shadowmourne
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Returning to a paladin's vault
Back in January of 2013 -- nearly two years ago now -- my rogue alt became my main. Part of the transition process involved sifting through the dusty depths of that character's bank, discovering treasures (and trash) long forgotten. I documented the process back then and, while my main isn't changing, I've decided to document the process once more while I go through banks in preparation for Warlords of Draenor. Today, my paladin is up to bat. My history with my paladin is complicated. Though my priest was my main for most of my raiding career, the paladin was my favored alt -- if not my favored character altogether. There simply wasn't a need for more paladins in my raid, so I avoided pulling the trigger and changing mains until mid-Wrath of the Lich King, where the raid was willing and able to accommodate a paladin. I continued investing significant time into my paladin throughout those years, however, and accrued a whole bunch of stuff. Back in the day, I loved the lore and flavor of the paladin and its numerous class quests -- while playing that class, it felt like I was playing someone truly special in the world of Azeroth. As such, I attached a great deal of sentimental value to the many class quest rewards. Verigan's Fist still holds a place in my collection, now moved into void storage. I also discovered I still possess a Holy Mightstone, a secondary reward for the old level 50 class quest, which I meant to use on the Lich King when I first met him in battle. Given my paladin has Shadowmourne, it's safe to say I forgot to use it. At this point, I never will, but I'm keeping that Mightstone anyway.
Why Warlords of Draenor needs a legendary chain
Mists of Pandaria was unique in a variety of different ways, but none quite so unique as its approach to legendary items. While prior expansions offered legendaries in the form of random drops from bosses or craftable items that required -- you guessed it -- random drops from bosses, Mists paved the way for a new type of legendary. It was a legendary that anyone could get, provided they put in the time and effort required to obtain it. Coming from a long line of raiding going all the way back to vanilla, I have to say that Mists' approach was the best I've ever seen. No more arguing over which class deserved the legendary more, no more officer headaches as they tried to decide who got the legendary first. No more accusations of favoritism, no more guild explosions. Just you, the character you play, and a decision to make: do you go for the legendary chain, or do you ignore it? You choose. We need this in Warlords.
The Queue: What a wonderful kind of day
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today. I dare you to find a better theme song than the one used in the Arthur cartoon. I hereby outlaw the Wishbone theme as a rebuttal, because it would be the correct one. arkainjel001 asked: Do you think there is any chance of implementing a level scaling system for legendary items, similar to heirlooms? I'm not talking about them being best in slot forever, just a decent weapon to use until it can be replaced at max level. Using this expansion as an example, Sulfuras could be used until level 90, where it would have stats similar to a 463 weapon, and then upgraded to better weapons from there. I just don't like the idea of a "legendary" weapon being completely obsolete and collecting dust in the bank.
A legendary for all, courtesy of Wrathion
It's confirmed -- everyone does indeed get a legendary, if they manage to finish Wrathion's expansion-long chain of requests. However, unlike any prior legendary to date, Wrathion's offering won't be a new set of weapons to wield ... and that's making some players a little irritated. Rather than the usual arming with weapons, Wrathion has instead chosen to give everyone legendary-quality cloaks, enhancing the cloaks received in patch 5.3 with some extra power -- and a little orange text -- in patch 5.4. Yes, some may have been expecting weapons -- but really, Wrathion's offering makes a lot more sense in terms of gameplay, balance, and possibly Wrathion's true motives in this little endeavor as well. In fact, the legendary offered in Mists of Pandaria manages to break every single perception we had about what a legendary is to date.
What does legendary really mean?
