[Wrath Classic] Pre-Raid Loot

Friends, Raiders, Paladins, lend me your ears! Or, well, I guess eyes, really, right? Anyhow, here is my pre-raid loot list for Wrath Classic. Please bear in mind that it’s not a “BiS” list, for the most part. The reason for that is that Wrath opening tier content isn’t very difficult and you can definitely get through large chunks of it with some crappy gear. Looking back, the only fight I actually struggled on with my crappy gear was Sartharion with three drakes up. Basically, don’t worry if you don’t get a ton of this gear. Aim for it, but don’t wig out if it doesn’t happen, okay?

My stat priority is:

  • Intellect: Always the best stat for us. Adds to our mana pool, adds to our spellpower, adds to spell crit. Intellect is tops.
  • Haste: In later tiers, paladins will argue over haste versus spellpower. In Tier 7? Just pick up haste.
  • MP5: Unlike retail (or Cataclysm and beyond), holy paladins have no real benefit from Spirit. MP5 is part of how we regenerate mana. What’s good about it is that it’s consistent. If you always have 85 mana per 5 seconds regenerating (as an example), you will always have that regenerating. That’s why I rank it slightly higher than…
  • Crit: 30% mana back is sad-making, especially after having 100% during Vanilla and BC. Still, this is a regen (and a throughput) stat. However, unlike mp5 and haste, it is inconsistent. You can have some really lucky or really unlucky streaks, which is why they give us Divine Favor, so that we can force that crit heal when we need to. Yes, on average, you’ll have more regen and throughput with more crit, but it’s unreliable.

 

Additionally, I will prefer plate to mail, leather or cloth on this list. If a lower armor class is on the list, let the appropriate classes have a shot at it first. Don’t be a jerk.

Oh, and no PVP gear, either. Please, for the love of all that is holy, do not go healing in dungeons with PVP gear. (Or tanking. Or DPSing.)

Finally, avoid hit and spirit. Period.

Helms

Yo, let me say that our plate choices here are not great. We’ve got three main choices, barring engineering options:

Faceguard of the Hammer Clan: Drops in Heroic Ahn’kahet from Jedoga. The worst of the three options, as it lacks a meta gem slot. Still, if you can’t get the other two…

Helmet of the Constructor: Drops in Heroic Utgarde Keep from Skarvald. Decent, but nothing to write home about. You can ignore the socket bonus, just make sure you get the meta gem requirements met. (More on gems and enchants in another post.)

Helm of Purified Thoughts: Feel like grinding some rep? Sure hope so! This is available when you become exalted with the Argent Crusade. The socket bonus is more intellect, so you may want to consider that.

Necklaces

Slightly better options here, especially if you can afford the JC neck.

Amulet of Dazzling Light: Drops off Anomalus in Heroic Nexus. Strictly average, but meh, better than nothing. (And, trust me, you will be hanging out in Heroic Nexus a lot, unless you’re super lucky.)

Lattice Choker of Light: Available from the badge vendor in Dalaran. Nothing to write home about, but better than the Amulet above.

Titanium Spellshock Necklace: Stat-wise, this isn’t too different from the other two… but it has a socket. Add 16 int there and this comes out ahead by a wide margin.

Shoulders

I feel like Blizzard hated us over a decade ago and still hates us…

Ferocious Pauldrons of the Rhino: More plate, dropping from Gortok Palehoof in Heroic Utgarde Pinnacle. Bonus: they have a socket, so this is effectively 60 intellect.

Dark Runic Mantle: This BOE set of cloth shoulders drops out of Heroic Halls of Stone and have a socket, which makes this worth about 60 intellect. Plus they have haste, so I’d put them just above the Pauldrons.

Spaulders of the Violet Hold: These mail shoulders drop off Cyanigosa in Heroic Violet Hold. LET A RESTO OR ELEMENTAL SHAMAN TAKE THEM. If there is no resto/ele shaman in your group, grats. These come in at 58 intellect after gemming, but they have haste! So grab these if you can.

Cloak

Yowza. Legitimately two choices prior to raiding.

Ancient Dragon Spirit Cape: This comes out of Heroic Oculus, which are two words that make me shudder violently. If you are exceedingly poor, this is your choice. Otherwise, pony up for…

Wispcloak: Some farming of eternals, some other mats, a Frozen Orb, and go to your friendly neighbourhood tailor. Or just go to the AH.

Chest

Lots of choices here, so I’ll just stick to the top four.

Ornamented Plate Regalia: Drops from Ymiron in Heroic Utgarde Pinnacle and has two juicy sockets. That’s 92 intellect on this puppy.

