Restoration Druid Healing Gear and Best in Slot — The War Within Pre-Patch

We do not believe a strict Best in Slot list is possible due to how stat weights work for Restoration Druids. Secondary stats 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 equip the highest item-level pieces whenever possible, excluding trinkets and tier, preferring items with Haste.

Your main goal should be to acquire Druid Restoration 10.2 Class Set 4pc. For both Mythic+ and raiding, it provides healing increase, and it is the same item level as other items you would use.

You should look to replace your old tier bonus with Druid Restoration 10.2 Class Set 2pc as soon as possible. Mostly because it will be an item-level upgrade.

Season 4 offers a way to target specific, powerful items with the new Antique Bronze Bullion. You will be able to buy raid trinkets, weapons and rare items from a vendor. You will get enough currency to buy one item per week. The items start at a low item level, but can then be upgraded 12 or 14 times (depending on the maximum item level of the piece you bought) using crests and flight stones.

Below you will see the list of the best items to buy depending on want content you prefer doing. Your best upgrades will be rare weapons with unique damage effects and trinkets.

1. Whispering Incarnate Icon
2. Dreambinder, Loom of the Great Cycle
3. Ominous Chromatic Essence
4. Seal of Filial Duty
5. Voice of the Silent Star

1. Vakash, the Shadowed Inferno
2. Fyrakk's Tainted Rageheart
3. Ward of Faceless Ire
4. Whispering Incarnate Icon
5. Belor'relos, the Suncaller

There is another good option you can pick in Seal of Diurna's Chosen, if you look to do more damage. In that case you will need to pick Shadowflame-Tempered Armor Patch embellishment and Vakash, the Shadowed Inferno beforehand to secure procs.

3.

BiS Gear for Restoration Druid

Overall Raid BiS List Overall Mythic+ BiS List Raid Gear BiS List Mythic+ Gear BiS List

3.1.

Raid BiS List for Restoration Druid

This list contains theoretically the best items for healing in raid from all sources. Keep in mind that acquiring different tier pieces with Leech will change your priority on the off-piece. Similarly, any other item with Leech will replace the one recommended here.

Slot	Item	Source/Note
Weapon	Dreambinder, Loom of the Great Cycle	Nymue
Helm	Bough of the Autumn Blaze	Tindral, Magmorax, Raszageth
Neck	Elemental Lariat (Haste/Mastery).	Crafted by Jewelcrafting
Shoulder	Mantle of the Autumn Blaze	Smolderon, Echo of Neltharion, Broodkeeper Diurna
Cloak	Voice of the Silent Star	Sarkareth
Chest	Allied Heartwarming Fur Coat	Crafted by Leatherworking
Bracers	Bands of the Autumn Blaze	Revival Catalyst any Myth track bracers
Gloves	Handguards of the Autumn Blaze	Igira the Cruel, Forgotten Experiments, Dathea
Belt	Eternal Sentinel's Cord	Nymue in Amirdrassil
Legs	Pants of the Autumn Blaze	Larodar, Rashok, Sennarth
Boots	Twisted Blossom Stompers	Gnarlroot
Ring #1	Onyx Impostor's Birthright	Echo of Neltharion
Ring #2	Seal of Filial Duty	Broodkeeper Diurna
Trinket #1	Ominous Chromatic Essence	Forgotten Experiments
Trinket #2	Whispering Incarnate Icon	The Primal Council

3.1.

Mythic+ BiS List for Restoration Druid

This list contains theoretically the best items for Mythic+ from all sources.

Slot	Item	Source/Note
Weapon	Vakash, the Shadowed Inferno	Fyrakk
Off-hand	Scripture of Primal Devotion	Kurog Grimtotem
Helm	Bough of the Autumn Blaze	Tindral, Magmorax, Raszageth
Neck	Torc of Passed Time (Haste/Versatility).	Crafted by Jewelcrafting
Shoulder	Mantle of the Autumn Blaze	Smolderon, Echo of Neltharion, Broodkeeper Diurna
Cloak	Benevolent Embersage's Featherdrape	Revival Catalyst
Chest	Allied Heartwarming Fur Coat	Crafted by Leatherworking
Bracers	Bloodstench Skinguards	Kazzara
Gloves	Handguards of the Autumn Blaze	Igira the Cruel, Forgotten Experiments, Dathea
Belt	Eternal Sentinel's Cord	Nymue in Amirdrassil
Legs	Pants of the Autumn Blaze	Larodar, Rashok, Sennarth
Boots	Life-Bound Boots with Shadowflame-Tempered Armor Patch	Crafted by Leatherworking
Ring #1	Band of Burning Thorns	Larodar
Ring #2	Seal of Diurna's Chosen	Eranog
Trinket #1	Ward of Faceless Ire	Echo of Neltharion
Trinket #2	Tome of Unstable Power	The Azure Vault

3.1.

