Restoration Druid Healing Easy Mode — The War Within (11.1.5)

This page is intended for players who are new to the game or class, have no intentions of raiding Mythic difficulty, or want a more straightforward way to play their specialization without being overwhelmed by the numerous subtleties and active abilities that need to be taken into consideration for optimal play.

Restoration Druids rely on HoTs to set up strong bursts using Flourish in raids or have strong and steady output in dungeons using Photosynthesis, and Undergrowth. They do good healing on single targets but require some time to set up their HoTs. They require knowledge of the encounter to prepare for the incoming damage.

If you are completely new to Restoration and need more information on your abilities, check out our Spell Summary page.

These are currently the best talent choices as a Restoration Druid:

Use our calculator's 'Export Talents' to quickly import our build!

Use our calculator's 'Export Talents' to quickly import our build!

Intellect is stronger than all secondary stats, thus making virtually any higher item level item an upgrade. The only exceptions are rings and necks. You generally want to equip higher item level ones, but there might be small exceptions for those within 5 item levels. Gem sockets are worth 10 item levels. You can also drop 5 item levels for a piece with Leech; doing more is too much of a survivability loss to be worth it.

Generally, you will want to use items with Haste at equal item levels. Make sure to check our BiS list page since there are quite a few items with special effects that will not follow these general guidelines:

Haste and Mastery are the strongest secondaries for pure healing. However, some players prefer to run as close to 0 Mastery as possible in dungeons. This is mainly done due to Mastery not contributing to your damaged output. You should run as much Mastery as needed to heal and invest in other stats. If your priority is healing and nothing else matters, then just equip Mastery because it is by far the strongest healing stat in small group content.

If you want to see the full explanation of the stat priority and the absolute top choices for the priority, head to our full stats page below.

The simplified flow in raid healing looks like this: ramp up with 10-15 Rejuvenation casts, use Swiftmend into Wild Growth, Flourish, then cast Regrowths. Rinse and repeat. Obviously, you will use other abilities in there (like cooldowns or Efflorescence).

The following rotation is a rough idea of what you should prioritize when playing. It is not the correct way to play, and there are many small ways you could improve your gameplay, but it will give you a general idea.

• Maintain Efflorescence under the melee group.
• Keep Lifebloom on a tank.
• Use Grove Guardians to not waste the charges. Use multiple during heavy raid damage. Always try to save at least two for that.
• Use Clearcasting procs to cast Regrowth.
• Cast Regrowth after Flourish or when players need to be saved from death.
• Use Swiftmend and then Wild Growth when at least 6 members of the raid are damaged. Every build you play will have Soul of the Forest, so this order is critical.
• Apply Rejuvenation to the active tank(s) and members of the raid who are taking or will take damage.
• Cast Wrath to regenerate Mana (with Master Shapeshifter).

The most challenging part of Restoration Druid is the usage of cooldowns. Check the cooldown section at the bottom of this page or, better yet, the Rotation page:

• Maintain Efflorescence under the tank and melees.
• Keep Lifebloom on an active tank. Place the second on some DPS player, preferably ranged.
• Use Grove Guardians often, even to cover small damage events.
• Use Swiftmend and follow it up with either Regrowth or Wild Growth, depending on whether you need single target healing or AoE.
• Use Regrowth as an emergency heal.
• Keep Rejuvenation on the tank and on members of the group that just took damage or are about to take damage.
• During downtime, use Moonfire, Sunfire and Wrath on enemies to help with the damage.

For a more detailed and optimized version of the priority list, check the full rotation page linked below. On top of that, doing competitive damage as Restoration Druid can be rather complicated, so make sure you check the DPS guide as well.

• Tranquility should be used during heavy raid damage or when you are assigned to use it by your raid leader.
• Innervate should be used as often as possible during the fight. Refresh Efflorescence, cast Wild Growth, and spam Rejuvenations during Innervate. The basic idea is to use Innervate as often as possible, while preferably not doing so in Tree of Life.
• Convoke the Spirits in raids should be used right before using Flourish.
• Flourish should be used during heavy raid damage. Ideally, you should use it together with Wild Growth or right after Convoke. Make sure you are prepared for the damage event. Flourish should be used when great damage happens; your HoTs should be ready. Do not use Flourish just because you have a lot of HoTs up.
• Ironbark should be used to reduce the damage a tank takes during critical moments (such as when important boss abilities are about to be cast). In the absence of such situations, you should use it on players who are taking damage. You may be assigned to use it at a specific time as part of a rotation with other healers and the tanks' cooldowns.