thunderfury
Latest
WoW Archivist: Talisman of Binding Shard, the lost legendary
This edition of WoW Archivist was originally published May 24, 2011. Given Blizzard's recent retrospective on Molten Core, we felt the piece of Warcraft history was worth another look. All references to time, space, and current content should be viewed through the lens of this piece's initial date of publication. Last week, we finally escaped the morass of World of Warcraft's beta to discuss patch 1.2, the first major content patch of the post-release game. We're going to take a break from patches for a while to examine some other myths and legends that arose in vanilla WoW. Today, we're going to look back to one of the legends of Molten Core. Molten Core is rather unique in that it's the home of more than one legendary item. Both Thunderfury and Sulfuras have their roots in Molten Core, though one does require items from Blackwing Lair to complete; Blackwing Lair hadn't even been implemented yet when players started receiving the first pieces of these legendary items. Everybody knows about Thunderfury and Sulfuras, though. Not as many people know Molten Core once had a third legendary.
WoW Archivist: WoW's first legendary quest line
WoW Archivist explores the secrets of World of Warcraft's past. What did the game look like years ago? Who is etched into WoW's history? What secrets does the game still hold? Not every amazing weapon is legendary. WoW has seen plenty of great weapons come and go without a single orange letter in their tooltip. But let's face it: legendaries are the most interesting and coveted items in the game. In patch 5.4, many players who have never before been able to equip a legendary item will have their first opportunity, thanks to Wrathion's schemes. The quest line for our legendary cloaks has been the longest and most elaborate legendary quest line to date, spanning over multiple tiers of raiding. But how did it all begin? What was WoW's first legendary quest line? Let's take a look back to remember the legend of Thunderfury.
9 years later, a venerable trinket finally dies
There are very few items in World of Warcraft that have much of a shelf life beyond the games in which they debut. No matter how powerful and prestigious they are, they get nerfed, or their level range is restricted, or -- most commonly -- they're simply outclassed by bigger and better gear. Thunderfury lasted through early Magtheridon kills in The Burning Crusade before Blizzard nerfed its threat. The Luffa was resurrected for a few shining weeks to help guilds kill Moroes before the developers squashed its use for anyone past level 60. Even the most hotly contested BC trinket and Wrath trinkets, the Dragonspine Trophy and Deathbringer's Will, were eventually scuttled by DPS, no matter how much intra-guild bloodletting they'd inspired before. However, the Darkmoon Card: Blue Dragon somehow managed to fly under the radar for years. While it was never the best trinket in any tier outside of classic, it was still a pretty solid regen piece (albeit more so before in-combat regeneration was improved during Wrath). I got mine after Aertimus at Hotstree noted in early Wrath that it was still shockingly good almost five years after it appeared in the game, and I knew legions of healers who pulled theirs out of mothballs or went to hunt the Beasts deck themselves as a result. You never know, we all said, when it'll pop up in the middle of a sea of "better" trinkets and still be one of your best options for regen. No more. As Blizzard announced during a hotfix late on April 4 for the recent patch 5.2, the Blue Dragon "now has a reduced chance to activate its effect for characters that are level 61-69 and its effect no longer activates for characters above level 69." I guess it'll be in the bank for good now, because I just don't have the heart to get rid of a workhorse trinket that performed its job faithfully for so long.
Addon Spotlight: GTFO revisited
Each week, WoW Insider's Mathew McCurley brings you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which focuses on the backbone of the WoW gameplay experience: the user interface. Everything from bags to bars, buttons to DPS meters and beyond -- your addons folder will never be the same. If you asked me back in 2009 if GTFO would become one of the most widely used, universally loved, and iconic addons in World of Warcraft's history, I would have laughed you out the door. You see, not standing in bad things was the ultimate test to see if you were ready for the big boy leagues. Sartharion and his three drakes brought a whole new meaning to the phrase "if you stand in the bad, you're losing DKP." World of Warcraft made standing in stuff a staple game mechanic for boss fights and player spells and abilities. A common thread presents itself -- Blizzard took potentially clunky boss and game design and made it more accessible. Boss design used to be a mix of larger and stronger versions of regular mobs, like in the EverQuest planes, or unique mobs that would have some awesome new NPC abilities or even steal a player ability or two, like in the EverQuest planes. WoW might not have done it first, but the game sure did make it pretty and varied. For every action, there is a reaction, and for every good thing to stand in, there are a hundred more bad things. Standing in bad things has become the joke of the era, culminating in Wrath of the Lich King with the ultimate send-off to positional and location-based mechanics -- heroic-mode Shadow Traps. GTFO's alarms and bells would echo down the sheer icy cliff walls of Arthas' monstrous fortress, the angry screams and painful sighs of adventurers falling to their deaths, the alarm not even finishing its full playback.
