Arcane Brilliance: Mage pre-raid trinket compendium
by Christian Belt 
Jan 29th 2011 at 2:00PM
Quickly: Close your eyes, forget that you have already seen the title and intro to this week's column, and tell me the first thing that comes into your head when I say, "hardest pre-raid gear slot to fill." No, not bracers. What ... dang it. I mean ... come on, guys!
It's trinkets! Trinkets. Didn't you read the title? It's right there.
Though you have two slots free for trinkets, they have always been one of the most notoriously difficult to fill gear slots in the game. And no single gear choice is more subjective than choosing one trinket over another. Instead of choosing between 225 intellect and 255 intellect, you're often picking between a Vengeful Wisp and a Fallen Footman. That's a bit like asking which is better, shrimp tacos or integrity? I don't ... I don't know. Sometimes the only indication that one given trinket is better than another is the item level, and let's be honest, even that isn't often a very reliable indicator. The math can be obtuse and often a bit fuzzy, and even plugging trinkets into a damage-simulating program like Rawr can prove problematic.
And then there's the matter of finding said trinkets. Through each of WoW's three expansions, the relative difficulty of finding two good trinkets has been a frustrating constant. In many cases, you'll find solid endgame-level upgrades for every other slot while still waiting, an increasingly hard-to-ignore urge to kill swelling steadily behind your brow, for Paletress to finally drop the stupid Abyssal Rune, even though this is your 75th consecutive run and you've seen her drop the stupid hunter trinket the last 16 times ...
To compound the issue, there's the undeniable fact that no other single gear upgrade can improve your DPS as dramatically as switching from a crappy trinket to an awesome one. Those two slots are arguably the most important in the game.
That's why Arcane Brilliance is here to help. We understand the struggles mages can face when it comes to both finding good trinkets and then differentiating the good ones from the crap. We've had those same struggles. We love mages, we hate warlocks so much we sometimes can't see straight, and it is in that spirit that we present the Early 2011 Cataclysm Pre-raid Mage Trinket Compendium, Version 4.0.1. This is the best trinket guide you'll find for at least the next 24 hours, and we stand by that statement.
I will be listing these trinkets in what I believe to be the correct order, from least valuable to most valuable. As I stated before, these values are often subjective and sometimes extremely situation-dependent. Your input is not just requested but demanded. Unless you are a warlock, in which case die in a fire.
Talisman of Sinister Order This is one of the few high-quality trinkets you can obtain without waiting on a drop, which is always nice. It's a reward from the Firing Squad quest in Uldum. It packs a hearty helping of intellect in with a 20-second boost to mastery that procs on spellcast. It's a no-brainer DPS trinket but lags behind some of the other pure spellpower procs. Still, it's a fine place to start.
Witching Hourglass The normal version of this isn't terrible, either, but has a pretty low stat budget at item level 308. As we move forward, I won't always be listing the normal versions of these heroic drops. You can pretty much assume that they fall into a similarly ordered hierarchy, only a tier down from the heroic versions. The reason this trinket is at the bottom of the heroic drop list is that its proc is a boost to haste, and though it is indeed a fat chunk of haste, a straight spellpower proc will almost always trump a similarly budgeted haste proc. This one drops from Obsidius in heroic Blackrock Caverns
Sorrowsong A fine trinket in both its heroic and normal versions, this one drops from Siamat in the Lost City of the Tol'vir. It comes standard with a bunch of mastery. The proc is also quite nice, granting a gigantic spellpower boost whenever you're casting against a target that's below 35% health, subject to a 10-second cooldown that doesn't begin until the previous 10-second boost expires, meaning the maximum uptime for this proc is every 20 seconds. That's pretty good uptime, to be sure, but dependent upon constant access to mobs that are under 35% health. In long fights, the proc won't even come into play until late in the fight. The upside is that when it's available, you pretty much know when it'll be up and when it won't. It's situationally dependable.
Tendrils of Burrowing Dark Okay, here's the upside to this trinket: lots of mastery, pretty spectacular straight-up spellpower buff. Downside: You have to run heroic Stonecore to get it. It drops from Ozruk, one of the more wipetastic encounters in the game right now. It's an encounter that is designed to kill you the first time you get there and probably a bunch of times after that. I wouldn't farm for anything in heroic Stonecore right now. I don't care if there's a shrimp taco dipped in liquid integrity in there. Stonecore is the devil's taint.
Good trinket, though.
Anhuur's Hymnal This drops from Anhuur in heroic halls of Origination. It is quite similar to Tendrils of Burrowing Dark in that it has a straight spellpower proc, but where the Tendrils come preloaded with mastery, the Hymnal have the same amount of hit rating. A rock-solid trinket.
