Unbearably HoT

Does the prospect of clearing Ulduar multiple times a week get you hot? Are you desperate for gear, emblems, or Fragments of Val’nyr? Do you enjoy your high-population realm but crave the vanity satisfaction of realm-first achievements? Are you a real-life Gevlon? Does your guild share your vision? If you answered “yes” to any of the above, Blizzard now affords you the ultimate opportunity to min/max your raid-time: three-day realm transfers.

In the wake of all the Blizzcon hoopla, this little feature seems to have been tacitly accepted or conveniently unnoticed. The immediate benefit is obvious: if you make a poor transfer choice and/or fail a guild application, you don’t have to wait a full month to leave. The obvious drawback? Your “mistake” costs you $25. For Blizzard, this is a fantastic way to boost revenue while supposedly catering to the public “good.” Why isn’t there any outrage? For many players, WoW is an investment in the same fashion that golf or SCUBA diving may be to another individual. If WoW is your hobby-of-choice, why not take advantage of the little things that could lend to your own virtual happiness?

What few players realize is that all of your raids and dungeons reset when you transfer realms. This means that, theoretically, you can clear every dungeon twice within one normal lockout period. If, then, you could clear the 10 and 25 versions of every dungeon within each transfer lockout (3-days), you could gain the following from each transfer (discounting hard modes or Algalon:)

• Obsidian Sanctum – 8 Emblems of Conquest
• Eye of Eternity – 2 Emblems of Conquest
• Vault of Archavon – 8 Emblems of Conquest
• Naxxramas – 32 Emblems of Conquest
• Ulduar – 26 Emblems of Conquest
• Trial of the Crusader (up to the Twin Valkyrs) – 24 Emblems of Triumph
• Total: 76 Emblems of Conquest and 24 Emblems of Triumph
• Total per week: 152 Emblems of Conquest and 48 Emblems of Triumph

That, of course, isn’t including any sort of gear upgrades you might come across or any achievements you might receive. If you’re especially industrious and had a lot of time on your hands, you could also complete every Heroic dungeon each day, which would net you a total of 53 Emblems of Conquest and 2 Emblems of Triumph. Your new weekly total (again, assuming you’re insane and do everything) is:

• 523 Emblems of Conquest and 62 Emblems of Triumph

There’s also potential to do two rounds of Heroic dungeons per day on the days that you transfer your character (including the daily), which would give you an extra 53 Emblems of Conquest and 2 Emblems of Triumph on that day. Because of the time required to do all of those dungeons (especially if you’re pugging them all), this is probably an unlikely situation.

So let’s assume a few things:

1. You’re not interested in finding a “new” home; you’re going on a whirlwind tour to acquire gear and emblems.
2. You have the time necessary to fully exploit said adventure.
3. You’re not a terrible player and have a useful dual-spec. It will obviously be easier to get into runs if you’ve got a tanking or healing offspec. Just saying.
4. You’re confident that your target realms will yield a group capable of clearing your dungeons of choice. Safe bets generally include realms with a High or Full population. Conversely, if you’re looking to bring an entire guild along and earn some realm-first achievements, look for Low population realms.
5. You have a considerable amount of disposable income.

Got all that? To prepare, you’ll probably want to do a few things. First, make sure that you have a reasonable amount of gold on your character to purchase anything you might need along the way. Second, because the economy on each realm may be dramatically different, consider bringing raid consumables with you. Do a little research and see if there are any regular pick-up-groups running on your target realms that you may be able to finesse your way into in advance. Finally, as you initiate your first transfer, make sure you save a slot on your original realm with your character’s name. Before you make your final transfer back, delete the level 1 alt and resume your name. If, however, you’re looking to change your character’s name, leave the level 1 alt and you’ll be forced to rename your character when you return.

Here’s how the basic schedule goes:

September 2009

Total dollars spent: $250.00
Theoretical earnings (minus heroic dungeons): 1,900 Emblems of Conquest & 624 Emblems of Triumph
Including each heroic dungeon, daily: 3,490 Emblems of Conquest & 684 Emblems of Triumph

$250 could get you a late night “escort” in Las Vegas, a plane ticket from Detroit to Chicago, an iPhone 3GS, an XBOX 360 Pro, or dinner with your friends at NINJA New York. Is it worth it? If you’ve got the time, money, and play a hybrid class who wants a lot of gear, sure. The success of the entire plan, however, rests on your own ability to get yourself into successful raid groups within a three day window. What’s interesting isn’t so much that you should try this to maximize your play, but that you can. So if you’re the kind of person who tells your spouse to consider splitting savings into four separate checking accounts at a new credit union to min/max a gimmick interest rate—this plan’s for you. Start saving.

