Cataclysm Faction Rep Guide for Resto and Feral Druids

By the way - Druid Tier 11 looks amazing on Beta.

There are plenty of new factions in Cataclysm, all with useful items for Resto and Feral druids available from their quartermasters with rep. I still need to go through more of the items from dungeons and heroics to see the full extent of items available and start building early BiS lists, however, this should give you a good idea of what's available through rep and which reps you'll need to work on as you level up. I'm also including the faction items available before level 85, as you will likely find them useful while leveling and first encountering heroics while you work on getting more upgrades. All factions have tabards which will raise your reputation with that faction in Level 85 dungeons.

Firstly, your helm and shoulder enchant reps! Regardless of what gear you have or how you obtain it, you will need these enchants. It appears the helm enchants are still Account-bound, but not the Shoulder enchants.

Helm Enchants
Resto:
-Arcanum of Hyjal - 60 Intellect / 35 Crit
Requires: Guardians of Hyjal - Revered

Feral(cat):
-Arcanum of the Ramkahen - 60 Agility / 35 Haste
Requires: Ramkahen - Revered


Shoulder Enchants - Therazane (Deepholm)
All shoulder enchants are available with Therazane rep. You begin hated with Therazane and completion of the full questline in Deepholm should bring you to Honoured with Therazane. Dailies or wearing their Tabard will get you to Exalted.

Resto:
-Lesser Inscription of Charged Lodestone - 30 Intellect / 20 Haste - Honoured
-Greater Inscription of Charged Lodestone - 50 Intellect / 25 Haste - Exalted

Feral:
-Lesser Inscription of Shattered Crystal - 30 Agility / 20 Mastery - Honoured
-Greater Inscription of Shattered Crystal - 50 Agility / 25 Mastery - Exalted

Onto the individual faction items!

I'll organise this as Factions - Spec - Items. For Resto items, I'm listing both items with Spirit and without, as both are viable, though in some cases items with Spirit may be preferred for mana regen. I have not listed any caster items with +hit or damaging spell procs.

Each item is listed as follows:
Name - iLvl - Level Required - Rep Required - Item Slot - Item Stats

Guardians of Hyjal (Mount Hyjal)
Resto:
-Cloak of the Dryads - 333 - 83 - Honoured - Back - Intellect / Spirit / Mastery
-Thousand Bandage Drape - 325 - 84 - Honoured - Back - Intellect / Spirit / Mastery
-Aessina-Blessed Gloves - 346 - 85 - Revered - Intellect / Haste / Mastery

Feral:
-Sly Fox Jerkin - 333 - 83 - Honoured - Chest - Agility / Crit / Mastery
-Acorn of the Daughter Tree - 346 - 85 - Revered - Neck - Agility / Crit / Haste
-Nightrend Choker - 333 - 85 - Revered - Neck - Agility / Crit / Haste


Ramkahen (Uldum)
Resto:
-Ammunae's Blessing - 333 - 83 - Honoured - Finger - Intellect / Spirit / Mastery

Feral:
-Quicksand Belt - 346 - 85 - Revered - Waist - Agility / Hit / Crit

Misc:
-Reins of the Brown Riding Camel - Exalted
-Reins of the Tan Riding Camel - Exalted


The Earthen Ring (Vashj'ir)
Resto:
-Pendant of Elemental Balance - 333 - 83 - Honoured - Neck - Intellect / Spirit / Mastery
-Cloak of Ancient Wisdom - 346 - 85 - Revered - Back - Intellect / Crit / Haste
-Leggings of Clutching Roots - 346 - 85 - Revered - Legs - Intellect / Spirit / Crit

Feral:
-Softwind Cape - 346 - 85 - Revered - Back - Agility / Hit / Haste
-Signet of the Elder Council - 359 - 85 - Exalted - Finger - Agility / Haste / Mastery


Wildhammer Clan (Twilight Highlands)
Resto:
-Mantle of Wild Feathers - 333 - 83 - Honoured - Shoulder - Intellect / Spirit / Haste
-Belt of the Untamed - 359 - 85 - Exalted - Waist - Intellect / Spirit / Haste
-Lightning Flash Pendant - 359 - 85 - Exalted - Neck - Intellect / Crit / Mastery

Feral:
-Swiftflight Leggings - 333 - 83 - Honoured - Legs - Agility / Crit / Haste
-Stormbolt Gloves - 359 - 85 - Exalted - Hands - Agility / Crit / Haste


