In this article I am going to talk about Gearing, Reforging and Stat priority for Restoration Druids in Season 9.

PvP Gearing

The reason why PvP gear is better than PvE in arenas, battlegrounds and duels is because it has got more stamina and one unique stat of great importance – resilience.

Resilience

Provides x% damage reduction against all damage done by players and their pets or minions.

I have currently got 3000 resilience on my druid and it reduces damage taken by 31.50%! That is going to improve your survivability dramatically! I also want to note that I’m still using full blue gear.

Resilience is not hard to obtain – you can start with the blue PvP set for Restoration Druids:

[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]

As far as offset items are concerned, buy the Meditation ones, such as:

[Bloodthirsty Gladiator's Belt of Meditation]

After buying the [Vicious Gladiator's Gavel] and [Vicious Gladiator's Reprieve]  you should start spending your Conquest Points on Vicious Gladiator’s Kodohide set and offset pieces. They are the best pieces of equipment you can get for PvP this season.

There’s a little trick though! Instead of buying [Vicious Gladiator's Kodohide Helm] which is the resto one, you should take the boomkin headpiece – [Vicious Gladiator's Wyrmhide Helm]. In case you’re wondering why, it’s because Kodohide increases mastery by 181 and gives no spirit, while the Wyrmhide one gives 181 haste and has the same stats. This way you’ll be able to get the better stat(haste) whilst having the (4) set bonus from the Vicious Gladiator’s Kodohide(resto) set. Later in this article I am going to talk about Stat priority, but for now, lets move on with the next pieces of gear you’ll be needing.

• [Vicious Gladiator's Kodohide Gloves]

• [Vicious Gladiator's Kodohide Spaulders]

• [Vicious Gladiator's Kodohide Legguards]

• [Vicious Gladiator's Kodohide Robes]

That’s it for the set pieces. Just like with the Bloodthirsty Kodohide offset pieces, the Vicious ones are the same – buy those with Meditation in their name, such as:

• [Vicious Gladiator's Footguards of Meditation]

Rings & Trinkets

Rings:

The best PvP ring for us is the [Vicious Gladiator's Band of Dominance].

Unfortunately, there isn’t a second Vicious ring with spirit and we cannot buy the [Vicious Gladiator's Band of Dominance] for a second time because it’s an Unique item.

You’ve got 2 choices:

1. Buy the [Vicious Gladiator's Band of Cruelty] and reforge critical strike into Spirit.
2. Play PvE and get a ring with a lot of Int+Spirit.

Trinkets:

I recommend you to get both trinkets with resilience. This way you’ll be having ~3500 resilience when you’re fully geared. This will allow you to play offensively, survive swaps and even get a PvE ring.

• [Vicious Gladiator's Medallion of Tenacity]

• [Vicious Gladiator's Emblem of Tenacity] – You can replace this with a PvE trinket with a lot of intellect and spirit, such as [Core of Ripeness]

However, the difference won’t be dramatic, and if you aren’t willing to spend many days playing boring PvE, just go with the [Vicious Gladiator's Emblem of Tenacity]. However, if you go with the Emblem of Tenacity, make sure to have 2 points in [talent]Revitalize[/item] because you might run out of mana in longer games otherwise.

Stat priority in Season 9

I’ll keep it brief and easy to understand:

• The formula for stat priority is:
• Intellect > Spirit > Haste > Mastery > Critical

This formula indicates that the best stat for us is Intellect, the second best is Spirit, and so on.

Note: I am not implying that you do not need resilience.  As mentioned above, it is a crucial stat for your survivability.  I personally do not believe it is necessary to Gem for extra resilience, as the base gear offers ~3500.  However, other druids prefer to.  It’s personal preference, but I like to gem for more Intellect and Spirit over extra Resilience.

Reforging

In order to make the gear we possess even stronger, we can reforge 40% of a secondary stat (such as critical strike, dodge, haste, hit or parry rating) or spirit to be exchanged for another secondary stat or spirit, and reforging is handled by NPCs known as Arcane Reforgers located in the major cities, usually really close to Enchanting Profession trainers.

However, you cannot reforge Agility, Intellect, Stamina, Strength, Resilience, Attack Power.

For example, [Vicious Gladiator's Kodohide Legguards] has got critical strike rating. And Spirit > Critical for Resto Druids, therefore you should reforge as much critical as possible into Spirit. After reforging you’ll be having 80 bonus Spirit!

That’s it! If you have any questions, feel free to ask them! Good Luck & see you in arena!