Druid Chapter 5.0 - Armor

Druid Weapons

Weapon Types - Daggers, Maces, Staves and Fist weapons.

This is really a matter of both personal choice and availability. Daggers and fist weapons are quick, while staves are generally slow. Fist weapons are generally available only late in the game with very few available before level 60. Your weapon choice should be about what type of combat you are doing and what is available at your level. Focus on the same stats and bonuses are you do for armor.

As a druid it is important to know that most of the bonus effects on weapons do not apply to you while you are in an animal form. Also the damage of a weapon is irrelevant while in animal form. What does transfer is the stat bonuses and ability bonuses (attack power, spell damage, etc).

Check out the Weapons Guide for where to find the best Weapons Trainer for you!

Druid Armor

What is best for Druid gear really depends on how you have spent your talent points (how you are spec'ed) and what you are doing. For example if you are playing mainly PvP, then you will have different requirements than someone spec'ed the same that is raiding. The same goes for leveling, where the gear requirements are different. As a druid though you can only wear cloth or leather armor.

Leveling Gear

While leveling up you really need to just focus on what is better for your primary stats. For a druid, while leveling up most players chose to go feral since it has the least downtime and offers the fastest leveling speed. If you are feral it means that you will be focusing on strength, agility and stamina. If you chose to go restoration or balance instead instead and try to heal a group or DPS then you will be looking for intelligence and stamina. Any other stat is just icing on the cake. Every quest reward or item that you get grants those stats in a bigger number than you have already is obviously going to be an upgrade. Anything not better can just be sold off.

While leveling it really isn't about the perfect items, because once you do find that perfect item, it's time to replace it already. So simply go with anything that improves your core stats.

PvP Gear

PvP gear at level 70 is relatively simple. You need to still focus on the same core stats as leveling or PvE, however they become secondary to Stamina and Resilience. All you need to do is get the PvP set appropriate to your build. For healing druids that is the Gladiator's Refuge set, Feral is the Gladiator's Sanctuary set and Balance is the Gladiator's Wildhide set. Each set has all of the stats you need for PvP. Which, interestingly enough is resilience followed by stamina, then the rest of the stats and bonuses related to your build.

PvE Endgame Gear

This is the gear set that most players spend the most time gathering. This is where you really want to find the best of everything that you can. Therefore it gets a little more complicated, so it is broken down into a stats and bonuses section that describes what you need for each build type.

Stats

As a Druid the stats you require vary on your build, so we will look at each one separately.

As a Restoration Druid you will be looking for a big mana pool to allow you to heal longer in a fight. This means that you will want to focus mainly on Intelligence. However you will need to take a few hits occasionally if you draw heal aggro so stamina is also important. Lastly, to make sure you have as much mana regen as possible you will also want some spirit.

As a Balance druid the stats you need to focus on are intelligence so that you can cast for as long as possible. You also need to focus on stamina so that you can take a few hits when you inevitably draw aggro.

Feral can be a bit more complicated as it really depends on what form you are in. While in bear form and tanking your prime concern is stamina so that you can take as many hits as possible. Next up is agility for the dodge and armor increase and then strength for the damage increase. If you are in cat for for DPS mode though the stats reverse. Strength is the most important for the damage increase, followed very closely by agility for damage and crit and then stamina so that you can take a few hits.

Effects

Once again the effects that are critical to a druid are different based on your build. The simple answer for which is best for each build is as follows.

For Restoration you need +Healing and +mana per 5. These allow you to cast bigger heals and regenerate mana while still casting.

Balance it is +Damage, +spell hit and +mana per 5. More +damage always helps so that you do more damage per spell cast. +Spell hit ensures that the spells you cast actually hit the target and are not wasted. Lastly +Mana per 5 provides some mana regen while casting since boomkins run through mana like water.

For Feral it depends on which form you are in. For Tanking you will be looking for +defense and +dodge. This will allow you to tank more effectively by becoming immune to crits and taking less hits in general. For DPS you want to have +attack power, +critical hit and +hit. +Attack power provides more damage per hit. The bonuses to crit and hit allow you to hit and critically hit more often.

The complicated answer is that for each of these builds the balancing act comes into play again. Is it better to have +10 defense or +10 dodge on a tanking druid? Is +50 healing better of +10 mana per 5 on a restoration druid? Much of the choice is up to you as a player. However we have a guide to help figure out these bonuses that you can find here: What's with all these crazy new numbers?

High End Armor Sets

Tiered Gear

Each class has a different set of gear that is specifically for them and has some of the best stats in the game. Here are the names of each set and where most of the parts are located. If you’re interested in the details of each set then have a look at our Ten Ton Hammer’s Database where you can search and find any item you’re looking for.

Legend:
- DS: Dungeon Set (Rare to Epic Quality)
- Tier: Tiered Set (Epic Quality)

Wastewalker (Feral)

or

Mana-Etched Regalia (Balance)

Malorne Sets

Obtained by gaining tokens from the various bosses in Karazhan, Gruuls Lair and Magtheridon's Lair as shown here: Raid Tier 4 Set Information.

The same tokens can be turned in for any of 3 different Druid sets depending on your talent specialization.

Obtained by gaining tokens from various bosses in Serpentshrine Cavern and The Eye as shown here: Raid Tier 5 Set Information.

The same tokens can be turned in for any of 3 different Druid sets depending on your talent specialization.

Obtained by gaining tokens from the various bosses in the Battle of Mount Hyjal and Black Temple raids as shown here: Raid Tier 6 Set Information.

The same tokens can be turned in for any of 3 different Druid sets depending on your talent specialization.

You can find a list of all the items in the set at Blizzards set item site here: High Level Armor Sets .

Comments

Have comments or suggestions? Thought of something that has been missed? Found an error? We would love to hear from you! Please post in our Druid Class guide forum, or email me at messiah@tentonhammer.com