Totem Talk: Ruby Sanctum loot for enhancement

Rich Maloy subsists solely on enhancement air. He experiences shortness of breath when offered spellpower gear and is easily confused by spirit and MP5. You can ask him anything about enhance at the Totem Recall roundtable or watch his WoW reality series, Big Crits.

In case you missed it in all the news about the Cataclysm beta, Ruby Sanctum was released into the wild on Tuesday. With a new instance out everyone is asking, "What's in it for me?" But my question is, "What's in it for enhancement?"

The short answer is ArP. For a stat that's going away in a few months, we're seeing a lot of it in Ruby Sanctum gear from both the 10- and 25-man versions of the raid. Armor penetration (ArP) is not the ideal stat for enhancement. Not ideal, but definitely usable. There are some definite winners among the RS loot -- on both 10 and 25.

I've created a new enhance gear spreadsheet on Google Docs including the new loot. It's read-only, so either make a copy to your Google Docs file or save a copy to your desktop as an Excel file. I've also included some sample EP values for different levels of play, including EP values derived from the latest Elitist Jerks BiS gear, setup and rotation.

10-man regular and heroic

Baltharus' Gift (heroic) This is a good neckpiece, but even better if you're low on expertise. The regular version would probably make a better off-spec piece for an elemental or resto shaman. Why? Wodin's Lucky Necklace is BoE, and with a little gold you could pick one up that will outclass the regular version of Baltharus. As for the heroic version, it's definitely a very good piece and again more so if you're very low on expertise, but in my spreadsheet it ranks sixth overall behind various ICC necklaces. I'll pass.

Gloaming Sark (heroic) Here's an interesting example of a heroic version completely blowing away a regular version -- they're not even close in comparison. The regular version is very weak compared to other options including crafted ToC pieces, but the heroic version is very good. Ultimately, though, the two-piece and four-piece set bonuses are so strong on the Frost Witch's Battlegear, it's really not worth taking this piece unless you're upgrading from BoA gear.

Twilight Scale Shoulders (heroic) I was really blown away by these shoulders. While the enhancement BiS setup shows the heroic Sanctified Frost Witch's Shoulderguards as the ideal shoulder choice, I'm actually thinking if I get my hands on the heroic version of these shoulders, I'll trade out my Anub'ar Stalker's Gloves for the Frost Witch gloves and use these shoulders instead. Granted, they don't have shoveltusk ghosts coming out of them! But such are the sacrifices we make for maximizing damage.

25-man regular and heroic

Returning Footfalls (heroic) Excellent boot options until you can pick up a pair of Treads of the Wasteland. The heroic treads really are the best in slot for enhancement, but if you don't have them or don't have access to them, I'd recommend picking these up.

Sharpened Twilight Scale (heroic) Despite this being an ArP trinket, the heroic version turns up as BiS along with Herkuml War Token. You have picked up that trinket for a mere 60 Emblems of Frost, right? OK. Moving right along then, this trinket on heroic will replace the heroic Tiny Abom in a Jar as BiS. What what about the regular version? I ran some sims this morning, trying to find what's going to be my personal BiS trinket, and for me, the regular and heroic versions of Tiny Abom in a Jar beat the heroic version of the Sharpened Twilight Scale -- but the scale beat out all of the other trinkets. Sims are a tricky things and I always recommend running your own, but as a rough approximation, I'll stick with my heroic Tiny Abom for now. If you're using DBW or Whispering Fang or even still Death's Choice, I'd recommend picking up the regular version of this trinket.

Signet of Twilight (heroic) This is a very sexy ring on regular and heroic, but it doesn't make it into our BiS gear list. If your rep with the Ashen Verdict is honored or lower, then this ring will do you well until you can upgrade that ring, or if you haven't picked up the Band of the Bone Colossus, then I recommend grabbing this ring.

Umbrage Bands (heroic) The leather wrists on heroic are BiS. What makes the difference and makes up for the lack of intellect? A ton of haste and a lot of agility. The regular version of these wrists blows away anything on regular ICC-10 and -25. For those already in ICC hard modes, the regular version of these will not be an upgrade, though the heroic version will be an upgrade for everyone.

Conclusion

Personally, I'm going to pick up the shoulders on 10-man heroic, as well as the trinket and leather wrists on 25-man heroic. Also, don't fear the ArP! It's not too bad especially as we continue to get more of it, but it will not be our killer stat. There are some upgrades to be had in Ruby Sanctum so good luck and ...

May all your hits be crits!

Show your totemic mastery by reading Totem Talk. Whether it's Mike Sacco's Elemental edition, Joe Perez's coverage of Restoration or Rich Maloy's Enhancement edition, we have you covered.