The last challenging post.....

Hi guys, 

I hope everyone is having a great Friday!! I am going to conclude what has been a much more involved set of posts than I thought with the last 4 CM dungeon monk perspectives, and one more voice over video, which I shall upload to YouTube tonight and add to the post tomorrow! For now, join me with your brews, as we wander into the spooky Scholomance.....


Scholomance.

Gold Timer: 20m
Silver Timer: 33m
Bronze Timer: 55m

Completion Difficulty: Relatively easy throughout with some potential high damage phases (dependent on how much you want to pull at once!).
Invis Pots: Yes
Talents used:
Windwalker - Tigers lust/Chi Burst/Chi Brew/RoP/Diffuse Magic/RJW.
This is one of the longer instances, and there are a few different ways you can meet your mob count. You can also run the instance on normal first to get the Polyformic Acid buff which will provide a minor dps boost.The first 2 mobs are killed as usual, make sure you have someone open the gate ready to enter the boss room as there are a few seconds of RP before you can go down to her. One important thing to note about starting this encounter - when you engage Instructor Chillheart, she will kill everything in the room with her apart from a skeleton on either side of the room (these two mobs need not be touched incidentally), HOWEVER.....If you hit the floor before she does this, sometimes, the 3 caster mobs that are in front of her will not die, so make sure you start the encounter by hitting her before anyone's feet hit the floor crackling jade lightening is nice for this but you will usually have a caster in your team so a ranged spell would be more ideal). The encounter is pretty straightforward, move from the Frigid Grasp (Looks like a Mage's ring of frost) she periodically places at a random players feet, move away from other players when you have Ice Wrath on you, and keep towards the wall where you jumped down as the wave of ice she spawns will one shot you. When she is dead have your casters back up against that wall to avoid the flying books and dps the Phylactery down.



     There is one mob in the next corridor which you can pull through into the next room with you, there will be 4 candlestick mages in total, the little skeletons still hit for nothing and can be one shot, make sure you get good use out of your Storm Earth and Fire and RJW here!!
Jandice Barov is dealt with in the same way as normal, avoid her Wondrous Rapidity, and if you dont have the Barov Helper addon from Curse, memorise her portrait so that you can be sure to attack the right one when she casts Whirl of Illusion, as dpsing the incorrect one causes party damage.
    After the boss is dead the door to the next room will open, your tank will need any speed boost effects available to the group and themselves as they will be running into the next room to pull ALL of the Bone Wavers and Guards. There will be a lot of tank damage here, to avoid random aggro from other party members, you will all stack up on the right hand side of the door until the tank comes back with the mobs, as soon as the tank is in place you will need to move to the left hand side of the door and aoe the mobs down. As a wind walker you need to be careful you don't out aggro your tank or stand in front of the mobs, again S.E&F is REALLY nice here, also, don't for get to use your RoP when the mobs are all bunched up, a few seconds of silence on the casters will help your healer and tank out massively. Rattlegore is the same as heroics, just kite him round the room and DPS him down, pay attention to who gets bone spiked and ensure that person gets a new bone shield as soon as possible.
    The next room can be done in one of two ways, you can either: pull enough mobs so that you have 30/35 enemies killed or: kill the whole room, which will leave you with 34/35 enemies killed. I will explain what to do for each scenario later when we get to the last boss, but for now, pull and kill whichever amount of mobs your group wants to kill. You can either pull them pack by pack or pull the whole lot out of the room into the previous room and LoS them all down, but to be honest, if you're going at a stead pace, pulling them one pack (meaning one giant mob) at a time is fine and doesn't put any unnecessary stress on tank/healer. It also leaves you with large dps cds ready for Lillian. If you can kill Lillian before she transistions, great, if you have a BL/TW, this is where I would recommend you use it. Do not use dps pots as you will need to invis straight after the encounter. kill her in the way you would on normal, just be aware that all her abilities hurt more, diffuse magic is really nice for dealing with the purple fire on the floor here. Don't forget to help out slower moving players with Tigers Lust if you don't kill her before transition as she will fixate on people, although she moves slowly if someone is in a bad position when fixated it can really help them out. 
        Invis through the Professor Slate room - You do NOT need to kill Slate. If you opted to kill the mobs in the room before Lillian until you have 30/35, run into the next corridor, pull the last pack of 5 casters and LoS them round the corner, making your mob count. If you killed everything leaving you with 34/35 mobs, head straight to the final boss. The Darkmaster Gandling encounter is fairly simple, and he does not deal any major damage deal with it as you would in heroic mode, just be aware that he takes less damage while channeling Rise, so you can just focus down his adds here. If you already have your mob count, you will finish the encounter and the dungeon, if you are still on 34 mobs, simple pop back to the previous room, pull 1 pack and single target one mob, as soon as it is dead you will have your achievement and the rest of the mobs will despawn.

