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Expeditions,
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Culture
“When High General Abbendis was confronted at New Hearthglen, the grand admiral protected himself within an impenetrable sphere of magic before making his escape. I am particularly adept at nullifying magic. Take this to use against him inside The Hidden Hollow when he puts the sphere up. I wish that I could be there to see the look on his face when you do it.
Deal with him.”
-Lord-Commander Arete
Lord-Commander Arete wants you to deal with Grand Admiral Westwind. Return to the lord-commander upon Death’s Rise after you have done so.
Suggested players: 5
Provided item:
You will be able to choose one of these rewards:
You will also receive:
Upon completion of this quest you will gain:
Quest Giver: Lord-Commander Arete – Death’s Rise, Icecrown [19.5, 48.1]
Objective: Confront and defeat Grand Admiral Westwind in the Hidden Hollow at Onslaught Harbor. Return to Arete at Death’s Rise.
Quick Facts
| Phase | Form | Max HP | Key Details |
|---|---|---|---|
| Phase 1 | Grand Admiral Westwind (Human) | ~228,000 | Tank and spank. Melee + Whirlwind. Stunnable, rootable, disarmable, fearable. |
| Transition (~50% HP) | Protection Sphere | Immune | Activates an immunity bubble. Use the Lord-Commander’s Nullifier immediately. |
| Phase 2 (~45% HP) | Dreadlord Mal’Ganis | ~327,000 (scaled to current %) | Transforms. Gains new abilities. Not stunnable. HP percentage carries over. |
| Defeat (~0.5% HP) | Escape | N/A | Mal’Ganis stops fighting, opens a portal, delivers dialogue, and escapes. Quest completes. |
| Ability | Type | Damage | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Melee | Physical | ~1,600-2,000 per hit | Harder hitting than Phase 1. |
| Carrion Swarm | Shadow AoE DoT | ~300 per 2 sec | Frontal cone. Manageable damage. |
| Mind Blast | Shadow direct | ~2,000 | Cast on random targets (not just tank). ~10 sec cooldown. |
| Sleep | CC | 3 sec disorient | ~10 sec cooldown. Targets random players. Breaks on damage. |
| Vampiric Touch | Self-heal | % of melee damage | Heals Mal’Ganis based on his melee damage dealt. Maintain steady DPS to outpace it. |
Walkthrough
Getting to the Hidden Hollow
Phase 1: Grand Admiral Westwind
Transition: Protection Sphere
Phase 2: Dreadlord Mal’Ganis
Return to Lord-Commander Arete
The Stun Trick (Exploit)
If you stun, fear, or CC Westwind at exactly the moment he would transform (around 45-50% HP, just after the shield break), he will remain in human form for the rest of the fight.
This skips Phase 2 entirely, keeping him stunnable, rootable, and significantly easier. It is confirmed that this works: warriors (Concussion Blow, Revenge stuns), paladins (Hammer of Justice), rogues (Kidney Shot), druids (Bash), and warlocks (Fear). Some players have even accidentally triggered it without realizing it, reporting that the boss “never transformed” as a bug. It is almost certainly an unintended behavior, but it was never patched.
If you lost the Nullifier quest item, the stun trick can also prevent the Protection Sphere from activating, bypassing the need for the item entirely.
This quest is generally considered easier to solo than Second Chances. Many who struggled with Archbishop Landgren found Westwind/Mal’Ganis straightforward by comparison. The stun trick makes it trivial for any class with a stun.
| Class/Spec | Solo Difficulty | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Protection Paladin | Easy | Seal of Light, Sacred Shield, Shadow Resist Aura. Multiple commenters report finishing at full health. |
| Retribution Paladin | Moderate | Seal of Light, Art of War heals, save bubble/LoH for emergencies. Mana management matters. |
| Blood/Unholy DK | Easy | Death Strike sustain. AMS for Phase 2 Shadow damage. Army of the Dead for early burst. |
| BM Hunter | Easy | Pet tanks, Mend Pet, save cooldowns for Phase 2. Freezing Trap for regen breaks. |
| Feral Druid (Bear) | Easy | Bear form sustain. |
| Affliction/Demo Warlock | Easy | Voidwalker/Felguard tank + DoTs + Drain Life. Avoid fear (can cause reset). |
| Shadow Priest | Moderate | Inner Fire mandatory. Use Whirlwind windows to heal/reDoT. Dispersion for Phase 2 burst. |
| Enhancement Shaman | Easy | Wolves + Shamanistic Rage. Burn cooldowns on Phase 2. |
| Elemental Shaman | Moderate | Earth Elemental for Phase 2 tank. Bloodlust + nuke. Self-healing intensive. |
| Frost Mage | Easy (with stun trick) | Not kiteable normally, but Deep Freeze at transformation prevents Phase 2. Without the trick, very difficult. |
| Prot Warrior | Moderate | Viable in T9+ gear. Bloodthirst spec preferred. Stun trick makes it trivial. |
Efficiency Tips
Lore & Secrets
The Big Reveal
This is the payoff for the entire Death’s Rise storyline. Grand Admiral Barean Westwind was never actually alive.
