UPDATE: Forgot to upload fixed script.

EDIT: Quick update after finding a logical mistake:

ZOMG I found a mistake!!1!11one

I knew something is wrong when I increased avoidance. Must drink a coffee or something. I’ve to apply miss chance to sword proc estimation twice, because you can’t get the proc if original swing didn’t hit. With that, results using same numbers:

NO RESIL:
205689 - no spec
213916 - axe spec
213398 - sword spec

axe > sword

20% REDUCED CRIT DAMAGE
197461 - no spec
204043 - axe spec
204862 - sword spec

sword > axe

20% REDUCED CRIT DAMAGE + ORC RACIAL FOR AXE
197461 - no spec
205360 - axe spec
204862 - sword spec

axe > sword

and bonus:

20% AVOIDANCE, 20% REDUCED CRIT DAMAGE (NO ORC RACIAL)
175521 - no spec
181372 - axe spec
181369 - sword spec

axe ~ sword

35% AVOIDANCE (AVERAGE ROGUE DODGE+PARRY), 20% REDUCED CRIT DAMAGE (NO ORC RACIAL)
142611 - no spec
147365 - axe spec
146471 - sword spec

axe > sword

I’M SAVED!

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Terhix

# Humans: Sword Skill now increases the critical strike chance with swords and two-handed swords by 1%.
# Orcs: Axe Skill now increases the critical strike chance with axes and two-handed axes by 1%.

Source. Anyone find it funny they didn’t mention mace skill for humans? Anyway, 6% crit for having an axe, that’s pretty tempting, and more then that:

New decapitator looks BAD-ASS. Screw the puny swords, screw the maces, axes are THE MANLIEST ;).

BTW: Many opinions and some math (including the flawless mace vs sword spec math) in this topic.

Terhix

Sorry for the last post folks, but I just couldn’t stop myself.

Long time ago a friend of mine, who used to be sword spec advocate here, while I was the axe spec guy, wrote two great posts:

1. In defense of sword spec
2. In criticism of sword spec

Now since I’ve come back to WoW after quite long time, and my gear obviously suck, I’m going to finish my S1 set from honor next patch, while saving arena points for S3 weapon, which should give me a good point to start rocking again. Yes, I know Mace spec is the way, it was the way, and most likely will continue to be the way of true high end arena warriors, no question here. But I don’t like to jump into the bandwagon, and I really really don’t like maces (too much TUF I guess).

I’m not going to repeat what was already said, everybody and his dog knows how Axe Spec works and how Sword Spec works (if you don’t read the linked posts). Swords used to be the spec of choice before TBC, I guess it started with Maydie’s movie showing mega double-crits while fully buffed, on berserker and often with old, exploitable sweeping strikes. The biggest flaw of sword spec (which is pointed out in the second article) was that it wasn’t really giving a free attack, but rather finishing the current swing, it was hasting the attack. That flaw is now fixed, and I somehow missed that when reading patch notes that were implemented while I wasn’t playing WoW.

And so on the one side I’ve the awesome reincarnation of Zin’rokh (picture by mmo-champion.com), while on the other side, there is equal in stats axe. I’m an orc, a flurry specced orc (that’s not set in stone, especially with 2.3 around the corner tho), so the obvious choice for me would be an axe, right?

A topic about this case arrived on US forums, and it looks like noone is really supporting axes these days, even 31/30 specced orcs (another thing is that the topic turned into 31/30 vs rest of the world fight, usual sight on official forums). I’m not convinced enough to say that swords are better, yet - I’ll try to grab the sword and test it, theory crafting is never good enough when talking about low-rate procs. It’s not like I’m going to keep that S3 sword till the end of my days, If I ever decide to come back to an axe - WotLK is comming…

To end this little flash from the past, I’ll quote: “Ultimately I always say people should take the wep spec they personally enjoy more” and add “, unless you are really power hungry”.

Terhix

In my previous post I sang the virtues of going sword spec in the arms tree, rattling off the (often overlooked) benefits of the spec.

One of our visitors argued I had missed the most important drawback of sword spec - and he was right. No minor drawback either, it reduces the effectiveness of the proc by something like 25-33%.

