Posts Tagged ‘holy’

WotLK Trinkets for Holy Paladins

Sunday, February 7th, 2010

Now that Arthas’ loot table has been released and we know the entirety of Wrath of the Lich King loot, I thought it’d be fun to look back at the trinkets that raiding Holy Paladins have at their disposal. I often find myself looking at subsets of trinkets for a given task or tier, but I’m not sure that I’ve ever sat down and taken a broad view of the trinkets that we used throughout Wrath. Let’s do that.

Trinkets, by design, are hard to categorize. Their variety is intended to add some flavor to our gear sets. Sometimes we might want a constant effect, other times we might want to trigger a proc at just the right time during an encounter. Depending on what you want, the best trinket for the job might be a weird drop from three or four tiers back.

To bring some order to this mess let’s group the trinkets by their primary passive effect. Then we’ll list the secondary proc effects of the trinkets in each list. We’ll use a bit of shorthand to describe the procs. Something like “15s/45s Chance:” means that every 45 seconds there’s a chance of triggering the proc which lasts for 15 seconds. “20s/2m Use:” means that every two minutes you can chose when to trigger the effect which lasts 20 seconds.

This isn’t an exhaustive list. There are a decent number of trinkets which have an effect that we’re interested in that is paired with an effect that we don’t really care about for healing raids. PvP trinkets, trinkets with hit, and trinkets with secondary effects that proc on “harmful” spells are examples of trinkets that fall into this category. Sure, using one of these would be better than using no trinket at all. We wouldn’t search them out as a valuable raiding trinket, though, so they’re not included in this list.

This list won’t tell you what to use. It’ll let you glance at what’s available and maybe, hopefully, help you come up with fun ideas for when to use which trinkets.

Intellect

Personally, I use the talisman and pandora’s plea in my day to day healing. Tears of the vanquished stands out for being a strong trinket that is very easy to farm.

MP5

Am I the only one who thinks that the direct heal procs are underwhelming? My resto tree BFF and I routinely sustain thousands of HPS in 10-man ICC. A single heal proc with a cooldown measured in minutes, even if there was no overheal, is a drop in the bucket. If I were to value a passive MP5 trinket, I think I’d aim for the spell power procs. I’m also having fun triggering the snowflake just after popping out of the emerald dream in the Valithria encounter.

Spell Power

This expansion is crammed full of spell power and regen trinkets. There’s a few decent throughput options, as well.

Critical Strike Rating

These were a lot more compelling before Illumination’s regen was cut in half. These days a Holy Paladin would be teased for wearing these.

There we have it! I think that covers most everything that we’re likely to see in the wild. Enjoy!

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Holy Paladin Icecrown Gear List

Monday, November 23rd, 2009

(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.

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MP5 still unwise for Holy Paladins in Ulduar

Tuesday, May 19th, 2009

In a previous post I took my first swing at analyzing how valuable MP5 is in gear for holy paladins.  I looked at WWS parses of fights in 25man Naxx to find out what portion of our regen came from MP5.  The result?  Barely any.

I guessed that this wouldn’t change in Ulduar because the underlying fundamentals weren’t changing.  Some comments in that post suggested that the situation might change because Ulduar fights are a lot more mobile, etc. It took a while to get a decent set of parses showing the regen in 25-man Ulduar. I think I’ve now come to a representative sample from the early fights.  The methodology is the same as in the post from Naxx.  We express the sources of regen as MP5 for each fight:

ulduar-regen

We’re looking at about 1100 to 1700 MP5 from regen sources other than gear MP5 in 25-man Ulduar.

This makes small amounts of MP5 in gear irrelevant. It doesn’t come close to the other sources of regen we have. As an example, in the fights that were parsed I had about 56 MP5 from mostly T7.5 gear. That’s around, what, 4% of regen? That much MP5 may as well be Spirit or Hit for the amount of good it’s doing.

But what if we go all out and try to stack MP5? How much can we get and what do we sacrifice for it? Let’s throw together some rough gear sets that either stack MP5 or try to avoid MP5 entirely.

MP5 stacking set: 811 int, 255 crit, 367 haste, 1718 SP, 303 MP5
MP5 avoiding set: 821 int, 651 crit, 691 haste, 1667 SP, 0 MP5

If we really try we can get up to 300 MP5 at the cost of around half of our crit and haste ratings.  All right, now we’re getting numbers that could matter. That much MP5 could be on the order of 20% to 30% of our mana regen.

I don’t want to get too lost in the details of our regen sources — that would make a fun post on its own — but let’s consider the nature of MP5 for a second. Replenishment and Divine Plea scale with the size of our mana pool. Seal of Wisdom scales with our mana pool and haste. Illumination scales with our casting speed and crit rate. MP5 always returns mana at the same rate. When your friendly neighbourhood shammy pops {Heroism,Bloodlust} your mana consumption increases. Illumination and SoW try to keep up. MP5 sits there staring at its navel, returning exactly the same amount of mana as it did before.

Is it worth it, then, to get static MP5 at the cost of huge chunks of our gear’s haste and crit, stats which scale our top two sources of mana regen? This pally says absolutely not. As long as we have the huge mana regen sources of Illumination, SoW, Divine Plea, and Replenishment I’ll continue to see MP5 as somewhere between useless to downright harmful.

Finally, these updated numbers combined with the experience of raiding after some “upgrades” ([Poignant Sabatons] -> [Greaves of the Rockmender], [Chestplate of the Great Aspects] -> [Breastplate of the Afterlife]) have given me a much stronger feel for the gear set that I’d consider best-in-slot. My initial hope that our Ulduar gear would be OK, given all its MP5, turned out to be sadly wrong.

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