The Egotistical Priest
An irreverent and opinionated discussion of the many classes
in the World of Warcraft gaming universe.
The Philosophy of Upgrades
by Vonya
Setting the Scene
Vonya’s still not quite level 74.
When she entered Northrend, she was wearing mainly badge gear, with a smattering of Zul’Aman and Kara pieces, augmented with a few five-man bits and the shoulders from Gruul.
She was well geared, but certainly not geared out of BC content.
Upgrades vs Sidegrades
As we quest and instance in Northrend, I am still not seeing what I would traditionally term “upgrades”.
I AM seeing quite a few things that I might call “sidegrades”. Gear that is similar to what I’m currently wearing, with boosts to some stat or another but with some drops in a few other stats.
I’ve been hemming and hawing, dancing from hoof to hoof, trying to decide whether to take the sidegrades. It’s an especially disconcerting decision because in almost every case, I’m looking at significant stam and int boosts with a drop in spellpower and some drop in mana regen.
Ten spellpower here, eight spellpower there, another fifteen spellpower there…it all adds up, and the numbers I’m seeing would make BC-Vonya cringe.
Northrend
But that was BC-Vonya. Northrend is a brand new game. Stats are weighted differently, talent changes mean that traditional strategies are, in some cases (such as downranking) completely thrown out the window.
It’s new. Fresh.
I know that if I just hold off, I’ll start seeing geniuine upgrades and not just sidegrades. The difference will be clear instead of muddy – the benefit obvious without a whole lot of face-squnching and hurried mental math to try and weigh the benefits against the losses.
But I have made a decision, and I thought I’d share it with you.
The Decision
I’m taking the sidegrades.
I’m not taking anything that’s obviously a downgrade, but I’m taking a lot of very shady, iffy sidegrades. From now on, if I spend more than a minute trying to decide whether the Northrend gear is better for me than my Outland gear, I’m going to take the new gear.
Why?
New Game
Partially because of what I said earlier – it’s a new game. The weights are different, the talent changes still have my head spinning, and this gear was developed specifically for Northrend content.
My old gear was developed for Burning Crusade content.
Does that mean the new gear is intrinsically better? No, not necessarily. But if Blizz is throwing items with 20+ more stam on them, and 8 less spellpower, maybe they’re trying to tell me to expect a lot of AOE damage. Maybe they’re telling me that I’ll need my mana pool boosted, with that 15+ int upgrade, even though I lose the MP5 I had on the previous gear.
Blizz would probably be the first to tell you that they aren’t perfect, they don’t know it all.
But they’re practically shouting this to me, and I am going to listen. I will trade, cringing and unhappy, my Outland gear for the new Northrend stuff, and put my character in Blizzard’s hands.
I’m hoping they don’t drop me.
Elitist
The other reason is a bit more…egotistical of me.
Maybe this gear really is a downgrade. Maybe my old, awesome, shiny, fabulous, glittering gear is better than this stuff.
…what are other priests out there using, kleenex? Hell no! They’re using THIS gear! This gear, that I’m so torn about turning to, they’re gobbling up like the true upgrades they really are.
And then they’re turning around and healing the pants off these instances I’m running.
So what, I’m too good for the gear that other priests are using? Just because I managed to hit more end-game content than they did in BC?
Why should any of you listen to me prattle on about how to heal in Northrend if I’m not even wearing Northrend gear?!
That’s like a wealthy housewife telling you to save money by firing one of your extra gardeners. Gee, thanks, that’s helpful. Now how about some advice from someone who actually knows what it’s like to pinch some pennies?
How about some advice from a priest who’s doing the same desperate dancing with the Five Second Rule that you are?
Summary
I’m taking the side grades. And I’m going to heal those instances, heal those raids, learn the new rules of this class, and I am going to ROCK at it.
Why? Because priests are the best healing class in this game.
That’s a pretty opinionated statement, but I’m a pretty opinionated person, and when I say it, it’s absolutely true. There might be one or two other healing blogs out there that would disagree, but if Phaelia from Resto4Lifewere to say that druids were the best healing class in the game, I’d nod and raise my glass, one healer to another.
Is my decision the right one? Who knows? It’s the right one for me, I know that. Whether or not it’s the right one for you is your call.
So what about you guys? How are you approaching the gear in Northrend?
November 20th, 2008
At level 74:
I have mostly Kara gear with a smattering of badge gear, and my Engineer-Pride-Goggles.
