Is Val'anyr still any good?

[Gilgemesh]

Its still the best main tank healer weapon in game.

[Chaoslux]

As far as i know, i have seen, even in WotLK, in some earlier raids and Arena seasons:

[Scarab Brooch]

Because said healers were saying the absorbs would outdo any single stat/proc/use effect found on any level 70 or even 80 trinkets.

If a trinket two-expansions old still had a use pre-valanyr, I'm pretty sure Val'Anyr will still have some uses in cataclysm, the shield scales since its based on healing done.
Then again, we're speaking of a weapon, which is the main piece of healing done, vs a trinket which are normally far lower in terms of healing thoughtput. There may be a benchmark at which the stat sticks will be better than valanyr proc, and people go back to that trinket because the new trinkets arent at said benchmark yet.

[muto]

The only healing class this mace isn't good for is discipline priests, i know, i know you're probably thinking what is he smoking? But it's true discipline priests aren't healing as much as they're shielding, and spell power is better for power word shields and divine aegis than a proc that procs off of healing. Discipline priests are more mitigators than healers therefore this mace isn't good for discipline priests, UNLESS they're main tank healing but in all reality everyone knows holy paladins are the best main tank healers hands down.

[Mr_Bojangles]

Actually, it is just a .gif of a scene from Indiana Jones. His facial expression after his says 'We are going to die' perfectly matches the smiley '' which makes me laugh. Ahh I love the Indiana Jones trilogy.

Not gonna lie, the first time I saw your avatar I just watched it for a solid minute cuz it makes me laugh too.

[fabian]

The only healing class this mace isn't good for is discipline priests, i know, i know you're probably thinking what is he smoking? But it's true discipline priests aren't healing as much as they're shielding, and spell power is better for power word shields and divine aegis than a proc that procs off of healing. Discipline priests are more mitigators than healers therefore this mace isn't good for discipline priests, UNLESS they're main tank healing but in all reality everyone knows holy paladins are the best main tank healers hands down.

I would say it is less effective not that it sucks in their hands because shielding the raid is not the primary thing for Disc and is only effective on a couple of fights.

[muto]

I would say it is less effective not that it sucks in their hands because shielding the raid is not the primary thing for Disc and is only effective on a couple of fights.

you mean shielding the raid is the primary thing for disc.

[harky]

You are right in that Val'anyr is much worse for Disc than it is for the other healer, but it's a little misleading because it's still best in slot for them. The only reason it's worse for them is a lot of their 'healing' is already absorbs, which do not factor into the shield proc of Val'anyr. The proc is still worth 3-400 spell power, it's just not going to be 15% or more of your overall healing like it would be for other healers.

[fabian]

you mean shielding the raid is the primary thing for disc.

If your shielding the raid every fight then you're seriously doing something wrong. A Disc Priest primary ability is the ability to save lives with whatever they need to do it. You're not going to use shields when the damage is unpredictable so a FH would be better.

If the raid damage is unpredictable, your shields will most likely go to waste, FH would be better. Most fights are like this.
If raid damage is predictable, shielding because awesome. Only a few fights are like this.

I don't know about you, but if most fights involve actual healing spells, I would say that shielding is not the primary thing for Disc.

Now if we say absorbing damage, that is different. Disc priest excel at absorbing damage either through shielding(PW:S) or crit healing(DA).

[muto]

If your shielding the raid every fight then you're seriously doing something wrong. A Disc Priest primary ability is the ability to save lives with whatever they need to do it. You're not going to use shields when the damage is unpredictable so a FH would be better.

If the raid damage is unpredictable, your shields will most likely go to waste, FH would be better. Most fights are like this.
If raid damage is predictable, shielding because awesome. Only a few fights are like this.

I don't know about you, but if most fights involve actual healing spells, I would say that shielding is not the primary thing for Disc.

Now if we say absorbing damage, that is different. Disc priest excel at absorbing damage either through shielding(PW:S) or crit healing(DA).

I haven't really raided ICC or ToGC much but in Ulduar a lot of the damage was predictiable for instance fights like Ignis the Furnace Master, XT, Kologarn, Freya 3 Tree Hard Mode, Yogg Saron (shielding people before they go into the portals and before shadow volley hits), and even on Thorim hard mode the damage was pretty predictable.

[Vitamens]

Def BiS easily.... Hopefully blizz will at least keep it this way until Cata... It would be sad to see an Orange replaced with a purple IMO... :-\

[harky]

It's happened several times in the past. That's the problem with a 245 legendary when the top end gear will be 277+. Remember how much of a joke hand of Rag was once T3 weapons came out? :P I think Thunderfury is the exception, rather than the rule. It's the only legendary that made it to the later levels and had to be nerfed because it was beating T5-6 tanking weapons.

