Wrath of the Lich King and the evolution of 2-Handed Weapons
You guessed it, I'll be talking alot about Wrath of the Lich King (WotLK) on this blog. I've a feeling that this expansion will be even better than the previous one, I'll even go as far as saying that this will be the best expansion ever in World of Warcraft, kind of like Scars of Velious was the best expansion in Everquest (in my opinion at least :P).
Anyway, today I'll be talking about a topic which interests us all, no matter what class we play, I'm of course talking about EPIX, but more particularly about big fat 2-Hand weapons, simply because they're shiny and everyone wants one (even hunters, yup!).
All jokes aside, what got me to write this article was a screenshot I stumbled upon today while doing my daily wow-news browsing:
Anyway, today I'll be talking about a topic which interests us all, no matter what class we play, I'm of course talking about EPIX, but more particularly about big fat 2-Hand weapons, simply because they're shiny and everyone wants one (even hunters, yup!).
All jokes aside, what got me to write this article was a screenshot I stumbled upon today while doing my daily wow-news browsing:
Now for those who haven't played the raid game since the start of World of Warcraft, you might be wondering what's so special about this screenshot. Well, to me it is special, the first thought I had when I saw this was "woah".
To explain what's so special about this weapon, let me start by saying that this weapon will supposedly drop from Kel'Thuzad, the final boss of Naxxramas. And as you know, Naxxramas will be the first raid dungeon in Northrend, and that also means the easiest. Moreover, this weapon will apparently drop from the 10-man version of the zone. So basically, warriors rejoice, you will have a shot at a 200+ dps weapon from a Karazhan equivalent zone, right at the start of raiding in WotLK.
What's even more astonishing is the jump in DPS this time. Let me give you a short summary of the most sought after 2-Handed weapons in wow history.
If you were around when Black Temple came out in 2005, you probably will remember what the best 2-hander was called at the time, that's right, Ashkandi.
81 dps was considered HUGE back then, not to mention the sword looked amazing (at least at the time). You have no idea how many guild dramas were caused by this weapon or how many DKPs were spent.
About half a year later, Ashkandi lost its status as n.1 weapon of choice to an axe, dropped by C'Thun in the Temple of Ahn'Qiraj:
That's right, it was a small dps upgrade as you could see, but this axe was all about status. Not only did it come from C'Thun, an Old God considered one of the best and hardest encounters ever designed by Blizzard, but it also looked incredible:
(The eye actually moved around
This was at the time THE best 2-Hander in the game, and it was replaced much later on by the Might of Menthil, a weapon dropped by Kel'Thuzad in the 40-man version of the zone, right before The Burning Crusade came out:
It was of course quickly replaced during the burning crusade. In Karazhan, you could already get an upgrade to Might of Menethil by just killing Prince Malcheezar, quite a simple encounter compared to Kel'Thuzad.
A 24.6 dps difference compared to might of menethil, which is huge of course, considering that Might of Menethil was a hundred times more difficult to get. However, please note that at the release of TBC, this wasn't the case. Karazhan loot was of much lower quality, and Gorehowl was actually a very small upgrade over Might of Menethil (I can't remember exactly, but it had only about 105 dps. It was later on upgraded during a patch where all Karazhan loot got a rehaul.
In any case, now the end of the Burning Crusade era is near, and the current best 2-Handed weapon drops from no other than Kil'Jaeden. Enter Apolyon, the Soul-Render:
If you've followed the raiding scene, you probably have an idea about how extremely difficult it is to get to Kil'Jaeden, let alone killing him. Then you also need the blade to drop (about 25% chance to happen). And then, since it's a 25-man zone, you also have to compete with several of your guildmates to get this weapon.
It's safe to say that you won't be seeing many people running around with this blade, hell, on some server you most likely won't ever see one, that's how rare it is. And it's 148.7 dps.
Now you must be starting to understand why I'm making such a big deal out of that screenshot posted at the start of the article. I mean, this axe is 203.7 dps, but moreover, its stats are insanely good.
148.7 dps --> 203.7 dps
That's a 55! dps upgrade, coming from the final boss of the very first 10-man raid zone in Wrath of the Lich King. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it's a bad thing. It's actually great to know that characters will experience a huge jump in power, because that's one of the main reasons we all play MMOs, we want our characters to become badass.
In any case, I can't wait to see what kind of crits we will be seeing when someone gets his hands on this weapon. And I can't even fathom what kind of blades we'll be seeing from the next raid zones in WotLK. At least I have good hope that we'll be seeing a legendary version of this one:
Hopefully accompanied with an amazing quest line. Blizzard said they definitely had plans for the Ashbringer, but they didn't say exactly for when. What they did say though, is that the very last boss of Wrath of the Lich King will be Arthas, and you all know what that means...
