I did this quest at level 42, I could just swim to the altar and kill Gazban. He is a level 40 mob without any special difficulty.
If you're lower I'd imagine you might have to kill a murloc or two.

As 40, I had to kill two murlocs to get a clear path to the altar. After they were dead, I just scooted into max range from the altar and spawned Gazban, and easily killed him

I tried taking the ""Legends of the Gurubashi, Volume 3"" book that you get in Stromwind Library with me, and was able to summon Gazban. Not sure how much of that was just luck, though.

I tried this today, and it worked the first try. Here is what state I was in and what I dwowhead:1,id:

I was on the Magical Analysis task (https://vanillawowdb.com/?quest=602 https://vanillawowdb.com/?quest=602) when I logged in.
I had gotten the book Legends of the Gurubashi, Volume 3 (https://vanillawowdb.com/?item=3899 https://vanillawowdb.com/?item=3899) with the Library Scrip (https://vanillawowdb.com/?item=3898#comments https://vanillawowdb.com/?item=3898#comments), the book was in my bank.
I picked up some water breathing potion knowing I would be trying this.
I finished Magical Analysis.
Got the quest Ansirem's Key (https://vanillawowdb.com/?quest=603 https://vanillawowdb.com/?quest=603).
Flew to Booty Bay, tuned in Ansirem's Key quest.
Got ""Pretty Boy"" Duncan quest (https://vanillawowdb.com/?quest=610 https://vanillawowdb.com/?quest=610).
Did the ""Pretty Boy"" Duncan quest, turned it in.
Got The Curse of the Tides.
Went out there, drank a water breathing potion and cleared out all the murlocks near the altar.
I then opened my inventory, right clicked on Catelyn's Blade, then clicked on the altar.
I saw in the chat:
Short Jon Mithril yells: Ah, hits the spot!
Gazeban says: Oh now you've gone and angered me! Time to see the true force of the Stone of Tides!

Gazeban showed up, I killed him and got the Stone of the Tides.

Don't know if it will work for you, but it did for me. Maybe it was because I didn't log out between certain stages, perhaps because I right-clicked on the blade, then the alter, no clue, but I hope it helps.
Also while you're in the vicinity it's might be worth picking up 9 Blue Pearls for the Badlands quest Pearl Diving (https://vanillawowdb.com/?quest=705 https://vanillawowdb.com/?quest=705).

Good Luck!

For anyone having trouble with this quest the key is to simply keep trying. After reading many of the comments here in which people had come back and got it working I was determined to make this quest finished. It was also humorous to spam the entire STV with yells that appear from every attempt.

After about 10 minutes straight of trying I was able to get this quest to work on my Druid. It didn't require anything special, I would make about 4-5 attempts, shape shift for air, and repeat as necessary.

If you are determined to see this questline to the end perserverence is the best advice I can give, it WILL eventually work.

As of 26/12/07 worked fine just after a server reboot.

The bug comes in my opinion from people stucking gazban by trying to pull him to the surface
Just be sure to be the first to do him properly after a reboot :)

- clean the 4 murlocs around
- approach the stone of the tides from any side but not from the top
- summon gazban, kill him just where he pops and voila =D

On my server, when I went there, this was fixed. I was able to summon the mob more than once - just kill it and then click on the altar again. Maybe it used to check a flag to see if you had summoned/killed it and they took the check out. In any case, it came for me twice, right away. I just clicked on the altar right away.

I have no idea why people don't ask their guild alchemist for a water breathing potion or buy one - should be just a few silver. The 30 minute potion takes a couple of those blackmouth oil fish, and stranglekelp. A potion makes a quest like this simple. I wasted one of the higher level ones, and then searched for kelp for 45 minutes.

As of 2008.01.19. i was struggling with the quest (seemed bugged).. was using the Knife for several times, still nothing.. relogged, used again, still nothing.. then eventually once Gazban spawned. I think i was using the Knife for like 15-20 times when it spawned at last.

I say this isn't how it is intended to work, but if it fails for you, keep trying for several times, maybe you will have luck once.

Anything about needing legends of Gurubashi, volume 3 is superstition.
ITS NOT NEEDED
I did it without the book, all about luck.

I kept trying, by simply right-clicking the altar, on the 50th try maybe, it worked.

ACCK! I finally got this to work (after 5 tries and a week). Being a mage, I couldn't pass up on the robe. I abandoned 'the curse of tides' quest on monday night (before Tuesday reboot).I also made sure I had a copy of the gurubashi book in my personal inventory, not my bank, before reboot.
After servers came back up on Tuesday I revisited Catelyn the Blade(still with book in pack just to be sure). You don't have to rekill Pretty Boy, she gives you the knife this time and the quest again. Made my way to the altar and just right clicked on it and gazban appeared no problem.
If you are not a mage or warlock, I would not bother with this, loot not worth headache for other classes. Also, water breathing potion a plus but not really necessary. Hope this helps someone else. What a friggin pain in the a**!!!

