I'm sure you all know that recently a new boss has been added to the Vault of Archavon instance going by the name of Emalon the Storm Watcher. He's a tier higher than Archavon, meaning he drops Tier 8 in 10 man, and 8.5 in 25 man. He also drops whatever the new PvP gear is, but I don't PvP often enough to know what that's called :X

Now Vault of Archavon in general I've always had an issue with. The main problem was simply this: It doesn't make sense. A ton of issues arise when you actually think about VoA.

Let's talk about Archavon specifically for a second. As long as you control Wintergrasp you can fight him once a week, and your faction WILL control Wintergrasp at least once a week. Now, Archavon is an incredibly easy boss. I know it, you know it, we all know it. An incredibly easy boss that drops great loot. Tier 7 and 7.5 and whatever that PvP gear is. Blizzard said that if you had trouble getting a piece or 2 of your tier gear that they would allow you to buy it with badges, so that kicks that excuse out of the running as to why his loot is so great.

Now let's focus on Emalon, the tier 8 boss. He's harder than Archavon. What I want to emphasize there is hardER. He is not Hard, he's in fact VERY easy if both sides of your brain are working, and Blizzard thinks that he should have the same level of loot that Ulduar has? Ulduar IS Hard, it's finely tuned, sure there are some nerfs here and there but all in all it's challenging. It just absolutely does not make sense for players to be able to recieve loot because they can't clear the harder content that drops it.

Basically Blizzard is awarding players for being bad at the game. I'm sorry, but it's true. What they're saying is "Oh you can't clear this 14 boss dungeon that's great in design and tuned correectly? Oh well here ya go then, you can have the loot anyway."

All this applies to PvP gear as well. I never PvP, and honestly I'm bad at it, but I could easily walk into VoA and grab some gear that I really don't deserve. I'm sure all that gear has rating requirements that I wouldn't dream of meeting. That's what it boils down to, Emalon and Archavon are Blizzards way of giving players gear that they don't deserve.

In the end, I hope Blizzard gets their head together before Icecrown. They say they want everyone to be able to see the content they release, yet they release content and then give away all the reasons for seeing it anyway. Heres a thought: Make real raids (such as Ulduar) on a higher tier level than VoA. That way players can still be content because they get purples, but players that have actually cleared the hard content will have their own, better set of gear. You could say they've done this with 10 and 25 mans, but they haven't. 25 mans aren't harder they just require more people. You could also say they've done this with Hard modes, and that's a closer step toward it, but it isn't a higher tier of armor, it's just some extra epics. Tier gear should be the end all be all of armor in this game and it's being handed out like free samples at Walmart.

My final thoughts: Sunwell was a real achievement, and I hope to God that in the end of Wrath Blizzard won't be handing out gear from Arthas like they do with their current content.

Val'anyr Hammer of Ancient Kings is a new Legendary item, and the first one added in Wrath. Though the stats are not yet known, it's expected to be only available in a healing version.

The hammer is created by combining 30 Shattered Fragments of Val'anyr, which drop from most bosses in Ulduar-25, and completing a quest line, much like how Atiesh, Greatstaff of the Guardian was created by combining 30 Splinters of Atiesh from Naxxramas-40 (Pre-BC). Although Atiesh was available in many different fashions, Val'anyr is believed to be only available to healers because the Fragments of Val'anyr that are combined to create this weapon are only usable by Paladins, Priests, Shamans and Druids. Of course it seems rather obvious that it will be healer specific as of the class choices Blizzard has placed on the Fragments, but it's never good to assume! We all know what happens when you do that >:D



Also, the equip effect on the mace is for healers. Did I forget to mention that?

Val'anyr Hammer of Ancient Kings - Equip Effect: Your healing spells have a chance to cause Blessing of Ancient Kings for 15 seconds allowing your heals to shield the target absorbing damage equal to 15% of the amount healed.

Now some of you may be thinking "Ugh, why do the caster weapons always require you to gather so many pieces of this stuff!" which I myself am thinking to be honest :) In Burning Crusade Physical DPS got their Legendary weapons off of drops, but I (along with many others) personally think that makes them feel less epic. I'd rather do a long, awesome quest line or work incredibly hard to get 30 pieces of something to make this amazing weapon than by just getting it off of a boss, which anyone who get's lucky and can down that boss can do. Getting all these pieces then completing the quests that are required takes dedication from both you and your guild and I think this is the way Legendary items should be aquired.

~Aenorn