Confused about what gear is for resto and which is for balance after the changes to spellpower, spell hit, and spell crit? Guest author Graylo of Gray Matter graces our glen with a guide to gauge the gear guaranteed to gain glory and greatness! 
I thought I was safe. When the new items from Zul’Aman and Heroic Badges were first announced, I plopped them into a spreadsheet to compare against my Primal Mooncloth Set. I breathed a sigh of relief to discover that, even though I’d look the same way I’ve looked for the past 4-6 months, at least I wouldn’t have to dress in jungle chic for the sake of stats. And then I went to Zul’Aman. We killed Halazzi and the [Shimmer-pelt Vest] dropped, an item that I initially discounted as a “downgrade” from my Primal Mooncloth. As the only Druid there, however, I picked it up anyway. After all, it was obviously a direct upgrade over the leather [Stonebough Jerkin] I had sitting in my bank.
After the raid, I decided to revisit the leather items corresponding to my PMC pieces: the tunic, belt, and shoulders. One of the issues I had difficulty with was placing a value on the Primal Mooncloth set bonus. After all, 5% of mana regeneration while casting will scale with your current Spirit. To avoid comparing apples to oranges, I converted this bonus to its MP5 equivalent, using the “mana regenerated while not casting” value you get when you mouseover your Spirit in the character window and multiplying it by 0.05:
Mp5-equivalent Set BonusPMC = (Mana Regen Outside 5SR) * 0.05
For me, this ended up being 227 * 0.05 or 11.35 MP5. Once I’d figured that in, it was a relatively simple matter to discover that my initial assessment of these items was wrong. These new items are a clear upgrade, basically giving me a ton of free Armor and Stamina while retaining roughly equivalent healing stats. I’m not sure how this happened, but I feel abashed about it now.
Because I’d already committed myself to breaking my Primal Mooncloth set (and to becoming a fashion disaster), I pulled the Heroic Badges I had sitting in the bank and purchased the [Gnarled Ironwood Pauldrons] that go with this set. I then flew up to Netherstorm to purchase the Season 3 [Vengeful Gladiator's Kodohide Gloves]. I am considering purchasing the corresponding helmet since I wear the Season 2 helmet right now, but doing so would mean that I’d probably be unable to puchase the Season 3 weapon once Mr. Phae and I start PvPing together again. 150 gold in enchants, gems, and Fel Armaments and one [Cenarion Expedition Tabard] to cover my hideous new tunic and I now look like a Feral. /cry
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I am excited that BRK is back, though!
/cry I love you, ty for everything.
I still think it’s far better than looking like a priest, specially if you’re not rolling a female toon…
I hate my Masquerade Gown =/
I honestly think a druid wearing cloth borders heresy, but it’s just a principle I have, nothing to do with actual stats
I don’t understand why cloth items generally have better healing bonus (well, and other stuff too) than leather.. I haven’t compared tier N stuff but at least until level 70 the difference can be insane. And good thing I didn’t want to become a boomkin; balance gear is even worse.. Maybe they made the armor bonus so they could wear cloth?
You look mahvelous.
(I raid boomkin, and wear Spellstrike set with Lunar Claw Pauldrons and Windhawk Haurberk. Thank god I don’t have to switchheal anymore.)
Nah, you just look like a Druid. (Which, probably means looking a bit on the wacky side, anyway.)
I wish any of the feral shoulders (if there were any /sadpanda) looked that cool!
Glowing Tribal Skulls = Very Druid
The biggest problem with Primal Mooncloth is it’s complete lack of stamina. Stamina is very, very important and having a lot of it is a very good thing. Most fights in TBC have crazy amount of damage going all over the place and all the heal in the world doesn’t mean a thing if you’re dead. I think that raiding got easier as my raids’ gear improved, not because bosses died faster or we could heal for more, but because there’s way more room for error. You can take 2 ticks of this thing that ticks for 4.5k instead of 1, you can get hit by that mob once or twice, you can not have a healthstone/pot and live through some nuke.
Overall, TBC raiding is completely unlike Pre-TBC raiding in this regard. I look back at old screenshots of my MC-Naxx days and am shocked at how everyone besides the tank is hovering around 3-4k, buffed. Really, save a few fights, stam was unimportant for casters/healers in PvE, and in fights it was it wasn’t uncommon to have “stam gear” to put on. In BT and Hyjal if I have under 10k I feel vulnerable. That’s one reason when I hit 70 I opted out (AKA WAS REALLY LAZY AND DIDN’T WANT TO SPEND MONEY ON ONE MILLION PIECES OF CLOTH) of leveling tailoring and just lived with T4, T5 and offset gear, cloth or leather.
I think you could have easily legitimized a loss in healing stats for more stamina some time ago if you wanted to get rid of it.
Also I wish the ZA healing gear would drop, I want it to wear while I AFK in ironforge so I could show off how awesome I’d look.
I think you still look stylish. It’s better than my Paladin’s look any day!
Ha, funny. I wear my Cenarian tabard to cover my T4 feral chest; it’s really not very attractive at all. Gotta say, though, your shoulders are very attractive =)
I’ve had the reverse problem.
I purchased the S3 Feral legs + chest only to discover that they are now using a dress for the Arena gear legs. I now get mistaken for a resto druid in Shat
Nalorakk in Zul’Aman dropped the [Robes of Heavenly Purpose] and there was no priest in sight so I got it. I wear it instead of the [Gnarled Chestpiece of the Ancients] Morogrim had for me the other day for only a simple reason. It looks better.
