Unless someone can give me a good reason to, of course. But everyone's talking about what they will buy, and it seems like no one is talking about what they won't.
What I am talking about is this: [Gavel of Naaru Blessings]
Now, it seems like a really nice mace. The 464 healing really pops out at you and makes you go "Wow! That'll put me up to (insert large number here) healing!" Sometimes it's easy to be blinded by raw +healing numbers. They're often the first thing people ask for when they ask for a healer: what is your +healing?
However, the second thing people ask for is what your mp5 while casting is.
This mace has intellect on it, the only arguable contribution to your mp5 while casting. It has only 7 more intellect than [Light's Justice], and contains none of the +20 spirit of the weapon. It has 8 more intellect than [Shard of the Virtuous] and none of the mp5.
What the Gavel does have, however, is stamina. It has loads of stamina. Therefore, the question becomes this: what do you need more, mp5 or health?
At this point in my WoW career, I focus more on longevity than raw healing power. My HoTs get overwritten sometimes, and I do well enough as a buffer to spike damage. I am not trying to get off the big heals, just keep my HoTs ticking. Therefore, I need a constant supply of mana. I will never be outside the five-second rule, and I cannot get mana back from crits or heals on myself. I do not want to depend on group makeup to make myself viable for a long boss fight.
Right now, I am using a [Rod of the Blazing Light]. I see no reason to spend 150 badges on an item that will decrease my mp5 simply so I may boost my +healing and stamina. I'd prefer to save up for something else, thank you.
19 comments:
Disclaimer: I'm not 70, I've not looked at any healing sets, I don't even know what a badge looks like.
I'm still inlove with the +largeawesomehealingnumber. Couldn't you just take the awesome mace and swap out +healing elsewhere to make up the mp5?
@dammerung- I probably could, with some of my gemming on my pants or shoulders. However, I'm a poor, poor resto druid and that would be more expensive for me than simply using those badges (and less of them, at that) on a new chestpiece or legs and gemming those. I try to maintain equilibrium in all that I do, so I try to get my healing and mp5 at around the same level at the same time with minimal disturbance. Zen for a resto. ;)
It's all about what you need. If you need the healing power more than the spirit or mp5, then this mace is a good investment. If you're satisfied with your healing power, then you may want to consider some of the other stats you may be lacking in, such as mp5, extra intellect, or spirit. That extra stamina from the mace is almost unnecessary for pve content unless you're really lacking in health (my paladin is, so it's not unheard of).
I think you are correct...
Now we did have the off-hand drop from Archimode last night so I was tempted to grab and combine (it has spirit). Just didn't seem worth it.
I don't really see much to spend badges on I would like some leather healing with spell haste on it, as I am trying to push that number a bit higher, I started to notice a difference at about 60 or so spell haste that it was much easier to keep up the 4 LB or 3 LB / Rejuv.
But bottom line I agree, the badge loot is good and in some cases real good but this isn't the greatest to spend those badges.
I personally almost never run out of mana, even at my present MP5, which isn't all that high. Tree form healing is ultra efficient, and I need only make sure I use my innervate early on long fights, so the cooldown will be up again in that same fight. I'm all about +heal at the expense of MP5 6 days a week and twice on Sunday!
@chris- true enough.
@draleon- that's what I've been looking for, too, and grats on your archimonde drop :)
@pummra- I don't have many mana issues in 25's at the moment, but at 10's I feel stretched (such as in Kara and ZA). While the +healing is intense, perhaps it's just my need for balance that makes me go more for items with balanced stats than anything else.
I haven't yet seen anything that's so completely compelling as to spend my very hard-earned badges on. Mostly I'm just keeping my badges for primal nethers and nether vorticis.
You make some good points. I play a holy priest that's currently running kara (on farm) and ZA. My +heal is 1745 and my mp5 is 217. This is all very unbuffed. Fully buffed my +heal is around 1900 and my mp5 goes up to around 250.
I never, ever run out of mana on kara anymore. The last time I ran it, I used a mana pot on a single boss fight. So I feel pretty good about my mana regen. I feel reasonably good about my +heal, but I feel like it could be higher, especially for the times when there is massive damage coming in during boss fights in ZA and I need to drop huge gheals.
My current staff is Nightstaff of the Everliving, which gives 348 +heal, 33 stam, 34 int, and 55 spirit. Any thoughts?
I'm not buying one either (changed my mind). I went through and looked at it, and with all the setup I've done on my glad. mace and my maiden mace... and the chance of a Vashj mace sometime soon... not worth the badges. Maybe sometime if I have 150 badges to burn, but for now, I"ll stick to spending badges on stuff I know is going to last me a long time and be a significant upgrade.
the lack of regen was a concern for me too. fortunately ill have Touch Of Inspiration as my offhand to compensate.
