Penance Priest

Discipline Priest Blog

Since we have agreed that (by and large) tier gear is for chumps (or early adopters, you poor things) (or 10-man tank healers, ok?), that leaves many of us with emblems to burn on other upgrades. What do you want to spend them on? Which cloak? What about the trinket?

Well, as we all know, there are different needs for different occasions, so as beautiful as that black dress might be, you’re definitely not going to wear it out to dinner with my folks. In other words, there is no single absolute recommendation for anything (except in the negative). Everything always depends on everything else – the gear you’ve already got, the gear you have access to, your role in raids, etc. I know my caveats get boring, but they bear repeated repeating.

Nevertheless, I’ve decided to at least comment on the current emblem purchases, since emblems do you no good in your pocket. I’ve also listed some of the other (non-emblem) options that you will be considering. See the full 3.3 gear list for details. A case could be made that this is not in fact a real post, but just a rehash/reorganization of that list. To that I say poo.

Lastly, I’ll include my own gearup plan, which is finally becoming focused.

Cloak

Drape of the Violet Tower, Volde's Cloak of the Night Sky (50 emblems)

Violet is nicely itemized for disc. If you don’t have a 264 cloak, and don’t expect to get one, this is a great solution. But if you have an offspec that you share gear with, Volde will definitely be better for you, since both holy and shadow prefer spirit to mp5. Cloaks were the first emblem purchase for many priests.

Competes with VDW25, Saurfang25.

Belt

Circle of Ossus (60 emblems)

Haste gear is too easy to come by this expansion. If you already have a 245 belt, I wouldn’t bother with this. Even if you have the nice haste/crit 232 from HoR5, I’d still pass on this badge belt. It’s nice for holy priests, and not so exciting for disc.

Competes with Putricide10, Marrowgar10, Festergut25, Marrowgar25.

Chest

Ermine Coronation Robes, Meteor Chaser's Raiment, Crimson Acolyte Raiments (95 emblems)

Ok, here is where things get interesting. Chest! You’ve got three badge options, each costs 95 emblems. Ermine has crit/spirit, MCR has crit/haste, and T10 (shadow!) also has crit/haste. Only buy the shadow robe if you’ll be upgrading it with tokens; the 264 version is nearly identical in stats to MCR, and if you’ll be upgrading it to the 277 version, woweezowee. (That’s my current plan.) If you’re a strict shield-spammer, Ermine is probably a good bet; spirit is crap, but it’s better than the haste on MCR once you hit the cap. (The haste cap for shield spam is 147, which you get practially by walking through the door.) MCR (and the shadow tier robe) is perfect for tank healers. Tough choice.

Competes with Sindragosa10, Blood Princes10, Blood Princes25.

Gloves

Gloves of Ambivalence, Gloves of False Gestures (60 emblems)

Same issue here. You have a great set of crit/spirit gloves and a great set of crit/haste gloves. Both are delicious; depends mainly on your raid role (tank or bubblespam).

Competes with T10, Rotface10, Blood Princes25.

Helm

Crimson Acolyte Hood, Crimson Acolyte Cowl (95 emblems)

Two tier pieces. Crit/spirit (healing tier) and crit/haste (shadow tier). Same dilemma, largely determined by your raid role and offspec.

Competes with BQL10, Saurfang10, Gunship25.

Shoulder

Crimson Acolyte Shoulderpads, Crimson Acolyte Mantle (60 emblems)

Crit/spirit vs. crit/haste. Sound familiar?

Competes with Festergut10, Trash drop.

Legs

Crimson Acolyte Leggings (95 emblems)

Meh.

Competes with Festergut10, VDW10.

Trinket

Purified Lunar Dust (60 emblems)

PLD just got a spell power boost, which brings the trinket up to par for its function. If you don’t have Solace and at least one other solid trinket, you should definitely consider this as a very respectable purchase.

Competes with Solace, Marrowgar10, Gunship25. (The BQL25 trinket is better for PvP than PvE IMO.)

Crafted gear

Lightweave Leggings, Leggings of Woven Death, Sandals of Consecration ($$$$)

Don’t spend your emblems on these just yet. If you have the gold to burn, get them ASAP. But emblems are just too useful a commodity, and in too short supply, to spend on these expensive items. Your benefit-per-emblem is low.

The Paolo Plan

For what it’s worth. As you can see, I don’t really have urgent plans to spend my frost emblems. After I buy my last piece of shadow tier gear I can think about upgrading gloves or maybe cloak.

