shaman chest piece question
 

Me and my friend were having a little talk about what is ideal for a shaman BP:

Chestplate of vindication or HoT BP

Which is better? Is it up to preference or is there a reason why a lot of shamans I see

go vindi BP over HoT BP?

thanks for reading

There is an important question or two you're missing: for what purpose? raiding, leveling, PLing, soloing, grouping, solo challenges? It kind of changes depending on how you plan on playing the character. A short answer without nuance is: HoT BP is nice for the mana free clickie and good stats especially if the rest of your gear is fairly mediocre (like a mix of kunark and classic gear with some velious stuff in a couple slots). Vindi BP is a lot of shamans favorite BPs because its great for soloing/grouping due to the extra regen and tanky stats (high ac/100hp/resists). Because shamans don't rely on their maximum mana pool as much as other casting classes due to their ability to cast regen (and innate regen if troll/iksar) and canni, the extra stats on HoT gear isn't as important as it is for other mana reliant classes. For my money if you're absolutely BiS in all other slots the PoM BP is 1a. for solo/2-3 man group content, with Vindi BP being the 1b. and Fungi tunic being 1.c. If you're again theoretically BiS in your other slots then a Fungi is hard to beat while raiding. You'll canni/torp yourself and spot heal and buff like crazy while high end raiding and the extra regen is extra mana in a mana intensive environment.

Fungi until torpor then Vindi BP when solo farming. Fungi for basically everything else.

Get both, wear Vindi's and only switch to Wolfcaller's when someone asks for STA or you need to max WIS for trade skills in case you're not already capped.

Vindi BP is best in slot Post-Torpor due to it's great stats and high resistances.

Once you get Torpor, Fungi Tunic is a lot less useful. Pre-Torpor, Fungi Tunic is something like 40% of your total HP Regen, which is why it is so awesome for leveling. With Torpor, you are regenerating at 300HP a tick, so Fungi Tunic becomes something like 5% of your total HP regen. At that point the Resistances/AC/HP from Vindi BP is probably going to be saving you more when fighting hard content than the Fungi Tunic regeneration.

If you want the STA clickie you do not need to get the HoT BP, you can settle for Thurg or Kael, whichever is cheaper. I personally wouldn't get HoT BP unless you want it for the fashion. It is much more expensive than the Thurg BP if you are just using it for the clickie, and stat wise you would always pick Vindi BP over HoT BP. I have the Thurg BP bagged for the STA clickie.

Unless it’s a fight that requires resists, fungi will outperform Vindi Bp by a lot. Looks like shit though.

will it though? the extra 100HP you get is multiplied for every torpor that refills your HP cast, do you regen that much during a fight?

If you refil HP 7 times during a fight, that's 700 HP

If you hit full health 7 times from torping during a fight you're not torping and canni-ing at the correct ratio. Same concept as healing someone that's down 100hp with a Superior heal or chloroblast. Overhealing is a waste of your mana, and doubly so if you're not canni-ing your health into more mana.

Fungi will not out-perform Vindi BP. The math is very easy to calculate. You get 150HP per minute from Fungi Tunic. When fighting anything of consequence, that is basically negating one hit from a mob. Less if they are hitting over 150. Most fights aren't going to last more than 10 minutes. In a 10 minute fight Fungi Tunic gave you 1500HP at best. Torpor Heals you 1200-1500HP, depending on the tick. At best a Fungi Tunic will save you 1 Torpor (200 mana) in a single fight. If 1 Torpor or 200 mana was the difference between life and death, the issue with the fight wasn't your equipment.

The issue with thinking of Torpor like this is you don't really understand how powerful Torpor and cannibalize are. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjZxMlJSCDc you can Torpor from low health and mana to full health and mana in 3 minutes. This means having a Fungi Tunic on during that period would have saved you 450ish HP, or 1/3rd of a Torpor. At best you are saving 30 seconds by putting that Fungi Tunic on.

Honestly it isn't a big deal if you overheal a bit on Torpor. Sometimes you want to cap your HP pool so you can take more hits before you need to Torpor again. Due to Torpor's 6HP to 1MP ratio, you have to be playing pretty bad to be inefficient to the point of it causing problems in most fights.

Also, sometimes you want to use Torpor when at full health when you are fighting something super difficult, as it gives you regen at the start of the fight to help reduce incoming damage before you get the Slow landed.

The problem with Fungi Tunic is it simply regenerates too slow when compared to Torpor. In any 12 second interval of a fight, 30HP should never be the difference between life and death. Once you get a mob Slowed, you have total control over the fight, and don't need the extra 15HP regen. And if you fail to get a mob slowed, you will probably have died/gated within a minute or two:) Two minutes equates to 300HP with a Fungi Tunic, and most difficult mobs can deal 300 damage unslowed in a few seconds.

The reason why Vindi BP is better is because you want as much defense as possible BEFORE the mob is slowed. Having that extra HP and AC reduces the chance of you dying before the slow. As I stated above, if you haven't Slowed the mob within one minute, you have probably lost the fight. In a one minute period, when fighting a mob dealing 150+ damage per hit, the HP and AC on Vindi BP is going to have a greater chance of saving you than the Fungi Tunic's regen.

Let me make my previous post a bit more concise.

The biggest threat to a Torpor Shaman is BURST damage. This means taking a large chunk of damage within a short period, such as a 12 second period. In 12 seconds a Fungi Tunic has soaked 30 damage. A Vindi BP gives you +2 regen and 100HP flat at minimum. This means your Vindi BP is already soaking 42 seconds worth of Fungi Tunic regen if you started the fight at full HP. Also, the additional AC/Resists are always giving you a chance to reduce a heavy damage attack into a lower damage attack. Vindi BP is going to increase your odds of survival in the first minute of the fight more often than a Fungi Tunic.

If the mob still isn't slowed after the first minute of the fight, you have probably lost the fight. In one minute a Fungi Tunic would have given you 150HP, which is only 30HP more than Vindi BP when you take into account the 100HP and +2 regen it offers from Aura of Battle. If 30HP was the difference between life and death in a fight, the problem in the fight wasn't your equipment. Once you have the mob slowed, the Fungi Tunic regen isn't necessary, because Torpor is doing the vast majority of the work. I can't think of any mobs where you need precisely 315 regen per tick to out-heal their damage. 300 regen per tick is either way more than enough, or significantly not enough.