Helm of Natural Regeneration (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=33356#comments) 3 sockets, no meta.

Cowl of Nature's Breath (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=28803) (I have this one)

Crown of Malorne (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=29086)

I'd hate to miss out on the meta-gem I think...

Helm of Natural Regeneration. You can put some Nice Gems into it.

My mana regen is 3 times higher on test. You shouldn't need the meta after 2.4, go after for Helm of Natural Regeneration.

My mana regen is 3 times higher on test. You shouldn't need the meta after 2.4, go after for Helm of Natural Regeneration.
Hmmm... that just sounds weird to me. Your regen while casting is 3x higher?

I used this mana calculator (for 2.4) and came up about the same mana regen: http://www.resto4life.com/guides/calculator-mana-regeneration/

Maybe I'll try to copy over to test and see.

Maybe not 3 times as high but I think my combat regen was 250ish on test form 146. Its was pretty big jump with my so so gear.

I'm in the process of downloading all those danged patches. I'll post what I come up with.

I just try test server is down :(

Yeah! Sounds like they're going to have it down awhile for testing on the TTR, for some reason.

Ok heres what I got with just Resto Talents

2.3(no buffs)
out of combat:379
combat:162

2.4 test(no buffs)
out of combat 540
combat 200

2.4 with Mark, flask, oil, healing food
out of combat: 632
combat 255

Wow! I just logged in to check. I am HOSED or else my tooltip is wrong.

It said on PTR:

Out of combat: 416
In Combat: 77

77?

On my server I am:

Out of Combat: 345
In combat: 157

What on earth?

Wait... do I need to respec? I didn't check that.

Oh ha! Phew... I panicked.

Ok, after respec'ing I ended up with

2.4: 465 non-combat 25% increase
2.4: 193 combat 19% increase

Ok! I can't complain.

However I think Resto4Life's mana calculator isn't right if it is supposed to be showing 2.4 numbers.

Still with full raid buffs thats some crazy regen

Ok, 2 down one to go!

I now have:

Cowl of Nature's Breath (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=28803) (I have this one)

Crown of Malorne (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=29086) (just got this)

Which of those two? I am leaning towards the Nature's Breath one but the antlers just look way cool.

How about the typical "It depends"????

The first one looks better overall for stats, but the second (Malorne) comes with the almighty Metagems and well, gem slots. That is soooooo worth its weight in gold. Also you need to weigh how much you want the set bonus's for Malorne. I'm not an expert on the healing side, but the two piece bonus looks godly and the four piece bonus doesn't look that bad either.

With the right metagem and red/purple gem, I think Malorne could be better, but it depends on what the rest of your set looks like.

i would take the crown of malorne.
with a red +heal gem it comes nearly to the +heal of nature's breath.
then u have the meta-gem (i would take the int+manareg on spellcast). it gives u more manareg then the cowl.
and if u have the 2 piece setbonus then it will be definitly be the better choice.

Talking about just the 3 you mentioned, Malorne is only helpful if you need it for set bonus (IMHO).

Out of the other two I'd say go with the socketed one (Helm of Natural Regeneration), the difference in +healing and stats between it and Cowl of Nature's Breath can easily be made up (and more) with a good set of gems.

Do you think the Malorne would be worth it over the Cowl of Nature's Breath for the 4 piece bonus? I'm having a hard time convincing myself it is.

I guess it depends on your build. I've never used NS with regrowth (that's what SwiftMend is for IMHO). However if you aren't a tree then NS is still useful with Healing Touch.

I really think I'd need to plug this all into a spreadsheet to figure out. Or else I should just pop some gems into my hat and stick it on my head and see how the numbers update.... I think I'll do that! This would be my 4th piece of T4 and I'm not *that* excited about the 24 seconds off of NS. I can't remember the last time I used HT... in fact, I haven't even mapped it to a key. I really should though, I could've used it once or twice last night.

Ok, here's what I did. I had to put a orange gem into the Crown so that I could meet the requirements on the Insightful meta gem. I think the Cowl wins:

Crown Cowl
Healing 1641 1691
Int 549 544
Spirit 493 503
Sta 378 384
MP5 215 215


Oh hmmm... the meta gem though. I'll have to ponder that.


The only two meta gems worth using are the [Insightful Earthstorm Diamond] and [Bracing Earthstorm Diamond]. The proc from the Insightful gem is worth about 25-30 mp5 in most situations, and is worth up to 40 mp5 in continuous-hot situations. Comparing this to the 26 healing on the Bracing leads most druids to go for the Insightful meta.

Ok, so is 30 mp5 worth more than +50 healing? My gut reaction is that YES it is very good.

Lets see, if you have an 8 minute fight that means there are 460 seconds. Divide that by 5 is 96. 96 * 30 = 2880 mana. 2880 / 220 (life bloom) is about 13 additional lifeblooms.

Still I get the feeling I have more than enough MP5 for everything we're handling right now and that plus healing is better.

So I think the Crown goes back into the bank until after they nerf druid mana regen. I mean, I get the feeling we're going to see that happen.

I finally got the Helm of Natural Regeneration (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=33356#comments) and it's a small upgrade from Cowl of Nature's Breath. Gives me 5 more MP5 at the cost of some stamina, after sticking some +spirit gems in.