How to get attuned to the Black Temple [updated]
by Eliah Hecht 
May 23rd 2007 at 1:10PM
On the PTR, it was really easy to get attuned to the big new tier 6 raid, the Black Temple. All you had to do was be at least Honored with the Violet Eye and talk to Johnny McWeaksauce, and you'd get the amulet that served as a key. So it actually never occurred to me to wonder what the attunement process would be like in the live patch. In case you were wondering, however, wonder no more. MMO-Champion has all the details (plus screenshots), courtesy of Arthyn from Vanquish (A-Staghelm). In short, you have to kill Fathom-Lord Karathress (a boss in Serpentshrine Cavern) and Al'ar (a boss in the Eye). The detailed version is after the cut, for reasons of length and spoileriness.
Update: apparently, Karathress and Al'ar are just the first parts of the attunement chain. After Al'ar, you have to kill Rage Winterchill, the first Hyjal boss, and even that may not be the end -- we'll just have to see. World of Raids has screenshots of the new quests.
"After killing Karathress, our guild was able to pick up a quest from Seer Olum. He spawned in the spot where Karathress stands. He gives a quest called The Secret Compromised which tells you to go to the Warden's Cage to talk to Akama. After a cutscene with a conversation between Seer Olum and Akama, Akama talks to Illidan. Illidan then tells Akama to kill Al'ar. Akama then gives you the quest Ruse of the Ashtongue which requires you to kill Al'ar wearing the Ashtongue Cowl. The Ashtongue Cowl gives you the appearance of an Ashtongue while in Tempest Keep. Upon using the Ashtongue Cowl in Tempest Keep, a buff called Ashtongue Ruse is applied to you giving you the appearance of an Ashtongue. The buff lasts through death but is removed when zoning. Screenshots of the conversation and what wearing the Ashtongue Cowl looks like [are up at MMO-Champion]"
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Duromiir May 23rd 2007 2:17PM
Well, I'm not completely shocked by this. Lore/story-wise you really do need to down Kael and Vashj before fighting Illidan.
The Hyjal thing? Dunno... It seems kind of bolted on, like they thought "Hey, they need to be atuned to, and geared from, TK25 and SSc, so lets *make* them do Hyjal first." Of course, adding Hyjal to the chain, and then releasing it at the same time as BT guarantees a delay in the world-first "Illidan downed" post.
It doesn't look *impossible* to get attuned for, just *very difficult*. Of course, this is coming from someone who doesn't have even a single heroic key, so what do I know? ^^;;
Dracula Jones May 23rd 2007 2:32PM
This is all fine, but where does Hogger fit in? I've killed him; bring on Illidan.
Rich May 23rd 2007 2:40PM
Meh, more stuff most of us will never see.
Pingmeister May 23rd 2007 3:17PM
I wonder what percentage of players are hardcore raiders...
It would be nice if they rotated their resources around more content for each of the typee of players.
I can't wait until they get to my type: Soloing Morons.
Quoi May 23rd 2007 3:22PM
@4
There's a bunch of new quest areas for soloers.
Blizzard has made raiding MUCH more accessible, so it's pretty annoying to see people still getting upset over it. Not directed at you, 4, but it seems that people would like to be able to kill one of the most powerful beings in the WoW universe with some 5 man scrub PuG.
Kara really isn't all that hard, harder than MC, possibly, but not too bad.
Dangfraggit May 23rd 2007 4:00PM
Ok
I may be in the minority here, but this is getting to be riduculous. I am not a casual player. I play over 30 hours a week. Some of the time, I am raiding in Kharazhan, other times, I am farming or questing. This routine maitenance of my toon takes up most of my gaming time. Sure I may spend a little time leveling up my alt, but most of my time is put to good honest use.
These attunments are way out of control. They are out of reach to at least 90% of most active players. Yup Blizzard shrunk down the raid size to 25, but made getting attuned 40 times harder.
