New Legendary Paladin Weapon Reveal: Val'anyr
A new Legendary Paladin Weapon card has been revealed by IGN!
What is Val'anyr?
Val'anyr, Hammer of the Ancient Kings was a Mace created by the Titans and given to the first Earthen King, Urel Stoneheart. The weapon was used to create and give life to the Earthen, a race of proto-beings created by the Keepers to help shape the subterranean regions of Azeroth. During a war between the Earthen and Iron Dwarves, Val'anyr was shattered into fragments.
World of Warcraft
In World of Warcraft, Val'anyr was added to the game in Patch 3.1.0, Secrets of Ulduar. Players were able to collect Fragments of Val'anyr from the bosses of Ulduar (the Prison of Yogg!) with drop rates being as low as 3%. A player who was able to collect 30 Fragments was able to bundle them up and throw them into the maw of Yogg-Saron, Hope's End. After a successful defeat of the Old God, the player who collected the fragments would recover the Legendary mace from his corpse.
A wild Fluxadin outside Ulduar equipped with Val'anyr and Tier 2 Judgment Armor.
The mace is a healing item available to Druids, Paladins, Priests, and Shamans (with Monks being added later). The effect provided a chance to place a blessing on the target being healed, Blessing of the Ancient Kings, which lasted for 15 seconds and caused all healing done by wielders of Val'anyr to provide a damage absorption shield worth 15% of the amount healed to the target.
It took months of hard work to get a single mace for your guild, but it was worth it in the end. Guilds continued to run Ulduar to equip their heal team with the item well past the raid tier's viability not only due to the overpowered nature of the proc, but also because the item level was upgraded (from 239 to 245) in the next raid tier. It was so good that Blizzard was forced to nerf the proc rate for players above level 80 leading in to the next expansion, Cataclysm (featuring Deathwing!), because it would have continued to scale. The item was also plenty of fun to those who took it out in Arenas and Battlegrounds, it was like the Warglaives of Azzinoth Rogues all over again.
World of Warcraft: Trading Card Game
Hearthstone isn't the first card game rodeo for this Legendary weapon! Val'anyr was an epic, 1-Handed Mace introduced in the Icecrown expansion set. It has a cost of 4, attack of 1, and strike cost (resources to spend to attack with the weapon) of 4.
The effect in WoW:TCG was much closer to what players saw out of the World of Warcraft item. "At the end of your turn, your hero heals all damage from allies you control. Then, it heals that much damage from itself.". Hearthstone is the odd one out!
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And that was not to mention Psychic Scream which also kinda silences stuff
And how do you plan on winning?
LOL. Exactly you'll get your silences but you're not competitive anymore. Thanks!
it is a 6 drop though, might be too slow for some decks...
Tarim immediately buffs all murlocs/recruits. Steed and Tirion are immediate threats... this weapon on the other hand has a very delayed effect. Tirion and steed are not slow they are just high cost, but their impact is fast. Slow is when you need to jump through hoops before you get your mana worth.
So:
This is a 6 mana 4/2 weapon. That's acceptable; Kind of slow, but acceptable.
This is a 4/2 handbuff. Don Han'Cho had about twice the buff, with a 5-mana body, suggesting about 2 mana for a 5/5, and 1 mana for a 4/2, which makes sense, considering Smuggler's Crate was 1 mana and was never really played.
Then, assuming no silence, it's a 4/2 weapon again.
So let's say that by pure stats, it's 3.5 mana weapon (Clearly worse than Truesilver Champion, but only by 4 HP regen. Clearly better than Fiery War Axe, but honestly FWA might be okay at 4 attack. And worse than Arcanite Reaper. We'll average, and say about 3.5.
So, for 1 cycle, you're at about 4.5 mana of value. Meaning that the value train really starts when you equip the weapon the second time, and is a reliable font of value from there on in.
However, let's say we hit Saronite Chain Gang, or Doppelgangster: The buff value jumps up to about 3 mana, meaning it is immediately up to 5.5-6.5 mana of value, with the added bonus that the weapon will cycle through at a stupidly fast pace, meaning that you don't have to wait 2 turns to get your handbuff. Instead, you're getting it about every turn, and with a few hits on multipliers, you should be in a place where you always have a 4/2 or 4/1 weapon, and every minion you play has one of these weapons. And you never have to pay more than 6 mana for it.
In short, it's like Explorer's Hat, if Explorer's Hat fit into an existing (Albeit weak) archetype.
BONUS: You can make a meme deck where you hit this weapon into a Doppelgangster, and then Brann Bronzebeard+Doppelgangster, for an immediate 5 weapons in circulation. Or more, if you want to use Baron Rivendare.
mass dispel would be better IMO
I guess this is one way to counter weapon removal, but Silence definitely destroys it.
5/3 stonetusk boar, hold on to your silences.
it's not tentacles for arms but its decent.
Imagine rogue steal this card....
play this > hit > Hero power > play minion let it die
when it die, hit hero power play minion and so on
So sick of the Rogue stealing random cards mechanic... -.- It breaks the game.
ok this is number 1 on my list so far to be banned from arena. This is way too good in arena. If you can survive for 4 turns after playing this it's simply nuts.
it's actually quite slow. Well, it will win you the game when it turns into resource war, on other situation though, isn't so impactful.
Nice to see Ulduar legacy in HS. Though I would prefer complete Expansion one day)
Anybody knows how many new cards has wowtcg arts?
Ha! Don Han'Cho and his Grimy Goons had this one locked away in their Safebox.
Blizzard Revenue Service at its finnest.
That is one sweet Explorer's Hat
Finally a decent card for a sith lord, UNLIMITED VALUE!!!!!