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).
Encrypted Text: Controlling tempo in PvP
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Encrypted Text for assassination, combat and subtlety rogues. Chase Christian will be your guide to the world of shadows every Wednesday. Please email me with any topic requests or questions you have! PvP is hard to discuss in writing. (I'm not talking about how to properly 4-gate your opponent on Shakuras Plateau, but rather about WoW's player-vs-player content.) It's a relatively easy task to distill a PvE encounter into a list of salient points, but that's because raid bosses aren't random. Magmaw is going to do the same thing against every single raid group that encounters him, and so our strategies for countering him are fairly unilateral. We're playing rock-paper-scissors with the developers, except that we know they're going to throw paper ahead of time. All we have to do is successfully become scissors, and the raid bosses will fall over and explode with purples -- they're just loot piñatas. PvP, meanwhile, is impossible to condense into a single strategy. In a raid setting, most classes use less than a dozen simple abilities on any given encounter. In an arena or battleground, players will be drawing from the deepest, darkest pages of their spellbooks to gain any advantage. I can't tell you what that warrior on the opposing team is going to do, because he can literally do anything. Instead of trying to make some sort of overly complicated flowchart in an attempt to remove all decision-making from PvP, you have to adjust and react on the fly. The key to surviving in this volatile environment is to maintain control of the tempo -- you need to fight on your terms.
WoW Moviewatch: T for Thunderfury
T for Thunderfury is the epic tale of Baron Soosdon's quest to get Thunderfury for his paladin. When he finally managed this epic feat, needless to say, there was a party. This video has a similar epic, awesome feel to many of Soosdon's videos. And while it's not technically a machinima, I still enjoyed the camera work and music. Soosdon's just kind of got that flair, and could probably find ways to make an entertaining movie out of a watermelon in a bucket. Congratulations to the good Baron on accomplishing this feat. Make sure to watch all the way through -- there's a special Christmas shout-out at the end. 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.
The OverAchiever: What Feats of Strength can you get now?
One of the easier ways to distinguish an older character from a reroll or alt is the presence (or absence) of a Feat of Strength. Feats of Strength, remnants of "the past glories of Azeroth," are among the most difficult achievements to get, and that's when they're even possible at all. Most, like the presence of an old-school PvP title, one of the original 100% mounts, or the Vengeful Nether Drake, are impossible to get these days, and are a sign that the person who has them is an experienced player. But with a little luck and a lot of elbow grease, even a new player can accrue some of these supposedly "past" glories. I started playing WoW shortly after Burning Crusade launched and didn't expect to have a shot at most Feats, but a surprising number of them are still available. After getting The Fifth Element recently and being surprised to discover that: a). It's a Feat, and b). The original quest isn't even in the game anymore (man, I'm glad I'm such a quest packrat), I started nosing around the list of Feats to see what else a player could do even if they're new to the game. Moreover, there are two achievements you can get right now that will become Feats in 3.3, so let's get cracking.
EDITED: Warlock makes Thunderfury
Reader Angie sent us a curious Armory profile of a Warlock who was able to obtain the classic legendary one-handed weapon Thunderfury, Blessed Blade of the Windseeker. Although no raiding guild in their right minds would've allowed such a travesty to happen no matter how much DKP the Warlock had back in the day, now in a time where Onyxia is visited every few days for some easy Gold, anything goes.This news comes on the heels of what is reputedly a world first Death Knight obtaining the legendary sword. Here's the kicker, though... the left and right Bindings of the Windseeker have class restrictions (revised to include Death Knights)... and Warlocks aren't among those eligible to start the quest chain. Mages and Warlocks are both casters who can equip swords, but this doesn't explain how the Warlock obtained the item. [EDIT: Whoops. Looks like I dropped the ball on this one. Daniel already wrote that even though the Bindings have class restrictions on the tooltip, they're actually usable by any class according to Blizzard.]The Warlock's guild seems to be a rather accomplished one (the 'lock has The Immortal title), so there's a good chance that getting the weapon was a guild effort. It's quite possible that the Dormant Wind Kissed Blade that drops off Thunderaan was assigned by Master Looter to the Warlock, who then started the quest.
