Arrrghhh!!! Trinkets!!!

January 26, 2008
Categories: Analysis, Items and Equipment, Lunar Guidance

This article would have been released faster if I'd spent less time stomping around the apartment screaming about how much I dislike trinkets! I hate them. Which is why I haven’t written about them before now. Maybe it’s their non-traditional effects or the fact that many of them are triggered (which means you have to remember to trigger them). Either way, there’s never been a clear best-of-breed pair of trinkets to me. So I collect them and then I put them in the bank, waiting for the day that another Druid blogger will write this article so I can gleefully dust off the pair she’s enthusiastically endorsed. Right now I’d like to take the opportunity to say that the rest of you Restos are slackers for making me do this. I hate trinkets!

The trinkets I’m going to be looking at are the Eye of Gruul, Fel Reaver’s Piston, the Lower City Prayerbook, Essence of the Martyr, Living Root of the Wildheart, the Ribbon of Sacrifice, Bangle of Endless Blessings, Scarab of the Infinite Cycle, the Alchemist’s Stone, the Pendant of the Violet Eye, and the Darkmoon Card: Blue Dragon.

Name and Source	Passive Effect	Active Effect or Proc	Notes
[Alchemist’s Stone] Crafted Requires Alchemy (350)	15 Intellect, 15 Spirit, 15 Stamina	Equip: Increases the effect that healing and mana potions have on the wearer by 40%.	To find the value of this trinket, I summed the MP5 values for its Intellect and Spirit with the average MP5 values of various potions.
[Bangle of Endless Blessings] Warp Splinter Botanica	Equip: Your spell casts have a chance to allow 15% of your mana regeneration to continue while casting for 15 sec.	Use: Increases your Spirit by 130 for 20 sec. (2 Min Cooldown)	This was the most complicated trinket to analyze since its value is dependent upon cast frequency, whether you have Living Spirit, your base Spirit, and the use of Innervate once every 6 minutes. Please see the graph at the bottom of this article for more information.
[Battlemaster’s Perseverance] 75 Heroic Badges	Equip: Increases healing done by up to 88 and damage done by up to 30 for all magical spells and effects.	Use: Increases maximum health by 1750 for 15 sec. Shares cooldown with other Battlemaster’s trinkets. (3 Min Cooldown)	It is difficult to place a value on the on-use effect of this trinket. Its rank relative to the others in this list is subject to the dynamics of an individual encounter. Obviously, if you would have otherwise died, it is the best trinket to have used.
[Darkmoon Card: Blue Dragon] Deck of Beasts Darkmoon Faire	—	Equip: 2% chance on successful spellcast to allow 100% of your Mana regeneration to continue while casting for 15 sec.	MP5 value varies widely on caster Spirit. At 400 Spirit and 3 sec casting time, BD is worth 16.5 MP5. At 700 Spirit and 2 sec casting time, BD is worth 39.5 MP5. See below for graph.
[Essence of the Martyr] Heroic Badge Reward	Equip: Increases healing done by up to 84 and damage done by up to 28 for all magical spells and effects.	Use: Increases healing done by spells by up to 297 and damage done by spells by up to 99 for 20 sec. (2 Min Cooldown)	(20sec/2min * 207) + 84 = 118.5 +Healing on average
[Eye of Gruul] Gruul the Dragonkiller Gruul’s Lair	Equip: Increases healing done by up to 44 and damage done by up to 15 for all magical spells and effects.	Equip: Each healing spell you cast has a 2% chance to make your next heal cast within 15 sec cost 450 less mana.	This trinket can be considered to proc a free Rejuvenation (the most efficient use of its proc) 2% of the time. So, 2% of the time, you will get an extra 415 mana “back” in caster form (332 mana in Tree of Life). This works out to 20.75 MP5 in caster form or 16.6 MP5 in Tree of Life. At a casting rate of once every 3 seconds, it works out to 13.8 MP5 in caster form or 11.01 MP5 in Tree of Life.