Tips and tricks from the Tinterwebz: From @Arielle_EJ: You can pull Jandice behind the pillar and the "right" image will always be in the closest corner. 

Scarlet Halls.

Gold Timer: 13m 30s
Silver Timer: 22m
Bronze Timer: 45m

Completion Difficulty: Moderate tactically with two high damage pulls. 
Invis Pots: Yes.
Talents used:
Windwalker - Tigers Lust/Chi Burst/Chi Brew/RoP/Dampen Harm/RJW
Brewmaster - Tigers Lust/ChiWave/Ascension/RoP/Dampen Harm/Xuen
This is where all of your team members need to be on the same page and quick to do what is needed. The first section of the instance requires you to use the buckets of meat to not only stop the Starving hounds from attacking, but, when done correctly, to add to your mob count. 3 Buckets will spawn when the instance begins, have your tank pick up one and two of your dps, one with the intent to use the meat and one as a back up. (Note: this can be extremely buggy at times, so try not to be too frustrated with the spawns of the first pack of dogs and the Watchman.). To deal with the first pack, your tank must first aggro the Watchman - (do NOT use AOE like I did the first time, single target him so that he aggros on you) as SOON as this mob aggros, the tank must dump their bucket of meat on his head, the dogs will eat the guard and you will have  mobs for your count. The rest of the team must run through avoiding the dog on the chain (stick to the right hand wall you should be fine). The tank must then aggro the next watchman, and one of your dps who has a bucket must do the honors. Use the shields to get up to the mini boss at the end and take care of the fire arrows.(You can kill the adds with this boss - leaving him alive, pull him back to the entrance and reset him, and kill him and his add as again to save you doing the next dog pack if you wish). When the misi boss is dead, pick up the meat buckets, the tank can run on ahead and deal with the pack of dogs before Houndmaster Braun, while a dps and healer deal with the pack immediately on your right before the corridor to the boss(this is the bit you can skip if you reset the mini boss). Dps the boss down, save your tank cds for Bloody Rage and try to pick up the dogs as they spawn so they don't rip your dps/healers to shreds.

      Wait until the hounds have dispatched the guards before running to the bottom of the stairs. Invis and run to the next set of stairs, turn around and pull the last pack of 8 mobs, LoS at the bottom of the stairs. Take care with this pack, they hit very hard, and the casters are a pain in the backside, so use RoP on yourself once the tank has aggro as a WW and silence any that are further back. As a tank, use all of the CDs you have available to you and Xuen to help with the damage, there is nowhere to kite these mobs so you will have to face tank them, make no mistake, they hurt. on the plus side, you will gain a shed ton of vengeance here, so you will be hitting like a truck yourself. Take care not to aggro the pack in the corridor at the top fo the stairs, they are the same as the pack you just dealt with and you will not have CDs to deal with them. Enter the boss room and deal with Armsmaster Harlan as you would on heroic, DO NOT get caught in Blades of Light, you will die. Do not bother to dps down the adds he spawns, they wear Heavy Armor and it's a dps loss, just aggro them and make sure they stay with you, they will die to cleave damage later on if they lose their armor by getting caught in Blades of Light.

         After this boss, you should have enough CDs up between the group to deal with the 8 mob pack in the corridor, pull them back into the boss room and LoS, use all of your tank CDs and get full useage out of S,E&F and RoP to silence the casters. Move through the next corrodors, dealing with the mobs on a pack by pack basis, they do not hit as hard as the two packs you just dealt with, make sure you interrupt the Scholars Scarlet protection. The final boss encounter is very simple and deals little to no tank damage provided you don't stand in any bad. Flameweaver Koegler only has a few abilities, only 2 of them are interruptible so make sure you do in fact interrupt them, avoid the Dragons Breath and Book Burner.

