Resto Druid Guide
Updated for 5.0.4
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As Myrrar did for the Cataclysm guide, I too shall follow Dendrek’s general formatting. Some of this is directly copied and pasted from Myrrar’s guide; other portions are written from scratch or reorganized. This guide, in the broadest sense, should provide a thorough overview of healing preparation and execution for Mists of Pandaria. In many ways, a lot of the information here will not be different from Cataclysm; Resto Druids didn’t receive major overhauls like other classes.
Feedback is Welcome:
Arguing and trolling are 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 If you know something is wrong or outdated please tell me with something to support it with screenshots or links to theorycrafting. This will be updated a ton so feedback and mature debate are encouraged.
I don’t expect this guide to achieve perfection, but I will strive to tweak it as necessary. I do expect for there to be some mistakes, miscalculations, and so on because there’s a lot to cover. It’s up to you guys to lend a hand. With your contributions and feedback, let us work towards creating a useful compilation that beginning and advanced druids alike may access for guidance. Some of this will be subject to change as Blizzard finalizes Beta. I’m doing my very best to get this guide up fast for discussion; some portions might not be as clear or well described as possible. If readers quote areas that need to be more clear or need more detail, I will prioritize editing those sections. It is very important to be wary hardcore theorycrafting is not yet available so some information will likely change over time as that research comes to light, specifically for how well secondary stats match up with Intellect. If readers can provide hard numbers to make this information more accurate, please do so. I’m still checking EJ regularly hoping for new information
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. Stats
#1A. Stats: Spirit
#1B. Stats: Haste
#1C. Stats: Mastery vs. Crit
#2. Optimizing Your Gear
#2A. Optimizing Your Gear: Enchants
#2B. Optimizing Your Gear: Gems
#2C. Optimizing Your Gear: Reforging
#3. Consumables
#3A. Food
#3B. Potions
#3C. Flasks
#4. Professions
#5. Talents
#5A. Talents: Tier 1 (Level 15)
#5B. Talents: Tier 2 (Level 30)
#5C. Talents: Tier 3 (Level 45)
#5D. Talents: Tier 4 (Level 60)
#5E. Talents: Tier 5 (Level 75)
#5F. Talents: Tier 6 (Level 90)
#6. Glyphs
#7. Healing Spells
#8. Utility Spells
#9. Passive Spells/Abilities
#10. Mastery: Harmony
#11. Symbiosis
#12. Healing Dungeons
#13. Healing Raids
#14. User Interface
#14A. Macros
#14B. Addons
#15. Gear
#16. FAQs/Links
Preparing your character is extremely important. If you are properly prepared, you can get the most out of your resto druid. You should do your best to understand how to prepare your druid for combat and why certain decisions can be important.
#1. Stats
It is very important to be wary hardcore theorycrafting is not yet available so some information will likely change over time as that research comes to light, specifically for how well secondary stats match up with Intellect. If readers can provide hard numbers to make this information more accurate, please do so. I’m still checking EJ regularly hoping for new information
Stat Priority
Spirit (until safe on mana regen) > Haste (until breakpoints mentioned below in #1C) > Intellect > Mastery = Crit > Excess Spirit > Excess Haste
Technically, theorycrafting will likely show that excess Spirit should be reforged into Crit, but I personally prefer the cushion provided by the extra Spirit over the lack of reliable HPS that Crit provides. Excess Haste is essentially useless.
#1A. Stats: Intellect
Intellect is no longer the completely over-powered stat it once was. Intellect no longer provides us with extra mana or the additional mana regeneration from having more mana. Now, Intellect only increases your spell power and critical strike chance. The size of your mana pool is stagnant. If you have all the Spirit and Haste you need, Intellect will still be your go to stat, but it no longer has such a massive margin over your secondary stats. If you have a choice between 2 Intellect and 5 Mastery rating, you’ll probably want to choose the Mastery rating.
#1B. Stats: Spirit
Spirit is now your only stat that affects mana. Spirit is your most important secondary stat. That does not necessarily mean you need to stack Spirit; this cannot be stressed enough. It simply means: if you run out of mana, you cannot heal. Find the amount of Spirit that is right for you, and don’t go over that amount. Use all the Spirit you need to keep yourself from going OOM. There is no set number; all players will use mana with different efficiency.
