Sign inThunderfury
Thunderfury, Blessed Blade of the Windseeker is a legendary one-handed sword built from a long quest chain that runs through Molten Core, Blackwing Lair and Silithus. It was the first legendary weapon most players ever saw in action, and its long, oddly specific name turned it into one of the oldest running jokes in World of Warcraft chat.
How to get it
Thunderfury is a quest reward, but the quest is gated behind two rare boss drops, a long list of crafting materials and a boss fight against an elemental lord.
The Bindings of the Windseeker
The chain starts in Molten Core with the two halves of the Bindings of the Windseeker. The left half drops from Baron Geddon and the right half from Garr. Each has a drop chance of roughly 3 percent, and only warriors, paladins, hunters and rogues can loot them. Many guilds spent months clearing Molten Core every week before both halves came together for one player. Whoever picked up a half carried it while waiting for the other, so guilds usually funneled both halves to the same raider.
Picking up either half sends the player to Highlord Demitrian, who stands in a camp in Silithus. He hands over the [Vessel of Rebirth], which starts Examine the Vessel, and then explains what he needs.
Thunderaan the Windseeker
The second quest, Thunderaan the Windseeker, asks for:
- Both halves of the Bindings of the Windseeker
- The [Essence of the Firelord], which drops from Ragnaros at the end of Molten Core for anyone holding the quest
- Ten [Elementium Bar]
The Elementium Bars were the real wall. Each bar is smelted from one [Elementium Ore], which drops from goblin technicians such as the Blackwing Technician in Blackwing Lair, along with ten [Arcanite Bar], one [Fiery Core] and three [Elemental Flux]. Ten bars therefore cost 100 Arcanite Bars, each made from a [Thorium Bar] and an [Arcane Crystal]. Raising that much Arcanite was a guild-wide effort, and on many realms it emptied the auction house of Arcane Crystals for weeks.
When everything is handed in, Demitrian summons Prince Thunderaan, an elite elemental lord who has to be defeated by a full raid in the Silithus desert. Thunderaan drops the [Dormant Wind Kissed Blade].
Rise, Thunderfury!
The final quest, Rise, Thunderfury!, is a turn-in of the dormant blade to a now very nervous Demitrian, who reforges it into [Thunderfury, Blessed Blade of the Windseeker].
What it does
In patch 1.12 Thunderfury is a 1.9-speed sword with 44 to 115 physical damage plus 16 to 30 Nature damage per hit, 5 Agility, 8 Stamina, 8 Fire resistance and 9 Nature resistance. Its chance-on-hit effect blasts the target for 300 Nature damage, jumps to up to five nearby enemies while lowering their Nature resistance by 25, and wraps the main target in a cyclone that slows its attack speed.
Those numbers were not the reason tanks wanted it. The proc generated a large amount of threat on several targets at once, which made Thunderfury the best item in the game for warriors holding several monsters during raid pulls. Patch 1.9 lowered its proc rate and capped the attack-speed slow at 20 percent, and patch 1.12 allowed it to be equipped in either hand. Even after those changes, many guilds treated a Thunderfury for their main tank as a raid-wide upgrade, since it let damage dealers attack sooner without pulling threat.
Lore
Thunderaan was the Prince of Air, a lieutenant of the elemental lord Al'Akir. Long ago Ragnaros and his servants Garr and Baron Geddon defeated him. Ragnaros could not fully consume Thunderaan's essence, so he sealed what was left inside a talisman of binding, broke it in two, and gave one half to each lieutenant. That is why the two halves drop from those two bosses.
Highlord Demitrian claims to be a follower of the Windseeker who wants to free his master. He never mentions that freeing the prince means fighting him. The quest text for Rise, Thunderfury! calls Demitrian a liar, and the finished blade is said to hold what remains of Thunderaan's power.
History
Thunderfury became obtainable in patch 1.6, which also opened Blackwing Lair and with it the Elementium Ore needed for the quest. Because of the drop rates and the material cost, many realms had only a handful of Thunderfuries for months, and each one was a well-known server event.
The sword is also the source of the chat meme "Did someone say [Thunderfury, Blessed Blade of the Windseeker]?". In Barrens general chat and similar channels, players linked the item whenever someone typed "thunder" or anything close to it. The joke worked because the legendary-orange item link was rare to see and long enough to fill a chat line. Blizzard later nodded to it with an inflatable toy version of the sword and an achievement named "Did Someone Say...?" during anniversary events.
Later history
In the Legion expansion, shaman players recovered Thunderfury from the body of Wray, a dwarf warrior named after one of the first players to earn the sword, and used it to restore Thunderaan as the new Windlord.
Sources
Categories: Items
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