The Naked Fear

Resto Druid Guide for TNF

I am going to try to keep this as short as possible, while touching on all the key points.

Restoration druids play a valuable role in most raids today. Our HoTs and emergency spells can often prevent a wipe. I will discuss key talent points you will want in your spec first, then go over our main spells and rotation. I will also link my spec at the end.

The first rule of healing as a resto druid is this: ALWAYS heal in tree form. Except for rare occasions when you haven’t had a chance to change forms and someone needs a heal NOW, the added benefits to healing that tree form provides are too great to try healing without it.

Key Balance Talents:

Most resto druids use several talents in the Balance tree. The following are almost always used:

Genesis: 5 points. It increases damage and healing by 5% when fully talented. Great boost to heals.

Moonglow: 3 points. It decreases the mana cost of Healing Touch, Regrowth, Rejuvenation and Nourish by 9% when fully talented.

Nature’s Majesty: 2 points. It increases the crit strike chance of Nourish and Healing Touch by 4%.

Nature’s Grace: 3 points. All spell crits have a 100% chance to grace you with a blessing of nature, decreasing spell casting time by 20% for 3 seconds.

Nature’s Splendor: 1 point. Increases the duration of your Moonfire and Rejuvenation spells by 3 sec, your Regrowth spell by 6 sec, and your Insect Swarm and Lifebloom spells by 2sec.

The following Balance talents are optional, and usually only used if you have 736 haste rating. Using Celestial Focus with a minimum of 736 haste grants you a 1 second global cool down and 1 second Nourish cast:

Brambles: Requires 10 points in Balance Talents
1 point: Increases damage caused by your Thorns and Entangling Roots spells by 75% and damage done by your treants by 15%. In addition, damage from your Treants and attacks done to you while you have Barksin active have a 15% chance to daze the target for 3 sec. This is used primarily to achieve the 15 points required to get the next talent.

Celestial Focus: 3 points. Reduces the pushback suffered from damaging attacks while casting Starfire, Hibernate and Hurricane by 70% and increases your total spell haste by 3%.

Key Restoration Talents:

The following talents are the main talents used by most resto druids:

Improved Mark of the Wild: 2 points: Increases the effects of your Mark of the Wild and Gift of the Wild spells by 40%, and increases all of your total attributes by 2%.

Nature’s Focus: 3 points: Reduces the pushback suffered from damaging attacks while casting Healing Touch, Wrath, Entangling Roots, Cyclone, Nourish, Regrowth and Tranquility by 70%.

Subtlety: 2-3 points. Reduces the threat generated by your restoration spells by 20-30% and reduces the chance your healing over time spells will be dispelled by 20-30%. Personally, I have 2 points in this talent, mainly to get to use deeper talents in the tree.

Natural Shapeshifter: 3 points. Reduces the mana cost of all shapeshifting by 30%

Intensity: 3 points. Allows 50% of your mana regeneration to continue while casting and causes your Enrage ability to instantly generate 10 rage.

Omen of Clarity: 1 point. Each of the druid's damage, healing spells and auto attacks has a chance of causing the caster to enter a Clearcasting state. The Clearcasting state reduces the Mana, Rage or Energy cost of your next damage, healing spell or offensive ability by 100%.

Master Shapeshifter: 2 points. Tree form - Increases healing by 4%.

Improved Rejuvenation: 3 points. Increases the effect of your Rejuvenation spell by 15%.

Nature’s Swiftness: Requires 3 points in Intensity
1 point: Instant, 3 min cool down. When activated, your next Nature spell with a casting time of less than 10 sec becomes an instant cast spell. This is an awesome tank saver.

Gift of Nature: 5 points: Increases the effect of all healing spells by 10%.

Nature’s Bounty: Requires 3 points in Improved Rejuvenation
5 points: Increases the critical effect chance of your Regrowth and Nourish spells by 25%.

