Brewfest 2011 rewards for Death Knights


No, Coren. No. He really won't.

Brewfest is upon us once again! It's time to get drunk, kill some angry Dwarves over beer or something, and ride mole machines (not a euphemism).

The special mounts, costumes, and title are always fun, but there's also a serious component to this event - the gear. Seasonal events are a nice way for players to gear up before stepping into raids for the first time, farm a specific upgrade to replace a persistent blue that you just haven't been able to get rid of, or get out of paying for an expensive item when a holiday boss has a "free" equivalent. For example, in Wrath of the Lich King, Coren Direbrew's original Chromium Coaster was the exact same as the Mirror of Truth, an entry-level Emblem of Heroism purchase. Why buy the Mirror when you could get the Coaster for free?

The tankard that Direbrew dropped last year was a pretty nice starter weapon for us dual-wielding DKs, even though it had Agility. This is, of course, because there WERE no one-handed weapons with Strength yet. However, things have changed. Agility one-handers are now useless to us, and sadly the new tankard remains an Agility weapon. So no wielding steins for us. :(

Of course, if you happen to get one, you could always use it for Transmogrification purposes. Dual-wielding tankards is pretty awesome. However, they're Bind-on-Equip, and would likely fetch 5-10k on the Auction House...tough choice!

The only other items of interest to us are the trinkets. There are four trinkets we can use, three for tanks, one for DPS.

Bitterer Balebrew Charm
Brawler's Trophy
Bubblier Brightbrew Charm
Coren's Chilled Chromium Coaster

The Brawler Trophy is a huge amount of Dodge, which isn't too bad (I think?), especially since a large chunk of it can be reforged to Mastery. As for the Balebrew/Brightbrew Charms, these give you a boatload of health (+510 Stamina) and nothing else.

Now, I'm not really a tank, but I am skeptical about how well these will hold up against other tanking trinkets, since the era of Stamina-stacking tanks is over. I mean, even if we're just looking at +Stamina trinkets, Leaden Despair from Heroic Stonecore has +427 Stamina and a nice low-health Armor bonus. Raid-wise, the Symbiotic Worm from Magmaw (+482 Stamina, low-health Mastery bonus) and the Vial of Stolen Memories from Valiona (+482 Stamina, on-use Dodge bonus) are both way more useful. And finally, both Brewfest charms are vastly inferior to the Moonwell Phial, which offers just as much Stamina AND an on-use Dodge bonus, and is available from the Molten Front dailies.

As for the Coaster? Well, it's probably not bad for Frost DKs, since our Killing Machine procs should trigger the massive Attack Power bonus fairly regularly. And even though Crit is our worst stat, we can always reforge it to a significant amount of Haste. The lack of raw Strength still leave me a little wary, but it's probably not a terrible option. It will be less useful for Unholy DKs, since Unholy doesn't have the crit-based playstyle that Frost does.


Oh Coren. Truly, your life is a miserable and pitiable one.

As for the fight itself? Laughably easy, as long as your tank is actually a tank (I have already wiped once on this boss because of a "tank" who got one-shot by Coren's first attack. >:|) Burn down Coren, drop a Death & Decay on your healer to get any pesky adds off him, and run out for a few seconds when Coren does his disarm. It's not entirely necessary, but it does do some damage and disarms you for a few seconds, so you may as well.


2 Responses Subscribe to comments

  1. gravatar
    Anonymous

    Sadly, while the stamina-only trinkets would be great for a just-85 tank, the tank is the only character that actually has to be reasonably geared. Wiped a couple of times with a particular bear who, while wearing tanking gear, hadn't yet managed to hit the required ilvl for standard HCs.

    September 21, 2011 at 12:21 AM

  2. gravatar
    TheGrumpyElf

    Wow, you got some nice DPS in that group. Where do you find these people?

    I've done this on 9 characters for the past few days and rarely is there even one person doing 10K in the group. I am usually #1 on my tank at around 11K and always #1 on any DPS, even my rogue which I suck on.

    When I do it on my healers I am usually #3 or #4 on DPS, there is always someone my healer beats.

    Enough about complaints.

    Over all I think the trinkets are lackluster at best for every role. The dagger was a nice little gift for my rogue and I would sell the mace before I would ever consider using it on my shaman.

    I just keep going for the mounts. Love the mounts. Never get the mounts. :(

    September 22, 2011 at 9:43 AM