Basically everyone should look at their own gear and decide what is the best upgrade for them and spend badges accordingly.
I struggle alot with stam, which made me want to buy the mace, but at the same time, I don't really NEED it. I rarely run out of mana, but I'm not specced for a Main Healer, so having most +heals doesn't really mean anything to me because I will always be out healed :)
It's also a shit ton of badges that can be going towards other upgrades.
It all comes down to what you need. I recently acquired Dark Blessing which is gimped on stats but has spell haste and very good plus healing compared to my Shard. My raid buffed +healing is now at 2080. Depending on if I use stam gear or not I have 845/350 mp5. I'm usually with a sprist and I'm an alchemist so I really don't ever have mana issues so I opted for more +healing. Also, you need to manage your mana pot consumption and time them appropriately in order to maximize the CD. Pot management plus ToL and innervate, us druids should never have mana issues.
I have to say for those that do not run MH/BT, stamina is a valuable stat since you WILL be taking a large amount of dmg in boss fights. A lot of times you need 10k hp for the fight so I'm usually mixing in my pvp gear to account for that.
All I'm saying is that Stamina should not be neglected or undervalued especially if you raid end content. Also, +healing is the most valued stat for resto druids imo. Also, regem with 9+healing/4spirit shadow pearls.
So my healing experience is pretty much just Karazhan and various heroics on my alt paladin, but I was thinking the same thing looking at that mace.
Everyone has been running around saying its so wonderful and they can't wait to drop the badges for it but...I always think "Wheres the MP5?!" when I look at it. I didn't want to say anything though incase I was missing something important.
Good to see I'm not the only one that wasn't impressed by the lack of MP5.
Personally I'm a BT/Hyjal druid with 2100-2200 +Healing fully buffed. However I also have 410 In Combat mana regen, which means that I can spam regrowth quite happily for hours. During the Council fight, I'm one of two on raid healing, mainly because all I do is spam Regrowth wherever a health bar twitches. With a shadow priest, I barely have to pot for the entire 15 minute fight, and only use my innervate once.
Mana regen is just as important for healing, and for tree druids moreso, because if you have > 176 MP5 in combat, then every 5 seconds you can cast Lifebloom again even when OOM. That one heal can keep an off tank alive solo on some fights.
Something I have seen a lot of, though, is getting the mace and enchanting it with Spellsurge, which I suppose can make up for a little bit of mp5 loss.
Basically what Jazzy said is the most important. Based on your gear and where your stats are at right now you can shuffle around mp5 for the +healing on this mace. I picked this up as soon as I was able. I replaced my Shard of the Virtuous with it. Let's be honest, the +116 healing more than makes up for the 6mp5 that's on the Shard. If 6mp5 makes or breaks you there might be bigger problems. With the new mana regen changes that came with 2.4 you should have easily gained 6mp5 while casting as a resto druid with points in Intensity. Unless you were absolutely struggling for mana before, there's no reason to not drop the 6mp5 for +116 healing as an upgrade from Shard of the Virtuous.
@anduriel- Like I said, it's personal preference, and I prefer items that come with more balanced stats rather than one which is extremely boosted in one or two areas and lacking in others. (I would also consider the Shard more of a pally/shaman weapon, with the optimal Kara mace being Light's Justice for druids and priests.) It's not a "make or break" thing, but small amounts of mp5 can hurt druids, and small amounts eventually stack into bigger amounts. Our spells do not cost as much as other healer spells, but we never stop casting (much like a paladin) and therefore need the best mana regen we can get to stay afloat in raids.
But, of course, it is up to gear choice and need. I do not value it as highly as the badge chest and legs, so I will not be spending 150 badges on the mace when that will get me one and a half other pieces that I actually desire.
Ah, something I should also mention is that, due to poor drop luck, I've had to replace certain PvE pieces of gear with "better" PvP pieces (most notably, my chestpiece is season 3, my cape is the resilience healing cape from the badge vendor, and my belt has been Vindicator's kodohide since my level 68 green belt of the hierophant), I may not be as in dire need of stam as other healers, but need to otherwise make up what I am lacking in spirit for my ToL aura.
@becca- I'm not entirely sure on priests, but I believe they gain more benefit from spirit than druids do. If you regularly run in the same group composition, and it often includes a shadow priest or a resto shaman, you may want to consider if that is why your mana does not run out. I know I have kept some of our healers from being able to heal at all just from keeping all of my HoTs ticking! Exploring why you do not run out of mana is a good way to decide what is right for you. If it is purely due to your own mp5 and you feel you could sacrifice this for a larger boost in plus heal (I assume you have a nice off-hand for healing), then the mace may not be a bad choice. I am sorry I missed your comment before!
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