World of Warcraft: Is Thori’dal Really That Legendary?

It looks good as an epic...hehehe.

In this article I’m going to try something new that I normally don’t do but enough issues in World of Warcraft have arisen that I think I may do them periodically. I am speaking specifically of controlled rants where I state my specific position on some topic and give reasons to support it, as opposed to making suggestions to improve some aspect of the game (because in most of these cases, it would be irrelevant or impossible). For this particular instance, I will discuss Thori’dal, The Stars’ Fury and explain why I believe this item doesn’t really deserve the orange text it was graced with.

Introduction

Thori’dal, The Stars’ Fury is a legendary bow that dropped in Sunwell Plateau off the final boss. It was by far the strongest hunter weapon in the Burning Crusade as a reward for completing the most difficult raid of the expansion. However, “strongest hunter weapon” can only go so far as the weapon, overall, was really underwhelming. In addition, the item really lacks the quality other legendary items have or had. This is why I will explain why this weapon was a flop from what I commonly believe makes a legendary weapon so legendary using the following categories: Lore, Equip/Use Effects, Usefulness in PvE, and Usefulness in PvP. To make an effective argument, I will compare Thori’dal to all the permanent legendaries that were intended to be available to players (so Atiesh counts, but Talisman of the Binding Shard doesn’t).

Lore

At first glance, Thori’dal, The Stars’ Fury offers minimal background lore. It was just a low drop rate item from the final boss of an endgame raid. This left room for speculation until it was somewhat “confirmed” when Halduron Brightwing, a Silvermoon Ranger-General, ended up with a weapon with an identical model, supposedly showing that the bow belongs to him.

However, there are a few problems with this. The first problem is when I saw the name I had absolutely no clue who the person was at all; I actually preferred the theories that the bow originally belonged to Sylvanas Windrunner or some other legendary hunter or ranger (until it was determined the Lich King drops weapons associated with Sylvanas, anyways). The second issue is that the update happened in patch 4.1.0, which was many, many patches after the bow was originally introduced. Finally, there is no official background lore on the weapon at all, which is much less than every other legendary weapon in the game.

Think about it: Thunderfury had a quest line associated with it that ended in a climactic battle with the original wielder of the blade, Thunderaan (though the lore was completely based in World of Warcraft). Sulfuras was supposedly a replica weapon of the legendary hammer Ragnaros, an end boss of two raiding tiers who has entrenched himself in Warcraft lore as a result. Atiesh had a surprising backstory to it. Then again, I expected some significant lore to be associated with the staff of Medivh, who had a major role in Warcraft 3 and ultimately had plenty of backstory when The Last Guardian was introduced.

The Twin Blades of Azzinoth also have a significant background story to them as they were Illidan Stormrage’s weapons that he actually fought the raid with (he even summoned mini-bosses from them and everything). Val'anyr’s lore is arguably pretty frail, but at least it did have some. It was a weapon that was made by the Titans (yes, the Titans that made Azeroth) and given to Earthen Dwarves, which the player worked with several times in Wrath of the Lich King up to that point.

The lore of Shadowmourne, Dragonwrath, and Fangs of the Father are all similar in the sense that the players actually become a core part of the lore as they quest to make a base weapon that is strengthened as the player progresses through the quest chain. Without fail, each of these quest lines has plenty of storytelling (especially the Cataclysm legendaries) and associated with significant lore figures like the Lich King (Shadowmourne), Ragnaros (Dragonwrath), and Deathwing (Fangs), actually requiring you to defeat them to complete the storyline of the weapon.

To conclude, Thori’dal doesn’t really have any lore associated with it. It was never mentioned anywhere at all and really seemed to be tacked onto a person few people know about anyways (heck, people don’t even know who Lor’themar is, so how can people really know about one of his associates?)

Equip/Use Effect(s)

This part of Thori’dal particularly bothered me. It might just be because I play a Hunter, however. The original equip effect was twofold: it increased ranged haste by 15% and attacks required no ammunition to use. This effectively eliminated the need to use a quiver and arrows, which was something Hunters had to deal with back in the day (the nightmares of running out of ammo in Karazhan will never go away…). Thori’dal also had extremely high weapon damage to compensate for having no bonus damage from ammo, which made Steady Shot extremely powerful since back then it didn’t scale with ammo damage.

However, this changed over time. With the release of the pre-patch for Wrath of the Lich King, Steady Shot was affected by ammo damage, which greatly closed the gap between Thori’dal and other ranged weapons. This was further closed with the introduction of new ammo. Because of this, the weapon didn’t survive into Tier 7 (as opposed to Atiesh being used for much of Tier 4 despite being a Vanilla legendary, but we’ll get to that shortly). The ranged haste bonus was then removed from Thori’dal as quivers also lost the bonus and the haste was baseline (and ammunition stacked to 1000, reducing the need for quivers, which was a nice perk for having Thori’dal prior to then).

