Quick Facts

Series

1.	Where Dragons Fell
2.	Time for Answers
3.	The Hunter and the Prince
4.	Knowledge is a Terrible Burden
5.	Tirion's Help
6.	Tirion's Gambit

Storyline
Icecrown Honor Above All Else Curing The Incurable Defending The Vanguard Scourge Tactics If There Are Survivors... Into The Wild Green Yonder A Cold Front Approaches The Last Line Of Defense Once More Unto The Breach, Hero Once More Unto The Breach, Hero The Scourgestone The Restless Dead The Purging Of Scourgeholme The Stone That Started A Revolution It Could Kill Us All The Air Stands Still Into The Frozen Heart Of Northrend The Battle For Crusaders' Pinnacle The Crusaders' Pinnacle The Skybreaker The Broken Front Your Attention, Please Borrowed Technology ...All the Help We Can Get. Poke and Prod That's Abominable! Against the Giants Basic Chemistry Coprous the Defiled Sneak Preview Chain of Command Cannot Reproduce Retest Now Not a Bug Need More Info No Rest For The Wicked Raise the Barricades Bloodspattered Banners Get the Message The Ironwall Rampart Before the Gate of Horror The Guardians of Corp'rethar Shatter the Shards It's All Fun and Games I Have an Idea, But First... Free Your Mind If He Cannot Be Turned The Shadow Vault The Duke Exploiting an Opening Securing the Perimeter Set it Off! A Short Fuse Parting Gifts An Undead's Best Friend Honor is for the Weak From Whence They Came Seeds of Chaos Amidst the Confusion Vereth the Cunning New Recruit The Vile Hold Generosity Abounds Matchmaker Stunning View The Rider of the Unholy The Rider of Frost The Rider of Blood The Fate of Bloodbane Eliminate the Competition The Bone Witch The Sum is Greater than the Parts The Art of Being a Water Terror Through the Eye Find the Ancient Hero Not-So-Honorable Combat Banshee's Revenge Battle at Valhalas Battle at Valhalas: Fallen Heroes Battle at Valhalas: Khit'rix the Dark Master Battle at Valhalas: The Return of Sigrid Iceborn Battle at Valhalas: Carnage! Battle at Valhalas: Thane Deathblow Battle at Valhalas: Final Challenge Where Are They Coming From? Destroying the Altars Death's Gaze Spill Their Blood Jagged Shards I'm Smelting... Smelting! The Runesmiths of Malykriss A Visit to the Doctor By Fire Be Purged Killing Two Scourge With One Skeleton He's Gone to Pieces Putting Olakin Back Together Again The Flesh Giant Champion A Voice in the Dark Time to Hide Return to the Surface Field Repairs Do Your Worst Army of the Damned Futility Sindragosa's Fall Where Dragons Fell Time for Answers The Hunter and the Prince Knowledge is a Terrible Burden Tirion's Help Tirion's Gambit A Tale of Valor A Hero Remains The Keeper's Favor Hope Within the Emerald Nightmare The Boon of Remulos Time Yet Remains The Touch of an Aspect Dahlia's Tears The Boon of Alexstrasza Hope Yet Remains The Will of the Naaru The Boon of A'dal Light Within the Darkness

Screenshots

Videos

Comments

Comment by 92105

You become Arthas again with a different set of abilities. This time, it's a one on one with Illidan.

As far as I remember, you have a Parry button to restore mana, a knockback and a super attack that needs you to be at range.

Parry until you get the mana to knockback and followup straight away with the super attack. Do that about 4, 5 times and he'll go down like a sack of potatoes.

Comment by Tilemahos

Stone is at 48,72. And you turn to Arthas after you click the stone.

Comment by 222978

The stone doesn't actually have one spawn point, it'll spawn anywhere around Matthias Lehner. It's always nearby though, maybe 30 yards at most.

It doesn't sparkle to indicate it's a quest-related item, but hover your mouse over nearby rocks and you'll find it.

Comment by Suzaku

This is a playable recreation of A Long Time Coming, the finale of the Scourge Campaign in Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, which plays after completing the mission A Symphony of Frost and Flame. Shortly after the battle, Arthas entered Icecrown Citadel and merged with the spirit of Ner'zhul, becoming the new Lich King.

This quest is slightly inaccurate, as the battle actually took place when Icecrown Citadel was little more than a tower of ice, long before it was rebuilt into the massive Saronite fortress currently in-game.

