Thread: Resto Druid Guide - 4.3+

Updated for 4.3

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A link to all gear lists at the bottom.


I will be following Dendrek's format since it's amazing and easy to read/follow.
Also in general, a huge thank you to Dendrek for keeping up amazing druid guides for so long. Hope mine is 1/2 as good and knowledgeable as yours were.

1. Introduction
2. Stats on Gear
2.1 Reforging
2.2 Gems
2.3 Enchants
2.4 Consumables
3. Glyphs
4. Specs
4.1 Moonglow Vs. Furor
5. Healing Strategies
5.1 Healing Spells
5.2 Utility Spells
6. Professions
7. UI and Mechanics
7.1 Macros
7.2 Addons
7.3 Other Mechanics
8. Other Topics
8.1 Tier Sets 12/13
8.2 Trinkets
9. FAQs/Links
10. Pre-Raid and Raid Gear List
11. 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
I'm slowly updating for 4.3 as I get information and test things myself. A lot of things will be heavily debated, I'll try and put as much information as possible until things are finalized.

Feedback is Welcome:
Arguing and trolling is not. If someone asks a question or makes a comment do not flame them, this guide is here to help people learn and understand. If you see something you would like me to add please comment. If you know something is wrong or outdated please tell me with something to support it. This will be updated a ton so feedback and mature debate is encouraged.

*Changes in 4.3*

• Wild Growth healing has been reduced by 20%.
• Glyph of Wild Growth now also increases the cooldown on Wild Growth by 2 seconds.
• 2005 haste still seems like the way to go. No more, no less.
• The amount of int worth dropping for the haste cap may be drastically lower with the WG nurf. More testing needs to be done.
• Stat priority, specs, gemming, reforging, and enchants, stat wise, are all staying the same
• Glyph of Wild Growth is now situational. More testing needs to be done but it may not be worth the spot in 10 mans.

#2. Stats on Gear
Thanks to Hamlet for putting all the numbers in one place. Most of the basic stat numbers taken from his guide on EJ.
[Gear list at the bottom!] This will be in *general* order of importance:
Hint: Int is a major stat. You can't reforge it and it is on every piece of leather healing gear. Mastery, Crit, SPI, and Haste are your secondary stats.
Spi only gives regen. The more int you have, the less spi you'll need. You want to balance haste around your caps.


4.2 and crit vs mastery!: Crit values have changed from 150% to 200%. Mastery has also changed. More about how our new mastery works and how/when we should be procing it below. Crit is equal or slightly better than mastery. This has been proven. But, we also start with a higher base % of crit. 10% mastery is worth 8% crit. So, to equalize these stats you will probably be reforging to mastery. An easier way to look at it is through %s since the values per rating points are off:

If you have Nature's Majesty (4% crit balance talent)

• And the 5% Crit buff*: Stack mastery until you have between 22% to 25% mastery.
• Without the 5% Crit buff: Stack mastery until you have between 17% to 19% mastery.

If you don't have Nature's Majesty: Stop being bad and get it.

*Note: The 5% Crit buff comes from Leader of the Pack (Feral Druid), Rampage (Fury Warrior) or Elemental Oath (Elemental Shaman)
*Thanks to Dendrek for the easy to understand chart, and him, Skelly and Boomchickn for working on all the math through multiple threads.*
This may not be accurate for 4.3, I'll update once I know.




People like to know stat priorities, but ours is a little difficult:
In general: Haste cap > Int > spi(as much as you need) > mastery = crit > extra haste
But remember, to get mastery = crit you will probably need to lean towards mastery on your gear.

Things to know:

• If you can't get to the 2nd cap(within 300 int), get to the 1st cap and ignore haste from there.
• Read above: crit and mastery are equal, but they wont be equal on your gear if you want to balance them.
• Spi is pretty much our least valuable stat right now. But use what you need
• Extra haste, no matter what cap you are at, is pointless

Spreadsheets also have shown to get the WG haste cap you can lose up to 370int and still see an overall throughput increase in 4.1. I have no idea what it is for 4.2, but still, you can drop a lot of stats and still see a throughput increase from haste cap. This may be outdated for 4.3

Intellect:
Intellect provides 1 spellpower and 0.00154% to crit per point. With Mark of the Wild, Heart of the Wild, and Astral Leather Specialization, it provides 1.169 spellpower and 0.0018% crit (555 points per 1% crit, a bit under 1/3 of a crit rating).
Similarly, with these talents, one point of Intellect increases your maximum mana by 17.53 (19.28 with 2/3 Furor), and your regen from Replenishment, Euphoria, and Innervate correspondingly.

Spellpower:
Intellect, without the talent bonuses, crit bonus, or mana gains. Basically a weaker form of Intellect that only appears on weapons and trinkets, but is still good.

