Breakfast Topic: Thoughts on legendary weapons
by Josh McGee 
May 16th 2011 at 8:00AM
Legendary weapons are a status symbol. They show the dedication and skill of a player and his or her guild. However, not all legendary weapons are equal, and not all are usable by every class. In vanilla WoW, we had a 2H mace, a 1H tanking sword, and a caster staff. In The Burning Crusade, we had the Warglaives (DPS swords) and Thori'dal (bow). In Wrath, we had Val'anyr (1H healer mace) and Shadowmourne (2H axe.) Now in Cataclysm, we are getting another caster staff, and who knows what else is on the horizon.
I am glad Blizzard brought back the epic quest chain requirements for Dragonwrath, as I was severely disappointed in how Thori'dal and Warglaives were obtained. Personally, I think we need a legendary shield, one that, similar to Atiesh, you pick which version you want at the end of the chain, so that it could be a tank or healer shield. I would also like to see a legendary fishing po -- okay, sorry, I couldn't say that with a straight face. As for the legendary shield, let it be forged from some of Deathwing's scales or something similar that seems Cata-appropriate; in lore, Deathwing's forged scales are extremely tough, so it could easily fit into the lore and be made into a grand, epic quest chain.
What legendary would you like to see next -- and if you are feeling extra imaginative, how should one go about acquiring it?
Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Guest Posts
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 6)
Narlic May 16th 2011 8:12AM
I wonder what it would take to get some Legendary dps dagger action around here. Perhaps more likely if it were just one of the final forms of a pair of weapons (so that maybe shamans could get in on the love, too).
Narlic May 16th 2011 8:13AM
And it should somehow involve Garona and her time in Kara.
thepiratester May 16th 2011 8:21AM
It would be nice if they had more ways for peeps to get this. Why does everyone have to be a part of a powerful guild to even have a shot at this?? Not to mention on the active roster of the active guild. C'mon blizz give some love to the peeps that just want to have fun without all the BS with hardcore raid groups : /
valomer May 16th 2011 8:28AM
Um, the whole point of legendary weapons is for raiders. If anybody could get it, it wouldnt be a legendary weapon, it would be like purples in wrath of the lich king... boring and easily replaceable.
Narlic May 16th 2011 8:30AM
@thepiratester that's the point of Legendaries. They are the reward for not being casual.
Succulent May 16th 2011 8:34AM
It'd be nice sure, but first of all, why would someone thats not raiding need a legendary? Ultimately you upgrade gear to overcome more challenging content so it wouldn't make sense.
Secondly, legendaries are supposed to be...legendary. Blizz said they didn't want orange to become the new purple, they want to keep them sparse. It's very difficult to do that outside of raiding.
I personally wouldn't want to see them become quite common, it would ruin the legendary status and awesomeness of legendaries.
ScorchHellfire May 16th 2011 8:55AM
Blizz has stated that they will probably never make legendary daggers because they are too small to make them as awesome looking as the blizz artists want...
Lweydd May 16th 2011 9:04AM
Agree on the need of a legendary dagger. Mine is a pretty awesome guild, and I'm one of the two active rogues, so I'd probably have a chance.
Regarding the apperance, daggers can look awesome too! My epic pvp daggers for lvl 60 were amazingly cool, especially with berserker ;D
Zabre May 16th 2011 9:38AM
I agree with thepiratester. I don't think legendaries need to be as easy as a drop in a heroic, but I don't see why they couldn't make it extremely difficult to get as a solo player. They could make it a very long quest line that takes 6 months to complete as a solo player. I never understood the argument - well if your not raiding you don't need it. Guess what - if you ARE raiding you don't need it either - it's just nice to have. No one needs legendaries - they are just fun to have.
I also never understood the purpose of rare items in a digital, fantasy video game. So if someone else has the same pixels as you then the game is not as fun for you...why? If my cake tastes good that somehow diminishes the taste of yours? Makes sense...if your stoned!
thebitterfig May 16th 2011 11:34AM
While not legendary, there needs to be a cata-equivalent Quel'Dalar quest chain. Epic quest line, cool thematic reward, etc. A "legendary" for casuals. Also, it'd ideally have a proc on it. Proc items are, regardless of potency, way cooler than simple stat-based ones.
Process of acquisition and coolness of reward are more important than the color of the text on the item.
Sunaseni May 16th 2011 11:43AM
Zabre: Because it doesn't matter how long they make the questline. If it's powerful enough such that everyone who wants it can use it, everyone who wants it will get it. Legendaries are something an entire guild works on, with tons of effort needed for gathering materials and other things. (Thor'idal and Warglaives aside.) It's a goal that brings an entire community together.
If you don't want to enjoy the benefits of a guild, that's fine, but that comes with sacrifices like not getting legendaries.
noel mcleod May 16th 2011 12:30PM
Sunaseni:
NO, it's a requirement that it be a RAIDING guild. Raiding is a massive time and effort commitment and should be the reward in and of itself.
