3.3 Items: Tasty Tree Trinkets

*Warning: Wall of text incoming. Be prepared*

I'm only including trinkets that I think are truly GOOD for resto druids. There are some that are decent, and perhaps even good with odd gear or spec combinations, but my list is based on what the majority of raiding trees will be looking for. My personal preference is normally towards reliable trinkets, where the effect is not based on a chance proc or on use. I don't always get my wish, but you may find this list biased that way just a little =)

The Pretties

Ephemeral Snowflake
Let me mop up a little drool here...
First, the haste use effect is very nice. I've been hoping for a reliable haste trinket, but an on use is not a bad choice here. What makes this trinket truly amazing is the mana restore, which procs off of EACH TICK of our heals, including overheals. According to a WoWHead commenter,

for example: means wildgrowth with glyph gives 6 targets a hot which ticks every second for seven seconds:
wildgrowth = 643 mana
trinket returns: 7 * 6 * 11 mana = 462 mana

A 6 target healing spell that costs less than 200 mana? *fwibble* Unless I get to the gear point where mana is insignificant and my haste is higher than I'd like, I'd consider this one of the BiS trinkets. And one of the best things about it, this trinket drops from one of the 5 man heroic instance. Anyone should be able to obtain this, so good luck with the drop =)

Nevermelting Ice Crystal
This one I'm a little iffy on still. It's easy to obtain, dropping from one of the 5 man heroics, and has a decent amount of spell power. While the on use effect is going to be pretty underpowered in most situations, with 4pc T9, it becomes vastly more appealing. For a tree with the 4 set bonus that's not having mana issues, this could be a very nice trinket, but I think I'll be leaving it taking up bagspace myself. I honestly expect to see the CD on the use lowered a bit, or perhaps the effect itself buffed slightly, but even then it's not quite as appealing in most situations or gear levels.

Althor's Abacus
Depending on how this proc works, this is either going to end up being a BiS trinket for many, or a very situational trinket. IF this can proc from WG, IF it is a smart heal and will try to land on someone that actually needs the health, or IF the internal CD is reasonable, this could be great. Unfortunately, there seem to be too many unknowns still. At worst, this will be something I'd pick up to use on heavy raid damage fights. At best, I'll be fighting most of our healers to try and pick it up. This looks to drop from 25 man Gunship battle, so it will be available with the first stage of the content release, but hopefully we'll see some testing results soon.

Show of Faith
Or any of it's previous incarnations (Je'Tze's Bell, Sif's Remembrance). This has been a popular trinket model for all of Wrath, but lately I've been seeing more and more trees replacing it with different choices. That said, it is still a good trinket if you're lucky enough to find one available. The Show is from 25 Yogg +1 or +0, Sif's is off of 10 Thorim HM, and the Bell can be picked up off your local auction house for a few Kg on most servers. This provides approximately 65-80 Mp5, so keep that in mind when comparing against your other options.

Solace of the Fallen
In comparison, the normal version of this trinket provides a reliable 128 Mp5. The heroic version is even more amazing, but not everyone is lucky enough to have that available *Innocent whistle* If needed, the normal and heroic versions of this trinket do stack, but most of us won't need that much Mp5. It is a very very shiny trinket, and most 25 raiding guilds are killing Jaraxxus on a pretty regular basis, so not the most difficult to obtain.

Spark of Hope
Even though spirit is no longer the chocolate that it was for us trees, it is still one of our most powerful stats. The Spark grants about 20 spellpower and 250 mp5 for us, and while it's not one of the best trinkets out there, it is a decent choice for a 10 raiding resto, or a tree that's having some serious mana issues.

Gnome... It's what's for dinner.

The Unmentionables

Now, time for a little fun. These next two are trinkets that are currently not quite nice enough to make my list, but I'd not be shocked to see changed.

Purified Lunar Dust
Currently, compared to even the normal version of the Solace, this is a pretty disappointing trinket. If it ends up having a 45 second CD, even with the 19 iLvl difference this is going to give lower Mp5 and only 3 more spell power. I expect to either see this buffed pretty significantly, or the internal CD made very short. That said, it is obtainable through Emblems of Frost, which will make it a decent choice for some raiders.

