Spiritual Guidance: Raid and pre-raid gear for healing priests, page 2

Pre-raid gear in patch 4.2

Getting a new level 85 priest raid-ready has become a lot easier since the launch of Cataclysm. In fact, I don't think I've ever seen this many options in the game before for relevent pre-raid gear, so props to Blizzard for making it easier for players to get into the latest tier of content. It will, of course, be faster to get gear from farming raid dungeons, but if you don't have those resources, now is a great time to be an alt.

ilvl 365 Firelands quest reward gear

By completing the various stages of the Firelands quests and dailies, you'll be able to unlock different vendors. As a priest, you'll get the most gear from unlocking Ayla Shadowstorm first, but since each vendor has at least one item you'll want, I recommend unlocking Ayla last because she doesn't increase the amount of daily quests you'll have access to. Varlan Highbough and Damek Bloombeard, on the other hand, will give you more quests, which means more currency to spend, which means gathering your gear faster. So this means your quest order will be to recruit the ancients (Varlan), then recruit an armorer (Damek), and then build a moonwell (Ayla).

• Spirit Fragment Band finger, Varlan Highbough, price unconfirmed
• Widow's Clutches hands, Damek Bloombeard, 73g
• Globe of Moonlight off-hand, Ayla Shadowstorm, 98g
• Moonwell Chalice trinket, Ayla Shadowstorm, 152g
• Mantle of Desire back, quest reward from Elemental Bonds: The Vow Start the quest line from a quest giver near the zone portals in your capital city.
• Lightforged Elementium Hammer main-hand, crafted BOE from blacksmithing

You may notice that most of these items don't have spirit on them. If you are gearing up for Firelands raiding, I would take these items over lower-level gear with spirit and just use reforging, enchants and gems to supplement what you need.

ilvl 359 justice point vendor gear

You can find the following gear at a vendor in your capital city. Stay away from anything under ilvl 359 at the vendor.

• Heavenly Breeze back, 1,250 justice points
• Mercurial Robes chest, 2,200 justice points
• Mercurial Handwraps hands, 1,650 justice points
• Mercurial Legwraps legs, 2,200 justice points
• Twined Band of Flowers finger, 1,250 justice points
• Core of Ripeness trinket, 1,650 justice points
• Slippers of Moving Waters feet, 1,650 justice points

There are other 359 pieces available from this vendor, but I've only listed the spirit gear because I expect you'll be pairing it with the gear you get from the Firelands daily quests (which again, has no spirit) and will want to keep things balanced.

ilvl 353 5-man dungeon gear

The 5-man dungeons added in patch 4.1, Zul'Aman and Zul'Gurub, will offer you a few items to fill in the gear slots you can't fill from dailies or vendors. You will find more gear in these dungeons that you can wear than what I've listed here, but because 353 is a bit low for Firelands, I recommend only the following pieces, since I've already listed some better options. Feel free to use this stuff if you're gearing up to go into tier 11 raids, though.

• The Hexxer's Mask head, Zul'Gurub, Jin'do the Godbreaker
• Claw-Fringe Mantle shoulders, Zul'Gurub, High Priestess Kilnara
• Wristwraps of Departed Spirits wrists, Zul'Aman, Halazzi
• Sash of Anguish waist, Zul'Gurub, High Priestess Kilnara
• Amani Scepter of Rites main-hand, Zul'Aman, Daakara
• Lost Bag of Whammies off-hand, Zul'Gurub, Edge of Madness
• Touch of Discord wand, Zul'Gurub, Bloodlord Mandokir