Basic Gear Guide
June 22, 2009
This guide will not tell you which piece of gear is better than what. It all depends on what you have and what you need. What I am going to is give you more of a sense of understanding of your gear more than anything by covering some important topics.
If you are looking for lists of upgrades, look at the following guides:
- Best In Slot Gear Guide for Holy Paladins
- Gearing for Heroics
- Gearing for Naxx10/Naxx25
- Gearing for Ulduar
- Gearing for PVP
- Ulduar Gear Guide - What gear is hot in Ulduar
We start with very few base stats. We must gain most of them through gear, buffs and talents. The extra stats are mostly granted by gear.
Base Stats without gear at 80:
Intellect |
114 |
Agility |
90 |
Stamina |
143 |
Spirit |
108 |
Not each stat is equal. With a few exceptions, stats are worth the same in terms of itemization.
This graph shows that if you get an item with one stat that is one stat less of another stat that will benefit you. For example, Spirit.
Intellect |
1.00 |
Critical Strike Rating |
1.00 |
Haste |
1.00 |
Agility |
1.00 |
Mp5 |
2.50 |
Stamina |
0.67 |
Spirit |
1.00 |
Spellpower |
0.86 |
Armor |
0.07 |
Gear slot modifiers:
Head, Chest, Legs, 2H Weapon |
1 |
Shoulder, Hands, Waist, Feet |
0.75 |
Wrist, Neck, Back, Finger, Off-Hand, Shield |
0.5625 |
1h Weapon |
0.421875 |
Ranged |
0.316406 |
This means that head, chest and leg pieces are more important to you than the other pieces. It just means that they have more stats on them than the others.
Remember your Stats
Look at the Stats section and remember it for your gear.
Extract from the Stats Summary:
Get Stats in moderation, since the stats you want combine very well.
Stats to get (in order): Spell Power, Intellect, Crit Rating, Haste Rating
Stats to Avoid: Spirit, Strength
Stats not to avoid, but would prefer not to get: Mp5
Rule of thumb: If in doubt, get Spell Power
You’re looking for increases in the numbers covered in the “Stats to get”.
Rule of Thumb of Upgrades
You are looking for upgrades. It the item has an increase in the stats that you can use, even if they include some Mp5, roll for that loot.
The best way to tell if it’s an upgrade is to look at its Item Level. If you cannot tell in game what an Items Level is, get a mod called Rating Buster. It’ll do that and much more for you.
Rolling on Cloth, Leather, and Mail Items:
One of the key reasons to be a Holy Paladin is our survivability. By wearing plate, we increase our ability to survive when a mob decides to lay the smack down on us.
With that being said, there is good reason to roll on Cloth, Leather or Mail items. Eg: For every 14 points of Armor is one less item stat that can be used on other stats. Plate items have a lot of Armor on them, where cloth has very little. The difference could be used to spend points on stats you’d prefer much more.
Be careful. Don’t go overboard. We would advise against converting all your gear from plate to the point that you’re squishy. At a minimum, grab your Tier pieces.
Also realise that raid leaders may not allow you to roll on non-plate items unless all clothies have passed. This rule is fair since they cannot roll on your gear. If this is the case for you, just be patient.
Breaking a Set Bonus:
When you have 2 piece and 4 piece bonuses, when do you decide to break up the set? Usually sets are broken up by other set pieces since the Tier pieces are usually the best option of their gear Item Level.
Librams:
The most interesting thing to note about Librams is that you can change them during combat, however it will trigger the global cool down, so you cannot change it using a healing macro.
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