Quick Facts

Series

1.	Against the Giants
2.	Basic Chemistry

Storyline
Icecrown Honor Above All Else Curing The Incurable Defending The Vanguard Scourge Tactics If There Are Survivors... Into The Wild Green Yonder A Cold Front Approaches The Last Line Of Defense Once More Unto The Breach, Hero Once More Unto The Breach, Hero The Scourgestone The Restless Dead The Purging Of Scourgeholme The Stone That Started A Revolution It Could Kill Us All The Air Stands Still Into The Frozen Heart Of Northrend The Battle For Crusaders' Pinnacle The Crusaders' Pinnacle Orgrim's Hammer The Broken Front Takes One to Know One Poke and Prod That's Abominable! Against the Giants Coprous the Defiled Basic Chemistry Sneak Preview Chain of Command Cannot Reproduce Retest Now Not a Bug Need More Info No Rest For The Wicked Raise the Barricades Bloodspattered Banners Blinding the Eyes in the Sky The Ironwall Rampart Before the Gate of Horror The Guardians of Corp'rethar Shatter the Shards It's All Fun and Games I Have an Idea, But First... Free Your Mind If He Cannot Be Turned The Shadow Vault The Duke Opportunity Establishing Superiority Blow it Up! A Short Fuse Parting Gifts An Undead's Best Friend Honor is for the Weak From Whence They Came Seeds of Chaos Amidst the Confusion Vereth the Cunning New Recruit The Vile Hold Generosity Abounds Matchmaker Stunning View The Rider of the Unholy The Rider of Frost The Rider of Blood The Fate of Bloodbane Eliminate the Competition The Bone Witch The Sum is Greater than the Parts The Art of Being a Water Terror Through the Eye Find the Ancient Hero Not-So-Honorable Combat Banshee's Revenge Battle at Valhalas Battle at Valhalas: Fallen Heroes Battle at Valhalas: Khit'rix the Dark Master Battle at Valhalas: The Return of Sigrid Iceborn Battle at Valhalas: Carnage! Battle at Valhalas: Thane Deathblow Battle at Valhalas: Final Challenge Where Are They Coming From? Destroying the Altars Death's Gaze Spill Their Blood Jagged Shards I'm Smelting... Smelting! The Runesmiths of Malykriss A Visit to the Doctor By Fire Be Purged Killing Two Scourge With One Skeleton He's Gone to Pieces Putting Olakin Back Together Again The Flesh Giant Champion A Voice in the Dark Time to Hide Return to the Surface Field Repairs Do Your Worst Army of the Damned Futility Cradle of the Frostbrood Where Dragons Fell Time for Answers The Hunter and the Prince Knowledge is a Terrible Burden Argent Aid Tirion's Gambit A Tale of Valor A Hero Remains The Keeper's Favor Hope Within the Emerald Nightmare The Boon of Remulos Time Yet Remains The Touch of an Aspect Dahlia's Tears The Boon of Alexstrasza Hope Yet Remains The Will of the Naaru The Boon of A'dal Light Within the Darkness

Screenshots

Videos

Comments

Comment by Syzygy

You need to be at least 3 imo, mobs immune to snare / root, but can be stunned.

Comment by Nawww

2-manned as a resto druid and prot war. the mobs that come out are easy, however any damage will disrupt channeling the fluid. Even from the aura of the big zombies. We had to juggle mobs every other fluid with the druid getting into bear form, also the zombie mobs will randomly drop aggro and run toward the person with the fluid. Very intense to 2-man and not reccomended for the average player. Would be very easy to 3 man tho.

Comment by djsixpack14

2-manned as Ret Paladin and Prot Paladin. I would recommend 3 or more, though.

Comment by Moritsume

I had trouble completing this quest, as trying it with two groups yielded numerous "no valid targets" messages and we gave up. I just spoke to a gm about this, who said, "Ahh you have to do it in the correct order. Much like the statues in ST". I will update with a screenshot and actual completion info if his advice works. Hoep this helps in the meantime though!

