Quick Facts

Series

1.	Finding the Keymaster
2.	Capturing the Keystone

Storyline
Netherstorm Distraction at Manaforge B'naar Measuring Warp Energies Naaru Technology B'naar Console Transcription Shutting Down Manaforge B'naar Attack on Manaforge Coruu Shutting Down Manaforge Coruu Shutting Down Manaforge Duro Shutting Down Manaforge Ara Sunfury Briefings Outside Assistance A Dark Pact Aldor No More Socrethar's Shadow Ishanah's Help Deathblow to the Legion Manaforge B'naar Bloodgem Crystals High Value Targets Shutting Down Manaforge B'naar Stealth Flight Behind Enemy Lines A Convincing Disguise Information Gathering Shutting Down Manaforge Coruu Return to Thalodien Shutting Down Manaforge Duro Shutting Down Manaforge Ara Kick Them While They're Down A Defector Damning Evidence A Gift for Voren'thal Bound for Glory Turning Point You're Hired! Assisting the Consortium Assisting the Consortium Report to Engineering Essence for the Engines Elemental Power Extraction Invaluable Asset Zapping Dr. Boom! Consortium Crystal Collection A Heap of Ethereals Warp-Raider Nesaad Request for Assistance Rightful Repossession An Audience with the Prince Triangulation Point One Triangulation Point Two Full Triangle Special Delivery to Shattrath City Pick Your Part One Demon's Trash... Declawing Doomclaw Warn Area 52! Doctor Vomisa, Ph.T. You, Robot Back to the Chief! The Archmage's Staff Rebuilding the Staff Malevolent Remnants The Annals of Kirin'Var Searching for Evidence A Lingering Suspicion Capturing the Phylactery Destroy Naberius! Curse of the Violet Tower The Sigil of Krasus The Sunfury Garrison Down With Daellis A Fate Worse Than Death The Unending Invasion Potential Energy Source Building a Perimeter Krasus's Compendium Torching Sunfury Hold Unlocking the Compendium Summoner Kanthin's Prize Ar'kelos the Guardian Finding the Keymaster Capturing the Keystone Run a Diagnostic! Deal With the Saboteurs To the Stormspire Diagnosis: Critical Testing the Prototype All Clear! Success! A Not-So-Modest Proposal Getting Down to Business Formal Introductions A Promising Start Troublesome Distractions Securing the Celestial Ridge The Ethereum Ethereum Data Potential for Brain Damage = High S-A-B-O-T-A-G-E Delivering the Message Recipe for Destruction On Nethery Wings Dimensius the All-Devouring

Screenshots

Videos

Comments

Comment by MrGorun

Find Apex at 53, 67 (http://www.wowhead.com/?npc=19940), drop Crystal, then go back and use orb.

Comment by 15241

Coordinates above (53, 67) are confirmed.

He is a large rock demon with approximately 22.7k health. Screenshot submitted.

Comment by 17407

Soloable as a 70 combat rogue.

Comment by 1701

Moves faster than normal running speed, but can be fireblast / blink trained.

Comment by 13914

coords confirmed. soloed as 70 frost mage

Comment by erol

Easy to kite as a 68 fire mage (the running speed on boots can be a plus)

Comment by javada

69 hunter kited successfully. Didnt need pet. I used the follwing kiting path: starting from where you find him, then follow the path to eco-dome midrealm (dont enter eco-dome), follow path around ot the left over towards area 52 and if you haven't killed him by the time you reach Area52, follow the path to your left before actually entering Area52. Very little adds along this route to give you any bother. Stay out of his reach and use aspect of cheetah all the way. Seems to be immune to concuss and freeze traps did not work on him for me. Used acrane and serpent sting to grind him down.

Comment by Cailaris

Soloed as 70 warlock, he is immune to fear and snares, just Drain Tanked him down, at like 50% he summons little rock minions that hurt, just AOE'd fear and kept my eye on the prize, Had to use HS and a super healing pot though! GL!

