Totem Talk: Enhancement weapons
by Rich Maloy 
May 24th 2010 at 9:00AM
As a melee class, weapons are our most important items. Not surprisingly, good weapons (emphasis on "good") can't be bought with emblems and only drop off a select few bosses, with the best weapons dropping off the hardest bosses. While trinkets can be hard to acquire (Death's Choice/Verdict is a lie!), you can fill in the gaps with emblems or even some subpar trinket choices and not have as big an impact on overall damage as a good weapon. Nothing beats a big stick.
Today we're looking at enhancement weapon options in dungeons, plus Trial of the Crusader and Icecrown Citadel in 10s and 25s, regular and heroic. I am skipping over Naxx, OS, EoE, Ulduar, and Ony because it seems to me that it's far easier to get in and gear up in a ToC/ToGC PuG these days than any other raid. There are some good weapon choice in those older raids, but even starting out as a fresh 80 you should find ToC-10 PuGs doable.
Let's dive in to our weapon options.
Crafted items and emblems
What if you're desperate for weapons? You can't show up to your first ToC-10 PuG with Noob Cleaver of the Monkey. After all, you have some pride left, despite your ilevel 147 trinkets. What are your options? A crafted weapon or one from emblems. The Champion Seals are easy to come by and the cost of materials for the crafted mace have probably dropped to a reasonable level to make an affordable purchase.
- 25 Champion Seals Grimhorn Crusher / Ironforge Smasher
- 50 Emblems of Heroism Pride
- Blacksmithing Titansteel Bonecrusher
Dungeons
Forge of Souls, Pit of Saron and Halls of Reflection are the best chances to getting your hands on weapons quickly. With an enterprising group -- or at least a very willing tank and healer -- you could farm those dungeons in regular until the Seven Fingered Claws or Hate-Forged Cleaver dropped, or if you're really lucky, a Battered Hilt.
- Heroic The Culling of Stratholme (Dark Runed Chest) Greed
- Heroic Trial of the Champion (Eadric's Cache) Aledar's Battlestar
- Heroic Forge of Souls (Bronjahm) Nighttime
- Normal Halls of Reflection (The Captain's Chest) Hate-Forged Cleaver
- Heroic Halls of Reflection (The Captain's Chest) Black Icicle
- FoS, PoS, HoR (random drop) Seven-Fingered Claws
- FoS, PoS, HoR (random drop/quest) Cudgel of Furious Justice
In ToC and ToGC, both 10s and 25s, the only weapons of interest to us drop off Anub'arak. ToC-10 has the greatest payoff per effort; it's easy to get a group and get it done successfully in a short amount of time for the chance at two weapons. For a complete list of all weapons that drop off Anub, you can go to the Wowhead search I've created or check out the list below. ToC- and ToGC-10
H=Horde, A=Alliance. 232=ToC10 reg mode, 245=ToGC10 heroic mode
- Blackhorn Bludgeon(H-232) / The Grinder(A-232)
- Frostblade Hatchet(H-232) / The Lion's Maw(A-232)
- Blackhorn Bludgeon(H-245) / The Grinder(A-245)
- Frostblade Hatchet(H-245) / The Lion's Maw(A-245)
- The Facebreaker(H-245) / The Spinebreaker(A-245) These two items drop in the Tribute Chest when your group has at least 25 attempts remaining.
H=Horde, A=Alliance. 245=ToC25 reg mode, 258=ToGC25 heroic mode
- Hellscream Slicer(H-245) / Stormpike Cleaver(A-245)
- Hellscream Slicer(H-258) / Stormpike Cleaver(A-258)
- Cudgel of the Damned(H-258) / Remorseless(A-258) Rewards from the Tribute Chest with at least 25 attempts left.
If you're in the show, get ready for some good drops, but when it comes to weapons, the bosses to target are different depending on whether you run 10s or 25s. The complete list of weapons from Wowhead is here.
ICC-10
The weapons in ICC-10 don't have the ideal stats for enhancement, with the exception of Pugius. Armor penetration is one of the lowest priority stats for us, and by the time you get geared up to a decent level in ICC, you'll have hit coming out of your eyeballs. My opinion is take upgrades when you get them; ArP may not be the best, but it's not bad, and extra hit helps with more white damage. If it's an upgrade, take a chance on taking it.
