Raid Rx: Really cool Coliseum healing loot
by Matt Low 
Sep 8th 2009 at 8:00PM
Every week, Raid Rx will help you quarterback your healers to victory! Your host is Matt Low, the grand poobah of World of Matticus and a founder of No Stock UI, a new WoW blog for all things UI, macro, and addon related. It's time to gear us up some healers! Let's take a look at all the phat loot the coliseum has to offer.
The Crusader's Coliseum offers a wide variety of gear and equipment for both new and veteran healers. It's time for us to start equipping ourselves in order to be prepared when Icecrown Citadel hits. While we're not exactly going to be healing Arthas to death, it's a good idea to start working on our stuff now.
We'll start with Trial of the Champion for the fresher 80s before we move to Trial of the Crusader where all the good stuff is.
Trial of the Champion
Paladins will want to start off with Greaves of the Grand Paladin and Helm of the Bested Gallant. There's not a whole lot of selection from either normal or heroic mode. Once you're done farming in there, look into acquiring Gauntlets of Revelation and Legplates of the Argent Armistice. That'll cover the feet, helm, gloves and leg pieces respectively.
Shamans, like Paladins, are also limited. Out of normal ToC, the Carapace of Grim Visions is a solid pickup for any Resto Shaman while Leggings of the Bloodless Knight can serve in either capacity for Resto or Elemental Shamans. Lastly, if you need a decent belt, Girdle of the Dauntless Conqueror comes from the heroic.
Druids will want to pick up Gloves of Dismal Fortune and Leggings of the Snowy Bramble from the heroic. Run normal mode to replace the blues. Check out Gaze of the Somber Keeper, Mantle of Gnarled Overgrowth, and Binding of the Tranquil Glade.
The Priests have a few more options here. I'd highly recommend Handwraps of Surrendered Hope and Mantle of Inconsolable Fear for either Discipline or Holy. It's mostly due to the haste. Holy Priests will wish to consider The Confessor's Binding and Leggings of the Haggard Apprentice for the Spirit. Those in need of a new chest, run heroic to snag Embrace of Madness.
Tears of the Vanquished will benefit all healers looking for an increase to their mana pool and their mana regen. It only drops from normal. Signet of Purity is a ring drop that's also from normal which only benefits Druids and Priests. Shamans and Paladins won't need the Spirit.
Lastly, every new healer needs a weapon! Thankfully, Mariel's Sorrow is an mp5 mace that is suited for any of the four healing classes.
Trial of the Crusader
Alright, enough is enough. Let's get to the really cool gear! For the sake of my sanity, I'll be sticking to the Alliance versions of these items.
Let's start with weapons.
The Argent Resolve is a fine mace which drops from Anub'Arak on 10 man ToC. Perfect for any healer. Shamans and Paladins may wish to pair it with Vigilant Ward (which also comes from the oversized frost beetle). There's also two excellent staves. Cold Convergence (Anub'Arak) and Enlightenment (Val'kyr Twins) are handy for Druids or Priests. I'd give a slight edge to Enlightenment just because of the extra blue socket. I'd forgo the socket bonuses myself and just add extra spell power red gems instead.
By the way Priests, if you want a wand the only one that will drop from the area comes from 10 man ToC. The Rod of Imprisoned Souls is dropped by the Northrend Beasts.
There are two options when it comes to healing trinkets. Solace of the Defeated and Binding Light are two good upgrades. Binding Light comes from the Faction Champions on 10. It provides a static mp5 increase and has an on use effect allowing healers to gain a stacking spell power bonus up to 528. Sadly, it only lasts 20 seconds. The Solace of the Defeated works in the opposite direction. It provides a static 150 spell power increase and grants a stacking mp5 bonus of 128.
With regards to rings, take a look at Ring of the Darkmender (Lord Jaraxxus). It's a suitable ring for any class. Priests and Druids who would like some extra Spirit should consider snagging a Band of Deplorable Violence (Anub'arak).
For back pieces, there are two choices. Anub'arak drops Maiden's Favor is better suited for Paladins and Shamans (although it's good for any class). Northrend Beasts will cough up Shawl of the Refreshing Winds which is going to end up being used by Druids and Priests.
