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Brewfest tip for casters: Get both spell trinkets
If you're like me, you've been madly farming the elusive Great Brewfest Kodo since Brewfest began. Even when I was having a bit of hand trouble, my little dwarf found his way into Blackrock Depths to do beer-laden battle with the big, bad, belligerent brewmaster. But there's an important tip that you should remember while Brewfest continues. The two spell trinkets are both useful to all spell casters (who don't out gear them) after the content patch unifies spell damage and spell healing into Spell Power. Right now, the Dark Iron Smoking Pipe is a spell damage trinket, and the Direbrew Hops is a healing trinket. But in the content patch, both will be turned to spell power -- the Pipe has 43 spell power and 155 on use, the Hops have 44 spell power, 153 on use. Of course, this begs the question about how the Pipe and Hops will compare to other trinkets when the patch hits. Timbal's Focusing Crystal from Heroic Magister's packs 44 spell power. You'll have to decide whether you want an on-use bonus 154ish spell power from the brewfest trinkets, or Timbal's on-use proc for 285 to 475 extra damage. The Hex Shrunken Head from Zul'Aman is a clear upgrade from the Hops and Pipe, since it has more constant spell power and high on-use spell power. Coren's dropped trinkets are equivalent to the 41-Badge trinkets purchaseable from G'eras. The Essence of the Martyr and Icon of the Silver Crescent are both slightly better than either Hops or Pipe since they have 44 spell power, and 158 spell power on use. But for 41 badges each, I'm probably not going to lose any sleep over 5 spell power every 2 minutes. [Thanks Rikitiki for the tip!]
Meet Coren Direbrew, dispenser of awesome trinkets and brewmaidens
The Brewfest is currently live for testing on the PTR, and one of the biggest changes is the addition of yet another holiday specific boss, Coren Direbrew. Coren himself isn't completely new. He was also present in the Grim Guzzler last year, when he would give you a quest to deliver brew to the Brewfest and get an offhand tankard in return. This year, however, it appears he's a bit more surly. Instead of simply completing a quest, this time you need to fight him. Luckily, the loot he drops is more than worth the hassle. Most of it is clones of the trinkets available for badges from G'eras, but there's also a couple other drops that look like a lot of fun. Overall, the loot should draw a lot of people out to Blackrock Depths to beat him up. A list of his loot is coming up after the break.
The future of trinkets
A little earlier, Eliah mentioned the world first M'uru kill by SK-Gaming. What caught my eye was a particular item that dropped off of the poor Naaru: The Shifting Naaru Sliver. This item doesn't yet appear on Wowhead or Wowdb quite yet, but the spell effect that accompanies it is.It caught my attention because it made me think a little about future itemization. Most of the trinkets in Magisters' Terrace and the Sunwell Plateau have little effects that basically do the same things as other items, but they're done in slightly more interesting ways. There are a few that are almost entirely unique of course, but overall, they're just new ways to do old things. Personally, I adore it and can't wait to see Wrath trinkets and rings.The Shifting Naaru Sliver in particular caught my attention, because the way it's phrased is so different from other On Use trinkets. It implies that only the caster of the buff gets that buff, so overall, it's the same as something like the Icon of the Silver Crescent. The spell is pretty unique though, so it might be an indication of more widespread applications of this sort of thing later. Being able to flesh out your spell/buff repertoire via a necklace or a ring would be pretty interesting! I suppose Leatherworking Drums do something similar, but this excites me a little more for some reason. Perhaps in Wrath raiding, we'll see people gearing up to complement their party's damage as well as their own moreso than we see currently, thanks to item buffs like these. We'll just have to wait and see.
