Interlude – Useful reference post

To my guildies who have supported this crazy idea of mine: thank you. You people are awesome. (How awesome? This awesome). Many thanks to Jasyla of Cannot Be Tamed and Lissanna of Restokin, whom I randomly e-mailed asking for advice; instead of trashing the missive like I might or might not have done instead, they took the time to look at my blog and offer some nice, helpful words. After reading their replies, I went over my previous post, found some bits I wasn’t happy with, made it neater, and hopefully learned a thing or two about blogging.

Before my next wall of text, I’d like to catch my breath, gather my thoughts and share some of the resources I feel were a sort of cornerstone for my Firelands deeds . Last time I mentioned Elitist Jerks as it were THE source to look at when you need an update on your class. Now, I don’t take everything EJ say for granted, but their guides are very often quite informative and exhaustive, that’s why I recommend checking them every time a new patch comes out. Surely that’s not the only place to look for guides on our favourite kind of tree, though. Another comprehensive guide I really like is Myrrar’s over at the MMO-Champion boards. While I am definitely not a fan of MMO Champ, that’s another guide I really dig with a bit of everything you need to know and some nice theorycrafting on crit and mastery.

Some of my favourite bloggers also took the time to put down pointers for us tree newblets all over the interwebs. Guides can be found at both Restokin and CannotBeTamed. These are particularly helpful as not only you will get tips on the usual stuff like what talents to choose, how to reforge etc. but they will offer a nice walkthrough of what is actually resto healing in Cataclysm.

Something I enjoy and I feel really helped me improve is looking at WoL logs after the raid is over (I should do it the day after instead of looking at graphs and numbers at midnight – it really takes a toll on my beauty sleep). Having access to and being able to analyse boss fights logs is very important as you can readily see what spells you are mostly using, how much damage you could have avoided, your Harmony uptime and a lot more. Jasyla of CannotBeTamed has an amazing guide on how to evaluate healers with WoL; Katarnas of Resto is Epic and Glow of Glow’s Branches also wrote about how to read your logs and learn from them.

I have seen around some nice guides to Power Auras, especially focussing on specific encounters. I use TellMeWhen instead – one of my upcoming posts will be specifically about that add-on – but I will list them anyway, as I feel they are valuable resources and you need either PA or TMW to manage your cooldowns and buffs/debuffs. If you like PA better, check these: Power Auras by Beruthiel of Falling Leaves and Wings, Power Auras by Garnaph@Restokin and Power Auras by Jasyla.

Lastly, many of the blogs I have listed above have resto-centric guides to Firelands encounters. Those are helpful for a couple of reasons: first, resto druid is the only healing spec without any kind of damage mitigation spells, thus you might need slight adjustments to healing strats commonly found on IcyVeins, Tankspot or similar. Second, seldom-used abilites you might not even have on your bars can be actually useful on specific bosses; you will need a resto POV if you want to know when to pop that kitty or bear form.

That’s it. There are other exceptional reads on the blogs/websites I listed if you want to know more – browse them at your leisure; also try to follow links to other healing blogs as there’s always something you don’t know or might not have thought about, and sometimes that useful bit of advice will be in the most obscure blog or website you’ve never heard of.

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And now for something completely different… or not so much… a list of 378 gear available through Valor points, Avengers of Hyjal reputation and Leatherworking recipes, sorted by itemization. Comments below.

Spirit/haste:

• Firecat Leggings (legs, drops from Staghelm)
• Goblet of Anger (off-hand, drops from Shannox)
• Cowl of the Clicking Menace (head, drops from Beth’tilac)
• Glowing Wing Bracers (bracers, drops from Baleroc)
• Incendic Chestguard (chest, drops from Rhyolith)
• Ko’gun Hammer of the Firelord (main hand, drops from Ragnaros)
• Ethereal Footfalls (boots, leatherworking crafted BOE)
• Heavenly Gloves of the Moon (hands, leatherworking crafted BOE)
• Cindersilk Gloves (hands, drops from Beth’tilac)
• Singed Plume of Aviana (relic, valor points)
• Obsidian Arborweave Robes (chest, valor points)
• Obsidian Arborweave Mantle (shoulder, token drops from Staghelm)
• Smoldering Censer of Purity (staff, rare Firelands boss drop)

Spirit/crit:

• Smolderskull Bindings (wrist, valor points BOE)
• Soothing Brimstone Circle (ring, valor points)

Spirit/mastery:

• Heartstone of Rhyolith (neck, drops from *drumroll* Rhyolith)
• Phoenix-down Threads (boots, drop from Alysrazor)
• Firemind Pendant (neck, valor points)
• Flowing Flamewrath Cape (cloak, Avengers of Hyjal reputation – friendly)
• Obsidian Arborweave Legwraps (resto tier legs, valor points)
• Obsidian Arborweave Helm (resto tier head, token drops from Ragnaros)

Mastery/haste:

• Flowform Choker (neck, drops from Staghelm)
• Soulflame Vial (relic, valor points)

Mastery/crit:

• Chelley’s Sterilized Scalpel (main hand, Firelands trash BOE)
• Crystal Prison Band (ring, drops from Shannox)
• Sho’ravon Greatstaff of Annihilation (staff, drops from Ragnaros)
• Wings of Flame (cloak, drops from Alysrazor)
• Obsidian Arborweave Handwraps (resto tier gloves, valor points)
• Obsidian Arborweave Shoulderwraps (boomkin tier shoulder, token drops from Staghelm)

Crit/haste:

• Firescar Sash (waist, Avengers of Hyjal reputation – honored)

I haven’t listed trinkets, which of course need to be evaluated separately and that’s something beyond the point of this list. I didn’t list Flickering Shoulderpads either, as it’s randomly itemized and as such it really doesn’t belong there.

I did include the Boomkin tier shoulderpiece because it’s itemized for pure healing output – crit and mastery – thus making it appealing when you don’t really need that extra haste or spirit anymore… which brings us right to the next point.

In my previous post, I stressed the fact that while there isn’t a lot of spirit/haste stuff available from vendors or through Leatherworking – not to mention 4.2 craftables aren’t exactly cheap to craft – there are quite a few of them available through Firelands boss drops. Thinking it over, is that a really good thing though? For people who are still worried about the 2005 haste threshold, it probably is. Except half of those spi/haste shinies drop from bosses quite far into Firelands, when you will be more interested in pure output stuff (crit/mastery). While I don’t really see a fail on Blizzard part’s as far as gear distribution and itemization go, I can see how people who are more inclined to min/maxing can be somehow annoyed by this. I know I am not, but once again I have yet to take a hard look at my gear, as I have been mostly busy trying to get raw stat upgrades so far.