Balnazzar and Stratholme

[One]

Hi guys, I've been lurking here for a while and first want to thank you all for the informative posts. My time as a lurker comes to an end and I'm wondering if someone could answer a few questions for me about Stratholme.

1. Is Balnazzar bugged? When he morphs into his demon form sometimes he fully heals himself and sometimes he doesn't. When he does fully heal on morph it's rather a tough fight for a party of 5, but when he doesn't he is a pushover. I'm not sure what we are doing different when he doesn't heal, how is this supposed to work? I'd like to know how to prevent him from fully healing on his morph if that is possible.

2. When Balnazzar dies, does it open any instance events other than Lil' Timmy spawning in the courtyard?

3. Is the Barronesss bugged? The mobs around that tower seem to deagro on pulls, and fighting Barronness is a chore itself. It seems she will get "stuck" and evade all attacks or even walk back to her spawn point and regenerate health. When she possesses a player it's even worse with "stuck" evades and agro resets. Not to mention the very fast respawn of patrol. Is this area bugged or are we doing something wrong? Any hints or tips beating her is appreciated.

4. What are the mail boxes for? We have received 1 time use keys from the courier but using it on a mail box just popped 3 elite undead humans.

5. Where is Postmaster Malown?

6. Where is Hearthsinger Forresten?



Hopefully someone is kind enough to answer some or all of these questions. Thank you.

[Zuka]

Stratholme is a big burning town of bugs.
I'm not really sure about the postmaster since I always rushed to Baron on beta, but I think that when you open all mailboxes Malown will come.

[kyliejennings]

1. Is Balnazzar bugged? When he morphs into his demon form sometimes he fully heals himself and sometimes he doesn't. When he does fully heal on morph it's rather a tough fight for a party of 5, but when he doesn't he is a pushover. I'm not sure what we are doing different when he doesn't heal, how is this supposed to work? I'd like to know how to prevent him from fully healing on his morph if that is possible.

its buggy i think if you do enough dmg while he morphs he does not fully heal, but he is supposed to heal to full.


2. When Balnazzar dies, does it open any instance events other than Lil' Timmy spawning in the courtyard?

nope



4. What are the mail boxes for? We have received 1 time use keys from the courier but using it on a mail box just popped 3 elite undead humans.

read my answer below


5. Where is Postmaster Malown?

you get the 3 keys for the mail boxes from killing a mob, on the 3rd mailbox you open that spawns postmaster malown and his 3or 4 adds .

YOU BEEN MALOWNED!!!

as for your other answers i dont know :(

but yes strath is a big zone of flamming sucky bugs

[Asia]

Hi guys, I've been lurking here for a while and first want to thank you all for the informative posts. My time as a lurker comes to an end and I'm wondering if someone could answer a few questions for me about Stratholme.

1. Is Balnazzar bugged? When he morphs into his demon form sometimes he fully heals himself and sometimes he doesn't. When he does fully heal on morph it's rather a tough fight for a party of 5, but when he doesn't he is a pushover. I'm not sure what we are doing different when he doesn't heal, how is this supposed to work? I'd like to know how to prevent him from fully healing on his morph if that is possible.


Lots of bugs in stratholme, and this is clearly a bug. He's supposed to regen to full health just before he morphs. He's an easy battle, one thing I suggest is to keep all casters/healers against the wall farthest from him, so they are not affected by his ae attacks and your melee's are kept healed.



2. When Balnazzar dies, does it open any instance events other than Lil' Timmy spawning in the courtyard?


After you complete the Archivist quest, balnazaar will offer his head that begins a questline for Baron.



3. Is the Barronesss bugged? The mobs around that tower seem to deagro on pulls, and fighting Barronness is a chore itself. It seems she will get "stuck" and evade all attacks or even walk back to her spawn point and regenerate health. When she possesses a player it's even worse with "stuck" evades and agro resets. Not to mention the very fast respawn of patrol. Is this area bugged or are we doing something wrong? Any hints or tips beating her is appreciated.


She is somewhat bugged, but there is a way to fight her easily without all the headaches. Until you figure that out, I would suggest ignoring Baroness and head to the other 2 ziggs.




4. What are the mail boxes for? We have received 1 time use keys from the courier but using it on a mail box just popped 3 elite undead humans.


The Mail Box keys trigger the Postmaster Malown event. You are given 3 keys, i.e. Crusaders, market Row, festival Lane

You must open all 3 mailboxes marked by the key, and the 3rd attempt will spawn Malown. Each mailbox holds a surprise as you mention above. (have fun)



5. Where is Postmaster Malown?

6. Where is Hearthsinger Forresten?


Malowne is spawned by your final mailbox key :)

Hearthsinger Forresten is usually found in Market Row enroute to Festival Lane (hint: He's a citizen )

[MrO]

Baroness seems to be less buggy if everyone charges up to her and fights her there. This doesn't guarantee she won't bug, but so far has been the best strategy to use versus her. 9/10 times we did this she doesn't even charm anyone.

This place is only hard due to bugs, which will hopefully as Blizzard stated will be fixed by the next content patch. Then it's time for the Baron to die so I can get my staff^^

[Ziggurat]

strat is bugged to shit.

you can usually open up baron just by doing 2 of the zigs. I've even seen it open with only 1 zig killed. we've 5 manned baron easily just by taking left route in the gauntlet, kill nerub, then cross over and do maleki's zig (if the gate isn't already open - happens sometimes). if you do both, and the gate STILL isn't open, and you really don't wanna fuck with baroness, go back to the first zigg and let it respawn. killing it a 2nd time will 99% of the time open the gate.

