phat-loot-phriday
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Phat Loot Phriday: Jin'rohk, the Great Apocalypse
No husky loot this week -- with a name like "the Great Apocalypse," this sword is nothing but badass.Name: Jin'rohk, the Great Apocalypse (Wowhead, Thottbot, Wowdigger)Type: Epic Two-hand SwordDamage/Speed: 380-570 / 3.70 (128.4 DPS)Abilities: Equip: Improves haste rating by 45, which will help a little bit with that low speed (but look at that damage range!), will bring the speed back to 3.60, which brings it up to 131.8 DPS +49 Stamina, makes this a nice PvP two-hander Equip: Increases attack power by 120, which also adds to attack damage. There are better high-end two handers in the game, but anyone who likes to swing a big sword should like this one. Plus, look at it! And that name! How to Get It: Drops from the troll himself, Zul'jin, in Zul'Aman. Interestingly enough, Zul'jin means "Leader of voodoo" and jin means "leader," So this sword is clearly a leader, but leader of what? Rohk, in the Zandali Troll language, actually means "end of worlds," or apocalypse. So if all the apocalypses you've ever seen in movies all got together (from Deep Impact to I Am Legend), one apocalypse would be standing above them all: Jin'rohk.But yes, the sword drops from the last boss in Zul'Aman. Droprate is about 12%, so get to him, be someone who swings a two-hand sword and needs an upgrade, win the roll, and it's all yours. Just don't hurt yourself carrying it around.Getting Rid of It: Sells for a whopping 17g 81s 95c, and disenchants, as you might guess, into a Void Crystal. But the terrible effect that carrying the Leader of Apocalypses has on you for all time? Priceless.
Phat Loot Phriday: Rifle of the Stoic Guardian
A gun... for tanks. But that speed makes things a little weird. Maybe some of the theorycrafters in the crowd can come up with some good reasons for that one (or just debate my own) in the comments.Name: Rifle of the Stoic Guardian (Wowhead, Thottbot, Goblin's Workshop)Type: Epic GunDamage/Speed: 120-224 / 1.90 (90.5 DPS, which is the highest on a gun, save for the Arena PvP guns in S3 and S4 -- except most of it comes from that low speed, see below)Abilities: +31 Stamina, which might make you think this is a PvP weapon, except for: Equip: Increases your dodge rating by 20. Which is a weird little stat -- with the stamina added on to it, that means that this gun (named after a "Stoic Guardian") is basically meant as a Tank pulling gun -- it'll let you shoot bullets and give you about the bonus of a minor trinket to dodge and Stam. But if that's true, what's up with that speed? You might think that a high DPS would mean this gun is good for a Hunter, but that's not quite true across the board -- especially for BM Hunters (a.k.a. Hunters that rely on their talents and abilities to do damage), a bullet pouch will often make this gun too fast to sneak special shots in, which will actually lower the DPS you can do. But on the other hand, from what I understand, weapon speed doesn't actually affect what happens when you first fire the gun. So the idea here may be that a Warrior, pulling, should have a fast enough gun to get a few shots off during the pull, in order to build up more threat. Why else would Blizzard give tanks such a fast gun? How to Get It: Drops from our old friend Teron Gorefiend, who we last killed for the Soul Cleaver. He's in the Black Temple, there's a Know Your Lore about him, yadda yadda yadda, you know the drill by now. Drop rate on this is about 15%, but the good news is that if you need this (as in, you're a tank who often pulls at the late endgame), you'll probably be able to get it.You might have to fend a few confused Hunters off for it, though. But the dodge rating and the Stamina (not to mention, as we said, the title), should make it pretty clear that this weapon is for a "Stoic Guardian," not a "Pet-loving Peashooter."Getting Rid of It: Sells for 10g 79s 6c. Will disenchant into a Void Crystal.
