I don’t know about you all, but I’m bidding on the Vanquished Clutches of Yogg-Saron. RP server + Tentacle companion = sheer win.
OK, not really.
When I initially perused the list of new trinkets from Ulduar, I must say I was less than wowed. For better or worse, some of the trinkets already in-game will remain quite viable for us. I’m not sure there are clearly any “must-have” trinkets for our spec (Raise your hand if you had to farm for Quagmirran’s Eye and are relieved that you needn’t rely on shitty drop rates and kind guildmates to help you get gear from heroics, eh?). So rather than thinking about a clearcut best-in-slot item, these two trinket slots can be viewed as a way to supplement the stats you’re lacking. For this reason, it’s probably best to accumulate a number of trinkets, so you can swap them around for more crit or more haste or better mana regen as your gear and as the encounters necessitate.
When assessing a trinket’s value, I look at a number of things:
- what benefit occurs “on equip”
- what, if any, proc does it feature (and how often will this effect occur)
- what, if any, “on use” ability does it have
Personally, I’m not a big fan of “on use” abilities as I often neglect to take full advantage of them. Of course, you can macro trinkets with your other spells (for example, macro increased haste effect trinket + Inner Focus + Prayer of Healing).
Below are some of the trinkets a Discipline Priest might consider. I have excluded from this list trinkets with effects that are more suited to offensive spell casting (trinkets with +hit, trinkets that have a chance to proc when you deal damage, etc). I have also excluded trinkets that grant +Spirit, as those are far better suited for Holy Priests and Resto Druids. This list is also comprised solely of epic trinkets, and while there are some good blue ones available (Spark of Life, for example), a Disc Priest is unlikely to keep those ones once they have access to badge and raid gear.
+SPELLPOWER
Scale of Fates: With a whopping +125 spellpower, this trinket gives the largest “on equip” boost to a Discipline Priest’s most important stat. It has an “on use” effect that gives a substantial haste boost for 20 seconds. Drops from Thorim in Heroic Ulduar.
Forethought Talisman: This trinket grants +111 spellpower. Its “on equip” effect promises a HoT that in my experience fails to deliver. While the spellpower is very nice, the other effect is pretty underwhelming. Drops from any number of bosses in Heroic Naxx.
Titan-forged Rune of Audacity: Yes, this is a PVP trinket. I include this here because there are sometimes when it’s necessary to be able to free oneself from movement-impairing effects. This trinket allows you that ability (on a 2 min cooldown, of course) without losing all the other nice features of your PVE trinkets. Mount Hyjal anyone? Available for purchase with Wintergrasp marks.
Sif’s Remembrance: This trinket combines +110 spellpower with a chance on spellcast to gain +156 Mp5. Drops from Thorim in Heroic Ulduar.
Je’Tze’s Bell: This trinket combines +106 spellpower with a chance on spellcast to gain +100 Mp5. This is a BOE world drop.
Darkmoon Card: Illusion: Perhaps, if you’re like my scribe, all you can make is Prism cards. If so, this is a rather easy trinket to acquire. It offers +100 spellpower. Its “on use” effect provides a small shield that returns 1200 mana when it expires. (You can click off the shield for immediate mana return)
Embrace of the Spider: This trinket grants +98 spellpower and a chance on spell cast to increase haste by 505 for 10 seconds. It drops from several mobs in Heroic Naxx.
The Egg of Mortal Essence: Like the Embrace of the Spider, this trinket also grants +98 spellpower but its haste proc only occurs with healing spells. For sale in Dalaran for 40 Badges of Heroism, this is likely the first epic trinket a Disc Priest will pick up.
Illustration of the Dragon Soul: This trinket does not boost any stat automatically. Rather, “each time you cast a damaging or healing spell you gain 20 spell power for the next 10 sec, stacking up to 10 times.” This effect works very nicely for a Discipline Priest as Penance gives 3 stacks and as the quick casting playstyle of the class means that you can maintain the full +200 spellpower of the trinket rather easily. This trinket drops from Sartharion in Heroic OS.
+INTELLECT
Pandora’s Plea: A trinket with +108 intellect is pretty nice in and of itself: more mana, more regen, more crit. Add to that a chance to proc +850 spellpower and I foresee this being quite a coveted item. Drops from Mimiron in Heroic Ulduar.
Darkmoon Card: Greatness: This trinket grants +90 Intellect with a chance to proc another +300 Intellect. Like Pandora’s Plea, that is a big boost to mana, mana regen, and crit. I’m not certain that it’s worth the gold investment to make or buy the Nobles Deck, however.
+CRIT
Soul of the Dead: This has long been one of my favorite trinkets, granting +95 crit rating and a chance on spell crits to return 900 mana. I’m always amazed to see how much mana this trinket returns over the course of a night. Drops from Sapphiron in Heroic Naxx.
Eye of the Broodmother: This trinket grants +87 crit rating and with each spell cast, you gain +25 spellpower, stackable up to 5 times. Drops from Razorscale in Regular Ulduar.
+Mp5
Energy Siphon: This trinket grants +43 Mp5. It has an “on use” ability that boost spellpower by 408. Honestly, I’m not sure why a Disc Priest would want this trinket over other options. Let this go to other classes and mock them for their mana issues — that’s what I’d do. This drops from Flame Leviathan in Heroic Ulduar.
Living Ice Crystals: This trinket also grants +43Mp5. It has an “on use” ability that instantly heals a target for 2710. This heal has a one minute cooldown, making it useful if you remember to use it… which I probably wouldn’t. (Or you could macro it to use it on yourself. *cough*) Drops from Malygos in Heroic Eye of Eternity.
According to wowhead, the Eye of the Broodmother’s proc only stacks 5 times, lowering it’s appeal somewhat.
oh blah. apparently that was wishful thinking on my part. ok, editing this post then, eh?
Wishful thinking on my part as well, first time I saw it and also mis-read it as 10 – I’d still rather have the one from Sarth, to be honest.
Yeah. Same here. Perhaps I will sell myself out to PuGs in the hopes it drops.
Okay, i will chose this two:
> Pandoras Plea
> Eye of the Broodmother
I dont like the “on use”-effects, too. And i dont see any use in manaregenaration-effects right now, because i can handle nearly everything right know without them.
The Eye of the Broodmother is not a Heroic drop.
It is quite a nice little trinket as you can PW: S a few people to get the proc going pre-pull. Just remember to Fade that aggro off. 😉
[…] I wrote a blog post a while ago about Ulduar trinkets. And frankly, the trinket that Sartharion drops — Illustration of the Dragon Soul — remains one of the most attractive for us. The other trinket I covet is Pandora’s Plea — the Intellect boost and spellpower crit make this very desirable. […]