Patch 3.3.5 and The Ruby Sanctum is just about to hit, and it is probably a good time to take a look at the new items coming, and how they fit into our gear.

Before we do that, I want to try and make an important point. Best in slot lists are very discriminating. What I mean by that is that they asse that you have access to everything, normal and heroic, 10 an 25 man. If you don’t, the value of an item might change due yo caps and whatnot. Also, keep in mind that just because it is a best in slot list, it doesn’t mean that there isn’t alternatives out there. A good example is the Boots of Unnatural Growth. While they have spirit instead of haste, they are nearly as good as the Plague Scientist’s Boots.

An upgrade is an upgrade, so don’t go tunnelvision against these items in particular. If you an upgrade your stats with a nearly-as-good item, you should.

First things first, let’s take a look at my own 3.3 ICC BIS list. I am well away on getting these items. In fact, I’ve aquired them all on normal at least, and some simply needs to be upgraded.

Because I have access to heroic gear, I get a little bit more out of the hit rating items. In fact, I am ble to achieve my hit cap using just four items: The rep ring, tier 10 pants and gloves and The Lady’s Bristle Bracers. If all of these items are from normal, I will be 3 hit rating under the cap. With just one from heroic – the bracers in my case – I am above the cap. If you are alliance, keep in mind that your hit cap is only 9%. However, it never hurts to go to 10% anyways, because you are not always covered by a draenei aura.

Come 3.5 and Ruby Sanctum, we will see three new items that could be relevant to us: A cloak, a trinket and a new pair of bracers:

We haven’t seen the heroic versions yet, but I think that it is safe to assume that they will be of an equal item level to items dropping from Lich King 25 heroic. So far, there are no sign of a caster ring – none that I have notices anyways. In any case, it will either be a hit + crit or haste ring, or a crit/haste ring. Either way, it will replace the two rings we have now, if it comes around.

It is likely to assume that the trinket is viable replacements for either DFO or Phyl. Because it has haste, it will probably replace DFO rather than Phyl. Haste is still stronger than crit, but barely, and when we are talking true best-in-slot, the differences would be minute. The best course of action would probably be to have one haste trinket and one crit trinket. The cloak is a straight upgrade from the Frostbinder’s Shredded Cape (or in my case, Aethas’ Intensity), so there is little debate in regards to this.

The interesting point are the bracers. We are finally looking at a leather wrist item with crit and haste. It is a wonderful item, but it has one drawback: No hit. Assuming that I have heroic hit pieces in other item slots, removing my Lady’s Brittle Bracers will put me at 239 hit rating (which is bloody well perfect for a night elf druid). I need to cover the 25 hit from somewhere, and I can do that with either a pure +20 hit gem or two Veiled Ametrine. Or at least, it can cover 20 hit rating.

The Veiled Ametrine is probably the safest bet, as they give spell power as well, and is slightly better than pure gems – much as it is the case with SP/crit and SP/haste gems. I may just use a third Veiled Ametrine and accept being 5 hit rating over the cap. This seems the best course of action, rather than being 5 hit rating below the cap.

So, where does that place us? Well, it gives us the following BIS list:

And ofcourse, BIS gemming is important here: You must have Veiled Ametrine in three of your yellow slots. You still need two Purified Dreadstone for your meta gem. Red gem slots will obviously be for Runed Cardinal‘s and your remaining yellow slots will be for SP/haste gems.

Enjoy the Ruby Sanctum, and all the new, tasty gear!

- QQ