A Worthy Weapon – The Quest Begins

Welcome to another addition of A Worthy Weapon. With the release of Icecrown there’s decisions to make, which weapon is right for tanking? It’s also time to start working on Shadowmourne. I’ll be documenting my progress on the quest line here.

A Quick Announcement
It’s official, the guild has decided to give me the first Shadowmourne. This is a big honor, and I’m more than just a little excited to get this. Hell, I’ll say it: When I got the news I clapped my hands and giggled like a fat kid with a cupcake. Really though, thank you Face on Fire for this.

Icecrown Citadel Weapons
Unlike previous tiers, we have several options for tanking weapons. We didn’t get a new version of Inevitable Defeat, but what we did get was a set of solid tanking options with different flavors to suit specific needs. My problem is: right now I’m over the hit and expertise cap. Infact, since I got my new ring I’m WAY over the hit cap. This was one of the reasons why I wanted to get Shadowmourne in the first place, since seeing the gear in this tier I knew I could quite easilly stay capped and just go with the highest TPS/EH weapon possible, Shadowmourne fits the bill.

For the Capped
Interestingly though, we’ve already had 2 very good tanking options drop in IC. Marrowgar in 25 dropped Bryntroll, the Bone Arbiter. It went to my buddy Sharpobject, a Retadin who’s been facerolling harder than usual (considering everything’s undead). In fact, our Pali tank Zelthas has been commenting that he’s been having threat issues again Sharp with his new Axe. The proc according to completely anecdotal evidence (the Recount breakdown of damage over our 10m IC run) is doing 7% of Sharp’s damage. That’s pretty damned impressive really, even more so when you consider he’s concistently in the top 5 DPS (depending on the fight). Of course, Sharp if you’re reading this you’re welcome to correct me if I’m wrong on just how much damage this thing is doing. But, it looks like the thing procs constantly. Matched with the extra healing from this proc, the sizable Str and Sta, as well as the two sockets (even MORE Sta) it’s certainly a contender for anyone who, like me, is hit/exp capped (without a weapon).

For those needing Hit or Expertise, hope still exists.
Interestingly enough the first boss of the instance (Marrowgar) provides the second tanking option, which we also got this week. Citadel Enforcer’s Claymore packs a lot of hit. The DPS of this weapon is higher than my previous weapon Mor’kosh, the Bloodreaver. It has more Hit and less crit, but it’s a bit faster and has more Str/Sta. One less socket though. So overall, it’s kinda a sidegrade to Mor’kosh. But considering it’s from the first boss, in 10 regular no less… it’s a great option for any DK tank.

Further in the instance we also have the option of Cryptmaker from the 25m Princes. It’s a mace (meh) but a solid performer all around, 100 ArPen, and 95 Hit, 2 Sockets, lots of Str/Sta, and good melee stats. (Not currently on Wowhead, so linked to it on MmoChampion)

For the Expertise we have Ramaladni’s Blade of Culling (Saurfang) and Oxheart (Dreamwalker). Both of these come from 10m IC. The key difference between these two is that Ram is an Axe that gives ArPen as well as the Expertise. And Oxheart is a mace that gives Crit in addition to Expertise. Also, since Saurfang is at the end of the first wing, you can already start farming for the axe. Generally speaking though, this is all good news. It means there’s a solid selection of weapons for us, there are even hard mode equivalents to these of course. For the first time this expansion, we have a little variety in our options in a single tier…

Shadowmourne
The real reason you’re reading this though is probably to get some dirt on Shadowmourne, which I will be happy to provide. There are three of us working on the axe atm: Khaas, Rukar, and Sharpobject. The first objective when working on this thing is to reach Friendly with the Ashen Verdict. At which point you can go just inside Icecrown Citadel, and speak to the appropriate NPC to claim your ring. You may also notice a blue ! off to the left, over the head of Highlord Darion Mograine. Speak to him and accept the quest The Sacred and the Corrupt.

From here, you begin collecting the first pieces necessary to craft Shadow’s Edge, the epic weapon that forms the base of Shadowmourne.

This is the cave where Arthas infamously throw down his mace and took up the cursed blade Frostmourne at the end of the human campaign in Warcraft III. You will see the mace laying in the snow with light surrounding it, when you move to take it the Lich King will appear, and freeze you and throw his mace across the cave.

After a brief scripted encounter with Arthas, a massive horde of level 80 Ghouls will spawn all over the cave, and an elite will spawn on the mound in the middle where the mace once was…

Clear your way through the ghouls to the mace’s new location, once there the mace will fly above your head and begin nuking everything undead in the cave.

Once all are dead, the Vyrkul will respawn and you must fight him. He doesn’t hit hard at all, but he’s got a lot of HP.

Once you’ve killed the Vyrkul claim your new quest item Light’s Vengeance (can’t equip the mace QQ) and begin collecting the rest of the pieces.

Primordial Saronite can be collected several ways: buy them on the AH (or from other players), get these from running Icecrown Citadel, or turn in Emblems of Frost for them (23 Emblems per Saronite). You may get the nod from your guild to keep all of the Primordials until you finish this part of the chain, if you’re not so lucky then you’ll have to decide between new armor/gear or Primordials for Shadowmourne. Now, the Goblin in me must speak: Do NOT buy Primordials right now. I would advise on waiting at least until you’ve obtained the pieces from Festergut and Rotface before even considering purchasing the remaining Primordials, this is because right now the price is grossly inflated. A cursory check of several servers is showing a price ranging from 6-8K per Primordial, give it a little time. The price will come down as more become available.

My advice, wait till you get the Acidic Blood. Meanwhile, keep an eye out for any cheap Primordials. And start working on your armor, the sooner you get your Emblem gear out of the way, the sooner you can start burning Emblems for Primordials. Even after you have your requisite 25, you’ll likely continue getting these as they should start making a tidy profit on the AH (I’m guessing they’re probably going to normalize somewhere between 1 and 2K).

That’s all for this edition of A Worthy Weapon, but check back as I will be posting more progress on Shadowmourne as well as more tips as I find them.