 Siege of Niuzao Temple.

Gold Timer: 19m
Silver Timer: 30m
Bronze Timer: 50m

Completion Difficulty: Easy provided you do not get held up, one or two big pulls and one moderate difficulty boss.
Invis Pots: No.
Talents Used:
Windwalker - Tigers Lust/Chi Burst/Chi Brew/RoP/RJW

Apart from being lengthy, this daunting appearing instance is one of my favorites. Mainly because it has one of the biggest "YoloWTF" pulls out of all 9 dungeons (apart from the Brewery), and when done correctly, this can be really fun. The first pack of adds and every other one after it with Mantid in should be stacked up and the Weavers interrupted. Deal with the first pack of 3, move onto the first pack of blobs. The Resin Flakes leave a debuff on every one, so be mindful of this when moving on. Go left straight after this pack and skip the pack of Mantids, take your first right out of the boss room (the boss will not be able to be activated yet) and prepare fr massive aoe damage. The pack of blobs should be dealt with one at a time, they do not have much health and die quickly however killing them ali at once will usually result in a wipe due to Residue. Kill these, pull and kill the boss and exit the boss room once your residue has dropped off. Continue right the way to the top of the tree dealing with the mobs on a pack by pack basis, get as much out of S,E&F as you can , and keep RoP for the Mantid packs.

      The second boss encounter is easy but long, when you are dealing with the last pack of mobs in the tree have one of your dps open the door for you and pull them outside to get the RP started. Have your healer and one ranged stay up top to drop amber, and tank and rest of DPS go down to greet the incomming mobs. make sure your ranged takes out the adds carrying bombs, have a designated spot to throw the amber and tank the rest of the mob in this. When Commander Vo'jak is ready to approach, retreat to the top level. Have a designated amber spot again, and tank him in it. Be aware that he will cast Dashing Strike and Thousand Blades on players, you must avoid this ability, as monk you can roll, it's handy to use Tigers Lust on a friendly party member to help them out.

    Move down to the next area, using either of the paths on the picture, do not pull anything. Position yourselves in front of the General. Another option situation: pull just the General, wait for him to retreat to his shell and use the bombs to aoe down the 3 packs of mobs, or, pull EVERYTHING and Yololust it down before he even uses the ability. Either way is perfectly doable, it depends on your composition, and how experienced your tank is as kiting, because unless your a monk, you don't really want to be face tanking these mobs, and even then, they hurt. Use the bombs that get dropped to kill the General and his minions. He will continue to cast Blade Rush on party members, so keep a roll ready to get out of the way. 
     The last packs of adds on the bridge should be dealt with pack by pack, the boss is dealt with in the same way as Heroic, a nice easy end to a long dungeon!! (one thing to note about the packs of mobs, don't pull them before your tank is ready, they will target you with hurl brick, and that hurts!)

 Shado-Pan Monastery.

Gold Timer: 21m
Silver Timer: 35m
Bronze Timer: 1h

Completion difficulty: Moderate Damage throughout.
Invis Pots: Yes.
Talents Used: 
Windwalker - Tigers Lust/Chi Wave/Chi Brew/RoP/Diffuse Magic/Xuen

