The Egotistical Priest
An irreverent and opinionated discussion of the many classes
in the World of Warcraft gaming universe.
Upgrades and Stats
by Vonya
As a companion to my Climbing the Mountain post from last week, I’ll continue the focus on gearing up your toon.
The comments made me realize there was a lot more that needed to be covered there.
Firstly, and most importantly, STATS.
What stats should a priest concern themselves with?
“That’s an easy question!” some of you may triumphantly crow.
Well, let’s list them out, shall we? Let’s gear up a fictional holy/disc priest. We’ll call her….Nonya. (They always say “Write what you know”)
Stats
Nonya, as a healery priest, needs the following stats, in differing quantities :
- + Heal
- Mana Per Five
- Intellect
- Stamina
- Spirit
Those are the big ones. The ones most people probably could rattle off easily.
She’s holy/disc specc’d though. So she may not want to completely discount
- Spell Crit
Her healing targets get a nice armor boost when she crits.
That should do her pretty well for her healing set. Now she needs a damage set.
Anyone whose face just did that smoosh thing where your eyebrows crowd the center of your forehead like groupies at a Mick Jagger concert has obviously never tried questing as a healery priest. Not only are you squishy, but your best attempts at damaging the mobs results in flurries of giggles rather than jets of gushing blood.
Nonya needs a second set. Don’t cry for her, it’s hardly a priest-only issue. Ask any paladin, druid, warrior….any class that has a “main” role that isn’t damage and they’ll tell you the same thing. It’s only the pure damage classes that get off lightly when it comes to multiple suits of gear, and my hunter will introduce you to her kitty’s teeth if you try and tell her she’s got it easy. She’s balancing stats just like everybody else is.
But that’ll come later.
For now, we’re building a second set. What stats should she worry about for her damage set?
- +Damage
- Mana Per Five
- Intellect
- Stamina
- +Spell Hit
Some of those are the same as her healing set (int, stam, MP5) but some are different or missing.
Let’s discuss some of the stats for a moment, shall we?
- + Heal - For a healer, this stat is imperative (for obvious reasons). Each of your healing spells will get a BONUS of extra healing tacked on to it. Don’t be fooled into thinking that just because you have +1,000 heal, your spells each get +1,000. Each spell gets a percentage of that 1,000 depending on cast time and whatnot. That’s beyond the scope of THIS discussion, but it’s still important to know.
- Mana Per Five - The way the game is CURRENTLY set up for endgame healers, you will need to stack MP5 as your primary source of mana regen. The amount of mana regenned by this stat is constant, regardless of the Five Second Rule. You will need a lot of this stuff.
- Intellect - Another obvious stat, this one expands your mana pool AND gives you some spell crit. Ooey gooey goodness. I don’t worry about this stat much, it tends to be tacked alongside other, more difficult stats to achieve, such as Heal and MP5.
- Stamina - Gives you health. Know it, love it. More health = less dying. And even the best tank in the world can’t save you from ranged AOE attacks.
- Spirit - This is your secondary source of mana regen, and it also gives a smidgeon of +heal.
- Spellcrit - As previously mentioned, a properly-specc’d healery priest will give their targets an armor bonus on a crit heal. This makes tanks (especially bear tanks) gloriously happy.
- Spellhit - If you’re casting against something that doesn’t want you to, you’ll need Spellhit to thwart their attempts to dodge your spells. Tanks, if you ever start dodging my heals, I will personally strangle you. As such, healery types don’t need spellhit, but damagy types DO.
- + Damage - Only useful for damagers, but it’s even more important for those embracing the dark side of the class than the +heal is for those of us in the light.
Weighing Stats Against Each Other
Okay, now that we’ve got THAT out of the way, let’s work on weighing the stats against each other, shall we?
For a holy priest, your MAIN focus should be on +heal and MP5. You ALSO want to keep a healthy dose of stam and int, with a goodly smattering of spirit.
You can ignore crit. You’re not going to find it on cloth gear much, and it’ll probably come at too high of a price with other stats. It’d be nice, but itemization really doesn’t add it for priests. You paladin healers out there better hoard that stuff like it was made from spun moonbeams and gilded unicorn hairs though.
For a damage priest, you’ll want to max the spelldamage, probably concentrate pretty hard on the stamina too (if you’re soloing especially). Snag some MP5 where you can, but don’t neglect the int, and your spell hit is…well….
