Totem Talk: Enhancement trinkets

Currently Stoneybaby is trying to come up with witty article titles and failing miserably due to a splitting headache, so "Enhancement X" will have to suffice for this week. And yes Rich Maloy lives and loves enhancement. His main spec is enhance. His off-spec is enhance. He blogs about the life and times of enhance at Big Hit Box, pens the enhance side of Totem Talk, and leads the guild Big Crits (Week 4 now out!) as the enhancement shaman Stoneybaby.

Since last week's weapons column went off with slightly less trolling than normal, I'm going to push my luck with another article about gearing. Today's topic: trinkets.

Trinkets are not nearly as hard to acquire as weapons. Unless of course the RNG gods hate you and Death's Choice/Verdict drops only once in your guild in all of the god-forsaken months you spend in ToC and the first time it dropped you passed to a hunter who really needed the upgrade and you thought to yourself I'll be a good leader and let someone else win because it will drop again and I'll get it next time only it doesn't drop again ever and you're convinced the RNG gods do in fact hate you so you wrap yourself in your towel and rock yourself gently to sleep.

Thinking back on that, maybe trinkets are a bit hard to acquire. Thankfully for us, one of enhancement's best-in-slot trinkets is very easy to come by.

Emblems

Herkuml War Token
Source: 60 Emblems of Frost
A small price to pay for our #2 BiS trinket. Go forth and buy this. Now. Have it and equipped? Good. This trinket has our previously established killer stat, haste, plus an on-attack AP increasing effect. 153 haste plus the extra AP makes this one of our best trinkets.

Shard of the Crystal Heart
Source: 50 Emblems of Triumph
128 hit is a lot of hit. Extra hit is always helpful but 128 hit rating? If you're really in need of hit and well below the cap with plenty of extra emblems and crappy trinkets, then go for it. I'd take the Shard over the Mark (below) for the haste, but that's just my haste-loving opinion. What you should do depends on your own gear.

Mark of Supremacy
Source: 50 Emblems of Triumph
Hit. Lots of it. As previously noted above. If you're into AP stacking then this is the i245 trinket for you.

Mirror of Truth
Source: 40 Emblems of Heroism
This was a decent trinket at-level because as we were breaking into Naxx we were still reaching for an unbuffed crit minimum of 30%. The Mirror could help put a character over the top, and hitting the crit cap was not likely to happen unless you were stacking crit, which you shouldn't have been doing in the first place. So Mirror's not a bad choice for emblem use.

Icecrown Citadel

Tiny Abomination in a Jar (heroic)
Source: Professor Putricide 25s
The heroic version is our #1 BiS trinket. If you have this or are working on heroic Professor Putricide then you are already drooling thinking about it. But even the regular version is well worth the upgrade. I love those motes of anger. I'm running around Dalaran with a couple motes up on my buff bar, I feel like it should serve as a warning to others: don't come near Stoney right now, he's got 5 motes!

Whispering Fanged Skull (heroic)
Source: Lady Deathwhisper 10s
This is not a bad choice for a trinket the only danger is that with so much crit and agility on our gear we could come close to hitting the crit cap; it is a lot of crit for a trinket. If you're not going over the crit cap by too much-or if you don't know and don't care-the 1250 AP is a nice passive buff.

Deathbringer's Will (heroic)
Source: Deathbringer Saurfang 25s
Those who lust after this trinket affectionately refer to it as DBW. We, however, are not among those ranks. Well, you're free to call it DBW or whatever you want, just don't lust after it. I know I'm repeating myself (and quite possibly preaching to the well-informed choir) but armor penetration is not a great stat for us. With so many other stats out there that do us right leave this trinket to the myriad of classes that can put it to good use.

Trial of the Crusader

Death's Choice/Verdict (heroic)
Source: Fjola Lightbane 25s
As previously noted, this one-time BiS trinket does not exist so we shall not speak of it. If for some reason this should drop, not that it ever would, but in the off chance that it does drop and you don't have Tiny Abom or Herkuml's I highly recommend taking it and equipping it, just to see if it's real.

Vengeance of the Forsaken/Victor's Call (heroic)
Source: Champions' Cache 10s
This is a great trinket for expertise-starved shamans such as myself. Having recently faction changed and chosen troll because I think they're cooler than orcs, I have only myself to blame. But I digress, this trinket has 83 expertise on both the regular and heroic versions. That's the equivalent of 4 Precise Cardinal Rubies, or for a JC 3 Precise Dragon's Eyes and maybe an Accurate Ametrine. And the trinket is still better. Plus the AP effect is awesome. I used this up until I got the Tiny Abom.

Fetish/Talisman of Volatile Power (heroic)
Source: Champions' Cache 10s
For those who play elemental as well as enhancement this is not a bad choice for a cross-over trinket. If you already have it as part of your ele set you could conceivable use it in your enhancement set until a better one came along. For the main spec enhancers out there I wouldn't recommend taking this unless you're upgrading from the Thorny Rose Brooch -- and even then I'd question your choice. The downside is that the stack effect may not stack quickly enough as enhancement to reap the full rewards of this trinkey.

Dungeons

Needle-Encrusted Scorpion
Source: Heroic Forge of Souls, Devourer of Souls
This is an excellent trinket for building up an enhancement off-spec or gearing out a new level 80 enhancer. Besides, running this instance also gives the chance to get a decent weapon off trash or maybe even a Battered Hilt.

Incisor Fragment
Source: Heroic Drak'Tharon Keep, King Dread
The AP is good, the ArP is not so good. If you need a trinket it's a decent choice but is replaceable with others along the path to gearing.

Meteorite Whetstone
Source: Heroic Utgarde Pinnacle, King Ymiron
Without having put any theorycrafting behind this statement, I'd venture to say this is BiS among rare quality i200 trinkets.

Sphere of Red Dragon's Blood
Source: Heroic Nexus, Keristrasza
Along with the whetstone, this is probably BiS among i200 gear. The hit makes it an excellent choice for undergeared enhancers.


Personally, I prefer my Super Simian Sphere but apparently the bubble doesn't function quite as well as a Paladin's bubblehearth.

May all your hits be crits!

Show your totemic mastery by reading Totem Talk, whether reading Mike Sacco's elemental edition, Joe Perez's coverage of restoration or Rich Maloy's enhancement edition, we have you covered.