Comment by 19634

Solo'd as a 70 feral druid. I ended up going bear form and slowly backing him up down the road closest to him all the while dpsing with maul and mangle. When I kept moving, the adds he spawned did not aggro on me, they just sat in the middle of the road. (might have just been bugged though)

A couple of side notes:
Apex hit me (with 11k armor (53% mitigation) in bear) for around 200 so it was very managable and could heal through it.

He was not immune to Bash nor Cyclone. I did not try roots as I only needed Cyclone to get heal off.

He does a Thunder Clap type move that slows your movement speed (might have done something else as well, but i can't recall). So if you are trying to simply kite him around, try not to get to close.

Lastly, I cannot confirm this as I did not engage his adds, but other druids have told me that his adds are rootable.

Comment by selece

Soloed as a 70 hunter. Kited down from Duro to Sunfury Hold, then down around past Coruu.

Easily done with Cheetah, no really hard mobs to path around.

Comment by Laccery

Easy with the Fetish of the Sand reaver. 70 Lock. Incinerate/Destro. Had VW tank with festish up and then poped soul shatter. VW was able to tank the whole fight with those two de-agros till he was dead. :)

Comment by katn

70 feral druid soloable
just keep kite it slowly beyond the road
and leave the small apex alone.

Comment by PrimEviL

did it as retri pala, tho had to use both bubbles and LoH.
somebody said above that he's a demon. wrong. a giant.

Comment by Keelin

Can be solo as Demo Warlock. Dont need to kite, just tank and spank Apex.

Coordinate is correct, note however he does roam about a little so you can wait for him to get nearer to the road so you can pull him safely.

(Pull him to the road, inside there have stealth mobs) Dots him up ... heal Felguard... renew Dots as needed. When spawn adds ... get your Felguard to hit each of them at least once (he spawn 3 adds, they have about 1k plus hp each, Felguard does cleave so if the adds lose about 1mm hp from the cleave you are fine .. switch back to Apex, kill him first).

Note: Apex does not hit hard on your Felguard, you can Drain Life him if you see you Felguard HP is enuf (3K plus). Dmg increase when the adds spawn.

Comment by 19740

soloed as a 70 shadow priest. just fear adds and dps.

Comment by satriani

This quest now gives 11gold 48 silver at level 70.

Comment by 14004

Can also be solo'd by a mage, like most stuff.

Sick your ele on him, put shield on, crack trinket, smack him with some 3k frostbolts, blink, more frostbolts untill he's in your face, hit cooldown, shield, pull out ele, frostnova adds, blink, more frostbolts, fireblast ,cone of cold, should be done with him, finish adds, sit, drink, /yawn.

No fear, no kite, no dots, just power.

Comment by kjeksomanen

unfearable.

Comment by 24542

He can't be kited very far since he'll evade and run back. Also, he spawns various adds at roughly 80% and 50%, maybe more later (I couldn't solo him). The spawns can be feared, the the mob himself not.

It's also impossible to kite him across the bridge, since he'll evade in the middle of it and run back. Perhaps there's a trick, but I had him dotted and did heal myself, so aggro was definitely there.

Comment by shockwaver

Soloed as a 70 shadowpriest. Just blasted him with everything I had. He is immune to fear, but his adds are not. So I managed to fear them 3 times, while nuking. After he was dead I just went out of aggro range and adds dissapeared. Returned and looted. Piece of cake.
Good location is near the bridge and road at 51,70.

Respawn timer is rather fast. He respawned while I wrote this. :)

Comment by 1114

Level 68 shadow priest solo'd. Was a very challenging kill at my level. No potions or anything like that. Did drop shadowform to heal for the first time in the Outlands though. He hits for ~500 damage on cloth.

Comment by 27769

Soloed as Destro Lock, had a fun time kiting him around Area 52, all the way from 52,68
pulled with shadow bolt, ran like hell while i constantly threw CoA on him, and when Shadowfury CD was done i stunned him with it
The Thunderclap made it even easier to solo because he had to stop while using it, more time for me :D
quite simple AND fun :P

Comment by 27828

Soloed this as a 70 fury warrior, but I did die at the end.

Popped most of my cooldowns (Recklessness, Death Wish, Bladefist's Breadth), and brought him down fast, because I read somewhere up that he becomes weaker the more his health goes down. So I tried to get him to low HP asap.

