02-15-2005, 10:23 PM
Concillian,Feb 15 2005, 10:17 AM Wrote:I agree that Spirit is going to be an important class for raid bosses, and if you talk to those who do those things on a regular basis spirit is a definite part of their equipment.
From my experience with dozens of Onyxia raids in the beta and a couple of Molten Core raids in the release is that having tons of spirit or int isn't all that crucial, because good raids are designed with healer rotations in mind that give you plenty of time to regen mana -- whether you have 250 or 350 spirit. I would much rather emphasize fire resistance first to ensure my survival from the occational attacks that get thrown my way (e.g. aoe stuff, the tank gets knocked to the side while fighting Onyxia and I get some of her breath thrown my way, or when Onyxia takes off and shoots fireballs at random targets). After fire resistance, then I'd put on a mix of int, spirit, and stamina gear, depending on what equipment I have. It's rare that I run out of mana in a raid group. It's far more crucial to survive the occational bumps in the road in any fight ("RULE ONE: THINGS GO WRONG"). After all, I can't heal if I'm dead.
Regarding mages, mana is even less important than for priests, because in most raid situations, the hardest part is trying to convince mages to cast *less* so that they don't pull aggro off the main tank. It is perfectly fine for a mage to take a break for 10-15 seconds at a time, fire a volley of 3-4 shots, take a break, etc. Spirit gear helps more than int gear in this situation, but frankly I would prefer it if mages gathered more defensive gear -- fire resistance and stamina gear -- so that they wouldn't die the first time Onyxia looks in their direction or the first time one of her fire Warders does one of its aoe fire blasts.