[famasfilms]

concerning Baron Rivendare, alliance side theres a quest to kill him, it doesnt have any rewards listed.

Is it worth 5 manning strat to complete the quest, are there any rewards and does it open up any more quests?

[MrO]

In beta when zerging for rewards was still in the game we had the option to choose from a few rewards. A staff, sword and shield. All pretty decent, but hopefully buffed up in stats now because 5 manning with all these bugs is pretty lame.

[Asia]

concerning Baron Rivendare, alliance side theres a quest to kill him, it doesnt have any rewards listed.

Is it worth 5 manning strat to complete the quest, are there any rewards and does it open up any more quests?

It's very much worth your time to do this quest. The Quest Rewards come as a surprise at the end of the line.

Perhaps someone else will help by spoiling the end for you :)

[cian]

the staff reward is essentially the same as trindlehaven, and given the gayness of farming trindlehaven it may be worthwhile to do the baron quest.

[Ghetto]

you also get a niec caster ring or nice melee neck, and a blue BoE ring

[famasfilms]

Any chance of linking to those rewards or giving the names/stats?

I mean I already have the trindlehaven, an epic necklace and nice rings...

Really really dont want to go to the trouble of 5 manning strat for rewards I might not use.

[Firecrak]

Search Thottbot?

[One]

Hello again and thanks for all the replies they helped a lot and very appreciated. But it seems we ran into more bugs at the Abominations and I just want to confirm it was a bug or a fluke.

This is what happend, we cleared the abominations or whatever they're called (the overweight undead, heh) near the Barons house. A named Abomination came out. During that fight 2 elites zombies added in, is that scripted or a bug? Those adds weren't really a problem we killed the named and adds, but shortly after he died we were rushed by about 5-10 elites and 20-30 non-elite skeletons, is this scripted or a bug? I guess if it was scripted they are doable with AEing and kiting but I'm not really sure, it looked like a lot of them and we weren't really prepared to fight that many after killing the boss. Just want to make sure if this is scripted so we can be prepared for it next time.

Another thing, do you only get 1 shot at the Baron? We tryed to come back after the wipe and the two zigs we used to open the gate with didn't have any spawns in them (we skipped baroness). If we killed Baroness would we be able to open the gate by killing her spawn inside the zig after a wipe?

Also had some progress with Baroness, we can now fight her without her bugging out by some positioning changes but it seems pointless, her Possess spell takes over a player and even if you kill him/her she does it to another. With 5 people its rather impossible to kill her unless there is a "trick" to prevent her from charming or something else. A post suggested to fight her at the top, we tryed that but she still charmed before we could get her to 90%. Any hints on how to kill her? It's understandable if you guys want to keep that info to yourselfs but can you please tell me if there is a way to stop her from charming, just if it's possible not how?

Thank you again.

[cokester]

have you tried using a grounding totem to block it?

[Mez]

Hello again and thanks for all the replies they helped a lot and very appreciated. But it seems we ran into more bugs at the Abominations and I just want to confirm it was a bug or a fluke.

This is what happend, we cleared the abominations or whatever they're called (the overweight undead, heh) near the Barons house. A named Abomination came out. During that fight 2 elites zombies added in, is that scripted or a bug? Those adds weren't really a problem we killed the named and adds, but shortly after he died we were rushed by about 5-10 elites and 20-30 non-elite skeletons, is this scripted or a bug? I guess if it was scripted they are doable with AEing and kiting but I'm not really sure, it looked like a lot of them and we weren't really prepared to fight that many after killing the boss. Just want to make sure if this is scripted so we can be prepared for it next time.

Another thing, do you only get 1 shot at the Baron? We tryed to come back after the wipe and the two zigs we used to open the gate with didn't have any spawns in them (we skipped baroness). If we killed Baroness would we be able to open the gate by killing her spawn inside the zig after a wipe?

Also had some progress with Baroness, we can now fight her without her bugging out by some positioning changes but it seems pointless, her Possess spell takes over a player and even if you kill him/her she does it to another. With 5 people its rather impossible to kill her unless there is a "trick" to prevent her from charming or something else. A post suggested to fight her at the top, we tryed that but she still charmed before we could get her to 90%. Any hints on how to kill her? It's understandable if you guys want to keep that info to yourselfs but can you please tell me if there is a way to stop her from charming, just if it's possible not how?

Thank you again.

the 2 elites aren't suppose to pop out when you're fighting named abom, the mass amount of stuff is suppose to come out from gates after you kill him however. no idea about baroness we've always skipped her as you don't need to do that one to open the gates.

[One]

Thanks a lot guys

Tonight we defeated the baron with 5, he seemed rather easy compared to how hard it is (because of bugs) to get to him.

[Crixalix]

How exactly do you start the quest line to get rivendare's head? I can't seem to figure it out.

[Ei]

From balnazzars head ?

[Crixalix]

From balnazzars head ?

Does it not drop everytime? =\

[Mez]

From balnazzars head ?

Does it not drop everytime? =\

have to complete the archivelist quest first, then it drops the next time you kill him

[Crixalix]

From balnazzars head ?

Does it not drop everytime? =\

have to complete the archivelist quest first, then it drops the next time you kill him


What are the rewards for the Baron's head?

[One]

Get to pick from;

Argent Avenger a light saber looking sword that procs attack power vs undead.

A 30 intel and something stamina caster staff

There was a 3rd reward but honestly I don't remember what it was, but I'm sure it was nice.