Let’s provide a little background. We Druids have had a stormy relationship with our Idols—they were either tiresome or difficult to obtain, and their equip effects haven’t always been ideal. Even after Wrath came out, Bears either suffered through content using a Level 70 item as best-in-slot or participated in a series of daily PVP quests to pick up the threat-boosting Idol of Perspicacious Attacks. It wasn’t until Ulduar that Bears cheered the Idol of the Corruptor—and then simultaneously booed when they realized it dropped off of Heroic Vezax. For Cats, life was a little simpler: just pick up the Idol of the Ravenous Beast for a few Emblems of Heroism and then hope you could eventually snag the Idol of Worship from Naxxramas.

Now, just about everything is purchasable with the right sort of currency—if you know what I mean—including the Idol of the Corruptor and the Idol of Mutilation. But which do you really need, and should you have more than one on hand? The short answer is: YES, ALL OF THEM. But if you’re not crazy, don’t raid very much, or only have the means to obtain one in the near future, the below information will help you get started.

Idol of Worship < ArP 230 < Idol of the Ravenous Beast
Idol of the Corruptor ← Manglebot? → Idol of the Ravenous Beast
Idol of the Ravenous Beast ←ArP > 230 and 25 EoT → Idol of Mutilation
See Above ← Bear → Idol of the Corruptor

What if I swing both ways? Is there a quick answer for Bears?

If you function in any capacity as a Bear tank, I strongly recommend spending the Emblems on the Idol of the Corruptor. For a full and complete breakdown, please see Kalon’s post (and his whole blog, really:) “Don’t get Idol of Mutilation for Bear!” But wait, you say, doesn’t the Idol of Mutilation give you 200 Dodge Rating for 9 seconds every time you use Swipe or Lacerate? Well, yes. At first glance, it sure does sound better than the Idol of the Corruptor. If you break the numbers down, however, it looks a little like this:

Better than you thought, right? Fuck yes, kids. The Agility proc is enhanced by Blessing of Kings, Survival of the Fittest, and Mark of the Wild. With a near 100% uptime for every time you Mangle, you can gain nearly as much Dodge as the Idol of Mutilation boasts, in addition to threat and mitigation boosting stats. And, since the Idol of the Corruptor rolls in at the bargain price of 19 Emblems of Conquest, it’s a steal.

I’m already sick of looking at the ass end of my bear. Let’s get back to DPS.

Despite all that shit I just said, you should still buy the Idol of Mutilation—but for DPS purposes. Why? Even at a basic level, it makes sense: the Idol of the Ravenous Beast, which most top-end Druids use now, only benefits Shred damage. Previous incarnations of Idols required a Mangle to proc the AGI effect, and with the advent of other abilities that provide bleed augmentations (read: TRAUMA), Cats really weren’t (and still aren’t) Mangling very much at all anymore. The best option was thus to gem for ArP and boost your main damage dealing ability as much as possible: Shred.

The Idol of Mutilation allows you to proc the 200 AGI effect for 16 seconds when you Mangle or Shred. Rather than increasing Shred damage by 203, the Idol of Mutilation amplifies all of your damage dealing attacks by the 200 AGI proc effect. In addition, initial reports suggest that this Idol has a near 100% uptime—if you’re Shredding and/or Mangling. Presumably, if this functions similarly to the Idol of the Corruptor, the 200 AGI is also affected by Survival of the Fittest, Mark of the Wild, and Blessing of Kings. Thus, that 200 AGI gives you:

So is the Idol of Mutilation better than the Idol of the Ravenous Beast?

This is where it gets complicated, and you’d be best served by taking a peek at one of your most recent damage breakdowns. As a Cat, your goal is to make sure that you keep Savage Roar, Faerie Fire (if you don’t have anyone else who can apply it), Mangle (if you have no bot), Rake and Rip up at all times—without clipping DoTs. In between all those fun things, you Shred like a mad beast and use Ferocious Bite when you’ve got five combo points and extra time on all your other debuffs/buffs. That’s the basic version, anyway.

