Boomkin Gear

[barefootdan]

Hey guys, my new guild is doing a new loot system where everyone chooses their top 10 peices they want from ICC 25.
Ive been looking at loot and i just wanna make sure i know what im doing.
If someone can make a rough list for me, itd be awesome, or even just say what should be more at the top than bottom.

Thanks guys

(armory link): http://www.wowarmory.com/character-s...cn=Barefootdan

I might be in my tank gear...so ill try to remember to log out in my boomkin set. (its not that geared, nothing from icc yet)

[darkwingdot]

Graymatterwow.blogspot.com will give you an idea of what you should do.

Please do some research for yourself before you post here hoping to be spoon fed.

It also would help if you posted the gear list you came up with for others to give some comments about.

[barefootdan]

well..im making the list right now and ill post it asap.
just wondering also, what about teir set? Ive heard not to get it and just get regular peices, and others say go for the set bonuses.
And, is the Nibelung better than using a MH/OH?

[Darknemisis]

AFAIK the 4 piece tier 10 bonus is very solid.

If your guild will be clearing Hard modes in Icc 25 I'd definitely go with the set gear, as the "HEROIC" version of the set's I do believe is Bis for all respective pieces. At the very least second Bis plus you get the set bonuses, which would tip the balance in favor of the set gear either way. Really anyone telling you to not get the set is trying to keep you from taking their tokens. (assuming that's someone in you guild) if it's not I'd love to see the math that regular pieces are better.

Nibelung is really hard to do the math on as it's not only a proc, but the valks have to stay alive and they need to be attacking the right target and not chasing some random add. So you can ask 100 moonkin's if it's worth taking and you'll get Yes, No and everything in between. In my personal opinion I wouldn't take it. I do actually have it on my Moonkin and I've now switched to a static stat's wep because I'm not a fan of the randomness of it. The Valk's can do great dmg on some fights and some they are completely useless.

[barefootdan]

i came up with something like this...(this doesnt include the gear i get from EoF, this is just from drops)


0=Staff: Nibelung
1=Trinket: Dislodged Foreign Object
2=Neck: Blood Queen's Crimson Choker
3=Ring: Ring of Rapid Ascent
4=Cloak: Frostbinder's Shredded Cape (or the EoF one?)
5=Boots: Boots of Unnatural Growth
6=Deathwhisper Chestpiece (unless i get T10 first)
7=Crushing Coldwraith Belt (or the EoF one?)
8=Helm of the Elder Moon (unless i get T10 first)
9=MH: Frozen Bonespike
10=OH: Shadow Silk Spindle

Our 25 has not killed putricide, or dream yet, so this is partially why i chose what i did.
Im relatively new to boomkin, so advice is more than welcome.

[Deleted]

Are you not allowed to roll for cloth? Because if you can, you should get the Plague Scientist Boots rather than Boots of Unnatural Growth. The cloth boots has haste and crit, where the leather ones are crit/spirit.

Nibelung is a fine choice, but it can be random at times. If you want to be a bit more safe for constant damage, you could abolish it from the list and just go for a MH/OH - Frozen Bonespike and Shadow Silk Spindle¨, and when you kill Lich King, you can go for the Royal Scepter

Consider how you want to handle the tier pieces. First of all, there is nothing stopping you from going 5/5 tier 10, because the pieces are pretty damn well itemized. The tier 10 helmet has crit and haste, and the Helm of the Elder Moon has crit/spirit. It is not preferable to go crit/spi when you could have crit/haste.

I am going for 5/5 tier 10, but at the moment I am using the cloth chest from emblems, because it has a slight favor to haste, but is otherwise equal to our tier 10 chest - i have the 264 chest lying in my banks, waiting its time to be upgraded to 277 and getting some action.

Consider also your hit. Where will you be getting hit from, and will the gear you have planned cover you? At the moment, my hit comes from my hands, legs, ring (rep ring) and bracers. All of these items (at 264) puts me at 260. You are obviously Night Elf so you "might" not need the full 263, but there is enough movement in ICC to warrant going a little over your hit - you might not always be in range of the hit buff from your draeneis.