Phat Loot Phriday: Shroud of Chieftain Ner'zhul
Finally, some resto Shammy gear! Not only is this sweet helm statted out (yes, I just made that up), but it's named after someone you may have heard of in passing -- that other half of the Lich King.Name: Shroud of Chieftain Ner'zhul (WoWDB, Wowhead, Thottbot)Type: Epic Mail HeadArmor: 902Abilities: In order to save space, I'm going to give you the lore behind this helm while I tell you its stats. So Ner'zhul was an old Chieftain/Shaman of the Orcs, and since this is Warcraft, he was powerhungry and it drove him to make deals with demons. Plus his helm had +48 Stamina and +41 Intellect, which actually made it nice for PvP as well. It also had a Yellow and Meta socket, and a socket bonus of 2 mp5. Ner'zhul didn't exactly knowingly make deals with demons, though -- he did what he thought was right, and aligned with Kil'jaeden, who he thought was actually a helpful "ancient ancestor." But realizing Kil'jaeden is evil is actually as obvious as the 33 spell haste rating and 13mp5 on this helm, and eventually Ner'zhul did. It was too late, though -- Gul'dan took over, and Ner'zhul only barely saved the Frostwolf Orcs from drinking Mannoroth's blood. Kil'jaeden wasn't thrilled with that, obviously, and stuck Ner'zhul in the Frozen Throne as the Lich King, until a young man named Arthas Menethil came along, shattered the Frozen Throne, and combined his bad self with Ner'zhul's in order to become a crazy powerful being (with lots of Wrath, which we'll see sooner or later). And oh yeah, the helm's got 134 healing and 45 spell damage on it. Ner'zhul was originally an Orc Chieftain and resto Shaman, so this helm came from back when he was still supposedly a good guy. But interestingly enough, he still kind of is -- both he and Arthas slaughtered a lot of people thinking they were doing the right thing, and both he and Arthas were corrupted by the deals they made for power. Maybe they belong in that Frozen Throne together. How to Get It: This is an interesting piece of loot that supposedly comes from the Sunwell. As of this writing, it hasn't been in player hands yet, but it actually comes from another helm, the Cowl of Gul'dan, which reportedly drops from Kil'jaeden. Since Killy Jay hasn't been killed yet, we're not sure about this, but this is what an "ancient ancestor" told us.Blizzard is trying something new with the Sunwell Loot -- if you don't like the loot you get or want to switch it out for another piece of gear, you can bring the old helm to a Transmuter, along with a Sunmote (that can be obtained from trash inside Sunwell Plateau), and they'll transmute the helm for you. So get the Cowl of Gul'dan (drop rate unknown), add a Sunmote in there, take it to the Transmuter, and voila, you've got (what's probably a replication of) the Shroud of Chieftain Ner'hzul. Cake, right?Getting Rid of It: Oh, you won't, not for a while anyway. All of the non-raiders will be switching out their casual epics for greens at level 71, but a helm like this you'll hold on to for a while. It does disenchant into a Void Crystal, though -- at least we assume it does. The ancient ancestor was unclear about that one.
Phat Loot Phriday: Earthshaker
This week on PLP we're covering a reader request: RetPallyJil sent us a note and said that we should cover this much-maligned mace. So here you go: the Earthshaker, hated by all guilds who've ever run Molten Core back in the day.Name: Earthshaker (Wowhead, Thottbot, Allakhazam), a.k.a. "Shardshaker" and/or "The MC Hammer"Type: Epic Two-Hand MaceDamage/Speed: 175-263 / 3.50 (62.6 DPS)Abilities: Chance on hit: Knocks down all nearby enemies for 3 seconds. Which is actually kind of fun, especially in PvP, and the proc goes off pretty often, too. Radius of the proc is 5 yards (melee range), and one cool thing about it is that there's no limit to the number of enemies it hits -- as long as they're in that range, they get stunned for 3 seconds. Increases attack power by 22. As RetPallyJil says, this weapon is actually most famous for being "the single most unilaterally and unfairly unloved and underrated weapon ... ever." There are a number of reasons why this weapon is so hated, but we can start with the low DPS -- never good for a two-hander, and while the proc sometimes makes up for not, it doesn't work well enough for a min-maxer. Plus, just who's supposed to use this weapon? Most people who were wielding two-handers pre-BC were wielding something much more useful, and the stun was more of a novelty than anything else. But the number one reason why this mace was so hated is probably just where it dropped -- as you can see below, it came from a boss in Molten Core. So imagine you finally get forty people together, finally organize them enough to down a couple of bosses, get to a place where (for some people) your first Tier 1 set piece might drop, and then... this "novelty" weapon. Didn't rub a lot of people the right way, and many, many shards were made with this weapon. How to Get It: Drops from Magmadar in Molten Core, which, like I said, is probably one reason why people hate this thing so much -- if it had come from anywhere that didn't require 40 people and a few weeks of raiding, people probably would have appreciated the great proc a little more. Then again, back then, there weren't too many places to get epics anyway, and ... but I digress.Anyway, make it to Magmadar, usually the second boss in MC (you've got to down Lucifron to get to him), and this drops at about at 22% rate from him. Back in the day, you could go with any run, and they'd be happy to let you take this off their hands (unless they wanted the shard). Nowadays, it's such a novelty that you might have to fight with the raid to get it, especially if there's another 2h wielder around. But it's easy to run -- come back the next week with another 5-10 guys, and odds are you'll get it again.Getting Rid of It: You never know when that proc will be useful, so if you've got it, you might want to hang on to it. If not, it sells for 9g 19s 3c, and it doesn't disenchant at all. No, of course I'm kidding -- as anyone who's ever run MC knows, this will disenchant into a Nexus Crystal.More Phat Loot Phriday...
