Nostalrius Begins - Quality wow vanilla realm (1.12)

Hey guys,

So after reading these excellent guides by Egorgeous (http://www.wow-one.com/forum/topic/1512 ... to-shaman/ and http://www.wow-one.com/forum/topic/3194 ... omsearch=1 ), it becomes apparent that MP5 is a very important stat for shamans, and that 1 MP5 ~ 7 healing, and that 1 MP5 ~ 5 int. Now let's keep that in mind and have a look at the second article, in which he posted a BiS list that looks like this:

BWL BIS List
Head: Helmet of Ten Storms
Neck: Wavefront Necklace
Shoulders: Wild Growth Spaulders
Cloak: Shroud of Pure Thought
Chest: Robes of the Exalted
Wrists: Bracers of Ten Storms
Hands: Gauntlets of Ten Storms
Waist: Whipvine Cord
Legs: Salamander Scale Pants
Feet: Boots of Pure Thought
Ring1: Ring of Blackrock
Ring2: Pure Elementium Band / Band of Piety
Trinket1: Shard of the Scale
Trinket2: Rejuvenating Gem
Weapon: Claw of Chromaggus / [Fang of the Mystics] (Close 2nd) / Jin'do's Hexxer (Close 3rd)
Off-Hand: Malistar's Defender / Lei of the Lifegiver (<--When mana isn't as high priority)
Totem: Totem of Rebirth

Some items are not in the game yet, but in general I'd say most of the options are pretty self-explanatory. However, there are a few cases where I have some questions:

1. Wild Growth Spaulders vs Black Brood Pauldrons
WGS has 11 sta, 12 int, 10 spr and 62 healing, whereas BBP (dat abbreviation tho ) has 12 sta, 15 int and 9 MP5. In terms of HEP (healing equivalence points), BBP is slightly better than WGS (84 vs 78.8), yet I still see a lot of high end players (that are not using T1 8/8) who use WGS instead. Which do you think is better and by how much? Also, would it be worth it to get WGS in my case since I have BBP already? This especially considering the fact that other guildies also still need to gear up and need it more than me.

2. Whipvine Cord vs Corehound Belt
Whipvine Cord has 9 int, 6 MP5 and 31 healing, while Corehound Belt has 16 int, +12 fire res and 62 healing. Again, the difference in HEP is neglegible (85.6 vs 84.4), so which do you think is better?

3. Malistar's Defender vs Lei of the Lifegiver
MD has ~3k armor, 16 sta (9 +7 from the +sta enchant), 12 int and 9 MP5 vs LotL's 3 MP5 and 53 healing. In terms of HEP, this is 79.8 vs 74. I have MD already, so do you think it would be worth it to farm AV exalted for LotL? This considering the fact that I'm about 6000/12000 honored and thus still need to grind quite a bit for exalted.

As a sidenote, I do understand that in some occasions, one item may be better than the other (in shorter fights +heal may be better than MP5, or dispel oriented fights favor MP5), but I would really appreciate the input of skilled players on this matter. Also please take into consideration future content such as AQ40. Thanks in advance and would like to hear from you guys .

p.s I know T1 8/8 is supposedly broken and OP, but I'm not a fan of using bugs/exploits (plus the fact that it would be really shitty if the bug gets corrected)

p.p.s The reason that Shimmering Geta isn't on the list is because according to him you get Boots of Pure Thought faster (kinda disagree with him tho), and apparently Lok'Amir Il Romathis has an abysmal drop rate

Keep in mind that this is a Pre-AQ list. This means that it's not about healing BWL but about healing AQ. In AQ you will not only want to last quite a while through MP5, but you will also need quite a bit of healing power to make sure that you can keep up with the damage that the raid recieves. During 'burst' moments you will want to heal on a level that's comfortable for you as the healer and the one that's taking the damage. This is why choosing MP5 over healing power can be a mistake.