As for general advice, take your Nevermelting Ice Crystal and bash it with a hammer. Then go buy Sundial of the Exiled from heroic emblems, as this trinket is sooo much better than NIC. You would probably do well with getting Belt of the Purified Ivy (equal-ish to Crushing Coldwraith Belt) and Volde's Cloak (a decent upgrade, but not as good as Frostbinder's from Dreamwalker). These will give you a few upgrades. Most importantly though, you need to upgrade your idol as well

I am, however, absolutely mortified about your crit rating. You need a lot more

[Thalur]

Are you not allowed to roll for cloth?

If any moonkin is not allowed to roll on cloth, they shouldn't bother to do ICC-25 heroic. Except for tier pieces, every single armor item we want is cloth. There simply are no ilvl 277 leather items for boomkins. Which is fine, as there is no real disadvantage wearing cloth, but raid leaders ought to know that.

[Vespian]

The way I decide my gear is basically going with a priority list.

- Hitcap reached, yes, no ?
-> Haste Softcap Reached, yes, no?
-> Crit Softcap Reached, yes, no?

Aim for the above.

Then I'm looking at interchangables.

If I drop this item, will I still have enough hitrating, while I improve my other stats? etc.

I try to aim for items that I only have to upgrade into a direct upgrade. Aka, items with the best balanced stats possible, that only go up in those exactsame stats when I replace them.

[Deleted]

If any moonkin is not allowed to roll on cloth, they shouldn't bother to do ICC-25 heroic. Except for tier pieces, every single armor item we want is cloth. There simply are no ilvl 277 leather items for boomkins. Which is fine, as there is no real disadvantage wearing cloth, but raid leaders ought to know that.

Thats all fine and dandy, but as a moonkin, I understand why there is a prio on cloth items. And i am totally fine with that.

The general reasoning behind this is, while cloth pieces are *better* for me, leather items aren't *bad*. They are not *as good* but *good enough*. Casters only option is cloth items. Furthermore, I only have to share my leather gear with resto druids, where clothies are sharing their gear between mages, priests and warlocks. In reality, in my guild, I have to fight over look with 1 (one) restoration druid and another moonkin. On the other hand, wee have six priests, two mages and three warlocks, all having to share the same items.

So I am perfectly fine with rolling for leather until these guys get their items, and then I can upgrade later on. They are 11 people fighting over cloth items, and I am in a group of 3, who can still get decent upgrades. This might not be optimal for *me*, but it surely is for my guild as a whole.

Let me give you an example, comparing two items.

BIS: Plague Scientist Boots
103 int - 71,07 DPS
74 crit - 85,84 DPS
90 haste - 117,9 DPS
140 spell power - 281,4 DPS
Total: 556,21 DPS

Pretty BIS: Boots of Unnatural Growth
103 int - 71,07 DPS
90 crit - 104,4 DPS
74 spirit - 50,32 DPS
140 spell power - 281,4 DPS
Total: 507,19 DPS

So clearly, the cloth item is the bigger upgrade - we all knew that. But its not THAT much bigger, only 49 more DPS on average. Should I really start throwing a tantrum when I have access to leather items that will give me a good upgrade anyways, when 11 clothies have no other choice?

I will still get the cloth items eventually, ofcourse. But there is no reason why I would begin to claim right on par with them when I have access to items nearly as good as the cloth items, and the clothies don't.

If i had to say it in another way: Imagine that both boots dropped. Should i take the cloth boots, and we DE the leather boots, or should i take the leather boots so we could give the cloth boots to a mage/priest/warlock? What benefits *the guild* most?

[Nirual]

Thats all fine and dandy, but as a moonkin, I understand why there is a prio on cloth items. And i am totally fine with that.

The general reasoning behind this is, while cloth pieces are *better* for me, leather items aren't *bad*. They are not *as good* but *good enough*. Casters only option is cloth items.

Good point. Having a BIS wishlist is great and all, but most of the time your gear will be dictated by your overall guild setup, drops, and how many of those BIS items are also BIS for other classes (apart from tier sets* and idols, you're very rarely alone in wanting a specific item).
*Actually not really, you'll still be competiting over the upgrade tokens with like 1/4th of your raid.

