This is a historical day.
A while ago I gave a game friend of mine some advice about how to organize a guild he was about to start. I then got the idea to do publish it on the blog, and gave it the label “Ask Larísa", not really expecting anyone to actually do it. I'm really not an authority. But now I’ve received my first letter from an unknown reader, asking me for advice!
Entropy wrote this letter to me:
I have a toon that just hit 69. To be honest I kind of have that feeling of "what is next". I have been working on an Alt that is a healer and to be honest that should have been my main. I love to heal instances and groups. I like my Hunter and all but I just get tired of playing it from time to time. My gear on my main is mainly in Greens.
The question I have for you is...Do you know of a good site that shows how to progress on gear? I do not see myself raiding because of family time restraints. So that pretty much leaves Instances, Battle Grounds and some questing that I have not done yet. Am I missing anything? Do you know of a site that would be able to outline this?
I know that I can go to the Armory and click on my gear to see what is better...It would just be nice if there was a site that has already shown the gear progression for a non raider. Yes, I know this kind of sounds lazy but I would rather play than research in my free time.
And here's Larísa's answer:
First of all: thank you for writing. I’m so honoured that you’re turning to me, especially since I’m not a healer, so I don’t know what to say. Luckily enough I know there are some healers who read this blog, so hopefully they can assist and give some more information in comments if I’ve missing something essential.
In your letter you don’t say what kind of healer you’re playing, and you don’t say anything about your professions. Maybe you should consider switching to a crafting profession in order to improve your gear. For instance if your healer is a priest, there’s currently some great healing gear, the Primal Mooncloth set and the Whitemend set. Possibly it’s a bit late to grind for those sets with the upcoming expansion, where gear will be outdated as you continue levelling, but I’m sure there will be craftable healing gear in Northrend as well which you can head for.
If you’ve got family constraints which make it impossible for you to play for long hours, gearing up by crafting really isn’t a bad alternative; you can do the grinding in small portions. But of course it also depends on what you enjoy in the game. If you find grinding mats a pain, but can find time to at least do instance runs – first normal and later heroics, well then that’s the way to go.
You ask about where to find progression plans for healers and I wish I had complete gearing plans ready for you right away, like the one that I have for the rogue class. Unfortunately I haven’t. But there’s a great source of information nowadays, where you can ask this kind of questions and get good answers without people raising their eyebrows, looking down on you. This new forum is called PlusHeal, and it’s live and kicking and if you won’t find what you’re looking for I’m sure you’ll get help if you just ask for it! (To be honest, the mage community is a bit envious about this awesome place.)
I had a look at this forum to see if I quickly could find the kind of thing you were looking for, and as a matter of fact I did! At least if you’re playing a paladin or shaman. There were links provided by a guy who has created great progression charts with gear comparison, for people just like you. Here’s the paladin chart, and here’s the shaman chart. Just enjoy if you’re playing one of those classes!
If you're playing a druid there's a great information spot for you, The Druid Wiki. Follow the link to Gear and you'll find several gearguides for you.
You should also have a look at some of the major healing blogs (I link to several of them in my blogroll). They may provide guides for your class. For instance Parttime Druid has a post, Fresh 70 Resto Druid: Gear Cheat Sheet, which should be useful, provided your healer is a druid.
Finally there’s a program called Rawr, which I think you should have a look at. You can download it for free from here. Shortly it helps you to compare gear that you already have or are thinking about to get. You can also get a good idea for instance about what gems would be most beneficial for you. This said, it may take a little time for you to do all the settings, even though you import your char from armory to begin with. So if you really don’t want to spend time on doing research and doing theorycrafting on your own I think asking PlusHeal is probably an easier way to go if you feel “lazy”.
Now I just want to wish you good luck with your progression! On behalf of all mages I thank you for healing us through instances with a smile on your face. We really depend on people like you.
A while ago I gave a game friend of mine some advice about how to organize a guild he was about to start. I then got the idea to do publish it on the blog, and gave it the label “Ask Larísa", not really expecting anyone to actually do it. I'm really not an authority. But now I’ve received my first letter from an unknown reader, asking me for advice!
Entropy wrote this letter to me:
I have a toon that just hit 69. To be honest I kind of have that feeling of "what is next". I have been working on an Alt that is a healer and to be honest that should have been my main. I love to heal instances and groups. I like my Hunter and all but I just get tired of playing it from time to time. My gear on my main is mainly in Greens.
The question I have for you is...Do you know of a good site that shows how to progress on gear? I do not see myself raiding because of family time restraints. So that pretty much leaves Instances, Battle Grounds and some questing that I have not done yet. Am I missing anything? Do you know of a site that would be able to outline this?
