Resto Druid Guide - 4.0.1 edition

[Dendrek]

Note about links in this guide: It has come to my attention that some of the links for spells and items may display the wrong descriptions. This occurs because MMO-Champion's Item Database updates its links based on the latest beta build. If anyone has a solution to this problem, please let me know.

1. Introduction
2. Stats on Gear
2.1 Reforging
2.2 Gems
2.3 Enchants
3. Glyphs
4. Specs
5. Healing Strategies
5.1 Healing Spells
5.2 Utility Spells
6. FAQs
7. Version History

Searching the guide: To make it easier to search this guide, each section is proceeded by a #. If you need to get to a certain section quickly, hit [Crtl]+[f] to open your browser's "find" option, then type the section number you're looking for, preceded by the # sign. For example "#2.1" (without quotes) will take you to Reforging.


#1. Introduction

In an effort to provide accurate information about Resto Druids, I'm writing this guide for 4.0.1. It is not necessarily going to be comprehensive, but I'm going to try to make it as accurate and relevant as I am able based on my research and understanding of the changes that have happened in 4.0.1.

Unfortunately, I am unable to play the game right now. But WoW and theorycrafting are both an addiction of mine, and although I can't play WoW, I do still have time to participate in theorycrafting. I hope a knowledgeable raider/theorycrafter will take up the responsibility of writing up an updated and complete guide for resto druids. But until that time comes, I'll provide this starter-guide for those who need it.

Feedback is Welcome:
I am open to any suggestions and constructive criticism to improve this guide. In particular, I welcome feedback regarding the following topics:

• Do you disagree with how I've valued Mastery Rating (both in how it compares to Crit Rating and in how much synergy Symbiosis has with current healing strategies)?
• Do you agree with how I've valued Int vs the Haste soft cap? In particular, which is more important: maximizing Int or obtaining the Haste soft cap?
• How important are Spirit and regen-based talents? Different levels of gear and different healing styles may affect responses to this.
• What are your opinions of talents I consider to be "optional"? What is the best talent spec for current content? Are there any specialized talent specs that are strong in current content that I haven't considered?
• Do you disagree with the gemming suggestions I've provided? Are the haste deficits I've used to distinguish each gemming standard accurate or realistic?
• Do you disagree with, or have any suggestions to improve, the healing strategies I've provided? (Not yet written.)
• Is there anything this guide needs which has not yet been added? (Entire sections are not likely to be added unless I get help writing them up.)

#2. Stats on Gear

With 4.0.1, many stats have been removed from the game (Spell Power and mp5 are gone); some stats have changed (Int now provides Spell Power, and Haste and Crit now affect all of our hots); and a new stat, Mastery, has been introduced.

The current stat priority is:

Haste cap (1016) > Int > Haste (below cap) > Crit >= Mastery > Spirit

The haste cap is only worth going for if you can actually obtain it. If you're going to fall short at all (even if only by a few points) then focus on stacking Int instead and wait until your gear improves. This suggestion will be explained better in the following sections: "2.1 Reforging" and "2.2 Gems."

How each stat affects you:

Intellect:
1 Int provides 1 Spell Power, 0.006% Spell Crit and 15 mana. With Mark of the Wild, Heart of the Wild, Ancestral Leather Specialization, 1 Int provides 1.169 SP, 0.007% Crit (142 Int for 1% Crit), and 17.53 mana (20.16 mana with 3/3 Furor).

Int is our primary healing throughput stat now, which increases the strength of all spells. It is also our best mana regen stat because of the returns it provides with Replenishment, Revitalize, Innervate and passive Spirit-based regen.

Spell Power:
As a stat, spell power appears only on weapons and through enchants. Like Int, it increases the strength of our spells. However, unlike Int, it does not benefit from buffs, and it doesn't increase mana or spell crit.

Haste rating:
32.79 haste rating provides 1% spell haste. The "haste cap" for Resto druids is 1016.

All of our spells, including our hots, are affected by Haste. Haste reduces the GCD of all spells and reduces the cast time of non-instant spells. In addition, haste decreases the time between ticks for our hots.

Theoretically Haste does not decrease the duration of our hots. Instead, at certain amounts of Haste, this stat increases the number of ticks our hots provide. The amount of haste that's needed to increase the number of ticks of a hot by 1 is considered a "threshold." The threshold for increasing the number of ticks of Rejuv to 6 is called the haste cap.

Critical strike rating:
45.9 crit rating provides 1% crit. Critical heals provide 1.5x as much healing as non-critical heals (this is true for hots as well).

Although critical heals provide a lot of extra healing, crit rating falls short of haste for resto druids as a throughput stat because of the high cost of itemization compared to haste (45.9 crit rating vs 32.75 haste rating = 1% of their respective stats).

