Disc Weapon Pve

[Emote]

I'm unsure on stat weights for my disc priest in regards to crit vs spellpower. Raiding 10man heroic SoO (occasionally 25 heroic).
My armory: http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/characte...aeyla/advanced
My weapons: WowheadCompare

Losing 800 crit+750 mastery for 1.7k spell power, some haste and spirit (useless?) Which weapon is better? I'm aware BiS would be staff from Sha of Pride, but I don't have it and I need to waste valor on upgrades...

[Deleted]

That's a tough one. If you can afford the valor, I'd upgrade the weapons anyway, especially as you don't know when getting a hold of an upgrade will be possible. Unless you are tight on mana, the only things that is a real consideration is between spell power and the crit - especially as the haste cancels out the spirit a little. I would be inclined to go with the crit, a value you can increase even further if you opt for int + crit gems instead of int + mastery.

Also! Don't forget about enchanting your booties!

[Emote]

I would be inclined to go with the crit, a value you can increase even further if you opt for int + crit gems instead of int + mastery.

Oh dear, yes, the weapon comes from my warlock and I forgot to regem it. Thanks.
I'm just not sure how much value crit has in relation to spellpower...

Also! Don't forget about enchanting your booties!

Oh yesh, the boots and ring were upgrades from last week (still, not BiS items so i'm not sure about wasting valor on them either...) and didn't get around to enchanting yet! Thanks for the reminder.

[Deleted]

A little off-topic but I suggest trading your shado-pan trinket to a timeless Yu'lon from isle.

[Emote]

A little off-topic but I suggest trading your shado-pan trinket to a timeless Yu'lon from isle.

Yep it's on the list of things to do. Farm 50,000 coins. That or siegecrafter needs to drop something.

[Deleted]

Oh dear, yes, the weapon comes from my warlock and I forgot to regem it. Thanks.
I'm just not sure how much value crit has in relation to spellpower...

I believe crit wins out - more of it works to reduce overhealing and in the bursty environment of SoO, it should be more useful than a little extra spellpower. Again, might be wrong but that is what I would do personally.

At the moment I have two weapon sets - Drakebinder Greatstaff for when my mana is feeling a little pinchy for whatever reason and Immaculately Preserved Wand / Juggernaut's Power Core for more throughput. I suppose you could do something similar with your setup!

Yep it's on the list of things to do. Farm 50,000 coins. That or siegecrafter needs to drop something.

If you are comfy for mana the Timeless one is nice. I like double amp (endorsing it!) - and that is with around 8k - 8.5k spirit. Ideally I would like to stick with double amp and drop my spirit even more despite not having any external mana CDs in the usual group I raid with. More crit! More mastery!

[Spotnick]

Funny, I have the exact same problem, except it's the heroic staff vs the heroic warforged mace and off-hand.

It's not worth it for me, so I'm still waiting for the heroic warforged staff from Sha of Pride, with 8 ilvl, but I think at 13 ilvl if you fully upgrade both of them it will be worth it, although haste is wasted and do you really need that spirit?

I don't personally think wasting 2k valor on this is worth it, Sha of Pride + Galakras staves should drop soon enough.

[Deleted]

I don't personally think wasting 2k valor on this is worth it, Sha of Pride + Galakras staves should drop soon enough.

Can't really count on that unfortunately, especially if someone mainly raids 10 man - I'm sitting at 14 Sha of Pride kills with coining and I've not seen the staff (drop at all that is), much less the WF version.

Also depends on the state of other pieces - if you need to upgrade the MH and OH yet have other pieces which could be improved, stick with the staff I guess.

[Hyve]

Taking the Staff means you have more Critical Strike, but you could reforge the alternative. Spirit is rather worthless at this point of the expansion and considering your iLevel.

Personally, I would choose the staff but I don't play Discipline Priest.

[Jimjam38]

I don't have any numbers or references, but I seem to remember Derevka (and Draco actually) saying on a FinalBoss interview that crit is more valuable than int by 5.4 and SoO. Whether that's at a 1:1 or a 2:1 Crit:int ratio i'm not sure. However, in saying that, Int also gives small amounts of crit, making its relative value more comparable, meaning that just spell power is even less valuable than crit.
My gut feel is that the heirloom is better, but it should be gemmed for crit not mastery. Personally I'd even forego the set bonus and just gem pure crit. You want to aim for the hc WF Sha staff, that's BiS by far. Also, legs are yellow sockets, so I don't know why you're geming hybrids, I know for certain that pure crit gems are better than hybrid, and ignoring the socket bonus for pure crit wins out when the crit gain is more than twice the int loss, ie, for the purpose of stat weights, if int is 1, crit is >0.5, but I'm not sure on the exact weights.

