*This post was writen before 3.1 and therefor does not include trinkets from Ulduar or the out of combat mana regen nerf. This post here is up to date for 3.1.
15 days ago Nitefear asked a very simple question: "Just out of curiosity, which trinkets would be good?" Aertimus recommends Darkmoon Card: Blue Dragon with Spirit-World Glass
Trinkets were my first, big, frustrating, WoW math obsession. A year and a half ago, I spent every free moment I could get reading up on trinkets and lamenting the fact that I would never see Memento of Tyrande. I ultimately invested in Darkmoon Card: Blue Dragon and did obtain Memento a few days before Wrath.
I have never regretted spending time and gold on Blue Dragon. Despite the fact that some people say the uncertainty of its proc'ing makes it less desirable than other trinkets out there, I am here today to argue that Blue Dragon is still the best druid trinket in terms of mana regeneration. In fact, its mana regeneration benefits are so high that they may outweigh the fact that it does not have spellpower.Blue Dragon was great in Classic, TBC, and is still great in Wrath. It will continue to scale with your gear. You will obtain more spirit and int and increase your out of combat mana regen and Blue Dragon will increase your in combat mana regen. The relative value of every other trinket is (slowly and slightly) diminished as you gear up.
There is a full discussion of restoration trinkets at EJ. In places on WoWHead, some people have been lead to believe that Darkmoon Card: Greatness Spirit is one of the best Resto Druid trinkets - they have been corrected. Darkmoon Card: Greatness Int. is indeed the better choice of the two. More WoWHead comments claim Majestic Dragon Figurine is one of the best Resto Druid trinkets - one commenter points out that it is ever better when combined with Blue Dragon. Some argue that Spirit-World Glass can do amazing things in combination with Blue Dragon, others say it is too unreliable of a combination. Matticus recommends Spirit-World Glass, and even mentions how great it would be for Resto Druids. His readers mention Blue Dragon, but no math follows.
I compared the following trinkets for mana regeneration:
- Darkmoon Card: Blue Dragon: Beasts Deck. Ace drops off of The Beast in Blackrock Spire. The rest of the cards are world drops.
- Majestic Dragon Figurine Drops off Sartharion in 10 man Obsidian Sanctum.
- Figurine - Sapphire Owl Made by and usable by Jewel Crafters only.
- Darkmoon Card: Greatness Spirit Version Nobles Deck. Made by Inscription.
- Darkmoon Card: Greatness Intellect Version Nobles Deck. Made by Inscription.
- Spirit-World Glass Drops off Gothik the Harvester (and sometimes Gluth) in 10 man Naxx.
I tried to model the average mana regeneration of each trinket and the trinkets when used in combination. I would prefer for people to look at the spread sheet I made and plug in their stats, to be sure they know what they are picking (especially if they are investing gold in a Darkmoon Card). I don't want people to just take my word or some commenter on WoWHead, or even EJ or Matticus, without figuring out what I will mean for them.
I was very surprised by the results. I found...
- At high values of spirit and int and a fairly average cast rate for a Resto Druid, Darkmoon Card: Blue Dragon still gives the most mana regeneration. (Get this trinket. AH so much stuff that your vanity pets think they are next if you have to, but get this trinket.)
- When considering trinkets to pair with Darkmoon Card: Blue Dragon, Spirit-World Glass gives the most mana regeneration on average. This assumes you use the Spirit-World trinket every time it is up. Even if Blue Dragon never procs when Spirit-World Glass is being used, it still gives the best mana regen. If you have a mod to notify you of Blue Dragon's proc and you have really good reaction time, you might be able to use Spirit-World Glass when you see Blue Dragon proc, giving you even more return. My calculations don't even begin to consider the increased innervate return you would see if you use Spirit-World Glass when you innervate. (Spirit-World Glass is much diminished in value if you do not have Blue Dragon. You may want to get Blue Dragon before you kill yourself grinding Naxx 10 for this.)
- If you manage to get your hands on Blue Dragon, but not on Spirit-World Glass, Darkmoon Card: Greatness Intellect version is your second best bet. The possible range of mana regen is much larger than the range of possibilities for Blue Dragon and Spirit World Glass. You will be taking a risk of the two cards proc'ing low and never proc'ing together. However, if they both proc a lot or together, you will see tons of mana. (Aertimus does not recommend taking this risk.)
- Darkmoon Card: Greatness Spirit version is not worth it!!! Please don't dump gold or time into getting this card. Get the int version instead. If you go with the spirit version you are (probably) sacrificing more than 20 MP5 for less than 20 spellpower (compared to the Int version), BEFORE you pair this card with Blue Dragon. If you pair the two, you are gimping Blue Dragon's mana regen potential and losing even more (as compaired to the Int version.)
