Breakfast Topic: Are legendaries good for the game?
by Allison Robert 
Dec 7th 2009 at 8:00AM
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?
Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Items, Analysis / Opinion, Raiding
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 5)
Pemberton Dec 7th 2009 8:08AM
Doesn't matter, I'm never going to see one drop. Ah, the life of a casual.
Narshe Dec 7th 2009 8:13AM
Epics have become more and more common since BC and WOTLK, maybe losing some of the importance of it being "epic" gear. I kind of wonder if Legendaries will start to become more common, or if it would be too hard to balance around those type of items (more people having them), making epic gear even more trivialized.
I wonder what ever happened to them introducing Artifacts into the game, i guess theres really no need.
http://joekey.deviantart.com/gallery/
Banic Rhys Dec 7th 2009 8:16AM
Hey speak for yourself buster, I'm a casual and I have seen several legendaries drop.
Elementium ore counts as a legendary right? :S
But yeah, I'd really like to see a nice legendary tanking shield in Cataclysm that is obtained in a similar way to Shadowmourne, a little bit of initial luck, a little skill and a HELL of a lot of money.
Banic Rhys Dec 7th 2009 8:19AM
Please don't downrate me for saying shield and not 1h mace.
I'm looking at you Mr. Druid and Mrs. DK.
Wolftech Dec 7th 2009 9:25AM
I am just waiting for when the caster legendary weapon is available from Cataclysm. I do not care what it takes, and if I have to leave my casual raiding guild and join a more hardcore one, I WILL get it.
Rankin Dec 7th 2009 9:48AM
Actually Elementium Ore doesn't count as legendary, the finished product is though.
And other than my outdated Thunderfury, my guild so far hasn't managed to complete a legendary and not have the recipient leave town shortly thereafter.
Todd Dec 7th 2009 10:10AM
...for the record, I hate the two in the pic (above). I was unable to finish collecting my splinters before Blizzard had the audacity to remove them from Naxx. I won't get on my high horse on this subject, but I still find Blizzard's motives tacky in that all other legendaries still exist, and are feasibly obtained, in the game... except that one.
Janaa Dec 7th 2009 4:03PM
On my battlegroup theres an 80 rogue who keeps running with a single glaive that he picked up post-BC, and keeps telling everyone else how jealous we are of his glaive (because we keep making fun of him for it). Its a shame my skinning alt druid in greens out-DPSs him.
Skittles Dec 7th 2009 5:16PM
@ Narshe
Sure epics have become alot more common, but what you have not taken into account is the fact that their level range is so much more wide, your complaining about them being to easy to get, but for example, its easy for someone to get ilv 200-219 but after that its going to take a whole lot more work to get the higher ilv stuff (highest ilv item in game is a 272 cloak no?)
Todd Dec 8th 2009 10:51AM
@Skittles
I think what Narshe means is, back in Vanilla WoW, anyone running around with a purple piece of gear was truly epic. Purple back then was a really big deal. Not so much now. Hopefully this doesn't escalate to the point where regular NPC quests start rewarding with purples.
DeathPaladin Dec 7th 2009 8:08AM
Shadowmourne is quite a bit different that other legendaries. If I recall correctly, the only real drop involved in the whole questline is Primordial Saronite, which are the Frozen/Runed/Crusader Orbs of Icecrown. It requires a lot, but if you aren't winning rolls, they'll likely be purchasable with Frost Emblems.
Asking "Who will get the Shadowmourne?" is non-sensical, since you can theoretically have every DK, Paladin, and Warrior in your raid building their own simultaneously without negatively impacting each other, especially once they get Shadow's Edge built and it becomes a race between who can get the 1000 souls fastest and do the required boss fights under the required circumstances.
ROB13 Dec 7th 2009 8:10AM
Shadowmourne is clearly a hunter weapon.
Allison Robert Dec 7th 2009 8:18AM
That's a really good point -- I think the process of getting Shadowmourne is a lot less absurd than most Legendaries -- but with Icecrown's gated system (and the inability to see later content or unlock hard modes for weeks to months) the supply of Primordial Saronite is going to be fairly low for a while. Odds are good that guilds won't be in a position to build several Shadowmournes comfortably for quite some time after 3.3's launch, and I'm guessing that most are trying to figure out which player to prioritize when the mats aren't flowing in very fast.
sephirah Dec 7th 2009 8:36AM
Primordial Saronite can be bought with EoF.
So people with many alts can run random daily hc and random weekly raid and be able to get almost one PS per alt.
staffan.johansson Dec 7th 2009 8:37AM
The process of acquiring Shadowmourne includes getting 50 (or 60, I've seen both) "Shadowfrost shards", which are "held only by the Lich King's most powerful servants". That's apparently code for "bosses on 25-man difficulty." Assuming each boss gives you one shard, that's 5 weeks worth of raiding, at a minimum (there are 11 pre-Lich King boss encounters, and I'm not certain the Gunship Battle and Valithira drop them. Heck, it's possible that only the final bosses of each wing do, which would mean you can only get 4/week. This step comes after you have to use it to kill Sindragosa, which will probably be at least 3-4 months after the patch. So I'm guessing the first Shadowmournes will show up sometime in June or July (4 months gating + 1-2 months grinding shards and souls).
Hasteur Dec 7th 2009 8:38AM
I'll have in interesting article about epics tomorrow morning at http://curseofdoom.com and how our guild went around choosing the first recipient of the Legendary
DeathPaladin Dec 7th 2009 8:42AM
Definitely true. There will probably be plenty of drama over who gets the Saronite to build the first Shadowmourne. But at least it won't be drama over which guildie will get the *only* Shadowmourne.
The Primordial Saronite must flow!
*enter undead Sandworm*
DeathPaladin Dec 7th 2009 8:51AM
(staffan posted while I was writing my reply)
Right. I had forgotten about the Shadowfrost shards. There'll be extra drama with those, since there will definitely need to determine which Paladins/DKs/Warriors gets priority. Still, anyone of those raiders who wants Shadow's Edge will probably be able to get it, and depending on the drop rate, more than one Shadowmourne in a guild may not be beyond the realm of possibility.
Ginby Dec 7th 2009 8:11AM
My guild leader is a fury warrior, just take a guess at who is getting it.
matthewggrammer Dec 7th 2009 11:20AM
Johnny, that doesn't make any sense. The GLeader is a Fury Warrior? Of course he should get it. Odds are he shows up the most and as the GLeader, he'll be around the longest.