Shifting Perspectives: Gearing your Restoration Druid at 80 pt 3

Best overall: Earthgiving Legguards, a Leatherworking BoE.
Best drop: Skirt of the Old Kingdom or Kilt of the Forgotten One, both (weirdly enough) from Herald Volazj in heroic Old Kingdom.
Best quest piece: Leggings of Heightened Renewal from the quest The Iron Colossus in Storm Peaks.
Best faction piece: Giant-Friend Kilt, available at revered with the Sons of Hodir. These are really oriented more toward Balance, but surprisingly they're the only caster legs available with Wrath factions.
Runner-up: Cyanigosa's Leggings from Cyanigosa in heroic Violet Hold, Opposed Stasis Leggings off Commander Stoutbeard/Commander Kolurg in heroic Nexus, or Breeches of the Caller from Ingvar the Plunderer in heroic Utgarde Keep.
Enchant: Sapphire Spellthread or Brilliant Spellthread, depending on how optimistic you are concerning your health versus mana regen. Have fun farming those eternals!

Best overall: Arcanic Tramplers, a BoE from Malygos-25. If you are very, very lucky, these will start showing up in /trade or the AH as raids gear up and guilds start selling BoE pieces, but they won't come cheap.
Best drop: Cleric's Linen Shoes from Commander Stoutbear/Commander Kolrug in heroic Nexus, Boots of Transformation from Gal'darah in heroic Gun'drak, or Footwraps of Teleportation from Xevozz in heroic Violet Hold.
Best quest piece: Fur-Lined Moccasins from the quest One of A Kind in Zul'drak/Gun'drak, or The Darkspeaker's Footpads from the quest Mind Tricks in Icecrown.
Best faction piece: Sandals of Crimson Fury, available at exalted with the Wyrmrest Accord.
Runner-up: Earthgiving Boots, a Leatherworking BoE.
Enchant: Either Enchant Boots -- Greater Spirit or Enchant Boots -- Tuskarr's Vitality depending on your gear set and playstyle. You can also slap Enchant Boots -- Greater Vitality on, and that's fine too, but assuming you have the Spirit-related talents in the Restoration tree, Greater Spirit will do more for you (and scale better) than 6 mp5.
RINGS
Best drop: Spectral Seal of the Prophet, from the Prophet Tharon'ja in heroic Drak'tharon, or Band of Guile from the Dark Runed Chest in heroic Culling of Stratholme
Best quest piece: Lion's Head Ring, from the quest For Posterity in Zul'drak/Gun'drak, or Flourishing Band, from the quest The Struggle Persists in the Oculus.
Best faction piece: Signet of Hopeful Light, available at exalted with the Argent Crusade.
Runner-up: Titanium Spellshock Ring, a BoE from Jewelcrafting.
Enchant (if applicable): Enchant Ring -- Greater Spellpower.

Best overall: Darkmoon Card: Greatness. Yes, the intellect version is actually better than the spirit version, consequence of how our mana regeneration from spirit scales with intellect. Unfortunately, you're going to be scrambling for Nobles cards alongside every other poor bastard on your server, so don't count on being able to get this quickly unless you're willing to burn through upwards of 20,000 gold.
Runner-up, courtesy of the fact that only horse thieves and murderers will have Nobles Decks: The Egg of Mortal Essence, available for 40 Emblems of Heroism.
Best drop: Soul Preserver from the Dark Runed Chest in normal Culling of Stratholme, Talisman of Troll Divinity from the Prophet Tharon'ja in heroic Drak'tharon, Spark of Life from Sjonnir in heroic Halls of Stone (ugh, +haste, ugh), or Tome of Arcane Phenomena from the Cache of Eregos in heroic Oculus.
Best quest piece: Cannoneer's Morale, from the quest The Last Line of Defense in Icecrown. You can also use any of the usual green +spellpower trinkets granted by quests while leveling. I confess to being rather interested by the Futuresight Rune, a reward from Mystery of the Infinite, Redux in Dragonblight.
Best faction piece: There's nothing truly relevant in this slot, although you can use the Frenzyheart Insignia of Fury or Oracle Talisman of Ablution if you're really desperate.
Additional runners-up: Figurine -- Sapphire Owl for Jewelcrafters or Mercurial Alchemist Stone for Alchemists.
Important note: Aertimus at Hotstree makes the point that one of the best trinkets (if not the best) for Restoration druids remains Darkmoon Card -- Blue Dragon. I don't yet have this and haven't been able to test the proc rate at 80, but if Blizzard hasn't nerfed it (and according to Wowhead commenters, they haven't), then Aertimus is 100% accurate. Keep an eye out for Beasts cards.

