Leather on a Shaman and cloth on a Druid
by Mike Schramm 
Apr 24th 2008 at 7:00PM
Obstruce brings up a topic that seems obvious to some people but can drive others crazy: healers wearing less sturdy gear than they can just for the stats. I won't lie -- I've got a few pieces of leather on my restoration Shaman for the stats, but in general, I don't think it's a bad thing that healers and casters sometimes wear cloth for the stats, given of course 1) that they're not taking it from someone else who needs it, and 2) that there's not a better piece of normal gear for them to be wearing (it's an upgrade).Obstruce's aunt disagrees, especially with Shamans and Druids -- if for some reason they pull aggro, wearing leather or cloth will only make things harder on the group. Which is true -- if I'm wearing leather (or even cloth) on my Shaman, I'm not going to have near as much armor as I would wearing the mail I'm supposed to wear. But in a group where all members are doing what they should be, I should never get hit anyway. If a healer's getting hit, it's a good 80% of the time not their fault -- it's the tank's or DPS' fault for not keeping aggro where it belongs.
So no, I don't see any problem with a Druid or Shammy (or even a Paladin, though there's a lot of nice healing plate out there anyway) wearing less than they're meant to. Warriors are definitely not in the same situation -- while yes, some of that Hunter mail may have lots of Agility on it, and that will help out your crit percentage, you get so much more bonus from Strength and Armor that it's just not worth it. Casters can steal Mage and Priest gear (as long as they're not actually stealing it from actual Mages and Priests) if it's an upgrade, but Warriors almost never have a reason to slum it up in mail.
Filed under: Mage, Priest, Shaman, Warrior, Items, Analysis / Opinion, Tricks
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
doug Apr 24th 2008 7:11PM
I don't see why its an issue if its an upgrade for the non-clothie to not have an equal chance at it, its not like they're not allowed to wear a certain armor class, the way it is setup is there for a reason.
If it is an upgrade it is an upgrade, end of story.
darian Apr 24th 2008 7:10PM
It's better for Druids to wear Cloth than for Shaman to wear Cloth or Leather. The very simple reason being itemization.
A great deal of Cloth and Leather, most of it even, features Spirit prominently. Spirit is mostly worthless to a Shaman as they spend almost all of their time within the Five Second Rule. So in order for a given piece of Leather or Cloth to be useful it must either severely outlevel your current gear or fly in the face of common itemization.
That's not to say those situations don't occur, my Shaman has a pair of bracers dripping in Spirit, but more often than not your quest/instance blues will be better than any leather or cloth drops.
Eternalpayn Apr 24th 2008 7:16PM
I like to keep a set of spirit gear on all my mana users, in their inventory. It helps shorten the downtime.
Neglekt Apr 25th 2008 2:06AM
when I was leveling my priest I had a druid AND a shaman take cloth items from me...needless to say after the Shaman need rolled against me I left the group and let them heal themselves.
kellzea Apr 25th 2008 7:23AM
its a common misconseption that spirit is useless for shamans. and although its true you dont gain anywhere near as much from it as other casters. its far from useless.
shamans are idea at healing raid damage and in that roll they can frequantly get out of teh 5 second rule. also using a trinket that alows mana regen shile casting (i forget its name) is a realy good idea if your MT healing.
i wouldnt ever say that i aim for spirit gear. infact its obviously 4th on my stat list. but i wouldnt ever shun it. and a large amount of spirit is worth more than a small amount of say bonus heal or int.
interestingly i would always take mp5 over spirit near eregarde of numerical value dispite the fact mp5 is only 3rd on the stat list.
im not saying stack spirit, but keep in mind its your healing style that mkes it usefull or obsolete.
Nystrus Apr 25th 2008 9:38AM
Raid healing on my shaman and sticking religiously to my healing assignments, I'm never outside of the five second rule. Heck, it's hard to find two and a half seconds in a row in which I'm not casting.
The only fights on which I can realistically think of getting any spirit based regen are fights where all the direct damage is on the tank with no AoE to speak of. And if that is the case, I don't NEED any spirit based regen, I'm not going to go OOM.
Shaman healing gear is mp5 centric. They're designed to be able to spam chain heal for the entirety of a 5-10 minute raid boss fight and not oom. They have no talents to regen mana through spirit while not casting, so spirit doesn't do them any good.
tar Apr 24th 2008 7:11PM
what about dps warriors when the gear is an upgrade? were supposed to just pass up on something because its leather? even when the rogues already have it? and the enhacncement shammys, and the druids, and god knows who else?
Pzychotix Apr 24th 2008 7:23PM
I think he was only referring to Tanking Warriors. DPS warriors would most definitely be glad to pick up some leather pieces (i.e. Cursed Vision of Sargeras).
