[MoP] Mage Trinket Analysis and Discussion (5.1)
 

 

Contents

1 Introduction 2 How I Got These Values 3 How To Interpret The Charts 4 Arcane 5 Fire 6 Frost

[top] Introduction

The intention of this thread is to analyze the trinkets available to Mages and rank them according to the DPS each provides. Please use the following lists as a general guideline in determining which trinket combinations you should use to yield the most DPS out of your character.

[top] How I Got These Values

The following charts are the results from Simulationcraft (version 510-7). I imported the T14H Mage BiS gear lists (under Sample Profiles) for each individual spec, removed both the trinkets from the gear list (in the simulate tab), and (in that same simulate tab) added a list of the trinkets I wanted to simulate.

For trinkets with reforgable secondary stats (Hit, Haste, Mastery, Crit), I reforged for each spec’s highest valued stat. (So for all of the Arcane trinkets, I reforged every trinket for Mastery if possible; Frost trinkets were reforged for Haste; Fire trinkets were reforged for Critical.)

Unless otherwise mentioned, every simulation was run at 25,000 iterations, at a fight length of 360-540 seconds, and with all buffs and debuffs.

[top] How To Interpret The Charts

It’s very important to understand that this chart is a general guideline for raiders and is not necessarily the best for your character. There are two things to look for when considering the accuracy of this chart:

1. Gearset

These charts were made using the stat weights of a Mage in Best in Slot gear. If you’re wearing LFR or Normal gear, there is a chance that these trinket values will shift values in proportion to stat weights that your gear holds. The only way to know which trinkets are truly best for your character is to run a simulation with your character’s gear. However, the closer your gear gets to Best in Slot, the more accurate this list becomes.

2. Individual Trinkets

These charts were designed to compare the DPS gained from individual trinkets. When I ran these simulations, although BiS gear lists were used, one trinket slot was empty (the other, holding the trinket we’re looking at). While this gives us a good look at individual trinkets, it skews the results slightly because that empty trinket slot should actually be filled; and when it is filled it changes the stat weights so that the trinket-in-question’s value actually changes.

For an example of this, look at the Arcane section of this thread and notice that, although Relic of Yu’lon (upgrade 2) simulates higher DPS than Heroic Light of the Cosmos (upgrade 2) with an empty trinket slot, when Heroic Essence of Terror (upgrade 2) is placed in that slot, Heroic Light of the Cosmos (u2) begins to simulate higher DPS than Relic of Yu’lon (u2). This shift in DPS is caused because of the consideration of the other trinket in the gear list. This effect can be seen at all gear levels and within trinkets on these lists.

(However, note that Relic of Yu’lon (u2) and Heroic Light of the Cosmos (u2) are very close in the individual list. As a rule of thumb, anything below a 100 DPS difference is notably close and the trinkets could switch spots; and anything above ~300 DPS can be considered a sufficiently large enough gap to differentiate one trinket as better than another.)

3. Boss Specific

The charts here reflect trinket-DPS based on a Patchwerk style fight (that is to say, single target with no movement). However, there are encounters with multiple targets, movement, or some gimmick that changes the circumstances and a certain trinket will perform better than these charts value them. Bear in mind that trinkets might parse differently for different fights.

[top] Arcane

Notice Relic of Yu’lon (u2) and Heroic Light of the Cosmos (u2) yield DPS very close to each other. Comparing them with Heroic Essence of Terror (u2) as your first trinket, the results show:



Looking at 0 upgrades and Heroic Essence of Terror (u0) in your first trinket slot:

[top] Fire

Heroic Light of the Cosmos (u2) as your first trinket yields:



Heroic Essence of Terror (u2) as your first trinket shows:



So the individual list holds true that Heroic Essence of Terror (u2) and Heroic Light of the Cosmos (u2) is the best trinket combination for Frost.

[top] Frost

Because there isn't much ambiguity for the trinkets as Frost spec, we don't need to look at the top trinkets in detail.

I am guessing this analysis was done using simcraft's default priorities for each spec - each spec using the mage bomb that matches it. However, the frost setup obviously has it using frost bomb since LotC is providing virtually no benefit. Frost bomb is almost never used in raid situations. Living bomb as fire is also (in theory) slightly lower DPS on a single target than NT is. If doing this on a pure patchwerk style "training dummy" fight, all three specs should be set to using NT.

You're right that I let each spec use their respective bomb. I re-simmed using Nether Tempest in place of Living/Frost Bomb and got the results. I'm not entirely sure I got the action priority list right though so I'll include them.

(Everything in this post is same as before, except the iterations were at 10,000 and both of these results use Nether Tempest instead of Living Bomb and Frost Bomb, respectively.)

Fire




These numbers are very similar to the ones posted above.

Frost




The trinket values shifted (especially for the Light of Cosmos trinkets) but they seem to be doing less DPS than when Frost spec used Frost Bomb.