Insect Vestments: This leather chest drops from Anub’arak in Heroic Azjol-Nerub. Please, let druids take this over you. That said, gemmed up, this provides 92 intellect as well, plus a tasty bit of haste!

Drakewing Raiments: This cloth chest drops from Drakos the Interrogator in Heroic Oculus. (shudder) Let cloth-wearers get this before you, please. That said, gemmed up, this will give you 101 intellect and a chunk of haste.

Robes of Crackling Flame: This cloth chest is a purchasable reward when you hit exalted with the Kirin Tor. Yes, it has less intellect than the other two options here, but it has 42 haste, 104 spellpower and 33mp5 which should make up for it. Plus, you’re not stealing from a clothie.

Bracers

Again, lots of choices (unlike, you know, Tier 11 in Cataclysm content…), so here’s a few choice ones.

Azure Cloth Bindings: These cloth bracers drop from Cyanigosa in Heroic Violet Hold. Nothing to really write home about. Let a clothie have them before you take them, folks.

Limb Regeneration Bracers: These mail bracers drop from Prophet Tharon’ja in Heroic Drak’Tharon Keep. Let a resto/ele shammy have these before you snag them, please. The haste is very nice.

Bands of Fading Light: Plate bracers! That have a socket! And haste! What sorcery is this?! Grab them from Dragonflayer Seer in Heroic Utgarde Pinnacle. Despite being blue, these are just a little weaker than the Limb Regeneration Bracers and they have a socket, which is really very nice and makes this the winner in terms of total intellect. There’s more spellpower on the LRB, and slightly more haste, so this is kind of a toss-up, but at least a shammy won’t ninja this from you.

Gloves

Web Winder Gloves: These BOE plate gloves are a zone drop in Heroic Ahn’kahet and should be easy to snag on the AH. No socket, but they have haste.

Grips of Fierce Pronouncements: Are you exalted with Wyrmrest Accord? Check out these mail gloves which you don’t have to fight over with a shaman! Just a bit more intellect than the WW gloves above and no haste, but some beefy mp5.

Traditionally Dyed Handguards: These cloth gloves have a socket, with a non-crappy bonus that you’ll easily activate with a 16 int gem in there, so this is effectively 69 intellect and 48 haste. They drop from General Bjarngrim in Heroic Halls of Lightning. Please let a clothie get them before you.

Belt

Bear in mind that all belts can have Eternal Belt Buckle, which adds a socket to it!

Sjonnir’s Girdle: Drops from Sjonnir the Ironshaper in Heroic Halls of Stone, to no one’s surprise. Without a socket, this isn’t as great as another belt could be, but it’s got some beefy mp5, so if you’re struggling a bit with mana, this isn’t a bad choice.

Girdle of Ice: On the other hand, this belt has a socket. So if we gem it with 16 int and then add the belt buckle, we’re looking at 76 effective intellect. Too bad it’s got crit on it, but it’s not bad. It drops from Ormorok the Tree-Shaper in Heroic Nexus. (Again, you’ll probably be spending a lot of time there.)

Magroth’s Meditative Cincture: I probably could have just ignored the other two options because this is what we want. A bunch of int with the socket as well as the belt buckle, plus haste? Yes, please. This one.

Legs

There are a lot of legs we can wear, but these are the two that really stuck out to me.

Shardling Legguards: Plate legs off of Krystallus in Halls of Stone, and they have a socket and haste. Not a bad choice by any means.

Leggings of Protective Auras: Two sockets and a ton of haste on these plate legs mean you’ve effectively got 100 intellect on them. Drops off Ley-Guardian Eregos in… Heroic Oculus. (shudder)

Boots

Sabatons of Erekem: Theoretically, these plate boots drop off one of the random bosses (Erekem) in Heroic Violet Hold. If they do, you’re looking at 73 int and a bunch of mp5, so not awful. That said, the chance of seeing the boss they drop from is low and then seeing the boots drop is… well, you may be luckier than me! That said, there are other, easier options for boots.

Sandals of Crimson Fury: Are you exalted with The Wyrmrest Accord? Then you can buy these cloth boots with 66 effective int and some nice haste.

Revenant’s Treads: No socket here, but at least they have haste and you can probably find them on the auction house or get mats for a leatherworker to craft them for you.

Rings

Good gravy, so many rings.

Signet of the Kirin Tor: If you’re rich, this is pretty great! If you’re not rich, keep reading.

