Quoting GC's most recent post:

I'm not sure where the interpretation came from that we're going to nerf Scourge Strike for PvE. All I was trying to say was that the current 3.3 version of Scourge Strike seems to be working correctly for PvE but might be penalized too much by resilience in PvP. If that turns out to be the case, then you would see your Scourge Strike damage go up in PvP (assuming the target has some kind of resilience) and stay the same in PvE.

I know we have changed this talent a lot, and I do apologize for any confusion. If you recall, not long ago Scourge Strike could crit independently. When we changed that, we removed some of its ability to double dip. A +damage ability should already affect the physical portion of the strike, so indirectly affects the Shadow portion of the strike. Abilities, most saliently Ebon Plague, that do not affect the physical damage can still boost Scourge Strike through the Shadow portion. Resilience, on the other hand, already reduces the physical damage done so indirectly affects the Shadow portion done. It should not further reduce the Shadow portion separately. We took steps to make sure that wasn't happening, so it it is indeed happening, something broke along the way. My apologies if that is the case.

Source: World of Warcraft - English (NA) Forums -> Scourge Strike is bugged. Fix this for S8

Thankfully, it looks unlikely that we'll be penalised for the current double-dipping behaviour if SS is changed, then.

Arthas loot tables are out on the official armory. All he drops are weapons, which means the BiS lists won't actually change aside from that one slot (which, yes, will be BiS), generally speaking.

Best sans Shadowmourne: The World of Warcraft Armory
Best sans 25m heroic: The World of Warcraft Armory

Edit: The BiS lists have been updated appropriately, but there may be a slight tweak to them once Zeracks is up to date, as most of the changes were just calculated by hand.

The only real area which I'm not certain on is the hit issue (which comes about due to the str Ashen Verdict ring. Nothing to do with the new weapons); alliance have to drop a slot worth of it somewhere. You can't drop gloves due to the set bonus (and picking up the legs will overcap your expertise). Dropping bracers would be too large a loss, as there's no other 277 plate bracers (although the crit/arp leather bracers might be an option, now that I think about it). That leaves cloak/ring. Cloak is the better option between the two, despite it being crit/haste, as you're going up in ilvl and thus gaining str.

Unless I did something wrong, the t10 legs would be bis on the Shadowmourne table, along with rotface's cloak. Or at least a more easily available option. There are many yellow sockets to gem hit to cover the gap.

You did something wrong.

[Sanctified Scourgelord Legplates]
193 str x 3.01 = 581
40 str (gems) x 3.01 = 120
122 crit x 2.23 = 272
106 exp x 1.93 = 205

Total of ~1178 eap.

[Scourge Reaver's Legplates]
185 str x 3.01 = 557
60 str (gems) x 3.01 = 181
122 crit x 2.23 = 272
98 haste x 2.09 = 205

Total of ~1215, easily ahead of the tier legs. Swapping around the cloak is a separate matter entirely, but I'm completely confident in regards to the legs.

Glove enchant, icewalker, and then a str/hit gem or two. Most optimal way to do it. For alliance, anyways, which was what it was aimed at.

If horde, you simply swap the cloak for the 10m TotGC cloak, or the neck for the 25m normal Deathwhisper neck. Off the top of my head, I'm not entirely sure which is the better trade off, although it's (highly) likely the neck. I can make note of it similar to how I made note of the difference in cloaks for alliance/horde with the other sets.

Edit: To that one post I accidently skipped over; I could add a "normal 10m only set" or "normal + hard 10m only set", of course. It would be very easy to calculate and wouldn't be a hassle at all. The reason why I haven't bothered to look into such things and add them is that I simply can't see how valuable such lists would be.

How many people do 10 mans and only 10 mans? Perhaps a person is in a "strict" 10 man guild, but they don't occasionally join the 25m TotC pug? Or perhaps just do Marrowgar as he's a joke and his weapon is better than any (normal) 10 man weapon? Toravon for the easy 264 tier? Focusing on 10ms is understandable, but never ever dabbling in 25s?

Perhaps I'm just ignorant of the playstyle, and if so I certainly apologize, but I can't imagine there are many players who just completely ignore 25 man content completely, which is what any such item list would be assuming.

Thanks for the quick reply. I completely forgot about using the glove enchant and adding in icewalker.


Edit: When I switched out Lana'thel's Chain of Flagellation for Ahn'kahar Onyx Neckguard and added in icewalker it's 247 hit. Since 264 is hit cap for horde would it be better to use two 10 str/hit gems or using the +20 hit glove enchant?

Edit: Sorry I don't know how to link items in the forums.

Wouldn't alliance dk's still want to get for the 8% unless they changed it to where you didn't need to get 264 hit rating for your ghoul to get expertise capped? Last i knew everybody needed the 8% from rating alone to get full expertise for their pets, and that the alliance aura didn't count towards that.


*Edit* Frank the agi ring i believe is better for fury warriors and rets. Either way you should sim it and see which they say gives you better dps. For dk's the str ring is better.

That leaves you around 1% chance of your pet to see dodge. The ghoul is around 10% of your damage. That is just a 0.1% DPS loss.

Yes Afabar but i perfer to squeeze everything out i can for dps. Just how i am. Now need to get a weapon from 25 man so i can lose some expertise and gain more damage over all. Lost every 2-hander in icc25 and then the people left the guild that got them. Oh well.

*edit*Either way i was just saying about the hit to expertise for pets if you are trying to get every possible dps point out. Though ghoul dps vs character and other stats probably out weight the hit to expertise that i said.

You can either get 20 hit on gloves, or downgrade 2 20 str gems to 2 10 str 10 hit gems.

So you need to consider the kind of gear you're wearing.

If you have no yellow socket that will give you +4 str, 20 hit on gloves and red gems will give you 20 hit and 40 str; while 15 str on gloves and yellow gems will give you 35 str and 20 hit; 20 hit is the clear winner here.

If you have 1 yellow socket that will give you +4 str, you would get 39 str and 20 hit again, thus making 20 hit the enchant to go for.

If you have 2 yellow sockets that will give you +4 str, you will get 43 str and 20 hit using yellow gems, so it's better to enchant +15 str in that case.

Using the iLevel 277 stat weights on the front page, [Oathbinder, Charge of the Ranger-General] is coming out slightly above [Glorenzelg, High-Blade of the Silver Hand] due the ArPen being the most valuable stat and Expertise being the least. As well as both weapons having identical speed and damage.

Did this using python:
>>> str = 3.01
>>> crit = 2.23
>>> arp = 2.92
>>> exp = 1.93
>>> agi = 1.58
>>> polearm = (179*agi)+(60*str)+228+(114*crit)+(122*arp)
>>> sword = (198*str)+(68*str)+(122*crit)+(114*exp)
>>> polearm
1301.8800000000001
>>> sword
1292.7399999999998

This is assuming 3 x Bold Cardinal Ruby in both weapons and that the sword offers a socket bonus of +8 Str.

Kinda lame to be aiming for a hunter weapon, but at least the flavor text seems more DKish than the sword.