Priest Enchant Guide
Mostly just for the changes implemented with patch 2.4, we need to establish a “common base” of stats/specs to be able to compare i.e. Spirit to MP5 enchants.
We will assume:
And, if you are reading the healing part:
Of course, the stat assumptions are not something that will fit anyone – they do not even fit my own priest, really. However, I will try to include more information on the break-even points of the enchantments, where they are appropriate.
All Spirit stats will be converted to standard MP5 values, allowing you to directly compare them. (This means, I will use the above assumptions to calculate a mp5 “in combat” value, which is obviously averaged over a fight, in which you spent the above mentioned percentage in fight.)
Raid Healing will force you to stack lots and lots of mana regeneration. Additionally you might have to look out for keeping your +heal high enough. Intellect does only play a role insofar, as to keep your spirit regeneration high.
Additionally you can start stacking some spell haste as soon as your mana regen is high enough to reduce reaction time.
Weapon Slot:
Zhere are a few choices here, some of them quite suprising, I might add:
a) Take the trusty old 81 Heal enchant. Not a lot you could do wrong on this end.
b) Go for Spellsurge. Spellsurge proccs (thanks hidden cooldown!) a little less than once per minute giving it roughly 100/60*5 = 8.33 MP5. So, you can use 8 MP5 for your calculations – but 8 MP5 for the whole group! (Even just for one person this is about equal to 81 heal imho.)
c) Some might remember this from the pre-TBC raids: 20 Spirit! This enchant will supply you with 5.78 Heal (jay! -.-) and 11.44 MP5!
d) Another surprise: The 30 Int enchantment grants you 8.05 MP5! Obviously, the other enchantments are superior, unless you somehow manage to go for an extremely low int value (i.e. 300) with a very high spirit value (i.e. 570).
e) Go for supreme performance and combine spellsurge with another static enchant! Get two weapons and just enchant both: One with 81 Heal or 20 Spirit and one with Spellsurge! After that, use an addon like Caster Weapon Swapper to do automatic weapon switching based on the state of the hidden cooldown of your Spellsurge enchant!
(Actually, the absolute overkill would be three weapons: 81 heal, spellsurge, 20 spirit. In this case you can switch the spirit weapon in the proudmoore fights – where you gain double spirit – or during innervates.)
Head Slot:
No complicated calculations or patch discussions in this category – there is only one option: [Glyph of Renewal]. Nothing else.
Shoulder Slot:
Ordered by declining power, we start with the best shoulder enchantment currently available:
[Greater Inscription of the Oracle] 6MP5 + 22 Heal – Scryer Exalted
[Resilience of the Scourge] 5 MP5 + 31 Heal – Naxxramas, Sapphiron drop
[Greater Inscription of Faith] 4MP5 + 33 Heal – Aldor Exalted
[Inscription of the Oracle] 5MP5 – Scryer Honored
[Zandalar Signet of Serenity] 33 Heal – Zandalar Tribe (thats the ZG trolls) exalted
[Inscription of Faith] 29 Heal – Aldor Honored
What insights do we gain from this ranking? The “holy” Aldor suck at healing, big time!
Cape Slot:
Now, for the cape there is not really a lot to choose from; 120 Armor? Does not help wen eating 20k hits, Spell Penetration? What for!?
So far the only enchantment I have found worth taking a peek at is Subtlety, which reduces aggro by 2%.
Oh and yes priests are thoroughly capable of aggroing through raw healing output… ask my main tank… 
Chest Slot:
6 MP5 grants – surprise – 6 MP5.
However, 15 Spirit will give you 8.58 MP5! The break-even point for this enchant lies at roughly 244 Intellect, meaning 15 Spirit will top 6 MP5 for pretty much everyone.
(6 stats does not make any sense here, you would need more than 1400 Spirit and Int for it to start doing you any good if my calculations are correct…)
Wrist Slot:
The old 9 Spirit enchant has its horizont point (oh, noes, leave me alone with evil physic analogies!) to the 6 MP5 enchant exactly at 679 Intellect.
That out of the way, we still have the “traditional” discussion left:
6 MP5 / 9 Spirit
vs.
30 Heal
Which in my opinion clearly favors 6 MP5/9 Spi for raiding. To get me tempted, the heal enchant would have to have at least around 60 heal…
Hand Slot:
Well, what is there to say? [Enchant Gloves - Major Healing] grants you 35 Heal! (Well, not if there were any other options for that slot…)
Pants Slot:
Got Gold? Take the [Golden Spellthread]!
Only got Silver? Take the (less powerful) [Silver Spellthread]!
Actually, there is one other option, which is right between the golden and the silver spellthread in power: The Zul Gurub [Prophetic Aura] is better than a silver spellthread – but a lot to hard to get a hold of, compared to the other two items.
Feet Slot:
One word: Vitality!
(Actually those of us, who are so-called “movement cripples”, having a snack of boar might help…)
Ring Slot:
Now, how do the 4 Intellect and 4 Spirit from [Enchant Ring - Stats] scale?
At 175 Int and Spirit the 4 stats will already give 2 MP5 – and at 500 each, you will reach 3.39 MP5 – in my eyes a way better deal than the 20 Heal enchant!
