Scarlet Halls: Gold

Scarlet Halls Challenge Mode

I managed to get Gold on Scarlet Halls on my mage, and it's one of the easier challenge modes. Naturally, this guide will be for those who already know normal mode like the back of their hands, so I'll only detail differences to look out for and how to shave off time. I was in a group with a Protection Paladin, Affliction Warlock, Restoration Druid, Rogue of some sort (most likely assassination), and me as a Frost Mage. Feel free to replace any class specific abilities with similar abilities if needed.

Up to Houndmaster

Off the bat, you need two people to pick up the buckets of meat. Using these properly will be key to getting Gold. You want the tank to pick up the group of one trainer and all of the dogs, then hit him with the bucket. So long as the guy's tagged, when he's eaten by the dogs, it will count toward your kill timer. Make absolutely sure you do not wake the dogs up again. Do your best to run QUICKLY past the chained dogs, they hurt. While the second group of trainers and dogs are being handled, make sure you get one dude to carry the archery target and sprint all the way over to the group of archers. The runner needs to dodge the flame volleys the archers shoot, they are very, very deadly on Challenge Mode. By the time the runner makes it, the rest of the group should be done with the group of dogs, and waiting to engage all of the archers. Have the tank pick up the huge group of archers while the runner is stunned, then AOE as quickly as possible. You'll run into another group of buckets, use two of them on another set of trainer and dogs. You'll have to make a slight detour off the side to get a group that's usually skipped.

Houndmaster Braun

By now, on a Gold Run, you'll have 11:30 left on the timer or so, so engage the Houndmaster and take care to leave as many dogs alive as possible. The Houndmaster himself is handled pretty much the exact same way, though the bleed he does when he throws his knife hurts a bit more. Use Bloodlust here if you have it, you'll be able to use it again on the last boss.

Now, the reason you want as many dogs alive as possible is that after the boss, the guards blocking the doorway have more health and so will take longer for the dogs to eat through. If you only have a couple, it will take ages for the dogs to eat through, denying you a Gold.

Cannon Room

The trash in the cannon room consists of three main types: Defenders who take less AOE damage and makes the rest of the group take less damage, Evokers who cast Flamestrike which leaves fire zones on the ground (run out, of course), and finally Evangelists. The Evangelists are the most dangerous, if they cast Holy Fire, the person that is hit will die. The damage and DoT it leaves behind are way to high. Make sure they are interrupted and killed first.

Now, to get a Gold, you will have to skip much of this room using Stealth and Invisibility Potions (or just the spell for Mages). Take care: when you use an Invisibility Potion, you're pet's not invisible as well. Dismiss him and resummon him at the stairway on the other end. After you make it to the stairway, double back and pick up the last group of trash and kill them on the stairway. Keep the Defender CCed, then when the rest are down, drag him into Armsmaster Harlan's room and basically cleave him with the boss. Watch out for the patrol that stops right outside Armsmaster's room, and slip past when the coast is clear.

Armsmaster Harlan

Exact same as heroic mode, with one exception. Blades of Light will instantly kill you, even if you are picked up when he's just about to finish. Don't get picked up. You want the DPS to burn him fast enough to only have 2 Blades of Light tops. If you have the DPS for Gold, you should have about 7:00 to go or so. While he's doing Blades of Light, DPS the Defender you brought into the room.

Final Stretch

After Armsmaster, pull the patrol that you skipped, using line of sight so all the casters are in one big pile and keep them all interrupted and controlled. Handle em like you handled the group on the stairway, interrupting Evangelists, running out of Flamestrike, and single-targetting Defenders at the end.

Make a rush through the Treasury, chain pulling as much as you can. Keep a watch out for when you are stunned with chains, and use any stun-breaking abilities you got. If the healer's stunned, tank needs to pop cooldowns cause that damage will pick up.

When you make it to the Library, pull one group of Scholars and Pupils (interrupt the Scholar's Protection spell), and when the first group is half dead, pull the second. If you have 2 minutes or close to that left, you've got a Gold run.

Flameweaver Koegler

Flameweaver Koegler's only difference is the Book Burner spell. If it is not absorbed, everyone in the blast radius will be instantly killed. You got two ways to handle it, either the tank stands in the red line to take the hit (for far less), or have everyone stay clear of the bookcase. Bloodlust should be back up, so everyone needs to blow all DPS cooldowns and potions and wail on him. Healer should jump in as well if the damage isn't too high (it shouldn't be). We finished with about 5-6 seconds to spare, so it was really nail-biting for us.

Completing these Gold achievements rewards a teleport spell so you can quickly get to the instance when ever you want. These spells are fly-out spells, meaning they are grouped and only take one actionbar slot -that's nice. The fly-out group consists of:

[spell=131204]

Temple of the Jade Serpent: Gold

[spell=131205]

Stormstout Brewery: Gold

[spell=131206]

Shado-Pan Monastery: Gold

[spell=131222]

Mogu'shan Palace: Gold

[spell=131225]

Gate of the Setting Sun: Gold

→

[spell=131231]

Scarlet Halls: Gold

[spell=131229]

Scarlet Monastery: Gold

[spell=131232]

Scholomance: Gold

[spell=131228]

Siege of Niuzao Temple: Gold

The complete list (in case this gets outdated) of Gold dungeon challenge achievements can be found here.

Also, if you ever wonder what heroics you have yet to complete and unlock challenge mode for, simply paste this into the chat on your character:
/run for x,i in ipairs({6456,6470,6756,6758,6759,6760,6761,6762,6763})do local _,_,_,c,_,_,_,_,_,_,_,_,m,b=GetAchievementInfo(i)print(x,"\124cff"..(m and"00ff00C"or"ff0000Inc").."ompleted\124r",GetAchievementLink(i))end

Remember once the archers pull, they stop firing knock backs. We had our monk tank pick up a shield and roll to the front in secs. Shaved enough seconds to he gold. I've seen hunters disengage to the front and pop CDs, so find a runner that can pull and not die.