Signet of Hopeful Light: Here’s hoping (haha, get it?) that you’re exalted with the Argent Crusade to pick up this ring with a nice amount of intellect and haste.

Annhylde’s Ring: This ring with haste on it drops from Ingvar the Plunderer in Heroic Utgarde Keep.

There are some other options, but these are some of the best-itemized ones, I think. You could also look at Band of Guile, which is not (to my surprise), an agility ring. It drops in the chest in Heroic Culling of Strat. It’s basically equivalent to Annhylde’s Ring, so these four options should be plenty.

Trinkets

Eesh.

Basically, if you can swing it, you need Darkmoon Card: Greatness. I mean, you don’t need it, but holy cow is it nice. Other options:

Spark of Life: From Sjonnir the Ironshaper in Heroic Halls of Stone. Haste and some mana regen? Not bad.

Je’Tze’s Bell: Northrend world drop, so check your AH!

The Egg of Mortal Essence: Vendor trinket, so you should be able to grab this.

Weapon

Gavel of the Brewing Storm: You can get this 1H mace if you’re revered with Wyrmrest Accord.

But… Remember I said you’d be spending a lot of time in Heroic Nexus? This is why.

War Mace of Unrequited Love: Off Keristrasza in Heroic Nexus. Good luck and godspeed to you, paladin.

Shield/Off-hand

Now listen, I have always preferred shields. I don’t like being smacked in the face by a boss, thank you kindly, so we’re just going to look at shields. 3 options right off the bat, in rough order of preference:

Facade Shield of Glyphs: Drops from Krik’thir the Gatewatcher in Heroic Azjol-Nerub. It’s better than no shield, IMHO.

Zom’s Crackling Bulwark: This is a BOE shield that is a Heroic Ahn’kahet zone drop. Reasonable stats, too.

Protective Barricade of the Light: Vendor shield. It has more of a variety of stats than Zom’s, which is why I would value this a bit more, but hey, if you get Zom’s, don’t worry about this and buy something else.

Libram

… like your libram! You will basically be using Libram of Renewal for the entire expansion. 113 mana off the cost of Holy Light is just too good. I think if you stick with the Holy Light playstyle, you’ll be using it all expansion and if you go with a spellpower/FoL build, you might want to use one of the PVP librams that increases spellpower for Flash of Light.

Next time…

We’ll discuss enchants and gems and all that kind of “fun” stuff! In the meantime, what do you think about these gear choices? Comments? Questions? Have at it!

 

 

5 Replies to “[Wrath Classic] Pre-Raid Loot”

  1. It feels weird looking at a gear list from a healer’s perspective, given that I’ve been DPS for the most part. So reading “avoid hit” feels like someone pulled a fast one on me. But still, that makes a lot of sense given that your job isn’t to actually, well, hit things.

    And totally agree with the PvP gear. By the time Wrath came along, PvP gear specialization doesn’t make it very viable for regular PvE gearing. (Unlike now at the end of TBC Classic, where it’s a lot easier to take a new L70 into AV and gear up by grabbing Season 4 PvP gear than trying to get into any raids. Or, in the case of a Mage, actually making Spellcloth on cooldown.)

    1. There are TIMES when you need to hit — Rebuke on Nefarian in Blackwing Descent in Cataclysm comes to mind. Also, I’m not sure about the hit required for a Judgement to land, but it’s possible to miss, I just don’t recall how often it happens. :D

      I think it depends on your server. On Tuesday, I got into a Magtheridon, a Gruul and a Kara. (My post on it will be amusing for sure.) And that was mostly in boosted greens. I managed to pick up a few different pieces in Kara. So it wasn’t too bad, but my server is chock-full of Alliance. haha.

      1. Ooh, maybe I’m wrong? Someone on Wowhead said this:

        “if you look at the 3.2 patch notes that judgements are sometimes considered spells and sometimes melee and that in 3.2 they will all be considered undodgable, unblockable, unparryable melee attacks.”

        1. Yes, I do know that Blizz eliminated the 1% miss chance in Classic when the Wrath prepatch dropped, so I figured that was the case.

          The first set of raids is how you used to have to gear up and then go into either SSC/TK -> Hyjal/BT or ZA + Badges to then move into Sunwell. However, I’ve found running AV to get Brutal Gladiator gear means you can drop in and get gear roughly equivalent to ZA just by farming honor. And on AV weekend, the honor really does stack up quick.

          I do have a post coming about how I brought my original Cardwyn –with her T3 set that was surprisingly good all the way to L70– into Alterac Valley, and I kept getting comments about the gear.

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