Having the entire guild participate in obtaing a legendary is OK, just take out the "elite" raiding crap. I know that there are several people in our non-raiding guild that we would all rally around if he or she wanted to make a try for a legendary through a well-thought out and coordinated sequence (i.e. solo tasks, materials gathering, craft components, quests, possibly a random drop, etc.)
It does not NEED to be from raiding, and Blizz does a disservice to a lot of paying customers by restricting this to raiding.
I would love to hear a Blue weigh in on this; I think if I saw an official Blue post that expressed the sentiments I hear from many people I would cancel my sub (and my kids ...).
Sunaseni May 16th 2011 1:14PM
Noel: Then you probably should have cancelled some time ago, as the previous legendary weapons have all required a raiding commitment, whether it be going and doing ICC's wing bosses in special ways or killing Garr for the millionth time for a binding to drop. Face it, legendary weapons are special because they are rarer than rare and require a time commitment on top of a time commitment.
If you think THIS one is for "elitists", you only have to clear normal mode bosses, and is doable in 10-man raids. Compared to previous legendaries, this is practically easy mode. (40-man raids back in Molten Core and Naxxramas, 25-man only-one-difficulty raids in TBC, and 25-man only raids in Wrath.)
And no, I'm not an elitist, as I'm not even in heroic modes yet (on Nefarian, last before our titles) and my guild only raids 4 days a week for 3 hours each of those days. The average person spends more time watching television a week than that.
Skarn May 16th 2011 2:09PM
Noel, here ya go. Blizzard's current stance on Legendaries:
"At least for the foreseeable future, we’re shying away from the model where individuals or five man groups can acquire legendary items, because that could have several possible effects which don't mesh well with our idea of what these items should represent. The items might become common enough that orange becomes the new purple, or so random that the acquisition doesn’t feel particularly good, or we’d have to include a lot of artificial controls on how many of those items end up on a given realm despite a thin veneer of accessibility. Any way you slice it, we think that this would diminish the appeal of these items, and that’s not the way we want to go for now."
Taken from right here: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/2489079517?page=9#171
I recommend reading the whole post too.
Narlic May 16th 2011 2:42PM
@noel also, don't let the door strike you nor your spawn too hard on the ass on the way out
noel mcleod May 16th 2011 4:29PM
Sure will. let me know when you move out of your mother's basement and contribute to society ...
(Please downrate this post as I do agree it is totally inappropriate but he deserves a reply ...)
noel mcleod May 16th 2011 4:44PM
And thanks, Skarn for the link ... it shows Blizzard has at least considered the idea. It's becoming clear that they need to do something or risk mass defections of the people who joined since the middle of TBC, which will make it hard to justify and fund future expansions. I don't disagree that there needs to be a specialized reward and benefit to doing the hardest content, but if the only "winners" are the hardcore players there won't be many players a year from now, and certainly not the stable base that Blizzard as a shareholder-owned company has said they want to attract.
Zabre May 16th 2011 4:46PM
SO basically Blizzard thinks that if only a very small minority of it's player base can get the best items in the game (and thus have more fun playing said game), that is a good business model. Who really thinks - "Cool! Blizz just introduced a sweet item in the game that I can never get! I want to keep playing this game so I can never get the coolest stuff! I love not getting the coolest stuff in the game! I love getting sub-par gear - it's great fun!"?
Expodinate May 16th 2011 5:17PM
Here's the way I look at it: A legendary item should be rare. Incredibly rare. After all, that's what makes it legendary. But while I like the idea of having it essentially available to the entire player base (solo, guilded, or what have you), there is an inherant flaw in that plan. If a legendary were to be offered in a such a way that it does NOT require raiding, then it would be almost a million times harder to get. Raiding gates the availablity of the weapon, so that it can stay sparse. But to make the weapon available to everyone, you have to take away raiding and find a new gate to keep the item rare. And the new gate would have to be so difficult that only the really determined people could get trough it. So raiding is actually th EASIER way to get legendaires. It's not so much restricting access to the legendaries as it is that solo players just have an inherant and unavoidable disadvantage: They don't have help.
All that being said, I would still welcome the idea of a legendary being available to EVERYONE. But to keep it legendary without raiding, getting it will just be that much harder.
Sorry for kind of spewing all my thoughts out in such a confusing and tangled mess. xP
Raginghobo May 16th 2011 9:55PM
There is no way this should be accessable for casuals. At lest until Firelands is not the newest raid tier. I think the whole "people will cancel their subs if they can't access a part of the game" is an old tired and ridiculous excuse. If your going to use this as a reason to cancel, you were going to find another silly excuse to cancel at some point anyway.
A legendary is a way for a guild to reward a hard working member, and also a reason to keep bringing us back to the content, I know once Cho finally drops my shoulders there is no real reason for me to keep coming back for gear. Having said that my smashing guildmates are the real reason i keep coming back.