Only Raid Gear BiS List for Restoration Druid

This list only contains items that drop in the raid. It will not contain crafted items, items from the dungeons, or the dungeon vault. Reference the first list if you want to fill the slots with crafted items. This list assumes you will use these items only in raid.

Slot	Item	Source/Note
Weapon	Dreambinder, Loom of the Great Cycle	Nymue
Helm	Silent Tormentor's Hood	Gnarlroot
Neck	Eye of the Vengeful Hurricane	Dathea
Shoulder	Mantle of the Autumn Blaze	Smolderon, Echo of Neltharion, Broodkeeper Diurna
Cloak	Benevolent Embersage's Featherdrape	Revival Catalyst
Chest	Benevolent Embersage's Robe	Nymue, Zskarn, Kurog Grimtotem
Bracers	Verdant Sanctuary Bands	Council of Dreams
Gloves	Oathbreaker's Obsessive Gauntlets	Sarkareth
Belt	Eternal Sentinel's Cord	Nymue in Amirdrassil
Legs	Pants of the Autumn Blaze	Larodar, Rashok, Sennarth
Boots	Hooves of the Autumn Blaze	Revival Catalyst any boots.
Ring #1	Onyx Impostor's Birthright	Echo of Neltharion
Ring #2	Seal of Filial Duty	Broodkeeper Diurna
Trinket #1	Ominous Chromatic Essence	Forgotten Experiments
Trinket #2	Whispering Incarnate Icon	The Primal Council

3.1.

Only Mythic+ Gear BiS List for Restoration Druid

This list only contains items that drop in Mythic+ or from the Great Vault. It will not contain crafted items, items from the raid or raid vault. Reference the second list if you want to fill the slots with crafted items. This list assumes you will use these items only in Mythic+.

Slot	Item	Source/Note
Weapon	Infinite Dragonspire	Uldaman
Helm	Bough of the Autumn Blaze	Revival Catalyst, Smolderon, Echo of Neltharion, Broodkeeper Diurna
Neck	Bromach's Disentombed Locket	Uldaman
Shoulder	Mantle of the Autumn Blaze	Revival Catalyst,Smolderon, Echo of Neltharion, Broodkeeper Diurna
Cloak	Potion-Stained Cloak	Algeth'ar Academy
Chest	Benevolent Embersage's Robe	Revival Catalyst, Nymue, Zskarn, Kurog Grimtotem
Bracers	Frenzyroot Cuffs	Algeth'ar Academy
Gloves	Handguards of the Autumn Blaze	Revival Catalyst, Igira the Cruel, Forgotten Experiments, Dathea
Belt	Cinch of Forgotten Duty	The Azure Vault
Legs	Pants of the Autumn Blaze	Revival Catalyst, Larodar, Rashok, Sennarth
Boots	Hooves of the Autumn Blaze	Revival Catalyst any boots.
Ring #1	Circle of Ascended Frost	Halls of Infusion
Ring #2	Thunderous Downburst Ring	The Nokhud Offensive
Trinket #1	Furious Ragefeather	The Nokhud Offensive
Trinket #2	Tome of Unstable Power	The Azure Vault

Crafting is an essential way of getting high-item-level gear. You can get one naturally every 2 weeks, unless you pick half of the spark from your weekly vault.

Since there are only a few crafts you can make at these 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.

