World of Warcraft: Forever Restoration Druid Guide

Restoration Druids in WoW Forever specialize in a range of heal-over-time effects, which they can supplement with big single-target healing abilities like Healing Touch and Swiftmend. For those that have played Restoration Druid in other versions of Vanilla Classic, you can look forward to the addition of a new AoE Heal-over-time effect in Wild Growth!

As a Druid player you also get to play as a shapeshifter. Go Bear Form to tank hits, Travel Form for speed, and Aquatic Form for speed underwater. Druid themes are strong, and if you're looking for a nature-based class that can play as all four roles in the game, then this might be your pick. Once you roll Druid, you will never want to play anything else.

Levelling as Restoration is a little slow, but you will feel very safe - particularly after you learn Rejuvenation at level 4. We will be using Balance spells in order to kill mobs, starting with Wrath from level 1, and including Moonfire from level 4. The latter is particularly useful because it damages mobs instantly, which makes it great for pulling enemies.

At level 6, return to your Druid class trainer to learn Thorns. It's a buff you cast on yourself (or anyone you are grouped with) that adds quite a bit of damage when enemies hit you. In general in WoW, you gain new spells or new ranks of spells every two levels.

Once you get to your first major city, you will be able to learn and train up to two professions. It's your choice which you go with (and all have their perks), but as a Druid it can be useful to combine Skinning & Leatherworking in order to craft your own gear. Starter areas have no shortage of enemies that you can skin (primarily Beasts).

Make sure you /sit at any campfires you see. They will give you a range of extremely powerful buffs!

This is a generically useful build that will include a few Balance talents in order to improve our DPS reduce our downtime. In particular, Improved Wrath is both a big damage increase and will reduce the amount of time you spend drinking. After that, we will return to the Restoration tree to start filling out nodes, starting with Nature's Focus. This will improve how reliable our damage and healing casts are. The final point is very flexible.

You can definitely heal dungeons 100% fine with the World Content build (or even with a full Balance or Feral talent tree). This alternative is just offered in case you want to go with a 100% healing focused build, but it will be much worse at killing enemies by yourself. This build will forgo Improved Wrath so that it can get Gift of the Earthmother at level 20 - a massive increase to how responsive our Rejuvenation is.

Here you will find some information on how to use all your spells to get the most out of your Restoration Druid toolkit and spellbook.

Your damage rotation during Beta will be very straightforward. You'll keep Moonfire active on any targets in combat with you, then you will follow it up with Wrath.

In dungeon or group environments, keep Rejuvenation on the tank and anyone taking light damage. Use Healing Touch to add further healing to anyone who needs it. Remember to cast Thorns on the tank before the run starts. If you have spare time after healing, then you can cast Wrath or Moonfire on enemies to make the run go faster.

At level 10, you can return to your class trainer to unlock your first shapeshift via a quest: Bear Form. At level 20, you will do the same again to unlock Cat Form. These quests are quite fast and are very immersive. We highly recommend them! Cat Form will let you Prowl, and Bear Form will let you Bash; and you can tank for groups with it too!

Prowl is a stealth-mechanic that greatly reduces how far enemies can see you. You aren't invisible though, so don't get too close to enemies. You are generally ok so long as you don't walk over them. The higher level they are, the less effective your stealth will be. You will mostly be using Prowl to avoid dangerous situations by stealthing past enemies entirely. Beware enemies with an eye above their heads - this is known as "true sight" and they will ignore your stealth effect!

At level 14, you will also unlock a class quest to learn Cure Poison. You will be expected to have this in groups, so pursue it as soon as you are able. The quest is quite short.

If you are ever in a tough situation, it is worth knowing which crowd control (or CC) spells you have access to.

Entangling Roots is a single-target ability that immobilizes the target. This will stop them from moving, and it'll also stop them from attacking if nobody is standing next to them. Rooted targets will eventually break out when they take enough damage. It is therefore not very effective against caster or ranged enemy targets.

Bash is a single-target stun ability that requires you be in Bear Form. It is a little impractical to use often, since having to swap forms is slow and you won't have the Rage required to cast it immediately either.

Gear has changed a ton from Classic, and most items look a little different than before.

Here's a quick brief about what each stat does. This will be very useful if you're coming to Forever from Midnight, or if you're new to the game.

• Intellect: Increases your Mana pool. Increases your Crit Chance by a small amount. You will find this on a lot of your gear.
• Spirit: Increases your Mana regeneration when you haven't been casting for five seconds. The Reflection talent will let some of this Mana regeneration continue at all times.
• Spell Power / Healing Power: Increases how much Damage / Healing your spells do.
• Critical Strike: Gives your spells (including HoTs) a chance to heal for more.
• Haste: Reduces your spell cast times. Does not affect the healing or tick rate of your heal-over-time effects.

For Beta, focus on equipping your highest level pieces in general. Favor Healing Power and Intellect where possible. This is not max level advice. It will change as we learn more about the game and what will be available at later levels.

Check back later for more detail on what Consumables will be available in Forever. Definitely be on the lookout for Healing Potion since they will frequently save your life. Mana Potion are also available quite early, and should be used in emergencies - particularly if a tough dungeon pull takes longer than you expect.

You will also need plenty of water while levelling to restore mana out-of-combat. You can buy it from an Innkeeper in any town or city.

More WoW Forever Druid Guides

Balance Druid Ranged DPS GuideFeral Druid Melee DPS and Tank Guide

More WoW Forever Guides from Other Classes

Retribution Paladin Melee DPS GuideShadow Priest Ranged DPS GuideRestoration Shaman Healer GuideArms Warrior Melee DPS GuideSubtlety Rogue Melee DPS GuideBeast Mastery Hunter Ranged DPS Guide