Gear Choices Pt. I – Gearing up for Naxx
nooo....please don't take my T6 away
26.9.09: Updated List can be found here.
Itemization for resto shamans has changed a little bit. Due to the implementation of Replenishment INT has become a much more valuable stat (Mana Tide of course benefits as well from a large mana pool). At this point propositions of stat values can be found in this thread over on EJ. Be aware though: Healing is never one dimensional. Stat weights are an excellent way to begin itemization or optimize HPS. Stat weights on the other hand are mostly based around a model fight and in reality different encounters can ask for different equipment. Spellpower and Haste and to some extent INT/crit help us push those green flashy numbers up, while INT and mp5 (and if you single target heal with LHW crit too) help us to preserve mana and guarantee our longevity.
My advise is: help yourself with Stat weights BUT:
a) Don’t ignore your intuition. If you run out of mana all the time -> look for gear heavy on INT and mp5. If you end every boss encounter on full mana -> look for more spellpower and haste.
b) Try to work with different sets of equipments. Get Itemrack and try to build 3 sets: One balanced, one full out healing/haste and one with ton’s of mp5/INT.
Now stat weights could look something like this (Values taken from EJ, derived from the old stat weights for TBC instances with adapted values for INT, based on a 5 min fight with 100% replenishment uptime):
10 – MP5
7 – Intellect
5 – Spellpower
3 – Spell Haste
3 – Spell Crit
1 – Stamina
Now we can add those numbers to our favorite tool lootrank and untick raid instances and BoP items of the profession you don’t have and there we are. If you aren’t an alchemist untick alchemy BoP and add your profession. There is no item value entered for the meta gem, so Helms with a meta socket might be better than listed.
Following a little list of one excellent gear choice per slot and two rather easy to achieve alternatives (Non-hero, Quests, Reputation). I left out PvP gear, but I do consider PvP equipment as excellent starter gear (not drop-luck dependent) if you like BGs or arena. I tried to leave out as much non-mail gear as possible. But don’t feel silly to wear some cloth, especially in raids where elite mobs will one hit you anyway.
Addendum 30.01.09: Many people ask why I didn’t include item X in my list. The motivation for this list was to get fresh 80 resto shamans a good start into raiding and heroics. This list was compiled when I just started doing heroics and couldn’t yet tell which heroics are easy and which are hard. That’s why I tried to leave out heroics as much as possible and stick to normal-mode instances, reputation items or quest rewards. But many people still visit this post for gearing help so I feel like I owe you guys the best in slot Item befor you hit 10/25 man raiding. Item N°1 now will always be best in slot, followed by the items that are in this post since I wrote it. Because if you don’t raid you will run heroics over and over and there is really no reason to leave out harder to get heroic gear or Tier gear bought with Emblems of Heriosm. In addition to that I added some rep gear I felt was missing. If you need an even bigger list, just click on the lootrank link right under my stat weights.
Head
- Battlemap Hide Helm (Utgarde Keep Heroic)
- Brood Plague Helmet (Ahn’Kahet Heroic)
- Helm of the Lightning Halls (World Drop, check the AH)
- Battle Mender’s Helm (Agent Crusade – Revered)
- Horned Helm of Varos (The Oculus)
Neck
- Lattice Choker of Light (25 Emblem of Heroism)
- Titanium Spellshock Necklace (JC – crafted)
- Amulet of Dazzling Light (The Nexus Heroic)
- Amulet of the Crusade (Quest Item)
- Choker of Betrayal (Quest Item)
Shoulder
- Mantle of the Tribunal (Halls of Stone Heroic) or Dark Runic Mantle (World Drop) – both cloth :\
- Spaulders of the Violet Hold (Violet Hold)
- Mantle of Discarded Ways (Utgarde Pinnacle Heroic)
- Epaulets of Market Row (World Drop)
- Duskweave Shoulders (crafted)
Back
- Wispcloak (crafted)
- Ancient Dragon Spirit Cape (The Oculus Heroic)
- Shroud of Resurrection (Utgarde Pinnacle)
- Shroud of Dedicated Research (Kirin Tor – Honored)
- Bloodbane Shroud (Quest Item)
Chest
- Heroes’ Earthshatter Tunic (80 Emblem of Heroism)
- Robes of Crackling Flame (Kirin Tor – Exalted, but srsly, shaman in robe?!)
