Restoration Druid Healing Gear and Best in Slot — 12.0.5

A strict Best-in-Slot list is not really possible due to how stats work for Restoration Druids. Secondary stats are extremely close to each other (excluding Crit, which is very bad in raids), with Intellect increasing the most with item level. The optimal gearing strategy, in this case, would be to equip the highest item-level pieces whenever possible, excluding trinkets and tier, preferring items with Haste and Mastery.

Upgrading gear in Midnight continues to use the Crest system which lets you increase the item level of gear along tracks that relate to where you obtained the item, which harder content dropping gear that can be upgraded to higher Item Levels. For more information, read up on our dedicated page on how the gearing system works and what has changed in the Midnight expansion.

OverallMythic+Raid

This list contains your theoretical best-in-slot gear from all content in the game including raids, dungeons, and more. Best-in-slot lists are useful for finding pieces to aim for, but use QE Live in order to determine which of your items to actually equip.

In addition to the below list, you will equip two crafted items with special "Embellishment" effects on them. Which Embellishments you wear and which crafted pieces you'll put them on depends how geared you are, so we will cover this in-depth in the Crafted section below instead of including them in the list itself (where they could be confusing).

FAQWhich Tier Set Pieces Do I Want?

For Midnight Season 1 as a Restoration Druid, you will want to try and prioritize getting the Helmet, Shoulder, Legs, and Gloves set pieces. There is a similar setup that uses the special Leech helm Mask of Darkest Intent and the Chest tier piece instead. This is slightly worse and more difficult to put together. Your #1 priority is to just equip four pieces of tier.

Restoration Druid

1.1.

Overall Best in Slot

Branches of the Luminous Bloom Helm

Lightblinded Vanguard Empowered Hex of Leeching

Arbortenders of the Luminous Bloom Hands

Catalyst or Vorasius

Amulet of the Abyssal Hymn Neck

Midnight Falls

Scorn-Scarred Shul'ka's Belt Waist

Chimaerus

Seedpods of the Luminous Bloom Shoulders

Fallen-King Salhadaar Silvermoon's Mending

Phloemwraps of the Luminous Bloom Legs

Catalyst or Vaelgor and Ezzorak Arcanoweave Spellthread

Draconic Nullcape Cloak

Vaelgor and Ezzorak

Rootslippers of the Luminous Bloom Feet

Catalyst Shaladrassil's Roots

Maledict Vest Chest

Catalyst or Nexus-Point Xenas Mark of the Worldsoul

Eye of Midnight Ring

Midnight Falls Silvermoon's Alacrity

Shirt

Omission of Light Ring

Nexus-Point Xenas Silvermoon's Alacrity

Tabard

Locus-Walker's Ribbon Trinket

Crown of the Cosmos

Bindings of the Luminous Bloom Bracers

Catalyst

Gaze of the Alnseer Trinket

Chimaerus

Belo'melorn, the Shattered Talon Main Hand

Belo'ren Acuity of the Ren'dorei

Tome of Alnscorned Regret Off Hand

Chimaerus

This list contains your theoretical best-in-slot gear from dungeon content only. Best-in-slot lists are useful for finding pieces to aim for, but use QE Live in order to determine which of your items to actually equip.

In addition to the below list, you will equip two crafted items with special "Embellishment" effects on them. Which Embellishments you wear and which crafted pieces you'll put them on depends how geared you are, so we will cover this in-depth in the Crafted section below instead of including them in the list itself (where they could be confusing).

TipsWhich Dungeons Should I Farm?

If you have limited time to play the game, we recommend to farm the following dungeons:

• Nexus-Point Xenas: Your best-in-slot Chest drops here.
• Windrunner Spire: A great trinket drops here ( Heart of Wind).
• Algeth'ar Academy: Multiple above-average drops like Final Grade and Emerald Coach's Whistle

Restoration Druid

1.2.

