Paladin tier 1 was original a true hybrid set: https://web.archive.org/web/20050207013827/http://wow.allakhazam.com/db/itemset.html?setid=208
So was Tier 2: https://web.archive.org/web/20050207023842/http://wow.allakhazam.com/db/itemset.html?setid=217
I really like the 3pc bonus and the 5 set bonus is later added as a libram.
Druid tier 1 was a hybrid set too: https://web.archive.org/web/20050207011839/http://wow.allakhazam.com/db/itemset.html?setid=205
Tier 2 3pc set bonus was amazingly awesome with a -150 mana cost to shapeshifting. That bonus survived the tier 2 update for awhile and then changed to the 15% mana regen we have today.
Shaman tier 1 was a hybrid: https://web.archive.org/web/20050207013120/http://wow.allakhazam.com/db/itemset.html?setid=207
Tier 2 definitely needed the update.
They actually gave in to the raiding demands instead.
The proc-rate was about 50% on Northdale, which translated into about an 8% dps increase on rogues, a slight TPS increase on the tank, and about 50 mp5 on mana-users. For Sapphiron it was downright amazing because all you did the entire fight was spam rejuvâs on everyone anyway. And ideally you would have 4 druids with two groups each, spamming rejuv on everyone the entire fight. I also loved it on 4-horsemen, the way healing gets separated means there is usually only one druid in each corner, so I would spam rejuvs on everyone as I ran to a new corner, and at the people in the safe zone.
As for your obsession with HPS, there is pretty much NEVER a time where youâre spamming your max-rank heal. In actual boss fights, a bigger heal is far better than HPS. Take Loatheb for instance, Druids have the largest single heal in the game, and since you only get to heal once per minute, you would have much better healing with more druids than more priests. On Maexxna, having druids/shaman alternate NS heals after the stun is the easiest way to save the tank(and the other druids can double-swiftmend the rejuv/regrowth each time as well). On Thaddius, ideally you would have one druid paired with each priest for innervate(likewise on any other fight that is mana-intensive).
I donât know if we can exploit Viscidus with sappers on Classic, but for alliance at least, druids were invaluable on that fight because abolish poison would often dispel two poison volleys in a row, and you could even precast abolish poison to prevent all dot damage.
Again, when healing actually matters, druids shine.
Paladins can downrank to rank 1 flash of light, which costs 35 mana, and heals for something like ~600 non-crit in really good gear, and they can spam it forever. Rank 1 flash of light is the highest HPM in the game. But Paladins also donât regen mana from spirit. For a druid in good gear with 3-piece T2, youâre getting like 60 mp5 from spirit. That is like reducing the cost of a 2-second heal by 24 mana.
With moonglow + 4-piece T3 + Idol of Longetivity + 30% of spirit regeneration, I would bet rank 2/3 healing touch would exceed flash of light in terms of âreal hpmâ. Though it doesnât really matter, because in both cases with good gear you couldnât go oom anyway.
The main difference between priests/paladins/druids is, for their efficient heals, paladins are always 1.5 seconds, priests are always 2.5 seconds, but for druids it depends on your +healing. As you move from +400 healing, to +1000 healing, or even to +1200 healing in Naxx, your primary raid heals drop 1-2 ranks. So not only does +healing increase druid mana efficiency, it reduces their cast time.
Also, in phase 1, priests get a wand but druids no relic. Priests also get truefaith and benediction, which gives priests another huge advantage early on. And their talent that converts 25% of spirit to +healing is a bigger proportion of their +healing early on than later on because their spirit barely goes up after T2(in fact, they often use 8/8 T2 forever).
Priests are basically at their peak in BWL, they really donât get much better. Druids continue to get better, and spike considerably with their relics and T3.
So sure, if youâre going for speed-clears of MC in phase 1 and youâre trying to use as few healers as possible, you go 4 paladins for buffs, 1 druid, and then all priests. On horde-side youâre probably better off stacking shaman than priests. I had a guild on horde once that would bring 8 shamans to make sure every group had totems.
Yeah, you canât beat paladin HPM. It just isnât possible in a raid setting because rank 1 HT canât put out enough healing to keep people alive. Rank 2 has a .314 coefficient which means that at best with 1200 +healing you are going to heal for around 500. A paladin with the same is going to heal for around 700. Even at rank 3 HT you are looking at 900 healing for 64 mana. The paladin would be spending on average 23 mana per cast. HT rank 2 would be 20 mana per cast. Even rank 4 FoL would give rank 3 HT a run for itâs money.
The power that a druid has over the paladin is that their overall sustain ends up much higher with spirit. Spirit is something paladins can never have without sacrificing too much. Not to mention rank 1 HT is great for top offs.
Priest t1 has spellpower, druid sets are all healer based, get screwed if feral or balance. The AB rewards trigger me as balance since no spellpower at all.
For both druid and priest, three pieces of T1 have spellpower, and five pieces have +healing. For priest it is head/shoulders/belt. For druid it is head/bracers/belt. The overall stats for druid/priest T1 are very similar, but specifically priests get +30 spell damage, and druids get +27 spell damage and 1% crit.
The only hybrid sets are for paladins, and they really only use them in PvP. Druids can just get the PvP sets, but theyâre mainly only good for feral.
But I agree, vanilla itemization is pretty terrible, especially for boomkins. Feral BiS gear is at least leather, almost every decent piece of boomkin gear is cloth, which sucks for pvp, and you have to fight the warlocks/mages for it.
Look at the ZG set, boomy bonus and crit to balance spells on necklace and the whole set is all about healing. I donât know who designed the sets but itâs confusing. Same with AB sets, useless for balance, maybe okay for Resto but feral can use the rogue gear.
Why didnât they make T1 the hybrid healing set, T2 Resto, ZG Boomy and then add in craftable spellpower leather and leather for ferals? They could have easily added a few one off leather pieces with +SP and +AP cat/bear leather pieces in all the raids.
Wildheart was good when you could upgrade it to T.5 which I thought was better than T1 and T2 overall. Sadly it comes out so late in the phases that itâs useless.
Itâs pretty bad. I look at the raid set pieces and itâs like sooo these raids take 40 people yet the sets are all geared to 1 playstyle for each class. Kay.
Diablo has better itemization and itâs item stats are completely random.