Comment by BigGuy

The stone is right near the quest giver (at 48,72 as stated). When you click it you turn into Arthas and have to fight against Illidan.
As Arthas you get 4 abilities:
1: Parry - returns mana (i suggest spamming it when ready).
2: Deathstrike - strikes Illidan for 20k damage
3: Stomp - pushes Illidan away from you
4: Annihiliathe - hits Illidan for a lot of damage (400K) and stuns him (can only be used when Illidan is away (after stomp)

I would suggest spam clicking 1 whenever ready, get some mana, then spam clicking 2 and when you can stomp and right away annihiliathe. Really easy fight.

Comment by Vorselia

I just did this quest. I wasn't really paying notice as to what is going on, and lost, but i still got credit for the quest.

Comment by Flyv

Note the superattack (button 4, Annihilate) has to be done at range. So you have to knock Illidan back first, then do the Annihilate. You can't win the fight without it.

Comment by Raous

This bugged for me. After just 1 strike it canceled and said, 1/1 Prince Destiny. Abandond pick up again ftw!

Comment by Gore123

Bugged out for me. I got transformed, then pressed Parry once, and got the quest completed =D

Comment by Stagen

The rock doesn't sparkle nor does it stick out of it's surroundings. At least it didn't to me. You have to hover your mouse over every stone in the area to identify it.

Comment by casualblair

This stone spawns in multiple locations surrounding the boy (within sight range)

It's rectangular and does not sparkle. Slightly smaller than a gnome's full height.

Comment by 49966

Second Best Chain in Wrath.

The best being Wrathgate.

Comment by 160168

i dunno why ur smilingGore123, u missed one of the coolest qs evvaaaaaah!

id recomend rerolling a level one so u can do it

Comment by violetta

Illidan was not prepared

Comment by 172375

EXTREMELY challanging fight - you need to perform action 3 then 4 immediately after and it doesn't always work correctly if there is any lag or delay. If you can't do it within around 40-50 seconds you have to try again.

You gain mana from action 1. Performing action 3 then 4 needs 15000 mana. I found action 2 to be a uesless drain of precious mana.

Comment by Shadock

Just realized that you can repeat this fight even after you finish the quest, tried after turned it in... I guess Blizzard itself didn't want us to be away of doing this again either

Comment by 290924

Ok ive heard alot about this quest and really wanna do it but i cant get the quest for some reason mathias isnt there. Ive done the quest to kill the soldiers as arthas and turn them into gouls and turned it into the skybreaker but i cannot find the boy, i know where he is but it isnt phased is for me, i even have the acheivment to complete 140 quests in icecrown, can someone please help me?

Comment by 26387

You need 15000 mana to do both the knockback and then the big hit.

So basically spam 1 until you have 15000 mana, then press 3 quickly followed by 4. Then hit him with 2 while he's stunned (if you have the mana, not a big deal) and then start over again with 1.

Comment by 175422

This is how i did this:

First i parry till i get 15k mana and then u kick him back and do the stun thing. then keep on parry and use the attack on actionbar nr. 2 till cooldown on nr.6 is gone and repeat. =) gl

Comment by 294742

This was actually a very even fight (not as in this quest where it's so easy that it's lame). The only reason it's made so easy is well you know, for people who can't take a challange. And probably because it's ment to be "enjoyed", but how can you "enjoy" something that is plain easy?

Comment by 203649

This is a key part of the Wrath of the Lich King story, where Arthas defeats Illidan Stormrage in combat in Icecrown on the last step of his expedition.

Comment by RobertM

Unless I'm missing something, it looks like you can re-do the fight with Illidan after you've finished the quest only if you haven't turned in the follow-up quest. After that, it looks like the rock that you use to switch to Arthas is phased out.

Comment by 115982

Might be worth taking off your equipment before you do this quest. I was unfortunate enough to kill Illidan but due to a bug then fell clean through Icecrown to my death in that big empty void under the world :(

Comment by Kanfazar

I failed the quest once because I was busy getting screenshots.

I could just imagine the kid being like "Uhh, wait, that's not how it really went. Just... do it again, alright?"

Comment by 349142

i soloed illidan <3

Comment by dreadblood

once again arthas seemed quite weak.. I died three times before I killed him.. and I thought arthas was supposed to be unstoppable?

Comment by Markk

Just turn your head around and you will find the stone:D
The abilities are 4!
1: Parry the Illidan's next attack to regenerate mana(you start with low mana)
2:An attack that does +20000 damage
3:Kicks Illidan and knocks him back
4:A kind of charge,that stuns illidan and does an amount of damage(can be used after you kick Illidan)
That's all :D
Hope this helps:)

Comment by 126544

It bugged for me....I used the parry twice and I won for some reason. Didn't even get to attack.