I just got the message for a server restart, so I rushed to the bank, got Catelyn's Blade and went to the altar of the tides.

I waited for the server to come back, and on the first try, I got a spawn.
I'm not sure of what causes the problem, but many ppl manages this quest in different ways.
As a lvl 41 BM Hunter, I Prowled and ""stayed"" my pet a little far from the altar and as soon as Gazban spawned, I ran to my pet, activating Intimidate. The remain was easy, you hunters know the drill. Your pet holds the aggro, you heal him and dps FTW.

BTW I did NOT have the Gurubashi book on me. Nor have I ever got it from the quest.

This quest is strange, I used dagger on the altar and see the red shout of gazban saying something about what draws me to the altar? but I wait and he is no where. And mob Map says he's on the island with water elementals nearby so I swim there and have track humanoids, and see a green NPC dot and huh?! it's Gazban wandering around but I can't kill him or anything as he's green and not red and so go back try and use knife on altar but still nothing. oO it's wierd quest.

Quest is not bugged. I too thought that it might be, tried several times with the focusing bar up to get the mob to spawn. Then, I noticed that the blade icon (where it shows u the blue hand which will light up when u cover the quest proc) was not lit. The gear icon was lighting up, but not the hand icon. Proc the mob by moving CLOSER to the altar and the blade will proc the mob to spawn. All non-elite these days.

The quest does work, and you DO NOT need ""Legends of the Gurubashi, Volume 3"". I completed the quest after a couple log-in's and log-outs.

Make sure you are using a breathing potion. Right click on the altar. Gazban will yell that he is drawn to the altar. He *may not* appear immediately. If he appears right away, make sure you attack fast or he will Evade. Do not run away or move before you attack him, or he will Evade. If he doesn't appear immediately .. just wait there approx 10 mins... try not to move around from your spot, then right click the altar again.. and he appears. After he appears attack him, and he will turn into a big water elemental. kill him then you're done.

I just finished this quest myself, not bugged at all. Just, as others have said, make sure you hit him quick and don't try to run away first - he will evade then.

Ok, forget all this business with the Gurubashi book, you use Catelyn's blade on the Altar, if Gazban doesn't appear, surface, log out of the game & log back in & try again. Worked for me, just don't try to kite him to the surface, he almost always will go on evade mode, he will be able to kill u, but u can't hurt him -.-
Instead just kill him where he spawns.
Best bring an underwater breathing potion, or have a nearby lock buff u, like I did.
Now excuse me while I go change into this nice Robe of Crystal Waters
https://vanillawowdb.com/?item=4120 :D

I just did the quest and it worked fine

The deal about having the ""Legends of the Gurubashi, Volume 3"" trash quality book in your inventory to successfully activate the quest (a book that is not mentioned anywhere in the quest notes for any step of the quest line) is either:
1) An urban legend. People confusing lucking out on being able to activate the Altar of the Tides with the book being responsible (but its really not).
or
2) The book no longer works in WoW 2.4.2.

Would think its much more likely 1) as there is nothing anywhere in the quest line that makes any mention of the book. As well as the fact the book is currently of ""poor"" quality (the name of it is gray); quest items are of common (white) or better quality.

In any case, tried activating the Altar without the book (but with the Library Scrip in pack). 30 tries or so over 10 minutes, received the ""Focusing..."" message, but the mob did not spawn. Then I filed a GM report. ""Its a known issue. We are really sorry..."" was the response.

Finally I actually turned in my Library Scrip at the SW library and got the infamous book. Went back, spent 20 minutes clicking on the Altar, nothing except the ""focusing"" message.

So don't get your hopes up about being able to complete this quest until a WoW patch is released stating that its fixed...or you luck out.

Showed up at the alter with the blade, but no book and it worked fine for me.

This quest seemed bugged until I read a different set of threads. We did not need the book Legend of Gurubashi vol 3. Did this 2 nites ago.

Best to try this with a water breathing potion. If not, then just clear the murlocs from the north side of the altar at 25,24 (the side where the 2nd troll legend was found). Then using the blade, click on the altar from the NORTH side (only blizz knows why this makes sense).

Did it twice in 30 min and twice immediately summoned Gazban and his elemental buddy. If you do not have a water breathing potion, then haul it back up to the top after summoning him and they will follow. Kill them at the surface and loot.

Hope that helps.

After 20+ tries, going on all sides, all corners, different ranges, ect, there was no spawn, no yells, no anything.
This quest really isn't worth it, if you're after the robes,https://vanillawowdb.com/?item=10762 https://vanillawowdb.com/?item=10762 are much easier to get, and only lose 2 int.
Unless you have breathing potions or are a warlock or with one, this quest is a huge waste of time.

Good luck.

Finished this quest w/ my lvl44 Draenei shaman easily.

Head directly towards the https://vanillawowdb.com/?object=2576 Altar of the Tides (loc. 25, 24 underwater). Used Water Breathing spell. The altar requires Catelyn's Blade; after clicking, Gazban will appear beside you and will transform into a water-elemental form.

