Hello and welcome to the  Restoration Druid Class guide. In this guide I will cover all of the information you need to know about healing as a druid. This information is compiled for patch 3.5.5, and as such some or all of it may become obsolete.

In this guide I will discuss the spells you will use while healing as a druid, how to properly spec and glyph your character, as well as enchants, gems, and item enhancements that will make your job just a little bit easier.

Within the restoration tree you can opt to choose talents that will make you an exceptional raid healer, or a capable tank healer with raid support. Let’s take a look at the spells we will most commonly use as restoration druids:


Nourish
Rejuvenation
Wild Growth
Regrowth
Swiftmend
Lifebloom

Spells not as commonly used by most resto druids include:


Remove Curse
Abolish Poison
Healing Touch
Tranquility

Although these spells are not as commonly used, it will still be beneficial for you to know what they do and have them readily available at a moment’s notice, should the need arise. In fact, there are a few encounters as to which some of these abilities are vital to the success or failure of your raid.

Here are a few other things to remember:
Each spell will scale with the amount of spell power you have. You can also increase the effect of some spells by adding talent points into specific places within the restoration tree or the balance tree. This brings me to the next part of the guide: spec. There are many talents available to the restoration druid, some are very important to you being a successful healer, while others are interchangeable depending on your role and the specific encounter for which you will be healing.





***SPEC***
Required Balance Talents:
Starting in the balance tree, you will want to take Genesis, which increases the amount of healing done by your heal over time spells by 5%. The next talent you will want to take in the balance tree is Moonglow. Moonglow is useful because it Reduces the mana cost of your Moonfire, Starfire, Starfall, Wrath, Healing Touch, Nourish, Regrowth and Rejuvenation spells by 9%. The next talent is Nature’s Majesty. Nature’s Majesty increases the critical strike chance of your Wrath, Starfire, Starfall, Nourish and Healing Touch spells by 4%. This becomes an important talent because of Natures Grace, which brings me to the next talent you should take as a raiding restoration druid. Nature’s Grace is a talent that proc’s off of spell critical strikes. Nature’s Grace has a 100% chance to grace you with a blessing of nature, increasing your spell casting speed by 20% for 3 sec when a spell critical strike occurs. Moving over to Nature’s Splendor, this talent 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 2 sec. This talent gives healing druids the ability to focus on other damage sources while not having to worry about heal over time spells falling off of a tank, or the ability to keep your heal over time spells active on more raid members without having to refresh them as often.

Optional Balance Talents:
Brambles: This talent should ONLY be taken if you are lacking a great deal of haste, and only 1 point should be spent in it to unlock the next tier of talents in the balance tree. Brambles, at rank 1 enables damage from your Thorns and Entangling Roots to be increased by 25% and damage done by your Treants is increased by 5%. In addition, damage from your Treants and attacks done to you while you have Barkskin active have a 5% chance to daze the target for 3 sec. Brambles is only taken to unlock Celestial Focus, which at 3 of 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%. As I said earlier, you should only take celestial focus if you are lacking haste, which I will discuss the importance of later in the guide.

Required Restoration Talents:
Any raiding druid will have the talent Improved Mark of the Wild, which 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%. It is important for each druid to take this because of the 2% increase in attributes.

The next talent is Nature’s Focus. This is an important talent to take for both raiding and solo questing and/or Player versus Player. Nature’s Focus reduces the pushback suffered from damaging attacks while casting Healing Touch, Wrath, Entangling Roots, Cyclone, Nourish, Regrowth and Tranquility by 70%.

Natural Shapeshifter, which reduces the mana cost of shapeshifting by 30%, is taken largely due to the talent that it unlocks below it is Master Shapeshifter. Master Shapeshifter grants an effect which lasts while the Druid is within the respective shapeshift form. For restoration druids this would be Tree of Life form. The benefit received from Master Shapeshifter as a restoration druid while in Tree of Life Form is that your healing done is increased by 4% when you spend two points in this talent.

In the same tier as Master Shapeshifter is Omen of Clarity. This talent has the chance to allow a “free” spell. That is, 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%. On the left of the 3rd tier of restoration talents is Intensity. Three points in intensity will allow 50% of the druids’ mana regeneration to continue while casting (While inside the five second rule.)

As I stated earlier, there are talents that increase the effectiveness of your healing spells, and this is where those talents are located in the restoration tree. Improved Rejuvenation, with 3 points spent in this talent, you will increases the effect of your Rejuvenation spell by 15%. Natures Swiftness is the next talent that you should take. Nature’s Swiftness provides; when activated, your next nature spell with a base casting time less than 10 seconds becomes an instant cast spell. This is a very powerful spell when combined with a spell with a long cast time, such as healing touch. In the same tier as Nature’s Swiftness is Gift of Nature. What this talent does is, at 5 points spent, increases the effect of your healing spells by 10%. Nature’s Bounty, in tier 6 of the restoration tree increases the critical effect chance of your Regrowth and Nourish spells by 25%. This is to make up for the lack of critical strike rating on a lot of leather gear available, as druids are not as reliant on critical strike rating from gear as Paladins or Priests have become.