- Gunship Frost Giant's Cleaver (heroic)
- Festergut Gutbuster (heroic)
- Rotface Abomination Knuckles (heroic)
- The Lich King Pugius, Fist of Defiance (heroic)
Stats on weapons for the 25-man version of ICC are much better. Unfortunately there are only three weapons, with one dropping off the Lich King. It's worth noting that the proc on Black Bruise was increased a while ago to make it a good item choice for enhancement.
- Festergut 25 Black Bruise (heroic)
- Blood Prince Council 25 Keleseth's Seducer (heroic)
- The Lich King 25 Havoc's Call, Blade of Lordaeron Kings (heroic)
Naturally the heroic axe off The Lich King is the best-in-slot weapon for enhancement shamans. Short of that weapon choices are pretty straightforward: does it do more damage? If yes, take it; if no, pass. Only if your items are close in level, stats and DPS would you need to take a closer look.
I'm happy to be rocking a Havoc's Call (regular) and Kele's Seducer (heroic), but personally I wish the model used for Pugius was our BiS because I love that look. What are you wielding? What's your favorite model?
May all your hits be crits!
Show your totemic mastery by reading Totem Talk; whether it's Mike Sacco's elemental edition, Joe Perez's coverage of restoration or Rich Maloy's enhancement edition, we have you covered.Filed under: Shaman, (Shaman) Totem Talk
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
GrumblyStuff May 24th 2010 9:12AM
"The one course of action I cannot condone is purchasing Pride with 50 emblems; that's a steep price to pay for something that you'll probably replace with even the slightest effort."
OTOH, you can easily get 50 emblems in a day. You're up to the RNG gods of the dungeon finder if you want more than 13 champion seals a day.
jam May 24th 2010 9:46AM
If you need new weapons that badly, you probably also need other badge gear. And those Triumphs are better used for purchasing Tier pieces/orbs (for craftable gear) than Pride.
Sagretti May 24th 2010 9:17AM
"You could farm those dungeons in regular until the Seven Fingered Claws or Hate-Forged Cleaver dropped, or if you're really lucky, a Battered Hilt."
It'd be less luck and more a miracle, since both the Seven Fingered Claws and the Battered Hilt only drop in the Heroic versions of the instances. Also, while it's completely a waste of resources and time, I still say Pride is an awesome weapon to get because you're punching people with a friggin bear's head.
Alchemistmerlin May 24th 2010 1:16PM
While levelling up my Enh. Shaman the only thing I wanted at 80 was the paired Greed/Pride set. I didn't care if it wasn't BiS or if it was even a downgrade from the weapons I was wielding at the time, I needed to turn my fists into punchbears.
rich.krzem May 24th 2010 9:18AM
Sadly, my shaman doesn't get to see the inside of raid instances. So i only have 2 Black Icicle.
Then again, my shamans enhancement spec is his 2nd off spec, and I only use it for PvP.
ahindwe May 24th 2010 10:43AM
There's also Onyxia, easy fight and she drops some good stuff if you're starting out.
feniks9174 May 24th 2010 10:22AM
- "Death's Chiice/Verdict is a lie!"
I feel your pain. My guild ran ToC25 every week since it launched and I could count the number of times Death's Choice dropped on one hand. Reign of the Dead was worse though. During the months and months we were in there (even well into ICC) Reign dropped a whopping . . . Once.
That is, until I left the guild 3 weeks ago. It has since dropped every week . . .
hdinter May 24th 2010 10:26AM
I need to make an admission here and no better place to make it than here on the very blog column that kept my level 78 enhancement shaman in wow.
I have quit wow.
Not because I dislike the game but just because I have done all I can do in the game. I have mostly BIS top geared tank, healer, caster DPS and melee DPS characters. I have a BIS level 19 twink too. I have maxed every profession and gathering profession across all my toons. I have seen every raid to the end 4 different ways. I have ganked stranglethorn vale so many times the alliance refuse to level alts from 11pm to 12pm CST there. I have seen every bit of content and explored content that may be out of the way and obscure. The guild I was in split up so I took a break came back and it was not the same. I have come to relize it's not the content so much that kept me in wow but my friends.
I feel like there is nothing left for me to do. My last goal was to ding level 80 on my Shaman to take down Arthus but I can't bring myself to play any more because I know what awaits me is more of the same. I have enjoyed the last 3 years in wow, made a ton of friends, had a blast but I need to retire my account for good. Recently I got into the SC2 beta and am really enjoying it. I had played SC1 to a competitive level before I started wow.