Comment by 319275

Arthas went to icecrown and was confronted by Blood elves and Naga and anub'arak helped him kill them...after that he walked to the frozen thrown where illidan was waiting for him then arthas was beating Illidan so Arthas took the opportunity and badly wounded him then took the helmet then Nher'zul whispers:now we are one

Comment by 441730

One of the coolest fights in the expansion.

Comment by steve2470

A few thoughts:

1- As soon as you right click on the stone, Arthas and Illidan appear. Be ready right away to get in position and set auto attack on Illidan.

2- Totally forget about using button #2. Keep pressing #1 (Parry) and keep your mana as high as possible, while pressing #3 (the Kickback one) as soon as you can.

3- Press the Annihilate button (#4) AS SOON AS IT LIGHTS UP. It doesn't stay lit long at all (less than one second), and if you miss that very brief window of opportunity, you will have to wait for another chance.

4- After you press Annihilate, guess what ? There's a good chance that Illidan is still alive but just stunned and doubled over. However, you are not facing the right way. Turn around immediately to get back into attack position. Resume steps one through three again.

5- It took me several tries and abandonments of this quest to finally complete it. Be persistent and patient and you too will complete it, finally.

Comment by 253196

When I did this quest earlier, it didn't phase out the enemies from the Argent Tournament quest. Luckily on my second try, a group rolled through and killed the commander. Just a heads-up for people phased with the Tournament.

Comment by 358417

Doing this quest as a hunter is doubly cool.

Not for any gameplay reason, but because of the quest name.

Comment by pablodee

First instructions worked great

Lotsa 1 s until uv enough mana
then 3 followed quickly by 4

repeat until he's dead

Once uv won you immediately return to ur body so you may have a couple of mobs on you be ready

Comment by Whiterock

CITADEL FOOTSTEPS Quest Tree From Whiterock

N)Blackwatch<--The Shadow Vault {H}*-->The Duke*
| The Skybreaker(A)* | | Orgrim's Hammer(H)*
| | | | |
| 2)Exploiting an Opening(A) 2)Opportunity(H)
| 2)Securing the Perimeter(A) 2)Establishing Superiority(H)
| 2)Set it Off!(A) 2)Blow it Up!(H)
| |__________________________/
| |
| 2)A Short Fuse {H}--------->1)Parting Gifts
| 2)A Voice in the Dark {H} |->6)An Undead's Best Friend
| 2)Time to Hide {H} |->6)Honor is for the Weak /
| 1)Return to the Surface {H} 6)From Whence They Came / /
| 3)Field Repairs {H} \_____________________/__/
| 3)Do your Worst {H} | |
| 3)Army of the Damned {H} 6)Seeds of Chaos 6)Amidst the Confusion
| 2)Futility {H} \ /
| |->4)Sindragosa's Fall(A) 5)Vereth the Cunning
| |->4)Cradle of the Frostbrood(H) 5)New Recruit
| | 7)The Vile Hold
| 4)Where Dragons Fell {H} |->7)Generosity Abounds
| 5)Time for Answers {H} |->7)Stunning View /
| 5)The Hunter and the Prince {H} 7)Matchmaker / /
| 1)Knowledge is a Terrible Burden {H} \_________/_____/
| | \ |->7)The Rider of the Unholy
| 1)Tirion's Help(A) 1)Argent Aid(H) |->7)The Rider of Blood /
| | / 7)The Rider of Frost / /
| 5)Tirion's Gambit {H} \ / /
| 2)The Fate of Bloodbane
8)Where Are They Coming From?
| |
8)Death's Gaze 8)Destroying the Altars
|______________|
|->8)I'm Not Dead Yet!{H}
|---------------->8)Spill Their Blood
8)Jagged Shards /
|->7)The Runesmiths of Malykriss /
7)I'm Smelting... Smelting! / /
\_________________________/____/
| |
8)By Fire Be Purged 8)A Visit to the Doctor
/ /
8)Killing Two Scourge With One Skeleton-->8)Let's Get Out of Here {H}
8)He's Gone to Pieces
8)Putting Olakin Back Together Again
8)The Flesh Giant Champion
Quest zones:
1)Unique zones_2)Icecrown Citadel_3)Valley of Lost Hope_4)Sindragosa's Fall_5)Icecrown Citadel(outside)_6)Weeping Quarry_7)Malykriss_8)Fleshwerks
N)Not-needed
The Icecrown is done! Leave your comments/sugestions at my comment in Icecrown zone. Thanks everyone who helped me to make it via comments on wowhead and in-game pre-quest tracking.

