Trinket Feedback in Season 3

In this post I plan on covering feedback in regards to new trinkets for Season 3 and 10.2. I will specifically cover trinkets for Intellect Ranged DPS but feel free to add your thoughts below on any that I missed!
Before I dive into specific trinket feedback I wanted to mention the prevalence of on use and proc damage trinkets. For ranged DPS these trinkets are often under budget compared to ones that increase our secondary stats as most ranged specs have nothing to increase the damage like stacking Versatility. On top of that many modifiers have been changed in the past few years to not affect trinkets. Take Ancient Madness for example which used to give character sheet critical strike but now only buffs Shadow Priest spells. Losing these interactions has meant damage trinkets feel severely underpowered and undesirable as a ranged DPS with their current tuning.

Raid Trinkets

Ashes of the Embersoul

On-Use: Intellect → Lose Haste. Can also proc when “circumstances are dire”.
The passive proc seems to be buggy and proc when it should not be.
The gameplay seems a bit degenerate with the passive proc where players are encouraged to find ways to passively proc this on the opener of the pull with special damage-taken consumables or something similar.
Assuming the passive proc starts working correctly and/or is changed the value from the trinket seems relatively offset by the negative value for any spec that likes Haste.

Augury of the Primal Flame

Proc: AoE Damage
Seems like an okay trinket design wise but generally does not perform very well. In dungeons it was typically less than 2% of my overall damage.

Belor’relos, the Sunstone

On-Use: AoE Damage
Being a melee-range trinket makes it fairly disappointing as a ranged trinket. In addition the actual damage seems undertuned, even when using the trinket on a pack of 5+ mobs.

Nymue’s Vengeful Spindle

On-Use: Single Target Damage and Mastery
Currently not on the vendor for testing on PTR.
Reading the description only this looks like it could be a powerful option, however the channel time being 4 seconds seems quite long to use practically in the middle of an encounter, especially since it only lasts 15 seconds.
Would rather the channel time be shorter and/or the effect just be the secondary stat gain and not the damage on use.

Pip’s Emerald Friendship Badge

Proc: Mastery, Versatility, or Critical Strike
Decently powerful passive trinket of the tier, sad that Haste is not one of the offered stats but still performs well.
Wish there was some mechanic on how to select a Best Friend rather than it being random.

Dungeon Trinkets

When it comes to dungeon trinkets these are a bit tricky since the wide variety of dungeons from different expansions also comes with a wide variety of trinkets. The more modern expansion trinkets carry a bit more design with them, but since the pool is mostly old dungeons things start to feel stale quickly. Of the options in the pool below we have 3 AoE proc damage trinkets and 2 Single Target proc damage trinkets. For similar reasons mentioned above these kinds of trinkets are generally not desirable as a ranged DPS. They typically do not do enough damage to warrant using in most content since most specs do not have anything that scales these directly and usually we do not stack Versatility. Would prefer it if the pool of trinkets was a bit more diverse or tuned differently to make some of these trinkets more desirable.
The main point of this section is to give feedback on the power level of the trinkets, since it is unlikely to see design changes for older trinkets. I have added “Significantly undertuned” to any trinket that is currently performing roughly equal or worse at item level 489 than a Spoils of Neltharus at item level 447.

Mirror of Fractured Tomorrows

On-Use: Extra damage and increased highest secondary stat (3m cooldown)

Time-Thief’s Gambit

On-Use: “Borrow” Haste (1m cooldown)

Vessel of Skittering Shadows

Proc: AoE Damage
Significantly undertuned

Balefire Branch

On-Use: Decaying Intellect (1m 30s cooldown)

Lady Waycrest’s Music Box

Proc: ST Damage

Caged Horror

Proc: AoE Damage
Significantly undertuned

Corrupted Starlight

Proc: AoE DoT
Significantly undertuned

Oakheart’s Gnarled Root

Proc ST DoT
Significantly undertuned

Coagulated Genesaur Blood

Proc: Critical Strike
Significantly undertuned

Leaf of the Ancient Protectors

Proc: Versatility
Significantly undertuned

Sea Star

On-Use: Intellect (1m 30s cooldown)
Significantly undertuned

Breakdown of Types

While full diversity is challenging with dungeons from different expansions I wanted to highlight that there are a few types in particular that feel crowded in the field of trinkets.

