Stormhole

I haven't really seen any comparison on caster trinkets, so I thought I would get a discussion going ( the similar healer trinket thread had lots of insightful
comments ).

Here are the choices at 70:

Neltharion's Tear
Icon of The Silver Crescent
Lightning Capacitor
Shiffar's Nexus-Horn
Quagmirran's Eye
Eye of Magtheridon
Sextant of Unstable Currents

And for completeness, I guess I should mention:
Scryer's Bloodgem
Xiri's Gift
Mark of Defiance

I'm a fire mage, with about 1100 odd damage raid buffed, with a 28%-30% chance to crit
on fireballs and 28%-34% chance depending on which variation of 33/28/0 and 10/48/3 I'm
specced for, but I assume in most cases I would be optimizing for the cycle of
3x scorch (we usually have 2 mages in our raid with imp scorch )-> 8 x Fireball -> 1 x Scorch
[Repeat the 8x Fireball / 1x Scorch]. ( Using the Icon + the Tear at the moment )

That being said, I was hoping for starting a more general discussion of how each one
compares to the others, across any caster class.

The math behind the tear, the capacitor and various proc free trinkets seems to be easy,
take a look at how much you would get on an average per cast given your +damage level,
crit chance and miss rate, and you are done.

However, I don't really know of the hidden cooldowns on all of them to perform a comprehensive analysis.

Has anyone done any good number crunching or have a good spreadsheet to compare
the trinkets with procs to the passive trinkets ?

 

Tempestra

To my knowledge, there is the duration x 3 cooldown on Shiffar's and Quagmirran's Eye.

I have no idea on the Eye of Magtheridon or Sextant of Unstable Currents.

Personally I rep Icon + Tear on bosses, and Icon + Capacitor on trash/farming. I enjoy being hit capped on bosses and with the nerf, the Capacitor for fireball spam is nice but no long spectacular (I use the exact same fireball rotation). If I ever get the Quag's eye, it will probably replace the Tear for boss fights that don't involve AE. I like being hit capped but I like haste even more!

The trinket which interests me the most is the Sextant of Unstable Currents. Anyone have the math / numbers on that yet?

 

Stormhole

I've tried, but I don't know of if there is a hidden cooldown, and if so what is the duration of
the cooldown.

If it has no cooldown, then if you can land 2 crits every 15 seconds, it comes out to be
175 damage + 35 crit rating , which is godly.

With a 29% fireball crit rate ( what I would be over with that trinket ), it would come up
every 21 seconds on an average.

Since it would be up 15/21 seconds, that would make it the equivalent of
~125 damage+ 35 crit rating passive damage.

 

Tempestra

Chances are it's like Shiffar's and suffers from a duration x 3 inherent cooldown. Meaning once it procs, you have to start the chance at proc 45 seconds later.

Assuming a 30% fireball crit rate (for simplicity).

You'll see 2 crits in 6.66 casts.

6.66 casts of fireball take 22 seconds (assuming casting lag of 0.3)

This means you'll get a proc on average once ever 22 + 45 = 67 seconds, or once every 1 minute 7 seconds.

+175 dmg for 15 seconds of 1 minute 7 seconds means you have:
+39 damage and + 35 crit rating passive equivalent.

Great? Yes. Overpowered? No not really. Icon is 42 dmg + 25.5 average dmg (minimum), but it's controllable, so you can stack it on top of your combustions, AP, molten fury period, etc. Quag's eye scales better as well (and is just as unpredictable).


****
This, paired with lightning capacitor, could do some serious damage though - especially with a high crit scorch build.

The same calculations, assuming 34% crit rate on scorch (super easy to get), gives 10.56 seconds expected proc.

10.56 + 45 = 55.56 seconds for each proc, resulting in a passive +dmg equivalent of 47.25

Then again, I prefer fireball spam to scorch spam... but it's nice to calculate in theory =)

 

crimsonsentinel

As a shadow priest, +haste and anything related to crit are useless for me, so my favorite trinkets are the crescent and scryer's bloodgem/mark of defiance (depending on my need for hit).