The idea is that the AGI proc effect will give you the most kapow if you’re spending a reasonable amount of time micromanaging those debuffs/buffs—which will apply to most of us. There is speculation, however, that using two-piece T8 and two-piece T9 (which extend the durations of Rip and Rake, respectively) gives you more time to kick back and Shred. A lot more. If that is the case, the Idol of the Ravenous Beast may once again edge out the Idol of Mutilation.

Additionally, you need to take a look at your total %Crit. Remember Tossk’s DPS Gear Methodology? At some point, AGI (contributing to %crit) loses value to AP. If Coliseum gear pushes Cats (raid buffed and all) well over ~60% Crit, again, the Idol of Mutilation may lose value to the Idol of the Ravenous Beast (which will provide a raw damage increase).

Tentatively, I want to say that the Idol of Mutilation is better than the Idol of the Ravenous Beast. I obviously do not have the capability at this point in time to test those two prior theories out. Once everyone starts acquiring more gear and there’s a healthier portion of data to dick around with, we’ll have to come back to this—and please, if you’ve got some sample numbers and corresponding stat information, send it on over!

A “filler arc” is a phrase used to describe a short side story in a serial comic book or TV show that diverges from the main storyline. It’s often used as a device to prolong the life of a series, give the producers/creators more time to work on the plot, and ostensibly to give the viewer time to catch up to the main story. Remember when your elementary school teacher would take a day off and leave the substitute with four thousand worksheets to keep you busy? It takes up time. Patch 3.2 essentially functions as Blizzard’s filler arc: a semi nonsensical diversion that appeases the content-mongerers and passes out catch-up loot to everyone else.

I mean really—let’s set up a tournament on Arthas’ doorstep where we can hang out and practice fighting shit. He’ll obviously ignore everyone (after having interfered in such minor affairs as Utgarde Keep, for example) and wait until we’re ready to charge through the Citadel itself. But despite Blizzard’s new round of sweeping class changes, Feral model update, and lackluster boss encounters, it really is an excellent time to round out your gear sets and snag some muchly needed updates.

Just in time for Patch 3.2, I’ve updated the Cat DPS Gear Spreadsheet to include all the new Feral DPS items—except for trinkets, idols (which I’ll cover in another post), and PVP gear. This list will exist in a constant state of flux as numbers change, items are added, and I decide to integrate other useful features, such as gear weights based on the FBN model (which I generally follow). I am, however, trying to stay away from designated “best-in-slot” items. Why? Although I’ve suggested super jawesome high-end items to aim for, it’s exceptionally pertinent to note that you need to build your gear around your stats and playstyle. Blindly following any suggestions and/or lists are a sure fire way to look like a retard at some point down the road.

Here are a few things to remember:

• Armor Penetration hard cap is 1231.6. Generally, we Druids talk about reaching an ArP “soft cap;” that is, the ArP hard cap minus the ArP proc from a trinket. For example, 1231.6 - 612 (proc on Grim Toll) = 619.6. That 619.6 is your soft cap. Until you hit 619.6 ArP, that’s the best stat to stack for both gems and gear (but don’t take a lame piece of loot JUST for the ArP).
• Expertise and Hit still exist for a reason. You don’t necessarily need to be at the cap these days, but you’ll want to be close.
• Keep slots open for tier gear! The two-piece T9 bonus extends the duration of Rake by three seconds. This is pretty cool, especially when you consider that’s three more seconds for you to dick around with other things. Like Shred. The two-piece T8 bonus, if you recall, harkens back to the days of T4 and free energy gains. This time, however, the periodic damage dealt by your Rake, Rip, and Lacerate abilities has a chance to cause you to enter a Clearcasting state. Right now, it looks as though wearing two-piece T8 and two-piece T9 will be optimal. If you’re currently wearing four-piece T8 or two-piece T8 with two-piece T7, I don’t recommend breaking your set bonuses until you have two pieces of T9.

