Welcome one and all to Kurn’s Holy Paladin Pre-T11 Raid Gear List. Before we begin, let me warn you that I hate writing gear posts. I don’t do it often and I don’t know if I’ll do a BiS at T11 or T12 or anything else, but I’ve gotten a lot of people asking me about gear and rep and everything that I really felt this would be useful. The biggest reason I don’t do them is that hey, who’s to say that I’m the person who knows exactly what to wear? And also, it’s a pain to insert all the links to all the pieces. ;)
So. Here’s the caveat: These are my opinions only. Please feel free to comment with pieces you’d use instead. Please, let’s not argue about the relative stat values of crit, haste, mastery and spirit. Feel free to say that you’d want more crit, so you’d want X, Y and Z pieces, but I don’t want to moderate an argument over what secondaries are The Best. The expansion’s been out for less than a week and it’ll take a little longer than that for the community as a whole to figure out what’s “The Best”.
Here’s how I’m planning to gear pre-raid. My ideal gearset is based heavily off Vile Pickle’s BiS guide, but tweaked to my own preferences. I’m prioritizing haste and spirit over mastery and mastery over crit. I’m also ignoring anything that wastes valuable item stat points on resilience.
The first thing I did at BiS was select:
Hard Mode
Normal Mode
Available
5-Man
Other Size
That turned up a variety of items, which I then looked at in turn. Note that I didn’t edit the filters and weights, because I like BiS’s weighting intellect and spirit more than haste, which is more than crit and mastery. Basically, the default filters at BiS reflect my own gearing philosophy very well.
Also, remember, do NOT downgrade to mail! This was viable and useful in Wrath of the Lich King and I’m sure we all remember clothadins from Vanilla and BC, but in Cataclysm, you’ll lose out on your Plate Specialization bonus!
Helm: If you’re not an engineer, you may want to save 2200 Justice points for Crown of the Blazing Sun as it’s one of only two pre-raid helms that has a meta socket. It’s either the Crown (guaranteed purchase) or the Helm of Untold Stories from Lord Godfrey in heroic Shadowfang Keep.
Neck: The Quicksilver Amulet is beefy with the stats I want: spirit and haste. You get it from Steelbender in heroic Blackrock Caverns. Of course, the Celadon Pendant isn’t bad either, although it has mastery as opposed to haste, and is much more easily acquired with 1250 Justice points.
Shoulder: Harp Shell Pauldrons from Ulthok in heroic Throne of the Tides are the clear winner in this slot. Spirit, haste and a socket! A red socket! I’d dump a Brilliant cut in there anyways, and it gives me an extra 10 haste. Sweet.
I wouldn’t really use the Pauldrons of the Forlorn or the Cinnabar Shoulders. Why? The Pauldrons have spirit, a socket and crit, which is my personal least-prioritized stat at the moment. I wouldn’t use the Cinnabar Shoulders because there’s no spirit.
Cloak: Solar Wind Cloak from Rajh in heroic Halls of Origination is pretty much the be-all and end-all of cloaks at this level. Spirit and haste aplenty. It’s such a good cloak that even the regular version is, IMHO, worth using over other 346 items.
If you’re absolutely desperate for a cloak and cannot find one ANYWHERE, get the Cloak of the Dryads which is a rep reward from Hyjal at Honored. Since you’re a healer, you want to be at least revered with this faction, so this is one you can acquire pretty easily. (A note, as a human who did all of Hyjal, I got 8000 rep into Revered after doing the whole zone. Getting to Honored is not an issue if you do all of Hyjal and wearing their tabard at friendly if you don’t feel like doing the zone is a great way to build up rep.)
Chest: If you’re using the selections I did on the BiS site filter and you’re looking at chests, the third one that pops up is the Light Elementium Chestguard. Looks good, right? Pretty and purple and shiny? Well, not so much. There are no sockets, no spirit… and the crafting requires three Chaos Orbs. Right now, Chaos Orbs are BOP, so your crafter has to be the one to acquire them off the last boss of a heroic dungeon. So either prepare to pay through the nose for this or get to be buddy-buddy with a Blacksmith who’ll run with you.
