Another Phat Loot Request this week (we'll get back to Zul'Aman next week, because there's a lot of great stuff in there). Tachaeon from Turalyon sent us this ring that is strangely remarkable in a few different ways.

Name: Band of Icy Depths
Type: Epic Ring
Armor: N/A
Abilities:

• +19 Stamina, +20 Frost resistance, which was nice back in the days of Naxx-- now, it's not as big, but it's still a nice boost.
• And on Equip: Allows underwater breathing. That's right, just like the Hydrocane, which we covered over a year ago, this is one of the items in the game that gives this buff without a Warlock or Shaman around. This one's a lot harder to get, however.

How to Get It: This baby comes from the AQ gate opening questline-- which you can do even if the gates have already opened on your server. WoW Wiki has the long writeup on exactly how the quests are all done, and it's a darn shame this quest will almost never be undertaken again. Blizzard must have put a lot of work into developing all these little plotlines, and there is a ton of lore and great story to be found in this thing, but it's all hidden behind a Brood of Nozdormu reputation grind, and considering no one has any need to open up AQ any more (except, of course, on the servers where it's not yet opened), almost no one will ever see it. Bummer. I guess Blizzard is learning from their mistakes more and more, and bringing more epic content to everyone able to do it, but it's a shame that this great, gigantic quest chain has gotten lost in the mix of expansion upgrades and smaller guilds.

This ring is hidden in the second part of the chain, where your goal is to get back the colored shards from the dragonflights around Azeroth. Within the Blue Shard chain, you receive this ring as a quest reward. Definitely a long, long way to go just to get a ring that will let you breathe underwater, but I think the strange placement of this ring as a quest reward is one reason Tachaeon wanted it covered here.

And finally, the strangest thing about this epic ring...

Getting Rid of it: .. is found when you sell it to a vendor. Finally, something interesting to put in the "Getting Rid of It" section! Yes, this ring sells for... wait for it... 82g 80s 85c, making it, to my knowledge, the item with the highest vendor price ingame. I don't know if this ring really qualifies for Phat loot, but it is definitely one of the most weirdly budgeted items in Azeroth.

Tags: ahn-qiraj, aq-gate-opening, aq40, band-of-icy-depths, by-request, phat-loot, phat-loot-phriday, quests, ring

Filed under: Items, Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, Blizzard, Quests, Phat Loot Phriday