The Culling of Time
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- 10
- The Culling of Time
- Defeat Infinite Corruptor in the Culling of Stratholme on Heroic Difficulty.
The Culling of Time is a dungeon & raids achievement earned for defeating Infinite Corruptor in the Culling of Stratholme on Heroic difficulty.
Strategy
The ideal group to achieve this would have:
- Paladin Tank (or well geared/skilled warrior. A warrior utilizing Charge may get out of range of a healer, and must be able to take a few hits or utilize abilities with cooldowns, like
[Last Stand] and/or 
[Enraged Regeneration]) - DPS (any type with AoE spells/abilities)
- Healer with AoE or Mass Heals (Druid HoTs, Shaman's
[Chain Heal], Paladin's 
[Beacon of Light])
Notes
- Spam AoE abilities to do dps on non-elite and elite mobs at the same time.
- Ignore non-elite zombies as much as possible; use instant cast AoEs to handle any large groups of them that may be stunning you while running to the next group of elite mobs.
- Do NOT stop to loot during the first 10 wave phase. The time spent looting is time not spent running to the next set of mobs, which is also precious time you may require to take down the optional boss, the Infinite Corruptor. There will be time to loot the boss and any nearby mobs after a boss is killed.
- Liberal use of the Paladin's
[Consecration] or a Warrior's 
[Thunder Clap] and 
[Challenging Shout] (as needed) to maintain threat on elite mobs. - Preliminary Phase can now be skipped by talking to Chromie and choosing the second option. She will teleport you to the gateway to Stratholme City.
- Instance timer will not start until a party member enters combat, which will also save the group to that instance.
Preliminary Phase, Non-timed
- Talk to Chromie and get the
[Arcane Disruptor] - Reveal the crates of plagued grain using the [Arcane Disruptor]
- Chromie will appear further up the road to the north-west
- Talk to Chromie again and this will start the cinematic event where Arthas orders the city purged
- If you've seen the cinematic once, I would recommend running past it and into the grand gateway of Stratholme and begin preparing for the instance (Food, Flasks, Buffs, etc.)
Phase One: Waves
In the first phase, there are a total of 5 random spawn points:
- Kings Square East, right in front of the gateway to Festival Lane. First Pull will be here.
- Kings Square West, just south of the closed gateway to Market Row.
- Kings Square Southwest, Next to the fountain
- Festival Lane North, Near the closed gate to Market Row and will path south of the city hall.
- Festival Lane South, Near the fountain.
- Arthas will eventually join you in the gateway. Once Prepared, talk to him and start the cinematic with Mal'Ganis. Run past him towards the split in the road and turn to the right, facing the gateway into festival lane. Your first pull will be 3 Ghouls, and they will spawn right in front of you shortly after Mal'Ganis disappears. The 25 minute timer will start as soon as these mobs spawn. You will also see a whisper from Chromie.
- Run to every spawn point as soon as the flag/arrow pops up on your mini map for the next pull. Again, do not stop to loot!
- Every wave will seem a random variety of mobs, however they spawn the same way every time. I would recommend killing them in this order: Necromancers, Crypt fiends, Abominations, and Ghouls.
- Between the 5th (First boss, Meathook) and 6th waves, there will be a little less than a minute to loot and allow mana users to replenish their mana.
- The 10th and final wave will Salramm the Fleshcrafter. If he spawns (and you kill him) in Festival Lane, you may have to wait for Arthas to run from the entrance of Kings Square to city hall (Northern most part of Festival Lane). This will give your casters/healer to replenish their mana.
- Once Arthas is standing in front of city hall, talk to him as soon as possible to start the next phase.
You should have 12 or 13 minutes remaining...
Phase Two: Infinite Dragon Flight
- Arthas will enter city hall and will attack one of the 3 humans standing there. The human will laugh at Arthas and the 3 will transform into Infinite Dragonkin. The female one in the middle will spawn into an Infinite Agent. It is recommended as they are casters, and have weak aggro tables, to kill these first.
- After the first 3 are dead, quickly run up the stairs in the back of the room. Ranged DPS and healer should proceed to the tables on the landing, while the tank and melee DPS wait a few steps from the top of the stairs. 4 more will spawn from a portal. Ranged DPS should wait by the railing for the next pull.
- The next pull will be a little tricky, and I've seen it done a couple ways. Basically, what will happen is Arthas will run forward into this enclosed hallway, and 2
Infinite Agent <Infinite Agents> (Caster) will spawn on the closest side and 2 Infinite Hunter <Infinite Hunters> (melee) will spawn on the far side. It will take them 2 or 3 seconds before they attack after spawning.
- Warrior: Run to far end, Thunderclap and aggro the hunters, then Charge one of the agents and Challenging Shout.
- Paladin: Consecration under the spawning agents, and run to the far end, aggro the hunters and use
[Avenger's Shield] on the agents to silence and further establish threat.
- Once that 4-pull is downed, run into the next room. Another 4 pull will spawn in the middle of the room.
- After those 4 mobs are downed, the boss, Chrono-Lord Epoch, will spawn on the steps toward the back of the room. A short conversation will ensue between Epoch and Arthas.
- Kill Epoch quickly and talk to Arthas, immediately! Loot after talking to Arthas and he is walking to the book case. Healer and casters should replenish their mana during the looting.
- Take the secret passage that Arthas just opened (jump over the railing on the other side to save a few seconds).
You should have ~8 minutes remaining...
The next phase will be the hardest.
Phase Three: The Gauntlet
- The tank and healer should run ahead and start grabbing 2 or 3 (or more, if the tank is able)
- One DPS will stay back a second or two and talk to Arthas at the doorway, then immediately join the fray.
- The mobs in this area are on really long paths, so it's very easy to get overwhelmed if you take on too much too fast.
- Beware the cultists, as they will generally go after the healers if the tank doesn't grab them first.
- Keep moving, if needed, when you're approaching the gateway, drag a couple elite mobs with you to the next, using
[Charge] or [Avenger's Shield]. - Don't stop in the archway, even though Arthas suggests it. Move straight through it to the next set of mobs.
- The gauntlet will end after you reach Market Row.
- Do not talk to Arthas. Instead, take a left and head into Market Row. There you will find the optional boss.
You should have 3 to 5 minutes remaining...
Infinite Corruptor Boss Fight
- This boss fight is your typical tank-n-spank.
- If you're getting low on time (i.e. 1 minute or less remaining), pull him back as far as you can into market row.
- Should the timer hit 0 he will retreat back to his portal and disappear, however DPS can still hit him while he's retreating to his portal, so there is still a chance DPS can manage to kill him during his retreat. (From personal experience, and barring any change that the developers may or may not have implemented, this still counts as a kill and you will still get the achievement and loot.)
See also
Patch changes
Patch 3.0.2 (2008-10-14): Added.