Amongst all the information we’ve been seeing on patch 3.1 are hints of
a legendary weapon. Legendaries in WoW have been rare items, often with particularly good bonuses or abilities, that have required people to not only kill raid bosses but also enjoy the favour of the luck gods. They have also tended to be best in slot for the lucky recipient for the length of the whole expansion.
From what we’ve seen of this new legendary, it looks as though it will be a healing mace. It also looks at though it will require the would-be wielder to collect multiple fragments before they can assemble their prize, which are likely to be rare drops from Ulduar bosses (probably in 25 man mode, although it would be nice to have a 10 man version also), This sounds to be a similar scheme by which people picked up the Staff of Atiesh, which was a legendary from Vanilla WoW. Atiesh needed not only 40 fragments but also quest items that dropped from two of the hardest bosses in the game at the time. We’ll likely see something similar here.
I’m glad for our healers, but mostly just relieved that it isn’t a tanking piece so I can sit politely back on the sidelines and not get involved with any decisions about who gets to collect our fragments. Because if a raid wants to get the weapon into play as quickly as possible, they will need to nominate one person to collect fragments.
Most raids, probably including mine, will just nominate a raid leader (if they have one who is a healer). After all, they’re likely to be at every raid by definition and if you’re going to reward anyone, it might as well be the person who puts in the most work. I do remember that my old guild did this with Atiesh and no one else was particularly upset. I also remember that long after the event, we did agree privately that it would also have been fine to just let people blow all their DKP on the first fragment if they really wanted it. At the end of the day, you just want the thing to be in the raid and being used so as long as the recipient is wiling to keep showing up to grab bits, you’re golden.
With the healers though, it is more difficult. We do rotate healers, and effectively saying that one raid spot is always reserved for whoever is collecting the legendary will affect the others. So as well as not getting the ultra-cool weapon, they’re also less likely to be raiding at all.
I do anticipate drama. But it’s really not the worst thing in the world to not be working towards a legendary. For one thing, you don’t have to feel bad for taking a week off if you need to. For another, there will be other healing weapons in Ulduar, and you’ll probably get those upgrades long before whoever is collecting the legendary mace. And lastly, if you aren’t in a fairly hardcore guild, there’s no guarantee that you’ll be able to do the hard modes that the legendary will probably require.
Sometimes the best answer is to look past the shiny and take the best upgrade for the least effort, The legendary is unlikely to be it.
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