If you need +hit, especially if you are primarily resto but need to switch to balance and have all gear with no +hit on it, the Jewelcrafting [Figurine - Twilight Serpent] can be really good, especially if you plug in two +27 hit gems into it.

Obviously this is only for Jewelcrafting druids.

Hopefully once Ulduar comes out we'll see the epic version with a 2-min cooldown similar to the TBC progression. Rawr's not correctly valuing the 5-min cooldown, so I edited it to a 2-min cooldown and it's competitive with the raiding trinkets. I assume they would also add a few stats to it to increase its value from there.

For those who'd like to see how it performs as is, open it in the item editor, and you'll see where the entry for the spellpower on use is (only one entry of 340). Delete that entry, and in the box above it, edit in 136 (the ratio of 5-min cooldown to 2-min cooldown). It's not perfect, but it comes close enough.

After fixing Rawr to properly handle the spell power bonus on this trinket, it comes out to roughly equivalent to [Mark of the War Prisoner] when gemmed and if you don't need the hit. If you do need the hit, it's somewhat weaker, but still perfectly serviceable.

Any easy way to get the [Thunder Capacitor] added in? Larger bolt on proc, takes 4 charges instead of 3. I have a feeling it really shines for us pre-raiding, but I'd like to see it modeled to be sure.

If you get any numbers for this I'd be glad to add them to the initial post. This weekend I should be able to put separate sections for the pre-raid trinkets. For the JC'ing one I'll show values with hit gems and pure spell power gemming to give people an idea of its' value. I'm not going to use Dragon's Eyes because you would be using those in other sockets if you switched trinkets; it misrepresents the value of the trinket itself. You might even be doing yourself a disservice by not putting them into your blue sockets anyway.

EDIT: If you want to send me an approximate DPS value at a specific set of stats from RAWR to use as a reference for the Thunder Capacitor that would be a start. If dope's approximate valuation from rawr is correct that would make it better than the Embrace of the Spider, which isn't a bad ranking for an uncommon rarity trinket.

Do we want to include the [Item not found!] as a raid trinket? Most of the math shows it as a below averafe trinket even for affliction locks (While being amazing for DK's) and we have less DoT effects than those. Does anyone have the math for this particular trinket given full IS/MF uptime?


One of the reasons I really favor Mark of the War Prisoner for pre-raid is the very nice synergy when/if you upgrade to the Dying Curse. If you're already geared around that hit value it's a very easy transition to make. The same benefits exist for the JC trinket as well.

Sample test case: 2088 spell power, hit-capped, 27% crit, 18% haste (in 10-man raid buffs). Rawr's selected rotation shows IS/MF/W. No Eclipse, but does have Starfire glyph, so effective rotation is MF/SFx3/IS/WxN.

Illustration of the Dragon Soul: 210.0 DPS
Embrace of the Spider: 143.1 DPS
Sundial of the Exiled: 128.5 DPS
Dying Curse: 117.0 DPS
Thunder Capacitor: 116.6 DPS
Forge Ember: 115.8 DPS
Extract of Necromantic Power: 102.3 DPS

That's the output from Rawr for the top caster trinkets. Mark of the War Prisoner is worth 94.3 DPS if you need the hit, 43.5 DPS without. Similar numbers for the JC trinket.

I'm assuming your numbers for Dying Curse are if you do not need the hit, based on your test case scenario.

I'm really curious about the Embrace of the Spider results; what proc rate/ICD do you have for it in Rawr at the moment? That seems far higher than I would expect especially in a wrath-heavy rotation. You could even be getting more DPS by switching to Starfire on proc instead of using your Eclipse-Wrath (For rotations with eclipse). I'm really not a huge fan of the random haste proc mechanic due to conflicts with wrath and bloodlust. I imagine it would be a far better trinket if it just had a flat haste rating value equal to the average from the proc.

On the PTR the [Illustration of the Dragon Soul] has been reduced to 18 spellpower, thus reducing the benefit from it to a static 180.

rawr is still showing it as ranking pretty high, (slightly higher than dying curse) even with the nerf.

It's too bad it'll no longer be overpowered. Hopefully they'll rescind their decision.

I already adjusted the values with a note as to the previous value. As per the discussion in the mage forum thread: it's a good nerf to where it is but any more and we'll be using ilvl 200 trinkets instead.

Why would you want a specific item to be overpowered? You undermine future itemization when you misvalue a particular piece of gear and create excessive reliance on one particular drop similar to the DST in BC.

The thing is, though, if that "top end" is so amazing, then we're all going to be farming Sartharion for the next year. Arthas-killing guilds will still be blowing through that instance just for that one trinket, just like Illidan-killing guilds farmed Gruul for the DST. Is that really what you want, or would you rather it be a nice and powerful trinket _now_, but replaceable when T8 comes out and everyone is moving on to newer and more exciting content?