Game Info

Pre-Raid Holy Paladin Gear List, v.1

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Okay, gear lists are always useful, and as more and more people are starting to hit the 78-80 range, it’s time to think about what you’re going to wear to your first Naxxramas raid. Remember, no-one likes being underdressed!

The following are some suggestions for each item slot; I’ll suggest the best items from various sources, so no matter your playstyle you can take a shot at gearing up. Note that this covers gear that does not involve raiding, arenas or battlegrounds.

As a general rule, I list the best item or items under “best option”, the next-best under “alternatives”, and then the other options below those. I haven’t even looked at lower-armor alternatives; if a decent piece of ‘lesser’ armor pops up, you might want to think long and hard about whether it’s worth wearing. (Even though I disdain the trend towards ‘clothadins’, even I’m wearing epic leather pants at the moment while I wait for a plate drop of comparable quality.)

This is, of course, a work in progress; I’ll update it if new gear appears or the theorycrafting thinktanks come up with new recommendations for gearing strategies. Or, of course, if I make a mistake. (Heaven forfend.)

I’ve tried to make this a comprehensive list, but I may well have missed something in all my staring at Wowhead and LootRank and MaxDPS. Feel free to ping me in the comments if so. (Note that I’ve generally restricted gear to the best few items in each slot; this is a gearing-up post, not a list of all available holy paladin gear.)

A Note On Badges
The level 70 Badges of Justice have been replaced by two types of Level 80 tokens. Emblems of Heroism drop in Heroic 5-mans, and 10-man raids, and can be used to buy iLvl 200 epics (the equivalent of 10-man Naxxramas drops). Emblems of Valor drop in 25-man raids, and can be used to buy iLvl 213 items. In this guide I’ve only referenced items purchasable with Emblems of Heroism, as Emblems of Valor aren’t accessible outside of 25-man raids.

A Note On Regen
This list is aimed at holy-spec paladins; therefore, Crit is valued highly because it’s our primary regen stat (along with Intellect, now). If you’re a protection or retribution paladin building an offspec set, you’ll want to avoid the crit-heavy items because they do nothing to help your mana, and look for mp5 (and, more importantly, Intellect) as a regen stat.

Edit: A Note On Spirit, and Balancing Stats
Yes, I know there are a number of pieces in here with +Spirit on them – usually necks, rings and cloaks. Yes, I know paladins get nothing out of Spirit. In general, those items with +spirit that are listed here are flat-out better than other alternatives, even if you completely ignore the +Spirit (which pallies generally should). That said, stat selection is a personal thing, and if you calculate that other items are more of a benefit for you because you’re stacking a certain stat, or it suits your playstyle, more power to you. (Just be aware that if that certain stat is Spirit, the other holy pallies will laugh you out of the clubhouse.)

Edit 2: Updates
There are a few item changes in Patch 3.0.8 that will affect some of these items (specifically, a helm, a weapon and a trinket). Check out this post for more details.
Helm

Neck

Shoulders

  • Best option: Ferocious Pauldrons of the Rhino from the second boss (Gortok Palehoof) in Heroic Utgarde Pinnacle.
  • Alternatives: Pauldrons of Destiny from the last boss (Mal’ganis) in Heroic CoT:Stratholme, or Discarded Silver Hand Spaulders from the same boss in Normal mode.
  • Failing any of the above, which are either hard to get (the Ferocious Pauldrons) or inferior (the mp5-laden CoT drops), Pauldrons of Morbidus are a really good slot-filler, with a good balance of stats. They’re from The Flesh Giant Champion, the conclusion of a quest chain in Icecrown. WoWhead is not entirely helpful on that quest chain, so your best bet is just to go to Darkrider Arly and do all the quests she and her paladin companion offer; the chain will lead you to this quest.