Haste rating:
128.05 haste rating gives 1% spell haste. This reduces the cast time and GCD of all of our spells, to a minimum of 1 second GCD (there is no effect on Rejuvenation, which automatically has a 1 second GCD from talents). It also causes our HoT's to tick faster and potentially gain extra ticks.
Thanks to Tangedyn for the chart: Also, The chart has been fixed and you no longer need the extra point. Though it's still nice to use a buffer, it's no longer 'needed'. Also, as said, spreadsheet have shown you can lose up to 300int and still see an overall throughput increase for the WG haste cap. Again, may not be accurate for 4.3

https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?...Hc&hl=en#gid=0


You want to strive for at least 12.51%, aiming at 21.5% to get your Wg/ efflor ticks in. The next break point we can aim for is 36% and probably not obtainable until at least next tier. Remember, we no longer want 916 but 917 to grab that tranq tick. Don't perfect your gear and miss out.

Easy way to check your breakpoints!!
Thanks to Kieble we have an awesome new tool to help you know what breakpoint you need to be at.
http://www.unyieldingvalor.com/calc.php

Directions:
Head to the site and type in your name and server. Hit the search for player button. An armory like display of your toon should appear. Below that a submit player button will appear and you should click that. Now you should see a table with your first, and second spec. If your spec isn't supported, it will just be blank.



Mastery rating:
143.42 mastery rating adds 1% to our Harmony bonus. This is essentially a flat bonus to all healing (albeit an additive bonus, so slightly weaker than it looks).

Critical strike rating:
179.28 crit rating gives 1% to crit. Crit heals do 2 times the healing of non-crit heals (2.06 with a Revitalizing meta). As of 4.0, all healing effects are able to crit.

Spirit:
Your new mana regen. One point of Spirit gives 0.00836*SQRT(Int) MP5. Int in general is better for regen than spi, but it's still good. Spi is out least valuable stat now.

Few Pointers:
Never, use cloth. 5% int is too much to waste. To beging raiding, make sure you have no cloth pieces.
Direct Healing:
Mastery and crit are pretty equal right now. Harmony is a large nurf from Symbiosis when tank healing. Read above to know how to balance gear.
Raid Healing:
Haste between break points brings nothing. Mastery and crit will be about equal raid healing, but with the way int effects crit mastery will still be the way to go around haste caps.




#2.1 Reforging

• Spi depends on you and how you use your own spells. Before you reforge your spi off something, test to see if you can spare it. With the mana tide totem change, spi is a lot more important now.
• You may no longer feel the need to reforge besides spi(need more or less) and whatever you have to do to get to your haste breakpoint. To get crit and mastery equal, you will probably need to reforge to mastery.
• Higher ilvl = more stats. Choose the piece with the most stats(int is the main stat you want to look at) and what has the most socket bonuses. Consider haste breakpoints, but especially after 4.2 we can now take any healing stats and they will be fairly close.

#2.2 Gems
Meta:
HPS: [Burning Shadowspirit Diamond]
Regenreally shouldn't need it, but if you can't find the above) [Ember Shadowspirit Diamond]
To meet the requirement: gem two [Reckless Ember Topaz] wherever you can get the two best yellow socket bonuses. (If you don't need haste, gem crit or mastery)

In all other sockets, gem [Brilliant Inferno Ruby], unless you can pick up a socket bonus of 20 Int or more with a single [Purified Demonseye] or [Reckless Ember Topaz].
I can not stress this enough. 40 int is better then 30int/20spi, even if it is less stats when you include socket bonuses. Unless you are striving for a break point, gem int.

New gems!
[Brilliant Queen's Garnet]: 50 int
[Artful Lava Coral]: 25 int and 25 mastery
[Reckless Lava Coral]: 25 int and 25 haste
[Purified Shadow Spinel]: 25 int and 25 spi



#2.3 Enchants
Excluding profession bonuses, you should use:

• Head: 60 Int/35 crit (Guardians of Hyjal revered).
• Shoulders: 50Int/25 haste (Therazane exalted).
• Back - 50 Int
• Chest - 20 stats
• Wrists - 50 Int
• Gloves - 65 Mastery
• Legs - 95 Int/55 Spirit ([Powerful Ghostly Spellthread])
• Boots - Run speed/35 mastery
• Weapon - Power Torrent
• Offhand - 40 Int

Why you should always take PT over HS if you can afford it:
Power torrent equals out to 120int when talking about icd.
Heartsong equals out to 108 spi.

Since replen, innervate and revit are all effected by int, not spi, the regen difference between the 2 is very small. Int also buffs SP and crit, putting power torrent for resto druids well above heartsong.



#2.4 Consumables

• [Flask of the Draconic Mind] or a Cauldron of Battle.
• 90 Int food (such as [Severed Sagefish Head]) or a Seafood Feast.
• [Mythical Mana Potion] handy. [Potion of Concentration] can be quite useful as well; you can often find good opportunities to use it if you look for them.

#3. Glyphs
Prime:
[Glyph of Rejuvenation], [Glyph of Lifebloom], [Glyph of Swiftmend]
Only other healing glyph is [Glyph of Regrowth] and it's not recommended.

Major:
[Glyph of Wild Growth], [Glyph of Rebirth], [Glyph of Innervate]
Thorns is situational but not recommended. Innervate is fairly useless now, but if you don't have NS it's all you can really use. [Glyph of Healing Touch] for 5 mans or raids if you don't have another resto druid. This is also a better choice in 4.1 due to the NS buff if you use HT on CC procs. WG is now situational. We don't have any math yet, but you may want to consider how many people it normally hits and if it's worth the 2 second additional CD. HT will probably be the way to go if you don't use WG and do have NS.