Legendary. The color orange was once one of the most revered, whispered-about intangible things in vanilla WoW. People had heard rumors of legendary weapons, but nobody knew how to actually get them -- they were just as much a source of speculation as any lore in Warcraft today. When those legendary items finally first began to appear, it was a moment of sheer joy for those lucky enough to receive them. And for those that were not that lucky, it was a source of constant envy. People got really, really ticked about legendaries, how it was determined that they were rewarded, and who they were rewarded to. In the end, when it boiled down to it, anyone who watched someone else get a legendary immediately questioned what made that other player worthy, when they themselves had put it so much more perceived effort. Legendaries had the power to tear guilds apart -- or, in some cases, the power to pull a united guild into an even stronger front. The history of legendaries is pretty fascinating in and of itself, but more fascinating is the evolution of the color orange. It's changed over the years, and in Mists of Pandaria anyone can start a chain to get their very own legendary -- and that's got some bloggers talking.
Legendary Weapons: Story chains or class quests?
So last week, the first rogue in my guild got the Fangs of the Father set, and I started working on my set. Right now, I'm about a third of the way to stage two, and then I'll have stage three to contend with. Though there are fewer pieces to collect for the daggers, unlike the items for Dragonwrath, only one rogue can proceed on the chain at a time. That's OK with me -- I don't mind the wait, and I know I have fun stuff to look forward to in between stages. I wasn't expecting a cutscene after starting the chain, but I was absolutely delighted with the fact that I got a bit of story to play through instead of "You killed Illidan and you're very lucky -- have a Warglaive!" However, there was another, slightly more bothersome difference between Dragonwrath and the Fangs of the Father, one I'm not quite sure how I feel about. When our first raider got his Dragonwrath, everyone rushed to Orgrimmar and watched Kalecgos appear and deliver the staff in front of everyone that happened to be idling in town at the time. It was a moment of sheer excitement, joy, and fun, both for the player who got the staff and the guild who had helped him along the long road to getting it. We didn't get that with Fangs of the Father.
Would removing legendaries be a benefit for the World of Warcraft?
It's very hard to imagine a Cataclysm without legendary items. Despite the fact that it wasn't introduced until six months into the game's existence, Dragonwrath, Tarecgosa's Rest has become a staple item in every progression raiding guild's repetoire. The Fangs of the Father, Golad and Tiriosh, have only recently started to actually appear in game, but every week from now on will see more and more being finished. Coming hand in hand with these legendary items are the issues of imbalance that they cause. In PvE, terminology has started to crop up that puts legendary and non-legendary DPS into two separate categories of competitiveness. Concepts exist such as "enhancement shaman are currently one of the top non-legendary DPS specs..." -- a category that encompasses only 10 of the 22 DPS classes in the game. In PvP, concerns about burst damage have arisen, which was a big factor in the nerf to DTR that came in 4.3. The issues with legendaries Legendaries cause a balance problem, and that's a problem that's been exacerbated by two things in Cataclysm: a horrifically wide spread of specs that can use them, with 12 specs or five classes in total having access to legendary weapons right now, and incredible ease of access to legendaries (for the heroic raider).
The Care and Feeding of Warriors: Proc weapons and the future of itemization
Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Care and Feeding of Warriors, the column dedicated to arms, fury and protection warriors. Despite repeated blows to the head from dragons, demons, Old Gods and whatever that thing over there was, Matthew Rossi will be your host. For the first time since the brief period following the launch of the pre-Cataclysm patch, arms has achieved parity with fury as a PvE DPS spec. Granted, this required a painful mauling to fury's DPS output and relies heavily on arms' ludicrous AoE potential as well as getting your hands on a Gurthalak. The proc on the weapon can add as much as 15% of your current DPS; in raids and on heroics, I've seen the Tentacle of the Old Gods put out more DPS than Rend and Deep wounds combined. Even on a high-trash dungeon where you can use Blood and Thunder to spread Rend around, Tentacle can still put out a respectable 5% to 6% of your total damage. The sword is just as good for fury (I did in fact try out a fury build with it off-hand to test if it procced, and it did, quite frequently). While it won't make up for the nerf fury took, it does put me in mind of weapons like Bryntroll and Shadowmourne, proc weapons that did excellent damage in a warrior's hands from the end of the ICC era. I'll admit it's unfair to use Shadowmourne as an exemplar here, as the weapon was a legendary, but that's OK -- this isn't meant to be a pure comparison. Proc weapons have a long and storied tradition in World of Warcraft but they've also somewhat fallen from favor, since they're never as reliable and predictable as pure stats. People would argue the Blackhand Doomsaw vs. Arcanite Reaper into the small hours back then. But I think Dragon Soul's two proc weapons (Gurthalak and Souldrinker) have me thinking a lot about where weapon itemization has been and where it's going, and what that means for us warriors.
