Today I had an interesting conversation with a former guildy. He asked me “Why do you have so much +hit gear?”
It took me rather aback, because I don’t think I have so much +hit gear.
I have, in fact, two pieces of +hit gear. Frost Needle and Scourgelord’s Baton.
I realize that both those pieces are itemized for caster DPS, not healers. I realize that healers rarely use the types of spells that are affected by +hit, and therefore stacking it is wasteful.
I’m not stacking it. I’ve had rubbish luck with drops for a very long time. I’ve been running TOC10 and 25 for caster shields for a very long time. I’ve never seen one drop. Ever. I finally took the Baton out of sheer desperation that I’d be using a shield from a heroic forever. Seriously, what’s with there being no accessible caster shields in ICC10? I hate that Blizzard tries to cram 25s down my throat all the time. Do they expect me to be healing Sindragosa10 with my heroic shield? No, they expect me to pug Marrowgar25. Grr.
Weapons are just as bad. The last dedicated healer weapon I had was Mariel’s Sorrow. I’m going to stop and let that sink in for a minute….
After that I picked up Seethe (also a DPS weapon, but fairly commonly used by holy pallies for lack of a better healer weapon).
I would gladly pick up a more appropriate healer weapon. I see them drop all the time… oh wait… those are daggers. *facepalms*
“Why,” asks my former guildy, “haven’t you bought a hilt?”
Lets compare for a moment, Frost Needle with Quel’Delar Lens of the Mind. Is this really enough of an upgrade to merit spending 9k gold just so somebody doesn’t question my gear?
I really don’t think so.
Although, I’d take Lockjaw if it dropped. And I am, of course, continuing to get saved to TOC PuGs that can’t kill the boss that drops the shield on a weekly basis. Yay me.
Quick reader poll: Worth spending money on/farming a very marginal upgrade so less people can criticize me? Or is my former guildy being an elitist snot?
loveandwarinazeroth June 7, 2010 at 5:24 pm
Its the same stats except substitute hit for crit. Definitely not worth the gold.
I'll say a little prayer to the goddess of RNG for you.
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Leah June 7, 2010 at 5:49 pm
screw appearances. yes its kinda slight cringe worthy to use items that are not exactly perfectly itemized for your class/spec, but you have to work with what's available to you. RNG has a wicked sense of humor :/ I did get a hilt for my pally, but that's becasue I was upgrading from Sethe.
P.S. my last dedicated healing weapon was mariel's sorrow as well
Rhii June 8, 2010 at 12:28 am
Sooo glad I'm not alone. I've been embarrassed of my weapon luck for a very long time.
Is it me or are there a LOT more healer daggers than maces or swords? Why are they putting all that hit on all the swords?!
Leah June 8, 2010 at 4:25 pm
yes! and most of them have spirit <_< my shammy is not happy either :/ I'm still using ToC25 mace and will probably still use it while leveling in Cataclysm
Rhii June 9, 2010 at 2:37 am
Awww, poor shammy! I didn't think of that. My shammy is still 73 and wears pretty much whatever wanders past. I've actually been drooling at all those caster daggers simply because the shammy has the ability to equip the dang things.
Of course, she has an heirloom mace, so it's all moot anyway!
Bruski June 7, 2010 at 6:01 pm
My third alt (after protadin and boomkin) is a disc priest, so I'm very used to not being able to get well itemized gear. Thankfully I have two great large guilds, and I run GDKP runs on my server, so getting her into 10s and 25 mans isn't hard, but since there's hardly any cloth in ICC 10 or 25 without hit and spirit (both useless to disc priests), my itemization sometimes confuses people who don't know disc priests, and they question my hit gear, or ask if i'm using the right gearset, since I heal using priest shadow tier gear..
I can understand PUGs doing so, but guildies should really know better.
And no, even for a very wealthy player, I would not say an upgrade that marginal is worth 9k.
Remember, you can always tell them you need to make sure your heals don't miss the tank, which is getting ahrd in ICC as the top geared tanks get more and more dodge.
Rhii June 9, 2010 at 2:46 am
I can't believe I missed this comment.
HAHAHAH. I don't want to miss the tank! He's so dodgy.
<3
sonatasun June 7, 2010 at 6:54 pm
As for me, I'd want the hit points. It appears that fire dps is better then arcane for mages in ICC. But there are no talents available to the fire mage to reduce the hit cap from 466.
As for appearances, I've had quite a run with this gear score application. Frankly, I find the abyssal rune trinket from Trial of the Champion the best one out there for us mages. But that gear score demigod doesn't recognize its value. I wonder who else may be forsaking the best in class to appease the PUGS of Northend?
Rhii June 8, 2010 at 12:22 am
It's a pally.
iamapaladin June 8, 2010 at 9:35 pm
Your judgments won't miss now! So you can't say hit is completely useless.
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Rhii June 9, 2010 at 2:38 am
haha! Yay for accurate judgments!
Gnomeaggedon June 7, 2010 at 4:07 pm
snot… Nuff said
Gazimoff June 7, 2010 at 5:13 pm
If it’s not a huge upgrade, it’s not worth 9k gold. For that money you can buy most of a motorbike, something that’ll give you far more satisfaction and actually last longer than a measley weapon upgrade.
