What to wear to melt faces in Karazhan, part two
by Eliah Hecht 
Jun 25th 2008 at 11:00AM
Welcome back to my guide on pre-Karazhan Shadow Priest gear. If you missed part one, where I talked about general stat importance, some sets, and the first half of the item slots, go read it now. Back? Good. On with the show. In this part I will be covering the remaining slots (from gloves on down), and talking about what gems to use (the red ones), as well as some places to look for more information.
Gloves
- Elementalist Gloves of Shadow Wrath. Yet another of Shadow Wrath green. Remember, I would advise against equipping too many of these, regardless of how good they are in-slot.
- Tempest's Touch (Caverns of Time quest).
- Gloves of the Deadwatcher (Shirrak, Heroic Auchenai Crypts )
Enchant
Major Spellpower is, quite expensive, but other BC enchants are not worth bothering with. I'd say put it on any of the above. The old-world enchant Shadow Power is equivalent for you, if that's more convenient.
Waist
- Belt of Blasting (BoE tailoring, ~1500g). I've had some trouble finding this, but it is super-nice (if pretty expensive.)
- Archmage Belt of Shadow Wrath
- Glyph-Lined Sash (Nexus-Prince Shaffar, Heroic Mana-Tombs)
Legs
- You should almost certainly go for Spellstrike Pants (unless you're swimming in badges, in which case get the 100 BoJ Legwraps of Sweltering Flame)
- If you really don't want to (though I can't imagine why you wouldn't, given that you don't even need to be a tailor), Chimaerahide Leggings of Shadow Wrath or Elementalist Leggings of Shadow Wrath can fill in for you. But do yourself a favor and just go with Spellstrike.
Enchant
Everybody loves spellthread! Use Runic Spellthread if you have Spellstrike, Mystic Spellthread otherwise.
Feet
- Frozen Shadoweave Boots. Strictly better than anything pre T5.
- Shattrath Jumpers (Shadow Labyrinth quest). Anyone should be able to get either these or the FSW boots.
Enchant
Vitality, though it's not a big deal. Probably put it on either of the above, but it's a higher priority to enchant other slots and get yourself gemmed out.
Ring
Unlike most classes, you may find yourself not equipping the Violet Signet until Revered, Exalted, or ever, depending on what you already have; it has a fair amount of spell crit, which is sub-par for you. - Ashyen's Gift (Cenarion Expedition exalted). Simply awesome. - Seal of the Exorcist is quite strong, even though the resil does nothing for you in raids. Besides, what else are you going to spend your Spirit Shards on? - Band of Arcane Alacrity (Vexallus, Magister's Terrace). I didn't mention spell haste when going over stats, because it's hard to find pre-T6, but make no mistake, it's quite nice. - Seer's Signet (Scryer exalted) - Cobalt Band of Tyrigosa (Nexus-Prince Shaffer, heroic Mana-Tombs)
Enchant
Ring enchants, of course, are enchanter-only; if available, you'll want Spellpower.
Trinket
- TIIIMBALLLL'S! (Delrissa, Heroic Magister's Terrace)
- Darkmoon Card: Crusade (reward from the Darkmoon Faire for a Blessings deck). Expensive, but worth it.
- Icon of the Silver Crescent (41 BoJ).
- Sorcerer's Alchemist Stone. If you're an alchemist, this thing is hot stuff.
- Quagmirran's Eye (Quagmirran, Heroic Slave Pens).
- Scryer's Bloodgem (Scryers revered)
- Arcanist's Stone (Epoch Hunter, heroic Old Hillsbrad)
- Ancient Crystal Talisman/Glowing Crystal Insignia (Zangarmarsh quest)
Alright, that ought to be enough trinkets; use the best two of those that you can get your hands on.
Weapons
A main-hand, along with an off-hand, is almost certainly going to be better than a staff.
- Cudgel of Consecration (Kael'thas, Heroic Magister's Terrace). You may have to fight a Paladin tank, or other casters, for it, but it is a thoroughly excellent weapon (better than anything pre-T5)
- Merciless Gladiator's Gavel/Spellblade. When season 4 goes live in two weeks, this season 2 stuff will be available for honor. Nobody knows exactly how much honor, but I'm guessing it will be on par with what the season 1 stuff is currently selling for now (25,200 honor and 20 EotS marks). There's no difference between Gavel and Spellblade except appearance, so pick the one you think looks better. If you really can't decide, pick the Gavel; it has a higher maximum durability.