I know that I can go to the Armory and click on my gear to see what is better...It would just be nice if there was a site that has already shown the gear progression for a non raider. Yes, I know this kind of sounds lazy but I would rather play than research in my free time.
And here's Larísa's answer:
First of all: thank you for writing. I’m so honoured that you’re turning to me, especially since I’m not a healer, so I don’t know what to say. Luckily enough I know there are some healers who read this blog, so hopefully they can assist and give some more information in comments if I’ve missing something essential.
In your letter you don’t say what kind of healer you’re playing, and you don’t say anything about your professions. Maybe you should consider switching to a crafting profession in order to improve your gear. For instance if your healer is a priest, there’s currently some great healing gear, the Primal Mooncloth set and the Whitemend set. Possibly it’s a bit late to grind for those sets with the upcoming expansion, where gear will be outdated as you continue levelling, but I’m sure there will be craftable healing gear in Northrend as well which you can head for.
If you’ve got family constraints which make it impossible for you to play for long hours, gearing up by crafting really isn’t a bad alternative; you can do the grinding in small portions. But of course it also depends on what you enjoy in the game. If you find grinding mats a pain, but can find time to at least do instance runs – first normal and later heroics, well then that’s the way to go.
You ask about where to find progression plans for healers and I wish I had complete gearing plans ready for you right away, like the one that I have for the rogue class. Unfortunately I haven’t. But there’s a great source of information nowadays, where you can ask this kind of questions and get good answers without people raising their eyebrows, looking down on you. This new forum is called PlusHeal, and it’s live and kicking and if you won’t find what you’re looking for I’m sure you’ll get help if you just ask for it! (To be honest, the mage community is a bit envious about this awesome place.)
I had a look at this forum to see if I quickly could find the kind of thing you were looking for, and as a matter of fact I did! At least if you’re playing a paladin or shaman. There were links provided by a guy who has created great progression charts with gear comparison, for people just like you. Here’s the paladin chart, and here’s the shaman chart. Just enjoy if you’re playing one of those classes!
If you're playing a druid there's a great information spot for you, The Druid Wiki. Follow the link to Gear and you'll find several gearguides for you.
You should also have a look at some of the major healing blogs (I link to several of them in my blogroll). They may provide guides for your class. For instance Parttime Druid has a post, Fresh 70 Resto Druid: Gear Cheat Sheet, which should be useful, provided your healer is a druid.
Finally there’s a program called Rawr, which I think you should have a look at. You can download it for free from here. Shortly it helps you to compare gear that you already have or are thinking about to get. You can also get a good idea for instance about what gems would be most beneficial for you. This said, it may take a little time for you to do all the settings, even though you import your char from armory to begin with. So if you really don’t want to spend time on doing research and doing theorycrafting on your own I think asking PlusHeal is probably an easier way to go if you feel “lazy”.
Now I just want to wish you good luck with your progression! On behalf of all mages I thank you for healing us through instances with a smile on your face. We really depend on people like you.
7 comments:
http://wow-loot.com/
Very handy for all classes!
Oh I totally forgot about that one. Thank's Zupa!
Thank you Larisa for the response and Zupa for the link. I will check them both out.
I did find a blog on what I was looking for. It was a blog by someone called Apanthrope. He is a Shadow Priest and it seems like he has taken the time to do just what I was asking you about. He also has some gear longevity charts for other classes as well. I guess I am not as lazy as I thought. I know that I should have went to the priest blogs for a priest question but I have found that most people who play often have a very wide range of knowledge on all of the classes. I really do thank you for your help though. I hope you did not mind me jumping on your blog too much with this. Again, thank you for your help!
Ah! I checked it out. http://apanthrope.blogspot.com/ is the address. And it's the same charts as I linked to, it's just that this is the main page. Obviously he had made charts for a few more classes (including mage, so I've got to check it out).
Thank you for mentioning it, wouldn't have known about it else.
And as I said I didn't mind your questions at all. It's only nice to have some interaction with the readers, it's one of the things that keep me blogging.
Fuel.
I've always been partial to lootrank myself. You can weigh different stats, exclude specific instances and things which gives you a nice overview of gear. It'll also indicate if it's quest related gear or not.
It may take a little while getting used to it but I have been using it for all my characters that succesfully made it to outland and have yet to find anything I'd be willing to replace it with.
Granted it's not so much a guide but from my experience I've noticed I never quite seem to be able to follow the guides, have to substitute items which means I simply need different gear sometimes than what is listed in guides.
I hope it helps a little though.
wowinsider has a nice feature series regarding "gearing up for kara" across all the different classes, and in some cases, even specs for those classes. Should be worth it to check it out.
Glad you like the charts, and I'm also glad that others find them useful.
They are certainly a niche item -- but the blogging demographic seems to intersect the number-crunching demographic quite well, so I guess it works.
-Ap
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