Spiritual Guidance: Raid and pre-raid gear for healing priests, page 2
by Dawn Moore 
Jul 4th 2011 at 7:00PM
Getting a new level 85 priest raid-ready has become a lot easier since the launch of Cataclysm. In fact, I don't think I've ever seen this many options in the game before for relevent pre-raid gear, so props to Blizzard for making it easier for players to get into the latest tier of content. It will, of course, be faster to get gear from farming raid dungeons, but if you don't have those resources, now is a great time to be an alt.
ilvl 365 Firelands quest reward gear
By completing the various stages of the Firelands quests and dailies, you'll be able to unlock different vendors. As a priest, you'll get the most gear from unlocking Ayla Shadowstorm first, but since each vendor has at least one item you'll want, I recommend unlocking Ayla last because she doesn't increase the amount of daily quests you'll have access to. Varlan Highbough and Damek Bloombeard, on the other hand, will give you more quests, which means more currency to spend, which means gathering your gear faster. So this means your quest order will be to recruit the ancients (Varlan), then recruit an armorer (Damek), and then build a moonwell (Ayla).
- Spirit Fragment Band finger, Varlan Highbough, price unconfirmed
- Widow's Clutches hands, Damek Bloombeard, 73g
- Globe of Moonlight off-hand, Ayla Shadowstorm, 98g
- Moonwell Chalice trinket, Ayla Shadowstorm, 152g
- Mantle of Desire back, quest reward from Elemental Bonds: The Vow Start the quest line from a quest giver near the zone portals in your capital city.
- Lightforged Elementium Hammer main-hand, crafted BOE from blacksmithing
ilvl 359 justice point vendor gear
You can find the following gear at a vendor in your capital city. Stay away from anything under ilvl 359 at the vendor.
- Heavenly Breeze back, 1,250 justice points
- Mercurial Robes chest, 2,200 justice points
- Mercurial Handwraps hands, 1,650 justice points
- Mercurial Legwraps legs, 2,200 justice points
- Twined Band of Flowers finger, 1,250 justice points
- Core of Ripeness trinket, 1,650 justice points
- Slippers of Moving Waters feet, 1,650 justice points
ilvl 353 5-man dungeon gear
The 5-man dungeons added in patch 4.1, Zul'Aman and Zul'Gurub, will offer you a few items to fill in the gear slots you can't fill from dailies or vendors. You will find more gear in these dungeons that you can wear than what I've listed here, but because 353 is a bit low for Firelands, I recommend only the following pieces, since I've already listed some better options. Feel free to use this stuff if you're gearing up to go into tier 11 raids, though.
- The Hexxer's Mask head, Zul'Gurub, Jin'do the Godbreaker
- Claw-Fringe Mantle shoulders, Zul'Gurub, High Priestess Kilnara
- Wristwraps of Departed Spirits wrists, Zul'Aman, Halazzi
- Sash of Anguish waist, Zul'Gurub, High Priestess Kilnara
- Amani Scepter of Rites main-hand, Zul'Aman, Daakara
- Lost Bag of Whammies off-hand, Zul'Gurub, Edge of Madness
- Touch of Discord wand, Zul'Gurub, Bloodlord Mandokir
Spiritual Guidance has the inside line on pre-raid gear, valor point and raid gear, and healing strategies for bosses such as Atramedes and Chimaeron. Newcomer to the priest class? Look into Discipline Priest 101 and Holy Priest 101.
Filed under: Priest, (Priest) Spiritual Guidance
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
DancePuppets Jul 4th 2011 7:17PM
The thing is, as you've pointed out it is going to take far longer to gear a priest up than any other healer and, although I play disc (so at least my Rapture return is increasing to make up for the spirit loss), it does worry me slightly that when my guild finally starts getting bosses on farm I'm going to have difficulty getting a place if all the other healers are better geared than me, while I can only see it getting worse when we move into hard modes.
I'm not a bad player and am generally one of the first taken to heal at the moment, but those at a similar level to me will outstrip anything I'm capable of in a few weeks time, especially with everyone clamouring to get their hands on the Burning Embers to make their recipes first (I haven't seen the Spirit tailoring one drop yet at all). Are their any thoughts on why Blizzard has done this this tier, heavily supporting all other healing classes while dropping priests like a brick?