You might find you need more Spirit healing some places than other, for example in Terrace of Endless Spring you may need more spirit than you need to heal Mogu’shan Vaults. In this case, if you can afford the time and money to reforge your gear regularly, I highly recommend investing in ReforgeSaver or ReforgeLite to make the process quick and painless.
Preferring extra Spirit and finishing every fight over 50% mana does not make sense. I consider that wasting a lot of stats. If your healing style calls for you to use more spirit, that's fine, but players should really gear such that they finish fights with ~25% mana. This gives you leeway if stuff gets messy, but should give you some sort of tangible goal when trying to decide how much Spirit/mana regen you need.
#1C. Stats: Haste Haste is a very important stat. Haste reduces the cast time of your spells with cast times, increases the speed at which your HoT’s tick, and reduces the global cooldown (GCD) that follows instant casts (except Rejuvenation because Swift Rejuvenation lowers the GCD triggered by Rejuv to the minimum GCD time of 1 second). As your haste increases enough, your HoT’s will actually have enough time to fit additional ticks in their duration.
Assuming you have the 5% spell haste buff, your goal is to reach either 3043 Haste rating or 6652 Haste rating and minimize the amount of excess Haste above those numbers. 3043 Haste pushes you into an extra tick of Rejuvenation and Tranquility. With 6652 Haste your Wild Growth and Efflorescence tick 2 extra times (the 1st extra tick coming at 860 Haste).
If you don't have the 5% Spell Haste buff: you want to aim for 5,320 Haste; the 3028 WG/Efflo breakpoint shown below is important, but there's no reason you can't reach 5,320 Haste without sacrificing too much Spirit or Intellect.
Any extra haste rating above these breakpoints can safely be considered wasted. It's likely you will have 25-50 Haste rating above the breakpoints, but that's a reasonable amount.
Due to bankers’ rounding, these numbers are probably slightly inaccurate, by up to 10 rating. Until somebody can provide more accurate numbers, just be wary of that.
Credit to theincbear.com, Blinkestein of totemspot.com, wtsheals.com, and Hamlet for some of my research on Haste breakpoints.
Reaching the 9th tick of Wild Growth and Efflorescence is very doable. However, assuming your raid group has 5% Spell Haste, it will require 6652 Haste rating to reach that important breakpoint. Otherwise, reaching 5320 Haste rating is your goal.
In Cata, it was worth sacrificing up to 300 Intellect (from a pure HPS perspective) to reach the 9th tick of WG/Efflo. Doing my best off-hand guesstimations by comparing T11 raid gear with T14 raid gear, it will be worth sacrificing around 950-1050 Intellect to reach the WG/Efflo Haste breakpoint.
#1D. Stats: Mastery vs. Crit
Mastery rating and Crit rating follow Intellect, Spirit, and Haste in priority.
This portion needs additional theorycrafting
Crit rating is very close to Mastery in terms of overall HPS. With crit, sometimes you heal a lot in emergencies, sometimes you heal less. With mastery you heal always more, even in emergencies but the overall potential healing is lower.
#2. Optimizing Your Gear
Please continue to look for official theorycrafting before getting your mind set on this information. I will update the guide as soon as additional research provides new insight.
As of right now, if you are really struggling with mana, don’t be afraid to use Spirit gems, enchants, and reforging. It’s nice to have the 6652 Haste breakpoint, but if you go OOM regularly, it doesn’t matter how much haste you have.
#2A. Optimizing Your Gear: Enchants
- Bracer - Super Intellect (170 Intellect) or cheaper, inferior alternative Bracer - Mastery (170 Mastery)
- Boots - Greater Haste (175 Haste) or Boots - Pandaren’s Step (140 Mastery + 8% Movement Speed)
- Chest - Glorious Stats (80 stats) or Chest - Mighty Spirit (200 Spirit)
- Cloak - Superior Intellect (180 Intellect)
- Gloves - Greater Haste (170 Haste) or Gloves - Superior Mastery (170 Mastery)
- Legs - Greater Pearlescent Spellthread (285 Intellect/165 Spirit)
- Shoulder - Greater Crane Wing Inscription (200 Intellect, 100 Crit)
- Weapon - Jade Spirit or cheaper, inferior alternative Weapon - Windsong
- Off-Hand - Major Intellect (165 Intellect)
Head enchants have been removed from the game.
