Post by dervasavred
The heirloom weapon isn't that good, the hellreaver from ramps will top it for a few lvls, by then you can have gotten the mace with 3 gem slots from slave pens, wich'll last you past 70 if you smack decent gems into it, if not, at 66 you can get the axe from ring of blood, at 68 (usually around 69 or 70) in borean tundra there's another axe from a quest or you can get the axe from UK wich'll last a few lvls again, then at 76 you can get the axe from crucible of carnage and at 80 the sword stops scaling so any cata item will be better obv.
Hellreaver is only better at level 60. Even then, it's not by much. The problem with Hellreaver is very simple: it's far too fast. With the changes to Unholy and 2H Frost, we gain far more from the slower speed weapons than we used to.
The mace you reference,
Hatebringer is from Underbog, not SP. This is a very strong weapon, certainly, and is good enough with 3 20 Str gems to warrant using over the heirloom for a bit, possibly to 68 when the heirloom scales to Wrath-level gear.
Ring of Blood is doable at 65, not 66, but its axe reward is decent.
Axe of Frozen Death is very solid for its level, but isn't obtainable until 71 (Horde) or 72 (Alliance). While it's very good, it lags about 10-12 weapon DPS behind the heirloom at this level, though it has Hit, which is likely somewhat lacking on gear at this point. This axe also has less Strength than the heirloom at this level, giving up that itemization for the Hit.
Ingvar's Monolithic Cleaver from UK is maybe very marginally better than the heirloom at 70 and possibly 71, but beyond that the heirloom starts catching up rapidly. IMC has no Stam and no crit and is far, far too fast at 3.2 speed while at 72 the heirloom far outstrips IMC.
You cannot do CoC at 76. I assume you mean AoA in Zul'drak which awards
De-Raged Waraxe which is another pretty strong weapon for its level. This quest is doable at 75 and this is probably the first weapon that is truly far better than the heirloom for more than a level. The problem with this weapon isn't that it is bad or the heirloom is better: it's that at 77, you gain access to Cata greens which blow this and the heirloom out of the water. As an example:
Razorwind Broadaxe,
Razorwind Greatsword,
Razorwind Hammer and
Razorwind Spear. These weapons are almost 100 ilvls higher and are worth looking for on the AH. The big gain, however, is in raw weapon DPS. These things are better than normal ToC25 loot (
Dual-Blade Butcher) at level 77.