MBTI: 730 Playstyle Breakdown

This is a followup to yesterday's 640-response analysis. There are now 730 in the data pool (it keeps growing, too, which is awesome! I will continue to add the new data to future charts.)

Breakdown on Playstyle:

Playstyle is a mix of schedule (Casual vs Hardcore in time raiding) and strictness (the more traditional casual vs hardcore). Non-raiders (those who focus on questing and just run instances or pvp or roleplay for fun) and the Hardcore PvPers were also included as options.

C/C = Casual Schedule, Casual Play
C/H = Casual Schedule, Hardcore Play
H/C = Hardcore Schedule, Casual Play
H/H = Hardcore Schedule, Hardcore Play



Non-raiders:
Slightly fewer extroverts are seen among the traditional non-raiders than among any of the other choices. It would seem that most of the non-raider extroverts instead choose to spend their time as "hardcore PvP!"

Playtime:
There are slightly more Sensors than Intuitives who put lots of time into raiding each week: sensors work at a steady pace using instructions and guides, while intuitives tend to work in bursts of energy. I suspect that the higher number of casual-schedule intuitives allows these players to spend time outside of raiding to figure out how to overcome something before returning to it in an instance. However, it is noticeable that sensors are just as likely to be non-raiders as they are to raid 4+ nights a week; sensors just seem to be in fewer numbers when it comes to raiding only a couple nights each week, likely again due to wanting to work on their projects (be it raiding or otherwise) at a steady pace. The other personality traits don't seem to have much impact on whether a person raids 3 nights or 6 nights a week!

Strictness:
There are noticeable, though small, bumps in the charts regarding Casual vs Hardcore raiders. Casual raiding is preferred a bit more by extroverts (and the socialization that would entail), sensors (steady pace, follow others' instructions, literal), feelers (emotional, keeping the peace and harmony by not being mean to that rogue who keeps dpsing from the front of the mob), and perceivers (dislike rules, get bored with repitition).

Those who have higher expectations of skill among their fellow raiders tend to be the introverts, intuitives (rely on instinct, like to figure things out, theoretical), thinkers (rational arguements, analytical), and judgers (organized, prompt to raids, decisive): the popular INTJ embodies this. Of course, not all INTJs are hardcore in their expectations of play skill, but most of them are.

Hardcore PvP:
There were relatively few of these in the overall survey (15 total out of 730), but among them, they were heavily EN's, and many of them also Feelers (more personal and emotional) rather than Thinkers (rational, achievement-driven). These hardcore pvpers tend to act before they think, and rely on reflex, creativity, and instinct to guide them. Knowing that each of their enemies and allies is controlled by another person is likely a strong source of why there are so many extroverts in this field.

MBTI: 640 Responses

I finally got around to tallying up the responses that have come in since the time of my last analysis. For an overview of the survey and what it's about, you can check my initial post here (and take the survey if you'd like), and you can check out some of the results and thoughts on them here (223 responses), here (Nertok's), and here (Elnia's).

I added the question of gender somewhat late, so it doesn't have as much data, so I won't be looking at that too closely in this analysis. I'll leave it for another time :)

Raw Numbers:

The top chart is the number of personalities that people responded with. Below it is a chart of the world population average.


As you can see, adding another 400 responses to the survey has left the IN crowd--a minority overall in world population--heavily represented within WoW (at least among those who would be following blogs and feel the urge to submit their data :) ). Elnia explained why in his response, MBTI and WoW, at the Pink Pigtail Inn: "That this activity (WoW) takes place in an imagined space is part of what we mean by intuition (N). That this activity takes place in a space of limited extroverted interaction is part of what is meant by introversion (I)." As he predicted, INTJs are now the most-represented personality type in this 640-response study (INTPs were in the 223 response study), in spite of a relatively low population in the world.