The real Westwind died off the Frozen Coast of Northrend years before the events of WotLK, and a statue was erected in his honor in the Scarlet Monastery’s Hall of Champions. The “Westwind” who appeared at New Hearthglen was the dreadlord Mal’Ganis wearing the dead admiral’s body as a disguise.
This mirrors exactly what happened to the original Scarlet Crusade, which was secretly controlled by the dreadlord Balnazzar posing as Grand Crusader Dathrohan. The Scarlet zealots have been infiltrated and manipulated by dreadlords twice over, each time believing they served the Light while actually serving demons.
As Arete laughs in the completion text: “The fools were taken in by the demons yet again.”
Mal’Ganis’s History
Mal’Ganis is one of the most significant recurring villains in Warcraft lore. He was the dreadlord who orchestrated the plague of undeath in Lordaeron, manipulated Prince Arthas into pursuing him to Northrend, and was the first being killed by Frostmourne.
As a nathrezim, his death was not permanent. His goal with the Scarlet Onslaught was to build an army capable of destroying the Lich King, allowing Mal’Ganis to take personal revenge on Arthas for that first defeat.
His parting words are loaded with irony: “You’ll never defeat the Lich King without my forces.” Players, of course, go on to do exactly that in Icecrown Citadel.
Cross-Expansion Connections
Arete’s Quest Text Detail
Arete’s description of himself as “particularly adept at nullifying magic” is a callback to his character as established throughout this chain. He’s been the tactical mind behind every step of the investigation, and here he provides the one tool you need for the fight.
His closing line about wishing he “could be there to see the look on his face” is a rare moment of personality from an NPC who is usually all business.
Explore Icecrown’s hidden easter eggs, lore mysteries, and connections across Warcraft history in Vikstone’s Icecrown Chronicles, along with the complete quest storyline.
Vikstone's War Journal“When High General Abbendis was confronted at New Hearthglen, the grand admiral protected himself within an impenetrable sphere of magic before making his escape. I am particularly adept at nullifying magic. Take this to use against him inside The Hidden Hollow when he puts the sphere up.”
The Lord-Commander’s Nullifier came off his belt and into my hand, and he offered no account of how it worked.
“I wish that I could be there to see the look on his face when you do it. Deal with him.”
Cytoplasm and Combatant met me at the mouth of the hollow. The death knight’s runeblade was making a sound I have not heard off one before, low and unsettled. Combatant checked his shield straps.
The hollow opens on the island’s south end, where Landgren’s soul had said it would. We went through Scarlet zealots who had no notion what they were dying for. The Onslaught Darkweavers in the corridors were throwing fel, which is not a thing a Scarlet crusader has any business having in his hands.
Westwind was in the northwest corner of the cave, crimson armor on black ice.
He fought as a man for a while and he talked the whole time he was doing it. When Combatant went down and had to be brought back up off the floor, Westwind found it funny.
“Haha, incompetence at its finest.”
Then the sphere came up around him, the same one Arete had watched him leave inside at New Hearthglen. I put the Nullifier into it.
“WHAT?!” The thing came apart around him. “No matter. Even without my sphere, I will crush you! Behold my true identity and despair!”
The armor came off him from the inside. Wings out, the whole shape of him running like something heated and then settling into something else, and what was standing on that ice afterward was a dreadlord.
Mal’Ganis.
I have been in a room with that face before. At New Hearthglen he looked down at Abbendis long enough to be certain she was dead and then stopped thinking about her.
Cytoplasm’s runeblade stopped making the low sound and started making a worse one. He knew the name. Every man the Lich King ever made traces back through Frostmourne, and Frostmourne was that thing’s idea of a joke.
Carrion came off him in swarms and ate at us. The shadow got in behind the eyes and pulled toward a sleep I did not want to find out about. Combatant took the worst of that, and I put my shoulder into him hard enough to break it. Everything the dreadlord landed closed on him and opened on us.
We drove him back regardless.
He left rather than finish it. Up off the ice, something about gathering strength elsewhere, and out through a portal in the air.
“MAL’GANIS?!!” The lord-commander laughed with abandon.
“The fools were taken in by the demons yet again and now they are destroyed! I trust that my favorite warrior will stick around long enough to help us finish off the rest of them?” Then, when I had not answered: “Perhaps one of these would convince you?”
Sikotic had been right, back in Dragonblight, standing over Abbendis’s body. “That wasn’t a man,” he’d said. “I know what moves behind a stolen face.”
He’d known. And now we all did.
Icecrown’s western coast was finished and the Argent Crusade had spent the whole war building something on the eastern side that had nothing to do with any of it, which is where Vikstone goes next for The Argent Tournament.