Sliver of Pure Ice
Currently, the Mp5 from this trinket will typically match what you'd be getting from the Show of Faith, and that's only if the player is activating the use effect on cooldown each time. Even if it does end up getting buffed to be competitive, I'm not particularly fond of the mana pot type use, but it could end up being a decent option for 10 man raiders. As of this writing, it seems that it's drop location is still unknown, so it may end up that this trinket isn't even available for a good while after the first stage of Icecrown Citadel opens.


TL; DR
"Khi, just quit jabbering and tell me what trinkets to pick!"
Well, it's always going to depend on your gear, spec, the encounter, and you're role. That said, basic ideas...

10m Raiders
Ephemeral Snowflake
Sif's Remembrance
Nevermelting Ice Crystal

25m Raiders
Ephemeral Snowflake
Solace of the Fallen
Althor's Abacus

LF Guild: How To, and How Not To

The main parts of this are something I wrote up for our officers so they had some info on things I checked when receiving an application for our guild. However, for the sake of my blog audience (as small as that might be currently ^.^), I went back and added info for players that are on the other side of the process and applying to a new guild.



As the semi-official 'recruiting officer' for Narrischkeit, I get to see the applications before anyone else, and I'm often the first to respond once I've posted the app in our forum. As such, I've tried to make things easier for me, and created a list of sites that I go through that do most of the work for me =)

These tips are directed towards those applying for semi-casual -> hardcore raiding guilds. If you're applying to a social guild, or just joining a group of friends that you know, then some of this information will not apply to you.

Before filling out any application, read all info about the guild that you can find. Above all, make sure that you have read their policies, raiding schedule, and the steps for application. For example, don't post your application on their Recruiting forum when the directions state to PM it to an officer.

3.2 Incoming! Part 2: Loot

In this post, I will ONLY be covering loot that may be of interest to a raiding resto or balance druid. Please let me know if you find any broken links, errors, or whatnot.


As these are not live items, I will be linking them to their MMO Champion page for the time being. This post will likely be updated to WoWHead links once the patch is live. (Anyone perhaps know how to get it to instead show up in the WoWHead popup screen?)


Some item models & names will be different for Horde and Alliance, but the stats and bosses should be the same. Horde versions will be my links.



Cloth items will be included. Loot will be basically sorted, but don't ignore the other spec's list as you may find something of interest there. Anything that well itemized for both specs will be under Resto.

3.1 Crit/Haste Gear

With all of the lovely changes in 3.1, it seems we're going to be moving quite a bit away from the current resto itemization wishes. I'm still attempting to get on the PTR myself (What do you mean I don't have any characters on Stonemaul %@$&!) but has anyone started looking at builds/specs/gear that is much more biased towards crit and haste? AI, actually using Nourish *twitch*

I'll likely go back and edit this with my thoughts once I've managed to run some tests myself, but from the numbers and reports I've seen so far, kinda worried that my rotation's going to start looking more like a holy pally 0.o

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Edit =)

Going to skip all the number fun... Every single blog out there seems to have that info listed somewhere.

After testing it out for a while, I think I'm going to be okay with this change. For the most part, my raid healing is going to stay the same, with single targets getting Rejuve or LB when it's predictable damage, and WG for group heals. Unfortunately, my mana regen currently fails, so my attempts at just keeping a 3 stack up on a MT have put me at going OOM more quickly than I liked. With all of the other regen changes, for any lower-end geared tree, I don't think that is going to be the best method for longer fights. While I personally think micromanaging is going to be the best way to go with these current changes, I don't think that is going to be a feasable playstyle for newer trees.

At this point, I'd recommend the standard keeping rejuve and regrowth up, but using Nourish more. That means that yes indeed crit and haste gear will be your friend. At the same time, start practicing in less-dangerous conditions how to judge your mana regen with lifebloom, the timing, and of course the actual bloom. By the time you're healing Ulduar 25, hopefully you'll have a good grasp of how to best manage LB in your rotation with your partucular gear and spec.

Just don't try and learn that while healing me in 3 drake OS >.>