Ragemane's Flipper Quest Rewards

Thu Nov 20, 2008 12:00 pm

Ragemane's Flipper Quest Rewards

So there's three choices. I wanted to see what everyone's opinion was on them.

Crescent of Brooding Fury

This has the highest defense rating of the three weapons. I'm not 80 yet, but I see my defense skill dropping steadily with each level, making this weapon very tempting. However, a recent post I read on here about us being nearly at the Expertise soft cap makes me wonder if those particular stats on this weapon would be wasted. This is the lowest dps weapon and is a 2.6 speed, though all the weapons are very close on dps. The extra expertise probably makes this one pull ahead for dps, but that's just a guess on my part.

Hammer of Quiet Mourning

This is what I'm currently eyeing. Not as high defense as the other weapon, but no "wasted" itemization either. It has the highest strength and the highest dps... though, again, all the weapons are very close in that regard. The dodge is a nice stat on this. I find myself wondering if I will miss the defense on the axe or not.

Sword of Heartwrenching Slaughter

No defense. Ouch! Lots of avoidance, but for me the lack of defense makes it less appealing. I really need defense where I can get it, and as nice as the avoidance is I just can't seem to justify it... but maybe someone here sees some redeeming value to this one.

Thoughts?

Turumbar

Thu Nov 20, 2008 12:33 pm

I was just looking at these weapons and came here looking to make some sort of post.

Man am I glad you made this already, looking forward to reading some comments and seeing the poll results.

vya

Thu Nov 20, 2008 12:38 pm

Hammer. Although you make a good point about defense, the balance between defense and dodge appealed to me.

This replaced my Dragonscale Encrusted Longblade, which makes me exceedingly sad since that was the most badass looking weapon I've ever had.

guillex

Thu Nov 20, 2008 12:51 pm

For a Human, the choice is cut down to two... And in the culling, it's brought down to one because of the lack of defense.

I'll be using the Mace, not only for the expertise bonus from my racial, but because it's got the highest DPS of the three (.2/.1, but every bit counts).

Fridmarr

Thu Nov 20, 2008 12:56 pm

I don't think it'll matter much at all. I went with one of the swords so I could level that weapon skill, because my entry Naxx weapon will likely be a sword. As a dwarf a mace would be ideal, but they don't seem to be making any epic versions of mace tanking weapons right now.

daemonym

Thu Nov 20, 2008 1:11 pm

i'll be taking the hammer. defense will be 'relatively' easy to stack and reach uncrit w/o sacrificing too much of anything, being block capped and not sacrificing other important stats probably won't be so much. thus the dodge greatly appeals to me ^^

guillex

Thu Nov 20, 2008 1:21 pm

Fridmarr wrote:I don't think it'll matter much at all. I went with one of the swords so I could level that weapon skill, because my entry Naxx weapon will likely be a sword. As a dwarf a mace would be ideal, but they don't seem to be making any epic versions of mace tanking weapons right now.

Understandable Frid, though on the other side of things, there are a couple of points to look at:

It has .2 more dps than the axe, and .1 more than the sword, which benefits HotR
It has 6 more strength than the axe, and 1 more than the sword
The sword has parry, regarded as an almost wasted stat
The mace doesn't have the expertise for threat like the axe does, but it gives better returns on mitigation through the extra points in strength

That's how I'm looking at it, personally. Not trying to flame, either.

Flex

Thu Nov 20, 2008 1:41 pm

I went with the Axe since it is my leveling weapon and I have reckoning in my leveling build.

More than once I've had double reckoning crits and seeing 2K health drop from a mob due to that is nice.

EvilNuff

Thu Nov 20, 2008 2:10 pm

daemonym wrote:i'll be taking the hammer. defense will be 'relatively' easy to stack and reach uncrit w/o sacrificing too much of anything, being block capped and not sacrificing other important stats probably won't be so much. thus the dodge greatly appeals to me ^^

No, its not. Its actually quite hard to reach the uncritable cap at 80. I am currently wearing several pieces of inferior gear just for the higher def on them.

Theres a far better sword thats a quest reward in icecrown 110dps good tank stats, fast. Not listed on any of the quest sites yet that I have seen. Also hall of lightning drops a 120dps tank sword. Don't worry about this quest its not something you'll really use much if at all.

Kelaan

Thu Nov 20, 2008 2:13 pm

I think I'd go for the axe, just for defense alone. Later upgrades (like http://www.wowhead.com/?item=37260 and the infantry assault blade) both have def+expertise, so I may as well make room gear-wise for it there. Even so, it's the highest def weapon before those.