- Eternium Runed Blade (BoE blacksmithing, ~1500g)
- Gavel of Unearthed Secrets (Lower City exalted)
- Sky Breaker (Avatar of the Martyred, Heroic Auchenai Crypts)
Enchant
Major Spellpower! We love spellpower here at Shadow Priest Central. Soulfrost is actually better, but it's shockingly expensive. I would put it on the Cudgel of Consecration or a Merciless Gladiator's weapon, but not anything less.
Offhand
- Orb of the Soul Eater (25 BoJ). Fetish of the Primal Gods is actually very slightly better, but the difference is tiny, and it costs 10 badges more. The Orb is a steal for only 25 badges. This will last you a very long time.
- Draenei Crystal Rod of Shadow Wrath
Wand
- Carved Witch Doctor's Stick (25 BoJ). Best 25 badges you can spend, next to the offhand. Get it now. There's little better in the entire game.
- Flawless Wand of Shadow Wrath
- Illidari Rod of Discpline (from yet another SMV quest)
But seriously, just get the Badge one. This goes for the offhand, too.
Gems
You've probably heard this before, but let me tell you again: ignore the socket bonuses. In the vast majority of cases, you're just going to want to put Runed gems in everything; it won't be worth socketing yellow or even (shudder) blue gems to get +2 int or whatever. Obviously there are a few exceptions, so look at the socket bonus, but most of the time just toss in the red gems.
I'd advise putting Living Rubies in most of the stuff on this list, though Blood Garnets will suffice for the lower-quality items. Do not leave sockets open; you're just throwing away stats if you do that. Put in Runed Tourmalines if you really have to.
Conclusion
And there you have it: some lovely and relatively easy to obtain gear for entering the halls of Karazhan in Shadowform. You can get by with less, especially if your raid is well-geared and/or well-played, but I think these items are good to aim for. Have fun, and remember to keep Vampiric Touch up at all times.
In closing, I would like to give a massive shout-out to ShadowPriest.com, the best place I've found for Shadow information. The "Best casual gear available" list especially contains much of the information on which this guide is based. The Elitist Jerks thread "Shadow Priest 101" is also a must-read.
This concludes my guide to gearing a Shadow priest for Karazhan; here's part one. Spiritual Guidance is our Priest column -- Matt Low will fill you in every Sunday on all things of the cloth. And for even more Priestly goodness, check out the Priest guides section of our directory.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Meyl Jun 25th 2008 11:51AM
For gloves, another fine choice is the Jaedenfire Gloves of Annihilation: http://www.wowhead.com/?item=27889
With 25 stam, 25 int, and 39 shadow damage, they are an excellent choice if you are hit-capped already.
They have a 17% drop rate from Ambassador Hellmaw in normal Shadow Labyrinth. Since he is the first boss, if your group is agreeable, you can reset the instance and farm him until they drop.
Aravan Jun 25th 2008 12:11PM
I'm curious as to what suggestions people have for new players leveling a SP as far as Shadow Wrath gear versus +STA +INT gear on their way up to 70? I am almost exclusively in 'of the Eagle' with the odd blues from instances here and there. At 56 I haven't wanted to spend much on items until 70 (I do not have much gold to support him as this is really my first main), but should I mix in a few +damage and +shadow damage items as I continue my crawl up to 70? Just wondering what more experienced SP's thoughts are on this. Am I making a mistake not havinga couple of +damage pieces on me as I level up?
Alkahn Jun 25th 2008 1:26PM
Especially after you hit level 50 for VT, +dmg is laughably better than any other stat you can get leveling up, and 'shadow wrath' gear stacks it in a way that will make you simple overpowered when killing mobs for quests and grinding. You can even have 200 +dmg relatively easily by level 40 or so, without twinking too hard (just look for shadow wrath and a few tailoring pieces).
