5.2 Resto Druid Racials and Itemization

So another topic of debate that is often talked about are the racials for the different races that can become a druid. Overall anyone who seriously PvP's will tell you that the best racial in the game is the humans "Every man for himself" which allows you to remove any loss of control effects from yourself, just like the PvP trinkets, without having to wear one. This allows you to use whatever two trinkets you want instead of being forced to wear the standard PvP trinket. On the horde side the best racial is Will of The Forsaken for the undead. Removes charm, fear or sleep effects but gives a 30 second cool down before you can use the PvP trinket. However, druids can only be one of four races. Worgen and Night Elf for the Alliance and tauren or troll if you are Horde. In terms of abilities that you would see in PvP the worgen have dark flight, which is a 40% speed increase for 10 secs and night elves have Shadowmeld which stealths you in place but does not allow you to move. For the alliance the night elf talent gets the nod. A skillful player can dodge a lot of damage by shadow melding at the right moment and can also slip away and drink if you allow them to. On the alliance side the trolls having berserking which increases your attack and casting speed by 20% for 10 secs (3 min CD) and taurens receive war stomp which is a 0.5 sec cast stun that stuns every around you in an 8 yd radius for 2 secs (2 mins CD). Both of these are of roughly equal value. Neither is too great and probably wont make the difference if you win or lose but personally I prefer the tauren racial. There can be times when the 2 secs mean the difference between a win or a lose or the time that it allows for you to escape is sometimes crucial. As stated before, it is a preference.

So adding onto last times topic of stacking haste. A nice thing to note on the gear for resto druids is that the helm for the restoration set is not a good for a healer as is the balance head piece. The resto helmet for PvP gives crit and mastery which are of the least priority to healers while the balance helmet gives haste and crit which makes its much more useful to a resto druid. Since only 4 pieces of gear are need to attain the set bonuses for the PvP armor sets it is actually recommended that the balance PvP helmet be used instead of the resto one. Next time we'll talk glyphs, gems and enchants.

Well for anyone who keeps up with the patch notes the upcoming patch, 5.3, will see a massive overhaul to PvP combat. Resto druids are not seeing much of a change besides the fact that their wild mushrooms will see an 100% increase in healing. Tranquility will affect more players (which will not matter in arenas really) and swiftmend's efflorescence will see an increase in the area of effect's radius. What is big are the overall changes to PvP. Item level in BGs and arenas will be capped at 496. That means that any gear over the maximum level will be scaled down proportionately. This means that wearing heroic pve gear will provide no stat bonus. The PvP gear will have the same stats as the highest end PvE gear in arenas and BGs. Secondly, resilience will be removed from all gear and will naturally be set to 65%. You will still be able to gain resilience through enchanting and gemming. However, PvP will stay on gear and all set bonuses that provide resilience will be changed to PvP power. Lastly, PvP power will provide 100% of its effect for healers. On live realms it is currently set at 50% which makes it an unattractive stat for healers. To counteract the increase inheals, Battle Fatigue will be increased to 50% in arenas and BGs. So overall, dedicated healers should see a small increase to the amount that they heal. All of this will definitely change the stat priorities for classes. The patch notes are copy and pasted down below and heres the link for the official WoW website and the corresponding notes.

General

• Mark of the Wild had its mana cost reduced to 5%, down from 10%.
• Symbiosis: Intimidating Roar had its cooldown increased to 90 seconds, up from 60 seconds.
• Tranquility now targets 12 raid members (up from 5) each time it heals when used in a 25-player instance. This change also applies to players using the Symbiosis version of Tranquility.

Talents

• Force of Nature is no longer on global cooldown and summons a single Treant. The Treant no longer has a control bar, immediately uses its special abilities on the Druid’s current target, and accumulates 1 charge every 20 seconds up to a maximum of 3 charges.
  • Restoration version of the Treant now casts Swiftmend on the Druid's target when summoned. This version of Swiftmend does not require or consume a heal-over-time effect on the target.

Glyphs

• Glyph of Solar Beam have been removed and replaced with Glyph of Omens.
• New Glyph: Glyph of Omens: While the Druid is not in a Solar or Lunar Eclipse, the following abilities will generate 10 Solar or Lunar Energy: Entangling Roots, Cyclone, Faerie Fire, Solar Beam, Faerie Swarm, Mass Entanglement, Typhoon, Disorienting Roar, Ursol's Vortex, and Mighty Bash.

Balance

• Solar Beam is now more responsive when players enter and leave the beam's area-of-effect.

Feral

• Savage Roar now increases physical damage done by 40%, up from 30%.

Restoration

• Ironbark now has a cooldown of 60 seconds, down from 2 minutes.
• Swiftmend's area-of-effect component now heals injured allies within 10 yards, up from 8 yards.
• Wild Mushroom: Bloom: Healing from this spell has been increased by 100%, which includes all bonus healing from Rejuvenation overhealing. In addition, the radius has been increased to 10 yards (up from 8).

Item Sets

• Restoration PvP 4-piece set bonus now reduces the cooldown of Ironbark by 30 seconds (down from 90 seconds).
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• A blog titled: PvP Gear in Patch 5.3 has additional information and reasoning behind the PvP changes in 5.3.
• All characters now have a base Resilience of 65%.
• Battle Fatigue now reduces the amount of healing and absorbs by 45%, up from 30%.
• PvP Power bonus to healing is now based on class and specialization.
  • Healing specializations receive a 100% bonus to healing from PvP Power.
  • Damage specializations for Druids, Monks, Paladins, Priests, and Shamans receive a 70% bonus to healing from PvP Pow
  • All other specializations and classes (including tanking) receive a 40% bonus to healing from PvP Power.
PvP Items
• Season 13 Tyrannical gear had their item levels increased to ilevel 496, up from ilevel 493. Weapons and shields/off-hand items remain unchanged at ilevel 498.
• Season 13 Tyrannical Elite gear had their item levels decreased to ilevel 496, down from ilevel 512.
• Resilience has been removed from most PvP gear.
  • Resilience gems and enchants will continue to be available and remain unchanged.
  • 4-piece PvP set bonus for all Season 12 and 13 armor sets that granted 1000 Resilience now grants 1000 PvP Power instead.
• PvP Power will remain exclusively on PvP gear.
• Tyrannical weapons no longer have a conquest-earned prerequisite to purchase them.
• Glorious Tyranny weapon enchantment now grants 600 PvP Power instead of 400 PvP Power and 200 Resilience.
• New weapon enchantment: Bloody Dancing Steel is functionally equivalent to Dancing Steel, shares the same visual effect as Glorious Tyranny, costs a scroll of the base enchant, and requires a 2200 rating.
• New weapon enchantment: Spirit of Conquest is functionally equivalent to Jade Spirit, shares the same visual effect as Glorious Tyranny, costs a scroll of the base enchant, and requires a 2200 rating.
• Tyrannical Gladiator’s Tabard and Tyrannical Gladiator’s Greatcloak are available as new prestige items at 2500 rating for 1000 Conquest Points.
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