Comments

Comment by 66374

This item has a bit of history to it. During the Third War, after Tyrande freed Illidan from his prison, he sought to defeat the demons in Felwood, particularly Tichondrius. Arthas, already plotting against the dreadlords, told Illidan of the Skull of Gul'dan, saying that it would give him great power if he were to use it. Illidan managed to fight his way to the Skull, and consumed it, giving him his wings, horns, demon form, and all the knowledge the orc warlock once possessed.

Comment by Patze

Also this doesn't share cooldown with damage trinkets, so you can have both on same time.

Comment by 16226

There's a minor "misspelling" or "lack of words". It should've said: "Increasing spell haste rating by 175 _for_ 20 sec." like the buff says.

Comment by 40225

The reason this isnt legendary is due to the fact that when Illidan consumed the skulls power, be probably took most of the legendary powers with him, hence an epic

Comment by 39890

Blizzard is almost making the lore look stupid.

I thought okay killing illidan ~not so big deal, there is dozen other possibilities later on to be the big bosses.

But the items like this. They have affected the whole lore and have been within since the start. This should be atleast Artifact, like unique on whole server.

Comment by Valaran

Lore aspect aside, nothing - until this - makes up for the fact that any mage lucky enough to have it is still using Neltharion's Tear from BWL all the way through Hyjal and BT. I have been wearing it for almost 2 years now; and it's still by far one of the best available mage trinkets in the game.

In my opinion, it was simply about time they added a fitting upgrade to it. Granted, lorewise, they probably could've named it something else.

Comment by 54211

If they just rename it to "Fragment of The Skull of Gul'dan" it would fit better into lore and explain it's diminished powers. And since it's a fragment it should not be a unique item so you can have more than one.

Comment by 67687

Look, the Skull, in the eyes of your character, IS the only one in the world. It's power was diminished by Illidan, and now he's dead.

Comment by 5688

I agree with the general consensus that putting this item in now in such a forgettable fashion is a major error on the part of the designers. More proof that different designers of different parts of the game just don't talk to each other.

Lore designers: "Let's make this big storyline about this warlock who starts it all and how even after his death he shapes the future of multiple worlds...etc"

Item designers: "Hey remember that thing that Illidan ate? Wouldn't it be gnarly if he dropped it?"

Comment by 56071

I would like to remind everyone of something important...

In warcraft lore, Illidan is said to have ABSORBED it. All that was left was a slightly powerful skull, with a mere fraction of its former power. Also, methinks this is the skull Illidan is so famous for holding and staring at. (BC into movie, before Illidan aggros.)

Comment by 40225

Drysc posted the reason this item isn't legendary is because
"Illidan has one hell of a digestive tract"

Comment by Rombus

Why would it be legendary now? Yes, it has a significance in lore, however, Illidan consumed most of its power himself to get him to his current state. What we see now is what's left. There are a lot of important things in lore that drop, that doesn't mean they're legendary or artifact-worthy.

Comment by Apotheosis

I don't think Illidan literally ate the skull. He probably just drained it of it's magical powers through some form of spell. I mean the thing IS an Orc skull after all, and while Night Elves may be a bit taller/larger than your standard Human, I doubt their throats are that much bigger, and I know for a fact that a Human can't swallow a skull whole, let alone an Orc skull...

Comment by 74684

Well, who knows? Maybe they will have a way to update the skull to make it legendary. Make it some ungodly long quest that takes weeks to get finished. That might provide a way to make it unforgettable.

Hexas - Dethicus

Comment by 79494

Combine this with Blade of Wizardry (https://www.wowhead.com/cata/item=31336) and Quagmirran's Eye (https://www.wowhead.com/cata/item=27683) for some insane +spell haste rating.

But that of course is common knowledge, 15 hours a day dedicated to raiding, 2.5k gold, and a couple runs through heroic slave pens.

Comment by 89923

Goes great with Icon of the Silver Crescent, they have the same cooldown, so they work perfectly in a macro together. Just make sure you have the Skull first in the macro, because if you use Icon first it will put a 20 sec cooldown onto other trinkets.

