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Contents 1 General 2 Notable Spells and Abilities 2.1 Regrowth 2.2 Lifebloom 2.3 Tree of Life Form 3 Attributes 4 Soloing 5 Group Healing 5.1 Early or non-Resto Healing 5.2 Late and Endgame Healing 6 Extra PvP Tactics

General

• Cast your spells in "bursts". Your mana will not regenerate at a high rate for 5 seconds after you cast a spell, regardless of whether or not you are in combat. It is more mana-efficient to cast several spells at the same time and then wait for your mana to regenerate than to cast single spells at various times during a fight. With 3.1.0 the 5 second rule bonus is less high however all classes had the spirit and in combat mana regen adjusted in order to keep the in combat mana regen approximately the same.

Notable Spells and Abilities

Restoration spells are primarily oriented toward healing the druid and their allies.

Regrowth

Regrowth does a small initial heal plus an equal amount over 21 seconds. This spell is quite versatile, providing an initial heal much faster than Healing Touch, and the HoT component can allow the druid time to use a slower heal if his target continues to take damage. The major downside to this spell is its poor mana efficiency unless talented.

Regrowth, as well as Rejuvenation, can also be a valuable tool to pair with Swiftmend as Swiftment will consume the HoT to provide an instant heal equal to the full duration. This can effectively nearly double the amount healed. Also, Swiftmend can be glyphed to not consume the Regrowth or Rejuvenation HoT which makes it even more valuable.

Lifebloom

Effective use of lifebloom is a topic in itself. Lifebloom heals for an amount over 7 seconds (extensible to 10 seconds with talents and glyph), followed by a 'bloom' at the end. Lifebloom has the following advantages:

• It ticks every second, in contrast to almost all other HoTs that tick every 3 seconds.
• It stacks up to 3 times on a single target. The implications of this are larger than it first seems. Placing 3 lifeblooms on a target is inefficient to begin with, but it only takes a single lifebloom every 7 seconds to maintain the triple stack. The result is that if maintained over time it becomes extremely mana efficient, even though the bloom element of the spell is not used.
• The bloom part of the spell still triggers if dispelled. This makes it the only HoT that will still heal despite the efforts of dispelling classes.

Tree of Life Form

A druid specced heavily into the Restoration tree will have the Tree of Life Form available to them. In Tree of Life Form you get

• A discount on the mana cost of healing over time spells
• An aura that grants a percentage bonus to all heals received by all party members in its range
• The Tree of Life can only cast Restoration spells and Innervate and Barkskin

Attributes

• Each point of Intellect gives 15 mana and increases your chance for a spell critical strike. It contributes to mana regeneration as of patch 2.4. It also increases your mana regeneration with the Dreamstate talent, and spell damage and healing with the Lunar Guidance talent.
• Each point of Spirit increases your health and mana regeneration. Spirit also provides mana regeneration while casting with the Intensity talent, and spell power with Improved Tree of Life. The talent Living Spirit provides a percent bonus to Spirit.
• Spellpower increases the healing done by all of your spells.
• Critical strike rating is of less use to druids than most spellcasters because much of our healing is done by HoTs which cannot critically hit. Nonetheless it is not useless, especially when combined with talents such as Living Seed.

Soloing

Unfortunately you cannot heal enemies to death, at least not directly, so you will have to either cast balance spells or use feral forms to deal damage when alone. The restoration trees has some synergy with both, but the spellpower, intellect and spirit on your healing gear will likely favor balance spells over feral forms unless you collect a separate gear set.

See Druid tactics/Balance#Soloing for more information.

Group Healing

In PvE resto druids have a variety of tools for efficiently and sustainably healing a large number of targets over time and buffering tanks against spike damage. Druids as healers are most able to remain mobile while healing. They also have unmatched panic buttons with the powerful nature's swiftness + healing touch combo, swiftmend and tranquility. PvE druids can choose to specialise in HoTs for steady, sustained healing over multiple targets, in nukes for powerful single target healing, or in a combination of both for a jack-of all trades ability.

Druid healing evolves as you gain levels. Initially it will involve mostly Healing Touch, but as you gain more talents and abilities the focus shifts gradually to HoTs instead.

Early or non-Resto Healing

You will want to use Healing Touch as much as possible due to its better mana efficiency then Rejuvenation or Regrowth. Healing Touch has a long cast time, so try to predict when your target will need it and cast it beforehand. Healing Touch is quite large, so for healing smaller amounts of damage regrowth is a better choice because it is cheaper, even though it's less efficient. Remember to Cure Poison and Remove Curse when possible as it's almost certainly cheaper than healing the damage caused by them.