Spirit:
Provides 0.00836*SQRT(Int) mp5 per point of Spirit. The "Spirit-Int to mp5" conversion formula is 0.00836*(Spirit)*SQRT(Int).

Spirit increases passive mana regen for druids. It has also completely replaced mp5 for all healers as a regen stat (since mp5 was removed from the game). However, Int is still the stronger regen stat.

Mastery rating:
45.9 mastery rating provides 1.25% to our mastery effect, Symbiosis.

Mastery is a new stat that was introduced with 4.0.1. This stat affects a passive ability that all players obtain based on the primary tree they choose to spec into. For resto druids, that passive ability is called Symbiosis, which causes our heals to heal for more whenever one of our hots is already present on the target. For example, if you cast Rejuvenation on a player and then cast Regrowth on that player while Rejuv is still active, then the Regrowth will benefit from Symbiosis and will heal for more.

The value of mastery for resto druids depends greatly on their style of healing. However, unfortunately, unless you're specifically assigned to tank healing or unless you're consistently hotting up a small group of players, chances are that most of your heals will not be affected by Symbiosis. For this reason, mastery rating is not very strong for most resto druids right now.


#2.1 Reforging

A note about Reforging:
Reforging is a unique option for altering the stats available on our gear that was introduced in 4.0.1. It allows you to remove 40% of one stat on a piece of gear and replace it with an equivalent amount of another stat, as long as a few conditions are met:

• You cannot reforge "primary stats": Intellect, Strength, Agility or Stamina. This means you can neither remove nor add these stats to gear through reforging.
• If your gear already has a certain stat on it then you cannot reforge another stat to increase the stat of the first. In other words, if a piece of gear has both haste and crit on it, you cannot reforge crit in give that piece of gear even more haste. However, in this example, you could reforge the crit into spirit (not recommended) or into mastery if you chose to and neither stat was already present on the gear.
• You can only reforge one stat per piece of gear. In other words, if you've already reforged spirit into haste on a piece of gear, then you cannot also reforge crit into mastery on that same piece of gear.

Reforge your gear based on the following stat priorities:

Haste is the most valuable of our secondary stats. You should try to reforge your gear to obtain as much haste as possible (up to the haste soft cap of 1016 - past that, you can reforge to other useful stats).

Spirit is the least valuable of our secondary stats. Reforge all Spirit into another useful stat: Haste > Crit >= Mastery. This means:

• If the piece of gear has Spirit and no Haste, reforge the Spirit into Haste.
• If a piece of gear has Spirit and Haste, reforge the Spirit into Crit (or Mastery, if you prefer that to Crit).
• If the piece of gear has Spirit, Haste and Crit, then reforge the Spirit into Mastery.

#2.2 Gems

The haste requirements for the suggestions below (when I say "more than 150," "50-150," and "0-50") are merely educated guesses and should not be considered exact values. I welcome feedback with regards to those recommendations to make them more realistic and precise.

Meta Gems:
Recommended: For an increased effect from your critical heals, use Revitalizing Skyflare Diamond (requires 2 Red gems).
Alternative Option: If you struggle with mana, use Insightful Earthsiege Diamond (requires 1 Red, 1 Yellow and 1 Blue gem).

Blue Gems:
In general, any socket bonus that requires blue gems should be ignored. The only exception is if you need 1 blue gem for your meta. In that case: use Nightmare Tear.

• Put it in your helm if you only need 1 blue and no yellow gems.
• Put it in your chest if you need at least 1 yellow gem for the haste cap in addition to that blue.

Socket bonuses and other gemming needs:
Your gemming should be based on how far from the haste cap you are (assuming you even wish to use gems to reach the haste cap - if not, use the first suggestion below).

1. If you are at or past the haste cap (or if you don't care to reach the haste cap through gemming):
Ignore all socket bonuses and use only Brilliant Cardinal Ruby (20 Int).

2. If you are close to the haste cap (0-50 or so rating from it):
Prioritize getting the biggest socket bonuses you can (perferrably +7 or more int), as long as it only requires red or yellow gems.

• Red gems = Brilliant Cardinal Ruby (20 Int).
• Yellow gems = Reckless Ametrine (10 Int / 10 haste).
• Bad socket bonuses: use Brilliant Cardinal Ruby (20 Int).

3. If you are pretty far from the haste cap (50-150 or so rating from it):
You can go for most socket bonuses that give +Int, as long as they only require red and yellow gems.

