We Love Polearms, But Murmur Must Die
“Dear BRK, I’ve been a faithful reader for a couple of months now. I check your website religiously at work and appreciate that you update so frequently. Your blog gave me the encouragement to switch to BM from MM in my early 50’s and I’ve never looked back - I love the spec and am looking forward to endgame as I am now a 67.
“Now to business. A few levels ago I grinded in the Dead Mire for Sporeggar rep to attain the [Survivalist's Pike]. I also amped it up by laying down the moolah for a savagery enchant, the +70ap was noticeable.
“Now that I am able to run Sethekk Halls and attain [Terokk's Quill], I am unsure whether or not it would be an upgrade. I had planned on getting the mats together for a +35 enchant on it, but now I am not sure.
“With the +35 agility it will give me 89 total agility. That means a gain of 68 agility total. I realize that agility helps my dodge, crit, and scales with my pet - but, is it still a wise upgrade? As of right now I see the loss of 7 attack power and 20 intellect.
“I am not one to get into major calculations, math is the bane of my existence. Do you think the extra crit percentage will make up for it? Should I just wait for the Hellforged Halbard? Why is the sky blue? I just don’t know. Please help. Back to work, Krutang and Maverick”
Rule #1 of Comparing Gear: Ignore Enchants. If you wanted, you could put a +35 agility enchant on your pike and increase your crit, too. You could put a Savagery enchant on the Quill and ram its RAP up. It doesn’t matter; the base stats of the gear is our concern, period.
You got the Pike and that’s 21 Agility and 40 RAP, so we’ll call that 21 Agility and 61 RAP. If you get the Quill, that’s 54 Agility period, or 54 Agility and 54 RAP. With the Quill, you get a bonus of 34 Agility which is almost a full percentage of Crit, (to be precise, it’s 0.85% +crit), and losing 7 RAP. Yes, you’re getting +dodge and +armor, too, but let’s simplify and just worry about the +crit for now.
The stamina on the two polearms is basically equal.
The intellect on the Pike is +20. Now that’s 300 mana plus the 5 mana per 5 seconds that Aspect of the Viper is boosted, (AotV is 25% of intellect every 5 seconds).
So what’s the trade? To gain 0.85% crit, you’re giving up 7 RAP, 300 mana, and 5 mana every 5 seconds if you run with AotV.
But what does that mean in terms of damage, that’s the real question. Is 7 RAP something to worry about? Not really. Is 300 mana? That’s a single Arcane Shot. The 5 mana per 5 seconds? If you’re running Aspect of the Hawk it’s not there to begin with, but if you are, and you’re in a fight that lasts two minutes, you’d be getting 120 mana over that period, which isn’t even a single Arcane Shot. Is all that worth a little less than 1% crit?
No way. Take the crit, baby. Take it and run. Crits are, of course, more damage for you, but it also procs Kill Command. That’s a double-damage-bonus for critting, so don’t pass it up. Then slap the +35 agility enchant on it for another 0.875% to crit.
But what’s after the Quill? The [Sonic Spear] is what you’re gunning for. BRK has the [Hellforged Halberd] because, A) we have the rep with Honor Hold after running Shattered Halls 1048 times, and B) because the d@mn sonic spear never ever ever drops for us.
Ever. Did we mention that the Sonic Spear never drops for us? It doesn’t. Ever.
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22 Responses to “We Love Polearms, But Murmur Must Die”
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BRK is very right here. Now don’t get me wrong survivalist’s pike is an awesome wepon and for a greenie it is obscene. It pretty much outclasses any purple wepon before outlands due to its very good dps stats and the addition of the 20 intel. But intel asside crit = money. I cant tell you the number of MM hunters I see rolling around bragging about their 2200 attack power and sitting at 18% critical.
1% crit = 1.3*WhiteDps increase. Thats right it scales. The more crit you have the more your fancy purple wepon works for you, the harder your attack power work for you!
But I compliment you on your looking at intel and mp5. AS you hit the end game you’re going to start realizing as many hunters did at 60 that hey, we’re still casters. Sure we need AP/Crit/Hit just like mages need SD/S Crit and such but if we go oom those stats arent helping all that much. Make sure as you progress into the level 70 fun and hopefully raiding that you don’t neglect your mana pool & regen. We hunters no longer get to see the brighter side of the five second rule.
I sit at 6800 mana and 120Mp5 while casting self buffed with viper and I can tell you without that regen I’d be /autoshooting midway through the prince, high king and gruul fights without it.
Remember hitting hard is important but lets compare two “blue quality” gems.
Bright Living Ruby - 16 AP
Name I Forget - 8AP and 2Mp5
In a 5 minute fight the 8 additional AP are going to give you 5*60*(8/14)= 171.42 Extra Dmg in Autoshots and roughly the same in terms of steady shots assuming you have enough mana to dps for 5 minutes. You’re going to gain (300/5)*2=120 mana in this time which is enough for an extra steady shot netting you around 600 dmg.
Like I said Mp5 is important
Shifttusk
I’ll have to agree with the BRK’s suggestion to move up to the quill. I have it, and have loved it since. I actually do not have an interest in the sonic spear, since I NEVER raid. The quill is great for pvp purposes, as all that agility gives those big crit boots, and I need to keep agi high for my dodge too. (and the quill looks pretty good after the update to its texture a couple patches ago)
I went from Survivalist Pike to dual-wielding Stellaris (http://wow.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?witem=28263), each with +30 INT on them. A little more rep with honor hold and that’ll change, but…
edit: thrallmar, not honor hold
I feel your pain in the Sonic Spear though i got mine to drop fast, I can’t get a dam kara ranged weapon to save my life.
