Starting (technically continuing) a resto druid for WoD.

[Orash]

Hello all,

After a break of about 5 months I wanted to come back to WoW. I am planning on rolling resto druid for WoD. I resubbed to get used to resto before WoD hits to be more efficient and not having to level in new zones and still adapting to the class.

My biggest question is. Is resto druid a really time consuming class specilization to master to a degree of being able to normal dificulty raids? My endgoals would be to do mythic raiding in WoD. But that is ofcourse still a long road to go.

What I am asking in short is:

-how are you personal experiences with resto druid.
-Is resto druid a class specilixaton that can keep you interested for a long time?
-Is there anything in particular I should keep in mind?

I want to thank all of you wonderfull people in advance !

Kind regards,
Orash
(Before I had my break I played Shadow priest duing all of Mists so no realy healing experience before).

[Hildrande]

Been raiding on a resto druid since this winter, gone from being a facerolling nub to being bored by normal mode runs. Great fun.

Hello all,
Is resto druid a really time consuming class specilization to master to a degree of being able to normal dificulty raids?

If time is your limiting factor when learning to play, proving grounds, in my experience, are great. Proving grounds helped me tremendously in getting ready for raiding. If you enter proving grounds as a faceroller you will be owned, and it will hurt. Heroic raiding is more difficult than wave 30 in endless mode. Raiding takes a somewhat different approach to healing than proving grounds, but the mindset you need to get far in proving grounds is the same you need for heroic raiding: Persistence, in-depth class/game knowledge and tactical problem solving skills.

[Zathan666]

My main spec is resto druid but I play every healing classes and spec (except discipline) at a very high level. Apart from the fact that rdruid is my favorite class, I believe that it's also the easiest to master. It doesn't mean you'll be able to master it in one day. There is complexity and subtle things to be aware of. I like to compare it to a DoT class (dps). Fairly similar playstyle to maximize throughput. I'd have to go into more details to explain this hehe.

[Orash]

Thanks for the replies! Its good to know the proving grounds are a valuable method of starting out!

I played shadowpriest this expansion so if that is the same playstyle thats great as well.

[TwoNineMarine]

The best part is there are small things to pick up. For example if you take Soul of The Forest you need to get used to using the best spell when that is active versus wasting it. And as someone who has just made the switch that can be a bit tough to get used to. I love it though.

Been playing my Resto Druid since BC and I wouldn't change to another class/spec.

[solidbear]

-how are you personal experiences with resto druid.
Been playing resto since vanilla so I've seen all the changes from vanilla till now. I've always loved it and enjoyed it.

-Is resto druid a class specilixaton that can keep you interested for a long time?
I've raided at every level since vanilla as Main resto and haven't changed so... if you like high mobility healers, this is the one to play.

-Is there anything in particular I should keep in mind?
Keep in mind just with any class, it takes time, patience and practice to master. Honestly, you need to ask yourself why YOU want to play a resto druid and if this is the class you want to play. Do you like the changes that are coming for them in WoD? Can you adapt to the changes coming in WoD? If you like them then any other class, than by all means play them.

[Drefan]

How are you personal experiences with resto druid
I've played Resto Druid since classic and I've raided on a high lvl ever since.
In Classic you where pretty much a healing touch machine in PvE which was ok since it felt like every healer was a stand still and heal machine. You had some tools that were really good for the raid like hibernate, innervate, entangeling roots and rebirth these spells made you stand a bit but it was overall pretty similar healing.

When TBC came druids moved away from the "stand still healing machine" role that I felt we had in Classic and we got much more mobility. Sure we didnt land the biggest heals but we could move and heal at the same time and that's something I really enjoy. And its pretty similar these days, you've strong hots, great mobility and you can fall back on emergency healing with Regrowth and HT but you'll need to stand still. I like the Resto Druid playstyle, I dont feel "rooted" on a certain position and I'm usually the guy running around CCing important targets in PvE.

Now in WoD we won't be as free to move since Wild Growth will have a cast time but besides that we will still have our mobility!

Is resto druid a class specilixaton that can keep you interested for a long time?
Resto druid is the class I started raiding with on 60 and I've tried a few others but I always end up coming back. I've tried tanking and DPS but there is something about healing that makes it a lot more fun to me, especially during progress! Progress healing is among the best things I know as a healer, you really need to save people from the mistakes they are all going to make in the fight so being on your toes ready is a lot of fun. Once progress is over I tend to feel that healing loses some of its charm unless you try and go down on healers to make it more challenging

Is there anything in particular I should keep in mind?
I would say that to become a good healer you need to understand how you and your healing partners work.
You need to know how to use your spells to most optimal way and to do so takes time and pratice. Looking at other Druid videos and how they heal might do more harm than good if they are doing it wrong so try and look at some of the top guilds druids and how they play and try to understand why they do what they do. Once you've gotten a good understand how your class work it's all about teamplay with your other healers.
Looking at healing meters these days can be very misleading and you can still do a great job without being top off the meters. With that being said, working together with your healing partners is key to do a good job, timing throughput cooldowns and other key abilities is what makes a good healing team.

Best of luck!

[Orash]

Thanks for the replies and insights!
I really appreciate the responses. And looking at them I think I will actually run the suggested class/Specialization
(just now I noticed the horrible typo in the main post).

I will start watching some video's from high end guilds to see if I can follow why they do certain things.

Now all I need to figure out is horde/ alliance hahah, since I want to start really fresh in WoD I don't mind horde or alliance. I have been horde for 7 years tho and maybe it's nice to have some fresh gameplay in that way as well.