Dazzle’alor — Crowns coming in the new raid have cool special effects, like the ability to torture friendly players with sparkles

You’re working through Battle of Dazar’alor and you’re up to Opulence. A quick look at his loot table reveals — in addition to the usual loot — crowns. Their drop rate is similar to any other loot off this boss… but what’s this? They have dazzling features!

There is a crown for every armor type, but they stay consistent in appearance across the same difficulty. Therefore, all crowns from Normal runs will look the same. Each crown has a gem in it which can be pried from the crown, and those gems each have a unique effect.

The gem creates an item which lasts 20 real-world hours. The gem is not consumed on use, and the crown has a 20-hour cooldown — which means it can be used, essentially, once per day. The gem in any given crown is random each time, and — if you have multiple gems — the gems share a cooldown. Hence, you aren’t going to be able to stack these effects using all the gems you personally have obtained.

There are six different gems and their effects are as follows:

• Crackling Tourmaline: Increases speed by 120 for one hour. It has a one-minute cooldown.
• Diamond of Sustenance: Restores health and mana, and if you spend ten seconds focusing on the gem, you’ll become well-fed and gain 75 in a stat for an hour.
• Emerald of Vigor: Restores health but shares a cooldown with healing potions. It has a one-minute cooldown.
• Sapphire of Brilliance: Increases all stats by 400 for one minute. It shares a cooldown with combat potions such as Battle Potion of Agility. The cooldown for use is five minutes.
• Star Topaz: Makes a friendly player sparkle. It has a 30-second cooldown. I could find no word on how long the effect lasts, but I can’t wait to make my entire raid sparkle. Oh the screenshot potential with this.
• Sunset Amber: Reduces a party member’s size by 50%. The effect lasts for five minute, and the gem has a 30-second cooldown between uses. This also has screenshot potential written all over it, but players need to mindful of colleagues who do not wish to be shrunk.

We often give Blizzard grief about not having enough fun items in the game. While some of these gems can be used in combat, their effects will be a supplement to what’s already available. In the case of the Sapphire, 400 for one minute in a sustained fight might be more useful than 900 for 25 seconds. Will something like this stack with Heroism, I wonder. I’m thinking these will be quite situational.

Nevertheless, the helms themselves will certainly be upgrades, and the gems make a fun addition to the pieces.