If you are specc’d shadow, then you don’t need as much +spell hit to max out your ability to land a spell on a boss as someone not shadow specc’d. If you are holy/disc, your off-set will need some plushit depending on what mobs you’re grinding. Do not concentrate on spell hit.
For some classes, that last statement would be sacrilege. If you are a raiding damaging priest, you need spell hit. If you are a raiding holy priest, then you do NOT need spell hit. If you are a soloing priest, you will only need spell hit on mobs that are a higher level than you.
Comparing Gear
So! Basically, I told you AAAAAALLLLL of that just to tell you that there is no magic formula.
You HAVE to know what each of the stats will do for you, and have a general idea of their relative importance for the task YOU are trying to accomplish.
But what do you do when you have a nice, perfectly balanced…oh…chestpiece.
It’s got 10 int/10 sta/10 spi/100 heal/5 MP5.
But you get a drop. And it’s got 0 int/0 sta/0 spi/175 heal/15 MP5.
Which one do you pick? You’re getting a TON of your “specials” out of it, but you lose a bunch of stats to take it.
THIS IS THE PART THAT IS HARD.
The answer is….there is no answer.
DON’T THROW AWAY THAT GEAR.
The cop-out answer is “go for whichever stat you’re low in, and keep the gear that boosts that”.
Problem with THAT is that there’s no definition for “low”, and later on, you may have a DIFFERENT stat that needs boosting.
Save that gear, save that gear, save that gear. Don’t throw it away until you have a DIRECT upgrade. Basically the same item, only with better stats.
upgrading a 10/10/10/10 to a 12/12/12/12 for example. (that’s simplified, but you get my point).
DON’T THROW AWAY THAT GEAR.
I cannot express to you how many times I’ve disenchanted or sold gear that I would like to have. Trinkets, especially.
Sure, now that I’m decked out in Kara gear, I don’t have very much alternate gear in my bank - this stuff is direct upgrades for most of what I had set aside.
But I can’t tell you what a “low” stat is. I honestly don’t know. What’s the “benchmark” for a level 63 holy priest?
I can tell you that for Karazhan, you MUST have 6,000 health (unbuffed if possible), you MUST have (or be very close to) 1,000 heal, and a goodly chunk of MP5 too. Maybe 50, I don’t remember.
But I can’t tell you whether X item is an upgrade over Y.
There is no answer, ESPECIALLY for healers. We don’t have damage meters to tell us when we’re lagging behind our comrades, or when a gear swap gimped us. If people are dying too much, that’s an indication MAYBE, but how many groups want to be your guinea pigs?
The BEST you can do is to prioritize your stats, realize what impacts YOUR performance the most, and make sure you don’t get tunnel vision and neglect your other stats.
I can’t tell you what is “too low”, I can’t tell you what is “too high”, and I’m not interested enough to find the carefully calculated mathematical formulas that I’ve seen people do in an attempt to get a better comparison of things like Spirit V MP5.
It’s not that they’re useless (far from it) but I’m not that much of a number cruncher. I like generalities and broad truths.
Summary
Know what stats impact your class and role.
Have some idea of which stats are most important, and which ones are less important but shouldn’t be ignored.
KEEP EXTRA GEAR DROPS. You never know when you may need them.
There are no easy, magic answers. Do your best, and be willing to experiment.
September 18th, 2007
Yep. Just as an example, I’ve got a full set of Imbued Netherweave and a damage weapon. I lose almost half my +heal. I double my +damage. Because of the enchants I decided upon, my stamina stays the same. And I, like you, /cry when I think of things I’ve DE’d…
September 18th, 2007
My healing set has 1160 +heal. However with my PvP gear on I lost 600 +heal but gain 3k HP and 1.5K mana and 150 Resilence. I currently have 3 sets of gear on my Priest. PvP, Healing, and DPS/Solo.
Not as bad as my War who has 4 sets of gear.
September 18th, 2007
Just a note on the damage set. MP5 does not come on damage gear, so I don’t think it should be that high up on the list of things to say yes to. Lauchis has 6MP5 on her damage gear… because she enchanted her chest piece with that enchant. That’s all the MP5 she gets in her DPS gear. Honestly, if you’re out farming/questing as a healery type priest, it’d be more efficient to just pot/drink up than gear for any form of mana regen (which is generally nonexistent to begin with).
