Restoration Druid Healing Guide

Druids are pretty awesome healers and this page focuses on the Resto Druid in a raiding (PvE) environment (PvP is here,) which Resto does very well.

For info on PvP or leveling or other Druid specs, see the links in the Contents section, just below.

In Warlords there were a lot of changes for Resto, way too many to list here. Check them out on our Resto Changes in Warlords post.

This Restoration Druid guide is primarily intended for use in PvE and Raids at max level. However, the principals will still apply during the leveling process. If you’re looking for advice on leveling your Druid, check out our Druid Leveling Guide.

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Resto Contents Restoration Abilities Restoration Talents Resto stats Spells and Rotation Gems Enchants Consumables Race Choice Leveling faster

If you want the same in-game step by step leveling guide that we use to get to the level cap as fast as possible, take a look at our favorite in-game leveling guide.     Other Druid Guides: PvE: Guarding tanking, Feral, Restoration PvP: Blaance, Feral, Restoration Other: Druid overview, leveling

 

Races for Restoration Druids

Before Cataclysm the choice of race for a Druid was a “difficult” one: Tauren or Night Elf? Now, there are several more races. You can see a complete list of the available races on the Druid Leveling Page.

 

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Restoration Druid Abilities for Shadowlands

The abilities common to all Druids in Shadowlands are on our Druid Leveling Guide.

The abilities unique to the Restoration spec are below.

HOT = Heal over Time, DOT = Damage over Time, P = Passive effect,

• • Mastery: Harmony, 10, P, For each of the HOTs you have up on a target your healing will be increased by 4%.
  • Rejuvenation, 10, is a HOT that lasts 12 seconds.
    • Rejuvenation, Rank 2, duration is extended to 15 seconds.
  • Swiftmend, 11, cancels one of your HOTS (Regrowth, Wild Growth, or Rejuvenation) to instantly heal your target. That target must have the HOT on it and the Swiftmend will only affect that target. A good tactic then is to cast Regrowth and immediately follow it with Swiftmend. 1 charge, 15 second recharge.
  • Ironbark, 12, toughens up the target, reducing damage taken by 20% for 12 seconds. 1.5 minute CD.
    • Ironbark, Rank 2, your HOT effects on that target are increased by 20%.
  • Nature’s Cure, 19, removes all harmful magic, curse, and poison effects from the friendly target.
  • Lifebloom, 21, is a HOT that lasts 15 seconds. When it is dispelled, or expires, the target is instantly healed for 115% of your spellpower. Affects one target at a time.
  • Sunfire, 23. is a DOT that blasts the target for light damage, then burns it for more over 12 seconds.
    • Sunfire, Rank 2, now applies it’s DOT effect to all enemies within 8 yards.
  • Leather Specialization, 27, adds +5% to your Int if your are wearing leather armor in all slots.
  • Ysera’s Gift, 27, P, heals you for 3% of your health every 5 seconds. If you are at max, then an injured party or raid member will be healed.
  • Ursol’s Vortex, 28, is usable in all forms and creates a vortex at the target location. THis slows the speed of enemies within 8 yards by 50% for 10 seconds. The first enemy that tries to leave is snapped back to the center of the effect. 1 min. CD
  • Omen of Clarity, 33, P, causes each tick of your Lifebloom HOT to have a 4% chance of making your next Regrowth cost no mana.
  • Wild Growth, 34, heals up to 5 injured allies within 30 yards of the target over 7 sec. Healing starts high and declines over the duration.
    • Wild Growth, Rank 2, now heals 1 additional target (6 total.)
  • Tranquility, 37, is a channeled spell, healing all allies within 40 yards, and each heal heals the target for another (6.88% of Spell power) over 8 sec, stacking.  Healing increased by 100% when not in a raid.
  • Efflorescence, 39, grows a healing flower at the target location, restoring some health to three injured allies, within 10 yards of the flower, every 2 sec for 30 sec. Limit 1 at a time.
  • Innervate, 42, infuses a friendly healer (and yes, it can be you) with energy, allowing them to cast spells without using mana. Lasts 10 seconds, 3 minute CD.
    • Innervate, Rank 2, 52, allows you get receive 50% of the effect if you cast it on someone else.
  • Revitalize, 47, must be used while out of combat and will restore all dead party members to life at 35% health and mana.
  • Nature’s Swiftness, 58, causes your next Regrowth, Rebirth, or Entangling Roots to be instant, castable in any form, and heals for an additional 100%.