Near the end I used Last Stand (got my last points in prot, very handy). When his adds came I feared those and spam-executed Apex, then looted him fast.
Then I used a pot but my Last stand ran out, so I died because of the adds. I think if I had waited till Last Stand ran out and popped the pot right after that, I could've survived.

Hope it helps :)

Comment by 25095

If you use the orb right after another player has used it(not in your group) the quest wont complete. You will have to go back and kill Apex..

Comment by 28014

Soloable as 70 shaman using Fire elemental totem. u need some smooth luck too tho he will kill ur fire elemental fast. recomended with a partner

Comment by 21087

I soloed this as a 70 Enhancement Shaman. Dropped an Earth Elemental totem to do the tanking. Proceeded to DPS Apex, throwing the occasional heal on the Earth Elemental. I needed a mana pot but otherwise it was pretty easy.

Comment by Fahiel

I soloed it as a 70 holy priest, but it wasn't easy =P Main thing is to keep the little spawns feared as much as possible and make sure you have a dot on him at all times. DPS potions might have helped too.

Comment by 29877

Soloed as a 70 shadow priest. Had to use two +dmg trinkets and feared his crumblers off twice. Just throw on all DoTs and focus fire the crap out of him.

Comment by 16133

really easy to solo as 70 druid. Use cat form to do initial DPS, switch to bear and start mangle/maul/swipe/ demo shout. DONT use frenzied rejuv until you are at around 1/3 health. If you get really low, switch to caster, barkskin and use a regrowth or max rank HT.

Comment by perunaion

I was able to kite him all the way back to Eco-Dome Midrealm, he is immune to roots. Just dot and run, dot and run. He moves pretty quickly given his size, so if you don't have (ghost/travel/cheetah/persuit of justice/etc) he might be more difficult to take this way.

Comment by Telasero

Solod as a 31/0/30 Paladin

Walk backwards holy shock and judge, and he goes down pretty well, bubbled once healed and used a heal potion at the end

Comment by 23478

It CAN be solo'ed by prot warr, used 1 pot, breadth trink and last stand , did die in the end , was left with 400 hp , but able 2 loot...

Comment by Ozeeba

Solo'd as a 70 Affliction Warlock. Send in VW, full dots, keep your instants in reserve till you pull aggro (and you will)...nuke away...(soul fire was actually useful)...shadow bolt, shadow bolt, shadow bolt...pull aggro...Sac the VW, refresh dots...use all your instants, AOE fear the adds...Drain Life till he's dead. Be sure to SS yourself, just in case his adds come back and you can't get away so that you don't have to corpse run.

Comment by 2717

Soloed as a 70 Ele Shaman, I am pretty sure that most classes should have a trick in their bag that will allow them to solo this guy.

For myself an Earth Elemental and Lightning Bolt Spam did the trick.

Comment by 36646

Soloed him as lvl 70 prot warrior. I have one epic and that's the Violet Signet. Easymode, i just sundered him to 5 stacks, then spammed shield slam and devastate and used trinket + shield block as often as possible. When he had 2 adds, i feared them and just kept hitting him.. had to use Last Stand and i died at adds, but at least i got him. ;) took like 5 min :P

Comment by benedice

58,86 is the turn-in location.

Comment by 29635

I just tried doing this quest and when i go to turn in the guy pops up and dissappears real fast.. is it bugged or am i missing something here?? 3/30/07

Comment by 12909

Easily done as a 43/11/7 Paladin with about 600 Spelldmg. Judging Righteousness/Holy Shock/Consecration whenever they are up, then a Shield/Divine Favor heal when needed and he is no problem at all. The consecration takes care of the small adds.

Comment by Xanit

Soloed by level 70 hunter, cake just take em across the bridge pull out pet FD and bam dead.

Comment by 16311

Protection paladin can do this no problem. As the little elites spawn, its gets even better due to more Reckoning procs. Just alternate SoL/JoL and you'll be fine.

Comment by d4fF

Easy as a hunter... just kite him over the bridge using serpent sting and arcane shot. over the bridge... round some stone circles and back over the bridge...

