Restoration Druid Healing Gear and Best in Slot — Midnight (12.0.1)

A strict Best-in-Slot list is not really possible due to how stats work for Restoration Druids. Secondary stats are extremely close to each other (excluding Crit, which is very bad in raids), with Intellect increasing the most with item level. The optimal gearing strategy, in this case, would be to equip the highest item-level pieces whenever possible, excluding trinkets and tier, preferring items with Haste and Mastery.

The Crest upgrade system remains, and is a useful way to upgrade lower-item level gear to higher versions that can be quite useful in maximizing your power. We recommend that you check out our dedicated page for more information on this gear upgrade system if you are not yet familiar with it. It has changed a bit in Midnight so it is worth refreshing your knowledge:

You can read more about the changes Midnight brought to the game, including Stat Squish, item level changes, new zones and more in our dedicated Midnight hub:

2.

Best-in-Slot (BiS) Gear for Restoration Druids

Pre-Season BiS

2.1.

Overall Raid BiS

This list contains your theoretical best-in-slot gear from dungeon content, since raids and Mythic+ will not be available yet. Improving your overall item level is still more important than seeking out specific items.

Slot	Item	Source/Note
2 Handed Weapon	Corespark Multitool (or highest level)	Nexus-Point Xenas
Helm	Vilefiend's Guise	Murder Row
Neck	Pendant of Malefic Fury	Murder Row
Shoulder	Enthralled Bonespines	Maisara Caverns
Cloak	Bloodthorn Burnous	The Blinding Vale
Chest	War Trial Vestments	Den of Nalorakk
Bracers	Custodial Cuffs	Magister's Terrace
Gloves	Corewright's Zappers	Nexus-Point Xenas
Belt	Falconer's Cinch	Maisara Caverns
Legs	Lightspore Leggings	The Blinding Vale
Boots	Eclipse Espadrilles	Nexus-Point Xenas
Ring #1	Omission of Light	Nexus-Point Xenas
Ring #2	Bifurcation Band	Magister's Terrace
Trinket #1	Lightspire Core	The Blinding Vale
Trinket #2	Heart of Wind	Windrunner Spire

Crafting is an essential way of getting high-item-level gear. You can get one naturally every two weeks. You will only be able to craft lower level items in the opening week of an expansion. That'll change when the season itself starts.

Since there are only a few crafts you can make at high item levels, it is important to choose the slots wisely. We do not recommend crafting anything in the potential tier slots (Head, Shoulders, Chest, Gloves, Legs). Another factor to remember is Embellished items. You can only wear two items with these effects, similar to legendaries in previous expansions. These effects will not do nearly as much, but they still can add some healing or damage.

Since Embellishments are the most powerful crafted gear, you will prioritize them first, but in the opening weeks of the expansion you are unlikely to run any, since they are not worth the heavy item level loss and high item level crafts aren't available yet. If you want to start experimenting with them early I recommend the following:

• Darkmoon Sigil: Hunt on a weapon slot.
• Arcanoweave Lining on any armor slot.

At the start of the expansion, you can freely craft the blue leather sets. They will cap out at 213 item level with no crest investment, and 250 item level if you're willing to spend Veteran Dawncrest on them. You won't wear this gear long but it can replace some of your levelling items.

When season one starts two weeks later, you will be able to craft much higher item level pieces, using Spark of Radiance. You are very likely to open with a two-handed craft since the weapon slot contains a lot of our power.

No special weapons will make you drop item levels. Equip whatever combination of Two-Handed or One-Handed plus Off-Hand that gives you more Intellect. Early in the season, this will be a crafted Two-handed weapon.

For direct trinket comparison, use QELive. We will list a few special trinkets here with comments on their power level.

The following list ranks trinkets for raid purposes. Trinkets in the same tier are listed in the order of their power.

1. S-tier — No S-tier trinkets until the Season begins.
2. A-tier — Lightspire Core, Heart of Wind, Refueling Orb (support trinket),
3. B-tier — Emberwing Feather, Seed of Radiant Hope,
4. C-tier — Vessel of Tortured Souls,
5. D-tier — Whisper of the Duskwraith, Mycolic Medicine,
6. F-tier — Unstable Felheart Crystal,

In general, there are quite a few trinkets on a similar power level. Any of the trinkets in A tier will be roughly equal to each other, while trinkets in S tier will be only slightly ahead. This means that item level on trinkets is quite important. F-tier trinkets are there because they are only better than an empty trinket slot.