A much better solution is the Peacemaker’s Breastplate from Revered with the Earthen Ring. TWO sockets, spirit and haste. Sweet deal. Don’t feel like grinding rep with Earthen Ring or doing Vashj’ir? A good alternative is the Omega Breastplate from Anraphet in heroic Halls of Origination.
Wrist: Geez, not a lot of options here. I’m going to try to grab Bracers of Umbral Mending (the regular version is also decent) from Erudax in heroic Grim Batol.
Hands: Since I went Hyjal at the start and don’t particularly want to grind Earthen Ring rep, even as a human, I’m going to forego the World Keeper’s Gauntlets in favour of the Gloves of Curious Conscience which are acquired with 1650 Justice points. Yes, there’s a lot more intellect on the WKGs, but the GoCC also have a socket and have haste. And they’re just so much easier to get.
Belt: And here’s the reason I don’t want to grind Earthen Ring rep for a piece with no haste. The Sun King’s Girdle which is an exalted Ramkahen rep reward is clearly best in slot for us pre-raid. Like, it’s not even a question. If you’re a Blacksmith or have easy access to a crafter, Light Elementium Belt (2 Chaos Orbs!) isn’t a bad choice, but I think you’re much better off grinding Ramkahen rep. If you don’t have time for a rep grind like that, Belt of Barred Clouds for 1650 Justice points is pretty good, just not as good as the SKG.
Legs: Another bunch of pretty poor choices here, which means we’re going to have to go kill Lord Godrey in heroic Shadowfang Keep again for Greaves of the Misguided.
Feet: So bearing in mind that we’re going to hit exalted with Ramkahen, the natural choice in boots for us will be the Drystone Greaves which you get at Honored. 333, yes, but better than anything else out there, honestly, at least from my gearing perspective.
Rings: Lots of choices here! So many that it’s kind of overwhelming. But basically the ones I’d probably say are easiest to get are these:
Ring of the Great Whale – a BOE drop out of heroic Throne of the Tides, meaning it should be on the AH
Diamant’s Ring of Temperance – a revered reputation reward from Therazane, with whom you need to be exalted anyways for your shoulder enchant
Trinkets: Man, I’m just drooling over some of these…
Darkmoon Card: Tsunami – The Solace of the Defeated of Cataclysm. Beauty. Unfortunately, this is a Darkmoon Card, so you have to collect the Ace, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven and Eight of Waves or a Tsunami Deck already assembled. This is NOT going to be cheap.
Tyrande’s Favorite Doll – This comes from Archaeology, so this may actually never be something you can actually craft, considering the randomness of the profession.
Okay, let’s stop dreaming. On to stuff that’s much more realistic.
Mandala of Stirring Patterns – This is an interesting trinket that comes from being exalted with your local Tol Barad faction. I’m kind of eh about it, but it’s definitely interesting.
Witching Hourglass – Ascendent Lord Obsidius in heroic Blackrock Caverns.
Rainsong – BOE zone drop from heroic Vortex Pinnacle. Pretty awesome looking, actually.
Tear of Blood – dropped from High Priestess Azil from heroic Stonecore. THIS is something I really want. But I’ve heard the horror stories about heroic Stonecore… :)
What am I going to use? I’m not sure, but one of them will likely be Figurine – Dream Owl since I’m a Jewelcrafter. You get these odd drops as a JC that push you to “restore” various figurines and this is the healer version. I have this one already and like it very much.
Since I’m an alchemist there’s also the Lifebound Alchemist Stone that I may swap in now and again just for the buff to mana potions taken and for the stam. Since World of Logs STILL hasn’t updated things, I still don’t feel I have a firm grasp on how awesome our mastery is, but I feel it’s a decent stat. Just maybe not in the trinket spot. For now, I’m using this with a 35 mastery gem as part of my ret set. (Seriously, Hand of Light -> Templar’s Verdict -> 3HP TV -> Hand of Light -> TV = win.)
Weapon: Forget the Elementium Hammer if only because of the Chaos Orb issue. Go for the Scepter of Power from Setesh in heroic Halls of Origination.
Shield: Elementium Stormshield is a great pickup. With only one Chaos Orb used to craft it, this probably won’t be too bad to get crafted or even to buy. If you can’t pick that up, 950 Justice points will get you the Shield of the Mists.