The OverAchiever: Mountain O' Mounts in raids
Every Thursday, The Overachiever shows you how to work toward those sweet achievement points. This week, we return to flogging the guts out of bosses that might puke up a horse. Today we're going to look at mounts that drop in (or, in one case, as part of a quest within) raids. I'd initially expected to include mounts like the Ulduar proto-drakes and Icecrown frostwyrms, but they're really more the result of a series of achievements rather than encounters themselves. Otherwise, there are more than enough pure drops to keep us occupied today; Blizzard's always been fond of making unique mounts the potential reward of difficult raid encounters, and you'll get a few extra feats of strength if you nab some of these beauties. Also read: Combining The Ambassador and Mountain O' Mounts Mountain O' Mounts in Outland Mountain O' Mounts in Northrend Mountain O' Mounts in 5-man dungeons
The Queue: Definitely not a kitten, at all
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW Insider's daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Mike Sacco will be your host today. I think we can all agree that the above picture is not a kitten, thus ending the cute-baby-animals theme used in header images in The Queue once and for all. The Dark Wayne asked: There's one question that's been on my mind ever since 3.3 came out: Will we be able to obtain Shadowmourne or at least Shadow's Edge in Cataclysm? If we can, will we also still be able to get the fancy box of lore trinkets that drop when you kill the LK with it? Given that it's part of the We Are Legendary guild achievement, all signs point to yes.
Guest Post: Heroes hunting for screenshots
This article has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW.com. Early in August, <Hero Squad> of Bleeding Hollow (US-H) started a screenshot scavenger Hunt to distribute the five vanity items that are awarded when a Shadowmourne is created. The Shadowmourne chest contains five pretty sweet items. (Well, OK, maybe making a portal to Dalaran isn't exactly the games greatest reward.) A chance at any of these items would have most players bending over backwards, and our raiders are no different. A few months back, the officers sat down to figure out what to do with these items. We knew that we wanted to do something fun and memorable to hand out the first items. We brainstormed about 10 different types of games but eventually decided on a screenshot scavenger hunt.
WoW Moviewatch: Nub Tales ep. 2: Shadowmourne
Yumfries examined the legend of the Celestial Steed back in the first episode of Nub Tales. Now, he's taking on a whole new matter by looking at the epic weapon known as Shadowmourne. As bonus, Selserene guest stars as a female player in this movie, Nub Tales ep. 2: Shadowmourne. I'm really loving this series by Yumfries. While I acknowledge the high art of story-based machinima, I have to admit that my usual favorite is comedy and parody. I like the spotlight that comedy shines on the WoW community, highlighting and criticizing some of our most absurd quirks. Yumfries is doing a great job of exactly that, so I'm going to be excited about every episode we get. Interested in the wide world of machinima? We have new movies every weekday here on WoW Moviewatch! Have suggestions for machinima we ought to feature? Toss us an e-mail at machinima AT wow DOT com.
World first Shadowmourne
Modk of Juggernaut has obtained the world's first Shadowmourne! It's the final legendary weapon in the Wrath of the Lich King expansion (at least, that we know of) before Cataclysm is due out. The quest line to earn the weapon is both costly and long. So a big congrats to Modk! I suspect we'll gradually be seeing more and more of these. Who knows how many we'll have by the time the new expansion is released? If you're curious to see the proc of the weapon in action, check out the video on MMO Champion.