Best overall: Staff of Draconic Combat, from the Cache of Eregos in heroic Oculus.
Best drop: War Mace of Unrequited Love from Keristrasza in heroic Nexus, or Netherbreath Spellblade/Staff of Wayward Principles from Skadi the Ruthless in heroic Utgarde Pinnacle. Bonus: the Spellblade's graphic is very sword-like, which is kind of a novelty for Druids.
Best quest piece: Screw-Sprung Fixer-Upper, from the quest The Champion of Anguish in Zul'drak.
Best faction piece: Gavel of the Brewing Storm, available at revered with the Wyrmrest Accord.
Runner-up: Titansteel Guardian, a Blacksmithing BoE.
Enchant: Hands-down it's Mighty Spellpower, but this is hellishly expensive in the early days of an expansion with very few people willing to disenchant epics. You can use Enchant Weapon -- Exceptional Spellpower in its place, or try Enchant Weapon -- Exceptional Spirit.
OFF-HAND
Best overall: Handbook of Obscure Remedies, available for 40 Emblems of Heroism.
Best drop: Temple Crystal Fragment, from Novos the Summoner in heroic Drak'tharon Keep.
Best quest piece: The Witching Grimoire, from the quest Banshee's Revenge in Icecrown.
Best faction piece: The only item in this slot from faction vendors is going to be the Darkspear Orb for Horde/Orb of the Eastern Kingdoms for Alliance, available at revered with your respective faction in Northrend (Horde Expedition/Alliance Vanguard). Not that great either way.
Runner-up: Frostbridge Orb, a BoE off heroic Oculus trash.






Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Razelore Jan 6th 2009 8:22PM
Thank you. I though we trees had been forgotten about entirely.
Allison Robert Jan 6th 2009 9:22PM
Not at all. :) I'll be trying to balance Shifting Perspectives as much as possible to include equal air time for balance, feral, and resto issues (although I'll grant that usually one spec is more in the news than the others).
fugos Jan 6th 2009 8:27PM
wow that was very very long but thanks helped me out alot!!!
keep up the good work and try to talk about balance alittle more if u can plz!!!
=)
Allison Robert Jan 6th 2009 9:23PM
The next gear post is going to be on Balance and should hit next week.
fugos Jan 7th 2009 8:59PM
thx i will check it out! =)
Rhudaur Jan 6th 2009 8:47PM
Huge amount of work and hugely helpful for newly formed resto druids. Thanks so much.
BTW, any advice about professions in terms of personal stat help or PvE raid healing help. There is some info at a web site, forget which, that tries to compare profession stats, but it suggested blacksmithing of all things.
Vacant Jan 7th 2009 2:23PM
jewelcrafting and insccrption will give you the most really.
though without a high level alt to take both gathering professions it will get expensive quickly
Rhudaur Jan 7th 2009 6:32PM
Thanks for the comment. I found the article I was referring to:
Picking a profession? BOP Benefits in WOTLK
http://www.wowhead.com/?forums&topic=45363
minttunator Jan 6th 2009 9:00PM
You have neglected to mention several awesome BOE items such as the Gloves of Token Respect (best pre-raid gloves, period), Sash of Jordan (roughly equivalent to the badge belt), Putrescent Bands and a few others. You also haven't mentioned the Darkmoon Card: Illusion.
Otherwise a decent enough list, thanks!
Allison Robert Jan 6th 2009 9:57PM
Hi Minttunator - in general I'm trying to avoid raid BoE drops because they're guaranteed to be extremely rare and just as expensive, and I don't want people to feel as if gearing up is a bank-breaking endeavor. I included the Malygos-25 boots because the selection of footwear available to Restoration druids is, imo, pretty poor, mostly cloth, and often itemized more with DPS casters in mind. Arcanic Trampers have more of that damn +haste, but they also have meaty spellpower and Spirit stats, so - /shrug.
I look at it this way; if you manage to get a raid BoE drop before you start healing heroics or raids, all the more power to you. If you don't, it's not going to cripple you. Including a ton of BoE drops on this list would, I think, have essentially turned it into a version of "Things To Buy At 80" when your stats are really not going to suffer terribly if you don't have them. If people are going to blow a ton of money on raiding gear, I'd rather they save it for the Nobles deck, which may not even be replaced until the next expansion.
I didn't include Darkmoon Card: Illusion because it's much more a PvP-centric trinket. The spellpower is nice but you can get that on other, more easily available trinkets. The /use effect is pretty dismal for PvE content, especially with a 5-minute cooldown. A free 1600 mana every 5 minutes is chump change for a raiding Resto, working out to 5.3 mp5 if you had to break it down to what it grants you on a "constant" basis. 5.3 mp5 is pretty bad even compared to a ton of green trinkets you can get while leveling, let alone something like Blue Dragon or Soul Preserver.
Allison Robert Jan 6th 2009 10:07PM
Math mistake - the "constant" mp5 of the trinket is more like 19-20 mp5 rather than 5.3 (I managed to forget that the key part of mana per five is mana per *five* -- I r smrt), but I still maintain that, especially in relation to its cost, it's a lousy /use effect for PvE purposes in comparison to the trinkets listed.
Cellwinn Jan 6th 2009 10:35PM
Thank you very much for this fantastic post Allison. I have been looking for the best gear to aim for at 80 and here you have it in easily digested form.
One question though - a lot of leather +spellpower gear has either +crit or +haste. Now neither is of huge value to Resto Druids but which is the lesser of the two evils.
(btw I'm just asking in general gear terms and not refering to your list)
Allison Robert Jan 7th 2009 9:04AM
The +crit versus +haste debate is one I think most Restos would just as soon forget about. Either means we've got stats on our gear that, as you observe, we really don't exactly need (or at least benefit from as much as other healers), but it does partly depend on your spec, your healing style, and the job you tend to do in raids. So a few thoughts:
+Haste will be slightly more valuable to us with the upcoming 6-second cooldown on Wild Growth, as it will allow us to get other HoT's around faster in that 6-second interval.
If you mostly raid-heal, it's +haste. The stat can never get you beyond a 1-second GCD, but it *will* allow you to get HoT's spread around the raid more efficiently.
If you mostly tank-heal, then it's +crit, preferably coupled with 3/3 Living Seed.
If you do mostly 5-mans and heroics, it's kind of a toss-up, especially with the amount of AoE damage in Wrath heroics, but I think it's ultimately prejudiced toward +crit. The vast majority of your healing is still going to be done on the tank.
With that said, due to the 50+% crit rate on Improved Regrowth, coupled with the Regrowth glyph that many (if not most) Restos will be using that further cements it as a main-line spell, you can make a case that you don't need crit at all and that you're better off taking +haste because: a). you already have a spell that's almost a guaranteed crit, and b). +Haste affects all of your spells and +crit only affects your direct heals.
So in the end, as much as I dislike +haste, it's of more general use than +crit assuming Improved Regrowth, the glyph, and Living Seed.
Duniness Jan 6th 2009 10:35PM
Hmm, no love for the very easy to get prison manifest.
Xerous Jan 7th 2009 1:15AM
Agreed with this. Very fun to get too I think:)
Allison Robert Jan 7th 2009 8:26AM
You're right, Prison Manifesto deserves a spot here too. I'll add. :)
J-Brugg Jan 6th 2009 11:04PM
Great post! Helps a lot! I just specced Resto but I'm still unsure whether two hand staffs will be better than a one hand/off hand. I see lots of ppl with both.
robzdapengfan Jan 6th 2009 11:12PM
Very useful guide, but I'm really trying to gear up with epics from heroics, and I've been looking for a guide that includes those as well. Otherwise, thanx for the sweet guide!
Allison Robert Jan 7th 2009 9:20AM
Hey Robzda -- the list does include heroic drops, both blue and epic, where applicable. If there's a heroic caster drop that's epic but hasn't been included here, it's because the stats on it are prejudiced toward caster DPS rather than healing (or because I missed a drop, and if I did, please feel free to write in).
We don't get anything out of the +hit on caster gear, and comparatively little from +crit and +haste. Caster gear often lacks Spirit as well. At best you'd be equipped in a lot of gear with stats you don't need, and at worst your mana regeneration would be seriously crippled, so I haven't included heroic purples that are itemized with the needs of caster DPS in mind rather than healing.
J-Brugg Jan 6th 2009 11:12PM
Also, what about idols?