Hello everyone, it’s time for Part 2 of my “basic” guide to PvP Resto Shamanism. If you haven’t read the first one, or seem to have forgot, this guide will be all about your gear. What stats should you embrace and what stats should you throw away?What gear is the best for each slot and what enchants are good?

Well, before we get into a rather specific guide, what stats are you looking for?As a PvE Shaman, you’d be wanting quick, fast and strong healing spells to prove yourself worthy over the Resto Druids who can heal and forget. If you went PvE, you’d also want to have a lot of Intellect to support your high-demanding mana pool. However, as a PvP Shaman you’ll be needing more defensive stats and less mana. Welcome to the flipped-up world of PvP. So why are you getting defense and all of this just for PvP? Survivability is a major issue, since aggro is not present when doing Battlegrounds or Arenas, and enemy players have actual minds instead of just pure AI. You’ve got to keep up in the game; you can hardly ever let your HP go down below 50%, or else you might get stun-locked or silenced to your death (provided there is a lack of healers on your vanguard). So what really should you be looking for?

First of all, even though you’re not dealing much damage at all, you’re going to need some hit rating, just like DPS. The hit cap against level 80s is 5%, which is converted to approximately 164 hit rating needed to get all yellow and white damage on the opponent (provided your opponent does not have any extra hit reducing spells/passives). If you’re a Draenei, you’ve got yourself an extra 1%, meaning that you can go for just 132 hit rating. You do want to be in par or above with the hit rating, since you don’t want your spells to miss. Frost Shock the flag capper. DoT the druid trying to go to Prowl. Wind Shear the spellcaster. Hex the warrior. No matter what you’re doing, you absolutely do not want it to miss, especially if it’s on a relatively long cooldown. Don’t fret if you’ve got your hit rating under, however. It will significantly hurt you 1v1, but it won’t kill you.

But what would really kill you is if you’ve drooped in your resilience rating. Resilience reduces the damage per tick on DoTs, the chance you’ll be critically hit, the damage you get when you’re critically hit, and the effect of mana-draining spells. It’s a very decent package-in-one for survivability, which, combined with Mail Armor, makes the Shaman able to take a lot more hits than a Druid or a Priest. But once your resilience rating is not up with the game, you are going to take a lot more damage and lose a lot more mana than anticipated. With a full set of Deadly (including offset and armor) and the Medallion of the Alliance, I have been able to attain 1000 resilience. This should be the “softcap” or goal of many amateur Resto Shamans. Ideally, the resilience cap of 1200 is the star you want to shoot far–currently, still with Deadly but with resilience gems, enchants, and the Platinum Disks of Sorcery, I have been able to achieve 1141 resilience. I found that once I got this number, my survivability has drastically increased.

You don’t want to use up your mana pool too quickly. How do you counteract this? Why, getting more mana regeneration, of course! However, stay away from the Spirit that all Druids get. Instead, pick up the mana per 5 seconds (abbreviated to mp5), which will persist through casting. This is what the Shaman wants.

After all of those comes the no-brainers. You don’t want to be stacking it (you’ll get plenty of it through Gladiator gear), but having tons of Stamina is very beneficiary–the more the better. Second up is Intellect; you don’t need to have a lot of it (for example, I only have 15.5k mana, but I find it appropriate), but the bigger the mana pool while maintaining the other stats, the better. I found it a lot better to just gem for spell power instead of Intellect, however, because it gives a larger oomph to your bonus healing (and bonus damage). Crit rating is also a big “want” for Resto Shamans, but definitely not a “need”–with only Deadly, I have been able to achieve only 17% or so crit rating.

Now to the close-ups:

IN MOST CASES:

Best Red Gem: Spell Power
Best Blue Gem: Spell Power + Stamina, Resilience and Stamina
Best Yellow Gem: Resilience, Intellect

If you have the benefit of being a Jewelcrafter, you might want to get your unique 3 Dragon’s Eyes. For me, I put all three into resilience, but the Runed Dragon’s Eye is also very good.

Note: For the general “something + something” gear, there is a linked piece of gear that pertains to it. It does not limit you to specifically that piece of gear, but its stats. Generally, Crit + mp5 will be Frost Witch’s Garb, while Haste + mp5 will be Triumphant Nobundo’s Garb (Thrall if you are Horde).

HEAD

Want: Gladiator’s Ringmail Helm – Gladiator’s is always the top priority. It gives resilience; nothing else matters.
Cool: Crit + Haste + Spell Power, Haste + mp5 + Spell Power, Crit + mp5 + Spell Power – All of these are good combinations. The Triforce of crit, haste and mp5 is essential for all Resto Shamans. Personally, I would rank their usefulness as: crit, mp5 and haste, so aim for the crit + mp5 first.

Best Meta Gem: Insightful Earthsiege Diamond – Best to keep your mana pool up and the need for mp5 gear off.
-Runner-ups: Ember Skyflare Diamond, Revitalizing Skyfire Diamond

Best Enchant: Arcanum of Dominance – Speaks for itself. Spell power and resilience = good.

NECK

Want: Gladiator’s Pendant of Ascendancy – Yay for hit PvP gear! Your first priority, if you have an option, is to get these.
Cool: Haste + mp5 + Spell Power + Socket, Hit + Crit + Spell Power + Socket, Gladiator’s Pendant of Dominance – If you want a bit more oomph, the Dominance Pendant is very good. The Hit Pendants are the best replacements for the Gladiator’s Ascendancy pendants, especially since you want hit rating on your gear to not gem for it. Some people may go for the Hit PvE pendants over Gladiator’s for the socket, but in all actuality, if you gem for +12 resilience + 15 stamina, then you are getting the same stamina but with less resilience, less hit (sometimes), and more crit/haste. Not good IMO.

SHOULDER

Want: Gladiator’s Ringmail Shoulders
Cool: Crit + Haste + Spell Power, Crit + mp5 + Spell Power, Haste + mp5 + Spell Power

Best Enchant: Greater Inscription of the Gladiator, Inscription of Dominance – Best there are out there. Stamina/Spell Power + resilience is very, very good. Currently I have the Stamina + resil version, which is doing well for me.

CHEST

Want: Gladiator’s Mail Armor
Cool: Haste + mp5 + Spell Power + Triple Socket, Crit + Haste + Spell Power, Haste + mp5 + Spell Power

Best Enchant: Powerful Stats, Exceptional Resilience – I am currently using resilience and have not looked back, but the +10 stats do seem to be quite good. However, keep in mind that when you’re using +10 stats, you’re also benefiting Strength, Agility and Spirit–things you don’t need.

WRIST

Want: Gladiator’s Wristguards of Salvation
Cool: Haste + mp5 + Spell Power, Gladiator’s Wristguards of Dominance – The need for mp5 is generally put onto the offset gear, such as Belt and Wrist. However, if you feel that the Ringmail items are good enough for you, then go for crit rating/haste rating. Nothing wrong with crit rating!

Best Enchant: Greater Spellpower – ’nuff said. Spell Power is just like another red gem.

GLOVES

Want: Gladiator’s Mail Gauntlets
Cool: Crit + mp5 + Spell Power, Haste + mp5 + Spell Power, Crit + Haste + Spell Power + Double Socket – Both of the original is part of their respective item sets and thus good, but the Stormbringer Gloves are also quite good because you add 50 haste rating and subtract 31 resilience rating (two yellow sockets? Double resilience gems please).

Best Enchant: Exceptional Spellpower – Another red gem ditto. Thumbs up!

BELT

Want: Gladiator’s Waistguard of Salvation
Cool: Crit + mp5 + Spell Power, Gladiator’s Waistguard of Dominance – Check “WRIST” for explanation.

Best Enchant: Eternal Belt Buckle – Gives you an extra socket for extra fun!

LEG

Want: Gladiator’s Mail Leggings
Cool: Crit + mp5 + Spell Power, Crit + Haste + Spell Power + Triple Socket

Best Enchant: Earthen Leg Armor, Sapphire Spellthread – Obviously 40 resilience is something that is incredibly difficult to come by, so Earthen Leg Armor is more important than getting the spell power of the Sapphire Spellthread. But either option is good.

BOOTS

Want: Gladiator’s Sabatons of Salvation
Cool: Haste + mp5 + Spell Power + Double Socket, Gladiator’s Sabatons of Dominance – Again, if you have more mp5 than you need, go for the crit PvP boots. Shuffling Shoes gives you the haste you want while still maintaining some resilience, but otherwise should be avoided.

Best Enchant: Tuskarr’s Vitality – Good movement speed for mobility in the battlegrounds and arenas, as well as a nifty bonus to your Stamina.

CLOAK

Want: Gladiator’s Cloak of Ascendancy – Again, hit rating is preferred if you ever have the option. And two items with hit rating is already 100+ hit rating, which should work if you’ve got other hit gear.
Cool: Gladiator’s Cloak of Dominance, Gladiator’s Cloak of Salvation – Gladiator’s is generally all you ever want on your cloak.

Best Enchant: Greater Speed – Aside from spell penetration, this is the one you’d want to be using. And since you’re not direct DPS, you probably want haste over spell penetration to get faster heals.

RINGS

Want: Gladiator’s Rings of Dominance and Ascendancy – Understandably, it’s hard to take up a Furious item if you’re looking at items with a lot more stats, but generally, the resilience is more useful. However, every ring better than the Furious one that benefit Crit, mp5, haste and/or spell power is good to use and the way to go.

Best Enchant: Greater Spellpower – You can only get this if you’re an Enchanter. But it’s a free Spell Power gem!

TRINKETS

There is a constant conflict over which trinkets one should get. However, it all boils down to what you prefer. Usually, getting a Medallion of the Alliance or a Titan-Forge Rune is the best choice for one of them, due to the constant amount of movement impairing spells other players use to get advantage over you. The second one is really your decision. I personally kept for the Platinum Disks of Sorcery to get the extra resilience in, but there are plenty other good options, such as Sliver of Pure Ice, Battlemaster’s Ruination, and Talisman of Resurgance.

If you’re a careful observer, you can tell that for the main Gladiator’s set, I chose to have 2 Ringmail sets and 3 Mail sets. Why is this? Because if you opt to get a 2-3 combo, you are benefiting from both (2) set bonuses, which is of course extra resilience and spell power. If you go for 4, you are getting a -1.5 cooldown on Grounding Totem and more spell power, which is pretty decent, but still not as pretty as the resilience bonus.

You can obviously tell that I am putting a lot into resilience to get the most out of survival. Many Restoration Shamans (even PvP ones) may disagree with me, for their job in battle is probably not only to heal but also to escape from enemies and prevent them from hurting you in the first place. But alas, I am constantly a target for Rogues and Warriors, and thus I must gear accordingly. My gearing habits have led me to little haste, but lots of resilience, moderate spell power and decent mana regeneration.

That’s all for Part 2. In Part 3, we will discuss class-to-class strategies, arena tips and battleground hints. Good luck all Resto Shamans!

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