A short article I wrote on our guild’s forum about Holy paladin itemization.
I’ve been going over the forums, guides and search-engines to look for Holy specced paladins, and found that itemization pretty much sucks if you go for plate-only.
I shouldn’t be surprised, after all I’m wearing 80% cloth as well in my resto gear. But still I’m annoyed with it, since paladins can wear plate for a reason: to be able to take a punch when you get aggro.
Anyhow. So I wanted to give some tips on how to look for pre-kz gear.
First of all, let’s summarize what a holy paladin needs:
- Healing done by spells and effects
- Intellect
- Spell crit? (a bit, other healers don’t like it, but pala’s do)
- Mp5
A paladin can wear:
- Plate
- Leather
- Cloth
Search I
A search on thottbot with a filter on Quests, Healing, Green’s, Blue’s, Plate, Mail, Leather: Here
As you can see, there are only 2 quest-items with +healing that are plate, and they’re both legs.
Search II
The only actual way you can get your hands on plate via quests, are the one’s who have spelldamage as well as healing.
A search on thottbot with a filter on Quests, Spells (all), Green’s, Blue’s, Plate: here
The list still ain’t huge, but at least it covers all the slots. So if you’re still wearing random plate without healing, you can replace it with one of those before you go ‘for the real deal’.
The positive thing about this approach is that you can do some dps as well while soloing.
Search III
Plate drops with healing are hard to come by as well.
A search on thottbot with a filter on Drops, Healing, Green’s, Blue’s, Plate: here
There are some tricky thing to note here. First of all, it doesn’t show randomly enchanted gear like “…of the Physician” or something similar. Secondly, it shows heroics, normals, worlddrops and old-world-raid-drops (non-epic).
So to make it a bit easier, I’ll organize them for thee.
Old World Raid drops
Peacekeeper Boots – 22 heal, 6 mp5, 12 int – Zul’Gurub, High Priestess Jeklik
Peacekeeper Leggings – 37 heal, 7 mp5, 18 int – Zul’Gurub, High Priest Thekal
World drops
Girdle of Divine Blessing – 48 heal, 0 mp5, 22 int – BoE (so could be on AH)
Instance drops
Gallant’s Wristguards – 29 heal, 0 mp5, 14 int – Dire Maul (random BoP on 3 guards)
Mask of Penance – 66 heal, 10 mp5, 30 int – Steamvault, Mekgineer Steamrigger
Belt of the Ordained – 42 heal, 0 mp5, 8 int – Scholomance, random BoE (so could be on AH)
Heroic drops
Cassock of the Loyal (legs) – 68 heal, 0 mp5, 34 int – Underbog, Hungarfen
Breastplate of Many Graces – 62 heal, 11 mp5, 28 int – Shadow Labyrinth, Grandmaster Vorpil
Justice Bearer’s Pauldrons – 55 healing, 7 mp5, 25 int – Hellfire Ramparts, Omor the Unscarred
Life Bearer’s Gauntlets – 55 heal, 0 mp5, 25 int – Hellfire Ramparts, chest after killing Vazruden
Boots of the Watchful Heart – 55 heal, 7 mp5, 26 int – Old Hillsbrad Foothills, Captain Skarloc
Girdle of Many Blessings – 46 heal, 0 mp5, 22 int – Slave Pens, Rokmar the Crackler
Virtue Bearer’s Vambraces – 35 heal, 6 mp5, 16 int – Blood Furnace, Broggok
Search IV
As you may have noticed, it’s pretty hopeless, it’s either a random drop one in a million, or you have to do some serious heroics.
We may have to resort to Shaman Mail: here
Same here though, some heroic, some random, etc. There are however some static boss drops, which I personally find doable.
(Warning: read the explanation below why you shouldn’t go for this gear)
Loomguard Armbraces – 33 heal, 0 mp5, 7 int – Scholomance, Kirtonos the Herald
Merciful Greaves (feet) – 20 heal, 0 mp5, 14 int – Dire Maul, Alzzin the Wildshaper
Royal Cap Spaulders – 26 heal, 0 mp5, 9 int – Scholomance, Jandice Barov
Girdle of the Gale Storm – 18 heal, 6 mp5, 19 int (2sockets) – Blood Furnace, The Maker
Well that’s about it. As you can see, these are pretty easy instances at you 70’s, and it’s pretty sad that you have to resort into doing these because the itemization for your class is just really crappy. Note as well, that the Scholo and DiM drops have really bad Int and Mp5 stats, so only resort to these options if you really have no other way to go.
You’d better go for damage & healing gear in Outlands, they will have plenty of Int and mp5, and with the extra Intellect 35% will go to even more spelldamage and healing from talents.
Search V
Plate and Mail drops from lvl 61-70 with spelldamage and healing: here.
Not that some items here are either full retri or protection, and the mail items are plain shaman.
Some may be heroic drops, in that case you’d better go for the heroic healing sets. But still be aware, that heroics require almost the same stats that Karazhan requires, so if you’re specced holy and are below the 900 bonushealing, you better bring an offhealer.
Search VI
We all need rings, trinkets, a necklace and a cape.
I don’t think it’s that hard to find a good mace and shield with +healing, most other healing classes can give you advice about that. Always go for +healing in this area, as the weapons particularly have an enormous amount of that.
You can also try and see if you can get something crafted.
Conclusion
It’s hard to get the right equipment, especially if you don’t want to wear something else than Plate. Seeing these search results however make me thing there’s just no other way.
- If there’s a plate drop, please by all means, do loot it. But if you have to get your healing up, just loot the healing stats no matter if it’s cloth.
- Get Spelldamage & Healing gear with plenty of Int and mp5 to make up for the low +healing.
- None of these searches have included randomly enchanted gear like “…of the Physician”, please Do watch the AH or loots for these items.
Other itemization guides
Have a look at the Pally forums, especially this thread.
Otherwise maybe a Druid Healing Gear list could be of use.
Or the Shaman pre-kara itemization thread.
Well that’s about it I guess. I hope this can prove usefull. Feel free to add anything, reply, etc. I know I’m not a paladin, but I figured I should give it a shot, so I did.