Living Spirit: 3 points: Increases your total Spirit by 15%. I’m going to quote Wowwikki here:
“On the surface, it gives you raw non-casting mana regen and bigger innervates. With talents like Intensity you will get a boost to your in-combat mana regeneration, too. Also, Imp Tree form will use 15% of your spirit to convert into +healing. “

Swiftmend: 1 point: 16% of base Mana, 40 yd range, instant cast, 15 sec cool down. Consumes a Rejuvenation or Regrowth effect on a friendly target to instantly heal them an amount equal to 12 sec of Rejuvenation or 18 sec of Regrowth.

Empowered Rejuvenation: 5 points: The bonus healing effects of your healing over time spells is increased by 20%.

Tree of Life: Requires 5 points in Empowered Rejuvenation
1 point: 28% of base Mana, Instant cast. Shapeshift into the Tree of Life. While in this form you increase healing received by 6% for all party and raid members within 45 yards, and you can only cast Restoration, Innervate and Barkskin spells, but the mana cost of your healing over time spells is reduced by 20%.

Improved Tree of Life: Requires 1 point in Tree of Life
3 points: Increases your Armor while in Tree of Life Form by 200%, and increases your healing spell power by 15% of your spirit while in Tree of Life Form.

Gift of the Earthmother: 5 points: Reduces the base global cool down of your Rejuvenation, Lifebloom and Wild Growth spells by 20%.

Wildgrowth: 1 point: 23% of base Mana, 40 yd range, instant cast. Heals up to 5 friendly party or raid members within 15 yards of the target for 1442 over 7 sec. The amount healed is applied quickly at first, and slows down as the Wild Growth reaches its full duration.

Optional Restoration Talents:

Tranquil Spirit: 1-5 points: Reduces the mana cost of your Healing Touch, Nourish and Tranquility spells by 10%. Some guides will tell you not to put points here. However, Nourish has become increasingly important in the new content, and becomes more viable in any content as you increase your haste rating. I recommend putting at least one point here.

Empowered Touch: 1-2 points: Your Healing Touch spell gains an additional 40% of your bonus healing effects and your Nourish spell gains an additional 20% of your bonus healing effects. Again, Nourish has become a viable spell in ICC content. If you plan to become even a casual ICC raider, I recommend you put 2 points here.

Living Seed: 1-3 points: When you critically heal your target with Swiftmend, Regrowth, Nourish or Healing Touch spell you have a 100% chance to plant a Living Seed on the target for 30% of the amount healed. The Living Seed will bloom when the target is next attacked. Lasts 15 sec. This can give you an amazing boost to your heals. I recommend putting 3 points here.

Revitalize: 1-3 points: Your Rejuvenation spell has a 15% chance to restore 8 Energy, 4 Rage, 1% Mana or 16 Runic Power per tick. Extra mana, rage, energy or runic power could mean the difference in a close fight. I recommend putting 2 points here.

Spells:

Main Spells (x, y, and z are used here for amount healed, as your level, glyphs, talent points, etc. affect each of these spells):

Gift of the Wild: 40 yard range. Gives the Gift of the Wild to the target's party and raid members, increasing armor by X, all attributes by Y and all resistances by Z for 1 hour. This should be applied to the raid once all members are present, prior to pulling the first boss. It should be refreshed on the raid after 1 hour and after each wipe.

Mark of the Wild: 30 yard range. Increases the friendly target's armor by X, all attributes by Y, and all resistances by Z for 30 min. This should be applied to individuals that come into a raid late, or who die from a mob. For instance, say the tank goes down and you battle rez him. Buff him with this after healing him up. Don’t forget to refresh it in 30 minutes.

Wildgrowth: 40 Yard range. Heals up to 5 friendly party or raid members within 15 yards of the target for X over 7 sec. The amount healed is applied quickly at first, and slows down as the Wild Growth reaches its full duration. This spell should be used whenever it is available, in between casting rejuvenation, regrowth, nourish and lifebloom. Note: If you can multi-task and are healing in the middle of a raid, always make yourself the target for better control over who gets hit with this spell.

