Showdown at the BRK Corral
So you’ve wanted to know, which is better: The Skyguard Silver Cross or the Crystalforged Trinket. Well don’t think that BRK hasn’t been listening or doesn’t care. We just got back from Dr. Boom and doing a little testing.
We did two tests, one with the Silver Cross equipped and one with the Crystalforged. For both runs, we cleared the area, cleared all our buffs except Aspect of the Hawk, put 100 bullets in our ammo pouch, turned on the CLSaver combatlog, did not use Hunter’s Mark - refreshing it could interfere with out test - and let the Auto Shots flow.
Here’s our setup and stats for the Silver Cross run:
And here’s our Crystalforged setup:
WoWWebStats does an amazing job as always. For the Silver Cross run, we didn’t do anything but allow Auto Shot and IAotH to proc. The Silver Cross has no “use”; it’s a static trinket.
So here’s the report for the Silver Cross:
The Crystalforged trinket does have a “use”, so for this run, we popped the trinket immediatly at the start of the run and then whenever its cooldown was up. In the 100 shot-test, we were able to crank it up three times and that is shown in the Buffs & Debuffs section of the WWS report as Valor.
And the report for the Crystalforged Trinket:
Would you like to easily compare the two reports? We can do that by taking screenshots of both and combining them in another screenshot, like this:
What can we learn from the analysis?
1. We expected the Silver Cross to give 1% more crit and the testing bears that out.
2. We expected the Crystalforged to give more damage per shot and that also occurs.
3. The extra mitigation during the Crystalforged run decreased the DPS and total damage, but not by so much as to cause a massive concern.
4. Total damage difference is 120, easily within the expected margin of error.
5. The total time was exactly the same, 2 minutes and 58 seconds, for both runs. That’s pretty cool!
6. This test did not take pet damage into account. The extra 1% crit from the Silver Cross would mean one more Kill Command and 50 more Focus, which would be two more Claws.
7. The extra damage-per-shot from the Crystalforged is advertised at +7, but our testing shows it only as +3, (447 with the Silver Cross and 450 with the Crystalforged).
8. Our testing is incomplete. This is a single test of only 100 shots. Multiple tests should be run for more accuracy.
Our recommendations:
If you’re a BM hunter, go for the Silver Cross. The extra crit gives more Kill Commands and more Focus for your pet.
If you’re a SV hunter, you’re an agility/crit hoarder already and are cradling your Silver Cross with both hands.
If you’re a MM hunter, you have a hard choice. Your crit percentage is not any higher than a BM hunter but your damage-per-shot and damage-per-crit is much higher. That extra damage-per-shot and haste from the Crystalforged may outperform the Silver Cross for you, especially if you have a pet specifically designed to hold aggro and tank, not DPS.
We hope you enjoyed this little experiment and maybe even inspired you to try a test of your own.
Rizzil on 01 Dec 2007 at 7:50 pm #
Once again, you’ve come through. Thanks BRK.
Anonymous on 01 Dec 2007 at 8:46 pm #
I would have thought the difference to be more in favor of the Skyguard. It gains slightly more of course when you chain mobs within the uptime of its buff.
I have both and use Ogrila’s trinket plus the Silver Cross for grinding, Silvercross plus Abaccus for raiding. Minding my EW uptime hehe.
Nifty test. Think you could do the same chaining up three/4 of the invading forces coming out from the Auchenai Crypt(right location?). Genuinely interested in the results.
Camaxtli on 01 Dec 2007 at 11:33 pm #
It’s time you do a few Black Morass runs and get yourself the Hourglass of the Unraveller. It gives you almost the same amount of +crit & a chance on an attack buff whenever you crit… For that reason I prefer it over the Skyguard Silver Cross.
But perhaps you’ll tell me now why this isn’t a valid statement
Rhust on 02 Dec 2007 at 12:19 am #
heh, I did this test too not long ago, with damage meters instead of WWS… almost same thing too, the extra crit was nice, but not as big of a difference as I thought…
I’m curious on scopes on my new S2 xbow… 28 crit or 12 damage?