Raid Roles and Class: Numerical

Below is the breakdown of responses in terms of preferred raid role and favorite classes. Some players do, of course, enjoy multiple raid roles. I'd like to look more in-depth later at which personalities were more likely to enjoy multiple raid roles, per person, rather than only one role; it will likely match those who have hybrids among the most popular classes, but that's just my guess :)


Raid Roles and Class: Percentage

The same data as above, but averaged out into percentages per personality type. It would seem that ESTPs, though a minority in the study, really like to tank as warriors and druids! ES's overall seemed to shy away from magical dps classes.



Guild Roles and Play Style

For this, I wanted to look at percentages rather than raw numbers.

C/C = Casual Schedule, Casual Play
C/H = Casual Schedule, Hardcore Play
H/C = Hardcore Schedule, Casual Play
H/H = Hardcore Schedule, Hardcore Play



Play Style:
The vast majority of respondents play on a casual schedule, attending raids only 3 nights or less each week. Of course, they may use other nights for pugs, alts, 5-man runs, pvp, and all the other non-raidly things that can be done. The ESFP percentages (heavy H/C) I take with a grain of salt, as they were overall under-represented as a population in WoW, but perhaps that is just their way: valueing time spent with friends in a casual atmosphere of a raid.

Contrary to Elnia's expectations, however, a large number of the ENFJs claim that they are hardcore players: the percentages don't look very different from the INTJs. I'd like to break the schedule and raiding style down further in a future post, and see how time (limiting other activities) and social aspects of each personality may play into raiding style and time commitment.

Guild Roles:
As my direction on the survey asked for those that a person was drawn to, whether voluntarily or not, I am a bit wary of how to proceed with this data. Some people are good at roles, though they'd rather not have to do them; others are pushed into them and do poorly at them, because no one else would step up. Other people *think* they may do a good job at a role, and carry it out, but it may or may not truly be the case. As such, I'd like to eventually look at the correlation between roles, personalities, and raiding style.

For now, suffice to say that each personality type has its own leaders, and has times where their particular personality helped to put out/deal with a drama-fire. We can look into these roles more closely below, however, in the next section...


Further Breakdown on Guild Roles:



GMs:
Dominated by Intuitive (big-picture/inventive), Thinker (objective, rational decision making), Judger (schedules, rules) types of players. While there are certainly other personalities who have lead a guild, they may have felt far less comfortable with it: Feelers tend to take more diplomatic routes, trying to keep harmony in the guild, which may result in more casual raiding styles; Perceivers would likely rely heavily on their officer core to make decisions for them, and be more spontaneous and flexible with their guild.

Raid Leaders:
Similar situation as with GMs, though they do not necessarily have to enforce guild policy, so the break between Judgers and Perceivers (and their relative adaptability/organization) is mostly even.

Class Leaders:
These seem to come from all types relatively evenly, across the board.

Bloggers:
Slightly dominated by Intuitive Judgers (organized yet inventive). Just as there are different kinds of blogs, so too there are different personalities of bloggers!

Web Admins:
More of the Judger variety, perhaps due to their ability to finish projects and organizational skills. Perceivers are more likely to get distracted midway through, or spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to do something new and exciting that isn't necessarily conventional and thus is time-consuming (like building an entire design from scratch and learning css and php along the way... *coughs*).

Nannies!
As I mentioned earlier, all of the personalities seem to have times where their particular personality helped to put out or deal with a drama-fire. The intuitives (looking at the big-picture and relying on instinct rather than past experiences) have a slightly larger showing, but not by any ridiculous amount.

Recruitment:
This role tends to be taken on mostly by guild masters and raid leaders, since they should be the ones who know what they want and need and to progress. As such, the same personality types of Thinkers and Judgers tends to dominate, though Sensors (detail-oriented people) are not as left out as they are in the GM/Rl roles. Sensors are a reasonable help for guild recruitment, as they will carefully inspect gear, enchants, specs, and trial-run capabilities.


Further Breakdown on Class:



The class types have fairly evened out in terms of extro/intro, and sense/intuition: INs tend to dominate across the board. The most obvious differences between classes comes down to Judgers (conventional, decisive) vs Perceivers (adaptable) .