The theory was that when your sword spec procs it resets your swing timer. This is no problem for procs off of white hits, since the timer would be at 0 anyways. But for yellow hits, having a sword proc when you were 0.1 seconds away from your next white swing anyways means you get next to nothing. A 0.1s faster swing. You are not actually getting “an extra attack” as the tooltip suggests. Rather you are getting “your next attack immediately”. So its still good if it procs early in your swing timer, but the farther into your timer you get the more the proc becomes a very minimal haste type buff (for 1 swing) than it does an “extra” attack.

Frankly this is mind boggling. The tooltip is misleading, and with this knowledge the spec is strictly inferior to axe or mace. It is like spending 5 points in axe spec for 3% crit, since a good chunk of the procs will be basically wasted. Any proc off a yellow will be a haste-proc, not actually an extra attack. Sadly one of the biggest advantages I was arguing for in sword spec was that it gave a nice damage buff on hamstring and pummel procs, and gave rage on all yellow procs. Now we see a lot of those “procs” are damage you were about to get anyways, rather than free damage.

The evidence below:

The screenshot shows this:

45:16 - victory rush (proccing ss)
45:17 - SS proc.
45:21 - white hit (+4 seconds since SS proc)

45:24 - white hit
45:26 - hamstring proccing SS
45:26 - SS proc
45:30 - white hit (+4 seconds since SS proc, +6 seconds since last white hit)

The first proc came 4 seconds after the last white hit (you cant see the previous hit unfortunately). Sword is 3.6 speed so this is what we would expect if the swing timer was reset after the proc.

The undeniable proof is in the second proc. If the timer was not reset my next white hit should have come either at 45:27 or 45:28 (3.6 secs after the previous white hit). However it came at 45:30 - SIX seconds after my previous white hit, 4 seconds after my Sword spec proc.

What blizzard was thinking in doing this boggles the mind. But do I care enough to go back and craft the ugly looking axe?

Veritas

In a previous article I discussed the crafted blacksmithing weapons, arguing that thunder was the optimal pvp weapon, while axe and sword are great for those doing some pve and some pvp with axe having the advantage if you specced for flurry.

Personally I use a [Lionheart Champion] with sword spec. Swords get a bit of a bad rep with a lot of warriors. My personal opinion is that this is because your 5% chance for an extra attack does not show up anywhere on your stats sheet. I’ve had people tell me that axe is better because you can stack crit. This is nonsense, a 5% chance to crit and a 5% chance for an extra attack both have the same chance of proccing.

The damage breaks down like this for axe vs sword (white dmg - for yellow damage axe does 10% more from impale, and another few % more if its MS or Slam due to the bonus damage of these abilities):

Crit: dmg + dmg
SS proc: dmg + dmg
SS proc crit: dmg + [dmg + dmg]

Say you hit for 500

axe crit: 1000dmg (+procs)
SS proc: 1000dmg
SS crit: 1500dmg (+procs)

So really when you go sword spec, you’re hoping for that 50% damage bonus. This is the “burst potential” that sword users are always talking about. What better way to counter a healer than to surprise them with a sudden extra 1.5-2k damage out of nowhere?

However sword spec is a lot better than that, for 2 primary reasons:

1. When sword spec procs off a hamstring or pummel you get a full weapon hit, probably 500-700 damage non-crit. If your axe spec results in a hamstring or pummel crit you get a lousy 50 extra damage.
   
   
2. Every sword spec proc generates rage! This is the most overlooked benefit of sword spec. SS procs off of yellow abilities will net you your 14-15 rage, much more if the proc is a crit. Your axe spec will never do this (although it will proc impale on yellows).

I have heard arguments that this is balanced by the fact your sword spec proc can be dodged, parried, or just plain miss. I discount miss because you should be running with 5% to hit anyways. As for the other two, your initial hit could also be dodged or parried discounting the chance for a crit, so the point is pretty minor.

Ultimately I always say people should take the wep spec they personally enjoy more. I am not saying sword spec is absolutely superior to the others. I do feel though that a lot of players overlook the benefits of sword spec: higher burst potential, more damage on procs off hamstring and pummel, and more rage generation.

Veritas