Phat Loot Phriday: Orb of the Sin'dorei
Like the ol' Orb of Deception, here's another fun toy -- that's brand new in patch 2.4.Name: Orb of the Sin'dorei (Wowhead, Thottbot, WowDB)Type: Rare ItemDamage/Speed: N/AAbilities: On use, transforms the user into a Blood Elf. Lasts for five minutes with a 30 minute cooldown between uses. Also drops on shapeshift of any kind. One of the cool things about this trinket is that it keeps your equipment looking the same. Always wanted to see what a Blood Elf warrior looks like (since they don't exist in game)? Use this on your tank, and how they might appear. Unfortunately, there is a catch: if you use this item on your Blood Elf, they won't change at all. Lore note: "Sin'dorei" actually means "Children of the Blood" in Thalassian. Before the High Elves got all corrupted, they were the quel'dorei ("Children of Noble Birth") and then they split into the BEs and the Night Elves (who are also known as the kal'dorei -- "Children of the Stars"). Unfortunately, there still isn't a perlman'dorei in Azeroth (though that, of course, would be the "City of Lost Children"). Yeah, this orb thingy is kind of silly, but Blood Elves are, as the kids say, pretty hawt. Who wouldn't want to be one? How to Get It: Drops from any of the bosses in Magisters' Terrace, but on Heroic Mode only. The drop rate is pretty low (about 1-2% per boss, but considering that you get a chance for it to drop every time you down a boss, this is actually a relatively common drop -- definitely moreso than, say, the Baron's mount).And don't forget that to get into MrT Heroic, you've got to finish the quest to kill Kael first. Get that done, get Heroic Countenance, head on into Heroic MrT, and down bosses until you see this pop up.Getting Rid of It: Sells to vendors for 46s 18c, and disenchants into an Arcane Dust, Lesser Planar Essence, or (very rarely) a Large Prismatic Shard. But I'd keep it if I was you -- you never know when you want someone's girlfriend to wish you were "hot... like... me."
Phat Loot Phriday: Last Year's Mutton
This week we take a trip once again into husky loot (a.k.a. cool items that anyone can grab) and dip into ye olde garbage bin at the Darkmoon Faire.Name: Last Year's Mutton (Wowhead, Thottbot, MMODB)Type: Common One-hand Meat/MaceDamage/Speed: 44-82 / 2.00 (31.5 DPS)Abilities: Pulverize your foes into mincemeat with this leg o' lamb. Whether you're biting down yourself, or flanking your foes until they're well-done, this club o' grub will let you tenderize even the toughest turkey. I'd steak my reputation on it! Not to be confused with Last Month's Mutton (see in the right hand in the pic above), which does smell a little better, but isn't nearly as tough.. or green. Unfortnately, weapon enchants don't currently appear on this item, so while it would be completely awesome to have a flaming mutton, apparently that can't happen. Yet. How to Get It: How can you wield this Excalibur of Lunchmeats, this Frostmourne of Foods? All you've got to do is redeem 50 Darkmoon Faire tickets with Gelvas Grimgate, a goblin at the traveling Darkmoon Faire (it's either in Elwyn, Terrokar Forest, or Mulgore, depending on whatever week of the month you're in). And how do you get tickets? WoW Insider's Daniel Whitcomb has you covered -- they're the main currency of the Faire, so there are all kinds of turn-in quests and various silly things to do to earn them. Get 50 (or just 10, if all you want is last month's meat), go to Gelvas, and the mutton's all yours!Getting Rid of It: Is not a good idea -- who knows when you might be hungry next? But it isn't BoP, so you might be able to drop it in the AH. Otherwise it doesn't disenchant, but a vendor will give you 1g 93s 76c for it. Too bad you just can't eat it -- this would be the ultimate marinade!
Phat Loot Phriday: Shivering Felspine
Our second polearm ever is a brand new shiny piece from Sunwell Plateau, perfect for Hunters who want to talk softly and carry a big stick.Name: Shivering Felspine (Wowhead, WOWDB, Thottbot)Type: Epic PolearmDamage/Speed: 393-590 / 3.50 (140.4 DPS)Abilities: +52 Agility One Yellow socket (socket bonus of +4 attack power) Improves Haste rating by 53, and attack power of 120 With the Agility on there, this thing is probably best meant for Hunters -- only they can really benefit by changing Agi directly into Ranged Attack Power. Warriors and Paladins may benefit occasionally, but since Agi translates into Armor and Dodge for them, and the goal when wielding a big two hander is to do damage, not dodge it, it's really at cross purposes with most DPS melee-ers. Armor is always good for tanks, of course, but a shield will give you much more armor than this thing's Agility will. The only problem with this thing is that it doesn't really have any Stamina or hit/crit on it, so players looking to max those will probably pass on this for something else. But Hunters looking to crank ranged DPS (especially with a slow bow or gun) will like this one a lot. How to Get It: It's brand new in the game as of patch 2.4, and while on the PTR it supposedly dropped from Felmyst, we're told that it now drops from the trash near Kalecgos. Since players are just starting to head in that way, expect this to start showing up in player hands soon.We don't have too much info on the drop rate yet, but there's good news and bad news. Since it's from trash you'll have a lot more chance for it to drop, because it'll be in the loot tables of more than one mob. The bad news, of course, is that it is probably a super low rate, so cross your fingers and hope for it to show up if you're running Sunwell Plateau regularly.Getting Rid of It: Disenchants into a Void Crystal, as usual, and sells to vendors for 18g 80s 53c.