• Red gems = Reckless Ametrine (10 Int / 10 haste).
• Yellow gems = Quick King's Amber (20 haste).
• Bad socket bonuses: use your judgment. Either use Brilliant Cardinal Ruby (20 Int) or Reckless Ametrine (10 Int / 10 haste), depending on how much more haste you need.

4. If you are very far from the haste cap (more than 150 rating from it):
Recommended: Ignore the socket bonuses and use all Brilliant Cardinal Ruby (20 Int).
Optional: Gem for all socket bonuses that give +Int, as long as they require only red or yellow gems.

• Red gems = Reckless Ametrine (10 Int / 10 haste).
• Yellow gems = Quick King's Amber (20 haste).
• Bad socket bonuses: use all Quick King's Amber (20 haste).

#2.3 Enchants

This list does not include profession-only items.

• Head: Arcanum of Burning Mysteries (30 Spell Power & 20 Crit, rep item) requires: Kirin Tor (revered)
  
• Shoulders: Greater Inscription of the Storm (24 Spell Power & 15 Crit, rep item) requires: Sons of Hodir (exalted)
  
• Back: Enchant Cloak - Greater Speed (23 Haste, enchanting)
  
• Chest: Enchant Chest - Powerful Stats (10 Stats, enchanting)
  
• Wrist: Enchant Bracers - Superior Spellpower (30 Spell Power, enchanting)
  
• Gloves: Enchant Gloves - Exceptional Spellpower (28 Spell Power, enchanting)
  
• Legs: Brilliant Spellthread (50 Spell Power & 20 Spirit, tailoring)
  
• Boots: Enchant Boots - Tuskarr's Vitality (run speed & 15 stam, enchanting)
  
• 1H Weapon: Enchant Weapon - Mighty Spellpower (63 Spell Power to 1H, enchanting)
• 2H Weapon: Enchant Staff - Greater Spellpower (81 Spell Power to staff, enchanting)

#3. Glyphs

Coming soon...


#4. Specs

Base Spec: 0/0/28 - This leaves 8 points to be distributed.

At level 80, you have a total of 36 points to distribute. There are some optional talents to choose from, but no matter what optional talents you choose, the above distribution of talents is considered by most to be mandatory for current content.

Note: Although this spec has 2 points in Revitalize, only 1 point is necessary. The second point in optional, but I placed it there in order to go deeper into the tree. Also, there should be 1 point in Tree of Life, but obtaining it requires spending several points in optional talents, so I skipped getting ToL in this spec.

Highlights (talents with * are mandatory):

• Heart of the Wild* - Increases Int by 6%.
• Blessing of the Grove* - Increases healing from Rejuv by 4%.
• Master Shapeshifter* - Increases all healing done by 4%.
• Improved Rejuvenation* - Increases healing from Rejuv and Swiftmend by 15%.
• Living Seed - (Required for Efflorescence.) Critical heals from direct heals (Healing Touch, Nourish, Regrowth and Swiftmend) place a seed on the target, healing for an additional 30%.
• (1/3) Revitalize* - (1 point is mandatory, 2 is optional, 3 is optional but unnecessary.) Casting Lifebloom grants Replenishment to 10 party or raid members. In addition, Rejuv and Lifebloom ticks have a chance to restore mana to the casting druid.
• Nature's Swiftness* - (There's debate on if this talent is mandatory, though most do consider it mandatory.) Allows one nature-based spell with a cast time of less than 10 seconds to become instant-cast. It's very useful with Healing Touch, Rebirth, and Cyclone.
• Nature's Bounty - Increases Crit rate of Regrowth by 60%. In addition, Critical heals from Healing Touch and Nourish decrease the CD of Swiftmend by 0.5 seconds.
• Efflorescence* - After healing with Swiftmend, a green circle appears beneath the target that heals all players standing in it for 60% of the amount Swiftmend healed.
• Wild Growth* - Smart heal that heals 5 friendly players within 15 yards of the target over 7 seconds.
• Gift of the Earthmother* - Rejuv provides an instant heal when it's cast.
• Tree of Life* - Transform into a tree, increasing healing done by 15% and providing special effects for some of your spells, including: Regrowth becomes an instant cast and Lifebloom can be cast on an unlimited number of targets.

