Season of Discovery Restoration Druid Healer Stat Priority

Before we begin, it should be said that gear in WoW Classic tends to be very unique, and as such, you will often be chasing very specific items, rather than simply following a stat priority list. Still, a more detailed explanation on each of a Druid's relevant stats will help you understand why those pieces are so sought after.

1. Spell Healing (some spells scale better with it than others, but for the most part you will be casting spells that benefit greatly from it);
2. Mana every 5 seconds (for Mana regeneration while you are casting, loses priority when you are finishing fights with Mana to spare);
3. Intellect (grants spell critical strike and increases your maximum Mana);
4. Spirit (Mana and health regeneration outside combat or when under the effect of Innervate);
5. Spell Critical Strike (chance to heal for a much larger amount than usual).

• Stamina (more health per point);
• Resistance (strongly reduces Magic damage taken of a specific element);
• Spell Hit Rating (you will need 5% to cap hit against Sunken Temple bosses, see below for details).

Spell Healing is applied to each spell based on its casting time.

The coefficient is calculated by dividing the cast time of a spell by 3.5. This is because a 3.5 second cast benefits from 100% of your gear's Spell Healing. For example, if you have 20 additional Spell Healing from gear, then this will simply affect your spells as follows:

• Healing Increase per spell cast = n * 20
• n = spell's coefficient

Instant single-target spells typically only get around 43% of the benefit, while a cast-time spell gets a benefit proportional to its cast time, with maximum benefit at 3.5 seconds cast time.

This means that 100 Spell Healing on your gear would cause Healing Touch to heal for 100 more but spells with lower cast times would be penalized. A table with the exact coefficients for all spells in WoW Classic can be found in this Reddit thread, by u/RobertVests.

Mana every 5 seconds, or simply Mp5, is a common stat found on healing gear. This is the best stat for getting more Mana during a fight because it works constantly, even if you cast something in the last 5 seconds (contrary to Spirit) and should thus be taken whenever possible, until you feel comfortable with your Mana sustainability.

Intellect is a good stat for Restoration Druids, as it increases total Mana pool significantly during leveling and while soloing. While it is not so significant during raids, where Mana regeneration and Mana consumables typically play a bigger part in your sustainability, it is still a good stat to get that comes in most gear.

For Restoration Druids, Spirit provides Mana regeneration, as long as you are outside the 5-second rule, and also up to 15% in combat through the Reflection talent or while under the effect of Innervate.

Spell Critical Strike allows your direct spells to occasionally heal for more. For Restoration Druid these are mostly Healing Touch and the direct part of Regrowth and they will proc the new rune ability, Living Seed.

Stamina is the only stat that will help you survive all types of attacks, and as such, should always be valued highly, especially in PvP.

Resistance, while inherently niche due to different bosses dealing different magical damage types, can be very useful while progressing specific bosses. Wearing resistance gear of a type makes you take less damage or even completely avoid damage when hit by that type of magical damage.

Spell Hit allows your spells to land more often, which is a huge DPS increase for your free Wrath spam with the Fury of Stormrage rune.

Keep in mind that you will always have at least a 1% chance to miss with spells. Depending on the level of your enemy, you might need more, or less Spell Hit to reach this 1% cap:

• For an enemy of the same level as you, 3% Spell Hit is needed to cap.
• For an enemy 1 level higher than you, 4% Spell Hit is needed to cap.
• (Sunken Temple Bosses) For an enemy 2 levels higher than you, 5% Spell Hit is needed to cap.
• For an enemy 3 levels higher than you, which is the case of raid bosses, 16% Spell Hit is needed to cap.