Phat Loot Phriday: Shivering Felspine
by Mike Schramm 
Mar 28th 2008 at 5:00PM
Our second polearm ever is a brand new shiny piece from Sunwell Plateau, perfect for Hunters who want to talk softly and carry a big stick.Name: Shivering Felspine (Wowhead, WOWDB, Thottbot)
Type: Epic Polearm
Damage/Speed: 393-590 / 3.50 (140.4 DPS)
Abilities:
- +52 Agility
- One Yellow socket (socket bonus of +4 attack power)
- Improves Haste rating by 53, and attack power of 120
- With the Agility on there, this thing is probably best meant for Hunters -- only they can really benefit by changing Agi directly into Ranged Attack Power. Warriors and Paladins may benefit occasionally, but since Agi translates into Armor and Dodge for them, and the goal when wielding a big two hander is to do damage, not dodge it, it's really at cross purposes with most DPS melee-ers. Armor is always good for tanks, of course, but a shield will give you much more armor than this thing's Agility will.
- The only problem with this thing is that it doesn't really have any Stamina or hit/crit on it, so players looking to max those will probably pass on this for something else. But Hunters looking to crank ranged DPS (especially with a slow bow or gun) will like this one a lot.
We don't have too much info on the drop rate yet, but there's good news and bad news. Since it's from trash you'll have a lot more chance for it to drop, because it'll be in the loot tables of more than one mob. The bad news, of course, is that it is probably a super low rate, so cross your fingers and hope for it to show up if you're running Sunwell Plateau regularly.
Getting Rid of It: Disenchants into a Void Crystal, as usual, and sells to vendors for 18g 80s 53c.
Filed under: Items, Analysis / Opinion, Instances, Raiding, Phat Loot Phriday
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Jusk Mar 28th 2008 5:09PM
52 agility is quite a bit of crit....
I still agree its not for hunters, but your explanation was wonky.
d503 Mar 28th 2008 5:16PM
Yes, let's please not forget about the following:
52 AGI:
2.08% Crit for Paladins
1.57% Crit for Warriors
That's nothing to shake a stick at.
jbodar Mar 28th 2008 6:22PM
By "wonky", you mean totally misinformed to the point of not even mentioning that AGI does indeed convert to crit for Warriors and Pallies?
I mean, come on!
Jusk Mar 28th 2008 5:10PM
I mean is for hunter.
aeroman4 Mar 28th 2008 5:47PM
Um... I know I want this thing as a ret pally. 22.08 crit rating = 1% crit and 25 agility = 1% crit for pallies. Coupled with kings there isn't much of a difference.
If anything the increased haste rating can be detrimental for hunters because of their dependency on precise weapon speeds for unclipped shot rotations.
Urthona Mar 28th 2008 6:12PM
So wait. I play a Tankadin and Moonkin, so I'm confused by people who make use of agility.
I was under the belief that polearms came in two varieties - of the Soldier stats(Plasma-rat's Hyper-Scythe) and of the Bandit(Sonic Spear). The former seems ideal for DPS warriors, the latter for hunters. I assumed that with the reitemization of ret gear being pushed toward DPS plate, it meant the only class that would desire agility polearms, of which there are QUITE A FEW, are hunters.
Would a retadin seriously prefer a Legacy to a Despair?
jbodar Mar 28th 2008 6:25PM
@Urthona
Preferable is one thing, but I bet a retadin wouldn't kick it out of bed either.
Inside Mar 31st 2008 11:44AM
Are you crazy? If you have been clearing BT since last year you should be at or over hit cap and should be able to afford losing the polearm off Naj. If you are a BM hunter, with no haste gear, 3.0 spd bow, you sit at 2.17 ranged attack speed. With this weapon equipped you gain 30ish dps, and drop your RAS down to 2.10, you also gain 97agility IF you put the 35agil enchant on coupled with a 10 agil gem, screw the 4 ap. Now the Hunters sweet spot is an attack speed of 1.8, saying this weapon is not for hunters is being ignorant. If you are a hunter running The Sunwell, as long as you are over 9k HP and sit around 120 Hit unbuffed, my best advice to you is equip this weapon. There are no other "melee stat weapon" upgrades in The Sunwell, that have been found or will be found. Warriors wait for your sword off Kil'jaden, ret pallies, grab it if you want, it is the 3rd best DPS weapon in-game atm for you.
Milktub Mar 28th 2008 5:53PM
Is there much gear in 2.4 that doesn't have haste?
Matthew Mar 28th 2008 6:29PM
Sometimes I'm not even sure what the point of a socket bonus is if it's something dinky like +4 attack power. That's going to be less than a quarter of a percent of one stat of a well-geared 70 Hunter's AP.
I know bonuses add up when everything you have has a bonus, but still. So dinky.
Super_Duck Mar 28th 2008 7:00PM
Perfect for a bm-hunter with a 2.8 speed weapon, like the new badge xbow:P
Elzam Mar 28th 2008 9:09PM
For Blood Elf Retribution Paladins this is the 2nd best weapon in the game based on a limited ArmPen build, right behind Kil'jaeden's Apolyon 2H sword.
If I were in BT and it dropped, I'd go balls out to try to get this in my bags.
One thing you'll notice is the speed on this polearm: 3.5 (without taking into account the haste) compared to the typical 2.2 or so speed of many other statsticks. This is why you're going to at least see Retribution Paladins clamoring over this; I can't feign to know if Arms warriors will value it as well.
If more guilds had access to this, I think it would become a large point of contention "who" it would go to, like the old 100's of comments on thottbot back in the day with "hunter weapon" under every weapon with stats. However, seeing as it's going to be a limited supply kind of weapon on most realms, I say this to who it's for: whoever has the most DKP.
Pucelle Mar 29th 2008 2:22AM
Yes, it SHOULD go to whoever has the most DKP, and not, say, whoever it could benefit or upgrade most.
One more reason why DKP is a stupid system.
Jinvasha Mar 30th 2008 3:23PM
Warriors using Slam builds need a weapon speed of 3.0+, preferably more, to get the best results. I don't know of many arms warriors that would say no to this if it dropped for them.
Wildhammer Mar 28th 2008 11:30PM
Nice TR reference, Mike. =P
Elzam Mar 29th 2008 4:10AM
@12
If you're looking with that reasoning for people to say "Then it benefits the Hunter the most" then it's easily false. A few extra stats for a Hunter on what Blizzard deems a slot valued the same for a Hunter as a relic/libram/idol vs a weapon that will actually be used for all of its stats including weapon damage?
The fact is that any reasonable guild that uses DKP or any bid-based system should be able to oversee the statstick persona that some Hunters like to put forth for polearms and see it as a viable option for other classes. If you want to argue loot systems there's going to be an argument to support and debunk you either way.