Vanya vs. Darklight vs. AF2?

[Rillifane]

You lose out on two items that can have spell speed, PIE is a questionable stat, which you can meld into vanya if you really wanted it. The Darklight Cowl comes out 6 vitality higher and 4 mind higher, which you can easily pick up in the 4th or 5th meld with tier 2 matiera, yet you will end up with a tremendous amount of spell speed, crit and comparable determination.

I would say save the 1300 some Tomestones and just live in strategos gear (ilevel 60 Amdapor Keep drops) until you can make your NQ/HQ Vanya/Rose Gold Circlet

The spell speed would be highly useful for whm, but for scholar less so seeing as a scholars healing is "split" between 3 things, pet, shields and direct healing. And one of the direct healing spells is unaffected by spell speed (lustrate).

Great responses! Exactly what I was looking for. I'm pretty iffy myself on using DL body. Especially when I start getting AF2 pieces and would have to choose between cowl or 1 piece of AF2 + a less useful piece.

AF2 body + strat cap from AK, or crafted hat, or if you get lucky AF2 hat as a drop. But until then DL cowl is good for scholar.

[Kurumu1787]

The spell speed would be highly useful for whm, but for scholar less so seeing as a scholars healing is "split" between 3 things, pet, shields and direct healing. And one of the direct healing spells is unaffected by spell speed (lustrate).



AF2 body + strat cap from AK, or crafted hat, or if you get lucky AF2 hat as a drop. But until then DL cowl is good for scholar.

I cannot deny that spell spead may be less useful for scholar vs white mage, however spell speed reduces global cool down and as a healer a shorter global cool down is a very important thing which both healers can benefit from, even when using instant cast spells like lustrate and benediction, in my opinion.

[Kurumu1787]

Any chance of you guys posting separate items for SCH also ?

Gigi, the gear you would use for scholar and white mage is largely identical. I think for scholar you may want to prioritize crit a little bit more than white mage because Adloquium's shield is doubled when the heal is a critical heal. MND will still be the priority stat for both healers, then it breaks down to crit, spell speed, and determination. Until further testing is done it is really hard to say what is most important and what stats have heavy diminishing returns at what skill level. Until then I personally am enjoying close to .2 seconds off of my GCD on both WHM and SCH ^.^

[Rillifane]

I cannot deny that spell spead may be less useful for scholar vs white mage, however spell speed reduces global cool down and as a healer a shorter global cool down is a very important thing which both healers can benefit from, even when using instant cast spells like lustrate and benediction, in my opinion.

Still spell speed has no effect on the GCD when lustrate is used as it has a 1.0 sec cooldown and when used all abilities can be used 1.0 seconds after it. And for a scholar getting more out of your heals, especially with the shield proc being double your heal value on a crit, it makes spell speed even less worth while for a scholar than it is for a white mage as to pick up enough spell speed to make a difference you are going to sacrifice crit and determination.

[Kurumu1787]

Still spell speed has no effect on the GCD when lustrate is used as it has a 1.0 sec cooldown and when used all abilities can be used 1.0 seconds after it. And for a scholar getting more out of your heals, especially with the shield proc being double your heal value on a crit, it makes spell speed even less worth while for a scholar than it is for a white mage as to pick up enough spell speed to make a difference you are going to sacrifice crit and determination.

Don't get me wrong I agree ^.^ spells like Lustrate and Benediction though are kind of like your oh shit buttons for spike damage, the rest of the time you will be casting Adloquium and Physick and the reduced GCD and cast time will effect those. I personally cast Bio/Bio2/Miasma/Virus in between heals on many boss fights, its just another area that spell speed helps me cut down fractions of time to weave stuff in.

[Kurumu1787]

MND>Crit>Det/Spell Speed would probably be how I would optimally stat a scholar where as a white mage would be MND>Spell Speed>Det>Crit which of course brings us back to items of the same ilevel that can be melded versus non-meldables!

A rose gold circlet has crit and determination on it already, you can pump a tier 3 of each of those into it to reach the maximum crit and determination for said item which leaves you with 3 extra slots to add spell speed, piety, one more extra mind/vit/int ect. you just cant simply get that kind of optimization with non meldable gear.

[Arale]

MND>Crit>Det/Spell Speed would probably be how I would optimally stat a scholar where as a white mage would be MND>Spell Speed>Det>Crit which of course brings us back to items of the same ilevel that can be melded versus non-meldables!

A rose gold circlet has crit and determination on it already, you can pump a tier 3 of each of those into it to reach the maximum crit and determination for said item which leaves you with 3 extra slots to add spell speed, piety, one more extra mind/vit/int ect. you just cant simply get that kind of optimization with non meldable gear.

Not everyone will be able to afford the melds, the armor itself and what not. Wen it gets cheaper, maybe, but right now DL is the way to go & there isn't any content that requires you to have super melded vanya to complete AFAIK. DL is still good, but it will be inferior to melded options. Yet, easier to obtain, and will hold you off until AF+1 easily.

[Rillifane]

Not everyone will be able to afford the melds, the armor itself and what not. Wen it gets cheaper, maybe, but right now DL is the way to go & there isn't any content that requires you to have super melded vanya to complete AFAIK. DL is still good, but it will be inferior to melded options. Yet, easier to obtain, and will hold you off until AF+1 easily.

Not to mention none legacy servers might not even have someone high enough to craft the items to begin with.

[Kurumu1787]

Ahh this is true! I am a legacy player and we are already collecting mats for HQ Vanya ^.^ We as healers do have the luxury of not needing super BiS gear (our true potency comes from how effective we are at playing our class), and you are absolutely right that DL will hold you over, but if you are a min/max junkie the vanya will be like the call of cthulu whispering sweet nothings in your ear while you sleep :P

I think it is safe to say that DL jewlery is definitely a solid priority, if you can afford Vanya and melds go for it, otherwise get a Stratego set from AK and work on some DL armor because at the end of the day even the Vanya will be outclassed by the ilevel 90 armors both AF+1 and the Allagan ^.^

[Arale]

Actually, aside from one or two pieces, I find Strategos Jewelry to be better then darklight. Has most spell speed, and only a bit less stats. Some pieces dont have spellspeed at all. I use 1 DL ring, and 1 DL bracelet, but the rest is strategos.