How to determine if gear is for you (mostly for casters.)

Ok

if some of you haven't noticed, I usually put the serious topics in the raid section - mostly because it's the only time I think everyone should take things seriously. That aside, here's how to determine if gear is for you.

1.) Can you wear it?
Obviously if you're a caster you're limited to Cloth. If you're a Druid or Rogue you get the options of Leather on top of Cloth. If you're a Hunter or Shaman you get Mail, Leather or Cloth and If you're a Pally or Warrior (or soon to be Death knight) You can wear all of the above and Plate. If you can't wear it, don't roll on it. If you can wear it, than have reasons to roll on it. Attack Power/Crit Mail gear really should go to a hunter or an enhancement shaman. However if the Mail has a bonus to spell power, it should go to the shaman. While a hunter does have mana and abilites that would gain a boost form it, the boost is moot and should really be gained from things like Attack Power.

2.) How can I tell.
Until patch 3.0.2 comes out, here's how you can tell if the gear that drops may be for you.
If you see 2 sets of numbers (usually the first is a healing number the 2nd is a spell damage number) and you are not a class that can HEAL you really shouldn't be rolling on the item. usually 2 sets of numbers mean it's healer gear.

If you only see ONE number it's DPS Caster gear. That means if you cast spells and your mana is primarily for creating damage on a mob/boss, that gear is for you.

From than on it's a question of the stats. usually a High Stam item that's caster gear is more for a warlock (since warlocks can use their health as their mana pool) High Int gear is more for a mage (since it increase their mana pool and crit percentage) and High Spirit is just crap...I mean for Priests and Druids (since of all the caster classes, they gain the most mp5 from spirit)

Well what aobut after 3.0.2?

Post 3.0.2 all of our fancy numbers are being merged into ONE number. Meaning priests/mages/locks/elemental and resto shaman/Balance and Resto druids may all be rolling on the same gear. However, after looking at some of it here's what I've noticed

Nuking (DPS) gear mostly has Crit on it. Restoration (Healer) gear now has Mp5.
why is this important? Well as DPS, you probably want the big numbers and want to Crit. A lot. Where as most healers will want mp5. Why?

Just in case you've never healed, know that you're not always casting spells (unless your a pally.) So you tend to sit there and you enter the mp5 state and regain mana. hence, if you see gear with mp5, it really should go to the healer.

Ok, now you're probably asking a few things. Things like "Should'nt I get mp5? what about pallys? anything else?"

ok 1.) if you need mp5 you really need to think about your class. mp5 works like this. When you're out of combat you regain mana at X amount every 5 seconds. The higher your mp5 the more mana you regain. However, in combat your mp5 is usally a lot less. And because you'll be casting every second. You usually won't have time to regenrate enough mana.

2.) what about pallys? Blizz has stated they want everyone to rethink about mana. Yes, if there is one class that I may say go for crit gear as well as DPS it's the paladin. Why? because most pally's flash of light. a lot. They don't have an AOE cast (yet) So they rarely exit the mp5 rate. which makes me wonder if they'll have the biggest heals come wrath, especially if they end up stacking crit gear. We'll see as blizz has been decent about itemization...but not the greatest. This may be the reason why some pally gear has lower stats compared to their mail,leather, cloth breathern, as well as the fact that of all the other healer classes, they tend to be a bit more mana efficient.

other things to know.

+ Str, Agi is mostly for melee
+ Int, Spirit is mostly for casters
+ Stam is for everyeone (MORE HP = GOOD)
+ Resilience is for PVP (less crits on you)
+ Spell Penetration is for PVP (less reisists)
+ Spell Hit is for PvE

And no, not everything is hunterloot.

Please add this thread if you have questions or want to improve it.

-Droxia

Very nicely put drox thanks!

https://2img.net/h/i20.photobucket.com/albums/b221/throm/raidhunter.jpg


Heh...everything is hunter loot. Didn't you know?

Keljaedon wrote:https://2img.net/h/i20.photobucket.com/albums/b221/throm/raidhunter.jpg


Heh...everything is hunter loot. Didn't you know?

Blizz nerfed hunters. As proven by this http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2008/9/12/

Jokes aside. Cand we get this thread stikied until a month or two after Wrath is released? Considering I can name several casters in healer gear or have had to question their gear, I feel this is a must read.

Why always the hunter jokes....Heffas

Because if you only knew how many people didn't know HOW to play their hunter.