Found this gem on WoW Bash. Poor GM’s need to get let out more often. Sometimes, it just makes me wonder what goes on in the Blizzard Office. Check it out.
Zul’Aman and 2.3 Healing Weapons Analyzed
Kirk’s finished looking at 2.3 (twice) for Priests. Ego’s busy being busy. Phaelia’s finished the math for Spirit following the 2.3 changes. The Girl [who] Meets WoW covered the new badge damage loot. I’m going to round out the week and check out all the new healing stuff that’s available for us Priests in both Zul’Aman and Heroic Badge loot.
Weapons
Main Hand
The Dark Blessing may very well be a blessing for all of us. Curiously, it sports a near 2% haste rating and has a whopping plus heal of 431. With an 81 Healing enchant, the total jumps to 512. When compared to it’s nearest equal, Lightfathom Scepter there is a noticeable stat difference. The Scepter offers +28 Stamina, 11 MP5, and +1 Int as compared to the Blessing. With 2.2, Light’s Justice would be the best mace going into Vashj. Now that has changed.
Off Hand
Combined with the aforementioned Dark Blessing, your Priestly power output will reach 567 +Healing. It boasts a decent number of stats to offset the lack of stats the previous mace. Your int. will jump to 39. Talisman of the Sun King, A’lar’s drop, has 59 healing and 6 MP5. It boasts slightly more stamina and more int but lacks any spirit.
Staff
Staff of Dark Mending
It’s a staff. Wait, it’s a SOCKETABLE staff. Loading up with 2 Nightseyes and a Noble Topaz along with a 81 Enchant to weapon yields an overall 524 +Healing, 20 MP5, and 51 Int. That just about blows my Crystalheart Pulse-Staff out of the water. I lose about 5 Stamina if I make the switch. It’s virtually on par with the Ethereum Life-Staff drop from Solarian. This is the weapon that I will be gunning for.
So in summary, the MH/OH Zul’Aman combination will give you a much stronger healing output. But the Staff’s 20 MP5 and Stat superiority allows you to keep chugging a few flash heals longer then you normally would. Sadly, there are no wands out there for us for the time being.
Gearing Your Fresh 70 Hunter
[Matticus Note: The Importance of Being Ernest. A 1500 word paper describing high British society and moral values that I need to do. Which is also due tonight at midnight. There is also a Canucks/Oilers game which I must watch. I doubt I get a lot of Hunters reading my blog, but in the event you have a Hunter alt, this might be the thing for you. This is another gear list which can be examined and use for Pre-Karazhan purposes.]
Gearing your Huntard… er… Hunter
By Doc Holiday
I am tired of seeing god awful hunters running around in god awful gear because they don’t know what gear and stats are useful for us. Lets start with the basics
Stats
Agility – It improves our Critical chance and Attack power. These are both good things
Critical strike – Improves Critical strike chance
Hit rating – Very important but pretty much ignored by hunters who don’t know what they are doing. 136 is our Hit rating cap. Having more then this wont help us out. So if your at this or close to hit you can stop looking for more hit. 89 hit rating for you surefooted hunters
Attack power – Increase your base damage
That’s the big four when it comes to stats we should look for
Intellect, Stamina and Mana per 5 are also good stats to have but not AS important as the ones noted above
Head
Malefactor’s Eyepatch
Easy to obtain via a series of Quests while your leveling in Blade’s Edge mountains. Huge amount of Agility, Stamina and Attack power as well as some nice mana per 5.
Stalker’s Helm of Second Sight
Longer and somewhat more difficult quest chain in Shadow moon will get you the best pre Kara Helm. I recommend 4 hit and 4 agility gems as it is hard to find some +hit early in the game
Neck
Choker of Bloodied Feathers
I got this in an early quest from Terrokar. I never found a replacement until Karazhan because quite frankly it is that good an item especially Alliance side
Insignia of the Mag’hari Hero
Horde side only quest. Great neck with a little bit of everything including some precious hit
Shoulders
Beast Lord Mantle
Quite frankly there is no other shoulder that is better or equal to Beast Lord. Run Steamvaults as many times as you can to get this. Socket it with a 4 hit 4 agility and 8 agility and you will be set for quite awhile
Back
Perfectly balanced Cape
You get this quite early on from a Blood furnace quest. Add 12 agility to this cape and you really won’t need anything else for quite awhile.
Delicate Green Poncho
Another great choice early on as well. Nice stats and that all important hit as well.
Chest
Felstalker Breastplate
Easy to make this makes a great started chest piece. Add two 8 agility and one 4 agility and 5 stamina gem and you got a large amount of agility on this chest piece.
Salvager’s Hauberk
Obtained from the lower city at revered. I like this chest a lot. Large amount of stamina and huge critical strike bonus make this a nice and really easy chest to get. Considering most hunters will have obtained this rep quite easily
Wrist
Felstalker Bracers
Easy to make and if your already wearing the other two pieces you get a nice set bonus
Auchenai Bracers
Nice reward from a simple Shadow Lab quest.
Gloves
Ar’tor’s Mainstay
No reason not to have these gloves a 70 hunter. Very easy to get
Belt
Felstalker Belt
Easy to make and a super nice set bonus makes an easier choice
Rune Engraved Belt
Alliance side quest only. Nice option if you are not a leatherworking or do not want to get the mats together for felstalkers. Large amount of hit is always good
Legs
Scaled Greaves of Patience
Probably the best pre 70 dungeon legs you can get. These come form Old Hillsbrad and will be easily obtainable at 70
Feet
Sky Hunter Swift Boots
Really nice boots from a fairly short and easy sub 70 dungeon Sethekk Halls. The only boots to get pre raiding in my opinion
Rings
Slayers Mark of the Redemption
Hit, agility and attack power in one easy quest makes this a must have.
