I took a look at the bonuses for Restoration Shaman’s tier 8 sets in this post HERE before the patch. Now that Ulduar is out and we’ve begun trudging through, we are beginning to see these items drop and get ready for use. To recap here are the set bonuses
Personally I like the 4 piece bonus but with the addition of the Riptide Glyph I’m very meh about the 2 piece. The 4 piece bonus is equatable to the 4 piece bonus of the Tier 7.5 set. Lets take a look at the set bonuses for 7.5
- 2: Water Shield Boost: Your Water Shield is 10% stronger
- 4: Sprit Link Chain Heal Boost: Increase the healing done by your Chain Heal and Healing Wave by 5%
As far as those are concerned I still think that 7.5 got the better allotment for set bonuses, at the very least on the 2 piece. The 4 piece bonus comparison boils down to either a 5% boost in your healing, or what essentially  turns out to be 8% haste. Seems pretty even to me. Now that you know the set bonuses, lets take a look at the stats on the gear.
Stats Valorous Earth Shatter Regalia Conqueror’s Worldbreaker Regalia iLevel 213 226 Required Level 80 80 Intellect 338 386 Stamina 369 381 Mana Regeneration 93 79 Armor 5224 5337 Critical Strike Rating 95 228 Haste Rating 176 173 Spell power 449 525 Sockets 1Meta 5red 1yellow 1blue 1Meta 2red 2yellow 3blue
This is assuming you’re using all 5 pieces for each which isn’t always the case but will be good for highlighting the differences between the sets. Lets look at what you gain moving from 7.5 up to 8.5
- Int: +48
- Stam: +12
- MP5: -14
- Crit: +133 (~4%)
- Haste: -3
- Spell Power: +76
I am confused a bit at the lack of regeneration, I mean we actually lose 14MP5. While that might not seem like a lot, it’s a good chunk. I imagine that the idea is to use Improved Water Shield more often to compensate. My guess at this is based on the large amount of crit the set gains. It just seems odd after bringing MP5 amounts down in patch 3.1. All the other stat gains seem normal enough, a slight loss in haste (3 rating really is a drop in the bucket) and it does have a healthy increase in spell power. The choice in colors for the sockets also seems odd to me. Moving away from 5 red slots and spreading the love. Perhaps to make room for +in/+crit gems ? Haven’t quite figured that out yet, but that’s my best guess.
When Should You Switch to Tier 8?
To be honest, I think you should continue to use your Tier 7 until you have a 4 piece bonus from the Tier 8. The Tier 7 bonus being a straight +5% more healing on CH and HW is just plain good until you can don a 4 piece Tier 8. It should be noted that on a pure Heal Per Second value, Tier 8.5 pulls ahead. It does however consume a lot of mana. Even if you switch to 8.5 it might be worth keeping your 7 and 7.5 around for longevity fights. As I gather more numbers I’ll be able to provide a move definitive answer as to when one set is better then another.
The good news is not much has changed. Aside from a slight increase in our crit raiting, and the removal of a little MP5 (still scratching my head at that one) the rest of the set seems on par for upgrading. It feels very much like the increase from Tier 4 to Tier 5 back in Burning Crusade.
On a final but purely aesthetic note, I do love the way the new set looks. =D
Next post we’ll take a look at what I think our current best in slot gear is now that Ulduar is up and active.
What do you think about the Tier 8 set?
Until next time, happy healing,