Optional Talents (talents with * are recommended):

• Naturalist - Reduces the cast time of Nourish and Healing Touch. Nourish is somewhat useless at level 80, but Healing Touch is a strong tank-healing spell. If you're ever assigned to tank-healing, this is a great talent to have.
• (2/3) Revitalize - (1 point in mandatory, 2 is optional, 3 is optional but unnecessary.) For most druids, 1 point in this talent is enough for their regen needs. 2 points will provide more regen than 1, but the increase may either not be necessary, or may not be significant enough to matter. However, it is worth getting 2 points if you have mana issues.
• Empowered Touch - Increases the healing done by Healing Touch and Nourish. It also causes Nourish casts to refresh the duration of Lifebloom (on targets affected by Lifebloom). This second affect, the refreshing of Lifebloom, is useless for level 80 because Nourish is a weak heal and has a long cast time. It would make more sense to just cast Lifebloom to refresh Lifebloom. However, this talent is a good tank-healing talent because of the buff to Healing Touch.
• Swift Rejuvenation** - This talent is pretty much mandatory. NOTE: currently, getting 1 point in this talent causes Swift Rejuvenation to be bugged. If you get any points in this talent, make sure you get 2. Otherwise, skip this talent entirely.
• Furor (Feral) - Increases the size of your mana pool by 15%. This is a good "regen" talent, which increases your mana longevity. However, most druids don't have any problems with mana right now, so for them this talent is useless. If you don't have mana problems, skip this talent.
• Nature's Majesty (Balance)** - Increases Crit % by 4%. In my opinion, this talent IS mandatory.

Talents to Avoid (talents with * might be worth taking but are discouraged):

• Perseverence* - Reduces spell damage taken by 6%. This can be useful to increase survivability on some fights, which is not needed for most druids. If you decide to take this talent, do not sacrifice useful talents for it.
• (3/3) Revitalize* - (1 point in mandatory, 2 is optional, 3 is optional but unnecessary.) You likely won't see much of a difference in the mana returns between 2 and 3 points in Revitalize, at least you likely won't see enough of a difference for that last point to have mattered. You're better off putting that third point elsewhere.
• Fury of Stormrage* - Wrath costs no mana and Starfire is sometimes an instant cast. You should never have to dps when raid healing, so this talent is useless for everything but 5 mans and really tight dps races.
• Malfurion's Gift* - Lifebloom can proc Clearcasting (which makes the next spell cost no mana). This is a "regen" talent, which provides unnecessary increased efficiency. Also, because it requires Fury of Stormrage it takes too many talent points to obtain.
• Nature's Ward
• Nature's Grace (Balance)* - Provides a 15% spell haste buff after casting Moonfire. Though the buff provided by this talent is nice, it comes at a cost of a wasted GCD for casting MF. It's probably unlikely you'll be able to make effective use of this talent if you choose to get it.
• Anything other than Furor in the Feral tree.
• Starlight Wrath (Balance) - Reduces the cast time of Wrath and Starfire. Again, you shouldn't be dpsing, so why waste points on a dps talent?

Recommended Specs:

1. 2/0/34 - Versatile raid and tank healer. (Reduced emphasis on mana regen.)
I personally consider this to be the best spec obtainable at level 80 because it provides all the necessary talent to be both a strong raid and tank healer. The only thing it sacrifices is "regen" talents. It may not be an ideal spec for people who have problems with mana regen (such as those with low-quality gear).

2. 2/1/33 - Versatile raid and tank healer. (Increased emphasis on mana regen. Skips Swift Rejuvenation.)
This is essentially the above talent spec, but with the points in Swift Rejuvenation being placed in mana regen talents instead. This spec is not as ideal as the above spec for two reasons: 1) with it, Rejuvenation may not have a 1 second GCD, and 2) it provides a lot of mana regen, which may not be necessary for well-geared healers. However, if the previous spec doesn't provide enough regen for you, this might be a viable alternative.

3. 0/0/36 - Versatile raid and tank healer. (Increased emphasis on mana regen. Skips Nature's Majesty.)
Like the first spec, this is a well-rounded spec. But it gives up Nature's Majesty (increases crit by 4%) for more mana regen (takes 3/3 Revitalize). I'm not sure if this is a good trade off, but it may be a viable option for druids who need additional mana regen and do not like the spec mentioned above.

4. 2/3/31 - Raid healer with a lot of regen.
This spec is very good for dedicated raid healers (especially those with mana regen issues). A druid using this spec will be very weak as a tank healer. Also, well geared druids will find they have way more mana than they need with this spec. The lack of versatility and overabundance of mana might be discouraging to end-game raiders.


#5. Healing Strategies

Please feel free to correct or offer suggestions to improve this section. Of all the sections in this guide, this is the one that most requires being active in the game, which I am not. So though I know the general theories on what healing strategies should work, I have not had a chance to put them into practice.

Raid Healing

Constant (aura) raid damage:

What to do in emergencies:

• If a large number of raid members get dangerously low on health, channel Tranquility.
• If any one player (or a small number of players) get too low on health, cast Regrowth if Swiftmend is on CD.