Baradin's Wardens (Tol Barad)
Resto:
-Insidious Staff - 346 - 85 - Revered - Staff - Intellect / Haste / Spellpower / Mastery
-Shimmering Morningstar - 346 - 85 - Revered - Main Hand - Intellect / Spirit / Crit / Spellpower
-Mandala of Stirring Patterns - 359 - 85 - Exalted - Trinket - Spirit / Mastery Proc

Feral:
-Spear of Trailing Shadows - 346 - 85 - Revered - Polearm - Agility / Hit / Haste
-Unsolvable Riddle - 359 - 85 - Exalted - Trinket - Mastery / Agility (use)

Misc:
-Reins of the Drake of the West Wind - Exalted
-Reins of the Spectral Steed - Exalted


Justice Point Vendors
There are also many items available to purchase with Justice Points. This is why it will be very helpful to cap your Justice Points on your toons before Cataclysm launches (the cap is currently at 4000JP) - you will be able to buy 1-2 pieces of blue 85 (iLvl 346) gear from the Justice Point vendors if you have 4000JP saved. You'll be able to earn more Justice Points at 85 in the heroic dungeons.

Resto:
-Cluster of Stars - 2200JP - 346 - 85 - Helm - Intellect / Spirit / Haste
-Robes of Forgetfulness - 2200JP - 346 - 85 - Chest - Intellect / Spirit / Haste
-Somber Shawl - 1650JP - 346 - 85 - Shoulder - Intellect / Spirit / Mastery
-Blessed Hands of Elune - 1650JP - 346 - 85 - Hands - Intellect / Spirit / Crit
-Leggings of Late Blooms - 2200JP - 346 - 85 - Legs - Intellect / Haste / Mastery
-Apple-Bent Bough - 950JP - 346 - 85 - Offhand - Intellect / Spirit / Haste
-Celadon Pendant - 1250JP - 346 - 85 - Neck - Intellect / Spirit / Mastery
-Thatch Eave Vines - 1650JP - 346 - 85 - Waist - Intellect / Spirit / Haste

Feral:
-Mask of Vines - 2200JP - 346 - 85 - Helm - Agility / Crit / Haste
-Tunic of Sinking Envy - 2200JP - 346 - 85 - Chest - Agility / Crit / Hit
-Embrace of the Night - 1650JP - 346 - 85 - Shoulder - Agility / Crit / Hit
-Sticky Fingers - 1650JP - 346 - 85 - Hands - Agility / Haste / Mastery
-Leggings of the Burrowing Mole - 2200JP - 346 - 85 - Legs - Agility / Mastery / Expertise
-Amulet of Dull Dreaming - 1250JP - 346 - 85 - Neck - Agility / Crit / Haste
-Sash of Musing - 1650JP - 346 - 85 - Waist - Agility / Mastery / Expertise


There are also some crafted items which will be available:

Leatherworking
Resto:
-Chestguard of Nature's Fury - 359 - 85 - Chest - Intellect / Crit / Mastery
-Lightning Lash - 359 - 85 - Waist - Intellect / Spirit / Haste

Feral:
-Assassin's Chestplate - 359 - 85 - Chest - Agility / Hit / Crit
-Belt of Nefarious Whispers - 359 - 85 - Agility / Hit / Mastery
-Razor-Edged Cloak - 346 - 85 - Agility / Crit / Mastery

Jewelcrafting
Resto:
-Eye of Many Deaths - 346 - 85 - Neck - Intellect / Haste / Mastery
-Ring of Warring Elements - 346 - 85 - Finger - Intellect / Crit / Mastery

Feral:
-Band of Blades - 346 - 85 - Finger - Agility / Hit / Crit
-Elementium Destroyer's Ring - 346 - 85 - Finger - Agility / Crit / Mastery
-Brazen Elementium Medallion - 346 - 85 - Neck - Agility / Crit / Haste
-Entwined Elementium Choker - 346 - 85 - Neck - Agility / Crit / Haste


That's a pretty big list to be getting on with! There will also be some profession-specific pieces which you may be able to use, for example: Engineering; Agile Bio-Optic Killshades, Camouflage Bio-Optic Killshades. Alchemy; Lifebound Alchemist Stone. Etc!

I'll leave the list at that for now. Hopefully it will give you a better idea of where to look for upgrades and enchants and help you plan your levelling route to get as much rep as you can as you quest and level up.

Druid Tier 11, 4.0.1

MMO-Champ recently released additional images and also some video of the new tier11 armour pieces, including the druid set! You can see MMO's full post here, along with a preview of the rogue and warlock models which also look pretty nice.