The largest split comes down to two casters: Warlocks seem to be preferred more by Judgers and Mages seem to be preferred more by Perceivers. Since I've never had as much interest in playing a magical DPS myself, I'm curious what causes this split. What do you think?

AoC: Gold Seller NPC

I stumbled over this screenshot in my album from the summer before last, when I was playing AoC for a WoW-break:



You can't escape them! And it's an NPC!!! AHHH!

....he gives you a quest to go find his "farmer," hehee.



The few things I miss about AoC: the soundtrack (the vocals for cimmeria were huanting and beautiful), and being able to build a guild city. Things I do not miss: the severe lag, the broken quests (especially when it came to group-questing!), and the non-instanced long-respawn dungeon bosses. The combat system of directional swing combos was fun in the early levels, but as you got higher level and had to do 4-5+ swings to pull off a combo, the novelty wore off fast, and I even used G15 macros to do a lot of them.

Oh well. *giggle at gold seller*

How a Girl Gamer was Made

Female gamers are viewed as a rarer breed, especially among the raiding ranks. While this may in part be due to the fact that most female gamers tend to cluster together (my own guild is nearly half female, even in among the raiders), there is some truth to video gaming culture being only recently marketed as "okay" for girls--and most people, regardless of gender, will avoid things that their society views as gender-specific, because they don't want to be outcasts. According to tradition, boys play with trucks and computers and toy army men, girls play with dollhouses and tea sets and glittery crafts.

So, what led a girl such as myself to be a druid, officer, in a relatively hardcore raiding guild? Nevermind that I broke the mold in that I actually like tanking and melee dps (it was my primary role as alliance in TBC), and only heal in WotLK because it's what the guild needed and they insist I'm somewhat decent at it (when most female gamers are stereotyped as healers, a support role).

My First Games

I was always a bit of a tomboy. I have a little brother, and my cousins matching my own age were all boys as well; my parents took me camping and never discouraged me of getting dirty and romping about in normal play. I had my share of baby dolls, but my favorite toys were stuffed animals, and I've always felt more interested in animals than in "human" relations. I had a dollhouse, with a few posable plastic people, but I preferred using the Mapletown dolls, who were, in essence, furries. When I got a bit older, I began amassing a collection of tiny porcelain animals, and the human dolls were set aside in favor of the dollhouse being ruled by pets and wildlife (my favorites were a fox family, a husky, and a german shephard).

My Dad had a motorcycle when I was really young, and he took my brother and I on a couple spins around the neighborhood, but as we reached schoolage, he sold it in favor of a Nintendo and a computer. We played Duckhunt and the original Mario, and I had fun shooting the discs out of the air, though I felt a bit odd killing ducks. My Mom didn't complain, however, and it was fun time spent with my Dad and my little brother: a positive first experience for a young girl into the world of video gaming.

When we got a computer--the kind with DOS--my Dad got a few games for it. We played the original Duke Nukem, Wolfenstein 3D, etc. Yes, I was shooting Nazis at about 7 years old, and my Dad would laugh so hard when something in the game would surprise me and I'd nearly jump out of the seat.

Growing into my Own Gaming

I never thought it odd for a girl such as myself to be playing video games through grade school. A couple close friends I made in elementary school were similar; with brothers and gamer dads, they too enjoyed playing games on the computer or on Sega or Nintendo. At the same time, we had no problem going out into the backyard and building forts in the bushes, climbing trees, or just chatting on the swingsets about the various imaginary worlds we played in.

Though we had an SNES, I bugged my parents for a Sega, and quickly was immersed into Sonic the Hedgehog. I played through the whole series, though beginning with Tails' introduction in Sonic 2, I often played with a friend, cooperatively. On the computer, my brother was playing things like Reader Rabbit (which I'd help him out with sometimes), while we both played Commander Keen and Duke Nukem 3D (jetpacks and rocket launchers! Whee!).

