Trinkets for Healers: Priest and Paladin Edition

While I have mainly focused on priests, I have recently switched to my Holy paladin for my 10-man raiding team and therefore would like to include some Holy paladin info in this and future posts.  And while this post mainly reflects paladins and priests, many shamans and druids might find this information valuable as well.

This particular topic sparked my interest after the Jar of Ancient Remedies dropped in our 10-man BWD raid this week.  It got me thinking, what trinkets are best for my particular class?  When I first saw the trinket I thought "OMG SPIRIT NOMNOMNOM."  But then I realized, this isn't exactly a great trinket for a Holy paladin and will easily be replaced with something better.

I believe there are 2 types of trinkets available for healers:  throughput and regen trinkets.  The best trinkets available have a combination of both throughput and regen.  And while all healers should be focusing on intellect, some healers benefit from intellect or spirit more than others depending on class/spec.  Here's the breakdown:

Paladins- Intellect is king.  Extending your mana pool is your top priority.  Divine Plea scales off of your mana pool and restores more mana with more intellect.

Holy Priests- Intellect and Spirit are the best stats.  Because Holy priests gain more regen through spirit due to Holy Concentration, spirit-based trinkets are a welcome addition.

Discipline Priests- Intellect is your best friend.  Spirit is important, but intellect scales extremely well with Rapture which is your best mana return ability.

Druids- I'm no Druid expert, but I believe that Intellect is the best regen stat.  While spirit has it's place, talents like Heart of the Wild and Revitalize make Intellect more valuable.

Shamans- I honestly haven't played my Shaman in months but I believe they are more like Holy Priests, mainly because of Mana Tide Totem.  Intellect and Spirit are the best regen stats.

Here's a list of healing trinkets available to raiders:


*Warning: Math may not be 100% correct.  I wasn't a whiz at it in school.
*Note: Holy priests benefit more from Spirit than other healers.  This data does not reflect Holy Concentration.

Best: i359 or Higher and Provides the Best Stats Available

Darkmoon Card: Tsunami- One of the best trinkets available right now.  Period.  I'm always an advocate for intellect trinkets with a spirit proc and this one has both.  Assuming you are always casting, this trinket provides 321 Intellect with a chance to gain 80 spirit that can stack up to 5 times providing a 400 Spirit or roughly 200 Mp5 passive bonus.

• Great For: All Healers

Core of Ripeness- Another fantastic trinket that provides 321 Intellect with a spirit bonus.  The spirit bonus has an on-use effect that provides 1926 Spirit for 20 seconds and has a 2 minute cooldown.  If my math is correct, this equates to roughly 160 Mp5 or 321 Spirit if used promptly every cooldown.

• Great For: All Healers

Tyrande's Favorite Doll- Gives you 321 Intellect with an on-use cooldown with an interesting twist.  Rather than a spirit bonus, this trinket captures 20% of the mana cost for each spell you cast and stores up to 4,200 mana.  If you are always casting, the 4,200 limit is fairly easy to reach and has a 1 minute cooldown.  This equates to 350 Mp5 if the trinket is fully charged and used every cooldown.

• Great For: All Healers

Fall of Mortality- Gives 321 Intellect with a passive spirit bonus.  It gives 1926 Spirit for 15 seconds and has a 45 second internal cooldown with a 10% chance to proc, so it will roughly proc once a minute. This trinket provides roughly 240 Mp5 if the procs are correct.

• Great For: All Healers 

Vibrant Alchemist Stone- One of the 4 trinkets available to alchemists.  This trinket provides 321 Intellect with a very tasty Red Socket for a bonus 10 intellect.  It also provides 194 Haste Rating and buffs your consumables.

• Great For: All Healers

 Decent:  i346 or Higher and Provides Preferred Primary or Secondary Stats

Jar of Ancient Remedies- This trinket has a stacking Spirit buff that equates to a passive 515 Spirit when fully utilized.  It also has an on-use ability to restore 6,420 mana, but causes the user to lose the stacking spirit buff for 30 seconds.  This is purely a regen trinket and doesn't add anything to your throughput.  This is a great trinket if you are having mana issues.

• Great For: Holy Priests and Restoration Shamans

Mandala of Stirring Patterns- Provides a flat 321 Spirit bonus and has a chance to proc 1926 Intellect for 10 seconds.   Depending on the proc time, using abilities like Divine Plea, Shadowfiend, or Hymn of Hope during the intellect proc can greatly increase your mana gained.

