WoW: TBC Leveling Log, Entry 1

(85% to level 62)

With myself closing in on 62, I decided to mess around and try and figure out what Blizzard's intent is with Envenom, the new finisher attained at that level. At first glance, it doesn't appear to be anything other than a weaker, poison based version of Eviscerate. It's directly tied to a specific poison - deadly poison, and requires not only stacks, but combo points for effectiveness. It feels very weak, even considering that it ignores armor.

Let's bring out our contestants...

Level 60 Eviscerate (Rank 9)
5 points = 904 + AP*0.15

Level 62 Envenom (Rank 1)
5 doses = 720 + AP*0.15

Equal AP scaling, with Eviscerate leading 20% more damage. The earliest observation is that at face value, it takes more than 20% armor reduction for Envenom to begin to surpass Eviscerate.


What about proper talenting?

Eviscerate:
3/3 Improved Eviscerate further improves damage by 15%.
3/3 Aggression is another 6%.

Envenom:
5/5 Vile Poisons improves damage by 20%.

Very close here. For the cost of 1 more talent point, Evis can be boosted 1% higher than Envenom - that makes a total of 21% difference.


And the highest ranks attainable?

Level 64 Eviscerate (Rank 10)
5 points = 985 + AP*0.15

Level 69 Envenom (Rank 2)
5 doses = 900 + AP*0.15

The gap widens considerably. Eviscerate's highest rank only beats out rank 2 envenom by 9%. Mobs at level 69+ will surely be packing more than 9% armor reduction. Envenom will be the finisher-of-choice (after Slice and Dice, naturally) for raid boss targets and longer living trash.

However, once we hit level 64 there will be almost no reasoning for using rank 1 Envenom over rank 10 eviscerate until we hit 69 and pick up envenom rank 2. It takes 37% or higher reduction for rank 1 envenom to overtake eviscerate 10, and it's not worth the headache of managing stacks to use effectively.

Of course, for PvP it's near worthless. The only fights I could fathom deadly stacking in useable amounts would be bears and plate wearers. And even then, deadly is a DoT and messes with gouge and blind.


Final Verdict: Envenom is a weak new ability. It is nothing more than an alternate eviscerate with hefty requirements (combo points AND deadly stacks) that even out the only perk it has (bypassing armor).