#2B. Optimizing Your Gear: Gems
It’s important to take note that secondary stats are now weighted much heavier on gems, there are twice as many secondary stats on gems are there are primary stats.
Because Intellect no longer restores mana and secondary stat values have increased on gems relative to Intellect, it is safe to assume you want to get almost all socket bonuses. If the only way to reach one of the major Haste breakpoints means skipping a couple socket bonuses, skip the socket bonuses. If a socket bonus provides Haste and you already have the breakpoint you want, getting that Haste socket bonus probably means you can reduce Haste somewhere else on your gear allowing you to gain more Spirit, Mastery or Int. Skip socket bonuses that provide crit.
You will need to make your own decisions based on reaching appropriate levels of Haste versus Spirit versus gemming for Intellect/socket bonuses wherever else possible. If you simply need more Spirit, don’t be afraid to drop in some blue gems. The information you need to help make these decisions should be just above in the stat descriptions. Unfortunately, it simply is not so straightforward anymore that we can just say use only +Intellect gems. A lot is dependent on your other gear.
Red sockets: Brilliant Primordial Ruby (Intellect)
Yellow sockets: Quick Sun’s Radiance (Haste), Reckless Vermilion Onyx (Intellect/Haste), Artful Vermilion Onyx (Intellect/Mastery), Energized Wild Jade (Haste/Spirit)
Blue sockets: Purified Imperial Amethyst (Intellect/Spirit), Sparkling River’s Heart (Spirit)
Meta sockets: Burning Primal Diamond or Revitalizing Primal Diamond - Choosing between these will really depend upon your personal gearing needs. If you need more mana regen, take the Revitalizing meta. If you don't need more mana regen, take the Burning meta.
#2C. Optimizing Your Gear: Reforging Priorities
Follow these guidelines when trying to decide how to reforge
Spirit - Make sure you have enough Spirit to avoid going OOM.
Haste - With the 5% Haste raise buff, you have the 3043 or 6652 Haste breakpoints. Without the 5% Haste raise buff, you have the 5320 Haste breakpoint. Minimal excess haste over these numbers.
Mastery - All Crit and excess Spirit or Haste should be reforged into Mastery. Reforge out of Mastery if you need more Haste or Spirit.
Crit - Always reforge out of Crit to one of the other three secondary stats based on the guidelines above.
#3. Consumables
It’s important to notice that, unlike gems, secondary stats are equivalent to primary stats in these categories. If you need additional secondary stats in lieu of Intellect, first try to make the necessary changes with gems before relying on these temporary consumables.
#3A. Food
Pandaren Banquet (10-Player Feast)
Great Pandaren Banquet (25-Player Feast)
Mogu Fish Stew (300 Intellect)
Braised Turtle (275 Intellect)
Swirling Mist Soup (250 Intellect)
Steamed Crab Surprise (300 Spirit)
Fire Spirit Salmon (275 Spirit)
Shrimp Dumplings (250 Spirit)
Tangy Yogurt (200 Haste)
#3B. Potions
In almost all cases, Potion of Focus should be the potion of choice. Try to coordinate with your fellow healers for a chance to drink up. The other potions should only be used in special cases.
