A Few Planned Upgrades

With 2.4 hitting, and a new Badge of Justice vendor opening soon, I plan on purchasing two new items. Along side those items, I'm hoping the daily quests can quickly fund the purchase of a couple Hearts of Darkness for a craftable item. Once I receive those upgrade, I also plan on switching out my cloak for additional haste rating. When all is said and done, I should be able to hold off Nefernetcher who almost beat me in damage last night on Gruul.

Upgrade #1: Nathrezim Mindblade (with +40 damage enchant) --> Scryer's Blade of Focus (with Sunfire enchant)

Gain of: 24 stamina, 10 intellect, 54 damage. Loss of: 23 crit.

Upgrade #2: Signet of Ancient Magics (+15 Stam Gem, +12 damage enchant) --> Fused Nethergon Band (+12 damage enchant)

Gain of: 2 intellect, 28 hit rating, 4 damage. Loss of: 10 MP/5.

Upgrade #3: Pauldrons of the Aldor --> Mantle of Nimble Thought

Gain of: 12 stamina, 38 haste. Loss of: 16 spirit, 15 crit, 4 hit, 1 damage.

Swap #1: Collar of the Aldor --> Spellstrike Hood

Gain of: 16 hit, 22 damage. Loss of: 14 stamina, 23 intellect, 17 spirit, 15 crit. Trade of: +3% increased crit damage for +92 damage for 10 seconds with Spellstrike Set

Swaw #2: Brute Cloak of the Ogre-Magi --> Shadowcaster's Drape

Gain of: 4 stamina, 25 haste. Loss of: 23 crit, 1 damage.

Total gains/losses over all five changes:

Gain of: 26 stamina, 40 hit, 63 haste, 78 damage.
Loss of: 11 intellect, 33 spirit, 76 crit, 10 MP/5.

In all, it's a great trade off. Hit and crit are traded at a 1:1 ratio through sockets so I lose 36 hit/crit. But with 1 Haste > 1 Damage, and both Haste and Damage > Hit and Crit, it's some huge damage gains (141 haste+damage is much better for damage than 76 crit (though I'm really only losing 36 in the tradeoff)). The intellect I lose isn't nice as a larger mana pool is always nice, but only 11 lost isn't too bad. I never liked the MP/5 in the ring, so I'm glad to get rid of that. And though spirit now factors into mana regen, it hurts a little to lose that, but it's not a big deal as I was able to make it through Gruul last night without potions and with a mana emerald still in my bags.

With these changes, I should be able to hold off Nefernetcher for just a little while longer. I just haven't seen any Hearts of Darkness on the auction house for a while, but hopefully spamming trade channel with requests will get me the two I need for my shoulders.

Of course, this also factors in the Sunfire enchant which I have a bit of farming to do, but I think with some concerted effort this weekend I can either farm up the mats or earn enough through 50 daily quests to purchase the mats.

The spell haste rating I will be achieving with 63 points grants me a 4.01% faster cast time which translates essentially to 4.01% more damage. With these haste items now also affecting the global cooldown, it'll be pretty nice if I can stack some more haste. Perhaps with the additional hit rating gained through gear changes I can put some epic haste gems in some slots previously reserved for +hit and if I amass enough badges, I can think about swapping out Fury of the Ursine for Runed Spell-Cuffs giving my total haste rating a boost of 1.59% for a total of 5.6% faster casts.