I just use:
/stopcasting
/use The Skull of Gul'dan
/use Icon of the Silver Crescent

Comment by lias

Hex Shrunken Head will replace Icon of the Silver Crescent. This trinket combined with Hex Shrunken Head will be a very good jump in DPS over other trinkets in the game.

Comment by 70510

truly the best caster trinket in-game, particularly for warlocks(ironic isn't it? Gul'dan was a warlock himself)

every time i see a caster with it i grow amazingly jealous, eventhough the spellhit may not have been that important due to huge spellhit on BT loot, it has increased in signifigance with the new patch

items are now more focussed in spellhaste and spellcrit rather then spellhit, making the spellhit in this trinket ever so important to refrain from socketing and enchanting gear with spellhit(allowing raw spelldamage, spellhaste/spelldamage and spellcrit/spelldamage gems)

for any caster, perhaps less for a shadowpriest(a lot of damage over time damage, high spellhit from talents) getting this is a true must

Comment by Nexovus

Using this with Icy veins as a deep fire/ IV spec can give you a powerful and long damage "burst".

Comment by 150529

ok,let's analyze the word "legedary".What it means.It means an item of great power?And the answer is NO.It means an item that has a great important to lore.And I think it had great imortance in lore.Anyway,I have 1 question.I see this picture of the lock having winds and being semi-daemon.You become like that by using that item?

Comment by 46812

Just to answer your question, you do not get the wings when you activate this trinket.
The wings come from the Hood of the Malefic (https://www.wowhead.com/cata/item=31051).

Yet, the green glow comes from the trinket.

Comment by 145270

The Fragment of Gul'dan
Binds when picked up
Unique
Trinket
Requires Level 70
Equip: Improves spell hit rating by 25 (1.98% @ L70).
Equip: Increases damage and healing done by magical spells and effects by up to 55.
Use: Tap into the power of the fragment, increasing spell haste rating by 175 (11.1% @ L70) for 20 sec. (2 Min Cooldown)

(A fragment of the once all powerful skull of Gul'dan)

Comment by 64436

It depends on your other gear, making a comparison like that isn't a viable mathematical assessment of the two. You'd have to kill Illidan to get this so you can make some assumptions about the other items and plug them in, then check against sunwell tier 6 too. I won't do it but if you could I'm sure it'd be useful :) Also this would be used with Icy Veins, might stack differently than spell dmg....

Comment by 102479

Talking about a Illidan drop and 600 DPS in one Sentence ...
And "ignoring hit" - hit is the most important and cheapest "dmg" stat you can get and in most cases you can safe hit on other Equipment Parts (especially gems) and get more Spelldmg/crit/haste there.
But it doesn't relay matter, because before you enter Skull&Head will be the best combination. (Maybe Shadowpriests will still wear Timbal ...)

Comment by 31389

I got this recently, and I have a feeling that this trinket is going to be like the Neltharion's Tear of the Burning Crusade, at least I hope so.

Even into the expansion, I expect this trinket will still be good into the first 1 or 2 raiding tears, much as the tear trink was off of Nefarian.

Comment by noherczeg

Important for Burn healers in the Brutallus fight:

Don't heal on casters with active trinket. It looks the same as they look when hit by the debuff. When the first time i healed burn i thought my eyes went crazy. Then i realized that they arent affacted by burn, its just the trinket debuff.

So shame on me, but try not to do this on your encounters :)

Comment by 195057

alas poor wilson, i knew him

Comment by 86829

i absolutely shat my pants on brutallus - when running past a lock to the safe spot with burn, he popped his skull trinket!

Comment by 215134

You can see alot of Elemental Shamans at arena, +320 haste Meta, This Skull, Bloodlust / Heroism, Skycall totem +100 haste. There is more ofc.

Comment by 146819

Even though there's obviously something better somewhere in WotLK, I think it's still worth trying to get.

Trust me, it makes one hell of a drinking cup....

Comment by 318560

"What do you think, Willson?"
"Oh I don't know, Illidan. The plan seems so retarded like always."

Comment by 35644

Maybe the power of Gul´Dan was transfered into Iliidans skull during the absorbation of the skull?