If you were actively raiding Ulduar (especially hard modes), you may not find considerable gear upgrades until you’ve been through the Heroic versions of the Coliseum. If you’re looking for quick and dirty upgrades, however, you’ll likely get the biggest bang for your badge buck by going with items such as:

• Hood of Lethal Intent (75 Emblems of Triumph). Arguably BiS until Heroic T9.25.
• Leggings of Wavering Shadow (39 Emblems of Conquest). Definitely not BiS, but very easy to obtain right now.
• Broach of the Wailing Night (19 Emblems of Conquest). Again, not BiS, but with the changes to Conquest Emblems, you’ll have no trouble picking this up after a night of Heroics. It’s a very well rounded and well-itemized accessory with both ample ArP, AP, and AGI.
• Dexterous Brightstone Ring (35 Emblems of Triumph). Basically the best ring you can get your paws on until you get one to drop out of the Coliseum.
• Duskstalker Shoulderpads (45 Emblems of Triumph). Although a shoulder slot generally gives it up for a piece of tier gear, these are essentially better than everything until the Heroic T9.25 spaulders.
• Death-warmed Belt. Sure, you’ll have to shell out some cashmoneys, but you’ll get an incredibly shiny belt with the capability to sport three sockets. This will tide you over until you can pick up the Belt of the Merciless Killer/Belt of the Pitiless Killer from the Twin Valkyrs.

Still going to run hard modes in Ulduar? Even if you just try and pick up some easy 10-man achievements, you can still score totally sweet gear. Here are a few pieces you shouldn’t overlook:

• Drape of the Faceless General (Vezax Hard, 10 man). This is only marginally “worse” than the two shiniest cloaks from the Coliseum (that we know of): Drape of the Untamed Predator/Cloak of the Untamed Predator. Why? This cloak sports ArP and two sockets. Awesome. I still haven’t seen this drop.
• Embrace of the Gladiator (Thorim Hard, 25 man). While you’ll go far with the newest chestguards from the Coliseum, three sockets are nothing to sneeze at.
• Seed of Budding Carnage (Freya Hard, 10 man). Although this isn’t BiS anymore, it’s still a fantastic necklace with ArP, AGI, Hit Rating, and a socket.
• Loop of the Agile (Iron Council Hard, 10 man). The socket on this ring really makes it great.
• Soul-Devouring Cinch (Yogg Hard, 10 man). With the capability to slot another socket here, this belt still remains one of the best. Good thing Yogg is pretty cake right now.

This spreadsheet isn’t the end-all-be-all on what you want or need: think about it as a resource for quickly skimming through gear to aim for. If you notice any mistakes and/or items that are not included, please feel free to drop me a line, either via comments or the Contact page.

Looking for info and gear suggestions for Bomb Owls and Bears? Go see Graylo and Kalon, respectively.

Bushidox, of Cenarion Circle, is the second winner of the Guest Yogger contest and comes to you today with a discussion about the benefits of Armor Penetration.

With the 3.1 patch and Ulduar there are a number of new gear choices and options to maximize your effectiveness as a cat. The biggest stat change is to Armor Penetration, which used to be the ugly redheaded stepchild of DPS and has recently turned into the girl next door (re: catches your eye but remains fairly unobtainable). Theorycrafters agree on a couple of key points about Armor Penetration. First, the ArP stat was made a great deal more effective in 3.1, to the tune of around a 25% increase in effectiveness. Second, there is now a great deal more gear to be had from Ulduar that has significant ArP, typically at the cost of Haste or Crit Rating. Third, while effective, ArP has to be stacked fairly high in order to see real results. The general consensus is that with Faerie Fire and 5x Sunder Armor active on a boss target, an ArP trinket proc, and an ArP value above 400, ArP becomes our greatest stat to stack for DPS increase.

Currently, testing illustrates that you can reduce a target’s armor below zero, at which point ArP becomes the best stat by a fair margin. I know what you’re thinking: that’s too much ArP to reach, and even if you did hit it, you would have to give up so many better choices to obtain it. This is in actuality false. Using Rawr, I configured a gear set up that has the following sexy attributes. Two piece bonus for tier 8.5, two piece tier bonus for tier 7.5, 266 hit rating, 137 expertise rating, and 667 armor penetration rating before trinket procs. All told this gives you an unbuffed crit rating of 43.5%, and nearly 7400 attack power before raid buffs.

Here is a table of the gear pieces used and the pertinent values for each piece:

For the sockets, one yellow socket is 16 Hit, 3 yellows are 8 Hit/8 Exp, and the last yellow socket is 8 Hit/8 AGI. All three red sockets are 16 ArP, all three of the blues as 8 ArP/12 STA, the extra socket in the belt is 16 ArP, and the Meta is a Relentless Earthsiege Diamond. The enchants are assumed to be Ebonhold helm, Hodir exalted shoulders, 22 AGI to cloak, 10 stats to chest, 50 AP to bracers, 44 AP to gloves, Crit/AP on pants, 16 AGI to boots, and Massacre on weapon. This may be further enhanced by your choice in professions.