Phat Loot Phriday: Battleworn Tuskguard
I'm making another claim, so armorsmiths, get ready to jump in the comments and prove me wrong: This helmet is the highest non-shield armor item in the game. We've covered some nice shields before (and those are pretty much all Armor), but this helm from Zul'Aman has the highest armor value of a non-shield piece of armor that I could find. Update: Yup, commenters have a few pieces with more armor on them (although, yes, PLP only deals with gear on the live realms, so 2.4 gear doesn't count yet). I'll get you next time, readers!Name: Battleworn Tuskguard (Wowhead, Thottbot, Armory)Type: Epic Plate HeadArmor: 1355Abilities: +60 Stamina Red, Yellow, and Blue sockets, with a socket bonus of +6 Stamina Equip: increases your Dodge rating by 23, shield block rating by 40, and block value of your shield by 51 Word is going around that this is going to change after patch 2.4, however: the shield block rating will be dropped, and the helm will instead raise defense rating directly by 40. That's not confirmed yet, and even if it's been seen on the PTR, there's no guarantee it'll make it to the live realms. But either way, this is a great tanking helm. In some situations, it even rivals T6, but the best part about it is that you don't even need 25 people to get it. (see below) Plus, it does look pretty cool. At first I thought that was a bird of some kind, but instead it's a Troll's face, complete with jutting tusks. If you like the tribal look of the Zul'Aman gear (and I do), you'll like this helm. How to Get It: It drops from Hex Lord Malacrass, the second to last boss in Zul'Aman. He's not a super nice guy (and he's got a mean Soul Drain), but the good news is that even though he's tough, ZA is still only a 10 man instance. So even if you don't have more than 9 friends to raid with, you can still pick up a great helm like this. It won't be easy, but get him down a few times (drop rate is about 15-20%), be a tank (if your MT is good, he may have gotten something better already, so offtanks have a pretty good chance at this too), and the helm is all yours.Getting Rid of It: Disenchants into a Void Crystal, and sells to vendors for 7g 30s 2c. You may want to keep it around for Halloween, though -- that's a troll face that only a troll mama could love.
Phat Loot Phriday: Felstone Good Luck Charm
Now's a good a time as any to talk about a "husky loot" item (one that anyone can get) that will give you the luck o' the Irish, and one that has a pretty good quest story behind it too.Name: Felstone Good Luck Charm (Wowhead, Thottbot, WowDB)Type: Uncommon AmuletArmor: N/AAbilities: +13 Shadow Resistence, which was pretty good back when this was gear you picked up right before the endgame. But not so much anymore. A leprechaun did tell me that this thing will grant you good luck, though. How to Get It: This is the fun part -- this is actually the quest reward at the end of a fun little self-contained questline that will take you from either Stormwind (for Alliance) or Undercity (for Horde) into the Plaguelands. Yes, the Plaguelands -- it's that little lobby right before you enter the Ghostlands. Just look for those poor, lonely Argent Dawn questgivers (or just follow the sounds of them whining under their breath that the expansion isn't here yet).To start the quest, you've got to grab Janice's Parcel, which you can find on the Felstone farm while in the Western Plaguelands. That will send you off to the capital city of your faction, and then take to you some familiar faces (apparently the Felstone family roots reach far and deep). You'll meet a few Felstones, and eventually you'll be able to collect the Felstone Good Luck Charm, which, in true luck o' the Irish fashion (it's actually a curse), is being handed down to you from a family that hasn't had much luck at all.Kind of a fun quest, not too long, and has some good flavor text in it. And if nothing else, you can consider this Blizzard's holiday reward for you, since there is no "Aldor Patrick's Day" in Azeroth.Getting Rid of It: Sells to vendors for 71s 64c or disenchants into a Dream Dust, Lesser Eternal Essence or a Small Brilliant Shard. Happy St. Patrick's Day, everybody!