Lifebloom: 40 Yard range. Heals the target for X over 7 sec. When Lifebloom completes its duration or is dispelled the target instantly heals themself for Y. This effect can stack up to 3 times on the same target. This spell should be stacked 3 times on each tank prior to major damage boss pulls.

Rejuvenation: 40 yard range. Heals the target for X over 12 sec. This spell is your bread and butter spell for raid healing.

Nourish: 40 Yard range. Heals a friendly target for X to Y. Heals for an additional 20% if you have a Rejuvenation, Regrowth, Lifebloom, or Wild Growth effect active on the target. This spell should be used on raid members and tanks who are taking massive amounts of damage. I try to spam this on tanks during intensive boss damage, such as during Fester gut’s “Inhale Blight” phase.

Regrowth: 40 yard range. Heals a friendly target for X to Y and another Z over 21 sec. This should be cast on tanks prior to boss and mob pulls, and maintained on them throughout each fight. It can be cast on players taking excess damage, as well, such as during Mark of the Fallen Champion during the Deathbringer Saurfang fight in ICC.

Healing Touch: 40 yard range. Heals a friendly target for X to Y. This is a long cast that costs a lot of mana. I do not recommend using this spell for most fights. I will discuss it’s use as a tank/player emergency heal in the next section.

Cure Poison: 40 yard range. Cures 1 poison effect on the target.

Abolish Poison: 40 yard range. Attempts to cure 1 poison effect on the target, and 1 more poison effect every 2 seconds for 8 sec. I personally prefer this spell for poisons, as it continues working over 8 seconds.

Remove Curse: 40 yard range. Dispels 1 curse from a friendly target. In Noth the Plague bringer (Naxxramas) and the Lady Death whisper (ICC) fight especially, as well as many other fights, this spell comes in handy.

Nature’s Swiftness: Self Only. 3 minute cool down. When activated, your next Nature spell with a casting time less than 10 seconds becomes an instant cast spell. I will explain more about this spell under emergency healing.

Swiftmend: 40 Yard range. 15 second cool down. Consumes (unless glyphed) a Rejuvenation or Regrowth effect on a friendly target to instantly heal them an amount equal to 12 sec. of Rejuvenation or 18 sec. of Regrowth. This should be used every time it is available on players who have a rejuvenation or regrowth effect and are taking 30% damage or more.

Tranquility: 30 yard range. Self Only. 8 minute cool down (AoE Heal). Heals all nearby group members for X every 2 seconds for 8 sec. Druid must channel to maintain the spell. This spell only heals the 5 members of your party, even if you are in a raid, and only if they are within your range. For the most part, I only use this spell as a last resort, if ever.

Innervate: 30 Yard range. 3 minute cool down. Grants 450% of the casting Druid's base mana pool to the target over 20 seconds. 2 minute cool down. Druids rarely go oom thanks to this spell. For mana intensive fights, I recommend using this on yourself when your mana is at 50-60%. This way it may be available to you again toward the end of the fight.

Rotation:

Every situation is different, however here is a basic rotation for you.

I begin by fully HoT’ing up the tank(s): Regrowth and Rejuvenation, and if massive damage can be expected right off the bat, apply 3 stacks of Lifebloom. Then I use Rejuvenation on 5 raid members I know will be taking damage, followed by Wildgrowth. I refresh Regrowth on the tanks before it ticks off, and continue using Rejuvenation on 5 more raid members, followed by Wildgrowth.

Emergency Healing:

For tanks especially, but any raid member taking massive amounts of damage, there are several ways we can come to the rescue.

Swiftmend: The instant heals this spell supplies are amazing. Just make sure there is a Rejuvenation or Regrowth spell on the player first. If there isn’t, Rejuvenate first.

Nourish: If you have the haste to pull this spell off, use it. Again, make sure you have a Rejuvenation, Regrowth, or Wildgrowth effect on the target, and preferably all three.