Potion of Focus (45000 mana)
Master Mana Potion (30000 mana, on average)
Potion of the Jade Serpent (4000 Intellect for 25 seconds)
#3C. Flasks
Flask of the Warm Sun (1000 Intellect)
Flask of Falling Leaves (1000 Spirit)
#4. Professions
- Alchemy Mixology - Additional 320 Intellect
- Blacksmithing Glove and Wrist Sockets - Additional 2 gems, up to 320 Intellect or 640 of a secondary stat
- Enchanting Ring Enchants - Additional 320 Intellect, 160 per ring
- Engineering Glove Use Effect (1920 Intellect for 10 seconds every 60 seconds; 320 Intellect when averaged as a "static" buff) - Additional 320 Intellect
- Inscription Shoulder Enchant (Additional 320 Intellect)
- Leatherworking Bracer Enchant - Additional 330 Intellect over Bracer - Super Intellect; I'll let you decide if it's worth the time/gold investment for the extra 10 Intellect)
- Jewelcrafting Gems (Additional 320 Intellect, you may now only use 2 JC gems instead of 3)
- Tailoring Cloak Spirit Embroidery (Assuming 50 second ICD from history, 3000 Spirit for 15 seconds every ~60 seconds; 750 Spirit when averaged as a "static" buff) or Tailoring Cloak Intellect Embroidery (2000 Intellect for 15 seconds every ~60 seconds; 500 Intellect when averaged as a "static" buff) - Additional 320 Intellect over Cloak - Superior Intellect
#5. Talents
You can now change individual talents with the use of a single Dust of Disappearance (at level 85) or a Tome of the Clear Mind (level 86 or above), purchasable from Inscription vendors. This means, you could use a unique spec for every boss in a given raid without ever having to visit a trainer. In fact, you should plan on changing talents regularly through the raid night.
There is no longer a cookie cutter talent tree. For a given fight, there might be some “best options” for you to choose, but every single boss might have different “best options.” With a strong understanding of boss mechanics and class mechanics, you should have some freedom to be creative. I highly encourage creative uses of your talents to counter specific fight mechanics.
For each talent, I will post one mechanic (mostly from fights in Dragon Soul) for which you might find that talent useful.
Once I have experience with the MoP raids, I will post new examples for the current content. Right now, most players (including myself) will be better able to relate to the mechanics in DS. I may list the same boss more than once per talent tier if there are different mechanics the talents suit well. This will also serve as an example that we really do have choice in our talent trees now.
#5A. Talents: Tier 1 (Level 15)
This talent tier, obviously, focuses on movement mechanics. While these talents may not directly influence your healing, they do increase your survivability. You can’t heal if you’re dead!
Feline Swiftness
Boss: Warmaster Blackhorn
Use: Get to the Twilight Barrage locations quicker.
Displacer Beast
With a cancelaura macro for this spell, it can effectively be considered Blink with a 30 second CD.
Boss: General Zon’ozz
Use: If you receive the debuff, quickly get away from the group so you can be dispelled.
Wild Charge - Blackhorn
Boss: Hagara the Stormbinder
Use: During frost phase, charge to an ally if you fall behind and get close to the frost spikes.
#5B. Talents: Tier 2 (Level 30)
All of the talents in this tree allow more healing utility. These can be make or break for some fights.
Nature’s Swiftness
Boss: Madness of Deathwing
Use: Macro this with Healing Touch. Use it to top off a tank before or after an Impale.
Renewal
Boss: Madness of Deathwing
Use: Use this following the explosion of an Elementium Bolt.
Cenarion Ward
Boss: Hagara the Stormbinder
Use: Cast on tank before Focused Assault.
#5C. Talents: Tier 3 (Level 45)
All the CC's! Use them!
Faerie Swarm
Boss: Warmaster Blackhorn
Use: Slowing down the Sapper.
Mass Entanglement
Boss: Maloriak
Use: Rooting the adds to help your add tank.
Typhoon
Boss: Ragnaros
Use: Knocking Sons of Flame away from the hammer.
#5D. Talents: Tier 4 (Level 60)
Healing CD's
Soul of the Forest
This ability is very strong when coupled with Wild Growth. You get an extra 2 ticks, which is a huge HPS increase.
Boss: Ultraxion
Use: Healing the entire fight.
Incarnation ***
Boss: General Zon'ozz
Use: Healing black phase. There's a lot of damage, and you're all spread out so Soul of the Forest is not helpful for healing this part of the fight. The straight healing increase is very helpful.
Force of Nature
Boss: N/A
Use: As of right now, this talent is very weak for Resto. It’s not worth taking for any reason. Look for updates in the future if it gets buffed.
#5E. Talents: Tier 5 (Level 75)
Moar CC! Yay!
Disorienting Roar
Boss: Maloriak
Use: If you pull aggro on the little adds, this is a good way to keep them from smacking you and giving the tank some time to pick them up.