Best Mythic+ Gear

Branches of the Luminous Bloom Helm

Lightblinded Vanguard Empowered Hex of Leeching

Arbortenders of the Luminous Bloom Hands

Catalyst or Vorasius

Pendant of Aching Grief Neck

Windrunner Spire

Falconer's Cinch Waist

Maisara Caverns

Seedpods of the Luminous Bloom Shoulders

Fallen-King Salhadaar Silvermoon's Mending

Phloemwraps of the Luminous Bloom Legs

Catalyst or Vaelgor and Ezzorak Arcanoweave Spellthread

Potion-Stained Cloak Cloak

Algeth'ar Academy

Eclipse Espadrilles Feet

Nexus-Point Xenas Shaladrassil's Roots

Maledict Vest Chest

Catalyst or Nexus-Point Xenas Mark of the Worldsoul

Omission of Light Ring

Nexus-Point Xenas Silvermoon's Alacrity

Shirt

Bifurcation Band Ring

Magister's Terrace Silvermoon's Alacrity

Tabard

Emerald Coach's Whistle Trinket

Algeth'ar Academy

Frenzyroot Cuffs Bracers

Algeth'ar Academy

Heart of Wind Trinket

Windrunner Spire

Final Grade Main Hand

Algeth'ar Academy Acuity of the Ren'dorei

Off Hand

This list contains your theoretical best-in-slot gear from raid content only. Best-in-slot lists are useful for finding pieces to aim for, but use QE Live in order to determine which of your items to actually equip.

In addition to the below list, you will equip two crafted items with special "Embellishment" effects on them. Which Embellishments you wear and which crafted pieces you'll put them on depends how geared you are, so we will cover this in-depth in the Crafted section below instead of including them in the list itself (where they could be confusing).

Restoration Druid

1.3.

Best Raid Gear

Branches of the Luminous Bloom Helm

Lightblinded Vanguard Empowered Hex of Leeching

Arbortenders of the Luminous Bloom Hands

Catalyst or Vorasius

Amulet of the Abyssal Hymn Neck

Midnight Falls

Scorn-Scarred Shul'ka's Belt Waist

Chimaerus

Seedpods of the Luminous Bloom Shoulders

Fallen-King Salhadaar Silvermoon's Mending

Phloemwraps of the Luminous Bloom Legs

Catalyst or Vaelgor and Ezzorak Arcanoweave Spellthread

Draconic Nullcape Cloak

Vaelgor and Ezzorak

Rootslippers of the Luminous Bloom Feet

Catalyst Shaladrassil's Roots

Trunk of the Luminous Bloom Chest

Catalyst or Chimaerus Mark of the Worldsoul

Eye of Midnight Ring

Midnight Falls Silvermoon's Alacrity

Shirt

Bond of Light Ring

Lightblinded Vanguard Silvermoon's Alacrity

Tabard

Locus-Walker's Ribbon Trinket

Crown of the Cosmos

Bindings of the Luminous Bloom Bracers

Catalyst

Gaze of the Alnseer Trinket

Chimaerus

Belo'melorn, the Shattered Talon Main Hand

Belo'ren Acuity of the Ren'dorei

Tome of Alnscorned Regret Off Hand

Chimaerus

Itemization

Enchants and Stat Priority

Looking to optimize your character? Check out our Enchant and Stat Priority guides for more information!

EnchantsStats

Restoration Druid BiS Trinkets

Best-in-Slot - Gaze of the Alnseer and Locus-Walker's Ribbon.
Honorable Mention - Vaelgor's Final Stare.

For direct trinket comparison, use QELive. We will list a few special trinkets here with comments on their power level.

Restoration Druid Trinket Rankings

Ranking	Trinket
S Tier	Gaze of the Alnseer Locus-Walker's Ribbon
A Tier	Vaelgor's Final Stare Volatile Void Suffuser Heart of Wind Emerald Coach's Whistle Glorious Crusader's Keepsake Litany of Lightblind Wrath
B Tier	Emberwing Feather Crucible of Erratic Energies Light of the Cosmic Crescendo
C Tier	Seed of Radiant Hope Vessel of Tortured Souls
D Tier	Whisper of the Duskwraith Mycolic Medicine Cosmic Bell
F Tier	Magister's Alchemist Stone

In general, there are quite a few trinkets on a similar power level. Any of the trinkets in A tier will be roughly equal to each other, while trinkets in S tier will be only slightly ahead. This means that item level on trinkets is quite important. F-tier trinkets are there because they are only better than an empty trinket slot.

Midnight's patch 12.0.5 introduces two new systems to help you gear up:

• Nebulous Voidcore can be used to acquire specific items from specific bosses or dungeons, by letting you gain a guaranteed piece of loot from a specific drop-location. Which item you will receive is random, but once an item has been acquired in this way, your next use of a Voidcore will grant one of the remaining items you haven't yet acquired.
• Ascendant Voidcore can be used to further increase the item level of Hero or Myth track weapons & trinkets if they have reached the highest possible item level already, as well as Radiance-Crafted items at max quality. This will further boost their power, similar to the additional upgrade from previous Turbo Boost events.

Seasonal Mechanics

Voidforge and Voidcores

Check our our guide on the Voidforge to learn how to acquire this powerful upgrades!