Comment by FenixAiur

Illidan yelled at me "Prepare to die!"

I was not prepared. :c

Comment by Moustie

I'm wondering... did this happen before you killed Illidan in BT or after that ? 0.o

I mean.. how can you also kill Illidan twice ? (in BT and here)

Comment by SINisterWyvern

Has anyone else had an issue with the rock showing up in 4.0?

Comment by 318390

I have just spoken to a GM and he has confirmed that this quest is bugged, and that you can't see the stone.

Comment by 637197

When do we get a fix for this? I need 3 quests in Icecrown, and really need to complete this :)

Comment by 698472

I am haveing the same problem, i cann't find the rock. i been flying all over the the whole area and still nothing. is something bugged or am i having the problem. as the person said before, it brings my questline to a complete stop.

Comment by hirroth

am I the only one having difficulties finding the rock after 4.0

Comment by 704582

IMPORTANT

After the latest 4.0.3 I have got my mage to lvl 79 and was going for 80. I planned to do this series (cus its awesome) to lvl the last bars.

Problem is the quest doesent work. The stone is gone. I talked to a GM. He came with me and even he couldent find it.

He believes that its a phasing issue and he sent it further on for investigation.

Comment by Investigator

I had the missing rock issue as well. However there were rolling restarts just as I was playing, and for once it was actually helpful, as soon as the server came back up I tried again and the rocks were there.

If you can't see the rocks when standing next to the quest NPC, don't waste your time searching the area for them like I did. They are plainly obvious just by panning your camera around, if that. It's annoying to interrupt an interesting quest line like this, but just come back another time, immediately after a server restart if possible.

Also if you have either of the two argent tournament dailies for the citadel the daily quest elites will be there. If you drop or complete the citadel dailies before entering the citadel area, it's mostly empty, and has some non elites only.

Comment by 811342

Does this quest not work anymore? I've been looking for that stupid ass rock for about an hour and 20 minutes.

Comment by Korrdory

I cannot find this rock either and I REALLY want to finish the Icecrown quests. Is the quest perma-bugged or what is going on here?

Comment by 146544

The Rocks now twinkle brightly! It's in the court of Bones! I tried to do this with my Wolfmeat, Warrior-Fury level 85. I did not make a dent in Illidan for over 5 death times. Either Illidan's health has to come down or the Prince's health must come up! The 4 buttons and their order did not work right as far as I can tell. The mana was not coming up as health on the Prince went down, why, I do not know? If is bugged why WOW/Blizzard do not check these quests out before people work the quests is beyond me.

Comment by 559902

This quest is currently bugged, the stone will not spawn. I ticketed a GM who was very helpful and forced the spawn of the stone.

Comment by dasbaum

This quest event can become stuck ... if you don't see a stone open a ticket and ask a GM to reset it.

Comment by 932023

I've done like 10 times trying to do this quest. I'm not even putting a dent in his health.

Comment by 1034090

I was having the same problem that I think everyone in 5.0.4 was finding it near impossible to get some damage on Illidan. I found (with a couple of tries) that if you alternate spamming between 1 and 3 in between your 3-4 combo he doesn't touch you as much and you get a decent chance to hit him. Even still, it took about 4 tries to get him even with this strategy.

Comment by 910895

I'm supposed to be hitting for 400,000, but it's only doing 250,000-300,000 per strike. As such I'm finding the quest nearly impossible. Any guesses as to why ... ?

For the record I'm doing this quest at 85, but that shouldn't have anything to do with it, should it?

Comment by 823485

There is something not right with this quest. I think Illidan hacked the program so Arthas would die out of revenge.

Comment by Eccentrica

If you are doing this as a hunter, equip a melee weapon. Just before Illidan strikes you use ability 1. Kick him back with 3 when it's available, once you have around 20k mana, use 4. This is crucial. Ability 4 does the most damage so use it whenever you can.

The goal here is to be able to use 4 and have enough mana to use 2 perhaps twice and still have enough mana to use 3 (kickback).

I struggled on this numerous times, but once I put my priority on using 4 as much as possible while still having enough mana to strike once or twice and kick he went down easily.

Comment by Octarin

It appears that the tactics for this fight have changed a bit. First off, let me say that the kiting out of range didn't work for me, as it seems that they have added a stun effect to whenever he hits you and you don't have your parry up, so you're half-way dead by the time you get off-range, plus he disappears when you do.