Ursol’s Vortex
Boss: Maloriak
Use: This can allow you to peel the adds off your tank while he's trying to kite them.
Mighty Bash
Boss: Ragnaros
Use: Stunning the Sons of Flame.
#5F. Talents: Tier 6 (Level 90)
And even more CD's!
Heart of the Wild
The actual use of this talent will not be very handy in PVE, usually—at least not to the extent that you would actually want to choose this talent for those purposes. Maybe you could save a wipe by going into Bear Form, but those opportunities will be so rare that you normally wouldn't want to choose this talent solely for the purposes of being an emergency tank. Chimaeron might be the only boss in Cata that you would choose this talent, and that is solely because you don't have the opportunity to heal during his burn phase. The extremely long CD gives more reason you would not want to rely on this talent.
Boss: Ultraxion
Use: Having the 6% passive Intellect for the duration of the fight will help you not fall behind on healing, and it will help your mana (due to your spells being more effect; remember: this doesn't increase your mana pool but the increased HPS can save you mana).
Dream of Cenarius
If you consume this buff by use of Swiftmend, it does not affect Efflorescence. That makes Wild Growth the best spell for AoE healing with this buff. Rejuv and Lifebloom are actually good uses for this debuff if you know your tank will be taking a lot of damage over a 12-15 second period. Lifebloom is technically the stronger spell in this case, but due to refreshing habits, it will be easy to refresh LB with a weaker version before you can get the full effect of the buff, so be wary of that. Healing Touch and Regrowth are also good options if your tank takes a significant amount of spike damage.
Boss: Madness of Deathwing
Use: The predictable times of damage from the Corruptions in Phase 1 allows you plenty of time to cast Wrath and have HT/RG ready to heal spike damage that would inevitably follow the pause in damage going out.
Nature’s Vigil ***
The damage component of this is actual pretty insignificant. You generally shouldn't consider that portion of this cool down when trying to choose your tier 6 talents.
Boss: General Zon'ozz
Use: Healing black phase.
*** On Beta, many players were simply using these two spells together. While that's fine, for some fights you might want to spread these out. If you include Tranquility, you would then have one major CD available per minute, which would be very useful for fights with regular bursty AoE damage that don't necessarily allow you to stack in a tight group (examples: Sinestra, Ragnaros, Zon'ozz)
#6. Glyphs
#6A. Major Glyphs
Lifebloom, Rejuvenation, Rebirth, Regrowth and Wild Growth will probably be the most commonly used glyphs. Which combination you use will depend on your spec and the boss you are fighting.
Healing Touch : *Until you get the Tier 14 4-piece bonus, you should never use this glyph if you spec into Soul of the Forest for a heavy AoE fight.* Wild Growth benefits from SotF far more than any other spell, which means that WG needs to be cast right after Swiftmend when you have the SotF talent. If you lower the SM CD too much, WG won't be able to benefit from SotF. Once you do have the tier bonus, this glyph can actually help bring the SM CD closer to the WG CD when coupled with the WG Glyph.
Lifebloom : This glyph is ideal for fights that involve tank swapping mechanics or frequently changing your primary heal target.
Rebirth : Bringing your ally back to life at 100% health can be valuable. It provides some nice leeway for players who accidentally resurrect at inopportune times.
Regrowth : Compared to our other HoT's the HoT portion of Regrowth is relatively weak. Sacrificing that for a guaranteed 100% crit chance on Regrowth is very worth it. I recommend using this glyph in most cases. This also means a guaranteed proc of Living Seed. It's important to note you will no longer be able to Swiftmend off your Regrowth targets once the HoT is removed, which can be a big drawback in some cases.
Rejuvenation : This glyph depends on your healing style. If you are a very frequent user of Nourish as one of your main heals—instead of using it primarily as a filler, you should get good use of this glyph. I personally do not use Nourish very often at times that I also have 3+ Rejuvs on targets so this glyph is not very useful for me. This all depends on your style.
