Saturday, March 28, 2009

Socket bonuses and B stats on Ulduar gear

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I know lots of resto blogs have already looked at the tier gear for Ulduar, but I was glancing through it and thought I'd put in my 2 cents. Here's the gear in question: (now with tooltips - makes it easier to read):

Conqueror's Nightsong Handguards
Conqueror's Nightsong Headpiece
Conqueror's Nightsong Leggings
Conqueror's Nightsong Robe
Conqueror's Nightsong Spaulders

What strikes me are the socket bonuses. They're exclusively spell power and spirit. Compare and contrast:

Socket bonuses for tier gear:

Tier 7.5.............................Tier 8.5
Helm: +2 mp5..........................+8 spirit
Legs: +6 spirit..........................+7 spell power
Chest: +6 haste........................+7 spell power
Shoulders: +4 crit....................+4 spirit
Hands: +4 spirit.......................+5 spell power

Totals for tier 7.5: 10 spirit, no spell power, 6 haste, 4 crit, 2 mp5
Totals for tier 8.5: 12 spirit, 19 spell power, no haste, no crit, no mp5

So with the new socket bonuses, we're gaining a bit of spirit, a decent amount of spell power, and losing a minimal amount of haste, crit, and mp5.

Right now for my tier 7 pieces, I've taken to forgoing the socket bonus. Having a Runed Scarlet Ruby in both sockets is more beneficial than having gems with less spell power and getting a measly bonus of +4 haste rating for it. It's nice to see that with tier 8 gear, stacking spell power gems is not going to be *that* much better than putting other gems in to get the bonus, due to the +spell power socket bonuses.

I remember a while ago seeing a post (maybe a blue post?) about how the socket bonuses and B stats from Naxx were less than ideal, because they wanted to make Ulduar gear seem that much better. Well, they lived up to their word with the socket bonuses, but what about the B stats? Let's compare them:

B-stats for tier gear:

Tier 7.5.............................Tier 8.5
Helm: +16mp5.........................+59 haste
Legs: +42 crit...........................+59 crit
Chest: +42 haste......................+67 crit
Shoulders: +35 crit..................+48 haste
Hands: +35 haste.....................+48 crit

Totals for tier 7.5: 77 crit, 77 haste, 16 mp5
Totals for tier 8.5: 174 crit, 107 haste, no mp5

That's some heavy duty crit, and some decent haste as well. I checked out some other non-tier pieces Gloves of the Frozen Glade, Shoulderpads of Dormant Energies, and the Handguards of Potent Cures), and it seems that they're really pushing crit to complement the crit buff to Nourish, Nature's Bounty. I realize that some of that gear may be more Boomkin oriented, but overall, I'm seeing crit a-plenty. And hey, it will be nice to see Nourish critting more often. Plus, all this crit will also amp up Regrowth, and LB's final bloom.

I know I said earlier that haste is better than crit, but with all the mana-regen nerfage flying around, I'm starting to think that crit might be a better option come 3.1 than it was pre-3.1. Haste makes you cast faster, therefore running you out of mana sooner that you would without the haste. Crit, on the other hand, gives you bigger heals for the same amount of mana. If you're trying to conserve mana but still want to put out the same raw healing numbers, crit is hands down the way to go. Obviously there's overheal to consider, but it's just something to think about.

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14 remarks:

Author said...

Haste makes you cast faster, therefore running you out of mana sooner that you would without the haste. Crit, on the other hand, gives you bigger heals for the same amount of mana.

I slightly agree, however haste is always going to be a better option for raid healing. Having to heal 5-10 people once the vortex ends on Maly or during the dance in Naxx from people who don't remember step right instead of step left, haste comes at a better price. I've yet to come upon a fight where I needed that big heal over needing it faster.

Given, I'm nowhere near your level as far as gear goes, that is just my personal opinion. Not to mention crit is only chance based, my best pally healer on another server has gotten his crit rating to 43% yet he laments on not getting enough haste, as people might drop before the heal gets off.

Oh yeah, I provided 99% healing on a Sarth run the other day with a pally helping heal. Before he could get off the heals I had rejuvs up on the targets. So I think speed plays an important role, not the penultimate necessity, but a very necessary one.

Sorry for posting so much.

Author said...

Thank you for actually posting the pics and not just the link. Makes me happy because the links are blocked at work. :(

Sylly said...

ooo, good thoughts on these bonuses. It hadn't even occurred to me to take a look at them. Thanks for thinking of it for me =)! I'm wondering whether crit will end up ascendant for every druid playstyle, though, or whether we will see some restos stacking it while others focus on other stats to compensate in different ways. It's sort of exciting to have so many unknowns right now (I know, I'm nuts). It's intriguing to play over all the possibilities and make plans and alternate plans and wonder where we'll end up =)

Averna said...

@Sneaky: "Sorry for posting so much." Are you kidding me? I love it! And I definitely hear your point - I *hate* how crit is chance based. You might crit when you don't need it, and then later, not crit when the tank is at 5% health and your Nature's Swiftness is down and you *do* need it. With haste, you know for certain your cast time will be reduced, every time. It's nice to have that certainty.