Go to Guide

Recommendations for using Nebulous Voidcore will change heavily based on the gear you currently have. Additionally, if you don't expect to kill certain Mythic bosses, then this will also impact your decision. While raid gear is more powerful overall, you will get more Myth-track pieces from dungeons so if you have a lot of Myth-track crests spare then consider that too. Our general priority will be as follows:

Mythic Raids Voidcore Priority

• Ideal: Mythic Crown of the Cosmos until you obtain Eternal Voidsong Chain and Locus-Walker's Ribbon.
• Next Best: Mythic Chimaerus until you obtain Gaze of the Alnseer.
• Then: Fill in slots you don't have Myth-track items for yet. Midnight Falls has good loot but wasn't considered since you can't obtain it until progression has finished.

M+/Heroic Raids Voidcore Priority

• Nexus-Point Xenas - Omission of Light, Maledict Vest, Corespark Multitool.
• Windrunner Spire - Heart of Wind, Emberwing Feather.
• Heroic Chimaerus until you obtain Gaze of the Alnseer.

Ascendant Voidcores have a clear priority. Ideally you will be upgrading Myth-track pieces but Hero-track is also possible:

1. Your Weapon slot
2. Your Trinkets

Crafting is an essential way of getting high-item-level gear. You can get one naturally every two weeks. You generally want to be very particular about what you craft. We do not recommend crafting anything in the potential tier slots (Head, Shoulders, Chest, Gloves, Legs). Another factor to remember is Embellished items. You can only wear two items with these effects. They contribute about 1% healing each.

Restoration Crafted Gear Priority

• Magister's Valediction with Darkmoon Sigil: Hunt (Staff and Mace are identical so make whichever is cheaper).
• Silvermoon Agent's Utility Belt or Silvermoon Agent's Sneakers with Arcanoweave Lining
• Any item you do not have on Myth track yet.

• If you get a Myth-track 2-handed weapon in your first vault, you can skip step one. If you get a Hero-track or below weapon, then you will craft one as above.
• The Leather 2-pc Embellishment set is not very good. Avoid it.

For more information about crafting gear you can visit our Professions page.

Up to two of your crafted items can be Embellished. This is a similar concept as Unique-Equipped, as you can only wear two items that have the Embellished tag. Most crafted items with effects are Embellishments. You can also add Embellishments from a variety of professions to any crafted item, adding the effect to this item either when creating it or at a later stage.

Since you can only pick two, it's important you craft the correct ones since some are quite poor. The two best choices for this are:

• For Raid: Darkmoon Sigil: Hunt on a weapon and Arcanoweave Lining on another crafted item like Wrists. Later in the tier you can swap your weapon Embellishment for another Arcanoweave Lining when you have a 289 Myth-track weapon.
• For Mythic+: Darkmoon Sigil: Hunt on a weapon and Arcanoweave Lining on another crafted item like Wrists. Later in the tier you can swap your weapon Embellishment for another Arcanoweave Lining.

It is recommended to use QE Live to find out what might be best for your particular gearset, and if you also play any other Druid specs, you might want to pick Embellishments that work well for all of them.

You can add sockets to Helmets, Belts, and Bracers with the Radiant Jewelbinder consumable item that you can choose instead of a Great Vault item. You will generally not have any of these until later in the season.

Early into the season, or if you have just started playing an alt, you will have limited access to upgrading-crests such as Myth Dawncrest. These can be used to upgrade gear to higher item levels. Since crests are limited each week and upgrading different items costs the same amount of crests regardless, you will want to prioritize your usage of them on items that have the most stats on them, and those that you won't replace soon.

Restoration Druid Crest Upgrade Priority

Weapon Slots ➜ Helmet/Chest/Legs ➜ Trinkets ➜ Shoulders/Gloves/Belt/Boots ➜ The Rest

Eventually, you will be able to upgrade all of your items, this priority order is only for early on when you are limited in crests.

Throughout this page and elsewhere in our guide, we regularly refer to the importance of simming yourself on Raidbots. This is because every character is unique, and each gear piece you have access to can change what is best right now for you.

While we do offer recommendations for gear and trinkets, these are not complete replacements for simming yourself. The only way to truly optimize your character to that degree is by making use of the tools available!

Optimization

Simulations and Tools

For further reading on how to truly maximize your character's potential, check out our guide on Raidbots!

Go to Guide

Voulk

Guide Author

Follow Voulk

This guide is written by Voulk, a long-time Restoration Druid and healing theorycrafter who develops the QuestionablyEpic live healer gearing app. You can also follow them on Twitter and YouTube.