Restoration Druid Healing Gear and Best in Slot — Shadowlands 9.1

We do not believe a strict Best in Slot list is possible to make due to way stat weights work for Restoration Druids. Secondary stat are extremely close to each other with Intellect increasing the most per each item level. The optimal gearing strategy in this case would be to just equip highest item level pieces whenever possible, excluding trinkets.

Having said all that, there will be a few situations where item level upgrades will not be actual upgrades. Sockets are usually worth a bit more than 10 item levels, Leech on the first 2-3 pieces is worth about 15-20 item levels, Avoidance is worth around 5-10.

For now, the only slots for which we can provide definite Best in Slot recommendations are trinkets, listed below. For the rest, you will have to use whichever items you have available with highest item level, Leech, and sockets.

Slot	Item	Source
Trinket #1	Soulletting Ruby	Theater of Pain
Trinket #2	Shadowed Orb of Torment	Remnant of Ner'zhul in Sanctum of Domination

Make sure to check our Stats and Enchants pages to check how to fill the rest of your slots and what consumables you need.

In Patch 9.1, Domination Shards and Sockets have been added to the game. These are a new type of gem and socket that give powerful effects when wearing them. For Leather users only Helms, Shoulders, Chests, Gloves, and Boots from Sanctum of Domination will have this type of socket for a maximum total of 5. You will want to avoid crafting a Legendary in any slot that has a Domination Socket available in it.

Shards of Domination can also enable Rune Word set bonuses, which only work in The Maw, Torghast, and the Sanctum of Domination raid. To activate the Unholy set bonus you will have to wear a Helm that drops from the raid. This should be your highest priority since the Unholy set bonus is extremely strong.

The other two Shards are not particularly important since they do not provide a significant throughput increase, but they are still better than normal gear without a Shard in it.

1. Shard of Zed — Unholy Shard.
2. Shard of Dyz — Unholy Shard.
3. Shard of Oth — Unholy Shard.
4. Shard of Rev — Blood Shard.
5. Shard of Tel — Frost Shard.

If you would like to know more about the remaining Domination Shards' effects, their set bonuses, or how to upgrade their effects into even more potent forms, please see our official guide detailing everything about this new system of Patch 9.1:

The combination will not be that important in Mythic+ since Rune Word set bonuses do not work there, so you will just have to pick your 5 best Shards.

1. Shard of Zed — Unholy Shard.
2. Shard of Jas — Blood Shard.
3. Shard of Cor — Frost Shard.
4. Shard of Rev — Blood Shard.
5. Shard of Tel — Frost Shard.

You should be picking whichever combination will give you the most Intellect. It does not matter whether you use a 1-Handed weapon with an Off-Hand, or a 2-Handed weapon; only the total amount of stats matters.

For direct trinket comparison, use QELive made by Voulk. We will list a few notable trinkets here with some comments on their power level:

1. S-tier — Soulletting Ruby and Shadowed Orb of Torment are two best trinkets available.
2. A-tier — Unbound Changeling, though slightly weaker than the Ruby mentioned above at equal item level, is a good trinket to have otherwise. Titanic Ocular Gland and First Class Healing Distributor are slightly weaker than Changeling, but can work well until you get either Ruby, Changeling or Tome at highest item levels.
3. B-tier — Unchained Gladiator's Insignia of Alacrity and Unchained Gladiator's Badge of Ferocity are decent trinkets, but are unfortunately not available at Mythic raid item level.
4. C-tier — Inscrutable Quantum Device. This trinket is generally good on paper, but a bit awkward to use.
5. D-tier — Vial of Spectral Essence, Lingering Sunmote, Boon of the Archon, Overflowing Anima Cage, and Sunblood Amethyst. These trinkets either have poor numbers, are hard to use, or both. Avoid using them unless they are significantly higher item level than anything you have.

Inscrutable Quantum Device is a very good trinket on paper, but it has unfortunate requirements on the on-use part of it:

1. If your Health or close ally's Health is below 30%, then it will do a small heal.
2. If another healer near you is below 20% Mana, then it will give them small amount of Mana.
3. If someone is crowd controlled then the trinket will remove it.
4. If an enemy is below 20% Health, then it will deal moderate damage to them.
5. If none of the above are true, it will give you a huge secondary stat buff.

As you can see, this trinket is very hard to use effectively in raid scenario. At later points, you will either have some healer at low Mana or boss at low Health when you want to burst. As such, it is a very poor trinket to use in any realistic scenario.

Due to the nature of Mythic+ healing, players usually run at least one damage trinket. Alternatively you can use a trinket that provides significant single-target healing or a large absorb.

Patch 9.0.5 introduced a new gearing system accessible via Valor. There are not any particularly strong items you would want to upgrade, but there are some you should prioritize over other.

1. Weapon — If you have a weapon below the highest item level, you should get one, then upgrade it. It does not matter too much which you choose, but try to pick one with Haste.
2. Trinkets — The only two trinkets you should ever upgrade are Soulletting Ruby and Unbound Changeling.
3. Any item that is far below Heroic raid item level — Prioritize slots with a higher budget that do not have Shard of Domination in them if all other things are equal: Legs, then Waist, then Rings/Neck, then Cloak/Bracers.