Season of Discovery Restoration Druid Healer Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities

We will present the skill rotation of a Restoration Druid as a priority list. This is not an exact sequence in which abilities should be cast. Instead, what it means is, whenever you must choose between using different skills, try to use the one at the top of the list first.

Our list assumes you are running the recommended build from the talents page and are playing a (currently maximum) level 50 character. If you are still leveling, please refer to the leveling-specific rotation located in the table of contents.

While they are extraordinarily powerful, explosives such as Heavy Dynamite will not be detailed in the rotation. Usually, you will want to use them as soon as the tank has solid threat on the target. The main exception is when you are facing multiple or particularly dangerous (such as enraged) enemies at some point in the fight. Saving explosives to carry you and your group through these moments (and possibly do a ton of AoE damage in the process) is probably worth it.

1. Use Regrowth or an instant Healing Touch as an emergency heal for players about to die. Nourish is also a great option, especially if the target has one of your heals over time active;
2. Remove dangerous curses from group members as soon as possible with Remove Curse and dangerous poisons with Cure Poison;
3. Refresh Insect Swarm (if talented) and Faerie Fire, if missing, on the boss;
4. Use Rank 1 Rejuvenation followed by Swiftmend on yourself on cooldown while positioning yourself so that the resulting Efflorescence will hit as many allies as possible for its 15-second duration;
5. Use Wild Growth if two or more group members are injured;
6. Use Lifebloom for single target healing, followed by Nourish if further healing is required;
7. If incoming damage is low, cast Wrath to regen Mana and proc instant Healing Touches.

Lifebloom is a special heal over time in that it stacks to three applications on the same target, runs for 7 seconds, and procs both a 50% Mana return and big heal on the target upon expiring. Its healing is decent if used correctly: cast Lifebloom when its intended target has less than 3 stacks, and there is a single second remaining on its current Lifebloom timer. This will ensure you get the most healing for your Mana, overall.

Survival Instincts can be used as an emergency heal on yourself in emergencies.

In order to keep healing throughout a long fight, and to avoid overhealing in general, it is a good idea to downrank your spells when heavy healing is not necessary.

Spells that can be learned before Level 20 gain a smaller benefit from Spell Damage and Healing, making them less efficient to downrank. This is why Rank 4 Healing Touch can be recommended for efficient single-target healing if you do not want to use Nourish. Rank 4 is learned at Level 20, and is thus the first rank to not be penalized, making it first rank that fully utilizes your gear's Healing Power, while still having a relatively low Mana cost.

In general, utility spells are good targets to downrank. Also, consider that sometimes, instead of constantly using lower ranked spells, it can be more efficient to simply stop casting for a while, in order to regenerate Mana from Spirit due to the 5-second rule.

A Restoration Druid's primary resource is Mana. It is important that you understand how Mana is generated, so you can effectively manage and use it.

Mana has a maximum capacity based on your Intellect, and starts full by default. Mana is slowly used by your spell casting, and does not regenerate naturally if you have cast something in the last 5 seconds. However, using certain talents such as Reflection allows a part of your Mana regeneration (which scales based on Spirit) to continue during this period. Items that restore X Mana per 5 seconds, such as Smoked Sagefish are also active at all times.

Your goal in any fight, is to kill the enemy before your Mana is completely gone. Shorter fights help make this goal easier to achieve, as does using Mana consumables such as Mana Potion.