Cloak

  • Best option: Wispcloak: BoE craftable by tailors. This is leagues ahead of the next alternative, and if you only have one epic crafted this should be it.
  • Alternatives: Deathchill Cloak: BoE craftable by tailors, Reanimator’s Cloak: BoE zone drop from Heroic Drak’Tharon Keep, Shroud of Moorabi from the second boss (Moorabi) in Heroic Gundrak, Shroud of Resurrection from the second boss (Gortok) in Heroic Utgarde Pinnacle, Ancient Dragon Spirit Cape from the last boss (Ley-Guardian Eregos) in Heroic Oculus, or Shroud of Dedicated Research from Honored with Kirin Tor. (The epic is significantly better than the blues, but any of them are fine if you can’t afford a Wispcloak. If you have the choice between them, pick one that bolsters stats where you’re weaker.)

Chest
Note for the really keen: you can buy the 10-man Tier 7 chest with 80 Emblems of Heroism. However, that’s still raid gear, and you’ll need something to wear while you’re racking up those 80 badges, so I’m not counting it in the list for now.

  • Best option: Patina-Coated Breastplate, BoE zone drop from Halls of Stone or Eregos’ Ornamented Chestguard from the last boss (Ley-Guardian Eregos) in The Oculus. (Although it’s a lower iLevel item, the Chestguard is a stronger item than the BoE Breastplate. However, the BoE is still pretty good, and unless you get lucky on an Oculus run I’d recommend just picking up the BoE on the AH and spending your playtime working towards an item without a BoE alternative.)
  • Alternatives: Brilliant Saronite Breastplate: BoE craftable by Blacksmiths, or Besieging Breastplate from the Aces High! quest in Coldarra. (Honestly, the only reason to take either of these is if Patina-Coated Breastplates cost more than you can afford on your realm. They’re both fairly uninspiring; the BoP is probably a better choice than the BoE, despite its reliance on mp5.)

Bracers

  • Best option: Bone-Framed Bracers: BoE from Naxxramas, or Bands of Fading Light: BoE from Utgarde Pinnacle. (The epic is, of course, better than the blue – however, it may be hard to acquire for a few months, as most guilds who see them drop will generally keep them for their own healadins.)
  • Alternatives: Catalytic Bands from the third boss (Mage-Lord Urom) in Heroic Oculus, or Bracers of Accorded Courtesy from Revered with the Wyrmrest Accord.

Gloves
Like the chest, you can buy the 10-man Tier 7 gloves with 60 Emblems of Heroism.

Belt

Legs

Boots

  • Best option: Poignant Sabatons: BoE drop from Noth the Plaguebringer in 25-man Naxxramas, or Sabatons of Erekem from Erekem in Heroic Violet Hold. (The epic boots are incredibly awesome, but they’re probably also going to cost an arm and a leg on most realms, at least for a few months. The blue boots are an excellent replacement; although they have mp5, there’s so much of it it’s hard to hate them for it.)
  • Alternatives: Mojo Frenzy Greaves from the second boss (Moorabi) in Heroic Gundrak, or Brilliant Titansteel Treads: BoE craftable by Blacksmiths. (The epic boots have great stats, but are again let down by the total lack of +int on them; the blue boots are very solid all-rounders and are a fine replacement for either of the recommended boots in ‘Best Options’ above.)
  • Other decent choices include Harpooner’s Striders from the third boss (Skadi) in Utgarde Pinnacle, Skywall Striders from the third boss (Ionar) in Heroic Halls of Lightning); in the meantime, Slippers of the Mojo Dojo are a good starting point.

Rings
Lots of choices here, because you need two rings and they’re all Unique-Equipped.

Trinkets
Trinkets are very situational items; rather than relying on ‘best’ and ‘alternatives’, here are some of the choices. I’ll theorycraft out the numbers at some point in the future:

  • Je’Tze’s Bell, BoP world drop (mostly off elite mobs). Apparently should be fixed soon to be BoE, but I haven’t seen a confirmed source on that. An excellent trinket if you’re lucky enough to get one. The proc works out as approximately 25 mp5.
  • Darkmoon Card: Illusion, from the Darkmoon Prisms deck. Although the mana regen is on a 5 minute CD, it’s a welcome addition now potions are limited to one per fight. Across a 5 minute cooldown, it’s an equivalent of 20 mp5 (although it’s relatively more valuable in short fights).
  • Darkmoon Card: Greatness, from the Darkmoon Nobles deck. There’s a +Int version of this card (and a +Spi version as well) although Wowhead only shows the +Agi and +Str versions so far. With Divine Intellect, a +Int version would deliver 103 Int, with 345 Int on a proc (which is a 35% proc chance, probably with a 45 second internal cooldown). That’s a pretty huge boost, and if you synchronise the proc with Divine Plea, that’s a phenomenal amount of mana return. I’d go out on a limb and say this has the potential to be the single best trinket for pally mana (and the extra spell crit from the +Int is a nice bonus, too).
  • The Egg of Mortal Essence, purchasable with 40 Emblems of Heroism. A good, solid, easily-accessible trinket which will last you a good long time. A pure throughput trinket, with little support for mana issues.
  • Forge Ember from Sjonnir in Heroic Halls of Stone. An excellent trinket, doing dual-duty for throughput and regen thanks to the crit and the proc effect.
  • Spark of Life from Sjonnir in Heroic Halls of Stone. Less impressive than Sjonnir’s other trinket drop, this is still decent, particularly if you’re low on +haste.
  • Figurine – Sapphire Owl, BoP crafted by Jewelcrafters. While weak on the throughput side, this has the potential – especially socketed with Int gems – to be an excellent regen trinket. Notably, it provides a hit of mana independent of potions, dark runes, Divine Plea or similar regen cooldowns.
  • Mercurial Alchemist Stone, BoP crafted by Alchemists. A solid trinket, particularly with Wrath’s new limitations on potion use. This makes every potion that much more valuable, and has some nice equip bonuses to boot.
  • Tears of Bitter Anguish, a BoE drop from Nascent Valkyr in the Storm Peaks. A good throughput trinket, especially useful for fights with high mobility needs, although you probably only want to equip something like this in place of a +spellpower trinket once the rest of your gear passes muster. – this is being changed to work on melee crits only in 3.0.8.
  • Soul Preserver, from Mal’ganis in CoT:Stratholme. The equip bonus is nice, but the proc is underwhelming; it’s only a 2% proc chance, which comes into its own with multi-target healers. For paladins, it’s probably not the best choice for the slot unless you’re really lacking in trinkets.
  • Tome of Arcane Phenomena, from Eregos in The Oculus. Another starter trinket, better than the stacks of green quest reward trinkets you’re probably drowning in, but to be replaced as soon as possible.
  • Cannoneer’s Fuselighter from an early Icecrown quest. It’s got a good combination of stats, just not enough of them, but it’s the best of the pre-iLevel 200 trinkets.

Weapon

  • Best option: War Mace of Unrequited Love: drops from the last boss (Keristrasza) in Heroic Nexus, or Titansteel Guardian: BoE craftable by blacksmiths. (Tough choice here; overall I’d pick the War Mace for a better balance of regen vs spellpower, but either one would be fine.)
  • Alternatives: Gavel of the Brewing Storm from Revered reputation with the Wyrmrest Accord, or Gavel of the Fleshcrafter: drops from the second boss (Salramm) in Heroic CoT:Stratholme.
  • There are other options, of course: the Beguiling Scepter from the last boss (Mal’ganis) in CoT:Stratholme, Jeweled Coronation Sword from the last boss (Ymiron) in Utgarde Pinnacle, or Totemic Purification Rod from Revered with the Kalu’ak; these are all good if you’re still waiting on Wyrmrest rep and can’t get the drops you want.
  • In the Meantime: Saronite Spellblade, BoE craftable by Blacksmiths – a great starter weapon while you wait to get one of the better options listed above.

Shield

  • Best option: Protective Barricade of the Light: 35 Emblems of Heroism
  • Alternatives: Facade Shield of Glyphs: drops from the first boss (Krik’thir the Gatewatcher) in Heroic Azjol-Nerub, or Tor’s Crest: drops from the last boss (King Ymiron) in non-Heroic Utgarde Pinnacle. (Personally, I’d take the Crest as I’m finding I strongly prefer crit over mp5 in WotLK.)
  • Tharon’ja’s Aegis from the last boss (The Prophet Tharon’ja) in Drak’tharon Keep is a reasonable stopgap, although inferior to all of the above.
  • In the Meantime: Saronite Protector: BoE craftable by Blacksmiths – a great starter shield which served me until level 80.

