Restoration Druid Stat Weights and Gearing
Updated 3 weeks, 2 days ago for patch 10.0 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 in Dragonflight. 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 to focus on Haste, then Mastery, while keeping stats below the 30% diminishing returns mark. Versatility slightly outpaces Critical Strike for the added survivability.
- Intellect
- Haste (to ~30%)
- Mastery (to ~30%)
- Critical Strike > Versatility (with Lost Landcaller's Vesture)
- Versatility > Critical Strike (without Lost Landcaller's Vesture)
- Mastery (over 30%)
- Haste (over 30%)
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.
- Avoid going too far over 30% in any stat to avoid diminishing returns, detailed below.
- Leech is worth about 5 item levels and sockets are worth about 10 item levels when comparing gear.
Mythic+
Mythic+ builds focus on Haste, then Versatility, while keeping stats below the 30% diminishing returns mark. From there, you'll want Mastery if you want more healing, or Critical Strike if you want more damage.
- Intellect
- Haste (to ~30%)
- Versatility (to ~30%)
- Critical Strike (with Lost Landcaller's Vesture)
- Mastery (healing) = Critical Strike (damage) (without Lost Landcaller's Vesture)
- Versatility (over 30%)
- Haste (over 30%)
General Mythic+ Gearing Notes
- Always use your highest item level gear while favoring Mastery and Haste for healing, or Haste and Versatility for damage. Use enchants, gems, and consumables to help boost your chosen secondary stats further.
- Avoid going too far over 30% in any stat to avoid diminishing returns, detailed below.
- Sockets are worth about 10 item levels when comparing gear.
Stat Explanations
Primary Stat
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. You'll want intellect on all of your gear, with the possible exceptions of neck, fingers, and trinkets.
Secondary Stats
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 damaging 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 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 player. 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 done and decreases all damage taken by a flat percentage. A less potent throughput increase than Mastery, but with the added benefit of more personal survivability.
Tertiary Stats and Sockets
Tertiary stats have a chance to randomly appear on any piece of gear.
Leech causes all healing and damage you do to heal you for a percentage of the healing or damage done, this includes from healing over time effects.
Speed increases your movement speed.
Indestructible prevents the piece of gear from losing durability.
Prismatic Sockets can have gems put in them, increasing a secondary state depending on the type of gem. More details on gems can be found on the consumables page.
Diminishing Returns on Secondary Stats
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
For the most part, item level is the primary indicator of whether or not a piece of gear is better or worse than another. With some exceptions for trinkets and gear with special effects, you should always use your highest item level gear, even if it's not on the lists below.
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