Oh, and of course you get the added benifit of 45 hp and 66 mana for your manapool 
.
Raid DPS is essentially a quest for spelldmg and a bit of hit. Mana regen will be our tool of choice, when there is nothing better, since going OOM always is an issue .
Weapon Slot:
Now, this slot begs for two different options:
[Enchant Weapon - Soulfrost] adds 54 Shadow Damage to your weapon.
[Enchant Weapon - Spellpower] only adds 40 spelldmg – but the spelldmg is “real” general purpose spelldmg.
Now, in raid situations, it is certainly more efficient to take the extra 14 shadowdmg – as long as you stay in shadowform, you are not gonna miss anything anyway. However, if you i.e. go a lot of 5 man heroicsyou might come to the conclusion that the 40 +heal is something you do not want to miss – your shield will be more powerful, and if your healer dies again, you will have an easier time of doing the emergency healer.
Head Slot:
Go to your favourite Naaru and ask him for a [Glyph of Power]! Now, that enchant is tailored for you…
Shoulder Slot:
Ordered by descending power (a.k.a. the higher up, the better!):
[Greater Inscription of Discipline] 18 Spelldmg and a bit of almost useless crit – Aldor exalted
[Zandalar Signet of Mojo] 18 Spelldmg – Zandalar Tribe exalted (thats the ZG guys )
[Inscription of Discipline] 15 Spelldmg – Aldor honored
[Greater Inscription of the Orb] 12 Spelldmg and a bit of almost useless crit – Scryers exalted
[Inscription of the Oracle] 5 MP5, if you really have to take the scryers honored enchant, take this one… – Scryers honored
[Inscription of the Orb] sucks bigtime, as there is no spelldmg on there, just spellcrit! – Scryers honored
Cape Slot:
*wheee* two options again!
First the obvious dps-option: [Enchant Cloak - Spell Penetration] gives your cloak – oh wonder – 20 Spell Penetration rating. Although spell penetration is not really endorsed by most players, in theory it should help smoothe out resists w/ high shadow resist enemies. But so does spell hit rating…
But, since so many shadow priest have really annoying aggro issues, [Enchant Cloak - Subtlety] and its 2% threat reduce might be a lot more to your liking.
Chest Slot:
I am saddened to inform you, that you will have to use manareg enchants for your chest slot.
Pre 2.4 the 6 MP5 enchant is your best friend.
Post 2.4 the 15 Spirit enchant will steal your friendship away.
(For a full discussion on this topic, look over here.)
Wrist Slot:
[Enchant Bracer - Spellpower] grants you a whooping 15 spelldmg – for a price that is not really cheap though.
If you just want to enchant that green questitem you just got, you could orient yourself more towards [Enchant Bracer - Restore Mana Prime] where you will get 6 MP5 for a way better price.
Hand Slot:
Nothing currently outperforms [Enchant Gloves - Major Spellpower] on this slot. 20 Spelldmg are just sweet.
Pants Slot:
A [Runic Spellthread] is the best you can get to sew into your pants, empowering you with 35 spelldamage.
A [Mystic Spellthread] will sustain you with 25 +dmg until you can scrap together enough money to get one of the above .
Feet Slot:
As with the chest slot, we are once again emotionally obliterated by being denied our need for a spell damage enchant.
Well, all the whining does not help, just choose:
Vitality for 4 MP5!
Or Boar’s Speed for faster running & a bit of stam.
Ring Slot:
[Enchant Ring - Spellpower] is worth 12 spell damage for each ring!
PvP Discipline priests are in the arena what tanks are in PvE situations. Instead of using “taunt” we wield mana burns and heals – not so much of a difference, is there?
This role demands an amount of resilience close to, or actually above the cap – and a lot of stamina. If you satisfy those two criterias as much, as you are interested in ever doing, you might want to invest more in the typical heal enchants.
Weapon Slot:
Now, there is nothing like a “discipline” enchantment for your weapon, so you will have to resort to healing enchants, I myself chose the 81 +heal enchantment, since the overall bonus healing is quite low on S3 (compared to raid gear at least ^^).
Patch 2.4 will introduce the “deathfrost” enchant – this might feel powerful in a direkt 1 on 1 manaburning contest, but remember that you also spend a lot of time dispelling, etc. and the enchant will only proc on “damaging” spells.
Head Slot:
Pre 2.4 there only was [Glyph of Renewal]. After the patch however, some might find it more rewarding to use a [Glyph of the Gladiator] for its 18 stamina and 20 resilience.
Shoulder Slot:
Sorry guys, you will have to look over at the healing department since I do not know of any actual PvP shoulder enchants.
Cape Slot:
Although 120 Armor is the only thing going for actual survivability, Spell Penetration can give you an up to 4.2% higher chance of your spells landing in PvP!
Chest Slot:
Although the 15 resilience enchantment is quite rare, it is worth looking for!
Wrist Slot:
Fortitude gives your bracers 12 more stamina.