Libram
Libram choice is very dependent on your healing style; your typical rotation and spell choices are going to dictate what you find more useful, generally.

If you use Holy Light heavily:

If you rely on Flash of Light:

Unfortunately both of these require PvPing, costing both Honor points and Arena points, but there are no other Flash of Light-centric Librams in WotLK.

68 thoughts on “Pre-Raid Holy Paladin Gear List, v.1”

  2. This is awesome, thanks for posting it! Going to be going over this list quiet a bit. I was super glad to see the Barricade in best slot, as I have my heart set on getting one for how it looks alone (To many months spent with my hair on fire from the Disc of Mojo)

  3. I think you’re forgotten that healers don’t need to wear plate gear, there are many great or even better gear options then the ones you listed in mail, leather, and cloth, such as Battlemap Hide Helm, from the first boss in UK, it’s one of the best head pieces for pallies, But I’ve also noticed your gear choices are much more versitile at level 80 depending on your play style, You can just stack on all the spell power you could imagine at the cost of mp5 and mana, but it allows for some sick FOL spamming, or you can stack a lot on int pretty easily and in pre raid gear get almost 25k mana, for great synergy with Divine plea, and have the ability to spam holy lights for a good while.

  4. I did mention in one of the early paragraphs that “I haven’t even looked at lower-armor alternatives; if a decent piece of ‘lesser’ armor pops up, you might want to think long and hard about whether it’s worth wearing.” – however, I’m not going to look at every single piece of cloth, leather and mail; the plate alone was a big enough job.

    That said, I think there are enough good plate options that one shouldn’t have to drop down to an inferior armor type unless you’re really unlucky on drops.

  6. Wonderful, thank you so much for all the hard work you put into this! I don’t play a pally myself but I recommended your blog to a friend and he is going to absolutely love this list :D

  7. Correct me if I’m wrong, but with Divine Plea I believe int is a much much better regen stat than mp5 or crit. In addition to the regen, int gives you spell power (through Holy Guidance), maximum mana, and some crit (although admittedly less than crit rating).

    Although on paper it looks like you would gimp your effective healing by focusing on int, in practice it allows you to increase the ratio of HL to FoL you cast and increase your throughput substantially.

    Unfortunately I don’t have the thread link to hand, but (as always) there’s some fantastic posts about holy paladin stat valuation on the Elitist Jerks forums’ Paladin section.

  8. @Chronic – yep, Int is now fantastic stat-wise, and I took that into account when picking ‘best of’ items (as you’ll notice when I kvetch about the lack of int on some Blacksmithing BoEs, for instance).
    .
    To be specific – I derived some weighting numbers from MaxDPS.com, which I used as a rough guide for weighing up comparable items. Point-for-point, Int is more valuable than pretty much any other stat on our gear except pure Spellpower.

  9. Interesting, thanks. It’s a great guide and I appreciate you taking the time to write it up. The only thing I’d note is that Helm of Purified Thoughts (in the Helm category above) is colored like a superior item when it is in fact epic – class=”q3″ when it should be class=”q4″, I believe.

    Thanks again!

  10. I was able to buy the shield (epic item level 200) Zom’s Crackling Bulwark from the AH for about 1500g and am loving it.

    Thanks for this guide. I’ve been looking and waiting for something like this for weeks.

  11. There is easy to get green quest trinket you can get at level 74 that is pretty damn nice when you got nothing better:
    Badge of the Infiltrator
    +46 int
    +44 sp

    With int currently being the stat to go for thats one nice trinket, especially considering how easy it is to get.

  12. @Taraske – yeah, that’s a great trinket, especially given its accessibility. I didn’t list it here because this is intended to be a “best of the pre-raid gear” gear list, and there _are_ a lot of pre-raid trinkets better than that.

