Is Fandral's Flamescythe really worth it?

Ok, so we have all probably seen someone with Fandral's Flamescythe by now. A flaming cat hanging out in Stormwind or Orgrimmar, showing off their new look.  But is it really worth it? Is this weapon more then just a gimmicky weapon put in by Blizzard?  Lets examine the facts shall we...

Here is Fandral's Flamescythe:


Fandral's Flamescythe
Binds when picked up
Two-Hand Staff
1428 - 2143 Damage Speed 2.40
(744.1 damage per second)
+408 Agility
+611 Stamina
Durability 120 / 120
Requires Level 85
Item Level 378
Equip: Increases your critical strike rating by 276 (1.54% @ L85).
Equip: Increases your mastery rating by 265 (1.48 @ L85).

We also know that the unlisted trick to this weapon is that druids using it get a new fiery cat form.  Now, the stats are nice, very high and in the right spots.  The mastery on it is nice and the critical strike always helps.  But is this really worth going crazy to go after?

Well, if you like your fair share of PvP, another weapon in your grasp can be:


Ruthless Gladiator's Staff
Season 10
Binds when picked up
Two-Hand Staff
1190 - 1786 Damage Speed 2.00
(744.1 damage per second)
+408 Agility
+611 Stamina
Durability 120 / 120
Classes: Druid
Requires Level 85
Item Level 378
Equip: Increases your critical strike rating by 272 (1.52% @ L85).
Equip: Increases your resilience rating by 272 (3.44% @ L85).

or


Ruthless Gladiator's Pike
Season 10
Binds when picked up
Two-Hand Polearm
2142 - 3215 Damage Speed 3.60
(744.1 damage per second)
+408 Agility
+611 Stamina
Durability 120 / 120
Requires Level 85
Item Level 378
Equip: Increases your critical strike rating by 272 (1.52% @ L85).
Equip: Increases your resilience rating by 272 (3.44% @ L85).


Now, you do lose out on the mastery on these 2 choices, but although mastery is a nice stat to have, it's not the top stat in most builds at the moment. You can always reforge to get some mastery back, but ultimately, the 265 mastery that the Fandral's Flamescythe gives you does not actually translate in to that much of an improvement.  You have to remember that 265 does not translate in to actually 265 more mastery.  It gets tossed in to the conversion tables like all other stats and then the correct amount is added to your stats.

Now, if you do not have access to or do not like to PvP, there is always "


Witch-Hunter's Harvester
Binds when equipped
Two-Hand Polearm
1614 - 3000 Damage Speed 3.50
(659.2 damage per second)
+361 Agility
+541 Stamina
Durability 120 / 120
Requires Level 85
Item Level 365
Equip: Increases your critical strike rating by 241 (1.34% @ L85).
Equip: Increases your mastery rating by 241 (1.34 @ L85).

Ok, I know what you are going to say.  And yes, the ilvl and stats are lower.  But look at the big picture here and not the numbers on the polearm.  You are only losing out on 47 agility, 70 stamina, 35 critical strike and 24 mastery.  If you were to add these missing amounts to your stats you would see almost no change in your over all stats. For example, 70 stamina is only going to give you about 700 more health over all. In today's WoW, 700 health doesn't make a  ton of difference, or really any at all.

If you sit back and do that over all math and run that numbers in your stats, you can see that, unless the staff drops while you are in there anyways, it does not seem that Fandral's Flamescythe is the end all/be all of weapons in the game for druids at this point.  Sure the higher stats and ilvl numbers all make it the "best" weapon in game for druids.  But if you stand back and look at it for what it really is, the shine on it seems to die down and it's not really that awesome of a weapon.  Now if you want a weapon that will change you form, then this is simple the best for you.  I feel that this just isn't worth farming for.

If you have any questions or comments you'd like to make on this topic, please feel free to comment.  I will respond to any and all questions posted here.  If you like this or any of my other topics, please follow me. You can also find me on twitter @neosroar.

Midsummer Fire Festival is upon us once again! So what's in it for bears?

I don't know about anyone else, but this is one of my favorite holidays in WoW, second only to Brewfest.  Not only is there a ton of gold to easily be made by simply going around to all the zones and honoring your factions fires and desicrating the oposing factions fires, but there is Lord Ahune!  Lord Ahune has been a giant loot pinata for several years now.  Although we now get the extra fun stuff form a scatchel once a day, we can still grind out this boss fight for a shiny new cloak.

This is a good holiday for an easy upgrade for tanks.  If you are a feral tank, you will want to keep you eye out for:


The Frost Lord's War Cloak
Binds when picked up
Back
604 Armor
+180 Agility
+270 Stamina
Requires Level 85
Item Level 353
Equip: Increases your critical strike rating by 137 (0.76% @ L85).
Equip: Increases your haste rating by 91 (0.71% @ L85).




Although it does not have the perfect stats, a nice back up to grab if you have not seen the War Cloak drop would be:



Icebound Cloak
Binds when picked up
Back
981 Armor
+180 Strength
+269 Stamina
Requires Level 85
Item Level 353
Equip: Increases your dodge rating by 143 (0.81% @ L85).


Although it does have strength on it, which will no longer be a desired stat for bears after 4.2 hit, it does still have nice stam and dodge stats on it. So if you see this drop, grab it if you can and just keep grinding for the War Cloak.  This way, if it doesn't drop, atleast you still got a rather nice tank cloak upgrade.



Lord Ahune also drops some items that would make a nice offspec addition. The Shroud of Winter's Chill:


Shroud of Winter's Chill
Binds when picked up
Back
604 Armor
+256 Stamina
+180 Intellect
Requires Level 85
Item Level 353
Equip: Increases your critical strike rating by 120 (0.67% @ L85).
Equip: Increases your haste rating by 120 (0.94% @ L85).


would make a great Moonkin cloak and the Cloak of the Frigid Winds would make an excellent resto cloak.


Cloak of the Frigid Winds
Binds when picked up
Back
604 Armor
+256 Stamina
+180 Intellect
+120 Spirit
Requires Level 85
Item Level 353
Equip: Increases your haste rating by 120 (0.94% @ L85).




The oddest weapon though is the Frostscythe of Lord Ahune.  Although  it does give spell power, it also comes with a ton of haste, critical strike and a whopping 700 stamina!  That's almost double what good tank staves have. This begins to make me think that if your stats are high enough, you could probably play around with this as a fun tank weapon, although I'd probably avoid using it in your next raid, lol.


Frostscythe of Lord Ahune
Binds when picked up
Unique
Two-Hand Staff
559 - 840 Damage Speed 3.20
(218.6 damage per second)
+700 Stamina
Durability 120 / 120
Requires Level 85
Item Level 353
Equip: Increases your critical strike rating by 207 (1.15% @ L85).
Equip: Increases your haste rating by 207 (1.62% @ L85).
Equip: Increases spell power by 1849.
Use: Let the Frostscythe's chill flow through you. (1 Min Cooldown)


So take your time, have some fun and enjoy the next two weeks of Midsummer Fire Festival.  You can make easy gold and get some nice and fun upgrade here.  Maybe ever get taht elusive pet Frigid Frostling.