+dmg gives you:
* more dmg (need to cast fewer spells to kill something)
* more mana back per spell (spells get 'cheaper')
* more health back per spell (less need for stamina while grinding.
This covers the primary benefits of sta and int quite well. You won't do well in any encounters involving a lot of AOE dmg w/out much stamina, but +dmg (and spirit for spirit tap) is what you want when you're leveling, far more than 'eagle' stats.
MntlChaos Jul 31st 2008 2:12AM
I'd disagree about gems. There are lots of set bonuses that are quite good. And the bonuses you get from orange gems are actually good (you can get spell hit/spell damage gems) as you get a chance here to raise your spell hit in addition to your spell damage.
One example is the Carved Witch Doctor's stick. Yes you can stick a runed living ruby in for +9 damage, or you can stick a +5 dmg/+6 stamina purple colored gem in and get the extra +2 damage. I'd gladly give up 2 extra +dmg for an extra 60 health.
rick gregory Jun 25th 2008 1:41PM
You should never have to gem for spell hit with the gear above. If you do, it should be a stopgap until you fill out gear.
In virtually all cases you're better off gemming for pure dmg and ignoring the bonus. The only exception I've found is the one you cited.
Comis Jun 25th 2008 12:24PM
This guide is more of a "what to wear to fill in gaps in your already Kara farmed gear."
Part 2 just about as disappointing as Part 1... You left out a ton of good blues (yet included green of Shadow Wrath...) many of which are BoE and easiest to get for a new 70.
Farming badges and heroics should be a non-priority for gearing for Kara. Your goal should be getting full blues + a couple crafted/BoE (if you can afford it) epics. That's all you need to start Kara. But badge and heroic gear is just about all you suggest. That's just dumb.
What about the Satin gear? Yea it's PvP, but it does the job for a new 70. Imbued Netherweave (not the best, but my spriest was wearing 2 pieces going into Kara)? What about all the blue BoE's? There's a ton more 5-man reg drops too ... Slab gloves, gloves from MgT, encanter's legs (yea the set bonus isn't spriest, but they're easy as hell to get so why not include them?), and just so many more good blues.
Suggesting all these epics just to start Kara is unnecessary. My spriest set is all blue (with many mid-60 pieces) and I still manage 450-500 dps over the course of a whole raid with mana in tact. That's right on par to do Kara start to finish.
I guess I was just expecting a lot more out of this after the great Holy priest guide.
Alkahn Jun 25th 2008 1:32PM
Thing is, the tailored epic items on this list will basically make large parts of Kara's loot table obsolete. Are you in the instance to collect random epics, or are you there to do the most dmg (and mana return) you can and be the best spriest you can?
If you go into Kara with blues and 'settle' on some sub-par epic item in a slot just because it's epic and ignore the BoE tailored stuff, you're doing your raid a disservice imo.
In fact, hitting the high points in this list you should be able to do 800-900 DPS pretty easily and there will be almost nothing in Kara to tempt you.
Comis Jun 25th 2008 1:43PM
That's not the point of the article. You can continue to get your crafted and badge epics AS YOU FARM KARA. All you need to farm kara is blues with a couple/few epics mixed in. That was my point.
I'm not saying this gear is worthless. I'm saying it's overkill to BEGIN kara with badge gear and 1500g epics.
Meyl Jun 25th 2008 2:32PM
I agree, for the most part. The gear recommended in this guide is more than you need to start Kara, and some of it (100 BoJ gear!) is unreasonable to expect of someone who's never stepped foot in Karazhan.
Level 70 blues, appropriately gemmed and enchanted, are fine to *start* Kara with, as long as the rest of your raid is in similar-quality gear. However, if your raid has toons in quest/leveling greens (especially tanks and healers), then Kara will be an endless series of repair bills.
I do agree with the blogger that if you are a tailor, you should be busting your behind to get your FSW set ASAP - it is just that awesome. The Spellstrike set is also excellent for any new shadow priest. But I don't think you need them to start Kara. I'd aim to get them all made by the time you hit the harder bosses (Curator and beyond).
