So I was sat around earlier, thinking about what I’m going to do when I hit 80. And it didn’t require much thought. I intend to heal my way to the top, most likely with Grim as the main tank. We know how the other plays, what to expect and so on. Of course, with sufficiently daft DPS, things can still go to hell, but generally we do ok.

To that end, I’ve compiled a little list of instance loot and reputation rewards that should set me up well for the next content patch. It won’t include quest rewards yet, as I like those to be a pleasant surprise, and by and large to get a decent blue quest reward you have to fight your way through about 6 other quests. Bear in mind that the items I’m linking in are all Heroic jobs, so don’t go looking for them in the normal instances.

So, hit the link to see the hottest Heroic loot healing plate gear in Northrend.

Helm Of Purified Thoughts – Requires Argent Crusade, Exalted

Are you seeing that head item? It’s epic. And I don’t mean epic as in “LOOK AT THE PURPLE TEXT”, I mean epic as in “Holy crap that’s good”. A boat load of stamina, a decent amount of Intellect and Spellpower, 45 Critical Strike rating… and a meta gem socket. And a blue socket. I love this Helm. Also, I’m aiming for the “Argent Champion” title, so getting Exalted with the Argent Crusade is only going to help with that too!

A good alternative to this is the Faceguard of the Hammer Clan. Now depending on your gear, you can take or leave the 30 mp5 on this item. It’s a hell of a lot of mp5, I’ll give you that, but the Exalted reward from the Argent Crusade bests it in other ways. The Stamina isn’t as hefty, and of course you can’t gem it, but this drop from the Old Kingdom is an excellent head item if you don’t want the hassle of grinding rep.

Another good drop from our arachnid friends (in Azjol-Nerub) is the Facade Shield of Glyphs. It’s a good solid offhand option, and of course the extra armour will help in those melee AoE situations. If you try and stack plenty of mp5, you should be fairly safe for prolonged fights in terms of mana regen, especially with Blessing of Wisdom in there as well.

From the same instance you can find Flamebeard’s Bracers. I don’t need to tell you that these are definitely worth going for.

If you’ve got the time, try and plan to do those two instances back to back. They’re dead close together with a base close by for repairs. Make sure to pick up your Tabard of the Argent Crusade first though!

Once you’ve done that, nip across to Grizzly Hills and pick these up from Drak’Tharon Keep. The Legs of Physical Regeneration. Mp5 and a very nice bonus of 91 spellpower. Awesome.

If you fancy a brisk walk in the mountains, Storm Peaks have a goodies to offer us. First are the Skywall Striders. You can get these from Halls of Lightning, along with the Winged Talisman. The Striders are excellent, providing a good amount of spellpower, Intellect and Critical Strike Rating. And lets face it, we luuuurve Critical Strike. The Winged Talisman I wasn’t so sure about at first, but that mp5 is too good to pass up, not the mention the amount of spellpower you get on use. It’s worth mentioning while the Skywall Striders are a very good option, you can also get these, the Sabatons of Erekem. You’ll find them in Violet Hold.

From there, try and move onto the Halls of Stone. From there you can get another pair of legs if luck hasn’t been with you so far. Shardling Legguards are really good. They lack the mp5 you get from the Legs of Physical Regeneration, but they have a socket and a decent amount of haste rating on them. Also, you can get the Patina-Coated Breastplate from Trash mobs in there. If the drop rate from trash is anything like the normal instances, you’ll end up with about 5 by the time you leave! Lastly from the Halls of Stone we have this: the Spark of Life. I don’t know about you, but the prospect of gaining mana from just doing my job is excellent.

We’re going to take a detour to the Nexus for this next one. The Amulet of Dazzling Light is a fantastic neck item to aim for, and drops from Anomolous, who as far as I know is a breeze to down. From the same instance we have Grips of Sculptured Icicles, a good pair of gloves, and a very decent waist item as well, the Girdle of Ice.

Lets move onto the Oculus, shall we? Now, from here we get a whole load of excellent gear. First up, contenders for that leg slot, Leggings of Protective Auras. I’m sure I don’t need to tell you how good these are. We also have the Catalytic Bands, the first plate wrist item I came across in my trawl of information on healing plate and a good alternative to Flamebeard’s Bracers. Again, if you can’t get hold of those epic wrist items, these are excellent. The crit rating is especially nice on these, a lot higher than I would have expected given the other stats. The last thing to look for here is the Ancient Dragon Spirit Cape.

Let’s take a look at the Utgarde instances now. They have some fairly tempting things to offer, after all! We’ll start in the Keep, where straight away you can find two awesome rings. Annhylde’s Ring is the one that caught my eye. It’s just good. Really good. The second is the Band of Enchanted Growth. Some of the stats aren’t as good as Annhylde’s, but it does have some decent mp5 on it. Oh yeah, and let me once again mention the Argent Crusade here… If you’ve got exalted, and of course you will have due to that awesome helm, pick yourself up one of these beauties: Signet of Hopeful Light.

Onto Utgarde Pinnacle and… wow, don’t even know where to start here! For another chest option, quite probably the best chest option actually, we have the Ornamented Plate Regalia. Excellent stuff. We also have wrist and shoulders options out this instance as well, in the form of the Bands of Fading Light and the Ferocious Pauldrons of the Rhino. Got sockets?

If you’re still in the market for shoulders, these are from Caverns of Time, the Culling of Stratholme. The Pauldrons of Destiny are just damn good, no two ways about it.

Finally, Main Hands. First up, the Gavel of the Fleshcrafter, again from Stratholme. Great spellpower, mp5, a decent amount of stamina. From Drak’tharon we have the Cursed Lich Blade, which is quite clearly a weapon meant for offensive spell casters, but if needs be it’s Intellect and Spellpower are not to be overlooked. Next, from our old favourite the Nexus, we move onto my favourite prospective mainhand, the War Mace of Unrequited Love. It lacks stamina and crit rating, but the 408 spellpower sends it hurtling to the top of the list for outright healing power. The War Mace is my favourite out of all these, but I think I’m just a sucker for shiny things.

And that, lads and lasses, is your lot!

I’ll be dealing with Tier set, badge loot and 10/25 man loot in the next post, where we’ll hopefully find a more compelling mainhand. If you’re lucky I might even stop being so lazy and go into quest rewards as well!