Note:This article is now out-of-date. It does not take into account new items from 3.1 or the 3.1 changes to mana regen or Restoration druid abilities. (edited 3/8/09)
I see the question of what items are actually best-in-slot for one class or another come up time and again on forums and blogs alike. These lists can come in pretty handy. Of course, at the current difficulty of content, you don’t really need your best-in-slot, but without something to strive for, where would we be?
I have worked to keep this list mostly leather, but where there’s a cloth contender I’ve tried to mention it as well. My criteria of judgment are purely the relative stats of the item. The item level serves me as a guide, but is never a consideration in its own right.
Head
Valorous Dreamwalker Headpiece, from Kel’Thuzad 25
This helm, featuring both Spirit and Mp5, is most certainly the best piece in our tier set–it’s a shame, though, that there are other good headpieces as well.
Hood of Rationality, from Malygos 25
If your loot rules allow you to pick up some cloth, here’s a piece to consider.
Headpiece of Reconciliation, from Sartharion 25, 2 Drakes
This should be our best-in-slot, but right now it isn’t. It’s a level 226 item, but the stats don’t match expectations. It could be corrected in the future, but I’m not holding my breath.
Neck
Necklace of the Glittering Chamber, from Malygos 10
Shoulder
Spaulders of Catatonia, from Malygos 25
These shoulders have the best stats, but be careful. If Nourish is in your rotation at all, you will want to keep your 4 pc bonus. If not, have at it with the non-set pieces.
Valorous Dreamwalker Spaulders, from Loatheb 25
This item is well-balanced and very useful for filling out the set bonus. However, it’s clearly inferior to the Spaulders of Catatonia.
Cloak
Cape of the Unworthy Wizard, from Kel’Thuzad 25
There’s no argument here. This cloak is far out ahead of its competitors, a must-have if you can get it.
Chest
Valorous Dreamwalker Robe, from 4 Horsemen 25
I’m a big advocate of wearing leather while I can, and this item is quite good. I also like my set bonuses, even though I don’t get much out of the boost to Nourish.
Blanketing Robes of Snow, from Malygos 25
If your guild gets enough of these to outfit the priests, by all means, add this to your set.
Bracers
Unsullied Cuffs, from Sartharion 2D
These may be cloth, but they are my runaway favorite, much better than our leather options.
Bands of the Great Tree, From Emblems of Valor
These bracers are probably the best in leather, but they are not significantly different from the more easily accessible Swarm Bindings, from Anub’Rekan 25. I wouldn’t spend the emblems for them myself.
Hands
Valorous Dreamwalker Handguards, Sartharion 25
There’s no contest here. This is a nice, balanced item that will help you get your bonuses.
Waist
Unravelling Strands of Sanity, from Malygos 25
I was very lucky to pick up this little beauty on our second Malygos kill. There’s no doubt about it–this belt is by far the best.
Legs
Valorous Dreamwalker Leggings, from Thaddius 25
Once again, the tier piece isn’t strictly ideal in terms of stats, but that has more to do with it being introductory gear than with it being the “wrong” piece to wear. I use these quite happily.
Leggings of Mortal Arrogance from Kel’Thuzad 25.
I like the stat allocation pretty well on these leggings. They’re better for priests than druids, though, and you should by all means let your clothies–maybe even dps–have them first.
Feet
Get these boots with your Emblems of Valor and never worry about it again. They are the runaway winner in this category.
Fingers
Lost Jewel, Naxx 25 shared loot
The Spirit makes this item a good bet. I’m personally going for Spirit on both rings, but your budget may vary.
Band of Channeled Magic, Emblems of Valor
This item gets points for spirit and accessibility. A must-have.
Arguably, the real best in slot is the Loop of the Kirin Tor, but I’m never going to have 8,000g for a marginal upgrade.
Trinkets
Je’Tze’s Bell, BoE world drop
I love everything about this item except its price. I saw one last night on Ner’zhul that had bid up to 5,000. I don’t have that much total gold across all my toons. Here’s hoping I get lucky with a trash drop.
Forethought Talisman, Naxx 25 shared loot.
This one packs a huge spellpower punch, and the proc, while lackluster, will give me an extra 3,000 or so effective heals per fight.
