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The Light and How to Swing It: Pre-epic plate healing gear, part 1

Elizabeth Wachowski
Updated ·7 min read

Far too many months ago, I set out to create a paladin to help my guild out in end-game. After a brief flirtation with Ret, I decided to level as a prot paladin, and have as such picked up two sets of very serviceable prot AOE grinding and actual instance tanking gear. But as I draw closer and closer to 70, I'm finding a lot of people asking me to heal their instances, which I would dearly love to do -- except that I don't have the gear for it. I don't want to go to the AH and stock up on "of healing" plate, and I shudder to think of the mockery if I wore cloth or mail, so it's time to go to the Wowhead database and look up all the quests, dungeons and crafters that can get me some sweet healing gear.

So as a service to all the ret, prot, and shockadin pallies who are now approaching 70 and searching for healing gear, I present a nice list of pre-raid healing options. PLATE healing options, as I'm under the assumption that someone else will probably want that mail/leather/cloth gear that drops. If I'm mistaken, feel free to grab it! I've also left out the Grand Marshal/High Warlord PVP options, as they would merely lead me to repeat myself over and over and over again. If you'd like those, it's pretty simple to figure out how to get them. (Hint: PVP.) I've also ranked them in what I perceive as the order of their quality.

Head:

  1. Mask of Penance: 27 stamina, 30 intellect, 66 healing, 10 mp/5. Drop rate of 19% from Mekengineer Steamrigger in the Steamvaults. The best pre-raid healing helm, and it also looks like Tier 2!

  2. X-52 Technician's Helm: 16 strength, 36 stam, 16 int, 16 defense, 36 damage/healing, 6mp/5. Reward from the Dr. Vomisa chain quest in Netherstorm. It's more of a hybrid prot/holy helm, but it's the nicest quest reward out there.

  3. Ruby Helm of the Just: 25 str, 24 stam, 25 int, 16 crit, 28 dam/heal, 10mp/5. Drop rate of 10% from Keli'dan the Breaker in heroic Blood Furnace. For you ret/holy paladin(s) out there.

  4. Exorcist's Lamellar Helm: 30 stam, 16 int, 16 spell crit, 11 resilience, 29 dam/heal. This is acquired from world PVP rewards in Terokkar Forest, so it's probably the earliest "nice" helm you can get.

Neck:

  1. Gezzarak's Fang: 15 int, 57 healing, 4mp/5. Drop rate of 17% from Gezzarak the Huntress. There are a LOT of healing necklaces, so I'm sticking to the best -- such as this one, which comes from a 72 elite in Skettis.

  2. Karja's Medallion: 15 int, 10 spirit, 55 healing. Quest reward from the Aldor "Shutting Down Manaforge ___" quest chain in Netherstorm.

  3. Swampstone Necklace: 14 stam, 15 int, 18 spirit, 40 healing. Drop rate of 13% from Swamplord Musel'ek in heroic Underbog.

  4. Choker of Fluid Thought: 15 stam, 17 int, 17 spirit, 36 healing. Drop rate of 15% from Harbringer Skyriss in Arcatraz.

  5. Living Ruby Pendant: 24 stam, 15 int, 35 heal, 6mp/5, 6 health/sec to party members for 30 minuts (10 charges.) A very nice BOE jewelcrafted necklace that you can probably pick up cheap from JCs looking for a skillup.

Shoulders

  1. Justice-Bearer's Pauldrons: 25 stam, 25 int, 7mp/5, 55 healing. Drop rate of 8% from Omor the Unscarred in heroic Ramparts. Far and away the best healing shoulders for pallies, these also match the reskinned T2 set.

  2. Pauldrons of Swift Retribution: 20 str, 24 stam, 20 int, 19 crit, 22 dam/heal. Drop rate of 10% from Nexus-Prince Shaffar in heroic Mana-Tombs. A pretty good ret/holy cross, but short on healing, and do you really want to do heroic Mana-Tombs?