Living Spirit, the first talent in tier 7 increases the druids’ spirit by 15% at 3 points. Druids gain spell power and out of combat health and mana regeneration from spirit, so this is a very valuable talent to pick up.

The next talent in tier 7 is Swiftmend. This spell is a very powerful spell with a 15 second cooldown. Swiftmend consumes a Rejuvenation or Regrowth effect on a friendly target to instantly heal them an amount equal to 12 seconds of Rejuvenation or 18 seconds of Regrowth. Getting closer toward the bottom of the restoration tree, Empowered Rejuvenation will increase the bonus from your heal over time spells by an additional 20%. Since druids mainly rely on their heal over time spells, this is a very important talent to take for simply that fact, but it also unlocks Tree of Life form, the shapeshift form that you will be healing in almost all of the time during a raid. Tree of Life reduces the mana cost of your healing over time spells by 20% and grants the ability to shapeshift into the Tree of Life. While in tree form you increase healing received by 6% for all party and raid members within 45 yards, but you are only able to cast restoration spells in addition to Innervate, Barkskin, Nature's Grasp and Thorns. Adding one point in to Tree of Life unlocks Improved Tree of Life, which increases your armor contribution from items while in Tree of Life Form by 200%, and more importantly increases your healing spell power by 15% of your spirit while in Tree of Life Form.

The next talent you should take is Gift of the Earthmother. This talent reduces the base global cooldown of your Rejuvenation, Lifebloom, and Wild Growth spells by 20% at 5 points. Since these instant cast spells have a 1.5 second global cooldown, the extra 20% haste on these spells is an amazing talent to pick up.

The last “required” talent for the raiding restoration druid is Wild Growth. This is the druids very powerful area of effect heal over time. This spell heals up to 5 friendly party or raid members within 15 yards of the target. The amount healed is applied quickly at first, and slows down as the Wild Growth reaches its full duration. As I said earlier, it is important to remember that each healing spell will scale with the amount of spell power that you have. You may notice that you will not be able to acquire the last few tiers of restoration talents with only the talents I have discussed so far. The next part of the guide will cover some of the filler talents that you will need to decide between for your play style.




Optional Restoration Talents:
Subtlety reduces the threat caused by your restoration spells by 10, 20, or 30%, and reduces the chance for our heal and damaging over time spells to be dispelled by a percentage based on the rank of the talent you take. The second part of the talent is not nearly as useful for Player versus Environment encounters as the threat reduction, but will come in handy for other tasks outside of raiding. I recommend spending two talent points here, largely because this talent is better than naturalist and by using the required talents alone, you do not have enough points spent to continue down the tree.

Naturalist reduces that cast time of healing touch by .1 seconds for each point you spend in this talent. It also increases physical damage dealt by the druid in all forms. I do not recommend taking this talent, as healing touch is hardly ever used unless it is glyphed.

Tranquil Spirit reduces the mana cost of Healing Touch, Nourish, and Tranquility by 2% per point that you spend in taking this talent. I recommend putting one point into this talent.

The Empowered Touch talent increases the amount healed by healing touch and nourish by 20% and 10%, respectively. Since neither of these spells are used as often as our heal over times, I do not recommend putting any points into this talent.

Natural Perfection is a talent that increases your critical strike chance with all spells by 1% per point in the talent, and upon receiving a damaging critical strike; you gain a buff that reduces damage taken by 2% for 12 seconds (Which goes up by 2% for each point in the talent as well.) The buff will stack up to 3 times. I recommend putting one point into this talent.

Living Seed will place a seed on a friendly target of yours that has received a spell critical strike. On the next attack, the seed will bloom and heal them for 30% of the initial amount healed. I recommend putting all three points into this talent.

Revitalize is similar to replenishment, but doesn’t have near the up time that replenishment does. Revitalize gives your Rejuvenation and Wild Growth spells a 15% chance to restore 8 Energy, 4 Rage, 1% Mana or 16 Runic Power per tick. This may not sound like a lot, but over the course of a fight these small restorations of power can be very helpful in sustaining threat, damage, or healing. I recommend putting all three points into this talent as well.

That should cover any questions you may have about talents, I’m going to move on to gearing, gemming, and glyphs for the next part of the guide




***Glyphs***
Major Glyphs that I recommend using are the:
Glyph of Wild Growth – The Glyph of Wild growth gives your Wild Growth spell the ability to hit one extra target, increasing the number to 6.
Glyph of Rejuvenation – This glyph increases the amount healed by Rejuvenation by 50% is the target of the spell is below 50% health.
Glyph of Swiftmend – This glyph will allow your Swiftmend spell to no longer consume a Rejuvenation or a Regrowth spell from your target.
Other options available for restoration druids are:
Glyph of Healing Touch - Decreases the cast time of Healing Touch by 1.5 sec, the mana cost by 25%, and the amount healed by 50%.
Glyph of Lifebloom - Increases the duration of Lifebloom by 1 sec.
Glyph of Nourish - Your Nourish heals an additional 6% for each of your heal over time effects present on the target.