 

 

 

Restoration Druid Talents

Our picks are checked, .

There are situations where you might want a different talent than those shown below and there are explanations of the talents below the image. Talents are easy to change and you will need one Tome of the Clear Mind for each change you make.

Tier 1, level 15

1. Feline Swiftness is a constant movement increase, which makes it at least somewhat useful all of the time. It’s also one less item to have on your bars.
2. Displacer Beast is much like a Mage’s blink. Pop forward, shift to cat form, and have a brief speed increase. Nice for burst movement, which is often quite useful.
3. Wild Charge is occasionally useful. It allows you to fly to an ally’s location, useful for re-locating yourself swiftly during a fight. If burst movement to an ally is more valuable to you than Feline Swiftness, take this one. It also has use if your target is about to move to an inconvenient position, as it will put you back on top of him.

Tier 2, level 25

1. Ysera’s Gif is the replacement talent for Nature’s Swiftness. It gives you a constant personal heal, which might be pretty useful, and occasionally will pop over and heal someone else (if you’re at full HP.)
2. Renewal has little use. You have better spells and you won’t be the center of attention anyway. If you are then that tank has probably dies and the raid is likely on the way to a wipe.
3. Cenarion Ward was buffed in 5.2., and has its uses, but Nature’s swiftness is much more versatile. Cenarion Ward also can cause wasted healing and over healing, depending on when it triggers.

Tier 3, level 30

Nothing stands out here, though all have their uses for certain situations.

1. Faerie Swarm improves Faerie Fire with a speed debuff, not exactly amazing stuff here.
2. Mass Entanglement is probably the most generally useful talent in this tier, an AoE CC.
3. Typhoon might be situationally useful, like everything else in this tier, but I can’t think of a time. Perhaps it’s only good for PvP, where it will knock around all those evil players trying to kill you. One “good” PvE use is to troll people, getting yourself onto the hate list of your tanks and melee as you knock opponents away from them.

Tier 4, level 35

1. Soul of the Forest gives you a haste effect applied to the first spell you cast after using Swiftmend. This talent is useful, but not my preferred choice. It can be nice when that Haste is applied to something like your Wild Growth, Rejuvenation, or Tranquility. It will also be available much more often that Incarnation.
2. Incarnation: Tree of Life is great for burst healing and my recommended choice this tier. It’s also more flexible than Soul of the Forest. You get more and better healing, though it has a long cooldown. If the three minute cooldown is annoying to you, since it doesn’t necessarily line up with your fights, then Soul of the Forest might well be the better choice.
3. Force of Nature isn’t worth taking except for the occasional laugh when used alongside the Glyph of the Treant. The heals aren’t efficient and they aren’t much smarter than zombies.

Tier 5, level 40

All have situational use, none stand out. None add to healing.

1. Disorienting Roar might disorient you as you try to find a good way of using it. Good for getting away from melee mobs, but not much else.
2. Ursol’s Vortex is a helpful targeted AoE slow, take it. It’s also the only one of the three that’s ranged.
3. Mighty Bash is a decent stun, but requires melee range which hampers its usefulness. Better in PvP.

Tier 6, level 45

1. Heart of the Wild has a good passive increases to your stats, 6% Int bonus isn’t bad at all. It’s doubtful you’ll find much use in its other, triggered, benefits and that 6 min cooldown is a long one.
2. Dream of Cenarius might be useful if you weave in Wrath or some other attack spell to take advantage of the healing bonus. Since you’re probably not planning to DPS you can consider this talent to be useless.
3. Nature’s Vigil is a burst healing (+12% for 30 seconds) cooldown similar to Incarnation. A much shorter cooldown than Heart of the Wild enhances its usefulness. Nice for times when a lot of damage needs to be healed quickly.
   

Tier 7, level 50

Coming with the Warlords of Draenor. Note that these talents will probably change before release of that expansion. Each of these talents has varying effects depending on your spec. You can see the full description, as well as talents for the other classes, here.