My Dad had some work convincing me to try it, but I also grew to love X-Wing, my first flight simulator game. From there, I also had fun with Terminal Velocity, another sci-fi flight game.

I also ended up getting my own Gameboy Color (crazy technology!) with hard-earned allowance money, and played games like Dragon Warrior Monsters, Tetris, and Pokémon: Pokémon became a favorite game when the Sonic series died down (Sonic 3D was very disappointing). I also did a fair amount of reading around all the gaming, growing into the Star Wars lore, and first began writing by trying my hand at some fanfiction.

Whoa, Interwebs!

As the schools were getting semi-decent computer labs (upper middle to high school for me), came the time of dial-up AOL at home. A friend pulled me into some Star Wars RPG chatrooms among other types of roleplay (including Pokémon and animé), and we had fun goofing off as jedi or x-wing pilots or pokémon trainers or, in my case, pokémon themselves. Given the newness of the internet and my young age, I did have a few scary chatroom run-ins that made me more careful, though there was never anything serious.

I picked up some of the strategy games for my own time, continueing with Pokémon on the Gameboy but playing things like Civilization, Star Wars: Rebellion, SimCity, and Star Wars: Jedi Knight on the computer. My brother found more interest in the FPS war games, which I suppose makes it not too surprising that he earned Expert Marksman in his high school Marine RotC program.

I played a bit of Monster Rancher, Final Fantasy, Zelda, Mario Kart, and GoldenEye through my friends' console games. I didn't play any real MMOs, however. I eyed Everquest a bit, but the monthly fee tied with the slowness of the internet at the time (and my parents' dial-up) kept me away from it. The idea of having to pay monthly for the game on top of internet costs seemed ridiculous to me, so I stayed away from MMOs.

In high-school, I also had my first introduction to tabletop RPGs, joining a D&D group. I've been playing in D&D type games ever since :) I also didn't loose my love of nature: I enjoyed backpacking and canoeing and water-tubing, still climbed trees, still played on rope swings, tried my hand at repelling/rock climbing, and spent a lot of time along bayside beaches finding shark's teeth and building sand castles.

College

Going from dialup to campus ethernet was like being dumped in the deep-end. While I had to put aside my Sega and Gameboy and most computer games in favor of getting used to the study load and self-sufficiency of having complete control of my time, I was also more thoroughly introduced to animé, and picked up new hobbies such as archery and SCA fencing.

I was also introduced to a LAN gamer group on-campus, and played Unreal Tournament with them: a group mostly male, though I was not the only girl. I met my now-husband through this group; we laugh that it was love through a sniper scope. Through him, I also discovered Morrowind and the Baldur's Gate/Neverwinter Nights series and, eventually, was convinced to try out my first MMO: City of Heroes. I overcame my dislike of the monthly subscription fee and agreed to try it out; I had a lot of fun playing a purely support class, a Mind-Control Bubbler, who had nearly zero offensive abilities. I enjoyed it because it was a challenge, and I had little reason to solo in the game.

Would I have tried an MMO without my boyfriend's pressure?

Yes. It simply would've taken the pressure of a female friend to overcome that same dislike of the monthly subscription fee; most of my female Everquest-playing friends had just put their gaming aside for college, however, so I had no one within my friend group to do such pressuring.

Of course, once I began playing and saw the extent of the customer support and ever-evolving game design, I understood the subscription fee, and stopped complaining about it. :)


My Types of Games

As you can see through the above rambling, I have played a lot of different kinds of games all through my childhood. I enjoy an FPS, and I enjoy an involved RPG. I have played the sniper as well as taken out people up-close with a frag gun. I have lead civilizations and fleets, and raised a team of cute cuddly creatures to beat up other cute cuddly creatures (but not kill... they just faint!). I have spent much time with Sims-people and building them both homes, lives, and entire cities; I have raced through the stars fighting for the Rebellion or, even, the Empire in TIE Fighter.

