Restoration Druid Raid Healing Guide

Note: Some aspects of this guide may not apply to your character until higher level. If are interested in getting your character to max level quickly, take a look at this leveling guide.

Contents

Restoration Druid, Raid Healing Build (10/0/31)

As Restoration your special abilities are:

  1. Swiftmend: Consumes a Heal over Time (HoT) effect on the target and makes it an instant heal.
  2. Meditation: Allows some of your mana regeneration from Spirit to continue while in combat.
  3. Gift of Nature: Increases all of your healing
  4. Disentanglement: Freedom of movement when shapeshifting
  5. Mastery: Symbiosis: Increases the effect of your healing spells on any target that already has one of your HoTs.

View this build

Resto, 31 Points

  1. Blessing of the Grove – Rank 1/2 – Increases the healing done by your Rejuvenation by 2% and the direct damage of your Moonfire by 3%.
  2. Natural Shapeshifter – Rank 2/2 – Reduces the mana cost of all shapeshifting by 20% and increases the duration of Tree of Life Form by 6 sec.
  3. Naturalist – Rank 2/2 – Reduces the cast time of your Healing Touch and Nourish spells by 0.50 sec.
  4. Heart of the Wild – Rank 3/3 – Increases your Intellect by 6%. In addition, while in Bear Form your Stamina is increased by 6% and while in Cat Form your attack power is increased by 10%.
  5. Perseverance – Rank 3/3 – Reduces all spell damage taken by 6%.
  6. Master Shapeshifter – Rank 1/1 – Grants an effect which lasts while the Druid is within the respective shapeshift form.
    • Bear Form – Increases physical damage by 4%.
    • Cat Form – Increases critical strike chance by 4%.
    • Moonkin Form – Increases spell damage by 4%.
    • Tree of Life/Caster Form – Increases healing by 4%.
  7. Improved Rejuvenation – Rank 3/3 – Increases the effect of your Rejuvenation and Swiftmend spells by 15%.
  8. Revitalize – Rank 2/2 – When you periodically heal with your Rejuvenation or Lifebloom spells, you have a 20% chance to instantly regenerate 2% of your total mana. This effect cannot occur more than once every 12 sec.
    • In addition, you also grant Replenishment when you cast or refresh Lifebloom.
    • Replenishment – Grants up to 10 party or raid members mana regeneration equal to 1% of their maximum mana per 10 sec. Lasts for 15 sec.
  9. Nature’s Swiftness – Rank 1/1 – When activated, your next Nature spell with a base casting time less than 10 sec. becomes an instant cast spell. If that spell is a healing spell, the amount healed will be increased by 50%.
  10. Empowered Touch – Rank 2/2 – Increases the direct healing done by your Healing Touch, Regrowth and Nourish spells by 10%, and grants those spells a 100% chance to refresh the duration of your Lifebloom on targets.
  11. Malfurion’s Gift – Rank 2/2 – Whenever you heal with your Lifebloom spell, you have a 4% chance to cause Omen of Clarity. In addition, the cooldown of your Tranquility is reduced by 5 minutes.
  12. Efflorescence – Rank 3/3 – Your Swiftmend spell causes healing flora to sprout beneath the target, restoring health equal to 12% of the amount healed by your Swiftmend to the three most injured targets within 8 yards, every 1 sec for 7 sec.
  13. Wild Growth - Rank 1/1 – Heals up to 5 friendly party or raid members within 30 yards of the target for 2975 over 7 sec. Prioritizes healing most injured party members. The amount healed is applied quickly at first, and slows down as the Wild Growth reaches its full duration.
  14. Gift of the Earthmother – Rank 3/3 – Increases the healing done when your Lifebloom expires by 15%, and causes your Rejuvenation spell to also instantly heal for 15% of the total periodic effect.
  15. Swift Rejuvenation – Rank 1/1 – Reduces the global cooldown of your Rejuvenation by 0.5 sec.
  16. Tree of Life – Rank 1/1 – Shapeshift into the tree of life, increasing healing done by 15% and increasing your armor by 120%. Also protects the caster from Polymorph effects. In addition, some of your spells are temporarily enhanced while shapeshifted. Lasts 25 sec.
    • Enhanced spells: Lifebloom, Wild Growth, Regrowth, Entangling Roots, Wrath

Balance, 10 Points

  1. Nature’s Grace – Rank 3/3 – You gain 15% spell haste after you cast Moonfire, Regrowth, or Insect Swarm, lasting 15 sec. This effect has a 1 minute cooldown. When you gain Lunar or Solar Eclipse, the cooldown of Nature’s Grace is instantly reset.
  2. Nature’s Majesty – Rank 2/2 – Increases the critical strike chance with spells by 4%.
  3. Genesis – Rank 2/3 – Increases the healing done by your periodic spells and by Swiftmend by 4%, and increases the duration of your Moonfire and Insect Swarm by 4 sec.
  4. Moonglow – Rank 3/3 – Reduces the mana cost of your damage and healing spells by 9%.