Interestingly, all the BoP blue 1H weapons with Str are tanking weapons.
Moreover, it means I'm free to get the champion ofanguish reward's 2H weapon.

guillex

Thu Nov 20, 2008 2:16 pm

EvilNuff wrote:
daemonym wrote:i'll be taking the hammer. defense will be 'relatively' easy to stack and reach uncrit w/o sacrificing too much of anything, being block capped and not sacrificing other important stats probably won't be so much. thus the dodge greatly appeals to me ^^

No, its not. Its actually quite hard to reach the uncritable cap at 80. I am currently wearing several pieces of inferior gear just for the higher def on them.

Theres a far better sword thats a quest reward in icecrown 110dps good tank stats, fast. Not listed on any of the quest sites yet that I have seen. Also hall of lightning drops a 120dps tank sword. Don't worry about this quest its not something you'll really use much if at all.

Here's the Halls of Lightning sword:

Eternally Folded Blade

Annnnnnnnnnd the one from the quest Tirion's Gambit, which is listed as both Horde, and empty on WoWHead:

Blade of the Empty Void

EvilNuff

Thu Nov 20, 2008 2:37 pm

Guillex wrote:Here's the Halls of Lightning sword:

Eternally Folded Blade

Annnnnnnnnnd the one from the quest Tirion's Gambit, which is listed as both Horde, and empty on WoWHead:

Blade of the Empty Void

Those are the two! I had my filter set wrong on wowhead, oops.

Empty Void is easy to get and you'll want to do the icecrown quests to unlock ebon blade rep anyways.

Fridmarr

Thu Nov 20, 2008 2:41 pm

Guillex wrote:
Fridmarr wrote:I don't think it'll matter much at all. I went with one of the swords so I could level that weapon skill, because my entry Naxx weapon will likely be a sword. As a dwarf a mace would be ideal, but they don't seem to be making any epic versions of mace tanking weapons right now.

Understandable Frid, though on the other side of things, there are a couple of points to look at:

It has .2 more dps than the axe, and .1 more than the sword, which benefits HotR
It has 6 more strength than the axe, and 1 more than the sword
The sword has parry, regarded as an almost wasted stat
The mace doesn't have the expertise for threat like the axe does, but it gives better returns on mitigation through the extra points in strength

That's how I'm looking at it, personally. Not trying to flame, either.

Yes, but I think at the end of the day, the differences are incredibly minor and I won't be using this sword for raiding. It's about about utility for me, which at this point is leveling up the skill of the weapon type I will be using for raiding.

majiben

Fri Nov 21, 2008 7:22 am

Great discussion in here. I've moved it because it's a hypothetical discussion of a quest reward rather than a "given my gear what should I pick?"

ulushnar

Fri Nov 21, 2008 7:25 am

For me it was a choice between the Mace and the Axe because I wanted +Defense. I took the Axe in the end because I hated the Mace's model.

Petrus

Fri Nov 21, 2008 9:36 am

Ulushnar wrote:For me it was a choice between the Mace and the Axe because I wanted +Defense. I took the Axe in the end because I hated the Mace's model.

BlackKnight6667

Fri Nov 21, 2008 12:00 pm

Guillex wrote:For a Human, the choice is cut down to two... And in the culling, it's brought down to one because of the lack of defense.

I'll be using the Mace, not only for the expertise bonus from my racial, but because it's got the highest DPS of the three (.2/.1, but every bit counts).

Yes as a Human myself, the Axe is not a choice, and the sword is out because of the lack of Def...

Marklevin

Sat Nov 22, 2008 3:24 am

i like swords, i'll be choosing the sword, it looks cool

majiben

Sat Nov 22, 2008 11:41 am

2ndNin wrote:If you have racial expertise the mace wins. If you don't and are looking at 80 the axe, and for short gains the sword.

The sword is also a viable choice for humans. Humans should always pick the sword over the mace.

2ndNin wrote:At 80 defense is not realistically an issue, between the saronite, rep rewards and old gear and trinkets (scarab and adamantite or the old quest reward one) 520 ish to start heroics is easy. The defense difference is maybe 1 point of defense, and the way avoidance stats are dropping avoidance is useful.

Defense may not be an issue when you are wearing blues with massive amounts of defense but the T7 raid rewards have significantly less defense and by having more than 540 defense when entering naxx, the more likely you'll be able to wear your upgrades out the door.

guillex

Sat Nov 22, 2008 4:47 pm

Majiben wrote:
2ndNin wrote:If you have racial expertise the mace wins. If you don't and are looking at 80 the axe, and for short gains the sword.

The sword is also a viable choice for humans. Humans should always pick the sword over the mace.

Viable choice yes.

ALWAYS pick it over the mace? No.

It all depends on what you need more of, or are lacking in.

And last I checked, we had a Mace AND Sword racial passive.