I enjoy variety in my games. It's part of what so appeals to me in my druid: the hybrid allows me to try my paws at many roles, and if I get truly bored or dislike one, I can respec without having to level a whole new character. I heal, I buff, I protect, I tank, I rip into things, I stealth about, I build, I destroy. I fawn over mini-pets and cuddly dragon and wolf mounts, I lay claws into a gnome's back, I parry swords with my bear-face, I turn into a tree and spread healing support over my friends. I've played a fairy who could wield a handgun as readily as devastating magic, I've played a wolf monk, I've played a booky mage, I've played a dual-wielding hack-and-slash warrior on a mission to avenge her father, I've played a grad student who could turn the ground into jello and was haunted by a little girl who could turn into a dragon, I've played a drow werewolf (bleach-white fur, ha).

I have fun.


~~ How about you? What was your first experience with gaming, and with an MMO? Who introduced you to the hobby? ~~

Irony, thy name is Achievement

Lunchtime. I log in, pick up 43 brewfest tokens, and rush to the vendor with my 350 in hand. I get completely smashed. I throw a bunch of mugs at dwarves, go on two raging whirlwinds of tankard-throwing, brawling doom, and get sick no less than three times.

A goblin rents me a dress, slippers, and a funny little hat; I hearth to The Filthy Animal tavern wearing them, and promptly burst into dance in the doorway, doing a smashed rendition of the electric slide. I trip myself out of the tavern and all but fall back through the portal to Orgrimmar (did the Sunreaver guards push me?), clamber aboard my trusty worg mount, and careen back to the goblin to return the rental.

Bemused, the goblin gives me a pink elephant and a membership card for the Brew of the Month. My worg warily paces through Orgrimmar once more, carrying me back to the lake as I grip the reins with unsteady hands and nearly slip off a few times, and finally reach the troll's lodge to turn in the card for Brew Club membership.

...ding ding ding. What's all that?

I have mail. From the Queen of the Dragons, no less. Once I've tumbled back down the side of the canyon into the trade district to reach the bank, I take my time unfurling the crisp scroll of parchment from my mailbox, squinting down in my intoxication at the elegant script dancing across the page--truly dancing, in my dizziness.

With the Drums of War pounding in the distance, it is easy for the denizens of Azeroth to forget all that life has to offer. You, on the other hand, have maintained the dignity of the good races of Azeroth...

I stop there, unable to contain my merth. I read it aloud in guild chat: "You, on the other hand, have maintained the dignity of the good racesh of Azeroth! HAHAHA! ...hic!"

My worg turns his great furry head to stare back at me, then shakes himself with a sigh, even as my guildmates laugh at my slurred rendition. Still giggling to myself, I finish reading the letter,

...with your ability to remember what we fight for. To not celebrate our victories is another form of defeat. Remember that well, reveler. May others be inspired by your good cheer, Alexstraza, the Life-Binder.

Grinning to myself, I attempt to reroll the scroll, tearing a corner in the process. My worg rolls his eyes at me, feeling my unsteady hands pull on the reins as I nearly fall off his back reaching to stick the letter back in my mailbox for storage. Dignity, yes, that is precisely the word for this moment.

Drums!

A short little story of 2 new drums (that are NOT leatherworker-only), 2 old drums, and their usefulness.

DRUMS OF THE WILD
As the servers opened their patch-day doors, little leatherworkers rushed to their trainers' stores. "A new pattern! A new pattern!" they cheered and cried, but then the druids suddenly rolled their eyes:

• 8x Heavy Borean Leather + 8x Icy Dragonscale = 50 charges of MotW
• 50x Wild Spineleaf = 50 charges of MotW
• 50x Wild Spineleaf in the hands of a druid who, like almost all of them, specced into IMotW = 50 charges of a better MotW
  

Lesson:
Don't use drums to buff MotW unless you're out of druids. Or, somehow, your druid didn't spec iMotW. Which is nearly never. These drums will be useful only in instances/raids that are lacking a druid.