Well think of it that way…
At least you are not a tauren. Everything looks ugly in a tauren. The only acceptable head piece I have found so far is the T4 one, which actually looks pretty cool unlike the ZA healing leather piece which is just ooooogleeee and the T5 one which is too small to be even noticed on a male tauren and actually looks kind of gay too :p . The ZA shoulder piece on the other hand is actually quite cool with the glowing skulls.
I also hope to soon get the vengeful chest(I don’t see Halazzi any time soon for us) and get rid of that damn robe. But then I ll have a pair of ugly feet/legs to hide…
Sadly, I think Stormrage was the height of druid loveliness, so it’s all downhill from there anyway :<
@minkee:
I actually put all my Stormrage on again the other day before tearfully vendoring it all. There just is not enough bank space for ~18 sets of gear! QQ
@Stormclaw: kilts are very druidic! I’d love to have a T6-like one.
@Minkee Tier 3 was so much better looking than stormrage, but i have to agree that stormrage was pretty awsome.
I so wish that chest would drop off linx boss for my guilds raids. So far we have gotten the elemental leggings and rogue shoulders off him, and of course the life-step belt continues to illude me. Perhaps one of them will drop this week. ^_^
I think you look pretty good Phae. In a dress or not we are still trees! *starts doing the twist*
Whatever you do, if you plan on getting S3 Honor Boots.. make sure you have the S3 Arena Legs first.. those boots are teh suck!
@Hokuto: I actually LOVE the look of the Masquerade gown. I plan on picking one up if I ever can (assuming no one else needs it). But I can see how it might be less delightful on a male model.
@Ermengol: I’ve worn a LOT of cloth in my day. Right now I’m still wearing cloth bracers and my Mooncloth belt. Leather is a luxury that’s often not available to a healer (although I agree that it’s completely unacceptable to wear cloth items for PvP). But then again, I LIKE wearing dresses… er… robes. I feel like the Priests get some of the best-looking armor in the game. I just wish more of it weren’t class-restricted! I’m sure they’re glad that it is, though … haha.
@Urthona: LOL … well thank you. I’m glad that not everyone thinks it’s as completely hideous as I initially did (it’s grown on me since I discovered I could hide my tunic with a tabard). That getup of yours does sound … interesting. At least no one can see your outfit in Boomkin form!
@Kaera: I wish I’d known I was signing up for the ugly stepchild of WoW when I rolled Phae. Priests and Warlocks generally get some pretty amazing looking armor. Priests get halos and WINGS for goodness’ sake. And chains! I really hope that they do the same thing with the next expansion and recolor the Tiered class sets and make them available to everyone. I actually loved the design of PMC, and I think it was a revisit of the Priest Tier 2 armor.
@Aiuriun: I think that skulls and bones don’t really fit very well with the Druid motif. That’s why I strongly dislike our Tier 6/Season 3 aesthetics and think the armor would have been more appropriate for Shamans. Maybe that design was in direct response to the fearsome ferals complaining about the pretty pink flowers on their shoulders.
@Magna: At the level where you’re likely to be wearing PMC, I don’t think Stamina is particularly important, although I have to laugh when I see healers come into Battlegrounds with it on. And then I scowl, because I know they’re going to get killed over and over and cause us to lose reinforcements! By the time you’re starting SSC, though, you may in fact want to consider other options which do give you greater survivability.
@Athryn: That … is not saying much.
@Kai: I think the Cenarion Tabard makes me look even more Feral than I would otherwise since most Ferals pursue Exalted with CE for the Earthcaller. I just hope I don’t end up with a skirt/kilt because those look lousy with tabards.
@Stormclaw: LOL … I really think they ought to have left the Feral Season 2 legs as pants and only changed the Restoration and Balance. Then done the same for Tier 5. Of course, that WOULD definitely clue your opponents into your spec (as if the Mangle to the back of the head hadn’t already).
@Dimitris: I do feel sorry for Taurens. Until they Warstomp me. I actually think that male Taurens can look very majestic and noble (albeit not in ZA gear ^_^). Female Taurens can look cute, depending on the coloring they chose.
@Minkee: Stormrage was quite beautiful, though I think I prefer the royal blue and gold recoloring done for BC.
@Adarel: I think I agree with you that Genesis was our best-looking pre-BC set (for BC, I think that honor goes to Tier 5). I don’t think I ever actually saw someone WEARING it, though. Maybe we’ll see a recolor of it some time down the line.
@Zackoria: Luckily the Lynx boss is one of the easier ones. If ZA ends up being anything like ZG was, you’ll eventually see that tunic drop a meeeeeeeelllllllion times. I would like to nab the Life-Step Belt – does it look like the other ZA stuff? I noticed that the badges belt looks like the Season 2 belt which totally does not match.
@Megan: O rly? I haven’t seen them. But I will definitely do that on your recommendation!
@Phae
Possible….but the problem there is that they gave boomkins and trees the new shoulders and still left the ferals scratching at the regular tier gear.
/agree on the S3 look though…I thought totems were supposed to be a Shaman thing
Oh, Genesis was UGLY. I had 3 pieces of it. The pattern itself was some fairly nondescript bug guts looking stuff like everything that came out of AQ, but ours was peach and blue glowy eyes at the top, and red and green at the bottom. *shudder*.