• Great For: All Healers, but Holy Priests and Restoration Shamans benefit more

Blood of Isesit- This trinket gives you 285 Mastery and has a chance to proc 1710 Spirit for 20 seconds.  This trinket is good for a healer looking to increase there throughput via their mastery rating and comes with a decent regen bonus.

• Great For: Holy Priests, Restoration Druids, Restoration Shamans

Figurine: Dream Owl- Provides 285 Intellect with an on-use proc that provides 1425 Spirit for 20 seconds.  It's basically the i346 version of Core of Ripeness. It is only available if you are a Jewelcrafter

• Great For: All Healers

Figurine: Jeweled Serpent- Provides 285 Intellect with an on-use proc that provides 1425 Spellpower for 20 seconds.  It's meant to be a caster DPS trinket, but it's very valuable for healers looking for a throughput boost. Available only through Jewelcrafting.

• Great For: All Healers

Rainsong- Gives 285 Spirit and has a chance to grant 1710 Haste for 15 seconds.  It's very similar to the Mandala of Stirring Patterns in the sense that it's a regen trinket with a throughput-based proc.  Check your AH as it is a BoE drop.

• Great For: All Healers

  
Sea Star- A trinket that is very similar to Rainsong.  It provides 285 Spirit, but the proc is on-use and provides 1425 Spellpower for 20 seconds and has a 2 minute cooldown.

• Great For: All Healers

Tear of Blood- Probably one of the best trinkets from Cataclysm Heroics.  Provides 285 Intellect and gives your healing spell critical strikes a chance to provide 1710 Spirit for 15 seconds.  Excellent trinket and one of my favorites.

• Great For: All Healers

Witching Hourglass- Provides 285 Intellect and has a chance to grant 1710 Haste for 15 seconds.  One of the best trinkets for a Holy Paladin that is looking to be raid ready.  It is a pure throughput trinket, but because the main stat is intellect, it makes the cut for Decent trinkets.

*Edit- Apparantly Witching Hourglass is one of the weaker trinkets available for a pre-raiding healer. It's better than most green trinkets available, so it's not bad to replace that 318 trinket you've been wanting to replace, but you're better off with something else.  Thanks Papapaint for the tip!

Mediocre:  i346 or Higher and Provides Decent Primary and Poor Secondary Stat

Corrupted Egg Shell- This trinket places a shield on the target that absorbs 4,560 damage.  While the shield is on the target, the user gains 475 Mp5.  When the shield is absorbed,  the user gains 5,700 mana and it's on a 2 minute cooldown.  This trinket is poor mainly because there is no throughput bonus and the regen aspect is mediocre at best.  It doesn't buff your stats at all and is better left off your character.

• Poor choice when there are much better trinkets available.

Mirror of Broken Images- This trinket proves that just because it's a i359 that doesn't mean it's great.  In fact many i333 trinkets are better.  This provides a flat 321 Mastery increase and  an on-use proc that increase resistance to spell damage.

• Poor choice when there are much better trinkets available.

Soul Casket- Another 359 trinket on the bottom list!  While many of you would justify that Soul Casket is an OK trinket, look at it objectively.  It provides 321 Mastery and has an on-use proc that provides 1926 Spellpower for 20 seconds.  Sounds like a nice throughput bonus right?  Wrong.  When compared to other intellect trinkets, this trinket isn't worth the Valor points.

• Might be a decent trinket if you are looking to boost your Mastery rating, but Intellect will always be king.  It also doesn't provide any type of regen bonus.  Discipline Priests and Holy Paladins need to avoid this trinket like the plague.

Gale of Shadows- Provides 285 Haste and a stackable buff that creates 340 Spellpower as a passive proc bonus.  The reason this trinket is mediocre is because most people will just reforge the haste rating into spirit which makes this trinket redundant for it's purpose.  It's a pure throughput trinket.  The 340 spellpower isn't that great either.

• Might be ok if you want to stack up on haste, but you'll get better results with intellect.

Tendrils of Burrowing Dark- This trinket gives you 285 Mastery and has a chance to increase your Spellpower by 1710 for 15 seconds.  Like Gale of Shadows, this is a pure throughput trinket.  I'm not a fan of Mastery-based trinkets unless they provide some type of regen proc, which this one doesn't.

• Again, Holy Paladins and Discipline Priests should seriously avoid this trinket.  It's not bad for other healers, but there are just so many other options that are better.

I think I grabbed all the trinkets I know about.  I can't really attest to the Shard of Woe that drops off of Heroic Lady Sinestra.  Not many people have it and there is limited data available.  It would probably make the Best list do to the reduction in base mana cost and the on-use Haste proc that is on a low 1 minute cooldown.