Hot The 39 BfA BiS Gear Handbook

[Lamma]

Can you get blade of Hanna still at 39? Since the lasher nerf is coming next patch?

 

[Enno]

Yes, you can get it to drop in either farm zone.

 

[Lewdprincess]

Good catches! ...Are the razor gauntlets worth the loss of secondary stats for the proc?

I haven't added any BoE shoulders since the stats on those so far haven't outdone the BoAs to the point where it's worth losing out on the shoulder enchant and stepping down to the armor kit.

The crit isn't a huge deal - only two pieces have it (belt and legs), and between the AB belt and leg enchants those are probably the first two you'd want to drop for better options anyways. 13 points of crit isn't the end of the world either, with the way that stats scale in general it's a little bit better when you don't have any of it.

I can't speak for how other people gear, but based on the rough value I give to stats the 2pc is definitely worth using. The full 5pc is more questionable, it has similar throughput to other bis options but does give up a good bit of stam. It can be a decent choice if you value int a bit higher over secondaries and don't mind dropping some survivability.

Not totally on topic, but I tossed my super quick math on leather gear sets into a google sheet here. Can make a copy and add another gear set or tweak stat values to your liking. Obviously not every possible combination, but i tried to include most potential bis options, and different sets I've seen people using.

I'm very curious as to why and how you guys think MW benefits from haste. You don't hard cast any spells, and to even get any extra hot ticks out of renewing mist or enveloping mist you would need an exorbitant amount of it that wouldn't be feasible. You would be sacrificing a lot of vers in order to do that. Also considering the bracket is hugely revolved around doing high burst dmg, it all in all makes haste a pretty dead stat for MW. So if you had to chose a second stat after vers, it would be crit. I'd also add a few pieces to that MW bis list like spaulders of the unseen, wolffear harness, soothsaying vest (alliance only) and elven spirit claws.

 

[Kirise]

I'm very curious as to why and how you guys think MW benefits from haste. You don't hard cast any spells, and to even get any extra hot ticks out of renewing mist or enveloping mist you would need an exorbitant amount of it that wouldn't be feasible. You would be sacrificing a lot of vers in order to do that. Also considering the bracket is hugely revolved around doing high burst dmg, it all in all makes haste a pretty dead stat for MW. So if you had to chose a second stat after vers, it would be crit.

This is a good question, and it comes up regularly with healers. I could use your insight for this.

With the release of WoD, Blizz changed how haste affects HoTs and DoTs. Here's an article detailing what happened (unless Blizz changed things again, which if so, please let me know). In a nutshell, we don't need to worry about extra ticks any more. Refreshing HoTs/DoTs between the second-to-last and last tick simply extends the HoT/DoT by the amount of time specified in the spell. Moreover, any leftover fractions apply to the target when the spell expires.

While Mistweavers don't normally hard cast any spells, the Global Cooldown (GCD) does benefit from haste. Cast after cast, ability after ability, haste helps with overall throughput. While versatility remains the secondary stat of choice for Mistweavers (as you mentioned), haste helps in the longer fights. With that said, you make a good point that burst counters burst. In shorter fights, even the reduced extra 50% heal from a crit (or 50% extra damage from an ability) can make or break an encounter.

Here's my question, then: given that vers will take up most of the secondary stat allocation for a healer, is there an argument for allocating that last 9-10% to crit instead of haste? My instinct is that such a low crit rate struggles to compare to the extra throughput that helps a healer with the long fights. But maybe I bring a PuG-biased viewpoint, and something's already gone wrong if a fight lasts awhile.

I'd also add a few pieces to that MW bis list like spaulders of the unseen, wolffear harness, soothsaying vest (alliance only) and elven spirit claws.

Good call on the harness and the vest! I added the claws, too, though I personally would prefer the Tracker's Gloves for better throughput.

I have a hard time justifying BoE shoulders, since they essentially provide 5 stam at the cost of 4+ int or 9+ secondary stats when we account for the differences of the heavy knothide armor kit vs. the greater crane inscription. What do you think?

 

[kkaabb]

there's no versatility option with heirloom shoulders, so if you need versat they aren't an option

 

[Swoops]

With the release of WoD, Blizz changed how haste affects HoTs and DoTs. Here's an article detailing what happened (unless Blizz changed things again, which if so, please let me know). In a nutshell, we don't need to worry about extra ticks any more. Refreshing HoTs/DoTs between the second-to-last and last tick simply extends the HoT/DoT by the amount of time specified in the spell. Moreover, any leftover fractions apply to the target when the spell expires.

While Mistweavers don't normally hard cast any spells, the Global Cooldown (GCD) does benefit from haste. Cast after cast, ability after ability, haste helps with overall throughput. While versatility remains the secondary stat of choice for Mistweavers (as you mentioned), haste helps in the longer fights. With that said, you make a good point that burst counters burst. In shorter fights, even the reduced extra 50% heal from a crit (or 50% extra damage from an ability) can make or break an encounter.