- Revenant’s Breastplate (crafted by leatherworker. I personally don’t like grinding reagents)
- Dalronn’s Jerkin (Utgarde Keep Heroic)
- Runic Cage Chestpiece (The Oculus)
Wrist
- Azure Cloth Bindings (The Violet Hold Heroic/cloth) or Limb Regeneration Bracers (Drak’Tharon Heroic)
- Bands of Channeled Energy (The Nexus Heroic)
- Ancestral Sinew Wristguards (The Wyrmrest Accord – Revered)
- Wound-Binder’s Wristguards (Knights of the Ebon Blade – Revered)
Hand
- Heroes’ Earthshatter Handguards (60 Emblem of Heroism)
- Grips of Fierce Pronouncements (Wyrmrest Accord – Exalted)
- Fiery Obelisk Handguards (Ahn’kahet Heroic)
- Cracked Epoch Grasps (Stratholme Past Heroic)
- Gauntlets of Dark Conversion (Stratholme Past)
Waist
- Beadwork Belt of Shamanic Vision (40 Emblem of Heroism)
- Mail Girdle of the Audient Earth (Halls of Lightning Heroic)
- Sash of Blood Removal (Gun’drak Heroic – just one of 3 (!) solid caster/healer belts in Gun’drak)
Legs
- Kilt of Dark Mercy (Knights of the Ebon Blade – Exalted)
- Skirt of the Old Kingdom or Legguards of Nature’s Power (Ahn’kahet/Stratholme Past Heroic, first one is cloth)
- Frozen Forest Kilt (The Nexus Heroic)
- Giant-Friend Kilt (Sons of Hodir – Revered)
Feet
- Sandals of Crimson Fury (The Wyrmrest Accord – Exalted, cloth but you’ll have to grind rep for head enchantement anyway and there’s nice gauntlets too)
- Revenant’s Treads (LW – crafted)
- Cleric’s Linen Shoes (Nexus Heroic) or Stone-Worn Footwraps (Azjol’Nerub Heroic) if you don’t mind cloth
- Treads of the Life Path (Remember? There are better choices than those, be it cloth or pvp boots but there’s no rush to change those out)
Finger
- Signet of Hopeful Light (Argent Crusade – Exalted)
- Titanium Spellshock Ring (JC – crafted)
- Band of Guile (Stratholme Heroic)
- Ring of Temerity (Quest)
- Annhylde’s Ring (Utgarde Keep Heroic)
- Flourishing Band (Quest)
Trinket Slot
Fill it with whatever you get around to round up your healing set. The Egg of Mortal Essence, Mercurial Alchemist Stone, Soul Preserver or Tome of Arcane Phenomena are good starting options. Keep a set of various trinkets and implement them in different healing sets as mentioned in the beginning of this post. Spark of Life, Forge Ember or Winged Talisman can be found in heroic dungeons.
MH
- War Mace of Unrequited Love (The Nexus Heroic)
- Titansteel Guardian (BS – crafted)
- Flameheart Spell Scalpel (Kirin Tor – Revered)
- Totemic Purification Rod (Kalu’ak – Revered)
OH
- Protective Barricade of the Light (35 Emblem of Heroism)
- Facade Shield of Glyphs (Azjol-Nerub Heroic)
- Bulwark of Redemption (Quest)
Totem
- Totem of the Bay (Get this! Insanely easy to get.)
- Totem of Forest Growth (15 Emblem of Heroism)
Of course this list is directed at everyone just new to 80 and mainly focused on Instance runs. If you know you’ll go full out Naxx in the next days I think you already know which gear you’re going to get. And if you’re a serious raider I’m sure you’ll kill those first bosses in Naxx still mostly in T6 gear. If you just want to gear up with instances, easy rep grind and a few heroics in the next days you might find what you look for above.
On gemming: I personally will fill my socket with INT or Spellpower/INT gems. Not based on numbers but on pure curiosity how a huge mana pool is going to feel in raids.
On glyphs: I consider Glyph of Chain Heal and Glyph of Water Mastery as mandatory for every raiding shaman. Glyph of Earthliving Weapon is a good choice for spreading chain heal love even more but far inferior to Glyph of Lesser Healing Wave in regards to tank healing. For minor glyphs take Glyph of Water Shield and then anything that suits your needs.