[fabian]

I haven't really raided ICC or ToGC much but in Ulduar a lot of the damage was predictiable for instance fights like Ignis the Furnace Master, XT, Kologarn, Freya 3 Tree Hard Mode, Yogg Saron (shielding people before they go into the portals and before shadow volley hits), and even on Thorim hard mode the damage was pretty predictable.

Shield raiding in Ulduar is awesome, yes, but the current content there is not really many fights with predictable AoE damage.

[Deleted]

For a priest i cant say its BiS, but its sure a good mace to have

[harky]

Shield raiding in Ulduar is awesome, yes, but the current content there is not really many fights with predictable AoE damage.

Putricide and Blood Queen are both very good raid shielding fights. So is Festergut for 2/3rds of the fight. Marrowgar during bone storm, some Rotface strategies, 1/3rd of Blood Princes (whenever Valanar is empowered), P2 Deathwhisper if you're light on interrupts, The last 30% or so of Saurfang... Raid shielding has some use in all current ICC fights except gunship, really.

[Kelesti]

Putricide and Blood Queen are both very good raid shielding fights. So is Festergut for 2/3rds of the fight. Marrowgar during bone storm, some Rotface strategies, 1/3rd of Blood Princes (whenever Valanar is empowered), P2 Deathwhisper if you're light on interrupts, The last 30% or so of Saurfang... Raid shielding has some use in all current ICC fights except gunship, really.

Raid Shielding has some use, yes. Putricide definitely has its uses there, too. Marrowgar is quite laughable and not really worth the mana.
Valanar is a nice call, I can never remember which one he is compared to Taldrimm when I'm actually in combat. But yes, Valanar's great for raid-shields. As is Blood Queen (oh Goddess : ).

[Faladrath]

It will stay BiS even into Cata, It's free healing, if your tank healing or raid healing when there is constant or medium aoe dmg going around. It's just free healing and more so then any stats from higher ilvl weapons can ever do.

i.e even on 10man our paladin ads almost 2k hps ontop of her 9-10k hps on bloodqueen, and for oheal junkies like paladins and shields being 0 oheal obviously it's just brillaint and will stay this way for a long time.

For ie 25man Twins fights the added hps is silly silly. So yea this weapon is more then worth it's orange text

[harky]

Raid Shielding has some use, yes. Putricide definitely has its uses there, too. Marrowgar is quite laughable and not really worth the mana.

You're in one of those guilds aren't you. :P Our melee stay in for bone storm. It's pretty substantial damage. Assumption is also that the bleed will be the main mechanic for hard mode... because you know, it wasn't similar enough to Leo. Now if only I could find a way to use my Lock to tank him.

[Kelesti]

Not sure what you mean by one of those guilds. *boggle* Please explain.

Our melee stay in too, for Bone Storm. I end up tossing a Body & Soul our Death Knights so they can stay in easier, while our Rogues Sprint (Druids doing kitty leap, and warriors Charging or Intercepting depending on spec). Mending bouncing around is huge, as is a stack of HoTs. Leo Bleed damage would be a completely unoriginal idea, we'll see how it plays out.

I totally promote a lock tank for Marrowgar (normal or heroic). Go, now!

[jonish]

the proc makes the weapon BiS through even hard mode ICC.

you will/would use Valanyr until Cata.

[harky]

Not sure what you mean by one of those guilds. *boggle* Please explain.

Our melee stay in too, for Bone Storm. I end up tossing a Body & Soul our Death Knights so they can stay in easier, while our Rogues Sprint (Druids doing kitty leap, and warriors Charging or Intercepting depending on spec). Mending bouncing around is huge, as is a stack of HoTs. Leo Bleed damage would be a completely unoriginal idea, we'll see how it plays out.

I totally promote a lock tank for Marrowgar (normal or heroic). Go, now!

It was a joke in relation to the low damage on bone storm. It's actually pretty high on the melee, hehe.

Oh and the assumed HM is the original version of him: Spikes during Bone Storm and bleed on bone storm. You can still see it in the spell (Bone Storm). Silly, silly. Then again most ICC bosses are just modified old bosses anyway. Change something here, or there, combine two bosses, etc. Marrowgar is actually the easiest example. Take the flames from one boss, add the saber lash from another, take the whirlwind from another, tack on the 'ice tomb' effect. Mother + Leo + Maex + Archi...go! ICC thus far is just a juggling of existing abilities and making a new fight out of it. It's like bologna, only with loot.