[Fel Reaver’s Piston] Void Reaver Tempest Keep	Equip: Restores 16 mana per 5 sec.	Equip: Your direct healing spells have a chance to place a heal over time on your target, healing 500 over 12 sec.	As this trinket’s effect only procs from direct heals, I consider its value to only be the 16 MP5.
[Living Root of the Wildheart] Hydross the Unstable Serpentshrine Caverns	—	Equip: Procs [Sylvan Blessing] in Tree Form and [Cenarion Blessing] in caster form.	At a cast rate of once every 2 sec, the proc will be active 20% of the time. At a rate of once every 3 sec, the proc will be active 14.1% of the time. The effects are different for caster vs. Tree of Life. Caster @ 2 sec = 35.7 +Healing. Caster @ 3 sec = 24.7 +Healing. Tree @ 2 sec = 66.6 +Healing. Tree @ 3 sec = 46.1 +Healing.
[Lower City Prayerbook] Lower City Revered	Equip: Increases healing done by up to 70 and damage done by up to 24 for all magical spells and effects.	Use: Your heals each cost 22 less mana for the next 15 sec. (1 Min Cooldown)	If used every cooldown and assuming a cast rate of once every 2 seconds, this trinket is worth 22 mana every 2 seconds … 25% of the time. This works out to 13.75 MP5. At a cast rate of once every 3 seconds, it’s worth 9.2 MP5.
[Memento of Tyrande] Illidan Stormrage Black Temple	Equip: Increases healing done by up to 118 and damage done by up to 40 for all magical spells and effects.	Equip: Each time you cast a spell, there is chance you will gain up to 76 mana per 5 for 15 sec.	As with the Bangle, the buff from this trinket should be up an average of 23% of the time, making its average MP5 work out to 17.48 at a cast time of 2.0, 15.2 at a cast time of 3.0.
[Pendant of the Violet Eye] Shade of Aran Karazhan	40 Intellect	Use: Each spell cast within 20 seconds will grant a stacking bonus of 21 mana regen per 5 sec. Expires after 20 seconds. Abilities with no mana cost will not trigger this trinket. (2 Min Cooldown)	I found the average mana regeneration during the 20 seconds the buff is active based upon casting speed. This value can be summed with the MP5 equivalent of the passive 40 Intellect. Final results were 24.38 MP5 @ 2 sec and 18.58 MP5 @ 3 sec.
[Rejuvenating Gem] Blackwing Lair	Equip: Increases healing done by up to 66 and damage done by up to 22 for all magical spells and effects. Restores 9 mana per 5 sec.	—	Included for completeness, if you don’t already have this trinket, you aren’t likely to acquire it.
[Ribbon of Sacrifice] Opera Event Karazhan	Equip: Increases healing done by up to 73 and damage done by up to 25 for all magical spells and effects.	Use: For the next 20 sec, your direct heals grant Fecundity to your target, increasing the healing received by the target by up to 30. Fecundity lasts 10 sec and stacks up to 5 times. (2 Min Cooldown)	Unless you’re using Healing Touch extensively (as with a Dreamstate build), this trinket’s on use effect holds little value.
[Scarab of the Infinite Cycle] Aeonus Black Morass	Equip: Increases healing done by up to 70 and damage done by up to 24 for all magical spells and effects.	Equip: Your direct healing and heal over time spells have a chance to increase your spell haste rating by 320 for 6 secs.	HoTs do not benefit from the spell haste procced by this trinket.
[Figurine - Talasite Owl] 370 Jewelcrafting	Equip: Restores 14 mana per 5 sec.	Use: Restores 900 mana over 12 sec. (5 Min Cooldown)	The MP5 on-use effect of this trinket averages out to 15 MP5 (900/(5*60/5)), bringing its total MP5 value to 29.
[Tome of Diabolic Remedy] Hex Lord Malacrass Zul’Aman	Equip: Restores 18 mana per 5 sec.	Use: Increases healing done by spells by up to 396 and damage done by spells by up to 132 for 20 sec. (2 Min Cooldown)	The +Healing on-use effect of this trinket averages out to 66 +Healing.
[Warp Scarab Brooch] Nexus-Prince Shaffnar Mana-Tombs (Heroic)	Equip: Restores 13 mana per 5 sec.	Use: Increases healing done by spells and effects by up to 282 and damage done by spells by up to 94 for 20 sec. (2 Min Cooldown)	The +Healing on-use effect of this trinket averages out to 47 +Healing.

