Buff gets refreshed whenever you cast a spell.
Buff builds up with sheep and counterspell ( not with detect magic, i guess any spell that would aggro a mob)
Buff builds up on multiple mobs with AOE
Given typical casting patterns, the buff is always up. There are exceptions ( like
pauses in phases on the Kael fight ).
The melee attack power buff builds up when you wand, fancy that.
Good for the magic immune kara mobs I guess.

I guess I'll be choose between between this and an active trinket based on if there is chain
casting or not or lapses, in raids usually theres a lot of chain casting, so it works out well.

All in all, I'm really happy with it so far.

The cards are considered to be ilvl 100.
for comparison that should be close to equal to a ilvl 115 blue (as you've seen before 2.1)

Personally i think 120 ap (once it's active and you can keep it there) isn't bad, but its no holy grail either. There are only so many fights that last long enough, and allow you continuous dps without losing the buff, that in most cases i'd be more likely to use Hourglass of the unraveler than 1 of these cards. (heck, even my old drakefang talisman would be better)

Mind that rogues can probably get to 20 stacks pretty fast, fights like: big wolf, prince, gruul, magtheridon, moroes, curator to some extent, aran... Blizzard has done a good job as keeping things "interesting" and moving around. but the buff will ilkely reset to 0, more often than not.

Does the spell-portion of the trinket procc on flametongue-hits?

this is just like a free Flask of Relentless assault for rogues, because rogues can definitely keep this buff on them in a short time. seems a little bit overpowered...><

I can't find the thread where a warlock asked for real-world raiding experience with this so I'll just post here:


This was harder to keep up on Gruul than I thought, largely because I have few instant-casts that I can use to refresh it during the extended shatter phase. Instant corruption alone would make it a lot more usable. That said, it was up "enough" that I still feel it outweighed my other options (Xiri's gift or scryer bloodgem.)

Engaging Mag shortly.

I just used this for Gruul and a full SSC clear and the buff was kept up almost all the time. Even if the buff were to reset every minute you're still looking at roughly a +60 damage trinket and it was usually up much longer than that. Lurker diving and tidewalker watery graves are the only things I can think of that consistently knocked it off in SSC.

For a fire mage, what are some tricks to keep up the buff? Last night on Void Reaver I was killing myself trying to keep it up with ice lance because of the limited range on it. I will try Rank 1 fireball tonight though, a one second cast with a full 41 yard range, though I still have to consider the flight time. How many times does the buff fall off on average for most people?

Definately a better trinket for casters than other DPS, due to a lack of solid caster trinket itemization (wheres our DST?). Buff falls off as much as you would expect really (KT pauses, if you have to dodge a few bombs in a row on VR, Al'ar meteors), basically if there is a 10 second duration where you don't land a spell on a hostile target. I am using this and Icon atm, and it works pretty well.

I play an Enhancement Shaman and I use this card almost all the time.

Stacking AP:
-Windfury adds a charge for each hit
-Stormstrike adds a charge for each hit
-Each time you hit, you refresh the stack

Stacking +dmg:
-FT does NOT add a charge
-Flame Shock ticks do NOT add charges (initial cast does)
-I have not tested FB weapon, it is my theory that it does not add a charge. If it does, though, that could be interesting w/ the upcoming Enh tree changes.

This Card is fantastic for Enh Shaman. I have zero problems bringing the AP stack up to a reasonable bonus. I am having problems keeping my +dmg stack up, though. Primarily because if I hesitate to shock, I have probably lost my stack. I usually get a few +dmg stacks going, though. Every little bit helps. I have a feeling that

Does Detect Magic refresh the buff? I know Mind Vision does, at least until next patch.

I remember Manly saying he tested that and he said no.

I found it rather easy to keep up the stack as a warlock. I'm also destro with no insta dots

You definately have to plan for it, and I can see some people not wanting to put forth effort into it.

I'm typically on non-dmg curse duty and if for some reason I have to run/move/not attack for 10+ seconds I can apply a curse like CoS to a sheeped mob or something else, like CoA a frog or creep inside the instance. If it's a boss that moves around like Supremus, I just re-apply the curse since its instant if I know I'm going to have to move around to follow him as time on the stack runs out.