Nature’s Swiftness + Nourish or Healing Touch: Nature’s Swiftness makes your next spell with a cast time of 10 seconds or less an instant cast. This can be an amazing tank saver when followed by Nourish or Healing Touch. In fact, I made a macro for it and put it on my bar. For those of you that want to do the same, here it is:

/stopcasting
/cast Nature's Swiftness
/cast Healing Touch

Substitute Nourish for Healing Touch if you prefer to use Nourish with it in the macro.

Tranquility: Again, this only heals the 5 members of your party and has an 8 minute cool down, so use this as a last resort only in a raid situation.

Resto Stats, Gems, and Enchants:

Sp > Haste > Spirit > Crit Strike > Int

Spell power should always be the main stat that you gem for. Haste soft cap is 365 and is better to get with gear, however, if you are close to 736 haste and want to talent into Celestial Focus, gemming may be the only way you can reach that goal. Spell crit should be gained primarily through gear, and should be close to 20%--do NOT sacrifice spell power, haste or spirit for it though.

Spirit and Intellect are both important. Spirit gives you mana regeneration (mp5) and spell power (if specced properly). Intellect gives you mana and spell crit. With the mana intensive fights in ICC and the new dungeons, I personally recommend gemming for Spirit before intellect. Yes, a larger mana pool is nice, but even if your spell crit is not at 20%, the mp5 and spellpower is much nicer.

Gems you should use:

Red--Runed Cardinal Ruby/Dragon’s Eye
Blue--Purified Dreadstone, Sparkling Majestic Zircon/Dragon’s Eye
Yellow--Luminous Ametrine, Reckless Ametrine (if you need haste)
Meta--Insightful Earthsiege Diamond (chance to restore mana on spell cast is an awesome bonus), Ember Skyflare Diamond, Tireless Skyflare Diamond.

For head enchants, I recommend Arcanum of Burning Mysteries from the Kirin Tor quartermaster at the Violet Citadel. If you have the crit and would rather have mp5, then Arcanum of Blissful Mending from the Wyrmrest Accord is good.

Your shoulder inscription should be Greater Inscription of the Storm from Sons of Hodir. If you don’t have rep, please do the quests that get you neutral with them, then either farm or purchase Relics of Ulduar from the auction house and turn them in until you get exalted with them.

Chest enchants I recommend are Powerful Stats or Major Spirit.

Enchant your bracers with Superior Spellpower. Enchant your gloves with Exceptional Spellpower. Always put an eternal belt buckle in your waist, and gem appropriately to your needs. For pants, I recommend Brilliant Spellthread over Sapphire--tanks and dps should be keeping mobs off of you, and any extra health from the stamina is still not going to stop an elite mob from killing you if it gets through.

For boot enchants, I highly recommend Tuskarr’s Vitality. The run speed increase could mean the difference between a tank living or dying, especially if they are pulling trash mobs to a certain spot and get out of your range. Other acceptable boot enchants are Greater Spirit and Greater Vitality.

If you have a staff, the best enchant is Greater Spellpower. If you have a one handed weapon, the best enchant is Mighty Spellpower.

Glyphs:

The best major glyphs for resto druids are:

Glyph of Wildgrowth: This allows for 1 extra player to benefit from Wildgrowth.

Glyph of Nourish: Your Nourish spell heals an additional 6% for each HoT you have on a player.

Glyph of Swiftmend: Your Swiftmend ability no longer consumes a rejuvenation or regrowth affect on a target. (Rejuvenation or Regrowth still needs to be on your target in order to use Swiftmend, however.)

Glyph of Rapid Rejuvenation: Your haste reduces the time between ticks of your Rejuvenation spell. If you have a high haste rating, you may wish to exchange this for either the Nourish or Swiftmend glyph, preferably Swiftmend.

