The Queue Trinket-Palooza 2009

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Welcome back to The Queue, WoW.com's daily Q&A column where the WoW.com team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Allison Robert is your hostess today again (our condolences).
I'm in an autumnal sort of mood, hence today's picture. Yes, I know that Barrens trees always look like that. We got a really interesting question about trinkets the last time around that really caught my attention, so a lot of today's Queue is going to be comprised of an Enjoyable Stroll Down Memory Lane and Into Holy ^$*# Look At That Trinket From AQ40 How Has That Not Been Nerfed Yet.
Starlin asks...
So, what's up with Brewfest this year? Anything new or updated?
Fortunately or us, Kisirani posted on this same question yesterday. To summarize, there are no major changes to the holiday, but Coren Direbrew has been updated to level 80, the mount drop rates haven't changed (nor are they now required for the Brewfest meta-achievement),[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], and no new pets or mounts have been added. You can reasonably expect a beefed-up holiday boss with a new loot table (most likely of ilevel 200 items, possibly 219 if they want to match the gear from heroic Trial of the Champion), but otherwise the same experience as last year. I'll have an OverAchiever for the good folks seeking Brewfest achievements up on the site soon.
Xvkarbear asks...
How does a boomkin kill a resto druid in PvP?
Prayer.
Diewalkure asks...
Could you tell me if there are any items like trinkets that can be found in the vanilla raids that are so unique that they could still be used at level 80. Like they have some special use or something that it would be worth it to pursue them?
This question really piqued my interest, so I wound up trawling through the loot lists for each classic boss looking for cool trinkets someone might still want at the level cap for whatever reason. There are several fun trinkets available from vanilla and BC raids, but in terms of actual use at 80? Not too many of those hanging around. Daniel Whitcomb wrote a guide on the 7 best trinkets in WoW about a year and a half ago, focusing on the most fun you could have with various drops, but here I'm more concerned with the question of whether you could still manage to find some use for a trinket right now.
Two things before I start:
This started getting really long, so I had to stop before hitting Burning Crusade. Of the BC trinket drops, the one that comes most immediately to mind as being surprisingly useful -- or at least, it was surprisingly useful -- at 80 for Warlocks is the Void Star Talisman off High Astromancer Solarian in Tempest Keep. This was one of the things that made voidwalker tanks on a Sartharion-3D possible before Blizzard nerfed this.
This isn't meant to be an exhaustive list of level 60 trinkets, just those for which you might conceivably find some use at 80 due to unique itemization or interesting procs or whatever. That doesn't make necessarily make them good, just a little different than what you'll find in Wrath, but rarely worth using over modern stuff (of the list, there are really only two standouts, and both of them are for healers). If a trinket didn't strike me as terribly interesting or if there's an equivalent between 60 and 80 that does whatever it did better,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], I didn't include it here. If I missed anything or got anything wrong, please feel free to drop something in the comments.MOLTEN CORE
The Talisman of Ephemeral Power (an infrequent drop off 4 bosses in Molten Core) was basically the most sought-after caster trinket in all vanilla. It could still be used now,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], but still won't provide the same DPS increase you could get from leveling trinkets in Wrath. I did, however, want to point it out just because its /use animation was so cool that Blizzard reused it on several trinket procs you'll still see today.
The Eye of Divinity (from Majordomo Executus) for Priests is the key to getting the class-defining Benediction/Anathema, and is still the only way to see Ricole Nichie in the World's End tavern in Shattrath.
BLACKWING LAIR
The Black Book off Razorgore in BWL is still a surprisingly large stat increase for Warlock demons, but with a 30-second duration and 5-minute cooldown, less useful than it might have been.
The Mind Quickening Gem off Vaelastrasz is a jaw-dropping +haste increase for Mages but, like the Black Book, is a large stat increase with a prohibitively long cooldown. However, the 320 +haste increase is the sort of thing uniquely suited to a boss that needs to be burned down quickly past a certain point (e.g. Princess Huhuran or -- come to think of it -- phase 3 Anub'arak in Trial of the Crusader).
Rune of Metamorphosis is another Vael trinket but for Druids, with a /use effect that's almost completely useless for PvE. However, it's potentially useful in PvP, more so because all PvP Druids will almost certainly have 3/3 Natural Shapeshifter and the Rune will basically eliminate shapeshifting costs altogether for 20 seconds.
world of warcraft gold Lifegiving Gem off Broodlord Lashlayer for Warriors is almost as good as a Nightmare Seed but nowhere near as good as Last Stand.
