Firelands raid loot.

04/07/2011 01:44Posted by Joecakebaker

Just keep bumping this thread, eventually a blue will answer.

We're definitely listening. If we can find some information to share on this topic, we will endeavour to do so.

Stat balance on gear should be looked at via much more than just boss loot tables. We consider reputation gear, tailor gear, Valor gear and the tier sets when examining what's available to you. If you wish, you can have Spirit on every slot but your belt (which can still be reforged). The priest tier set has Spirit on all 5 slots.

Having said that, the mindset that only cloth with spirit is priest healer gear (and cloth with no spirit is never priest healer gear) is a mindset to be resisted. If that is allowed to set in, then all the fun of looking at a potential new piece of gear and deciding for yourself whether it is an upgrade for you is removed entirely.

Along those lines, something to keep in mind is that there is more to improving the healing you do in cloth than simply stacking spirit. As you increase spell power, haste, and crit, and your tank increases health, armor and avoidance, boss damage negates less of your mana in the first place.

Though this response was posted on the US forums first, the information in that quoted blue post was not just intended for the US forums, as it was sent to us internally as a response to your queries in this thread and some others from other languages here on the EU forums.

Spirit gear is here, just not on the bosses.

Some of you appear to feel that our response misses the mark or doesn't answer what you're really asking.

But for the question as to why there's not much Spirit gear on the boss loot tables in Firelands, the simple answer is that we do not currently feel that having it in boss loot tables is as important as having it available through one or more of the other paths to obtain gear of a similar quality.

What we mean is, as long as the gear is available through faction quartermasters, via purchase with Valor points, through new Tailoring recipes and last but by no means least the Priest tier set, then it is OK for it to not also be in the boss loot tables.

You may very well disagree with that viewpoint, and if you do so we encourage you to let us know your thoughts on that and why you feel differently about it.

Yes, we believe other gear should be good too.

It's true, there was more in that post than just an explanation of the lack of Spirit gear in the boss loot tables. We also believe that other gear that may not have Spirit on it by default should also be interesting for healing priests.

We really don't want it to be all about stacking one stat, and this is not the first time we've made that ideal clear in our blog articles and blue posts.

We want you to look favourably at spell power, haste and crit and not just bliss out on the Spirit stat.

And in fact, if you really don't find this the case, then we'd like to know more about it. Because we believe that as long as you're not running out of mana, the other stats should be more appealing and that's what we want to achieve.

So... you're running out of mana?

If the main reason some of you feel it is bad to consider gear that doesn't feature Spirit by default is because it’d mean you'd run out of mana while in the Firelands raid, then that is indeed an issue and we'd like to hear more about that too if you do feel that way.

This might grate you to hear it though, but we want to ensure that before you start to state that kind of thing, that you've reviewed the spells you use and are certain that you're healing efficiently.

It’s only natural that in previous tier raid content, as your gear got more powerful, you may have stopped healing as efficiently as you did when first entering Cataclysm raids simply because you gradually gained more and more mana to work with.

It could conceivably be that this is a source of some mana issues – basically that the issue is that you may need a higher amount of Spirit than we feel you should do, because you need it to power a strong but ultimately not quite as efficient style of healing as that which we believe can or should be achieved.

There's some conjecture there, and you may disagree with that. Feel free to voice that disagreement.

Also, one may need to actually equip all the new gear available – including from factions, crafting and tier gear – before you can come to the conclusion that they're not providing you with enough of the stats you need to do your job well. Keeping in mind that as you gear up, so are the other members of your raid. They’ll become easier to heal as they gear up and also increase their own stats.

We’re definitely listening and we encourage you to give us your thoughts.

@ wryxian

this still does not explain why other classes DO have spirit on their gear dropped from raid bosses.

Strangely it does seem to for me. Basically, we don't feel it needs to be on the bosses. It's available through other means. So the reason it isn't on the bosses is because we don't feel it needs to be. Of course, you may not agree with that. ;-)

06/07/2011 10:18Posted by Moondrip

edit: and yes, in holy, I am OOM often, in my gear which should be suitable for firelands. Which means I will be reluctant to pickup any piece from FL raid bosses, because I'll OOM even more often..

Then if you are already healing as efficiently as possible, it may be that your raid group is simply taking damage that we intended to be avoided.

Firstly we just want to point out that all feedback, including that which we don't specifically reply to, is being taken into account. Thanks for taking the time out to post.

06/07/2011 10:34Posted by Sylandriel

One last thing... if you really think that stacking spirit is useless for priests (apparently you did not think the same about other healer classes), then why would ya stack spirit on the tier 12 set, and why not on drops? Seems to be a bit self-antagonistic guideline for me.

It would seem like it could be little more like this: we don't want people to stack Spirit, as our ideal goal is that other stats should also be appealing. That doesn't mean we don't want Spirit gear to be available, and that's why we made it available.

But if a healer can get by without just gear that has Spirit on by default, then hurray we're getting close to a result we're aiming for. This might not always be the case for everyone though, and sometimes try as you might, there might be factors beyond your personal control that are getting in the way.

And however much we do want other stats to be useful (and yeah, that's what we mean rather than just interesting) we do still want Spirit to remain a great stat for priests too.

Some of the repeated points make it sound like there's some confusion with our response, as though we're missing the points that are being made. Let me just reiterate that no point made here is lost; nothing that is given here as constructive feedback is lost. We do see the points that you're making. All we're doing is explaining a bit about our viewpoint and encouraging you to respond if you feel otherwise. Which is exactly what you're doing, so great. Thanks!

06/07/2011 12:39Posted by Ashalia

Then ANSWER us already please.

Please take a moment to consider the situation. We cannot convey further information that we have not yet obtained. The only thing we can do is continue to collect the feedback and pass it on. If we have any further information we will, of course, endeavour to convey it.

06/07/2011 12:47Posted by Siniviel

You are actually stating that this thread is filled with people that do not grasp how to efficiently heal with their class?

Actually no we have not in any way said that at all. If just one person reads what was written and thinks "Actually yeah, maybe I can work a bit more on my efficiency" and this improves their healing, then I'm a happy crocolisk. If it doesn't apply to you, however, then it doesn't apply to you.