Warcraft's Real Legendary Items
Posted by 
Tyranis on Thursday, June 18, 2009 - 39 Comments Tags: comedy, funny, humor, legendary, stories
Tyranis on Thursday, June 18, 2009 - 39 Comments Tags: comedy, funny, humor, legendary, stories 
Most of us have never had a legendary item as defined by the WoW community. Nope, those elusive oranges are prizes for a very select few. Sure they are cool and have sexy stats, but for the most part they succeed in only making their owner happy. The good news is, there is a different kind of legendary item that is much more prominent among players.
Have you ever had an item that you named? Did your guild ever talk about a piece of your equipment as though it was an actual person? Does the story behind how you got your gear mean more to you than its stats? If so, then you know how awesome these real legendary items are.
The first time I experienced this was in the Burning Crusade. At the time, I was playing a night elf hunter and we had recently taken down Al'ar. I was awarded a Netherbane axe and while it was amazing statistically, I was disappointed by how it looked. It's hard enough protecting your masculinity as a night elf, but try doing so while walking around with a glowing pink axe! Well rather than fight the jeers from my guildmates, I embraced my new weapon and named it Scott Baio. Some people thought it was humorous and began talking about it during the next raid. It quickly started to feel like my friends were more excited to see Scott Baio at the raid than they were to see me.
A few weeks later, another Netherbane dropped and as I won the DKP auction, everyone laughed and wondered what I would name this one. My offhand axe was dubbed Pink Lover and I bought myself a pink mageweave shirt to complete the ensemble. Most people got a big kick out of it and of course there were those that did a /facepalm every time Scott Baio and Pink Lover were mentioned. My dad, who is also in my guild, was not a huge fan of the twin fuchsia blades. Eventually, another one of our hunters won a Netherbane and he didn't disappoint when he named his John Stamos. It was a bitter sweet when I finally got an upgrade and had to replace those axes. I hated how they looked, but they will probably be one of the few items I'll remember long after I'm done playing this game. They were my legendaries.
A similar phenomenon has occurred recently in Ulduar. Our guild's tanks have had horrible luck upgrading their shields in WotLK. They just don't drop for us, especially in the heroic raids. A group of us were running Ulduar 10, when our luck finally seemed to be taking a turn for the better. Auriaya dropped the Shieldwall of the Breaker and it was claimed by one of our paladin tanks, Beomaire. We were so excited for him, that is, until he put it on. We stared at the graphic for a few seconds in silence and then all at once started telling him how ugly it was. One person thought it looked like Grizzly Adam's head was chopped off and slapped on the shield. Another guy said, "Actually, it looks like my mother." We chuckled a bit and then moved on. The rest of that raid things went downhill. We were wiping and not making much progress. When we finally ended the raid, we blamed Beo's shield for the bad luck.
The next night we were in heroic Ulduar and even though we had beaten Ignis before, we kept dying. Then someone said, "You know, we haven't been able to beat Ignis, since Beo got that heinously ugly shield." In that moment, that homely shield had become legendary. Now, every time we're struggling during a raid, Beo's shield is blamed. It's been weeks and we've still yet to have a shield upgrade drop. so the hilarity continues. I even asked a GM, while they were working on another issue for me, if they could change the graphic on Beomaire's shield to change our luck. I'm still waiting to hear back.
So who else has had an item attain legendary status in your guild? Please share your stories with us.
Reader Comments (39)
Frist!
second!
Third!
It took me soo long to get exalted with The Timbermaw Hold, i refuse to sell or delete my /script DEFAULT_CHAT_FRAME:AddMessage("Shift-click this to place a link into a chat message: \124cffa335ee\124Hitem:21326:0:0:0:0:0:0:0:0\124h[Defender of the Timbermaw]\124h\124r");
Bah the Defender of the Timbermaw i what i was trying to link !... Wheres the edit o preview button?
I enjoyed this post. Nicely done. ;]
In my Guild we don't really care about the look, we just care for the stats.
I guess a nice look is always welcome, but what really counts is how it can help your Character.
I tend to hang on to old weapons, still have the Azuresong Mageblade and Glowing Brightwood Staff (I remember wanting that thing at some point... why?!?).
The first was one of the first times my Mage got to wear a sword and not look like an idiot, and the second was given to me by a friend when he got it as a world drop, about an hour after I got a Rod of the Ogre Magi from my 753394 millionth tribute run.
Never really had anything quite so flagrant as giant pink glowing axes, but I have been wearing goggles about 99% of my time since level ten. That count? : )
I'm Scott Baio, and I approve of this message.
(John Stamos says "hi" btw.)