I’ve upgraded (clear upgrades only) my shoulders and my bracers. And my weapon.
And I have enough pieces sitting in the bank to build 1 or 2 sets, of healing and then some tanking… because I love tanking, and I like healing, and we have plenty of tanks right now. So I’m going to try wiggling my fingers and making people live.
November 20th, 2008
I’ve gotten upgrades to my weapons and my boots…genuine upgrades, very clear cut. Of course, those were instance drops and not quest rewards. Most the quest rewards are laughable.
November 20th, 2008
Laughable be in the eye of the beholder. Me young pally friend Kinnavieve, what only had time fer one Old Hillsbrad and one Sethekk, and dinged 70 the day the boats started runnin’ ta Northrend, started replacin’ gear with her second quest. All depends on where yer startin’ from, I guess.
November 20th, 2008
I’ve arrived in Northrend not so different than Outland Vonyari – mostly top end badge and ZA stuff with a single 25 man piece. Right now I’m putting as much effort into gear choices as I did for 70 end-game, you might think it a waste of time, but I’m too fond of doing the analysis to spend 10 levels away from it. For me, I put everything in terms of mp5, spell power, and stamina. Stamina is trivial though, I can buff up and always carry stamina heavy gear with me for a pinch. That leaves mp5 and spellpower – if your mentally asking me “what about the 5 second rule?” my answer is I leverage it during play but never count on it when gearing – so I always try to figure the value that int, spirit, gems, haste, and crit have in terms of mp5 and spellpower.
The interesting thing while leveling is that every level things change, spirit yeilds less mana regeneration (ergo less mp5) and I have one more talent point so perhaps crit is worth a little more (ergo int is worth a little more). As well, the five-man view is different from the raiding view (guess at how much replenishment will come my way, will I have blessing of kings, …). Oh yah, and the cost of gems is a factor, am I willing to ante-up for common, perfect or rare gems (and how much free stuff will come my way from my guildies)?
Interestingly, some of the gear with a lot of sockets and/or mp5 will be replaced but then come back later, when the value of spirit is lower and rare gems are cheaper! Even a peice from my shadow set (waist from Hyjal) will become first-string at level 73.
In short, I know what I want from the various instances and quests at least a level ahead of time. I like knowing 8). That the exercise is futile, as healing this content is a dream for the Lazy Priest and everything *will* get replaced when I gear for the end-game, is lost on me – in a good way.
November 21st, 2008
I went to Northrend with some Kara gear, some badge gear, and a mace from nerfed Hyjal.
For me, as an enchanter, if I don’t see that it’s a significant upgrade for me, it gets immediately sharded and I move on. Even if the new blue is, say, 10 more stamina but 9 less spirit. As for spellpower, I figure the closer I get to 80 the more it will level out, and really, once you hit 80 all the gear that isn’t lvl 80 sucks.
I’ve replaced PvP shoulders, my Kara bracers, and one ring so far. Hoping for more upgrades soon.
_Misa
November 21st, 2008
From a warriors perspective: My gear was badge, zul aman, tempest keep and black temple. I never got lucky in Hyjal while we were there. I’m currently in a situation where I have to say almost every quest reward has been a serious downgrade except for trinkets.
The early instance drops (Utgarde Keep, Nexus and that spider thing) are about the same as my current gear – the axe from UK would be a dual-two-handed-fury upgrade, the plate drops are all downgrades.
We have been prancing around in the Violet Hold for quite a bit now. That is supposedly a level 75 instance and indeed the drops are level 75 and 76 minimum. All of those (I got gloves and a gun) are very significant upgrades. I can’t wear them yet, but they are.
At the current rate I will probably reach level 75 before or just after finishing both Howling Fjord and Borean Tundra, which means that the high level quest rewards are still out of my reach.
It seems that for me, the point where upgrades begin to appear is around level 75.
November 21st, 2008
Well. I hit 78.5 yesterday. I was hoping to be 80 by now, but I ended up missing a day and half over the last weekend. Oh well, stuff happens. Anyway, I landed on Northrend in T6/Sunwell gear. I have only seen one upgrade that I plan on using so far: “Frozen Scepter of Necromancy” from Gun’Drak. I just need to become un-lazy and enchant it first. Other than that I haven’t seen anything that will replace any of my current gear, although there is some stuff that comes close. I expect when I hit the heroics I’ll see some gear I’ll need to use – but also we will be in Naxx 25 on Tuesday so who knows.
On the other hand I believe one of our Pallies has already replaced a piece of his Killjaeden gear (but he was lvl 80 at the time). So, I think it depends on your class. Priests in general I think will replace later than other classes, because imo the ‘priest’ gear in TBC was actually pretty good all the way through.
For stats, I think I’ll be looking at +int first, spirit, spellpower, haste, and mp5 in that order. I reserve the right to change that, but I think that is the direction I’ll go at first.
Impressions that I have so far:
1. I finally went back to Org and trained at level 76. 240 gold later I got 1 new spell and it was shadow based. :/ And that was AFTER I had to go save Undercity. (Possibly the most epic quest I have seen in MMO’s evar). So yeah, my planned quick training trip actually took all night lol.
2. Around level 77 you *really* start to the feel the affects of the spirit/regen nerf.
3. Run Gun’drak if you are looking for easy xp. Seriously. I think our fastest run through that instance just over 12 minutes. However, after hitting 77 I’m not we could do that because I can’t regen fast enough to keep up with my tank pulling 4 packs at a time, but still Gun’Drak has been good to us. Then again, maybe we could
4. For the first time ever in my MMO gaming, Northrend really gives me a feeling that my toon has actually accomplished something. Not to give anything away, but after you see Saurfang and also when you head into the Icecrown zone, you will know what I mean. IMO it is very cool.
5. Go to Icecrown and do the harpoon daily. Best. Daily. Ever.
November 21st, 2008
I have been following your philosophy. I am 73. I entered Northrend in Kara/badge/t4 gear. I have changed my boots, trinket, gloves, and maybe something else. I dropped some spell power in favor of Int and crit. And, I am very happy about it. =). I love getting new gear, what can I say. And I know it will be few and far between at 80. I geared fast at 70, but only because no one else in my guild needed any of the same gear I did, so I “won” all rolls I made, as the other choice was sharding it. I like the new gear, I like the new balance of stats. I went along with your philosophy of Northrend is new, mechanics have changed, and I just umm….. like to put on new gear….. =)
November 21st, 2008
I rolled into 80 a couple of days ago, darn server maintenance set me back a day
My hunter was geared well, not great but well with badge/za/kara with a few stubborn blues. The first two things to go where my trinkets around 74-75 along with my boots.
I pretty much made it to 80 with replacing my boots (from chess), my trinkets (badge) and kara (poison vial) and both rings (kara and a blue), these where quest reward placements. I replaced my sonic spear with daggers (dungeon loot from early instances) and my cloak and pants with lw stuff.
Once at 80 I have started the mass migration for the final TBC epics to profession made blues.
I think Vonya has it right… If you have to think about it then take it and use it otherwise grab the plate or the weapon and sell it. Between selling 95% of my quest rewards and the gold from those I cleared about 3.5k gold. Just keep in mind that you need 1k gold at 77 for your cold weather flying.
The lesson to take to heart is that you can get to 80 in T4/T5/ZA gear but once you hit around 78ish the profession blues will start being no-brainer upgrades. Those blues may even be in the top 10 for that particular slot.
November 22nd, 2008
Update!
At 73 now, finally found a party to go back and run Nexus (I skipped it cuz I only wanted to go in to do the quests and finally had some 77+ guildies go with me). So far I’ve replaced my shoulders (PvP gear), boots (Kara), gloves (some random crappy epix), cape (AH epic), both rings (the Kara rep ring and the Horseman’s Signet both got tossed), and my wand (Kara Crone wand).
All in all, I’ve done fairly well I think. Losing spellpower like crazy, but gaining +Int/Stam/Spi like crazy. First time i’ve ever been over 10k health without a druid around. 10.2k health, 12.4k mana all by my lonesome
Gotta work on A) making some cash–sharding every green and blue I don’t wear makes getting money a pain, but people have been really, really kind (some random dude gave me 30g for +85 ap to 2h wep, and it was just mats I had on me from random DEs) and B) leveling my tailoring. I hate it, hahaha. But I wants a carpet and I want to actually be able to use the awesome stuff I know I’ll be able to make later on.
Also…this is the first time I’ve had hit rating and haste! For some reason, I went thru all of TBC with 0 hit rating. Guess when you only run T4 content it’s not that big a deal.
November 22nd, 2008
When I approached Northrend, I had been wearing a majority of T5 equivalent gear and some pieces of T6 equivalent.