Otherwise, your normal healing rotation should be:

• Cast WG and Swiftmend (for Efflorescence) on cooldown. These should be cast on players who are clumped up (usually melee).
• Spam Rejuv between WG/SM casts. Do not override/refresh Rejuvs. Also, it may be a good idea to focus your healing on 1 or 2 groups in the raid since you will only be able to keep Rejuv on 8-10 people at a time.
• Optional: Slow-stack Lifebloom on the main tank. (This is to keep Revitalize and Replenishment going (for easy mana regen - especially useful if you don't have many sources of Replenishment in the raid))

Inconsistent, spiky raid damage:

Your spell priority should be based on the following conditions:

• If more than 3 raid members are close to dieing, cast Tranquility.
• If a large number of raid members are low on health, cast WG and Swiftmend (for Efflorescence) on grouped up players while spamming Rejuvs.
• If a small number of raid members are low on health, cast Regrowth and Swiftmend. (Casting Rejuv on those players is also a good option.)
• Optional: Slow-stack Lifebloom on the main tank. (This is to keep Revitalize and Replenishment going (for easy mana regen - especially useful if you don't have many sources of Replenishment in the raid))
• Optional: Keeping Rejuvs rolling on the MT when raid damage is low.

Tank Healing

What to do in emergencies:

• If the tank gets dangerously low on health and Nature's Swiftness isn't on CD, use your NS-HT macro to save the tank.
• If the tank gets low on HP and you aren't already in the process of casting a direct heal, use Swiftmend. If Swiftmend is on CD, cast Regrowth.

Otherwise, your normal healing rotation should be:

• Keep Lifebloom rolling.
• Keep Rejuv up on the tank. It's ok to clip Rejuv if you must, but generally only recast it after it's expired.
• If the tank damage is consistently heavy, spam Healing Touch between LB and RJ casts.
• If the tank damage is consistently light, spam Regrowth between LB and RJ casts.

#5.1 Healing Spells

To be an effective healer, you need to know how to use your heals effectively. The first step to that is to know how each spell works.

Note:
1. Following the description for our hot-spells, I provide the "thresholds" for haste that are needed to increase the number of ticks of those hots. This means that in order to increase the number of ticks of the hot, you'll need to obtain at least that much haste.
2. In parenthesis behind each threshold %, I include information about the amount of haste rating that's required, which is written in the following format: "(### w/5%, ### w/o)." The number, indicated by ###, represents an amount of haste rating you need from gear. The number before "w/5%" is the rating you need with a 5% haste raid buff. The number before "w/o" is the rating you need without the 5% haste buff.

Rejuvenation (Rejuv, RJ)
Rejuv is a hot with a 12-second duration. With 0 haste, it ticks 4 times, once every 3 seconds.

• Rejuvenation will be your primary source of healing for most content. Although it only has a 12 second duration, it still preforms well in current content. It benefits a lot from talents, like Swift Rejuvenation (reduces Rejuv's GCD to 1 second) and Gift of the Earthmother (Rejuv provides an instant heal when cast).

The thresholds for increasing the number of ticks of Rejuv are:

• 0% haste = 4 ticks.
• 12.5% haste (236 w/5%, 411 w/o) = 5 ticks.
• 37.5% haste (1016 w/5%, 1230 w/o) = 6 ticks.

Wild Growth (WG)
WG is an AoE (area of effect) hot that has a 7-second duration and a 10-second cooldown, and it's able to heal up to 5 targets within 15 yards of the person it was cast on. With 0 haste, WG ticks 7 times, once every second.

• Wild Growth is a strong AoE heal with a long CD. It's a good spell to use whenever a clumped-up group of players take damage, but if you accidentally choose the wrong target to cast it on, the majority of its healing potential can easily be wasted. Use this spell often, but use it wisely.
• Tree of Life effect: Wild Growth can affect up to 2 more targets when cast.

The thresholds for increasing the number of ticks of WG are:

• 0% haste = 7 ticks, once every second.
• 7.15% haste (69 w/5%, 236 w/o) = 8 ticks.
• 21.43% haste (515 w/5%, 703 w/o) = 9 ticks.
• 35.72% haste (961 w/5%, 1171 w/o) = 10 ticks.

Swiftmend (SM)
An instant-cast heal with a 15 second cooldown that requires Rejuv's or Regrowth's hot be present on the target. Unless it's glyphed, Swiftmend will consume the RJ or RG.

• Swiftmend is a very powerful heal on reasonably short cooldown. It is one of our strongest and certainly one of our most unique spells. It has a big niche in resto druid healing.