People selling hilts are working in a shrinking market. Some day they’ll be 200g and we’ll all laugh at those who paid 13k for them.
Rhii June 8, 2010 at 12:24 am
And then I'll buy one, cause I hear the quest chain is AWESOME.
Rades June 7, 2010 at 5:13 pm
Absolutely not. In fact even if you got a hilt I'd recommend selling it or using it on a different character. That's a minimal difference that definitely isn't worth tossing away 5k-10k gold on. As for running with +Hit weapons, eh – you gotta run with what you get! Sometimes you just get cursed by the loot gods. My druid is wearing at least 3 pieces of cloth gear not because they're better, but because I CAN'T GET ANY LEATHER to replace them.
My recent post The tradition (ie curse) continues!
Euripedes June 7, 2010 at 6:00 pm
Gah, come to our guild. Lockjaw has not dropped exactly once. A dozen kills and eleven Lockjaws. Dumb.
Rhii June 8, 2010 at 12:24 am
/cry
Cogito June 7, 2010 at 9:58 pm
He's being an elitist snot.
The lady of the house (holy paladin) used Seethe for quite a while until Rotface decided to be generous to her.
That being said, it burns my mana strudel any time I see a healer roll on a +hit item against a dps caster that needs the upgrade. *shrugs*
Or mayhaps I'm an elitist snot, and I just recognize my own kind. :p
Rhii June 7, 2010 at 7:24 pm
No caster dps wanted either of those pieces when I rolled on them.
Unlike the silly mages and locks who keep ninjaing Love's Prisoner from me so I keep getting stuck with the healer neck from the Love is in the Air boss!
DarthRegis June 8, 2010 at 2:37 pm
With the 20% buff in ICC, pugging to Marrowgar25 isn't that hard to do. Heck, you might even get into a decent pug and you've got Saurfang down within an hour! Might be worth the effort?
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Rhii June 9, 2010 at 2:40 am
It might be. I'm a coward.
Mostly, I only have experience in 10s and so a 25 is scary to me just because of the numbers, disregarding all the rest. And my server is NOTORIOUSLY jerky about pugs. For instance, I've never completed a TOC25 pug… ever. Because nobody thinks the rest of the group is good enough so they rage quit. Before the wipe sometimes. It's totally awesome to do that, by the way.
Len June 8, 2010 at 5:42 pm
*shrugs* my priest is wearing a +hit neck that she won on an offspec roll when no-one else wanted it… and then realised that it had more spellpower and haste than her currently equipped neck PLUS an extra gem slot. Hit schmit, it was a definite upgrade!
I wouldn't roll on an item with hit unless no dps casters wanted it, but if it's going for spares and it's an upgrade I'll gladly grab it! There really is no reason why not.
Anyway, mass dispel spam works much better with a bit of hit
Rhii June 8, 2010 at 9:43 pm
I don't "steal" upgrades from DPS either. I only took frost needle and the baton because I was the only one who rolled. We've been running those two bosses for so long now that everyone else who could possibly have considered wanting one had already taken it.
I even offered the offhand to the tank druid's boom offspec before I took it, just in case.
I do roll on things that work equally well for both healers and dps though… like Soulcleave Pendant off Saurfang. No hit, no mp5, just yummy yummy non-differentiated caster stats. Haven't won it yet, so I keep on rolling!
iamapaladin June 8, 2010 at 9:34 pm
he's being snotty -.-
My recent post Legendary Drama
Rhii June 9, 2010 at 2:44 am
It's kind of a moot point now, because Lockjaw dropped for me last night.
I think writing this post was karma.
Also Love's Prisoner finally, finally, finally dropped in HFOS. AND I outrolled the shadow priest for it. Finally. So I don't have to wear the 226 neck from the Apothecaries of Love anymore.
Tamarind June 10, 2010 at 10:40 am
Yes, I join the hue and cry of "snot! snot! out the snot!"
I mean sometimes you just run across things that are significant enough upgrades that who cares if the itemisation is a bit dodgy. I had the Scougelords Baton for ages (lol!hit) and even now clueless caster DPS get annoyed when I roll on items they view as not being for healers on account of lacking spirit – and, really, life is too short to explain to people who disc priests work
Rhii June 10, 2010 at 12:44 pm
I wouldn't touch spirit with a ten foot pole!
*cough* I'm a pally, sir!
Redbeard June 17, 2010 at 11:41 pm
Lets compare for a moment, Frost Needle with Quel’Delar Lens of the Mind. Is this really enough of an upgrade to merit spending 9k gold just so somebody doesn’t question my gear?
I really don’t think so.
For that reason alone? Hell no. In fact, I'd avoid doing it just because he suggested it. But that's just me, Mr. Contrary.
If you want to check out the quest line and see the Sunwell in operation without all those pesky Burning Legion types around –and you can afford it– then go for it.
If you raid, then ICC will spit out equivalents. No hurry.
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isheepthings June 23, 2010 at 7:15 pm
I really don't see the point in spending that much on something so little of a increase anyway. if I'm going to spend that much on something I want to use it beyond lvl 80 (like my vendor mount).
Once cataclysm release date is announced and its 30 days till launch you'll see that thing for 1k or less i'm guessing. that'd be the time to pay 1k to see some cool lore quest.