Late and Endgame Healing

Tree of Life Form reduces casting cost of all HoTs by 20% and increases healing done to party or raid members by 6%. It also increases your own healing spellpower by 15% of your spirit with more talents. This makes it superior in every way to caster form for the purpose of healing.

A full restoration druid's most efficient healing spells are: Nourish (most efficient), Lifebloom (left to bloom), Rejuvenation, Regrowth, Swiftmend, Healing Touch, Rolling Lifebloom (least efficient). That is assuming Swiftmend is cast just before the last tick of a Rejuv or Regrowth.

Stacking 3 lifeblooms, rejuvenation and regrowth on the tank(s) is the core of a druid's healing. Tank healing can be supplemented by casting Nourish or more Regrowths.

With Patch 3.1, lifebloom costs significantly more mana to cast, but half of that mana is returned to the druid upon the bloom (end of the HoT). This makes the previous practice of rolling lifeblooms (where the lifebloom HoT is always kept refreshed on the target) very mana intensive. A more mana effective rotation keeps one lifebloom on the tank and allowing to bloom before refreshing, or slowly building the stack to three before allowing to bloom.

Non-tanks can be healed with regrowth or lifebloom, depending on how urgently the healing is needed. In a raid setting with multiple healers lifebloom can be wasted without communication when another healer casts a direct heal on the victim, bringing their health to full, while the regrowth will always be fairly effective. If several raid members need healing then Wild Growth is the heal of choice.

A druid’s regrowth spell is slower than other class' flash heals, which can result in wasted mana for a Druid while learning to work in a raid setting. An inattentive Druid will be frequently undercut. Only experience and intuition will tell you whether to cancel your heals to avoid waste.

A druid has 2 panic buttons. Nature's Swiftness is on a 3 minute cooldown and can be combined with Healing Touch for the (joint with shamans) biggest instant cast heal in the game. More modestly, Swiftmend is on a short cooldown and will consume a rejuvenation or regrowth HoT to heal the target instantly (if glyphed with the Glyph of Swiftmend, Swiftmend does not consume the HoT). The main limitation of Swiftmend is that it requires a rejuvenation or regrowth on the target to be usable, which will always be true for tanks but not always for other raid members.

Extra PvP Tactics

See Druid tactics for general PvP strategies regardless of talent spec.

In PvP resto hybrids were considered one of the most dominant classes in arena due to a combination of HOTS, good CC, mobility and good mana regen.

• Druids are very mobile healers due to having many instant cast HoTs. If attacked a druid can run away from their attacker AND still heal themselves and others. A truly annoying feat (for your opponent).
• If you want to win in a Battleground, you will probably need healers. A group of pure DPSers can be defeated by a smaller party of mixed healing and DPS classes in many situations. Healers are especially important in Alterac Valley, as you will be fighting many mobs that follow PvE rules, and as such, effective healing is required for a smooth match.
• Don't wait until the last moment to heal. Most players will be waiting for the right opportunity to use a big finishing move while you are low on health. Heal at every opportunity you get. You should not be defeated until you run completely out of mana, and even then you might be able to pull off a win.
• Regrowth and Rejuvenation at the same time will only cost you two seconds to cast and will continue to heal you well through the fight, but can be dispelled in some PvP situations. Heal over times (and your other buffs) can be dispelled by a Priest, Shaman, or Felhunter.
• Regrowth is faster than Healing Touch. Use Regrowth in tight situations when you need a heal right away. Use Healing Touch when you actually have a few seconds to spare. Healing Touch's effect is more immediate and the spell is more mana efficient.
• Healing Spells are generally more mana efficient than damage spells.
• Nature's Swiftness: Your next nature spell is instant cast. Use this spell in a macro which casts your biggest heal upon yourself, and then reselects the last person you had targeted. With this, you get an instant-cast major heal, once every three minutes, and it will likely save your life many times. Keep in mind that several other notable spells are also nature-based. Using Nature's Swiftness to instant-root or hibernate a flag runner can give the rest of your team time to catch up. Nature's Swiftness is regarded by many to be THE essential PvP talent for Druids.
• Nature's Grasp: Gives a buff that when you are hit, the attacker will be affected by Entangling Roots. A very nice ability to have in your arsenal. It can mean the difference between life and death in combat. When playing against a melee class, cast Nature's Grasp. When it goes off, take a few paces back and heal yourself or run to your maximum range and start nuking.