Comment by 226165

Still broken today on 6th December 2008

Comment by 206105

It's still broken today as well.. Walked in, killed a mob, tried to throw it in.. Nothing but Invalid Target.. Lovely way to start a day...

Comment by 123654_

The names of the rewards are a reference to Shakespeare's Macbeth:

"Eye of newt, and toe of frog,
Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,
Adder's fork, and blind-worm's sting,
Lizard's leg, and howlet's wing,--
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble."

Comment by Kupotek

Broken as of December 12, 2008

Comment by 83604

Does completing this quest open up any others, or can we just ignore it since it's buggy?

Comment by Lazlo

I was only able to start this quest at one of the three cauldrons. Twice it said that it was neutralized but it didn't complete.

Comment by 55422

How about some useful comments as to why when we add the fluid when it says to add we get failed message after doing it over and over for 14 minutes

Comment by 42126

I checked when I turned the quest in and it appears to only lead to the daily version of the same quest (Neutralizing the Plague).

Comment by 295049

broken on Frostmane-US as of 1-3

Comment by Zorrah

Still broken on Draka-US as of 1-5. We've been checking for 3 days now.

The usual response from a GM ticket "We're aware of the problem and are working on it".

Comment by 292590

it seems to be working fine now. At least it did for me, but for some reason the mobs took some time to spawn.

Comment by 115135

Still broken on Bloodhoof-US as of January 11.

Comment by zghuk

again broken...

Comment by 55214

Still bugged as January 12 on Dentarg-EU. Hoping for patch to resolve the problem

Comment by ravenmeister

Works perfectlt no problems, all you need to do is to add fluids in time and not die ^^
(cant be soloed since the fluids have cd needs 3 peps to complete)

Comment by djlinks

Quest line as follows:
1.The Broken Front
2.Takes One to Know One
3.Poke and Prod
-That's Abominable! (Daily version)
4.Against the Giants
-Coprous the Defiled
5.Basic Chemistry

Comment by 72345

I didn't see anyone mention this, so I'll add that you don't need to wait until the cauldron warns you to add more fluid to actually add more fluid. If you do it as soon as the cooldown comes up and you are able to, it becomes a lot less frustrating.

Comment by Whiterock

ORGRIM'S HAMMER Quest Tree From Whiterock
Give + to 02/12/2009 djlinks aswell.

The Crusaders' Pinnacle* 1)Preparations for War
|->The Skybreaker(A)* The Shadow Vault*
| |
1)Orgrim's Hammer------->Opportunity*
|___________________________________________
| |->2)Mind Tricks |->D)Blood of the Chosen
3)The Broken Front |->D)Slaves to Saronite |->2)Joining the Assault
| +3)Avenge Me! |->2)Get to Ymirheim! |->D)Assault by Air
|->D)Make Them Pay! D)King of the Mountain |->D)Assault by Ground
|
|------------------------>1)Good For Something?
1)Takes One to Know One 3)Volatility-->D)Volatility
3)Poke and Prod 5)Green Technology
|________________________ 6)Fringe Science Benefits
| | |->D)Riding the Wavelength: The Bombardment
3)That's Abominable! | |->D)Total Ohmage: The Valley of Lost Hope!
|->D)That's Abominable! |
| 4)Against the Giants
5)Sneak Preview |->4)Coprous the Defiled
|->5)Chain of Command |->4)Basic Chemistry-->D)Neutralizing the Plague
|->5)Cannot Reproduce
| 5)Retest Now-->D)Retest Now
|
5)Drag and Drop-->D)Drag and Drop
|->5)Not a Bug-->D)Not a Bug
|
5)Need More Info----------------->5)No Rest For The Wicked
| |->D)No Rest For The Wicked
| |
7)Raise the Barricades----------->8)The Ironwall Rampart
|->8)Blinding the Eyes in the Sky |
| D)Keeping the Alliance Blind |
| |
8)Bloodspattered Banners |
|_________________________________|
|
9)Before the Gate of Horror
| \
9)Shatter the Shards 9)The Guardians of Corp'rethar

