Verigan's Fist, a Re-ExaminationFollow

I've been leveling a new human Paladin and when doing my Verigan's Fist quest chain I got a sword that shook my foundation in Verigan's Fist. I grabbed the Haunting Blade off the rare ghost mob in SFK (who for anyone who has grinded the instance has found that he pops like half the time and drops this sword most of the time) and was comparing the stats to verigan's fist. Here's a quick rundown of both weapons:

Verigan's Fist
65 - 99 Damage Speed 3.20
(25.6 damage per second)
+7 Stamina
+12 Spirit
+6 Intellect


Haunting Blade
66 - 99 Damage Speed 3.80
(21.7 damage per second)
Requires level 20
Equip: Increases attack power by 28.

At first glance, it would seem that the Fist is obviously superior. However, the Haunting Blade has 2 more dps from the AP increase, putting it's effective dps at 23.7. Still 1.9 short of the fist however. The thing that caught my eye though was the speed difference. Haunting Blade will put out more damage with it's Seal of Command than Verigan's Fist would, putting the actual damage these 2 weapons deal even closer. After some figuring I found that someone with 25 dps from AP would be able to bridge the gap, so that the damage would average out to be about the same. Which at lvl 20 is kind of hard to do, so the Fist will still be superior in damage albeit by a very small margin. It also has the stamina and Intellect which helps (the spirit is negligible in it's effects)

Conclusion: While the Fist is still the superior weapon, doing the quest is very long with lots of running around and takes a lot of time that you could otherwise be using to level. If you manage to get into a group that is doing SFK and can summon you there, and you can get the sword before doing the quest, it might be worth it to just forget the quest and keep your Haunting Blade.

In short:

Pros of getting Verigan's Fist:
-You can get a lot of Flight Paths that you will later probably use while leveling.
-It's kind of a Paladin staple weapon, and for RPing purposes might seem to be a necessity.
-You need to do instances to get the items, which could net you even more blues or items.
-Just doing the quests and instances gets you a fair amount of experience.
-The weapon is better and has stamina and intellect to help your survivability.

Cons of getting Verigan's Fist:
-Flight paths are nice, but by the time you will need to use some of them, you will already be lvl 30 and can get your mount, making the trip quicker (post 2.4.3).
-There is a LOT of running around through enemy territory, making you an easy target for gankers (on PvP servers). Also needing to walk through high level areas with mobs that can easily kill you.
-The only instance that you can get good gear from while doing this is SFK, as you don't need to go into BFD and Deadmines will be too low of a level for you by then. And you can get the sword in SFK.
-You could level faster by just continuing to quest in your area, and keeping the LFG channel open to see if anyone is doing an SFK run that you can jump onto to get the sword (hopefully).
-There isn't any weapon that is as good as the Fist for the early 20s, however the sword that you might be able to get is close enough.

I guess the point of this was just to show that there is an alternative now to getting the Fist, the sword was made Blue in a recent patch, and wasn't an option before. Before that patch, the Fist was a much superior weapon to anything you could get at the time. Of course you don't even have to get either weapon, I was just pointing out that the sword is easier to get if you can get people to summon you to SFK.

SFK can be soloed at 25-27, iirc. I did it around that lvl and at lasted for a while then (a year or more ago).

Aside from all considerations on lvling efficiency, I think this is the first epic quest line, with along involved storyline. It's also one of the best pally quests there is, apart from the charger questline. So even if you're lvling hard, take a couple of hrs to do this one. It's fun :)

And that is what the game is all about. I realised I hadn't done the Fordring quest line, so now I'm looking for groups to Scholo and Strat. That is also one of the very good questlines in the game. And the one that starts with a ghost of a kid, and ends up in a raid to defend a city in EPL (ally side).

Ops, sorry for hijack. Questing is a hobby of mine, and I'd like to get to do all of the really good questlines before WotLK goes live.

Cheers :)

Great analysis!

I remember getting the fist and then going to ashenvale to mix it up with the horde there pre-expansion. Remember feeling indestructable. For the level the fist really brought the pain.

Yeah, quest isn't hard, I wasn't arguing for one or the other really. Just saying there is a viable alternative now if you find yourself in SFK and manage to get the sword drop, you shouldn't feel that it's necessary to get the fist.

The drop rate for the sword seems to have increased significantly. I've recently ran SFK, and see the mob about 50% of the time...if not more. The sword has dropped quite a few times. But, it is a drop, so if you're really unlucky, you'll never see it. Like that friggin chest piece from SLab...

It was green, I am sure of it. I've seen it drop on my Warlock waaaay back in 1.1 or something and I distinctly remember it being green. Of course at the time I was like "OMG WEREWOLVES SUPER AWESOME" so I may have been wrong.

I swear, I would give a LOT of money if someone could erase all my knowledge of WoW, so I could replay the game with that initial sense of wonder again.