Phat Loot Phriday: Glaive of the Pit
by Mike Schramm 
May 4th 2007 at 5:13PM
So I was thinking about what to do for Phat Loot this week, and it occurred to me that we've never done a Polearm. The reason is probably because most polearms suck (they tend to be faster than most 2hands, and what you really want with a 2hander is high damage and slow speed), but if you really want a polearm, this one's not bad. I kind of wanted to do Vendorstrike, because I think it's a cool idea, but I know none of you hardcore guys would let me get away with calling it "phat."
Name: Glaive of the Pit
Type: Epic Two-Hand Polearm
Damage / Speed: 330-497 / 3.70 (111.6 DPS)
Abilities:
- Three red sockets, with a socket bonus of +4 crit rating
- Chance on hit: steals 238 to 262 life from enemy (although the word on this proc is that it doesn't happen that often)
- It's a polearm, so chances are no one will really want it (hey, at least I got to post that picture, right?). If you're a Mortal Strike warrior who doesn't yet have an epic weapon (which isn't very likely, considering where this comes from), or you just really, really, really want to wield a polearm sometimes, it might be the phat loot for you. Just throw some gems in it, and then wait a bit, because something better will come along pretty quickly.
Drop him and hope for about an 8% chance, and this baby will drop. And hey, think about it this way-- if you really want it, you'll probably get it. Because no one else does.
Getting Rid of It: I feel so bad for polearms now. I guess The Eye of Nerub isn't so bad for hunters at 60, but I can't seem to find a really amazing polearm. I guess the arena polearm isn't too bad. Anyway, the Glaive will give you 14g 58s and 33c from vendors, and will disenchant into a Void Crystal.
Filed under: Items, Economy, Phat Loot Phriday
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Yippster May 4th 2007 5:53PM
Haha nice pic, somehow I don't think the polearm is the attention grabber there....
cluelessnoob May 4th 2007 6:26PM
I think some dev at Blizzard must have loved polearms and must have been deeply offended at the (justified) bias against Vendorstrike, and took steps to correct that in the Burning Crusade. Lets take a look at why I'd say that.
There are tons of slow, high-damage weapons, right? Lets ask wowhead's filtered search for a list of weapons with the following:
1: > 100 dps
2: > 3.6 second swing time
3: NOT crafted by a profession (this filter is key)
4: rare & epic only (Devastation is already in wowhead's lists)
5: 2-hand items ... though 1 & 2 above would handle that for us.
If you take the master (whatever)-smith weapons out of the equation, you eliminate some of the max-damage weapons out there. If you're a smith, this post won't help you figure out what weapon to use for your mortal strike pwnage. :)
So wowhead tells us there are two weapons to consider ...
World Breaker (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=30090) ... 339-509 base damage per swing (114.6 dps, 3.7 speed)
Glaive of the Pit (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=28774) ... 330-496 base damage per swing (111.6 dps, 3.7 speed)
World Breaker has slightly more damage, a strength boost, and a nice proc; but it's also a 2h mace. The Glaive is a polearm and so benefits from Poleaxe Specialization, for lots of extra crits. The proc on World Breaker is awesome, but as a former ret paladin, I'd prefer the glaive. You could make a case for the human mace bonus being valuable but imo, meh; gimme crits over hits for arms warriors and ret pallies.
I wouldn't say that no one will want the Glaive when you do manage to down Mags. If you want to roll, just be glad that so many of your potential competitors for the weapon will have crafted their own weapon already. :)
Phil B May 4th 2007 10:18PM
I disagree with your assessment of there being no good polearms. As a warrior yeah, most polearms probably do suck. But for Hunters it doesn't matter what the DPS of the weapon is, the only thing that matters is its stats.
Sonic Spear (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=27903), for example, is one of the best pre-raiding Hunter weapons in the game.
Terrok's Quill (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=29329) is pretty nice as well.
And then there are the HH/Thrallmar rep reward polearms (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=29166 and http://www.wowhead.com/?item=29167) that are great for Hunters also.
Sylythn May 5th 2007 11:19AM
And for Ret pallies that's a damn fine weapon.
Tibbsy May 5th 2007 8:56PM
I wouldn't underestimate Polearms for Arms warriors. It wasn't always true, but right now the talent Poleaxe spec gives 5% crit for 5 talent points: affects all axes and polearms. With a nice slow swing time and good damage range, combined with 10% crit from talents, I think an MS warrior would be quite happy with it.
Just my two cents.