He's quite fast so use cheetah.

at 50% or so... call pet for some extra damage.

Comment by 34116

Solo'd as a 70 Combat fist rogue. Evasion/Blade flurry/AR and one pot. Vanished at the end

Comment by Nerisatra

It can easily be kited as a hunter. Run arround in circles so he doesn't get too far away from his spawn and eventually evade.
I did it by the road just north of the bridge everyone is talking about. No mobs there! You can easily keep both Apex and the adds at a distance with aspect of the cheetah.
He's immune to concussive shot

Comment by 22318

I had a hard time as a 70 frost mage -- his first hit killed my ice barrier and he was immune to frost nova. Without being able to sheep or freeze down the adds, it was just too much of a beating to survive :(

Comment by 42750

Soloed with my 40/0/21pally judgement of the crusader then to seal of vengence with healing weapon and sheild. Sanctity aura w/Blessing of light on me healing through th damage stunning when possible. Took down adds after he was dead. Not hard.

Comment by 2851

The pre-requisite for this quest is:
http://www.wowhead.com/?quest=10176

Comment by 38680

41/0/20 arcane - frost mage, soloed. You're basically running the entire time poping everything you;ve got. I killed him with about 200 hp left and used a major health pop as well. As he gets smaller and divides he gets alot slower so it's easier to run and dps.

Comment by 20040

Do we really need so many "Solo'd this as..." replies? We get it, he can be solo'd, congratulations. Once you get the crystal you gotta go back down south to the tower and use it near the orb, which is at the top of the tower next to the Archmage. Tower is 58, 86.

Comment by gretten

Easily soloed as a 70 affliction-warlock, just draintanked him and feared his adds.

Comment by 47072

Soloed paladin holy (45/16/0)

Comment by 30345

To the above poster... yes actually some people like seeing that it can be solo'd by their class, let me guess your alliance and have endless offers for groups right? On horde its a little different.

Anyways... Solo'd 69 Demo Warlock, killed adds and didnt even fear... gg

Comment by 34517

Kited to death as a mage. Fireblast, run, fireblast, run, blink when you can. Brought him almost all the way to Stormspire before he died.

Comment by 51173

Just soloed this one as lvl 70 frost mage, when adds spawn just frost nova them and run away from them - He is at 53.67

Comment by Suhov

He is kiteable. Kited him to nears Echo dome then find some players wich help =)

Comment by Antec91

Soloed with elemental shaman, used earth elemental totem. Used only lightning bolt and about every 10 secs i healed my pet. And that was it.

Comment by atjoo

Coordinates: 53, 67
Corpse can be mined after he is killed, he summons some small rock dudes they can be feared. Soloed him as a lvl 70 arms/fury pvp specc warrior, pretty easy. :D

Comment by 57225

soloed as 70 shadow priest. opened up with PWS->VT...strafe away...SWP->VE....MF, MF, MB....

shielded and feared adds as he broke apart. Had to use a health pot but was able to SWD him at the end, looted and ran away from little guys.

Comment by 11342

I find the 'Solo'd as...' comments helpful as finding a group can sometimes be a real pain.
Giving it a go on my 70 Prot Pally.

Comment by 61679

he is kiteable indeed so i soloed him (70 hunter)

Comment by 55557

70 Affliction/Demo Warlock

Siphon Life, Corruption, CoA, Immolate

I used Life Tap often while I kept my void up using Health Funnel (improved). When the small guys spawned, I drew aggro using DoT's and continued to reapply DoT's while Health Funneling the void.

Took a while, used 1 improved HS, but he went down.

Comment by 12563

Soloable as a Level 70 Combat Rogue. Had to use all the cooldowns and even vanish to get rid of his adds. It's probably an S-ranked mob =)

Comment by 65910

Soloed by 68 ele shammy
had to use earth elemental, but he took agro of adds and Apex himself. I then just spammed lightning, but I went oom after i took him down, forcing me to run from the adds. Fairly easy, but slightly difficult.

Comment by rothbart

He is IMMUNE to concussive shot, freezing trap, and wingclip. but, he's easy regardless. as a 70 marks/ survival hunter, i was able to mend pet and keep him near full even with an add on him, atleast one of the adds will surely aggro to you when mend pet ticks, but you just trap him and keep shooting, very easy at 70.