  3. Uvuros Plated Spaulders: 23 str, 16 stam, 11 int, 28 dam/heal. Quest reward from "Wanted: Uvuros" in Shadowmoon Valley. Sort of meh, but can be okay until you grab a blue. Are they plated WITH Uvuros or BY Uvuros?

  4. Kaylaan's Spaulders: 27 stam, 18 def, 30 dam/heal. Quest reward from "Aldor No More" in Netherstorm, Aldor only. Not a bad tank/heal hybrid.

Chest:

  1. Breastplate of Many Graces: 40 stam, 28 int, 62 healing, 11mp/5. Drop rate of 14% from Grandmaster Vorpil in Shadow Labyrinth. And the parade of T2 reskins continues! This is the best chest for healing pallies by about a million points, but luckily, there's always people wanting to do Shadow Labs.

  2. Leonine Breastplate: 30 str, 27 stam, 16 int, 7mp/5, 35 dam/heal. Quest reward from Showdown chain in Blade's Edge Mountains. A long quest chain and ugly as heck, but it's a superior quested piece.

  3. Breastplate of Retribution: 23 str, 33 stam, 22 int, 27 dam/heal. Quest reward from The Blood is Life in Hellfire Citadel. Lies! This is not of Retribution! This is of Holy!

  4. Gilded Crimson Chestplate: 14 str, 15 stam, 13 int, 42 dam/heal, 4mp/5. Quest reward from Grillok "Darkeye" or Zeth'Gor Must Burn in Hellfire Peninsula. Man, this thing lasts a long time for an easy quest reward from early in BC.

  5. Lost Chestplate of the Revenant: 22 stam, 24 int, 21 def, 29 dam/heal. Quest reward from Wanted: Annihilator Servo in Netherstorm. I think we're ending up with all these palAOEadin hybrids because no one levels to 70 with just +healing gear, but still, we should have better than this.

Wrist:

  1. Virtue Bearer's Vambraces: 16 int, 15 spell crit, 35 healing, 6mp/5. Drop rate of 13% from Broggok in heroic Blood Furnance. Pretty much perfect stats for healadins.

  2. Fairweather's Wristguards: 14 str, 14 stam, 14 crit, 14 spell crit, 16 dam/heal. Quest reward from Crush the Bloodmaul Camp in Blade's Edge. Why couldn't they have had 14 dam/heal?

  3. Bracers of Just Rewards: 16 str, 16 stam, 15 int, 4mp/5, 18 dam/heal. Drop rate of 17% from Gargolmar in heroic Ramparts. Skip this, just go over to Blood Furnace and get the much better ones above this.

  4. Thadell's Bracers: 21 stam, 12 int, 9 def, 16 dam/heal. Quest reward from When The Cows Come Home in Netherstorm. If you don't hate the Kirin Tor village in Netherstorm, you may be a sociopath.

Hands:

  1. Life Bearer's Gauntlets: 23 stam, 25 int, 18 crit, 55 healing. Drop rate of 13% off the final chest in heroic Ramparts. The top healing gloves, and an interesting hint: if your guild clears this and no one wants these gloves, they can have two people summon you in while a third holds open the chest. It's how my rogue got her offhand dagger!

  2. The Hands of Fate: 22 str, 21 stam, 18 int, 27 dam/heal. Quest reward from the third fragment of the Cipher of Damnation chain in Shadowmoon Valley. Holy reference, Batman! This is an extremely long but worthwhile chain.

  3. Gauntlets of the Righteous: 22 stam, 20 int, 19 def, 21 dam/heal, 7mp/5. Drop rate of 11% from Kargath Bladefist in Shattered Halls. Why do pallies only have two sets of Dungeon 3 armor to choose from? Are tanks and healers that much alike?

  4. Spiritualist's Gauntlets: 27 stam, 17 def, 20 dam/heal, 5mp/5. Quest reward from A Fate Worse Than Death in Netherstorm. Yes, it's back to the Kirin Tor village. Bring arsenic.

Well, we've gotten through the first half of the list. Come back in two weeks for the belt, legs, feet, rings, trinkets, weapons, shields and librams for the wanna-be healadin!