More WotLK Gear (For Looking and Drooling Purposes)
The last time we took a look at the WotLK gear that’s available in the Beta, we saw some level 70 quest Greens and a couple of Blues from the Northrend starter dungeons. Wowhead is now starting to get some more data from the Beta (Thank you, people in the Beta who are reporting your data to Wowhead!) and so today we’re going to take a look at some gear from a couple of mid-70s dungeons. Once again we’ll be comparing the gear currently available in BC to see how it stacks up to the gear that will be coming in the x-pack.
Melee Weapons
The first new weapon is the Cobweb Machete, a melee dagger that drops from Krik’thir the Gatewatcher, a level 74 elite in the Azjol-Nerub dungeon. It has a white DPS rate of 104.1. (And again, just like last time, the thing to be looking at here is the DPS level. The individual weapon’s stats will make it more or less desirable for some classes and specs, but the DPS level is a solid indicator of the weapon’s value.)
For comparison, here are four BC melee weapons, one from each of the four raid tiers:
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T4 - Spiteblade - 87.6 DPS
T5 - Netherbane - 96.5 DPS
T6 - Blade of Infamy - 100.2 DPS
SWP (T6.5) - Hand of the Deceiver - 114.4 DPS
In terms of white DPS, the Cobweb Machete easily beats the T4 and T5 blades, and edges ahead of the T6 sword by a few DPS. The SWP blade is still the clear winner in terms of raw DPS though, and having two sockets raises its potential DPS (and value) even higher.
Caster Staves
The first caster staff I’ve seen in the Beta data, the Life-Staff of the Web Lair also drops in Azjol-Nerub, this time from Hadronox, another 74 elite. The stat to be looking at here is Spellpower, and the Life-Staff comes in at 252.
The BC caster staves, for comparison:
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T4 - Staff of Infinite Mysteries - 185 SP
T5 - The Nexus Key - 236 SP
T6 - Zhar’doom, Greatstaff of the Devourer - 259 SP
SWP (T6.5) - Grand Magister’s Staff of Torrents - 266 SP (plus 3 sockets, raising the potential SP to 300+)
So again we see the mid-70s WotLK staff beating T4 and T5 pretty soundly, but this time it comes in slightly behind the T6 staff (although, to be honest, not really enough to matter either way). SWP is still well in the lead.
Feral Staves
I got some complaints last time that I wasn’t showing the Bears any love, so, as the last weapon for this comparison, let’s take a look at some Feral Druid staves. The stat to be looking at here is the Feral Attack Power. There are other stats that Druid tanks take into consideration (as there are for melee and caster weapons), but as a general rule the higher the FAP, the better the item.
The WotLK Feral Staff that we’re looking at is the Witch Doctor’s Wildstaff, which drops in Gundrak, from a 78 elite. It clocks in at 1315 FAP.
BC Feral Staves:
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T4 - Terestian’s Stranglestaff - 829 FAP
T5 - Wildfury Greatstaff - 992 FAP
T6 - Pillar of Ferocity - 1059 FAP
Here we see the the WotLK weapon coming in first place fairly easily, with over 100 FAP more than even the SWP staff. Bear in mind, of course, that this is from a 78 elite, while the other two weapons we looked at were from a 74, so one would expect this staff to be better in comparison. I am surprised, though, at how soundly it beats the SWP staff in terms of FAP.
So What Does All This Mean?
If these weapons are representative of most other weapons at their level, then we’re likely to see a similar gear progression in WotLK as we saw in BC. When I started leveling my Warrior to 70 in BC, I had the GM sword which was the pre-BC equivalent of SWP/S4 gear. That sword was replaced around level 65 by the Mag’hari Fury Brand.
If the numbers we’re seeing now in the Beta remain steady in the release, then it looks like most, if not all, weapons will be replaced by something better around level 75 or so. How these weapons will be made available remains to be seen. Blizzard made several great weapons easily available in BC via the Ring of Blood quest chain, like my Mag’hari Fury Brand. Whether they choose to do that again in WotLK or simply put them as drops in dungeons, it will be interesting to see.
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