Spiritual Guidance: Raid and pre-raid gear in patch 4.2 for holy and discipline priests

"Oh, no! There's no spirit cloth in Firelands! What do we do?!"
Calm down.
I don't know why, but there has been some serious fear-mongering in the priest community this past week regarding the lack of spirit cloth gear in the Firelands. All over the internet, priests are screaming for their lives, running in circles, drinking Kool-Aid from the Twilight Council, and sending me really weird emails. (Apparently, they even sent Fox some emails too. Go figure.) Though I have no idea how this all started, I'm going to lay this out so it's easy to understand: You do not need to freak out about the lack of spirit cloth gear in the Firelands.
If you'll give me your undivided attention for the next few paragraphs, I'll not only explain why, I'll walk you through all the pretty gear you can get from the Firelands, daily quests, and then some.
"Don't panic!" -- the spirit edition
So first of all, there is plenty of spirit gear available for priests in patch 4.2.
- Valor badge vendors sell a 378 wand, necklace, ring, and bracers with spirit. Of these items, the wand can be upgraded to 391 heroic gear with Crystallized Firestone.
- The Avengers of Hyjal offer two pieces of spirit reputation gear, a cloak and a ring. There is also a spirit trinket.
- There are three spirit weapons that drop inside Firelands: a mace, off-hand, and staff.
- Tailors can craft two 378 spirit items, a pair of boots and a pair of gloves.
- On top of everything, there is still spirit on all five of your tier pieces. Three of those pieces can be purchased with just valor points.
I'd like to remind you that it's not like your existing raid gear is insufficient for the new content; you don't have to strip down naked before you walk into a new raid. You will have a lot of spirit from your current gear, only losing it over time as you swap out upgrades. Plus, weren't we just talking about how mana became quite manageable in the last tier once we were moderately geared? Blizzard limiting the amount of spirit on heroic gear is probably to keep us in the "mana as a commodity" mindset.
Now that I've said all that, yes, we are in a terrible situation based on the way Blizzard has decided to itemize gear this tier. Even though we can and will manage for all the reasons I've stated, we have a lot of hardship ahead of us. It will take us longer to gear up when we can only acquire our most optimal gear through valor points; this could even cause some trouble for guilds when deciding how to distribute loot to the benefit of the whole raid. Later, when we are finally in our best-in-slot gear, we will have less spirit than other healers, which could negatively impact us in early progression next tier. I am not entirely sure where the developers are going with this itemization, but keep the faith, my priesties. I'm expecting some sort of development on this soon.
As a reminder, should you find yourself strained for mana, remember that you can still reforge, gem, and enchant your gear for more mana return. Drop a haste socket bonus for two spirit gems, or reforge the haste off that non-spirit item. It is actually completely acceptable to sacrifice throughput stats for mana regen, particularly since you're doing zero throughput when you're OOM. Crazy, I know.
Raid gear in patch 4.2
With that out of the way, let's look at the raid gear priests have available to them this patch.
Helm
ilvl 378
- Cowl of Cleansing Flame Valor Quartermaster, purchased with Helm of the Fiery Conqueror (dropped by Ragnaros in Firelands)
- Flickering Cowl Firelands, Lord Rhyolith (for priests, either the Undertow or Wavecrest version of this helm)
- Cowl of Cleansing Flame Valor Quartermaster, purchased with Cowl of Cleansing Flame and Helm of the Fiery Conqueror (presumably dropped by heroic difficulty Ragnaros)
- Flickering Cowl Firelands, Lord Rhyolith (heroic)
Neck
ilvl 378
- Heartstone of Rhyolith Firelands, Lord Rhyolith
- Firemind Pendant Valor Quartermaster, 1,250 valor points
- Flowform Choker (no spirit) Firelands, Majordomo Staghelm
- Heartstone of Rhyolith Firelands, Lord Rhyolith (heroic)
- Flowform Choker (no spirit) Firelands, Majordomo Staghelm (heroic)
Shoulders
ilvl 378
- Mantle of Cleansing Flame Valor Quartermaster, purchased with Mantle of the Fiery Conqueror (dropped by Majordomo Staghelm in Firelands)
- Mantle of Closed Doors Firelands, Baleroc
- Mantle of Cleansing Flame Valor Quartermaster, purchased with Shoulders of the Fiery Conqueror (presumably dropped by heroic difficulty Majordomo Staghelm)
- Mantle of Closed Doors Firelands, Baleroc (heroic)
Back
ilvl 378
- Flowing Flamewrath Cape Requires friendly reputation with Avengers of Hyjal, 225g
- Wings of Flame (no spirit) Firelands, Alysrazor
- Wings of Flame (no spirit) Firelands, Alysrazor (heroic)
Chest
ilvl 378
- Robes of the Cleansing Flame Valor Quartermaster, 2,200 valor points
- Robes of Smoldering Devastation (no spirit) Firelands, Beth'tilac
- Vestment of the Cleansing Flame Valor Quartermaster, purchased with Robes of the Cleansing Flame and Chest of the Fiery Conqueror
- Robes of Smoldering Devastation (no spirit) Firelands, Beth'tilac (heroic)
Wrists