Type
Count

Proc: Mastery, Versatility, or Critical Strike
1

Proc: AoE Damage
4

Proc: Single Target Damage
2

Proc: Critical Strike
1

Proc: Versatility
1

On-Use: Haste
1

On-Use: Highest Secondary Stat
1

On-Use: AoE Damage
1

On-Use: Intellect
3

On-Use: Single Target Damage and Mastery
1

Early Sims

While looking at sims early can be tricky, I wanted to include as much preliminary information as possible in case it is helpful. Not all trinkets are working inside of SimC yet but hopefully this gives an idea of the power level of season three trinkets. I’ve only included trinkets at the highest level they can drop at from this season if they are implemented and working to match in-game. I have also included profession, timewalking, and previous season trinkets to show the lack of power level of season three options.
From the breakdowns below you can see that Timewalking trinkets and even trinkets from last tier are performing better than most of this season’s trinkets. I do not have hard confirmation the item level of these will be increasing, but assuming they are along with the rest of the seasonal gearing upgrades this is the item level that would match that change.

Single Target

Actor
DPS
Increase

Energy_Siphon_476
205042
10.29%

Pips_Emerald_Friendship_Badge_489
204973
10.25%

Living_Flame_476
204063
9.76%

Balefire_Branch_489
203817
9.63%

Idol_of_the_Life_Binder_483
203735
9.59%

Eye_of_the_Broodmother_476
203718
9.58%

Idol_of_the_Spell_Weaver_483
203654
9.54%

Mirror_of_Fractured_Tomorrows_489
203480
9.45%

Idol_of_the_Earth_Warder_483
203110
9.25%

Flare_of_the_Heavens_476
202656
9.01%

Sustaining_Alchemist_Stone_483
202565
8.96%

Necromantic_Focus_476
202421
8.88%

Scale_of_Fates_476
202044
8.68%

Idol_of_the_Dreamer_483
202023
8.67%

Ominous_Chromatic_Essence_Emerald_ALL_ALLIES_447
201705
8.49%

Elemental_Focus_Stone_476
201564
8.42%

Pandoras_Plea_476
201522
8.40%

Neltharions_Call_to_Suffering_457
201406
8.33%

Darkmoon_Deck_Box_Dance_Emberscale_483
201369
8.31%

Vessel_of_Skittering_Shadows_489
201167
8.20%

Sea_Star_489
201111
8.17%

Ashes_of_the_Embersoul_489
201066
8.15%

Spoils_of_Neltharus_447
200982
8.11%

Coagulated_Genesaur_Blood_489
200362
7.77%

Spoils_of_Neltharus_441
200327
7.75%

Darkmoon_Deck_Box_Inferno_Emberscale_483
200161
7.66%

Spoils_of_Neltharus_437
199871
7.51%

Ominous_Chromatic_Essence_Emerald_447
199327
7.21%

Darkmoon_Deck_Box_Rime_483
198576
6.81%

Leaf_of_the_Ancient_Protectors_489
197821
6.40%

Oakhearts_Gnarled_Root_489
197189
6.06%

Corrupted_Starlight_488
196214
5.54%

Caged_Horror_489
195967
5.41%

3 Target

Actor
DPS
Increase

Pips_Emerald_Friendship_Badge_489
311192
10.10%

Energy_Siphon_476
310774
9.96%

Idol_of_the_Spell_Weaver_483
309799
9.61%

Living_Flame_476
309664
9.56%

Mirror_of_Fractured_Tomorrows_489
309525
9.51%

Idol_of_the_Life_Binder_483
308983
9.32%

Eye_of_the_Broodmother_476
308737
9.23%

Idol_of_the_Earth_Warder_483
308463
9.14%

Scale_of_Fates_476
308457
9.14%

Balefire_Branch_489
308389
9.11%

Sustaining_Alchemist_Stone_483
307777
8.90%

Flare_of_the_Heavens_476
307458
8.78%

Idol_of_the_Dreamer_483
307253
8.71%

Necromantic_Focus_476
307033
8.63%

Elemental_Focus_Stone_476
307026
8.63%

The_Skull_of_Guldan_476
306600
8.48%

Pandoras_Plea_476
306226
8.35%

Neltharions_Call_to_Suffering_457
306113
8.31%

Ominous_Chromatic_Essence_Emerald_ALL_ALLIES_447
306028
8.28%

Sea_Star_489
305855
8.21%

Spoils_of_Neltharus_447
305592
8.12%

Ashes_of_the_Embersoul_489
305274
8.01%

Vessel_of_Skittering_Shadows_489
305056
7.93%

Spoils_of_Neltharus_441
304647
7.79%

Coagulated_Genesaur_Blood_489
304064
7.58%

Spoils_of_Neltharus_437
303971
7.55%

Darkmoon_Deck_Box_Dance_Emberscale_483
303069
7.23%

Darkmoon_Deck_Box_Inferno_Sagescale_483
302769