There are two effective ways to use Swiftmend:

• Direct heal: SM can be used as an emergency heal to top off any player that's dangerously low on health.
• AoE heal: SM can be used to proc the talent Efflorescence, effectively making SM a targetable AoE heal (see the spell description for Efflorescence below for more details).
• Because of these two effects (the instant heal, and the aoe heal provided by Efflorescence) Swiftmend is useful in many different situations. Use it often and use it wisely.

Efflorescence
Efflorescence is an effect that occurs when Swiftmend is used to heal a player. Efflorescence spawns a "bed of healing flora" which looks like a green circle on the ground (with an 8 yard radius) that heals all raid members who stand in it for 7 seconds.

• Efflorescence is a very powerful aoe-healing effect whose only limiting factor is that players must stand in its area of effect to receive healing from it. You can make excellent use of this spell on any fight that involves a lot of raid damage by choosing targets to Swiftmend who are grouped up with a bunch of other players.

Lifebloom (LB)
LB is a hot with a 10 second duration that can be cast on only 1 target at a time. With 0 haste, it ticks 10 times, once every second. When Lifebloom's duration expires, it "blooms" providing additional healing in the form of a large direct heal.

• Lifebloom is a very good tank-healing spell which benefits greatly from some of our talents: Revitalize (LB ticks restore mana to the casting druid and casting/refreshing lifebloom provides Replenishment to 10 raid members) and Malfurion's Gift (LB ticks have a chance to proc Clearcasting - this talent is not recommended for a raiding build, though). Whether or not you're assigned to tank healing, it's often a good idea to keep LB on the MT just for the Revitalize/Replenishment effects.
• Tree of Life effect: Lifebloom can be cast on an unlimited number of targets.

There are two primary ways to keep Lifebloom refreshed:

• Slow-stacking: As the name implies, you slowly stack Lifebloom from 1 stack to 3 (only refreshing when the duration is about to expire). Once it reaches 3 stacks, you can let it bloom and then begin stacking it again from 1. This is a good method to use if you're only casting Lifebloom to keep Replenishment/Revitalize active.
• Rolling: Simply put, you do not let LB expire (bloom). Get it to 3 stacks and then refresh it before it's about to expire, keeping it at 3 stacks for as long as possible. This is the method you'll want to use if you're ever required to tank-heal.

The thresholds for increasing the number of ticks of LB are:

• 0% = 10 ticks, once per second.
• 5% (0 w/5%, 165 w/o) = 11 ticks.
• 15% (314 w/5%, 493 w/o) = 12 ticks.
• 25% (626 w/5%, 820 w/o) = 13 ticks.
• 35% (938 w/5%, 1148 w/o) = 14 ticks.

Regrowth (RG)
Regrowth is considered our "fast, inefficient, medium heal." It is a direct heal with a high mana cost that applies a 7 second hot. It has a base cast time of 1.5 seconds.

• Regrowth should be your go-to direct heal when raid healing (and likely when tank-healing as well) whenever Swiftmend is on cooldown. It's a very fast heal that's reasonably powerful that can be used to quickly heal up plaers that are dangerously low on health. Although it has a high mana cost, that mana regen at level 80 trivializes that cost.
• Tree of Life effect: Regrowth becomes an instant-cast spell.

The thresholds for increasing the number of ticks of RG's hot are:

• 0% = 3 ticks.
• 16.67% (366 w/5%, 547 w/o) = 4 ticks.

Healing Touch (HT)
Healing touch is considered our "slow, inefficient, big heal." It is a direct heal with a high mana cost. It has a base cast time of 3 seconds (2.5 with Naturalist).

• Healing Touch is a strong spell with a long cast time. It's really only useful when tank healing, and there's some debate about whether or not it's as good as Regrowth for tank healing at level 80. It is certainly more efficient than Regrowth, but the mana cost of either shouldn't be a concern at level 80.
• I recommend you make an "NS-HT" (Nature's Swiftness + Healing Touch) macro for emergencies (when a tank or raid member is close to death and Swiftmend is on cooldown). See the macro section of this guide (yet to be implemented) for more details.

Nourish (NR)
Nourish is considered our "slow, efficient, medium heal." It is a direct heal with a very low mana cost. It has a base cast time of 3 seconds (2.5 with Naturalist).

• Although Nourish is a very mana efficient spell that also is able to refresh Lifebloom (with the talent Empowered Touch), it is a very weak heal and isn't worth using (even for tank healing) unless you're mana starved. Note: If you need to refresh Lifebloom, it's better to simply recast Lifebloom than to waste the cast time on Nourish.

Tranquility
Tranquility is a channeled spell that heals 5 group members every 2 seconds for 8 seconds and applies a hot to its targets that can stack up to 3 times. Tranquility also has a long cooldown.

