Caster Weapons: Castable Weapon Swapping

The moment you've all been waiting for...my opinion on healer weapons. This may affect DPS casters slightly, but I don't believe it's a huge deal.

When you think about it, wouldn't it be nice to be able to switch gear mid-battle? For hybrid classes, this would be amazing. Druids would be able to start out DPS casting, switch to healing if necessary, and then switch to tanking if absolutely necessary. Overpowered? Yep. This is why it isn't possible. You are dedicated to a role at the beginning of a fight for the most part.

But a lot of people forget about one subtle detail. Weapons can be changed when fighting.

Warriors know this. Switching from a DPS weapon to a shield on agro gain. Druids often know this...when they change forms, Item Rack can be configured to change to a tanking weapon when changed to bear, a healing weapon when you go back into a regular form, and a DPS cat weapon when changed to cat.

But very few other people know about this. One example of an amazing way to use this is a mage tossing on a spirit weapon and a spirit wand when they evocate. This can generate a lot of extra mana during an evocate, and then after the evocate is done, swap back to a DPS weapon.

Druids may think to do this as well, during an innervate. It can gain a lot of extra mana as well.

But what about priests? Paladins? Shamans? Can anyone benefit from this weapon swapping knowledge?

Lets think about what stats benefit healers? Stamina? Situationally (stay tuned for more on this) Mostly, it's intellect, spirit (for priests and druids), +healing, and if you're a paladin +crit. Why intellect? Sure it gives you crit, but a marginal amount. Usually you get +int for the extra mana. But you only need the extra mana when your mana bar is full, right? If you're at 50% mana, the extra int doesn't help, right? Lets move on.

Spirit. Great for regen. Helpful in fights when mana isn't an issue? Not at all. If your mana bar is at 90%, why bother with it too much?

And finally +healing. This is important all the time. Every heal you cast.

So what conclusion can come of this? Here's what I say: You should regularly use 3 weapons during a difficult boss fight.

You're saying, that's insane. Well, maybe. But here's why.

1. Intellect weapon. Get a weapon that has decent healing stats, but a ton of +int. Toss the +int weapon chant on it. Use it only when you're full on mana. This means at the beginning of the fight, and possibly after an innervate/shadowfiend/mana pot, or whatever gets you back to full mana. Having the extra 50 int or so means a nice extra 750 mana, which is worth at least a heal or two.

2. Healing weapon. Use this as your primary weapon. Make your heals as big as you can, and use it as the default.

3. Regen weapon. Get as much spirit as you can on it, and toss either +20 spirit or spellsurge on it (more on spellsurge later). Use this when you're low on mana, or when you get an innervate, spirit tap, or whatever makes your spirit amazing.

So you're saying "I can't do that...it's too hard to keep track of." I kept track of it manually for a while, but it does get difficult under stressful circumstances (Karazhan, Gruul, etc). In comes Castable Weapon Swapper. It's a mod that allows you to configure 3 weapons. One for high mana, one for primary, and one for low mana. Install it, type /cws, and set your weapons in there. It does all of the swapping for you. You can adjust your mana percentages yourself as to when you want your weapons swapped. It takes all of the thinking out of it, but still gives great results.

Many people think I'm crazy and go overboard. But think about it...weapons give you the most bang for your buck than any slot. It's not unheard of to get +450 healing out of a one handed weapon (prince or maiden weapon+ healing chant). Plus the weapon enchants are the most powerful for any item slot. It's more of a buff than you'd think. Give it a shot...you may find it works better than you believed at first.