The tier 11 set looks pretty good I think! I love the the new spaulders and helm with the wings and lightning. It looks like there's now a sort of lightning-crackle animation as well as slowly falling feathers.

You can see the animation in this video created by MMO-Champion.



MMO is also reporting that Patch 4.0.1 is likely to arrive either 5 Oct or 12 Oct (so in the next week or two), based on comments by Ghostcrawler suggesting the patch will arrive shortly before or around the end of the current arena season and a change on the WoW trial page, which is stating the streaming version of the new download/game client will be available on the 5th.

There hasn't been any official announcement for a Cataclysm release date, with speculation ranging from early November to mid-December times. We'll be getting patch 4.0.1 with all of the class and system changes and later 4.0.3 will be landing with Cataclysm events (the actual environment changes and things like that).

Pretty exciting times ahead! I'd recommend moving your toons out of Dalaran, at least before each Tuesday, as I'm sure lag and everyone attempting to log on will make getting on a nightmare. Based on my experience with the streaming downloader on the Beta, I may have to wait for the game to fully download, as I've had FPS issues when attempting to stream it. Everyone trying to get on at once to see all the new changes won't help!

I've also been stocking up on gems and enchant mats. I'm hoping professions won't be broken on the patch (they're a little bit dodgy on PTR and possibly on Beta; my toon had his profession levels go over but had to retrain to access - he still had 450 but lost all his recipes) as that will make things difficult, so I may pre-cut some things. In the very least, all my armour pen gems will be turning to crit gems in the patch, which I'll likely be replacing with agililty. Slightly annoyingly, hit gems will now be turning blue, so I'll lose a few of the socket bonuses I've managed to pick up.

If you can, though, now will likely be a good time to pick up some of these things before patch! Emblems will be converting to the new Justice Points, at a slightly higher conversion rate than previously planned (11.58 points per emblem). There's a cap (more info on this post) with spare points converting to gold, though that conversion has been reduced. I decided to spend at least my Triumph badges on gems, though I'm undecided on just what I'd prefer to do with my frost badges as yet. I've also stocked up on some additional Druid glyphs in the hope that many will just change in effect (rather than disappear entirely with some of the new changes) so I don't get gouged on the auction house as everyone scrambles for new glyphs.

Interesting changes ahead!

PTR 4.0.1 is live!

Patch 4.0.1 is now live on the PTR! You can find the patch notes and article on WoW.com here and some more information and the patch notes on MMO-Champ as well here. Cata is well and truly closing in!

It looks like we'll have a period with this pre-xpac content and, more importantly, with the new talent trees and glyphs. There'll likely be a period before the xpac hits with all the changes in place, and we'll have to adapt quickly to keep up with raiding as we wrap up the content before the xpac officially launches.

In other news, the tier 11 bonuses were released recently.

• Item - Druid T11 Restoration 2P Bonus - Increases the critical strike chance of the periodic portion of your Lifebloom spell by 5%. / Instant
• Item - Druid T11 Restoration 4P Bonus - Whenever you have Lifebloom stacked to its maximum of 3 applications on its target, you gain 540 Spirit. / Instant
• Item - Druid T11 Balance 2P Bonus - Increases the critical strike chance of your Insect Swarm and Moonfire spells by 5%. / Instant
• Item - Druid T11 Balance 4P Bonus - Whenever Eclipse triggers, your critical strike chance with spells is increased by 99% for 8 sec. Each critical strike you achieve reduces that bonus by 33%. / Instant
• Item - Druid T11 Feral 2P Bonus - Increases the periodic damage done by your Rake and Lacerate abilities by 10%. / Instant
• Item - Druid T11 Feral 4P Bonus - Each time you use Mangle (Cat) you gain a 1% increase to attack power for 30 sec stacking up to 3 times, and the duration of your Survival Instinct ability is increased by 50%. / Instant

The bonuses are interesting. The Resto bonus seems to be gearing towards our tank healing tools and emphasizing us using the new Lifebloom on tanks. It shouldn't be hard to maintain the stacks to proc the four-piece bonus. With the new talents Nourish and Healing Touch will refresh the Lifebloom stack, so once we get the stack up it should be easy to maintain, whether by throwing on a new Lifebloom or topping up the tank with Nourish or HT, and certainly maintainable between covering the raid if we're raid healing. Our tank-healing tools should be a lot stronger in Cata, so we'll be able to do that well as well as covering the raid. It will be interesting to see how all the classes end up working together in Cata as all are going through some big changes, particularly paladins. The healing dynamic will likely be switched up a fair bit.