Minor:
[Glyph of Mark of the Wild], [Glyph of Unburdened Rebirth], [Glyph of Dash] are the only glyphs that can help you during an actual fight, but any minors are fine.



#4. Specs
Specs are extremely debated so I will be posting the ones that are a possibility. I recommend multiple specs at least to begin with. Some encounters you will need a lot of mana while some are much easier. Some you need a lot of AoE healing and some none. It will ALL depend on the encounter, your gear, and your raid/other healers.
This is the hardest section since there is no right or wrong answer. All the points will be good depending on what situation you are in. These are still accurate for 4.3.
Very huge shout out/special thanks to Tangedyn for making the awesome LS guide/calculator. http://theincbear.com/living-seed-replacement/

This is how you will decide what talents you need or don't need. Plug your raid %s into the calculator and it will tell you what points are best for you and the way you heal. We are very lucky as druids to have some of the best theorycrafters in the game, hug them, love them, thank them.

Pers is also a good talent when progressing through top end progression. I don't support taking it on anything less. I have never found the need, even progressing through top 50-25 world, to drop 3 throughput points for 6% reduced spell dmg on myself. The mana saved just wasn't going to add up. It wasn't needed in 4.2, it may be useful in 4.3 on certain boss fights.


25 Specs:

Raid healing 25s: Mana problems
8/2/31
LS and NB can both be moved to what you need. Use the LS calc. You can also use NS and/or Cure if you use them/they are needed.

Raid healing 25s: Medium Mana problems
10/0/31
Filler points are the same as the 1st spec. This spec is good for farm content. It's also good for beginning HMs. Genesis will up your throughput a ton but at the cost of 2/3 furor. If you can get through fights with this spec, do it.

Raid healing 25s: Super End Game spec
8/0/33
You can use any form of this spec. This is assuming you can drop all regen points. Take 1, 2 or 3 from MG as you can, this is just assuming you can lose all 3. This I choose to fill out LS, NB, and add 1 point into BotG. I just don't use NS enough to make use of it. Again, use talents as you see fit.

Tank healing 25s: General Spec
8/2/31
Move regen talents as needed into GoteM. When tank healing, I find LS, NS, and NB much more valuable than GoteMs initial RJ healing.


Why group all the 10s together?:
Because in 10s you do not need a tank healer with only tank heal talents. On most fights you will all be 'tank healing'(aka shields, beacon, hots, whatever) together with person specifically watching them but they will still be raid healing. On two heal fights or intense tank fights(10 Half HM) you will still use a hybrid tank/raid heal spec.

Healing 10s: Tank and raid with mana problems
8/2/31
Same as before, choose between BotG, LS, and NB from the calc above. You are going to want direct healing and hots. If you need cure, take it.

Healing 10s: Tank and raid with middle mana problems
10/0/31
Just as before in 25s, moving from furor to Gen gives you a lot of healing while loosing mana. This is a good spec for farm content and beginning HMs. Other choices are the same as above.

Healing 10s: Tank and raid healing super end game
8/0/33
Again, this is only if you are very geared. This is taking furor and MG out for throughput talents. The rest is the same as above and remember, check the calc for what of the 3 main switches are the best.

5 Mans:
A lot of people have been asking me for just a simple 5 man cookie cutter spec, so I'll add it. All the reasonings are the same for raiding but some more than others to make things simple.(like always taking cure)
7/3/31
Like all the other specs, drop and take mana talents as needed. If you can drop some, fill NB out 1st. After, I would start filling out Genesis.



In the end, the talents you NEED are:

• Natural Shapeshifter
• Heart of the Wild
• Master Shapeshifter
• Revitalize
• Malfurion's Gift(700-800 MP5 after the patch), and Tranq buff
• Efflorescence
• Wild Growth
• Gift of the Earthmother
• Swift Rejuvenation
• Tree of Life
• Nature's Swiftness (I would probably put this under the needed category now, especially if you don't use innervate on another druid and use HT on CC procs)

Optional but still very good:

• Empowered Touch
• Living Seed
• Nature's Bounty
• Naturalist
• Nature's Grace
• Nature's Majesty
• Moonglow
• Furor
• Blessing of the Grove
• Nature's Cure (Look before if you need or not)

A few points:

• Efflor is now amazing. It's a NEEDED talent for any size raid, tank or raid healing.
• MG > Furor in every situation. This has not changed in Firelands.
• Shamans and Priests both heal when they cleanse. Pallys have mana off their cleanse. If you heal with either of these people it's perfectly reasonable to drop the talent and let them dispel. With mana the way it is and having to take all the regen talents, it's one place for now we can drop it.
• Nature's Swiftness is a very good talent and is now even better in 4.1. Probably worth taking if you have the points. If you don't use at least once per fight, may want to skip.
• If you have the mana to drop furor completely and enough points to get 2/3 Genesis by doing that, drop it, take MG and Genesis. But ONLY if you have the mana.
• BotG stacks additively. Meaning with two points you only get right over 2% instead of 4. There is really no reason to take 2/2 botg and only really should take 1/2 if you are dropping massive amounts of regen points and have a ton to spare.
  Per Dendrek: Rejuvenation is affected by several additive effects, meaning that although BotG should increase healing by 2% per point, it actually increases healing by MUCH LESS than 2%. In fact, it's worth something close to 1% increase per point. That's a 1% increase to Rejuv's healing, not a 1% increase to overall healing. It's very likely close to a .5% increase per point to overall healing. That amount is so small it almost makes those wasted talent points.