Wild Growth : If you aren't spec'ed into Soul of the Forest, you should always use this glyph for 25-man raiding; for some 10-man fights you may be too spread out to gain the benefit of an extra target; for 5-mans, you generally won't gain much (if any) benefit from having an extra target so you might want to pass on this glyph. *Until you get the Tier 14 4-piece bonus, you should never use this glyph if you spec into Soul of the Forest for a heavy AoE fight. I highly recommend this glyph once you have the T14 4-piece.* Once you do have the tier bonus, this glyph can actually help bring the SM CD closer to the WG CD when coupled with the Healing Touch glyph.
Other glyphs such as Dash, Innervate, Rebirth , and Might of Ursoc might be useful in some select situations, but these should not be considered for the typical fight.
#6B. Minor Glyphs
- Glyph of Aquatic Form
- Glyph of Charm Woodland Creatures
- Glyph of Grace
- Glyph of the Chameleon
- Glyph of the Cheetah
- Glyph of the Orca
- Glyph of the Predator
- Glyph of the Stag
- Glyph of the Treant (Permanent Old Tree Form)
#7. Healing Spells
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.
Lifebloom : Keep three stacks applied to the most important target to heal (usually the tank, of course). Keep it rolling, end of story. You should never not have LB ticking. If you have time and the healing's needed, refresh with Nourish. CC procs (Clearcasting from Omen of Clarity) are a good time to use Regrowth or Healing Touch to refresh LB. If not, just refresh it.
Nourish : Your filler heal. 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.
Regrowth : This is a fast, expensive heal; our flash heal. Regrowth now has 60% crit chance built in. It costs a lot of mana but heals a good amount and leaves a hot. Alternatively, the glyph for this spell removes the HoT but makes the spell crit heal 100% of the time. Mainly used with CC procs. But, if SM is on CD and someone needs emergency spike, this is your go-to spell. Be careful: no spell can drain your mana faster than Regrowth.
Rejuvenation : This will still be 1st or second on your meter, especially in raids. Know how much yours heals for. Rejuv is still a very powerful spell, don't underestimate it. Don't spam it 'til you go OOM, but if it won't go to over healing this will be your most powerful spell for mana cost.
Swiftmend : Use every CD if it's not going to overheal or you know you want to place Efflo somewhere specifically soon. SM is probably our best spell. It's instant, heals for a good amount, and throws Efflo on the ground. You can also SM other druids hots so if you have Vuhdo, make sure you put SM’able targets on. More about the Efflorescence effect caused by SM: 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.
Tranquility : 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. This is no longer quite as overpowered as it once was. As Resto, this spell has a 3 minute CD. Before a fight starts, you should know appropriate times to cast this, but sometimes this is a good emergency spell.
Wild Growth : This will still be 1st or second on your meter, especially in raids. It's a smart heal (which means it heals the most injured targets), 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.
Wild Mushroom: Bloom : Currently, this spell is relatively weak; however, mana-wise, it's very cheap. For fights that have alot of stacking, I recommend placing your Shrooms during healing downtime so you can Bloom them when your raid is taking AoE damage. Never place these while significant damage is going out; only place them before the damage begins.
#8. Utility Spells
Barkskin : This now has a 45 second cooldown. Use it anytime you can predict you will take damage.
Innervate : Use this on yourself whenever you dip to 75% mana. The sooner you get this on CD, the sooner you can use it a second time (or third).
Ironbark : Use this when you know a certain player is about to take a large amount of damage.
Might of Ursoc : This spell is a good defensive CD, either for when you know you're about to take a lot of damage or after you just took a lot of damage and your health is very low.
Nature’s Cure : Our dispel spell, which works for Magic, Curse, and Poison effects.
Rebirth : In a single boss pull, your raid can battle res one player in 10-mans and three players in 25-mans. Don't waste it. Communicate with your other Druids/Death Knights/Warlocks who you are BR’ing.
Remove Corruption:
Other utility spells:
- Cyclone
- Dash
- Entangling Roots
- Faerie Fire
- Hibernate
- Mark of the Wild
- Nature’s Grasp
- Soothe
- Stampeding Roar
Thorns has been removed from the game.
#9. Passive Spells/Abilities
I’m including these purely for the sake of being thorough. It’s handy to know you have them.
