Feel like something's missing? I want to have flexibility in filling out my character's slots, but sometimes the items just aren't there to support it. For example, here are some gaps in mage itemization (looking only at epic items):

- Spell hit neck with +damage
- Shoulder piece with crit or hit at all
- Spell crit cloak with +damage
- Spell crit bracer with +damage
- Spell hit belt with +damage
- Spell hit legs with +damage
- Spell crit trinket with +damage (this has about a snail's chance in hell of getting made)
- Wand with crit or hit (though admittedly the item budget probably isn't there to support it)

Also very few items exist with both spell crit and spell hit, though admittedly this is probably more of a balance issue.

I expect they'll at least deal with the shoulderpiece discrepancy in Naxxramas since that's just something that's gone unaddressed for a while, but I'm curious: do you see a hole in your class's equipment that you want to see filled? Do you think Blizzard will fill it?

I had never realized that there were this many gaps. The wand thing is really annoying. They keep making these absurdly high dps wands when they could be spending the points on other stats. I mean I feel as if someday my shadowbolts wil almost be dwarfed by my sweet 350 DPS wand.

If you want more hit, equip gear in other slot that has more hit. If that lowers the amount of +dmg or crit in that slot, look to another slot for that lacking stat.

It sounds to me like like you just took pieces that have +hit and dmg, and suddenly "wished" it was crit and dmg. And pieces with +crit and dmg, those need to be hit and dmg.

Why not just be satisfied that the pieces with hit and damage, and the pieces with crit and damage. Otherwise you're just asking to put your gloves on your feet, and your necklace around your waist. It doesn't make much sense.

Of all the "gaps" you spoke of, barring the shoulders/wand, there exists a corresponding crit or hit equivalent.

Neck - Amulet of Vek'nilash
Cloak - Cloak of the Devoured
Wrist - Bands of Forced Concentration
Waist - Firemaw's Clutch
Legs - Enigma
Trinket - Neltharion's tear

+healing/MP5 on all pieces of shaman armor, which is exactly what will be on Earthshatterer armor from early reports. There is still a pretty limited selection of good shields for shamans and paladins and not enough pure +heal weapons to offer much variety.

Of course the obvious lack of a +healing two handed axe needs to be addressed immediately! :rolleyes:

Prophecy Gloves still have the best effective regen (treating 1 mana/5 as 3 spirit) of any gloves with +healing in the game, including Faith. They're particularly good because they mix spirit with a healthy dose of mana/5. As nice as Faith Gloves are, they still don't have as high an effective regen as Prophecy. The upgrade in +healing would probably convince me to wear them instead though.

What I would give for a healing weapon off C'thun that every priest/druid didn't want..

Druids can't go much lower than HT rank 4 because lower ranks than that one get less and less from +heal gear such that it's a wash efficiency wise to do so. Is the design goal for healers that we eventually spam rank 1 heals ?

Agreed, and depending on the proc rate/implementation of the Faith 8 piece bonus, I don't think the difference in regen on Prophecy would overcome the benefits gained by the +healing increase on Faith.

Although, at the same time, it'd be nice if Blizzard would stop distinguishing between Greater Heal and Heal so much for set bonuses. I already use Heal far more often than Greater Heal. With more +healing, the incentive to use Greater Heal will actually decrease because of the overhealing.

I hope not. What im curious about is what the "theoretical" limit of +healing would end up being to make downranking a wash. Ive always tried to have a good mix of both regen/mp5 and +healing (Sporting +745 and 89 mp5 currently with full Trans) to maximize both. I would hope that most sets would be transitioning to such a thing, especially Tier 3 because i see no conceivable reason to even consider dropping 3 Piece Transcendence for the 8 Piece Faith. I dont think blizzard was thinking ahead much when they made prophecy gloves if you look at the lack of spirit in regards to most of the gear that has been put in since then. Blizzard would have to significantly up the amount of mp/5 available in order to compensate for the loss of 3 Piece Trans to make it worth while to wear 8 pc Faith. Good to see though faith is pretty heavy on spirit overall in comparison to Trans so you could still get a very nice benefit out of a 3pc/6pc combo that would probably make up for losing Prophecy gloves.

Druids are definitely in a different boat in this regard because Priests have so many other healing spells that we can use to make up for one or the other. HT is basically your bread and butter where we have over 3 to choose from.

I'd say +holy damage accessories of any sort.

I'm not going to get greedy and say +holy cloth, but given that Paladins are out there too, I'd like to see a mid-range ring or neck out there.

I have this: http://www.thottbot.com/?i=39537, but ironically, given that it's mp5 instead of spirit, it's less desirable by the only class it's used by.

That's a ring.

Sorry, was talking to my boss on the phone when I typed that. I meant the Bracers of Arcane Accuracy :)

because I see smite builds as passable leveling builds now a days.

I've used it since 44 or so and enjoyed it, and would have no problem keeping some extra gear around for solo stuff outside of instances. I guess I'd be happy with them adding "of holy wrath" back as a random suffix.

I know this has turned into a discussion on healing efficiency, but let me pose a question for you DPS classes out there.

As a hunter, I find that the best trinkets I have are blue quest rewards. I have 2 epic trinkets (Hakkar head reward and Arcane Infused Gem) but both are, frankly, terrible for my class except in very specific situations. I guess the hole I noticed is an epic trinket with solid passives that is clearly a hunter item. Everything we could put in that slot is contested by warriors and rogues, which makes gearing for it slightly annoying.

Edit to say that I forgot to put my question. What choices do I have to fill these slots?

I would like to see some plate bracers, shoulders, and boots with a ton of strength, +hit and +crit, and very little (if any!) stamina~

I would like to see a wand better than a green of wrath.

The lack of a feral druid off-hand is also a fairly big itemization gap.

You mean epic or more than one choice for an off-hand? There is a +8 to all stats book from Live Strat.

That said, I was surprised the Tier 0.5 bosses didn't drop another choice for off-hands for Ferals, but sorta makes sense since they aren't many Ferals around.

The Sunken Temple quest was a good place to put one, but they didn't.

i use drake fang talisman and either ZHM or blackhand's breadth, depending on the encounter. i've argued to death the merits/importance of DFT for hunters in many a thread on various forums, so i won't do it here again :)

i don't have experience with it, but i'm told Badge of the Swarmguard is an excellent trinket even for hunters (it, like ZHM, seems to favor faster weapons like huhuran's stinger), and eventually i'll have to get around to finishing farming for my earthstrike.

Both. It's pretty ridiculous that there are now three dedicated feral 1h weapons (i.e., weapons with +feral AP on them) and the only acceptable feral offhand was added to the game a year and a half ago.

DFT would be great but it's definitely not hunter priority, and it's rare enough that rogues still need it. ZHM is truly terrible if you have Rhok or anything slower, since trying to squeeze off all the charges requires you to beserk+rapid fire and hope for a quick shots proc. I'm looking up the swarmguard one now...

Hmm... does that stack with sunder? Does it take up a debuff slot? I can see that being useful, but not if the stack is constantly resetting.