#4.1 Furor Vs. Moonglow Math: Thanks to Dendrek

• You have 5900 Int (before Heart of the Wild, Mark of the Wild, and Leather Specialization, and without Flask or Food buff). Raid buffed, that would put you at 7350 Int. Note that this is more int than is available in BiS HM gear (in other words, it's more Int than you could possibly have).
• You use Innervate on CD, and that Replenishment and Revitalize proc as often as they can.
• You cast Innervate when Power Torrent is active, and that Power Torrent procs on CD.

From all that, I arrived at the following mp5 values for Furor:

Code:

Mp5 provided by*        2/3 Furor            3/3 Furor
 Innervate              79 mp5               113 mp5
 Revitalize             71 mp5               105 mp5
 Replenishment          112 mp5              169 mp5
Total                   262 mp5              387 mp5

Increased mana pool**
 Over 6 minutes         185 mp5              278 mp5
Total                   447 mp5              665 mp5

* The "mp5 provded by Innervate, Revitalize and Replenishment" values show how much the mana regen from these sources increases by getting 2 or 3 points in Furor.
** The "increased mana pool over 6 minutes" converts the extra mana gained from Furor into mp5. Taking that extra mana provided by Furor and calculating how much regen that would be if that mana were slowly gained over a 6 minute fight produces the resulting mp5 values.


How does that compare to the points put into Moonglow?
That's not an easy question to answer primarily because it's heavily dependent on how often you cast as well as on what you're casting.
But let's consider a few situations:

Code:

Mp5 gained by spamming       Every            2/3 Moonglow          3/3 Moonglow
 Rejuvenation                1 sec            1118 mp5              1677 mp5
 Regrowth                    1.3 secs         1505 mp5              2258 mp5
 Nourish                     2.1 secs         266 mp5               399 mp5
 Healing Touch               2.1 secs         799 mp5               1198 mp5

If all you are doing is spamming inexpensive spells (Nourish, Lifebloom and/or Swiftmend) Furor is better. But if that's all you're spamming, then mana isn't an issue at all and your talent choice doesn't matter. However, if you're using any kind of mana-intensive rotation (Healing Touch, Wild Growth, Rejuvenation and/or Regrowth) Moonglow wins by a wide margin.

When mana is an issue, Moonglow will always be better.



#5. Healing Strategies
No matter what you are doing, raid or heroics or regulars, raid healers or tank healers, keep LB on the tank. If by letting it bloom, the heal will not go to overheal, let it bloom. If you are properly geared LB wont even make a dent in your mana before it regens back up. In intense healing situations, most of the time its not worth letting bloom because you will need those 3 GCDs.

5 Mans:
Regulars and heroics are pretty much the same, just heroics are more intense. Don't heal what you don't have to. If your rogue gets hit by something random once, Wg or RJ will be enough, no need to spam HT/RG him. Don't waste mana.

You aren't going to have everyone at 100% all the time. Especially in heroics, 99% of the boss fights most dmg is avoidable. If you are playing with bads, yes, you will have mana problems and people will die. This isn't a druid problem, this is their problem. If someone stands in something, explain to them you don't have the mana to heal through people playing badly. It's not being rude, it's the truth. They all have defensive CDs they should have taken now, they need to use them. Heal people about to die, don't spam to 100%.

Nourish is a filler. Like LB, you will regen that mana back as fast as you use it. So, whenever you aren't healing spike or someone about to die you should be nourishing people closer to 100%. Go for the people with hots 1st for the nourish buff.

Use WG. It's low mana and it will give you a buffer to nourish if needed and will get them further away from 0. Use SM every CD. It's also a very cheap spell. Use SM on CD. It's now good even if it's just on the tank.

Don't be afraid of tree. If there is an aura mechanic pop ToL, LB everyone once and start going back through the line to stack to 3 and refresh. When CC pops, throw an instant RG on whoever needs it.

Along with that, do not be afraid of Tranq. It's a very good spell, use it.

Healing in heroics is hard with bads, but not impossible. Use your lower mana spells, use your hots, and fill with nourish as often as possible. Once you get some gear, you will find even heroics extremely easy to heal.

Raids:

• Pre-hot: If you know a big ability is coming be ready with RJs already out and WG and efflor preparing to be used.
• Use Wg on CD: unless it's going to overheal. WG is smartcast, as a class dependent on hots we want to prethink dmg, not react to it.
• Rely on your hots: We can direct heal now, but out hots are still where we shine. Direct heal if you need to, but still focus on your hots.
• Keep LB on a tank at ALL times. No reason not too, It's cheap, it procs CC, it heals for a ton. Lots of mana back. Do it.
• Use ToL when needed(but always use it 1-2 times per fight). Don't spam RG, you'll go oom. If someone is about to die, don't be afraid to throw them one. But LB everyone, let it bloom, get full stacks on your tanks, and RG when you get CC. If you need intense healing, don't be afraid to use RJ instead. Just know, that massive amounts of healing + low mana cost wont be happening.
• Use tranq: It's amazing, know strats and the best time to use it(as in save it for half and a badly timed knockdown in P2)
• Know when to use efflor. Yes, it's great on one target now, but it's better on multiple.

