World of Warcraft content creator Barny64 set out on a mission back in the summer of 2020 to become a Scarab Lord during WoW Classic’s iconic Gates of Ahn’Qiraj event. Now, almost two years later, her video series documenting her long journey is finally complete, and it’s quite possibly the most in-depth look yet at what makes the game’s AQ event so unique.
First, a little context. The title of Scarab Lord, and an exclusive bug mount, are awarded to players who complete an absurdly lengthy quest chain as part of the AQ event within a certain amount of time. Even getting to that point is a server-wide collaboration, as both Horde and Alliance players must donate a huge amount of resources to the “war effort” in order for the event to kick off. The first player to finish the quest and ring the Scarab Gong will actually bring the event to a close a short time later, heralded by the opening of two new raids.
From there, it’s a race for players to finish the quest and turn it in before time runs out. And that’s all without mentioning the fact that the quest line almost requires an entire guild’s worth of people to complete at numerous different stages, including a portion that requires players to collect 42,000 of a particular item by killing thousands upon thousands of bugs. It’s for all the reasons above that few players ever claimed the title when it first happened in vanilla WoW back in 2006, and those who did went down in WoW history.
When WoW Classic’s version of the AQ event rolled around in 2020, players were prepared. They knew what resources to stock up on, what to do for the quest chain, and what obstacles would have to be overcome. Unlike the original version of the event, where players went in without any prior knowledge and only a select few players were able to claim the exclusive mount and title, some WoW Classic guilds were dead set on having as many players claim the title as possible.
Enter Barny64, an undead rogue and just one of over a dozen people who pushed for Scarab Lord in her guild alone. The result is a four-part video series diving into every aspect of the event–the lore, the quests, the guild drama, the server politics, Horde and Alliance collusion–all of it. Two years is a long time, and more than a few fans have been anxiously waiting to see if Barny64 did, in fact, accomplish her goal of becoming Scarab Lord. We won’t spoil it here, but the entire video series is well worth a watch for a look at what makes MMORPG moments like the Gates of AQ in WoW Classic more than just an in-game event, but a social experience that can result in some twice, soon to be thrice, in a lifetime moments.
The game’s most infamous event will return later this year as part of the currently ongoing WoW Classic Season of Mastery, which introduced fresh servers sporting faster character progression and more difficult raids.
Source: Gamespot