Boned (25 player)
The Frozen Throne (10 player)
The Crimson Hall (25 player)
500 Daily Quests Complete
Ice the Frost Lord
Hadronox Denied
Vehicular Gnomeslaughter
Split Personality
Epic
Better Off Dred
The Culling of Stratholme
Heroic: The Culling of Stratholme
The Culling of Time
I’ve been thinking of giving spell haste a slightly higher value. When healing in 10- and 25-man instances I primarily cast Chain Heal, and shortening the casttime with around .5 second would be nice.
10 – MP5
7 – Intellect
5 – Spellpower
4-5 Spell Haste
3 – Spell Crit
1 – Stamina
would be my values.
I tend to agree on the haste issue but I’ll have to see some Naxx fights before I update my Pawn values accordingly. For me it’s a question of how much INT/mp5 I’ll need for serious raiding before I can even think about haste and spellpower. CH + haste was incredibly good in T6 content and is still going to be awesome now. Tier gear luckily is going to be heavy on haste.
For 5 mans and eventually starting out Naxx 10 I won’t look for too much haste, as it is right now there are still heroic 5 mans where i completely run out of mana.
Neat. I’ve been looking for shaman blogs, I’ll be following yours.
Aha another Shaman blog, excellent, I’ll be following.
I’m just a little bit away from Naxx, being level 72, but erm once I get there some healing is definitely on the menu so this list of goodies is very useful.
FINALLY, found info about gearing a resto shaman for raiding.
Im about to guild run 10 man Naxx within the next week and can’t wait! Finally i know where to get some good trinkets (never seen 1 drop since 70 lol) totems ect.
Read your other blogs there GREAT keep them up will be folowing!
Quote: “Totem of the Bay (Get this! Easy to get and frees up 4 Bag spaces)”
Well… So does ALL the relic totems, not just that one.
Otherwise, nice blog, much appreciated!
I am disappointed that seems to be little mail and alot of leather and cloth.
@Ishundiya
The reason you do not see all ‘Mail’ is because this blog is geared towards people that just hit 80. These cloth and leather items just happen to be good and easy to get. I must admit, I like having 48% reduced damage with my 18k armor but when I hit 80 I did use cloth and leather Items.
@Drug
Great blog!! You helped get me into a decent guild. Cleared 10man naxx/obsidian. We’re starting a 25man as I type this (I’m in a que).
Keep up the good work
Facade Shield of Glyphs drops from heroics (just a typo)
Thx a lot for the list… saving me hours of browsing while at work (sadly
)
Wind
I think you missed a couple of tricks here. By slot -
Finger: Annhylde’s Ring (Utgarde Keep Heroic). For those that like haste, this is a pretty easy one to get, and believe it or not stam is important in naxx – you WILL be taking damage.
Feet: Revenant’s Treads (Crafted LW). Once again, more haste and a lot of int, and they are mail for “purists”. Even with the 2 slots on Treads of the Life Path, I think the Revenent’s are a better choice once enchanted properly and will last you longer.
Trinkets: This list could go on and on, but you forgot Spark of Life (Halls of Lightning Heroic), one of the best regen trinkets around for a shaman, espescially since it has a chance to proc PER JUMP of Chain Heal. Depending on the fight I use Spark / SP or Spark / Winged, but that spark never comes out of it’s slot.
I totally agree with the item’s you listed. I’m still wearing UK H haste heavy caster ring and the Spark of Life has filled my trinket slot until I felt I could drop some more mana regen.
But if you want to check for best in slot out of heroics just follow the link to lootrank. My list is intended to help people gear up before they get to heroics and while doing their first heroic runs. I tried do leave out as many heroic rewards as possible and only did so when the non-heroic alternatives would be much much worse. I thought about doing a best out of heroics list but as I’ve seen how many people do PuG Nax I decided against it.
Boots I’m going to add. Not too expensive and a very solid choice.
Awesome job man! This is going to help me so much! Kudos
I am wearing Mantle of the Eternal Sentinel as I just hit 80 yesterday. They are a BoE drop from Heroic OS and I was able to score them from AH for just 300g.
I know they lack MP5 (which I am hurting for) but was wondering why they didn’t make the list.
Great stuff, and thanks!
Hey man, thx for this guide! It helped me a lot!:D I got tier 7 now! woohoo!
what are the stats how much bonus healing and how much mp5??
Thanks i just hit 80 today and am going to try this next time i get on. seems like its a nice list, been looking around for exactly this. And it seems pretty easy to get it all. so i will comment back when i get a chance to use it!