The Feral bonuses are a bit odd. The two-piece bonus is a pretty straightforward damage increase. The bear four-piece is pretty standard as well, increasing the duration of Survival Instincts. The cat bonus is a bit odd though, mostly that it's currently triggered by Mangle. Mangle's duration was increased to 60 seconds, so it seems odd that the proc is for 30 seconds and stacks up to three times. It's basically encouraging us to Mangle a lot more, and certainly at least every 30 seconds instead of every sixty. I seem to remember hearing that they wanted to increase Mangle damage, primarily so we have an option when we're unable to shred (on caster bosses like Lady Deathwhisper, for example, who are often turning to cast at different people, so we're having to jump around a lot to stay behind her or perhaps have just one hit that would need to be replaced with something other than a shred). It seems like it would be a better idea (and more consistent with previous proc items, like the Idol of Mutilation) if it procced from Mangle and Shred. Perhaps that's something that might come.

The Balance bonuses seem fairly straightforward as damage and critical strike increases. The four-piece bonus is working with the Eclipse proc, so should only help with boomkins working with the new Eclipse mechanics.

Interesting stuff on the horizon!

Cata changes, Relics and Phoenixes!

MMO Champ had a big update from the latest Beta build with some interesting changes and new items.

An interesting change is coming to Relics. All Idols, Librams, Sigils, and Totems are now all known just as Relics and they have stats as opposed to the current procs. This puts them a bit more in line with wands and other items in the Ranged slot. 

Overall this is seeming like a good change. This will probably make each tier of Relics better upgrades, as opposed to the current model where sometimes the procs of a previous tier's Relic is better than the new one (whether due to ramp-up time, the buff not remaining up like it's ideally supposed to, etc). Now, instead of worrying about Relic buffs falling off or the equip being based on an ability that isn't used much, we'll now just have direct stat upgrades. With the advent of reforging, too, any additional stats (ie crit, haste) will likely be able to be tweaked if desired.

There are some guild vendor rewards, which looks like they become available with the guild rep/guild leveling system. There are several new BOA items; helms, which have a +10% exp bonus, and some cloaks, which only have a 5% bonus. An image from MMO is below, click for a larger view.

The prices are most likely off though - they look very cheap! - so I expect those may change in the future. I also don't see costs on the BOA items, though there may be several ways to purchase those, similar to now (Dungeon badges, Stone Keeper's Shards, and Champion's Seals).

The Dark Phoenix mount looks brilliant.

You will also be able to buy 310% flying speed for 5000 gold (though if you have a 310% mount already, you will learn it for free).

Some interesting updates!

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.

• Helm: Sanctified Lasherweave Helmet (vendor)
• Neck: Bone Sentinel's Amulet (Lord Marrowgar, ICC 25)
• Shoulders: Sanctified Lasherweave Pauldrons (vendor)
• Back: Greatcloak of the Turned Champion (Deathbringer Saurfang, ICC 25)
• Chest: Vestments of Spruce and Fir (vendor)
• Wrist: Bracers of Eternal Dreaming (Valithria Dreamwalker, ICC 25)
• Gloves: Sanctified Lasherweave Gauntlets (vendor)
• Belt: Professor's Bloodied Smock (Professor Putricide, ICC 25 - ilvl 264 is BOE)
• Legs: Sanctified Lasherweave Legplates (vendor)
• Boots: Blessed Cenarion Boots (crafted, Leatherworking)
• Rings: Ashen Band of Endless Wisdom (rep reward, Ashen Verdict), Memory of Malygos (Sindragosa, ICC 25)
• Trinkets: Althor's Abacus (Gunship, ICC 25), Solace of the Defeated/Fallen (Lord Jaraxxus, ToC 25)
• Weapon: Trauma (Rotface, ICC 25)
• Offhand: Sundial of Eternal Dusk (Sindragosa, ICC 25)
• Idol: Idol of the Black Willow (vendor)

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!

How to Nom on bosses! (aka how to be a cat!)

At long last, I've finished and posted my guide to feral dps! Rather than spam the main page like I did with my Resto guide (which I also partly did to give a few extra posts for the launch of the blog), I published it straight to my pages section (all my Pages are listed on the right-hand side of the blog).

You can find the full guide here: How to be a Cat!

For those who may be following the blog through google reader or RSS feed and haven't spotted the list of pages on the main site, you can also find the full Tree guide here: How to be a Tree!

I will also be compiling the posts of healing guides into one page as new ones are posted to make it easier to access them all. They'll all be linked at the list here.

Enjoy!