Death Knight gets Thunderfury
Here's a world first I never thought I'd see via Deathknight.info: The first Death Knight with a Thunderfury! Night Elf Death Knight Dragoth of Frostmane-EU grabbed the legendary sword a couple weeks back, and has the achievement to prove it (It's under the Feats of Strength category). Certainly, this was no small task in and of itself. Sure, you can probably do most of the questline with four or five people now, but you'll still find yourself in Molten Core begging for the bindings to drop for at least a few weeks, and that doesn't even count the elementium.
Encrypted Text: Shadows descend upon Northrend
Every Wednesday, Chase Christian of Encrypted Text invites you to enter the world of shadows, as we explore the secrets and mechanics of the Rogue class. This week, we'll be talking the impending expansion, and what you can do to prepare yourself for a long trip through the snow.Arthas has been busy over these past years. Killing his father, defiling the Alliance's most sacred city, enslaving an entire army of mindless undead, and a virulent zombie invasion; just to name a few. The Light's greatest paladin tried to stand against him, and was crushed. The demonic have tried to defeat him using their own fel magics, and were left bloodied in the snow. Even the most powerful Elven mages tried to stop his relentless assault, and their civilization was utterly destroyed. After these hard years, Arthas' cruel reign of fear and terror over the citizens of Azeroth has reached a breaking point. The people can suffer no more pain or agony. The hounds of war have been unleashed and the wax-sealed envelopes from Thrall and Varian have been delivered. We've received our orders, and the message is clear: Assassinate the Lich King. Finally, our leaders have gotten some sense shaken into them by Arthas' brutality and ruthlessness. Finally, they've decided to send in the Rogues.
Official WoW costumes for Halloween
Have you ever wanted to be a fearsome Orc? Maybe you wanted to wear your Season 2 Warrior helmet out on the street? Or maybe you figured it was time you need to dual-wield WoW's legendary weapons in real life, like some other folks? Gosh, maybe you just want pointy ears. Turns out, this Halloween is going to be your chance. Not only do you get to enjoy the real world holiday in game, but you get to enjoy the game in your real world holiday. Amythys of Mug'Thol tipped us off that Costumes Inc. has a series of licensed World of Warcraft costumes on sale. Licensed means they're official and for real -- note that the artwork on the ears is Blizzard's own art. Some of them are obviously tailored to be friendly to folks who don't know the game. The Season 2 Warrior helmet mask is titled as the "Wild Beastman Mask." And, oddly, there are three versions of the Arcanite Reaper -- one handed, standard, or long. Thunderfury makes an appearance, and it looks sweet. Of course, there's requisite elf ears available in both the Night and Blood varieties. Check it out in the gallery. %Gallery-32199%
Big set of icons from the WoW comic
Popehippo on WoW Ladies LJ was kind enough to post these 59 icons, directly from the World of Warcraft comic. They actually come from all over the place, including the comic itself, as well as from cover and concept art. And there's all kinds of different stuff in here, from Orcs to dragons to Druids to Naga.They're meant, of course, to be used on Livejournal, but they work, I'd imagine, for all kinds of icons, from Twitter and IM to even the comment profiles right here on this very site. If you've been poking around for a Warcraft-themed online identity, look no further, odds are that there's a cool piece of art you'll find in this big layout Popehippo's assembled.
Legendary Weapons: Drops vs. questing
A Discussion of the newly dropped Thori'dal bought up a lively discussion on Legendary weapons in my guild chat the other day, which has in turn set my own mental wheels turning. Looking at the difference between the pre-Burning Crusade Legendaries and the Burning Crusade Legendaries, there's one big difference that stands out (beyond the level difference): The pre-BC Legendaries were quested, while the BC Legendaries have been drops. The clear-cut off seems to suggest that at some point, Blizzard decided that creating long, involved quests in order to obtain Legendary weapons just wasn't the way to go, and they'd rather let the RNG take care of distributing Legendaries. But the question is, did they make the right choice? There's good arguments for both sides.
3-man group conquers Molten Core
3-man Molten Core. You read that right. sailoreagle on Livejournal walks us through the run his Tier 6 prot warrior, Tier 6 holy priest, and a "Tier 4-ish" feral druid (along with hunter and mage alts) had in a surprisingly easy Molten Core instance. You'd think they'd have trouble along the way (in fact, they thought they'd have trouble along the way), but from this account, it actually went down pretty easily. From the screenshots, it seems like they just plowed through the bosses-- they ate Magmadar's frenzies, exploded Garr's minions, organized around Sulfuron and Majordomo, and eventually, yes, survived wave after wave of sons to take out Raggy himself.Pretty amazing. They got both Bindings of the Windseeker out of the deal, along with a bunch of other epics that it used to take 40 different people to obtain. It's still not actually easy-- sailor says they burned through some hardcore potions, and clearly their gear helped out a lot (although think what this will be like at level 80), so it was still a challenge.Still, it's kind of sad, in a way. Remember when you went back to your childhood playground and everything seemed so... small? If three people can beat Ragnaros, is he really fit to carry the title of Firelord any more? Thanks, Timeless!
