Restoration Shaman Healing Gear and Best in Slot — Battle for Azeroth (BfA) 8.1

1. Gearing Up in Battle for Azeroth

There are three main paths to gear your characters in Battle for Azeroth:

• World Content (crafting, reputations, emissaries, world quests, world bosses, world PvP)
• Instanced PvE Content (dungeons, raids, warfronts, and islands)
• Instanced PvP Content (battlegrounds and arenas)

You are free to pursue any, or all, of these paths. The more content you do in the game, the faster your gearing up will be, but we recommend that you focus on the types of content you enjoy the most, letting gear come as a by-product of having fun!

Also, keep in mind that you should generally be using your highest item level gear, including Azerite gear. If you have an intellect two-hander that is of higher item level than your one-hand + shield combination, use the two-hander, otherwise use the shield for an increase in survivability against physical damage. If you have several Azerite pieces at the same level and / or are unsure on which traits to pick, check out our Azerite traits page.

1.1. World Content

Crafting wise, as a Restoration Shaman, you will want to pick up Leatherworking, because you will be able to craft yourself two Normal raid item level items (leggings and gloves), with the ability to upgrade them up to Mythic raid item level as you get reagents from killing raid bosses in every difficulty. Higher difficulties drop more reagents per kill.

World quest rewards scale with your item level, up to Heroic dungeon item level. While these items are not very powerful, world quests are relatively low effort and can be completed quickly. On top of that, trinkets from world quests are generally strong, so if you manage to get one at a high item level, you are likely to wear it for a good while.

Keep an eye out for Emissary caches, as these can award Heroic raid item level Azerite pieces if your own item level is high enough. Such pieces will be massive upgrades for most players and can be obtained effortlessly, once unlocked.

1.2. Instanced PvE Content

Dungeons require a party of 5 players and can usually be completed within about 30 minutes of starting, depending on the dungeon. Because they are available at a wide range of difficulty settings, with scaling rewards, you can use them to gear up while leveling, and continue all the way up to Heroic raid item level when finishing high Mythic+ dungeons. You should aim to complete at least one high level Mythic+ dungeon every week, in order to get the best reward possible from your weekly chest, which can go up to Mythic raid item level.

Raids require a group of 10+ players, depending on the difficulty setting chosen, and can take a varying amount of time to complete, depending on your group's gear and experience with the encounters. Like dungeons, there are multiple difficulty settings, ranging from the automated Raid Finder tool, up to 20-man Mythic raiding, which drops the best gear in the game, but also requires the most coordination and time commitment. When raiding, you can only receive loot from your first kill of a given boss on each difficulty every weekly reset.

Warfronts are a relatively short and easy way to gear up, as they can be queued for in your faction's capital city, and award one Heroic raid item level piece of gear, once per activation cycle. These can be completed as many times as you wish, awarding a random Raid Finder item level piece of gear after each win.

While Island Expeditions are not meant to be farmed for loot, they are very important for power leveling your Heart of Azeroth, thus allowing you to use your Azerite Armor to its maximum potential.

1.3. Instanced PvP Content

Battlegrounds come in various types and sizes and provide a quick solo queue PvP experience or, in the case of Rated Battlegrounds, a 10 versus 10 challenging / rewarding experience that can award gear which scales up to slightly above Heroic raid item level, based on your rating. A weekly brawl is also usually available.

Arenas are fast paced 2v2 / 3v3 death-matches against other teams with a similar rating to yours, with gear up to slightly above Heroic raid item level being randomly awarded at the end of each match. Due to their great amount of utility (especially Wind Shear and Purge), Restoration Shamans are one of the best healers to play in arenas.

By participating in one (or both) types of content, you gather both Honor and Conquest Points, which unlock various rewards. These are purely cosmetic in the case of Honor, but scale up to mythic raid item level for the weekly Conquest rewards: the War Chest and weekly 500-Conquest cap.

2. Trinkets for Restoration Shamans

The following is a draft ranking of trinkets, aimed at use in a raid environment. These rankings are formulated with all trinkets at the same item level. Due to how close in value most trinkets in each tier are, generally it is the higher item level that will decide which one is optimal. To simplify things, you can consider each trinket tier to be worth 5 extra item levels compared to the tier immediately under it.

