts at a Goblin named Tinkee Steamboil in the Northern part of the Burning Steppes that will end for you in Scholomance for about 1200 Agrent Dawn Rep. My understanding is that it may be repeatable, though for how much Rep seems to be a subject of debate. The original quest was said to be worth 200 Rep, so I'll assume that IF it gives any Rep on repeats, it'll be 150-200 Rep. Next up is Plagued Hatchlings, you'll need 20...but there's only about 15 in the room...aw damnit!, guess you'll have to do one more run, the quest is worth 1000 Argent Dawn Rep. The Butcher Questline in Scholo will get you a trinket that allows you to see the ghosts of Caer Darrow for the Ras Frostwhisper questline, that will net you a paltry 700 Rep. The trinket will also open up the town, you can repair there and stock up on food and water. The blacksmith ghost, Magnus Frostwake has some Blacksmithing and Alchemy recipes that are hard to come by. Having to run all these questlines will make you run Scholo at least three times, and THAT will net you many Scourgestones, trash/boss Rep, Crypt Fiend Parts and Bone Fragments (I'll get into these in a moment). By this time you should definitely be Revered.

Once you've done these questlines you should have a fair amount of Bone Fragments and Crypt Fiend Parts for turn in at Lights Hope Chapel. Hopefully the trip to the Burning Steppes took you at least once through BRD and/or UBRS and you've collected a fair amount of Dark Iron Scraps and Core of Elements. Before you head to Lights Hope, head out to Un'goro Crater and collect a pile of Savage Fronds and Core of Elements. You want to collect them in lots of 30 (they stack in piles of 250).Once you have 30 of each of these drops, head to Lights Hope Chapel in EPL. The first turn in for each of these is worth 1000 Argent Dawn Rep, and repeated gives 20 Argent Dawn Rep. There is also a mob here that gives the Craftsman's Writ quest [to the left of the church facing it, on the outside]. The first turn-in requires a Valor Token and gives 1000 Rep. If you fullfill the Writ you'll get another 150 Rep. This is a repeatable, but, most of the time these are NOT cost effective. You do enough of the part turn-ins and you can do the gear quests for 10 of the insignias + 30G for 500Rep; again not so cost effective. This should yield you 6000 Argent Dawn Rep. Return to Scholo and kill 20 whelps for another 1000 Rep. Turn-in your Scourgestones for Valor Tokens, then use them for the Rep.

It should be noted that you can adjust your party/raid size for events and dungeons in the Plaguelands based on every 10 Levels you and your group are above Level 60. For instance, Scholo and Strat can be run with 5-man group at 60, but you can reduce the party size by 2 for every 10 Levels above 60 you are. I'd suggest 3-man at 70 and solo at 80. For the Darrowshire event, start with a Raid of 10, then reduce it 5. For Blightcaller, start with 15, and reduce by 5. WARNING!-Blightcaller may LOOK like a paltry level 61 Elite with 2 pets, but he is far more than that. He summons a couple skeletons every couple seconds and is incredibly hard to solo even at 80. A tank could solo Blightcaller, but he'd have to pack a lunch. Even at Level 80 I reccommend no less than 3, Tank, DPS and Healer.


At this point it's probably best to do the Darrowshire questline. It starts with Auntie Marlene Redpath in WPL and she'll ask you to find Little Pamela [Redpath]. She's in Darrowshire on the SW side of EPL. She'll give you a set of quests that will lead back to Auntie Redpath and Her (very much alive) Uncle Carlin Redpath at Lights Hope Chapel. Auntie's quest will lead back to Carlin, so you may as well do that first. Once you head to Carlin he will put you on the path to Battle for Darrowshire. The story is that Chromie (of the Bronze Dragonflight) helps you find a way to help Joseph Redpath, Pamela's father, onto a path of redemption, and thereby put the souls of Darrowshore to final rest. Basics are this, keep Davil alive until Horgus is defeated, then Davil will suddenly die. After that, Captain Redpath will arrive. Keep him alive until the Scourge commander corrupts him, then kill him. All the while you'll be fighting 10-12 Scourge in waves along 3 fronts. Concentrate on the central route into town from the North and keep the Bloodletters off him, they're Elites and they WILL kick his ass. You can heal all the Darrowshire forces. Once the corrupted Redpath has been slain, see him in the square to 'forgive' him and continue the line back to Pamela. The questline is worth roughly 2200 Argent Dawn Rep.