Comment by 62369

soloed as a 70 feral druid in bear form - just use frenzied regeneration and go out to normal form and heal sometimes

Comment by Agnome

Did it as a Aff/Demo lock:
Dot
Soul shatter
Drain life
HoT the spawns
Sac the vw when low hp
Done

Comment by 73436

Cool, i'll try solo'ng as a sm/ruin lock

Comment by 50031

Soloed as 68 Affli warlock. 8200 hp. Didnt use immolate, just the other ones, and did soulshatter. Feared the adds.

Escaped with the quest-item and 820 hp left.

Comment by 66438

soloed him on my 70 sealed fate rogue. deadly poison on both weapons. i couldn't escape adds and i had no more pots. popped two 200 ap trinkets + SnD and bladeflurry. just got lucky with dodges after evasion faded... but the adds killed me. envenom really does it though, better than eviscerate when set up imo.

Comment by 72048

Hmm, i have the quest, i look for him, find him, kill him...BUT didn't get any crystal...?
Anyone else having this problem?

EDIT- Lol, my cousin was in a party with me and she most of switched us to raid, so that's why i didn't get the crystal.
She left while i was making another attempt of getting the crystal and it was only then that i saw the message of raid.

Did it as a lvl 70 prot warrior. I suggest you switch to def stance, when all 3 adds are there. For shieldblock and revenge will be up most of the time. Best thing is to wait, till all 3 adds are there and then pop intim shout. Just had to use a pot and ran after i killed and looted Apex.

Comment by madag

Managed to solo as a 41/20/0 affliction lock. Started near the path at 51,67. Sent the void walker in, dot him up with UA, all instant dots, and spam a few shadowbolts. When the vw is about 50% or so health and starts to lsoe agro, run down the hill and tell the vw to follow. Keep the DoTs on him as you run. Whenever an instant DoT is up, recast. When he starts to hit on you, sac the vw for shield. Keep running, use Healthstone as you're soing so. Paused briefly to fast-summon another vw and sac'd again.

If you keep moving, the adds don't follow.

Comment by mcbobo

easy solo prot war

Comment by 90661

soloed as 70 frost mage

Comment by Russius

Spawns 3 "Apex Crumbler" mobs at varying levels of hp. They themselves have approximately 6k hp.

Comment by 73474

Solo'd him on the first try as a 70 fury warrior. Used a pot after downing apex then dealt with the adds. Took like 2 minutes or so was all.

Cake.

Comment by 40632

easy soloed with lvl 70 combat sword rogue. stunable.

Comment by 93981

Just did this with my 70 Frost mage.
I made my Elemental attack Apex while I ran off to the side of him. By the time my Ele hit him I was far enough away to volley Agro between me and my Elemental. I had to eventually pop cold snap due to the little mini apex's spawn and then rinse repeat with the elemental volley. I used my elemental's distance nova to stop the mini Apex spawn.

Frost Nova does not work on Apex. It works on the crumblers he spawns.

Comment by 40223

Just solo'd it as a Holy Paladin.

Comment by 29865

Just solo'd as a 70 resto Shaman. My fire elemental basically kept the first add off me while I just dps'd him down, which would have been even faster if I were still elemental-spec. I did have to pull out all my good tricks--Mana Tide, Bloodlust, and Earth Shield, but nothing unusual. I had to do a big heal toward the end, but basically he wasn't too much of a problem. Not hard at all for me.

Comment by 16904

Kitable with Cheetah as a Hunter.

Comment by 71236

Soloed him as a BM Hunter level 69. No special gear and no kiting. Just hit him with all I got. The adds do very little damage and I basically ignored them until Apex was down. Didn't even need a heal potion...

Comment by 106426

This guys is very soloable, did as a 70 ele sham, popped fire elemental and burned him down.

Comment by davfett

Easy solo as lvl 70 Warlock. I am demonolgy so I sent in Felguard and dropped DoTs on Apex. Just used Health Funnel to keep pet alive and re-dotted as they ran out. Very easy fight.