Yeah, this is accurate still. Haste isn't bad at all for MW, enveloping especially scales well with it (can see haste's affect on it in the tooltip). It also speeds up an "instant" vivify during soothing just as much as a hardcasted one. Whether it's worth gearing for is totally up to personal preference though I'd say, secondaries all have benefits and they're generally close enough that people can decide for themselves.

 

[Hawk]

Is [Cudgel of Naralex] no good for non-Horde (outlaw) rogues? Been using it since hitting 39, seems decent (though perhaps not optimal) to me.

Sorry for lack of link - I guess I have to post twice before I can link things

 

[Tzvetan]

Is [Cudgel of Naralex] no good for non-Horde (outlaw) rogues? Been using it since hitting 39, seems decent (though perhaps not optimal) to me.

Sorry for lack of link - I guess I have to post twice before I can link things

It's a solid pick--your bringing it to everyone's attention is a big part of the purpose of this thread. So thanks!

 

[Kirise]

Whether it's worth gearing for is totally up to personal preference though I'd say, secondaries all have benefits and they're generally close enough that people can decide for themselves.

I wouldn't have previously considered crit "close enough", but it sounds like it is. I'll remove the "deprioritize crit" tag from the Mistweaver entry.
[doublepost=1541704968,1541704746][/doublepost]

Is [Cudgel of Naralex] no good for non-Horde (outlaw) rogues? Been using it since hitting 39, seems decent (though perhaps not optimal) to me.

My bad, I missed that. Added to the list of rogue weapons -- thanks!

 

[Lewdprincess]

Yeah, this is accurate still. Haste isn't bad at all for MW, enveloping especially scales well with it (can see haste's affect on it in the tooltip). It also speeds up an "instant" vivify during soothing just as much as a hardcasted one. Whether it's worth gearing for is totally up to personal preference though I'd say, secondaries all have benefits and they're generally close enough that people can decide for themselves.

At ~10% haste you gain half of an extra tick from enveloping mist. While i do agree with you that people should gear / play to their preference, but that is a pretty negligible gain for ~55 rating of secondaries that could be used else were more beneficial.
[doublepost=1541742922,1541742806][/doublepost]

This is a good question, and it comes up regularly with healers. I could use your insight for this.

With the release of WoD, Blizz changed how haste affects HoTs and DoTs. Here's an article detailing what happened (unless Blizz changed things again, which if so, please let me know). In a nutshell, we don't need to worry about extra ticks any more. Refreshing HoTs/DoTs between the second-to-last and last tick simply extends the HoT/DoT by the amount of time specified in the spell. Moreover, any leftover fractions apply to the target when the spell expires.

While Mistweavers don't normally hard cast any spells, the Global Cooldown (GCD) does benefit from haste. Cast after cast, ability after ability, haste helps with overall throughput. While versatility remains the secondary stat of choice for Mistweavers (as you mentioned), haste helps in the longer fights. With that said, you make a good point that burst counters burst. In shorter fights, even the reduced extra 50% heal from a crit (or 50% extra damage from an ability) can make or break an encounter.

Here's my question, then: given that vers will take up most of the secondary stat allocation for a healer, is there an argument for allocating that last 9-10% to crit instead of haste? My instinct is that such a low crit rate struggles to compare to the extra throughput that helps a healer with the long fights. But maybe I bring a PuG-biased viewpoint, and something's already gone wrong if a fight lasts awhile.



Good call on the harness and the vest! I added the claws, too, though I personally would prefer the Tracker's Gloves for better throughput.

I have a hard time justifying BoE shoulders, since they essentially provide 5 stam at the cost of 4+ int or 9+ secondary stats when we account for the differences of the heavy knothide armor kit vs. the greater crane inscription. What do you think?

In response to your question about having extra secondaries and whether to focus them on haste or crit, id simply just go for higher int pieces like wolffear harness, basilisk legs, spaulders of the unseen (with +5 int +2% crit on them, but that is only gained through an exploit so i guess that shouldnt be recommended), elven spirit claws, Feathermoon headress, either of the epic neck's or horizon choker, etc. That is whats going to get you the most throughput in a burst meta, with stacking pure vers pieces in the other slots. Not to mention increase your dmg output. Mistweaver's have some insanely high burst dmg if done correctly. The max rising sun kick i have hit in a bg so far is 1653 which is very scary for a healer to be able to do.

Also to answer your question about the shoulders, going back to "haste being a dead stat for MW" the BoA shoulders have 11 haste, so i would not use them and rather the +1 int +5 stam gain. I would also use a of the quickblade variant with high vers green shoulder over the BoA's. You could make an argument for the BoA crit ones now that i think about it.

