Monday, November 30, 2009

In the News: Shadowmourne, Legendary 2h Axe

For those of you haven't been keeping up with MMO-Champion and the spoilers for the next patch, here's what you need to know about the next legendary weapon: Shadowmourne, a 2h axe for Ret Pallies, Fury/Arms Warriors, and DKs of every spec.

How to obtain Shadowmourne

Step 1: Reach 'friendly' status with the Ashen Verdict, the new reputation faction in ICC. From this point you can obtain the quest "The Sacred and the Corrupt", in which you will be tasked with the following:

*Obtain Light's Justice, Arthas' old warhammer, from the Frostmourne cavern in Dragonblight (bring friends. Although I'm not sure of the details, I know you do meet with resistance.)

*Combine Light's Justice with 25 (!) Primordial Saronite (the new crafting reagent in ICC, dropping from bosses and trash at random. They can also be purchased with 23 Emblems of Frost a piece.) and a quest item from 2 bosses in ICC: Rotface and Festergut (only on 25-man).

The reward for getting that far into the questline is Shadow's Edge, a beast of a weapon in it's own right. Shadow's Edge will eventually upgrade into Shadowmourne.

Step 2: Obtain Quest items from Professor Putricide, Queen Lana'thel, and Sindragosa (only on 25-man and in that order, this step represents three seperate quests). These 3 bosses are 'end bosses' for their wings. Even in normal mode, they have a limited number of attempts available for the raid before they despawn. On top of this, getting the quest items from each requires special steps to be taken during the boss fights.

Step 3: Obtain 60 Fragments of the Frozen Throne. These fragments, much like the fragment's of Valan'yr and other legendaries before it, are held by bosses in (25-player only) ICC. It is, however, unknown whether they will be lootable by only one person, like previous legendaries, or will be obtainable by anyone with the quest, as the item is listed as a 'quest item'. This can only be completed on 25-man.

An interesting note: unlike the shards associated with previous legendaries, these quest items are Epic in quality and not Legendary, lending credibility to the idea that they will, in fact, be sure-fire drops for anyone with the quest.

Step 4: Slay 1000 (yes, one thousand) of the Lich King's servants (trash and bosses) with Shadow's Edge. This can be completed on 10 and 25 player.

The 5th step is currently un-released on the PTR, but will involve killing Arthas, to be sure. After completing all these steps, the player is rewarded with Shadowmourne, which replaces Shadow's Edge.

This is a remarkably different step in regards to legendaries, and I hope it proves to be the same for the future. Blizzard's goal with Shadowmourne was to eliminate a lot of the RNG problems that were encountered with Vala'nyr and other legendaries, and instead add a very epic questline packed with lore.

Many are assuming that the Shards of the Frozen Throne will be treated like a normal quest item, and anyone on the questline will be able to obtain them. It's also assumed, a little less commonly, that the shards will be guaranteed drops off those bosses (or perhaps guaranteed in hard mode and random in reg). This is due A) to the sheer amount of shards needed to complete the weapon (Vala'nyr was, I believe, 40?) and B) Blizzard's stated intent to eliminate RNG issues with legendaries.

Thanks to Boubouille at mmo-champion, where most of this information was discovered. And good luck to everyone vying for this axe come the release of 3.3

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