Prioritizing

From these summarized values and excluding those trinkets irrelevant to the Druid HoT-based style of healing, I would personally prioritize these trinkets in the following way:

Rank	Trinket	Value
1.	[Bangle of Endless Blessings]	“Endless” is right! I tried to summarize the sheer awesomeness of this trinket and my table exploded! Please see the addendum at the bottom of this post for math, graphs, and pretty-colored lines.
2.	[Alchemist’s Stone]	15 Stamina AND 69.25 MP5 when used with [Major Dreamless Sleep Potion] 62.55 MP5 when used with [Fel Mana Potion] 49.25 MP5 when used with [Super Mana Potion] 42.6 MP5 when used with [Mad Alchemist Potion]
3.	[Memento of Tyrande]	118 +Healing AND 17.48 MP5 @ 2 sec 15.2 MP5 @ 2 sec
4.	[Eye of Gruul]	44 +Healing AND 20.75 MP5 in caster @ 2 sec 16.6 MP5 in Tree @ 2 sec 13.8 MP5 in caster @ 3 sec 11.01 MP5 in Tree @ 3 sec
5.	[Tome of Diabolic Remedy]	66 +Healing AND 18 MP5
6.	[Darkmoon Card: Blue Dragon]*	16.5 MP5 @ 400 SPI and 3 sec 39.5 MP5 @ 700 SPI and 2 sec
7.	[Figurine - Talasite Owl]*	29 MP5
8.	[Pendant of the Violet Eye]*	24.38 MP5 @ 2 sec 18.58 MP5 @ 3 sec
9.	[Lower City Prayerbook]*	70 +Healing AND 13.75 MP5 @ 2 sec 9.2 MP5 @ 3 sec
10.	[Rejuvenating Gem]	66 +Healing AND 9 MP5
11.	[Essence of the Martyr]	118.5 +Healing on average
12.	[Warp Scarab Brooch]	47 +Healing AND 13 MP5
13.	[Living Root of the Wildheart]	35.7 +Healing in caster @ 2 sec 66.6 +Healing in Tree @ 2 sec 24.7 +Healing in caster @ 3 sec 46.1 +Healing in Tree @ 3 sec

* The differences between these are marginal and largely dependent upon external factors such as cast speed. Use your best judgment.

Without a doubt, the Bangle comes out on top. It simply blows all the others away. I was shocked to discover this, especially considering that it’s a blue item from a non-Heroic instance. A significant portion of its value comes from its use in conjunction with Innervate, so if you aren’t already doing this … well, I can’t believe you’re reading Resto4Life and not already doing this! I’m strongly considering a follow-up piece to this one that looks at the Bangle in more depth .. and I suspect I may not have a choice in the matter once the incredulous comments start.

Math

Because not everyone likes math, I’ve separated it out from the comparison portion. Here are some of the fundamentals used to determine the values of these trinkets:

Proc to Restore Mana

The formula to determine the MP5 value of an item that procs a mana restore a certain % of the time is as follows:

MP5 = 5 * (mana restored / (cast frequency/proc rate))

This formula can be applied to the [Eye of Gruul] and applied toward the 415 mana cost of a Rejuvenation when in caster form:

MP5 = 5 * (415 / (2/0.02)) = 20.75

Proc Duration for Items without an Internal Cooldown

The formula to determine the proc duration (in %time) for an item without an internal cooldown is as follows:

t% = 1 - (1 - proc rate)^(duration of buff/casting frequency)

We can apply this formula to the [Living Root of the Wild Heart] (3% proc rate with a proc duration of 15 seconds). This works out to (1 - (1 - 0.03)^(15/2) or 20% of the time, assuming a cast rate of 2.0 seconds. At a cast rate of 3.0 seconds, it drops to 14.1% of the time.