ilvl 378
- Firesoul Wristguards Valor Quartermaster, 1,250 valor points
- Wristwraps of Arrogant Doom (no spirit) Firelands, Majordomo Staghelm
- Wristwraps of Arrogant Doom (no spirit) Firelands, Majordomo Staghelm (heroic)
Hands
ilvl 378
- Gloves of the Cleansing Flame Valor Quartermaster, 1,650 valor points
- Fingers of Incineration (no spirit) Firelands, Ragnaros
- Grips of Altered Reality Crafted BOE from tailoring
- Gloves of the Cleansing Flame Valor Quartermaster, purchased with Gloves of the Cleansing Flame and Gauntlets of the Fiery Conqueror
- Fingers of Incineration (no spirit) Firelands, Ragnaros (heroic)
Waist
ilvl 378
- Majordomo's Chain of Office (no spirit) Firelands, Ragnaros
- Embereye Belt Requires honored reputation with Avengers of Hyjal, 270g
- Majordomo's Chain of Office (no spirit) Firelands, Ragnaros (heroic)
Legs
ilvl 378
- Legwraps of the Cleansing Flame Valor Quartermaster, 2,200 valor points
- Leggings of Billowing Fire (no spirit) Firelands, Alysrazor
- Legwraps of the Cleansing Flame Valor Quartermaster, purchased with Legwraps of the Cleansing Flame and Leggings of the Fiery Conqueror
- Leggings of Billowing Fire (no spirit) Firelands, Alysrazor (heroic)
Fingers
ilvl 378
- Crystal Prison Band (no spirit) Firelands, Shannox
- Soothing Brimstone Circle Valor Quartermaster, 1,250 valor points
- Crystal Prison Band (no spirit) Firelands, Shannox (heroic)
- Quicksilver Signet of the Avengers Requires exalted reputation with Avengers of Hyjal, 450g
Trinket
ilvl 378
- Fiery Quintessence Requires revered reputation with Avengers of Hyjal, 360g
- Rune of Zeth Requires revered reputation with Avengers of Hyjal, 360g
- Eye of Blazing Power Firelands, Alysrazor
- Jaws of Defeat Firelands, Majordomo Staghelm
- Eye of Blazing Power Firelands, Alysrazor (heroic)
- Jaws of Defeat Firelands, Majordomo Staghelm (heroic)
Feet
ilvl 378
- Coalwalker Sandals (no spirit) Firelands, Shannox
- Endless Dream Walkers Crafted BOE from tailoring
- Coalwalker Sandals (no spirit) Firelands, Shannox (heroic)
Main hand
ilvl 378
- Ko'gun, Hammer of the Firelord Firelands, Ragnoros
- Chelley's Sterilized Scalpel Firelands, random BOE trash drop
- Ko'gun, Hammer of the Firelord Firelands, Ragnoros (heroic)
- Chelley's Sterilized Scalpel Crystallized Firestone Collector, purchased with Chelley's Sterilized Scalpel and Crystallized Firestone
Off hand
ilvl 378
- Goblet of Anger Firelands, Shannox
- Goblet of Anger Firelands, Shannox (heroic)
Staff
ilvl 378
- Smoldering Censer of Purity Firelands, Shannox
- Sho'ravon, Greatstaff of Annihilation (no spirit) Firelands, Ragnoros
- Funeral Pyre (no spirit) Firelands, Beth'tilac
- Smoldering Censer of Purity Firelands, Shannox (heroic)
- Sho'ravon, Greatstaff of Annihilation (no spirit) Firelands, Ragnoros
- Funeral Pyre (no spirit) Firelands, Beth'tilac (heroic)
Wand
ilvl 378
- Scorchvine Wand Valor Quartermaster, 700 valor points
- Stinger of the Flaming Scorpion (no spirit) Firelands, Majordomo Staghelm
ilvl 391
- Scorchvine Wand Crystallized Firestone Collector, purchased with Scorchvine Wand and Crystallized Firestone
- Stinger of the Flaming Scorpion (no spirit) Firelands, Majordomo Staghelm
I've prepared a loot list on the next page for fresh level 85 priests looking to get raid-ready for the Firelands.
Filed under: Priest, (Priest) Spiritual Guidance






Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Revnah Jul 4th 2011 7:11PM
Thank you :-)
And I hope mine wasn't one of the really weird e-mails, lol!
Celeane Jul 4th 2011 7:20PM
Holy says hello. Or should I say, Holy says goodbye. I have done the math, Holy ends up with much less mana (7% to 20%) over the course of a fight by upgrading from 359 to 378. This is probably a scaling issue rather than a gear issue, but it IS VERY REAL.
aMac Jul 4th 2011 7:28PM
Granted we're still only doing normal modes, but I'm not having mana issues at all yet and already wear several non-spirit items.
I'm also a Disc priest so maybe this is more of an issue for Holy priests.
As long as I'm increasing my Int pool, I'm happy. More int scales up the mp5 of the spirit we're wearing and throughput stats are always welcome.
Once we get to heroic modes we'll see if reforging some secondary stats to spirit will be needed.
Dawn Moore Jul 4th 2011 7:32PM
o-O someone forgot to disable comments on the first page, so if you'd like to comment from here on please head over to page 2!
Maitri Jul 4th 2011 7:40PM
So basically there are 16 new pieces of spirit gear for priests (7 from badges, 2 Avengers rep, 5 FL drops--counting 2 tier, and 2 from tailoring), only 5 of which are from the new raid content. That's about 31%. If we equip everything FL has to offer in terms of spirit gear (which isn't even possible due to overlaps), it will comprise less than a third of our gear. How effed up is that?
Now, granted--in order to get the Avengers rep and living embers needed for tailoring, we still need to raid (though we don't even have to down a boss to get the rep). Something about this seems very off here--I mean the fact that we will need rep, badges, and tailoring to get almost 70% of the spirit gear available is ridiculous. Well priests...guess we should start farming badges.