Comment by 108577

I dont know how but i soloed it as a level 68 feral druid. Done the easy stuff, farie fire/charge mangle mangle, maul maul. didnt pay attention to the adds, war stomped to heal then bear again and got him down. Then barkskin to heal again and finished off the adds.

Comment by 94857

Soloed with 70 ele shaman, 3 gladiators and blues. lanted earth ele totem, elem mastery, berserkering and healed earth ele 2 times.. Pretty easy

Comment by 119338

solod him, a warp chaser, a swiftwing and 3 of his spawns. yeah, 70 prot pally ftw.

Comment by anvano

Soloed by Shadow Priest. By taking damage he reduce his size and spawn adds. Adds are fearable. Thunderclap - dispellable.
Just hold all dots on , shield, fear adds.

Comment by 105782

Pice of cake for a green geared prot pally, healed once and finished the battle with half of my mana and 2/3 of my hp left which leads me to suspect that this is soloable by any class.

Comment by 134522

Hits quite hard, was able to solo quite easily as a 70 rogue, pop evasion and kidney shot. Used blade fury when smaller dudes showed up.

Comment by 93128

Soloed as 70 T4-T5 Fire mage. Just popped mana shield, went to max range and Fireballed him down to about 25%, then AOEed to finish him off and take care of the adds... But... He didn't drop the crystal...

Killed him again, still didn't drop...

Dropped quest, picked it back up, kill him AGAIN, no drop...

<edit>
It was in my bank... apparently I'd already killed him before...
/tar Cosmix
/facepalm

Comment by 133480

Same thing happened to me, killed him twice and no drop.

Comment by 120156

Possible Matrix reference here- In Reloaded, Neo must find the Keymaker. Apex's name may be a play on Apoc, one of Neo's companions in the first movie.

Comment by jgilmore8

Solo'd as a 70 combat-swords rogue. Ran up full combo points for S&D, ran up full combo points for Rupture, kept the SS going. Blade flurry when adds showed up. Done.

Comment by 40292

Ye this is very nice. I can solo at him also easy. 70 lvl mage S3 geared. But he dont drop Crystal, drop only . Kill him 3-4 times, try to abandon quest and pick up again, but no crystal... :(

Comment by 27750

Just solo'd him as a lvl 70 frost mage with crappy gear. He is immune to frost nova but his adds are not. So i started with frostbolts and pet, then i kited him as far as it took to down him, with pet frost nova the adds...

Comment by 86590

To all the people who think they are having trouble getting it to drop:

Make sure that you haven't killed Apex on an earlier occasion. The quest status will not change once you loot Apex's Crystal Focus. I forgot that I killed him and couldn't understand why the quest wasn't completed until I thoroughly went through my bags and found the drop.

Comment by 69138

Found him.

The name of this quest could possibly be a reference to Ghostbusters.. Who knows?

Comment by sgtsolidus

solo'd this as an MM hunter. I can guess it wouldve been much easier as a BM hunter as i finished the fight with only 200 health left. just had pet engage Apex and DPSed im down. when he spawned his adds i just used traps to cc them and feigned death to lose them. Used no pots or bandages.

Comment by 158239

Solo'd him as a level 69 BM hunter. Was easy, but I must say, it would be easier, if you could pull him away from those warpstalkers, as they do aggro, and fighting 2 is worse than one. But nonetheless, solo'd him and got the orb.

Jessebelle.
Caelstrasz.

Comment by Lorielle

I have to say this is the EASIEST quest i've ever done for killing an elite.

I soled him as a 69 enh shaman with crappy green gear. I have almost 6k hps and was never in danger of dying.

I used my earth elemental and only had to heal him once, altho i think he would of been fine without the heal.
He lasted until the last add was killed and I still had 1/2 my mana. =)

Comment by 162928

Solo'd as a 70 frost mage.
Had some problem with him since he's not getting slowed by frostbolts, he is also immun to frost nova and freeze (elementals "frost nova").
Had to pop some cd's, ice block, elemental, Icy veins and cold snap.
Abit hard, but still doable.

