Monday, February 12, 2007

Ambril's Trinket Review

It's been said by me and many others that the most valuable thing that a mage can take out of Molten Core is the Talisman of Ephemeral Power. This is particularly true now, as the Azuresong Mageblade has gone the way of the Arcanite Reaper so fast it's literally hilarious (considering how much freakin' drama has occurred over that sword over the years). And now as the Burning Crusade has come to pass and I am level 70, the once epic gear that I possessed has mostly gone away without much fanfare. Granted, Arcanist was never truly that great (I am one of those mages who insisted on staying in my Robes of the Archmage upon receiving my Arcanist Robes anyway). The one thing that has persisted through all of this though… are my trinkets.

One thing I've noted in the Burning Crusade is the addition of passive aspects to useable trinkets, which is a fantastic development overall. But as I've seen a few caster trinkets pass through my hands, I have yet to see one that has really grabbed me ~ yet to see one that makes me want to say goodbye to good ol' ToEP or my ToA, for that matter. The truth is, a good trinket is hard to replace ~ hence why above all else, a person should strive to obtain the very best trinkets they can (regardless of what class they are playing).

Here is an abstract of some of the trinkets I've managed to dig up that are new to TBC and are of similar nature to ToEP (in no particular order). This list is by no means complete, as I'm certain I've both missed items and that there will later become available others that will put most of these to shame (considering that none of these are actually pieces of raid loot and only one is epic).

Ancient Draenei Arcane Relic
Drops: Terokkar Forest quest reward
Equip: +21 to crit
Use: +120 to damage for 15 sec
Cooldown: 1.5 mins
The passive crit bonus is nice, the damage bonus is mediocre and the duration of the effect is on the short side. Only decent if you didn't already have something better. Once upon a time you would have drooled over +3% crit, but those days are gone. Get your crit elsewhere and get a better trinket.

Vengeance of the Illdari
Drops: Hellfire Penninsula quest reward
Equip: +26 to crit
Use: +120 to damage for 15 sec
Cooldown: 1.5 mins
The passive crit bonus is nice, the damage bonus is mediocre and the duration of the effect is on the short side. Only decent if you didn't already have something better.

Icon of the Silver Crescent
Drops: 41 Badge of Justice turn in
Equip: +42 to damage
Use: +153 to damage for 20 sec
Cooldown: 2 mins
Sweet jebus. This thing is practically a Talisman of Ephemeral Power and a Neltharion's Tear combined. Not quite, but close enough to drool longingly over. I know what I'll be saving my Badges of Justice for now.

Arcanist's Stone
Drops: Epoch Hunter (Old Hillsbrad)
Equip: +25 to spell hit
Use: +167 to damage for 20 sec
Cooldown: 2 mins
This offers a good excuse to equip some spell hit bonus. The real gem of this is the 20 second duration, meaning it's a good blast of sustained damage bonus that doesn't build or degrade like other noteworthy 20 sec caster trinkets. The cooldown is a bit longer than I'm used to, but pretty good overall.

Figurine - Living Ruby Serpent
Drops: 370 Jewelcrafting
Equip: +33 stam/+23 int
Use: +150 to damage for 20 sec
Cooldown: 5 mins
Exceptional burst damage due to a long duration and decent stat bonuses. The very long cooldown makes this a weak trinket for longterm DPS benefit. You can use a Talisman of Ephemeral Power three times in the time it takes to use this once. Equip it for the stats and occasional good burst, but not as a primary workhorse trinket.

Quagmirran's Eye
Drops: Quagmirran (The Slave Pens)
Equip: +37 to damage
Equip: Chance on spell hit to improve haste rating
Cooldown: Not Applicable
It's really hard to say how good this really is, but the +37 to spell damage alone makes it worth equipping if you don't already have some nice stuff.

Scryer's Bloodgem
Drops: The Scryers - Revered
Equip: +32 to spell hit
Use: +150 to damage for 15 sec
Cooldown: 1.5 mins
Meh, I'm not that impressed, to be perfectly honest. Technically probably on par with ToEP or perhaps a little better, but I wouldn't exactly shard a ToEP for it unless I was having loads of trouble with spell misses or something.