Lastly for neck pieces, Twin Val'kyrs drops the Wail of the Val'kyr is an intriguing choice but you may wish to pass it off to your DPS casters first. Out of 10 man, Lord Jaraxxus drops the Amulet of Binding Elements which has mp5 on it.
There's a huge variety of non-tier set pieces that are enough to keep us healers busy until we get the token and the badges for them. These drop from 25 man Trial of the Crusader.
Paladins
And the above mentioned pieces don't have any mp5 on them. For the Paladins that do need mp5 (if there are any out there):
Shamans
It seems every spell power mail piece has mp5 on it.
- Chestguard of Flowing Elements
- Legguards of Concealed Hatred
- Belt of the Ice Burrower
- Bracers of Cloudy Omen
Boots of Tremoring Earth are the exception. No ounce of mp5 on them at all.
Druids
- Vestments of the Shattered Fellowship
- Boots of the Unrelenting Storm
- Legwraps of the Awakening
- Cord of Pale Thorns
- Bracers of the Autumn Willow
Priests
- Flowing Vestments of Ascent
- Boots of the Mourning Widow
- Gloves of the Lifeless Touch
- Leggings of the Soothing Touch
- Cord of the Tenebrous Mist
- Armbands of the Ashen Saint
The Gloves of the Lifeless Touch don't have any Spirit on them, but the other items do.
Good luck picking these up, healers! May your dice rolls be high!
Want some more advice for working with the healers in your guild? Raid Rx has you covered with all there is to know! Looking for less healer-centric raiding advice? Take a look at our raiding column Ready Check.Filed under: Druid, Paladin, Priest, Shaman, Analysis / Opinion, Raiding, Raid Rx (Raid Healing)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Amy Sep 11th 2009 3:46PM
The links are pretty useless if you're not Alliance, to be honest. :(
nash0727 Sep 8th 2009 9:06PM
Most of the links have another link to the horde version in the comments. A bit of extra clicking but not too bad :)
Rollo Sep 8th 2009 9:18PM
A few minutes saved for the poster, a minute lost each for 1/3 of the readers.
Slaytanic Sep 8th 2009 8:38PM
I've pretty much fallen in love with all the new pally drops coming out of togc. EVERY single piece I currently want comes out of the 25-man. (Except that damn Pyrelight Circle...) They've finally figured out (quite quickly, I might add) that paladins do not want mp5 gear, and have blessed us with some awesome SP+crit+haste gear. And it all has the same models, so I can totally mix-match the pieces and still have it look like I'm wearing a complete suit.
/target Blizzard /highfive
alpha5099 Sep 8th 2009 9:00PM
Spectral Kris is also a pretty solid healing weapon. I'd rather have Haste than MP5, also slightly more Crit. Yum.
Frodo34x Sep 8th 2009 9:46PM
You seem to have missed out the 25-man Faction Champions shield (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=47287)
fsudave29 Sep 8th 2009 11:23PM
Almost all of the Priest gear at the end of the post is stacked with Haste, making it useful for Holy but downgrades for Disc. Why does WoW Insider love Holy so much?
Diogenes Sep 9th 2009 12:25AM
You still need about 14% haste from gear as disc to reach the gcd. That being said the lack of crit gear does hurt disc (as does the lack of mp5 cloth). Balancing gear requirements has always been a big blizzard problem and they are addressing the issue by massively simplifying stats in cataclysm. I just hope they do it right. Even disc priests do not really benefit much from increased crit since most of their spells are bubbles which means they would rather just stack spellpower above all else after they have enough into to constantly spam.
As for haste, I always feel that I need more of it as holy because our guild's other priest is usually disc and the druids are super fast. I need to get my instant cast heals on a 1 second gcd to deal with all the prehotting druids. The more renews I can stack on more people the more i can keep up with the druids stacking wild growth and renew.
Diogenes Sep 9th 2009 12:26AM
after they have enough int* to constantly spam.
druids stacking wild growth and rejuvenation.*
Wyred Sep 9th 2009 6:38AM
14% haste from gear as disc spec is well over what you should have. With borrowed time and 8% you hit the gcd, anything else is overkill pretty much. When are we not casting shields?
Bod Sep 9th 2009 9:54AM
"Why does WoW Insider love Holy so much?"
