The Queue: Trinket-Palooza 2009
by Allison Robert 
Sep 17th 2009 at 5:00PM
I'm in an autumnal sort of mood, hence today's picture. Yes, I know that Barrens trees always look like that. We got a really interesting question about trinkets the last time around that really caught my attention, so a lot of today's Queue is going to be comprised of an Enjoyable Stroll Down Memory Lane and Into Holy ^$*# Look At That Trinket From AQ40 How Has That Not Been Nerfed Yet.
Starlin asks...
So, what's up with Brewfest this year? Anything new or updated?
Fortunately or us, Kisirani posted on this same question yesterday. To summarize, there are no major changes to the holiday, but Coren Direbrew has been updated to level 80, the mount drop rates haven't changed (nor are they now required for the Brewfest meta-achievement), and no new pets or mounts have been added. You can reasonably expect a beefed-up holiday boss with a new loot table (most likely of ilevel 200 items, possibly 219 if they want to match the gear from heroic Trial of the Champion), but otherwise the same experience as last year. I'll have an OverAchiever for the good folks seeking Brewfest achievements up on the site soon.
Xvkarbear asks...
How does a boomkin kill a resto druid in PvP?
Prayer.
Diewalkure asks...
Could you tell me if there are any items like trinkets that can be found in the vanilla raids that are so unique that they could still be used at level 80. Like they have some special use or something that it would be worth it to pursue them?
This question really piqued my interest, so I wound up trawling through the loot lists for each classic boss looking for cool trinkets someone might still want at the level cap for whatever reason. There are several fun trinkets available from vanilla and BC raids, but in terms of actual use at 80? Not too many of those hanging around. Daniel Whitcomb wrote a guide on the 7 best trinkets in WoW about a year and a half ago, focusing on the most fun you could have with various drops, but here I'm more concerned with the question of whether you could still manage to find some use for a trinket right now.
Two things before I start:
- This started getting really long, so I had to stop before hitting Burning Crusade. Of the BC trinket drops, the one that comes most immediately to mind as being surprisingly useful -- or at least, it was surprisingly useful -- at 80 for Warlocks is the Void Star Talisman off High Astromancer Solarian in Tempest Keep. This was one of the things that made voidwalker tanks on a Sartharion-3D possible before Blizzard nerfed this.
- This isn't meant to be an exhaustive list of level 60 trinkets, just those for which you might conceivably find some use at 80 due to unique itemization or interesting procs or whatever. That doesn't make necessarily make them good, just a little different than what you'll find in Wrath, but rarely worth using over modern stuff (of the list, there are really only two standouts, and both of them are for healers). If a trinket didn't strike me as terribly interesting or if there's an equivalent between 60 and 80 that does whatever it did better, I didn't include it here. If I missed anything or got anything wrong, please feel free to drop something in the comments.
The Talisman of Ephemeral Power (an infrequent drop off 4 bosses in Molten Core) was basically the most sought-after caster trinket in all vanilla. It could still be used now, but still won't provide the same DPS increase you could get from leveling trinkets in Wrath. I did, however, want to point it out just because its /use animation was so cool that Blizzard reused it on several trinket procs you'll still see today.
The Eye of Divinity (from Majordomo Executus) for Priests is the key to getting the class-defining Benediction/Anathema, and is still the only way to see Ricole Nichie in the World's End tavern in Shattrath.
BLACKWING LAIR
The Black Book off Razorgore in BWL is still a surprisingly large stat increase for Warlock demons, but with a 30-second duration and 5-minute cooldown, less useful than it might have been.
The Mind Quickening Gem off Vaelastrasz is a jaw-dropping +haste increase for Mages but, like the Black Book, is a large stat increase with a prohibitively long cooldown. However, the 320 +haste increase is the sort of thing uniquely suited to a boss that needs to be burned down quickly past a certain point (e.g. Princess Huhuran or -- come to think of it -- phase 3 Anub'arak in Trial of the Crusader).