• Touch of Elune has this effect for Resto: Omen of Clarity now lasts 5 seconds, instead of one cast. Sounds pretty nice.
• Will of Malfurion – Your Genesis now also extends Rejuvenation by 1 second after hastening it.
• Might of Malorne – Your Swiftmend now consumes your Rejuvenation or Regrowth, but has no cooldown.

 

 

Resto Stat Priorities

Warlords has done away with Hit, Expertise, and Reforging. You have two new stats, Multistrike and Versatility, and an attuned stat (Haste) obtained via your level 90 Naturalist ability.

• Priorities: Int > Haste > Mastery > Multistrike > Crit > Versatility
• See the note on Spirit, just below.

Intelligence is your #1 stat for total overall healing. Your Int is your Spellpower. It no longer adds to Crit.

Mastery basically boosts all of your healing. It adds a flat amount to your direct healing spells and, through those direct heals, also adds to your periodic heals.

Haste speeds up what you do (including your “heal over time” spells,) reduces cooldowns, and helps burn mana faster. Quicker casts let you react to emergencies better. One of the Warlords changes Bliz tried to make was to remove the need for hitting certain Haste breakpoints. Hopefully this really will mean that adding X amount of Haste gives you Y improvement, without the more complicated calculation.

Crit is a decent stat, it’s nice seeing the big numbers that result from it. The problem is that it costs a lot more to get X amount of crit than with the other stats.

Versatility is a direct add to your damage, healing, and reduction of damage taken.

 

 

In-Depth “Rotation” Guide

As a Restoration Druid you depend primarily on “periodic” or “Heal Over Time” (HoT) spells to heal a large number of targets periodically rather than the use of direct healing spells. Rather than react to damage, you apply your HoTs to any target you anticipate will take damage.

There is no real “rotation,” but a list of spells that you will cast to suit the current situation.

Specials

1. Genesis is the new (with 5.4) Resto Druid spell. It massively accelerates your Rejuvenation effects (and their expiration.) It’s best used when you have several Rejuv effects up, those effects have plenty of time left, and those targets are taking (or are about to take) heavy damage. Note that Genesis does not do additional healing, just accelerates what’s already there. A 12 second Rejuv now lasts 3 seconds, for the same total healing.
2. Nature’s Swiftness should be used as available for the free, empowered casts that it provides.
3. With our Mastery: Harmony we receive both a decent boost to our direct healing and a more important boost to our periodic healing effects every time we cast a direct heal. You should endeavor to maintain this buff at all times.

The Heals

• Lifebloom is a HoT spell that stacks up to 3 times on a target and should always be applied to any target that is going to take heavy damage, likely a tank. It can only be active on one target at a time, and if you switch targets then all stacks from target #1 will move to #2 if more than 2 seconds remains on the duration.
• Lifebloom’s periodic heals have a chance to trigger Omen of Clarity which makes the next Healing Touch or Regrowth cast within 15 seconds cost no mana.
  • Use Regrowth if you absolutely need to heal a target immediately and Healing Touch if you have a bit more time to get your healing in.
  • Healing Touch is a heavy healing spell with a moderate cast time and high mana cost, use this for periods of heavy damage. Ideally your Omen of Clarity proc will make the cast free.
  • Regrowth is a fast, high mana cost heal which heals for a large amount and adds a short, 5 second HoT effect to the target. This should be used only in emergencies due to the high mana cost. Ideally your Omen of Clarity proc will make the cast free.
• Rejuvenation is a HoT spell that should be applied to any target in need of healing as it has a low mana cost and is instant cast.
• Wild Growth heals 5 targets, 6 with the glyph, prioritizing the raid members with the lowest health at a minimal mana cost.
• Swiftmend is a heal that can only be cast on targets already effected by either Rejuvenation or Regrowth, healing the target and placing a circle around them that heals the three lowest health players within the zone.
• Wild Mushroom allows you to place up to 3 mushrooms that, when triggered with the Wild Mushroom: Bloom ability, heal all nearby players.
• Tranquility is a channeled AoE heal spell that heals 5 of the lowest health targets around you and is quite powerful for times of large raid damage.
• Innervate can and should be used almost always on yourself for the maximum benefit of the mana regeneration.

Tier 2 Talented Abilities:

• Ysara’s Gift keeps you from having to be too concerned about your own health.
• Cenarion Ward should be applied to the tank or whoever is taking consistent damage.