I have been known not to bid on ugly stuff. I mean who wants to be all ugly in the guild's SS of a boss kill?
Real men like butterflies.
Apparently, real night elves like pink axes :D
My legendary Item wasn't a weapon or gear piece.. but a pet.. i speak of the fabled Miniwing!.. it began as a joke during a guild raid where everyone was showing off pets while waiting for the raid to start.. but the whole "Miniwing knows and sees all!" thing took off... after a few weeks our 10 mans featured 6-7 Miniwings at a time. He was basically our mascot
Nice story, Cryus. Most items, pets and mounts get easily forgotten for the latest and greatest. But I'm sure you'll always remember Miniwing.
I actually forgot to put in my post that I used to run around saying "Scott Baio gave me pink axe."
Kudos to you if you get the reference.
ok ppl most amazing looking shield EVER is hands down THE BULWARK OF AZZINOTH!
Stats are great, but my guild goes through so much loot it's sometimes possible to aquire something specifically for the looks. On one of my toons (mage) I've carried non-caster weapons just because the weapon looked cool. Of course I've got decent gear, but I certainly don't mind spending DKP for wow factor alone.
Nice article, made me laugh. You're now favorited!
I have one item that nobody else on my server has or will ever have. ...the "Daggerspine" sign from the realm meet-up during last year's BlizzCon. It's next to my TV right now.
I think I'll never get rid of my favorite trinket... the Voodoo Gnome trink from ZA... If you use it, is actually releases 3 tiny VooDoo Gnomes that cast lightning at an enemy... It has become a joke with my friends. When we are just goofing around, I'll always bring it, and use it every cooldown :)
And of course there are the Epic Items (Purples) that look similar too or worse than blues (rares) that you can pick up much easier. It seems a lot of attention is paid to balancing the mechanics of the game and not much on making it look stellar. I can remember back in the days of core Warcraft (when 60 was the cap) and you saw a tank wielding Thunderfury, you knew it was Legendary from a mile away and you always called everyone a noob for saying it was epic.
I think for me personally, my most legendary item has to be Nat Pagle's Fish Terminator out of ZG way back in the day. It was one of the best weapons for ferals back in the day, and every time my guild ran the zone, I prayed it would drop. Took about 4 months but I finally got it, equipped it and then was promptly made fun of for weeks because it looked ridiculous. Stats were yummy though.
In my current guild though, I think my accent on vent is probably more legendary than any of the gear I've acquired. I'm Canadian, and although I don't really notice the accent myself, they all say it's there. Apparently it's particularly noticeable when I say "Spout," as I used to call out or mention when we were killing Lurker. It's apparently amusing enough that even now, in Ulduar, when I'm on root duty for the trash around the Keeper's circle, I get requests to say "Spout!" instead of "Sphere" when I call for dps to switch... oh well. Love em anyway I guess.
My legendary item? The hunter's Brutal Gladiator's Hatchet I got for my alt during the "Big Sale" that happened a couple months before the release of Wrath. In other words, when all the costs accidentily got removed from the PvP stuff due to a hotfix glitch. Blizzard of course took the free stuff away, but made an oversight in that I still had the axe. (Still have it in the bank, too. XD )
Bob and steve. They were my axe and mace. Respectively, or not. I could never remember which was which. They had nice stats, but when I put them on my female troll I discovered they were huge. Comically so. I felt like I was carrying a toilet and kitchen sink on sticks. So, I named them Bob and Steve. They have self esteem issues. My upgraded Titansteel Destroyer is named Molly Ringwald, because I can.
I remember when I started playing my old Draenei Shaman, my favorite piece of early gear was the Stillpine Defender, not because of the stats ( which are negligable), but because of the look of the thing. It made her LOOK like a Shaman. It was a tribal looking thing that looked like it was made for her. Sometimes, I wish you could pick a piece of gear and level it along with you, like a Hunter's pet. Oh well.
Best non-legendary of legendaries is the Arcanite Ripper: http://www.wowhead.com/?item=39769.
All-time best face melter mid-raid =D
in my previous guild i was in the standard raidgroup and my pet cat ''Noodles''(i am a hunter) became the mascot of the guild noone realy cared about me comming along as long as Noodles was there and he must've been the 1st hunter pet to actualy recieve heals during boss fights
So, am I the only one here to get that “Scott Baio gave me pink axe.” refers to a South Park episode where Cartman says “Scott Baio gave me pink eye!"? C'mon people! Get with the media references already! ;-) Funny stuff btw, I probably sacrifice a bit too much stat-wise to keep on the cool looking gear a bit longer...
the ship wheel shield from the draeni 10-20 zone was an epic shield