Put it simply. The average 25 man raiding guild may have 2 or 3 teams running Khara. They may be stepping into Gruells or taking on Mag. They are also probably working their days in and days out trying to even finish a heroic dungeon. By the time they even step into the first legs of attunment for black temple, Starcraft 4 will have been released.
I love this game to death, but all this attunment and hopeless dreams of walking into the black temple make me long for the days where I could work hard at a goal and actually achieve it.
Blizzard, with unattainable goals you are killing your own game. Please stop it, because I love it too much to never see most of it.
krizoitz May 23rd 2007 7:54PM
Maybe i just don't get it, but why do you have to get attuned in the first place?! I mean the instance is going to be hard enough, why make us jump through hoops just to get there in the first place?
badge May 23rd 2007 5:16PM
@7
It's all one big gear check, like, if you can't down the Pheonix in the Eye, you won't last through the first BT boss I bet.
Merus May 23rd 2007 6:55PM
I thought it was a bit weaksauce the way they'd made it so you could give attunements to Vashj to 70s once you'd downed Vashj, but now it's seeming like a decent idea.
Pingmeister May 23rd 2007 7:15PM
Why do they have attunements?
My cynical answer is that when Blizzard adds something to the game that they know people want, they try to make sure you can't get there without a substantial timesink.
They are hoping that the desire to see new content will keep you hammering at old content as long as you have a goal within reach.
Bottom line is that they want you to keep paying that monthly fee.
I don't mean to sound like I hate them. I don't. It's just good business sense for them.
Verit May 23rd 2007 7:24PM
It does make me wonder what kind of player some of these instances are tuned for. Or if the level designers realize that maybe 1-2 guilds per server are ever going to see their creations.
I agree though - I'd probably have to be unemployed to have time enough to do the Tempest Keep raid or Mt. Hyjal. Until they make a 3rd group for Karazhan in my guild I'll probably not be seeing that much either :(. (I'm attuned, but I've only been once).
Rich May 23rd 2007 7:31PM
#10 hit the nail in the head. Its all a timesink to keep people playing. The gearcheck is just part of the timesink.
The problem comes with the new expansion (announced at Blizzcon perhaps?) and the insanely long attunments for the Outland stuff. With the next expansion no one will want to get attuned for them. The outland instances and raids will be just like the 55+ raids and instances now. New players will never see any of the instances or raids because they won't go back and get attuned for them. Why should they, the gear I get now from questing exceeds anything that dropped in Naxx.
I can understand the reason for the long chains. They didn't want D&T and Nihilum to blow threw it a day and they weren't ready with some of the raids. Hopefully, they will go back and adjust the attunments in the future.
Pzychotix May 24th 2007 7:07AM
You guys make it sound like it's some outrageous attunement chain. All I see is a straightforward progression.
Kara + Mag + Gruul -> SSC + Eye -> Hyjal -> BT
Now wait, are you actually complaining that you have to do all that before Black Temple? Are you complaining that killing Illidan should require no better gear than killing one of his weaker lieutenants? Are you saying that we should be able to kill Illidan with greens?
That's not how it works folks. It's illogical at the very least.
These so called "long quest chains" are done ALONG THE WAY. It's not like you have to spend ten hours doing some side quest to get attuned. You beat SSC and the Eye, you get access to Hyjal. You beat Hyjal, you get access to BT. It's fucking simple. Get over it.
You call it time sinks, I call it CONTENT. FFS, Blizzard's not making you waste time by sitting somewhere doing nothing while you're doing these attunements. The only time sinks are the billions of trash mobs between boss fights that are plaguing raids at the moment. And don't give me that shtick about how you have to farm for flasks all day long. All the bosses are certainly downable without them. They only cover up the mistakes in your execution of a strategy (that's been already given to you, I might add).
Verit May 24th 2007 12:28PM
I have no problem with progression, however by the time I finish "Kara + Mag + Gruul -> SSC + Eye -> Hyjal -> BT" I will have long since left WoW for other games.