7.12%

Ominous_Chromatic_Essence_Emerald_447
302439
7.01%

Darkmoon_Deck_Box_Rime_483
301208
6.57%

Leaf_of_the_Ancient_Protectors_489
300573
6.35%

Rotcrusted_Voodoo_Doll_447
298423
5.59%

Oakhearts_Gnarled_Root_489
297544
5.27%

Corrupted_Starlight_488
296970
5.07%

Caged_Horror_489
296485
4.90%

Drahtz
WoW Developer

#5 – Sept. 18, 2023, 11:09 p.m.

Publik:

In this post I plan on covering feedback in regards to new trinkets for Season 3 and 10.2. I will specifically cover trinkets for Intellect Ranged DPS but feel free to add your thoughts below on any that I missed!

Thank you for the thoughtful feedback! It’s always helpful to hear from specific perspectives like this. One relevant upcoming change is that Nymue’s Vengeful Spindle has been adjusted to deal less damage while granting additional Mastery and will be available for testing in the next PTR update. It should feel like a Mastery trinket that deals some damage rather than vice versa.

Publik:

Losing these interactions has meant damage trinkets feel severely underpowered and undesirable as a ranged DPS with their current tuning.

Tuning is very much ongoing and players can expect under- or overperforming effects to be brought in line. Community data from the PTR is very helpful alongside our internal processes for testing early tuning assumptions.
Ideally every tier presents players with a variety of viable trinket choices. Our goal with a caster-specific trinket like Belor’relos, the Sunstone would be that it finds a useful place somewhere in the toolkit across all caster classes, but not necessarily for every specialization that can use it. If Pip’s Emerald Friendship Badge and Ashes of the Embersoul are universally preferred over it by every caster in every situation, we would consider this a tuning failure.
In contrast, a trinket like Augury of the Primal Flame might simply scale better for non-casters to the point where it would be too powerful overall if it was balanced around caster performance.

Drahtz
WoW Developer

#11 – Sept. 19, 2023, 4:41 a.m.

Publik:

Would be curious to see how it feels at 4 seconds since that sounds a bit long for a trinket like that, 2 seconds is more typical for this kind of thing but I’ll wait to try it out once it is testable.

This is something we’ll keep an eye on as players get their hands on it. Trinkets with tradeoffs such as cast times, self-damage, or abnormal positioning requirements are intended to feel like a choice and an investment, and the payoff should be worth it both when considering both the numerical DPS contribution and the subjective ease of use.

Publik:

In a case like this, although it is quite rare, would you ever consider adding role-specific modifiers to a trinket? I believe Puzzle box had something like this added for Death Knight’s but I’m wondering if that could be something here to make this trinket more desirable for a wider range of specs.

As in the case of the Al’gethar Puzzle Box and Unholy Death Knights, role-specific modifiers are a tool we are more likely to consider when a trinket is substantially overperforming due to class mechanics as opposed to falling behind due to scaling differences.

Drahtz
WoW Developer

#18 – Sept. 19, 2023, 6:03 p.m.

Publik:

In a case like this, although it is quite rare, would you ever consider adding role-specific modifiers to a trinket?

One more follow-up to this specifically regarding Augury of the Primal Flame and caster performance after reviewing some additional data: the proc chance has been changed to scale with the player’s haste. This will significantly increase its performance for specializations that prefer haste without much impact to melee specializations that do not. Thank you for helping to highlight this discrepancy!