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Mystery of the Unborn Val'kyr
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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsHow to decide who's getting Val'anyr
by Allison Robert 
Apr 12th 2009 at 6:00PM
It's not exactly the world's most comfortable question for a guild leader, but I like how Derevka lays the issue out so matter-of-factly, and then goes on to address an interesting point concerning Val'anyr's proc. Your ideal candidate is a good healer with great attendance who plans on hanging around for a while, but then there's the question -- which class gets the most use out of the proc?
Between Derevka's commentary and a few notes from the Wowhead thread, it does seem as if Paladins and Discipline Priests are the classes/specs most suited to Val'anyr's shield proc. This is somewhat disappointing for me as a Druid, but then, nothing about the mace is set in stone until 3.1 actually goes live. How is your guild deciding how to assign this much sought-after piece?
Filed under: Druid, Paladin, Priest, Shaman, Items, Analysis / Opinion, Raiding, Classes
Reader Comments (Page 4 of 4)
Jenn Apr 12th 2009 9:29PM
Eh I strongly disagree that it's best useful for Paladins/Disc priests, esp because they already have skills that do this kind of thing. If anything, it's better for those of us healing classes/specs that DON'T have innate shields that pop out of our heals.
I'd also say that since those two types of healers have shields, that this would best serve AOE/Raid healers, hopefully reducing the amount of raid damage taken over-all thus making the lives of said healers easier with the amount of raid damage seemingly to be taken in the near future.
Falcrist Apr 12th 2009 10:50PM
Does no one else find it even a little bit odd that everyone wants to start dictating which classes this mace will be best for... before we know any of the stats?
We don't even know exactly how the proc works:
Your healing spells have a chance to cause Blessing of Ancient Kings for 15 seconds allowing your heals to shield the target absorbing damage equal to 15% of the amount healed.
So it sounds to me like this mace gives a buff to the person you just healed benefiting your further healing on that target. Which would make it very useful to a tank healer... unless it could proc on multiple people simultaneously via a circle of healing or somesuch.
Do overheals grant shields or does it have to be a non-overheal?
What's the Proc rate of this effect?
Does it have an internal CD?
Each of these factors can and will effect the benefit this mace has for each class, and while I could make some educated guesses (no,
Falcrist Apr 12th 2009 10:56PM
(post got cut off somehow)
(no, no,
Falcrist Apr 12th 2009 11:01PM
o.O
At any rate I'd rather not jump to conclusions. Chances are good that the mace will be balanced enough that the stats on the item will have a much greater bearing on whom it benefits than the proc.
I strongly suggest that people should focus less on which class benefits most, and more on which player benefits your raid the most with this item.
soulshaker Apr 12th 2009 11:39PM
vote for top 5 healers and /roll imo is the best solution.
The winner of the roll will get all the quest items for the mace.
Emoroan Apr 13th 2009 1:37AM
This mace is not going to play a big part in anything until 3.2. You basically have to have ulduar on farm before you get it, including the hard mode of the end boss.
Give it to your most loyal healer. Guilds will be trying to recruit (poach) people with the legendary, I guarantee you will see some of the top guilds with at least 3 of them due to this.
Dave Apr 13th 2009 4:22AM
In my guild's case, we as the officers came up with a short list of potential candidates based on attendance, healing ability, WWS, and time in the guild. We also picked an alternate with the same criteria, if for some reason, our primary pick had to miss a raid. No initiates were considered. No officers were on that list, by design.
lyssa Apr 13th 2009 7:08AM
"(sudden thought: why do the caster Legendaries have to be assembled, whereas the melee/ranged Legendaries just drop?)"
Umm...Thunderfury and Hand of Rag...?
Zarzuur Apr 13th 2009 7:26AM
The limited proc on this means that any non-MT healers are going to have to wait for multiple expansions more for a godly item. See, itemization FTW even affects legendaries!
aquanda Apr 13th 2009 8:23AM
paladin. all the 1hsword/1hmace drops I've seen listed in wowhead so far are garbage for us. LFcrit/haste weapon k thx.
