
Restoration Druid Stat Weights and Gearing
Updated 4 weeks ago for patch 9.2 by Preston. View the change log.
This page covers the stats that are relevant for a Restoration Druid and what kind of things you should look for when gearing up. As a general rule, it’s almost always better to go with the higher item level piece of gear. Feedback is always welcome. You can leave a comment at the bottom of the page, contact me, or tweet @PrestonDvorak.
Stat Priority and Weights
The priorities below correspond to the different builds on the Talents and Builds page. Where are the stat weights? Now, more than ever, generalized stat weights are unnecessary. Item level is really the sole indicator of an upgrade outside of some niche situations with trinkets or special gear introduced with an expansion. Both of which will be noted in the best in slot lists below.
Raiding
Raiding builds like a balance of secondary stats with a slight favor towards Haste, especially until you get your GCD to around 1.25 seconds (or whatever you feel is speedy enough for you, it's not a hard requirement).
- Intellect
- Haste (to ~20%)
- Critical Strike = Versatility = Mastery
- Haste (over ~20%)
General Raid Gearing Notes
- Always use your highest item level gear, even if it doesn't strictly adhere to the priorities above. Use enchants, gems, and consumables to help balance our secondary stats or reach your Haste goal.
- Leech is worth about 5 item levels and sockets are worth about 10 item levels when comparing gear.
Mythic+
The Mythic+ priority will favor Mastery slightly over other secondary stats, but you should still use your highest item level gear.
- Intellect
- Mastery = Haste >= Versatility = Critical Strike
General Mythic+ Gearing Notes
- Always use your highest item level gear while favoring Mastery and Haste. Use enchants, gems, and consumables to help boost your Mastery further where possible.
- Sockets are worth about 10 item levels when comparing gear.
Stat Explanations
Intellect increases the power of all your spells. This includes how much healing your spells heal for and how much damage your damaging spells do.
Haste decreases the cast time of your spells, increases how frequently your heal over time effects heal, and decreases your global cooldown. Your global cooldown affects how quickly you can cast spells that have no cast time, such as Rejuvenation. Getting a low global cooldown is essential as a Restoration Druid because our main healing spell does not have a cast time.
Critical Strike increases the chance of both your healing and damage spells being critical strikes. A critical heal will heal for twice as much as a non-critical heal, this includes heals from healing over time effects. This equates to free healing, but you can't reliably control when it happens.
Mastery increases the amount your heal over time effects heal for based on the total heal over time effects you have on the target. For example, if your mastery is 10% and you have one heal over time effect on a player, that heal over time will be healing for 10% more. If you have two heal over time effects on a player they will both be healing for 20% more. There is no cap on this effect, so the more heal over time effects that are active the more powerful it will be.
Versatility increases all healing and damage you do by a flat percentage. It also decreases all damage you take. This is similar to our Mastery, but without the chance to multiply with more healing effects on a target.
Diminishing Returns on Secondary Stats
Starting in Shadowlands, secondary stat gains suffer diminishing returns starting at 30% rating. Due to this, I don't recommend having over 30% rating for any secondary stat, if you can reasonably help it. This is further reinforced by the fact Restoration Druids like more balanced stats anyway.
You can see the secondary stat diminishing return effects below.
- From 0% to 30% rating - 0% penalty
- From 30% to 39% rating - 10% penalty
- From 39% to 47% rating - 20% penalty
- From 47% to 54% rating - 30% penalty
- From 54% to 66% rating - 40% penalty
- From 66% to 126% rating - 50% penalty
Best in Slot Lists
With the removal of titanforging mechanics, and the overall streamlining of gear, item level should once again be the primary indicator of an upgrade. This will make Best in Slot lists slightly more useful than in previous expansions, however, there will still be situations that stray from this list. Always use your best judgement when picking gear!
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