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
Patch 5.4 patch notes
Virtual Realms feature revealed
The Proving Grounds are coming
The latest patch 5.4 news
Dec 16th 2009 at 9:00AM 
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 4)
RipeTomatoe Dec 16th 2009 9:46AM
I think that the biggest down is the lack of a tanking version of the sword. So basically it has to be offspec for me, either healing or ret.
Can-O-War Dec 16th 2009 2:13PM
You guys have quel'serrar 2.0
(cutaia) Dec 16th 2009 10:54AM
Definitely.
I heard someone complaining in trade yesterday that their tank refused to kill all the trash in Pit of Saron to increase the likelyhood of seeing a hilt drop. I couldn't help but think, "Well, yeah. What's in it for him?"
Fierna Dec 16th 2009 12:49PM
I have also seen tanks who refused to farm for the hilt but... don't most tanks have a dps or healing off-spec?
Colin Dec 16th 2009 2:16PM
Yeah, but Quel'Serrar 2.0 is a poorly itemized piece of junk. It looks pretty, but I've pased both times I've seen it on 10 and 25 man for the Peacekeeper's Blade and Rimefang's Claw, respectively.
I'd much rather get a cool, lorerrific item I'll actually use on a regular basis, but yeah, using it on my dps offset isn't too bad I suppose.
IIthryn Dec 16th 2009 2:49PM
Luckily there's a total of three one-hand tanking weapons that drop in Frozen Halls...an axe, a sword, and a mace.
akflyerfan Dec 16th 2009 9:56AM
We had three drop for us the very first time in on patch day. It seems that we were way above the norm....
Methuus Dec 16th 2009 9:58AM
Just to be clear, you said in the post that "it drops off of any of the mobs in the Heroic versions of the Frozen Halls 5-mans".
That is no longer true. As of Dec 16, the hilt doesn't drop off the non-elite skeletons in Pit of Saron. Wow.com reported on Bornakk's post about this.
In case people are wondering, the reason Bliz made this change is because some classes are able to solo farm just the non-elite skeletons in the dungeon.
JLocke Dec 16th 2009 9:58AM
I saw tyhe hilt drop in Halls of Reflection on day one, and lost it to a healer by 5 points... haven't seen it since. This is welcome news to my ears, as I can't raid anymore with time retrains in real life. I'm tired of using a polearm on my DPS :p
akflyerfan Dec 16th 2009 9:58AM
Had three drop on our first run there on patch day. Guess we're some of the real lucky ones....I had the questline done before the weekend and really like the 2H...
V Magius Dec 16th 2009 10:03AM
I'm not too concerned about it. I'll get it when I get it.
I do expect the drop rate to be raised over the next few months. It sounded like it was a weapon they wanted most people to have by Cataclysm. If I'm correct, then we'll be tripping over them by next expansion. "Man, not another [Battered Hilt]"
As to people needing an item for the AH, I'd like that change too. I saw two people roll on the Bronze Drake in H COS, the winner immediately tried to sell it to the loser. We laughed in his face. It's a H COS run. Almost every run is guaranteed to get that drop. It should really detect that you already know it. I don't think you can toss it on the AH.
Myssiing Dec 16th 2009 10:04AM
I'm not really going to worry about it, honestly. I just finally finished up Lok'delar and Rhok'delar yesterday.
Brian Dec 16th 2009 10:05AM
Personally, I think it should only drop from the bosses, but have a relatively high (1-5%) drop rate. Right now on my server farm teams are made to clear the Pit, reset, and try again.
What this means is that it's defeating Blizz's idea that it's relatively rare (since you can just farm it), and making folks that don't want to grind it out deal with the fact that the drop rate is just horrendous. If it follows the drop rate on other items, the more the monster that drops it is killed, the less it drops. So at peak times, it'll be a much lower drop rate.
Chuck Dec 16th 2009 10:08AM
i saw one drop monday or tuesday in the pit, but lost the roll. It would have been nice to get the weapon (and I still wouldn't mind getting one), but since I'm pretty much just running PUGs with the DF, and not raiding, it's not like I need a 251 weapon...and if I was raiding, I would probably get something better anyways.
Fatamorgana Dec 16th 2009 10:24AM
Sadly, unless things are changed, the only recourse in this matter is for everyone to roll NEED on it.
LilBanshee Dec 16th 2009 10:26AM
Random trivia time!
A sword consists of a hilt and a blade. A hilt is made up of a pommel at the bottom to prevent the blade from sliding out of your hand, a grip (the name of which clearly indicates its purpose), and a guard at the top to prevent your hand from sliding onto the blade or to prevent a clashing sword from sliding down your blade and striking your hand.
A sword also has a scabbard (a cover for the blade), which is notably not present in games like WoW. You would never run around with a free-hanging sword at your waist or on your back, you would always sheath the blade when not in use to avoid rusting or accidental injury.
Bjern Fita Dec 16th 2009 10:38AM
just wish it wasn't the only way for me to get an upgrade as a 10 man bear.....
at least until we find out what Arthas drops.
Sariax Dec 16th 2009 12:05PM
There's two other weapons in ten man ICC that might make for bear upgrades:
Shaft of Glacial Ice off Rotface and Oxheart from the green dragon event. Not as good as the Lightborn Spire though, but they're something.
Josin Dec 16th 2009 10:46AM
If I get one, I'm selling it. Damn useless for a tank anyway.
DeathPaladin Dec 16th 2009 10:49AM
The pommel actually serves more of a purpose than just preventing it from slipping. Its primary function is actually to serve as a counterweight to the blade. A well-made sword has most of its weight in the hilt because with that design it is easier to control the movement of the blade.