I really didn't have to do anything. I swam down to the alter, killed 2 marlocs and Gazban was right there. First he dissapeared but when i got closer he was just in stealth. I killed him took the stone and the dagger the girl gave me was just useless to me. :D

~D3athc0w~ P.S. Don't ask... Jk

i remember seeing gazban near where i killed water elementals a few hours before, on the ""mystery island"". when recieving this quest i just went back to that spot...sure enough he ran up to me, killed him at lvl 36 (loc), looted, and the quest was complete.

i didn't even go underwater to do this like i had last year with my druid, to the altar.

Bugged as of last patch, October 16th, 2008.

No amount of clicking on the alter will get Gazben to come after you.

He just sits on the alter and he's friendly green and can't be attacked. Click on him and he tells you that 'Time is Money'.

Go over the haunted isle to find him there, and he's still friendly green and can't be attacked.

Ive looked this quests up on the WoW forums, WoWhead, Allakhazam, WoWiki, and Thottbot, and its basically the same thing. It either works, or it doesn't.

Don't waste your time on contacting a GM, from all these sources I listed, the people have stated time and time again that the GMs obviously don't care. This has been a problem since the beginning of time, and they have let 2 expansions fly by without even glancing at fixing this quest. The GMs will either refer you to the forums, tell you the quest is not bugged, or tell you that they are looking into it - Thats one hell of a long time to look into an easily fixed quest, and they aren't making any attempts to fix old quests, as a previous poster said, they are probobly too busy rolling in their money.

Sometimes if your lucky, apparently the goblin can already be there, and attackable, or, in some rare cases, the goblin can be summoned like it is supposed to be - sometimes the goblin evades, and there are a lot of cases in which people drown to death, but thats much nicer than the 30 minutes to 3 hours people can spend figuring this thing out.

Other times, which is the more frequent case, he can be (but not always) standing next to the alter and/or on the island and is friendly, and the item they give you to summon him doesn't do anything.

I spent about 2 hours researching the quest and why the heck its screwed up, and no matter what you do, your not going to fix it. Your positioning by the alter doesn't make a difference, and I have even tried relogging, the reload UI command (which was recommended by a post on thottbot, which didn't work, but for those like me who want to get every quest in the game done no matter how long it takes, the command is /console reloadui)

To sum it up, if your not looking for the rep, the credit towards achievments, don't waste your time. Else, wait for a restart, and hope it works.

EDIT: Killing off a couple myths people have that people believe fix the quest

First - the book that people claim you need is not anything but a myth, having a random gray text book in your bag will not help you in any way shape or form.

Second - dropping and retaking the quest doesn't work.

Third - relogging doesn't work.

Fourth - Killing nearby creatures doesn't do anything of use.

Blizzard may be cruel at times - but I can assure you they would not make you carry a random book to finish a quest. Don't try and go searching for some reason why its bugged (but if you stumble across a solid reason why it is bugged and how a player can avoid it - and not any random book you need in your bag - than you may want to share with the world)

Ill try and confirm if the server restart fixes this or not tomarrow when they go down, and ill toss up another edit. Most likely it does.

- Server restart didn't do crap, I got on probobly 5 minutes after the restart, someone else must have beat me to the quest and screwed it up for me. The goblin is just sitting next to the alter and is friendly, and hes also on the island, friendly as well. Tried using the blade 20+ times, no luck. It seems that as a result of using the blade, the goblin will cast a spell Phase out, which makes him stealthed, but since im a good 10 levels above him, I can usually see him withen a pretty far distance. Both the goblin by the alter, and on the island use this spell.

Don't waste your time with GM's, they can't do anything. They have strict rules about giving quest items to players, and they can;t reset the mob or do anything for you. Heres a screen shot of my conversation with a GM about the topic. Ground looks a bit weird, because I had to remove the lines of text saying what I looted.

http://i43.tinypic.com/2j5dqht.jpg http://i43.tinypic.com/2j5dqht.jpg

I attempted to help my friend with this quest on Dec. 28, 2008 and it is still bugged. he would spawn but he would still be friendly.

https://vanillawowdb.com/?npc=2624 Gazban is now a static spawn next to the altar, aswell as on the ""haunted"" island, where the Lesser Water Elemental are.

The altar still gives the option to use the dagger, it does sometimes summon him, but because of the change it is no longer required.

I remember the summon being bugged for a long time, and this seems like a slipshod way to fix the issue.

did the quest, didnt need to use the dagger, the mob was just patroling on the island. Everytime i've been to that island he's been there. patrolling

i actually just finished the quest on my 37 rouge without having to destroy the altar im so confused

As a level 80 Draenei shaman who achieved Loremaster long ago, I could pick up this quest as of patch 4.0.3. I could not complete the quest - Gazban did not spawn after attacking the altar and he is not bugged standing there already. Anyone else confirm or explain? Feel free to downrate afterward.