Restoration Druid PvP Rotation and Playstyle (Season 4)

The main role for a Restoration Druid, besides keeping your team alive, is to always have your HoTs on your teammates and control the enemy team.

Most of the healing for Restoration Druids are instant casts. This makes it easy for you to heal teammates without getting interrupted. Once you have all of your HoTs ticking on your party members, you will only have to leave a pillar to refresh them.

Use Cyclone and Entangling Roots to control the enemy team. Cyclone should be used on the enemy healer if your team is using offensive cooldowns and trying to get a kill. If you are not, use Cyclone on the DPS you are not focusing to stop damage. If you are playing against melee, Entangling Roots can stop them in their tracks. You also have access to Hibernate and Soothe. Hibernate can be used on Druids that are in animal form or Hunter pets to stop their damage. You can use Soothe to dispel Fury Warrior enrage effects.

Make sure your team has a strategy for crowd control because you have a large crowd control toolkit and it is important to take advantage of that.

Healers do not really have an "opener" as such. As a Restoration Druid, you want to do a few things when the gate opens.

1. Use Rejuvenation twice on a teammate that might be the focus for the enemy team to get value from Germination.
2. Use Prowl to gain Stealth and prevent the enemy team from getting crowd control or starting on you.
3. Use Cyclone or Mighty Bash on the enemy healer if you are trying to kill a DPS.

The other team is going to try to force your trinket in the opener so they have an advantage later in the game. If you are playing against a Mage, any form you are in will negate their Polymorph. If you cannot avoid the incoming crowd control, try to use Ironbark on the teammate they are focusing.

A large majority of your healing spells are instant. This will prevent you from being interrupted, so take advantage of this. Rejuvenation, Lifebloom, Cenarion Ward, and Swiftmend. The only healing spell you will have to cast is Regrowth. Use this after using Swiftmend. You will gain the Soul of the Forest buff and have a large Regrowth heal.

Use this if the enemy team uses their cooldowns to try to kill a teammate.

1. If you are using Incarnation: Tree of Life:
   • Use Incarnation: Tree of Life.
   • Use Innervate to make all of your spells cost no Mana.
   • Use Adaptive Swarm on your teammate.
   • Use Grove Guardians if you are using this talent. This will summon a Treant that will cast Nourish. It has 3 charges, so you cannot spam them, but try to use it when their are kicks available or you are falling behind.
   • Use Swiftmend.
   • Use Regrowth repeatedly until your team is at high health.
   • You should also get used to instantly rooting enemy melee with Entangling Roots.
2. If Incarnation: Tree of Life is on cooldown or you are not using it:
   • Use Innervate on yourself.
   • Use Ironbark. With a relatively short cooldown, this should be the first ability you use when the enemy team is bursting.
   • Use Swiftmend.
   • Use Nature's Swiftness to make your next Regrowth instant and cost no Mana. Use this when you have a Soul of the Forest buff.
   • Use Rejuvenation twice to gain Germination and to apply the Revitalize buff versus melee.
   • Use Swiftmend.
   • Use Nature's Swiftness to make your next Regrowth instant and costs no Mana. Use this when you have a Soul of the Forest buff.
   • Use Lifebloom.
   • Place Efflorescence if your team is stacked, but it does cost quite a bit of Mana. Use this if you have the Mana for it and you will not be repositioning Efflorescence.

Use this to heal sustained damage throughout the fight (damage done when the other team does not have burst cooldowns available).

1. You never want your HoTs to expire.
2. Use Adaptive Swarm on your teammate.
3. Use Rejuvenation to maintain Revitalize
4. Use Lifebloom. Do not wait for Lifebloom to expire on its own. If you refresh it with ~4-5 seconds remaining, you will get the bloom heal and refresh it.
5. Use Swiftmend. This is great instant healing and gives you the Soul of the Forest buff.
6. Use Nature's Swiftness to make your next Regrowth instant and cost no Mana. Use this when you have a Soul of the Forest buff.
7. Cast Regrowth with the Soul of the Forest buff.
8. Use Grove Guardians if you are using this talent. This will summon a Treant that will cast Nourish. It has 3 charges, so you cannot spam them, but try to use it when their are kicks available or you are falling behind.
9. Use Overgrowth when the enemy team is swapping to a teammate that does not have HoTs.
10. Place Efflorescence if your team is stacked, but it does cost quite a bit of Mana. Use this if you have the Mana for it and you will not be repositioning Efflorescence.
11. Use Cenarion Ward. It is important to remember that Cenarion Ward is a HoT and does not have an initial heal, so it is good to use on teammates at high health. It also cannot be purged.

When there is spread damage (a single teammate is not being focused), do the following.

1. Keep Rejuvenation on all teammates.
2. Use Adaptive Swarm on your teammate.
3. Use Innervate if you are not using Incarnation: Tree of Life.
4. Use Wild Growth, but be careful, it does cost a lot of Mana and should not be used on cooldown.
5. Use Swiftmend.
6. Use Nature's Swiftness.
7. Use Regrowth.
8. Use Grove Guardians if you are using this talent. This will summon a Treant that will cast Nourish. It has 3 charges, so you cannot spam them, but try to use it when their are kicks available or you are falling behind.
9. Maintain Lifebloom on the teammate taking the most damage.
10. Place Efflorescence if your team is stacked, but it does cost quite a bit of Mana. Use this if you have the Mana for it and you will not be repositioning Efflorescence.
11. Use Tranquility if needed.

You have several defensive abilities you can use to help keep you and your team alive.

• Bear Form is going to be your main defensive ability. With talents like Guardian Affinity to buff it, it becomes even more powerful. If an enemy team is focusing you, be sure to use Rejuvenation, Lifebloom, and Cenarion Ward and then sit in Bear Form. Use the ability Frenzied Regeneration to get even more health back. It is important to remember that you only get Frenzied Regeneration if you use the Guardian Affinity talent. Without this talent, Bear Form is not as powerful.
• Thorns is a PvP talent and should be used versus teams with 2 melee on it. Thorns does a lot of damage and will normally force enemies to swap off of you when it is active. This can be used while in Bear Form.
• Cyclone is a good defensive if the enemy team does not have any interrupts remaining. This stops a player from doing anything, and is especially impactful when an enemy is trying to use their burst cooldowns. If the enemy does have interrupts available, try juking them first.
• Ursol's Vortex is great when trying to get away from melee DPS. It is also important to remember that it can be used when in other forms. If you are taking heavy damage in Bear Form, you can use Ursol's Vortex and Dash away.
• Use Druid mobility as a defensive. We mentioned earlier that Restoration Druids have great mobility. They have spells like Travel Form and Dash to break snares and get away from enemies. Remembering that shifting between forms also breaks roots.
• Keeper of the Grove is a PvP talent that makes you immune to all harm when channeling Tranquility. This is perfect for before or after you leave a stun and need to get your health to a safe spot.

For more information about your talents, please refer to our dedicated guide.

It is advised to use Macros to use abilities on enemies or allies without having to target them. For this reason, we have a page dedicated to them.