Going All In on the Crystal Spire of Karabor

Poker is one of my favourite non-WoW activities and I know I’m not the only one. One of the cardinal skills you pick up as you play the cards is knowing when to go all in. My guild utilizes a DKP system (chips) and now that we’ve started to work on Illidan in order to take him out and get his phat loot (pot).

One of the items Illidan drops is the infamous Crystal Spire of Karabor.

Seeing as I know next to nothing about the supremeness of this mace, I’ve had to turn to my newest mentor, Wynthea, and ask several questions

Why is this weapon so good?

Basic Stats:

15 Int
22 Stam
486 Healing
6 Mp5

The stats would make it a good, well-rounded main-hand for any healing class, but nothing special. It’s roughly comparable to the Lightfathom Scepter (Vashj), Dark Blessing (Zul’jin), or the Gavel of Naaru Blessings (150 Badges from the 2.4 vendor). What gives this mace "Holy Grail" status is its additional effect:

If your target is below 50% heath, your direct healing spells will cause your target to be healed for an additional 180 to 220 health. 

I’ve always been adamant about using staves because I’ve wanted to spread the healing loot around as much as possible to the Paladins, Shamans, and Druids. I’ll make an exception here, however.

For a Paladin single-targeting a Main Tank, an extra 200 health points when their health is below half is nice, but not awe-inspiring. However, if you’re a priest charged with raid healing, an additional 200 health to each recipient of your Prayer of Healing or Circle of Healing when they need it the MOST is tremendous.

Bear with me for a short explanation (warning: MATH!):

The impact of bonus healing on the amount of output for a particular heal is not random. If you have 2000 bonus healing, it doesn’t mean that a Greater Heal with a base healing amount of 500 will heal for 2500. It also doesn’t get a random number up to 2500; there’s a coefficient.

This is where I grab an Asprin. But it’s because I’m mathematically challenged.

For Circle of Healing, that coefficient is 21.4% per target. At rank 5, CoH heals for a "base amount" of 409-451. So, if a priest has about 2300 bonus Healing, fully buffed, the equation looks like: 2300*21.4 + (random number between 409 & 451).

So, their CoH on a non-crit will heal for around 900-1000 per target. (CoH gets 492.2 from 2300 bonus healing) With the Crystal Spire, a target below 50% health would now be healed for 1080-1200 for a non-crit. It would     take around 3300 bonus healing to get that result without the spire, (x*21.4 + (random number from 409-451) = 1150. Solve for X) so the use-effect is worth around 1000 +healing in that situation. When it crits, it’ll hit for around 1500-plus. Just for comparison, that’s like 5 people getting instantly flash-of-lighted by a paladin all for less than 400 mana.

The effect is slightly less dramatic with Prayer of Healing, because Prayer gets a higher benefit from bonus healing – so the fact that the Spire contributes raw health points is a little less critical. That said, it’s still worth around 460 +healing.

Which classes benefit the most?

Shamans do benefit from the Spire, since Chain Heal qualifies as a direct heal, and hits 3 targets. Both healing waves would also receive the benefit to their single targets, which could help in certain situations. Most shamans I know, however, find more benefit from simply casting Chain Heal faster and opt. for Dark Blessing, from Zul’jin in ZA.

Great, so Shamans get overpowered again. It’s a good thing I have a higher chip stack than my Resto Shaman.

Paladins would see the increase to their properly-timed Flash of Lights or Holy Lights, but since Paladins are the work-horse single-target healers, they would see less advantage to equipping this mace than the bonus to spell crit given by the Hammer of Atonement Kazrogal drops in Mt. Hyjal. This is mostly due to the fact that Paladins are usually assigned to main tank healing. Given a single-target with something like 20k health, 200 additional points when they’re already below half and receiving damage hits in excess of 5 or 10k is not wholly worthless, but just an inefficient use of resources: a priest with the same mace in the same raid can get that SAME 200 extra health points to the Main Tank and everyone else in their group at the same time.

Hah. It’s no Benediction, but it’ll do.

For Druids, the extra bonus is almost completely worthless; it stipulates that it can only be triggered by a direct-heal, so Rejuvination and Lifebloom, need not apply. Swiftmend would get the benefit, but because of its cooldown, just doesn’t have the same utility as an always-available direct heal.