Chase isn't around at the moment, so our Rogue readers are going to have to tell me if Venomous Totem (also off Broodlord) is good for anything now.
The Natural Alignment Crystal (Firemaw) for Shamans is...eh. The spellpower increase is respectable; the additional mana cost that accompanies it is not. I don't know if the spell damage increase is enough to override the inefficiency for an Elemental Shaman.
Scrolls of Blinding Light (Firemaw) for Paladins is not quite as good as its Mage counterpart but still a sizable +haste increase.
The Drake Fang Talisman (Ebonroc) was pretty much the go-to melee and Hunter trinket of classic in much the same way that Talisman of Ephemeral power was to casters. Useful at 80? Probably not, but for history's sake I will say this trinket remains badass until the end of time.
Styleen's Impending Scarab (Flamegor) was mentioned by our commenter Cyrus in the original thread, and was still being used by Warrior and Paladin tanks (Kungen most notably) in early- to mid-BC raid content. Not as useful nowadays, regrettably, although it did get a boost from the recent improvements to block.
AHN'QIRAJ-20 AND -40
The Eye [link widoczny dla zalogowanych] of Moam off (who else?) Moam in AQ20 interests me but I'm not sure how useful it would be versus a raid boss at 80 (or if it stacks with the debuff provided by Curse of Elements and Earth and Moon. In PvP you might still get some use from it.
Badge of the Swarmguard (Battleguard Sartura, AQ40) is equally interesting given the huge buffs to armor penetration (which,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], for the sake of accuracy, are going bye-bye in patch 3.2.2). However, I'm not sure what the proc rate is like at 80, and the trinket is certainly inferior to things to Grim Toll and Banner of Victory.
OK, now here's something that doesn't brook any waffling: Scarab Brooch (Viscidus, AQ40) is apparently still The Shiznit, particularly for Holy Paladins dumping massive heals on tanks and PvP partners. As the Wowhead commenter wow gold Firecrest notes, "(It's) so good they stuck it on a legendary" -- namely, Val'anyr. Reportedly, it's still being used by top-ranked arena healers and in conjunction with shields and Val'anyr procs to keep players from getting burst down. For PvE, you can't swing a dead cat nowadays without hitting a tank-LOL-instagib mechanic on hardmodes, and the trinket's /use effect lasts 30 seconds. Frankly, I'm flabbergasted that the thing hasn't been nerfed yet, but that's not important right now. Anyone up for an AQ40 run?
The Jom Gabbar off Ouro (AQ40) is still surprisingly good, although it won't replace a Wrath trinket. A Wowhead commenter who put it on his Death Knight noted a 650 attack power increase the 18th second after triggering the trinket, fading to 0 at the 20th second.
I agree with Dan that the Vanquished Tentacle of C'thun (C'thun, AQ40) is made of puppies, awesome, win and rainbows.
DARKMOON FAIRE
The Darkmoon Card: Twisting Nether is still fully functional at 80, and I've got one that I can't bring myself to get rid of despite the fact that it never procs when you really want it to. I used to have it equipped on stealth runs of BC instances farming Ancient Lichen. Does it work in battlegrounds and arena? Well, it certainly did, and Wowhead commenters have confirmed this up through Season 3, but I have no idea if it still works nowadays in PvP.
The Darkmoon Card: Blue Dragon was used by a number of healers until relatively recently, when out-of-5-seconds mana regen was nerfed and in-combat mana regen was buffed, at which point its value relative to current mp5 or regen-oriented trinkets fell somewhat. I can't speak to its use for other classes, but for Restoration Druids it's still amazingly good at better gear levels with high Oo5s regen,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], particularly (as Hotstree points out) if you're smart enough to pop a Spirit trinket alongside a proc.
How cool is it that there are still a few badass trinkets around from classic content? I think it's pretty cool.
Rotclaw asks...
Remember the "Heroic Leap" ability in the WoTLK beta for warriors (lots of Youtube videos if anyone wants to check it out)? It looked like a lot of fun and had great potential to add more diversity to playing a warrior. Apparently they scrapped it because of pathing issues or something. Anyone know if they'll ever try to bring it back, maybe in the next expansion?
Heroic Leap was indeed removed because of pathing issues, but mostly because it was players themselves creating said issues. Ghostcrawler had an explanation here and here. Until and unless they can fix the array of opportunities for a player to exploit while using the skill, we probably won't see Heroic Leap (or similar mechanics) again.
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