Figurine - Jeweled Serpent If your mage isn't a jewelcrafter, avert your eyes. If your mage is a jewelcrafter, give yourself a slow clap, because you have access to a fantastic trinket here. Also, slow claps are just fun. I give myself one whenever I think of it. Getting out of the shower? Slow clap. Successful bowel movement? Slow clap. Made a sandwich? Slow clap. Killed a warlock? Definitely a slow clap. Try it, you'll see.
Anyway, passive intellect and a solid on-use spellpower boost add up to one very raidworthy trinket, and you don't have to farm a heroic waiting for it to drop. The recipe is a world drop quest item, so just keep killing pretty much anything until it drops, then enjoy your new trinket.
Tyrande's Favorite Doll This one is much more difficult to quantify. Just reading the tooltip hurts my brain. I'm putting it here because it's epic, and because just getting it as an extremely rare archaeology relic is worth cheering it about, but its actual value is questionable. It provides a very nice passive intellect increase, and its equip/use bonus not only provides a nice chunk of mana every minute (very valuable to arcane mages) but can actually be a slight DPS boost if you happen to be standing near the boss when you release it. If I had access to it, I'd use this until I found something better, but just know that unless you're an arcane mage who happens to like standing within 15 yards of your target, pretty much anything else on this list is probably going to be a more consistent DPS booster in a raiding environment.
Stump of Time This one is another that you can farm without having to offer up your firstborn child to the random number generator gods while praying for a heroic drop. Just spend enough time doing dailies and participating in the Tol Barad PvP battle, and you'll eventually get to exalted with either Hellscream's reach or Baradin's Wardins, allowing you to purchase this trinket.
Its value is blessedly straightforward: passive hit rating and a spectacular pure spellpower proc. Very, very nice.
Soul Casket Been running countless fruitless heroics with no trinket drops to show for it? There's an exceptional one waiting to be purchased at your friendly neighborhood faction vendor for only 1,650 valor points. By the time you can afford that, you may already have two solid trinkets, but in case you don't, there simply isn't much out there that'll trump this one. It grants you a load of mastery and a pretty amazing straight spellpower proc.
Darkmoon Card: Volcano This is probably the single best mage trinket in the game right now, but it's also extremely expensive. If you have a mat-rich scribe on your payroll or just a buttload of disposable income, this beauty can be yours. It comes with a sizable amount of mastery out of the box, and has a very nice proc that does two things at once: It deals instant fire damage to the target and gives you 1,600 intellect for 12 seconds. That's doubly awesome.
And there you have it. What did I miss? Any good trinkets out there that you'd recommend your fellow mages look out for? Any quibbles with my value order? Demands for my immediate resignation? The comments section below is open to all.
Every week, Arcane Brilliance teleports you inside the wonderful world of mages and then hurls a Fireball in your face. Check out our recent Cataclysm 101 guide for new mages or our mage Thanksgiving spectacular. Until next week, keep the mage-train a-rollin'.Filed under: Mage, Analysis / Opinion, (Mage) Arcane Brilliance
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Swifteye Jan 29th 2011 2:09PM
Great read, as always, great information...
I do, however, have to contest your assertion that trinkets are the hardest pre-raid slot to fill, when everybody knows that, at this particular moment in time, it is those dang mither-flippin' WANDS! *tears hair out*
Still, good stuff, all in all.
trefpoid Jan 29th 2011 2:12PM
there should be an awesome archaeology wand to compensate.. let's hope we get one in a future patch :(
Fletcher Jan 29th 2011 3:17PM
My rogue feels your ranged slot pain. There *is* an epic throwing weapon, but it's a very low drop from junkboxes.
Pyromelter Jan 29th 2011 9:48PM
Historically, wands haven't been that big of an issue. Also, having a slightly less-than great wand won't affect your DPS by that much, whereas the difference between one trinket and another can be well over 1000 dps. There's a reason Christian referenced the http://www.wowhead.com/item=47213/abyssal-rune , because it was ridiculously better than all but a handful of trinkets for all of wrath.
True that in the this tier of raiding, they made thrown weapons as well as wands a real pain in the butt to get. I'm guessing they did that on purpose to make it a bit more interesting.
Anyway, trinkets are to casters what weapons are to melee dps, and blizz has said in the past, they want to make trinkets one of those things that you have to grind and/or get lucky for. My guess is that in the next tier, there will be a wand or two that is relatively easy to get, but trinkets will still be annoying where you pray to the trinket gods that you get your trinket.
nieboh Jan 30th 2011 2:17AM
Agreed! Flippin wands!