I am done with Azeroth but if Blizzard's next gen MMO is out in a year or so I'll give that a shot.
/Salute
//Fade out
///Need more supply depos
Merch May 24th 2010 10:50AM
You don't need to make that admission that you are quitting WoW, as it is irrelevant to readers of this blog. A relevant place would be your guild's forums or maybe even your realm forum, incase people you have come across while you have played were looking for you.
That is if you even quit.
Kylenne May 24th 2010 11:15AM
Livejournal is that way --->
Jez May 24th 2010 11:18AM
Awwww. Downrated because no-one likes you! :'(
Well I like you... at least I would if I knew what you were.
Gz on SC2.
Oni Stardust May 24th 2010 1:32PM
I can haz ur stuff?
BKWopper123 May 24th 2010 10:29PM
A great solution to that is going outside :)
Tom May 24th 2010 10:32AM
Ah, so many pretty fist weapons, so little time!
Greed, Pride, the Spinner...I wish that a BiS used the model for Fist of the Deity.
Elle May 24th 2010 11:10AM
I am pretty much 10 man strict, so any of the 25 man weapons are out of my reach.
Currently I am using Abomination Knuckes and Frost Giant's Cleaver, but I have a Gutbuster in the bank.
Considering ArP is one of the weaker stats, should I swap one of my current weapons out for the Gutbuster? I don't need the hit so it feels like it would be a waste to drop FGC (basically losing Ag, and trading ArP for Hit), but I like the haste on AK, so didn't want to drop that one either.
Any thoughts?
KPB May 24th 2010 11:29AM
You'd need to simm it to see what combination works out best for you. Overall I expect the difference to be small so any combination of the 3 probably works.
caylor May 24th 2010 2:14PM
Use gutbuster for your offhand, its better than frost giants cleaver. but not better than abom knuckles
Elle May 24th 2010 12:01PM
... I understand that your answer is technically correct, and I understand that simming will give me the most accurate answer to my question.
However, since I play the game for fun, and don't find fun in min/maxing everything, I was looking for more of a gut feeling/more experienced response from someone. MY gut feeling is to go with AK and FGC, so, I guess I am going to stick with that.
My least favorite thing about playing an enahancement shaman is that I get the same answer every time I turn to the shaman community with a question - "Sim it"
Thank you, I do appreciate your response, and as this column is by and for enh shaman, I should expect nothing less, since it is in fact the correct response. So, I will respectfully withdraw the question.
feniks9174 May 24th 2010 2:45PM
The "sim it" answer is not one exclusive to the Enhancement community. It just takes different forms for different classes. Ask a rogue the same question and you'll get . . . "spreadsheet".
It's not that were all lazy or galacticaly incapable of being helpful, it's just that when you're talking about the difference between 3 ilvl 251 weapons, you're really just splitting hairs an those hairs will be different with your gear than they will be with mine, stoney's or anyone elses. By far the biggest difference you'll see in DPS from a weapon (especially for shamans and DKs, I don't know about other classes) is from it's speed and top end, which is almost directly tied to it's ilvl. The green stats are fairly insignificant in comparison.
In fact, if you're not concerned with min/maxing, you could probably just use whichever ones look cooler.
thebitterfig May 24th 2010 10:44PM
in defense of suggesting that people sim or spreadsheet, the tools are getting easier to use, and at very least there is an online version of rawr these days.
the reason i suggest people sim is that the quick "combat rogues gem arpen" can be wrong, depending on gear level. agility and even attack power can be better, depending on a bunch of factors. most hunters should be gemming agility, as it really takes high-level gear before armor penetration is worth it, and with the ICC5 and triumph loot, pure AP isn't superior for BM hunters. likewise, far too many warriors make the mistake of gemming armor penetration too soon, and they'd be better off with strength. i made that on my warrior. he's fully gemmed armor penetration, with mostly 232 and some 251 stuff, up to about 75% unbuffed arpen, and Rawr still stays i'd do better swapping out for strength gems. the difference isn't large, so i'm not going to regem all my old stuff for strength, but i wish i made the right choice the first time, and i had simmed it.
i guess i recommend using sims and so forth to counteract what i'll call the simsheet/EJ fallacy. people tend to assume that what is best for the cutting-edge players in top-of-the-line gear also is superior for everyone in weaker gear. a toon in mostly 232 or lower gear, with no more than a piece or two of 245 gear is probably more comparable to an ulduar BiS geared toon than an ICC BiS geared toon, and that can affect choices.