  15. Great list, thank you! It’s been a huge help in coming up with some suggested starting stats for Naxx10.

    Quick correction, though – you have the Libram of Renewal listed as costing 40 Emblems; it actually only costs 15. Much easier to get! :-)

  16. Thanks Siha for posting such a great gear primer! The trinket section in particular was very useful. The in-line WowHead links and sectional layout are especially appreciated.

    For the Wrists section, don’t forget about the epic drop from Heroic Ajol Nerub:

    Flamebeard’s Bracers
    37 STA
    38 INT
    49 CRIT
    59 SP

  17. Thanks for this. I already have my DK to 80 and am not leveling my Paladin. For everyone who is working on a cloak, GET THE WISPCLOAK. The mats are dead easy to get and it is really one of the best cloaks pre-raiding.

  21. Hi there, but I have yet to find the http://www.wowhead.com/?item=42612 … Savage Gladiator’s Libram of Justice. I know the sources on the internet state it’s from a vendor but noone from my guild or any of the other palas seen the vendor whom is suppose to have the libram or the item itself.

    Otherwise, bonuswork on the gear list…. /cheer

  22. Love the List! TYVM!

    I tried a couple of those cheap BoE alt options and would like to comment to see what you think:
    Gloves: I’m definitely holding onto my vengeful gladiator’s ornamented gloves. I know it doesn’t compare on int and and sp to the Web winder gloves I bought, but that +2% crit to flash! I can’t get rid of them!

    The other option I tried out was the Patina coated breastplate.. another cheap BoE for ~70G… I ended up staying with my glowing breastplate of truth … why? you guessed it: crit!

    Side note: I picked up Hateful Gladiator’s Ornamented Legplates off of Archavon.. doesn’t compare on int to the SI legguards, but sp and crit are awesome! ‘gonna try them out this week, see if I miss the int.

    I’m really glad for the neck, rings, trinkets and librams you listed (and the badge gear list! I have a target for # of badges now!) I started looking up prices. Good god!
    Nobles Deck 24K G
    Titanium Spellshock Ring 1700G
    Titanium Spellshock Necklace 3K G
    time to start farming!
    and arena-ing again. Not sure if I should slap on my 70 resilience gear, but I’m sure it’ll become obvious very quickly.

    Thanks again! I just turned 80 on 19dec08 (got distracted on my DK, levelling engineering) and this list is awesome. Take care.

  23. @Ben – the Savage Gladiator’s Libram won’t be available until the arena gear vendor pops up in Wintergrasp. I think that’s next week, maybe?

  24. Ty Siha I’ll def keep a look out even though we area working on the rating for the higher lvl one. I do hope it comes out with the new patch yet I have not seen anything in the patch notes. Will keep digging.

    anywho, ty again for it.

  25. Hey i love the list :D im leveling a pally at the moment and hoping to spec holy when i ding 80 , will this gear be pretty quick acquire, for a quick change or will it take me a while? thanks

  26. Nice list – glad to see you stuck with plate, I think survivability is a factor while groups are learning new raids/content, so it can really be the difference between a raid victory and a raid wipe.

  27. This is the worst guide I’ve ever seen in my wholed life u r all noobs, go reroll unholy dk nubs, they heal better

  30. Yes the Battlemap Hide Helm is by far the best pre-raid helm. Alot better than all the epics or other blues u linked to. Altough it will get nerfed in next patch because of its overpower, so maybe nothing to knock your head farming for.

  31. Except that it’s leather, which means a) it’s outside the scope of this guide, and b) it’s not something I would recommend for a paladin to wear except in the very short term anyway.
    .
    You’re right that its stats are way overpowered, though. Wow, that’s pretty amazing.

  34. *sighs* my over use of emotes ate my comment… I’m not trying to comment-bomb you I promise.