How to be a Tree! Part Three: Gear, Gems and Enchants

All of the following is applicable as of patch 3.3.5.

In general, the following stats are desirable on any gear you pick up.

-Intellect and Spirit.

-Spellpower.
-Haste.

-Crit.

Due to our high haste requirements, pieces with haste are generally more preferable than pieces with crit. 

You will often see two types of stats on caster gear; gear with Intellect, Spellpower, Haste, and Crit, and gear with Intellect, Spirit, Spellpower, and Haste. The key trade in those pieces is Spirit and Crit. The pieces with only Intellect with crit on is typically aimed at caster dps (Boomkins in particular when on Leather gear). Because so much of our healing is based on our HoTs which, with the exception of the T9 four-piece bonus, cannot crit, crit rating is less useful. As spirit also feeds into our spellpower, the pieces with spirit on will often provide a greater increase in healing than pieces without spirit (even if the actual spellpower amount on the pieces are the same).

As mentioned in Specs and Glyphs, you will need approximately 850 haste without 3 points in Celestial Focus, and approximately 750 haste with 3 points in Celestial Focus.

Enchants.

The following enchants are generally best to use:

Helm: 

Arcanum of Blissful Mending (Spellpower and MP5) - Wyrmrest Accord

or, if mana regen is not an issue for you,

Arcanum of Burning Mysteries (Spellpower and Crit) - Kirin Tor

Shoulder:

Greater Inscription of the Crag (Spellpower and MP5) - Sons of Hodir

or, if mana regen is not an issue for you,

Greater Inscription of the Storm (Spellpower and Crit) - Sons of Hodir

Chest:

Powerful Stats (+10 to all Stats)

Gloves:

Exceptional Spellpower (+28 Spellpower)

Bracers:

Superior Spellpower (+30 Spellpower)

Leggings:

Brilliant Spellthread (+50 Spellpower +20 Spirit)

Boots:

Greater Spirit (+18 Spirit)

or

Tuskarr’s Vitality (+15 Stamina and Minor Run Speed Increase)

Belt:

Eternal Belt Buckle (Additional gem slot)

Cloak:

Greater Speed (+23 Haste)

Weapon:

Mighty Spellpower (+63 Spellpower to a one-hand weapon)

Greater Spellpower (+81 Spellpower to a staff)

There are also excellent profession-specific enchants which may be better than these enchants.

Gems.

Gemming priority is generally Spellpower, Haste, and Spirit.

-Runed Cardinal Ruby: 23 Spellpower (Fits a red socket)

-Reckless Ametrine: 12 Spellpower, 10 Haste (Fits a red or yellow socket)

-Quick King’s Amber: 20 Haste (Fits a yellow socket)

-Purified Dreadstone: 12 Spellpower, 10 Spirit (Fits a blue or red socket)

-Sparkling Majestic Zircon: 20 Spirit (Fits a blue socket)

-Ember Skyflare Diamond: 25 Spellpower and 2% Intellect (Fits a Meta socket)

Runed Cardinal Rubies are the most valuable gems for a tree and are the most desirable gem to use, particularly if you have already acquired enough haste through gear.

Until you start getting the Best in Slot pieces of gear, you will likely need to gem for haste as well. Personally, I prefer to use the Reckless Ametrine over a Runed Cardinal Ruby+Quick King’s Amber combo. This is because the Reckless Ametrine gems have 12 Spellpower and 10 Haste - two of these gems will get you 24 Spellpower, one more than a Runed Cardinal Ruby will get you. It adds up! So if you have two slots and were going to put in a Runed Cardinal Ruby and a Quick King’s Amber, try grabbing two Reckless Ametrine instead. Until you have enough haste, though, you may find you need to use a Quick King’s Amber regardless.

In my Resto gear, I like to pick up the socket bonuses where I can. If you find you can only pick up some of the socket bonuses, do try to get the ones with greater bonuses (ie, a +9 Spellpower bonus over a +5 one). This is often when I’ll use Purified Dreadstones - I’ll pop those into blue sockets to satisfy bonus requirements. The little bit of extra spirit is nice as it feeds into both our spellpower and our mana regen. I feel the Purified Dreadstone is more useful than the Sparkling Majestic Zircon, which is only spirit.

The Ember Skyflare Diamond is best for your meta gem.

That’s all on gear for now! Don’t forget to check out Spells and Strategies and Specs and Glyphs!

You can see the full guide altogether on the Guide to Healing page! I will try to keep that page updated with new patches and expansions along with the usual posts about changes on the normal blog.