Shadowfang Keep

Shadowfang Keep Route & Boss Strategy

Shadowfang Keep climbs: gatehouse, courtyard, kitchen and dining hall, then ramparts and towers up to Arugal's chamber. The corridors and stairs are narrow and crowded, so the run rewards slow pulls dragged back into rooms you already cleared. Level 24 is a comfortable point to face Arugal, and a mage or druid to lift curses makes two fights much easier. Allow about an hour.

1. Gatehouse and the cells

   • Clear up through the gatehouse to the cell block. Two prisoners wait here: Sorcerer Ashcrombe for the Alliance and Deathstalker Adamant for the Horde. One of them opens the courtyard door once the jailer is dead.

2. Rethilgore

   Boss

   Soul Drain

   Drains life from his target and stuns it.

   • The jailer stands by the cells with a few worgen around him. Two of them pull separately before the fight.
   • One Bleak Worg stays with him: polymorph it or kill it first.
   • He dies quickly. Speak to your prisoner afterwards to open the door.

3. The courtyard

   • Shadowfang Moonwalkers fill the courtyard. Their Anti-Magic Shield makes them immune to spells for ten seconds, so melee damage carries these pulls.
   • Keep fights away from other packs: enemies here wander into each other.
   • The stables hold two Fel Steeds and a Shadow Charger. All three always come together and hit very hard. Polymorph one, let a pet hold the second, and kill the third, or leave the stables alone.

4. Razorclaw the Butcher

   Boss
   • Through the courtyard door into the kitchen. Clear the room and its patrols, then tank him where he stands. He has nothing to dodge.

5. Baron Silverlaine

   Boss

   Veil of Shadow

   A curse that cuts healing on its target by 75 percent.

   • He waits in the dining hall beyond the kitchen. Pull each pack in the hall back into the kitchen before you reach him.
   • Remove the curse at once if you have a mage or druid. Without one, keep the tank near full the whole fight and let hybrids add heals: a tank who falls low under the Veil is hard to bring back.

6. Commander Springvale

   Boss

   Holy Light

   He heals himself. Interrupt it.

   Divine Shield

   Makes himself immune for a few seconds at low health.

   • Up the stairs from the dining hall and to the left. Wailing Guardsmen in this wing cast Screams of the Past, which silences everyone within five yards. Pull packs out of the room one at a time and keep the healer well back.
   • Springvale stands at the top of a short stair with a Haunted Servitor and a Wailing Guardsman. Kill the Servitor, have a pet or an off-tank hold the Guardsman away from the group, then kill Springvale and finish the Guardsman.

7. The ramparts

   • The route leaves the hall for the open battlements. Stay away from the edge: a fall here drops you out of the keep.
   • The Deathsworn Captain, a rare spawn, sometimes walks this stretch. Tank him facing away from the group because he cleaves, and well clear of any Wailing Guardsman.

8. Odo the Blindwatcher

   Boss

   Howling Rage

   Stacks a damage increase on himself and his bats.

   • He lives in a small shack off the ramparts with two Vile Bats, which disarm and cleave.
   • Polymorph one bat if you can, face the others away from the group, kill the bats, then Odo.
   • Give the tank a moment at the start; a disarm early costs threat.

9. Fenrus the Devourer

   Boss

   Toxic Saliva

   A poison on the tank. Cure it if you can.

   • Past the ramparts the keep turns inward again. In the room before Fenrus, hug the near corner and take the stairs: walking along the far wall pulls enemies from the floor above, and they bring everything on their path.
   • Fenrus himself is a simple fight in the library. When he dies Arugal appears, summons four non-elite voidwalkers, and leaves. Kill them and the door opens.

10. Wolf Master Nandos

    Boss

    Call wolves

    Summons more worgs the longer the fight lasts.

    • Four worgs circle him in the room below Arugal's chamber. Pull and kill the worgs first; Nandos joins once they are dead.
    • Kill any worg he summons at once, then return to him. A fast kill gives him no time to call more.

11. Archmage Arugal

    Boss

    Void Bolt

    Very heavy shadow damage on one player.

    Arugal's Curse

    Takes a random player out of the fight for ten seconds.

    Shadow Port

    He teleports around his chamber.

    • The hardest fight in the keep. Void Bolt can be avoided by breaking line of sight: the stair up to his platform and the pillars of the room all work.
    • Ranged players stand on the platform by the entrance, where they can reach him wherever he teleports. Melee wait for him to come to them instead of chasing him out of the healer's sight.
    • Remove Arugal's Curse when you can. If the healer is the one taken, hybrids cover until it ends.
    • For a slow, safe kill, pull him back into Nandos's room and fight from the doorway by the spiral stair. He teleports away and always walks back, which gives the healer time to drink.
    • Horde players take his head for Arugal Must Die.