I don't understand why, as a lvl 525 enchanter, I can't make myself a nice and useful wand (maybe even epic...what else do enchanters get that's special? +80 intellect from my rings?).
I used to be able to make wands back when I was level 5 (enchanting level 10). I never understood why they stopped adding new wands to our craft.
mark Jan 30th 2011 9:50AM
grim batol - erudax (last boss kinda figures)
fire mage only cause of the dot component
but Gale of Shadows
285 haste
340 SP when stacked
cloudhopper013 Jan 29th 2011 2:13PM
I haven't been able to find solid confirmation on whether or not the Darkmoon Card: Volcano proc procs ignite yet. Or if it's effected by any other fire mage talents. Can anybody confirm this yes or no?
Ashamanxx Jan 29th 2011 2:55PM
Another mage in my guild tested it a few weeks ago and it is affected by Fire mage talents as well as SP buffs like AI. I *think* it cannot proc ignite but I'm not positive.
Its definitely a very very good trinket.
cloudhopper013 Jan 29th 2011 5:05PM
:\
Dang, the ignite proc was the thing I most wanted to know. Thanks for the info, though.
Pyromelter Jan 29th 2011 9:59PM
Problem with ignite is, last I checked, it was still getting munched like crazy. You probably don't want it to proc to be honest, lest it munch a FFB/FB/Pyroblast crit.
I did a lot of data crunching, and found that I lost around 60k damage in a 30 second bank of ignite - that's 2k dps. Getting munched on a possible ignite proc from a nuke can be a serious blow to your dps, so you might not even want DMC: Volcano to proc ignite.
cloudhopper013 Jan 29th 2011 10:10PM
Ah. Either that was a freaking huge crit or I read an earlier column wrong, but don't ignite DoT's sort of cummulate/average eachother if they get munched? It's some really complicated algebraic formula. They don't just plain kill each other and take eachother's place, I know that.
Pyromelter Jan 30th 2011 5:18AM
Cloud, it's a bit involved. I took the data I did during my guild's final raid in wrath of the lich king, for deathbringer saurfang... and I'll explain why in a second.
The way ignite works, is that it creates a "bank." On your first crit, you are supposed to start a 4 second countdown, with 2 DoT ticks, each 20% of the crit damage you did. Your initial crit is a number (lets say you crit for 20k, so you have 8,000 total damage for ignite to do over 4 seconds). If you get another crit within that 4 second window, the ignite damage is "banked" and you then have the counter reset to above 4 seconds, and ignite will now tick 3 times, once at 4 seconds, once at 2 seconds, once at 0 seconds.
The problem is that there is an internal cooldown on ignite. It's not likely intended, but results from server lag not adding it in. Every single crit you get can possibly refresh ignite, except for the ignite tick itself (which cannot crit). That means every FFB tick, every LB tick, every combustion tick, and every pyroblast dot tick, potentially can crit and add to the bank. So where this becomes an issue, is, let's say you get a pyroblast DoT crit for 3000. Not bad eh? So, if we add that to ignite, you add 1200 damage to the ignite bank.
Now, what happens if, .4 seconds later, your fireball crits for 28k. What is SUPPOSED to happen is that the game SHOULD add 11,200 damage to your ignite bank. HOWEVER (using caps cuz i can't italicize), the server does NOT add that to your ignite bank, because you just had a crit .4 seconds ago. This is called "munching." Since my effective critical strike at the end of wrath was something like 70%, I could easily see it. I actually took that log of that last Saurfang fight I did, and I sampled the first 30 seconds of it. I made a whole chart and everything, where I calculated what should have been in my ignite bank, and what was actually output in the ignite dot. At the end of 30 seconds, I had lost about 60k damage.
I haven't bothered to do this since, but the mechanics of the game have not changed (this was a raid in 4.03, just slightly before cata dropped - but the mechanics of how ignite works have not changed at all). The internal cooldown of ignite is somewhere between 1 and 2 seconds. And with all the dots that fire mages have, that means there is a good chance that 30k fireball or pyroblast crit you just nailed the raid boss with didn't refresh ignite and get added to your ignite bank, because your smaller living bomb or pyroblast dot was added instead.
Like I said, it's a bit complicated, but I hope that helps.
Ice Jan 30th 2011 10:05AM
It does not proc from dots.
That is however, fixed in next patch.
Pyromelter Jan 30th 2011 9:12PM
Ice, it does proc from dots. Ignite procs from any fire damage crit, including DoTs. This is actually a BAD thing though, because your fireball and pyroblast crits can get munched by all those dots that are popping and refreshing ignite.
