Restoration Druid Healing Gear and Best in Slot — Battle for Azeroth (BfA) 8.3

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, Corruption and Azerite armor pieces.

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 10-15.

There is no recommended cloak for this raid, as players will have access to the Legendary Cloak, Ashjra'kamas, Shroud of Resolve. The gear below shows only the slots you can get definite Best in Slot pieces for. For the rest, you will have to use whichever items you have available with highest item level, Leech, and sockets.

Slot	Item	Source
Helm	Stygian Guise	Maut in Ny'alotha
Shoulders	Tentacle-Laced Spaulders	Residuum
Chest	Darkheart Robe	Vexiona in Ny'alotha
Ring #1	Logic Loop of Division	Operation: Mechagon
Ring #2	Rebooting Bit Band	Operation: Mechagon
Trinket #1	Forbidden Obsidian Claw	Maut in Ny'alotha
Trinket #2	Manifesto of Madness	N'Zoth the Corruptor in Ny'alotha

You should be picking whichever combination will give you the most Intellect. You can pick a 5 item level lower weapon with Leech, but anything else will not be worth downgrading for. There are a few exceptions listed below:

• Seabreeze is a unique weapon that provides Haste on proc, although a slightly lower average than an equal item level weapon would. It also has a very low proc rate and a rather long buff duration, which makes it very random. You should generally avoid picking the same item level Seabreeze over any other weapon.
• Anu-Azshara, Staff of the Eternal drops from Queen Azshara herself. It has slightly more secondary stats than an equal item level weapon and the proc itself is really strong. In a typical raid fight you can expect it to be worth 15-20 item levels. If you have a Mythic version, it will outpace even Heroic level Ny'alotha weapons.

We will list notable trinkets that you should aim to get. For direct trinket comparison, use QELive made by Voulk.

• Forbidden Obsidian Claw (Maut, Ny'alotha).
• Humming Black Dragonscale (Wrathion, the Black Emperor, Ny'alotha).
• Manifesto of Madness (N'Zoth the Corruptor, Ny'alotha).
• Oozing Coagulum (Il'gynoth, Corruption Reborn, Ny'alotha).
• Fangs of Intertwined Essence (Avatar of Sethraliss, Temple of Sethraliss).
• Conch of Dark Whispers (Vol'zith the Whisperer, Shrine of the Storm).
• Ignition Mage's Fuse (Knight Captain Valyri, Tol Dagor).
• Lady Waycrest's Music Box (Lord and Lady Waycrest, Waycrest Manor).
• Sinister Gladiator's Medallion (PvP).
• Sinister Gladiator's Insignia (PvP).
• Unbound Alchemist Stone, Awakened Alchemist Stone, Peerless Alchemist Stone (Alchemy, crafted).

Three of the best trinkets you should aim to get: Peerless Alchemist Stone, Forbidden Obsidian Claw, Humming Black Dragonscale.

Due to the nature of Mythic+ healing, players usually run at least one damage trinket. One of the best trinkets is Aquipotent Nautilus from Ashvane. If you manage to get Mythic version, it will most likely be used until the end of the expansion. Other than that, you can use either one of the raid trinkets listed above.

Patch 8.3 removes Titanforging from Season 4 items and replaces it fully with a different system, corrupted gear. Having corrupted gear gives you corruption, which both unlocks helpful effects and negative drawbacks.

The lowest tier effect is Grasping Tendrils, which applies a slow on Corrupted users. You can dispel this effect on yourself with shapeshifting to any form. This can be very valuable as this slow can add to other mechanics.

Two other corruption effects summon minions which will attack you, Eye of Corruption and Grand Delusions. Both minions can be kited quite easily with your abilities. Typhoon, Ursol's Vortex, Wild Charge and Dash can get you away from those frequently and on relatively short cooldowns.

Your goal should be to stay below 40 Corruption.

There are rough rankings of each corruption effect listed below. Keep in mind that some corruptions only deal damage. It does not mean that they are useless for a healer, quite the contrary. Some of them deal so much damage (Gushing Wound as a prime example), it becomes very hard to ignore them. In the long term, you should have multiple sets of corrupted gear, with some a bit more damage oriented and some purely healing oriented or very light on damage corruptions.

1. S Tier — Siphoner (Leech), Gushing Wound (Damage proc), Racing Pulse (Haste proc), Expedient (% Haste), Masterful (% Mastery), Severe (% Critical Strike), Void Ritual (Secondary stats proc).
2. A Tier — Infinite Stars (Damage proc, single target only), Honed Mind (Mastery proc), Twisted Appendage (Damage proc).
3. B Tier — Echoing Void (Damage proc), Strikethrough (Increases critical healing), Versatile (% Versatility), Twilight Devastation (Damage proc, AoE only).
4. C Tier — Surging Vitality (Versatility proc on damage taken), Deadly Momentum (Crit proc).
5. Corruptions you should cleanse — Glimpse of Clarity (Chance to reduce cooldown of next spell cast by 3 seconds).

As usual, you should use QELive to get a more accurate idea of where each of these Corruptions stands and how you can combine them on your gear to get the best effect.

For information about what Azerite traits to choose and what the best items are, see our Azerite page.