BiS Gear (Ulduar Edition) Disc Priests
Please refer to my BIS Gear list when verifying gear.
Items that are considered BIS gear have a * next to their name.
Disc (normal):
Head: * Conqueror’s Cowl of Sanctification
- Meta: 25 spell power + 2% intellect
- Gem: 23 spell power (pre 3.2 was 19 sp – from this point forward I will only list 3.2 gems)
- Enchant: 30 spell power + 20 crit.
- Socket bonus received
Neck: Life-Binder’s Locket
- Gem: 20 Intellect
- Socket bonus received
Shoulder: Mantle of the Unknowing
- Enchant: 24 spell power + 15 crit.
- Gem: 20 Intellect
- Socket bonus received
Back: * Cape of the Unworthy Wizard
- Enchant: Lightweave Embroidery
- PS: Enchant procs ALL the time!
Chest: * Conqueror’s Robe of Sanctification
- Gem: 23 spell power
- Gem: 20 intellect
- Enchant: +10 stats
- Socket bonus received
Wrists: * Unsullied Cuffs
- Gem: 12 spell power + 10 intellect
- Enchant: 30 spell power
- Socket bonus received
Hands: * Conqueror’s Gloves of Sanctification
- Gem: +10 all stats
- Enchant 28 spell power
- Socket bonus received
Waist: * Cord of the White Dawn
- Gem: 23 spell power
- Gem: 20 intellect
- Belt Buckle Gem: 20 intellect
Legs: * Conqueror’s Leggings of Sanctification
- Gem: 23 spell power
- Gem: 20 intellect
- Enchant: 50 spell power & 20 spirit
- No socket bonus received
Feet: Boots of the Servant
- Gem: 23 spell power
- Enchant: 18 spirit (will discuss in Holy)
- No socket bonus received
- This item is used for both Holy & Disc
Finger: * Signet of Soft Lament
- Gem: 20 intellect
- Enchant: 23 spell power
- No socket bonus received
Finger: * Glowing Ring of Reclamation
- Enchant: 23 spell power
Trinket: * Pandora’s Plea
Trinket: * Sif’s Remembrance
Weapon (2-h): * The Lifebinder
- Enchant: 81 spell power
Wand: * Scepter of Creation
Ok, discussion time!
Disc Priests need 3 main components: Int, SP & Crit. Minor priorities are to haste & spirit.
- Haste should be capped around 10% (mine’s currently 10%)
- Spirit should be around 1k (mine’s currently 1026)
- Crit should be capped around 25% (mine’s currently 27%)
- Spellpower be 2.3k+ (mine’s currently 2300)
- Intellect should be 1.4k+ (mine’s currently 1508)
Why these stats? Simple, disc. priests are about the throughput while conserving a ton of mana. Optimally, you should never lose more than 10k as a disc priest in any fight. Obviously, some boss mechanics don’t allow for this, but in most fights, you should never get even close to low! If I hear a disc priest call for an innervate, a little piece of my heart breaks.
Most of my items and itemization are easily understood. If you’re disc, your 2 priorities are INT & SP (ie: staying power & throughput!). You have a secondary priority to crit and a very low priority to haste & mp5. Thus, from gemming/enchanting you should see this reflection. My only “sore” spot are my boots with the spirit enchant. First, there are no really good boot enchants for priests, maybe mp5? maybe stam? Because I use these boots for both of my specs (Holy & Disc), I benefit from keeping a spirit enchant on the boots for holy.
Recently I made some changes on my Disc gear. The biggest is my weapon change. The Lifebinder seems to be a “holy” weapon, where Rapture seems to be a “disc” weapon, based on their bonuses. However, after careful consideration, I was able to have more flexibility with the Lifebinder in my disc set. With the haste on the weap, I can use more gear that has crit. Also, if you look at the static stats of both weapons, you’ll notice that Lifebinder has very LOW spirit (for a staff) and Rapture has very HIGH spirit. Again, disc priests do not benefit as much from spirit as a holy priest, so easy choice – more spirit = more mp5 & sp for holy; while the Lifebinder had slightly more int & the haste allows for me to get creative with my other gear choices.
Paolo said,
August 13, 2009 at 11:44 am
If I could plan it this well, I’d end up with zero mana the moment the boss dies. That would mean I had the perfect mana pool and regen, not a drop wasted, and all other stat allocations would have added to my HPS (throughput). (And of course I include mitigation in the vague notion of HPS.) Throughput saves lives in the spiky damage territory of Ulduar; longevity saves lives only if the tank (and everyone else) lives that long. Obviously it’s not only unattainable but undesirable to end at zero mana (one needs enough mana to respond to emergencies) — but the point remains: have as much mana as you need; any more is wasted.
I continue to wonder why disc priests stack int instead of spellpower. Although plenty do, I’ve just never found longevity to be an issue that needs addressing; it’s built into the nature of the disc spec itself. Weak throughput is also built into our spec, so that’s where attention is typically needed. You can then debate the merits of SP vs crit vs haste. But prioritizing int isn’t something that I’d do except on Vezax or in groups without replenishment.
Re: Lifebinder vs Rapture: It’s a fascinating problem! I have Rapture and love it, but in the post-3.2 world, haste is looking much more appealing than it previously did. That’s because I’m actually using Greater Heal, which desperately wants haste.
healingbuddy said,
August 14, 2009 at 2:33 pm
I agree with you that SP is something disc priests need. It is just as important as int. Here’s why I talk about int so much:
Rapture (the talent) is based on mana pool (2.5%). Mana pool is based on int. Thus for your longevity and best use of rapture, int is a big key. I have a 30k mana pool in Disc atm. This means every time my bubble is popped I get back a whopping 750 mana back. This is nice considering bubble costs 650ish. But if you are raid dmg healing (or raid dmg preventing – as I like to call it), then some of those bubbles may not pop, thus 650 mana used. Plus as a disc priest, you also heal with Gheal & Fheal (depending on your talents). If you raid heal, you’re inevitably going to be healing with POH. All of these take mana that cannot be gained back as easily. Many disc priests do not have the AOE mana reductions that are needed to keep your mana sustained throughout a fight. Thus again, a larger mana pool helps with the raid healing & preventing.
Also, int subtly increases crit. Crit is a HUGE part of how a disc. priests heals – or more importantly prevents damage. If you can’t crit at least every 3 casts, you’re wasting mana and throughput as a disc. priest. If you include mitigation as part of your throughput, then it’s indeed very important to stack int for the crit bonuses. Most gear gives a ton of crit now, so using crit gems is more or less wasteful, when int can benefit many more pieces of a disc priests’ overall stats.
I have balanced my gems/enchs – most of which are for SP (over INT), but I truly believe int is very valuable for the subtle parts it plays in our throughput & longevity, where SP only affects throughput. Also, SP does not scale with buffs the way INT does. Thus, more thoughput & crits, and more longevity.
Bellabel healer Extraordinaire said,
August 22, 2009 at 6:23 am
So I get around to reading up on this post, and I see Paolo asking why one stacks intellect over spell power. What it all comes down to is the healers play style. Priest healing isn’t what alot of the other healing classes face. I can tell you right now the best non priest healers tend to have identical gear/stats/specs all around period.
Some of the worlds best priest healers have huge disparities in specs/gear/stats. Other than taking a tress main stay talents a priest can take almost any avenue to succeed.