Amped for Revolt!(doesn't work/exist)
Quest Zones:
1)Orgrim's Hammer_____2)Ymirheim_____3)Broken Front_____4)Mord'Rethar_____5)Aldur'thar_____6)The Bombardment_____7)Valley of Lost Hope_____8)Valley of Fallen Heroes_____9)Corp'rethar
D)Daily
*Click to see more info about that quest-line.
The Icecrown is done! Leave your comments/sugestions at my comment in Icecrown zone. Thanks everyone who helped me to make it via comments on wowhead and in-game pre-quest tracking.

@elysiandreams: Ye, that would be really amazing :D

Comment by TheMuffinMan

Despite the (rather obvious) Macbeth reference, "Bat-Wool Signet" could be a Batman reference.
Bat Signet.
Bat Signal.

Hell, look at the icon.

Comment by 412372

i cant find anyone on this quest and i am also wondering if it becomes a daily

Comment by 341578

THIS QUEST DRIIVES ME INSANE AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH SPAM CLEANING BRB

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH I CLEANS

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Comment by htgome

copy from the ally version of the quest:

At least as of patch 4.0.?, you CAN solo this!
(I just did, and so did an amiable hordie at another cauldron while I was doing mine).

I also solo'd it on level 80 ret pally. I died 5 times but never got interrupted when adding fluid even though I was getting hit. Guess Blizzard nerf'd it so you'll finish them quick and go out and get Cata.

so as me you don't keep thinking this quest is un-soloable and try effortlessly to find someone else to quest with.
I confirm it too, as i did this quest now, was not an easy task but it's soloable!

Comment by 729533

For those who dont know what to do:

Go next to a cauldron and use the potion. Mobs will spawn. Kill them as quick as you can and use the potion again. You have to do this for a few times before the cauldron is actually neutralized.

Comment by 644140

(For those such as myself who fly way above the ground/do not pay attention to quest dialogue) the cauldrons to neutralize are inside the spire, which can be entered by landing on the "road" structure Mord'rethar and NOT the village of those viking guys (Ymirheim).

Comment by 807334

This quest can be a bit frustrating.....bcause u may have to try several times b4 u get it completed. My best tip is o keep an eye on the cooldown, an as soon as it is down, use the potion again and again..fight the mobs down as soon as possible....i had to try 4 times b4 the q was completed.

Comment by 835647

Wana talk about frustrating the q completed and i died a split sec later and didn't get credit for the q. had been working on it for 10 min. now i gotta start all over again. That's frustrating.

BTW the only way to get this is if you follow the advise listed above and keep adding fluid as soon as it times out

Comment by Ladria

Was just doing this for my Icecrown: The Final Goal , and this has got to be the best quest ever to complete Test Your Strength that I have come across. Thought it was worth to mention :)

In addition: all the small adds drops money, gear etc as well, so its easy farming for cloth and cash at the same time :)

Comment by 1035812

Was able to solo with level 84 hunter with cat pet.

Found it helped to stand on top of pile of nearby boxes. Stayed on boxes when I used potion - did not need to be right next to the cauldron.

Being on the boxes kept the slime things away from me enough to kill them quickly, or let them target my pet, not me.

Comment by R1NN1

Took 30 %^&*ing minutes to accomplish this quest.

Comment by firemonkey18

Was able to solo this as a lvl 79 Prot Warrior. Just keep using Victory Rush to keep your health up and use the neutralizing agent when its ready.