These 3 glyphs are viable options to replace one of the 3 recommended glyphs, but they will not as greatly increase your healing output. On to minor glyphs! Minor glyphs are available in a wide array to druids. The only extremely important one to have is the Glyph of Unburdened Rebirth. This glyph allows your rebirth spell to no longer require a reagent. Another valuable minor glyph to use is the Glyph of the Wild. The Glyph of the Wild is great for buffing, as it reduces the mana cost of Mark of the Wild and Gift of the Wild by 50%. This will not only save mana and let you spend less time drinking to fill your mana back up, but it is also beneficial to have when you need to buff someone who has been the recipient of a combat resurrection. Other minor glyphs that I recommend are either the Glyph of Thorns, which increases the duration of your thorns spell by 50 minutes when cast on yourself; or the Glyph of Aquatic Form, which increases your swim speed while in aquatic form by an additional 50%.




***Gearing Your Druid for Healing***
This is how I rate stats in order of their benefit:
-Spell Power
-Intellect/Spirit
-Crit/Haste

Spell Power is the bread and butter stat for druids. This is your most valuable healing output stat, and will always be on gear that you should desire to have.

Intellect is a stat that is commonly and mistakenly frowned upon for restoration druids. Intellect both increases your mana pool, which in turn increases your regeneration from Replenishment, but also increases your spell critical rating. When specced properly, Druids gain spell power from spirit. Spirit also increases your out of combat mana and health regeneration. These two stats can be very tricky; you should never stack one at the expense of the other.

Haste and Critical Strike rating are both very powerful stats, but stacking one over the other is generally not the best idea. It is best to at least reach the “soft cap” for haste before you begin looking for items with crit. The soft cap for haste is almost exactly 365. Having more of this stat is never a bad thing, but at the soft cap your global cooldown is at one second. As I noted earlier, spell critical strikes will activate Nature’s Grace, which increases spell casting speed by 20%, and if you are lucky enough to have the four piece tier 9 bonus, rejuvenation now has the ability to crit.

Gems
Gem slots can also be very tricky. I’ll go over some recommendations for you to use in this part of the guide. I’m only going to cover epic gems, as they are actually quite easy to acquire via heroic dungeon emblem turn ins or honor from PvP.

For blue slots you should always consider using the 12 spell power and 10 spirit gems. This gem is called the Purified Dreadstone.

When you have red slot for a gem, 23 spell power is the gem you should use. This gem is known as the Runed Cardinal Ruby.

For yellow slots, you really have two options. The first is the Luminous Ametrine, which is 12 spell power and 10 intellect. The other option you have is the Reckless Ametrine, which is 12 spell power and 10 haste rating. I only recommend using the Reckless Ametrine if you are low on haste.

For your meta gem, there are several options. The one that I use is the Insightful Earthsiege Diamond, which gives 21 intellect and has a chance to restore mana upon spell cast. Other meta gems you can use are the Ember Skyflare Diamond that gives 25 spell power and 2% intellect, and the Tireless Skyflare Diamond, which grants you 25 spell power and a slight increase to your run speed.



***Item Enhancements/Enchants***
For this section of the guide, I’m going to cover what you should and shouldn’t enchant your gear with.

Starting off with your helm, you should acquire the Arcanum of Blissful Mending, which adds 30 spell power and 10 mana per 5 seconds to the item. This item is available at revered from The Wyrmrest Accord. Alternatively, you can choose to use the Arcanum of Burning Mysteries, which gives 30 spell power and 20 critical strike rating to the helm slot. This is available from the Kirin Tor in Dalaran when you become revered with the faction.

Moving on to the shoulder slot, you should use items available from the Sons of Hodir faction. I choose to use the Greater Inscription of the Storm that adds 24 spell power and 15 critical strike rating. You may also choose to use the Greater Inscription of the Crag, which adds 24 spell power and 8 mana per 5 seconds. Both of these items are available once you are exalted with the Sons of Hodir.

You have two options for your cloak as well. Enchant Cloak – Greater Speed, and Enchant Cloak – Wisdom are both very viable options. I personally choose to go with Greater Speed because I find the 23 haste as being more beneficial than the 10 spirit and 2% threat reduction given by Wisdom.

On your chest, the best and only enchant that you should use is Enchant Chest – Powerful Stats. This gives you 10 points to all of your stats.

For your leg enchant, you should use the Brilliant Spellthread. Brilliant Spellthread adds 50 spell power and 20 spirit to your pants. This is more beneficial than the Sapphire Spellthread due to the fact that we will find stamina on all of our gear, and the benefits from the spirit available on the Brilliant Spellthread.

For your boots, there are several options as to how you may enchant them. The enchant that I choose to use is Tuskarr’s Vitality, which adds 15 stamina and a minor increase to your run speed. Other enchants you may want to use are Enchant Boots – Greater Spirit, giving 18 spirit, or Enchant Boots – Greater Vitality, that adds seven mana and health per 5 seconds to this slot.

For all other items, you should enchant them with the highest available spellpower enchant.

That wraps up the guide for the Restoration Druid. If you have any questions or comments feel free to add them as a reply to this post!