This article will be covering what gear you should be aiming to obtain as a restoration druid before entering competitive arena or battlegrounds. It is really important to make sure you have some sort of gear setup with a reasonable amount of resilience otherwise it will not matter how well you play as people will just plain “out-gear” you.

The Gear

Crafted Gear

Ideally you won’t want to be using much of the crafted gear as the only piece that has spirit are the pants. At this point in time leatherworking can only create the “wyrmhide” gear for leather casters which is the moonkin set. Click the links to the items to see the materials required rather than having me flood the page.

The following is the crafted gear that you can purchase or create (if you are a leatherworker).

Armor

[Bloodied Wyrmhide Helm]

[Bloodied Wyrmhide Shoulders]

[Bloodied Wyrmhide Chest]

[Bloodied Wyrmhide Belt]

[Bloodied Wyrmhide Legs]

[Bloodied Wyrmhide Boots]

[Bloodied Wyrmhide Gloves]

[Bloodied Wyrmhide Bracers]

There are some crafted weapons and offhands but I’d highly recommend trying your luck out in dungeons as they are much easier and cheaper to obtain. For the sake of completion they are listed below.

Weapons

[Elementium Hammer]

[Battle Tome]

That covers the crafted items for the part, except for maybe some rings or necks, but those are not really arena focused either.

So what do I do with my honor then?

First off I’d recommend getting the pvp trinket, [Bloodthirsty Gladiator's Medallion of Tenacity], as it has a ton of resilience. Another comparable one is the spirit version, [Bloodthirsty Gladiator's Medallion of Meditation]. I would not recommend getting the spirit one first, though, as resilience is really hard to obtain at the beginning of the season.

The next step would be to try and get the main armor pieces as in the ones with set bonuses. The set bonuses are really good as they are essentially “free” stats.

[Bloodthirsty Gladiator's Kodohide Gloves]

[Bloodthirsty Gladiator's Kodohide Helm]

[Bloodthirsty Gladiator's Kodohide Legguards]

[Bloodthirsty Gladiator's Kodohide Robes]

[Bloodthirsty Gladiator's Kodohide Spaulders]

What I would do is farm honor for the main sets and possibly purchase the crafted off pieces to have a really good starting gear setup. There is no real order in which you purchase the main pieces, it is more a process of upgrading what you currently have. Once you have all the main pieces you can selectively start replacing the off pieces as well.

Accessories

The neck and rings you should buy with honor:

[Bloodthirsty Gladiator's Band of Dominance]

[Bloodthirsty Gladiator's Band of Cruelty]

[Bloodthirsty Gladiator's Pendant of Meditation]

Dungeon items and Reputation

To have a really good gear setup you will eventually have to enter the dreaded 5 man heroics while wearing a tabard for full efficiency.

Reputation

First thing you want to consider before you start doing 5-man’s is what reputation you will be farming. As far as I know Tol-barad does not have enchants out as of yet so the enchants come from Therazane reputation (honored/exalted [Lesser Inscription of Charged Lodestone] and [Greater Inscription of Charged Lodestone]) and Hyjal rep (revered [Arcanum of Hyjal]). These would be my first priorities. As far as items go the Wildhammer reputation offers an epic leather belt that could be worth using if you are planning to do dungeons anyways [Belt of the Untamed].

Items

Instead of linking a billion items I’d much rather just tell you what stats to look for. Intellect, spirit, and haste are the most important ones. The other stats, such as mastery, are not nearly as good as some people think they are and should just be looked at as a bonus stat to be reforged.

The main things you are going to be looking for while doing dungeons are trinkets and weapons.

Mainhands

[Scepter of Power] from Halls of Origination(H) Setesh

[Torturer's Mercy] from Blackrock Caverns(H) Rom’ogg Bonecrusher

Offhands

[Apple-Bent Bough] 950 Justice points in your main city.

[Prophet's Scepter] from High Priestess Azil in Stonecore(H)

[Bioluminescent Lamp] from Neptulon’s Cache in Throne of the Tides(H)

Some good starting trinkets(to wear along with your pvp trinket)

[Darkmoon Card: Tsunami] from Inscription, it is BoE

[Corrupted Egg Shell] from Grim Batol(H)

[Sea Star] from Throne of the Tides(H)

[Tear of Blood] from Stonecore(H)

[Rainsong] from Vortex Pinnacle(H) Trash

Last but not least… Enchants and Gems

Gloves – [Enchant Gloves - Haste]

Belt – [Ebonsteel Belt Buckle]

Boots – [Enchant Boots - Lavawalker]

Helm – [Arcanum of Hyjal]

Pants – [Powerful Ghostly Spellthread]

Chest – [Enchant Chest - Mighty Resilience]

Bracers – [Enchant Bracer - Exceptional Spirit]

Shoulders – [Greater Inscription of Charged Lodestone]

Off hand – [Enchant Off-Hand - Superior Intellect]

Cloak – [Enchant Cloak - Greater Spell Piercing] – As far as I know you can still get resists without spell pen on your spells.

Switch this to [Enchant Cloak - Greater Intellect] once you get the Spell penetration honor cape.

Gems

[Ember Shadowspirit Diamond] is the meta you want to get. Another one to consider is [Forlorn Shadowspirit Diamond]. For gems you want to meet your meta requirements first and foremost. By order of importance: [Brilliant Inferno Ruby] [Mystic Amberjewel] [Purified Demonseye] [Timeless Demonseye]

That’s all

If you happen to get everything this guide suggests you should have a very good standing in arena, or at least equal. Ideally in the end you will have all the conquest point gear but this guide is to help you get to that point. Have fun!