Comment by Akario

What's this look like with metamorphosis on?

:D

Comment by Hallrik

I think it should be an off hand. Just to give the appearance, but that's just my suggestion.

Comment by patrikman

After some counting I learned I can have
246 + 280 + 175 + 320 + 320 = 1341 spell haste at 1 time.
My gear + Blade of Wizardry + Skull of Gul´dan + Quagmirran's Eye + Mystical Skyfire Diamond
That would be like 80+ % reduced casting speed, would be fun I´d say :D

Comment by 512576

You can get the skull that turns you into a half-demon, but getting the sword that steals your soul 'breaks the lore'. I understand most of the Skull's powers have probably been absorbed by Illidan, but they could have at least given us some kind of non-canon Frostmourne, while still destroying it in the storyline. Onyxia's supposed to have been killed by Varian Wrynn, but they brought her back for Vanilla WoW and even WotLK.

Comment by Ahmi

Also known as Wilson (check Azerothian Super Villains).

Comment by Forrtress

In my opinion, this item should've been an off-hand held item, only because Illidan holds it in his hand too

Comment by 794503

Can't believe there's no mention of when Deathwing had the skull, however brief. Gotta love how Khadgar kicked Deathwing's ass to get it back.

This should definitely be a legendary imo, in "Beyond the Dark Portal" is says that a warlock can still channel their power through their remains once dead, thus you can't completely drain the power from an artifact like this unless you destroy the dead warlock's soul which has never stated to be the case with Gul'Dan.

The Lich King was given power from Kil'Jaeden and used a helm to channel this, Gul'Dan was given power from Kil'Jaeden and now we use his skull to channel this. One day maybe we can channel Kil'Jaeden's power through one of his body parts...

Comment by Levarus

The Skull of Gul'dan SHOULD be a held in off hand item, not a trinket -.-

Comment by Allakhazam

This is the skull that made Illidan a half Nightelf, half demon. (Warcraft 3)

Comment by Allakhazam

Lore rape at its finest. Absolutely nothing special about the item at all.

Comment by Allakhazam

HUNTER WEAPON

Comment by Allakhazam

http://wow.blupp.net/item.php?id=433826

obviously this is the item Illidan picked up.

Comment by Allakhazam

You know... considering the importance of this item, it's a little bit, ...disapointing. Oh well, maybe the use makes you big and demonic or something, that'd be cool.

Comment by Allakhazam

After reading the stats on this, now I know Blizzard has gone down the tube. As previous users said, this should be something legendary and more powerful. I can't believe how lame it is. *sigh* Is Warhammer Online here yet?

Comment by Allakhazam

My guild is currently working on Mother Sharaz in BT... and well to put it simply I still use Neltharion's Tear. Trinket itemization is just terrible in TBC, get over it. This item is basically Neltharion's scaled to 70.

Correction: Neltharion's offered 2% hit or 16 hit rating at 60. This offers less hit%.

Comment by Allakhazam

This is the item that made Illidan one of the strongest people in all of Azeroth. and making him pretty much the ruler in the Outland,and all it is is a epic trinket. I think it probably should be one of the first artifacts, at least a legendary item but a epic trinket. WEAK

Comment by Allakhazam

Such a powerful item as this shouldn't be just as plain and simple of a trinket..for something to have turned Illidan into what he is, yeah...

Plus there are some grammatical errors...I don't trust this

Comment by Allakhazam

I would sell my Mother for this^^

Comment by Allakhazam

Rofl i love where this item says: Tap into the power of the skull... Isnt that exactly how Illidan became all crazy and demon-like in the first place? *Insert reference to Warcraft III*

Comment by Allakhazam

Weak,it shoulda ve been at least legendary =/

Comment by Allakhazam

Just because it isn't leg doesn't mean it is %^&*ty. That is an AMAZING trinket. Any caster would, like a previous poster said, "sell his mother" for something that gives HUGE passive dmg, useable +spell haste (nothing has that effect, always 5% chance up to now), and +hit the best stat for a caster.