Oh dear...really if you knew anything about the OP you'd know he's a huge disc fan, having made the transfer from holy to disc at the start of wrath....i don't like how inane his columns have become recently, but one thing you really can't accuse him of is being a holy lover.
syco Sep 9th 2009 1:32AM
The lack of a regen staff in the ToC raid is very upsetting.
Shy Sep 9th 2009 2:31AM
For the Horde out there, the stats are the same, even though the name of the item is not. The item also drops of the same boss.
Besides that, this is not a gear bible. Don't go out there and just blindly pick up these pieces. Upgrades depend on the stats you have already, and how a new gear piece fits into that.
And yes, as a disc priest, a bit less haste, and a bit more crit/mp5 would've been nice. Oh well, better in Icecrown Citadel I guess.
Lollikins Sep 9th 2009 2:58AM
What the hell is up with the lack of spirit on everything. My guild keeps saying that it's all for someone else because nothing has spirit on it. Grr...
Martin Sep 9th 2009 3:23AM
Your guild loot master is terrible then
Isax Sep 9th 2009 6:17AM
I thought current thinking on Holydins is to focus on haste/mp5 over other stats on gear.
Admittedly int is still a priority, but in all other cases haste/mp5 is preferable to haste/crit.
For gems I am using int (yellow), haste+mp5(blue) and sp+int(red)(red choice may be wrong) when trying to get the socket bonus. If ignoring socket bonuses, I always go for int.
What I would say though that this is all very subjective. Many paladins are now valueing haste/crit/mp5 as equals and obviously int still being the best choice.
However 600+haste is extremely important to achieve.
Agerath Sep 9th 2009 6:48AM
You should still only be gemming for int.
Stick a nightmare tear (+10 stats) somewhere to activate your meta; otherwise just fill those slots full of +20 int gems.
It's best to expand your mana pool as much as possible, because stacking mp/5 just won't cut it for us in terms of regen, and crit is now much less of a priority stat since our regen from illumination was cut in half. You'll find plenty of mp/5 on gear anyway, especially on the tier stuff.
I'm healing toc mainly now and not really having any troubles with either regen or beating everyone else in healing done/hps.
You can no longer get away with spamming holy light on the tank; holy shock and fol have become much more central to our 'rotation' now and I find myself healing the raid more than ever (something I always did anyway--3 years of playing whack-a-mole forces you to resort to rather drastic measures in order to entertain yourself).
The new beacon change is excellent and with enough haste, crit and experience you can raid heal just as effectively as any priest or druid.
I do still think we're slightly broken, though, in that as nuke healers we are not able to keep up with the seemingly endless mana pool of shamans when spamming heals on the tank, and our aoe healing capabilities are less than optimal.
Oh, and as an aside, though I like haste, I would never stack it, and certainly never gem for it. There's bucketloads on gear and you should be getting to the point where you feel it hinders you rather than helps you without really trying!
benbettis Oct 12th 2009 11:27PM
Um. Divine Plea? OP. I never go oom. And even after the Illumination nerf I still spam Holy Light pretty liberally when needed. Getting 6k Hps on Kora? Priceless.
But yes, at about 500 haste you've got plenty; bags of it come on gear and I find myself pouting that I can't swap it for another stat. That being said, yes, you should ALWAYS be gemming Int. Though I've ran into a few holy pallys who stack SP and use flash of light more, but I'm not sold on that train of though at all.
Also, raid buffed flash of light is practically free. I love it.
SumDuud Sep 9th 2009 7:35AM
I agree with the above poster, the dagger off the black knight is a solid healing dagger. Not sure why you wouldn't list it.
On a side note, or question.... If you go into TOC 25 and have 7 healers, how can you reasonably expect your healers to all be churning 2.5-3k hps??? I ran it last week and the RL was qqing about hps. But with so many healers how can performance be improved? Offered to dps (4-5k dps in a raid easy) and was told no we need the healers. Only deaths were from stupid mistakes not lack of heals. Maybe it's more of a rant, I am not a raid leader nor is my guild a raiding guild (all rl friends & family), but it just doesn't make sense to me.
Anyway, nice article. Now I can set my goals :)
Isax Sep 9th 2009 8:45AM
Actually he started badly. Start with cloth items, and work up to plate items. That way you can also highlight all the mail/leather/cloth items that would be suitable for a Paladin etc.