At first, I did not like it, but now I'm used to it it's not bad at all, you just have to get creative on how to refresh the timer.

I suppose also as a caster you have to know when its worth it to cast a curse to refresh (use a GCD), or just cast a regular damage spell. If you let the buff expire, you'll lose 80+72+64+...+8=440 worth of +damage (over the next 10 spells), if I am not mistaken. So if it comes down to casting CoS and refreshing the buff, or Shadowbolt and letting it expire, Shadowbolt will usually be better.

Why not on lurker? The only times I could see it fading are in the add phases. other then that you should be dpsing from the water anyways, I keep 97%+ DPS time on lurker.

Edit: read some other responses here.

So in my experience there are a lot less fights that this is worth it on than I orginally thought. Anyone through SSC/TK want to do a quick run down and which fights they swap this out on?

Also what about trash? I think TLC or Shiffar's would be a better choice because of the constant downtime.

It depends both on your trinket alternatives and your class. As a priest, it's worth using the card on every fight in SSC and TK simply because mind vision refreshes the stack (at least for now). Mages have more trouble. Perhaps it would be best to list fights where it's likely to fall off and you can work out if rebuilding the stack every X second is worth it or not. In general if you can maintain the stack for at least 2 minutes, it's the best trinket you'll have access to for a while.

Hydross, Morogrim, Voidreaver: Never falls off
Karathress: Occasionally falls when transitioning between adds
Leotheras: Often falls off during whirlwind
Vashj: Falls off a lot in phase 2 if you aren't careful tagging elementals
Al'ar: Falls off almost every meteor in phase 2. Never falls off in phase 1.
Solarian, Lurker: Sometimes falls off when adds spawn
Kael'thas: Only falls off in the phase 4 to 5 transition

Well, currently I'm deep fire and have to use the Bloodgem to become hit capped, so really I'm just working with one slot here. I'm also working off of the assumption that on fights with no drop off Crusade is better than the Icon...that's correct, right? I'm kind of thinking though if there's any sort of drop off whatsoever Icon might be a better choice overall because it takes so long to build the stack with fireballs. Casting a single AM (as deep fire) to rebuild the stack would actually help a lot with that. Not sure if it's worth giving up a fireball though.

I completed the Blessings deck recently and have had some hands-on experience with the card. As many have said, it's not perfect, and it's extremely frustrating when the stack drops, but in my use so far, from Gruul through Hyjal, it appears to be the best or second-best trinket for Shadow Priests in the game, in almost all raiding situations, and I think it will remain so even after Mind Vision stops refreshing the stack. This is for two reasons:

Itemization, which has been mentioned, but which is also most dire for Priests due to dependence on +damage as our primary offensive statistic. If this stack stays up for the majority of the fight, the pure damage given by this card is unmatched.

Priest spell design, specifically that of Vampiric Embrace and Mind Flay. Those two spells can be cast on an add or secondary target to refresh the Card's stack without dealing any damage (by quickly interrupting the cast, in MF's case). This makes the card more useful on trash - breaks between targets can be smoothed by putting VE on an arbitrary enemy - and on bosses with changing conditions of some sort, like Al'ar when he becomes untargetable during Meteor and 2.1 Solarian when adds emerge. Due to this, even on such fights, you can achieve near-complete uptime as a Priest, without Mind Vision.

Lurker and Leotheras are the only fights I've seen where the stack tends to drop. For us, other than there, it's basically +80 damage all the time.

I have the Blessings deck on my alt warrior, and while I was Fury, it was amazing. On Gruul, it's pretty much always on, and providing 132 Attack Power (considering Improved Berserker Stance). Almost all the fights in Karazhan are great for it. I dont have experience with it in SSC or TK though, considering it's on my alt =/

I've found that on Lurker, it's not too hard to keep it up if you stay in the water for phases when he is up, and I usually use the VE trick on adds during add phase to keep the stack.

It's great for Void Reaver and Tidewalker. Basically any fight that's good for melee is good for this trinket.

Mind vision with crusades right now is quite amazing...even on fights where there are lierally no targets you can always target a trash mob further along and MV it to keep it stacked.