---

DRUMS OF FORGOTTEN KINGS
"Ah!" but the leatherworkers said, "We learned this new pattern, too! See these drums here, look what they can do!" Peering at these drums, the druids now did ooo and ahh, for this was something new: a stat buff increase of 8%! A feral nearly wet his shoes. But along came a paladin, who leaned in close, then he sat back and laughed:

• 8x Heavy Borean Leather + 8x Jormungar Scale = 50 charges of 8% stat increase to whole raid
• 50x Symbol of Kings = 50 charges of Greater Blessing of Kings (10%) on a single class
  

Lesson:
Don't use drums to buff Kings unless you're out of paladins who are free to cast Kings. This may be useful in 5-man heroics, or in rare raids that are pally-less, or in cases where your pallies may be needed to buff other things (ie might/wis) and you want Kings along with it!

---

DRUMS OF PANIC & SPEED
As the leatherworkers sat on the stoop and did cry, along came an elder druid, battle-worn, but with pride. "Have no fear, fellow crafters," she now did say, "There is still yet a drum with some use; and you can learn it this very day! Go to the dragons who watch the sands of time, and earn their favor quickly with all the quests of the line. Once you have gained honor in their golden eyes, you will have a Drum of Panic as your musical prize! These unearthly beats may be 10 levels old, but even at 80, your foes will flee, should you strike bold!"

...okay, I'm done attempting to rhyhm now. Drums of Panic (Edit: and Drums of Speed!) from TBC were not nerfed like the other TBC drums, and are useable in level 80 content and PvP. They are, however, only useable by leatherworkers. They save my tail in heroic faction champs in ToC. :)

Oh, and wtb drums of bloodlust.

232-245 10-Strict Gear

I am having something of a conundrum regarding gear. My current gear, as a 10-man strict raider, is a mash-up of 219 through 232 U10 hardmode gear and Badge of Conquest vendor gear: 4 pc T8 with 226 hardmode gloves out of U10. I am, of course, rocking the rings and idol from Triumph badges, but beyond that, I have been contemplating on how to move forward with my T9/232/245 pickups and purchases.

Point A)
The T8 4-pc bonus completely rules. It's being nerfed today with 3.2.2, but I think even a 800-1k insta heal tick is quite nice!

Point B)
The T9 2-pc and T8 2-pc do not make up for T8 4-pc (prior to 3.2.2). I'm not entirely sure how the nerfs will alter this: will my use of swiftmend and nourish (which is higher on new content than on farmed) be worthwhile alongside the stat boost of 232 gear, over the 1k-ish insta rejuv ticks?

Point C)
The T9 4-pc bonus is verrah niiice. It lets my rejuv ticks have a chance to crit. Downside to this over the T8 rejuv tick is that I won't have control over when the extra healing occurs, and we all know how druid hots have a habit of being heavy overheal!

Point D)
The only T9 I can purchase directly is i232. The 245 version requires a possible drop from the cache in heroic mode, which is a ways out, and is a one-a-week-maybe kind of thing that will require sharing across the guild... and I can get legs and gloves out of VoA 10 or 25. So it's inconceivable(!) to assume I will get 4-pc 245 T9 before the next content patch (T10) comes out, let alone in any time frame to make a direct jump from the T8 and 226 hardmode gear to the 245 T9.

Point E)
I have access to non-set pieces that are 245, and thus better than the 232 T9.

Point Fail)
Among the non-set slots, I can pick up a heroic version of the belt, but I'm pretty much screwed on boots and wrists unless I have the wrists crafted (a jump from 219 to 245) and pick up the cloth boots. All ring, neck, and weapon drops in ToC are lacking any spirit, as well.


Thus the conundrum: the T9 4-pc is only achievable with a significant amount of 232 gear rather than 245, while the 245 gear is substantially better stat-wise yet carries pretty much the same price tag. I get the feeling I will be giving up T9 in favor of non-set pieces, which saddens me for the sake of the set bonuses.