Comment by AchimPeters

The cauldrons are in a cave at one of the ends of the Death Gate, entrance is at 63,62

You can chose the cauldron next to the entrance on your left. You start pouring the Spinal Fluid into the cauldron (just "use" it next to it). Creatures start coming out of the cauldron, which you have to kill, but in between you have to reuse the Spinal Fluid again and again and keep pouring it.

The first three times (each after a while) it said, that the neutralizing failed.

I just started over and over again, and finally I succeeded. I guess you have to be patient.

I solo'd this as a level 83 warrior.

Comment by Propulson

you can't even complete this as a DK at all so skip it

Comment by erple2

I just completed the quest solo as my level 79 Protection Paladin. I don't have any heirloom gear nor any gear purchased off the AH. Just gear from dungeons and quests up to this point (though I DO have Chuchu's Tiny Box of Horrors - so there's that). There are two things at play here:

Strategy was pretty normal. Just AoE damage everything that comes out of the cauldron. That means Consecration, Hammer of the Righteous, Holy Wrath and Avenger's Shield. Sometimes, a single creature with about 50k xp would pop out of the cauldron, or two creatures with about 25k health. Usually, however, it was a "Swarm" of goo that would do about 300-400 damage per hit. Those were the harder ones to deal with (sort of - though easily mitigated with the Eternal Flame replacement of Word of Glory). Things are pretty silly as a Protection Paladin at these levels, though. Other classes (especially clothies) will probably have a harder time with it.

While I did have one instance where the screen prompted me to "quickly add more fluid!", that was right before the cooldown was up on the Pustulant Spinal Fluid. I recall (perhaps incorrectly - my memory has faded over time) in the 3.x days that if you didn't add more fluid shortly thereafter, the quest would fail.

Comment by WokkaD

This is the same area as Coprous the Defiled is in.
The entrance is at 63.59 62.12 at the same level as the top of the wall.

Comment by 1440987

Basic Chemistry http://youtu.be/HvO7ZRdkyhA

Comment by 1440987

Basic Chemistry https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvO7ZRdkyhA

Comment by ultros7

Solo'd this as a level 79 Hunter, no BoAs at all, only outdated questing gear (some of it from Outland), ilvl 154
It was by far the toughest thing so far in the leveling process, took a few tries, but I was determined to do it.

I used a Turtle pet, used the move command to keep him away from me and stood back but just close enough to be inside the range of the neutralizer.
I spammed Glyph of Misdirection and Mend Pet, and always kept Beast Cleaver up, that's half the battle.

I also recommend Dire Beast and A Murder of Crows, they're both amazing damage.

In my case it was certain death if the cauldron spawned two groups of slimes in a row, that part was RNG, and the rest was just barely scraping by doing as much DPS as I could and keeping all those abilities up.

Comment by WoWGnGP

i made i playthrough of this quest if anyone wish to see how to do it :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aefkQfpxQ4c&feature=youtu.be

Comment by Kartagh

Use the item 10 times if you do the quest alone.

Comment by bobsjobisfob

i managed to heal through the entire thing as a 71 void elf disc priest. just barely had enough mana from spamming shadow mend

Comment by Koterulezz

How to solo this on any level and with any gear.
1. Die somewhere close to middle cauldron.
2. Rez on the ledge under the skull on the wall. See image (https://imgur.com/a/b90Bi)
3. Use potion. Anything that spawns from the cauldron will do nothing. Repeat about 10 times. Voila.

Comment by KnuckleSandwich

A previous comment detailed how you could stand on a ledge and solo the quest. Found that I was hit by the mobs anyway and could not complete it. Found an even better place to stand here: https://imgur.com/Oxb3c9u

Hopefully it helps anyone going for Loremaster like I am (and didnt realise I should do Icecrown on my main)

Comment by debbbole

With the new "LoS" system, seems you can try this... As a rogue, you can stay on the cauldron behind the corner on the right of the cauldron. You can easily get there by using Grappling Hook and go in/out stealth after each channel of the vial (quest item). Just submitted a screenshot waiting for approval to help. I suppose you can get there in many other ways and, in the end, by flying there before unmount or ress there after death. Didn't try by jumping. Aggroed just a slime, easy kill, but this means that mobs can hit you.

