I just have a small urge to mention
http://wotlk.cavernoftime.com/item=10725, and why I prefer it in comparison to
http://wotlk.cavernoftime.com/item=42641. Well, let's start with the bomb:
2188-2812 dmg (2.5k dmg on average) vs 1150-1500 (1325 dmg on average) from
http://wotlk.cavernoftime.com/item=41119
If someone doesn't go with Goblin Engineering, that person would miss out on 1175 dmg per affected enemy targets. However, I want to concentrate on single-target atm, so I'll ignore the AoE bit. You see, the reason why I prefer the chicken is because it has the potential to grant you more damage. As I've said in the guide, it gives your entire party group a 5% haste buff for 4 minutes IF the chicken squawks. The overall damage gain can be summarised like so:
[{more AAs & potential bonus procs (YOU)} + {more AAs & potential bonus procs (MELEE 2)} + {more AAs & potential bonus procs (MELEE 3)} + {more AAs & potential bonus procs (MELEE 4)} + {more AAs & potential bonus procs (MELEE 5)}]/4
I divide it by 4 at the end because the chicken's ICD is 20 minutes, whereas the Thermal bomb - 5 (20 divided by 5 is 4). Now, it's kinda hard to give you accurate numbers when I don't know what the average white swing is for another melee class, but for the sake of simplicity let's imagine a party group full with cats. The
BiS Tauren safe build for a GotVV-shifting cat deals 3474.445 damage per AA (0.6964 att speed) and 15849.15 per Shred (this will be used in the formula "number of AAs*shred*3.5/60" in order to calculate the bonus OoC proc damage). Let's imagine a 3-min fight. With the 5% melee haste, the cat's att speed would become:
0.6964/1.05=0.66
Number of AAs in a 3-min fight:
180/0.6964 = ~258 (no squawk)
180/0.66 = ~272 (with the squawk)
------
14 gained AAs
So the damage gain from the Gnomish Chicken in a group full of cats would be:
((14*3474.445) + (14*15849.15*3.5/60))*5/4 = 76,982 (compare it to the 1175 damage difference between both bombs, and you'll see my point)
Ok, ok. I will exclude the OoC proc damage just because I don't know whether other melee classes get similar powerful procs. I will concentrate only on the AA damage gain:
(14*3474.445)*5/4 = 60,803 (compare it to the 1175 damage difference between both bombs, and you'll see my point)
Now, here's a counterargument. Since the squawk isn't guaranteed, let's imagine that we use the chicken, and we don't get the buff. That would mean a single proc within 40 minutes or:
(14*3474.445)*5/8 = 30,401
aaaaaaaand another whiff (i.e. a single proc within 60 mins):
(14*3474.445)*5/12 = 20,268
aaaaaaaand another whiff (i.e. a single proc within 80 mins):
(14*3474.445)*5/16 = 15,201
aaaaaaaand another whiff (i.e. a single proc within 100 mins):
(14*3474.445)*5/20 = 12,161
aaaaaaaand another whiff (i.e. a single proc within 120 mins):
(14*3474.445)*5/24 = 10,134
I'll stop here because I think I've made my point. Now, there's an argument that this isn't intended. According to the
paladin EJ page, there had been a hot fix in the 3.3 patch that didn't allow the melee haste buff to stack with the 20% from windfury and icy talons. However, this was from 3.3 - there are some comments on wowhead that claim that the chicken worked in Cata, so there's a possibility that in 3.3.5 the interaction was added again. Admittedly, idk if the chicken still provides the buff, but the last time I received it was back in September before I stopped playing WoW, so it could still be in the game. I don't think that this is an exploit for two main reasons - 1) the squawk is not always guaranteed, 2) getting the squawk means nothing if the attempt you got it in ends up being a wipe.