Yesterday, Bornakk said clearly that the
Battered Hilt drop that starts
the Quel'delar questline was
dropping at the right rate, which is much less than when the patch first hit. And then of course, in last night's fixes, they went ahead and
increased the drop rate anyway. He also claimed there were no plans to make it BoP, but who knows what'll happen in the future? For now, however, you can still buy and sell the quest item for quite a bit of gold. We'll have to see where the price eventually ends up -- on the staff here, we've seen anything from 8,000g to over 23,000g, and
Twitter tells us that people are paying an average of around 12k or so, going up to as high as 30k (or even shady real money offers in online classified ads). Our own Matt Low has actually seen the drop three different times, and lost every roll. It drops off of
any of the mobs in the Heroic versions of the Frozen Halls 5-mans, and as Bornakk says, any class can use it to come up with
a pretty solid weapon, so the competition will probably keep the price high, depending on where the drop rate ends up.
The silver lining, if you really want one, have terrible luck, and don't ever expect to have all that money, is that the price will probably go down eventually. Bornakk says that as people move up into Icecrown and start picking up weapons that are even better than the sister blade, demand is likely to drop off a bit. But he also says that Blizzard does want this to be a special and relatively rare item, so you'll still have to probably either be lucky or ready to grind it out. Good luck -- I'm out there searching for one with you.
Tags: ah, battered-hilt, boe, bop, bornakk, discussion, dropping, forums, frozen-halls, gold, grind, icecrown-citadel, money, patch-3.3, patch-3.3-changes, patch-3.3-wow, quel-delar, quel-serrar, quest, questline, rare, sword, weapon, world-of-warcraft-patch-3.3, wow-3.3-changes, wow-new-patch, wow-patch, wow-patch-3.3, wow-patch-news
Filed under: Items, Fan stuff, Blizzard, Instances, Quests, Wrath of the Lich King
Dec 16th 2009 at 9:00AM 
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
L2Think Dec 16th 2009 9:08AM
I wish I had noticed the hilt wasn't BoP. I got my battered hilt within 4 pulls on my first 5 man on patch day. It was barely an upgrade, like 30+ spell power than the wep I was using b4. I could definitely have used 10k+ gold more than 30 sp. =P
Ralph Dec 16th 2009 9:15AM
This is a very very bad purchase for a Rogue. First, at 251 level, it's going to be replaced sooner rather than later. There is a 251 axe MH and also a 264 sword MH that drop right off the first 4 bosses. It just doesn't make sense to spend all that gold to use it a week or two, three if you're that unlucky in both 10's and your 25. Best to move on, avoid.
Blackhorn Dec 16th 2009 10:39AM
Nobody who raids regularly in ICC cares about this blade. That's the idea. This is something nice for people who don't raid.
markus0i Dec 16th 2009 9:11AM
I've run all 3 heroics on all 3 of my toons every day since the patch.
I saw 4 hilts on the first day.
I've seen 0 since then.
They needed to raise it. :D
magin Dec 16th 2009 10:43AM
I saw it three times on patch day. The first was off the very first trash pull in the Forge. We agreed to greed roll on it. The tank needed and dropped the group.
Next group, we agreed to greed roll. I mean, after all, this thing was dropping ALL THE TIME, so there's no need to go crazy. Each of us had already seen it once. Rogue needed and dropped.
Next group, we all need rolled and I lost straight-up. Haven't seen it since.
Two of my guildies each got the hilt for TWO of their toons on patch day. They haven't seen it drop since either.
Lohr Dec 16th 2009 11:52AM
Moral of the story: Don't be an idiot and roll greed.
nonexistentnick Dec 16th 2009 12:20PM
@magin: that sucks that that happened to you the first time. you're an idiot for letting it happen a second time.
Kenzie Dec 16th 2009 9:12AM
I got lucky and got mine the first day. I'm a happy healer.
Nooneneo Dec 17th 2009 4:46PM
Got the hilt on patch day and the blade the next day woot for us!! XD sick blade 2 I love the detail on it alienware computers ftw!
Kragragh Dec 16th 2009 9:14AM
I'm sorry, but I think it should be BoP. Just my two cents.
Vinicius O. E. Dec 16th 2009 9:44AM
BoP would be a solution but what I really wanted to see is a game mechanic to make items that start a quest (i.e. Head of Onyxia) to be automatically passed by the players that already done that quest. The same way it already happens when a recipe drops in a group but you don't have that profession or already know the recipe.
Barinthos Dec 16th 2009 12:13PM
Completely agree on both points. Do something to prevent the greedy SOBs from trying to screw other people out of the hilt and make a quick gold.
analogkid Dec 17th 2009 12:40AM
The original Quel'Serrar was not BoP, it was a BoE book. I don't see why this should be any different.
Lornos Dec 16th 2009 9:16AM
I hope with the increased drop rate i'll be able to see one drop soon, not only for my self but for my buddies. We missed out on the free for all on the day the patch went live, and have since been farming the trash in PoS in hopes of getting the blade. We can all use the upgrade and sadly our server has been offering the hilt for far more than any one item should be worth. Hopefully it will also cut down on the WTB BATTERED HILT 10k PST PLS !!!!1!!
Kia Dec 16th 2009 9:17AM
Sigh. Haven't seen one yet. Kind of frustrating to have logged on the second day of 3.3 and your friend links it and waves it in your face, though. ;.;
Shadowhaxor Dec 16th 2009 9:39AM
I actually had the luck of this dropping off a mob for me, but lost the roll. Thankfully 3 guildies were running with me and 1 already did the quest line, so we rolled for it. However, since I gave this to my warrior (alt) and not my mage (main), I'm finding the itemization for Arms / Fury warriors is quite poor. If I choose the str version but a slower swing and I get haste..... If I choose the agil version, I get arp but a faster swing.
ARGH!
thebl4ckd0g Dec 16th 2009 9:34AM
I think it should be BoP as well. I was in a cross server PUG the 2nd day of patch 3.3. A mage rolled on it, said they were going to use it - a guy in our group was on his server. After the dungeon, the other guy on his server in my group created a lvl 1 alt on my server and messaged me and said the mage popped it up on the AH for 20k gold. If you are going to roll on it to sell it, roll greed. If you are going to actually use it, roll need.
Also I'm a Rogue and unfortunately won't get into the raids very much so I rely on the 5 man drops to upgrade my gear. Good weapons are hard to come by via badges - and Quel'Delar is actually pretty decent for me. :)
Vinicius O. E. Dec 16th 2009 9:35AM
Same thing happened to me on the first day: it dropped 3 times (in same run!!!) in H PoS and I lost all 3 rolls :P
Then I never saw it again.
DeathPaladin Dec 16th 2009 9:43AM
Have not seen it drop once in all my runs.
Also, increasing the drop rate doesn't mean that Bornakk was wrong when he said it was dropping at the right rate. They also took it off the loot tables for the non-elite Skeletal Slaves in Pit of Saron in order to prevent solo farming, so the increased drop rate from the elite mobs may have just been to compensate for the fact that fewer mobs drop it now.
Eladriendil vashj Dec 16th 2009 9:48AM
yeah, ive seen the battered hilt drop but didint know it was super rare, so it was a cross realm group and i thought people would just greed it so i greeded and everyone needed >.< so i had no shot at it so i guess im gonna have to farm it more