Raid Rx: Analyzing the new Cataclysm healing trinkets
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Annnnnnd Cataclysm is here! I'm 85 and have just started the gearing up process for my priest. I'm pretty good when it comes to other drops; mine have come from being lucky in instances, as well as taking advantage of quest rewards. However, the one slot that's often tough to fill, especially in the opening part of an expansion? Trinkets! But there appears to be a much wider selection of trinkets this time around. Let's take a look, shall we?
Let me offer a general rule of thumb when trying to decide on trinkets: Go for anything with either spirit or intellect. You need that mana regeneration, so stick with anything that helps with that. A number of these trinkets have mastery as their primary benefit. I don't exactly know how useful it is right now, but it might be something healers decide to pursue down the road. I'm honestly a bit undecided about mastery right now.
Anyway, this post isn't about mastery. It is about trinkets!
Mandala of Stirring Patterns Baradin's Wardens or Hellscream's Reach, Exalted, 359
Purely from a mana regen standpoint, this trinket is delicious. The thing is, it's going to take a lot of time and daily grinding to even come close to it. This is a great long-term trinket to aim for. I'm just not sure how useful the secondary bonus of the mastery will be for select healing classes.
Mirror of Broken Images Baradin's Wardens or Hellscream's Reach, Exalted, 359
Uh, this one is a mastery-only trinket, and it does offer an on-use resist function. I guess it might come in handy later on, but I just don't know what the value of mastery is right now for healers in general. I wouldn't go for this one quite yet (if at all). It's also obtainable from Tol Barad.
Soul Casket Valorous Quartermaster 1650, 359
This trinket is obtainable only from the Valorous Quartermaster. Like the Mirror of Broken Images above, wait until later. The use aspect is quite nice, though.
Core of Ripeness Valorous Quartermaster 1650 , 359
This is a good trinket to spend your valorous points on. If you need a quick shot of mana, use it and watch the mana trickle in. The intellect boost alone makes it worthy of all healing classes.
Darkmoon Card: Tsunami Darkmoon cards, 359
The Darkmoon cards always represent an interesting choice. The Tsunami card is similar to the Core of Ripeness, above, but you don't have to actually use it. In combat situations, your spirit gets increased by 400, assuming your healing spells are all stacking the activation.
Tyrande's Favorite Doll Archaeology, 359
We had access to this trinket in beta on our premade characters. I'm puzzled if the doll is better off in the hands of a DPS, a healer or if it just plain benefits both. Assuming you completely fill up on the mana inside this battery, you can use it and restore 4,200 mana back every minute. That's almost like a free spell or two every minute! Not to mention the released mana from activation smokes any enemies within 15 yards of you.
Baradin Footman's Tags Baradin's Wardens or Hellscream's Reach, Honored, 333
This is a mastery-only trinket obtainable from the Tol Barad factions. Personally, I want to pick it up just for the footman.
Talisman of Sinister Order Quest Reward: Firing Squad, 325
If you're still rocking older trinkets from Wrath, consider using the Talisman here. You gain it after finishing a line of chain quests within Uldum.
Electrospark Heartstarter BoE, 316
This one is your standard issue healing trinket with a straight mana boost and an on-use effect every 2 minutes. The bonus is the secondary ability, which helps with your spell casting.
Shard of Woe (heroic)
This trinket doesn't really help with increasing regeneration rates or the power of spells. But it makes all your spells cheaper, and you can activate the on-use for faster spells every minute.
Fall of Mortality (heroic)
I don't know which boss drops this, but this is awesome for any healer, with a slight edge to the healers who directly benefit from that extra intellect.
Jar of Ancient Remedies (heroic)
Looks like this jar is a raid drop. I got to use this one on a premade character, too. For me, the difficulty was in remembering to use the ability to trigger the mana return. During combat, the spirit gained is 515. Using it returns 6,420 mana, but you won't be able to benefit from the spirit boost for 30 seconds when it resets. Very delicious trinket to aim for.
Blood of Isiset (heroic)
Halls of Origination is the instance to run. There are seven bosses in this instance, and that's a ton of drops that are available to players gearing up.
Figurine - Dream Owl jewelcrafting only
This trinket is accessible only to the jewelcrafting profession. Still, it's a good starter trinket to use and it takes care of one of the trinket slots until you get something better later on.
Gale of Shadows (heroic)
This is a solid trinket to for all casters. Obtainable from Erudax in Grim Batol. I'd personally shoot for the spirit ones first. However, if you can offset your gear by stacking additional spirit and intellect in other areas, this could be one to shoot for if it happens to drop. I'm not sure if I'd go out of my way to farm for it, though.
Rainsong (heroic)
I got two of these from Vortex Pinnacle's trash. I took one for my own use and handed another to a friend within the guild. If you check your auction house, you might find a few of them in there. Snag it for an acceptable price! It goes for about 200ish gold on my server.
Sea Star (heroic)
The normal version is a bit weaker when you're aiming to raid or do heroics, but if you can score the heroic trinket, you won't regret it. The natural amount of spirit will be a big benefit. I'm not a fan of having to activate trinkets for spellpower usage, though. Why? Largely because I fail at remembering to activate them at opportune times. Macro it to a cooldown-tripping spell so you won't forget, like Divine Hymn or something.
Tear of Blood (heroic)
Extra intellect? Yes please! This is a great second trinket to pair with a pure spirit one. This comes from High Priestess Azil in the Stonecore.
Tendrils of Burrowing Dark (heroic)
It's yet another mastery trinket. This one drops from Ozruk in the Stonecore.
Corrupted Egg Shell (heroic)
Here's a type of trinket that I haven't seen before. It places a shield on your current target. When the shield is active, the trinket owner gains 475 mana per 5 seconds. When that shield wears off or absorbs enough damage, the trinket owner gets over 5,000 mana back, but the MP5 effect wears off. It has a 2-minute cooldown between usages. This trinket drops from Erudax in Grim Batol.
Gale of Shadows (Gale of Shadows)
This is a standard stacking spellpower trinket with a static haste buff. It also comes from Erudax in Grim Batol. Possible for both healers and caster DPS in general. Erudax drops multiple trinkets that healers can benefit from.
Unquenchable Flame
This is a world BoE drop and is another decent starter healing trinket, if you don't have one available. Scout your local auction house and see if you can pick one up. Chances are you'll replace it fairly quick with something stronger, but it is a good one to use as you're leveling or running through the earlier dungeons.
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