Why is 667 ArP significant? The reason being, is that if either Grim Toll or the Runestone proc, the target suddenly has zero armor towards the penetration cap against your attacks. On the table you will note that the Runestone is listed as 655 proc when the tool tip has it listed as only 612. Several players have reported the proc rate as giving 655. It remains to be seen if they change the tool tip or the item proc to match the current tool tip. Either way, you now are doing true maximum damage. You get the benefit of both of your 2 piece set bonuses, have no misses, and are at the soft 6.5 Expertise cap assuming you took the talent Primal Precision. The current model of Rawr supports this, as at this point ArP now becomes the best choice for gem sockets over any other option. In addition, with 600+ ArP and at least one trinket proc checked, Toskk’s model supports ArP as only being beaten out by Critical Strike. Fully buffed, you will be around 50% crit anyway, which is where most experts agree is the sweet spot for cats.

Now understandably you are going to say, “But wait, that’s a dream set up! There is no conceivable way I can possibly get all that gear in this lifetime—why would I care about a theoretical model?” To this I can only assure you that 400+ ArP will result in a significant gain when paired with a Grim Toll/Mjolnir Runestone proc. The best news is that with Valorous Helm and Shoulders and an Aged Winter Cloak, you are already around 100 ArP. My advice is to pick up the ArP pieces when you can cheaply, and save up for the Mjolnir Runestone. I also would not bother gemming for ArP until you hit at least 300+ penetration and have one of the two trinkets. The Moljner Stone and Grim Toll will likely outstrip any conceivable trinket pairing, even the godly Darkmoon Card: Greatness. While not nearly as noticeable on non-bosses, significant ArP will benefit you for all sorts of DPS.

Now that you know the facts, go out and give your pussy the penetration it deserves!

For more of BushidoX’s reference notes, please click here!

A recent comment preempted this post by reminding me that my old list of “gear with Hit Rating” is dated. With the arrival of 3.0.8, we can now take advantage of two-handed maces and polearms—to great effect. For DPS purposes, two-handed maces and polearms nearly eclipse staves of similar item level for DPS purposes and often have Hit and Expertise Rating on them as an added bonus. Let’s take a look at some high-end weapons you’ll want to consider. As a reminder, all numbers are calculated assuming you’ve maxed out Heart of the Wild and Survival of the Fittest. 

Two-Handed Maces

Inevitable Defeat (Naxxramas): provides 120 STA, ~2,407 total AP, ~1.01% Crit, 169.6 AC, 2.03% Dodge, and 2.34% reduction in Dodge & Parry chance. 

The Jawbone (Naxxramas): provides 108 STA, ~2315 total AP, 2.97% Haste, and 1.77% reduction in Dodge & Parry chance. 

Demise (Naxxramas): provides 103 STA, ~2,051 total AP, 1.35% Hit, and 2.67% Haste. 

Titansteel Destroyer (BS crafted): provides 103 STA, ~2,129 total AP, and 1.62% Hit. 

Obviously if you can get your paws on Inevitable Defeat, do it. I’d roll against my mother for that shit. If, however, you’re a fresh 80, you’re looking for an entry-level weapon and you don’t want to rely on the RNG for something shiny, do yourself a favor and get the Titansteel Destroyer crafted. It’s pretty sweet. 

Polearms

Black Ice (Eye of Eternity): provides 88 STA, ~2,341 total AP, 1.37% Crit, 2.74% Dodge, 228.96 AC, 2.16% Hit, and 1.74% Haste. 

Cryptfiend’s Bite (Naxxramas): provides 108 STA, ~2,339 total AP, ~1.90% Crit, ~1.29% Dodge, 108.12 AC, and 2.35% Haste.

Wraith Spear (Naxxramas): provides 79 STA, ~2,072 total AP, ~2.62% Crit, ~2.28% Dodge, 190.8 AC, and 1.37% Haste. 

Saliva Corroded Pike (Heroic VH): provides 135 STA, ~1,799 total AP and 2.13% Crit.

Staves

Journey’s End (Naxxramas): provides 114 STA, ~2,679 total AP, ~2.81% Crit, ~2.21% Dodge, 184.44 AC, and 2.25% Haste. 

