Jan 10
19
Nibelungenlied
Since ICC came out, there has been a buzz around the staff from Lady Deathwhisper: Nibelung. There has been no shortage of posts on MMO-champion, The Moonkin Repository or Elitist Jerks talking about this item, and there is a lot of “what if”‘s and “could it”‘s going around.
A few people wrote me and asked about it, and a couple noted that I had even picked it up myself. I haven’t been overly lucky with getting the Frozen Bonespike to drop yet, and the only viable offhand in ICC hasn’t been released yet. So when I had the chance to snatch up the staff, I decided to give it a whirl.
Damage
The whole buzz about Nibelung comes from its lack of stats and the strange yet alluring proc on the weapon. But to even compare it against anything, we need to figure out what it’s up against.
The only other viable choice from ICC in terms of weapons are the Frozen Bonespike and the Shadow Silk Spindle. Now, if we add up all the bonuses from enchants, stats, gems and the like, we can boil it down to this: Either Nibelung with the proc, or 42 spell power, 119 crit rating, 60 hate rating, 59 spirit and 29 intellect. Assuming crit and haste are soft capped, they are each worth 1 DPS per point. Spell power is at a nice 1.4 DPS per point, and spirit and intellect are worth 0.5 and 0.6 DPS per point, respectively. Add them all up, and you have a total DPS value of 283,7 DPS.
This means that the proc from the staff has to be worth around 284 DPS in order for it to come out clean. And I’ve got to tell you, with this staff, it’s really hard to figure out if it is. If I take a rather crude look at the kills during this week, add them all up and find an average, I find that the Valkyrs did an average of 280,25 DPS. But ofcourse, I am looking at all boss kills for a certain night, and there is a lot more too it than that. But from this perspective, it will be very beneficial in some fights, and a bit subpar on others, making it come out even with the MH/OH combination.
Survivability
Sheer chance might dictate that you won’t have a single proc throughout a whole fight. Chance might also grant you three Valkyrs at the same time. Bad luck will kill off the Valkyr before it does any damage, or luck will allow you to have it up for the full duration. On some fights, most noticably Faction Champions where I have a habit of using Starfall, I had several up for a wonderfull DPS boost. On Anub’Arak, AOE’ing down 5 targets when the adds we’re up, I counted 5 Valkyrs at one point – and all of them turned to Anub’Arak once the adds were dead, and were flinging smites left and right. But at the same time, I had a Valkyr proc a second before I got a Legion Flame on Jaraxxus, and as I ran away, my little white friend stood still in the green flames and burned to death.
It really comes down to survival. Some fights are brutal on the Valkyrs if you are unlucky, and some wont touch them at all. You could consider switching to a MH/OH combo on these fights, but you may be able to have them live on dangerous fights anyways. If I were to sum up the fights from memory, my review would look something like this:
- Algalon: No damage at all. It stood right in the Comic Smash (sorry, can’t help it), and didn’t take a single point of damage.
- Northrend Beasts: Will immediately die when Icehow does a Cassive Mrash – I didn’t notice my Valkyr standing in a puddle of poison or taking damage from nearby Bile.
- Jaraxxus: Will take damage from Legion Flame and seems to die from Infernals AOE as well. If memory serves, it even helped chain a Fel Lightning.
- Faction Champions: Unless you are standing next to the Warlock NPC when it procs, and the warlock does a hellfire, the Valkyr will have no problem surviving.
- Twin Valkyrs: Suprisingly, all the damage from orbs, AOE damage from abilities and the like didn’t seem to hurt the Valkyrs one bit.
- Anub’Arak: Taking no damage at all, and has an absolutely great uptime on heroic.
- Lord Marrowgar and Lady Deathwhisper: Only saw them on 10 man, but they did seem to die from Coldflame, Marrowgars whirlwind and Deathwhispers Death and Decay. Valkyrs wont move out of that, and they will die rather quickly. The chance of getting a Death and Decay when you have a Valkyr up, however, is rather low.
- Gunship Battle: Nothing major, but here’s a fun fact: Standing at the edge of the enemy ship, nuking down the mage casting Below Zero, I procced a Valkyr off the edge of the ship. No biggie, it just flew around in open air, nuking the NPC, and as I zoomed back to my own ship, it casually flew back with me.
- Deathbringer Saurfang: Nothing, nada, zip.
- Festergut: Thankfully, it doesn’t take any damage from the constant AOE in the room. I didn’t have any up for an exhale, but I would assume that it is safe from that as well.
- Rotface: No damage taken at all.
- Professor Putricide: It does take damage from the Ooze Puddles, so if you are unlucky to have one spawn near it, it will die. Thankfully, there is a rather slim chance of that happening.
In truth, the problem areas are quite few, and they are some that I can live with. I have the option of switching to another set of weapons if I wish, but for most of the time, I while I think the survivability could be upped a little bit, I don’t see it as a massive problem.
RNG and benefits
What is most noticable about Nibelung is that the benefit you have from it really depends on your luck rating. I went through a whole Deconstructor kill with no proc – although it was a speed kill – and I had several fights where it procced quite a few times. An even more important aspect I think we have to look at, is the fact that the proc more or less replaces the damage you lose by not having any direct stats on it, keeping you further away from your soft caps. Its unavoidable to go over your soft crit and haste cap, but a little bit wont hurt. Raidbuffed, I am now sitting at 42,02% chance to crit and 441 haste rating – and that’s with Nibelung. Now, I will go way over these caps as my gear progresses, but I like the idea of putting some of the DPS out on procs, away from stats and caps and so on.
From various testing, I have seen it proc from the following spells: Starfire, wrath, moonfire (direct cast), hurricane and starfall drops. Someone on some board swore that it procced off a DOT tick, but I have yet to see it myself – and I spent quite a long time casting DOTs on training dummies. From what I gather, it will proc from any direct damage, so Hurricane on several targets, as well as Starfall will proc it quite nicely. I don’t raid with Typhoon, but I would suspect that it will proc it as well.
Beside that, it’s a very fun staff to use. I don’t have a tiny dagger hidden in my feathers anymore. I have a big, beautiful staff strapped on my feathery back, glinting for all to see. And I hear my guildies note in awe how I have several Valkyries trailing behind me after an AOE trash pack has been killed. I enjoy seeing the little shedevils fly around me, and while it’s just a graphical quirk, it does add some flavour to the game.
Ideas
Nibelung isn’t perfect, but after its recent buff, it’s getting close. I would like the proc to be more consistant, and its rate of survival a bit better. Perhaps Blizzard should simply ensure that it can not die from any AOE damage on the boss. Another idea, to combat the very random proc chance, could be to simply make it a constant pet, scale it to whatever damage it would have to do to be balanced, and let it spawn a few seconds into each fight. That would make it stable, and even more fun to use!
Conclusion
Nibelung has its ups and downs. On some fights, you will have an equal benefit from it, and on others, the Valkyrs are prone to die if you are not very careful. The staff is rather easy to get, however, dropping off Deathwhisper, and my comparason assumed that you had both the Frozen Bonespike and the Shadow Silk Spindle – and it might be tough to get a hold of both items anytime soon. Even if you do compare them, and Nibelung comes out short on some fights, it will be a great addition to others If you can get a hand of it, it is a nice upgrade over anything but 258+ weapons, and in truth, I think the difference between that, and the ICC MH/OH combo is very small, if there even is one.
Overall, it is a great staff. It bumps your damage as it should, and it’s fun to use. Give it a try!
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