Another advantage that healing power has over MP5 is that it's easier to go start your in combat mana regen going, but that's a more minor bonus.

One last thing, Chain Heal is broken on Nostalrius. The second and third jump add more healing power than it should. This makes Healing Power more powerful than what the Egorgeous guide makes you believe.

Zanbaka wrote:1. Wild Growth Spaulders vs Black Brood Pauldrons
WGS has 11 sta, 12 int, 10 spr and 62 healing, whereas BBP (dat abbreviation tho ) has 12 sta, 15 int and 9 MP5. In terms of HEP (healing equivalence points), BBP is slightly better than WGS (84 vs 78.8), yet I still see a lot of high end players (that are not using T1 8/8) who use WGS instead. Which do you think is better and by how much? Also, would it be worth it to get WGS in my case since I have BBP already? This especially considering the fact that other guildies also still need to gear up and need it more than me.

Wild Growth Spaulders is better. Get the raw healing power.

You can 'pass up' the gear to other guildies but know that you don't have BiS.

Zanbaka wrote:2. Whipvine Cord vs Corehound Belt
Whipvine Cord has 9 int, 6 MP5 and 31 healing, while Corehound Belt has 16 int, +12 fire res and 62 healing. Again, the difference in HEP is neglegible (85.6 vs 84.4), so which do you think is better?

Both are fine tbh. I'd say that Corehound Belt is better, but Whipvine Cord sits comfortably in the middle giving you MP5 and healing power. Whipvine Cord wins the theoretical stats battle but it doesn't win when used on Nostalrius. It's also a very easy item to get.

Corehound Belt just works better with Chain Heal though.

Zanbaka wrote:3. Malistar's Defender vs Lei of the Lifegiver
MD has ~3k armor, 16 sta (9 +7 from the +sta enchant), 12 int and 9 MP5 vs LotL's 3 MP5 and 53 healing. In terms of HEP, this is 79.8 vs 74. I have MD already, so do you think it would be worth it to farm AV exalted for LotL? This considering the fact that I'm about 6000/12000 honored and thus still need to grind quite a bit for exalted.

Lei of the Lifegiver is better. We are a couple of months away from AQ with not much to do in the mean time. Play some AV now and then and get Lei of the Lifegiver.

I personally love to use shields though and wouldn't switch to using Lei of the Lifegiver, but when when you're honest you know that it's better.

Zanbaka wrote:p.p.s The reason that Shimmering Geta isn't on the list is because according to him you get Boots of Pure Thought faster (kinda disagree with him tho), and apparently Lok'Amir Il Romathis has an abysmal drop rate

It's wonky reasoning, I'd say that Boots of Pure Thought are much better (duo to Chain Heal on Nost) but if you can get either of these it's fine.

Thanks for your input m8. I already had the suspicion that Chain Heal was broken, as each jump should be 50% as effective as the previous one, but now it seems more like 100 75 60 or something (even more with the t2 3-set). That is just an estimate, but do you know the +heal coefficient for the second and third jumps? Couldn't find anything about it on the forums. Either way, I guess it's time to get some more +heal items then, even though it is especially a huge pain in the ass to farm AV exalted (especially considering the fact that I rarely play on weekends).

Thatoneguy wrote:Another advantage that healing power has over MP5 is that it's easier to go start your in combat mana regen going, but that's a more minor bonus..

What exactly do you mean by that tho?

Zanbaka wrote:Thanks for your input m8. I already had the suspicion that Chain Heal was broken, as each jump should be 50% as effective as the previous one, but now it seems more like 100 75 60 or something (even more with the t2 3-set). That is just an estimate, but do you know the +heal coefficient for the second and third jumps? Couldn't find anything about it on the forums. Either way, I guess it's time to get some more +heal items then, even though it is especially a huge pain in the ass to farm AV exalted (especially considering the fact that I rarely play on weekends).

Thatoneguy wrote:Another advantage that healing power has over MP5 is that it's easier to go start your in combat mana regen going, but that's a more minor bonus..