Relic: This is kind of a tie between three items:
Book of Dark Prophecies, from High Priestess Azil in heroic Stonecore, has spirit, but no haste.
Book of the Well Sung Song, from Vanessa Van Cleef in heroic Deadmines has haste, but no spirit.
Tattooed Eyeball, crafted by scribes, is likely to be much easier to acquire than the other two.
I’ll probably just go with the Tattooed Eyeball since my guild has a 525 scribe.
Other Gear Guides:
Here’s an interesting post by tuutti of Paragon: Holy Paladin 346 Gear Guide
A lot of the options we’ve picked are pretty much the same, although there are differences (and I don’t include PVP points, nor do I assume you have 4000 JP saved up).
Gortlol also linked his or her list here: Holy Paladin Pre-Raid Gear. Cataclysm.
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So what does all this mean?
1) Get to exalted with Ramkahen & Therazane, revered with Hyjal
2) Run Halls of Origination and the Stonecore a lot on heroic
3) Check out the AH for those BOE heroic drops
Also, don’t skimp on gems and enchants for your 333/346 gear. This stuff is going to last you into raids. My guildies need to use blue gems and good quality enchants on this gear, and I recommend the same for everyone else reading.
What to gem and enchant? Well, that’s another post entirely…
If you’ll excuse me, I need to finish up Deepholm and haul ass to Uldum to start my rep with Ramkahen!
I hate to say it… but I’m thinking of putting crit above mastery. I know, I know, we’re supposed to hate crit, but Infusion of Life has already saved my tank more than a few times.
Also, forgot to mention, have you tried heroic SFK yet? My group was able to make it all the way to Godfrey, but I simply couldn’t heal it. The Crimson Bullets curse simply did too much damage too quickly, and either the tank or the debuffed player would die. I thought the purpose of giving all healers a magic dispel was to avoid things like this. :/ After several attempts, we had to swap out someone for a mage to dispel the curse.
Awesome list, Kurn. I’m sure I speak for the rest of the Paladin-ing world when I say that we appreciate your hard work in getting all this information out there for us.
Chase – The jury’s still out on mastery, as far as I’m concerned, but what I’ve seen in some 25-man runs with Recount running indicate to me that I was doing a lot of absorbs after I reforged a lot of my ICC 25H gear to have some mastery on it. I was at 16.98% or something like that and it showed in the Recount stats. It’s interesting.
That said, more Infusion of Life is awesome, to be sure.
As to heroic SFK, I haven’t hit 85 on the pally yet (84 and 16%!) so not yet, but my guild’s done the heroic run. Not sure if they had a decurser in the group, to be honest. I’ll be sure to post about it when I eventually suffer through it. ;)
Fannon – happy to do so, Fannon, hope you guys find it helpful!
Nice list Madrana. Definitely will have to remember this if/when i dust off the pally. Been focusing on the priest at this time.
Healing is definitely a challenge on certain fights, others not so much.
I cannot wait to start on the heroics and the struggling? lol.
You left out the Corrupted Egg Shell (trinket) from Erudax in Heroic Grim Batol. Its the best pre-raid trinket for healers.
After some heroics and a bit of raiding … let’s just say that imo mastery is a nice bonus, but crit is better as secondary stat (don’t be afraid you’re going to overheal, because that is not going to happen anymore).
So :
Wrists : Gearbreaker’s Bindings (deadmines) > Bracers of Umbral Mending
Rings : Kibble (BrC) > Diamant’s Ring of Temperance (spirit + mastery > haste + crit), but neither are blue BiS (Ring of the Great Whale + Band of Life Energy are imo … or Kibble + Band of Life Energy if you can find the BoE one).
Otherwise, you pretty much nailed them :).
I know it’s only iLvl 325, but how is http://www.wowhead.com/item=67120 no on your list? ;^)
slice – Thanks, buddy. :) I’ve found myself quite busy on some fights and kind of bored on others. A lot of my boredom or excitement depends on the ability of my group. I feel, more than ever, that I’m very dependent on the group rather than feeling that I can save even a bad group from failure.
Heroics should be interesting, to say the least!