The cauldron will spawn many mobs, from easy slimes (about 3k health) to elite ghouls (about 8k health) so i suppose that soloing this at the proper level will be very difficult.

Comment by Itavian

This is how I solo'd this quest as a level 70 disc priest in patch 8.1

I used levitate to get up onto the back ledge below the hanging skull (in screenshots). I found getting on top of the hanging skull as a ghost did not work because it would not allow me to use the quest item from up there. I used the quest item once and waited. Occasionally an ooze or a ghoul would spawn and attack me and I was able to heal through it using only power word: shield and shadow mend. I waited for the prompt that told me to use the fluid NOW. This allowed me to get credit for completion.

Along the way I learned you did not need to just spam the quest item, you use it once and wait it out. This would probably be fairly easy on a stealth class or a class that has a pet but I died quite a few times trying to do this as a priest. Good luck to those of you that cannot find help to complete this, but it is doable (if you have heals).

Comment by Seahnjin

Neither cheese tactic written here (i.e. standing on the ledge behind the cauldron or up on the skull) worked for me as of patch 8.2.5.

Still managed to do it as a 81 Survival Hunter thanks to a mixture of Camouflage and Play Dead. Although standing on the ledge still makes you vulnerable to hits (and annoyingly doesn't really allow you to hit back because of LoS issues), it does reduce the aggro radius somewhat while allowing you to pour liquid.

Comment by truncator

I managed to solo it by standing in this spot southwest of the big cauldron: https://i.imgur.com/QBE1dy8.png

A few of the smaller Living Plague aggro'd toward the end but the elites never targeted me and despawned eventually.

Comment by BananaBomb

As of 9.0, this is how I "cheated" the elite quests in Icecrown.
Leveled in Nothrend using Chromie-time. Went to Icecrown as level 29 and had some real problems soloing with the 5man elite quests.
So I did some of the easier quests up to like lvl 35, when I had a handfull of the 5man quests,
I went to Stormwind, asked Chromie to take me back to the present.
Went back to Icecrown and one-shotted the elites, as the zone only scales to lvl 30.
Headed back to Stormwind and Chromie, turned the "timewalking" back on and turned in the elite quests in Icecrwon.

Comment by Liyka

Did this solo as a level 30 Prot Warrior and the best thing I found was to stand behind the largest of the three cauldrons since from there it seemed that when I used the item the things that spawned didn't really know what to do for a few seconds so just repeat that a few times and you're golden.

Comment by Bluffwatcher

If you came here wondering how long? About 10 vial drops. Keep going.

Comment by T666

the fluid has 1:30 cooldown so how am i spose to add more fluid before then

Links

Basic Chemistry

Koltira Deathweaver aboard Orgrim's Hammer wants you to use Pustulant Spinal Fluid on a plague cauldron at Mord'rethar.

	Plague Cauldron Neutralized (1)
	Suggested players: 5 (1)

Provided item:

	Pustulant Spinal Fluid (1)

Description

<Koltira takes the pustulant spines and drains their fluid into a flask.>

A little-known quality of the flesh giants...

Their spinal fluid interacts with the plague in a very interesting way, turning it into a corrosive acid.

Poured from the towering ramparts, acid may not be a welcome sight to the troops below, but at least the victims won't rise up and add to the enemy's numbers.

Pour the contents of this flask into one of the plague cauldrons in the western chamber of the death gate.

Completion

Rewards

You will be able to choose one of these rewards:

	Newt-Eye Ring			Bat-Wool Signet
	Frog-Toe Band

You will receive:

Gains

Upon completion of this quest you will gain:

See if you've already completed this by typing:

/run print(C_QuestLog.IsQuestFlaggedCompleted(13279))