All the Shiny Gems

 

While in the midst of shopping for gear from Nax 25-man, it occurred to me that I had better make some plans for new gems. Now since I’m a healer, the question becomes what to gem for. Do I try to get the ever so cool spellpower up higher, should I gem for haste and see if I can’t drop .02 seconds off my cast time, should I go for crit so I can have an even higher percentage of over heals? Since my first priority is raid healing I think I’m going to look for some spellpower, mana regen, and crit for starters.

 

I’m sure there’s a few out there who would disagree with my plan, but here’s the logic behind what I’m trying to do. First of all I’m not in a raid every single night nor every second that I’m logged on. I think I’d be carried away in a little white “love-me” jacket after a few weeks of that. So since I’m not raiding 24/7 that means that I am doing other things and that I may be doing them solo. So the higher my spellpower, the more able my priest can defend herself. Not mention dailies and farming go oh so much faster if you can just burn through mobs. As an added bonus if also bumps up my bonus healing giving me two benefits from one stat.

 

Mana regen is mostly for raiding, but it also helps out in regular PvE. That’s less time that I have to pause to drink, so I can just keep piling up the bodies. Plus it also helps if I attract a little too much attention and find myself in a prolonged fight. This comes in particularly helpful when you' find yourself near a mischievous hunter from the opposite faction that wants to aggro mobs then feign death right next to you. I know I’ve probably disappointed a few hunters by fending off the mobs they so helpfully brought over to me. I know I’ve laughed at a few. :) The ability to keep mana during a prolonged fight comes in very handy in a raid, obviously. Leaving even one drake up in OS will be a mana management test for just about anyone.

 

Now mana management also brings up an interesting question, “which is better spirit or mp5?”. According to this blue post, spirit is the way to go…for now.

 

I think you can make a good argument that the pendulum has swung back towards Spirit and away from mp5. I think long term the whole system is in need of an update or re-design, but this is not a 3.1 level task.

 

Mana management just happens to lead me right into crit. Sure if you’re critting all the time on your huge heals, you’re going to own the over heal meter. But if you’re critting that often on your low end healing spells, do you really need to cast that many big heals? I know I hate to have to cast greater heal, since it’s a long cast time and heals for so much. Which usually means that most of the heal is going to be wasted to over healing (mostly do to the long cast time) or that the chances of the target dyeing before I get the cast off have gone up. I’m sure every healer can appreciate the make your butt pucker moments when they’re watching the target’s health bar plummet while sitting on the edge of the chair while the cast time ticks down, willing the target to stay long enough to get the heal. So my theory is, bigger little heals. By pumping up my spellpower and crit, hopefully I can get my lower end heals in the neighborhood of my non-crit big heals. Which should help my management at the same time. Of course I’ll have to figure out how much plus crit equates to your actual crit percentage but I like my current theory, so I’ll run with it.

 

With all that in mind, here’s my choices for gems.

• Red Socket -
  1. Runed Scarlet Ruby - +19 sp is pretty cool!
  2. Purified Twilight Opal - +9 sp with +8 spirit (also fits blue socket)
  3. Potent Monarch Topaz - +9 sp with +8 to crit (also fits blue socket)
• Blue Socket -
  1. Sparkling Majestic Zircon – ok so it’s not in the game at the moment, but I can dream. :p
  2. Purified Twilight Opal – also works for a red socket.
  3. Sparkling Sky Sapphire – nice spirit gem
• Yellow Socket -
  1. Potent Monarch Topaz – can be placed in a red socket.
• Meta Socket -
  1. Revitalizing Skyflare Diamond – almost like it was designed for healers. :p
  2. Bracing Earthsiege Diamond – threat reduction is super cool! :)

Update 2/20/09: added Revitalizing Skyflare Diamond to the list of meta gems.