Finally, after over a year of going into Sunwell on a weekly basis… This glorious shiny item dropped.

Here’s me wielding Thori’dal, The Stars’ Fury. I also have Thunderfury, Blessed Blade of the Windseeker on my back but you can only really see the handle of it.
It took 69 Sunwell runs and 69 Kil’Jaeden kills for it to drop. I would like to thank my guild for the constant support every single week, there were a lot of them who helped me out over the course of these 69 weeks and I’m deeply thankful for each and everyone of them to have shown me their support this long. Thanks Vex!
Wowhead reports the droprate for this item to be 7% (1 in 14 chance), which are pretty damn good odds for a legendary to drop. But that doesn’t mean you can’t be unlucky with the random number generator. Let’s take a look at some statistics to help understand the situation better.
The chance of you getting this item if you only go to Sunwell once is 7%, but what are the chances of you seeing the item at least once if you go there 10 times? or 20 times? 50 times? 69 times? We can calculate this using some probability math:
1 – (chance to fail/total chance)^attempts = chance to suceeed in nr of attempts
1 – (93/100)^X = Y%
1 time, 7%
10 times, 51,6%
20 times, 77,6%
50 times, 97,3%
69 times, 99,3%
As you can see, it’s very statistically improbable that you’d need to go into Sunwell 69 times to see the bow drop once, but that’s just it. It’s all statistics. Every time you go in there you have the same 7% chance and it doesn’t matter how many times you do it, you’ll always have a 7% chance, every single time. But in all likelihood, you’ll see the bow drop once far before 50 attempts.
You could even say it’s quite an achievement to get the bow after such an improbable amount of attempts…
Update (22/07): My friend Harzufelt put together this video about the long and epic quest to obtain the legendary bow!
Bucket list revisited
This is my 2nd legendary and therefor also the last legendary I can obtain and earn an achievement for as a hunter (for now). My first legendary was Thunderfury, Blade of the Windseeker (click for pic).
This last legendary was quite the epic grind for me and has been pretty much the only long grind I’ve been focusing on since The Insane. This got me thinking, what else is there for me to do now, before Mists of Pandaria?… and this made me remember the bucket list for Cataclysm that I made in April. Let’s check out what that list looks like today…
That annoying Fox Kit pet from Tol Barad Peninsula that never ever dropsAll the Darkmoon Faire pets and mountsAll the Archaeology pets and mountsThori’dal, The Stars Fury (the legendary bow)Halion 25-man heroicGlory of the Cataclysm RaiderRagnaros heroicGlory of the Dragon Soul RaiderScourer of the Eternal Sands
Damn. I got everything! Even the new one I added after making the list in the first place (Rare camel mount from Uldum). What am I gonna do now? There’s not really any achievements to get apart from PvP achievements and I’m waiting until Mists of Pandaria before I PvP again (no minimum range, gief kthx). I suppose I could level another alt… :-/
Maybe it’s time to try out another game for a little while, just until Mists of Pandaria is released… Steam Sale, here I come!
Cheers,
Gav



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Grats so much.
It really is beautiful!
I’m still working on my bucket list and doing a lot of PVP. I have the Darkmoon Faire and the raids mostly done, but I had to give up on Crawling Claw and Fox Kit. Caused too much hair pulling and rage…
Would you be in for some all-hunter battlegrounds for fun if I ever try to set it up by the way?
Gratz for the bow
Thanks!
@Lae: I seek out the hair pullingly rageinspiring moments, not sure why tbh. But I always do… I complain while I do it but then when I’m done I feel pretty pleased about it. (The fox for example took me a few thousand fox kills).
Regarding the all-hunter battleground; well sure. That sounds like just such a situation as we just discussed.
Sign me up!
Remind me to put my wolf in the stables though, he’d lose his oil if I brought him into a battleground.
Cheers,
Gav
I am totally jelly – I really need to start farming that place… Also I must make a bucket list! I find I am all over the shop atm… login for a BG.. OH I’ll farm for frostbitten!… OOOOO LOOK A SPIRIT BEAST!!… That reminds me.. level that hunter alt!!!
see where I am going with this?
It’s kind of it’s own charm though Quel, going where the current whim takes you.
Congratulations Gav!
Cheers!
grats gav! though i sorely wish it had taken more attempts because i so enjoy spreading the fire dot! oh well maybe that chance will come MoP´even though that may mean intentionally wiping a raid
Grats gav, Where to now? Well some of us stil want Heroic Madness.
Also I’d like to complete T6 on my priest; I heard you know your way around Sunwell plateau!
Cheers guys.
@Aybar: We’re still gonna do heroic DS as long as people sign up for it. We have a list of who still needs what achievements and what heroic bosses to complete their meta achievement and we’re doing our best to make sure everyone gets it. (and yes, I know you ONLY need hc Madness at this point)!
Sunwell? Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm.