Hi, I am beginning to level a druid and have not really found any threads on this matter, nor has looking at Magelo helped as most druids seem to have a bunch of random augs in their evolving items (maybe its to fluff). I would think everyone would have at the minimum, casting ices, casting fires. In addition to strategies(s), and maybe enhancements? I'll have 3 of the items including the earring, so I guess 4 items, and i'll work on collects to eventually get 4 in addition to the earring. Can any advise please. thank you in advance.
I personally recommend you forego either the TBL ring and shoulder or the TBL boots and gloves. You do not need 5 of these evolving items. The TBL evolving items were given approximate stats to gear in ToV. The ToV ear is given approximate stats to a CoV earring. Any additional stats through augs are weighed out by the loss of the base stats of CoV gear. Come next expansion, the ToV earring will even become less appealing. Keep enough evolving items for all of your Casting Ice/Fire proc augs as a necessity. Their DPS is substantial and irreplaceable. I've personally replaced my TBL ring and shoulder with CoV loot. On my necro, I utilize every type 3 slot possible, and those 2 evolving items do not have type 3 slots.
Here's another view on how to look at these chase items. Depends on how fast you'll work through TBL and then into ToV. It is a real mind-numbing exercise, especially if you are not evolving the items concurrently. IMHO, the TBL hands should definitely be replaced with CoV hands due to the cold focus. The boots will need to be replaced since their beneficial haste is capped at 115. The ring and shoulders are less clear in my mind. You could keep them, depending on the augs you have in them. Menown is right, the missing type 3 slots is a bummer. The earring will last well into the next expansion after CoV. I would suggest you parse on test dummies to see well the proc augs actually do for you, based on what your mix of dots and nukes are.
Not mentioned so far is that the TBL 18/19 casting augs are different than the ToV ones. The casting fire (or casting magic) only fire when the like spells are cast (fire for casting fire, magic for casting magic). So unless you have an all-fire (or all-magic) lineup, the proc rate will be less on the TBL augs. The ToV casting proc augs fire on a detrimental cast. As a druid, you should be heavily skewed towards fire anyway ... but it's something to keep in mind, especially if starting from scratch.
