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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsMasterwork Elementium Deathblade hotfixed
by Matthew Rossi 
Jul 29th 2011 at 4:30PM
If you are a warrior, DK or paladin looking to pick up the Masterwork Elementium Deathblade, well, you probably don't care that it is simply hideous. Reusing the same model as pretty much every blue sword outside of the crafted 2H blue Obsidian Executioner (which, in my opinion, had a superior model) was bad enough. But a lot of people were still interested in it due to its stats -- specifically, a slow swing speed of 3.8 and a top-end damage of 3,256. (To give you an idea, the Skullstealer Greataxe, a weapon with nearly 100 more DPS, has lower top-end damage.) Top-end damage is often used to calculate special attacks for various melee classes, making the sword very attractive for the ilevel.
However, if you were looking to pick up the MED for that reason, don't bother. As you can see from the original link, its top-end damage has been lowered to 2,769, while its swing speed has been increased to 3.5. Forum posters immediately noticed, and Blizzard's Zarhym soon clarified the change.
Now, of course, there's debate raging back and forth about the change and if the sword is even worth crafting anymore. My take on it is yes, it's worth crafting -- it's just not better than Firelands drops for some players anymore. It shouldn't be even close, which it was. If you're crafting or buying this sword, you're still getting a better weapon than drops in normal mode tier 11 raids, and that's fine. It shouldn't outperform heroic tier 11 and be able to compete with tier 12 weapons. It's meant to help you catch up to Firelands, and it will still do that.
The news is already rolling out for the upcoming WoW Patch 4.2! Preview the new Firelands raid, marvel at the new legendary staff, and get the inside scoop on new quest hubs -- plus new tier 12 armor!
However, if you were looking to pick up the MED for that reason, don't bother. As you can see from the original link, its top-end damage has been lowered to 2,769, while its swing speed has been increased to 3.5. Forum posters immediately noticed, and Blizzard's Zarhym soon clarified the change.
Now, of course, there's debate raging back and forth about the change and if the sword is even worth crafting anymore. My take on it is yes, it's worth crafting -- it's just not better than Firelands drops for some players anymore. It shouldn't be even close, which it was. If you're crafting or buying this sword, you're still getting a better weapon than drops in normal mode tier 11 raids, and that's fine. It shouldn't outperform heroic tier 11 and be able to compete with tier 12 weapons. It's meant to help you catch up to Firelands, and it will still do that.
The news is already rolling out for the upcoming WoW Patch 4.2! Preview the new Firelands raid, marvel at the new legendary staff, and get the inside scoop on new quest hubs -- plus new tier 12 armor!Filed under: News items, Cataclysm, Hotfixes
Reader Comments (Page 3 of 3)
Natsumi Jul 30th 2011 12:35PM
Actually, if you are talking 346 it's an upgrade, if you are talking 353 Akiris or Shalag'doom it's very close to a side-grade, and if you have Zin or Ashkandi it's a downgrade.
Rolly Jul 29th 2011 10:50PM
"it's just not better than Firelands drops for some players anymore." It never was better than fireland drops with the ingame tooltip and you know that. Stop using the PTR tooltip.
It was 3.80 speed with a 3006 Top end, what you are doing is no better than what Blizzard did.
To nerf this from 3.80 speed 3006 TED on release of 4.2 and not say anything for those of us that ground out the dailies until just prior to availability and now today just fixing the tooltip is an underhanded slimy trick to pull on paying customers. It was false advertising , plain and simple. And you Matthew Rossi don't help by posting false information about where the weapon was at according to the tooltip.
Anyone with an ounce of integrity would have had the fortitude to accept it as it was stated and lived with the consequences.
Ilmyrn Jul 29th 2011 10:58PM
Rolly, that's taking it a bit far, isn't it? Whether you agree with how they do it or not, Blizzard's first priority has to be game balance, and they clearly felt this sword was unbalanced. I disagree with them on that count, but they did what they felt they had to do.
Rolly Jul 29th 2011 11:08PM
It would not affected balance one iota at it's stated stats of 3.80 speed and 3006 TED.