What really drove the nail into the coffin was when the release of Cataclysm completely eliminated ammo, changing the equip effect into vanity (it just makes attacks look similar to a couple other Hunter abilities), which is disappointing.

Thunderfury’s proc was and is pretty interesting. It was one of the reasons tanks used it in Burning Crusade and overall, it looks appealing even today and clever weapon switchers can put the proc to good use (it stacks with other attack speed slowing effects).

Sulfuras’s equip effect(s) still does more damage than Thori’dal’s equip effect does at the moment. Also, a burst proc of that nature is known to be inherently strong in PvP and the weapon itself might’ve seen use in farming or PvE as well, which says more than Thori’dal’s equip effect mostly turning Hunters into farmbots.

Atiesh’s equip effect(s) were incredible utility. It gave the raid an aura (unique for the four variations). The portal to Karazhan was just icing on the cake (and is still handy if you want to save time farming Karazhan).

Val'anyr’s proc scales. Also it was actually useful for healers (and still could be). The point is the proc is nice and definitely better than shooting magical arrows that are just aesthetic (and similar to an attack Hunters can do).

Shadowmourne has a very cool proc. It was incredibly strong back then and is still pretty strong now. Also the visual is great too – very appropriate for a weapon of its nature. It gets the best of both worlds.

Dragonwrath’s equip effect is very powerful (and has potential to scale). The use effect of turning into a Blue Dragon (with a “unique” model) that can fly around like a mount is an excellent perk too.

Fangs of the Father’s proc is somewhat similar to Shadowmourne’s, although it is specifically tuned for Rogues and has a nice visual effect to boot (and it might be able to scale, as 5 combo-point finishing moves for 6 seconds is good at any level of gear…). The use effect is a free slow fall too, which is helpful at times.

To conclude, Thori’dal’s original equip effect really just saved money and a bag slot. It’s the equivalent of having a weapon that removed reagent costs from spells (Soul Shards for Warlocks, for instance). Granted, it gave the option of having an alternative weapon in case a Hunter ran out of ammo in the middle of a raid but ultimately, when it comes down to it, it just meant Hunters only had to pay their repair bills like everyone else (although tanks had it really bad, but with ammo costs Hunters may have rivaled tanks in terms of cost to raid). The huge weapon damage margin was great, but as you’ll see in the next part, it wasn’t that helpful either.

To make things worse, the present-day equip effect is pretty much nothing. The visual and the weapon itself do look nice, I’ll give it that, but other weapons actually have some cool equip effects that do something to the enemy too or even special use effects (and have nice visuals).

Usefulness in PvE

With an amazing weapon damage range that Steady Shot, a core ability for Hunters (one could literally do dps as a Hunter with a 1-button macro), can directly scale off of, why was Thori’dal so useless in PvE? With the statements above taken into account, it was clear the weapon wasn’t useful coming into Wrath of the Lich King. Granted, some progressive guilds did have Hunters using Thori’dal but only until they got suitable upgrades, which could easily be gotten from Heroic dungeons, quests, or some of the bosses in Naxxramas.

The problem is that it had no usefulness during the Burning Crusade either. By the time a Hunter got it, their guild already finished the most difficult raid to date, meaning it would only be easier to farm raids the guild has probably already finished anyways. Keep in mind this was also before Heroic Raids were implemented, and because Thori’dal had minimal use in the following expansion, this just makes Thori’dal's time of implementation rather confusing.

Consider other legendaries. Thunderfury, for instance, was usable as a tank weapon up through a huge amount of Burning Crusade content (although to be fair this was because the proc generated way more threat than Blizzard probably intended and it was multi-target to boot). I am actually completely unsure about Sulfuras, but what I do know is that it was by far one of the strongest 2-handed weapons for a large amount of Vanilla WoW, but from what I hear, there weren’t exactly that many classes that could use it viably. Nonetheless, it was possible to use the weapon into Burning Crusade leveling and it was a Tier 1 legendary weapon (if anyone knows for sure how viable Sulfuras was, it would be good to hear).

Atiesh, from what I hear, was useful up until Tier 4, meaning that it survived the gear inflation that Burning Crusade brought, although this is probably due largely to the aura effects and the portal to Karazhan the staff provides (it also triggers an interesting lore-related line from Shade of Aran if you engage that boss with the staff). The Twin Blades were useful for a majority, if not the entire remainder of the Burning Crusade. Black Temple was released in 2.1, which left 3 whole major patches that the legendary weapon set could propagate and be used for content like Sunwell and Zul’aman (although technically it “survived” for one tier).

Val'anyr, (also) from what I hear, was usable up through Icecrown Citadel, although not many raiding guilds managed to finish one prior to Trial of the Crusader (but that’s another story…). Shadowmourne can arguably be considered as “useless” as Thori’dal, but there are a few differences. Firstly, Shadowmourne can be obtained before defeating the end boss of its tier, the Lich King (the final quest of the chain involves using Shadowmourne and killing the Lich King). Secondly, Heroic raids were implemented by then and Shadowmourne could be completed by any 25-man raiding guild actively progressing through Icecrown Citadel, meaning Shadowmourne could be used to progress through the Heroic version (or even Trial of the Grand Crusader). Finally, but not too importantly, Ruby Sanctum was introduced in the 3.3 major patch cycle, which was a brief (though disliked) raid.