Nitrinea – I thought about it. The reason I don’t list it is because it has no stats itself. When used on cooldown and if the shield persists for all 30 seconds, it’s worth about 356mp5, or 8550 mana every two minutes. Given the cost of spells at 85, this is not huge, although it’s certainly helpful and if I got it to drop, I would definitely need on it. But without stats on it, like intellect, spirit, etc, I can’t really recommend it as a standard trinket. There are too many factors, IMHO, that would make it sub-par.
barbarum – What makes you say that crit is better as a secondary stat? I’m honestly curious. I’m not afraid of overhealing (believe me, I’m not afraid of that!) but given that we get +crit buffs from a variety of sources (so we should have it in most groups, IMHO), I feel like mastery is a better call. Rather than boost the one stat (crit) to a really high amount, I’m looking for a more balanced distribution once I make sure I have a good amount of haste and spirit. So without an outside source to boost my mastery (unlike the 5% bonus we get to crit), I tend to favour the mastery.
To each their own, of course, and I’m glad to see that we’re in agreement for the most part. :)
Agnostique – hahaha! We keep talking about how EVERYONE IN THE GUILD needs to own that mace! There’s no haste, though! Sadface! (That said, I’ll probably pick it up to replace my sword from LK and then reforge a bit.)
I have been playing pretty much to the same mindset you are. I have healed every heroic except Throne of the Tides (darn you, random dungeon!), and I have finished every heroic perfectly fine.
Honestly, as you said, gear choices are made by how *you* wish to play. I definitely think haste is a major, major stat for me, because I have to use a lot of Divine Lights on the heroic bosses. Slow heals = Tank death. I also use a lot of Holy Lights on the tank when damage isn’t spiky and scary.
Heroic Stonecore isn’t scary at all to heal. In fact, it’s one of the easier ones, in my opinion. I’ve ran it twice, and I have finished it both times perfectly fine. :) Don’t sweat it!
@Kurn – well, let me put it this way. Mastery doesn’t work with holy radiance, the shields from mastery are not always put to an use since the raid (except tanks) might not take any damage for 8 seconds for example and i’m not even talking about the procs we get from crits.
This was before the little change to LoD tonight. After this, mastery it’s going to be even less useful, since we wont be able to cast LoD that often anymore => less shields from mastery.
But, in the end, i’m not saying that mastery it’s an useless stat and you shouldn’t boost neither one really (mastery/crit).
How about the Blood of Isiset trinket from HoH?
When this one, Tear of Blood and Hearstong proc it gives me a nice 6k+ mp5 overall =)
I’m curious why so many people value Haste over mastery and crit (and even seem to think this choice is obvious).
I feel like, in a mana-starved world, mastery is good because it reduces the additional healing we need to do (I realize it is wasted on people who don’t take more damage, but if they’re not taking more damage we have time to heal them and don’t need a mana-hungry heal).
I also feel like crit is important because it gives you a 50% greater heal for the same mana cost, not to mention conviction stacks, so just because it doesn’t return mana doesn’t mean it’s not saving us mana.
In short, I would think priority is spirit > crit > mastery > haste.
Are you finding the amount of haste on your gear high enough that it let you cast HL when you’d otherwise need FoL? That’s the only reason I’d understand the heavy weighting of haste.
I value haste more because the faster a heal gets to a tank, the better chance you have of not wiping the group. I feel like mastery is more of a single target healing scenario, whereas crit is more RNG (random). Haste is constantly better for healing more than just the tank, AND getting those crucial heals in.
I agree with Kaytemoss on this one, Blood of Isiset is a great trinket. I have no idea why you overlooked it.
Vanessa van cleef drops a nice set of boots. mastery with no haste or crit but still a very decent option
im using http://www.wowhead.com/item=56372 in the relic spot as it has spirit, haste and socket
Many thanks Kurn!. I would have to say that you choices have provided me a good starting list. I already have several of the items you mentioned and I’m working on a few of the others.
I have found after healing since Vanilla that it is now so much more important to be quick with heals. Therefore IMHO I feel haste & Sprit are equally important but only after INT
Basically I stack INT to get the biggest mana pool, then haste & sprit with either mastery or crit as a bonus if it’s available.
As a Blacksmith I have the added bonus of extra sockets on my gloves and bracers = free stats.