Simply spamming parry also didn't help much because he hits you regardless, and annihilation has a much longer cooldown. However, you can cast two stomps before annihilation resets, so that worked for me to kick him away while waiting for annihilation, so he wouldn't hit me, while spamming the parry. Kick him, wait, then when annihilation is reset, stomp and annihilation and while he's stunned, you can easily get 2 to 4 attacks in before you need to start spamming parry again.

I hope this helps. :)

Comment by Rustman

OMG.. Dunno if it was rotation my end or things have changed since MoP bit I could not kill him.. Read comments here, watched You Tube videos, et al. Noticed if all I did was parry hit points went to ONE but stayed alive until I attacked and then promptly died (sigh) BUT if all else fails and you can't kill him then target him, parry until HP = 1 and do NOTHING but let auto attack take him down. (If you need to make a beer run this is a good time lol it'll take 20-30 Minutes)

Comment by 591782

Okay, I had a REALLY hard time with this one. Failed it about 20 times before I figured out I was doing it wrong.

Here is what you need to do to beat him:

Only parry when you see him preparing to attack. If you miss your parries, he will kill you very fast. When your parry is on cooldown (ability 1), use your kick (ability 3) to knock him back. If your annihilation (ability 4) is available after your kick, you hit him with that and use ability 2 to pummel him until he snaps out of it. Pay attention to his status and get ready to parry when he comes out of the stun or he will kill you fast.

Keep this rotation up, keep parrying when you see him attacking, and keep kicking him away from you, and you will beat him easily. You just have to prevent all the damage to yourself because he kills you much faster than you can hurt him.

Comment by 1091295

i have been on this quest now for 2 days and can not find the rock anywhere can anyone give some advise pls

Comment by 1211406

I accepted this quest around midnight and i couldn't find the stone i even logged completely out waited 20 secs. and came back and still no stone. I also abandoned the quest several times to see if that would work nothing. Think i looked for like an hour before i gave up for the night.( i abandoned the quest before logging out.) Came back in the afternoon re-accepted the quest and 3 stones appeared at once all glowing glittery fairly close to the NPC.

Comment by Tylana

Confirmed: The quest is bugged when done later in the week, but fine when done on Tuesday.

I tried it on Saturday and Sunday, and could not do it. Today is Tuesday, and I managed it just fine. The stone does indeed glow.

Comment by Boxofbeer

The Hunter and the Prince http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jM-shMM8L2A

Comment by allOf

The Hunter and the Prince https://youtu.be/YEJRqtBQm-M

Comment by Vaval02

Well the quest is at the moment bugged just sent a request i will keep you up to date if anything changes...

Comment by Mutarded

This quest is bugged. When a GM got in touch with me, they suggested turning on war mode.This worked for me. Doing this spawned a number of Bloodstained Stones when I returned to the area.

Comment by Rhomgar

I literally made an account after all these years just to talk about this quest lol.

In 9.0.1., there's definitely an issue with mana scaling. I'm lvl 49 and it took me several tries until finally the quest bugged out and Arthas just wouldn't die, allowing me to eventually burn down Illidan with (1) and (2) lmao xD

But before that, my closest attempts came from me jumping around him like some caffeinated PvPer, made it alot easier to break distance to use Annihilate. And use Kick when he does his Immolation Aura

Hopefully Blizz fixes this soon.

Comment by Gobbogossip

Ok, so folks doing this in 2020 with the level squish.
Illidan will beat you down in like 10 seconds and Arthas's max mana is only 5000 (annihilation costs 10,000).

1) DONT right click Illidan (do not autoattack him). Your HP will go to zero but you won't be booted out of Arthas.
2) Parry on CD for mana
3) Deathstrike when mana permits.

You'll sit at 0 health and it takes a few minutes but this will kill him.

Links

The Hunter and the Prince

Matthias Lehner in the Court of Bones wants you to look for a Bloodstained Stone and complete the Prince's Destiny.

	The Prince's Destiny (1)

Description

Before the prince became a king, he fought many battles... but only one where he came close to dying.

It was fought right here. After you let me show you what happened, you'll understand everything.

Find a bloodstained stone and pick it up from the floor. You'll see what happened.

Progress

Completion

Rewards

You will be able to choose one of these rewards:

	Gloves of Tormented Recollection			Gloves of Troubled Memory
	Leggings of the Turning Point			Bloodstained Helmet

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(13400))