And sometimes its also a matter of how much of an upgrade it is for you versus, say, the mage who hasn't gotten around to replace his 245 boots yet.

[Rightclick]

from what i can tell you're on normal modes, not heroics, so the EoF belt is as good as the cloth one from marrowgar, so you can skip that.

Get all crit+haste pieces available, but prioritize those it might be harder to get:
Shredded cape from Valithria
Crimson Choker from BQL
Spindle from Council
Rapid Ascent ring from Gunship

Gunship and Valithria should be easier to complete that the other 2, so you might want to prioritize BQL and council loot, as you'll have less chances to loot in there.

[Thalur]

So I am perfectly fine with rolling for leather until these guys get their items, and then I can upgrade later on. They are 11 people fighting over cloth items, and I am in a group of 3, who can still get decent upgrades. This might not be optimal for *me*, but it surely is for my guild as a whole.

There is one problem here. Using the same arguments, I would not take these Leather spirit items over our Trees. For them, they are best in slot, while for me, other options would be better. Following that logic, we would sit in a place where we only get items no one else wants any more.

I would like to continue your example. The upgrade of Unnatural Growth over the best 264 leather item is less than half the upgrade that Plague Scientist would be.

BiS: Plague Scientist Boots

Leather alternative: Boots of Unnatural Growth -49 dps
103 int - 71,07 DPS
90 crit - 104,4 DPS
74 spirit - 50,32 DPS
140 spell power - 281,4 DPS
Total: 507,19 DPS

264 alternative: Boots of the Frozen Seed -23,24 dps
92 int - 63,43 DPS
54 crit - 62,64 DPS
86 haste - 112,66 DPS
122 spell power - 245,22 DPS
Total: 483,91 DPS

I'm not saying that it's not valid to use the leather alternative first, but I will not sit back and wait until all cloth casters have been equipped. In my opinion, a DKP system does balance this perfectly. I will not waste tons of dkp to get a cloth item first when I can get a cheap leather item. But on the long run, I definitely want to get those items, be they the only option for cloth wearers or not. (Armory for reference)

[Deleted]

So what? You are only fighting restos and moonkins for those items, and they are often still an upgrade. If the item is not an upgrade, you would not take them. Unless your guild has more resto/moonkin druids than mages/priests/warlocks, you are probably going to be saturated in leather boots long before the clothies can get their items.

[Blizzyb]

Here's what I'm looking for every time I go into ICC 25:

Head- t10
Neck - Blood Queen's Crimson Choker http://www.wowhead.com/item=50182
Shoulder - t10
Cape - Frostbinder's Shredded Cape http://www.wowhead.com/item=50205
Chest - t10
Wrists - Lady's Brittle Bracers http://www.wowhead.com/item=49994
Hands - t10
Belt - Crushing Coldwraith Belt http://www.wowhead.com/item=49978 (The badge belt is slightly better, but t10 is so good, it's top priority imo)
Legs - t10
Feet - Plague Scientist's Boots http://www.wowhead.com/item=50062
Ring - Rep Ring
Ring - Ring of Rapid Ascent http://www.wowhead.com/item=50008
Trinket - Dislodged Foreign Object http://www.wowhead.com/item=50353
Trinket - Phylactery of the Nameless Lich http://www.wowhead.com/item=50360
MH - Nibelung http://www.wowhead.com/item=49992 (I use this and like it just fine. MH/OH might be more consistent dps, but it's probably not by much. Plus having an army of val'kyr is fun!)

That's only nine pieces, but those are all bis imo. I haven't thought about the hit for a NE since I'm a Tauren and hate you, so the gear list my be slightly different in getting your hit to a lower number than I need. Check out Graylo's gear set up (http://www.wowarmory.com/character-s...rona&cn=Graylo). He swaps out the bracers for some leather one's off of Dreamwalker (http://www.wowhead.com/item=50417) and it puts him at a .04% chance to miss, but he gets to trade 60 spirit (18sp) for 13 crit rating. A slight, slight, slight upgrade. I can't do it because I'm a Tauren, but I probably wouldn't do it myself tbh. I'm really anal about the hit cap and if you were to miss just one spell, that could really through you off. But they are leather if you're having problems rolling on cloth.

