Healing Gear: General

The next few posts will list calculated ratings of important healing gear for shaman. The basis for these calculations can be found in my Comparing Healing Gear posts. All ratings are listed in terms of "Healing Equivalent Points" (HEP), which represents the relative improvement in total healing output that's obtained by increasing your Healing rating by one.

The calculated values are based upon an X/X/40+ Restoration shaman (with Tidal Mastery, Mana Tide and Nature's Blessing) in a full set of Karazhan gear. Using different levels of gear will change the raw HEP values, but rarely results in a change in ranking (in which case, the items are generally closely matched to begin with). All ratings assume a 10 minute fight.

[Royal Nightseye] are used for all red and blue sockets, [Dazzling Talasite] for yellow sockets, and [Insightful Earthstorm Diamond] for meta sockets. Socket bonuses were maintained unless otherwise noted. "On-use" items were averaged over their cooldown period for ease of modelling. Set bonuses were not taken into consideration for individual item stats.

The following assumptions were made:

• Buffs: Gift of the Wild, Arcane Brilliance, Prayer of Fortitude, Blessing of Wisdom, and Blessing of Kings.
• Consumables: [Flask of Mighty Restoration], [Superior Mana Oil], and [Blackened Sporefish].
• Mana Spring and Water Shield up at all times
• Mana Tide used as often as its cooldown is available.
• [Super Mana Potion] used whenever its cooldown is available.
• The spell mix used is 5% Lesser Healing Wave, 10% Healing Wave, and 85% Chain Heal.
• Time outside the 5-second rule is 10%.

The following HEP weights were used in this analysis:

	HEP
Healing	1.00
Intellect	1.73
Spell Crit	0.66
Mana/5	5.07
Spirit	0.25
Spell Haste	0.50
Stamina	0.34
Resilience	0.10
Armor	0.01

These weights assume a 1:1 ratio for all stats affecting healing output, a 1:4 ratio for spell haste (i.e. a 4% increase in casting speed is equal to a 1% increase in healing output), and a 1:10 ratio for survivability stats (Stamina, Armor, Resilience). Armor was furthermore reduced by ½ due to its effect only on physical damage.

Source Key
BT = Black Temple
BWL = Blackwing Lair
MH = Mount Hyjal
SSC = Serpentshrine Cavern
TK = Tempest Keep: Eye
= Arena points
= Honor points