 

Arnath

Does anyone know if these proc based trinkets (Shiffar's Nexus Horn in particular) will proc off of dot applications? I don't mean ticks, I mean when I actually cast Corruption or something on a mob. I feel like it'd be worth getting if it could proc off of that because when it comes down to it, I'm casting spells every 1.5-2.5 seconds, just like a mage.

 

Myul

It does, but only on cast like eg blackout.

You can just test this out by (massivly) reapplying an instant dot before the first tick start.

 

duostrike

Nexus horn only procs from crits. Last I checked dots don't crit.

 

doogless

yeah that example was probably the worst he could have given. chance on cast trinkets will proc just fine from the initial application of DoT spells, but obviously something like shiffar's will never proc from DoT spells as it's chance on crit.

 

Stankenstein

I've got to assume Quag's Eye does work off DoTs. I've had it proc off of casting Slow, AE, and Poly. It seems to proc off of any offensive spells.

 

• Playered

Quad's Eye procs off spell cast, including DoTs/Instants.

 

Ezareth

I have been using Shiffar's and Lightning Capacitor with an insane amount of crit.

I have been timing it and it seems the cooldown on Shiffar's is between 30-45 seconds. I've definately had it proc at @ 30 seconds of the buff wearing off but I'm not going to say for sure it is 45 until I get a few more ten thousand lightning bolts under my belt to be sure.

I also have Nelth's Tear, Scryer's BloodGem, and Xiri's Gift.

Anyone have some math on Quagmirran's Eye? With LC and my Elemental Focus talent I rely heavily on crit so losing 32 crit would be quite a bit of loss, not counting the proc. 37 damage > 32 crit, but the procs are where I would think Shiffar's would shine.

 

Tempestra

Haste (magical) and DPS contains some haste proc amateur theorycrafting. it's for the blade of wizardry but you can use the same methodology to apply to the quag's eye.

As an elemental shaman, I would opt for shiffars + lightning capacitor until you replace shiffars with sextant. Haste is nice and all, but the mana efficiency you gain from the crits on top of the fact that your lightning bolt talents supposedly affect the capacitor procs puts that combo over the top.

With the shiffar buff being 10 seconds, the cooldown is 30 seconds, following most proc items (10x3).

 

Muggins

Wowhead has a couple of comments stating that LC seems to take advantage of the Elemental talents towards lightning bolts. Specifically the 5% more damage, EF and lightning overload all affecting the trinket's bolt. From your experience with the trinket would you support this or is it just a load of twaddle?

 

Ezareth

Well I see 1100+ proc crits but never 1200.

I'm 100% sure it doesn't proc Elemental Focus, or crit at 100%. I am not sure about the 5% bonus damage, it SEEMS to be @ what the numbers suggest, but I HAVE seen hits for over the max damage on mobs.

The 11% lightning crit talents I am pretty sure do affect it because the LC crits a LOT just like my normal LBs.

The problem is parsing the data because the text is identical to my lightning bolts and only the damage is different.

 

Vazu

Don't forget about the,

Scryer's Bloodgem
Trinket
Requires Level 70
Requires The Scryers - Revered
Equip: Improves spell hit rating by 32.
Use: Increases spell damage by up to 150 and healing by up to 280 for 15 sec.

Arcanist's Stone
Binds when picked up
Unique
Trinket
Requires Level 70
Equip: Improves spell hit rating by 25.
Use: Increases damage and healing done by magical spells and effects by up to 167 for 20 sec.

We have some Mages (PVP specc'd) who raid with 50-60 +hit and don't have Elemental Precision. Then we've got Demonology/Destruction Warlocks in that same ballpark. Both of the trinkets above and especially the bottom one (167 over 20 seconds) free up a fair amount of other slots for crit gear.

 

Stormhole

The 30 second cooldown on the Sextant has been confirmed independently
as per posts on the Raids and Dungeons forums and wowhead.

 

Balkoth

Aye, as a fellow shadow priest I am currently using the Ancient Crystal Talisman and the Mark of Defiance.

I'm three Badges away from the Icon, though, and I plan to replace the ACT. That said, I'm wondering if trying to get the Tear would be a good idea...I'd gain 12 damage and some spell hit in exchange for the chance to restore 150 mana (on average).

Thoughts?