Head & shoulders: Aiming for two-piece T9.258. I have the 245s, and we should start killing Anub on heroic this week. I doubt many other raiders will be as committed to T9 as I am, so I have a decent shot at getting the 258 tokens. If I couldn’t upgrade to 258, I wouldn’t plan to keep T9.245 gear. (No frost emblems needed.)

Legs, boots: crafted. I already have both of these, and have openly admitted my insanity for purchasing the hit boots in my last post. I still think it was the right move. So sue me. (No frost emblems needed.)

Chest: Shadow tier, used for both shadow and discipline. With the amount that I’m playing shadow, this makes perfect sense, as the chest will be upgraded to 277 at some point. I could also have made a case for using the shadow shoulders for healing, but the T9 head & shoulders look like keepers for me. (Frost emblems already spent – no more needed.)

Gloves: False Gestures for 60 emblems. Not in a huge rush, as Lifeless Touch are still quite strong. After I complete my shadow 4-piece set (OMG!) these will be my next purchase.

Bracers: Bejeweled are not in urgent need of upgrading. Rotface25 drops nice bracers, but not really worth spending capital on at this point.

Cloak: My Ony25 cloak is still excellent. (See a pattern? All those 245 crit/haste pieces are winners!) Upgrading is a low priority; my last emblem purchase will be Volde if I haven’t gotten one of the other 264 cloaks.

Belt:  I have Heroic Cinch. I’ll upgrade to one of the boss-drop crit/haste belts, but nothing else.

Trinkets: Solace (I have already). If I don’t get Solace (heroic) or Abacus, I’ll eventually buy Lunar Dust. But no rush for me on this.

(12) Comments

  1. 2/02/2010 5:23 PM Unknown

    Crushing Coldwraith Belt is pretty nice too

     
    2/02/2010 5:37 PM Paolo

    Like, seriously nice. Speed-posting oversight, tx for the reminder!

     
    2/02/2010 7:51 PM Sinespe

    Honestly, I think I'm coming around to your viewpoint on Tier 10 Disc. Lana'thel was purely a bubble-fest for me, even on 10-man. If a Holy Paladin were not present, I'm sure I'd've used Penance every cooldown, but ...

     
    2/03/2010 6:05 AM tony7t2

    Unfortunately for me I was a T10 "early adopter" but at least I only got as far as 2pc (shoulders & gloves) before I realised the error of my ways.
    I think I'll leave them as 251's for now until either I have bought all the other emblem items I want, or the dkp cost of the upgrade tokens drops considerably.

     
    2/03/2010 6:47 AM Unknown

    Also the Cauterized Cord belt from Putricide 10man is pretty nice.

     
    2/03/2010 12:20 PM Unknown

    Another great gear list!

    As shadow off-spec (having to switch for quite a few fights including Festergut and Saurfang) and Disc-Main Heals -- yes, often even in 25-man :( -- I'm leaning towards spending my badges on Shadow T10 and picking up all my other Disc pieces from drops rather than badges...but with a little luck on my side, VoA will drop my gloves and pants and I'll have some badges to spare =3

     
    2/03/2010 4:06 PM Pawan

    I still think a good balance of stats is what you need. I just can't see myself healing in shadow pieces.

    http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Detheroc&cn=Omh

     
    2/04/2010 12:45 PM Unknown

    Would the T10 4 piece help in Valithria 25 man at all, in the sense of thoroughput? What would you say that the best role for Disc is in this fight. There were murmurs of me speccing holy for this fight and I was made to feel somewhat useless without a beacon or a guardian spirit. What would you suggest? Do we really have the worst thoroughput of any other healng class? Should we not be healing Val and focusing on raid/dispel/cleanse? Please help me Paulo,Matron and anyone else who might have tips!
    Thanks from Simplehiccup on US Proudmoore

     
    2/04/2010 2:53 PM Paolo

    As disc on VDW, I stayed out of portals and raid healed, while helping on the boss as much as I could. The fight had hectic periods of raid damage, but also plenty of opportunity for boss healing.

    Keep up WS (for the crit bonus, as well as soaking a small amount of damage from adds). I did my normal "bomb" rotation of PWS > Penance > GH as much as I could, with some Flashes and even Renews (lol) when I had less time for her.

    Honestly though, even the best-geared disc priest with the set bonuses won't put out the +healing numbers that any other healer will. Our strength remains mitigation, which is not what the fight is about. It is really a holy pally showcase (QQ!). Our druids did well too, but pallies trounced.

    So put your power infusion on a pally, not a mage :)

     
    2/04/2010 3:14 PM Unknown

    thanks a million Paolo

     
    3/04/2010 2:03 PM Unknown

    Paolo, I keep checking your site every day to hear your opinions on the proposed Tier 10 bonus changes :)

     
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