I've just been calculating the value of all highlevel mage trinkets for use in my own item spreadsheet, based on the proc rates etc given on wowhead. (And also assuming the generally accepted 10/48/3 spec of course)

I'll dig up some hard numbers for you when I get home from work, but right now I recall well that The Lightning Capacitor is far and away the best possible trinket. With about 35% practical fireball critrate (which is easy enough in mid-Karazhan) it's equal to about +100 dmg. Serpent-Coil Braid looks very attractive (fun?) but falls abit short in the end (the mana bonus works out to approx 11 mana/5 IIRC). Sextant is basically an improved Shiffar's (still among the very best) since it shares the exact same procrate/internal CD (20% and 45s). As for the Crusade card, well, it approaches +80 dmg on longer fights and is very weak in a "trash-clearing" situation.

I seem to recall the six best in my calcs were TLC then (not in correct order!) Sextant, Quagmirran's, Shiffar, Icon and Braid. As I said, I'll update

I will go on and post my numbers. First a note about stat weights: when comparing different stats, I take +dmg (or +fire) to be the baseline (weight 100), which leads to 1 crit rating = weight 63 and 1 hit rating = weight 51. The certainty of these numbers are totally dependent on the certainty of the DrDamage addon, otherwise they are correct for my character. Furthermore, I have (from experience/personal preference) set weights of 60 for mana/5 and 50 for spell haste. The rating for spell haste is completely speculative, I have no real info about how spell haste affects DPS. I assume 1 crit per 10 seconds for the sake of critbased procs.

Thus:

TLC: 11667 value: (((1/0.9)*(750*1.2)*(0.35/3))*100

Magtheridon's Eye: 9650 value: (54+(170*(10/40)))*100

Shiffar's: 8640 value: (225*(15(10/0.2)))*100 + 30*63

Sextant: 8220 value: (190*(15/(10/0.2)))*100 + 40*63

Icon: 6883 value: (43+(155*(20/120)))*100

Quagmirran's Eye: 6367 value: 37*100 + (320*(6/(30+6)))*50


I hope this is at least slightly readable/understandable. We often have the usual (staticdmg +) dmg*(timeeffect/totaltime) calc.

For TLC I assume 1 +dmg = 0.9 actual damage, trying to find a balance between Scorch and Fireball coefficients. I'm also assuming a 35% fire critrate and 20% nature critrate.

For Mag's Eye I am assuming 1 "miss" every 40 seconds.

Shiffar's is currently better than the Sextant, since it's effect lasts 15 seconds (tooltip says 10). For both of these I assume 20% procrate (from wowhead)

For Quag's I assume fireball spam and 10% proc (wowhead), so it will proc every 30 seconds, then last 6 (I'm assuming it can't stack or overlap, info about internal CD is unavailable).

Serpent-Coil Braid is a bit more complex so I'll take it by itself here:

(225*(15/120))*100 + 30*63 + 12*51 + ((1067*0.25)/120)*5)*60

1067 is the average mana value of the three best mana gems.

This gives an overall value for the Braid of 5981, which is unfortunately less than even The Restrained Essence of Sapphiron (6167).


A lot of numbers here Let me be clear that my stat weights (expecially except for hit and crit) are highly subjective and based greatly on my own character. I do think most firemages at my item level have reasonably similar relationships for +dmg/crit and +dmg/hit though.

That's a good point! However, the only assumption I'm making is that the bolt CAN crit, which I think there's ample evidence for

Stein, why do you have separate rankings for Shiffar's & Sextant but not for the Capacitor?

The Capacitor benefits from Scorch even more than those trinkets. Those 2 trinkets have crit and damage which scale with the larger Fireball, whereas the Capacitor does not. Of any trinket it is the one which most begs to have separate rankings.