How would you plate-wearing raiders like your best-in-slot (pre-Shadowmourne) weapon first thing upon stepping into the 25-man version of Icecrown Citadel? If Lady Luck is on your side, it could happen. Bryntroll the Bone Arbiter was, for a few glorious weeks, far and away the best weapon available to death knights and retribution paladins before Shadowmourne and its own Heroic counterpart. Slightly less awesome for warriors, but still pretty amazing. Can you believe it drops from Lord Marrowgar, the first (and probably the easiest) boss in ICC?

Let's talk numbers, shall we?

Name: Bryntroll, the Bone Arbiter
Type: Two-Handed Axe
Damage: 801 - 1203 Damage, 294.7 DPS
Speed: 3.40
Attributes:

• 169 Strength
• 161 Stamina
• One red socket and one blue socket
• Chance on hit: Steals 2138 to 2362 life from target enemy.

And once we're seeing hard modes downed in a few months (weeks?) the Heroic version will be an available alternative.

Name: Bryntroll, the Bone Arbiter (Heroic)
Type: Two-Handed Axe
Damage: 888-1329 Damage, 325.7 DPS
Speed: 3.40
Attributes:

• 185 Strength
• 173 Stamina
• One red socket and one yellow socket
• Chance on hit: Steals 2412 to 2664 life from target enemy.

Looking at these stats, you might be a little skeptical due to the complete lack of "green" stats on the weapons. There's no crit, no haste, no armor penetration or anything like that. Believe me when I say the proc makes up for it. Before the recent bug fix, which will prevent certain paladin and death knight abilities from proccing the drain twice, Bryntroll made up anywhere from 6-10% of a player's damage in a raid. Post-fix, it's going to be somewhere in the area of 3-4% which is still significant, and it remains one of the best weapons 2H users can get their hands on at the moment.

Heroic Bryntroll is even one of the best death knight tanking weapons available in the game, with only Ramaladni's Blade of Culling coming close. Depending on your other stats, you could go either way there.

How to Get It: As mentioned above, you waltz into Icecrown Citadel, de-bone Lord Marrowgar, and hope the loot gods smile upon your pallid husk. It's a simple fight, but we have a strategy guide for you should you need it.
Getting Rid of It: The current upgrades to Bryntroll are Heroic Bryntroll, Shadow's Edge (for certain classes) or the legendary Shadowmourne.
Additional Information: It's rare that I point people to Elitist Jerks, but at this level of the raid game, you can probably handle it. If you want to know exactly how this weapon stacks up for your class compared to the competition, Elitist Jerks is the place to be. Just make sure you follow the rules, or you might find yourself kicked to the curb rather fast.

Tags: axe, bryntroll, bryntroll-the-bone-arbiter, icecrown, icecrown-citadel, icecrown-gear, icecrown-loot, loot, lord-marrowgar, raid-loot, shadows-edge, two-handed-axe

Filed under: Paladin, Warrior, Items, Analysis / Opinion, Raiding, Phat Loot Phriday, Death Knight