Since you’re a healery priest, you have spells like holy fire and smite… aren’t those affected by crit? I’d assume that healery type priests would also like spell crit as a stat to boost those spells (besides spell damage), since you naturally have talents in your holy/disc trees that improve spell crit. In fact, I’d swap MP5 for spell crit in your DPS set. While spell crit is kind of meh for shadow priests, I really think that priests of the non-shadowy sort might find it better.
DPS gear naturally comes with a combination of the following stats: +spell dmg/heal, +spell crit, +spell hit, stam and int. I have yet to see one that comes with MP5. There are a few that come with spirit, but not as many.
As for spell hit… shadow priests won’t need as much spell hit… if they are specced for it, otherwise, all bets are off. Against a level 73 mob, they’ll need 202 spell hit just like everybody else. So if a shadow priest has maxed out Shadow Focus, it’s 76 spell hit, otherwise it’s 202. I believe that against a level 72 mob, having 3 points in Shadow Focus and no spell hit is fine for a shadow priest (i.e. a non-raiding shadow priest).
Also, I so agree with you on keeping all the gear you have, because it seriously helps balancing out stats when you get gear upgrades.
September 18th, 2007
I used to have this one hunter in my guild who would constantly link me two pieces of equipment and ask me which one was better. Every time, I would explain that it depends on what the rest of his gear is. Some how it didn’t quite sink in with this guy, and he would still expect me to be able to tell him which piece of gear was “better.” As you mentioned, very rarely do we have the luxury of being confronted with two pieces that look something like 10/10/10 vs 12/12/12. For every class, you’re going to need to constantly maintain a balance of all of the stats that you benefit from.
I would often have to switch out more than one item at a time, if I wanted to change something. Sure helmet X gives me more crit and mp5, but I lose some of the hit rating I had on my old helmet, so I need to exchange my sword and dagger for the Sonic Spear and maybe equip the Violet Signet (for example). It’s going to be the same, I imagine, for priests, and for every other class - a continual balancing act.
—
Btw, spell crit doesn’t matter at all for holy/disc priests in their dmg/solo gear? I don’t know the priest class well enough to know what kind of procs, if any, you get from crits, but I would have thought that you’d still want to maintain a reasonable amount of spell crit even if you are leaning much more heavily towards +dmg. But again, I’m ignorant on this - is this not the case?
September 18th, 2007
“DON’T THROW AWAY THAT GEAR.”
Solid advice. Wishin’ somebody had told me that back when I was 65 or thereabouts, and all I could think about was “I’s gonna need gold for my flying! I’s gonna need gold for my flying!” Ah, well. Live and learn.
September 18th, 2007
I’d recommend at least 110 MP5 while casting. But that’s just a random figure I came up with off the top of my head. ^^
Sometimes its best not to think of your gear as better or worst, but to think of your gear as a response to a certain situation. Are you farming mobs for Primals? Tack on the damage and stamina gear. Are you being asked to solo heal Shadow Labyrinth? Load up on every possible +healing you can get and pray your tank knows what he is doing.
Alas, all the enchanting materials, light feathers and other junk have rendered me more or less spaceless.
September 18th, 2007
@Esoth
The end all for a Shadow Priest is +dmg. The more damage they do the more health and mana they get back. Crit’s are not as useful for them ethier because alot of damage comes from dot’s and mindflay.
For a holy/disc priest and +dmg is good. We generally can’t afford to be picky and shop around for crit gear. I honestly don’t even know why I have a DPS set anymore. I use my warrior to farm now.
@Ratshag
A flying mount is more important than a 2nd set of gear imho. It will give you access to areas that drop dps gear better than the green quest items you would have got.
@Matticus
In reality 110MP5 while casting isn’t that high. That is average for 5 man pug’s I’d say. I’m currently sporting 135mp5 casting I think and still need more to keep up with the demands in kara/heroics.
September 18th, 2007
I would recommend doing a careful comparison of Imbued Netherweave and Netherweave gear. Imbued gives Int and MP5 but sacrifices HUGE amounts of Stam and +Dam.
