Monday, January 4, 2010

[Druid] Some highlights of plague wing gear (like a boss)

While I don't think I'll be doing a full Like a Boss type of gear readout, I figured I'd point out some of the gear that is going to be open to everyone tomorrow.

The big one that will interest all druids (and pesky hunters) is Distant Land, which is the best non-heroic weapon for cats and the second best weapon for bears. That drops from Festergut in 25-man, and is the first weapon available from ICC. In 10-man Rotface drops a similarly decent weapon - Shaft of Glacial Ice. This isn't as good as the heroic Twin's Pact, but it's better than virtually anything else and has a nice amount of hit on it.

But those are just the tastiest bits. There's a lot to offer in this wing.

Rotface:
Aldriana's Gloves of Secrecy - Rotface 25 (#4 bear, #5 cat) - note that these are the recommended offset piece for cats, so definitely take a look out for them if you're not planning on getting T10 gloves.
Bile-Encrusted Medallion - Rotface 25 (#2 bear) - the only thing that beats this is the heroic version.
Seal of Many Mouths - Rotface 25 (#12 bear, #7 cat) a decent ring that has expertise on it. Nice for cats to meat their exp cap with T10 legs.
Shaft of Glacial Ice - Rotface 10 (#12 bear, #17 cat) - there are better, but it is likely an upgrade if you don't have Twin's Pact.

Festergut:
Plague-Soaked Leather Leggings - Festergut 10 (#11bear, #14 cat) - a good sidegrade but nothing special
Precious's Putrid Collar - Festergut 10 (# 11 cat) - it does have hit rating on it, which might be nice.
Distant Land - Festergut 25 (#6 bear, #6 cat) - best weapon you can get right now, and best weapon for a while until heroics for cat
Gangrenous Leggings - Festergut 25 (#6 bear, #5 cat) - a surprisingly decent piece, but chances are the rogues are going to want this and not want to upgrade it; you want this until you can get your T10. So pass to them unless you're greedy or there aren't rogues.

Professor Putricide:
2x vanquisher mark of sanctification - Putricide 25. Being able to get 4 of these a week is going to help a lot and make it a bit easier to get the higher 4 piece. By the time the 3rd wing opens chances are good that you'll have at least one of these and hopefully two.
Astrylian's Sutured Cinch - Putricide 25 (#4 bear, #3 cat) Much better for cats than bears here; the ToGC 25 drop is better for bears. But it's still very close, and you definitely want a piece of gear named after the creator of Rawr.
Tiny Abomination in a Jar - Putricide 25 (??? cat) - this is likely much better on a ret pally or 2h DK or warrior, but it might be good on a cat. No one knows a lot about how it works yet.
Discarded Bag of Entrails - Putricide 10 (#12 bear, #8 cat) - surprisingly good for cats, the low stamina hurts it for bears. Might be worth it for a cat if you don't have a T9 piece there or aren't planning on upgrading any time soon.
Unidentified Organ - Putricide 10 (#2ish, bear) - while I don't like the stacking stam buff, the fact is that that's almost gravy; the 2000 armor is worth it for this trinket alone, and adding 270 stamina on stationary fights without phases is very strong. Sadly the number of fights in Icecrown that this works on appears to be kind of small; Festergut looks like it requires tank swapping, Saurfang definitely does, Gunship does, Marrowgar has big spots where it won't work, Deathwhisper does, Sindragosa and Valithiria do...about the only one that doesn't that we know about is Lana'thel, and she doesn't hit that hard. Still, a very good trinket.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good post - this is the only place I've found that actually talks about each item instead of just listing it.

In other news.

http://www.wowwiki.com/Feral_Dps_Guide

is up and running. Formatting is all shot to hell, feel free to fix it if you’re bored. Or change the guide. I’ll keep an eye on it for a bit but won’t be updating it all the way to Cataclysm most likely. You're referenced a few times, ofc.

Anonymous said...

make that http://www.wowwiki.com/Feral_DPS_guide

Copey said...

Coldbear, that is simply AMAZING. Really good job.

It's also the reason my dps offspec is Boomkin.

tyra said...

just did festergut tonight, and defintely requires tank swapping! /sigh




ps: my random verification was : icrit. ;D made me laugh

Spw said...

Got run over pretty hard by Festergut 10 last night. My gear is cat focused so I'm not decked out in 258+, but I am pretty much all 245 and our healers had a hell of a time keeping me up. I've had no problems tanking togc 10 and even togc 25, so this came as a bit of a shock. We ended up switching me to OT and got him down pretty easy.

Any other part time bears notice this? I stack stam, might thtow some agi gems in my red sockets for next week.

Anonymous said...

Hmm.. i tanked Festergut 25 last night and somehow i think bear has advantage over other tanks for this fight. Most important part is to save your cooldowns for 3rd inhale. I basically blow trinket+SI+barkskin during inhale 3, staying at 91k+ hp make it easy for healers to keep me up. Stack stamina seems better choice, his 30k attack every second during inhale 3 seems can't be dodged(haven't got time go into combat log for more detail).

Anyway i do enjoy this fight as feral, i let the other tank start tanking 1st and dps as cat, tank swap at 9 stacks, then i just dps for the rest of the fight after next tank swap. With the +90% damage debuff on us, we can easily sustain 6~7k dps even in tank spec/gear, while tanking for about 40% of the time.

Kalon said...

coldbear - wow. That's a lot of stuff to go through. Very well done.

Tyra - at least we were well prepared for it :)

Tgw - he hits hard. We use external CDs and tank CDs like Gormok. It's just tough. That being said, a lot of folks I've talked to say druids have it best thanks to their focus on more stam and more armor.

Anon - that's a really awesome thought. Good idea.

Spw said...

Anon... Thanks for the tip. I was rolling my cd's rather than stacking them. Part of not knowing the encounter I guess. I'll give that a shot next week.