We often see in these large online games bitter-sweet victories and forgettable events; while it is true that the first time you sever the head of VanCleef you feel a surge of pride, it is sullied by the knowledge of the thousands that came before you and those who will soon follow.

Actual history has many more memorable events because they are truly that, history. While the actions are repeatable, none are equal to that original moment in any way, but merely act as homage to that unique moment. This however is one of those true moments of game history, set in a world where history is usually repeatable.

To most they only knew of it second-hand, a friend of a friend hearing something about a hasty Black Wing Lair run; while to others it was a frenzied pace of night-after-night raids and countless hours of grinding to help form this Champion, to help herald in this event.

You may still be able to grasp at shadows of what this once was, and follow the path of those who did it before you, but in this rarest of quests there are none on par with the champions who broke the seal of AhnQiraj to face the would-be god CThun, and quest beside us a Scarab Lord.

They, and only they, opened the Gates of AhnQiraj, and ended the Great War Effort.

That was the most wonderful comment I've seen...

*sniff*

That was beautiful.

Worth noting that the quest name is an homage to the song sharing the name written by the british band T. Rex in the early 70s.

This would have been awesome to experience... unfortunately my realm was created upon the release of the BC Expansion, and therefore rather new.

Once transfers opened up, we had a character from another realm come with an already completed scepter and complete the quest without posting on the realm forums or anything.

Nobody else in the realm saw the opening of the gates, and now nobody ever will unless new realms are opened.

Kind of a bummer IMO.

It should be known that there was a bug with a recent patch that allowed this chain to be completed again, resulting in a new wave of Scarab Lords.

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=11296568531&sid=1 http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=11296568531&sid=1

EDIT: This post still contains relevant historic details that will be of interest for anyone wanting to learn about the actual difficulties and planning that were required to get the last of these mounts on both EU and US servers. References to realm forums have been wiped with the Battle.net migration pre-Cataclysm. Warcraft Realms will reflect current data and not what's referred to.

When I posted this (last week of February 2009) about a month since new the realms were started, there were about 2 months left to plan on partaking in the last chance ever of any character anywhere in WoW to obtain the mount and title. Period.

These predictions came true, to the dismay of hundreds (thousands?) of players hoping to transfer to bang the gong and get the https://vanillawowdb.com/?spell=26656"">(Spell #26656). The possibility that the War Effort might easily be completed before PCTs were allowed kept being denied, in spite of educated guesses which turned out to be confirmed well ahead of time. On both Saurfang and Ulduar, the gates were opened in the first half of April, several weeks before PCTs were allowed.

Those who re-rolled got what their time and effort was worth. The natives got to build a community around it, starting out the new realms greatly and should be congratulated.

On a personal note, I did my best to explain what the actual progress was like. If anyone took my advice I'm glad to have helped more people get it too! It really has a special flavor to own this and what makes it even better is to share with others and meet and talk with those who went through the trouble themselves!

For EU players:<div class=""quote"">There are currently two realms with the AQ gates [closed] on EU.
Saurfang (En) and Ulduar (De)
Both opened at January 31st. 2009, thus making the PCT available April 30st or possibly May 1st.
The current war effort can be tracked at http://vlacula.no-ip.com/aq/ http://vlacula.no-ip.com/aq/

Keep in mind, that these will be the last realms to open with the AQ gates [closed], thus making this the last chance of acquiring the Scarab Lord title.
~Wushy @ https://vanillawowdb.com/?achievement=416 Scarab Lord - Achievement pageHaving been present at the last event on Area 52, I felt obliged to share a few hints for those who are unsure about re-rolling and particularly unaware of the very real possibility of the War Effort getting done before transfers are allowed, as most would leave their chances up with waiting for migrations to be allowed while finishing their quest lines calmly on their home realms.

The greatest danger is in how people sometimes don't realize that the progress speeds up quickly (exponentially), until it's too late. While the first half of the Effort is done slowly, with players leveling up and so on, the second half, consisting of now-easily farmable low level trade materials, the hardest being Runecloth (Horde turn-in), can be done in under a week by only a couple dozen dedicated level 80s, even though they'll take their time getting most of their quest lines completed first. Also, a lot of them will store loads of materials for last minute turn-ins so they can decide the day and time they want for the event to start. Therefore, the estimations on tracking sites won't be accurate at all as to when to expect the Effort to be done. If this happens up to 5 days before PCTs are enabled, you've lost your chance.

The website/addon is simply able to gather information on the current average rate of deliveries and calculate how long it would take for the remainder to be completed at that current rate. Since completion is now set to happen in 90-100 days, it means that progress only needs to speed up around 50% more to beat the clock. At 2 months left and few level 80s playing compared to what it will be in a couple weeks, we can safely say that time is short and there's no reason for you to wait.