 

Bazze

I did a comparison some time ago but for shaman. The math was done for my elemental specced shaman with unbuffed ~750damage/30%crit and theoretical 27 casts/minute. Heres a short translation, plz excuse my bad english:

Xi'ri's Gift
Faction reward
Equip: 32 damage; Use: 150 damage for 15 sec; CD:2 min
- 1.5% crit = 567 damage/minute
- 150 damage/15 sec = 602 damage/minute
overall: 19 dps or 2338 damage over 2 minutes.

Scryers Bloodgem
faction reward
Equip: 32 to hit, Use: 150 spell damage for 15 sec, CD: 2 min
- 150 spell damage = 602 damage/minute
overall: 10 dps (calculated without to hit)

Shiffars Nexus-Horn
Endboss Arkatraz non-heroic
Equip: 32 spell crit, Equip: chance on spell crit 225 damage for 10 sec
- 32 crit = 567damage/minute
- damageproc /1.5 times per minute: 1930 damage/minute
overall: 41 dps or 4994 damage over 2 minutes

Quagmirran Eye
Slave Pens heroic
Equip: 37 damage, Equip: 320 spell haste for 6 seconds on cast
- 37 damage = 1152 damage/minute
- proc = 5600 damage/minute (this is quiet speculative)
overall: 112 dps or 13.500 damage over 2 minutes

Icon of the Silver Crescent
Shattrat, 41 Heroicbadges
Equip: 42 damage; Use: 153 damage for 20 sec; CD:2min
- 42 damage = 1264 damage/minute
- 153 damage for 20 sec = 2048 damage/minute
overall 34 dps or 4096 damage over 2 minutes

Lightning Capacitor
Karazhan, Commander Illhoof
Equip: Lightning Bolt for 700 Schaden every 3 crits
3 procs/minute = 2450 damage/minute
overall: 41 dps or 4900 damage over 2 minutes


Conclusion:

Personally i like passive trinkets more then active ones, i forget to use the timers often. Active trinkets are good for guaranteed burst damage (pvp or enrage bosses), but over time the damage output of the passive trinkets seems to be much higer.


my personal Hit list (shaman PoV)

1. Shiffars and Lightning Capacitor
The capacitor is a shaman fun trinket which uses many of the special shaman lightning bolt skills, in combination with Shiffars (which benefits from my fast casts and gives me crit, my new primary stat) the whole time theres is something going on, proc here proc there, i like it.

2. Quagmirran Eye
I think i calculated this with a wrong procrate, the damage should be around half of that or less. Anyways. This is (in my Eyes) the best trinket for a fire mage, but as a shaman i dont like a trinket which emptys my manabar even faster.

3. Xiris and Icon
Both good Trinkets but as i mentioned they cant compete with the passive ones, i dont use them out of PvP.

4. Scryers Bloodgem
As a elemental shaman with 12% to hit just from talents i have no need for to hit on a trinket. But maybe this is one of the best trinkets for classes with to hit problems, i can imagine a Qaggmirran + Bloodgem combination is really good for a fire mage.

 

Muggins

Just a little thing, Xi'ri's Equip is 32 Spell Crit, not Spell Damage.

http://www.wowhead.com/?item=29179

 

Gogusrl

anyone wants to do the math for Eye of Magtheridon ? http://www.wowhead.com/?item=28789

 

• Slake

Eh, the passive 42 damage on the Eye is nice, but the proc is terrible, because the better your gear gets, the worse the proc is. Ideally you should be hit capped against bosses anyway, and only have a 1% chance to be resisted; assuming you cast a spell roughly every 3 seconds (accounting for lag and pauses and such), then you expect a proc once every 5 minutes, or approximately equivalent to 5.67 damage.

+Ma's Reversing

 

• Groglox

I rerolled a mage and recently just picked up a Nelth's Tear to go with my Quags and I am curious where Nelth's stacks up compared to other trinkets I have / could get. I currently have Scryers and Xiris also available. I am 10/0/50 spec with 14.8% spell hit (including talents).

edit: Sorry if I am a bit behind the times, but I am still learning how to math these things out for myself.

 

Crepe

Last I heard/saw, Nelth's tear is still pretty freaking hot. It's the last piece of Azerothian gear I'm having trouble replacing.

 

Gumibear

Quagmirran's Eye even procs off non-damaging spells like Curse of Tongues.