The Queue: Elevator ride
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW.com's daily Q&A column where the WoW.com team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Mike Sacco will be your host today. Well, hey there, team! Looks like we're gonna be riding this elevator for a while. I guess now would be a great time to answer some reader questions. Tomatketchup asked... "In the Dungeon Finder, do you think the rewards for 70-80 still will be emblems, or will they become bags like from 1-69?" I'm willing to bet that you'll be receiving Satchels from 70-80 instances in the Dungeon Finder once Cataclysm hits. I don't see them giving you an obsolete reward.
Lichborne: Emblem of Frost gear for death knights
Welcome to Lichborne, the Death Knight column. This week, Daniel Whitcomb is really regretting turning on his boombox in Acherus at the new year's party. By now, I assume a good portion of you have managed to get on your daily heroics at least a couple times a week, maybe even have an ICC raid or three under your belt. If so, you're starting to amass enough Emblems of Frost to maybe possibly think about buying a piece of gear. Of course, the problem with Emblem of Frost gear is that it's a little bit more expensive than, say, Emblem of Triumph gear. You're not going to get away with gearing up quite as fast, at least not until all of ICC is open and you have a good group for the place. No 25-emblem tier gear here. So that also makes it important, especially for the more casual player, to pick what you buy carefully. Let's take a look at the various options.
The Sacred and the Corrupt, Light's Vengeance
Be warned: This post, as well as the video above, includes minor spoilers for Patch 3.3's Shadowmourne quest chain. If you don't want to be spoiled, do not read/watch. We've featured a video showing off this stretch of the Shadowmourne questline before, the bit where you retrieve Light's Vengeance, but I would hardly call The Sacred and the Corrupt old news. It's still a quest just about every class that can wield two-handed is thinking about. Unfortunately, not everyone will be able to witness this amazingly epic quest themselves. Because of that, I set out to try and get a better recording of the quest for everyone. There were some successes, like actually being able to record the sounds and voice acting. There were also some failures, like my inability to do the quest completely without my UI. Here's a tip: When you turn off most of your addons to improve the quality of your recording, don't forget that some of those addons controlled your stun/interrupt keybinds. You usually need those. I'm sorry, Clique. I didn't mean it. Come back to me, please? It's not perfect, but hopefully it will give you all a better look at what goes on here. Enjoy! Patch 3.3 is the last major patch of Wrath of the Lich King. With the new Icecrown Citadel 5-man dungeons and 10/25-man raid, patch 3.3 will deal the final blow to Arthas. WoW.com's Guide to Patch 3.3 will keep you updated with all the latest patch news.
Know Your Lore: Saronite
Welcome to Know Your Lore, where each week WoW.com brings you a tasty little morsel of lore to wrap your mind around. Sweet, sweet lore. Mmmm. Have suggestions for future KYL topics? Leave a comment below! It's nigh-ubiquitous in Wrath of the Lich King. You can pull it out of the ground pretty much anywhere. It's crafted into armor and weapons from powerful epics to crafted items to increase our skills. It makes up the walls of Icecrown Citadel, and the bones of Malykriss, the Lich King's planned replacement for Acherus. It makes up the bulk of the Scourge's material for its mindless warriors as well as its fortifications and siege engines, and the Vrykul even presses the living into slavery in Icecrown in order to meet their master's demand for more and more of it. But this is no ordinary metal: the Tuskarr call it the "Black Blood of Yogg-Saron" and whisper in hushed tones that it may yet shake the pillars of Heaven. (Well, I assume they do. Fella named Jack Burton told me that.) Unlike cobalt and titanium, the metals that seems to occur naturally in Northrend, saronite's presence is due to the presence of a trapped old god. As you no doubt deduced from the name, Saronite is nothing less than a creation of the terrible Yogg-Saron himself. The enslaved miners toiling for the Vrykul near Ymirheim eventually go mad, and even if freed, hurl themselves into the depths to seek communion with the god of death. In his hubris, the Lich KIng seeks to prove his mastery of death, his transcendance of the state by exploiting the products of Yogg-Saron's imprisonment. But as Yogg-Saron himself says, "No king rules forever." And as we storm the very gates of Icecrown Citadel and make our way through the Forge of Souls, past the Pit of Saron where even deeper veins of Yogg-Saron's Black Blood are unearthed, and stalk the Halls of Reflection themselves it seems clear that the dependence of the Scourge on the death metal may be its undoing... if it isn't ours first.
