My holy pally gear

So last night when we did Malygos, the healing plate boots dropped and everyone expected me to roll. I did not and another holy pally got them (he had the edge in epgp anyway) and made the comment that he was happy because they were "best in slot." To be fair, I was not interested in them though the stats were nice because

1. I disliked the itemization - mp5 instead of crit and compared to my current boots, I would lose a lot of crit
2. They don't match!!!

I guess I can reconsider those boots later on but I really like the itemization on Poignant Sabatons so much better. I know I take a hit on int and spell power compared to the Malygos boots but I have 27k, almost 28k mana pool raid buffed and I have the highest mana pool out of all the holy paladins in guild. My priority right now is to make sure my stats are balanced rather than stacking 1 particular stat since I have been stacking int like crazy already. Confusing? I suppose it is, so I will make a comprehensive list of my current gear and what I would like. =)

Now here is a screen shot of all my current gear along with my stats (buffed with kings) from wow-heroes.
The items in the yellow boxes are items that I would like to replace and the stats encircled in red are the ones that I consider important to watch out for in healing.
So why didn't I consider mp5 important? To be honest, even when I was using predominantly FoL (aka Flash of Light) in TBC, I never ever liked gemming for mp5. (Dazzling , anyone?) Even in TBC, I loved to gem for intellect before they made it absurdly good for paladins in WotLK. I honestly never found mp5 to make much of a difference in terms of mana efficiency for me. I spec into kings currently so I lose out on some crit since my spec is 51/5/15 but my crit is pretty decent especially when raid buffed. It is also nice to have an arcane mage as your boyfriend since he always buffs me with arcane focus =X

So back to the main question, why do I feel the Poignant Sabatons are better? Let's take a look, shall we?

Currently, Sabatons of Deathlike Gloom: 51 int, 44 crit, 77 spell power, 18 mp5


Malygos' Boots of Healing Energies: 69 int, 43 haste, 98 spell power, 26 mp5


Wow, those are some nice stats! They seem immediately better than my current boots, the Sabatons of Deathlike Gloom. There is more int, more haste, more spell power, more mp5 but I do lose out on 44 crit. My crit percentage is nice but I do not want to trade crit for haste. I am not trying to max out haste at the expense of crit as a lot of the itemization on plate healing gear has it. To me, mp5 is wasted itemization points. Now let's take a look at the boots off Heroic Noth.


Noth's Poignant Sabatons (H Naxx): 57 in, 35 crit, 55 haste, 78 spell power


Now, these boots have no wasted itemization but why is it upgrade over my current boots and over the Malygos ones? They have 55 haste on them, major upgrade over my boots! The Malygos boots also have haste on them, you say? Well, it is 43 haste compared to 55 and haste does not get buffed with kings, you can only itemize gear or gem for it. Plus, the Poignant Sabatons have crit on them so I do not lose out completely on the 44 crit off my current boots by switching to the Malygos ones.


Just because of haste alone, the Poignant Sabatons are an upgrade over my current boots. However, why are they also an upgrade over the Boots of Healing Energies? Aren't they best in slot? Yes and no.


The Poignant Sabatons also have a gem socket! And look at the socket bonus - 4 int! I see many holy pallies socket red gems sockets with 19 spell power but whenever I see a red gem socket, I see Luminous 9 spell power, 8 int (in some cases, you can use Reckless or Potent). So, now let's take a look again at the Malygos boots and the Poignant Sabatons as compared to my current boots.


Sabatons of Deathlike Gloom: 51 int / 44 crit / 77 spell power
Poignant Sabatons: 57+8+4 = 69 int / 35 crit / 55 haste / 78 spell power
Boots of Healing Energies: 69 int / 43 haste / 98 spell power


So in terms of int, the Poignant Sabatons are equivalent with the Boots of Healing Energies and both are a clear upgrade over my current boots. If I go with the Malygos boots, I will lose out on 44 crit to gain only 20 spell power, which I do not find important to stack as I have over 2k spell power already (with kings). The loss of crit is big. However with the Poignant Sabatons, I lose out on only 9 crit but I gain 55 haste and 1 spell power, not even taking into account the extra crit and spell power granted by the extra intellect - that is huge!


Thus, Poignant Sabatons = WIN!


Now, for some holy paladins, they gem and balance stats differently from me, which is why the Malygos boots can be the clear upgrade for them. Currently, I find there are 2 philosophies when it comes to gemming from what I have seen of holy paladins on my server.

1. Intellect! - I'v always been a fan since TBC so of course I lie in this camp
   
2. Spell power and mp5 - I believe the reasoning behind this is to punch up the healing power of FoL since mp5 is supposed to be better for FoL mana efficiency. Crit is much better compared to mp5 if you wish to use HL

So the way you gem also depends on the way you heal. Personally, even as a TBC FoL user, I found it better to stack intellect because it has always been the do it all stat. It will increase your spell power because of holy paladin talents, increase your crit chance along increasing your mana pool. On top of it, Divine Plea and Replenishment works off total mana! Thus, the more mana you have, the more mana you regen! What is not to like? Then again, I am biased =P

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So I rambled on again =X I guess I will make a mini summary of items I want with the items I am replacing.

Sabatons of Deathlike Gloom replaced by Poignant Sabatons
Hammer of Astral Plane replaced by The Turning Tide
Aegis of Damnation replaced by The Voice of Reason
Trinkets I want to play with: Forethought Talisman, Darkmoon Card: Greatness, Soul of the Dead

Till next time!