Frostmourne!
I'll bet, Frostmourne will break the 250 dps mark, or maybe more, only time will tell. I must say I can't wait to play a shadowknight in Wrath of the Lich King, or any class benefiting from those 2-Handed goodies :P
Images courtesy of: Blizzard, Wow-head, MMO-champion
To explain what's so special about this weapon, let me start by saying that this weapon will supposedly drop from Kel'Thuzad, the final boss of Naxxramas. And as you know, Naxxramas will be the first raid dungeon in Northrend, and that also means the easiest. Moreover, this weapon will apparently drop from the 10-man version of the zone. So basically, warriors rejoice, you will have a shot at a 200+ dps weapon from a Karazhan equivalent zone, right at the start of raiding in WotLK.
What's even more astonishing is the jump in DPS this time. Let me give you a short summary of the most sought after 2-Handed weapons in wow history.
If you were around when Black Temple came out in 2005, you probably will remember what the best 2-hander was called at the time, that's right, Ashkandi.
81 dps was considered HUGE back then, not to mention the sword looked amazing (at least at the time). You have no idea how many guild dramas were caused by this weapon or how many DKPs were spent.
About half a year later, Ashkandi lost its status as n.1 weapon of choice to an axe, dropped by C'Thun in the Temple of Ahn'Qiraj:
That's right, it was a small dps upgrade as you could see, but this axe was all about status. Not only did it come from C'Thun, an Old God considered one of the best and hardest encounters ever designed by Blizzard, but it also looked incredible:
(The eye actually moved aroundand looked at people)
This was at the time THE best 2-Hander in the game, and it was replaced much later on by the Might of Menthil, a weapon dropped by Kel'Thuzad in the 40-man version of the zone, right before The Burning Crusade came out:
It was of course quickly replaced during the burning crusade. In Karazhan, you could already get an upgrade to Might of Menethil by just killing Prince Malcheezar, quite a simple encounter compared to Kel'Thuzad.
A 24.6 dps difference compared to might of menethil, which is huge of course, considering that Might of Menethil was a hundred times more difficult to get. However, please note that at the release of TBC, this wasn't the case. Karazhan loot was of much lower quality, and Gorehowl was actually a very small upgrade over Might of Menethil (I can't remember exactly, but it had only about 105 dps. It was later on upgraded during a patch where all Karazhan loot got a rehaul.
In any case, now the end of the Burning Crusade era is near, and the current best 2-Handed weapon drops from no other than Kil'Jaeden. Enter Apolyon, the Soul-Render:
If you've followed the raiding scene, you probably have an idea about how extremely difficult it is to get to Kil'Jaeden, let alone killing him. Then you also need the blade to drop (about 25% chance to happen). And then, since it's a 25-man zone, you also have to compete with several of your guildmates to get this weapon.
It's safe to say that you won't be seeing many people running around with this blade, hell, on some server you most likely won't ever see one, that's how rare it is. And it's 148.7 dps.
Now you must be starting to understand why I'm making such a big deal out of that screenshot posted at the start of the article. I mean, this axe is 203.7 dps, but moreover, its stats are insanely good.
148.7 dps --> 203.7 dps
That's a 55! dps upgrade, coming from the final boss of the very first 10-man raid zone in Wrath of the Lich King. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it's a bad thing. It's actually great to know that characters will experience a huge jump in power, because that's one of the main reasons we all play MMOs, we want our characters to become badass.
In any case, I can't wait to see what kind of crits we will be seeing when someone gets his hands on this weapon. And I can't even fathom what kind of blades we'll be seeing from the next raid zones in WotLK. At least I have good hope that we'll be seeing a legendary version of this one:
Hopefully accompanied with an amazing quest line. Blizzard said they definitely had plans for the Ashbringer, but they didn't say exactly for when. What they did say though, is that the very last boss of Wrath of the Lich King will be Arthas, and you all know what that means...
Frostmourne!
I'll bet, Frostmourne will break the 250 dps mark, or maybe more, only time will tell. I must say I can't wait to play a shadowknight in Wrath of the Lich King, or any class benefiting from those 2-Handed goodies :P
Images courtesy of: Blizzard, Wow-head, MMO-champion
Posts
Your web is great!! I learned something about WOW here!!!!
My DK has been strolling around with Death's Bite for a while now (from Kel'Thuzad non-heroic). Unfortunately it is the best melee DPS 2h in the game atm. There are other 2handers with higher DPS but they are agi/ap weapons more designed for hunters.