Arcane Mage Hidden Artifact Weapon clue

[alvezzi]

Well, at 44,57 at least there's a vanishing Hunting Mastiff. It runs around, stops, and just pops out of existence.

Was it this guy?

Nope.. Although I did kill him.

[Juniper486]

Another longshot, what if you wear the Mystical Frosh Hat in that area? Long shot but given his name is apparently an anagram of the toy (Accepted Frosh Helmet) perhaps wearing it triggers something if worn in this area.

[Deleted]

I will try it, atleast it has some kind of close connection to mages as it is a pointy hat. What a longshot tho x)


Edit:
So far no effect. The toy is cancelled on taking damage, I have still managed to kill and sheep wolves. Also I roughly checked the area, no visible trigger.

[Selastan]

Theres the image btw.

Searching as we speak with a /target Cote macro. Nothing so far, but it is possible that if any ole wanderer could kill him AND he is fairly hidden it makes sense he hasn't been found yet. Imagine the chances of an Arcane mage who knows what they are looking for to be wandering in this area WHILE he is alive. And possibly wearing the Mystical Frosh Red Herring.

[Ac3v3n7uRa]

Theres the image btw.

Searching as we speak with a /target Cote macro. Nothing so far, but it is possible that if any ole wanderer could kill him AND he is fairly hidden it makes sense he hasn't been found yet. Imagine the chances of an Arcane mage who knows what they are looking for to be wandering in this area WHILE he is alive. And possibly wearing the Mystical Frosh Red Herring.

Just to clarify on the macro, shouldn't it be /target Shepherd "Cote" Metcalf ? I don't think /target Cote will get you anywhere.

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One other thing, Aluneth's lore repeatedly quotes from a book "Ancient Magic and How to Wield it Without Destroying the World." This book is supposedly an item in game, and the comment on WoWhead says it's in the last room of Scarlet Library. I went there on my druid and can see the book, but it's not interactable for me. Perhaps a mage could pick it up?

[Juniper486]

Just to clarify on the macro, shouldn't it be /target Shepherd "Cote" Metcalf ? I don't think /target Cote will get you anywhere.

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One other thing, Aluneth's lore repeatedly quotes from a book "Ancient Magic and How to Wield it Without Destroying the World." This book is supposedly an item in game, and the comment on WoWhead says it's in the last room of Scarlet Library. I went there on my druid and can see the book, but it's not interactable for me. Perhaps a mage could pick it up?

I see the book too but not clickable at the moment.

[Deleted]

I see the book too but not clickable at the moment.

Yup, just went there. I was in Arcane spec as well. It has the same textures as an interactable object, but at the moment it's not. WoWhead lists it as a level 110 quest item with a flavour text.

"A compendium of knowledge accumulated from many great Archmages of the Kirin Tor, with thorough retellings of the follies that have befallen reckless mages in times past."

Not entirely sure what any of this is supposed to mean but there might be a battern. As I recall nobody was able to get the guidelines on Polymorph. Perhaps you need the Scarlet Halls book and then using the Schools of Arcane Magic - Mastery toy to teleport to Archmage Vargoth's retreat and get the Polymorph book? (I'm assuming it's there).

And please don't give me the usual spiel about how Blizzard won't make you do old content. Look at Corrupted Ashbringer. Any appearance that has not been found yet will likely have things to do with the old world. Anything Blizzard says is to not be believed anymore.

[faithbane]

Well, did a little digging on WoWHead and think I may have a lead. We know the staff is tied to someone named Cote "Shepard" Metcalf. While his location is unknown his model is, and he looks to be an older human wearing primitive cloth robes. In addition, he is a shepherd, a keeper of sheep. So if we find sheep, we find the shepherd. Doing another search on WoWHead, this time for sheep on the Broken Isles, I get only one response, and it is an interesting one. Stormheim Sheep Exploded. So far we have been hunting a volatile sheep, and what do volatile things do? Explode of course! Our target must be in Stormheim!

Another thing to note, Cote Metcalf may be a reference to Cole MacGrath, the lighting powered superhero from the Infamous video game series. Lightning and Stormheim, eh?

did you check the bracken village or whatever was called the village with herding sheep WQ, surely there is a shepard there?

