Trial of the Crusader Not Starting? Here’s What You Need to Know

If you are a World of Warcraft player who enjoys soloing old raids for transmog, achievements, or mounts, you may have encountered a frustrating issue with the Trial of the Crusader raid in Icecrown. Sometimes, the bosses won’t spawn, the portal won’t work, or the difficulty won’t change. In this article, we will explain why this happens and how to fix it.

Why Trial of the Crusader Not Starting?

The Trial of the Crusader is a raid that was introduced in patch 3.2 of Wrath of the Lich King expansion. It consists of five boss encounters that test the skills and teamwork of the players. The raid has two modes: normal and heroic, and two sizes: 10-man and 25-man. The difficulty and loot vary depending on the mode and size.

However, some players have reported that they can’t start the raid at all, or they can’t switch between modes or sizes. There are several possible reasons for this:

• The raid is bugged. This is the most common and frustrating reason. Sometimes, the bosses won’t spawn after the previous encounter is cleared, or the NPC that starts the fight won’t appear. This can happen on any difficulty or size, but it seems to be more frequent on heroic mode. This bug has been reported for years, but Blizzard has not fixed it yet.
• The raid is locked by an event. This is a rare but possible reason. During some events, such as the Shadowlands pre-patch event in 2020, the area around the raid was under attack by the Scourge, and the portal was inaccessible. This was fixed after the event was over.
• The raid requires normal mode completion before heroic mode. This is a simple but often overlooked reason. Unlike most raids, Trial of the Crusader requires you to clear it on normal mode before you can access heroic mode on the same week . This means that if you enter on heroic mode first, you won’t be able to start the fight until you reset the instance and switch to normal mode.

How to Fix Trial of the Crusader Not Starting?

If you are facing any of these issues with Trial of the Crusader, here are some possible solutions:

• Reset the instance. This is the easiest and most common solution. If you encounter a bug or a lockout, you can try to reset the instance by leaving it and right-clicking on your portrait to select “Reset all instances”. This will reset your progress and allow you to enter again on any difficulty or size.
• Check your difficulty and size settings. This is another simple solution. If you want to do heroic mode, make sure you have cleared normal mode first on the same week. You can change your difficulty and size settings by right-clicking on your portrait and selecting “Raid difficulty” and “Legacy raid size”.
• Wait for a fix or an event to end. This is the last resort solution. If none of the above solutions work, you may have to wait for Blizzard to fix the bug or for an event to end before you can access the raid again.

We hope this article has helped you understand why Trial of the Crusader not starting and how to fix it. If you have any questions or feedback, feel free to leave a comment below.

What are the Rewards for Trial of the Crusader?

One of the reasons why players want to do Trial of the Crusader is because of the rewards. The raid offers a variety of loot, achievements, and mounts that can appeal to different types of players.

Some of the loot that you can get from Trial of the Crusader are:

• Weapons, armor, and trinkets with item level 232 (normal 10-man), 245 (heroic 10-man and normal 25-man), or 258 (heroic 25-man).
• Trophies of the Crusade, which can be used to buy tier 9 set pieces from vendors in Dalaran.
• Crusader Orbs, which can be used to craft epic items with item level 245.
• Regalia of the Grand Conqueror, Regalia of the Grand Protector, and Regalia of the Grand Vanquisher, which can be exchanged for tier 9 set pieces with item level 258.

Some of the achievements that you can get from Trial of the Crusader are:

• Call of the Crusade, Call of the Grand Crusade, A Tribute to Skill, A Tribute to Mad Skill, A Tribute to Insanity, A Tribute to Immortality, and A Tribute to Dedicated Insanity, which are awarded for completing the raid on different difficulties and with different numbers of attempts left.
• Upper Back Pain, Not One, But Two Jormungars, Three Sixty Pain Spike, Resilience Will Fix It, Salt and Pepper, The Traitor King, and Argent Confessor, which are awarded for completing specific challenges during the boss fights.

Some of the mounts that you can get from Trial of the Crusader are:

• Magnificent Flying Carpet, which drops from Lord Jaraxxus on any difficulty or size.
• Swift Alliance Steed and Swift Horde Wolf, which drop from Anub’arak on heroic 10-man difficulty.
• Crusader’s White Warhorse and Crusader’s Black Warhorse, which drop from Anub’arak on heroic 25-man difficulty.

How to Solo Trial of the Crusader?

If you want to solo Trial of the Crusader for fun or for rewards, you may wonder how hard it is and what tips you should follow. The good news is that soloing Trial of the Crusader is not very difficult for most classes and specs at level 60 or higher. However, there are some things that you should keep in mind:

• Choose your difficulty and size wisely. If you want to get all the achievements and mounts, you will have to do both normal and heroic modes on both 10-man and 25-man sizes. However, if you only care about loot or transmog, you may want to stick to heroic 25-man mode for better quality and quantity.
• Be prepared for some mechanics. Even though most of the boss fights are straightforward and easy to solo, some of them have mechanics that can still pose a threat or annoyance. For example, Gormok the Impaler will throw snobolds at you that will stun you and reduce your damage; Lord Jaraxxus will summon portals and volcanoes that will spawn adds; Faction Champions will use crowd control and interrupts on you; Twin Val’kyr will cast light and dark orbs that will damage you if you don’t match their color; Anub’arak will burrow underground and chase you with spikes. You may want to use defensive cooldowns, interrupts, stuns, or movement abilities to deal with these mechanics.
• Have fun and enjoy the show. Trial of the Crusader is not only a raid but also a spectacle. You will be accompanied by cheering crowds, witty commentators, and friendly NPCs who will help you along the way. You will also witness some lore events and dialogues that add flavor to the story. So don’t rush through it and enjoy the experience.

We hope this article has helped you understand how to solo Trial of the Crusader and what rewards you can get from it. If you have any questions or feedback, feel free to leave a comment below.

What are the Challenges of Trial of the Crusader?

Trial of the Crusader is not only a raid but also a challenge. The raid has a unique feature that adds an extra layer of difficulty and reward: the Tribute system. The Tribute system is a way of measuring how well you perform in the raid, based on the number of attempts you have left when you clear it.

The Tribute system works differently depending on the mode and size of the raid. In normal mode, you have a fixed number of attempts for each boss encounter: 50 for 10-man and 25 for 25-man. If you fail an attempt, you lose one attempt and have to start over from the beginning. If you run out of attempts, you can no longer access the raid until the next weekly reset.

In heroic mode, you have a total number of attempts for the whole raid: 50 for 10-man and 45 for 25-man. If you fail an attempt, you lose one attempt and can continue from where you left off. However, if you run out of attempts, you can still access the raid, but only on normal mode until the next weekly reset.

The number of attempts you have left when you clear the raid determines your Tribute rank and reward. The higher your rank, the better your reward. The ranks and rewards are as follows: