Monday 9 August 2010

Resto Best in Slot (3.3.5) and tooltip excitement!

I finally learned how to enable Wowhead's Powered by Wowhead Tooltips to display on the blog, so I thought, what better way to show off the new tooltips than by doing a Resto Best in Slot gear post!

Watch in wonder as tooltips magically appear before your eyes! Gaze in amazement as information is displayed without having to leave the page! (I'm excited, can you tell?)

I'll spend some time on the Tree and Cat Guides to edit tooltips into those as well. (Update: Edited tooltips into the guides!)

On with the list!

I'm assuming all Heroic (and Sanctified) gear available for this BiS list, however, regular versions of all are excellent as well (and likely more easily obtainable for most). I'll start with the main list, go over some of the reasons why, then lastly touch upon some alternative options.





The key for the majority of items in this BiS list is the items are maximizing the haste you get from gear, allowing you to reduce the amount of gems and enchants you have to dedicate to haste to reach the cap. This frees you to dedicate the majority of your gemming to Spellpower. You may still have a few gems for Haste even with these pieces, depending on your spec (whether you go with a spec which takes points in Celestial Focus or not) and whether you choose to take gem slot bonuses or not. I personally like to take gem slot bonuses and prefer not to spec into CF, so even as I close in on the full list I'm still happy to use some Reckless Ametrine to help meet the haste and socket bonus requirements.

Bolvar's Devotion is just pipped as BiS by the Heroic Greatcloak of the Turned Champion. Bolvar's Devotion is still better than the normal Greatcloak of the Turned Champion, however the Greatcloak is much more easily obtainable than Bolvar's, as Bolvar's requires you reach an Argent Crusade Tribute Chest with 50 attempts remaining in ToGC 25.

Don't forget that iLvL isn't everything on gear! Many will grab the Boots of Unnatural Growth, particularly as the Heroic ones are often a bit easier to get as Heroic Gunship 25 is easy for most groups to do. The Blessed Cenarion Boots with their haste are preferable. They are also easy to obtain, as they are a crafted item - any Leatherworker with the pattern can make it. The Boots of the Frozen Seed from Lady Deathwhisper in ICC 10 are nice boots as well and do have haste on, however, you lose a lot of spirit.

Spirit feeds into our healing power due to Improved Tree of Life, so in general gear with spirit on it will be preferable to those pieces without it as, at least at or near the same iLvL, those with spirit will likely give you a greater boost in Healing spellpower. This is why a piece like Bone Sentinel's Amulet is preferable to Blood Queen's Crimson Choker (though the 264 Choker is purchasable as it is BoE).

A fair bit of this gear is actually obtainable without drops/raids. The full t10 set Lasherweave Garb can be obtained with Frost Badges (tokens from End-wing bosses in ICC will get you Sanctified upgrades). Vestments of Spruce and Fir is available from the Frost Badge vendor. The regular Professor's Bloodied Smock is a BoE and can be purchased (or possibly found in the Sack of Frosty Treasures from the ICC weekly quests), and is also equivalent to the Frost Badge vendor's Circle of Ossus. If you are unable to acquire either of the aforementioned cloaks, Volde's Cloak of the Night Sky is purchasable from the Frost Badge vendor. It has Crit instead of Haste, but is still an excellent cloak.

There are some viable alternatives to use while still gearing up. The Idol of Flaring Growth idol is excellent and easily obtainable with Emblems of Triumph; the Idol of the Black Willow is just slightly better, so can be placed lower on your priority list if you're still saving up Frost Badges for your tier set.

Finding a good offhand can be tough, especially if you are waiting on the one off Sindragosa (who is often a hard boss for most as well). The Shriveled Heart from Halls of Reflection is a good offhand while waiting for drops. If you're able to grab some arena rating and honour, the Wrathful Gladiator's Compendium (which requires an arena rating of 1800) and Relentless Gladiator's Compendium (which doesn't appear to require a rating) are good alternatives with a lot of haste.

The Bracers of the Autumn Willow out of ToGC/ToC 25 are excellent wrists and were previously BiS, though the increase in stats and spellpower on the heroic Bracers of Eternal Dreaming from Dreamwalker just start edging them out. If you have the Heroic Bracers of the Autumn Willow (or even the regular ones and are still low on haste), you may be best off continuing to use them - it would likely depend on your other stats.

The equip proc from Trauma is really amazing, especially for druids, as it will proc off of our HoT spells. On fights like Blood Queen Lanathel I've seen it account for up to 10% of my heals done, which is a ton. The lack of haste on it may end up messing with your stats (I had to do some gear and gem shuffling when I first obtained it to make up the haste), but it is definitely an excellent weapon to have.

If you are lucky enough to be in possession of Valanyr, Hammer of Ancient Kings, it is still better than Trauma, so keep using it (and grats on obtaining it!!).

There are many trinket options out there. Althor's Abacus and Solace of the Defeated/Fallen are generally considered the BiS. Abacus will proc off of our HoTs and it is a smart heal (it will heal targets with less health rather than overhealing someone at full health) which can crit. Solace is still an excellent trinket, espcially for mana return. Purified Lunar Dust from the Frost Badge vendor is an alternative if you are unable to get your hands on a Solace, however, Solace is still a bit better than the Lunar Dust for mana return.

For pure spellpower throughput, Illustration of the Dragon Soul from Obsidian Sanctum 25 is still a good trinket, and is only just pipped for pure spellpower by heroic Althor's Abacus and heroic Glowing Twilight Scale. For pure throughput it may be preferred, if you're not having mana problems or if on a fight like Dreamwalker when you are healing the dragon (where max throughput for healing her is best, and mana regen will not be an issue if going into the portals).

I have mixed thoughts so far on the Glowing Twilight Scale out of Ruby Sanctum 25, at least for Resto Druids. It's similar in concept to Althor's Abacus, but it's a Use trinket (rather than an equip proc) and is triggered by direct heals (not HoTs) as i understand. It's certainly not a bad trinket, it's quite a good one really, but in my opinion it's not necessarily the best for a resto druid. If you have the choice, I would recommend using the Abacus.

Good luck on the gear hunt!
Most importantly, don't forget to head to Dal to /afk and show off your Epeen!
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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for this list! It gives me an idea what to try to pug or look for on my resto druid when I have an off day to play her.

9 August 2010 at 15:32

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