New 80 Resto Druid - Gearing Up, Gemming and EnchantingFollow

As far as gear is concerned, I suggest you take a look at this list posted on the EJ forums. Just keep in mind that, while it only lists leather armor, there's is little to no downside to using cloth as a Resto Druid, at least in PvE.

Now, gems. They may look complex at first glance, but it's a rather simple system that is only made complex by meta gems requirements and gear upgrades.

First, you need to have sockets in a piece of equipment to be able to put gems in it. Like this chest piece, for example.

There are 3 main types of sockets and 6 colors of gems. Sockets are Red, Yellow and Blue. Gems are Red, Yellow, Blue, Orange, Green and Purple. When a piece of equipment has sockets in it, it will always offer a "bonus" for using the right colors in the right sockets. You can skip that bonus if it is not worth the loss of stats for using the required colors. Single-color gems (R, B, Y) will match sockets of their own color only while dual-color gems (O, G, P) can be used with two different socket colors to get the bonus. Any color of gem can be used in any color of socket if you don't mind forfeiting the bonus.

The other type of gem and socket is called Meta. Those can only be found in helms, like this one. Meta gems are a separate category of gems that will usually grant a good stat bonus along with a "special feature" but they will have specific requirements. So the Insightful Earthsiege Diamond, for example, will grant you 21 Int and will give you a chance to restore mana when you cast a spell, on the condition that in all of your currently equipped gear you have at least 1 red gem, 1 blue gem and 1 yellow gem.

Note that requirements may vary greatly and some seemingly awesome meta gems can turn out to be a bigger pain than they are worth because of requirements. Also note that, for requirement purposes, dual-color gems counts as one of each (For example, a Purple gem counts as 1x Red and 1x Blue). There are also prismatic gems that count as one of every color (R+B+Y).

I think that covers gems... If you have any question, feel free to ask.
And like gear, lemme redirect you to another list made on the EJ forums.

Enchants are a bit easier than gems, as there are way fewer choices. Spellpower enchants (from memory) are usually found on weapon, wrists, gloves and pants. (Also helm and shoulders, but those are from rep anyway).

And finally for reps:
Wyrmrest Revered - Arcanum of Blissful Mending (head enchant)
Sons of Hodir Exalted - Greater Inscription of the Crag (shoulders enchant)
Beyond that you can check WoWWiki or Wowhead, search for a faction and they'll list all you can get from them. Look at what can be a good upgrade for you.

Edited, Feb 26th 2009 9:36am by Selverein