I really don't find much of an issue with the Naaru being an expression of absolute good. We've got tons of stuff in the game being presented as absolute evils (the Old Gods, the Legion, Sargeras, Azshara... in no particular order of "eviltude") so it's not hard for me to buy the idea of an incorruptible and purely good being... especially knowing that when a Naara turns from light to darkness, it turns into the most bug-ridden explosively difficult encounter in the game. (hurray M'uru!)

Have these been linked in here yet? Going through MMO's DB(Sigrie) I came across these:

Personal Property - Quests - Sigrie (presumably, started by a drop from Arthas)
Mograine's Reunion - Quests - Sigrie
Jaina's Locket - Quests - Sigrie
Muradin's Lament - Quests - Sigrie
Sylvanas' Vengeance - Quests - Sigrie
The Lightbringer's Redemption - Quests - Sigrie


This leads credence to the hypothesis brought up here that the sound files for the characters above were linked to a drop from heroic Arthas. Note that all items involved in the quests are only refered to through their IDs, and all quest text, except the first one, is still blank.

I wonder why these weren't in earlier, when 3.3 came out, and still, presumably, aren't on live. Does Blizzard have that much faith that LK25Heroic won't be dead by 3.3.5?

You can at least see the icon of the rewards, the Mograine one is probably the crimson deathcharger that was datamined a while back, and the Uther quest is the Silver Hand tabard that was datamined from this ptr (image taken from Scrolls of Lore forum):

You don't need to presume -- wowarmory confirms that these items are not dropped by The Lich King on any difficulty. The armory does show quest item drops (like Sindragosa's potential weekly quest drop), so we do know that those items are not currently on the loot table.

Those item's don't exist yet on live realms so they won't show on the armory. Now I'd guess the quest item will drop from hard mode Arthas only though and not normal mode (I bet the buff to Arthas' hp was to ensure he'd live till 3.3.3).

It's still incredibly risky. Consider Sarth 3D. Blizzard did not anticipate it to be defeated at that level of content. They expected folk to need Ulduar or better gear to be able to complete it. What if they hadn't put 2 or 3D loot on Sartharion's table? World First Kills, achievements galore and a couple weeks later on "farm" something starts dropping.

Unless there is a literal impossibility mechanic (like a 5 or 10 minute berserk, or a 10 Val'kyr spawn at once and move at Warp Factor 5, or similar) which will be nerfed later, having the LK killable but missing a drop/drops is dangerous for Blizzard.

His HP was buffed to pretty considerable levels so I'd be surprised if he was downed. There's kind a difference between a quest item drop and regular loot also. Kael'thas, for example, didn't drop his quest item at first and it was added in a later patch.

Blizzard's been wrong on their math before - again I point to 3D. Their math said it was impossible (not improbable) in the initial gear. This obviously wasn't true.

I show Heroic Deathbringer Saurfang death dealt 43.9 millilon (to him, add damage not included). He has an 8 minute Berserk. The guild I checked killed him in 4:24.

Heroic Lich King now has over 103 million, but 20 minutes. Yes, there are phase changes, adds to target, and other circumstances. Extrapolate the DPS above (4:24 kill is about 166k raid DPS) and 103 million disappears in 619 seconds - 10:20. Obviously impossible due to the fight itself, but just a comparison. The guild in question did 61 million to kill normal LK in 15:17. That's about 66.5k raid DPS to Arthas himself. If DPS remained unchanged on Heroic it would take nearly 26 minutes.

So first week (where if everything else was oneshot, guilds had at most 20 attempts on LK) numbers show a few kills. Unlikely the "best" strat has yet been discovered - guilds (even/especially top end) refine them as they go along. Blizzard adjusting numbers based on this very small data set would be foolish. First kills are often a huge margin slower/worse than later kills.

I don't see it as inconceivable that a guild could kill Heroic LK in current gear. Blizzard has hopefully learned that betting against the playerbase is a losing proposition as we continue to see content cleared the instant it's released, regardless of limiting mechanics (gating, attempts, etc).

If Heroic LK is missing loot (for unknown reason - the instant it's available the world will know, regardless of kill status, Blizzard's design makes it impossible to keep the cat in the bag these days) and it is added later, then I feel sorry for those World Class Guilds that kill him before the loot is in place.

It's just a quest item that they will get the following week and it isn't like he won't drop loot. Kael'thas didn't drop his quest item for a few weeks at first too. Plus I am pretty sure they have learned quite a bit since 3D Sarth also and if they want him unkillable they will just buff his hp or something else again.

I noticed in the latest PTR build 11599, a lot of Thunderbluff objects are coming up as new in MMOC's database (as are some Twilight Hammer related objects in Silthius). None of these objects are actually new to the game, but I'm curious if something was altered about them that flagged them as new in Boub's database. The last build had new NPC's named Grimtotem Protector, Grimtotem Collector, Grimtotem Vendor, Grimtotem Banker, etc. I'm starting to think that Grimtotems may be coming to Thunderbluff, although it remains to be seen if this is by invitation or by force.

The patch on the PTR is 3.3.3 and 3.3.5 is quite a while away.