Shiffar's Nexus-Horn
Drops: Harbinger Skyriss (The Arcatraz)
Equip: +32 to crit chance
Use: Chance on spell crit to +225 to damage for 10 sec
Cooldown: Not Applicable
Impossible to calculate, but this thing looks very, very tantalizing.

Xi'ri's Gift
Drops: The Sha'tar - Revered
Equip: +32 to crit
Use: +150 damage for 15 sec
Cooldown: 1.5 mins
This is the better version of the Scryer's Bloodgem for those who are hording crit bonuses. It really depends on how badly you need crit. The spell damage bonus is merely alright. Better for a Scorch/burst caster than the Zandalarian Hero Charm though, I'll give it that ~ which I guess would make it a half way decent PVP +dmg trinket.

The following calculations should be taken with a grain of salt, as they only take +spell damage bonuses into effect, ignoring other bonuses such as +spell crit and the like. I've looked at three different types of casters, judging by what their 'workhorse' spell is and assuming a "spam" ~ ie. the noted spell is the only thing being cast during the duration of the trinket effect. The Scorch results can be used to supplement for any non-aoe instant cast, as instant casts receive the same +dmg benefits as a 1.5 second cast spell such as Scorch. All in all, these lists by no means paint a full picture of what makes a trinket good. They are merely abstracts of a couple ways of looking at them. Also, while I believe I got the math right, it is possible that I may have miscalculated on the trinkets that build/degrade (namely ZHC and ToA).

The first list of 'raw damage' reflects the net bonus over the duration of the trinket effect (in most cases 15 or 20 seconds). The second list reflects the long term DPS of the trinket, taking into consideration how frequently it can be used. There isn't a lot of difference between the frostbolt and fireball results, due to the fact that they are fundamentally similar spells, though not completely so. One notable difference appears to be that Fireball casters benefit more from the Talisman of Ascendance, due to the fact that they do not use the effect of the trinket up as quickly.

Frostbolt Spam
Raw damage per usage/burst:
1. Icon of the Silver Crescent: +1270 dmg
2. Arcanist's Stone: +1088 dmg
3. Figurine - Living Ruby Serpent: +977 dmg
4. Zandalarian Hero Charm: +941 dmg
5. Talisman of Ephemeral Power: +855 dmg

Overall DPS boost
1. Icon of the Silver Crescent: +21.9 DPS
2. Neltharian's Tear: +14.3 DPS
3. Quaggmiran's Eye: +12 DPS
4. Talisman of Ephemeral Power: +9.5 DPS
5. Briarwood Reed: +9.4 DPS

Fireball Spam
Raw damage per usage/burst:
1. Icon of the Silver Crescent: +1300 dmg
2. Arcanist's Stone: +1113 dmg
3. Figurine - Living Ruby Serpent: +1000 dmg
4. Zandalarian Hero Charm: +969 dmg
5. Talisman of Ephemeral Power: +875 dmg

Overall DPS boost
1. Icon of the Silver Crescent: +22.5 DPS
2. Neltharian's Tear: +14.7 DPS
3. Quagmirran's Eye: +12.3 DPS
4. Talisman of Ascendance: +10 DPS
5. Talisman of Ephemeral Power: +9.7 DPS

Scorch Spam
Raw damage per usage/burst:
1. Icon of the Silver Crescent: +1114 dmg
2. Arcanist's Stone: +954 dmg
3. Figurine - Living Ruby Serpent: +857 dmg
4. Talisman of Ephemeral Power: +750 dmg
5. Scryer's Bloodgem/Xi'ri's Gift: +643 dmg

Overall DPS boost
1. Icon of the Silver Crescent: +19.3 DPS
2. Neltharian's Tear: +12.6 DPS
3. Quagmirran's Eye: +10.6 DPS
4. Talisman of Ephemeral Power: +8.3 DPS
5. Briarwood Reed: +8.3 DPS


The case for the Talisman of Ephemeral Power stands in that while other trinkets may represent well in one aspect or another (burst vs. long term) the ToEP still rates high in both categories for both long and short casting styles. There is better, sure ~ but the number of items currently available that are noteably or even marginally better are very few, to say the least. The only clear winner is the Icon of the Silver Crescent, which I am assuming that everyone in their right mind is going to want to get.

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