Likewise, I think you can use your badges from the early Kara bosses (plus heroics) to get the badge wand and off-hand. Also, run BGs when you can for the Merciless Gladiator's Gavel or Spellblade. (These items are better than anything that drops in Karazhan.) Get those by mid-Karazhan, too, and you should be fine.
infection Jun 25th 2008 5:02PM
I'll agree with the others. This article needs a REVAMP.
I came here to check out what my wife would need to gear up for kara (since we have about 7 to 8 people that are now 70 and are looking to start kara.)
What a disappointment. Not every clothy is a tailor. My wife the shad priest isnt, and neither is my mage.
And if all you are going to list is tailoring pieces and heoric pieces, WHY LABEL THIS "GETTING GEARED FOR KARA"
If you can run heoric's successfully enough to down the last boss in it.. I can guarantee you aren't needing to "gear up" for kara....
For me, when I read the mage article on gearing for kara.. it was MUCH more detailed with blues that can actually be accomplished.
Hopefully someone will remove this article or update it in a major way.
Just looks like laziness on finding gear to me and inserting it to the article.
I'll stick with wowhead and other loot list for my wife.
This article gets a D-
my2cents Jun 25th 2008 12:47PM
Belt of Blasting is quite expensive, but it's well worth it. You won't replace it for a long time (if at all, depending on how far into raiding you progress.) Shadowpriest.com rates it as the best belt for shadow priests until Hyjal and the 4th best belt in-game. You might want a backup belt with stamina before stepping into T5 raids, but 99% of the time you'll be SO glad you dished out the cash for that Belt of Blasting.
As for legs, I have to disagree: If you have badges to spend on legs, get Pantaloons of Arcane Annihilation. Spell haste (contrary to popular belief) is quite useful to spriests and gets better as your spell damage increases. (At 1400 spell damage, simulations show haste as being point-for-point equally effective as spell damage in increasing dps) Again, shadowpriest.com rates these legs as best until Hyjal and 4th best in-game, whereas Legwraps of Sweltering Flame are rated #7. The best part is that the Pantaloons of Arcane Annihilation cost 25 less badges!
Isambaard Jun 26th 2008 3:40PM
Haste with low damage is a recipe for chain potting and OOM though.
Given the overall list the recommended legs are probably the best bet after spellstrike. By the time you have the 1300-1400 damage necessary for haste to be worth it you'll have the 100 badges to buy new pants, and at that level you're almost certainly the sort who doesn't mind swapping an uber epic for another uber epic to match changing itemization needs.
my2cents Jun 25th 2008 12:51PM
The value of +dmg for shadowpriests (beyond increasing dps) is that it directly increases mana efficiency, due to the mechanics of Vampiric Touch. The more damage any given spell does, the more mana it will return to you (and your party if you're in one at the time.) So +dmg is actually quite helpful. more spirit lets you continue killing mobs longer without drinking. I think it's smart of you to stack some stamina though, as none of what I wrote above will be any use to you if you're dead ;)
rick gregory Jun 25th 2008 1:39PM
Waist: Girdle of Ruination is another option
MH weapon: Jaded Crystal Dagger (Selin Fireheart on heroic in MgT) or Starlight Dagger (first boss in Slave Pens) are easier to get than your other options from PvE. The S2 MH would be my choice if the spriest is OK with BGs.
Shionia Jun 25th 2008 2:03PM
No mention anywhere of the Trial-fire trousers - should I really toss them out on favor of Spellfire?
ErsatzPotato Jun 26th 2008 1:33PM
"No mention anywhere of the Trial-fire trousers - should I really toss them out on favor of Spellfire?"
Spellstrike is available when you ding 70. Trial-fire is a rare Kara drop. So, not on the list.
Spellstrike is higher DPS (+hit, +crit, equivalent +dam & sockets) but has blech for stats. It's equivalent to battle vs. strike except not as unbalanced (if you see a shad in battle, smack him).
If you already have Trial, you're fine. Don't blow the cash on new legs. These guides are for overgearing t4 anyway. The crafted dps cloth is easily t5 quality.
Have a ball tearing up t4. It's when shadow priests peak on DPS vs others. They can lead the meters while still giving huge utility.
Nikto Jun 25th 2008 3:47PM
The Girdle of Ruination shoud be included in your list. It costs less than the Belt of Blasting and has some needed stats for Kara survivability.