Glyph of Rejuvenation: While your targets are below 50% health, your Rejuvenation spell heals them for 50% more health. Some people really like this one, and it may help, but I prefer the others for one simple reason--it is our job as healers to make sure raid members don’t get that far down in health. For AoE damages such as Decimate, this may come in handy, though.

Notice I did NOT mention Glyph of Innervate. This glyph is fine for leveling and new 80’s who don’t have their mp5 up yet, but for geared 80’s it really isn’t necessary. Yes, it is nice to have, however, your focus once geared should be on spellpower, haste and crit.

Recommended Minor Glyphs:

Glyph of Unburdened Rebirth: Your Rebirth ability no longer requires a reagent. Very nice to have, and it frees up some bag space.

Glyph of the Wild: Mana cost of your Mark of the Wild and Gift of the Wild abilities is reduced by 50%.

Useful Addons, Macros and Tips:

A healing addon, such as Healbot or VuhDo, is highly recommended for any healer. I personally use VuhDo, but I have used Healbot in the past.

The reasons I use VuhDo are simple: I can cast my spells with a right or left click of my mouse, right on the healing grid that appears. If I want, I can set it up to automatically use my trinket whenever it is available, and I can choose to see who has a Rejuvenation or Regrowth on them even if I didn‘t put one on them, making Swiftmend available for that player. Healbot has almost identical features.

Some useful macros:

Again, for tank emergency heals, see the Emergency Healing section above.

For emergency self healing, I use this:

#showtooltip
/castsequence [target=player] reset=10 Lifebloom(), Rejuvenation()
/cast UIErrorsFrame: Clear()

For breaking out of snares:

#showtooltip
/cast [stance:0]!Travel Form;[stance:0/4/6,flyable,nocombat]!Flight Form;[stance:1]!Dire Bear Form;[stance:2]!Aquatic Form;[stance:3]!Cat Form;[stance:4]!Travel Form;[stance:5]!Tree of Life;!Moonkin

And one last tip:

It may help you to keybind your main spells or macros. I have several of my spells keybound near wasd, since I try to use those to move around while maintaining healing. For instance, I have Remove Curse keybound to key C, so whether I’m stationery or running, I can target different people with my mouse and click the C key to decurse them. Keybinding can make for smoother, faster healing. Just be careful--if you keybind make sure you are not removing an important function that you use all the time, such as your Character window toggle. If you do, either replace it with another keybind or make sure it is accessible with a mouse click.

Leveling:

Most people do not level their druids as resto--all the healing in the world will not protect you from the occasional ganker, and it takes longer to kill a mob, which means leveling will take longer. I suggest leveling your druid as either balance or feral, then purchasing a dual spec for resto at level 70. If you want to heal to practice, balance is probably the best spec for leveling. You can heal with little to no problems in balance up until about level 70.

I recommend a dual spec at level 70 because the dungeons become much more complex in WotLK and need more intensive healing. Also, this gives you 10 levels in which to practice, get your rotation down, and see how each healing spell works.

Summary:

Resto druids fill a very important role in any raid composition. Our HoT’s and instant heals can mean the difference between a wipe and a successful boss kill. For those of you interested in leveling a resto druid, I hope this guide has been helpful.

If you have any questions, including questions in regards to gear or trinkets, please whisper Malfurionk or myself in-game or here at the website.

You can look over my spec and glyphs here: Link
Happy Healing, Everyone!

I thought you said this was going to be short.

It is.

Thunderz is just upset that his guide consists of : Get pally power, make mages drop mage tables, and rotation : faceroll.

If you have any questions pertaining to Resto druids, pm Hearthyn or I on the website.

If you have additional (factual) information, post it here.

#2420747 Malfurionk wrote:

Thunderz is just upset that his guide consists of : Get pally power, make mages drop mage tables, and rotation : faceroll.

There's a subsection of the ret pally guide:

"Mana: Proof that Blizzard hates us."

It's a page turner.

You both forgot a section in his pally guide: "Leather--it can work for you!"

ROFLLLLLLLL at both of those!