    I wanted to mention what someone else said above about the Zom’s Crackling Bulwark. Its only a slight downgrade from the badge shield and I’ve been using it so I can save my badges for T7 pieces and other upgrades of a larger scale. It only lacks the crit and 1pt of Spell Power, but here is the comparison on Wowhead:

    http://www.wowhead.com/?compare=44313;40700

    Looks like its a random drop from Naxx, but my guildie picked it up in a heroic and gave it to me.

    No more comments I promise! lol

  35. @BlogofLight – I saw this drop in Heroic UK of all places, so it totally drops in places other than Naxx. Of course I lost the roll on it. :(

  37. Thanks for this amazingly helpful thread Siha! I had to respec Holy and gear up in a hurry since my guild is lacking heals but has lots of tanks. Fortunately I had about 3/4 of the gear you mentioned sitting in my bank. I scooped it in my heroic runs when no one else needed (being the only class that can heal in plate .. made it obvious who should take) :D.

    I would like to direct you to a fantastic site however that will do all the leg work for you if you ever decide to revise your guide to include all pieces instead of just plate.

    http://tinyurl.com/876nzq

    Thank you so much Siha!

  39. Excellent guide. I’ve been using other sites to find gear here and there and it’s nice to have it all listed in one place by someone that knows the class. As a maxed BS, I am extremely disappointed that Blizzard decided to leave int off our purple spell power items. However, I will be making the mace after my next titansteel CD gets me my 6th bar.

    I agree that paladins should wear plate, however, I am still wearing the cloth belt from timed ZA (and I cannot wait to get rid of it, but with all the sockets it has it’s been hard to replace) and am wearing the Kilt of Molten Golems from reg HoL until I can replace it (it dropped, it was an upgrade, I rolled). I am also wearing the Ornate Saronite chest and legs which I crafted and think are decent pcs if you can get them easily and have just hit 80.

    I have been trying to stack crit and haste, as well as int and SP, however, I don’t want to lose MP5 altogether. What is the “magic” number for MP5 that a holy pally can get to and then forget that stat completely?

    I just hit 80 a week or so ago and I have 1497 SP, 18.47% crit, 107 haste and 123 MP5 while casting. Intellect is 739 and mana pool is 15199. I’m generally not having mana issues and my heals are fine for heroics and 10 mans. What should I stack now and is there anything I can lose to get more of that stat? (the stated stats do not include the Titansteel Guardian) I’m thinking I need more haste at this point (on top of increasing my SP, of course), but just really haven’t worked out all of the new mechanics of my class. I was a high level raider in TBC, but it has ALL change dramatically and I am a little lost.

    Your help is appreciated.

  40. correction to post above…

    I am wearing the Ornate Saronite chest and boots, not the chest and legs. Sorry for any confusion.

  41. One item you missed in the shield category is Zom’s Crackling Bulwark, which seems to be a world drop (mine fell off a Scavenging Geist when I was level 68). Likely too expensive on the AH, but a very good shield if you get lucky.

  42. Thank you so much for posting this, I respecced holy a couple of weeks ago and I’m working hard to gear up to be helpful to my guild. Having all this information in one place will be very useful!

  44. I haven’t read through all the comments but the top few i agree with in that you put alot of time to this and I love how you gave quite a few pieces for each slot to pick from. I’m a retadin but my guild plans to start naxx soon with two pally healers so the gear here is lots of help.

    One point though the gladiator librams are, atm, not in-game although wowhead lists them. I suggest the nagrand libram or the one off Kara off R+J, which is now an easy run with 5 semi-geared 80s.

  45. Sadly it doesn’t look like Hateful Gladiator’s Libram of Justice made it into the live realms yet. Has anyone actually seen it?

  46. No, unfortunately the Savage and Hateful weapons/offhands/librams never made it into the game. The deadly one is in there, but the rating requirements make it a little tricky to obtain.

  48. @Zzook: I would say the Wispcloak wins. You lose 1 SP by going for the Wispcloak, but you get 1 Int and 20 mp5. mp5 may not be a great stat for us any more, but 20 mp5 is certainly more valuable than the spirit on the Reanimator’s Cloak.

  50. Depends on the rest of your gear, enchants, gems etc. It’s worth a try if you have a tank who’s willing to give it a go though!

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