Item level scaling isn't linear.
Heroic starshatter gains 365.2 dps from two upgrades and normal shin'ka only gains 343.5.
Item level scaling isn't linear.
Heroic starshatter gains 365.2 dps from two upgrades and normal shin'ka only gains 343.5.
The sha weapons are slightly different due to the expected gem that you'll be adding to it. The gem slot doesn't get any benefit from the increased item levels through valor upgrade. That's why the boost isn't as high as Starshatter, I would believe.
As far as the differences, the weapon damage is about a 300 wdps advantage for Starshatter, that translates to 2550 dps or so. There's a 500 str advantage for Sha weapon (roughly), but that's only a 1500 dps increase.
Starshatter should be your go-to unless you haven't got to Heroic Elegon yet. That's gonna be a guild to guild case, though.
Last edited by Shiira; 2012-12-12 at 03:49 PM.
Don't think it wont. At least for me the better the gear I get the more Weapon DPS value goes up and strength remains the same or goes down a bit. HC Sharshatter will always be better but not by that much, as in if you are an orc and have the axe already and you can pass the sword for another dps'er that has the normal version it will benefit him more and the raid dps.
For melee classes, weapon damage and weapon speed are the two most important stats by FAR. I use a heroic agility 2H on my paladin because I don't have any STR weapon that can match it.
I don't think anyone is going to disagree with that.
The question that matters is how much more important is weapon dps.
Depends on the gear. For me at this moment it's 8.41 / 2.76. And then like I stated before depends if you are orc or not and if you can get that expertise intro haste or not. So each one should do the math for themself, but the bottom line is that Starshatter hc will always be the best from the two weapons.
The JC comment is completely irrelevant, you could put that gem in another item for no cost what so ever. What ItalliandK linked is totally correct, except the 820 Shinka will NEVER happen.
I'm not sure if his calculation includes the orc racial though. That could be enough to make up the difference for some/all of the things. Human racial would make starshatter indisputable best however.
Yeah I know it will never happen, that was just to show that even a Shin'ka with 820 more strength (legendary gem + epic JC gem) won't be better than a Starshatter HC due to its lower WDPS.
I simmed with T14N default profile, so a Tauren race, and I just reforged Starshatter with exp->hit (default profile has Shin'ka mastery->hit) so if you min/max it better you could gain a bit more dps.
Just to give you another info about how WDPS is important to us, I simmed my character with Starshatter LFR and with the Polearm N (again, rude reforged aswell) and Polearm N simmed 1k higher than Starshatter LFR and the polearm has about 1k less strength.
My guild gave me heroic starshatter tonight. I will stop bitching now.