Almost in the home stretch now, another long instance, with some fairly hard hitting bosses and trash packs. But of course, we're monks, so we're going to nimble our way through taking as little damage as possible! Pull everything in the first corridor, these mobs are relatively hard hitting, so be careful that you don't out aggro your tank, use S,E&F to aoe them down, but note that RoP is of little use here as the mobs have no weapons, however you can possibly stop a set of casts if you time it right. Use Xuen on the first boss, and avoid the lightening, diffuse magic is nice here if you do get hit by anything unsavoury. Ensure you group up to release the healing energy. Once the  serpent is down, you will want to group up and use some big healing cooldowns to prepare for the final phase, where Gu will cause damage to everyone, this is a great opportunity to help out your healer by using Touch of Karma. Take the 4 mobs in the following corridor to the end of it and aoe them down, again RoP will not disarm but can stop a set of casts with its silence ability. 
      Go out of this corridor, do not pull the 4 mobs outside the door, but hug the right hand wall, mount up and head on up to the next boss room. For the first part of the Master Snowdrift encounter, S,E&F can be used on the initiates, as the item squish means they take longer to kill, making it more viable than normal heroic as everything is usually dead before your clone even gets to it.  Flying Snow and Fragrant Lotus will deal a moderate amount of tank damage, as a melee dps you may want to use your Fortifying Brew to help out your healer, as Flying Snow will periodically cast Flying Steel, of course it goes without saying that Touch of Karma will once again bail you out. For snowdrift himself the only thing you really need to do is not stand in his Fist of Fury, as this will down even the mightiest of tanks (however if you have ToK ready you can use this, but be careful, ToK is 6 seconds and FoF is 5, so watch your timing!!). You will also need to avoid his Ball of Fire, and have designated people to deal with either side when he splits into 3 to save time finding which ones are illusions. For his final phase you will need to spend a few healing CDs if they are available, the Tornado slam can one shot someone who is already on low health. Try to stay in melee range to minimize damage from his Kick, and nuke him as hard as you can without using pots or dps CDs as you will need them for the next boss.
       Once you have Gotten to know Master Snowdrift by beating him in combat, you will want to run toward the chain fence outside, pop invis pots and run right down to the bridge, the mobs you are invising past are just nasty and you need not deal with them. Deal with the mobs on the bridge and the pack of 3 at the end, ToK and Diffuse magic will be your friends here, again no disarm but a well times RoP can stop a lot of tank damage, the casts these mobs make are also interruptible with Spear Hand Strike. If you have a Bloodlust and Xuen off CD you will want to use both on the Sha to get the encounter finished as soon as possible. The boss will cause moderate tank damage through the fight and high at the end during the Enrage phase. During the fight the tank will be the target of the Sha's Disorienting Smash, so players must try to avoid Sha Spike as much as they can, to make things easier for the healer, who will be having to heal through some fairly heavy tank damage.

      Once the sha has been defeated, head outside and pull the two Pandas outside the door. (Note: if you have a DK, these make great MC mobs) While the tank holds onto the two pandas, all 4 remaining party members must click the floating panda AT THE SAME TIME. This is important, as it means you do not have to click any more floating pandas. Mount up, head down the bridge and go right through the ropes, avoiding the trash pack at the end of the bridge, run up the little slope out of the water and stop at the next bridge to deal with the trash here. Use S,E&F and RoP to get this trash down as quick as possible. Cross the bridge and go left through the ropes to avoid the trash pack at the end. Engage the final boss and pop any remaining dps CD's you have available. Taran Zhu doesn't melee that hard, so the tank shouldn't take too much damage compared to previous bosses. Interrupt Rising hate whenever you can, be sure to use your extra action button to purge your own hatred before you gain Haze of Hate (you can time this when the gripping hatreds are up and you will not get gripped). Dps down the Gripping Hatreds as quick as possible, again S.E&F becomes useful, as the grips are surrounded by Pool of Shadows, so use ToK whenever its available for this or Diffuse Magic to negate the damage and help your healer. Avoid the Ring of malice, and healers and tanks beware that he will cast Sha Blast while this is active, this is the only substantial damage the tank will take through this encounter.

StormStout Brewery.

Gold Timer: 12m 30s
Silver Timer: 21m
Bronze Timer: 45m

Completion Difficulty: Hard. Short timer, less room for error and some HUGE pulls.
Invis pots: Optional.
Talents Used:
Mistweaver - Tigers Lust/Chi Wave/Chi Brew/Dampen Harm/Xuen.
So, you've made it to the fabled Brewery, rumored to be the toughest of all 9 dungeons, filled with dancing monkeys and deadly bunnies.

If you've made it this far, thank you for staying with me though my challenge mode adventures! I hope you enjoyed reading as much as I have enjoyed writing this series of posts, and as always if you have any tricks and tips of your own then feel free to post them below or message me. To anyone else who has done 9x9, congrats on your achievement and enjoy your Regal Lord armor, title and Phoenix!!

Dark xx