Tobold's Blog
Monday, June 07, 2010
 
Battered Hilt

I did the Icecrown 5-man dungeons so often and with so many of my characters, and never saw a single Battered Hilt drop. Then finally yesterday I see it dropping for the first time with my paladin. Everybody rolls need, somebody else wins. Well, that was to be expected, everybody rolls need on that one. We continue and ON THE VERY NEXT MOB PACK there is another Battered Hilt drop. And this time I win it! Woot! Randomness creates strange events.

Now the most rational thing would be to sell the hilt. It still easily sells for 8k gold or more, and I already have iLevel 232 weapons on my pally. With the upcoming gear reset, the utility I'd get from the iLevel 251 weapon reward for the hilt will be small. I have over 12k gold on that server, and I would never have bought a Battered Hilt, which to an economist means that I value 8k gold more than I value a Battered Hilt.

But people aren't entirely rational. There is something called the endowment effect, which means that you value something you have more than something you don't. And while buying a Battered Hilt would have gotten me from a comfortable 12k gold to a meagre 4k, selling the Battered Hilt I found would get me from the comfortable 12k gold to equally comfortable 20k gold, a chance I would barely notice.

So I decided to use the Battered Hilt instead of selling it, and started the quest line which I would otherwise never see. Even if the final reward sword ends up as a souvenir collecting dust in my bank after only a few months of use, I think that is worth it.
Comments:
The quest line is fun. I bought a hilt on my main despite having a better weapon already just because I wanted to experience the content. I don't regret it.
 
I kept the hilt my hunter won and followed the enjoyable questline. The sword was a welcome upgrade. Even if I resub for Cataclysm and Quel becomes quickly obsolete, it was worthwhile.
Perhaps the sword can be upgraded like the Ring of Kirin Tor?
 
I would have done exactly the same, if I had been in your position.
 
8k Gold is worth more if you have only 4k and worth less if you have 12k.
This difference is not respected by our economic system (nor by any system I know), but it is real. You acted perfectly rational.

What do you need 20k gold for?
 
In the olden days, epics were required in order to experience 'content'.

With the exception of certain Gearscore obsessed kids, this is no longer the case.

It therefore makes a lot of sense that you chose to spend your money on unique content rather than save it (for more epics/mounts/repair bills).
 
Such an epic questline.

I have a 277 weapon, and I still used my hilt when I got it.
 
I won the hilt on my pally, which I replaced only recently by Trauma, I'll still keep the hilt as a "souvenir" as the quest line was indeed Epic.

I bought a second one for my DK when he hit 80. Was well worth the 9.k I spent on it.
 
The quest line is really neat, the weapon is one that you can keep forever as a memento of your time in Northrend :)

Gold, the value will drop in the next expansion, and you can always get more.

Enjoy your new blade :)
 
The first time I saw the hilt drop I won (I consider myself extremely fortunate). I asked some guildies what they thought I should do and got mixed results. When I asked my kids they both said "Don't sell it! You will only have the chance to experience the quest once, gold isn't worth the experience".

I took my kid's advice and haven't regretted it for one second. To end up standing there in front of the Sunwell was awesome. I got a million screenshots too, which was great. Gold value fluctuates and will do so even more in the near future. The decision was easy.
 
So wait, you value *content* more than currency or loot?

Cool. :)
 
Exchanging pretend gold for an actual fun set of quests seems like a no brainer. Gold is like hit rating. Once you have all you need, more is of no value.

Heck, I'm still using my spellpower mace now and will be until 'Heroic Lockjaw' drops.
 
"The quest line is really neat, the weapon is one that you can keep forever as a memento of your time in Northrend :)"

My thoughts exactly, you definitely made the right choice Tobold. One thing I did have to do though was consciously make myself slow down and read all the quest text, as I had just paid 12k to access it!
 
Grats on winning the item. I remember the old quel serar or the hunter epic bow quests which were fun quests and did provide a great item.

There should be more events like this where you have to work a bit for your epic and not just depend on pure luck.
 
This comment has been removed by the author.
 
to me this was in part similar to doing a quest chain for lvl 60 bow on my hunter. sure its devaluated now in terms of raw utility but the fun i had getting the bow (and quel delar on my pally) was totally worth it. its a pretty epic chain, last time I got caught up like that was when doing the quest chain in ice crown that shows you Arthas's downfall and culminates in Arthas vs Illidan fight :)

you can make up the gold in so many ways... but the enjoyment you get from the quest chain is priceless IMO.

P.S. the post above was me - I spel gut and there's no edit button :(
 
If you're at all into the lore part of things, it's worth doing the quest. As a paladin, you'll at least get an actual sword, my priest who completed it got... some mace that wasn't even named Quel'Delar.
 
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