Harmony: Our new mastery give us a basic 10% on all direct healing. This was needed because, well, our direct healing did less than everyone else. While this is a nice change, we aren't turning into direct healing heroes. But, those of you who sat around sitting on your hands in downtimes(you shouldn't have been anyway) nourish will do better.

Harmony increases direct healing by an additional 10%, and casting direct healing spells grants an additional 10% bonus to periodic healing for 10 seconds. Each point of mastery increases each bonus by an additional 1.25%. Healing Touch, Nourish, Swiftmend, and the initial heal from Regrowth are considered direct healing spells for the purposes of this Mastery. All other healing from druid spells is considered periodic.

SM should already be used on CD. That will give a 5 second gap for mastery uptime. That means every 15 seconds, you want to cast a direct heal to keep it procced. With the amount it's doing on ptr right now, I see no reason people need to actively try and keep it at 100%. If you use SM on CD and always use nourish to refresh LBs, it will be at 100% anyway. But, again, the 5 second downtime I don't see as a huge issue. We'll just have to see.

Tank healing: Depending on your gear this will change a lot. Some people use nourish all the time, some people can spam HT and not have any problems. You need to test for yourself and see how it goes. If you can keep your tank up by rolling LB and RJ, procing WG and SM on CD and use nourish, do it. Unless your tank is going to die you can use the extra mana to throw out RJs on raid dmg. If the tank is getting hit so hard that you have to constantly HT them, do that, your job is for your tank to live. Use SM on CD and proc efflor on them(if SM isn't going to overheal ofc). Remember, Mastery has been super nurfed for tank healing. Hopefully the gear upgrades will make up for it.

Spamming HT which has the same cast time as nourish just because when you don't need to is waste of mana that can be used other places. In 10s, you shouldn't really need a tank healer and with the future changes to RJ/nourish/wg, it will be a nice buff to all tank healers, but especially 10 mans.



#5.1 Healing Spells
Rejuvenation: This will still be 1st or second on your meter, especially in raids. Know how much yours heals for. RJ is still a very powerful spell, don't underestimate it. Don't spam it, but if it won't go to over healing this will be your most powerful spell for mana cost.

Lifebloom: Keep it rolling, end of story. You should never not have LB on a tank. If you have time and the healing's needed, refresh with nourish or HT(CC procs). If not, just refresh.

Wild Growth: It's smart cast, it has a 30 yard range, it costs 1% more mana than RJ. WG can be used on a hostile unit and smart heal the closest thing around it making it very unique. Use your WG when needed, but since it's expensive don't spam it if possible. If you have Vuhdo make sure you turn clustering on.

Nourish:Your filler. Whenever you don't have to cast something else you should be casting this if it wont be going to overheal. Don't be disappointed by the low healing, even without the hot buffer it's still a filler heal. With a hot buffer it's better, so aim at keeping a buffer up. If you refresh LB with nourish at all times, Harmony will have a 100% uptime. Though with CC procs and SM this isn't really needed.

Healing Touch: Same cast time as Nourish but heals for a lot more, and in turn is a lot more mana. If your tank NEEDS it, cast it. It's a lot of mana but the tank needs to live. Outside of that, sometimes it's better to use HT on CC procs over RG, but you need to decide how much direct healing the target needs and if RGs initial heal isn't enough to last until the hot is completed.

Regrowth: Our flash heal. It costs a lot of mana but heals a good amount and leave a hot. Mainly used with CC procs. But, if SM is down and someone needs emergency spike, this is where you go.

Efflorescence: Is amazing now. Puts a healing zone that restores health equal to 4/8/12% of the amount healed by Swiftmend to the three most injured targets within 8 yards, every 1 second for 7 seconds. This periodic effect now also benefits from spell haste, but the individual ticks cannot be critical effects. It's a smart heal that heals a ton more then old SM and heals the lowest targets 1st. If there are only 2, all that healing goes to 2. If more, it heals up to 3 at a time but if 25 are in it every tick goes to the lowest person. If just the tank, it's still a great spell.

Swiftmend:Use every CD if it's not going to overheal or you know you want to place efflor somewhere specifically soon. SM is probably our best spell. It's instant, heals for a good amount, and throws efflor on the ground. You can also SM other druids hots so if you have Vuhdo, make sure you put SMable targets on.

Tranqulity: Has an 8 minute CD. Malfs gift reduces it to 3. You can now use this at least 2 times, sometimes 3. It heals for a ton, know when the best time to fit it in is and use it as many times as you can on a fight.