• Tranquility is a powerful raid-healing spell that has such a long cooldown, it likely can't be used more than once per fight, if that. It's important that you are able to access this ability when needed, but don't expect you'll use it every fight. It's best used as an emergency heal - cast it if many raid members are close to dieing. But keep in mind that you can't move while you're channeling it.

#5.2 Utility Spells

Coming soon...


#6. FAQs

#7. Version History

10/23/10

• Guide posted on MMO-Champion. (A few sections are still missing.)
• Correction made to information regarding Swift Rejuvenation, showing it's not possible to make this talent useless with enough haste (thanks to Ixuzcc for bringing this error to my attention).
• Spec added: 0/0/36 (thanks to Emni).
• Added "5. Healing Strategies" and part of "5.1 Healing Spells."

10/25/10

• Finished "5.1 Healing Spells" section.
• Corrected various inaccuracies regarding haste ratings. Note about hate rating threshold calculations: for each rating, I rounded the value up and then added 1 to that. This is to avoid issues with rounding errors, as well as to avoid any in-game issues and inconsistencies.
• Corrected various grammatical and spelling errors.
• Simplified gemming recommendations.
• Added section "3. Glyphs" (coming soon...). Relabeled old sections: 3 through 6 => 4 through 7.

10/27/10

• Corrected description for the Nature's Grace talent to correctly show it procs from casting Moonfire and not from casting Wrath (thanks krazyito65).

[Deleted]

If you're allowing some discussions, I'll add a little input here. If not, I'll remove my post.

My current PvE talent setup takes no advantage of Nature's Swiftness. It's just because the talent has become so obsolete for me, I only ever use it in conjunction with Rebirth.

2/3/31 is my current spec. Furor may be pretty useless, but honestly, I don't know where those three points would be better placed. Also, it gives me room for some Regrowth spamming when I need to (Saurfang Heroic can be a very intensive fight sometimes, as can P3 Lich King). Also, it gives me more room to reforge Spirit to other, more useful stats.

Also, ToL coupled with Instant Regrowths for Raid Damage heavy fights can drain mana quite quickly. Especially if you're running a 2-healer setup.

I've been messing about with Mastery and having had it at 20% at most, I didn't see that much of an improvement in my healing to be honest. Mind you, you DO have some sort of HoT running on most of your targets during a raid boss so the Mastery bonus is in effect almost all the time but it's... just not powerful enough for me right now.

QUESTION: Having not used it, do you rate Tuskarr's Vitality higher than say Greater Spirit (+18) on boots? I've never had any problems with movement myself, so I've always skipped out on that but I'll gladly hear any arguments for it's case.

[Dendrek]

Discussions are greatly encouraged. I can't pretend to know everything, so I welcome feedback from players who have more experience than I do with the 4.0.1 changes.

I'll keep the Nature's Swiftness comment in mind. I understand that the value of that talent has decreased with 4.0.1 because tanks are (should be) less likely to be 2-shot now. However, for only 1 talent point, it is a powerful cooldown, so I think I'd have a hard time passing up that talent.

[Deleted]

I agree that it really feels like a powerful cooldown but putting it into practice is pretty damn hard for me. Mind you, right now we know most of the fights by heart and we know when there's a damage spike incoming so I tend to keep my Swiftmend ready for those moments. I'm guessing this will change for Cataclysm but right now, I just can't put NS into good use.

Though, that's just me. I'm sure tons of other druids use it plentifully, and to great effect.

[Dendrek]

I've always ranked movement speed higher than basic stats. Not only is the 18 spirit an insignificant source of mana regen (made worse by the fact that spirit no longer provides spell power), but even if it were a useful stat, it doesn't compare to being able to move out of danger faster.

By moving faster, you can start healing more quickly after moving from a hazzard, and you can avoid dangers more easily. I'm sure I can come up with nearly 2 dozen fights in Wrath where runspeed makes the fight easier.

[Deleted]

True. I'm going to try it out, see how it feels.

Going to change my Head/shoulder enchants aswell. Even though Int is a preffered stat over SP, the crit bonus is more signifigant in comparison to Spirit. The stats are pretty minor anyway, I guess both could work.

[Dendrek]

Although Int is better than SP, if you ignore the mana and spell crit that it provides, the only benefit that Int has over SP is that it's affected by passive buffs: Mark of the Wild (5%), Heart of the Wild (6%), and Leather Specialization (5%). When buffed, Int's value is increased by 16.9%.

Both of the rep head enchants provide 30 SP and the rep shoulder enchants provide 24 SP, respectively. (Technically, the Int version are slightly better (by less than 1 SP).) But the secondary stats that the "Int" versions provide, Spirit, are useless.

