PTR quests show hard-mode progression, Ulduar storyline, Val'anyr
by Michael Sacco 
Feb 28th 2009 at 12:00PM
We've been wondering for a while how exactly the Ulduar storyline plays out in 3.1; this may seem a bit silly or lorelol, given how much time is going to be spent running the instance itself or its myriad of raid bosses and hard modes, but I like to know what's driving me to complete an instance beyond phatty purpz.
You can obviously infer a lot from the instance itself and the names of each respective room, but for those seeking a little more information, Wowhead's PTR page has you covered. There were a few quests added in this most recent PTR build that give us tantalizing bits of Ulduar storyline and show Blizzard's intention to create clear progressions -- not only in the 10- and 25-man versions of Ulduar, but a reward and progression path for those blazing a trail in the hard mode versions of each instance. A fine notion indeed.
Oh, and if you wanted to know just how to forge that new legendary mace...
This writeup will be spoiler-heavy! If you don't wish to know anything about the secrets that lie within Ulduar, don't click the link below. You've been warned.
The questline begins with the Archivum Data Disc, a quest item that drops off of one of the bosses before you enter Ulduar proper (Flame Leviathan, XT-002 Destroyer, Ignis). It instructs you to bring the disc to a "device capable of reading it."
This device turns out to be The Archivum, accessible only after you kill the Iron Council. The Archivum that looks quite similar to the room in which you help Brann Bronzebeared defeat the Tribunal of Ages in the Halls of Stone. In fact, Brann Bronzebeard is already there! And here's where things get interesting.
The insinuation from the likely unfinished quests is that the Titans still have a functional servant, Algalon, capable of beaming information back to the Titans. He's inside of Ulduar, locked in the Celestial Planetarium, and he seems to know that Yogg-Saron's breaking free.
Why does this concern us? Well, Yogg-Saron is enough of a threat that if the Titans were to discover that he was free, they'd likely spite the face to cut off the nose, where Azeroth is the face and Yoggy is the nose. Brann insists that you find a way to stop Algalon from getting info to the Titans and sends you to the Celestial Planetarium to figure out how.
When you arrive, you discover that the door to the Planetarium is sealed and can only be opened with the Sigils that four certain Watchers carry -- Thorim, Freya, Hodir, and Mimiron. But defeating them isn't the only hurdle here. Brann's quests state plainly that you defeat the Watchers on their respective hard-mode difficulties or you can't loot their sigils.
Hodir: Before he smashes his first Rare Cache of Hodir. This is a clear timed event.
Freya: With all of her Elders up (told you). This is a Sartharion-style event.
Mimiron: Before the self-destruct mechanism of his private quarters goes off. This is an unconfirmed timed event.
Thorim: Before he falls completely under the thrall of the creature impersonating Sif. The nature of this hard mode is unknown.
When all four Sigils are collected, the raid gains access to Algalon and can stop him from sending the fateful message to our former benefactors. A final quest after his defeat sends you to Dalaran to meet up with Brann and Rhonin to send out a new message to the Titans -- likely that everything is a-okay, nothing to see here, move along.
This questline has interesting ramifications, because it shows that for high-end progression guilds, Yogg-Saron won't necessarily be the final boss of Ulduar -- you won't need to defeat Algalon for Yogg-Saron to be accessible, and Algalon may actually be the hardest boss in Ulduar. This shows that Blizzard is following through on its promise to allow raiders who want a challenge to have their own progression path by performing all of the toughest challenges Ulduar has to offer. I'm sure this means that the rewards for doing so will be great, and that Cory Stockton wasn't kidding.
There's still a few things we don't know, though. Is the data-disc a single drop or a raid drop? Is the quest repeatable? Do you have to do the quest every time you want to kill Algalon, or does it open Algalon to you permanently? I'm sure we'll find out as more information about Ulduar comes to us through the PTR. For now I'm satisfied in knowing that hard-mode progression is the way of the future, and I, for one, welcome our see-through sparkly overlord.
On an (almost) entirely unrelated note, the PTR quests also reveal just how you forge Val'anyr, the Gavel of Ancient Kings, the new legendary mace coming with 3.1. You collect forty shattered pieces of Val'anyr, then combine them to form the Shattered Fragments of Val'anyr. But wait! You have to actually put the thing back together!
Don't trip -- just toss them into Yogg-Saron's brain. You heard it here first.
Many thanks again to StratFu for their great coverage of the hard-mode quests and for filling in the parts I missed.
Patch 3.1 brings us Ulduar, dual specs, significant changes to all the classes, and more! We've got you covered from top to bottom with our Guide to Patch 3.1.Filed under: Patches, Analysis / Opinion, News items, Lore, Wrath of the Lich King
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Bibaxa Feb 28th 2009 12:10PM
one thing to say, NICE!
seems like its gonan be hard^^
Huggybear Feb 28th 2009 12:41PM
Why would 'we' stop Algalon from sending the information, thereby having them slap some sense into Yogg? They are the good guys. Hell, they created all the shit you see and are.
Aldheim Feb 28th 2009 1:11PM
The idea, Huggybear, is that if the titans see that everything has failed to keep Yogg-Saron in place, the titans will probably have to do something very drastic to trap him/destroy him again- which might include "reshaping Azeroth into a better prison, killing all inhabitants in the process" or even "going all Death Star on our asses."
Both of which might technically be "better" for the universe at large, but us Azerothians would prefer another method.
Kajira Feb 28th 2009 1:03PM
"Huggybear said...
Why would 'we' stop Algalon from sending the information, thereby having them slap some sense into Yogg? They are the good guys. Hell, they created all the shit you see and are."
