war-effort
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AQ gates opened for players on transfer servers
Blizzard has just recently opened a new server over in the EU realms called Molten Core, and not only are they already seeing queues on there (due to all the migration), but Blizzard is thinking about opening the gates of AQ for them.Which strikes us as a little sad. Admittedly, the Gates of Ahn'Qiraj is a huge undertaking, and it would likely take a long time for the players on the new realm to get the War Effort over and done with (and surely Blizzard wouldn't want that competing for attention with any World Events planned for the next expansion). And even after the gates open, players can still complete that giant quest to get the Scepter anyway (just as they can right now on any other live realm). And as Blizzard says, most of these incoming players are coming from realms where the gates are open already anyway.But it's still a little sad that Blizzard is stepping in to open the gates automatically rather than leaving the task up to the players. Just like all of the old world instances, Blizzard seems more than happy to leave all their old content and hard work behind, and instead focus players on what's coming out in the future.
Ahn'Qiraj Held Hostage
As you may or may not realize, getting into Ahn'Qiraj requires not only a massive farming effort, but also a long, tedious quest chain. The quest starts with a faction grind - requiring the quester to collect 42,000 silithid carapace fragments to reach neutral with the Brood of Nozdormu. (Yes, you did read that correctly - 42,000. Each silithid kill will net 1-4 carapace fragments, so you may use your imagination to guess how long it might take to collect enough.) The quest continues after this for many, many steps, several of them requiring a raid group to complete. The final reward for this quest is the Scepter of the Shifting Sands - which must be used to open the gates after the war turn-ins are completed. However, a guild on Detheroc server that has completed the quest chain has decided to hold the server's access to Ahn'Qiraj hostage, saying they will only open the gates once they receive 5,000 gold from the server. While the quest chain is long, difficult, and costly, it's also very rewarding - granting the quester several very nice epic items along the way. Is a guild completing the Ahn'Qiraj quest chain justified in making such demands for their hard work?Update: This has been officially declared a joke. [Image credit: screenshot taken by Sean of the Fires of Heaven guild - check out their news archives for great screenshots of the quest chain!]