Origin of Nightmares (Naxxramas): provides 150 STA, ~2,353 total AP, ~1.27% Crit, ~2.54% Dodge, and 926 AC. 

Staff of the Plaguehound (Naxxramas): provides 150 STA, ~2,366 total AP, ~0.91% crit, ~1.83% Dodge, 1.77% reduction in Dodge & Parry chance, and 152.64 AC. 

The Undeath Carrier (Naxxramas): provides 151 STA, ~2,352 total AP, ~2.80% Crit, ~2.54% Dodge, and 212 AC. 

Staff of the Plague Beast (Naxxramas): provides 135 STA, ~2,080 total AP, ~1.13% Crit, ~2.26% Dodge, and 818.68 AC. 

Staff of Trickery (Heroic VH): provides 133 STA, ~2,124 total AP, ~1.13% Crit, ~2.26% Dodge, and 188.68 AC. 

I’ve charted out the “highest” and “lowest” options for ease of comparison. Note that the cells highlighted in purple denote the “best value” for each category.

A list of numbers is difficult to look at, nevermind make sense of. It’s easy to say hey, this piece has more Crit and AP than this other piece, but you also need to consider secondary factors. Like what? Many of these weapons have Hit and Expertise Rating. As frequent readers know, I’m a big fan of maxing out Hit and Expertise percentages for optimizing sustainable damage. You severely handicap your DPS potential if you’re not capped appropriately against the mob in question (usually, level 83 raid bosses). Thus, you stand to gain the largest DPS increases if you max Hit and Expertise (until the cap) over AP, Crit, and all those other fun things. 

What happens if you’re faced with choosing between one weapon with more Critical Strike and another with more AP? To determine which stat will ultimately be more useful to you (assuming, of course, that the two weapons aren’t wildly dissimilar otherwise), we need to refer back to a post I made about Cat consumables. In that particular article, I briefly discuss Tossk’s DPS methodology:

You can stack AP and STR forever, but you’ll want a corresponding amount of Critical Strike (via Critical Strike Rating and AGI) to gain the largest DPS benefits. I could draw my own pictures for you, but why do the work when Tossk of Kael’thas has been doing it forever? He’s got a fantastic graph that illustrates approximately when +1 AGI is > +1 STR, and vice versa. The giant red line that marches steadily upwards represents the place where 1 AGI approximates 1 STR—your theoretical happy place you want to find eventually. 

If you find yourself lacking in terms of critical strike (where +1 AGI > +1 STR), you may want to opt for the Elixir of Deadly Strikes rather than a flat out AP boost (since you’ll get nearly 1% Critical Strike out of it). If you’ve somehow managed to acquire an absurd amount of Critical Strike already, focus on improving your AP (via Elixir of Major Strength of Flask of Endless Rage). 

Your goal, then, is to find a balance between the two stats. Let’s consider the dilemma using our low-end weapons. The Staff of Trickery and the Titansteel Destroyer rank similarly: whereas the Destroyer has more overall AP and Hit%, the Staff of Trickery has more Crit%. Essentially, if you’re hurting for Crit, go with the Staff of Trickery at the expense of a few AP. If, however, you’re in good shape with Critical Strike and could also use a boost to your Hit Rating, the Titansteel Destroyer will give you over an entire percentage point. That alone might allow you to rid yourself of some high Hit pieces of gear that are otherwise dated. The Titansteel Destroyer is also crafted, which means that you’ll never have to play the RNG to get it (though Violet Hold is arguably the easiest Heroic out there). 

The clear winner from a purely damage based perspective is Journey’s End, one of our original dr00d staves. It’s got more AP and Critical Strike than both Black Ice and Inevitable Defeat, even if the Haste is a little extraneous. I’d rank Black Ice second (for the sexy balance between AP and Crit with the addition of Hit Rating) and Inevitable Defeat third. Just remember: if you’re in need of Hit or Expertise, the Black Ice or Inevitable Defeat will ultimately be your best option. Regardless of all the number crunching here, these three weapons are pretty exceptional, and you’d be lucky to steal any of them. Have all three? Even better! Optimize your armor sets for Expertise and Hit so that you can make the most of any given situation (or gear acquisition), or put together a Threat set (as if we needed more) for tanking.  

Want to know how I got those numbers? Using data from EJ, I made my own little spreadsheet that lets you plug in base weapon values and receive the interpreted data. You can download it here.