Since youare including Badge gear, you might at least mention teh Scryer Blade of Focus -- far better than any thing you would see for a long, long time, but it costs 150 badges.
You are underselling the Frozen Shadoweave Boots by implying that they would be replaced at T5. There is only 1 item in teh game that woudl replace them -- the T6 boots that drop off of Felmyst in SW.
Eisengel Jun 25th 2008 3:59PM
/e op missed the boat
Right now Spriests enjoy some of the best itemization that I've seen, classwise. The Season 1 gear that is available for honor and marks only, with no rating requirements, is on par with or can exceed the utility of Karazhan drops. The Frozen Shadoweave Set is on par with T5/T6. In about 2 weeks of grinding primals and BGs you can nearly epic-out your brand new Spriest with T5/T6 quality gear with Karazhan-level items filling the holes.
I regularly top the overall damage meter in Karazhan and throughout Gruul's, and have hit 3rd on Magtheridon when subbing in on another guild's raid... and my gear isn't all that uber in my opinion. Armory lite link:
http://armorylite.com/us/Khaz+Modan/Eisengel
Below is my guide to new Spriest gearing for my guild, please peruse:
Ever get to 70 and wonder, 'Hey, why is that other spriest pounding the tar outta critters, and I can't? Where's all my uberness?'
Time for a gear check!
To start I'll mark out gear you can get entirely on your own. That's right, no instances, no raids, no arena.
I'll also presume you're a tailor and an enchanter. If you aren't a tailor, I'd strongly recommend you drop a gathering profession and start an alt as your gatherer. There are many great bind on pickup tailoring recipes for the budding Spriest. Currently the best damage caster piece of chest armor is a bind-on-pickup Tailoring pattern from the Sunwell.
I'll give gear advice based on two things; that you want to do the most damage possible and have some survivability while getting a handle on the slippery game of spriest aggro.
One of the first goals to meet to be hit-capped, to raise your +spell hit stat until it doesn't help you any more. Spriests have a talent that can help, Shadow Focus. Shadow Focus grants a flat increase per point to the chance that your spells will hit. The more Shadow Focus you have, the less additional +spell hit you need. The maximums are: (from shadowpriest.com's raiding gear thread)
+76 spell hit is the cap with 5/5 Shadow Focus
+101 spell hit is the cap with 4/5 Shadow Focus
+126 spell hit is the cap with 3/5 Shadow Focus
+152 spell hit is the cap with 2/5 Shadow Focus
+177 spell hit is the cap with 1/5 Shadow Focus
+202 spell hit is the cap with 0/5 Shadow Focus
1. To start off, Frozen Shadoweave (FSW): Frozen Shadoweave at WoWwiki
You can learn make this set from lower city tailor trainers in Shattrath just northeast of the Horde Warmasters. FSW is a great set with +dmg on par with Tier 5 and Tier 6 priest sets. Unlike the uber sets from pre-Burning Crusade it also takes only 3 slots, leaving many other slots open for a variety of fun options. One of the best parts about the set is the 3 pieces can be made at different levels of the Tailoring skill. The shoulders at 355, the boots at 365 and the chest at 375.
Why is this a good thing? You'll be grinding your priestly arse off getting the mats. In total the set requires 6 Netherweb Spider Silk, 38 Primal Water and 26 Shadowcloth. That Shadowcloth doesn't come cheap either, You'll need 13 Primal Shadow and Fire to make it as well as 13 Bolts of Imbued Netherweave (and that Imbued Netherweave will run you 26 Arcane Dusts and 234 pieces of Netherweave Cloth). If you don't choose Shadowcloth as a Tailoring specialty, then double the mats for the Shadowcloth. The reward is well worth it though.. don that full FSW and you'll be rocking with +179 to shadow damage, +66 to stamina and +44 to intellect, along with 3 yellow and 3 blue sockets.