Phat Loot Phriday: Vengeful Gladiator's Touch of Defeat
We haven't done a lot of PvP gear here (any, I think) on Phat Loot, but I figured this phat wand might be a good place to start.Name: Vengeful Gladiator's Touch of Defeat (Wowhead, Thottbot, WoWWiki)Type: Epic WandDamage/Speed: 252-468 Fire / 1.90 (189.5 DPS)Abilities: +18 Stamina, +14 Intellect Improves your resilience rating by 14, which is standard for PvP arena gear -- anything to counteract those big crits. Increases damage and healing by magical spells and effects by up to 18. Which doesn't seem like a lot, but for a wand, it's pretty good. The big difference between this and the other PvP season 3 wand, the Piercing Touch, is that this one doesn't have spell penetration on it. The tradeoff is the Intellect, and a few damage points, so it's up to you. Higher end players might go for the penetration (that's the only way you can get past resistances), while a player who is in the Arenas only in between raids might grab this one. It's up to you. How to Get It: Like we've said, you need to play Arena PvP to grab this one. It's available from the Arena vendors for 1000 points, which doesn't require too long to get, as long as you're a good and steady player. Holding onto a 1500 rating in a 5v5 team will get you a little over 300 points a week, which means it'll take 3-4 weeks to gain this many points (and of course you've got to play 10 games a week and make sure you're playing a good percentage of the team's total battles).But there's another catch -- season 3 added personal and team requirements to purchase the weapons. So to actually buy this, not only do you need the points, but you need to have a personal and team rating of 1850 to buy it. You don't need to keep up that rating to keep the weapon, you just need that score when you buy it. Wrong. No rating needed for the wand. Never mind.Which gets us back to the reason why we stay away from PvP gear here on Phat Loot: no matter how much you covet this, if you're not a good player, it's not yours. In the future Arena seasons, we can expect this loot to come back down: next season it'll be cheaper, and the season after that it might even be available for BG honor and tokens. But right now, it's be good or go home for this high-end Arena gear.Getting Rid of It: Vendors won't buy it, and like most PvP gear, it doesn't disenchant. But you worked hard for that rating -- while you could destroy it if you happen to find a better wand in Northrend, you might as well keep it as a trophy of your winnings.
Phat Loot Phriday: Hortus' Seal of Brilliance
Haven't done an offhand in a while, so while this one isn't exactly at the top of the heap, it's a nice item for your newly-70 alt to pick up, and it has a fun nod to a guy who's been working hard lately. Also, have a suggestion for a piece of phat loot to cover? Share it in the comments below or drop us a note on the tipline.Name: Hortus' Seal of Brilliance (Wowhead, Thottbot, WoWDigger)Type: Off-hand AccessoryArmor: N/AAbilities: +18 Stamina, +20 Intellect Increases spell damage and healing by up to 23 The stamina on this says Warlock, but if there aren't any warlocks around, this wouldn't be a bad pickup for any damage caster (Elemental Shaman, anyone?), especially one looking to head into PvP. For most casters, odds are that even if you grab this, it'll be replaced pretty quickly with either a better offhand or a 2h weapon. But on the other hand, it does look cool, and it's named after one of the most beloved CMs (if you can believe that CMs can be universally beloved) on the forums, the hypno-gnome Hortus. He's the bug guy, so many times (especially when a big PTR is being tested like this), he'll be the one to show up with answers to players asking about whether something is bugged or not. And he's brilliant. Hence the seal. How to Get It: It drops from the Fel Horde's Warchief, Kargath Bladefist. We've talked about him before on PLP, so suffice it to say that he's a mean SOB with blades for hands. No idea why he's carrying around Hortus' seal, but if you are able to grab it from the guy (it drops pretty often, in both normal and heroic modes) , you might want to see about getting it back to Hortus -- he'll probably need it for all the PTR testing going on.Getting Rid of It: Sells to vendors for 2g 20s 45c, and disenchants into a Large Prismatic Shard.
Phat Loot Phriday: Winterfall Firewater
This is probably old news to a lot of you, but just in case you happened to join us after Burning Crusade dropped, you might not know about this magical liquid available only in the snowy wastes of Winterfall. Here's something fun that almost anyone after 55 can get.Name: Winterfall Firewater (Wowhead, Thottbot, Wowdigger)Type: ConsumableDamage/Speed: N/AAbilities: Increases your attack power by 35 for 20 minutes. This counts as a Battle Elixir -- you can only use one Battle Elixir and one Guardian Elixir at a time. But the best part of this nowadays (since 35 attack power ain't that much, especially when you scale up to 70) is that it makes you grow in size, which lets you do funny things like the picture above. There are a couple of other ways to grow in size -- the most common is the Shaman spell Bloodlust. Stack a few of these together with the Firewater, and you can see some pretty crazy stuff. You can put your own "huge player" experiences in the comments below. Finally, "firewater" is also a slang term for alcohol, and is also offensively used to refer to the problem of alcoholism among Native Americans. In the quest mentioned below, you find out that the Furblog (a bear-like people with tribal similarities to Native Americans) is being corrupted by this "firewater," and one of your tasks is to attack the Furblog leader and cure them of that corruption. A very interesting social background to the whole idea of the Furbolg in Azeroth. How to Get It: This is a drop only from Furbolg in Winterspring, and though most of the percentages out there say it drops only about 4-6%, experience tells us that it drops pretty regularly. Anyone who's ever grinded those bears for Timbermaw Hold rep will tell you that they've seen tons of these. And for that reason, they're also pretty readily available on the AH as well, for as cheap as a gold or two.Still, it's always fun to have a few around, just in case things get a little boring during a raid, and you feel the need to, y'know, be big.Getting Rid of It: AH it, because vendors won't buy it. Or just drink it, specifically during raids when Bloodlust gets dropped. Always fun.