Dragonwrath was introduced in the Tier 12 raid and even with the final tier of Cataclysm, it is a viable weapon and considered best in slot for casters. Fangs of the Father has a similar story as Shadowmourne except without the benefit of an addition single boss raid (but that doesn’t stop it from being useful in Heroic Dragon Soul).

Overall, Thori’dal is arguably one of the most inferior of the legendaries in terms of PvE usage. It was introduced at the end of an expansion’s life cycle and only really found use in raids the Hunter’s guild already has on farm to begin with. To make things worse, legendaries introduced after that also came during the end of an expansion’s life cycle had the benefit of being used in Heroic raids, meaning they found a niche (a pretty small one compared to some other legendaries) in PvE progression.

PvP Usage

If the fact Thori’dal had close to no use in PvE wasn’t disconcerting, the sheer lack of influence this weapon had on PvP as opposed to other legendaries (mainly ones that were released during Arena Seasons) is even more appalling. Just like in PvE, this weapon definitely had significant potential in PvP due to the high amount of damage a Hunter could deal with such a weapon. The problem, however, is somewhat related to issues that kept the weapon from having its potential unleashed on the PvE front.

So what was the problem? It was that it was released in the final tier of an expansion. Granted, there were other legendaries that worked out well (Shadowmourne and arguably, Fangs of the Father) even though they were released at the end of the expansion. This, however, was due to the weapons being well endowed and/or the fact the PvP season lasted for a prolonged amount of time or many more players managed to get the legendary, making it more of a “carry weapon.”

The problem is Thori’dal was severely lacking, especially in the latter fact. By the time achievements were introduced during the Wrath of the Lich King pre-patch, only 45 Thori’dals were in game over every single region (technically 44 since a Rogue got one of the 45). It might have been powerful, but it wasn’t about to have enough of an influence like other legendary weapons to increase Hunter arena representation, a sore spot for that particular class even up to present day (at high ratings the class has never gotten close to the 10% “average” representation mark). Furthermore, there was little to no complaining about Thori’dal from PvPers but a definitive slew of complaints about most of the other legendaries in competitive PvP (Twin Blades, Shadowmourne, and Dragonwrath especially).

Even Sulfuras, a Vanilla legendary, received some recognition for its usage in PvP, which was before arena was introduced. A Shaman named Unbreakable used it and was quite unbreakable indeed. Thunderfury also saw use, possibly due to the proc. Atiesh didn’t really see much use, though to be fair it probably suffered from the same issues as Thori’dal in that regard, which still only puts in on par in terms of “usefulness.”

Vala’nyr is the last weapon in question. It may have seen a bit of use on healers who could go a DPS spec (since dual specs were introduced by that point) and maybe healers (particularly ones that used plenty of direct healing like Paladins) used it to some degree as well. However, since I haven’t found much evidence supporting this theory, I’ll just tag it as “not so useful” (maybe someone else knows something about this?).

Overall, Thori’dal is at the very most on par with other PvP weapons in terms of usefulness. I could argue that since it was a weapon intended for a DPS class, and all other weapons given to and intended for DPS classes got “carry weapons” during the time arenas existed that Thori’dal’s uselessness is even greater, but even being on par is pretty significant given previous evidence regarding the weapon.

 

Conclusion

Thori’dal was a pretty cool weapon at first. It was a Hunter legendary (at last!) and there was plenty of hype over it despite the glaring flaws (such as lack of lore), with the assumption that would be filled in later on. The infinite ammo, at the time, was also appreciated, but mostly because I think Hunters were getting sick of their ammo system and having to use a quiver all the time (even though it was ultimately improved on and abolished later).

But then I realized how underwhelming the weapon was, how rare the weapon was at the time, and the loot drama related to it during the tier because of a failure to make the weapon exclusive to the class it was intended for (unlike the Twin Blades…). I found out it just didn’t have a good niche anywhere at all except maybe for farming or dailies (which I used it for during Wrath of the Lich King) and even then that niche was eliminated as well.

It has even reached the point that the weapon is now inferior or equal to an epic equivalent in the same tier, so even level 70 twinks are denied the ability to use a legendary weapon viably (I think Twin Blades, however, remains viable in that particular “end game”).

Ultimately, however, the purpose of this article isn’t about asking Blizzard to fix Thori’dal or anything unreasonable like that. That’s all said and done. Instead, I just wanted to raise awareness about how much of a failure this legendary was and hope that when the time comes (which should hopefully be in Mists of Pandaria), this doesn’t happen again. In fact, it shouldn’t happen to any class with any legendary ever again. Given how well they implemented legendaries since then, I am optimistic about that particular future.

Try saying "Holyarrow" in Thalassian.