What exactly do you mean by that tho?

Sometimes your heals are so powerful that you can wait 5+ seconds to cast another heal, which activates your combat mana regeneration. +healing power helps with the ability to wait longer, but it's a minor bonus not really worth mentioning. In raids you're almost always constantly casting anyway.

Is the current T2 set ingame the final one?
Th stats differ from the ones i'm finding in different databases. According to Wowwiki the stats were only changed in patch 1.5

Killstick wrote:Is the current T2 set ingame the final one?
Th stats differ from the ones i'm finding in different databases. According to Wowwiki the stats were only changed in patch 1.5

No, patch 1.10 has an 'overall item upgrade' that should include T2 sets.

The only sad thing is that with this "item upgrade" T2 actually gets worse, if that's even possible. Both the gloves and helm lose 8 healing, and the chest and shoulders are basically rendered useless, so the only items worth using are the gloves, helm and bracers. But seriously though, it's such a shame that (shaman) itemization is so fucked up in vanilla, at least in the earlier stages of the game.

Aslan wrote:http://forum.nostalrius.org/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=27488

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the link posted only has pre-raid BiS, whereas this topic is more centered around current content BiS (so everything up to BWL). So if we take into consideration that the 1 MP5 = 5 int = 7 heal is not really valid on this server due to the specific bugs (and non-endgame content), and that +heal is the better option, the current BiS list would look something like this:

Current BIS List (up to BWL)
Head: Helmet of Ten Storms
Neck: Jin'do's Evil Eye, Pendant of The Fallen Dragon (2nd)
Shoulders: Wild Growth Spaulders, Black Brood Pauldrons (2nd)
Cloak: Shroud of Pure Thought, Hide of the Wild (2nd)
Chest: Robes of the Exalted
Wrists: Bracers of Ten Storms
Hands: Gauntlets of Ten Storms
Waist: Corehound Belt
Legs: Salamander Scale Pants
Feet: Boots of Pure Thought / Shimmering Geta
Ring1: Ring of Blackrock
Ring2: Pure Elementium Band, Cauterizing Band (2nd)
Trinket1: Shard of the Scale
Trinket2: Rejuvenating Gem
Weapon: Lok'amir Il Romathis / Claw of Chromaggus
Off-Hand: Lei of the Lifegiver, Malistar's Defender (2nd)

If you guys have any objections to the list, let me know . Maybe it's also a nice idea to have this stickied and that it is updated every time new content gets released on the server?

Yeah the gist of it was to point out the use of +heal vs mp5/int in various situations and how to generally pick your gear, as a shaman I wouldnt stick to 1 BiS list ever.
Peenix had the same chainheal and T1 bugs for a long time, yet this comparison is still garbage and even if it wasnt, if you compare 5 int to 1mp5, that would be based on a 6.25 minute fight considering the mana regen vs larger mana pool and that doesnt even include the spellcrit you gain (mostly) on your chain heal bounces but also on your initial heals. Furthermore, 6 min + fights indicate post BWL-thinking in general.
The variety of gear you listed there is awesome, but keep in mind that you want alternative tank healing sets to 3/8 T2 (highly recommended is 5/8 T1 or 8/8 when its about tank healing with stacked up raid members)... You said you dont like taking advantadge of bugs, so it would be 5/8 for you I guess.
But even apart from T1, you want full mp5 pieces for cleansing and occasional speedruns with 0 drinking time if you have no lack of heal throughput at all and cant downrank further, also full +heal pieces for a fight like vael.
Best exemple is probably Shard of the scale for vael.. any trinket with like +20 heal power would beat it on that single fight, even if you only have a green backup item you need one.

Swap items for every situation!


There is a difference between on one hand stacking full + heal on a 30-60 second fight like lucifron, using pots and runes, going all out on max rank heals and being top hps easily and oom at the end of the fight and on the other hand actually being sustaining and useful .