Hitm4n Apr 13th 2009 10:20AM
Only thing im dissapointed about is that some classes have still not had a DECENT chance at obtaining a legendary. Sure there was a staff that we could form way back when... but not enuf time was given to allow anyone except but maybe the top 1 or 2 guilds on a server to get even ONE of their members the staff. It seems to me that the melee had alot more time to get/use their items.... and now the same thing might happen with healers.
I can see Blizzard releasing another melee legendary item next, leaving the other dps casters (ie locks and mages) spewing at this news... How about just letting all classes roll on the legendary pieces - and have different items available to choose from - that way noone will get neglected.
Daisil Apr 13th 2009 11:00AM
What a terrible idea.
Hey guys, lets allow 25 people to have to wait on the same item to drop! And hey, lets make it require 30/40 shards that have a 33% droprate chance off of hardmodes!
Mortalis Apr 13th 2009 11:12AM
Loot council and then refering to epgp probably if we have issues.
John Apr 13th 2009 3:56PM
The highest DKP healer will be the first to receive shards and will keep getting all shards until all 30 are collected. That raider will not receive any other loot until 30 shards are collected. So, top healer(s) will have to decide how important this mace is versus other gear upgrades. Some will start on the journey and some will prefer gear upgrades.
elms Apr 13th 2009 9:40PM
I wanna know where the legendaries that Enhancement Shamans can use are. EVER.
Jaggedfel May 18th 2009 4:46AM
...Shamans were destroying people with Hand of Rag + WF in pre-BC.
Russell Apr 16th 2009 12:46PM
My officers and I are currently wrestling with this problem and trying to figure it out. Our guild is right on the line between casual and serious raiders.. and we're just serious enough that we *might* actually get one mace completed. So whomever we decide gets it "first" is likely to be the only person who ever really has a chance at getting it.
I raised the question of how to pick that person in our officer-only forums, and my officers are almost universally saying it should be me, since I'm the GM and raid leader for our core raids. I love them for it, and from an objective standpoint their logic makes a lot of sense. I'm at almost every single raid, my healing is always either at the very top of the chart or very close behind it, and I make a lot of sacrifices both in and out of game to keep the raids and the guild going.
As a GM, though, I want what's best for my guild - and one factor to consider is how the guild will feel about it if that's the decision we make. Our guild is really fantastic, and the people are wonderful - and 90% of them or more would hands down agree that it's the right call. But I sit here and think, "what if we just picked a rank-and-file guildie and gave it to them?" Morale would go through the roof, as we proved beyond all doubt that we are what we've always tried and claimed to be: a guild that puts our *guildies* first, not our officers and GM.
Unfortunately, almost all of my good healers are officers. Almost all of my healers are also *really* good. I'm left without a very good objective reason to pick one healer over another for this mace, and I really hate the idea of deciding something this monumental with a /roll. We don't use DKP anyway, so that's not really a solution, either.
In the end, it will probably end up being me because it's the only choice I can make that has clear logic behind it and won't piss off somebody. But as crazy as it sounds, I wish I could find a way to pick somebody else.
Ralkurian Apr 21st 2009 9:36AM
this...is a legendary item......it would not be legendary....if everyone could get one...
Addicted2Wow Apr 28th 2009 12:06PM
Fury spec Warrior imo.
Brandon Apr 25th 2009 4:11PM
Whatever healer has done the most for the guild should get this. As mentioned, the guild is gonna be geared to the teeth by time someone gets their hands on the item...thus who cares about what healing class it would be better for (1. holy pally, 2. disc priest, 3. holy priest).
The real question is after all the sacrifice the individual will have to endure with other gear...will this item scale into T9 content to still be best in slot? Would seem like a lot of work for nothing if something in the T9 content will be rather equiv to it. Regardless it would be fun to be the one to go through the quest line and have the rest of the guild pulling for them through the process. That's why I'd want to throw my name in the hat.