Shifting Perspectives: Gearing a restoration druid at 85, part 3
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Shifting Perspectives for cat, bear, restoration and balance druids. This week, we finish our series on how to gear a restoration druid at level 85.
Hello, folks. This week, we're going to finish our series on gearing a resto at level 85, and next week, we're going to change course and address bears with a Cataclysm 101 guide and then gear post. For the kitties out there, Dan O'Halloran will be splitting off a cat-oriented Shifting soon, so we'll eventually have three Shifting articles per week -- one for bears/resto, one for cats, and one for moonkin. I'm so rarely DPS these days that it's a bit of a relief to focus on the two specs that get my play time, so I hope I'll be able to bring a bit more depth to bears and resto in the Tuesday Shifting column.
On that note, the low-level Tank Watch project continues. I regret to say the numbers are slightly more depressing than last week if you'd been hoping that the bear population would rebound this expansion. So far, this is the tank representation I've seen in dungeon finder groups between levels 15 and 40:
Paladin: 66%
Warrior: 23%
Druid: 11%
Trinkets
Trinkets are extraordinarily difficult to rank, and I'm not even going to try. If you want or need more mana regeneration, you will should value efficiency over output trinkets, so use your best judgment. You'll probably want to swap trinkets in and out for different fights anyway, so it pays to pick up a variety if you can. Consequently, I'm just going to list trinkets by ilevel here.
Fall of Mortality (heroic) Expect every healer in the raid to be after this. Boy howdy, am I ever glad to be plunged back into the "everyone in the raid wants it and nothing anywhere near as good drops elsewhere" situation. Dropped by heroic Cho'gall in the Bastion of Twilight.
Shard of Woe (heroic) An updated version of the Spark of Hope from Ulduar-10 and likely to be another high-demand trinket with good reason. It doesn't have a normal version, which means it's almost certainly a Sinestra (who's a heroic only boss) drop. As Hamlet on EJ observes, don't pass this up if it comes your way.
Jar of Ancient Remedies (heroic) How you manage the /use effect on this one is a question I expect is settled on a per-fight basis. Quite an interesting trinket. Dropped by heroic Maloriak in Blackwing Descent.
Vicious Gladiator's Emblem of Meditation Dropped by Argaloth in Baradin Hold. The /use effect isn't really intended for PvE purposes, but I guess you could always burn it in hairy moments on fights.
Vicious Gladiator's Medallion of Resolution (Alliance) or Vicious Gladiator's Medallion of Meditation (Horde) Occasionally dropped by Argaloth in Baradin Hold, or available from Conquest quartermasters.
Core of Ripeness Available for 1,650 valor points.
Darkmoon Card: Tsunami A reward from the Darkmoon Tsunami Deck made by scribes.
Fall of Mortality The normal version of the trinket above, dropped by normal Cho'gall in the Bastion of Twilight.
Jar of Ancient Remedies The normal version of the trinket above, dropped by normal Maloriak in Blackwing Descent.
Tyrande's Favorite Doll This is another interesting one. It's an epic trinket available from archaeology (suffice it to say you'll be putting dozens of night elf artifacts together before this shows up), and the /use effect is once per minute.
Mandala of Stirring Patterns (Alliance) or Mandala of Stirring Patterns (Horde) Available at exalted with Baradin's Wardens or Hellscream's Reach, respectively. A lackluster trinket unless you're a tank healer.
Soul Casket Available for 1,650 conquest points. Again, not great for us given that mastery's a poor stat overall.
Lifebound Alchemist Stone I'm not sure why Blizzard didn't make additional versions of this trinket, but eh. I've listed it here simply because of its effect on mana potions.
Figurine -- Dream Owl Available only to jewelcrafters, but a pretty decent regen trinket.
Figurine -- Jeweled Serpent As above, but a throughput trinket.
Tear of Blood (heroic) Dropped by High Priestess Azil in heroic Stonecore.
Witching Hourglass (heroic) This is really more oriented toward a caster DPS or shaman/paladin healer than us, but you'll still get some use from it. The haste proc should also be sufficient to add another tick to your HoTs. Dropped by Ascendant Lord Obsidius in heroic Blackrock Caverns.
Gale of Shadows (heroic) Have fun rolling against every caster in the group for this one. More or less an updated version of Illustration of the Dragon Soul with a passive haste boost. Drops from Erudax in heroic Grim Batol.
Rainsong (heroic) In essence, a retooled version of the Witching Hourglass with passive spirit instead of passive intellect. A BoE zone drop from heroic Vortex Pinnacle, or it would be if the zone drops weren't a bit buggy at the moment.
Sea Star (heroic) Dropped by Neptulon's Cache in heroic Throne of the Tides.
Blood of Isiset (heroic) I really wish the passive bonus on this weren't mastery, but the proc is nice. Dropped by Isiset in heroic Halls of Origination.
Tendrils of Burrowing Dark (heroic) Dropped by Ozruk in heroic Stonecore, but it's really more of a DPS trinket.
Gale of Shadows The normal version of the trinket above, dropped by Erudax in normal Grim Batol.
Blood of Isiset The normal version of the trinket above, dropped by Isiset in normal Halls of Origination.
Talisman of Sinister Order Quest reward from Firing Squad in Uldum.
World-Queller Focus Quest reward from Once More Into the Fire in the Twilight Highlands. There doesn't seem to be a Horde version.
Tear of Blood The normal version of the trinket above, dropped by High Priestess Azil in normal Stonecore.
Electrospark Heartstarter A BoE world drop from higher-level Cataclysm zones and dungeons.
Rainsong The normal version of the above trinket. A BoE zone drop from normal Vortex Pinnacle.
Tendrils of Burrowing Dark The normal version of the above trinket. Dropped by Ozruk in normal Stonecore.
Witching Hourglass The normal version of the above trinket. Dropped by Ascendant Lord Obsidius in normal Blackrock Caverns.
Sea Star The normal version of the above trinket. Dropped from Neptulon's Cache in normal Throne of the Tides.
Stonemother's Kiss Quest reward from Audience with the Stonemother in Deepholm. Crit isn't one of our stronger stats, so you'd really be here for the passive intellect.
Insignia of the Earthen Lord Quest reward from A Rock Amongst Many in Deepholm.
Bottled Lightning A BoE world drop from the lower-level Cataclysm zones and dungeons.
Lady La-La's Singing Shell A BoE world drop from the lower-level Cataclysm zones and dungeons.
Unquenchable Flame A BoE world drop from the lower-level Cataclysm zones and dungeons. What's up with all the caster trinkets as world drops?
Mindfletcher Talisman Quest reward from Hyjal Recycling Program in (where else?) Mount Hyjal.
Pelagic Prism (Alliance) or Pelagic Prism (Horde) Quest reward from Swift Action in Vashj'ir (Alliance) or Swift Action in Vashj'ir (Horde).
Page two: Weapons, offhands, and relics >>
