Zabery

(This post now includes Arthas’ loot table. Enjoy. — Z, Early Feb ‘10.)

Well, it’s that time again. Patch 3.3 brings us Icecrown Citadel and the final set of upgrades that we’ll be seeing in Wrath of the Lich King. Blizzard has gone all out. We have items available from bosses, crafting, emblems, faction rep, and even quest lines. Let’s see what Holy Paladins have to look forward to.

I want to keep this post nice and simple. I chose to build this gear list with the following guidelines:

1. No cloth, leather, or mail and no items with hit or spirit.
2. The relative value of an upgrade will depend on the individual healer. For this list I’ll use the following simple priorities: iLevel > Crit > Haste > MP5.
3. Heroic upgrades of items are omitted, as are the 10m tier pieces.

I liked the icons I used in the Ulduar gear list to show which stats a given piece has. Let’s use them again:

• Items with crit and haste
• Items with crit and MP5
• Items with haste and MP5

Here we go!

Head

1. [Sanctified Lightsworn Headpiece] T10
2. [Faceplate of the Forgotten] Festergut 25

I can’t see many paladins preferring the faceplate once they’ve acquired these well-itemized tier pieces.

Neck

1. [Blood Queen's Crimson Choker] Lanathel 25
2. [Holiday's Grace] Festergut 25
3. [Soulcleave Pendant] Saurfang 10
4. [Choker of Filthy Diamonds] Rotface 10

We have a pretty decent set to choose from. With luck we can pick up the soulcleave pendant from Saurfang early on and then sit tight until we finally get to Bloodqueen and have access to the choker.

Shoulder

1. [Sanctified Lightsworn Spaulders] T10
2. [Rusted Bonespike Pauldrons] Marrowgar 25
3. [Emerald Saint's Spaulders] Valithria 10

Like the head slot, our shoulder tier piece is fantastic. Either of the 10-man pieces will do until you can get your hands on the tier upgrades.

Back

1. [Frostbinder's Shredded Cape] Valithria 25
2. [Drape of the Violet Tower] 50
3. [Heartsick Mender's Cape] Blood Princes 10

This is certainly a step up from Ulduar. We have a great best-in-slot piece to watch for and we can blow some emblems on an upgrade until we see it drop.

Chest

1. [Sanctified Lightsworn Tunic] T10
2. [Rot-Resistant Breastplate] Rotface 25
3. [Chestplate of Unspoken Truths] 95
4. [Chestplate of Septic Stitches] Putricide 10

Tier wins again! I’m starting to get used to this lightsworn business.

Wrists

1. [Crypt Keeper's Bracers] Princes 25
2. [Bracers of Pale Illumination] Gunship 10

Honestly, there’s not a whole lot to choose from here. Grab what you can.

Hands

1. [Gauntlets of Overexposure] 60
2. [Fallen Lord's Handguards] Deathwhisper 25
3. [Sanctified Lightsworn Gloves] T10
4. [Festergut's Gaseous Gloves] Festergut 10

Oh no! We have to decide between strong off-tier pieces and the 4pc T10 bonus! It was a little too easy to ignore the terrible T9 set bonuses and happily take whichever pieces were best itemized. I’m undecided, but am leaning towards dropping the 4pc bonus.

Waist

1. [Lich Killer's Lanyard] 60
2. [Belt of the Lonely Noble] Trash 25 (BoE)
3. [Waistband of Righteous Fury] Gunship 25
4. [Tightening Waistband] Lana’thel 10

The lich killer’s lanyard is readily available, very well itemized, and has an awesome name. Expect every holy paladin in your neighborhood to be sporting one.

Legs

1. [Puresteel Legplates] BS 8
2. [Sanctified Lightsworn Greaves] T10
3. [Leggings of Dying Candles] Valithria 25
4. [Corrupted Silverplate Leggings] Marrowgar 10

Oh no! T10 vs no-MP5, round two. We might have dodged a bullet, though. Both the leg and hand tier pieces have crit. There’s a decent chance that we’ll be around the point of diminishing returns of haste rating with this gear level so trading haste for MP5 in these tier pieces might not be such a bad thing at all.

Feet

1. [Protectors of Life] BS 5
2. [Boots of the Funeral March] Valithria 25
3. [Ancient Skeletal Boots] Marrowgar 10

Another slot with not much choice. It’s nice that the strongest piece out side of 25-man hard modes is crafted, though it’ll be no fun competing with melee DPS for primordial saronoite.

Finger

1. [Ashen Band of Endless Wisdom] The Ashen Verdict - Exalted
2. [Ring of Rapid Ascent] Gunship 25
3. [Incarnadine Band of Mending] Princes 25
4. [Marrowgar's Frigid Eye] Marrowgar 25
5. [Cerise Coiled Ring] Princes 10
6. [Runed Signet of the Kirin Tor] 1000 1
7. [Signet of Putrefaction] Festergut 10

Boy, there’s quite a lot to choose from here. Everyone can easily get the kirin tor and the friendly ashen verdict rings right out of the gate. At the high end expect a mix of rapidly ascending, coiled, and endlessly wise rings. That spell power proc and gem socket are both fun.

Trinket

1. [Althor's Abacus] Gunship 25
2. [Purified Lunar Dust] 60
3. [Sliver of Pure Ice] Marrowgar 10
4. [Bauble of True Blood] Lanathel 25

The abacus is interesting because its proc is a smart heal that can crit and which appears to have a long range. It has a 45 second internal cooldown, however. The lunar dust proc works out to about 100 MP5, the sliver about 67 MP5 if you always spend a GCD on it when it’s up. The bauble is underwhelming, to put it politely. None of these seem compelling when compared to trinkets like the [Talisman of Resurgence] or [Pandora's Plea].

Main Hand

1. [Bloodsurge, Kel'Thuzad's Blade of Agony] Arthas 25
2. [Royal Scepter of Terenas II] Arthas 25
3. [Valius, Gavel of the Lightbringer] Arthas 10
4. [Trauma] Rotface 25
5. [Quel'Delar, Lens of the Mind] [Battered Hilt] quest chain
6. [Lockjaw] Rotface 10

The weapons off of 25-man Arthas are going to be [The Turning Tide] all over again, except this time we have a mace and a sword in the mix. We might have preferred haste on the mace from 10-man Arthas, but it’s still worth it. Trauma has no internal cooldown and a 1% chance to proc, making it fun to play with but better left to our healing friends with higher spell cast rates. Quel’delar and Lockjaw give nice throughput or regen options.

Shield

1. [Bulwark of Smouldering Steel] Marrowgar 25
2. [Lost Pavise of the Blue Flight] Sindragosa 10

Like our wrist slot, we have very little to choose from here. The fantastic news is that the bulwark is available from the very first boss in the raid! You might even be able to get it from PUGs if you don’t regularly run 25-man with your guild.

Libram

1. [Libram of Blinding Light] 30

I can’t decide if this is worth it. On the one hand, it takes quite a while to get up three stacks and we have to burn a spell we’d like to keep available for emergencies to do it. On the other hand, it’s a guaranteed stack instead of the random chance that ToC’s [Libram of Veracity] will proc. And we can keep the stack up while running. Hmm.

There we have it! Now go beat up some bad guys and take their stuff.