Big Hit Box

Hi There! This is Imonaboat, the newest face to BHB, and today we are going to review the official preview of Shadowmourne has been released. Let's take a look at the weapon from a death knight perspective and the quests that will be involved in creating the new legendary.

The Starter Axe

Fortunately, or I guess unfortunately depends on how you look at it, the legendary axe isn't handed to you upon downing Arthas. We get some soul devouring training wheels before we are allowed to handle the real thing. Now the initial axe, Shadow's Edge (mmo link), isn't anything to get upset about. With 1309 top end damage, 294.7 dps, 185 strength, 2 red gem slots with a 6 strength socket bonus, and 92 crit and arm pen the axe is formidable by itself, even if you are unable to complete the extensive quest line that has to be completed to gain the legendary item. With the increase in stat values for armor pen in unholy this is a great weapon for the two 2 handed dps trees. In short - don't be bummed if you get this and never are able to turn it orange.

The Quests - An 8 Step Program

There appears to be eight quests in total that need to be completed to create Shadowmourne. From what has been released so far the creation process is somewhat similar to that of Val'aynar in that they will have to be completed during hard modes of certain bosses.

Pre-Quest - So You Want an Orange Axe eh?

Before you can start your quest to orange you have to do some butt kissing. First you have to be friendly with the Ashen Verdict - that's the easy part. The hard part is you have to collect 25 Primordial Saronites - think Crusader Orbs. Start making friends with your officers today!

Quest 1 - The Sacred and the Corrupt

The chain starts out easy all that needs to be done for this quest is to go to Frostmourne Cavern and retrieve Artha's hammer. Simple enough.

Quest 2 - Unholy Infusion

The hand holding ends quickly. This quest requires you to defeat Professor Purticide by absorbing his mutated slime and infuse your weapon with it. Sounds sticky.

Quest 3 - Blood Infusion

To complete this quest you must bathe your axe in Queen Lana'thel's Blood Mirror power. Then inform her that she is in fact not the fairest of them all.

Quest 4 - Frost Infusion

Have you hugged your healer today? How about bought them something nice? If not you might want to get on it for this quest. The only way to complete this quest is to survive three frozen breath attacks while facing Sindragosa. Hope you know where your AMS is.

Quest 5 - The Splintered Throne

Defeat the "most powerful" servants of the Lich King and collect shards from them to finish this quest. No word on how many you have to collect yet though.

Quest 6 - The Feasts of Souls

Another easy one! All you have to do is kill baddies and devour their souls. How many you say? Oh how about a thousand, yea 1,000 souls. Get farmin!

Quests 8 hasn't been released yet and judging by the 7 that are out so far it should be epic and challenging. If you are lucky enough to win a Shadow's Edge, I wish you good luck on you 8 steps to orange!

Shadowmourne - It Matches My Eyes!

So you've completed your quests - your guild hates you, mainly your healers, but you have this hefty new boss carver. So what did you win?

Congratulations on your pwning machine! This bad boy boasts an almost 1600 top end damage, 344.1 dps, 198 strength coupled with 3 red gem slots for a +8 strength bonus. On top of all that it has 114 crit and arm pen rating as well as a nifty proc chance. It gives the chance to proc 40 str and drain a soul fragment, which upon creating 10 of these unleashes shadow damage between 1900-2100 (probably more for unholy dks) damage split between all enemies in 8 yards. This thing is a monster - I must have!