[Deleted]

Yeah, Ive almost cut my combat mana regen in half since the patch hit and Im not seeing that much of a difference. Spirit just doesnt seem to be a useful stat.

Our gear gives us enough to make do in any raid right now. I'm at ~440 combat mana regen and with Innervate, I'm not going oom unless I gotta spam Regrowth.

Though the movement speed increase feels more like a convenience. But I like it and I'll stick to it.

Just need to get that haste up the last 50 ratings or so...

[Neotokyo]

thankyou, love the guide it will help me loads in the coming months

[Riavan]

I have a query, will spirit give that much mana regen? Will moonkin set gear still come with some spirit, as they currently do now?
Currently I've been raid healing in moonkin gear quite easily, with no major mana loss.

[emni]

You skipped the most common and most popular of all speccs - 0/0/36

[Deleted]

I have a query, will spirit give that much mana regen? Will moonkin set gear still come with some spirit, as they currently do now?
Currently I've been raid healing in moonkin gear quite easily, with no major mana loss.

Whatever Spirit you get from your gear is pretty much sufficient for your mana conservation at the moment. Almost all Spirit on my gear is reforged, Im down to 618 @ 438 mp5 in combat (unbuffed) and my mana is just fine.

And I would assume that some "moonkin gear" will have Spirit on it (Balance of Power is there for Moonkins to SHARE gear with Resto Druids).

QUESTION: Does being at the Haste Cap make Swift Rejuvenation worthless?

[Dendrek]

It does not. In fact, I should probably edit one or more parts of the guide to reflect that fact. You need to be at 50% haste to make Swift Rejuvenation worthless.

Being at the haste cap means you'll have 31% haste. With a 5% haste raid buff, you'll be at 37.6 haste. With gear and passive raid buffs, you can no longer reach 50% haste as you could before 4.0.1.

[Deleted]

Hehe, clocked in at 1013 Haste rating... but three damn rating points can't make that much difference :P

Also, I have my doubts regarding HT as an efficient Tank healer. Isn't it a little too slow in a heated fight?

[Dendrek]

You skipped the most common and most popular of all speccs - 0/0/36

If you think that's a good spec, I'll add it. However, the fact that it's "most common and most popular" does not convince me that it's good. I dislike that it doesn't take Nature's Majesty. And to use 3/3 Revitalize as a justification for giving up such a powerful throughput stat is... well... yeah.

---------- Post added 2010-10-23 at 09:27 AM ----------

Hehe, clocked in at 1013 Haste rating... but three damn rating points can't make that much difference :P

Also, I have my doubts regarding HT as an efficient Tank healer. Isn't it a little too slow in a heated fight?

3 rating points makes a huge difference. It's the difference between 5 ticks on Rejuv and 6.

Also, as far as HT is concerned, you may be right. That's another aspect of this guide I was hoping to get feedback on (although I have yet to write the healing strategies section).

[Deleted]

3 rating points makes a huge difference. It's the difference between 5 ticks on Rejuv and 6.

Also, as far as HT is concerned, you may be right. That's another aspect of this guide I was hoping to get feedback on (although I have yet to write the healing strategies section).

>.<

Well, as far as HT comes, I've tried it and I found that for keeping a tank up in a situation with a lot of incoming damage, LB+Rejuv with Regrowth, is pretty much just as effective, if not more so.

But I don't have the numbers to back me up so don't take my word for it.

EDIT: Also, rolling three spells is much more fun than rolling a single spell.

EDIT2: I just pushed myself over the Haste cap and I'm not seeing 6 ticks on my Rejuv, I'm still seeing 5. Are you thinking about 6 ticks with say, 5% spell haste from a mage or shaman involved or should we be getting 6 ticks with the Haste cap?

[emni]

If you think that's a good spec, I'll add it. However, the fact that it's "most common and most popular" does not convince me that it's good. I dislike that it doesn't take Nature's Majesty. And to use 3/3 Revitalize as a justification for giving up such a powerful throughput stat is... well... yeah.

I think it would be a nice all-around specc for someone who's raiding what you might call "casually". I really don't think Nature's Majesty is that big of a deal, even EJ see this as the no.1 thing to drop if you want to pick up something else.

In the end, a specc is a matter of preference these days. I just thought a guide without a specc as commonly used as this one would be incomplete. But it's your guide, so suit yourself.

[Deleted]

Sticky!

[Squishie]

Might be worth while posting a link to the EJ resto discussions. There is a lot ontresting things being discussed in that thread and it's perhaps worth having a link in the main body of this to direct people who are interested there.

PS Sticky!

[Deleted]

EDIT: Ah yes, 37.5%, which is WITH raid buffs.

Nvm my little bump.