Phat Loot Phriday: The Decapitator
After a short hiatus last week (due to the Friday evening patch 2.4 mayhem), the phat loot is back, this time with an axe that not only has one of the best names in the game, but can give you a little ranged help as well.Name: The Decapitator (Wowhead, Thottbot, WowDB)Type: Epic One-Hand AxeDamage/Speed: 167-312 / 2.60 (92.1 DPS)Abilities: Improves crit strike rating by 27 Use: Hurls the axe through the air, directly at a target's head (very "vorpal," if you get that reference). Causes 513-567 damage with a 3 minute cooldown. It's a 40-yard range, instant cast, so definitely very nice for pulling. Shows up as a black version of the Paladin's ranged attack. And it was rumored that this was counted not as a melee attack, but as a spell. However, players have apparently confirmed that spell damage does not add to it, although we're still not sure if spell crit helps the percentage. Maybe commenters can shed light on that one-- I don't have this one around for testing. Bosses, as you may expect, are immune to the throw. But it is pretty easy to put together a macro which will let you use the throw ability to pull, and then switch over to your usual tanking weapon. How to get it: Pretty simple-- drops from Prince in Karazhan. People are downing him with PUGs nowadays (and odds are your guild, if they're raiding at all, has like three groups clearing it every week), so hope for the 13% percent drop chance to kick in, win the roll (tanks and shammies might be rolling on it, but by now, everyone who wants one probably already has it), and it's all yours.Getting rid of It: Sells to a vendor for 12g 44s 56c, and disenchants into a Void Crystal. That's all I got-- I guess you could destroy it if you want, but this is the kind of item where the proc would probably come in handy at almost any level. Have a good weekend.
Phat Loot Phriday: Crystal Charge
Going back to just hefty loot today, since we've been doing high end stuff for a few weeks now. This is a non-engineer explosive that packs about as big a punch as you're going to get.Name: Crystal Charge (Wowhead, Thottbot, MMODB) Type: ConsumableDamage/Speed: N/A (See below)Abilities: Use: Inflicts 383 to 517 fire damage in a three yard radius. Does not require an engineer to throw, although it is consumable. And I'll make another extreme statement (even though, like I said last week, you wily commenters usually prove me wrong): this is the most damaging non-Engineer thrown consumable. The Essence of Eranikus actually does more damage over time, but it's a trinket, and this is the highest damage non-Engineer grenade that I could find. And, dear readers, I actually went into the game and did a little playtesting with this stuff just for you. Unfortunately, I have to report that it does not add spell damage (I wasn't surprised by that, but I can confirm that it doesn't). But it does in fact crit-- I had one of my charges break 575. And I also used it on multiple targets, so if you can fit more than one thing in the (small) 3 yard radius, you can hit them all with ~400+ fire damage. How to Get It: As you may have guessed, it's part of the Un'Goro Crystals setup. To start collecting and using crystals, you have to do the chain offered by J.D. Collie at Marshal's Refuge there. He'll show you how to get the crystals and the spires you'll need to take them to. And once you've finished all his Fedex-ing (it's easy enough to do if you're leveling through Un'Goro around the early 50s anyway), you'll be able to get a quest from the Northern Spire itself called Crystal Charge.That quest requires that you grab 10 Red Power Crystals and 10 Yellow Power Crystals from the deposits around Un'Goro. Bring those back (or just bring them along-- you don't need the quest to collect the crystals, and you might even find them on the AH if someone on your server is trying to clean out their bags), and you'll get 6 Crystal Charges for each turn-in of 10.Getting Rid of It: Sells to vendors for 10s. While the Power Crystals themselves are BoE (or at least not soulbound), the Charges are BoP, so sell them or use them.
Phat Loot Phriday: Anetheron's Noose
As far as I can remember, we've never done a cloth belt (although, believe it or not, we have done a plate belt). So here you go.Name: Anetheron's Noose (Wowhead, Thottbot, Curse)Type: Epic Cloth BeltArmor: 133 ArmorAbilities: Yellow and blue gem sockets (Socket bonus: +4 spell damage) Improves spell critical strike rating by 24, increases damage and healing done by spells and magical effects up to 55 So the biggest thing about this belt isn't necessarily what it does have (it does have the highest +spell damage you can find on a cloth belt), but what it doesn't have-- spell hit rating. Unlike other high level epic caster belts, this belt trades off spell hit rating for a little extra spell damage. And so if you've already capped off spell hit rating, then this belt is your best bet. Shadow priests are lucky in this regard-- they get a talent that makes their spells much easier to hit, so they don't need as much spell hit rating. For an endgame shadow priest, your other gear will likely already cap your hit rating, so this is definitely the best belt for you. How to Get It: It is called Anaetheron's Noose, so it drops from Kael'thas. No, I'm only kidding-- it drops from Anetheron in Mount Hyjal. I thought maybe that Anetheron was hanged before he was somehow turned into a dreadlord (you think you can match the might of one?), but I couldn't find anything like that in the lore, and I don't even think dreadlords are made-- they're probably fashioned from pure evil or something sinister like that.So odds are the people doing the hangings here are you players. Sure, kill the dreadlord, string up his body, and take the noose from his broken neck to wear around your waist. That's real classy.Getting Rid of It: As requested, I will not say something like "are you crazy?" or "why would you want to do that?" Instead, I will assume that you are reading this a few years from now, Wrath is out and we are all level 80, and you found this in your bank and Googled it to find out why you still had it. In that case, a vendor will give you 2g 71s and 88c for it, or it will disenchant into a Void Crystal.
