Phat Loot Phriday: Touch of Madness
by Mike Schramm 
Jun 26th 2009 at 7:00PM
Name: Touch of Madness (Wowhead, Thottbot, WoWDB)
Type: Epic One-hand Axe
Damage/Speed: 297-552 / 2.60 (163.3 DPS)
Attributes:
- +24 Agility, +52 Stamina
- Improves hit rating by 34, crit strike rating by 26, and attack power by 92
- Unfortunately, Shaman are pretty happy about this weapon already (especially the Orcs among them, who get a nice bonus to axes), and Death Knights have a use for it as well, but of course that Agility and those stats mean that this is one of the only high-level axes currently in the game for Rogues, who'll be able to equip them in the next patch. Competition over this one will likely be fierce.
- If, that is, we're still running Ulduar at that point -- don't forget that there's a whole new tier of weapons and gear coming in the next patch as well, and I'd be very surprised if there weren't some cheap/easy-to-get Rogue-style axes in there as well. But if you want to be ready and everyone else in your 10-man Ulduar raid who has one wants one, you Rogues can grab this one now and equip it on day one of the new patch.
Getting Rid of It: Sells back to vendors for 20g 74s 57c, and disenchants into an Abyss Crystal. But you've at least got to keep it until patch 3.2, right?
Filed under: Rogue, Items, Analysis / Opinion, Fan stuff, Odds and ends, Raiding, Phat Loot Phriday, Death Knight
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Break Jun 26th 2009 7:08PM
it's probably my favorite offhand to go with http://www.wowhead.com/?item=45463 in the all too important hit capping for enhancement shamans. Also graphically it's one of my favorite weapons. It's an axe that looks like.. an axe! :D
Drow Jun 27th 2009 3:56PM
Um...yeah, Yogg IS a pushover if you have all 4 keepers up. Hell, on 10-man, he's even pretty simple with only 1 keeper up.
Keyra Jun 26th 2009 7:18PM
This may have already been answered elsewhere, but will rogues be able to use something OTHER than a dagger for things like ambush (for example), or will that still require a dagger in the main hand?
Lemons Jun 27th 2009 2:12AM
Rogue's newfound propensity for brandishing axes like some sort of mad woodsman has in no way effected Ambush or Mutilate or any other dagger specific ability. Will that change in the future? Who knows...idt the blues have said anything about it yet...perhaps they'll address it in the upcoming Rogue Q&A.
Ambushing with an axe would kinda be OP...I mean...an Ambush...based off of the high damage of a MH axe would hit for something like 15k...I'm not even joking.
Chase Christian Jun 28th 2009 2:18PM
Daggers will always be the only weapon allowed for use with Ambush or Backstab. These abilities require "quick" weapons for their formulas to come out to non-OP numbers, and so as long as the "dagger quick, sword slow" paradigm is in place, it won't change.
Rasman Jun 26th 2009 7:20PM
FEH, not even a rogue axe since they couldn't even use Axes before the new patch was announced, so Rogues can just pass and let me have this sweet Enhancement Axe. You'll get your fast axes in the new content, which are useless for Enhancement Shamen basically, so you can wait for all I care.
Mercutio Jun 26th 2009 7:31PM
The point of this change was that rogues and enchance will share more weapons.
We will likely see:
One handed slow Axes for shammie main/off and rogue main
One handed fast Swords for rogue off-hand
Fewer slow swords
One handed slow Fists for shammie main/off and rogue main
One handed fast Daggers for rogue off-hand
Fewer fast swords
One handed slow Maces for shammie main/off and rogue main
One handed fast Maces for rogue off-hand
As that's the "tidiest" way to do itemisation for most specs/classes per drop.
MH swords are likely to be rarer and fists as rare as they are now (I think only 1 fist in Ulduar and it's poorly itemised).
Mercutio Jun 26th 2009 7:32PM
I of course meant fewer FAST fists in my closing lines
emberwild Jun 30th 2009 5:37PM
Having Rogues roll on this now to equip later when patch goes live (on a non-determined date) is like people rolling on off-spec gear which they might never spec into...
What a horrible thing to suggest in an article that is probably read by thousands. Pass it to someone who can use it now, and put it to good use now. The writer even goes on to say there's probably equivalent or better once patch goes live. Thanks for encouraging douche behavior.
Risq Jun 26th 2009 7:45PM
"this is one of the only high-level axes currently in the game for Rogues"
Ditto for shamans. I'd say they'll add more in 3.2 though, yeah? ~_^
Matthew Rossi Jun 26th 2009 7:53PM
Mike, why? Why would you do this to us? Don't you love us any more? Why would you tell rogues to take our precious, Mike?
Risq Jun 26th 2009 7:59PM
Because of the times shamans have won Calamity's Grasp over rogues =D
Bod Jun 26th 2009 8:00PM
I'm hoping, really hoping, that this means all those useless fast maces in Ulduar will morph into slow axes in the next raids, so we don't need to farm all the way to the equivalent of 25 man Thorim before decent enhancement weapons start to drop...if rogues get a look in too, that's a small price to bear for having more easily available enhancement weaps.
Ringo Flinthammer Jun 26th 2009 8:23PM
This is a good axe for hunters, but if you're doing Yogg-10, you can almost certainly do Vezax-25. Lotrafen, Spear of the Damned, is more than twice as good as this for hunters. (Well, about "more than half." I'm rounding here.)
Amaxe Jun 26th 2009 8:58PM
Meh, I don't want more competition for my enh shaman loot :(
Lemons Jun 27th 2009 2:17AM
163 DPS? Even the "best" Rogue axe in Ulduar for still seems lackluster...
Why are they even giving us Axes? Combat Rogues already have tons of itemization options, and they are the only ones helped by this change. Honestly...Enchance Shamans can keep thier dirty axes, just stay the f#$% away from my daggers.
Chase Christian Jun 28th 2009 2:17PM
Every dual-wielding class can use Axes, now.
Hunters, Rogues, Warriors, Enh Shamans, and Death Knights.
This allows them to drop more Axes in the future. It's a future change, not a band-aid change.
Siorra Jun 27th 2009 8:21AM
Anyone else notice the face on this axe kinda looks like t8 Rogue gear anyway?
Julie Jun 27th 2009 9:18AM
This is madness! Madness? This. Is. SPARTA!
Turtlehead Jun 28th 2009 2:14PM
Julie said,
"This is madness! Madness? This. Is. SPARTA!"
That line was tired the day after the movie came out. Are you going to follow up with "This isn't your father's Oldsmobile" and some hepcat "Where's the beef?" humor?