There would have still been better in heroic raids and in Firelands.
Rossi has posted the stats that it had prior to being reduced to 3006 TED to justify saying it deserved a nerf, it was then nerfed AGAIN just prior to 4.2 release.
Cambro Jul 30th 2011 12:33AM
I agree that is "feels" underhanded, but I don't think it "is" underhanded. I'm remembering Blizzard removing the ability of guilds to gain Guild XP from completing achievements only 2-3 days after introducing it, in the Cataclysm expansion. In both situations, it seems to me that Blizzard had a particular concept of how the thing was supposed to go, and either their assumptions were wrong or their calculations were wrong, someone ran the numbers, and someone else panicked and started screaming "change it now now now!".
In other words, I think Blizzard is guilty of doing more reacting rather than getting it the way they intend it to be.
Dave P Jul 30th 2011 3:02AM
This had been hotfixed by the 14th July - it's just that the tooltip wasn;t updated. I noticed the discrepancy between wowhead and mmo-champion's databases, and raised a ticket. Got this reply on the 14th:
"I have looked into this and I have found that the Masterwork Elementium Deathblade now grants a Maximum Damage of 2769. If you see a different value ingame, you might need to refresh your game cache. Please try deleting the Cache folder that you can find inside your WoW installation folder, then you should be able to see the stats as normal :)"
It has certainly affected sales - there are 3-4 currently on my server from the same vendors that are steadily coming down in price rather than selling. Fortunately I noticed before dropping (at the time) 18k gold on it.
I understand why they did it, the issue is more that they "forgot" to let anyone know...
Anaughtybear Jul 30th 2011 3:18AM
People raid for achievements. Let casuals have a few nice things for once. If I spend a month gathering/BG/crafting, it should provide me with some kind of worthwhile reward. Just because someone spent an hour putting up with 9 or 24 trolls doesn't mean they earned more than me.
Al Jul 30th 2011 3:23AM
They were good enough to reimburse the PvPers after that mess, and this would have been a similar-to-longer grind so hopefully they do something.
Draven Jul 30th 2011 10:10PM
I've seen so many melee classes using this sword or different iterations of it - and it's gross and girly - as one dude in RDF said 'It's She-Ra's sword'
juxul Jul 30th 2011 8:14AM
Is it just me or does this sword remind anybody esle of the MasterSword from the Legend of Zelda series.
korruptor Jul 30th 2011 12:02PM
I only have and will make more to sell because I refuse to have my warrior main wield this ugly sword
Stella Jul 31st 2011 2:45PM
I'm confused about so-called 'top end damage'. Isn't it average damage that's the important factor?
Take Templar's Verdict for example. The damage done is:
(((AP/14) * Weaponspeed) + Weapon damage) * 2.35
Now what does Weapon damage mean here?
Does Weapon damage = Top end damage?
OR
Does Weapon damage = A random number between the weapon's top and bottom damage?
If you're using a weapon with 800-1200 damage, does weapon damage = 1200 or does it equal a random number between 800 and 1200?
I'm confused because people keep using the term 'Top-End Damage'
To be clear:
1 - I'm NOT talking about weapon damage vs. DPS
2 - I'm not disputing the fact that slower weapons a better, I fully understand why that is.
What i'm asking if Top-End damage is the deciding factor or average damage is.
I'd appreciate it if someone cleared that up for me.
Thanks.
Durenas Aug 2nd 2011 2:31PM
The AP coefficient for instant weapon strikes that use a percentage of your mainhand is normalized at 3.3 weapon speed. It's been like that for years. If it's changed since then, I haven't heard about it. And no, you're not wrong, average weapon damage is most important. It's generally true, however that the range of damage a weapon will have is consistent(IE the same min-max spread) so if you look at the top-end damage, it gives you a pretty good idea of what the average weapon damage is. It's a somewhat... lazy... way of evaluating an upgrade but it's usually right. Much like evaluating a weapon based on weapon speed is usually right when comparing two items of the same item level and dps.