[darkwingdot]

Here's what I'm looking for every time I go into ICC 25:

Head- t10
Neck - Blood Queen's Crimson Choker http://www.wowhead.com/item=50182
Shoulder - t10
Cape - Frostbinder's Shredded Cape http://www.wowhead.com/item=50205
Chest - t10
Wrists - Lady's Brittle Bracers http://www.wowhead.com/item=49994
Hands - t10
Belt - Crushing Coldwraith Belt http://www.wowhead.com/item=49978 (The badge belt is slightly better, but t10 is so good, it's top priority imo)
Legs - t10
Feet - Plague Scientist's Boots http://www.wowhead.com/item=50062
Ring - Rep Ring
Ring - Ring of Rapid Ascent http://www.wowhead.com/item=50008
Trinket - Dislodged Foreign Object http://www.wowhead.com/item=50353
Trinket - Phylactery of the Nameless Lich http://www.wowhead.com/item=50360
MH - Nibelung http://www.wowhead.com/item=49992 (I use this and like it just fine. MH/OH might be more consistent dps, but it's probably not by much. Plus having an army of val'kyr is fun!)

That's only nine pieces, but those are all bis imo. I haven't thought about the hit for a NE since I'm a Tauren and hate you, so the gear list my be slightly different in getting your hit to a lower number than I need. Check out Graylo's gear set up (http://www.wowarmory.com/character-s...rona&cn=Graylo). He swaps out the bracers for some leather one's off of Dreamwalker (http://www.wowhead.com/item=50417) and it puts him at a .04% chance to miss, but he gets to trade 60 spirit (18sp) for 13 crit rating. A slight, slight, slight upgrade. I can't do it because I'm a Tauren, but I probably wouldn't do it myself tbh. I'm really anal about the hit cap and if you were to miss just one spell, that could really through you off. But they are leather if you're having problems rolling on cloth.

That is a very good list and is essentially what I went for/had before starting heroics. I love Nibelung with a passion only rivaled by my love for my moonkin and watching warlocks fall to their death in dal, but I do feel that when you get to the higher difficulty fights you are better off with a weapon that is more reliable. I jumped at the first chance our guild had when Heroic Shadow Silk dropped, and was forced to pair it with a heroic dagger from 10man. Now, I think i would pass on H-Nibelung just because I need the consistency.

[Thalur]

Gear lists for ICC-25 are pretty much straightforward, since there is really only one option with SP/crit/haste for each slot. The only thing to choose is the items with +hit on them, where you have the ring and one piece of T10 anyway, the bracers without alternatives and one additional piece depending on drop luck. As +hit items are much easier to get by than crit/haste items, I use the crafted legs and the +hit amulet from Gunship (BQL amulet never drops).

For including Phylactery... I can tell you, it's much more realistic to get the LK mace first

[barefootdan]

Thats all fine and dandy, but as a moonkin, I understand why there is a prio on cloth items. And i am totally fine with that.

The general reasoning behind this is, while cloth pieces are *better* for me, leather items aren't *bad*. They are not *as good* but *good enough*. Casters only option is cloth items. Furthermore, I only have to share my leather gear with resto druids, where clothies are sharing their gear between mages, priests and warlocks. In reality, in my guild, I have to fight over look with 1 (one) restoration druid and another moonkin. On the other hand, wee have six priests, two mages and three warlocks, all having to share the same items.

So I am perfectly fine with rolling for leather until these guys get their items, and then I can upgrade later on. They are 11 people fighting over cloth items, and I am in a group of 3, who can still get decent upgrades. This might not be optimal for *me*, but it surely is for my guild as a whole.

Let me give you an example, comparing two items.

BIS: Plague Scientist Boots
103 int - 71,07 DPS
74 crit - 85,84 DPS
90 haste - 117,9 DPS
140 spell power - 281,4 DPS
Total: 556,21 DPS

Pretty BIS: Boots of Unnatural Growth
103 int - 71,07 DPS
90 crit - 104,4 DPS
74 spirit - 50,32 DPS
140 spell power - 281,4 DPS
Total: 507,19 DPS

So clearly, the cloth item is the bigger upgrade - we all knew that. But its not THAT much bigger, only 49 more DPS on average. Should I really start throwing a tantrum when I have access to leather items that will give me a good upgrade anyways, when 11 clothies have no other choice?