I’m sitting pretty at 28.5% (unbuffed), crit with the +28 crit scope, but wonder if 12 damage would be better? I get close to 37% crit buffed in kara
btw, I hate “use for X AP” trinkets, since I have the orc racial that has more of a boost than any I can find… so I use the silver cross with the hourglass…
the hourglass procs based on crits so more crits also pop that too…
during the last prince fight we did a wws for, it proc’d 2 times in 4 minutes… and that was with about 3% less crit, since the scope and xbow are new…
so, my question is this… would the +12 damage scope be better than the 28 crit?
Lance on 02 Dec 2007 at 1:12 am #
I was just wondering why sometimes your links to Wowhead don’t work. it says loading and then it says no response from server.
Felandra on 02 Dec 2007 at 1:20 am #
“7. The extra damage-per-shot from the Crystalforged is advertised at +7, but our testing shows it only as +3, (447 with the Silver Cross and 450 with the Crystalforged).”
Armour mitigation. Though itseems to be on the high side compare to the actual damage in relation to the tooltip.
tehkrons on 02 Dec 2007 at 1:37 am #
This is sort of like comparing apples and oranges. The Silver Cross would by far outperform the Crystalforged trinket if it was used in its intended circumstances. If you were just shooting Dr. Boom, then its proc was never active.
Try doing a couple of BM runs sometime where you are on adds. The first one use the cross and the second one use the CT, tell me which one is easier.
I was going to say that CT would be ok if you don’t have access to anything else, then I realized that all hunters do have access to better things, and they don’t require instance grinds or dailies.
1.) Bladefist’s breadth - I still have this in my bank. Has a longer cooldown, but longer duration and the extra crit more than makes up for it. What does it take to get it, a short questline and a ramparts run?
2.) Ogre Mauler’s Badge or Uniting Charm - Again longer cooldown but increased duration and a much more useful on equip ability. Reward for world PVP in Nagrand.
3.) Mark of Conquest - May not do as much damage per shot, but you’re going to be doing damage for longer. Reward for world PVP badges in Zangarmarsh.
Rotseh on 02 Dec 2007 at 4:03 am #
Haste from the Crystalforged? What haste?
I also think this is comparing apples with oranges. The Crystalforged should rather be compared with Bloodlust Brooch and the Skyguard Cross with the Hourglass (of which both I believe the latter is better).
BRK on 02 Dec 2007 at 4:44 am #
What’s wrong with comparing apples and oranges? That’s the whole idea behind a WWS test; being able to test items that have different capabilites.
As for the AP buff the Silver Cross gives, we really don’t care about it. Boss-damage is our game.
Rhust on 02 Dec 2007 at 5:24 am #
actually, that’s why I un-equip the cross for boss fights and equip the abacus, you get AP and another haste use… abacus and hourglass for bosses, cross and hourglass the rest of the time.
Felandra on 02 Dec 2007 at 2:00 pm #
If you only care about Boss damage, then the cross will never be something you will like. It quite simply isn’t made for that, it is meant to help you kill enemies in ever larger numbers.
I would say it is one of the most awesome trinkets along with Mark of Conquest for trash and for grinding. Those two will really help you keep the work up. But on the boss they are will come up very short. There it is time to switch to more powerful ‘use’ trinkets.
Since you only cared about the boss damage, it was a fairly bad comparison as one of the trinkets were not made for that. It is like comparing two onehanders to a big twohander for a Fury warrior/Enhancement Shaman… The twohander is not going to compare favourably, and as such comparing two onehanders with another two onehanders woul be much better.
tehkrons on 02 Dec 2007 at 5:44 pm #
There’s nothing really wrong with comparing apples and oranges but I like apple juice better than orange juice and I like oranges better than apples. How will I ever determine a winner? It’s all about intended consumption.