You also have way too much spirit. Anything over 10k is highly excessive, especially with a mana trinket. Also, until you're around 8k or less, spirit is even less valuable than haste. Gloves should be mastery enchant rather than haste. You should start aiming for hc items with Mastery/Crit (Immerseus Helm, Nuroshen Shoulders will be the easiest to obtain) but keep in mind you'll be competing with mages and warlocks for these items. Most can be bonus rolled in disc, but the boots from shamans can only be rerolled in shadow (socket bonus is hit). Until you're hitting 8k spirit or less, you'll also be better off with the immerseus trinket (amplification still works but not the int proc) than siegecrafter trink, but do not think its better for you than a dps, preferably reroll it in shadow or take it over an OS/greed/de roll. Cleave and multistrike are useless for disc so for gods sake let holy priest, resto druid/shaman or MW monk or eternal flame hpalla take them first. The yulon timeless trink is a decent second option too, or baring that, the DPS multistrike is Ok if you have it, but dont take it over a dps (doesnt proc extra atonement healing but the int proc is RPPM)

[Maleric]

Use the higher ilevel weapon, the spellpower gain from a normal piece to a heroic piece is too big to pass up. 1,778 spellpower is like a 4% spellpower increase for you.

[Dracodraco]

I don't have any numbers or references, but I seem to remember Derevka (and Draco actually) saying on a FinalBoss interview that crit is more valuable than int by 5.4 and SoO.

Correct :P. The issue here is that there's a shitton more spellpower than int - however, unless you plan to 4/4 upgrade the offhand, I'd stick with the weapon and upgrade another piece of gear - remember, you need to look at your immediate stats in a vaccuum. Switching your 569 staff to a 582+566 will lead to an immediate increase in spell power (but a decrease in mastery/crit), and a very minor int gain. Spending the same VP on your legs, however, will only serve to increase your crit/mastery and give a heavy chunk of int (+300 int, actually) - and you are probably unlikely to switch these anytime soon with your current heroic progress, assuming you aren't going to be joining much better runs all of a sudden (yes I know the legs are already upgraded 2 times, but the point stands <.< - wasting VP on a weapon upgrade that's "that" insignificant probably won't be better than upgrading already equipped gear).

[Jimjam38]

Yeah, as Draco said, while you're progressing the goal is what's best for progress, and what's best to spend your VP on. You don't want to be upgrading items that aren't ideal and could be replaced next week, sometimes that can even mean pooling your valor until you reach the cap while you wait for the best item to upgrade. Its better to not upgrade anything for 2 weeks and then be able to fully upgrade 2 BiS items than to upgrade something that isn't BiS and not have the valor when the BiS item does drop. That being said, if you're hitting the 3k VP cap then you do need to upgrade something even if it isn't ideal.

If you didn't have so much spirit already I'd probably recommend the hc weapons, but since you're at 11k and cant really go lower without different gear, the spirit gain is of no real value, and the crit/mastery loss also diminishes the value of the spell power gain.
On that note, you'll want to be trying to make the best of too much mana regen by being far more liberal with PW:S / PoH than you would be in more ideal low-spirit gear. But don't forget to smite where smite is due.
Also, pls, Twist of Fate. Power Infusion has very little value for disc, haste isn't all that valuable, 5% damage is a very small gain for Atonement and 20% mana cost reduction is worthless, especially considering your gear. Meanwhile, ToF double dips on Atonement healing for about a 20% gain to Atonement healing (32% gain for Power Word: Solace), is 15% direct throughput increase for all other healing (far better than 20% spell haste), is always available when its needed most, (ie people below 35%), has very high innate uptime and can be cheesed for even better uptime cause adds, adds everywhere. Furthermore, in the high burst environment of SoO, Power Infusion has no benefit to our most potent burst healing, the Godmode 90 talents, since they're instant cast and completely unaffected by spell haste or damage increases, meaning its value as a throughput cooldown is extremely small compared to something like wings or ascendance. Even when used to gain an extra cast on Spirit Shell, this is a significant loss from not having ToF for all abilities and only a minor gain for SS output. Furthermore, with the only viable haste 'breakpoint' for spirit shell casts being 5 total casts with or without PI, this gain is even less valuable in 10man since you're now shielding the raid unevenly, and in 25man its an even bigger loss compared to ToF, as ToF has considerably higher uptime in 25man with an extra 15 people to potentially proc ToF.