As for other trinkets–the Spirit-World Glass is something I really want to pick up for myself just in case changes are made to mana regen. I like the idea of the Illustration of the Dragon Soul and the Majestic Dragon Figurine, though there’s probably a bit of a learning curve to keeping the effect up as much as possible.
Weapon
Torch of Holy Fire, Kel’Thuzad 25
This one is a no-brainer, but good luck getting it. This is a very hot ticket item in almost every guild.
Off Hand
Matriarch’s Spawn, Maexxna.
Idol
Idol of Lush Moss, Emblems of Valor
There’s no real choice here. Lifebloom may be nerfed, but we still need it.
Set Bonuses
Make sure that you get your 2 pc T7.5 set bonus. You will continue to depend on your Lifebloom, particularly if you ever heal tanks. 4 pc T7 gives enough of a bonus to Nourish to make it your most efficient heal on a target who already has all your other hots, i.e., a tank. However, the 4 pc isn’t strictly necessary. You have plenty of mana regen for this level, and a less efficient Nourish won’t hurt at all. Efficiency will only be in play in a harder dungeon (Ulduar) or if the mana regen formula should be changed. If it’s only a factor in Ulduar, you probably won’t hang onto 4pc T7 for long anyway–you’ll be replacing it with T8.
Final Note: Introductory Gear
Remember, no matter how good your T7 gear is, we’re still in the first tier of Wrath content. If you look over the Resto druid items, there are many items with “wasted” stats like crit and haste. Don’t pull your leaves out over it. At this point, there are no real best in slots. Je’Tze’s Bell comes the closest, but even that may be replaced in Ulduar. I’m hoping that when we do start getting some T8 upgrades, the stats actually come closer to ideal.
There’s also the Accursed Spine as a good offhand – crit + spirit.
Would like opinions on:
Head:
Headpiece of Fungal Bloom
Chest:
Tunic of Prejudice
@Passerby:
Those two items are pretty good, equivalent to T 7.5 except for set bonuses. I wouldn’t call the best in slot though.
I would prefer to have Life-Binder’s Locket for my neck over Necklace of the Glittering Chamber.
Agronas last blog post..Re: Best Gear in the GUILD!!!
Minus the set bonuses (neither of which I like, as much as I enjoy using Nourish)…Minus taking cloth away from priests…they’re the best in slot imho…
I’m still undecided as to when to get Spirit vs. MP5, etc…I know that Tree of Life adds +heal from Spirit, but the numbers are minute. MP5 is helpful in terms of rolling HoTs.
Should I take Headpiece of Reconciliation over Headpiece of Fungal Bloom in your opinion?
@Passerby: I’m not sure on the headpieces. My tactic has been to pick up the tier piece and leave it at that. The Headpiece of Reconciliation might get a stat buff, but it’s more likely to remain a mediocre item. It’s a gamble. As for the Headpiece of Fungal Bloom, it’s a solid piece, though in the same class as the others we’ve been debating. It has great stam and intellect, the expected SP, and a bunch of mp5. However, many are calling mp5 a junk stat right now and I’m inclined to agree. It’s better than crit or haste, but I prefer spirit when it’s a choice between the two. Spirit offers a bonus based on our talents that mp5 simply does not. Mp5 is also “expensive” in terms of itemization points–ridiculously so given the abundance of free mana these days from replenishment.
For peace of mind, I’d grab whichever one you can get first and leave the others for your fellows. If it’s a question of the item being sharded, pick them all up and see what works best with your individual mix of gear.
One more comment:
I’ll use a metaphor from one of my favorite movies, Clerks, to describe what I see going on with this T7 level gear. Don’t be one of those ladies who goes through every jug of milk on the shelf searching for the one with the latest date. It’s not as if, behind 18 other jugs of milk, you’re going to find one that’s good for six months.
All of these items have an expiration date, and I personally hope that it comes up soon. None of them are really, truly awesome. At best, you’ll trade a little spirit here for a little intellect there when you get your upgrades. We’re pretty much capped at a certain level of SP now, and to me, that’s always been the most significant stat. Unless you take a full set of cloth, you’re going to pretty much be capped right around 2000 SP, give or take a hundred or so based on gems and enchants. Priests will have more than that, maybe capping out at 2400 or so, but we have better regen tools, and our tree form plumps up our effective SP to the level priests enjoy. At a certain point, it’s just common sense to go on home with your jug of milk dated 10 days out and call it good.
Some other items that might be worth mentioning are Gloves of Peaceful Death and Boots of Septic Wounds. I use those and they aren’t best in slot, but they are pretty close.
I think the Boots might even be BoE.
The Kel’Thuzad Torch teases me all the time. Every caster out there wants it and my DKP just isn’t close to some of the senior members. It’s dropped like 4 weeks in a row and every week I still bid hoping that there will be 10 simultaneous disconnects as the bidding goes out.
Cringer: FOUR torches? That’s insane.
Mallet: “All your torches are belong to me” ……blizzard added staffs for you 🙂
Agronas last blog post..Re: Best Gear in the GUILD!!!
Kel’s torch is a fickle and harsh mistress.
awwwwful lot of spell crit there….
good list, and I do play a resto druid at times… but god your priests and dps’ers will hate you bidding on cloth crit.
yes… I know… nourish.. yay…
Esteemed Bindings > Swarm Bindings
Matriarchs Spawn > Urn of lost memories
Cowl of Vanity should probably be up there too, but as you said the sell by date is nearly up on all this gear now.
Noticed no one has mentioned this yet but i have seen a lot of resto druids running around with the Darkmoon card: Greatness, the spirit version (i mean the deck made from nobles cards i think its called greatness). surely that has got to be up there in the “zomg i want one of those” list?
Great list! I strongly agree with most of your choices. There are a few other pieces that I would put up there, but I agree with you, its not worth arguing or killing yourself over some int here or some spirit there.
@Syrah – I agree with all three of your comments.
@Pompiro – The Darkmoon Card: Greatness Int version actually gives more mana than the spirit version.
I also need to put in my obligatory Darkmoon Card: Blue Dragon plug. I still think this is the best mana trinket in the game for a resto druid. This deck sells for a lot less than many other trinkets out there. Pair it with Spirit World Glass, and my math says your mana would overflow-ith. I sadly have not seen SWG drop yet, so I haven’t been able to try it. (I need to stop plugging this card or Blizz is going to nerf it…)
Aertimuss last blog post..Awesome…
@Aertimuss
I took your advice on the Blue Dragon to heart back when you posted on your blog and bought the deck for 300g. I think it’s probably the best 300g I’ve spent on my druid to date.
Last night was our first “2 Healer” Naxx-10 run. We’ve been running with three healers and between a resto druid, holy paladin, and disc priest, things were sweet. People had to be outright stupid to die.
Last night… well last night was a different story. Not only did we drop one healer, we managed to not bring a replenisher! Mana was getting to be a little hinky and by the time we dropped Gothik and he dropped the SWG I was thanking my lucky stars. We skipped four houseman( it was alt/newbie raiding night ) and went onto Patchwerk. While we were clearing trash I was spending time in Power Auras setting up an aura for “Aura of the Blue Dragon”. When we engaged, I waited till my mana was about midway and as soon as I saw the Blue Dragon proc I smacked SWG and I was back up to full. Loved it!
Scotts last blog post..On Ranting…
“(I need to stop plugging this card or Blizz is going to nerf it…)”
Yeah… you know those mana changes… they might be a Blue Dragon nerf. But they could be far off, so it is still worth it for now.
Aertimuss last blog post..Awesome…
Great post but one thing I don’t agree with is the T7 gloves being vastly better than anything else. Assuming you gem both for 19 spell power, the red socket bonus on
Gloves of the Dancing Bear
actually means your only 1 spirit and 2 spell power behind the T7 gloves which is negligible so they’re a good option if you don’t need the set bonus.
For the offhand item the Matriarch’s Spawn (Maexna 25) is far better than the handbook or urn of lost memories
Another option, while not best in slot neck-wise, is a ‘trash’ drop from 25 man naxx called the Ousted Bead Necklace.
It loses about 19 spell power and a few points of crit, however it has a massive amount of spirit, 18 more in comparison in case you don’t get lucky on the glittering chamber drop. We had 2 of them drop in a naxx run, and was a nice change from the heroism vendor neck.
I completely disagree with alot of your choices here, however, this guide assumes that you use the ‘standard’ spec and way of healing on a druid.
I heal very differently on my druid, and stack crit, rather than haste, I am using the HT Glyph and love it, HT costs alittle more than Nourish, but it casts faster (yes, I am aware the GCD kinda slows it down when chain casting), and heals for more.
I also like to keep rejuv up on everyone that I can, at all times, that has a chance of taking some damage, which is why I use the Idol of Awakening (Reduces the mana cost of Rejuv by 106).
Using this spec and casting almost constantly like I do, I finish just about every fight with 50% or so mana, never having to use innervate.
My toon is wearing Best in Slot for every item but 2 or 3 for the spec that I use, you can check out my armory to see it, much easier than listing every piece:
Forgot to link my armory: http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Ursin&n=Xylch
You are, in my opinion, vastly undervaluing spellpower on your BIS selection.
You’ve also forgotten (?) several items:
Neck: Life-Binder’s Locket
Offhand: Matriarch’s Spawn
Idol: Idol of Awakening (by far the best idol out there so far, significantly better than Lush Moss in general)
Wrist: Esteemed Bindings (also much better than Bands of the Great Tree)
With the mana regen nurf on the horizion, some of these selections may be invalidated. Additionally, the value of haste is relative to the raid you’re in via the haste buffs they provide.
Disagree with quite a few of the choices (overvaluing crit and undervaluing haste and spellpower blah blah), but a couple pieces that I haven’t seen mentioned at all that are close enough to BIS to be considered for it for some healing styles are Legguards of the Boneyard off Sapph25, Mantle of Shattered Kinship off Maex25, Disguise of the Kumiho (Valor emblems), Gloves of Token Respect (Faerlina25) (virtually identical to 25T7 hands), Chains of Adoration off various Naxx25 bosses, and Wyrmrest Band off Sarth25.
All hastey pieces, but I can’t go without 1 sec GCD anymore, feels clumsy. The latter two have MP5 over spirit but I feel are still itemized better than what was already mentioned.
Linked from the resto4life, excellent and very helpful post. With regards to trinkets, I actually adopt a slightly different policy. Trinkets are the best way to rapidly switch between throughput (+spell) and longevity (+spirit/mp5). Other dimensions, such as survivability and tricks are also available in trinket form. Shamelessly reposting my EJ post, here’s my breakdown.
Throughput/Survival
Battlemaster’s Bravery
Throughput
Illustration of the Dragon Soul
Forethought Talisman
The Egg of Mortal Essence
Embrace of the Spider
Throughput/Longevity
Je’Tze’s Bell
Darkmoon Card: Illusion
Mercurial Alchemist Stone
Longevity
Darkmoon Card: Greatness
Majestic Dragon Figurine
Spirit-World Glass
Figurine – Sapphire Owl
Longevity/Tricks
Living Ice Crystals
This shows why the Bell is so awesome, it’s tops in two important categories: throughput and longevity. Also I find the Darkmoon Card: Illusion to be a little underrated; it provides the same flexibility as the Bell but at a much cheaper price (with some patience and maybe some friendly inscriptor friends the Prism cards can be found for as little as 40-50g apiece. I put my deck together for about 500g which is a bargain if you’re fighting for drops. Anyhow, get two trinkets to maximize longevity, get two for maximizing throughput and any other tricks you like. Thus are all the bases covered.
(this list is more helpful with mouseover links, but I couldn’t figure out how to do that)
This article isn’t very good, I saw a lot of items with +crit. Why? It’s needed only when you heal with HT glyph and spec. For ‘hots’ healers it’s useless.
Rainey’s Chewed Boots are best-in-slot? They aren’t! Look at Arcanic Tramplers.
Headpiece of Reconciliation? Argueable with Cowl of Vanity.
Spaulders of Catatonia? Agree, but +crit? wtf?
Rly: There’s no question that druid itemization is a little borked up. Haste runs into a softcap VERY quickly (assuming Gift of the Earth Mother, shaman, and moonkin/ret pally. Which frankly, every 25 man raid should have) Personally I find moving from a 1.25s GCD to 1s GCD to be barely noticeable, though I understand those who love it. Crit has some nice synergy with talents (Living Seed & Nature’s Grace) except for the minor detail that our HoT emphasis doesn’t give us a chance to crit.
But you are slightly mistaken in saying that crit is worthless since once your haste capped (very very easy to do) you might as well stack crit. And crit with 4t7 is nice since with Living Seed it scales very nicely. So given a choice between haste & crit, I’ll take crit every time. It sucks, but it increases throughput more with 4t7.
Thanks much for the work on this list, Sydera. I wonder if you might have another one stashed away: “Best in Slot from 10-Player Instances” ?
I’m a casual player in a small guild which can only run Normal Naxx/OS etc, and I don’t have enough spare time to grab PUGs for Heroics after our guild runs. (After 2 months of endgame, I have a total 3 Emblems of Valor.) That makes most of the items you mention here completely inaccessible to me, and I’m sure many others are in a similar situation of having access to raiding, but only Normal drops and Emblems of Heroism.
Any suggestions on that front?
And Matticus, thanks again for bringing Sydera on. I always found your generic healing posts to be of immense value, and now having a druid voice just makes your blog a must-stop for me every day.
Kriyet
Dancing Divas, Bladefist
A very nice post Sydera and thank you. However, a few issues I have with some of your selections:
1) Undervalue of Haste – We need 359 haste even having all raid haste buffs. This IS easy to do but not while grabbing all of the best of slots. The key in this I believe is min/maxxing.. yes I know I’m a dork.
2) The Leather/Cloth thing – I really see no difference between them except that a lot of cloth gives us better stats. Get aggro from a 25 man elite mob and it’s going to 1/2 shot you either way.. may as well get the best stats whatever piece has it.
3) T7 set bonuses – They are terrible. 2 piece isn’t as terrible as 4. However Lifebloom should not be one of your most popular spells anymore. There aren’t too many fights where you’ll be in range of more than 2 tanks. In that case you’re casting LB twice every 9 seconds. I generally don’t even do that. Regrowth spamming (with regrowth glyph) is much higher hps than LB not that I do that often either.
A list of possible Revisions:
Helm: Headpiece of Reconciliation, T7.5 – The spell power you get along with haste and regen on Reconciliation is arguably worth the loss in mp5, again depends on where you want to get your 359 haste. I would probably wear 7.5 over Reconciliation if I was haste capped. I just don’t agree with how low you rank it.
Chest: Robes of Blanketing Snow – about 40 more spell power than 7.5 and much more regen. If it’s me I choose this and helm of reconciliation for the trade off on haste for mp5.
Back: Disguise of Kumiho – 37 spirit, 41 haste, 65 spell power. It’s a great place to get your haste at very little penalty of other stats. Sydera’s choice is an excellent one as well.. you just have to be careful where you’re getting your haste in my opinion.
Legs: Legguards of the Boneyard: lots of haste, spirit, spell power, and 2 sockets.. yummy. Another great place to get your haste without having to sacrifice other stats.
Trinkets: Illustraton of the Dragonsoul, Jetze’s Bell – If you don’t have Illustration or know much about it, I can see how it would be confusing. Once the trinket is stacked to it’s 200 constant spell power, it needs refreshed once every 10 seconds. If you can’t cast once every 10 seconds to keep 200 spell power.. well I don’t know what to tell you. Jetze’s Bell is self explanatory. It’s a direct upgrade from Memento of Tirande. Majectic Dragon Figurine should rank much higher than it does in my opinion. I mean it’s 34 spell power and 76 mp5 while casting, yes while casting.
Offhand: Matriarch’s Spawn – 42 stam, 41 int, 43 spirit, 32 haste, 66 spell power. As far as your raw stats are concerned it’s 18 mp5 from spirit, 74 healing in tree. The 9 additional intellect also adds 1.35 mp5 while casting.
Worthless Stats – I think the only stat that should be considered worthless while making considerations would be crit. However if you’re choosing at some point between 4 spirit and 50 crit… well I think I’d take the 50 crit, but that’s about the value I’d place it at. Haste is much harder to weigh in my opinion. We definitely want 359 haste to take us down to 1.0 second gcd. I suppose that’s arguable, but not by me. Would I ever gem haste? Not likely.. unless that one gem is keeping me from 1.0 second gcd, and that’s highly unlikely. I have seen plenty of druids hit 400+ haste. They were also ALL wearing 200 item level gear primarily. As you get into 213 and 226 it becomes slim pickins. I’d say choose carefully.
Thank you again Sydera for compiling this list. You did an excellent job, and we all appreciate it.
Respectfully Yours,
Seerion
Redefined, Blackhand
Hi there,
I want to echo the sentiments of several comments and say your choice for Off-hand is just plain wrong.
Matriarch’s Spawn
+42 Stamina
+41 Intellect
+43 Spirit
Improves haste rating by 32
Increases spell power by 66.
Is superior to
Urn of Lost Memories
+42 Stamina
+32 Intellect
Improves critical strike rating by 41
Increases spell power by 66.
Restores 17 mana per 5 sec.
well i quite disagree with alot of these items tbh as i do not care much for haste/crit/sp
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Bonechewer&n=Noob%C3%AA
1.1h+offhand maybe a good source of mp5/haste and/or mp5/crit id still go with Staff Of Restriant due to the massive stats that are on it not to mention the crit on it
2.With the spirit nerf comin up soon i belive nearly all spirit rings will be replaced with mp5 such as the ones in my toons current sockets
3.as for the t7.5 helm it is the bis currently for me as it supplies all the stats i need+ a heavy amount of mp5 😉
4.Neck:tbh i dont find that neck good at all no matter wat stats u are going with O_o best would be imo maly 25 man reward neck due to a socket+pretty good rounded stats
5.Bracers: i understand the spirit on others maybe higher than Bands Of the Great Tree but tbh mp5 on is wayyy to much to not get it.
6.Trinkets: before i ever heard of the spirit nerf the best 2 were Majestic Dragon Figure+SWG but now….on the upcoming soon to be annoying as hell patch for druids i have switched to living ice crystals as it gives straight up mp5 and that heal on it maybe be minimal, it has a chance to crit as well for about….4.1k? or so on that lvl. and another very useful trinket would be the nobles deck for int….yes i said INT! 😛 i am getting that in preparation for the Nerf as int will not be affected from the hit on spirit as far as i recall unless theres something i missed out while reading patch notes O_o
7.Chest: this is the 1 thing i completely disagree no matter what stats you are aiming for.
Sympathys overall stats just blow the Maly chest far far far away
i understand that the sp is much great on maly chest but….the mp5 is just to great of a thing to give up on and so is the int (even though spirit is less u can fix that due to the extra socket in sympathy 😉 )
now alot of ppl whom are gonna my armory link are gonna think “holy hell wats wrong with his sp?” like i said….dont need sp at all 😛 massive stats is the way to go!
but the 1 thing thats gonna REALLY affect my whole stats idea is the regrowth nerf in spec……i dont use nourish tbh o-o i HATE it >< spamming regrowth is much more beneficiary imo due to the huge crit on it and the fact that its pretty much (for me that is) about 76% chance to crit (fully buffed+totem/elemtental oath from shaman) which is quite incredibly effecitve if spammed but…..it causes me MASSIVE agro issues (on more than one occasion do i see myself nearly breaking 5k tps per second on omen)i really dont know how i did it but i guess “less healing!” is in order here 😛
but if i use the “smart” side of the change in imp regrowth, nourish will be much much MUCH more effective in 3.1 and i definitly do see most druids spammin nourish 🙂
ps all these items i listed are pretty much a precaution against 3.1 spirit nerf
I HAZ COME PREPEARDZ! mooo 😛
<3 sydera job well done on the list even though i disagree with a couple of things ^^
@Noobe
I thought I’d add a quick note to your comment about getting ready for the big spirit nerf coming in 3.1….. It ain’t coming… it a base regen nerf so spirit is still the way to go.
Syd has already posted about this good news, but I thought it was best to add it here just in case a passer by only stopped to read this post.
Thanks again to Syd for keeping us all up to date with whats looming round the ‘3.1 patch’ corner!
hmm odd freind in ptr told me it took a huge hit O_o o well
i shoulda tried it out myself XD ty for the heads up
i would say that the boots from malygos 25 man (cloth) are better than the badges ones
Actually Jet’ze’s Bell is selling at my server for around 12000g. god praise the drop in naxx 10 for me when it was bop 😀
Finally got the torch, after how much i wanted it and for how long, i don’t think i will replace it with anything less than the new legendary mace. lol.
Motw
Big Dumb Tree
Skullcrusher US
hi,
plz refresh your list with uldur loottable 😉