Hi all. I could use some tips on which Azerite traits are recommended for World questing etc . I only ever shadow spec for dailies as I enjoy healing most of the time and most guides (icy veins etc) show best traits for dungeons and raids for shadow which I don’t do .
Any recommendations are appreciated .
Thanks
Generally if its powerful for raiding/dungeons, it will be just fine when world questing even if not perfect. It may not work quite the same, but the differences will mainly be about min/maxing and it sounds like you are not that type of player to begin with.
That said, by ring in my opinion…
In the outer 2 rings…
Chorus of Insanity is generally BiS regardless of content type. Blightborne Infusion and Whispers of the Damned are also solid choices. The others are decent, but more situational in the WQ environments. For example, Death Throes and Spiteful Apparitions are decent (but still weaker than the other 3) when chain pulling and kiting mobs with Misery for example, while Searing Dialogue and Thought Harvester are good if pulling large packs with misery and mind searing them down.
Note* Undulating Tides is not mentioned here as its only on raid gear and while strong in raids/dungeons isn’t as big a deal in open world. Swirling sands is not mentioned here because while quite strong on sims, I have literally never seen it on a piece of gear and never tested it. I think its on a very very few pieces of gear. Same with Treacherous Covenant although that’s not as good in PVE since it has a health threshold to function.
In the middle ring…
Gutripper, Unstable Flames, Earthlink, and Elemental Whirl are always solid regardless of situation. Heed My Call is also quite decent and even more useful if pulling smaller tightly packed groups. Azerite Globules is great if doing a lot of AoE pulling. For all of the above its really just a personal choice. Really the only big deal here is Overwhelming power which while often BiS with a tank tanking things, can suffer in WQ’s since you are taking damage.
The inner ring…
is honestly the most important ring in open world questing in my view and the reason why is primarily Resounding Protection. A shield on top of your castable shield, and one that stacks. If you have 3 resounding protection traits thats a massive amount of shielding that refreshes every 30 seconds and can make you quite strong. However other traits here are not terrible. Longstrider makes you more mobile which is a weakness of shadow. Vampiric speed is like a leech and great for additional self healing. Less great is Sanctum which is like another shield but ONLY against magic damage. Self Reliance is decent if you simply want to heal up faster in-between pulls but is completely unnecessary. I wouldn’t bother with any others as while the numbers are good, the CD’s or requirements on them are not.
Disclaimer: My opinions only.
If all you’re doing is questing it doesn’t really matter. Raid traits will help kill elites quicker but really you can run anything; just equip Essence of the Focusing Iris as your Major.