The ranking system is as follows:

1. S Tier: the strongest and most generally useful trinkets; these are always good choices.
2. A Tier: these trinkets are slightly weaker than the S Tier traits, but are still solid choices.
3. B Tier: a below-average trinket that should be picked only in the absence of an S or A Tier trinket.
4. C Tier: a weak trinket that provides very little healing output or other utility and should be avoided if possible.

Any trinket not listed in one of the above tiers provides no increase in healing output, or significant utility, though some may increase damage dealt.

2.1. S Tier

• Tidal Alchemist Stone (Alchemy, crafted).
• Conch of Dark Whispers (Vol'zith the Whisperer, Shrine of the Storm)
• Twitching Tentacle of Xalzaix (Mythrax)
• First Mate's Spyglass (World Quest)
• T'zane's Barkspines (T'zane, World Boss)
• Fangs of Intertwined Essence (Avatar of Sethraliss, Temple of Sethraliss)
• Leyshock's Grand Compilation (World Drop)
• Dinobone Charm (World Quest)

2.2. A Tier

• Gilded Loa Figurine (World Quest)
• Doom's Hatred / Lion's Grace (Arathi Warfront World Boss)
• (Doom's Howl, Alliance only World Boss)
• Darkmoon Deck: Tides (Inscription)
• Lady Waycrest's Music Box (Lord and Lady Waycrest, Waycrest Manor)
• Emblem of Zandalar (World Quest)
• Dread Gladiator's Medallion (PvP)

2.3. B Tier

• Inoculating Extract (Vectis)
• Pearl Diver's Compass (World Quest)
• Incessantly Ticking Clock (World Quest)
• Drust-Runed Icicle (Hailstone Construct, World Boss)
• Azurethos' Singed Plumage (Azurethos, The Winged Typhoon, World Boss)
• Ignition Mage's Fuse (Knight Captain Valyri, Tol Dagor)
• Balefire Branch (Soulbound Goliath, Waycrest Manor)
• Ancient Knot of Wisdom (Darkshore Warfront World Boss)

2.4. C Tier

• Dread Gladiator's Badge (PvP)
• Revitalizing Voodoo Totem (Vol'kaal, Atal'Dazar)
• Plunderbeard's Flask (World Quest)
• Dread Gladiator's Emblem (PvP)
• Dread Gladiator's Insignia (PvP)
• Surging Alchemist Stone (Alchemy)
• Endless Tincture of Fractional Power (Alchemy)

3. Best in Slot List for Restoration Shamans in Uldir

Below are the recommended items from each boss in the Uldir raid, accounting for balanced stats and recommended Azerite traits. This list does not take into account gear from sources other than Uldir. There might be better pieces of gear available from other instances, especially with the potential for titanforging.

We have also indicated which bosses you should use your bonus roll on, best of luck!

Slot	Item	Source
Helm	Crest of the Undying Visionary	Zul, Reborn (Coin)
Shoulders	Spaulders of Coagulated Viscera	G'huun
Cloak	Cloak of Rippling Whispers	Zul, Reborn (Coin)
Chest	Chainvest of Assured Quality	Zek'voz, Herald of N'Zoth (Coin)
Wrists	Rubywrought Sparkguards	Taloc
Gloves	Oblivion Crushers	Mythrax the Unraveler
Belt	Titanspark Energy Girdle	Zek'voz, Herald of N'Zoth (Coin)
Legs	Legguards of Coalescing Plasma	Taloc
Boots	Fused Monstrosity Stompers	Fetid Devourer
Ring #1	Rot-Scour Ring	M.O.T.H.E.R.
Ring #2	Ring of the Infinite Void	Zek'voz, Herald of N'Zoth (Coin)
Trinket #1	Inoculating Extract	Vectis
Trinket #2	Twitching Tentacle of Xalzaix	Mythrax the Unraveler
Weapon	Tusk of the Reborn Prophet	Zul, Reborn (Coin)
Shield	Vector Deflector	Vectis

4. Changelog