DancePuppets Jul 4th 2011 7:24PM
Another thing that I forgot to mention. At the moment in my (mostly 359) gear I'm being asked to put out around 13k HPS throughout a fight such as 10 man Beth'Tilac (which I have yet to down, 16k HPS is not sustainable for me so we need to replace one of the other healers who was doing ~10k), which is fine and sustainable; however, this is meant to be one of the easiest fights in the whole Raid. I admit Shannox was far less mana-intensive, but, if fights are going to be like Beth'Tilac later on I find it difficult to see how a priest will keep up without having geared up from Heroic T11.
scotlandap1 Jul 4th 2011 7:26PM
I agree with you that the cries of the priest community have taken this overboard, but I believe that much (but of course, not all) of this would subside to a much more reasonable level if Blizzard would simply tell us WHY they decided to do this. I'm not asking for a Ghostcrawler-style watercooler blog about it (though that would be nice). But really, would it take a CM more than a couple of minutes to simply say "Yes, this is working as intended," or, "We're aware of these posts, we'll address it on the Healer Q and A," or something along those lines? As others have pointed out, if they can address new hairstyles or try to convince us that HW: Sanc is something worthy of use, surely they can address this situation, even if ever-so briefly.
Redielin Jul 4th 2011 11:25PM
The big issue for me is we have no real choices in our gear - remember how we used to argue about whether it was worth using certain set bonuses? Well, now we don't really have much of a choice because the only reliable (I wouldn't call a random enchant helm slot item reliable) source of Spirit in their slots is tier.
There is a similar choice issue for all slots - don't like Crit with your Spirit? Tough, you have to take it in that slot and reforge it off. Another way to put this is that there IS no BIS gear in Firelands, there's just SIS gear - Spirit in Slot - you have only one option.
The fact that none of the bosses will ever drop decent cloth makes killing them a lot less exciting too. Combined with Holy's current lack of performance (it still feels like either the target is dead or another healer has sniped your POH before you can get any healing done), and this is not looking to be a good tier for healing priests.
Luke Jul 5th 2011 11:25AM
But... but... why wouldn't you want crit?
I mean you are playing Disco right?
RIGHT?
If not, the spirit of John Travolta would like a word with you.
Katherine Jul 5th 2011 8:06PM
The problem is that (as I understand it) we want a BALANCE of mastery, haste, and crit, and if everything that has spirit has crit on it as well, we have to reforge an awful lot of crit off just to get ANY mastery/haste.
Z Jul 5th 2011 2:22AM
Shawn, the Exalted Avengers of Hyjal ring is iLVL 391, not 378 as you have listed it.
There are only 2 378 caster rings with no hit on it, which is why I won the Shannox one this week (after the dps casters were first muttering that healers should not roll for that).
Z Jul 5th 2011 2:52AM
*Dawn
Dawn Moore Jul 5th 2011 7:46AM
.__________. Shawn...
If I was a guy, I'd at least spell it the good way: Sean. Sean Plott. Sean Bean to a lesser extent.
Even Shaun of the Dead doesn't use the bad spelling =O
Anyway, I'll fix that. There is some additional information I need to add too once we get a better idea of the loot tables this next week from guilds killing heroics. Blizz didn't list what bosses drop heroic tokens in their little journal.
Z Jul 5th 2011 7:34PM
ok ok ok ok ok I apologize!!! Geez, hahaha
Anyway, I just realized you have all the Ragnaros drops under 378 or 391 as well, while they also have a slightly higher iLVL.
de_jabberwock Jul 5th 2011 2:41AM
Don't forget that time is another factor, as a raiding priest you now have to read up on tactics, do the hyjal dailies, join rep farm runs, do some AH-ing to get the expensive tailoring items, get valor capped each week and join the raids for steady gear progression. I just can't find time to do this all, how hard i try. I've totally skipped the midsummer festival, and still didn't manage to get valor capped (heck i didn't even get to 700 for the wand).
Secondly, priests are practically forced to run a shit load of the same two dungeons (zandalari's), this is getting boring. (but this is a different discussion.)