Applying this formula to the [Darkmoon Card: Blue Dragon] (2% chance with a proc duration of 15 seconds), we find that the buff should be active (1 - (1 - 0.02)^15/2) or 14% of the time at a cast rate of 2.0 seconds. At a cast rate of 3.0 seconds, this buff should be active 9.6% of the time. I found the additional 70% mana regeneration provided by the Dragon card when the proc was up (100% - 30% from Intensity) and discarded the at least 5.56% of the time you’d be likely to be under the effects of an Innervate. I then graphed the contribution of the Dragon Card to your mana regeneration at values of Spirit ranging from 300-700:

Proc Frequency for Items with an Internal Cooldown

The formula to determine the proc rate (measured in PPM) for an item with an internal cooldown is as follows:

PPM = 60 / ((casting frequency/proc rate) + internal cooldown)

We can apply this formula to the [Bangle of Endless Blessings]. With a 10% proc rate and 45 second internal cooldown, the Bangle would have an average PPM of 60 / ((2/0.1) + 45) or 0.92 PPM, assuming a cast rate of 2.0 seconds. At a cast rate of 3.0 seconds, the PPM would drop to 0.8 PPM. So that we can reuse the method used to determine the MP5 value at varying levels of Spirit for the Blue Dragon, we need to convert PPM into the percent of time that the buff will be active. This formula is simply:

%t = (duration * PPM) / 60

With a 15 second duration and cast frequency of 2.0 seconds, the percent time this buff will be active is 23%. With a casting time of 3.0 seconds, 20%. As with the Blue Dragon, the proc is worthless to us while under the effects of Innervate, so we have to exclude its benefits by multiplying what it gives by (1 - 20/360) or 94%. Graphed against values of Spirit ranging from 300-700:

Of course, the world would be too simple a place if this were the only component involved in determining the value of the Bangle. We also have to take into consideration its on use effect, twice without Innervate and once with Innervate. Luckily, this calculation isn’t too heinous since it’s a flat Spirit bonus of 130 for 15 seconds (149.5 if you have Living Spirit). We can determine the value of a tick of Spirit-based mana regeneration with the following formula:

MP5_Spirit = SPI/4.5 * 5/2

We then multiply this value by 4 since there are 4 ticks in 20 seconds:

Mana Return = MP5_Spirit * 4

And then multiply it again by 0.3 due to Intensity and given the nature of Lifebloom:

Mana Return_{in combat} = Mana Return * 0.3

So if we plug in 130 for the value of Spirit, we get 86.7 total mana back when used. With Living Spirit, we’d get 99.7 mana back each use. In a six minute period, we’ll include two of those uses and then a third use in conjunction with Innervate:

Mana Return_Innervate = SPI/4.5 * 5/2 * 4 * 500%

Without Living Spirit this comes out to an additional 1444.4 mana. With Living Spirit, it’s worth 1661.1. To determine the MP5 afforded by this trinket’s on use effect we consider 2 instances of it without Innervate plus one instance of it with then divide the total additional mana return by the number of ticks in 6 minutes:

MP5_{w/o Living Spirit} = (86.7 + 86.7 + 1444.4) / (6*60/5) = 22.5 MP5

MP5_{w/ Living Spirit} = (99.7 + 99.7 + 1661.1) / (6*60/5) = 25.8 MP5

Since the two components rely upon cast frequency, your Spirit total, and Living Spirit, we end up with a range of possible values.

Download the spreadsheet used to calculate these values.

Valuing the [Alchemist’s Stone]

Using the analysis from MP5 vs. Intellect and assuming a fight length of 8 minutes and the 10% bonus from Blessing of Kings, 15 Intellect converts to 2.58 MP5. Applying the analysis from MP5 vs. Spirit and assuming Blessing of Kings, Living Spirit, Innervate, and 80% of the time in FSR, the 15 Spirit converts approximately to 6.67 MP5. The MP5 value from stats alone is therefore 6.67 + 2.58 or 9.25 MP5. The MP5 value of its potion augmenting effect will depend upon the type of potion used but can be determined as:

MP5_{Potion Increase} = Avg. Additional Mana Returned/Ticks in 2 Min

Therefore, the additional MP5 contribution for various mana potions will be:

[Major Dreamless Sleep Potion]: 1440/24 = 60 MP5
[Fel Mana Potion]: 1280/24 = 53.3 MP5
[Super Mana Potion]: 960/24 = 40 MP5
[Mad Alchemist Potion]: 880/24 = 33.3 MP5

By summing the MP5 value of its stats and the MP5 increase for various potions, we arrive at the following values:

