Forging Quel’Delar
I’ve been watching the auction house the past few weeks, spying the price on Battered Hilts and hoping that’d they’d soon drop into an “acceptable” price range. I won’t say what “acceptable” might be, but let’s just say you’re talking to the guy that blew 10k gold on Runed Orbs to get the crafted boots and belt back in 3.1. Imagine what I’d spend on a tchotchke.
Nevertheless, I ran a Heroic Forge of Souls last night with some friends and on the pull before Brohnjam–miracle of miracles–a Hilt dropped. My vision was immediately hued red as blood rushed to my head and then, apologizing profusely, I hit the Need button. Everyone there knew I’ve been gunning for the blade for some time so I don’t think anyone particularly cared. Thankfully, I won the roll.
Once we were finished with the heroics I immediately dove into the quest chain, ducking over to Quel’Delar’s Rest to start everything then over to Wyrmrest for some draconic hemming and hawing.
Then I went to Dal for the series of quests there, requiring me to first murder a Silver Covenant agent in the city sewers, …
… do some dirty laundry, assume the identity of the lackey I left rotting in the Underbelly, and then sneak into the Alliance side of town (iz in ur base, talkin to ur manz) in order to procure the book needed to move the chain along.
Once those dirty deeds were done I dragged two buddies with me through regular Pit of Saron, Forge of Souls, and Halls of Reflection where I ran into my hero, Uther, who then scolded me for dragging the sword so close to Frostmourne.
I was forced to put Quel’Delar down, but the sword remained whole. Subdued, I dragged the holy blade back to my contact who then directed me to take it to the Sunwell itself.
I knew the quest from spoiling it for myself while 3.3 was on the PTR, but nonetheless, I was having a full-on loregasm here. Of all the races of Azeroth, I’m not so attached to the Blood Elves just for their pretty hair or well-kempt nails… no sir… the lore of the sin’dorei is the clincher for me. The whole story behind 2.4 in particular was always fascinating for me, and produced my biggest regret of TBC, that I never saw the inside of the Sunwell.
Well, thankfully, after a short but awesome event in the Dead Scar and a tussle with Door Boss, I made it inside the holiest of holy grounds to, er, “my people” and was admitted to the inner sanctum of the Sunwell itself.
There I encountered the leaders of the sin’dorei as they ministered over the relatively newly ignited Sunwell. They received me with suspicion initially, but once I cast the reforged Quel’Delar into the holy font, they recognized the gravity of my actions.
You know it, fellas.
With the blade once more blessed by the magic of the sin’dorei, I reclaimed it from the Sunwell and took one more sigh-filled glance at my surroundings. I was like Henry Jones Sr. before the Holy Grail. But, with Demo haranguing me to run an Ony-10, I was forced to bid farewell to the majesty I had beheld.
And thus I returned to Dalaran, claimed Quel’Delar, Cunning of the Shadows, and fell even more in love with Blood Elf lore than I had been before.
Was it dumb to obtain this sword (despite it being a fantastic threat weapon) on my paladin when it could have benefited my DK tenfold more? Perhaps, but I was interested more in what was, without question, an amazing quest chain. It was something I had to experience on Rhidach and Rhidach alone. And, ultimately, it produced one memory I will always cherish in WoW.
Totally worth it.
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I’m curious what went into your decision to get the 1h sword. I never considered it actually, but since I have a Ret offpsec, I thought of only getting the 2h Sword. Anyway, after reading your post, I looked up Theck’s threat analysis and saw that the 1h sword ranks pretty high on the threat scale. Did you get it for use with your threat set or was it just for lore purposes?
Also, how the hell did you convince your guildies to let you take it since there is no “true” tanking weapon from the hilt quest line?
Galyan’s last blog ..ICC 5-Person Blind – Galyan
@Rhidach
29 December 2009 at 4:10 pm #
@Galyan: Well, they’re all friends who I’ve been playing with since TBC, and they’ve heard me drool endlessly over the sword since it was first announced, so I don’t think they cared much I won it, even if I’ll be using it only as a threat weapon. They’re good peoples.
I got the 1h primarily for the lore reasons, and I’m pretty much done with Ret for the time being. It being an awesome threat weapon was icing on the cake.
@TRM: The thought of upping my DK’s dps did enter my mind… but he’s an alt, so I made peace with my decision.
I got it on my DK the first night of patch 3.3. Because I already have the Grinder for my farm set, I grabbed the 2H QD on my DK, and watched his DPS skyrocket.
The Renaissance Man’s last blog ..The Nature of Raiding in Wrath: Limited Attempts
Likewise, kind of puzzling about the choice of getting a slow 1 hander with armor penetration. My alt spec already have the Citadel Enforcer’s Claymore, making my need on my paladin lessen. (I can still use one for my Deathknight or Mage).
Congrats, man :)
@Rhidach
30 December 2009 at 3:05 pm #
Thank you! :)
Grats on it. It dropped for me about a week ago. As much as I love the lore in WoW this quest harkens back to the bad old days of a looong quest chain with what amounts to a slap in the face reward at the end. I took the 2H put it in my bank and I think ive pulled it out once for a dps run (still rebuilding my DPS set). Fortunately on the very next run I did on HHoR I got Falric’s Wrist Chopper so im happy with that. Until I decide to go DPS again it will just sit there collecting dust. The upside of it was I could taunt a friend of mine who has been farming for it. His voice gets very shrill every time I tell him im not using it :P.
Gratz it’s a nice Epic quest. I know how it is as I got it and have already done it on my Shadow Priest. I did mine first on my Shadow Priest for weapon since well hadn’t taken my Paladin out the garage yet and wasn’t sure when. So been enjoying the weapon on my Shadow. However funny thing is since I finished doing the quest on my shadow and equipting the weapon alternate I’ve never even though about the weapon since then or even realize it’s equipped.
Now my Paladin is out the garage, maybe I’ll pick one up again sometime soon. Who knows.
Grats on your QD, I’m still debating what I would get if I would happen to come across one. I certainly wont be buying one, so by the time I do see one, it decision might be easier at that point. I guess I should start running the ICC5s more often. I’m stilling using the QS-245 atm and I have Falric’s sitting in my bags as well, so I’m not that bad off anyway. I guess I do have to have QS and QD right?
@Rhidach
4 January 2010 at 1:33 pm #
I think you get bonus style point if you have both!
Gratz! :) I got a hilt as well, sold for 16K so that I can have Pillars of Might crafted (Primordial Saronite goes for 2K each). Nice deal :)