Rune of Metamorphosis is another Vael trinket but for Druids, with a /use effect that's almost completely useless for PvE. However, it's potentially useful in PvP, more so because all PvP Druids will almost certainly have 3/3 Natural Shapeshifter and the Rune will basically eliminate shapeshifting costs altogether for 20 seconds.
Lifegiving Gem off Broodlord Lashlayer for Warriors is almost as good as a Nightmare Seed but nowhere near as good as Last Stand.
Chase isn't around at the moment, so our Rogue readers are going to have to tell me if Venomous Totem (also off Broodlord) is good for anything now.
The Natural Alignment Crystal (Firemaw) for Shamans is...eh. The spellpower increase is respectable; the additional mana cost that accompanies it is not. I don't know if the spell damage increase is enough to override the inefficiency for an Elemental Shaman.
Scrolls of Blinding Light (Firemaw) for Paladins is not quite as good as its Mage counterpart but still a sizable +haste increase.
The Drake Fang Talisman (Ebonroc) was pretty much the go-to melee and Hunter trinket of classic in much the same way that Talisman of Ephemeral power was to casters. Useful at 80? Probably not, but for history's sake I will say this trinket remains badass until the end of time.
Styleen's Impending Scarab (Flamegor) was mentioned by our commenter Cyrus in the original thread, and was still being used by Warrior and Paladin tanks (Kungen most notably) in early- to mid-BC raid content. Not as useful nowadays, regrettably, although it did get a boost from the recent improvements to block.
AHN'QIRAJ-20 AND -40
The Eye of Moam off (who else?) Moam in AQ20 interests me but I'm not sure how useful it would be versus a raid boss at 80 (or if it stacks with the debuff provided by Curse of Elements and Earth and Moon. In PvP you might still get some use from it.
Badge of the Swarmguard (Battleguard Sartura, AQ40) is equally interesting given the huge buffs to armor penetration (which, for the sake of accuracy, are going bye-bye in patch 3.2.2). However, I'm not sure what the proc rate is like at 80, and the trinket is certainly inferior to things to Grim Toll and Banner of Victory.
OK, now here's something that doesn't brook any waffling: Scarab Brooch (Viscidus, AQ40) is apparently still The Shiznit, particularly for Holy Paladins dumping massive heals on tanks and PvP partners. As the Wowhead commenter Firecrest notes, "(It's) so good they stuck it on a legendary" -- namely, Val'anyr. Reportedly, it's still being used by top-ranked arena healers and in conjunction with shields and Val'anyr procs to keep players from getting burst down. For PvE, you can't swing a dead cat nowadays without hitting a tank-LOL-instagib mechanic on hardmodes, and the trinket's /use effect lasts 30 seconds. Frankly, I'm flabbergasted that the thing hasn't been nerfed yet, but that's not important right now. Anyone up for an AQ40 run?
The Jom Gabbar off Ouro (AQ40) is still surprisingly good, although it won't replace a Wrath trinket. A Wowhead commenter who put it on his Death Knight noted a 650 attack power increase the 18th second after triggering the trinket, fading to 0 at the 20th second.
I agree with Dan that the Vanquished Tentacle of C'thun (C'thun, AQ40) is made of puppies, awesome, win and rainbows.
DARKMOON FAIRE
The Darkmoon Card: Twisting Nether is still fully functional at 80, and I've got one that I can't bring myself to get rid of despite the fact that it never procs when you really want it to. I used to have it equipped on stealth runs of BC instances farming Ancient Lichen. Does it work in battlegrounds and arena? Well, it certainly did, and Wowhead commenters have confirmed this up through Season 3, but I have no idea if it still works nowadays in PvP.