Because they might get Old Testament on the world to handle it.
They come down, look at this old god breaking loose, see the C'thun has already started to come out in places, look at all their friends like Loken and stuff going bonkers, see that most of their Dragon Aspect guardians are losing control of their wards, see the corruption leading in through the Dark Portal, which shouldn't be there anyway, see the Maelstrom where land should be....
It's enough to make any creator go "well, scrap this!", destroy it, and start over.
Eternauta Feb 28th 2009 1:12PM
@ huggybear
Titan 1: -Oh no! Yogg-Saron is free! We gotta kill him this time!
Titan 2: -But killing him would destroy most of Azeroth too.
Titan1: -Desperate times require desperate actions.
Titan 2: -Oh well, let's nuke the planet, so the universe can be safe.
People of Azeroth (to the Titans): -F@ck you!!!!!
---------------------BOOM------------------------
Dch48 Feb 28th 2009 1:23PM
It's a big mistake to make any content only accessible to a minority of the player base. It sounds like that's what they're doing here and I am disappointed by that. No content should be any harder than Sarth with 3 drakes in my opinion. My guild has yet to get him with even one up.
Tokhand Feb 28th 2009 1:36PM
Because it's implied that they'll come back and blow the crap out of Azeroth (where everything is) just be sure that Yogg-Saron won't break free.
Not a Ulduar question, but besides this and the Argent Tournament, is there new content in 3.1? Like how there was a new quest hub in Dustwallow when the Zul'Aman patch was released?
Palatel Feb 28th 2009 1:37PM
@DC48:
Don't you ever say that. You will ruin it for the rest of us.
Huggybear Feb 28th 2009 2:14PM
The whole point of imprisoning the Old Gods, instead of killing, was because they would else destroy the rest of Azeroth along with it. To keep their creations on Azeroth alive, while keeping the Old Gods under control.
Why would they suddenly go all medieval on Azeroth now, when it is clear they previously avoided just that?
Doesn't make sense to me.
Happy Bullet Feb 28th 2009 2:34PM
I hear continually repeating things which don't work is the best way to achieve any goal.
Huggybear Feb 28th 2009 2:47PM
@ Happy Bullet
Don't be a wiseguy. Nowhere is it suggested the Titans suddenly changed their minds about how they value Azeroth and their creations (or is there?). As far as is mentioned, they avoided the destruction, by imprisoning, because they specifically didn't want to wipe out everything attached.
Eisengel Feb 28th 2009 2:54PM
"... and we take off and nuke the planet from orbit. It's the only way to be sure."
RyuHakubi Feb 28th 2009 3:02PM
@Huggybear.
Think of it this way. Your foot gets an infection, a nasty bit that's swollen and painful. You go to the doctor. He tells you that it probably should do fine with draining the abcess, then taking antibiotics for a week. Things seem to go very well for a few days, so you become less vigilant. You skip or forget to finish the antibiotics. You don't really check the wound site. Then you realize your foot is hurting more and more, so you really look, and realize, wow, that infection is a hell of a lot more than I realized. You go back to the doc, find out the infection is bone deep, and it's gonna take a hell of a lot of surgery to treat, maybe even takin' off the foot itself to save the rest of the leg.
That's where the Titans are probably at. The infection's less treatable than they realized, it's time for surgery.
Eversor Feb 28th 2009 6:09PM
@ Dch48
The content IS accessible to you. There is no attunement, so you can enter the instance. Rest of it is entirely dependant of the skill of you and your raid. Don't go saying that content isn't accessible when the door is open to every Joe Schmoe who just dinged 80, and they can't do it, because "it's not accessible, waa waa", forgetting that their greens are not the best raid gear EVAR.
There has to be some challenge left in the game, something to always strive for, that one thing you cannot do. I you have done all, what do you do? Get bored and quit. That's what. Seems people like you just don't see further than their noses, they just want the EPIXX and don't care about anything else. Sucks. It really, really does.
Algathar Feb 28th 2009 12:11PM
This is gonna be absolutely epic - can't wait!!!
Outlier Feb 28th 2009 12:12PM
Legendary Mace? Yes please :)
theconman Feb 28th 2009 12:13PM
sweeeet.. I really like the hard-mode progression. This is great news :)
Edmunt Feb 28th 2009 12:16PM
Wow this is awesome, I'm a huge lore nerd and the stuff concerning the Titans and the Old Gods really interests me.
Cool thing is to wonder where this will all lead in the future, we've fought an old god before but now were interacting with the titans and actually STOPPING them from doing something. Makes you wonder if one day we'll see them as enemies we'll have to face.
AndiM Feb 28th 2009 12:28PM
Hm I'm a bit biased with this decision. I would say it's quite clear that most hardcore raiders are not really interested in the lore behind WoW, at least that's the impression I got out of some interviews etc.. It's more epics for them and nothing else. And those of us interested more in lore then in raiding might not see the questline finished until some point far into the future.
Well, we'll see to what degree the normal raid will be able to finish the questline when they do have a decent share of T8 and Ulduar gear. I'm just not really happy with linking the "hard mode only" boss with THE major questline in the instance. This goes against Blizzard's own statement that they want to make content (and yes, lore and story are to a certain degree content!) available to everyone.
yug Feb 28th 2009 12:42PM
As soon as I read this article I just knew the bads would use lore as an excuse to QQ their way to victory.
Only this time you're SoL, pal. Blizzard is giving us something challenging and if you can't handle the heat then gtfo the kitchen...or just L2P and get into a guild that doesn't fail so you can conquer the hardmodes yourself.