 

 

Glyphs

Glyphs come in three varieties, Prime, Major and Minor. Prime glyphs enhance core aspects of your class and generally provide the greatest benefit of the three types. Major Glyphs, while not quite as powerful as Prime Glyphs, are still useful and continue to provide a myriad of benefits. Minor Glyphs often times provide small quality of life improvements or visual changes.

Glyphs are learned permanently so it’s perfectly reasonable to learn them all and swap them in an out depending on the situation. You will need some supplies from your Inscription Supplies Vendor to make those swaps.

  • Vanishing Powder up to level 80.
  • Dust of Disappearance for 81 to 85
  • Tome fo the Clear Mind for 86-90

Prime:

Swiftmend – Optimal
Rejuvenation – Optimal
Lifebloom – Optimal
Regrowth – multi-target healing

Major:

Minor:

Mists of Pandaria note: Prime glyphs are going away, you will have only Major and Minor glyphs, six total glyphs at level 90.

Talents will be completely overhauled, as well. See our Druid page and scroll down for an early concept video of the new talents. Also, many of the Cata talents will be rolled into the abilities list and some of these will be unique to each spec.





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Resto Raid Build 1:

Restoration Druid Raid Build

View this build on WoWhead


 

Restoration Druid, Raid Healing Build 2 (8/2/31)

View this build

Restoration Talents

  1. Natural Shapeshifter – Rank 2/2 – Reduces the mana cost of all shapeshifting by 20% and increases the duration of Tree of Life Form by 6 sec.
  2. Naturalist – Rank 2/2 – Reduces the cast time of your Healing Touch and Nourish spells by 0.50 sec.
  3. Heart of the Wild – Rank 3/3 – Increases your Intellect by 6%. In addition, while in Bear Form your Stamina is increased by 6% and while in Cat Form your attack power is increased by 10%.
  4. Master Shapeshifter – Rank 1/1 – Grants an effect which lasts while the Druid is within the respective shapeshift form.
    • Bear Form – Increases physical damage by 4%.
    • Cat Form – Increases critical strike chance by 4%.
    • Moonkin Form – Increases spell damage by 4%.
    • Tree of Life/Caster Form – Increases healing by 4%.
  5. Improved Rejuvenation – Rank 3/3 – Increases the effect of your Rejuvenation and Swiftmend spells by 15%.
  6. Living Seed – Rank 3/3 – When you critically heal a target with Swiftmend, Regrowth, Nourish or Healing Touch spell you plant a Living Seed on the target for 30% of the amount healed. The Living Seed will bloom when the target is next attacked. Lasts 15 sec.
  7. Revitalize – Rank 2/2 – When you periodically heal with your Rejuvenation or Lifebloom spells, you have a 20% chance to instantly regenerate 2% of your total mana. This effect cannot occur more than once every 12 sec.
    In addition, you also grant Replenishment when you cast or refresh Lifebloom.
    • Replenishment – Grants up to 10 party or raid members mana regeneration equal to 1% of their maximum mana per 10 sec. Lasts for 15 sec.
  8. Nature’s Swiftness – Rank 1/1 – When activated, your next Nature spell with a base casting time less than 10 sec. becomes an instant cast spell. If that spell is a healing spell, the amount healed will be increased by 50%.
  9. Empowered Touch – Rank 2/2 – Increases the direct healing done by your Healing Touch, Regrowth and Nourish spells by 10%, and grants those spells a 100% chance to refresh the duration of your Lifebloom on targets.
  10. Malfurion’s Gift – Rank 2/2 – Whenever you heal with your Lifebloom spell, you have a 4% chance to cause Omen of Clarity.
    In addition, the cooldown of your Tranquility is reduced by 5 minutes.
  11. Efflorescence – Rank 3/3 – Your Swiftmend spell causes healing flora to sprout beneath the target, restoring health equal to 12% of the amount healed by your Swiftmend to the three most injured targets within 8 yards, every 1 sec for 7 sec.
  12. Wild Growth – Rank 1/1 – Heals up to 5 friendly party or raid members within 30 yards of the target for 2975 over 7 sec. Prioritizes healing most injured party members. The amount healed is applied quickly at first, and slows down as the Wild Growth reaches its full duration.
  13. Nature’s Cure – Rank 1/1 – Empowers your Remove Corruption spell to also remove a magic effect from a friendly target.
  14. Gift of the Earthmother – Rank 3/3 – Increases the healing done when your Lifebloom expires by 15%, and causes your Rejuvenation spell to also instantly heal for 15% of the total periodic effect.
  15. Swift Rejuvenation – Rank 1/1 – Reduces the global cooldown of your Rejuvenation by 0.5 sec.
  16. Tree of Life – Rank 1/1 – Shapeshift into the tree of life, increasing healing done by 15% and increasing your armor by 120%. Also protects the caster from Polymorph effects. In addition, some of your spells are temporarily enhanced while shapeshifted. Lasts 25 sec.
    • Enhanced spells: Lifebloom, Wild Growth, Regrowth, Entangling Roots, Wrath