Phat Loot Phriday: Cataclysm's Edge
No messing around here. Just a big, bad sword. This is why half of us are playing a sword and sorcery game in the first place, right?Name: Cataclysm's Edge (Wowhead, Thottbot, WoWWiki, WoWDigger)Type: Epic Two-hand SwordDamage/Speed: 386 - 580 / 3.50 (138.0 DPS)Abilities: +75 (!) Strength, +49 Stamina Equip: your attacks ignore 335 of your opponent's armor. And that's not a proc, that's an equip. Wild. The math around that is complicated to say the least, but suffice it to say that whenever you attack anything with the sword, you treat the opponent like it has 335 less armor than it really does. Which means even more damage. And all that strength adds damage as well, since strength adds to attack power, which adds to melee damage, too. In short, when something gets hit with this sword, it feels it. And I always get called out and shown up when I make statements like this, but according to WoWWiki, this is the highest DPS melee weapon in the game. Theorycrafters, if you would like to challenge that, feel free to do so in the comments below. WoWWiki shows that the Axe from the Illidan Kael'thas (you're right, I'm drunk) event does more damage, but that's a summoned axe, and not a player-useable weapon. Same deal with the Artifact Twin Blades of Azzinoth. So I'm standing by the original claim. Prove me wrong if you must. How to Get It: Drops from Archimonde, the last boss in Mount Hyjal (and arguably, the game itself). It's a 10 to 15% drop, so you'll need to get him down a few times for the odds to fall in your favor. And you'll have to fight all those Mortal Strike warriors and ret pallies for the roll, since everybody who likes chopping things in half will be after this one.But the good news is that this will last long after the "gear reset" coming in the expansion. I hesitate to say that it will actually be able to challenge Frostmourne (because who knows how they'll implement that in the game), but odds are that if you're lucky enough to get this now, you'll be chopping things with it for quite a while.Getting Rid of It: Are you nuts? If you have so many of these things laying around that you have to get rid of one, go talk to Matthew Rossi, our warrior writer-- I'm sure he'll want one. But if you must vendor it, you'll get 19g 57s and 38c for it. Disenchants, as usual, into a Void Crystal.
Phat Loot Phriday: Galgann's Fireblaster
As you may have heard, I've been playing my old Hunter quite a bit lately, and she's got this baby still sitting in her bank. And while this is definitely not an endgame item, it still stands up as a great midgame ranged weapon (and one of the few good reasons to go into Uldaman).Name: Galgann's Fireblaster (Wowhead, Thottbot, Wowdigger)Type: Rare GunDamage/Speed: 56-106 / 2.60 (31.2 DPS)Abilities: Chance to strike your ranged target with a fire blast for 12-18 damage. This procs fairly often-- players have it at around 20% of the time. It's not a huge add, but at a point where most ranged weapons are just ranged weapons, it's pretty nice. And this gun, to me, is what Warcraft firearms should be all about-- a huge musket with a little steampunk feeling, and lots of explosions. This could be my favorite standard, workhorse gun in the game. How to Get It: Straight off of Galgann Firehammer himself. He's a dwarf in one of the digs of Uldaman, the instance everybody loves to hate. The good news is that he's right near the side entrance to the instance, so it's pretty easy to duck in (you'll have to have someone sneak in and open the door for you, or just clear to the side), kill him enough to get this gun (droprate is about 15-20%, and it seems to me to be even higher than that), and then get out, bypassing all those annoying troggs at the end of the instance.And it's an excellent gun for the level once you get it, too-- unless you can find the old Boomstick lying around, this gun will easily last you for up to 10 levels, from the early forties till level 50.Getting Rid of It: Sells to vendors for 1g 66s 81c, and disenchants into a Large Radiant Shard.