Thirdly, a non tier-shoulder option would be nice. I've been unlucky in the previous tier and did not get tier shoulders.. therefore im still in a blue shoulder piece. Hopefully my (and your) guild will attempt Cho'gall heroic, because thats the only realistic shoulder upgrade for a while.
de_jabberwock Jul 5th 2011 2:50AM
Don't forget that time is another factor, as a raiding priest you now have to read up on tactics, do the hyjal dailies, join rep farm runs, do some AH-ing to get the expensive tailoring items, get valor capped each week and join the raids for steady gear progression. I just can't find time to do this all, how hard i try. I've totally skipped the midsummer festival, and still didn't manage to get valor capped (heck i didn't even get to 700 for the wand).
*edit: Quick calculation:
- Read up on tacts (1h each week?) - 1h
- Hyjal dailies (as having no attunement nor shadow spec) 7*45m = 5h 15 mins
- Rep Farm runs - 2h
- AH-ing - 3h
- Zandalari's - 7*1h (1h on average) = 7h
This takes a total of 18h and 15 minutes each week, and then i didn't even add raid times. And this because Blizz forgot to make some alternative drops for healing priests...
Secondly, priests are practically forced to run a shit load of the same two dungeons (zandalari's), this is getting boring. (but this is a different discussion.)
Thirdly, a non tier-shoulder option would be nice. I've been unlucky in the previous tier and did not get tier shoulders.. therefore im still in a blue shoulder piece. Hopefully my (and your) guild will attempt Cho'gall heroic, because thats the only realistic shoulder upgrade for a while.
Mebh Jul 5th 2011 3:14AM
I don't do the Hyjal dailies, as I don't see any reason to as a holy priest. One semi-interesting trinket but that's all, and it's not enough to get me to do the whole grind.
What I'm worried about is issues of comparison with other healers. Disc priests are ok with a little less spirit and they are fairly strong anyway at the moment. Holy... not so much. As for mana issues, congratulations to those who don't have them but I do, and that's normal mode FL bosses we're talking about. So I really can't afford to give up any more spirit.
Fast-forward a couple months and I can see every other healer surpassing me because I just can't keep up: either I'll run out of mana in 2 minutes or I'll miss throughput because all I do is cast Heal.
Nina Katarina Jul 5th 2011 7:36AM
Incentive - each boss you kill in Firelands is one less Zandalari dungeon you have to run.
I was sick enough of troll dungeons to run 4 regulars instead of my last two trolls.
kaosgrace Jul 5th 2011 6:44AM
Sigh.
(1) Every other healer has uncontested Spirit drops in Firelands. Every. Other. Healing. Class. But priests have to roll against not one but TWO other classes - classes for whom the drops are actually optimally itemized, and to whom any sane guild would give priority.
(2) Every other healing spec gains regen going from 4p t11 to 2p t12. Holy priests lose regen making the same switch.
(3) Every other healer gains regen going from full BIS t11 to full BIS t12 (normal to normal or heroic to heroic). Most gain regen going from t11 heroic to t12 normal. But when you factor in the BIS trinket choices, Holy priest regen remains at best constant; in order to gain regen, they have to keep t11 trinkets, which means their throughput increases less than others'.
(4) Because they rely on Valor and rep gear to maintain constant/slightly increased regen, Holy priests can't upgrade to full 391 gear without having less mana than we did in 372 - actually, less than they did in 359. So as Holy progresses through heroics, they have to choose between falling behind the other healers on throughput or losing a very substantial amount of regen. Most will simply fall behind, since they'd have to take the throughput gear from mages, locks, and spriests.
Not only do they gear up more slowly than every other class, but the more advanced the content a holy priest does in t12, the further they fall behind. This would be bad in any case. It's "sky is falling" bad because Holy already had issues - both with mana and with healing output, not to mention lack of raid CD or mitigation or utility - in t11.
But it's bad for Disc too, even though they don't actually need the spirit that badly, because they're stuck in the "generic cloth" loot pool with all the other priests, mages, and locks. In t11 they didn't need all that spirit either but at least they had designated priest gear that we could take and reforge, just like all the others. In t12 they don't. So they gear up more slowly than druid, shaman, and paladin healers. Disc can probably deal with it, and at the end of t12 it'll be a phenomenal spec, but there's some reasonable cause for frustration.
