So last night I got the Infantry Assault Blade (Infantry Assault Blade - Item - World of Warcraft) and nearly every stat was a significant upgrade for me over Sword of Heartwrenching Slaughter (Sword of Heartwrenching Slaughter - Item - World of Warcraft).
So now I'm in a dilemma. I've heard some arguments for both sides. Historically, I've taken the faster weapon, but I used the Infantry Assault Blade for the remainder of Heroic UK last night, and saw no problems.
I've got my first Naxx (as off-tank) this weekend. Should I go for the fast or slow one there? Should I be changing weapon based on what sort of instance I'm tanking?
Stick with the Infantry Assault Blades. All other things being equal, fast weapons put out more dps than slow weapons while tanking in a high rage situation. But all things are not equal between the two, the Infantry Assault Blades has more survival stats.
Imo, give a Deep Wounds spec a shot and you'll be quite pleased with your new sword.
Thanks Caireagin! I'll check out DW specs and see how they treat me.
To be honest, I've not found a compelling reason in Wrath to say use one weapon speed over another. If we get to a point where threat is tight like it was in TBC, then I'll say go with the fast weapon for more HS dumping. Until then, I actually like slow better; as Caireagin pointed out they do more damage with the deep wounds spec.
Always go with the slowest weapon you can, until you get to the point where you can not burn off the rage. At that point, worry about lowering your weapon speed to make use of all your rage. You'll also get the benefit of bigger deep wounds and devastates.
I'm MT for my guild and I am using the Infantry Assault Blade - Item - World of Warcraft). We aren't very far into Naxx, just 5 bosses down, but I am having no issues at all with threat.
as an off tank you shouldnt be as worried about threat you should be more worried about dps and debuffs so weapon speed shouldnt be an issue
Originally Posted by Tnar
Tnar is correct, as an offtank you should use a slow weapon more often than not though. You will not have enough rage to burn off heroic strikes, so slower is better. In the end, take what has the highest DPS though.
Another way to solve your dilemma...run heroic Utgarde Pinnacle until Red Sword of Courage drops. It's 1.60 speed and better than anything else pre-raid-drop. And the drop rate isn't nearly as low as Suneater was in heroic Mech. Some folks do run UP quite a few times and fail to see it drop, but for every one of those stories there's a corresponding happy tale of someone who gets it on their very first run.
Until then....it's a toss-up. Was recently in same boat, choosing between Infantry Assault Blade (2.60spd 130dps) and Eternally Folded Blade (1.60spd 120dps). Complicated by the fact that I had (probably prematurely) splurged for the +26Agi enchant on the EFB, and didn't want to do that again for IAB because I felt I was close to the Red.
In the end, no big differences between the two. Overall DPS was about the same...IAB higher base DPS and bigger Deep Wounds effect, but EFB procced crits a little more and could spam HS more. In the end, just went back to EFB not for stats reason, just because I liked the "feel" of the fast sword better...but felt vaguely guilty because I knew I was using a slightly inferior weapon.
Then the Red Sword of Courage dropped last night and solved my quandary. :-)
7 runs of Pinnacle so far and no sword for me.That's not counting the runs that couldn't get past Skadi, which were nightmares.
It sucks that Skadi is usually where you discover if you have a fail group or not.7 runs of Pinnacle so far and no sword for me.
I still prefer faster weapons. Mostly due to HS spamming. On our last Patchwerk25 kill I had 2400 dps and HS was around 44% of my damage. The occasions are rare where you are rage starved.
That being said, the stats of the weapon > speed. Comparing your 2 weapons, Infantry Assault Blade and Sword of Heartwrenching Slaughter, the first (and thus slower one) is a clear upgrade. The speed does not matter that much. But as other people said here above, given 2 weapons of equal dps and stats, I would take the faster one.
Thanks for the tips everyone!
I specced into Deep Wounds. I like it, though it feels slower than I'm used to for some reason, and I feel a bit rage starved when solo questing. I should probably carry both, and switch depending on my needs. I didn't have the rage issue when we were in Naxx.
However, my Naxx expedition went well, I'm happy to report. I only was able to go Saturday and Sunday, but we cleared the Spider Wing and Plague wings on Saturday, where I garnered Gauntlets of the Master. Sunday we downed Patchwerk, who donated a pair of Abomination Shoulderblades to my gear as well.
We hit some trouble with Grobbulus, and ended up going to hit Rasuvius in the Military wing instead. We downed him, but then some folks had to drop out due to the lateness of the hour, and we called it a night.
This is my final post on this topic. I got my Crimson Sword of Courage, so the choice has been made. Fast weapon for me. (Though I still use the DW spec! Thanks!)
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