At ~10% haste your gcd is somewhere around 1.37, you would have to be talking about a very very very long fight in order to see a "noticeable" difference in your amount of cast, and that simply just does not happen atm in this bracket's bg's. As well as there is also never any situation where you would hard cast a spell as a mistweaver. You would need much more haste to see a noticeable difference in a short term fight, and as i said before that just isn't feasible without sacrificing a lot of vers and int/spellpower.

Swaping around my gear to get ~10% haste makes my vivfy's hit for 64 less. For a extra .13 seconds off the gcd that is just simply not justifiable.

 

[enzy]

So... how in the world do you get an ilvl 44 piece of gear if it doesn't come from a lockbox and it doesn't come from the Uldaman chest? i.e., it only comes from a drop.

For example, I'd love to get a Lunar Mantle and Bloodwoven bracers for my priest. Wowhead has 0 data on whether these come from lockboxes or Uldaman chest. The fact that there have been tens of thousands of recorded pieces of data for these two chests tells me that they will likely never give lunar and bloodwoven items.

So... the only way to get these is through drops, meaning they will scale to ilvl 42. MAYBE you'll get lucky with a rare spawn and it'll drop unscaled? Who knows. The fact that the scaling system decides to kick in sometimes and not other times killing rares in the same zone tells me it sucks.

Are we just shit outta luck here for items like this?

 

[toskosa]

i got a 39 koo's point from one of those darkiron chest spawns in the searing gorge. i find if you turn on warmode you can find a lot of these kinds of chests

 

[Scrubhuntin]

farm on a lvl 44 toon.

 

[Sanit]

So... how in the world do you get an ilvl 44 piece of gear if it doesn't come from a lockbox and it doesn't come from the Uldaman chest? i.e., it only comes from a drop.

For example, I'd love to get a Lunar Mantle and Bloodwoven bracers for my priest. Wowhead has 0 data on whether these come from lockboxes or Uldaman chest. The fact that there have been tens of thousands of recorded pieces of data for these two chests tells me that they will likely never give lunar and bloodwoven items.

So... the only way to get these is through drops, meaning they will scale to ilvl 42. MAYBE you'll get lucky with a rare spawn and it'll drop unscaled? Who knows. The fact that the scaling system decides to kick in sometimes and not other times killing rares in the same zone tells me it sucks.

Are we just shit outta luck here for items like this?

There are a tonnnnnn of diff ilvl 44 greens that could drop, with a number of different affixes and even then you might not get max secondaries on that affix. you're better off not trying to farm these, and waiting to find them on the AH. depending on server, they're usually cheap-ish.

 

[Scrubhuntin]

not a bad idea to farm burning steppes or silithus with a 44 toon in the group just for the greens that can drop. you'll still have 2-3 39's going for the epics and 1 getting the greens.

(obviously if you have multiple accounts this would be ideal)

 

[enzy]

not a bad idea to farm burning steppes or silithus with a 44 toon in the group just for the greens that can drop. you'll still have 2-3 39's going for the epics and 1 getting the greens.

(obviously if you have multiple accounts this would be ideal)

For real? That's how you get lvl 39 i44 greens from drops... a level 44 character? Lol wtf

 

[Scrubhuntin]

sun can correct me but i believe that is what he's been doing lately on one of his toons. I personally haven't been doing it. @Sun

 

[enzy]

Yeah, I would love to hear his thoughts on this. Thanks for the insight man.

 

[Sun]

So... how in the world do you get an ilvl 44 piece of gear if it doesn't come from a lockbox and it doesn't come from the Uldaman chest? i.e., it only comes from a drop.

For example, I'd love to get a Lunar Mantle and Bloodwoven bracers for my priest. Wowhead has 0 data on whether these come from lockboxes or Uldaman chest. The fact that there have been tens of thousands of recorded pieces of data for these two chests tells me that they will likely never give lunar and bloodwoven items.

So... the only way to get these is through drops, meaning they will scale to ilvl 42. MAYBE you'll get lucky with a rare spawn and it'll drop unscaled? Who knows. The fact that the scaling system decides to kick in sometimes and not other times killing rares in the same zone tells me it sucks.

Are we just shit outta luck here for items like this?

i have not seen a level 44 character loot items in burning steppes, but theoretically once the char is above 40 i would expect the greens to drop no lower than level 41 cause you will notice that there seems to be a bracket system, with 3 level intervals. 31, 34, 37, on armor pieces.

 

[Scrubhuntin]

then maybe it was axonn? thought one of you was farming on a 44 for boe greens somewhere. was i mistaken? who is pufflehuff? swear one of you told me that was what you were doing on that toon rofl. figured you got it to work. guess i was wrong!