Balance (8 Points)

  1. Nature’s Grace – Rank 3/3 – You gain 15% spell haste after you cast Moonfire, Regrowth, or Insect Swarm, lasting 15 sec. This effect has a 1 minute cooldown. When you gain Lunar or Solar Eclipse, the cooldown of Nature’s Grace is instantly reset.
  2. Nature’s Majesty – Rank 2/2 – Increases the critical strike chance with spells by 4%.
  3. Moonglow – Rank 3/3 – Reduces the mana cost of your damage and healing spells by 9%.

Feral Combat (2 Points)

  1. Furor – Rank 2/3 – Grants you a 66% chance to gain 10 Rage when you shapeshift into Bear Form, allows you to keep up to 66 of your Energy when you shapeshift into Cat Form, and increases your maximum mana by 10%.

Glyphs

Glyphs are learned permanently so it’s perfectly reasonable to learn them all and swap them in an out depending on the situation. You will need some supplies from your Inscription Supplies Vendor to make those swaps.

  • Vanishing Powder up to level 80.
  • Dust of Disappearance for 81 to 85
  • Tome fo the Clear Mind for 86-90

Note: These are the same glyphs as the above Resto build.

Prime:

Swiftmend – Optimal
Rejuvenation – Optimal
Lifebloom – Optimal
Regrowth – multi-target healing

Major:

Minor:

Mists of Pandaria note: Prime glyphs are going away, you will have only Major and Minor glyphs, six total glyphs at level 90.

Resto Raiding Guide

Druids are perhaps the most versatile class when it comes to raiding, capable of doing just about anything and they are sometimes called on to do a little bit of everything. After all, with the exception of the Paladin, they are the only class in the game than can fulfill all three roles of healing, tanking and DPS at the same time.

Therefore, it is imperative that you get yourself a good Druid PvE guide to assist you in mastering all these aspects of your character. This is especially the case if you have just reached level 85 on your Druid and want to start running instances with your character.

You will need to have a good idea of what to expect, as well what others expect of you in a PvE environment.

To start with, a good Druid PvE guide should tell you how to heal properly. A good Restoration spec Druid can stand toe to toe with the best healers in the game. Excellent raid healers, your vast array of different spells and HoT’s make you a highly effective healer especially during those boss encounters that require a lot of movement and coordination. Your Innervate and Battle Rez abilities also make you a great asset to any healer team.

If the guide you seek can assist you in all these things and ensure that you know what specs, gear, enchants, glyphs and consumables to aim for, you will be able to perform extremely well as a Resto (or any) Druid.



Resto Raid Build 2:

Restoration Druid Raid Build

View this build on WoWhead

 
 
 
 
 

Healing is about situational priority as opposed to a rotation. Maximize your effectiveness by anticipating necessary healing and reacting quickly to situations with the proper healing spells to keep players alive while also considering mana efficiency so as to remain effective throughout the encounter.

Rejuvenation – HoT
Lifebloom – HoT
Nourish – Efficient/Primary Heal
Healing Touch – Greater Heal
Regrowth – Fast Heal
Swiftmend – Instant Heal

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

AoE Rotation

 
 
 
 

When healing for your raid Wild Growth should be used whenever possible and HoTs can be applied to players in anticipation of damage or as they suffer damage.

Cooldowns

 
 
 
 
 
 

As a healer your number one priority is keeping people alive throughout all phases of an encounter, and proper use of cooldowns goes a long way towards accomplishing this. Using your abilities when they’re going to be most effective will generally take some experience with the encounter, such as knowing when a damage spike is going to occur for example.

Another aspect of healing is coordination with other healers when in a raid situation. Boss fights, especially on heroic mode, can and will at times require the chaining of healing cooldowns back to back to survive a particularly damaging phase of an encounter.

