Greeting fearless readers! After numerous requests (two actually), I am featuring my first epic. One Man's Junk was Legendary with Chen Stormstout, but never before has this column been EPIC! (Small aside here, the article itself is not actually epic, just the featured mini). Fine print and disclaimers aside, lets move on, taking large epic strides.
First, an indepth analysis of Rexxar. 10 health, good. 3 armor, good. 1 resist, bad. That is going to be a problem. Twin Axes, three ticks for a four dice melee attack, crit heals one from Rexxar and one from Misha. Not cool. Oh wait, missed this; Make this attack twice. May choose a different target. Now we're talking! This deserves some serious thought. Eight dice for three ticks is the most ridiculous standard attack to date.The downside of dividing the attack is that you effectively double the defenders armor. Four dice attacks can really pose a problem when trying to force damage through. To get a feel for how good or bad Twin Axes is, lets compare it to similiar effects present in the game.
Anyone that thinks Ripped to Shreds is good, raise your hand (unless you are at work or school while reading this; that could be embarassing). Seems pretty good to me. Too bad you only get to use it once every ten ticks. How about critting with Vindicator Hoodon, Illiana Sunshield, or a druid in Cat Form? I get excited everytime that happens for me. What if that happened everytime you attacked, without needing to crit, and the second attack could target a different defender, and on top of that crits healed you? I think you get the picture. While splitting the attack does double the defense dice rolled, it also doubles the effects of buffs like Mark of the Wild and Blessing of Might, along with allowing Rexxar to crit twice on the same tick.
Moving on, Champion of the Horde. Holy. Freaking. Cow. I had to reread that the first time I saw it. Rexxar just has to kill stuff, kind of the point of the game, and he gets bigger. I would like to point out here that every +1 attack counter is secretly a +2 attack counter, thanks to the double attack. (A quick aside here for those that my not be in the know. Champion of the Horde was errata'ed to specify non-pet enemy characters. That means no whacking totems for counters). With two or three counters on him even high armor characters will not be able to withstand the onslaught. The only trick is getting Rexxar to do the actual killing himself. Depending on the build, I think I might have to call this one gravy. Unless you can find a way to keep Rexxar on the board for the entire game, the counters will not build up enough to be game breaking.
On to ABC's. Some epics see play at least partially because they have an amazing action bar card. Highlord Bolvar Fordragon with Bolvar's Retribution would be an example of that. Rexxar is the same. Misha, or as I like to refer to her, Triple Axe, is the best pet per tick in the game with great stats and the highest power pet attack in the game, all at the bargian price of one tick. Now Rexxar is swinging 13 dice per three ticks. With the first ABC in place now we run into a snag. Twin Axes is a melee attack, which is a bit odd considering he is a hunter. There are melee hunters in the MMO (rofl), so I guess its OK, except that Arcane Shot, Multishot and Hunters Mark only work with ranged attacks. The stings cramp Rexxars style, he needs every tick available for Twin Axes, and Distracting Shot would only be useful against Wall teams. Nightmare Blade is in the same boat, although the reroll is nice. That pretty much leaves Boots of the Crimson Hawk and Misdirection. Hopefully some traps or something comes out with Souls, 'cause that is a hard box to think outside of.
I see Rexxar builds going two ways. Zoo style, with hardcore pets, or an endurance build so Rexxar keeps building up those counters.
Team 1; Menagerie, 22-24 Honor
Rexxar
-Call Misha
-Misdirection
-Nightmare Blade
Mortimer the Malign x2
-Summon Jhuroon x2
-Corruption x2
-Curse of Agony x2
All the pets and dots will really help soften targets up for Rexxar. Jhuroon isn't a bad candidate for Misdirection either. I saw on the forums someone using Elizabetha Cairnewillow and Expendible as a dump for Misdirection, which probably works pretty well as long as the lock is near Rexxar. My preference would be simply using the pets and keeping the locks a safer distance away.
Right after Spoils came out there was a flurry of discussion on a thread started by Siggie about how to make a viable Rexxar team that keeps him on the board. See here http://entertainment.upperdeck.com/wow/community/forums/thread/1743491.aspx . You may notice that there are a lot of preconceptions voiced that have since become obsolete. Like 24 Honor being really high. Lets revisit the concepts lurking here and see if we can look at them with a more seasoned perspective. What the thread boils down to is essentially this; tank, healer, Rexxar. Wilton Thorne is the best Horde warrior tank, having an extra resist to go along with his protector. There is also access to Sunder Armor. Illiana has protector, and an On Card Heal. She also brings Blessings for some serious buffing. Hulok is a good dedicated healer, having an OCH that has a better tick ratio than Illiana, and has access to something that was completely overlooked back then. Tranquility. Silk Bandage can be really good in the right band. Vashj teams have been successfully taking advantage of it with Rethilgore. Tranquility is Silk Bandage on steroids. Hulok, with his evenly split defensive stats, is also a little hardier than most dedicated healers. Naturally I elected not to go with any of these viable choices.
My epic support minis of choice have been Alleyah Dawnborn and Thangal. Blessing of Sacrifice helps distribute the damage so Tranquility can heal multiple targets. Gift of the Wild reduces damage through defensive rerolls and greatly enhances Tranquility, minimizing the failed heals. Wrath fills the same niche, whenever it crits. If they focus on Alleyah, so much the better for Rexxar. If I was to play Rexxar, this would be what I would bring:
Team 2; Train Rex, 26-30 Honor
Rexxar
-Call Misha
-Boots of the Crimson Hawk
-Nightmare Blade
Thangal
-Tranquility
-Mark of the Wild
-Cat Form
Alleyah Dawnborn
-Sulfuras, Hand of Ragnaros
-Flash of Light
-Cleanse
Thanks for reading folks. You may have noticed the number of teams diminishing as the column has progressed. I am not sure if that is a good thing or not. Apparently my creativity is not limitless. Do you like having more teams, most of which will be zany and worthless? Or would you prefer fewer that may have been better thought out, and that may still be insane? Let me know and stay tuned next week when we return to the Alliance for some drood luvin with Yanna Dia'shalan.
Sarcastic remarks should come in a different color. Then the forums would be more interesting to look at.