The Darkmoon Card: Blue Dragon was used by a number of healers until relatively recently, when out-of-5-seconds mana regen was nerfed and in-combat mana regen was buffed, at which point its value relative to current mp5 or regen-oriented trinkets fell somewhat. I can't speak to its use for other classes, but for Restoration Druids it's still amazingly good at better gear levels with high Oo5s regen, particularly (as Hotstree points out) if you're smart enough to pop a Spirit trinket alongside a proc.
How cool is it that there are still a few badass trinkets around from classic content? I think it's pretty cool.
Rotclaw asks...
Remember the "Heroic Leap" ability in the WoTLK beta for warriors (lots of Youtube videos if anyone wants to check it out)? It looked like a lot of fun and had great potential to add more diversity to playing a warrior. Apparently they scrapped it because of pathing issues or something. Anyone know if they'll ever try to bring it back, maybe in the next expansion?
Heroic Leap was indeed removed because of pathing issues, but mostly because it was players themselves creating said issues. Ghostcrawler had an explanation here and here. Until and unless they can fix the array of opportunities for a player to exploit while using the skill, we probably won't see Heroic Leap (or similar mechanics) again.
Have questions about the World of Warcraft? The WoW.com crew is here with The Queue, our daily Q&A column! Leave your questions in the comments and we'll do our best to answer 'em!Filed under: Items, Analysis / Opinion, Features, The Queue
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Radioted Sep 17th 2009 5:09PM
I can haz two questionz?
1) With the recent implementation of faction change thinning the walls between Horde and Alliance all the more, has there been any talking bubbling up of implementing cross-faction mail, even if only fore stuff like heirlooms?
2) During one of the Blizzcon panels, someone from WoW.com tweeted that players will soon be able to track two different things at the same time. However, I never saw this mentioned on any of the panel write-ups. What's up with that?
Ian R. (Orkchop) Sep 17th 2009 5:43PM
Blizz was talking about Archeology at the time. They said "yes you'll be able to track archeology and a gathering skill at the same time."
I never did see any clarification on whether that means someone can track any two things, or everything, together.
Bronwyn Sep 17th 2009 5:50PM
And in regards to the first question- and I can't remember if this was at blizzcon or shortly after- someone from blizzard said they ARE considering cross-faction mail for BoA items. I figure they'll probably start implementing that when they start having the cross-server LFG and Battle.net talking to people cross server/faction/game.
Draelan Sep 17th 2009 8:33PM
Well, as any engineer likely knows, the precedent is certainly there. Someone with Engineering/Mining can track mining nodes and mote clouds at the same time. Although, tracking two things that require selection from the tracking menu is a bit different.
I, personally, wouldn't mind if Blizzard at least made it possible to use 1 profession tracking, and 1 class tracking at the same time. It was part of the reason I avoided mining, herbalism, and their related professions on my hunter. And the tracking skills my other toons have (sense demons, sense undead) are pretty much forgotten in my spell book.
Hanak Sep 19th 2009 7:50PM
That's easy, just eat a http://www.wowhead.com/?item=42997 and voila, there's your second tracking. There's one for beasts as well. It does get a bit cluttered on the map though.
VSUReaper Sep 17th 2009 5:16PM
I know you only went thru the lvl 60 bosses, but imo, for a shield tank, this little gem is the best thing around.
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=27529 Figurine of the Colossus
Combine that with a high block shield, a lucky coin (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=38289) or an Autoblocker (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=29387) and a leveling shield tank will never have down time. I still use mine every now and then when I'm out farming rhino or mammoth meat on my warrior.
I pray that they will reuse the effect on another trinket soon.
Rhabella Sep 17th 2009 5:51PM
With the promised changes to block value, it would be nice to have trinkets with cool effects like that. The essence of gossamer works similarly, only it stops the damage instead of healing you for 120 of it back. The black heart also works along the same lines. It reduces the damage based on the extra mitigation from the armor buff so you require less healing. Not exactly the same thing, but if you take the hit, die, and then the heal would have procced, the new trinkets probably work better with server communication.