Matthew Rossi Apr 24th 2008 7:24PM
I'd say (with my minimal cachet as a warrior player) that some of the best DPS gear for warriors is mail or leather, unfortunately.
Epoc Apr 25th 2008 1:51PM
but Warriors almost never have a reason to slum it up in mail.
well he did also mention that the mail having alot of agility increasing your crit chance thing which to me implies dps. and as stated in a previous post dps warriors (especially fury) will sport leather as many of the stats rogues use work with a fury warrior as well minus the whole strength thing ... hmm bear druid loot maybe ... bleh I've used a few pieces of leather for my dps set and even at one time a mail hunter chest piece because plate upgrades weren't readily available and always the rogue/druid/hunter i gave first priority to the loot.
Eternalpayn Apr 24th 2008 7:15PM
Mike, as much as these articles are nice to people who only read WoW insider, they are really kind of annoying. I would prefer that the people who are paid to blog here don't just repost things from other sites. If I wanted to see what was going on on the forums or LJ, I would go there. You have done this twice in a row, presumably to fill your post count. The articles that you do think through yourself are often a lot better than rehashed theories from other people. Also, it spams my RSS feed. Thank you, have a nice day.
Pzychotix Apr 24th 2008 7:19PM
It's a meta blog. In otherwords, an aggregate blog. They're paid to do this. Same reason why I read slashdot. Because they aggregate all the news from other blogs and sources so I don't have to spend 100 hours a day on multiple sites looking for possible news.
Think of it as a news filter.
Dylan Apr 24th 2008 9:36PM
Eternalpayn, as much as these comments are nice to people who love to complain, they are really kind of annoying. I would prefer that the people who are commenting on aggregate news blogs don't whine about news coming from other sources. If I wanted to go 1000 places to get my news, I wouldn't read WoW Insider. You have complained, presumably to try and make Mike look bad, but you just look silly. The comments that you do think through yourself are often a lot better than useless complaints. Also, it fills up my comments section with whiny BS. Thank you, have a nice day.
justlikehoneybaby Apr 25th 2008 3:23AM
A lot of the WoW Ladies whose Livejournal posts are quoted/rehashed in these pages are unaware of the finer points of the Internet allowing for folks to wholesale reword their post as a blog post. It has been brought up here before, but the reposting continues, alas.
Lilith Apr 25th 2008 8:50AM
He's done this for much longer than merely two posts. It's a lost cause at this point.
Pzychotix Apr 24th 2008 7:15PM
Given that mail/leather spell itemization is so shoddy at high end content (nil to none), shamans and druids should be allowed to roll on cloth at the same level as their cloth wearers. No priority should be given to cloth wearers just for it being cloth, since there's really no other option for their leather/mail counterparts.
Compare, for spell casters:
Mail drops:
http://wowhead.com/?items=4&filter=ty=3;minrl=70;maxrl=70;cr=123:128;crs=1:4;crv=0:0
Leather drops:
http://wowhead.com/?items=4.2&filter=minrl=70;maxrl=70;cr=123:128;crs=1:4;crv=0:0
Cloth drops:
http://wowhead.com/?items=4&filter=ty=1;minrl=70;maxrl=70;cr=123:128;crs=1:4;crv=0:0
Koren Apr 24th 2008 7:25PM
Saying stuff along the lines of "as long as you're not taking it from the mages or priests" is lootwhoring at its finest. I see all these discussions constantly on loot and it reminds me of the time I had a healthy discussion about a shadowpriest looting a damage robe. The mage (I was also a mage btw) was shouting and cursing...although the Spriest just had more DKP.
This was in Molten Core mind you... some time back when shadowpriests were not even allowed to do anything else but level.
If it's an upgrade, need. If it's not (or if it is for a spec you currently are not), greed or pass. Don't be selfish or state so at the start...
ace Apr 24th 2008 7:38PM
My pally still has a couple non-plate pieces (Leather shoulders and mail chest). I don't mind using them, but I try to be considerate to my group; I'll only take the non-plate healing gear if the priest/druid/shaman doesn't need it.
Osane Apr 25th 2008 1:19AM
The spec issue is also important. Just the other day my resto shaman picked up the priest D3 pants to replace my ~65 green pants. Not only are they not itemised right for me, they have a set bonus only of use to a priest. Now, I didn't roll against a priest, but what if there had been a shadow priest there, I still would have rolled, and more than that, expected the priest not too. As I see it, if you are doing a job in a group, and something drops that will make you better at that job, you should roll. If a you have a boomkin, and the mage/lock gear that drops will make him dps better, then he should be rolling.
Skarlette Apr 24th 2008 7:22PM
All I know is that when my newly-dinged-70 warlock alt ran Steamvaults recently and got outrolled by a boomkin on the cloth belt from the final boss, I was pissed.