[Major Dreamless Sleep Potion]: 9.25 + 60 = 69.25
[Fel Mana Potion]: 9.25 + 53.3 = 62.55
[Super Mana Potion]: 9.25 + 40 = 49.25 MP5
[Mad Alchemist Potion]: 9.25 + 33.3 = 42.6 MP5

Valuing the [Pendant of the Violet Eye]

As with the Alchemist’s Stone, we can convert the 40 Intellect on this item into MP5. Assuming a fight length of 8 minutes and the 10% bonus from Blessing of Kings, 40 Intellect converts to 6.88 MP5. Since the mana regeneration afforded by each application of the buff within 20 seconds increases in a linear fashion, we can determine the likely number of applications (based on cast frequency) and use the average mana regeneration between the first and last applications:

Avg. MP5 = ((duration/cast frequency) * 21 MP5) / 2

At a cast frequency of once every 2 seconds, the average MP5 value of this trinket while the buff is active would be 105 MP5. At a cast frequency of once every 3 seconds, this value is 70 MP5. If used every cooldown, it is active for 20 seconds out of every 2 minutes or 16.7% of the time. Multiplying this percentage by the MP5 values gives an MP5 of 17.5 with a cast frequency of 2.0 and 11.7 with a cast frequency of 3.0. Adding the MP5 equivalent of its passive +40 Intellect, we arrive at a final value of 24.38 at 2.0 and 18.58 at 3.0.

( 45 ) Comments

Categories: Analysis, Items and Equipment, Lunar Guidance

Some Would Have Made Him into Boots… (5)

Zackoria	Never cared to have one of those. They may look cute now but then they grow up and there goes your neighbors dog. CHOMP Be sure to keep him away from such tasty morsels. ^_^

Blake	So not fair! Been fishing almost every day and not one pet reward. Perhaps the chances of you finding a croc is inversely related to the number of pets you have. I’ve demonstrated I can take care of my current 65 pets, yet Old Man Barlo doesn’t think I can handle a croc.

Tone	Hey, congratulations! Those little guys are pretty awesome. I haven’t had any Crocolisks turn up in my bags yet, though I did have quite a lucky fishing streak recently, catching not one, but two Mr. Pinchies. So I’m still hoping for a Magical Crawdad. Unfortunately, so far, I’ve only gotten two Furious Mr. Pinchies (”No, Mr. Pinchy, don’t do it! AHHH!! MY EYE!!!!”) and two potion gift packs. I still have two more tries though, so everyone think...

Softi	Gratz! I’m still waiting to get one from that quest… one day!

Noobiewan	Toothy looks sooooo cute. Been hearing of Crocs in the canals for years but never seen one. Time to go hunting the canals!

Home is Where the Hearth Is (22)

Tone	These are all really good, interesting ideas. I’d love to see what Blizzard could do with this sort of thing. Then again, let’s just hope they wouldn’t model it too closely after The Sims… or else your Alt, who’s just starting to level cooking, will wind up burning your house down!! Might have to keep a Mage around for an emergency Cone of Cold!

LFD = Looking for Designer (13)

Ermengol	Oooooh so much better now

Phaelia	Thank you to everyone who commented or e-mailed me. I did finally find a solution to the problem, thanks to the assistance of reader Tone. For those curious, I added an align=”center” attribute to my header DIV. Then he had me change my div#phaelia style so that it looks like this: div#phaelia { background-image: url(images/phae_tol_side.gif); position: relative; /z-index: -1;/ top: 150px; left: -613px; height: 429px; width: 261px; margin-bottom: -429px; } That seems to...

Phaelia’s (Completely Made Up) WotLK Preview (3)

Tars	I am sure druids will play a major role in next expansion. Personally I am looking forward to join (as said on www.eurogamer.net) “D.E.H.T.A. - Druids for the Ethical and Humane Treatment of Animals - in their campaign against the rapacious dwarf hunter Hemet Nesingwary”. The hunter will become the hunted, so to say. sharpens claws

Hammer’s Slammers (25)

Tone	Hi there, I’m a bit late responding to this, but I just wanted to thank you for putting together a great article. I read it back when it was first posted, but didn’t have a chance to comment until now. I found it to be a very honest and even-handed overview of tanking (and tanks! ). I can very much relate to everything you’re saying. My druid is what I would call an “up and coming” tank. I’m still fairy new to it, but am getting better all the time....

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