There are a lot of embellished items available, so we will only highlight the good ones you might consider crafting, in no particular order:

• Elemental Lariat — this is a necklace with Embellishment built in. You can only get it on this piece. It is desirable because the effect is decent; you can pick the stats, infuse it with sockets, and finally, the proc will be for Haste or Mastery. The power of the effect heavily relies on the number of sockets you are using and on your throughput. You are going to use this Embellishment because all other embellishments are even worse than this one.
• Allied Heartwarming Fur Coat — it is a decent Embellishment, considering there are no special good items for raiding in tier slots. Grants your group or raid members Versatility. It provides more overall stats than Verdant Tether, but less stats to yourself.
• Shadowflame-Tempered Armor Patch — is a good damage embellishment for Mythic+, because it allows Seal of Diurna's Chosen to proc.
• Verdant Tether — Your healing abilities have the chance to tether you to a friendly ally, granting Versatility for both players based on distance. It does not give much, but the combined gain is pretty decent.
• Verdant Conduit — gives random secondaries that periodically stack on you. It does not give that much, but it is purely personal.
• Toxic Thorn Footwraps — these are boots with a unique effect only available on this specific piece of gear.
• Potion Absorption Inhibitor — increases potion duration by 50%. This effect stacks. You might use it in raids if you have a lot of spare Mana or potentially external Mana from Evokers or DPS Druids. In that case, you will use Intellect potions from cauldrons or just the crafted ones.

Your first craft should be Elemental Lariat, assuming you can farm a staff from Mythic+ or get one from raid.

For the second craft, you will have a couple of vaults and raid clears behind you. You should assess which slot is your weakest and go from there. Keep in mind, that Verdant Tether is recommended to be crafted on a ring. If you do not need a ring, then either craft Toxic Thorn Footwraps for Mythic+ or Allied Heartwarming Fur Coat for raiding.

In general, we advise against crafting weapons, if you are able to clear Mythic+ above +8, or do even a couple of early raid bosses on Mythic difficulty. Any weapon from the vault will give you a higher item level than a craft. On top of that, you will be able to upgrade a weapon from Mythic+7 to 522, while the craft will give you only 525.

Having said all that, there will be a few situations where item-level upgrades will not be actual upgrades. Sockets are usually worth more than 10 item levels, Leech on the first 2-3 pieces is worth about 10 item levels, and Avoidance is worth around 5. Due to Leech providing so much power, we will only give a definite BiS list for any slots if the gains from effects on them are better than a random piece with Leech in that slot.

For Mythic+ gearing, you will generally want to equip Mastery until you are comfortable with healing requirements. Some play with 0 Mastery on gear to deal more damage, and some go into it more heavily. There will be no magic number we can give you.

You will need two currencies to upgrade your gear: Flightstones and Dreaming Crests. Both are obtainable from practically all forms of content in the game.

For more information on the new Gear Upgrades system, check out our dedicated page for it below.

Your upgrade priority should follow the highest stat slots: weapons, head, chest, legs. If you get a good trinket, then upgrade it before anything but a weapon.

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 and Leech.

The only 2 weapons with special effects are Vakash, the Shadowed Inferno and Dreambinder, Loom of the Great Cycle. Both have damage effects on them. You should definitely never drop item levels for them in raids, but you can maybe drop 3-6 item levels in Mythic+, understanding that it will cost you quite a bit of healing power.

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

1. S-tier — Whispering Incarnate Icon.
2. A-tier — Ominous Chromatic Essence, Pip's Emerald Friendship Badge, Broodkeeper's Promise, Idol of the Dreamer (with full sockets).
3. B-tier — Idol of the Dreamer (with less than full sockets), Blossom of Amirdrassil, Rashok's Molten Heartl, Spark of Hope, Screaming Black Dragonscale.
4. C-tier — Spoils of Neltharus, Water's Beating Heart, Neltharion's Call to Suffering.

Season 4 has quite a few strong trinkets, but they are all basically stat sticks.

There is only one trinket in the S-tier — Whispering Incarnate Icon. Note on Spark of Hope: it only drops during Wrath of the Lich King Timewalking event in Ulduar. You can either get it to drop from Kologarn or from the cache for defeating Yogg-Saron.

Due to the nature of Mythic+ healing, players usually want to run at least one damage trinket and sometimes even two. Tome of Unstable Power is by far the best damage trinket. It drops from The Azure Vault. There are a few other options as well. You can pick Fyrakk's Tainted Rageheart, which is a bit of a mix between damage and survivability, but adds almost no healing. There is also Furious Ragefeather which can be farmed in The Nokhud Offensive.

For the healing options, the best is probably Ward of Faceless Ire, which adds another external defensive. Whispering Incarnate Icon is a good general option, because it provides the most amount of stats. If you do both raiding and Mythic+, this is probably the trinket to pick.