A preliminary view from the tanks' perspective
With patch 2.2 comes a new weapon enchant of interest to melee classes:
Formula: Enchant Weapon - Executioner
Soulbound
Requires Enchanting (375)
Use: Learn how to permanently enchant a
Melee Weapon to occasionally ignore 840 of
your enemy's armor. Requires a level 35 or
higher item.
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Is Executioner better than Mongoose?
That's the question on everyone's mind right now. One this document attempts to answer, based on the limited information available at this time. Since the proc rate and buff duration remain unknown, but given that the formula will be obtained from a 10-man raid zone in the same fashion as Mongoose, we will assume that they are the same as Mongoose and compare the two enchants based on that assumption.
What we know
Based on its description, Executioner has no mitigation or avoidance component, so Mongoose wins in that regards. However, Executioner promises a steady damage increase that scales based on the target's armor, affecting all damage dealt as soon as it procs. In comparison, Mongoose's damage component revolves around an increase in the player's chance to crit, which makes it somewhat less reliable.
Mongoose DPS (threat value)
The overall damage increase on Mongoose comes from a combination of crit from agility and haste rating.
The crit% increase is a direct percentage increase to overall damage. With Mongoose alone, warriors get a 3.636% increased crit chance from the 120 agility buff. In most raid situations where BoKings is available, Mongoose becomed 132 agility, or a 4% increased crit chance.
For warriors the haste rating only affects auto-attack and Heroic Strike. Given that the availability of rage directly affects warriors' ability usage, the proportion of a warrior's overall damage that can attributed to HS and white damage can vary quite a bit depending on the situation.
For simplicity's sake, and because I can attest to this being a realistic value based on WWS reports of my own damage breakdown by ability, I will base the math in this document on the assumption that 50% of a warrior's damage comes from HS and white damage in a raid tanking situation. So with a 2% attack speed increase, this translates into a 1% damage increase while the Mongoose buff is active.
So we end up with a 4% damage increase from crit and a 1% damage increase from haste, for a total 5% DPS increase. Protection warriors get no crit-based synergy between their talents and abilities, so the math pretty much ends here.
Executioner DPS (threat value)
For detailed information on how armor works in WoW, see Satrina's guide on
Mitigation, Armour, Diminishing Returns.
Armor reduces all incoming physical damage by a fixed percentage. As armor value increases, the increase in mitigation is subject to diminishing returns. What this implies in the case of the Executioner enchant is that various armor values between one target and the next will each yield a different increase in damage to the wielder. The enchant will have a more significant effect when fighting a target with low armor (think Shade of Aran) than when fighting a target with high armor (i.e. Void Reaver).
The target's level also has a direct effect on mitigation from armor. A level 73 mob with 10000 armor will mitigate
less damage than a level 70 mob with 10000 armor. What this means is that the 840 armor reduction from Executioner will have less of an effect on a level 73 mob than than it will on a level 70 mob with the same armor value.
To find out how much DPS Executioner will net you based on your target's armor, you would find the target's initial mitigation, then find the target's mitigation with the 840 armor reduction from the enchant, then compare the two.
For example, on a fairly well armored level 73 mob at 10 000 armor:
Mitigation = 10000 / (10000 + (467.5 * 73 + 22167.5)) =
45.537%
After reducing that mob's armor by 840:
M = 9160 / (9160 + (467.5 * 73 + 22167.5)) =
43.371%
Calculating the damage increase:
100 / (100 - 43.371) * (100 - 45.537) = 103.977, or
a 3.977% DPS increase.
While not entirely impossible, it's fairly difficult to find the exact armor a mob has, but we do know from experience that it can vary quite a bit. This is where the most important difference between Executioner and Mongoose becomes visible. Using the mitigation formula linked above, here's a list of results against a level 73 target for various armor values:
10000 (45.537%) - 840 = 9160 (43.371%) =
3.977% dps increase
7355 (38.080%) - 840 = 6515 (35.264%) = 4.548% dps increase - Void Reaver
* 5000 (29.481%) - 840 = 4160 (25.806%) =
5.211% dps increase
2990 (20%) - 840 = 2150 (15.237%) = 5.953% dps increase ** 1500 (11.144%) - 840 = 660 (5.229%) =
6.656% dps increase
The DPS comparison
The examples above show that in the lower armor ranges, Executioner provides a superior damage output compared to Mongoose. Against highly armored targets Executioner falls slightly behind.
At first glance, most tanks may decide that the minor damage increase from Executioner does not make a good case for the loss of the mitigation and avoidance provided by Mongoose, which is a perfectly fair argument. However, when it comes to threat generation, Executioner does provide an advantage over Mongoose. Executioner provides threat that can be qualified as steady, or
reliable threat. Obviously, only as reliable as its proc rate. But given that Mongoose is also proc-based, we can ignore that aspect of both enchant for the purpose of comparing the two.
When Mongoose procs, it will give you added threat if you get a crit. Over the 15 second duration, you may be lucky, or you may no be so lucky. You may get a Shield Slam crit right as Mongoose procs. Or you may get a string of dodges, parries, some glancing blows and a couple of white crits.
When Executioner procs on the other hand, the buff gained will immediately increase all your damage by a fixed percentage. It may not feel as exciting as extra crits, but you know that the added damage and threat will be affecting
all your attacks over the duration of the buff. Another minor, yet interesting benefit from Executioner is that
even glancing blows will deal more damage, something that can't be reproduced by an increase in crit%.
So
even in situations where Executioner puts out a lower overall damage increase than Mongoose, it may remain a preffered choice for some tanks due to the steadier nature of its damage increase.
So which one should I use?
If you only have one good tanking weapon, Mongoose will give you the most all around benefit due to its avoidance / mitigation component.
However, most experienced tanks will tell you to carry multiple tanking "sets", for maxing out avoidance, effective health, and threat, depending on each particular encounter. Ideally you should have a few weapons to match those various applications. For example, a typical early raid setup might be to use a Sun Eater enchanted with Mongoose for max avoidance, and a King's Defender with Executioner for max threat. Pick a different one for each fight, or swap them mid-fight based on the mechanics of the encounter.
In the end the decision between Executioner and Mongoose should be whether you want Executioner's more predictable, steady threat on each proc, or Mongoose's extra mitigation and avoidance, and somewhat less reliable short-term threat.
Notes:
* : Wartorn indicates
here that Void Reaver has 40% mitigation, or 7973 armor after 5 Sunders. Also see follow up discussion
here.
** : 2990 armor value (20% mitigation) included as a reference based on Ciderhelm's reply
here.
