One of the most momentous occasions in the history of Elysium is upon us. This is, of course, the releasing of patch 1.9, “The Gates of Ahn’Qiraj”. Over the last few days, we have been finalizing changes to the War Effort’s launch. We will be highlighting major in-game changes, what to expect from the war effort, and many of the finer details relating to the Qiraji Battle Tank. Firstly, let’s address the War Effort. From day one, we knew that we could not keep the War Effort per Blizzard’s original spec. In 2006, Blizzard asked for 90 thousand Copper Bars to assist in the War Effort. In 2017, on Anathema-PvP, players currently have over 1 MILLION Copper bars, and over 1.5 MILLION copper ore stockpiled. In summary, we’ve scaled many of the required materials to fit our player base’s needs. **70% of stockpiled materials, (Item for item. Not averaged.) will be required, plus the original Blizzard amount scaled to Anathema’s average player base.** Stock Pile Amounts were taken from active accounts and mostly focuses on logins from Febuary-March. If non active accounts were to return the War effort could be completed in 1 day! The amount of materials needed to be turned in by the Horde and Alliance differ due to the individual faction’s stockpile of resources, and active players per faction. Our goal is to provide an experience similar to that of the original opening of the gates. Our goal is for the War Effort to last 3-4 weeks, but that estimate is just that, an estimate. The actual time required will depend entirely upon player participation. Please keep in mind that ANY Materials farmed and turned in by using botting or other exploits will not only lead to the player's account being banned, those Materials will be removed from the turn in totals. **The Materials:** **Shared War Effort:** * Copper Bars: 1,250,000 * Purple Lotus: 700,000 * Thick Leather: 1,300,000 * Spotted Yellowtail: 600,000 * Runecloth Bandages: 2,000,000 * Alliance War Effort: * Iron Bars: 600,000 * Thorium Bars: 850,000 * Arthas’ Tears: 420,000 * Stranglekelp: 450,000 * Light Leather: 850,000 * Medium Leather: 575,000 * Roast Raptor: 450,000 * Rainbow Fin Albacore: 450,000 * Linen Bandage: 2,000,000 * Silk Bandage: 1,600,000 **Horde War Effort:** * Tin Bar: 425,000 * Mithril Bar 525,000 * Peacebloom: 825,000 * Firebloom: 425,000 * Heavy Leather: 700,000 * Rugged Leather: 850,000 * Lean Wolf Steak: 275,000 * Baked Salmon 375,000 * Wool Bandage: 1,250,000 * Mageweave Bandage: 1,000,000 **The Scepter of the Shifting Sands:** The Following adjustments have been made to this EPIC quest line to keep it true to the original intention of being a race to complete while also needing to seek help, from fellow Faction members. The Scepter of the Shifting Sands quest line will be released the MOMENT the final War Effort material is turned in. Our goal is to have players race to complete the quest line and be rewarded the Black Qiraji Resonating Crystal, and not have multiple scepters held onto, simply waiting for quest completion to gain additional mounts. The moment the Scepter of the Shifting Sands quest line begins, a 3 week timer will begin ticking. If the gong is rung prior to the ending of the 3 week time limit, 5 additional players can ring the gong and obtain the mount in succession, within 10 hours. If the 3 week timer has elapsed, only the first player to ring the gong will obtain the mount. Silithid Carapace Fragments will be group-dropped, but will be bind on pickup, so the player attempting to complete the quest line MUST BE PRESENT in killing the mobs. (All Silithid Carapace Fragments will be unbound after the opening of the gates.) Difficulty of the events within the quest line have been scaled to be in-line with current player base skill cap. (Guilds may need to collaborate with other guilds to overcome certain events.) The gates of Ahn’Qiraj will be opened, and both AQ20 and AQ40 will be enterable immediately following the 10 hour event. The Scepter Quest line will remain in game even after the Gates have been opened for players to be able to complete it, and receive the epic items as rewards. (Difficulty level of the events may be turned down at this point)