The Lightning Capacitor < onlyinclude > < / onlyinclude > The Lightning Capacitor is an epic trinket for DPS casters . As its Equip : ability implies , it is crit - based and thus might be priorized to Mages , Elemental Shamans , Balance Druids and Destruction Warlocks . For some classes and spec s it is said to be the most powerful trinket in the game . Source . This item drops from Terestian Illhoof in Karazhan with an estimated drop rate of 7 % - 13 % ( Armory : Low ( 15 % - 24 % ) ) . Mechanic . The way , this trinket works is quite complicated and on most sites fairly misunderstood . First of all , the bolt emitted by this trinket is not affected by + spell damage anymore ( since Patch 2 . 1 ) , it can however crit / be resisted and is affected by the characters Nature spell crit and hit chance , and any nature damage vulnerability debuffs ( such as Stormstrike ) . The crits of the bolt do not produce a charge , but any spell - like critical hit inflicted by your character will produce a charge , e . g . Molten Armor , Lightning Shield , etc . and of course single target direct damaging spells and AoE spells . The tooltip is somewhat misleading regarding the 2 . 5 second internal cooldown . Electrical charges CAN be gained on every critical strike except for the first 2 . 5 seconds after a bolt goes off . This means it ' s possible to get 3 crits at once ( for example , from an AoE spell hitting multiple targets ) and fire off a single bolt . However , any further crits will not produce charges until after 2 . 5 seconds . This effectively limits the bolts to one per 2 . 5 seconds . A more correct tooltip might read : " Electrical Charge cannot be gained for 2 . 5 seconds " after a Lightning Bolt is fired . " " The effect of this trinket is badly expressed as spell power , but rather as a flat crit - damage bonus and can easily be calculated as dps - gain , as the calculations below will demonstrate . Because it is direct nature damage it can be partially resisted , but this is not considered in the following calculations , as most PvE encounters are either completely nature immune or do not have noticeable resistances at all . These calculations refer to single target direct damage casting . The italic lines are examples with 30 % nature crit , 94 % hit chance and Scorch spamming ( 34 % scorch crit , same hit , 1 . 5s casting time ) . It has to be noted , that Arcane Missiles have to be considered as 1s casting time , as every missile can crit and thus produce a charge , 5 missiles in 5 sec is 1 missile / sec . Terms used : - hit ( n ) : hit chance against the current target with nature spells as factor ( e . g . 0 . 83 as 83 % ) - hit ( m ) : hit chance against the current target with your main spell school as factor - crit ( n ) : crit chance with nature spells as factor - crit ( m ) : crit chance with your main spell school as factor - crit ( b ) : The critical damage bonus as factor , e . g . 0 . 5 for normal crits , 1 . 1 for ignite crits as a fire mage . - cast ( t ) : time to cast your spell in seconds The average bolt damage would be : " ( ( 694 + 806 ) / 2 * ( 1 + 0 . 3 * 0 . 5 ) ) * 0 . 94 = 810 . 75 " 1 / 3 to Bolt ( d ) is a flat addition to your crit damage . " 270 . 25 " The average time it takes to produce 3 crits with your main spell school and consequently producing a bolt is : " ( 1 / ( 0 . 34 * 0 . 94 ) ) * 3 * 1 . 5 = 14 . 08 " Note : Due to the internal cooldown the minimal time between two bolts is limited to 2 . 5 seconds . The subsequent effect , that a crit right after an emitted bolt is not counted for a charge is definitely decreasing the damage output , but is quite difficult to calculate . The dps - gain is now easily calculated by : Bolt ( d ) / Bolt ( t ) = Bolt ( dps ) " 810 . 75 / 14 . 08 = 57 . 58 " You can now calculate yourself , how much bare spell power you would need with your main spell ( rotation ) to gain an equivalent dps boost . For Scorch it would be 153 with the given hit / crit chance , as the following calculation states ( assuming 800 spell power and fully stacked Fire Vulnerability ) : ( ( 305 + 361 ) / 2 + 800 * 1 . 5 / 3 . 5 ) * ( 1 + 0 . 34 * 1 . 1 ) * 0 . 94 * 1 . 15 / 1 . 5 = Scorch ( dps ) = 669 . 231039428571 It has to be noted , that there are several talents and multiplicators missing in this calculation ; they are left out for simplicity and because these calculations are exemplarious , they differ largely for every class and spec . Now the same with Scorch ( dps ) ' , which is the result above plus the dps gained from The Lightning Capacitor and resolved to the unknown amount of spell power ( x ) : Scorch ( dps ) ' = 669 . 231 + 57 . 58 ( ( 305 + 361 ) / 2 + x * 1 . 5 / 3 . 5 ) * ( 1 + 0 . 34 * 1 . 1 ) * 0 . 94 * 1 . 15 / 1 . 5 = 726 . 81 ( 333 + x * 0 . 4286 ) * ( 1 + 0 . 34 * 1 . 1 ) * 0 . 94 * 1 . 15 / 1 . 5 = 726 . 81 ( 333 + x * 0 . 4286 ) * 1 . 374 * 0 . 94 * 1 . 15 / 1 . 5 = 726 . 81 ( 333 + x * 0 . 4286 ) * 0 . 990196 = 726 . 81 329 . 735268 + x * 0 . 4243980056 = 726 . 81 x = ( 726 . 81 - 329 . 735268 ) / 0 . 4243980056 x = 935 . 6188 The respective calculation with crit ( m ) as variable and constant spell power : ( ( 305 + 361 ) / 2 + 800 * 1 . 5 / 3 . 5 ) * ( 1 + x * 1 . 1 ) * 0 . 94 * 1 . 15 / 1 . 5 = 726 . 81 ( 333 + 800 * 0 . 4286 ) * ( 1 + x * 1 . 1 ) * 0 . 94 * 1 . 15 / 1 . 5 = 726 . 81 ( 333 + 342 . 