Tree of Life:A lot of people before release claimed ToL would be terrible, and no matter how many times we beta testers said it's not, they stood by they knew just from reading the spells. Well, as we said, ToL is amazing.
15% increase to healing:
LB: Can be cast on multiple targets. Especially in 5s, if everyone is low and you just can't catch up, blow tree. LB everyone once and start going back down the line refreshing and getting everyone to 3 stacks.
RG: Instant. Don't spam this, you'll go oom. With LB on all targets you will have CC proc a lot. When it does, instant RG those lowest. If people will die before LB can save them, RG, just don't mindlessly spam.
WG:Hits two extra people, amazing for raids, nothing special for 5s obviously. If you blow tree in raids use WG as much as you can as long as it's hitting those 2 extra people, which it should be(30 yard range)


#5.2 Utility Spells
Innervate:Use early so you can use it again. Trading no longer gives extra mana.

Rebirth: You can only use once in 10s and 3 times in 25s per attempt. Don't waste it. Communicate with your other druids who you are BRing.

Thorns: Resto thorns are the weakest of the 3 specs, so unless you are the only druid, don't waste your mana. Even in 5s, unless you have a lot of mana to spare don't bother.

Barkskin: Doesn't use a GCD, keybind it, use it whenever possible.

Remove Corruption: This can now be used on people without a debuff and is very expensive. Try and coordinate who is using it on which person/group so you aren't wasting mana.

#6. Professions
In order of best to worst.


1) Eng: 96 int or Tailoring: 120 int BUT it's not a straight stat buff so you need to decide if you want to add another complexity to your game play for minimal increase. Tailoring you can't proc at the times you want so it loses it's luster. In general, most people support 2/3 as being better in the long run.
2) JC: 81 int while below are 80.
3) Alch, BS, Enchanting, LW, and Inscription: all give 80 int.

4)gathering profession all trail behind.




#7. UI and Mechanics
UI:
Your UI is completely up to you and what you like. The only thing I can fully talk about unbiasedly is how it should be set up.
You need as much of your middle screen clear as possible. Don't put your bars in the middle, don't have your map in the middle, keep it clear.

Put your healing bars(grid, healbot, vuhdo) in the middle lower screen. I can not stress enough how bad it is to place it anywhere else. When you have your bars there is clears up the middle of your screen so you can see what's on the ground, in the air, left and right of you, and where people are at. As humans we have limited peripheral vision especially when we are focused on something. If your bars are lower mid screen, you will still be able to easily see everything going on around you.

Mechanics:
The only thing you need to know, especially in raids, is to not stop casting. There is no more fsr, so no need to stop. Blizzard added a que system for us. That means we can que a spell to cast as soon as the current one is released. With instants, you want to be trying to hit the exact GCD mark. Being able to time your abilities up perfectly will increase your tps, dps, and hps by a significant amount every fight.




#7.1 Macros
Instant Healing Touch:
/showtooltip Nature's Swiftness
/stopcasting
/use Nature's Swiftness
/use [@mouseover] Healing Touch
(Take out mouseover if you use a click addon)

Rebirth in combat, revive out of combat:
#showtooltip
/use [nocombat] Revive
/stopmacro [nocombat]
/use Rebirth
/ra Rebirth on %t

Auto Proc Trinkets on CD:
/script UIErrorsFrame:UnregisterEvent("UI_ERROR_MESSAGE");
/console Sound_EnableSFX 0
/use [combat] 14
/console Sound_EnableSFX 1
/script UIErrorsFrame:RegisterEvent("UI_ERROR_MESSAGE");

Manually Proc Both Trinkets:
/use 13
/use 14




#7.2 Addons
Use a healing addon. They are all pretty much the same. I'm not going to go into this largely, but from a lot of people testing all 3 on many different factors many agree(for right now at least) Vuhdo is superior, though not by a lot, trailed by Grid than healbot. This is based on functionality, latency, resource usage, and customization.

Use something that shows your CDs and when they will be up. I use coolLine though there are many out there that work. Poweraura is amazing if you want all your CDs, procs, thins like that right around your character. It gets bulky looking, but is very useful.

Use DBM or bigwigs(I find bigwigs more useful). You have no excuse not to.

Powerauras is amazing to track things like harmony, Powertorrent, and when CDs are up right in the middle of your screen.

Besides that, anything outside the blizzard UI is up to you. I like a more sleek look so I don't use any standard UI, but nothing else is needed.

Mouseover Macros:
Some people like to use Mouseover macros instead. Unlike keybinds, this is still only 1 step instead of two, the same way clicking is in vuhdo, grig+clique, or healbot. Thanks to Tempro. It's all up to preference.
http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...-s-Compilation




#7.3 Other Mechanics
*Added as needed*


#8 Other Topics
TreeCalcs. This is a spreadsheet made by the resto druid guide writer for EJ. If I had an e-crush on anyone, it would be him. =P

Simple Version: http://www.treecalcs.com/
Advanced version: http://elitistjerks.com/f73/t110354-...ase/#TreeCalcs


Tange's Spreadsheet: Another great speadsheet. Different info, different outcomes. Both you should test and see outcomes.

http://theincbear.com/math/resto-druid-spreadsheet



#8.1 Tier Sets
Tier 12
2 piece: Your periodic healing from Lifebloom has a 40% chance to restore 1% of your base mana each time it heals a target.
4 piece: Your Swiftmend also heals an injured target within 8 yards for the same amount.