[kheath812]

And please don't give me the usual spiel about how Blizzard won't make you do old content.

I dont think they ever said that. They said that every hidden artifact would start in the broken shores, not that it would never take you to the old world.

[BrionyEddon]

Page 6 - "Rule #5: Do not polymorph anything that is halfway through a portal - This has yet to not cause an explosion. This is also covered in "Thinking with Portals: A Memorandum on Proper Portal Usage."

Seems simple. Make a portal, wait for the animal to walk through it, then sheep it.

[Coconut]

Seems simple. Make a portal, wait for the animal to walk through it, then sheep it.

I actually tried getting into The Drift to polymorph the Mana Rays there, but to my disappointment nothing happened, nor was there anything to be found in the drift itself that I could interact with (you can spend as much time as you like in there once you reach the end and run back in). There was a little camp with a few MoP doodads up a cliff, but none of them was clickable.

In case you haven't done that Suramar quest or somehow missed it, this is The Drift:




Also, I dug out a bit of info about the Elwynn Sheep from the rogue class hall.

The caged sheep there belongs to Apothecary Keever, and it's a reference to this same apothecary's experiments in Undercity.

The Enraged Elwynn Sheep and Enraged Volatile Elwynn Sheep are more than likely connected to him inside the rogue class hall, althought we'd need a rogue to confirm this (and experiment with the sheep, maybe see if it can be pulled outside to the sewer exit without despawning), so we probably shouldn't go looking for stuff in Elwynn.

Apothecary Keever's old interaction is rather interesting, especially in light of the Aluneth-shaped forsaken debris Arteis discovered:



You can read the whole text in the link I provided, but I'll post the last part here as it seems particularly interesting:

Apothecary Keever says: What is this? Did Keever ask for a sheep? Keever wanted a weapon of great power and all he got was this sheep. Keever is very disappointed.

Apothecary Keever pokes the wooly sheep repeatedly.

(Sheep explodes into flames, Keever cackles inanely.)

Apothecary Keever says: Keever is most pleased.

[BrionyEddon]

Also, has anyone tried using an Explosive Sheep to explode those Polymorphed critters? Look it up on wowhead, I can't post links.

Oh, or maybe the Hozen Idol?

[Sixbones]

Would this be related? wowdb(dot)com/spells/224362-inconceivably-volatile-polymorph

Could be it's not us who triggers the volatile sheep but the NPC.

[Makorus]

The whole book thing in the Scarlet Library is completely irrelevant now.

It used to be a pick up in Beta, because you were required to collect like ~4 different books to unlock Artifact Research. They dropped that in Live for whatever reason. I sincerely doubt that it has anything to do with the appearance

[Coconut]

Would this be related? wowdb(dot)com/spells/224362-inconceivably-volatile-polymorph

Could be it's not us who triggers the volatile sheep but the NPC.

It's very likely that it is related, it's something we've found before, but I don't think it can help us at this point. Like, maybe Cote will cast this, or some event we trigger will let players cast it, but we have to find that first.

[Selastan]

I think I may check Dire Maul. Just a hunch. Anyone else encounter Cote yet?

[Padwarle]

I think I may check Dire Maul. Just a hunch. Anyone else encounter Cote yet?

I'm looking around now. Funny thing is that I typed /tar C and it targeted something, then I looked and it was just a roach. :P

[Dasir]

I don't know if this even makes sense in the context of WoW, but has anyone tried repeatedly clicking on the sheep?

[Lopoman]

imgur. com/a/DOkYx
Is on the path of the 2nd Aluneth shaped arrow is you are using them that way.
Was a circle of crabs walking around sheeped them all then killed them. nothing.

[Fahrad Wagner]

I don't know if this even makes sense in the context of WoW, but has anyone tried repeatedly clicking on the sheep?

We were talking about it earlier, apparently it didn't do anything but I was convinced it would. It is the perfect reference to WCIII. Maybe we have to sheep the mob many times until he becomes more and more volatile and then explodes?