Tier 4 Talented Abilities:

• Incarnation: Tree of Life should be used as often as is necessary. While using this ability simply as it is available can help lighten the load of raid healing, you should probably keep it in reserve for times when the increased healing output is truly important.

 

Restoration Druid Gems

At lower gear levels you might want to be gemming for Spirit, depending on your needs. At higher gear levels you will have enough Spirit from your gear that you should no longer need to gem for it. As mentioned above, if you never go Out of Mana then you have enough Spirit. If you’re nearly full when the fight is over then you can get rid of some Spirit.

With gear under ilevel 600 tou DO want to match socket bonuses. Here’s a possible gemming choice. Stack some Spirit until you’re happy with your mana usage, then go for as much Int as possible.

1. Meta: Use the burning gem unless you need the spirit (Revitalizing gem) or you’re able to do the quest for the legendary Courageous gem.
2. Red, Blacksmithing, and belt buckle slots: Brilliant Serpent’s Eye for the Int
3. Yellow slots: Quick for the Haste, if you can hit that break-point or Reckless for Int and Haste. You can also slot in a Fractured Sun’s Radiance for the Mastery.
4. Blue slots: Purified Imperial Amethyst: Int and Spirit.

In Warlords of Draenor

• Gems sockets are actually few and far between (especially on PvP gear.) Also, there are no meta gems or sockets, there are no socket bonuses, and all sockets are “prismatic,” which means that they will take any available gem.
• The gem themselves are actually available. They are all prismatic, meaning they fit into any socket. None have Int, they all have secondary stats (Mastery, etc.) Apparently there are no Meta sockets or gems.
• Older (Mists of Pandaria) gems work until item level 600, but the item squish cut them down a bit. What used to be 160 Int is now 10, for example. The new Prismatic gems are 50 points of Mastery or whatever.
• Older gems (Mists of Pandaria and lower) that used to code for Hit now do Crit, gems that had Expertise are now Haste.

Gemming priority: All gems should be Mastery

Note that the lesser gem (35 instead of 50) is going to be a lot cheaper than the better gem.

 

Restoration Druid Enchantments

Short on gold? If you want to buy the best enchants, fund all of your alts, donate to the guild, etc., but don’t have the cash, then see what the Tycoon Addon can do about about fixing your poverty.

Warlords Notes: There are no head enchants, all shoulder enchants come from the Inscription profession and are only for items under items level 600. There are new enchants for Neck, Cloak, Weapons, and your Rings. Not for any other pieces. (Not yet, anyway.)

Enchant for: Haste > Mastery

Lesser enchants are shown for gear under item level 600. You can apply the Warlords enchants to your level 1 heirlooms, if you’re leveling.

 

Restoration Consumables

Note that Pandarens get twice the food buff. All food buffs last one hour. Alchemists get about 30% more effect and an extra hour from Flasks and Elixirs.
Foods

• Mogu Fish Stew: 34 Int
• Steamed Crab Surprise: 34 Spirit
• Braised Turtle: 31 Int
• Fire Spirit Salmon: 31 Spirit

Flasks

• Flask of the Warm Sun: 114 Int for an hour.
• Flask of Falling Leaves: 114 Spirit for an hour.

Potions

• Potion of the Jade Serpent: 456 Int for 25 seconds. If you pop one immediately before combat you will be able to pop another during combat.
• Master Healing Potion: Heals 12k HP
• Master Mana Potion: About 6k Mana

 

 

 

The Fastest Level 1 to Max Druid Leveling Guide

BFA has pushed the level cap to 120, Shadowlands zaps it to 60.  With thousands of quests and a million mobs to kill that trip to max level might still take a while. Want to make it much easier?

An in-game leveling guide, like Zygor’s Guide, (semi) automates the whole 1-max path for your Druid. Pick your starting point, from any level, and Zygor’s will show you where to go and what to do. Whether you’re brand new or are freshly boosted or are level 1 and decked head to toe in heirlooms, Zygor has your back.

It automatically updates and advances as you complete tasks and quests, sets a waypoint arrow automatically (always showing you where to go next,) and includes all the important quest info. You will probably never need to look at your quest log again, much less stop mid-play to browse some website.

Grab your copy here and get leveled fast.

 

 

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