2 piece: Less proc rate in ToL. LB in ToL is considered a different spell, it seems they reduced the proc for that version. It is better than our 4 piece, so you want to pick it up asap.

4 piece: It only heals what doesn't go to overheal, so you want to use it on the person with the least amount of health, or whoever it will overheal the least on.
It no longer double heals like on PTR.
Range has been increased and it is now based off the person you heal.

4 piece isn't amazing compared to others, but it is straight throughput every 15 seconds. It should be taken as soon as possible as long as you stay in your haste cap.

Tier 13
2 piece: Take as soon as possible.
4 piece: Very weak. Only take if the gear you are replacing is equal or less stats than the tier pieces are. You don't want to drop stats for 4 piece, but take it if you aren't losing anything for it.




#8.2 Trinkets
You want passive int on both trinkets. The only time you don't is if you get Shard of Woe off Sin. The BiS list at the bottom has the choices but a few pointers:

• Having two trinks without passive int you lose as much SP as the difference between a Kara weapon and an ICCHM weapon. Don't skip out on the passive int.
• Haste as the equip or proc stat are the worst for druids. The reason being is haste between breakpoints is almost worthless and you never want to base caps off things that aren't up 100% of the time. Don't use them.
• Most druids use 2 regen trinkets since it gives them more leeway with the rest of their gear, being able to take pieces without spi on them.

4.3 Trinket info
None of this is solid yet and will need testing. Listing the trinkets though so I can update as I get more information.

Heart of Unliving: Our new regen trinket.

• 990 spi

Seal of the Seven Signs:
Windward Heart:
Bottled Wishes:
Reflection of the Light:



Trinket info for 4.2: Info for pre-DS raiding
Woe and Jaws have been confirmed as our BiS.

The new trinkets:

Eye of Blazing Power: This is the new abacus. The doubt placed on this trinket is based on how much healing it will do + proc rate.

• 45 seconds icd
• can crit
• Scales with SP
• 40 yard range from the person you healed, not yourself
• It's healing has been boosted from what they had seen

On a holy priest with just over 9k sp, he was having 16k reg and 32k crits. That every 45 seconds + the masses amount of int will be a very important throughput trinket. Ej places it lower(they did, not sure about recent discussion) because they assumed it didn't scale with SP. Some testing has shown it does. I'll try and find more info.


Fiery Quintessence: This is the new regen trinket. The int is very high, the spi is very high and reforgable.

• On use: Time it up with innervate
• 1.5 min CD

It's been proven time and time again int procs are rather pointless. Though, this is a short one(1.5 mins). We will have to test this a bit more. In the end, if you really need the regen(plus innervate proc) or the haste(reforge to it), this is a fair trinket. The int proc will not make up for the lost int on other trinkets though.

Rune of Zeth: runs into the same problems. It has all the same positives and negatives as Quint but is throughput based instead of regen. Again, I don't support int proc non-passive int trinkets. I can't see it leading more troughput than one of the int trinkets.
BUT: With the changes crit is worth over 1/2 the throughput of int. You do give up a bit of throughput for regen on this trinket, but not too much that it's a bad trinket. If you don't have WoE, Jaws, or Eye, this trinket isn't a bad choice.



#9. FAQs/Links
EJs Resto Druid Guide: http://elitistjerks.com/f73/t110354-...dated_4_0_6_a/

Blogs: I wont be adding blogs. A lot of time they end up being filled with opinion and filled with advice about content the players haven't even seen yet. Search around, look at the Blog sticky, there are a lot of good ones, ok ones, and bad ones out there. In general, looking at discussions at places like EJ will end up giving you the most accurate advice.

Other Guides: Outside of EJ and Blog posts(which some have really in depth theorycrafting which can't really fit on forum guides so they're worth the look) they're all pretty bad and/or redundant. I've tried to just take the simple things for an easy read. Want more theorycrafting, read Hamlets EJ guide.



#10. Pre-Raid and Raid Gear list
Resto Druid Pre-raid and T11/12 Gear List
[4.3] Resto Druid Raid, 5man and VP gear List





#11. Version History
12/6/10

• Posted

1/10/11

• Updated for 4.0.6

4/26/11

• Updated for 4.1

6/17/11

• Updated for 4.2

11/28/11

• Updated for 4.3

thanks, will bookmark for future ref

Yep, thanks a ton for that btw. I still have a lot to do and to make it look pretty...siigh.

Originally Posted by Iamtheway

Wherd you get 128.05 haste rating btw, cause that will kinda mess up all of those lvl 85 ratings

EJ, but the numbers still match up. At least the 1/2 I worked out.

I would put cure and natures majesty as NEED talents along with furor. The crit you you get from NM is worth it thanks to the adjustments, and the increased effect to your innervate from furor will be needed as we should be using it on CD in a heavy damage fight. Cure is an added bonus to be able to dispell high damage magic from tanks and there wont always be a dispeller with you in 5 mans.

NS kinda borders on optional, it is a healing style point. I use it as an extra ZOMG cd macroed with HT. Same with BotG. at lvl 85 you will most likely be able to incorporate it into a direct healing spec, as harder hitting hots on a tank will still be wanted.