Koralon drops gloves and legs with iLevel 232 on 10-man, and 245 on 25-man. The PvP stuff from 25-man is i251, which is useful for Flame Leviathon but not much else, if you're a purely PvE raider. Ony25 and ToC25, while possibly puggable, are out of my reach as a strict 10-man raider (indeed, many strict-10 guilds have been falling off the strict charts from joining pugs, even in getting 25-man sarth +1Drake, etc! I can't say as I agree with this fault in the guildox strict-listing system; I'm hoping such easily puggable old content achievements will be removed from the 25 progression rankings, or else the number of progression achievements required to count as a 25-man guild be increased, as I don't think it fair to those who are 10strict but happen to pug Naxx and Sarth 213 content. But I digress, and these parenthesis have rambled on for way longer than I had anticipated).

Since I can't sit around in T8 forever when there is iLevel 245 gear out, I have to consider moving forward. I think I would rather gear out in full 245 gear as opposed to 232 T9, and hope for lucky VoA drops along with the eventual cache tokens to push me up to a mostly 245 T9 kit.


What I'm looking at picking up (Heroic 245 versions):

Mesa/Grotto Hat (crit) - Eydis or Vendor Hat (haste) - 75 Badges
Currently equipped: 226 T8

Binding Elements Neck - Jaraxxus
Currently equipped: 226 badge.

Glacial Winds Shoulders (haste) - Icehowl or Vendor Shoulders (spirit) - 50 badges
Currently equipped: 219 T8

Shawl of the Devout - Insanity Chest, 50 attempts remaining on heroic. Mmm hm. Or, Fluttering Saphh Drape (no spirit, resistances) - Ony10. Below that, is killing Algalon and turning in his code for the 226 Summerglimmer Drape. Of these, the Ony10 cloak is the most easily obtainable, overall.
Currently equipped: 213.

Chest: either to use a rare token drop, or make the crafted 245 chest with 8 orbs (on limited orb supply). I will probably make this my priority on token drop. If any of my readers are horde on Turalyon: I do have this pattern!
Currently equipped: 226 T8; can purchase 232 with badges if necessary.

Crafted wrists (60 badges for orbs, + materials) - these are the only wrists available. Healing priests have the same problem. If any of my readers are horde on Turalyon: I do have this pattern!
Currently equipped: the crafted wrists. :) Yay!

Gloves: The i245 option is either to luck out in VoA25, or use a rare token drop. I will hope for VoA.
Currently equipped: 226 hardmode; can purchase 232 with badges if necessary.

Bloodhoof/Solstice Belt - Jaraxxus
Currently equipped: 232 version, this will be a simple upgrade.

Demonic Messenger Legs - Jaraxxus (cloth) or a lucky VoA25 Koralon Drop
Currently equipped: 219 T8.

Boots/Sandals of the Grieving Soul - Heroic Eydis (cloth); no leather caster options.
Currently equipped: 219. There are 226 leather crafted available, but the cloth 245 is better.

Band of the Invoker + Heartmender Circle - 70 badges total, or Polished Dragonslayer's Signet from the Onyxia head
Currently equipped: both badge rings

Cached Disciple's Blade or Cached Mace or Anubarak Mace or Sharpened Fang of the Mystics (Ony) + Antique Cornerstone Grimoire (Ony)
...else Eydis' Staff from heroic (no Spirit either, though :( ).
Currently equipped: 232 Icecore

Idol of Flaring Growth is a no-brainer.


Trinkets:
I still need time to consider. The Binding Stone is decent mp5 and the Talisman of Resurgence has a ton of Int, but a click-use is undesirable in the face of so many straight equip trinkets; I have the 232 version of the Binding Stone for use on mana-intensive fights. Currently running SoH and IoDS. Would probably like to just pick up Sif's Rememberance and use that over the Binding Stone.

There are also the pair of trinkets from Onyxia that have a set bonus of 222 SP and chance to cause "cauterizing heal" on your heal targets; unsure if this will proc off of HoTs.


So, what are your thoughts? Any of you that raid 10-strict have any further ideas on gearing?