For less survival based solutions look over there
Hand Slot:
Here you really got to decide which is most important to you: Healing, Mana-Draining/Dispelling or surviving:
Not so long ago I myself replaced my Major Healing enchant, which was a trusty companion for a long time with the spanky new 240 armor.
In my eyes 240 armor is a whole lot if you consider who is usually pounding away on us with any chance of being noticed: Rogues, Warriors, Enhancement Shamans (hate those guys…)
Some poeple to prefer the Spell Hit enchantment, which in my humble opinion usually would not be such a great idea, since 1.2% more hit really do not live up.
Pants Slot:
The silver and golden spellthreads also have a nice stamina boost =).
Feet Slot:
In PvE, the Boar’s Speed enchantment is only good if you are a bit slow on the movement side – in PvP it is absolutely essential!
Ring Slot:
Although some people prefer the 20 +heal on their rings I would usually discourage it totally.
As discussed here is the 4 stats enchantment already more powerful in PvE healing encounters – in PvP you may add the 40-42 HP to its already stronger scaling!
5 Comments »
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI
Leave a comment
Blog at WordPress.com. | Theme: Pool by Borja Fernandez.
Entries and comments feeds.
[...] Priest Enchant Guide [...]
Pingback by Enchant Guide: 1/3 completed « Mad Priests on Madmortem — 2008-02-15 #
[...] Priest Enchant Guide [...]
Pingback by Priest Enchant Guide complete « Mad Priests on Madmortem — 2008-02-16 #
[...] Priest Enchant Guide [...]
Pingback by Priest Enchant Guide updated « Mad Priests on Madmortem — 2008-02-19 #
Your disc healing thing is pretty bad. 120 armor is such miniscule mitigation that it’s practically worthless…20 spell pen (undead resist too many fears? bypass that 10 shadow resist racial…or if you’re fearing before dispelling shadow prot) is vastly superior. You also neglect to even mention putting a spell hit enchant on gloves…either hit or healing are better, hit capping is handy for dispels/mana burn/fears/swp… (though if ya do disc/shadow spec you only need it for reg dispel and mana burn since you have 2 points in shadow focus). For rings, +4 all stats is barely an option…the amount of int/spir on pvp gear is so minimal that you get next to no regen from +4 all stats, and you for some reason say 60 hp…where does 60 hp come from? 10 hp per stam, not 15…you’re thinking of int. Fort to bracers is an option, but 30 healing is likely better, and you don’t even mention it. I hope priests don’t take advice from your guide too seriously.
Comment by moil — 2008-07-11 #
Before going for a full fledged discussion of your comment, let me just clear up one thing you might have mistaken: At the time this was last updated, I played my disc priest as a tank. It worked well, but mitigation and stam was very important for me (used to do 2 healers + sl lock + warri + me in s3, which made me always first target).
“120 armor is such miniscule mitigation that it’s practically worthless…20 spell pen (undead resist too many fears? bypass that 10 shadow resist racial…or if you’re fearing before dispelling shadow prot) is vastly superior.”
Lets shorten that a bit: “20 spell pen – before dispelling – shadow resist racial – superior”.
Because, yeah if you got a target with shadow resist and/or motw and/or shadow aura, yes, you will gain 4.2% hit from this.
BUT: Shadow Aura is quite unlikely – 10% holy dmg or conc are the usual thing, and the other two are going to be dispelled anyways…
However, in this case you are probably right for the average disc priest.
“You also neglect to even mention putting a spell hit enchant on gloves…either hit or healing are better, hit capping is handy for dispels/mana burn/fears/swp[...]”
Yeah, this one I actually did not mention on purpose for two reasons:
First, we are talking meager 1.2% of hit, if I am not mistaken.
Second, hit capping for dispels is a great big lump of garbage. You would have to go for 30%+ of hit – sad chance mate…
However, not including it at all is not exactly good journalism, so there you go
“For rings, +4 all stats is barely an option…the amount of int/spir on pvp gear is so minimal that you get next to no regen from +4 all stats”
Sry, but you got your facts wrong:
The amount of spirit on my other gear goes into absolutely no effect right here. Actually having less spirit on the rest of the gear just makes the percentage increase in regen all the higher.
Also, I actually stack 10 more intellect in s4/s3 mix than in my haste raid gear – and exactly the same amount as in my regen raid gear. And yeah, INT would be a problem, but since arena gear has plenty of that it does not matter…
“and you for some reason say 60 hp…where does 60 hp come from? 10 hp per stam, not 15…you’re thinking of int.”
Yup, my mistake, corrected that. (the 42 stem from the possibility of taking the 5% boost from enlightenment)
“Fort to bracers is an option, but 30 healing is likely better, and you don’t even mention it.”
Actually, if you had read the the 2 sentence introduction, you would have found it…
However, I have included a link in the post – and no, I would not use 30 heal over 6 MP5 in PvP.
How can someony like you who advocates for going all-out for hit choose a not up to par heal enchant on this socket over mana regen?!
“I hope priests don’t take advice from your guide too seriously.”
Yeah, me neither!
The prime reason this guide exists is for me to allow to show people what I think is best.
Nothing however goes above making your own research and having your own experiences!
Comment by dionadar — 2008-07-12 #