First off, I apologise for not using the spreadsheets to work it out, but (a) I'm in nub gear and some of it isn't even on the spreadsheets because it's too low, and (b) almost all my gameplay is in 5-man instances (hitherto normal, but moving to Heroic more often now) where the sustained steady-state DPS isn't necessarily the appropriate measure.

Simple question - I have the Abacus and the Hourglass at present - which (if either) should I replace when I get my last Blessings card for the Crusade deck? Longer term, which do I replace with the Bloodlust Brooch?

Armory profile is here
http://armory.wow-europe.com/charact...ing&n=Schizzle

I'm 19/42/0 combat mace spec - currently using Drakefist and Khoraazi, aiming to upgrade to Dragonmaw and Sunblade once I've farmed Heroics a bunch longer.


My feeling is that the Hourglass is the weaker of my trinkets at the moment - it's random proc rather than controllable, and my crit rate isn't great (and will never be as high as mutilate or even combat daggers/fists).


On the other hand, the wind-up time for the Crusade deck will make it somewhat less desirable - has anyone tried it for solo farming / 5-man content and can they comment on how well the buff stays up? Would I do better continuing with the abacus/hourglass for now and only swapping in Crusade for bosses?

All other tips on itemisation / enchants / gems gladly received - I know the bracers are the weakest slot at the moment.

Sorry about the URL, I pasted it direct from the browser - Firefox oddness, I guess.

I thought Blessings was supposed to be pretty hawt, as in long fights it's effectively a flat 120AP. Hourglass uptime is a maximum of 22.2% (internal cooldown), probably less than 20% for me, so the average benefit is 32crit and ~55AP.

Ashamed to admit that I vendored the Spymistress' because I didn't look at the socket <blush>. DPS-wise if I socket with 16AP they'd still come in only a little above the aged leather gloves, but it's 15 stamina that would have come in handy.

In terms of gear, assume that everything raid-wise in inaccessible currently. Will have access to Kara gear inside a month or two though (RL factors getting in the way of raiding at the moment)

Initially i thought that as well, but in long fights it'd be 120 ap, but blizzard has been cunning enough to limit those fights to only a real few.
Aeonus has a stun, some bosses have you run around, fear you, stone and shatter, mindcontrol, lift off, summon minions, have you run from enfeeble, arcane explosion. etc. so.. there are very few cases where you'd actually have the 120 ap. active, or if you do, for very long.
It might average out to 80AP for most fights.

The Hourglass gives:
32 Crit, equals about 64 AP.
300 AP with 20% uptime, makes about 60 AP, totals for about 124 AP

The +crit card gives you (i think) +12 crit rating whenever you don't crit.
an average rogue crits 1 in 4 attacks, meaning it'd end up as at most 48 crit (halfed by uptime / downtime) = 24 crit rating, resulting as very poor.

If you're getting a Karazhan guild soon, you may want to look out for Romulo's Poison Vial.
It has some nice stats on it. Other than that i can only recommend to improve your blue gear, farm for the Assasination set, do some heroics for the necklace, there are pants from quagmirran, a belt from aeonus, and checkout shadowpanther.net for some other options,
Perhaps you could even do some casual arena playing, just get 10 games per week done. The new season is almost here, and some of those weapons / armor will equal Tier 5.

But for trinkets, i really don't think there is much room for improvement on those until you start raiding.

I'm confused why you'd spec maces, for pvp ? You don't seem to have any pvp gear yet though.

Mace spec is because the best weapon I can get is the BS mace, and I've had no luck getting Latro's to put in the OH for sword spec. Most of the points are needed as prereq for combat potency. Could stick them in something else, but the +skill is nice for bosses. And don't underestimate the stun proc for heroics, interrupts etc.

Assassination - aye. Leggings and shoulders look like slight improvements, though the quagmirran legs are of course better. Helm looks to me like a definite downgrade from Cobrascale, notwithstanding the meta socket.

So, complete shopping list is:

Normal
--------
Assassination shoulders / legs (Ikiss/Murmur)

Heroic
-------
Midnight Legguards (Quagmirran)
Girdle of the Deathdealer (Aeonus)
Nightfall Wristguards (Epoch Hunter)

Badge rewards
----------------
Nethers for Dragonmaw (50 to go if I get unlucky on rolls for nethers)
Searing Sunblade (50)
Choker of Vile Intent (25)
Bloodlust Brooch (41)


Then there's a bunch of quasi-sidegrades that trade a bit of damage for a bit of health

Mantle of Shadowy Embrace - Keli'dan Heroic
Master Thief's Gloves - Murmur Heroic
Shadowstep Striders - Skyriss Heroic
Mask of the Deceiver (50 badges)
Blood Kight War Cloak (25 badges)
Ring of the Arathi Warlords (25 badges)

I saw that belt on WoWHead and went nuts trying to get it. I ran heroic BM a good 5+ times a week for 3 weeks. Another rogue in my guild did the same. Drove the guild healers nuts.. they sorta rotated around, lol. After 3 weeks I finally got the belt, guildie still hasn't.

Moral of the story.. dream high, shoot for the moon.. but good luck actually getting that damn belt. Oh, and he DOES drop it.. one of few bosses who drop 4 different purples (I've only seen the sword and belt once each.. caster legs 3-4 times, rest pally belt and/or gems).

Random Notes: I was 999/1000 exaulted with KoT before even trying heroic BM.. yay for riftmaker farming.. boo for doing an instance like 50 times. I've now started helping my guildmate farm for his belt, works really nicely with 2 rogues just going to town on the elites. Searing Sunblade is amazing. Never underestimate weapon speed when it comes to combat potency. With a few timely procs I can DOUBLE my energy regen rate.. without AR. (SnD, Bloodlust, dragonspine/abacus/blade flurry)

Tell me about it. I'm long past 999/1000 exalted with CoT and still don't have Latro's. Lost it twice, once to a Mutilate rogue who wanted it "in case I respec", and once to a *&^*& holy paladin because "It's more DPS than my current one hander" (the caster sword off Murmur). Pugs: just say NO.

Just about everyone in the group has it now - rogues, tanks for shits and giggles, and even one of the mages, just to irritate me [1], and it's been sharded about 5 times from runs I wasn't on.

Lucky I actually enjoy the instance.

[1] Lovely guy, but maybe I shouldn't have teased him about how many times he did Tribute runs for the Rod of the Ogre Magi and never got it...

Not sure why noone has mentioned it, but the wastewalker set is very nice and easy to get, im still using the shoulders/chest.

Heroic blood furnace end boss for the chest and heroic crypts endboss for the shoulders. Those two pieces are actually better when combined that anything you'll find for quite some time, including karazhan.

Latro's is definatly great of course and really there'd be no reason to replace it once you grab it aside from stam.

Im not sure how advanced your server is but there is also a good possibility that you can find someone selling a belt of deep shadow, the mats for it are insanely cheap for how good the belt is, its the reason i stopped wanting to run BM for the girdle ;]

Oh i didnt click your armory but there is also a damn good cloak that drops off the last boss in heroic crypts, the auchenai death shroud <probably spelled wrong> Its a mini drape of the dark reavers and is a very nice cloak for a blue.