Ti'tahk vs Rathrak for fire mages

[Gashy]

So i obtained Rathrak a while ago and i think it's awesome, and i recently acquired Ti'tahk without doing any testing on it. According to Askmrrobot both of them are best in slot for onehand/twohand, but what is best between those? I've been hearing lots of bad stuff about Ti'tahk on the forums in general but i'm not so sure what to believe. I didn't find a post that pointed this out specifically to fire mages so i would like to hear peoples opinion about this for fire mages.

Thanks in advance.

[Deleted]

that dagger aint any good either, go lighting rod

[dignaidgnaiud]

that dagger aint any good either, go lighting rod

Wrong, dagger/dragonfire orb is BiS

[Imnick]

What? Who told you that?
Dragonwrath is BiS

[reverendball]

Wrong, dagger/dragonfire orb is BiS

how can an aoe dagger be bis on any single target fight?

for single target, i was thinking it was:

dragonwrath
H ti'tank
H lightning rod
h rathrak + H dragonfire orb

[Gashy]

I'm ofc talking about best in slot for tier 13 normal. Not including Dragonwrath and tier 13 HC.

[Pope]

how can an aoe dagger be bis on any single target fight?

for single target, i was thinking it was:

dragonwrath
H ti'tank
H lightning rod
h rathrak + H dragonfire orb

How does that make sense? Lightning rod has less int and SP then rathrak and dragonfire orb, and the proc on rathrak isn't that bad, even in single target.

Wait... is there even a H dragonfire orb? don't think so. I'm gonna edit my post soon.

Edit:
Now that's weird...
http://www.wowhead.com/compare?items....0.52207;78477

[Deleted]

How does that make sense? Lightning rod has less int and SP then rathrak and dragonfire orb, and the proc on rathrak isn't that bad, even in single target.

Wait... is there even a H dragonfire orb? don't think so. I'm gonna edit my post soon.

Edit:
Now that's weird...
http://www.wowhead.com/compare?items....0.52207;78477

Lighting rod does not have less intellect than Titahk, in fact Lighting rod does provide +10 more int with epic gem. The fact why lighting rod seems better is because it provides hit rating. The haste rating is also permanent while the haste bonus from Titahk is proc based and only lasts 10 seconds. As any proc you can't control when it pops so if it happens during a bad time (when you have to move a lot) it can be easily wasted. The hit/haste stats on Lighting rod also gives you more reforging power to cover what you lack most.

As for the dagger its crap for mages since we have no nature spells. Druids probably benefit the most since they have talents that increase the nature damage and thus the proc from the dagger. Also as Fire you do not need more AoE. Basically in DS you don't really need aoe at all (except yorsahj and the blobs on madness). Besides you have no real off-hand option. The only heroic off-hand in DS is Ledger of Revolting Rituals which gives spirit which is useless for mages.

So if you have no other option stick with the staff and ditch the dagger. When you kill Hagara normal or heroic I suggest you take Lighting Rod and stick with it.

Also don't trust what Askmrmrobot says regarding to gear since mostly it just shows the item with the highest ilvl/stats as BiS.

[Gashy]

Btw, now that you mention it...
I found out that with Ti'tahk combined with 2 intellect trinkets, i'm not able to reach the hit cap without gems/enchants. Atleast not with my current gear. I'm able to hit 15.30% max and that provides almost a 2% miss chance. I guess this will fix itself if i get better/correctly combined gear with Ti'tahk but still, it makes me doubt on Ti'tahk a bit.

[gakpad]

Lighting rod does not have less intellect than Titahk, in fact Lighting rod does provide +10 more int with epic gem. The fact why lighting rod seems better is because it provides hit rating. The haste rating is also permanent while the haste bonus from Titahk is proc based and only lasts 10 seconds. As any proc you can't control when it pops so if it happens during a bad time (when you have to move a lot) it can be easily wasted. The hit/haste stats on Lighting rod also gives you more reforging power to cover what you lack most.

As for the dagger its crap for mages since we have no nature spells. Druids probably benefit the most since they have talents that increase the nature damage and thus the proc from the dagger. Also as Fire you do not need more AoE. Basically in DS you don't really need aoe at all (except yorsahj and the blobs on madness). Besides you have no real off-hand option. The only heroic off-hand in DS is Ledger of Revolting Rituals which gives spirit which is useless for mages.