Don't go by this lore &*!@ and go QQ bc it isn't Yellow. It is amazing. Look at Neltharion's Tear. He is one of the biggest and largest rulers in game. you would think his tear would be legendary right considering that he is capable of sneezing on Illidan and killing him. Get over it, it makes no difference if it is purple or orange, this is and probably will be for a very long time, the BEST caster trinket.

Comment by Allakhazam

No wai. This is NOT a real item... Blizzard can't make you able to do this, because tapping into the skull shouldn't improve Spell haste "By 175 20 second"
It should make you as powerful as Illidan himself! There is one Grammar error (listed above lol) so I doubt this is real.

Comment by Allakhazam

For those of you that say The Skull of Gul'dan should be a legendary item or even an artifact, look into the lore a little deeper. After obtaining the skull Illidan "consumed" it. The reason I put consumed in quotes is because it is not explained how Illidan consumed the skull. But even after the event, we see Illidan still has the skull with him, so it can be inferred that he drained the powers from the skull itself. So if Illidan has drained the power from the skull, then the skull will have no or only a fraction of it's former power. So there ya go.

Comment by Allakhazam

You can't complain about every lore related item not being orange, so far blizzard hasn't even made anything but weapons legendary. This is still a fantastic trinket, and if blizzard thought it should have epic status, then it is their call. :p

Comment by Allakhazam

I think this was better off as an off-hand. It will have more stats that way and give a lore item some justice. I mean, Illidan is holding this thing... :/

Comment by Allakhazam

This is arguably the best caster trinket currently in the game... what exactly is everyone complaining about?

Comment by Thottbot

It's powers have already been consumed by Illidan though.

I think the name should be "The Consumed Skull of Gul'dan" in that case.

Comment by Thottbot

Why is this not legendary? I mean it has huuuuuuge backstory to it. It's been in Warcraft lore since forever. Illidan's swords are legendary and they barely have a story behind them.

Comment by Thottbot

Yes, this really should be a legendary item.

And why even put it in the game? Illidan destroyed it and released it's power. So it's gone. And yet he is not only seen with it, he drops it too?

May I simply say: PSHAW!

Comment by Thottbot

Actually, in regards to Illidan having destroyed it, if you look in the intro movie for the Burning Crusade, then at the end you'll notice that the skull that Illidan is holding IS actually the Skull of Gul'Dan.

Comment by Thottbot

It's a skull that the orc warlock guldan used for his warlock stuff. It turned felwood into felwood, corrupted the furbolgs and was used by illidan to gain power and knowledge especially of the location of the tomb of sargeras. Yeah I was bored one day :P

Comment by Thottbot

poor gul'dan. I bet he had no idea what people would be doing with his head after he dead.

Comment by Thottbot

Should be legendary, if not artifact.

The only more powerful item in Warcraft lore that I can think of offhand was the Demonsoul.

Comment by Thottbot

In the quest The Red Crystal, you discover what looks as if it's part of a humanoid jawbone, encased in a red crystal, which has fallen down the mountainside from Felwood. This could be part of the Skull of Gul'dan. I was under the impression that after Illidan consumed the Skull's power he cast it aside. I would guess that the appearance of the Skull (or a skull, anyway) in the Burning Crusade material wasn't created by the same people who created the Darkshore quest text, or that it was simply forgotten in the same way that the original story about how the Eredar corrupted Sargeras was forgotten. Continuity gets sacrificed in the desire to make something new and cool. I guess we're lucky that it happens as rarely as it does in WoW.

I would seriously doubt that there will be any further WarCraft strategy games until after WoW's last expansion has been released, whenever that will be. Yes, perhaps the heroes of the Alliance and Horde will invade Northrend and destroy Arthas, and perhaps other fearful enemies will be defeated in future expansions as well, but there are plenty of loose ends that could be explored. Hakkar the Soulflayer escaped from the Titans' prison; what else might escape? Is Sargeras really dead? Kil'Jaeden still leads the Burning Legion, and there is no content in which he is defeated (or even directly encountered) so far. Harbinger Skyriss in the Arcatraz claims to be from an empire more numerous and destructive than the Burning Legion. The world from which the Worgen came is not well known. And those are just the things I can think of right now, based on loose ends -- since they made up everything that's currently in the WarCraftVerse, Blizzard can make up more things.