Band Of Anguish
Hit, agility and attack power in one easy quest makes this a must have. Hey did I hear an echo?
Longstrider’s Loop
If you are lucky enough to get one of these in Mana tomb’s then hold on to it for awhile. It might be the best hunter ring pre raiding.
Trinkets
Hour Glass of the Unraveller
I know its in Black Morass and you hate that place but I can tell you will not find a better blue trinket in the game. To give you an example of its usefulness I use this on my hunter today and I just started doing Hyjal and the Black temple. Get it.
Abacus of Violent odds
Oh no another trinket at a tough end boss in a 70 dungeon. Great trinket with a great use. Haste will be your friend in the future
Weapon
Sonic Spear
The ONLY weapon a hunter should have pre raiding. Slap a 35 agility enchant on this baby and you set for a long long time. Trust me this thing is that good and while sucks you have to slog through shadow lab its worth it.
Ranged Weapon
Logn’goron Bow of the Torn Heart
Easy weapon to get via a quest in Shadow moon. Nice starter bow with all the right stats and it looks cool to boot!
Quiver
Worg Hide Quiver
Assuming you don’t have your epic one from the old quest you can get this exact replica by getting Honored with the Kurenai. Which is easy to do as you will get honored simply by doing quests in Nagrand anyways.
If you put it all together here is what you get
As a BM hunter (I am currently BM and I recommend this to all new hunters but more on that later) you will end up with
1800 Attack power self Buffed
20.9 Ranged Crit
57 hit rating
Now I added the following for socketing. Any red sockets I used 8 agility. Any Yellow sockets I used +4hit +4agility. Any blue sockets I used +4agility +6stamina. I enchanted the head with Glyph of ferocity, Shoulders with inscription of Vengeance, chest with +6 to stats, wrist with +24 to attack power, legs with cobrahide leg armour and put 35 Agility on the Sonic Spear. I left the gloves, boots and ranged weapon unenchanted. I felt the cost of enchanting those to be expensive for the time and use of the items.
Basically you are more then ready for Heroics or Karazhan at this point. You should also be able to out DPS everyone in 5 man dungeons quite easily.
PTRs are up, going in today
Looks like the new PTR’s are up. I’m not going to bother much with Priest or Shaman changes and such. I’m going to assemble a raid team later on and head into Zul’Aman as soon as possible. It seems as if Griftah’s centered around some sort of attunement quest. I’ll write more tomorrow.
Ryan’s back from his two month ranting hiatus. Normally, I detail posts related to healers. I’ve got two gear lists for Restoration Shamans and Holy Priests. I’m going to put up a gear list for Hunters when I get home. I’m sitting in lecture learning about ampersands, CSS, and XHTML. I honestly don’t know why I’m here.
A Real Last Ditch Effort Between a Druid and a Priest
I had the pleasure of ringing for Sinful Intent in their Karazhan run (Carnage demoted it to an off raid night). Going into Karazhan for the first time was so long ago. It’s been a while since I ran with a Karazhan team that had not been able to take down Prince within the coveted 3 hour mark. Attumen, and Moroes were easy take downs.
Maiden became an interesting fight. We did not have a Paladin running with us. Our healing Matrix consisted of two Holy Priests and a Resto Druid. No Blessing of Sacrifice. This was going to be tough. I volunteered to run into the Consecrates. Needless to say, it worked. I came very close to death. I think my health even dropped to the double digits at some points. Our only casualty was the Resto Druid who was too far back behind the pillars and out of my line of site. She perished from a Holy Fire. Let this be a lesson guys. If you can’t see your other healers or dispellers, they can’t see you. When you’re executing a take down on Maiden, always move in front of the pillars within that circle.
Big Bad Wolf was rocked with several minor deaths (mine included, but a soul stone negated that effect).
The clear to Curator was very swift and very disciplined. It was perfect. I maintained a 60% plus mana reserve at all times with my shadow fiend. Ghost, after ghost, after ghost fell. Quickest chain pulling I’ve seen yet. The fight with the big boss bot was interesting. DPS was suuuuper slacking. I think we got up to the 3rd evocate. Someone forgot to eat their Wheaties that morning.
So here’s the play: At the conclusion of the 3rd evocate, I think Curator was sitting somewhere around 20%. The other Priest was dry. Our resto druid was dry. I was seconds away from being dry. A quick glance to my timers indicates my Shadowfiend has one minute remaining. My potion has 45 seconds. All THREE innervates were blown (Boomkin, Resto, and Feral). My 2 minute mana regen Shade of Aran trinket had 1:30. One of Curator’s minisparks shows up and my screen flashes red signifying that I’ve pulled aggro. The tank was at 80% health and there was no way he was going to survive the next 6 seconds with all of his healers out of gas in the tank.
Then it dawned on me.
I scream out over vent: “DON”T HEAL ME”. I had enough mana for 4 more flash heals… which I dumped on the MT to build up even more aggro. Sure enough, Curator targets me and fires a Hateful Bolt (Remember, no Paladins for salvation). I collapse. The Feral Druid understands what I’m trying to do and before I even call for it, he Battle res’s me. I’m back in the game with 33% mana. At this point our tank is nearing death and Curator is at 10+%. I execute my OH $#@& sequence of moves and is able to bring him back up past the point of no return. Curator is now in the single digits. Everyone’s wanding and trying to apply as much pressure as possible. Curator at 2%, I’m out of gas again. Tank buckles and dies. Last ditch nuking ensues. Curator… no longer… operational.
That was the most fun I’ve had for a while yet. There’s nothing like the adrenaline rush of a do or die boss take down in WoW.