Val'anyr: how to get this legendary hammer and how is it good?

Val'anyr, the Hammer of Ancient Kings, is a unique legendary weapon coming from Ulduar. In WotLK it was the best healer weapon of the expansion, hands down. So every strong guild obtained it for at least one their healer. The obtainment process wasn't easy, in fact it was quite the opposite since it involved beating the hardest bosses of the game before nerfs over and over again. But that was what the strongest guilds did back then – and still do actually. 

Your chances to be that very healer wielding Val'anyr were really, really low. Unless you were truly outstanding, that is. So if you're planning to get this hammer in the WotLK Classic, remember that that's a great aspiration but you should carefully consider your odds and don't set expectations too high. Even if you don't succeed at getting it during the Ulduar content cycle, try the ICC- or Ruby Sanctum one – although it will still be hardly possible for most players.

However, in the current retail WoW it won't be much of a problem to collect all the pieces of the hammer. You can quite easily do it on your own and we'll tell you more about that later. Just remember that it's limited to several classes: Evokers, Druids, Monks, Shamans, Priests, and Paladins. It's important to remember since, say, warriors and death knights can also wear this kind of weapons (one-handed mace) but they are not eligible for Val'anyr.

In modern WoW it's only good for transmog since its stats are no good any more, of course. That makes perfect sense since it's really old. But its looks are quite amazing. It has this special animation with "faces" taking off, rotating around it, then landing back on their places. And its model is really unique too. You can use it for both a melee one-handed mace that you use to crush skulls of your enemies (say, you're an enhancement shaman) and a healer's weapon that it was initially designed as.

In WotLK, however, it has a way bigger importance. Not only did it have outstanding stats for healers, but also it had a peculiar proc that randomly created a 15-second shield around the target of your healing that absorbed damage equal to 15% of the healing done by the ability that triggered it. And the crazy thing is that it also stacks – so you can apply multiple shiled to one target. Simply out, you'll randomly throw a shield to your allies every now and then. The proc chance was about 10% and it wasn't low for such an effect. It had a 45 second cooldown too which is really little for it.

It's a long and windy road. Obviously, you'll have to run Ulduar, but the 10-people version won't work. Only the 25-people one will. You'll run it to obtain "Fragments of Val'anyr". Those are stackable items of the legendary quality that drop from all the bosses of the raid with 7-10% except for Algalon and Yogg'Saron: Algalon has a 15-20% drop chance while Yogg has 100%. You can make your odds better by fighting bosses in hard modes – it will increase the fragment drop chance from 7-10% to 15-20%. As you might have noticed, that's the same chance as with Algalon – the thing is, Algalon is considered a hard mode boss as it is, that's why he's different. Most Ulduar bosses have hard mode but 3 bosses don't: Ignis, Razorscale, and Auriaya. So all in all, even if you're really unlucky, it won't take you more than 30 weeks to collect the hammer (if we imagine that you'll only get the guaranteed piece from Yogg every time). But that's hardly possible and in most cases people spend much less time to get them all.

As you've collected the 30 pieces, you should right-click your stack of them to start the quest "Ancient History". The fragments will be assembled into the item "Shattered Fragments of Val'anyr". The quest will require you to go to the Archivum, a room in the raid right behind the Assembly of Iron boss. The fastest way to get there is by using the waypoint to the Antechamber. In the Archivum you'll find the Archivum Console. There you'll turn in the item you currently have and instead receive the Unbound Fragments of Val'anyr alongside the new quest: "Val'anyr, Hammer of Ancient Kings".

This quest is luckily the last thing you'll have to do. However, it's not exactly the easiest one as it requires defeating Yogg-Saron once more. But come on, you have done it multiple times already, so perhaps you won't find it too difficult. However, you gotta make sure to have no more than 3 keepers helping you during the fight. At phase 3 when Yogg starts casting the Deafening Roar ability (and when you'll see this emote in the chat: "Yogg-Saron opens his mouth wide!") you gotta use your "Unbound Fragments of Val'anyr" item targeting Yogg. This is how you'll throw the hammer into his mouth – well, sort of.  The trick is that the Deafening Roar has only 2 something seconds of cast, so you have to act really fast. If you failed to hit the boss with the hammer before the end of cast yet you still have clicked the item, don't worry – it will go on a 20-seconds cooldown and you'll be able to use it again in a similar situation later on.

To make sure that you've successfully thrown the hammer inside the beast, check out whether Yogg got the debuff "In the maws of the Old God". Its description reads: "The fragments of Val'anyr are now inside Yogg-Saron's physical body".

If your team wipes during the fight, you'll have to repeat the throwing of the hammer. If you succeed, you'll find the legendary item in the loot: "Reforged Hammer of Ancient Kings". Only the character with the item "Unbound Fragments of Val'anyr" can take it. After you've picked it up, take it back to the Archivum Console. Turn in the quest and get the one and only Val'anyr, the Hammer of the Ancient Kings!

***

Farming this hammer is really a challenge. So if you don't think that you'll handle it on your own or with your guild – whether in modern or classic WoW – you can turn to pro players for some help. Our team includes a great number of professionals of all kinds and pro farmers/grinders are among them too. We can help you get Val'anyr in any version of the game. And just it: we have tons of services focused on getting the rarest collectible items in the game. You can find them all in the dedicated section on our website! Or just get in touch with us to learn more and request the farm of the item you want!