My point about crit being better than haste is twofold: One, we'll be rolling less LBs all around, and probably utilizing the bloom more, and we'll be using more Nourish. So that's a lot of direct healing going on. And secondly, the mana nerfs. We'll have less regen and thus, want to conserve our mana more. I'm thinking less of cast times (I love having speedy cast times), unless maybe you're spamming Nourish (which I've done before on a tank) and more of gobal cool downs. Quick global cooldowns = mana gone FAST, if it's a fight where you're spam casting to keep people alive.

Both have their benefits, and personally I'm going to like haste over crit any time of day simply because it's a given rather than a chance, but I *do* think that, depending on the severity of these regen nerfs, crit is going to play a bigger role in our healing rotation.

I know it must seem like I'm flip-flopping between the two, and I guess I am, a little bit. The moral of the story is the same moral that was at the end of this story- both haste AND crit are important.

/end wall of text

Luthvian said...

*shows druid noob-ery*

is the lack of MP5 bad in the face of the OOC regen nerfs? I don't really know which one you rely on more, spirit or mp5, and I'm wondering if spirit might be as, or more, beneficial come 3.1.

Averna said...

@Luth: OMG I see ur noobery! /shameless staring

Overall, we rely on spirit far more than we do mp5. Spirit buffs our spell power in tree form, and any Innervates that get put on us.

Spirit would be more beneficial than mp5, for sure, however my point was that mp5 equip bonus would be more beneficial than the bit of crit they threw on that piece of gear =)

Unknown said...

Well, now Nature's Grace will provide us with speed bonus and high crit chance will make sure it procs often enough. Nature's Majesty and Nature's Bounty provide 29% crit for Nourish, Swiftmend will also benefit from high crit chance, and there's also that great set bonus increasing Swiftmend healing by 10%(it does affect Swiftmend crits, doesn't it?). And if the instaheal set bonus for Rejuv would count as a direct heal, gaining ability to creeet..) Jocking, but my point is: crit is good when 3.1 hits.

And I still insist that haste has nothing to do with OOMing. One should just control own spell-spamming speed. Make pauses when the encounter promises to be long, spam as fast as you want if the encounter is a fast one. High haste rating does not force you to spam haelz AFAP.

Author said...

I'm curious too atm, but does the nourish bonus coming in 3.1 Is that only affected by "your" hots? Or could one druid focus on hots and the other on nourish? I would suspect it is only per your own hots but I just wanted to check with you and get you to check it out for us. Would be interesting to see an 8 stack of hots and a nourish healing someone to death.

Averna said...

@Silver: From what I gander, it's only your own hots.

The Nourish tool tip on the PTR reads:

"Heals a friendly target for 1883 to 2187. Heals for an additional 20% if you have a Rejuvenation, Regrowth, Lifebloom, or Wild Growth effect active on the target."

If YOU have a rejuv, regrowth, etc on the target. Your own heal. Not, "if THERE IS a rejuv, regrowth..." etc.

Additionally, the tooltip for the GLYPH reads: "Your Nourish heals an additional 6% for each of your heal over time effects present on the target."

Again, for each of YOUR heals over time.

So yeah, only your own heals. That would be so amazing/OP/ridiculous if Nourish scaled with everyone's hots.

Partshark said...

I'm in agreement here. Haste was nice for awhile, but unless your wearing ALL the haste in the world, you still get heal sniped like crazy. The only benefit haste provides in real-time is the change to your GCD. It is only mediocre at best.

Crit is a serious stat come 3.1. Atm crit is also only average because Regrowth has 50%, but when it's lowered to 20%, we'll want to offset that as much as possible.

Besides, we're being reduced to essentially 2 button casting. GoGo Blizzard Flip-flops.

Smartteaus said...

I think that we need to consider that fact that we aren't losing haste. In fact, the T8.5 still has more haste than the T7.5. Currently, my druid sits around 450-500 haste depending on gear set. I really don't think any extra haste is that beneficial. In fact there are diminishing returns on haste because 1% haste in crease is not being able to cast 1% faster, but rather being able to cast 1% extra heals over a period of time.

Thus, if I only want to maintain the same haste levels, the increase in crit/regen is appreciated.

Smartteaus said...

On a different note, the 4-piece bonus on T8.5 will effectively eliminate the need for crit for raid healing druids. At that point, I can see druids simply maxing spell power to make our first tick hit for as much as possible. Furthermore, at that point, haste will be the secondary stat of choice to minimize GCD time. Regen will also be negligible due to the efficiency of Rejuc with the idol.

Dreaming said...

Slightly out of topic remark.
I've named you for an "Honest Scrap" award, I hope you've not got one already :P
You can collect it here, and enter the fun :)
http://atouchofarcane.blogspot.com/2009/04/lets-take-that-scrap-honestly.html

Thank you for your nice work, it's really great to read, even for a non-druid player.

Author said...

Thank you for checking on the nourish for me Averna. I am indeed looking forward to the t8/8.5 set for the rejuv bonus. That is a must have, just wish it was around now haha.

Silvermoo of Tichondrius