September 18th, 2007
@ Esoth, the crit for holy priest discussion is … widely debated. Its big plus is IF you have the talent that adds 25% to the target’s armor. Its big downside is that pretty close to 98% of the time there is no additional healing from the crit — it’s overheal. For damage… +crit is +50% to your crit-capable spells. As holy I hit SW:P (no crit) MB (crit possible) smite till the first two are up or it’s time to switch to wand. For that crit is ok. NOTE: I don’t do PVP very much - not my cup of tea.
@ Stupid Mage - since I’m the one who mentioned Imbued Netherweave, I have to ask what left turn got taken? Never mentioned Netherweave. That said…
Going from the three NW to INW (pants, boots, robe), I lose 9 stamina and +29D. I gain +75I, +29mp5, and 39 armor. And the increase in both mana pool and crit from the INT plus the increased mana generation - and the tiny increase in armor mitigation - make this a much tighter issue for comparison.
September 19th, 2007
If going through karazhan, make sure not to pass up on those high stat pieces. Especially if you are a tailor (as I am), you’d lose a lot of regen and healing compared to your crafted set, but there are fights (or pvp) that make things much easier with just a bit more stamina.
As it stands, I’ve accrued a healing set (unbuffed +1900 healing, +225 regen while casting, around 6.5k health) and a good stat set (unbuffed 8.5-9.5k health, +1400 healing, +100 regen while casting). I switch pieces around all the time based upon the fight i’m about to go into.
This is especially true with trinkets too. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve kicked myself because I threw out a trinket that I thought was retarded, only to come across a situation where it would have rocked.
September 19th, 2007
@Nobs - Yer quite right, the flying mount is the most important target. I just wish I hadn’t been so quick to vendor every blame quest reward that wasn’t an obvious upgrade at the time. By the time I got to 70 making gold was fairly easy, but those reward items, some of which had pretty unique bonuses, was gone forever.
September 19th, 2007
I’m glad as a hunter that for the most part I only need one gear set. I say mostly because doing pvp means going to gear with resilience and more stamina which is gotten from the arena or bgs with arena/honor and tokens. Cause resilience is not helpful much at all in pve situations.
September 19th, 2007
I really don’t think I can over emphasize the importance of being a tailor as a priest. As soon as you hit level 70 you get 3 epic pieces.
September 19th, 2007
Yes, don’t throw away your gear!
..DE it so you can have mats to twink out your LVL19’s. /silly @_@
September 19th, 2007
Checkout the HealPoints 2.7 addon: http://wow.curse.com/downloads/details/2170/ This addon will tell you how many more heal you can get from a new piece of equipment. It does this by “simulating” a 5-6 minutes fight so it does balance burst healing and regen-based sustained healing. I haven’t had a regret since following its advices!
All the advices concerning stamina (I’d add resilience, and resists) still applied and aren’t considered by this addon.
September 19th, 2007
@Zing, Interesting. I had made a gut feeling post and the two sets are not as far distanced as I thought. I was also basing it on my own experience with the Tunic rather than the Robe. Either way, as a Mage, for me damage is king. The differences between the two sets is 9-23 Stam and 35-52 Spellpower (set bonus). The Int isn’t as much a concern esp. if I’m going into an arena fight. Asking a Mage to give up 52 Spellpower is a big deal, whereas a Priest would want the Int and MP5 for more heals and healing endurance.
September 20th, 2007
I just recently learned not to throw my gear out. For various reasons, I have a bunch of lowbie characters, but nothing high level. And I’d been playing mostly single role characters, so I didn’t really worry about it. Recently I’ve been leveling up a feral druid though, and realized that one set of gear wasn’t going to do it. I needed gear for tanking and gear for DPSing in kitty form in groups. When soloing I mix and match the two to try to find a balance between damage and survivability, with maybe even some caster stuff thrown in too. It’s not easy!
@Matticus
Yeah no kidding. I need like 50-slot bags. Any crafter is probably carrying a bunch of materials around (herbs, bottles, leather, cloth, thread, dust, essences, etc.). And most of us have consumables, plus quest items, plus drops, plus stuff for cooking . . . what a headache!
October 15th, 2007
For you Holy/Disp priest you will need to get a good ratio of +SPIR/+Heal you should have as much of each th at you can. For Shadow I agree +Dam is a must… Everything depends on the damage not spell crit.