However, seeing as we are non Druids, we may not be correct in this assumption. Might there be a Druid of Restoness that would be willing to shed some light?

Priests see gains to Flash Heal or Greater Heal, as well as Binding Heal, CoH, and ProH. Prayer of Mending and Renew are NOT considered direct heals – although there is some question of whether a ProM bouncing off the priest with the Crystal Spire equipped would.

The idea here, though, is not what impact 200 HP might have on one single heal, but how much can we eek out of that 200 HP bonus. The answer is simply get as much use out of it as possible by hitting the highest number of targets that are below half health as quickly as possible. Priests, with a good ProH-CoH combo can hit 15 people with this proc in the space of 4.5 seconds or less.

Clearly, the mace was designed with the CoH priest in mind. Gimme. It also looks BADASS with our T6 gear.

What offhands can it be paired with?

Currently, the best healing off-hand in the game is the Scepter of Purification from Archimonde in Hyjal. Fortunately, though, the 35-badge Voodoo Shaker is comparable, and arguably 2nd-best in slot. There is no reason to NOT take the mace on the supposition that a weak off-hand would compromise its value in comparison with a staff.

Other good off-hands include:

Touch of Inspiration (Reliquary of Souls, Black Temple)

Talisman of the Sun-King (A’lar, Tempest Keep)

So after all that, it appears as though there is an item in the game worth going all in for. But I do know my Guildies read this.

On the other hand, I could be bluffing.

10 thoughts on “Going All In on the Crystal Spire of Karabor”

  1. That mace dropped on my guild’s first Illidan kill. I was positive that a shaman or paladin would grab it – the healy priests were all in a DKP hole, being new-ish guildmembers and of applicant status. No full members put in for it. I was *shocked*. Right before it was up for grabs for applicants, a resto druid snatched it up.

    You may cry now.

    Reply
  2. Alas, Matticus, you are correct about resto druids and direct heals.

    Our only “direct heals” are regrowth, healing touch, and swiftmend.

    That means that every druid using the Ribbon of Sacrifice from Karazhan is missing out on it’s on-use benefit most of the time.

    Lifebloom and rejuvenation together ought to make up about 90% of a druid’s healing. I use regrowth quite a bit myself, applying it for an extra hot on tanks I’m healing, but only because the new mana regen formula lets me do that without going oom. I have a “high” percentage of regrowth use, and it’s still 10% or less of my healing. Regrowth has become viable post 2.4, and it is spammable in some cases (I’ve done this on Naj’entus), but I don’t think I would take such an amazing item for occasional use.

    For my guild, I will be advising my healing team to let any and all Crystal Spires go to the priests. For druid, the best choice for one-hand maces is be Gavel of Naaru Blessings, hands down.

    Reply
  3. I AM crying about it going to a resto-druid. It also dropped on our first Illidan kill, but a shammy beat me on DKP, and is now the proud owner.

    Matt… I’ve asked you to let me edit for typos before you post….

    it becomes EVER MORE CRITICAL when you post rough-draft versions of stuff I send you. As a grammar fascist…. PLEASE make the submitted edits. Before I cry. Please?

    Reply
  4. Resto druids tend to cherish high +heal above and beyond all else. The Crystal Spire is therefore still the best option around in raids, even though the direct heal effect is rarely used.

    It’s still a decent option, but from a whole-raid perspective, it’s better used by others.

    Reply
  5. Its a sad fact that the multiple staff drops went to de almost immediately while Paladins/shamans are in badge/pvp/kara 1 handers.

    But if experience has taught me anything its their is allways a better weapon but trinkets can last you a entire expansion.

    Not that i have much hope chance for either due to putting myself in a hole picking up a haste set.By the time I finish off 4/t6, Trinket and mace could both be months of random drops away.

    Reply
  6. Im a regrowth druid spamming rank 8 regrowth on raid without going oom. 90% of my healing is regrowth. Im stabling haste and my regrowths will be at 1.35 sek cast time be4 blooflust.

    Therefor that mace would be bis for me.
    I usually beat shamans on every boss and ocasionally the coh priest.

    TOL druids are VASTLY inferior to me

    Reply

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