Vitasia Jul 5th 2011 7:27AM
You are incorrect when you say every other healing class has "uncontested" access to spirit cloth. Both balance druids and elemental shaman use spirit as a +hit stat, so the leather and mail gear itemization reflects that spirit would be a useful stat for them regardless. Clothie drops simply have stats that everyone finds useful.
I did the math myself, assuming BiS-spirit pieces all around AND a gigantic 0 in the belt slot, you will still gain roughly 500 spirit. Healers who are smart about their mana and not spamming flash heal constantly will continue to be fine.
kaosgrace Jul 5th 2011 8:07AM
In order for any other healer to have competition *at all* for their drops in a 10m, their class has to be overrepresented in the raid - and for a holy paladin, their spec has to be duplicated, which almost never happens. And they'll *never* see the kind of competition a priest does in your average 25m (3-4 mages, 3 warlocks, 2 spriests, and 2-3 healing priests anyone?) or a slightly cloth-heavy 10m.
And as for that 500 spirit, you'll have to give more information.
First of all, are you comparing 359 to 378? Or 372 to 391? If 391, are we talking full 391 including the 5 non-spirit pieces, or 391 with some 378 leftover?
Secondly, have you factored in trinket spirit? Tsunami is 400, Core is 321, and Fall is about 440; Jaws is likely to work out to be around 500 and Eye is zero.
Thirdly, have you factored in that switching from 4p t11 to 2p t12 is a loss of about 110-130 spirit-equivalent for Holy, depending on Int, assuming an unrealistic 100% uptime on t12?
If you actually include all the variables you find that we break even going from full 359-378, lose regen going from full 372-378, and lose a *lot* going from full 372 or 378 to full 391. It is of course possible to get some upgrades while gaining regen because there are a bunch of pieces that are simply direct upgrades, but you can't take the whole set, and you definitely can't take the drops.
Nina Katarina Jul 5th 2011 7:33AM
Don't forget that you can get 372 gear from tier 11 heroics, which will become easier with the 378 gear your raiders are amassing. The Halfus chest drop is quite nice, and the Halfus fight is the easiest heroic in T11. He convinced us to run it last night, we pulled in two absolute noobish pugs but were able to knock it over with very little trouble. No chest, but no reason we can't bash on him again next week.
kaosgrace Jul 5th 2011 8:16AM
Yes, once primarily-normal-mode guilds get a bunch of 378s from the entry t12 bosses for everyone else, they can go back and carry their holy priests through t11 heroics so the priests can get some lower-ilvl drops to keep progressing. I'm sure everyone will be delighted.
(BTW, that was normal Halfus last night. Not that we couldn't go back to doing heroic, but are we going to have a raid night with our full roster to devote to t11 content?)
kaosgrace Jul 5th 2011 8:05AM
In order for any other healer to have competition *at all* for their drops in a 10m, their class has to be overrepresented in the raid - and for a holy paladin, their spec has to be duplicated, which almost never happens. And they'll *never* see the kind of competition a priest does in your average 25m (3-4 mages, 3 warlocks, 2 spriests, and 2-3 healing priests anyone?) or a slightly cloth-heavy 10m.
And as for that 500 spirit, you'll have to give more information.
First of all, are you comparing 359 to 378? Or 372 to 391? If 391, are we talking full 391 including the 5 non-spirit pieces, or 391 with some 378 leftover?
Secondly, have you factored in trinket spirit? Tsunami is 400, Core is 321, and Fall is about 440; Jaws is likely to work out to be around 500 and Eye is zero.
Thirdly, have you factored in that switching from 4p t11 to 2p t12 is a loss of about 110-130 spirit-equivalent for Holy, depending on Int, assuming an unrealistic 100% uptime on t12?
If you actually include all the variables you find that we break even going from full 359-378, lose regen going from full 372-378, and lose a *lot* going from full 372 or 378 to full 391. It is of course possible to get some upgrades while gaining regen because there are a bunch of pieces that are simply direct upgrades, but you can't take the whole set, and you definitely can't take the drops.