I could be completely wrong, someone please let me know if I am.
VSUReaper Sep 17th 2009 6:06PM
Its not so much the fact that the trinket "reduces" incoming damage by healing it, b/c there are better trinkets than that (such as the black heart or the essence), but its for the pure fact of being able to aoe farm/level with little to know down time (at least from a warrior's POV).
I used that Figurine to level as prot (before dual spec's) and literally never stopped moving.
And before someone says just spec DPS noob - for a warrior, I can kill 4+ mobs faster as prot in a set of gear that emphasizes block faster than a fury or arms warrior. The only down side is when I cant get 4 mobs (takes a few seconds longer), or when I do have to stop to eat, It takes a lil while for me to get back to full health.
LilBanshee Sep 18th 2009 8:21AM
Another nice BC one is Serpent-Coil Braid
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=30720
Equip: You gain 25% more mana when you use a mana gem. In addition, using a mana gem grants you 225 spell power for 15 sec.
Freak Mojo Sep 17th 2009 5:17PM
I have a Queue Question:
If my name gets reported as offensive and I change it, will it be removed from my buddy's Friends List?
I actually want this to happen :P
Murdock Sep 17th 2009 5:26PM
I believe all name changes, regardless of reason do not remove you from friends list. They'll still be able to track you, sorry!
jfofla Sep 17th 2009 5:28PM
Friend lent you money eh?
PodPeople Sep 17th 2009 6:28PM
I believe if you move servers and then move back with a different name your "buddy" won't be able to see you online. it's a big hassle, but i guess you got to decided if it's THAT important that they don't know you're online.
or option 2 you pretend you're a hacker one day sell off all your stuff and delete your char. have another "friend" make a char with the same name you have. report your account hacked to blizz and say they deleted your char. since there's a char with the same name you had before you automatically get a new char lvl80 (or whatever) with all of your gear and stuff (or almost all of it) with a new name. then your "friend" can delete the placeholder char, or not and your "buddy" can be after some lvl1 char that never gets played. (note, this probably wouldn't work)
or 3 you could just tell your "buddy" you don't want to talk to him anymore and that he/she should probably remove you from his/her friends list.
Fatamorgana Sep 18th 2009 9:17AM
I have the names of several people whom I refuse to group with on my friends list. Mostly because you can add a note to the person as to why they're bad news.
Some of these people have changed names but they remain in my friends list and the notes remain unchanged.
It's a good preventative measure for Officers and GL of guilds to keep out loot ninjas, drama mamas, and the like.
~Fatamorgana
HoboJoe Junkpan Sep 17th 2009 5:19PM
Ok...want the Tentacle trinket. Want it now!!!
And here's a question - who voices all the screaming after you have completed the quest line for the Wrathgate? Is it random Blizzard employees that got to be famous for their screams every time you fly over it?
Danghor Sep 17th 2009 5:40PM
yes, it actually is just random employees. They showed it in the "making of" DVD from the collector's edition.
jfofla Sep 17th 2009 5:27PM
That Scarab Brooch is a magnificent piece of info!
I want that for my Holy Paladin!
soccerdude7 Sep 17th 2009 5:32PM
To answer the Boomkin question, my philosophy is more Cyclone and then well-timed Starfire spams, as well as praying the whole time =p
Opatha Sep 17th 2009 6:49PM
yeah, lots of praying, and a little luck, and dividing by zero, and the blessing of the titans and the Lich King, and sacrificing a small goat to C'thun, and you might stand a chance.
Scunosi Sep 17th 2009 9:03PM
I actually did beat my Resto friend whilst waiting for a raid to start once. I was in my raid spec, full pve gear, meaning I got that snazzy t8 4-set bonus with the instant Starfires proccing off Insect Swarm. Since he can't dispel my dots, the instant nukes just overwhelmed him, and he's no slouch in PvP either.
Kinda sad I have to be PvE to PvP...