88 + 366 . 3 * x + 377 . 168 * x ) * 0 . 94 * 1 . 15 / 1 . 5 = 726 . 81 ( 675 . 88 + x * 743 . 468 ) * 0 . 7206¯ = 726 . 81 492 . 26593¯ + x * 535 . 7926053¯ = 726 . 81 x = 0 . 43776 So you would need 935 . 6 spell power or 43 . 776 % spell crit to achieve the same + 57 . 58 dps boost , thus The Lightning Capacitor is theoretically adding 153 spell power or 11 . 36 % spell crit ( 251 . 056 Spell Crit Rating ) . This spell power or spell crit is unaffected by the base spell power in the calculation , but it is scaling with base spell crit and nature critical strike chance , of course , the more crit , the more dps - gain and therefore more required spell power or spell crit to compensate it . The dps - boost is largely affected by cast ( t ) , the caststime of your main nuke spell , shorter casts will result in more frequent procs . The Lightning Capacitor is thus one of the rare trinkets that scale directly with the subsequent equipment of its wielder and the effective circumstances . Dps Calculator for trinket . It is difficult to evaluate this trinket . Generally there are better options for most builds at the point you first enter Kara . Later when your spell crit has increased , this trinket really shines . Input your stats into the following spreadsheet to see how much benefit this trinket gives you : Additional notes . You do not need to face the mob , which is supposed to be hit by the bolt . The caused damage by the Lightning Bolt is unaffected by the characters spell power , which can be explained by the fact , thet the Lightning Bolt might appear like an instant cast spell , but it does not trigger the Global Cooldown and hence it ' s damaging coefficient is 0 / 3 . 5 = 0 . Firing a Lightning Bolt also does not interrupt channeled casts like Arcane Missiles . The Lightning Bolt does not have a max - range , as long as you can crit the mob , the Bolt can reach it . The Bolt is also unaffected by LoS - mechanics . Think of the following situation : You have 2 charges and you cast a fireball on a mob , while the fireball is in mid - air , the mob runs behind a wall or some LoS blocking obstacle . The fireball crits , giving the 3rd charge and thus releases the bolt ; even though the mob is not hittable by your spells , the bolt will fly right through the obstacle and hit the mob . The same applies to silencing effects , stun s and other incapacitating effects , basically there is nothing that could prevent The Lightning Capacitor from firing it ' s Bolt when reaching 3 charges , by any available means , except the case that the mob died from the 3rd crit , then the charges are lost and no Bolt is fired . The Lightning Bolt always hits the mob which received the last crit that stacked the 3rd charge and released the Bolt , even though you may not have targetted it , except it died from the crit , as mentioned above . The Electrical Charge s are displayed as a stackable , typeless buff on you . This buff has an infinite duration and even persists if you unequip The Lightning Capacitor or logout . It does not persist through death , however , and like other buffs , it disappears upon entering an Arena match . It can proc from any ability that is considered a spell , which includes Flametongue Weapon , Frostbrand Weapon , Lightning Overload - casts , Firestone attack and Molten Armor . Wand crits are not considered spell crits and hence do not produce charges . This item was changed in Patch 2 . 3 . It now has a 2 . 5 second cooldown after each lightning bolt . The tooltip is quite misleading . It is actually meant to be " cannot be discharged more than once every 2 . 5 seconds " . This seriously damages the worth of the item for casters who were using this with a heavy AoE spell rotation . Specificaly Arcane Mages . But as this changes effect depends largely on critluck and the current situation , it is hardly possible to calculate the actual loss of DPS for single - target damage casting . In most cases , it just takes one or two more casts to produce the necessary 3 charges ( because one or two crits might have been in vain because of the CD ) . The damage of the Lightning Bolt is affected by debuff s ( e . g . Stormstrike , Misery ) and talents ( e . g . Arcane Instability , Molten Fury ) which improve all , or at least nature spells . However , talents which specifically mention their affected spells do not improve it . Furthermore , even the Shaman ' s talents which improve Lightning Bolt do not affect it , as these only affect the Shaman ' s spell ; these include Concussion , Elemental Mastery and Elemental Fury . Especially in raid environments , where many buffs and debuffs are in effect , the dps boost provided is slightly higher ( ~ 80 dps ) , especially with spell crit increasing auras , totems or buffs . As the rank of your nuke spell is irrelevant , it is possible to spam rank 1 spells while beeing oom and still sustain quite a bit of dps . While normally it is probably better to stay out of the , in combination with specific abilities ( e . g . Judgement of Wisdom , Insightful Earthstorm Diamond , Clearcasting ) , spamming a rank 1 spell ( for example , Scorch ) might increase your damage by more . The proc of this trinkets appears in your combat log as " Your Lightning Bolt hits / crits % t for % d . " , just like the Lightning Bolts fired by Shaman s .