Now it's time for Stratholme! You've done well so far and hopefully you're near mid-way through Revered at this point. Stratholme is divided into two areas, named in-game as Strat Live and Strat Dead. Since you have to start at the main gates unless you have the key, we'll start with Strat Live. For your first run I recommend grabbing the quests Houses of Holy, The Flesh Does Not Lie and The Archivist. You should be able to get all of this on the Strat Live side. Holy water is in crates along the road, flesh from ghouls and kill Archivist Galford. To enter the Scarlet Crusade portion you'll need the Scarlet Key. If you havn't done so, it might be a good idea to run the SM Library Wing for the key. Once inside the entrance to Strat Live, the city gates close and you cannot leave that way, so you'll want to make your way, eventually to the Strat Dead entrance.

Start by working you way around to the left. If you have the Smokey quest the box will be in the dead end immediately left, there's also a mini boss down that way, a rare spawn named Skul. If this isn't on your list head North thru the grates. STOP! There's a couple of these traps in Strat that spawn either Plagued Insects or Rats in large numbers. Be wary in Strat. Continue around the left to the Scarlet Crusade blockade. Lots of crates here for possible holy water, or being attacked by bugs/rats. Make your way thru the bad guys to the interior. Kill the Archivist, grab the necklace in the chest behind him (save this for Strat Dead) and burn the library. You can then leave, or you can kill the other two bosses here. Move East and out of the Scarlet blackade, continuing East through Strat, until the second right heading South. Head South until you enter a large square with a fountain. To the East you'll see a large drawn gate, head that way to Strat Dead and the Chapel.

Magistrate Barthilas will be near the Chapel. Kill him to get the key. NOTE- IF you enter through the service entrance (Strat Dead entrance) the Magistrate will be in the Northern part of Strat Dead, just west of the slaughterhouse gate. Once you have the key, if your group wants to finish up they can simply head South through the service entrance. You should recieve 3000 Argent Dawn Rep for the quests.


The second run through should be to kill Balnazzar, aka Grand Crusader Dathrohan. He's one of the bosses in the Scarlet Crusade blockaded area on the West side of Strat Live. This would be a good time for releasing Restless Spirits with Egan's shotgun. You have to use it twice, once on the Strat spirits wandering around (neutral ghosts that look human), then once on the wisps that form to turn them into Freed Spirits. The quest is worth no Rep, so doing it would be purely to do it for XP or Loremaster. You can leave Strat Live again now, or work your way through Strat Dead, depending on how you feel. Clearing is good for parts and stones.


Time for Strat Dead. Grab the quests for killing Baron Rivendare and getting the Scourge Data. Head for the service entrance and make your to the Chapel. Give the necklace to Aurius to continue the quest. This is another tangent quest that offers no Argent Rep, but is fun for story aspect. Since it is a repeatable quest, it doesn't count toward Loremaster. If you've picked up the quest to save Ysida from the Baron, you'll notice how much time you have to save her by the debuff icon. Slay you way Northeast to the ziggurat area. The first will just off to the West, this is where the Scourge Data is, the next is far to the East. The final one is in the Northeast. To open the ziggurat you must kill the boss guarding it, to shut it down you must kill everyone inside. The only way to open the slaughterhouse gate is to shut down all three ziggurats. While the gates and the Scarlet area door can be picked by a skilled rogue, I don't believe this is the case with the slaughterhouse gate. Once the gate is open, slaughter your way to the the slaughterhouse. It will be guarded by abomination type mobs, about 15 of them. make sure you or your group is ready once the last of them is down as it will start 3 waves of attacks after a very short rest. Claiming the Scourge Data will get you an upgraded version of the Argent Dawn Commission trinket upon turn-in. See below.

The Baron - Once the initial guards are down, the first attack will come from Ramstein the Gorger. Running it solo, bear in mind he's fairly tough to knock down and he likes to toss you in the air, which interupts casting. Make sure you heal up quick, because a plague of skeletons follows his death. They aren't particularly tough, there's just a hell of a lot of them. Following them is the Blackguard, warlord style skeletons. Kill them all, then you can proceed to Baron Rivendare. If you've given the necklace to Aurius he'll show up when you attack the Baron. Keep the hate off him so he lives until the end of the fight, to finish it up. Talk to Ysida if you have that quest, and get her necklace to prove she's alive. You'll get 3400 Argent Dawn Rep for the 3 quests (none for Aurius') and another 1500 rep for 2 followup 'talk and lore' quests back at Lights Hope Chapel [4900 Rep total in quests for Strat Dead run].

For those 60+ there's a quest in Terokar Forest in Outlands that will give 710 Argent Rep.

All this rounding around have you within grabbing distance of Exalted. I'd guess near 3-4K from having it. Comparitively...this is a short gap to fill with simple grinding and repeatable quests. Bear in mind it only takes 50 Invader's stones and 5 Corruptor's stones to get 1500 Argent Rep. Unfortunately for the Horde this could take significantly longer to accomplish, good luck. Happy grinding, hope you get there soon!