Note: this is mostly discourse and prediction rather than high powered math and analysis from it.  I’m not a math person.  I’m the worst Asian ever when it comes to numbers… but I feel like I’ll be pretty accurate with most assumptions (and I am okay with looking like an ass, so~).

Let’s look at tier 8 first before we examine the three levels of tier 9.

Tier 8: Conqueror’s Sanctification Regalia

  • 364 Stamina.
  • 364 Intellect.
  • 318 Spirit.
  • 117 Critical Strike rating.
  • 183 Haste rating.
  • 552 Spell Power.
  • 1 meta, 3 red, 2 yellow, and 2 blue sockets.

Tier 9: Zabra’s Raiment (iLvl 232/245/258)

  • 412/463/520 Stamina.
  • 412/463/520 Intellect.
  • 328/372/426 Spirit.
  • 188/215/248 Critical Strike rating.
  • 132/149/170 Haste rating.
  • 549/629/719 Spell power.
  • 1 meta, 2 red, 2 yellow, 3 blue sockets.

So, the difference would be…

  • +48/+99/+156 Stamina.
  • +48/+99/+156 Intellect.
  • +10/+54/+108 Spirit.
  • +71/+98/+131 Critical Strike rating.
  • -51/-34/-13 Haste rating.
  • -3/+77/+167 Spell power.
  • -1 red, +1 blue socket.

This, obvious, has no regard toward socket bonuses.  I figure that like usual, you can mostly disregard them unless you’re heavily in defecit for some stats… but if you’re getting T9, you probably aren’t.  This is also without enchanting.

Obviously, we’re seeing a trend in more Crit rating and a small decline in haste.  This, combined with the large amounts of Intellect you receive over a medium gain in Spirit tells me that

The trade of a red for a blue is negligible unless you’re going for set bonuses.  Even then, 9 spell power/8 spirit is a fine gem for a blue requirement.  Yellow, 9 spell power/8 intellect.  Red… spell power.

T9 is better than T8.  This should be “duh”.  Considering our T8 4 pc. bonus is the increased spell power by 250 for 5 seconds, you’re almost able to overcome the loss of this through a combination of smart enchanting and gemming plus perhaps having the enchanting and/or jewelcrafting professions.  Our Tier 9 bonuses are also pretty snazzy for Discipline:

  • Item – Priest T9 Healing 2P Bonus (Prayer of Mending) – Increases the healing done by your Prayer of Mending spell by 20%.
  • Item – Priest T9 Healing 4P Bonus (Divine Aegis and Empowered Renew) – Increases the shield from your Divine Aegis and the instant healing from your Empowered Renew by 10%.

While I cannot comment on the implication of Holy priests and Empowered Renew (but I would assume it is pretty mediocre), I know for a fact if you are a solid Discipline priest with appropriate crit and spell power, this 4 pc. bonus is epic (almost as much as our current one for Tier 8).  The 2 pc. bonus is obviously a better one than our chance to crit being increased with PoH.

My current prediction would be that, while having the best possible (the heroic gear— iLvl 258) is ideal, you’re pretty great having the 245.  Seeing as you are able to purchase the two lower iLvl’d Tier 9 pieces with Badges of Triumph, you should be  in good shape eventually.

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So, other than our Tier 9, we have some interesting 3.2 tidbits that are floating around.

One such piece of information is the ability to trade BoP items within your raid for a short period of time just in case Master Loot messes up.  My major concern lies more with people now, instead of one person misclicking.  Assume for a moment you have a couple in your raid.  One of them gets a piece of gear, but their friend/lover/blackmailer wants it.  They can easily trade it.  There is now a level of honor that must be maintained, otherwise… well, we’ll have issues in our loot council.  I don’t think it will happen in our guild, but, you never know.

I think this places more pain in the DKP guilds though.  You’re spending points for someone else?  Maybe they want to purchase the item off of you.  DKP doesn’t cost gold, but your item could.  As long as that person is in your raid, they can do it.

Another tidbit is the faction change.  The ability to now switch an Alliance character to Horde (or vice versa) is… well, it’s about time.  I’m curious to see what will happen when a Draenei warrior wants to switch to Horde.  Do they get to pick from any other Horde warrior-able race?  Blood Elves can’t be warriors, and I assume that if you switch factions you will be the “opposite” race (e.g. Tauren and Night Elves).  I have a Draenei mage that I may want to switch over.  But who knows?  It’s still very early to tell.

Finally, there’s the new raid lockout extension.  This seems more catered to those who need to just work on certain aspects of fights that they may or may not reach every week (e.g. casual guilds that only get to a certain boss toward the end of the lockout period).  I don’t see us using this option often as we aren’t casual.  But I can see the usefulness.

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And now, at the end of this post, I am proud to announce that Lowered Expectations has finally killed Yogg-Saron (as of last night).  We’re now working on hard modes.  I’m happy on the inside and too tired on the outside!  So it’s nap time.

I'm in the front! Hai world!

I'm in the front! Hai world!