Try to use your healing cooldowns only when they’re absolutely necessary, rather than using them at the first sign of a real threat and then lacking them later in a fight when you really need it. At the same time, don’t be afraid to blow your cooldowns if you’re fairly certain that the group won’t survive without them, it really all comes down to personal judgement and experience.

Stats and Gearing

First off: getting the best gear, power leveling professions, and so on can be rather expensive. Go here and end your gold troubles permanently.

Stat Priority

  • Intellect > Mastery > Haste > Critical > Spirit

Intellect: Intellect boosts spell power, maximum mana, and mana regeneration. This is by far the primary stat for Restoration Druid healing.

Spellpower appears on a few weapons and trikets and while it isn’t quite as good as Int, it’s still a direct add to yur healing capabilities.

Mastery – Harmony: Restoration Druid mastery increases the effectiveness of all healing spells, making it the most beneficial secondary stat for healing.

Haste: Haste reduces casting time, grants extra ticks on your HoT spells, and reduces the GCD. A haste rating of 916 grants an extra tick of rejuvenation, 2005 grants another. Haste loses a bit of “niceness” due to burning mana faster, but all Haste is still good and it’s great when you hit the breakpoints.

Critical: Critical rating increases the chance for your spells to critically heal. A critical heal spell heals for 100% more than a regular spell. It doesn’t improve healing throughput quite as much as Haste and Mastery.

Spirit: Spirit increases your mana regeneration, which is cool, but it doesn’t increase thoughput as much as the above.

Resilience: Worthless in a PvE/Raiding environment.

Reforging

When reforging gear, it’s important that you look to reforge from your least effective stat into the most effective for whatever gear goal you are currently aiming for.

Reforge Crit and Spirit into Mastery and Haste. Try to hit the Haste breakpoints if you can.

Reforging priority is specific to you. If you’re having mana problems reforging into more spirit will help, while if you’re perfectly fine on mana then reforging into Mastery or Haste will increase the effectiveness of your healing.

 
 
 
 
 

Gems, Enchants, Gearing

Gearing’s pretty easy. Just grab the leather gear with the stats you need. You don’t need the spirit gear. Reforge weaker stats into stronger ones.

When you hit 85, if you’re all in greens and dungeon gear you can buy the crafted PvP set (ilevel 377) which will be good enough for dungeons and heroics (though not for raids.) Work up to the PvE gear, then start raiding.

Gems

Unless a socket bonus offers intellect it’s better to ignore the bonus and instead gem for intellect.

Resto Enchantments

The best enchants are at the top of each list. If you need more gold then go here.

Professions for Resto Druids

The best of the professions, for stats, is Blacksmithing. Its two gems slots willhold the new (as of patch 4.3) epic Int gems for a total of +100 to Int. The other professions offer about 80 points in Int. Alchemy and Engineering have useful on demand items.

  • Leatherworking provides the best increase with its 130 Int bracer enchant (compared to the next best, which is 65 Haste)
  • Blacksmithing gives two extra gems slots for +40 Int gems, 80 Int total. If you install the epic gems (introduced in 4.3) then you get +100 total Int increase and Blacksmithing pulls ahead of the others.
  • Engineering has lots of interesting toys, some of which have situational use, and Synapse Springs, which increases Int by 480 for a short time. If you take this use a macro to activate it along with other short term buffs.
  • Enchanting will allow you to enchant both rings, for a total +80 Int gain.
  • Inscription has a +130 Int shoulder enchant which is an 80 Int gain over the next best item.
  • Alchemy has a variety of useful potions and the Mixology bonus is worth 80 Int.
  • TailoringLightweave Embroidery sometimes increases Int by 580 for 15 seconds. The problem is that you can’t count on that proc at any given instant, much less activate it on call.
  • Jewelcrafting used to be a thin hair better than the others, being able to create three +67 Int, self-only, gems for a mighty 81 point total Int gain. WIth the introduction of the epic Int gems in patch 4.3 JC falls behind with a net gain of only 51 points.
  • Skinning provides 80 crit rating, which is far below 80 Int in value. If you have to take skinning for the cash flow then you should take a look at this.
  • Herbalism provides a small self heal and 240 Haste rating for 20 seconds
  • Mining provides 80 Stam and so has no benefit for casters.

 

Our class guides for whichever class you’re playing:

Death KnightsDruidHunterMagePaladin
PriestRogueShamanWarlockWarrior

The GotWarcraft Gold Guide

Cataclysm Heroic Guides

 

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