- Leather Specialization
- Living Seed
- Malfurion’s Gift
- Meditation
- Natural Insight
- Nature’s Focus
- Omen of Clarity
- Swift Rejuvenation
#10. Mastery: Harmony
Your direct healing is increased by an additional 10% and casting your direct healing spells grants you an additional 10% bonus to periodic healing for 20 sec. Although any direct heal and Wild Mushroom: Bloom can proc Harmony, the 20 second duration of the buff allows consistent use of Swiftmend (and Omen of Clarity procs) to maintain 100% uptime, making our mastery essentially passive.
How it works:
- Harmony doesn't update a hot as it's ticking. If you cast Rejuv and get Harmony a few ticks in, it doesn't update it.
- If you cast a hot and midway through you gain Harmony, it doesn't update it.
- Lifebloom: Harmony effects all the stacks based on the last one cast. If harmony is only active on the last LB stack, it effects them all. If harmony is on the 1st 2 and not the 3rd, LB doesn't get the effect.
- Harmony will effect the RG hot if that RG is a new or refreshed Harmony.
- Harmony will effect a HoT you cast directly after a direct heal, it won't lag.
- If harmony falls off during Tranq, the ticks after it won't have the buff.
#11. Symbiosis
Creates a symbiotic link which grants the Druid one ability belonging to the target's class, varying by the Druid's specialization. Also grants the target one Druid ability based on their class and combat role. Lasts 1 hour and persists through death. Cannot be cast on other Druids. Effect cancelled if Druid and target become too far apart.
Your Symbiosis target might very well change on a fight-to-fight basis.
When you cast Symbiosis on somebody, here are the spells you can receive:
Here are the spells you will grant other classes when you cast Symbiosis on them:
*Not Shown, Monks give: Balance - Grapple Weapon, Feral - Clash, Guardian - Elusive Brew, Resto - Fortifying Brew; Prot Warrior receives: Savage Defense
Error, Disc and Holy Priests receive Cyclone
Some common targets for Resto Druids will probably be Brewmaster Monks, Blood Death Knights, and Shadow Priests.
#12. Strategy: Healing Dungeons
Don't heal what you don't have to. If your rogue gets hit by something random once, WG or Rejuv will be enough, no need to spam HT/RG on 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 damage is avoidable. If you are playing with people who struggle with mechanics, yes, you will have mana problems, and people will die. If someone stands in something, explain to them you don't have the mana to heal through ignoring mechanics.
- 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.
- Don't worry about Wild Mushrooms in a dungeon environment. If you're able to work it in on a dungeon boss and get some extra healing, good for you, but as of right now this spell is relatively week, and dungeons tend to have a lot of movement.
#13. Strategy: Healing Raids
- Pre-hot: If you know a big ability is coming be ready with Rejuvs already out and WG and Efllo preparing to be used.
- Use Wg on CD: unless it's only going to overheal. If 2 players need the heal, it's worth casting WG is smartcast, as a class dependent on HoT's we want to heal proactively, not react to it.
- Rely on your hots: We can direct heal now, but our 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.
- Use Incarnation: ToL when needed (but always use it 1-2 times per fight).
- 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 Efflo. Yes, it's great on one target now, but it's better on multiple.
- Use Innervate any time you dip to 75% mana.
- If you know your raid will be stacking in a set location, try to pre-plant Shrooms in that spot while you have some down time from healing.
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 Rejuv, using 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 Rejuvs on raid damage. 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 Efflo on them (if SM isn't going to overheal, of course).
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 Rejuv/Nourish/WG, it will be a nice buff to all tank healers, but especially 10 mans.
#14. User Interface
You need to find a UI that works for you. Copying others is not necessarily a good idea.
A few recommendations
Addons are very helpful. Get the addons you need. Don't get any more. A cluttered screen will only serve to distract you.
Viewporting (as seen in Tsuki's UI) is not bad, but do not put your heal frames in there. That's an excellent way to tunnel vision.
Some parts of your UI you don't need while raiding. Addons like Bartender and Kong allow you to have portions of your UI fade out when you enter combat.
Here are some example UIs to get you started on ideas.