Upper Deck giving $100,000 to winner of WoW TCG World Championship
Upper Deck has announced that their final WoW TCG tournament this year, the World Championship, will offer a whopping $100,000 prize. Yes, you read that right-- the top winner will take home a hundred grand. There's already a long list of people invited to the tournament, mostly from previous Nationals and qualifying tournaments, but there is still one chance left to get into the tournament, which starts on November 29th at the San Diego Convention Center. If you can come up with an Honor Ranking of 4 by then, you could enter the Honor Grind tournament on November 29th, and the top four winners of that will be invited to compete in the World Championships. So if you really want that $100,000 prize, and have never played the TCG in your life, better get playing.But even if you don't plan on winning, the World Championship sounds like a lot of fun-- TCG artists (including Blizzard's Samwise Didier) will be there to sign cards and meet players, and there will be lots of other events and tournaments. The Crafting Redemption metagame will also be happening for the first time-- players will be able to turn in "extra" material cards to "make" special exclusive item cards for the game. And this "Thunderfury" card is an exclusive participation card for the tournament, too. Very nice.And Upper Deck also reminds us that November is release month for the upcoming March of the Legion expansion, and they're going to hold a sneak preview of all the new cards on November 17th at a store near you. Supposedly there's a list of stores hosting the events over on their site, but I don't see it yet, so hopefully it'll be up soon. And keep your eyes open-- we've already been told the new set will have three brand new loot cards, and we've got our ears to the tracks on just what they might be.
Around Azeroth: Once, twice, three time's the charm
Blackfoot from Dethecus (EU) sends in this shot and a story to go along with it. The image comes from the final step of the chain to craft the legendary sword Thunderfury, which requires you to defeat Thunderaan, a summonable raid boss. When defeated, he drops the giant sword you see in this shot, but usually only one... The multiple swords are due to multiple kills -- a raid alliance of Metus Mortis, Die Verlorenen, and Empire of Azeroth came out to finish the quest for two of their rogues, and because of one buggy encounter, ended up killing him three times.Do you have a unique shot of Azeroth that you'd like to show off to the rest of the world? Tell us about it by e-mailing aroundazeroth@gmail.com! You can attach a picture file or send us a link to one -- and don't worry about formatting, we'll take care of that part.See more of your pics from Around Azeroth.
Phat Loot Phriday: Thunderfury, Blessed Blade of the Windseeker
This is the start of another new feature here at WoW Insider. Every Friday, we'll take a closeup look at another drool-worthy item in Azeroth-- we'll tell you what it is, why you want it, and how to get it. This week, we're starting off at the top, with the sword everyone loves to covet.Name: Thunderfury, Blessed Blade of the WindseekerType: Unique Main hand SwordDamage, Speed: 44-115 +16-30 Nature, 1.9 (53.9 DPS)Abilities: +5 Agility, +8 Stam, +8 Fire Resist, +8 Nature Resist "Chance on hit: Blasts your enemy with lightning, dealing 300 Nature damage and then jumping to additional nearby enemies. Each jump reduces that victim's Nature resistance by 25. Affects 5 targets. Your primary target is also consumed by a cyclone, slowing its attack speed by 20% for 12 sec." Ability to turn anyone in Ironforge or Orgrimmar green with envy. How to get it: With a sword like this one, you know it's going to be a long journey. Start off in Molten Core, where Baron Geddon and Garr will drop either the left or right half of the Bindings of the Windseeker. Then head over to Silithus and Highlord Demetrian, who will give you the Vessel of Rebirth and a quest, "Thunderaan the Windseeker." That'll require you to get both Bindings, an Essence of the Firelord (dropped from Ragnaros) and ten Elementium Bars (for those, you'll need a blacksmith to put together 10 Elementium Ore, 100 Arcanite Bars, 10 Firey Cores, and 30 Elemental Flux).Then the fun really starts. Demetrian will summon the Prince Thunderaan, who, it turns out, is a ?? 40-man raid mob. So there's that. Loot the Wind Kissed Blade from Thunderaan-- if you can beat him-- and Demetrian will timidly hand you your new, shiny, sparky, sweet sword.Auction Price: Yeah right. This sword is BOP, and you better believe it. If you are dumb enough to sell it to a vendor, they'll give you a whopping 25g 53s 55c for it. Don't sell it to a vendor.