What to put in the sockets? I'd recommed Glowing Nightseye in the blue slots and Veiled Noble Topaz in the yellows. If you have 5/5 Shadow Focus you need to have +76 to spell hit to maximize your ability to land shadow spells on your target. You can socket in pure damage gems, but each spell that is resisted or that misses is lost DPS and lost mana for you (and less mana = less spells = less DPS). At least to start out, you need to make sure you're hit-capped. If you don't have 5 points in Shadow Focus, you need even more +hit to be hit-capped. Using the purple and orange gems also allows you to pick up the socket bonuses in the FSW set, which are useful to you at this point.
2. Battlegrounds for fun and profit
Yes, battlegrounds. The Arena Season 1 gear costs were shifted from arena points to honor and battleground marks when Season 3 came out. Since the 2.4 patch, battleground honor has been much easier to get and use, and the battleground gear is pretty insanely good for an Spriest. In fact much of the battleground gear is as good or better than many Karazhan drops. I'd recommend pushing for the Gladiator's Spellblade first. The mace and dagger version both give you the same bonuses and cost the same; 25,200 honor and 20 Eye of the Storm marks. That is a lot of honor, but you get a whopping +199 spell damage and healing along with +25 stamina and +17 intellect. You'd be hard pressed to find that much +damage on any other one hand weapon (or staff for that matter) that doesn't drop in or require you to run an instance, heroic instance or raid.
I'd recommend you farm the battlegrounds hard to come out with:
Gladiator's Spellblade: +199 dmg +25 stam +17 int 25,000 honor 20 EotS
Gladiator's Stain Gloves +28 dmg +40 stam +20 int 10,500 honor 20 AB
Gladiator's Stain Leggings +49 dmg +60 stam +30 int 14,500 honor 30 WSG
Gladiator's Stain Hood +32 dmg +60 stam +20 int 14,500 honor 30 AB
Vindicator's Dread. Cuffs +29 dmg +47 stam +20 int 11,794 honor 20 WSG
Vindicator's Dread. Belt +41 dmg +49 stam +32 int 17,850 honor 40 AB
Vindicator's Dread. Pend +30 dmg +35 stam +20 int 15,300 honor 10 EotS
Vindicator's Band of Dom. +33 dmg +31 stam +15 int 15,300 honor 10 AB
total: +441 dmg +347 stam +174 int 124,744 honor
with FSW: +620 dmg +443 stam +218 int
This is a pretty solid base to work from. There are a couple slots open though, namely both trinkets, 1 ring slot, your offhand and your wand. At this point I'd leave off the battleground gear and look elsewhere. Why not the Season 1 wand? It does fire damage. If you have talents like Shadow Weaving to increase shadow damage, you're losing extra damage your wand could be doing if it was shadow. The battleground trinket can be useful if you have the extra honor/marks, but there are better out there.
3. Farmable Enchants
There are a few good enchants you can grind out on your own as well:
Major Spellpower gives you +40 to damage on a melee weapon and is grindable from Bash'ir Spell-Thiefs in Blade's Edge Mountains.
Spellpower gives you +15 damage on bracers and drops from Bloodmaul Geomancers in Blade's Edge Mountains. The required materials are pretty steep, so you may want to substitute Superior Healing, which has only 5 less spell damage.
4. AH-gear
I call it AH-gear since you'll probably only find all of it on the Auction House. Many Spriests can easily overlook Darkmoon Card: Crusade, but do so at their peril! Every time you cast a harmful spell on an opponent the Crusade card buffs your spell damage by 8 for 10 seconds, and can stack up to 10 times. Since we have dots that need renewing, mindflays to cast, etc. as well as our OWN stacking buff to maintain (Shadow Weaving), stacking up the Crusade card isn't hard at all and gives you an extra 80 spell damage just for DPSing your target. The range of things considered 'harmful spells' is also pretty wide. Basically any spell that generates threat will cause a Crusade proc, even if it doesn't to damage, for instance Vampiric Embrace, Mana Tap, Curse of Weakness...
5. Quest gear
There definitely is useful quest gear out there. The VERY long chain in Shadow Moon Valley that culminates in killing Teron Gorefiend's jailor will net you Evoker's Helmet of Second Sight which, when well-gemmed, can outdo the S1 helm in damage.
6. Rep. gear
Aldor or Scryers, which is better? It's all a matter of where your view is. In general the Scryers have more utility for you in the shorter term, but the Aldor look good in the long run if you know a Scryer tailor.