Fumsy Out Of Combat
Click image for full size
Fumsy In Combat
Click image for full size
Courtesy of Shìft/Promey
Click image for full size
Courtesy of Shìft/Promey
Courtesy of Tsuki
Click image for full size
#14A. Macros
Now that we will be more frequently changing single talents, it makes sense to have the talents from a given tier bound to the same key. I recommend making a macro that incorporates all the abilities from a single tier so you don't need to constantly mess with your bars/bindings.
Tier 2:
/cast Renewal
/cast Cenarion Ward
/cast Nature's Swiftness
/cast Healing Touch
Tier 3:
/cast Typhoon
/cast Mass Entanglement
/cast Faerie Swarm
Tier 5:
/cast Mighty Bash
/cast Ursol's Vortex
/cast Disorienting Roar
Instant Healing Touch:
/showtooltip Nature's Swiftness
/stopcasting
/cast Nature's Swiftness
/cast [target=mouseover] Healing Touch
(Take out mouseover if you use a click addon)
Rebirth in combat, revive out of combat:
#showtooltip
/cast [nocombat] Revive
/stopmacro [nocombat]
/cast Rebirth
/ra Rebirth on %t
Clique Mouseover Version:
/cast [target=mouseover,help,dead,combat] Rebirth; [target=mouseover,help,dead,nocombat] Revive; [target=mouseover,help,nodead] Regrowth
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");
"max protection":
#showtooltip Barkskin
/cast Barkskin
/cast Nature's Grasp
/cast might of ursoc
Manually Proc Both Trinkets:
/use 13
/use 14
#14B. Addons
Use a healing addon. It's worth learning Vuhdo. It will increase your reaction time, and its convenience will allow you more focus for other mechanics.
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 then Healbot. This is based on functionality, latency, resource usage, and customization.
If you're new to Vuhdo, here is a YouTube playlist with three very useful tutorial videos. Even if you're not new to this addon, you still may learn something.
Use something that shows your CDs and when they will be up. I use ForteXorcist (CoolLine is an alternative) though there are many out there that work. Power Auras is amazing if you want all your CDs (Innervate, Barkskin, etc.), procs (Harmony, Soul of the Forest, etc.), things like that right around your character. It can get bulky looking, but is very useful. WeakAuras is an increasingly popular alternative.
Use DBM or Bigwigs. You have no excuse not to. When content is new/buggy, the timers can be off so sometimes I actually use both for extra awareness. Usually, duplication of addons is bad, but being misinformed about a fight is worse.
I recommend using Quartz, if for no other reason, for an improved cast bar. You can increase the size and show latency. The latency approximation is not 100% accurate because your latency will change once you start casting, but it gives you a decent idea.
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
#15. Gear
WTSHeals has compiled a nice list of gear, it includes pre-raid gear and raid gear.
I have compiled a pre-raid set of gear that makes the 6652 Haste breakpoint very accessible once gemmed, enchanted, and reforged. It should provide plenty of Spirit. If you are having mana problems using this gear, you probably need to reassess your healing efficiency. Keep in mind, you’re a new level 90 now so you’re not supposed to be able to spam endlessly like you could in DS gear at level 85. See what you can do to conserve mana before deciding matter-of-factly that you simply need more Spirit.
Here is the set dropped into the WoWHead Profiler. It currently does not support the MoP version of gems.
Total stats
- 10025 Intellect
- 6964 Spirit
- 6669 Haste
- 1104 Mastery
- 979 Crit
Keep in mind, head enchants and relics have been removed.
Jewelcrafting and Blacksmithing provide the most long-term gearing flexibility due to the nature of their gem/socket bonuses making it easy to pick up extra Haste or Spirit instead of Intellect. For the hardcore willing to actually change professions for a single piece of gear good for one tier, this Engineering helm is pre-raid BiS:
Camouflage Retinal Armor
Next Valor Point Priorities
Klaxxi Lash of the Harbinger
Leven's Circle of Hope
Snowdrift Helm
#16. FAQs/Additional Links
Icy Veins has a good Resto Druid guide if you want to read from an additional source.
Lissanna's Resto Guide
Official Druid Forums
Official Healing Forums
Elitist Jerks Druid Forums