I will still get the cloth items eventually, ofcourse. But there is no reason why I would begin to claim right on par with them when I have access to items nearly as good as the cloth items, and the clothies don't.

If i had to say it in another way: Imagine that both boots dropped. Should i take the cloth boots, and we DE the leather boots, or should i take the leather boots so we could give the cloth boots to a mage/priest/warlock? What benefits *the guild* most?

Thats my problem. we only have 2 other druids that will use the same gear as me, where as there are tons and tons of cloth wearers. So i decided just to go for leather for now, and when we have open rolls on items (not on anyones list) ill take em

[Thedrun]

Thats my problem. we only have 2 other druids that will use the same gear as me, where as there are tons and tons of cloth wearers. So i decided just to go for leather for now, and when we have open rolls on items (not on anyones list) ill take em

If this "list" is supposed to be the items that will be the most beneficial to you then you are doing a disservice by not putting the cloth items. The whole should leather roll cloth debate is becoming so tiresome really...

<rant>

There's validity to the argument that leather should be taken by leather wearers if it's "good enough" and is an upgrade but just as often it seems like pure greed. One such case, if Marrowgar drops the cloth belt first thing the clothie cry is "they have leather they shouldn't be allowed!" It's not even a matter of choosing between a "good enough" or not at that point, it's upgrade or no upgrade! At this point you have no idea of knowing what loots will drop later in the instance. Yes maybe if it goes to a Druid later in the instance a leather piece will drop that gets sharded, but there is no crystal ball to show that. Another outcome is the Druid passes on all the cloth pieces and never sees caster leather. The reverse could happen where all caster leather drops from the get go in which case, Happy Birthday clean up shop. Bottom line, you have to decide on what's in front of you and not what you hope will happen or not happen. Plan for all the outcomes.

Another big thing to watch for, should you happen to get a "good enough" the clothie argument when BiS drops becomes "oh but I still have a (232,245,251) and they have a 264 so I should get it." Then you become the last to see your BiS because you took the "good enough" leather. More than a few times I've see cloth wearers passing on their "good enough" cloth (the stuff that has spirit in place of crit or haste) because they know just as well as Druids what their best in slots are and don't want to settle for a "good enough". This is very difficult to combat because you don't want to deny people what is clearly an upgrade for them, but at the same time it doesn't make sense that because your BiS happens to be cloth you should be the last to get it behind all the clothies. They should take some of their "good enough" too.

There's definitely value in making the best use of the gear that drops as your guild gears up to progress through, but I think more often than not the "but they have leather and we don't!" argument is just being leveraged to try and get you off their (and your) BiS pieces. It's already hugely evident that Blizzard itemized certain pieces to be BiS for almost all caster classes, the BQ choker, the Gunship ring, the Dreamwalker cloak - notice a pattern? All crit/haste/sp. Because they neglected to create BiS leather following this itemization scheme shouldn't mean Druids get relegated to "good enough" by default.

I probably ran in circles there and repeated a point or two but to sum it up, if this list of yours is supposed to be the stuff you want the most because it will help you do your job best, you should list the cloth BiS pieces but be informative to your guild about what pieces you could make due with and do your best to not get shoved to the back of the line for your BiS. It's a dumb system, Blizzard could have fixed it easily by making leather copies of the cloth stuff but didn't who knows why, and it's going to get overhauled completely in Cataclysm so...

</rant>

-Thedrun

[elbouli]

specifically mentioning these boots here,

these are also best in slot, for ele shams, resto shams, holy paladins, and probably resto druids too

these are the only 277 boots with sp, haste and crit

personally i have the 277 leather boots so i was happy to let them pass to our clothies, but i'm sure a number of you moonkins would complain if you saw a paladin wearing them

[Cocoe]

From my experience paladins have enough perfectly itemized plate and mail items that it does not really matter... for druids, however, there are no alternative items with the proper stats for most slots.