The Aldor have some very nice rep items, but if you get the gear above you've filled many of those slots already, meanwhile the Scryer trinket gives you a TON of +spell hit and the Scryer ring is pretty good until you can level up your Karazhan rep ring or get some good drops. The Aldor inscriptions are better spriest-wise than the Scryers', but the difference is very small. The Scryers give you more bang for you buck early on with the trinket and ring, but in time you'll replace that gear too. So what things do Aldor & Scryer offer that will last? The big difference is between the Scryer Runic Spellthread tailoring pattern and the exalted Shattered Sun Offensive neck piece proc for Aldor:
Scryer: Aldor:
Grtr Inscrip of the Orb Grtr Inscripof Discipline
+15 sp crit, +12 sp dmg +10 sp crit, +15 sp dmg
Runic Spellthread
+35 dmg/heal +20 stam to legs
Shattered Sun Pendant of Acumen
+18 Intellect
+19 Stamina
+37 spell healing/damage
Scryer proc:
Arcane bolt, 333-367 damage
unmodified by +damage, +hit +crit
Aldor proc:
buff, Light's Wrath
+120 spell damage for 10 seconds
That Aldor rep proc on the SSO pendant is quite nice. It is a straight buff to +spell damage which makes all our spells hit harder and dots tick stronger. Even though our dots only get a fraction of the benefit from +spell damage, with Shadow Word:Pain and Vampiric Embrace up on a mob, the Aldor proc can easily provide better damage output than the Runic Spellthread. Is that proc worth giving up +35 spell damage to all your spells all the time though? It doesn't need to be. Runic Spellthread is (currently) Bind on Equip... so someone else can make it and pass it along. It requires a Primal Nether to make, so it won't come cheap, but you only need to know one Scryer Tailor in order to keep yourself in Runic Spellthread while enjoying the Aldor proc off of the pendant.
If you have access to the Runic Spellthread it seems that the best overall utility for an Spriest is to go Aldor for the SSO pendant proc. If you don't have access to the Spellthread that proc is tasty, but it can't make up for +35 damage to every spell you cast all the time.
7. Instance gear
Arg! Something you need to herd together an instance group for! ;^) Hopefully there will be enough of the right classes in guild chat for you, however there is some useful stuff out there:
Magister's Terrace (normal, Kael'Thas):
Cudgel of Consecration can uprgrade your tired old Spellblade until you can save up for the 150 badge blade.
Magister's Terrace (heroic, Priestess Delrissa):
Timbal's Focusing Crystal is abso-freakin-lutely fantastic! Gives you a big upgrade to spell damage and the periodic 'additional damage' it deals is in the form of a SHADOWbolt. Yes, that's right, the exact type of damage we Spriests enhance. The tooltip says 285 to 475 damage, but I've seen it hit for about 400 to 600 on average, and it can crit for 800+ with Shadow Weaving stacked up. It also procs pretty often.
Arcatraz (normal, Dalliah the Doomsayer):
Nether Core's Control Rod is a great wand for early 70 spriests. It does shadow damage, has +spell hit and +damage.
The Black Morass (normal):
Star-Heart Lamp is a nice offhand to get you started as well. It gives you int, stam, +damage and +spell hit.
... more to come as I find time to post it...
Isambaard Jun 26th 2008 3:44PM
Uhm, hopefully you didn't tell your guildies to wear gladiator stain gear instead of the SATIN gear. ;p
I mean, ewww!
Eisengel Jun 30th 2008 2:16PM
@Isambaard
Forget Wrath of the Lich King... fear the dread Wrath of the Typo! On noes! :^)
Ty tho... need to fix that up. I think that may be a good name for some gray junk pickups from the new battlegrounds though... Gladiator's STAIN... with an appropriate quote at the bottom, like: "What is that SMELL?" "Don't put it on, you don't know where its been!" "Did I step in something?" "Does anyone else smell cheese, or is it just me?" Even better... if you complete the 8pc set of Gladiator's Stain gear, you get a "Putrid Essence" aura that causes a green haze around your character, green footprints like the path of Illidan card loot, and causes those around you (except for Undead, of course) to gain the 'drunk' screen effect.