Phat Loot Phriday: Cosmos

I don't remember doing an off-hand for a while, and this is pretty much the offhand to have. Who wouldn't want to carry the universe around in the palm of your hand?

Name: Cosmos (Wowhead, Thottbot, WoWDB)
Type: Epic Off-hand
Damage/Speed: N/A
Abilities:

• +52 Stamina, +55 Intellect. Which points at Warlocks (they tend to value Stamina, as they can convert HP to mana), but really any caster who uses offhands would love this one.

• Because it improves hit rating by 51 (!), crit strike rating by 41, and spell power by 84.

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• Definitely the tops for offhands in the game (remember, this is paired up with a mainhand, so if the stats seem a little low when you're comparing to a 2h, don't forget this is only half a weapon).

• And plus, you're carrying around the actual Cosmos -- careful not to drop it!

How to Get It: Unfortunately, an item this phat isn't going to be easy to get, and this one isn't an exception: it drops from 25-man Algalon, the hardest of the hard bosses in Ulduar. He, as Blizzard has said, destroys raids and feeds on your tears -- just to get to him, you have to conquer all of the hard modes in Ulduar, and oh yeah, you only have an hour to beat him after engaging, or he does nothing less than blow up the entire world.

So he's a pain. Finish him off, save the world (again), and then maybe, if you win the roll, you'll get to carry the universe around in your offhand. And hey, did you know Algalon was actually voiced by Chris Metzen? You can hear him yelling things like "Witness the fury of the cosmos!" in Ensidia's kill movie.

Getting Rid of It: I like syllabear's comment on Wowhead so much I'm going to repeat it here: ""Hmm... "[Broken Branch of the Invoker] vs Cosmos... Ah well, the Branch has more crit." It's true -- no matter how much more powerful the next expansion gets, it's a little silly that we'll one day again be comparing blues and greens to the total ultimate power of the Cosmos. But if you do want to toss Carl Sagan's favorite subject in the trash, you'll get 7g 56s 23c for it. Or you can disenchant it into an Abyss Crystal.