- Majestic Dragon Figurine is a very good investment, especially if you are not into risk taking and/or you want to pair this with a spellpower/haste/"something that doesn't have the word 'card' in its name" trinket. In fact, I would recommend every druid have this around as a secondary trinket for fights when they aren't having a single mana regen issue.
I also hope (hope hope) some other people will look at my math and point out anything (and everything) I did wrong and even things I could have done better. I am by no means the Resto Druid Trinket Analysis Expert.
Here is the spreadsheet: Excel, Open Office
- Download it.
- Plug in your unbuffed, UNTRINKETED values in the red.
- Figure out which of the four columns applies best to you. (Do you run with normal buffs? Are you blessed with an Divine Spirit priest? Do you have a +2% Int meta gem?)
- Scroll down to compare the individual regen values, the touted "best trinkets for resto druid" regen values, and the regen values for trinkets used in combination with Blue Dragon.
- Don't forget to check out the comments to the right of the column so you know exactly what you are comparing. Don't give up major spellpower if you aren't having mana issues!
- If you wish, tab on over to "Maths" and see where all my numbers came from.
- Give me comments! Given your spirit and int, which combinations are best for you? Did you find an error in my math? Do you think I overlooked a critical trinket?
I would like to thank my loving husband, Yakra, for letting/helping me spend the better part of our 3 day Florida Christmas vacation comparing druid trinkets!
For Aertimus's list of pre-Naxx resto druid go here.
For Aertimus's list of pre-Naxx resto druid go here.
resto druid. Once upon a time she was the spirit stacking tree for the main tank ToL aura. Despite all the spirit changes it is still the stat nearest to my heart.
hellow~ thank u for the article that u wrote abt trinkets~ actually i was in dilemma too because there are so many trinkets to choose from~ and at 1st i was kinda reluctant to buy the beast deck but thanks to ya i decided to buy it from AH and at a bargain price of 300G lol~ keep on rocking!
ReplyDeleteGreat post! My druid is currently feral, but being that she leveled as Resto I'll be a tree again someday! Good work on the math as far as I can tell, but I'm certainly a farcry from an expert or theorycrafter. I'm just greatful there are bloggers like you that will compare stats and trinkets (items) like this. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the heads-up, I love Darkmoon Cards. The Beasts deck is quite cheap these days because Inscriptions can make the cards. I bought a full deck for 300g.
ReplyDeleteBTW, the proc on Darkmoon Card: Greatness is very reliable. It procs 35% of the time for a 15 second buff with a 45 second cooldown. It probably procs off of HoT ticks too. Even if not, you can still assume the buff is up 1/3 of the time you're active. I use the agility version when I'm feral and it's absolutely fantastic. However the deck is very expensive, over 10,000g on my server.
Thanks again! -- Flyv
another nice restodruid trinket is spark of life which drops from Sjonnir The Ironshaper in halls of stone on heroic.
ReplyDeleteSpark of Life
Binds when picked up
Unique-Equipped
Trinket
Requires Level 80
Equip: Improves haste rating by 73 (2.23% @ L80).
Equip: Each time you cast a spell, there is chance you will gain up to 176 mana per 5 for 15 sec.
if you need mp5 this is a trinket for you
Here is data by Vomit from WoWhead on Spark of Life:
ReplyDelete"Based on your average cast time, I've calculated the probabilistic mp5 return as:
1 sec = 50.1 mp5
1.25 sec = 48.6 mp5
1.5 sec = 47.2 mp5
1.75 sec = 45.9 mp5
2 sec = 44.8 mp5
2.25 sec = 43.7 mp5
2.5 sec = 42.7 mp5"
Your levels of Spirit and Int will change where this ranks in the mana regen trinkets I listed. For example, for me, this is only better than Spirit-World Glass without Blue Dragon. It is worse than all the other ones I listed. (Again, you can download the spreadsheet I made, plug in your values of Int and Spi and see how much mana those trinkets would return to you.)
That said - this might be a great mana trinket for someone who isn't into much 10 or 25 man content and doesn't have gold to burn on card decks, but does get to run a lot of heroics. WoWhead has it at a 19% drop rate.
So thank you, jos, for pointing this trinket out!
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI just picked up the Greatness Intellect version, but I am not sure what best to pair it up with, perhaps the beasts deck? With the Int version, should I be worried about keeping my spirit above my Int? Or will Int as my highest stat and it proccing be more beneficial than Spirit?
ReplyDeleteomg please answer the above poster. I just got the int card and now my int is grater than my spirit. i don't understand why int would be better for mana regen than spirit. please help me out on that one. thanks!
ReplyDeletethanks!!
ReplyDeletevery usefull..