Restoration Druid Pre-Zul’Gurub Gear

This guide is to help you choose and get your gear (Pre-Zul’Gurub) so you are well equipped for Molten Core. The guide is made by Suil of the Argent Dawn server, so all credits go to him.

Each of the gear builds detailed is very viable for MC, but in the end it boils down to personal preference. This is wrote from a 5/0/46 Restoration Druid point of view, so please assume those talents when analysing these builds. I will not state enchantments, purely because they can be put on any of the gear and they are irrelevant as to the items of gear you should get. These builds use only one epic item (Hide of the Wild) and only one item that needs an organised raid (Sandstorm Boots, in a Silithus raid, easy to do). Apart from that, you can get them from pick up groups, although I strongly advise getting an organised group for Dire Maul.

1 Intellect = 15 Mana. All figures cited in brackets are WITHOUT your base mana included, it is only what is added by the item(s). I don’t know how serious an effect your base mana stats make on your overall mana, so please take all statistics as shown without the base mana included.

Build one – Intellect heavy Wildheart

Head- Wildheart Cowl - http://www.thottbot.com/?i=23551
Neck- Tooth of Gnarr - http://www.thottbot.com/?i=20126
Shoulders- Wildheart Spaulders - http://www.thottbot.com/?i=15647
Back- Hide of the Wild - http://www.thottbot.com/?i=36157
Chest- Wildheart Vest - http://www.thottbot.com/?i=19166
Bracers- Wildheart Bracers - http://www.thottbot.com/?i=16915
Hands- Wildheart Gloves - http://www.thottbot.com/?i=18392
Belt- Wildheart Belt - http://www.thottbot.com/?i=10597
Legs- Wildheart Kilt - http://www.thottbot.com/?i=23777
Feet- Wildheart Boots - http://www.thottbot.com/?i=7236
Ring1- Seal of Rivendare - http://www.thottbot.com/?i=14960
Ring2- Seal of Rivendare - http://www.thottbot.com/?i=14960
Trinket1- Royal Seal of Eldre’thas - http://www.thottbot.com/?i=39957
Trinket2- Briarwood Reed - http://www.thottbot.com/?i=19202
Weapon/s- Hammer of the Grand Crusader - http://www.thottbot.com/?i=37263

Number crunch

Strength: 43
Agility: 12
Stamina: 135
Intellect: 210
Spirit: 143
+healing: 159
+damage: 21 Arcane, 14 Nature, +29 extra to all damage
Resistances: 5 Nature, 10 fire.

Analysis

This build is a very good one. It offers a nice and large mana pool (3045) which means you can get a lot of healing down. This is excellent for pre-ZG instances, where your hefty mana pool should keep the raid up and going with little need for breaks. It has a fairly nice spirit stat too, so you should be able to get mana back fairly quickly.

In Molten Core, this build is viable and fairly useful due to it’s high mana pool. Your high mana coupled with the nice spirit stat means your innervate is very effective on yourself, while you can keep yourself topped up with mana pots and runes (http://www.thottbot.com/?i=52046). There is also a fairly good Stamina stat too, so trash mobs shouldn’t be ripping through you.

You should be healing with this gear build by using high-rank healing touches at bosses, and regrowths and healing touches on trash.

Pros:
Nice mana pool
Nice stamina

Cons:

Low mana regen

Build two - Healing Touch Build

Head: Insightful Hood - http://www.thottbot.com/?i=35647
Neck: Animated Chain Necklace - http://www.thottbot.com/?i=37252
Shoulders: Cyclone Spaudlers - http://www.thottbot.com/?i=36021
Back: Hide of the Wild - http://www.thottbot.com/?i=36157
Chest: Chestplate of Tranquility - http://www.thottbot.com/?i=35729
Bracers: Bracers of Prosperity - http://www.thottbot.com/?i=35753
Gloves: Gloves of Restoration - http://www.thottbot.com/?i=35613
Belt: Eyestalk Cord - http://www.thottbot.com/?i=35835
Legs: Padre's Trousers - http://www.thottbot.com/?i=35781
Feet: Waterspout Boots - http://www.thottbot.com/?i=39091
Ring1: Songstone of Ironforge - http://www.thottbot.com/?i=6139
Ring2: Fordring’s Seal - http://www.thottbot.com/?i=18600
Trinket1: Royal Seal of Eldre’thas - http://www.thottbot.com/?i=39957
Trinket2: Briarwood Reed - http://www.thottbot.com/?i=19202
Main hand: The Hammer of Grace - http://www.thottbot.com/?i=4931
Offhand: Brightly Glowing Stone - http://www.thottbot.com/?i=35796

Number crunch

Intellect: 127
Spirit: 45
Stamina: 86
+healing: 502
+spellcrit%: 1
10 Fire resistance
Mana/5secs: 6

Analysis

This build offers a much weaker mana pool (1725). Therefore, in Pre-ZG instances you’re going to get drained very quickly. On molten core trash, you will get drained very quickly too.