Comment by Thottbot

-.- such an important item in the warcraft series and its only purple...

Comment by Thottbot

I think its not a legendary because Illidan consumed all of the energies of the Skull, and so the Skull is not a legendary because it has only regained some of its power

Comment by Thottbot

we should be able to become a black shadow with a blue outline with this

Comment by Thottbot

Agreed on the last post.Blizzard should make it little interesting,not just adding typical legendary weapons to some stupid bosses,who have nothing to do with it.

Comment by Thottbot

What the hell. only nine gold. that orc was the finest warlock who ever lived!

Comment by Thottbot

realy un deatailed version havn't played wow3 in a loong time

Comment by Thottbot

While many major characters are dying, there are still many left to face, including:

Agamaggan (Possibly)
Al'Akir the Windlord
Anub'Akan
Arthas
Azshara
Black Riders (from Deadwind Pass)
Deathwing
Hakkar the Houndmaster (Possible CoT boss)
Jin'zakk
Kael'thas
Kel'Thuzad (Still not dead yet)
Kil'Jaeden (the likeliness that we'll actually kill him when he's half-summoned in Sunwell Plateau is really low...)
Malygos
Mannoroth (Possible CoT Boss)
Murlocs
Neptulon the Tidehunter
Old Gods (Three Remain, and C'Thun might not be dead)
Rokhan
Sargeras (of Course)
Therazane the Stonemother
Ula'tek (A Loa Similar to Hakkar the Soulflayer)
Whoever the Leader of the Makrura is

Ok, that's a few. We will probably find out that Illidan isn't dead as well or soemthing.

Comment by Thottbot

I just finished Warcraft 3 (yes I know, it's sad I should have played through it a long time ago, hah) and found it interesting the way WoW was shaped around these previous games and items within the game. Can't wait for the new instance.

I agree that this item should be legendary, as it does play a large part in Illidan's story throughout Warcraft 3, and he basically becomes unstoppable once he possesses it. If only it was as easy to get in WoW as it was in WC3, lol.

Comment by Thottbot

let me just say...... WILSON!

Comment by Thottbot

KK first of all for people saying they hate how major characters are dying, i agree. But we left out one key component:CoT! For all we know there could be an instance that either attempts to stop Illidan's death or attempts to revive him. Don't ask me why. Maybe without him mag escapes. Maybe he formed a pact with terrorists saying they had to stay away as long as people who have enough time to get T6 gear don't kill him. Maybe Blizzard got so much @#$%^ing they had to somehow fix it without removing game content. More importantly, "killing" Arthas is most likely going to be open ended. Like get him to 10% health and having him stun the entire raid for a minute, spew out random crap for 50 seconds, and have Anub'arak swiftly take him away(unless he is a boss) :/. Well if thats the case then maybe he'll summon his feet and walk away. If he does die without getting to 10% health, he'll prolly spew off stuff like overmaster Pyron or whatever his name is does in front of BRD(like bwahaha... my master will never let me die something something ILL BE BACK). so basically...ya.
BTW Froustmourne will NEVER be a pally weapon seeing as deathknight's are the EVIL COUNTERPARTS of pallies. dont get your hopes up. Prolly be like + 1000 stam -10000 spirit.More more more importantly Illidan is still a virgin.

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The Skull of Gul'dan

Item Level 151
Binds when picked up
Unique-Equipped

Trinket

+47 Intellect

Requires Level 70
Equip: Improves hit rating by 25.
Use: Tap into the power of the skull, increasing haste rating by 175 for 20 sec. (2 Min Cooldown)

Sell Price: 9 11 60

Dropped by: Illidan Stormrage

Drop Chance: 14.08%

The Skull of Gul'danGul'danAshenvaleIllidan StormrageHistoryDanath TrollbaneKhadgarclose the Dark Portal foreverFelwoodHellfire PeninsulaMagtheridonCurrent Status

The Skull of Gul'dan

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