Phat Loot Phriday: Dory's Embrace
Cloak time! This fairly new cloak sits in a weird place in the endgame ecosystem-- it's a PvP cloak in a PvE world.Name: Dory's EmbraceType: Epic CloakArmor: 114Abilities: +34 Stamina Improves critical strike rating and resilience by 20, attack power by 46, and your attacks ignore 112 of your opponents' armor So it's a Rogue PvP cloak. But wait-- this cloak actually comes from, well, go read the "How to Get It" part below. Go ahead. I'll wait. Isn't that a little weird? To get one of the best PvP cloaks for rogues in the game, you have to do PvE. Blizzard doesn't think it's that weird-- they say that originally, they were keeping PvP gear only for PvPers and PvE gear only for those raiders. But later on, they decided that was a bad idea, and now we've got cloaks like this. Still, it's a pretty awesome (and nice looking) cloak. And your guess is as good as ours who "Dory" is. I thought it was that fish from Finding Nemo, and it turns out that it's actually a type of fish, but considering the flavor text is "approximately priceless," that doesn't seem right. How to Get It: To get this cloak, you've got to visit good old Gears G'eras in Shattrath, and turn in a whopping 60 Heroic Badges. Badges, as you probably already know, are available from Heroic instances, as well as from raid bosses in Karazhan and Zul'Aman. So this is a cloak that you can only get from doing PvE.If you jumped down to this section from the section above, you can go back now.This cloak was added in with the patch 2.3 gear, so if you haven't seen it there before, that's why. The good news is that even though 60 Badges is a lot, you can supposedly pick up 22 Badges in a full Karazhan run. So just run it three times and you're all set.Getting Rid of It: This cloak is disenchantable, and like all level 70 epic items, DEs into a Void Crystal. Sells back to a vendor for 60 Heroic badges. No, I'm just kidding, but wouldn't that be nice? Vendors won't buy it back at all-- apparently they have no need for your ratty old Epic gear.
Phat Loot Phriday: Orb of Deception
I find it hard to believe that we've never done this, but a search through the archives leads me to conclude that we haven't, so here you go.Name: Orb of DeceptionType: Rare TrinketDamage/Speed: N/AAbilities: On use, transforms you into a character of the opposing faction. That means you suddenly change your look, from Alliance to Horde or vice versa. Humans to Orcs, Undead to Night Elf, Troll to Dwarf, Tauren to Gnome, and Blood Elf to Draenei (or vice versa). Lasts for five minutes, and has unlimited charges on a 30 minutes cooldown. It's mostly just a joke, as NPCs will see right through your disguise, and players will still see red text above your head. But it is fun to cause a little commotion when a newbie spots you walking around a big city as the other faction. Finally, gender gets a little weird with this, too. Night Elves and undead will change sexes when transformed, and using other shapeshifting buffs, we're told, will make genders change as well. Why is that? Who knows. Probably a bit of coding weirdness that Blizzard isn't interested in fixing. How to Get It: If "the Orb" (sly Brisco County, Jr. reference there-- anyone with me on that?) was easy to get, everyone would have one, right? Well, it's only kind of easy to get-- it's a world drop, which means that it can drop from almost anywhere in the world. I'm pretty sure it tends to drop in instances, but even that isn't for sure-- lots of people say they've seen it drop out of instances, too.At any rate, you probably have a better chance just buying it than actually getting it in a drop. Could cost you up to 500 or even 1000g, but given how quickly gold shows up these days, you'll get it faster by just farming gold for it rather than trying to get it to drop for you. Check the AH every day, grab it when you see it pop up, and you're ready for a little bit of deception fun.Getting rid of it: Sells for 46s 18c to vendors, and disenchants into a Large Brilliant Shard.
Phat Loot Phriday: The Unbreakable Will
This is the definition of what Phat Loot is all about-- a big old sword to swing around.Name: The Unbreakable WillType: Epic One-hand SwordDamage/Speed: 112-209/ 1.60 (100.3 DPS)Abilities: 308 Armor (yes, on a sword) +33 Stamina Increases defense rating by 21. So as you've probably guessed by now, this is definitely a Hunter weapon. No, of course we're kidding. This is a weapon for a main tank, and it's definitely one of the hottest tanking weapons in the game. Plus, for a tanking weapon, it looks pretty hardcore. It's not really meant to do all that much damage (it's the armor and defense that define it, but with that sleek blue glow, I'd think twice about seeing it swinging around in battle. How to Get It: Drops from Anatheron in the Mount Hyjal instance. Anaetheron, if you didn't already know, was a Dreadlord who came with Archimonde to the battle at Mount Hyjal, and who, like many other demons, fell prey to the forces of good. We're not sure where he got this weapon from (maybe someone whose will he'd broken?), but it does kind of look like it came from a place called the Twisting Nether, doesn't it?It's about a 10% drop, just like most of this high end stuff. But the good news is that if you're main tanking at a level where you can use this, your guild will be happy to give it to you anyway. And if not, just hold the whole guild hostage-- what are they going to do, run something without an MT?Getting Rid of It: Sells to vendors for 13g 90s 81c. Disenchants into a Void Crystal.