However, this build has a huge redeeming feature. At Molten Core boss fights, the +healing becomes a lifesaver. It means you can use a much lower rank healing touch and therefore conserving mana. The maths behind how much mana is conserved in opposition to the mana you would have with the above build is very tricky to do, but in boss fights this one probably only just pips the first to the post, although by a small amount.

You should be healing by using lower rank healing touches, all the time.

Pros:
Very nice +healing at boss fights (good for healing chains)

Cons:
Fairly weak mana pool.
Weaker mana regen in comparison to the first build

Build three – Mana/5sec Build

Head: Clever hat - http://thottbot.com/?i=35653
Neck: Darkmoon Necklace - http://www.thottbot.com/?i=43651
Shoulders: Diabolic Mantle - http://www.thottbot.com/?i=37251
Back: Faded Hakkari Cape - http://www.thottbot.com/?i=51082
Chest: Mindsurge Robe - http://www.thottbot.com/?i=35959
Bracers: Magistrate's cuffs - http://www.thottbot.com/?i=37159
Gloves: Shadowy Laced Handwraps - http://www.thottbot.com/?i=37195
Belt: Whipvine Cord - http://www.thottbot.com/?i=35651
Legs: Padre's Trousers - http://www.thottbot.com/?i=35781
Feet: Sandstorm Boots - http://www.thottbot.com/?i=52052
Ring1: Ring of Demonic Guile - http://www.thottbot.com/?i=35710
Ring2: Ring of Demonic Guile - http://www.thottbot.com/?i=35710
Trinket1: Mindtap Talisman - http://www.thottbot.com/?i=35819
Trinket2: Mindtap Talisman - http://www.thottbot.com/?i=35819
Main hand: Lorespinner - http://www.thottbot.com/?i=35617
Off hand: Milli's Lexicon - http://www.thottbot.com/?i=35739

Number crunch

Intellect: 148
Spirit: 10
Stamina: 66
+healing: 95
Mana/5sec: 101

Analysis

If you’re a Priest, look away now. Most of these items are cloth, although due to the nature of Dire Maul you should be the primary-healer, therefore the only person who wants the healy stuff. If a Priest is with you, please either make sure they’re 100% happy with you rolling on it before hand, or just don’t roll. Disclaimer over

This build is my personal favourite. That’s because of the high mana regen rates. 100 mana every 5 is very nice. Here’s the maths bit, comparing the first build and this one.

The first build has 60 extra intellect than this build. That’s 900 mana. Now, for this mana regen build to be more viable, it has to generate more mana than the first build starts off with.

Let’s say, for arguments sake, the average boss fight lasts 4 minutes. That’s 240 seconds, or 48 “ticks”, when the mana/5sec will restore your mana. Therefore, those 48 ticks, over all, need to generate 900 more mana. 48 (ticks for the boss fight) times by 101 (the mana regen on this set) equals 4848 extra mana (For a 4 minute boss fight). Therefore, this build generates more mana than the first after 9 ticks, or 45 seconds. Considering the higher spirit stat of the first build, this build would become more viable for the amount of mana it has after, let’s say, 2 minutes.

Therefore, this build offers –much- more mana than the first. However, there are a few fundamental problems of it. Because, normally, you wont have other healers backing you up in the pre-ZG instances (if you do, they’ll be stretched), this build isn’t best suited for then (although it is still viable for 5man instances and such).

As a healing tactic, use your healing touches, high ranks.

Pros:
Looking like a pimp
Amazing mana regen (excellent for healing chains and blackwing lair)

Cons:
Looking like a pimp
Average mana pool
Low Armour/Stamina (therefore likely to die lots)

Build Four - Multi-purpose healing build (UNTESTED)

Head: Insightful Hood
Neck: AV honored necklace(Frostwolf advisor's pendant/Stormpike Sage's pendant)
Shoulders: Mantle of the Timbermaw
Back: Hide of the Wild
Chest: Mindsurge Robe
Wrist: Bracers of Prosperity
Hands: Gloves of Restoration
Belt: Whipvine Cord
Legs: Padre's Trousers
Boots: Sandstorm Boots
Rings: 2x Emerald Flame Ring
Trinket 1: Royal Seal of Eldre'Thalas
Trinket 2: Mindtap Talisman
Weapon: Quel'Dorai Channeling Rod

Number Crunch

Stamina: 94
Intellect: 171
Spirit: 38
Healing: +295
Manaregen: 55 mana/5 sec
1% spellcrit

Anaylsis

N/A
Contributed by Sulliwan

Conclusion

I personally have not play-tested out the first and second builds, if anyone has play tested them or similar builds, please post your experiences so I can include them! It’s important I get information on those builds too, to help better guide people.

I personally think that build three is the best, followed by build one then build two. This is purely on paper, I’ve not used the third build enough to say whether it is the –best-, but on paper I believe it is. As you progress through Molten Core (and beyond) you should be getting better and better gear to replace the gear already in the sets.

Some of the figures stated here may not be 100% accurate, although the margin of error is small, therefore I expect that the conclusions drawn for each build are still viable.