PTR Report: Mixing Healing and DPS Items
February 15, 2008 by Matticus
Filed under Patch Notes
In the past, I’ve always preached and encouraged players to take loot that’s a minor upgrade for them if no one’s needed it. It appears Blizzard has listened. After checking out the changes on MMO Champion again, something struck me as odd. The best items in the game now appear to be from vendors instead of just as boss drops. The only way to acquire them is to upgrade pieces from boss kills with a Sun Mote.
Confusing? Let me try again.
Old School
You can skimp out on gear from Karazhan and then pick it up at Gruul’s. I’ve long often thought about different ways I could get the best loot faster. For example, in SSC, I would skip out on the T5 legs for 30+ DKP and save it for the T5 helm on Vashj. I’d let the competing classes around me get their leg tokens first because I figured once they all get it, sooner or later I’d get mine at an inexpensive rate. It makes sense because our Guild would kill Fathom Lord more often then they would Kill Vashj.
New School
There’s a bunch of awesome phat loot from Sunwell. However, not all of it’s immediately accessible. There’s an awesome leggings called Pantaloons of Calming Strife. As you can see, it’s meant for Priests. There’s also another pair of leggings called Pantaloons of Growing Strife. That pair is catered towards DPS.
But here’s the catch.
For DPS casters, you have to get a sunmote AND Pantaloons of Calming Strife first before you can go to a vendor and “upgrade” it. Surely those aren’t the only DPS caster pants in Sunwell. But as a player in a Guild using DKP, I can no longer enjoy my monopoly on healing cloth.
Oh well. C’est La Vie!
I'm Matticus and I play a Dwarf Priest. My home is in Conquest, a raiding Guild that I have founded. Every week, I log 12 hours raiding on Ner'Zhul.
Wynthea is the Troll Priest with the best Mohawk on Firetree. Currently, I raid 4 nights a week in a hardcore guild. I started playing WoW in May 2005, and raiding end-game in May 2007. My guild is currently working through 25-man WotLK content. I've tried playing other classes, but Priests are my passion. I am extremely fond of Dwarves.... especially with Ketchup. 
My name is Sydera and I like to heal things--think Florence Nightingale with foliage. I play a night elf druid on Ner'Zhul, and I raid 12 hours a week. As a guild officer for Conquest, I coordinate healing and recruit new raiders. I started playing WoW in Fall 2005, and it was love at first click. Before I discovered the joys of Broccoli-stalk healing, I raided as a holy paladin, and I now have alts in all healing classes. I have to say, though, bark beats poofy dresses and heavy plate in my book.
Yikes, sounds… well, kinda crap
From what I understand about it, Matticus, both DPS pants and Healing pants drop in the Sunwell. The point of the vendor system is that both healers and DPS can make use of drops. Basically, if you’ve got a raid group and all the DPS have an item, but one of the healers doesn’t have the Healing counterpart, and the DPS item drops, the healer can simply take it and a Sunmote and go exchange that for his healing pants, instead of being disappointed and frustrated.
It’s not an upgrade system, but an exchange system. It’s a great idea and will make getting gear faster and easier.
Oh, and Sunmotes drop from Sunwell trash, they say.
Apathy: Ah, so it’s a vice versa thing. The motes are BoE right?
Apathy, that sounds kind of amazing. I’m liking that idea, it should help those of us that need two sets of gear. Or three (pallies), or four (druids).
Yes, they are BoE as of now. Could change.