Comment by itsbth

Soloed as a 70 feral druid. Used mangle and lacerate while moving backwards, two out of three adds aggroed me. Killed him with 50% health left, no healing.

Comment by 127854

Really easy for a 69 feral druid :>
Just kill adds when they spawn

Comment by 174349

Confirm coordonates, and can be handle by an hunter, but do not lost your time, only 150hp when he died

Comment by 93660

Solo'd as 70 ss rogue, s2 weapons, 500 agi, and 8k health. Opened with cheap shot, exposed armor, blinded the first add, ruptured, popped evasion at 50%, and vanished off the adds at the end. I had around 20% health in the end.

Comment by 21986

Easy to solo as an affliction lock... you can just dot him up and drain tank him.

Comment by Grindalwald

Easy as a fresh 70 demo lock still in pre 70 gear. Tanked with felguard and nuked him. When i pulled agro i tanked the adds and finished him off with searing pain and a death coil. the adds are still bugged, one just sat and watched.

Comment by 222422

Immune to snares.

He is drainable. Siphon Life and Drain Life work wonders on him.

Comment by 188522

soloed as a level 68 hunter :) btw where is dat orb thingy?

Comment by 259668

Solo him as lvl 66 Unholy dk easy as pie the orb is back at the base where the mage tried to summon the first time just stand near the orb and right click on the shards.

Comment by Dorator

He can be solo'd i did it on my lvl 68 paladin...but he is quite hard

Comment by 687475

I've killed Apex so many times and he hasn't dropped the item required to activate the orb

Comment by Biffsterr

I soloed him as a 67 frost mage. I wear a lot of blues from random dungeons. I had the water elemental out and used mana shield. I hit him with frostfire bolt and when he came after me, I hit him with arcane blast then used blink to get as far from him as I could. I turned, hit him with arcane blast again and hit Mirror Image. The elemental and the images kept him busy but his adds started chasing me around. I was able to use frost nova on them and it became a waiting game staying away from the adds while my images and elemental pounded on Apex. I was able to throw an occasional ice lance at him and when he was dead, his two surviving adds killed me LOL. But not before I was able to run to Apex and collect the quest item. Not too terribly hard but not exactly easy either.

Comment by 750237

Really? Freakin' back and forth, back and forth, having to kill that Ar'kelos each time. What a pain quest! Each mob is not hard to defeat and each quest is not hard to complete, they are just time consuming and the whole thing loses it's thrill early on.

Comment by Biffsterr

I also soloed this as a 67 balance druid. I waited at the end of the bridge until he was just in range and then hit him with Starsurge. Then I dropped the treants. By then he was in my face and I used Typhoon on him to knock him back. Then I did a lot of running while casting Moonfire on him and anything else that I could while the treants beat on him. I thought that I had failed since the adds can't be hibernated and I didn't have time to cast Hurricane and they killed me. When I got back to my corpse to rez, I saw Apex lying there dead so I got the quest item. Evidently, all of the Moonfire that I hit him with finally got him just as, or just before, I died.

Comment by 864592

pretty easy solo 70 hunter

Comment by 877939

Kicked his trash as a lvl 68 Prot Pally. Stood still with 10k armor, Divine Protection, BotK, and S o'Insight. Didn't heal once.

Comment by 914867

68 fire mage. soloed apex easily using mirror image.
everyone commented on how they killed him but what about the keymaster where the hell is he?

Comment by Creagal

Apex is located at 53:67
Take the crystal back to the top of the tower and use it by the orb behind Archmage Vargoth

Comment by 627677

As of 03/26/2012:

I had a bit of trouble with this quest. I accepted and then logged off. I came back later to attempt the quest but did not receive the crystal after killing Apex.

I deleted the quest, re-accepted and it worked perfectly. I've submitted a screen shot for quest pick up and where to locate Apex.

So, accept the quest at the top of the tower, go kill Apex (Elite) and return to the top of the tower before logging off.

I hope you receive an achievement!

Comment by 1050655

I solo'd Apex as a lvl 67 Death Knight. He wasn't to hard to beat, although he has several minions.