If you don't believe me, I went to WoL and picked a random mage in the top 200 of the Argolath encounter. The first damage that shows up is a living bomb DoT tick (not the explosion, but the tick), that crit for 11426. Before his next crit, an Ignite tick shows up for 2913 (it's higher than the expected 20% which would be 2285 because of mastery, which does affect ignite).
Now, I'm hoping this doesn't get overly mathy for everyone, but look at this sequence right here, which shows ignite munching I think to a T:
[23:56:50.029] Tirsten Combustion Argaloth *16084*
[23:56:50.284] Tirsten Living Bomb Argaloth *8476*
[23:56:50.629] Tirsten begins to cast Fireball
[23:56:50.844] Tirsten Combustion Argaloth 8062
[23:56:51.661] Tirsten Fireball Argaloth 14972
[23:56:51.661] Tirsten Combustion Argaloth *16084*
[23:56:52.573] Tirsten Pyroblast! Argaloth 1547
[23:56:52.597] Tirsten Combustion Argaloth *16084*
[23:56:52.785] Tirsten begins to cast Fireball
[23:56:52.785] Tirsten Living Bomb Argaloth *8476*
[23:56:53.045] Tirsten Ignite Argaloth 2162 ------------------- Ignite
[23:56:53.362] Tirsten Combustion Argaloth 8062
[23:56:53.669] Tirsten Fireball Argaloth *29577*
[23:56:54.234] Tirsten Combustion Argaloth *16084*
[23:56:55.013] Tirsten begins to cast Fireball
[23:56:55.013] Tirsten Pyroblast! Argaloth *3085*
[23:56:55.013] Tirsten Combustion Argaloth *16084*
[23:56:55.044] Tirsten Ignite Argaloth 2161 -------------------- Ignite
In a span of 5 seconds, we have 9 separate critical strike hits. But as you can see, the damage of Ignite is the same (2161 and 2162 can be considered the same from rounding up and down). The next ignite tick in this log is this:
[23:56:57.044] Tirsten Ignite Argaloth 1965
Which means that all of the combustion plus that 30k fireball crit got munched, likely by that pyroblast dot crit you see for 3085. Had the fireball crit been added instead, that next ignite tick would have been closer to 6000, not the 1965 that showed up. And had ALL of those crits been added, we would have seen closer to 18,000 damage per ignite tick added.
Because of munching, this guy lost a total of 52k ignite damage (before mastery) in this sequence.
These numbers are reproducible, and you can look at any mage's log on a single target encounter and find the same phenomenon.
If you understand what I'm saying, you are probably as sick to your stomach as I was when I looked at how much damage is being lost by ignite munching.
Pyromelter Jan 30th 2011 9:17PM
Apology for the wall of text, there just isn't a tl;dr way of describing munching. I just wanted to add one thing, regarding the trinket:
I don't know if http://www.wowhead.com/item=62047/darkmoon-card-volcano can proc ignite, but there is a very easy way to find out. In your fire spec, just spam cast ice lance or frostbolt on a dummy. When it procs, if it crits, you should be able to see ignite or not.
Kook Jan 29th 2011 2:20PM
What about the Alchemy trinket - Lifebound Alchemist Stone? It has a high item level, but is it any good for mages...?
Oh, and the soon-to-come-in-a-patch alchemy trinkets look pretty damn awesome!
Tokhand Jan 30th 2011 9:54AM
The new Caster Alchemist Stone is all gumdrops and lollipops and dead warlocks (rhyme!):
Vibrant Alchemist Stone
item level: 359
Requires level 80, Alchemy level 500
+301 Intellect
1 Red Socket
a +10 Intellect socket bonus
Increases haste rating by 194
Increases healing and mana potion effects by 40%
Materials: 50 Volatile Life, 8 Cinderbloom, 20 Azshara's Veil, 8 Heartblossom
I will /hug my alchemist trainer when I have this. I will /hug them so very hard.
Helasmoth Jan 29th 2011 2:25PM
Mr. Belt,
Thank you for your never ceaseing drive to elimanate all warlocks from the face of the earth and internetz. You are truely a great person.
I am not a mage as my main, but love the boom boom pow of the fire mage. If only there was one such as yourself dedicated to the life of a lowly Prot Pally then all would be right in the world.
Burn Bright, Burn Free...
Your constant reader,
Helasmoth
Rai Jan 29th 2011 2:32PM
/slowclap
*casts demonic circle and disappears with stolen caster trinket knowledge*
Artificial Jan 29th 2011 2:57PM
lol... I love it when warlocks pretend they can teleport. (Psst -- real teleportation lets you go from Stormwind to Shattrath on another planet, not "oh anywhere... as long as it's not more than 40 yards from here".)