The Scepter of the Shifting Sands

I`ve been working on the quest chain for The Scepter of the Shifting Sands for months and months now, but I finally convinced 4 suckers guildies to get back into Blackwing Lair with me to scrounge up some Elementium Ingots. (new name!) I got 3 from a friend, bought 5 from the AH for 600-800g each, and 4 more dropped last night. I`ll be saving the extras for a friend working on her legendary.

Having stepped up my achievement-hunting this past year, I am eternally grateful that I rolled a druid as my main toon. Getting a bear offspec has been immensely helpful in soloing all those obscure old-world bosses and raids. It`s the only reason I was able to get from Hated to Neutral with Brood of Nozdormu, that`s for sure! I spent a few hours farming the first 4 mobs in AQ40, got all of the silithid mounts, and slammed out that rep!

Nearly all of the world grinding I did alone (mostly traveling around and killing various elite mobs for drops), but I did manage to get help with BWL for the Head of the Broodlord Lashslayer, red shard, and Chapter VI of Draconic for Dummies. I also had to venture into (level 80) Onyxia`s Lair and Molten Core for more chapters of Draconic for Dummies, and also get some goggles from mobs in MC. Fortunately, MC only requires 2 people and I have a few guildies interested in legendary weapons... The green shard I got when helping our RL complete his own scepter quest a few months ago.

While working on this quest chain, I snuck into Stormwind Library, trekked out to the (typically) unreachable island off the coast of Tanaris, learned an epic cooking recipe, spent a lot of time admiring the gorgeous old world raids (AQ droooool), spent a lot of gold, and in general had lots of fun. Sadly enough, the final quest was a little...disappointing. For one, I can only equip the dagger rewards and the sword looked much cooler. For two, you get the final reward and...what? That`s it. No announcement, no emote, no achievement of any kind. They are adding a Feat of Strength in 4.0.3, but it`s kind of amazing that they have an achievement for catching 50 fish and didn`t think to put something in for this quest chain from the start. People are also asking for a title to be added to other who complete this chain. Blizzard responded with the following:

There was a title for this as a reward: Scarab Lord. We have absolutely no plans to add another title for people that did the quest after the wall came down and we have no plans to make the bug mounts - other than the Scarab Lord mount - work outside of AQ. 

I guess I`m not too put out by that, but I think it would be a great idea to add a title - a different title than Scarab Lord, of course. That one is special and the original earner should be unique, but completing the quest chain after this event, at 60 or even at 80, is a huge time (and sometimes gold!!) commitment. Hell, I got a title for finishing holiday achievements, killing Booty Bay Bruisers, and doing all of the heroics in Wrath. It seems disingenuous to suggest that somehow this quest was not worth it compared to the original achiever, when things that are much less strenuous are worth titles.

It was hard, time-consuming, lonely work. The end was very bittersweet; I was alone in Silithus late at night, with hardly anyone even online in guild. I went out to the gong but was unable to actually ring it. The questgiver gave me my epic weapon reward, and I awkwardly milled around, trying to soak in the feeling of completing an incredible questline. It certainly is an achievement, one I`m glad will be recognized soon.