Haste is still your best throughput stat OUTSIDE of RJ. The more you RJ, the less you need haste.

RJ?

Originally Posted by Iamtheway

I would put cure and natures majesty as NEED talents along with furor. The crit you you get from NM is worth it thanks to the adjustments, and the increased effect to your innervate from furor will be needed as we should be using it on CD in a heavy damage fight. Cure is an added bonus to be able to dispell high damage magic from tanks and there wont always be a dispeller with you in 5 mans.

NS kinda borders on optional, it is a healing style point. I use it as an extra ZOMG cd macroed with HT. Same with BotG. at lvl 85 you will most likely be able to incorporate it into a direct healing spec, as harder hitting hots on a tank will still be wanted.




RJ?

Rejuv.
Personally, I consider NM pretty much necessary but a lot of other people don't. I will probably put it as need though and go with my instinct.
I also consider furor the same way. Even though MG > furor for regen it's only 3 points instead of 6 for MG/NG.

I'm not putting cure just because some people wont take it an will be fine. Will I be making all our healers take their advanced cure? Hell yes I will, in my mind there is no excuse not to. But a lot of people will disagree with that saying 'I never have to cure anyway'. I'll probably put that to both as situational.

Thanks for the feedback

It's just haste as a stat in general. Haste effects all other spells way more than it does RJ. So the more RJs you throw out, the weaker haste becomes. I assume this is because it doesn't effect the GCD of RJ at all. You will still need haste, just the value of it decreases the more you use rj.
It's more for: "Once you hit caps what do you get next?" kind of situations. At least that's where I think Hamlet is trying to go with it.

Just my two cents, i'm no theory crafter so what i am suggesting may have been proved wrong somewhere else but i like to think i do know my class fairly well.

First of all, i have done one or two raids at 85 and have needed my innervates for myself. I was playing with a shaman who can DPS for mana back and a disc priest who tells me he is fine for mana as he has his own mana cooldowns (and can also DPS for mana if he has too) so i ditched the innervate glyph which is a wasted glyph slot if not needed on someone else and have replaced it with the Healing Touch glyph. NS used alongside Healing Touch is not as powerful as it once was with the high health pools people have now but i find i am using HT with Omen procs and also favouring it over Nourish when tanks have dropped low and lowering the cooldown of an instant 30k heal is nothing to be ignored if you ask me.

My general opinion of resto druids atm is that they are not as bad as people have been saying they are but there are still a few things i am unhappy with mostly caused by the high health pools. I am all for making healers harder to play because in wotlk a monkey could have played a resto druid fairly succesfully and i understand that they want to make mana matter more but i dislike that we have no powerful heal which will top people up. It stresses me out that we are forced to leave people at 60% because we need to conserve our mana, even though i know they have high enough HP to survive any damage at 60% it still goes against my gut instincts to not push people back to 90%+. AOE healing is also very weak. Efflorescence for example heals for 500-600 per tick, it heals for maybe 10% of someones HP which seems to be next to nothing to me.

In short, i have no problems with the higher spell mana costs i just wish our spells were a little more effective.

I agree. Healing is indeed pretty boring right now. I use all my spells but still not as much as I would like. I understand the middle triage heal is the heal you should use most, and you can spam, but it's very repetitive and dull. I still do it and don't have a ton of mana problems, but I'd rather have other options.\

I also think I'll be dropping innervate for HT. When Ej made their guide(which I based a lot of info off of) mana was a lot different. I'm not sure the last time he updated, but I use HT a lot more than innervating someone else. Yesterdays raid we cleared the 4 bosses we tried without *too* much of a mana issue and as said, I never had to innervate anyone, just got to save it for myself.

I really need to start updating this, finals are over monday so hopefully I'll have some time.

Healing is hard. Healing as a Druid is, from what I gather, even harder. Most specifically in cata.

But it is fun.

My 0.2 so far... I have avg iLevel 335 gear so far and with 2/3/36 I have had some serious mana problems in heroics. The counter to this is simple... get Spirit. Do not be quick to reforge it. Be quicker to enchant/gem it.

Once you start getting closer to 246, I believe only then should one start focusing their stats away from spirit.

Over the course of an average heroic 5man bossfight, what would you say is worth more mana? 2 points in moonglow or 2 points in furor?

I really don't wanna miss natures swiftness, and I like effloresence too so 3 points there.

Originally Posted by AetherMcLoud

Over the course of an average heroic 5man bossfight, what would you say is worth more mana? 2 points in moonglow or 2 points in furor?

I really don't wanna miss natures swiftness, and I like effloresence too so 3 points there.

Moonglow is better for mana hands down. If you take 3/3 furor, omen, and skip all but the crit talent in balance and are still having mana problems you may need to drop some talents to get Moonglow. Furor is better than moonglow if you can easily last a fight without it since it frees up 3-6 points.

As for crit: Once you hit the 1st RJ cap there is a big gap between being able to get the next tick. Ej testers came to the conclusion your RJ will do more hps with crit than haste depending on caps. So, on bosses you RJ spam according to spreadsheets, crit gives more throughput than haste point to point.