I didn’t upgrade a lot of my gear for DPS/solo or healing until I reached around 75. Most of the gear that got changed was jewelery, weapons, trinkets, and my wand. I didn’t get significant clothing upgrades until I started doing level 80 instances.
Most of the haste I saw was “meh”. I appreciate the stat, but I’m not aiming for that. There’s a lot of crit, but, also not a huge fan…
(My favorite trinket is a MP5 + chance on spell hit = 222 spirit in combination with my Sapphire Owl).
I think some of the best upgrades comes from heroic 5-mans… plus, bronze drake!
November 23rd, 2008
I have two characters that I’ve brought to Northrend: one was a druid, who, like you, was in mostly badge gear and ZA stuff. The other (a lock) had just dinged 68 and was in Outlands quest gear.
Of course, the lock was easy. Everything was an upgrade! Huzzah!
My druid, on the other hand, was often seen doing the sidegrade shuffle. I almost got smacked a few times by my boyfriend for making him watch me swap gear on and off for minutes on end and asking his opinion of what was better. I actually resorted to a calculator on a few pieces: “Okay, so this has x +int and this has y +crit, so if so much int equals 1% crit, the new piece is better, but I’ll lose 12 mp5 but gain 150 hp…”
Plus there’s SO much emphasis on haste rating for casters, I can only assume I should be taking it, but watching my crit rate and +spell power slowly dwindle has been a little painful. What I’ve had to do as compensation for my growing fear that I’m nerfing myself is keep all my old gear safely stored in the bank in case I suddenly change my mind and want my Staff of Infinite Mysteries back. (It’s so weird using a dagger and an offhand!)
From what I’ve heard, people in mid-range raid gear (badge and kara and ZA) should expect for real upgrades around level 74-75. I’m looking forward to that part because putting together new gear is one of my favourite parts about leveling!
November 24th, 2008
A good thing to keep in mind, I have found, is that very few quest rewards are useful to someone with any type of epics on before about level 75. But, the dungeon blues, can be very good sidegrades if you are interested in changing the balance of your stats. For me, I had 0 crit on my gear (holy priest) pre-wotlk. I have new talents that proc off crits, so I have been trading some of my other stats for crit, and I end up with better mana management. As my hp increase, I trade some stam for int, crit, spirit. It once again is about balance, and for classes whose mechanics changed, you may very well be changing gear before other classes. I have a little haste, but I haven’t been to excited about haste, not like I have been about crit. =). I have also noticed, that casters seem to be getting better “sidegrades/upgrades” before other classes, perhaps because so many of them had changes (including the big one, spellpower).
November 24th, 2008
I am passing on the sidegrades.
My gear is Kara & badge level, with mucho pvp items. So far, I’ve not found any replacements. I know the old stuff, it fits my style. My little fingers are used to the special procs that pop.
I have 2 problems.
1) All the haste. There is much haste on the new gear and I fear haste. I sucked at things like Starcraft because I am not a lightning fast clicker / typer geek. I like my GCD. I like your GCD in PVP so my fingers don’t have to beat your fingers.
2) I need some sexy leggings. I’ve been in a skirt so long I’m feeling chaste.
November 25th, 2008
Damnit, you’re right! I’ve had about five or six pieces of Northrend “sidegrade” gear sitting in my bags for a week now. I just can’t pull the trigger. Part of it is the mathematical reasoning of giving up one stat for another. But I think another subconscious piece of the puzzle is my own struggle with the stigma of wearing greens again.
November 26th, 2008
After reading this post and commenting on it, I wound up liking the topic enough to write a post on the subject myself. Fear not. I gave you credit for the term “sidegrades.” Check it out if you have a moment. =)
November 26th, 2008
[...] A few days ago, Vonya over at The Egotistical Priest wrote an interesting post about the idea of upgrades in Northrend. As a relatively seasoned raider, her PvE purples outshined [...]
November 26th, 2008
Like many of you guys, I came to Northrend in all T5-equiv and badge purples and find myself replacing many of them with blues (and a couple of greens *cringe*)… just to get some spirit and more mana. I was a Shadow Priest for most of BC, so I had NO spirit. Now that the guild wants me to go holy, I have to rethink my gearing strategy, and realize that mana regen might be better than worrying only about spellpower. I have increased my mana pool by 4k so far and finally have over 10k health. My mana regen while casting is still low, but hopefully it will come up in time. What is nice, however, is that much of my dps gear translates into holy gear now, so it was not a total waste.