Shadowfrost Shard drop rates are actually pretty good
People who were worried that creating Shadowmourne, the legendary two-handed axe, would be double the grind that Val'anyr was might want to relax a little, as the official WoW Armory just clued us in as to where and how often the Shadowfrost Shards necessary to craft it drop. As per the quest The Splintered Throne, you're required to collect 60 of the little buggers, and from the site, it appears that they're around a 25-50% drop rate off of all bosses except Arthas in the 25-man version of Icecrown Citadel on normal mode and a 50-100% chance off of the Heroic versions of the same bosses. All in all, not bad. It'll still be a, well, legendary process to get your axe crafted, but at least you won't need to suffer through awful drop rates to make it happen. Patch 3.3 is the last major patch of Wrath of the Lich King. With the new Icecrown Citadel 5-man dungeons and 10/25-man raid arriving soon, patch 3.3 will deal the final blow to Arthas. WoW.com's Guide to Patch 3.3 will keep you updated with all the latest patch news.
Breakfast Topic: Are legendaries good for the game?
Sunsmoon on WoW_ladies makes an uncomfortably accurate observation concerning legendaries -- people tend to get a little nuts around them. Anyone doing Tier 6 back in the day doubtless remembers the fistfights over who was going to get a Warglaive, WoW players worldwide were in shock at a rogue getting Thor'idal over two hunters, and the annals of classic WoW are rife with nightmare stories of /gquits over Bindings of the Windseeker and arguments over Sulfuras going to a druid. Nowadays (as someone on my realm remarked in a moment's pique), of the six Val'anyrs that have been assembled on our server, only one remains in its original guild. A reasonable person might be forgiven for thinking that the little orange text accompanying what's usually a decent weapon with a great proc is a lot more trouble than it's worth. A good point is brought up by Amiyuy in the thread -- the process of creating a legendary, or having to keep farming for an extremely uncommon drop, tends to wear people out. A healer on track to build a Val'anyr can't reasonably expect to take any time off for fear of missing one of the inconsistent shards, and my guildmates and I continued to farm Black Temple well past the point that anyone was getting even offspec gear upgrades because we just couldn't get a main-hand Glaive. With another legendary coming out in Icecrown Citadel, guild leaders are facing the headache of figuring out who'll get it, and we've already fielded questions on our tip line on which class gets the most from Shadowmourne and whether Blizzard could have nixed the stamina on it to discourage death knight tanks from picking it up (!). So readers, I ask you -- are legendaries good for the game? If your guild was on a position to get one, did they ultimately help or hurt you more? And is the painful process of getting a Legendary the real source of the trouble, and not the item itself?
WoW Insider Show Episode 117: Classing up the place
We had a great show this past week -- Michael Sacco jumped in via dialup from his country home to join Turpster and I to talk about the most popular stories in World of Warcraft over the past seven days. We talked about Mr. T and his mohawk grenade, how the new tier 10 system will work in patch 3.3, the beautiful axe that is Shadowmourne, and what it means for weapons coming in Cataclysm. Plus, we answered your emails (including wishing one of our listeners a happy birthday), and we even played two operatic intros by our new friend Ethan B. I don't know anything about opera, but seems to me that dude has quite the vocal chords on him. And finally, we talked about our bid for the Podcast Awards -- we're asking you to vote for us every day until the end of the month. If we win, we'll not only give away the SleepPhones prize to one lucky listener, but we'll record a Warcraft bedtime story for them (and all of you others via mp3 download). Please vote! Thanks, enjoy the show. Get the podcast: [iTunes] Subscribe to the WoW Insider Show directly in iTunes. [RSS] Add the WoW Insider Show to your RSS aggregator. [MP3] Download the MP3 directly. Listen here on the page:
