r/classicwow • u/DrBilll • Apr 27 '20
Discussion Proc rates of 1-handed weapons with cold-based procs
Introduction
Viscidus, the 40-man raid boss boss found in Ahn'qiraj, has an interesting set of mechanics that requires the raid to generate as many cold-type attacks as possible (see AQ guides for more details). Some strategies for defeating Viscidus include all melee classes equipping weapons with cold-damage components with frost oil applied to them for additional cold-damage procs. The Iceblade Hacker, which drops from Ras Froswhisper in Scholomance, includes 1-5 frost damage on every swing and is the best choice (assuming this frost damage counts for freezing Viscus) for anyone that can equip it. However, as it is unclear whether Iceblade Hacker frost damage will contribute to freezing Viscus (time will tell) and also since rogues cannot equip axes, it is worth looking at the proc rates of the 8 1-handed weapons with cold-damage procs.
Methodology
I tested each weapon against level 53 or 54 "Servant of Grol" mobs found in the Blasted Lands with a fury/prot troll warrior in mostly defensive gear (16.8% crit). Because of the talent "Flurry" I had 30% increased attack speed roughly 40% of the time. This is an unfortunate complication to the methodology, however I believe that each testing pool is sufficiently large that the relative proc chance of each weapon can still be compared to one another fairly. For each weapon I auto-attacked the mob in defensive stance, casting demoralizing shout and shield block occasionally to increase the duration of a given trial. When low on health, I leashed the mob, bandaged to full, and resumed attacking the mob. This was done until each trial included at least 1999 successful attacks, which tool between 4 and 6 sessions (depending on the weapon speed).
I was unable to acquire one of the possible weapons (Winter's Bite). I will test it when I find one.
Data
Each weapon trialed is listed in Figure 1, those that can only be equipped in the main hand are listed with "MH" prior to their name. The procs per minute (PPM) are calculated using the base swing speed of each weapon. The uncertainty listed in Table 1 represents the 95% confidence interval.
| Weapon Name | Weapon Type | Speed (s) | Swings | Procs | Proc % | PPM (min-1) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hammer of the Northern Wind | MH Mace | 2.1 | 2086 | 259 | 12.4±1.4 | 3.5±0.4 |
| Coldrage Dagger | Dagger | 1.5 | 2034 | 130 | 6.4±1 | 2.5±0.4 |
| Glacial Blade | Dagger | 1.8 | 2264 | 96 | 4.2±0.8 | 1.4±0.3 |
| Sliverblade | Dagger | 1.4 | 1999 | 59 | 3.0±0.7 | 1.3±0.3 |
| Edge of Winter | MH Axe | 2.1 | 2169 | 91 | 4.2±0.8 | 1.2±0.2 |
| Darrowspike | Dagger | 1.5 | 2274 | 58 | 2.6±0.6 | 1.0±0.3 |
| Bonechill Hammer | Mace | 2.4 | 2121 | 81 | 3.8±0.8 | 0.95±0.2 |
Table 1 List of 1-handed weapons, the number of swings done with each weapon, resulting procs, and estimated proc % and proc per minute (PPM).
Conclusions
Additional testing is required to actually determine what weapons would be best to be used on Viscidus (or even if this is a reasonable strategy) including whether special attacks can trigger these procs, and the exact behaviour of frost oil. Furthermore, "Winter's Bite" was not included in this trial. However, the strongest mainhand weapon for generating cold-based procs appears to be "Hammer of the Northern Wind", while the strongest offhand weapon appears to be "Coldrage Dagger".
Edit #1: Fixed typo which labeled Darrowspike as a Mace.
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u/huamanticacacaca May 26 '20
I have hammer of the northern wind, sliverblade and darrowspike but this table makes me want to farm the coldrage dagger. sigh
At least I can sell Sliverbalde for profit cos I bought it for 13g85s.
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u/DrBilll May 26 '20
If it makes you feel better, Coldrage dagger is a super easy farm. Even as a warrior I was able to walk straight to the boss.
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u/joecares Apr 27 '20
Does the axe from Ras not count? Or the quest reward 2h of caerdarrow?
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u/DrBilll Apr 27 '20
If the Axe from Ras works, it's 100% and the best choice for anyone that can equip it. However, it's a MH weapon and rogues can't equip it. I was unable to test the 2-hander as it come from the same quest as Darrowspike.
There are a few other 2-handers out there that I haven't had a chance to test. My expectation is that they won't be 2x as good as the 1 handers (but you never know, right?). If I'm feeling motivated I'll track them down and test those too. Additionally, I tried to test these weapons in a sufficiently transparent way that others could add to the trial if they wanted to.
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u/soylntgreen Jul 03 '20
The Axe doesnot work because of an old vanilla glitch, while it's frost bonus damage, it classifies it as physical, however somehow while using frost prot pot it protects from the proc.
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u/joecares Apr 27 '20
Yeah I was gonna use that axe with glacial from AV tbh. Thanks for your time mate and I'll look out if you post more! I think you're right regarding 2x1h Vs 2h for sure. Cheers!
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u/Lucaslouch Apr 27 '20
Could be great! As a Druid, I can equip daggers, maces but also 2 handed maces, but can’t dual wield.
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u/DrBilll Apr 27 '20
Indeed, I was thinking about druids last night and if the constant +frost damage works on Viscidus, they are probably best served with a “Cobalt Crusher”.
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u/test_kenmo Apr 27 '20
Hurricane?
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u/Benczech Jul 04 '20
Speed: 1.39 (with quiver)
Shots: 2542
Procs: 227
Proc %: 8.9% ± 1.1%
PPM: 3.5 ±1
u/Magatha_Grimtotem Apr 27 '20
Unknown.
There are numerous references in 2006 of Hurricane not working, that said this could have been inaccurate back then, it could be fixed for this.
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u/mrpoolman Apr 27 '20
I bought a hammer of the northern winds early for this purpose. That thing procs like crazy, and is not half bad in PvP.
Also should be super cheap atm.
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u/LordHoboLife Apr 27 '20
What about enchants? I read that lifestealing was best for these weapons on viscidus?
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u/DrBilll Apr 27 '20
So lifesteal being the “best” in this scenario I expect is just because no other enchant does anything at all, so getting healed a tiny amount is at least some benefit.
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u/Magatha_Grimtotem May 02 '20
Theoretically +15 agility enchant would be beneficial to Warriors and Enh Shaman because the crit would help up their flurry time.
I would literally only suggest such an egregiously expensive enchant for those pushing world first speed runs. To anyone else it's simply not cost efficient.
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u/UndeadVinDiesel Jun 30 '20
Icy weapon and frost oils don't work in this scenario? Is that confirmed somewhere?
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u/DrBilll Jun 30 '20
Icy weapon doesn't do any damage, which is the typical explanation give as to why it doesn't help. As far as I know frost oil should work just fine (it does do damage). Your google searching is as good as mine for historical confirmation of this.
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u/nimeral Jun 08 '20 edited Jun 08 '20
List of items with guaranteed +frost damage (Thrown category is probably bugged).
Axe from Ras is probably the way to go for warriors and paladins. Cobalt Crusher is probably the way to go for druids.
OP's research is probably only applicable to rogues. Not to diminish its value - thanks a lot u/DrBilll for the effort. As indicated in the other comments, it might be that these weapons simply will not work, then the proc weapons of the post are the way to go.
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u/soylntgreen Jul 03 '20
Confirmed the frost proc on the Axe suffers from an old Vanilla bug, while it adds frost dmg, it only registers it as physical damage. Yet when using a frost protection pot, it protects from the proc bonus. So Hammer of the northern wind is gonna shoot up in price.
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u/DrBilll Jun 08 '20
Oh absolutely. I play a warrior and I plan on using an iceblade hacker. I really hope it does work, since that represents so many more instances of frost damage. Providing the appropriate context for results doesn't diminish them at all.
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u/Tkdude81 Jun 01 '20
Darrowspike is a 1.4 speed dagger. Not a mace. Should improve the proc rate.
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u/DrBilll Jun 01 '20
Thanks for the typo catch, Darrowspike is indeed a dagger. However, it's a 1.5 speed dagger so that doesn't change any of the numbers.
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Jun 25 '20
[deleted]
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u/DrBilll Jun 25 '20
In Network pane of System preferences, you can enable "Advance Combat Logging", then type /combatlog in game to start/stop recording what's going on. Everything will be written to a file called WoWCombatLog.txt
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u/BawsRawr Jul 03 '20
Hey, with the info that iceblade hacker doesn't work, thanks a lot for this!
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u/daskk Jul 03 '20
Do we know for sure iceblade hacker doesn't work?
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u/Benczech Jul 04 '20
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u/daskk Jul 04 '20
Does that really definitively answer the question though? It still seems up in the air to me.
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u/Benczech Jul 04 '20
Well if it counts as physical damage it most likely won't work for shatter but we'll find out in due time I guess.
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u/KirbSOMPd Jul 06 '20
"[these weapons] are behaving as expected in WoW Classic and do not actually cause additional non-physical damage to the target. "
Thought this was pretty clear, but guess not?
Viscidus requires frost damage to be done to freeze him. These weapons "do not actually cause additional non-physical damage to the target." That means these weapons will not work to freeze Viscidus.
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Jul 11 '20
If I don’t want to buy a hammer of northern wind, is it viable to use 2 coldrage daggers?
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u/TehBananaBread Jul 16 '20
if anything 2x coldrage dagger is better any with 2x frost oil cause they are quicker. so attack more often = more procs from oils.
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u/tequillachinchilla Jul 25 '20
You only need to apply any dmg source so why even use procc weapons just use ras frostwhisper weapon with 100% frost dmg proc.
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u/Jeffari89 Apr 27 '20
Ras weapon and nerub 15 NR shield is the way to go for fury. You can hamstring him and you dont suffer the duel wield penalty that would incur with 2 weapons cause the average person will probably be using sufficient NR and be lacking hit (especially alliance using the axe.) I havent played war in a while but doesnt the offhand suffer -50% on weapon procs so things ike coldforge dagger would barely be noticable.