In conclusion: if you really really want to make absolutely sure you get it, consider a re-roll right now. Ask yourself if anything in WoW right now is actually making you too busy for that. If you're worried that your old main might not get it, consider how upset it would make you not ever getting it at all even when you have one day to do it now. If the latter matters the most to you, my recommendation is clear. The ""worst"" thing that can happen if you do this, is getting two Scarab Lords, instead of none. Recruit-a-Friend and transfering out of the realm with the new character are available immediately, so it would be a safe bet.

Saurfang already has a significant ammount of re-rollers (as can be understood through their realm forums). This isn't only because of AQ, but about the appeal of a legitimately ""legendary"" realm name that many players wanting to re-roll for any reason will enjoy (imagine how many would want to play on the *Chuck Norris* realm).

For estimates of current progress, you should make your re-roll/transfer plans by keeping a close eye not just on the actual AQ War Effort turn-ins, but also make reasonable, informed assumptions about the realm's populations. On Warcraft Realms there's data that averages on 10 daily entries currently, but you can make it even better if you're there often by installing http://www.warcraftrealms.com/censusplus.php their lightweight census addon which offers a lot more than you can do using the /who command. The guild with the most members there is &lt;Union&gt;, which has already cleared Naxxramas 10. Having spoken personally with some, higher leveled players there fully expect for the Effort to be done before PCTs.

As for the German realm, Ulduar, it's quite similarly paced: only a week behind. They also have AQ threads on their realm forum, but only German is allowed.

For US players:

From what I could see, http://www.warcraftrealms.com/census.php?serverid=838 Garrosh (US-PvE), http://www.warcraftrealms.com/census.php?serverid=839 Borean Tundra (US-PvE), http://www.warcraftrealms.com/census.php?serverid=840 Winterhoof (US-PvE) and http://www.warcraftrealms.com/census.php?serverid=841 Wyrmrest Accord (US-RP) all started in January 2009 (see ""Online Date""), same as Saurfang (EU-PvE) and Ulduar (DE-PvE).

Looking into the realm data and also through their realm forums, you can see the large ammount of active characters already in them. For instance, Borean Tundra and Wyrmrest Accord are already in the top 20 most populated realms in the whole of US right now. All of them are non-PvP realms, which, all things being equal, lowers in-game attrition between factions and helps to speed up mat collection progress.

Garrosh is the least populated (although it was online earlier) and therefore your best chance, but with over 15k characters already, more than what Saurfang had by itself, it's quite possible for them to be done with the War Effort before PCTs as well. However, Borean Tundra seems to have a disproportionate ammount of low level players whereas in all the other realms the higher ammount of characters in a given level are found at the top range of 55-80. This makes it predictable that the War Effort progress there will be significantly slower than everywhere else!

A US player should go on any of these realms and ask around, also step into Ironforge or Ogrimmar to check the progress with their own eyes.

You dont have to be the first, once the gates open, anyone who bangs the gong in the next 10 hour will get the quest completed and the achievement

Going forward, the gates of AhnQiraj will start out open on all new realms that are created. While we recognize that this is a unique event, we feel that the complexity of this event can cause various issues that negatively impacts a players game play experience. By automatically opening the gates and allowing immediate access to the AhnQiraj instances, we would like to promote the higher level content that is available as well as ensure a smooth overall experience for players on these new realms.Taken from http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=14990439066&amp;sid=1 .

Edit: Ok, apparently the link isn't showing up correctly--hopefully something on my end is wrong. However, here's the link, you can copy and paste it.

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=14990439066&amp;sid=1 http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=14990439066&amp;sid=1

So its not possible then, to obtain the mount and title anymore? Seeing all new realms start with the gates open.

Patch 3.3 closed the gates on some realms, but in a new and excitingly disappointing way. The roots are now back on the Dias, but the stone plate is not. The reward vendor is missing (the one who offers you the final epic weapon), and the gong is not interactable.

So close!

You can rate me down as much as you want but i still believe Blizz must reward all those who made the long quest line. Even in 80 you still have to do a lot of work and spend lot of time to finally achieve the 3 q lines for the scepters. With the release of cataclysm and the changes i hope Blizz hear us and give us at least the mount and not the title. I will always keep my https://vanillawowdb.com/?item=21175 https://vanillawowdb.com/?item=21175 (Scepter of the Shifting Sands) in my bags a will always make a wish one day to finish the q line :) All those who are in the same situation as myself make same comments and we might succeed :)

ps: sorry for bad english, it is not my native language

Good bye Vanilla, and thanks for all the unique hours you provided.
I will remember you, even when i get old and gray.