Tuesday 24 February 2015

Restoration Druid Warlords Pre-raid Gear



Hi everyone, long time no see!

I'm still around, playing my Tauren Druid in a super-casual way. I had pretty much a whole year off the game after my second Sproutling was born, but I got back into things at the launch of Warlords of Draenor.

It shows how little I've actually been able to play since then, by the fact that I've only just reached level 100. It only took me, what, three months?

In any case, I now find myself in the position of trying to gear up a bit so I can try to raid with my guild now and then. In previous expansions, I prepared lists of gear and where to find it, but this time I am truly taking the casual way out and pointing you all to other places to get that information.

As a fresh 100, after I used my Munificent Spaulders and other gear tokens, I'm at iLvL 600. Heroics are at 610. To get into Highmaul LFR you need 615 and Blackrock Foundry LFR is 635.

Stat priorities

As Resto Druids, our stat priorities have not changed that much from previous expansions. From Icy Veins and Restokin:

Intellect > Spirit > Haste = Mastery > Multistrike > Crit > Versatility

Interestingly, the Icy Veins article has Spirit at a much lower priority. Because Spirit directly affects mana regeneration, it seems we should be prioritising Spirit items until we are happy with our mana regen in long boss fights, then move it to a lower priority.

Gear list resources

There's a bewildering number of sources for gear in WoD, from quest items to Apexis Crystals and even items from your garrison followers. Thankfully there are some great guides out there to help make sense of it all.

Bonus resource: Vixsin over at Life in Group 5 has put together a comprehensive resource for Resto Shaman: Resto Cheat Sheet: WoD Leveling and Pre-Raid (T17) Gearing.

Yes, it's designed for Resto Shaman who have different stat priorities, but I found it a very comprehensive guide to gearing, even if it's not quite the right items for Druids. It's worth a read just to understand concepts like Apexis crystals and follower rewards, and for the info on crafted items.

So there you go. Did I miss any resources that you find invaluable? Please let me know!

I'm off gear collecting now. I'm just very happy to be back enjoying the game so much - I hope you are too!