Comment by TheCutter

I can't believe no-one used the gatekeeper line :(

Comment by 1127104

comments on this are entirely irrelevant to the quest. players are interested in mob locations, not at "oh i solo'd him at this level or that level"

Comment by 1127104

Since most comments here are entirely irrelevant to his location. I'll post the area I found him at. 51.85/61.34, North of the bridge that is west of sunfury hold.

EDIT: for typos

Comment by Revocxam

Updated Nov19

You have to find Apex (Apex) in first place, kill him and loot the crystal.
Apex is a purple giant that rounds the zone btw manaforge coruu and manaforge duro. I found him at 51,67 or around 53,67
Check this map

Once you got the crystal, return to the questgiver, so Travel south, back to the Violet Tower, and enter it at coords 57,86
Go to the top of the tower and use the crystal near the orb that its at his back.

Done.
Have fun and upvote this comment with the arrows in the left if you find it useful

Comment by Triphys

This quest chain starts with Ravandwyr. He is a blonde blood elf standing in front of a house between the south and the west entrances of Area 52.

Once the above is cleared, it unlocks this last part:

Finding the Keymaster
Capturing the Keystone

Comment by 1440987

Finding the Keymaster http://youtu.be/xUjeiO-mKL0

Comment by Boxofbeer

Finding the Keymaster https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05VRLYR6NQ4

Comment by Aurleis1

Video Guide: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzpcZN9FAaQ

1. Finding the Keymaster
• Accept the quest, Finding the Keymaster, from Archmage Vargoth at coords 58.4, 86.6 (Top level inside a Violet Tower at Kirin'Var Village).
• Exit the Mage Tower and travel north to the area of coords 53, 67.
• Kill Apex, and loot Apex's Crystal Focus from its corpse.
• Travel south, back to the Violet Tower, and enter it at coords 57.8, 86.2.
• Go to the top of the tower.
• Use Apex's Crystal Focus near Archmage Vargoth's Orb.
• Once the identity of the key master is discovered to be Commander Sarannis, turn in the quest to Archmage Vargoth.

Comment by WoWGnGP

i made i playthrough of this quest if anyone wish to see how to do it :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUA5nW5ENJI&feature=youtu.be

Comment by Chipcaray

Apex is located at 53, 67. That is all.

Comment by Shadanah

Others have added location data.

Leveling after 7.3.5 changes as a Fire Mage:

Burning him down is simple enough with procs and the void tendrils, but the multiple smaller versions broke down my shield. I also pulled an add, so you may want to clear the area.

The Important Thing: I cast Invisibility when Apex had broken into four or five parts because I was getting wrecked. I ran away (behind a stone pillar), ate some food, and found out that the adds had disappeared and I was able to loot Apex and complete the quest. I assume this would work with similar abilities.

Comment by endow

You do NOT use Archmage Vargoth's Staff to summon Archmage Vargoth! He is INSIDE at the TOP of the Violet Tower.
I summoned Archmage Vargoth using the staff and he had no quest. He ONLY has the quest if you go inside to the top of the tower.

Comment by biatos

You geht Apex's Crystal Focus from Apex

Hes around
/way 51.6 68.5

Use the Apex's Crystal Focus in the Violet Tower near the Archmage Vargoth's Orb.
/way 58.1 86.5

Links

Finding the Keymaster

Locate Apex and obtain Apex's Crystal Focus from him. Return to the Violet Tower and use Apex's Crystal Focus near Archmage Vargoth's Orb to discover who holds the key to breaking the tower's curse.

	Discover the Keymaster's identity (1)
	Apex's Crystal Focus (1)
	Suggested players: 2 (1)

Description

In retrospect, I suppose I should've expected Kael'thas's magic to be this robust. He's always been a talented mage, but I've never seen anything like the power he wielded during the attack on the tower.

The ward keeps me from being able to scry out the force holding it in place, but it doesn't preclude you from scrying.

You'll require a focus, though. A crystal-bearing giant named Apex roams the plains to the west of Manaforge Duro. One of its crystals would make an excellent scrying focus.

Progress

Completion

Rewards

You will receive:

Gains

Upon completion of this quest you will gain:

See if you've already completed this by typing:

/run print(C_QuestLog.IsQuestFlaggedCompleted(10256))