Whether it bumps up our numbers or matches our shiny new boots: we crave new loot in video games. To help satiate our hunger, the most recent legendary weapon in World of Warcraft is now more likely to drop than ever. Even failed attempts now move you closer towards actually seeing the axe fall into your hands.
Blizzard recently announced that it has buffed the “Bad Luck Protection” system for this legendary axe, Fyr’alath. This is designed to make you more likely to get the weapon with each defeat of the expansion’s big bad, Fyrakk. Whenever you fail to get the axe directly, you’ll receive an item that increases your next chance. These “Embers of Fyr’alath” grant a vague, but invisible buff to your character. We don’t know exactly what the Embers do to increase your shots of seeing the axe.
The kind folks at Wowhead have dug into as much of the in-game data as they can to try and piece together what the drop rates look like. It’s based on a lot of (educated) assumptions, but I’ll try and summarize it here.
The key takeaway is that you need to fight Fyrakk on the hardest raid difficulty that you can. If you’re fighting him every week on Heroic or Mythic difficulty, you are likely to see the axe relatively soon. That might be common sense, but at least now we have an idea of the context for how this works. Wowhead suggests that Mythic kills of Fyrakk could ensure you have the axe within 7 weeks. Though, that number is exponentially longer if you’re only trying on Looking for Raid or Normal versions of the Amirdrassil raid.
What’s a Fyr’alath and why do I want it?
The short answer: it’s the best two-handed axe in the game right now, at least for the people who can use it. Paladins, Warriors, and Death Knights should all be seeking this weapon if they’re looking to spice up their damage output. Aside from boasting powerful stats, Fyr’alath also grants some great abilities. Your attacks have a chance to mark enemies for more damage over time, and you can use a charging attack that sets your enemies on fire. Shadow fire. (That doesn’t actually mean anything it just looks cool.)
We should note that obtaining Fyr’alath from the boss doesn’t immediately grant you the weapon to use. Instead, the boss drops a quest item. It turns out that the axe is too hot to handle for anyone that isn’t a shadowflame-chugging proto-dragon. You’ll have to jump through some quest hoops before you can actually wield it.
In other legendary drop related news, if you’ve been enjoying the newest race/class combo, the Dracthyr Evoker, you’re in luck! Wowhead believes that the rates for Nas’zuro, The Unbound Legacy, have similarly increased. Similar to the axe, you’ll want to beat Sarkareth, the final boss of the Aberrus raid, on as high of a difficulty as possible for your best odds.