I’m actually considering trying for dual weilding stellaris, but mostly because of the +20 agi enchant I’m hearing about. 2 x Mana Oil would be nice too.
Nevermind, Sonic Spear is still better than 2 x Stellaris +20 agi, regardless of whether you get Savagery or + 35 agi.
Spears? Axes and Legacy are where it’s at.
Gonna be quietly smug about having it before any of our Hunters, not that I get to use it much, stupid healer shortage.
Next up on my guilds Tempest Keep Kill List is Al’ar.
He’s a shiny phoenix who likes to deal lots-o-fire damage.
I put this on my loot wish list to duel wield:
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=29924
You are now permitted to drool.
took about 12 runs in SL to get my sonic spear(sporting the +70 AP,now)
a few of those we got all the way to the end only to be unable to drop murmer with the current group…
you want to talk about stuff not dropping… I can’t get a beast lord piece to save my life! not 1! I’m still in green shoulders because I keep running SV hoping this will one the time warlord gives it up!
The Sonic Spear is the thing of legends. I don’t think it actually exists.
Hell a *Primal Nether* dropped on my last (non-Heroic) run, and still no SS sighting.
Thanks for the help brk. As of right now I’m in the LFG channel hoping someone wants to run Sethekk Halls.
If people only knew the flurry of DPS and chain trapping that awaited them, they’d surely join me much quicker.
BM ftw.
Krutang and Maverick, Out!
where do you think Adamantite and Crystalforged Axes add up in this?
I traded in my Survivalist pike for the Adamatite Axe, and planned on getting Crystal after, what do you think in terms of upgrades between Crystal and some of the poles listed?
(Ease to obtain is important to me, my guild doesnt like to raid, we pvp.. So i dont want to plan on running lots of instances past 70.. Also, Stamina >>> Intelect+mp5 for me, since im a PvP addict)
I am thoroughly convinced that the Sonic Spear is specifically designed to be undroppable.
I feel your pain, oh so much.
I ran SL so many times to get the Sonic Spear. Each time I made it clear to the whole group that I wanted one thing only - everything else meant nothing to me. I was a hunter on a mission.
After reading about the supposed rarity of the drop I had begun to think maybe I would never get it. The spirit shards and the UC rep compensated a little, but I wanted the Sonic Spear.
And then, one day, on a magical night with an unstoppable group, it dropped. The group erupted into celebration. Despite there being a pally in the group who was ‘interested’, everyone knew why I was there. It was mine.
Keep trying guys - it’s the only way! Also, make it clear that you do NOT expect anyone to roll against you. If it drops - you want to be 100% certain it’s yours.
Btw, I have Savagery on mine. Yes, I know that BRK advocates +30 AGI but +70 AP was too irresistable.
i swear every hunter on the rexxar server has the sonic spear EXCEPT ME. given, i did get a primal nether for my surestrike goggles, but after 20+ runs that polearm eludes me also.
Can’t resist… I now have 2 level 70 hunters. And BOTH of them got Sonic Spear on their very first Shadow Labyrinth run. I heard stories and know a guy who ran SL about 20 times before it dropped. It seems I’m REALLY lucky.
Ode To Sonic Spear
You Were Good To Me.
You Dropped My 1st Labs Run.
Though Certain Fights Were Painful,
You Made Encounters Fun.
Murmur Didn’t Want You.
Well I Say Boo To That.
You Match Well With My Bracers
And Your +AP Was Phat.
Some People Said You’re Not As Good
As Terokk’s Quill - That’s Whack!
But What You Lacked In Agi
You Made Up For In (other) Stats.
You Will Be Hard To Vendor,
But I Know You’ll See The Facts.
Bros Is Broke These Days
And I Need Gold For Enchant Mats.
For My New Axe.
Legacy.
Nobody in the ‘outside world’ would believe that we are reading a poem based on the pursuit of a weapon in a computer game.
And to all of you who got the Sonic Spear on your first run: you must have taken a swig of Felix Felicis before you started!!
I too have been on an unsuccessful quest for the Sonic Spear - it has not dropped a single time that my hunter has gone to SL. Ironically, however, my guild needed me to run SL w/ my priest alt… and I cried as I disenchanted the Sonic Spear that Murmur dropped for us, and nobody wanted.
As long as The Crone eventually gives up the Legendy axe, I’ll be fine w/o the spear, though
Add another mark in the “Got the Spear my First Shadow Labs Run”…and it also dropped on the second and we DE’ed it.
But if it makes you feel any better…I reached exalted with Keepers of Time and had to do another 10-15 runs before I got that damn hourglass and I’m 2 runs away from hitting 100 Crypts runs to get the damn 12 AGI to Boots Enchant. Almost 100 runs and I’ve seen it drop once…
I ran SL over 30 times before getting it, sad thing is that my GF needed the caster sword drop from murmur, she went there 6 times without me and every of those 6 times that damn spear dropped.
I am pretty certain that murmur is actually monitored by GM’s and they refuse to drop SS when hunter’s are in the group, else it has 100% drop chance…