So if you have no other option stick with the staff and ditch the dagger. When you kill Hagara normal or heroic I suggest you take Lighting Rod and stick with it.

Also don't trust what Askmrmrobot says regarding to gear since mostly it just shows the item with the highest ilvl/stats as BiS.

dagger is bis outside of legendary for warlocks and they dont have any nature damage modifiers ether. the staff is garbage

[Deleted]

dagger is bis outside of legendary for warlocks and they dont have any nature damage modifiers ether. the staff is garbage

That may be, I did not say its a bad dagger i said its bad for mages since this is a mage forum. If its BiS for other classes then good for them, the druid example was an educated guess because of the nature damage. I agree the staff is bad, but it is better than the dagger for a mage.

[Pope]

That may be, I did not say its a bad dagger i said its bad for mages since this is a mage forum. If its BiS for other classes then good for them, the druid example was an educated guess because of the nature damage.

Did you read what he said? He said it's great for warlocks, which equals that it's great for mages, too. The mechanics for both classes are equal.

Anyway, if the dagger scales with arcane mastery, it could be even better for mages then for warlocks.

[Rinoa]

I recently obtained the RF version of the dagger on my Shadow Priest alt. Her gear is ilvl ~378 and on Ultraxion in the RF my DPS hovers around 24-25k unless something goes terribly wrong. The dagger proc tends to do roughly 1.3-1.7% of that total damage. Not much by any stretch if you ask me.

[Eilee]

Anyway, if the dagger scales with arcane mastery, it could be even better for mages then for warlocks.

Not sure why you think nature damage would be affected by arcane mastery

[Imnick]

Not sure why you think nature damage would be affected by arcane mastery

It almost certainly does scale with Arcane's mastery.
Mastery as in the stat, not the +Arcane Damage bonus.
Flame Orb ticks certainly do, it's not Arcane Damage only.

[Henline]

Not sure why you think nature damage would be affected by arcane mastery

Mastery as in Mana Adept (+% spell damage), not Arcane Specialization (+% arcane spell damage). It would provide a bigger passive +bonus to it's damage than lazerturrets or critchickens if it affected it.

[Eilee]

Mastery as in Mana Adept (+% spell damage), not Arcane Specialization (+% arcane spell damage). It would provide a bigger passive +bonus to it's damage than lazerturrets or critchickens if it affected it.

Ah, yes, my bad, totally got the confused between the two. I should read my own mastery better too >.<

OT: Adding the 50int gem to the comparison, HC Rath + HC Ledger would win with most int (by 46 over hc rod) http://www.wowhead.com/compare?items...;78477&focus=0

Secondary stats to choose from would be 179 mastery (for a 35 int loss), or 173 haste and 261 hit (for an 46 int, 179SP loss)
Then there are the procs to consider...

[announced]

the staff is shit but better than a 378 one.. the dagger and dragonfire orb are awesome unless u have DRW or heroic lightning rod.

[Deleted]

i've currently got access to both rathrak and ti'tahk ( NORMAL ), i do not have acess to heroic lightning rod, but, erm, got a 378 offhand from firelands (the crit + hit one), wich setup should i use? as in, rathrak + the 378 offhand or the staff (ti'tahk) D:
- i'm playing in a 25m heroic raiding guild, i'll get DWTR in 5 weeks, my question is obviously about what i should use till then. as titahk also benefits other raidmembers (other than me) please count this bonus in aswell :3 (currently we're 2/8 heroic, doubt we'll be downing hagara heroic till.. erm, ages, and even if we did, was thinking of passing the staff as i recently got the staff of dw.)

[Trilic]

@Chonaire; use Lightning Rod for now (when you can obtain it). Ti'tahk and Rathak are garbage + the secondary stats off LR make reforging to caps && crit much easier.

Idk why everyone is trying to pass Rathak off as a top end weapon when it's nothing more than mediocre at best.. The procs do negligible damage and the weapon is stripped of precious haste / crit. Just gotta face the fact that it's a staff-favored tier.