Restoration Druid Healing Mythic+ Tips in Battle for Azeroth (BfA) 8.0.1
Table of Contents
General Information
On this page, you will various tips and pieces of advice for clearing high Mythic+ content with your Restoration Druid.
The other pages of our Restoration Druid guide can be accessed from the table of contents on the right.
About Our Author
This guide has been reviewed and approved by Torty, one of the main Restoration Druid theorycrafters. He is an author of the Twig It spreadsheet and DPS action priority list. He currently raids in Pure.
1. Restoration Druid in Mythic+
Restoration Druid is one of the better healing specialisations for Mythic+.
It has enough throughput to get through almost any healing situation, good
crowd control, and the best tank cooldown in the game. The weaknesses include
pretty low damage output, especially during heavy healing portions of dungeons,
and a lack of healing cooldowns outside of talents. 
Germination and
Flourish in the same tier mean that you are either taking sustained
healing throughput loss or have no strong short cooldown.
1.1. Restoration Druid Mythic+ Rotation
For more information about the Restoration Druid rotation in Mythic+, refer back to the Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities page.
1.2. Restoration Druid Utility
Restoration Druid provides much more to the group than just healing. Due to the nature of dungeon content, you will be expected to do damage, crowd control, and heal all at the same time.
Typhoon knocks enemies in front of you away in the direction
the cast was aimed. Use this to knock enemies away from the tank, yourself, or
away from special mob-specific mechanics such as 
Sanguine
pools.
Soothe dispels all enrage effects from the target. It removes
various strong buffs from enemies in dungeons, including 
Raging.
Entangling Roots can be used to root patrols. If you apply them
to the leading mob in the group, the entire patrol will stop moving. It is
useful in tight quarters or to skip certain packs altogether.
Hibernate puts enemy Beast or Dragonkin to sleep for up to 40
seconds. Any damage will awaken the target. Hibernate works in the same way
as Entangling Roots for stopping patrolling packs in dungeons
without pulling them. It can also be used to interrupt casts of NPCs without
removing DoTs from the target.
Ursol's Vortex conjures a ground zone for 10 seconds that will
slow all enemies affected by 50%. It will also pull them to the center after
the first time they attempt to leave the circle. It is an extremely powerful
tool for kiting, especially during 
Necrotic weeks. You can
pair Ursol's Vortex with Typhoon to group packs on top of each
other for better AoE.
2. Mythic+ Talents for Restoration Druids
Below are the suggested talents for Mythic+, these talents are recommended for all groups and keys at the current time.
| Level | Choices | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 15 |
?
Abundance
|
✘
Prosperity
|
?
Cenarion Ward
|
| 30 |
?
Tiger Dash
|
✘
Renewal
|
?
Wild Charge
|
| 45 |
✘
Balance Affinity
|
✔
Feral Affinity
|
?
Guardian Affinity
|
| 60 |
?
Mighty Bash
|
?
Mass Entanglement
|
✔
Typhoon
|
| 75 |
✘
Soul of the Forest
|
✔
Cultivation
|
?
Incarnation: Tree of Life
|
| 90 |
?
Inner Peace
|
?
Stonebark
|
✔
Spring Blossoms
|
| 100 |
✔
Photosynthesis
|
?
Germination
|
?
Flourish
|
There are a few talent builds you can run with all of them giving pretty much the same results.
The most popular combination is Cenarion Ward, Cultivation,
Spring Blossoms and Photosynthesis. The idea behind this build
is to keep 
Lifebloom on the tank most of the time and swap it to
yourself during heavy group damage.
Another good combination of tank and group healing involves picking
Abundance, Cultivation, Stonebark and
Flourish. This spec will require you to heal the tank much more
actively, using more 
Regrowths and result in less time spent DPSing.
However, it has an access to an extra cooldown, which might be a better option,
if your group does infrequent big pulls.
A safe tank healing option spec is Abundance,
Incarnation: Tree of Life / Cultivation, Stonebark and
Germination. The idea behind this build is to spend most of your time
either putting 
Rejuvenations out or casting Regrowth on the
tank. If your group is pulling slowly one pack at a time, then Cultivation would
be a safer pick. Otherwise, Tree of Life offers incredible cooldown.
3. Azerite Gear for Restoration Druids for Dungeons
As Azerite gear comes with set traits, we can identify the best Azerite gear for a given item level. Below are the best Azerite gear pieces for dungeons:
3.1. Azerite Helms
Cowl of Fluid Machinations (Shrine of the Storm)
Hood of the Sinuous Devilsaur (Dunegorger Kraulok, World Boss)- Circlet of the Enveloping Leviathan (Siege of Boralus)
High Altitude Turban (The MOTHERLODE)
3.2. Azerite Shoulders
Shoulders of the Sanguine Monstrosity (The Underrot) 
Dire-Tooth Spaulders / 
Gilded-Wing Shoulderguards (Warfront
World Bosses)
3.3. Azerite Chests
Jerkin of the Aberrant Chimera (Fetid Devourer, Uldir) 
Cephalohide Jacket (Siege of Boralus) 
Spymaster's Wrap (Atal'Dazar)
4. Mythic+ Affixes
The way Mythic+ affixes are tiered in Battle for Azeroth has changed quite a bit since their launch in Legion.
There are now 3 weekly affixes and one seasonal affix. The first affix available instantly at level 2 and 3, the second affix starts at level 4, the third affix enabled at level 7, and finally the seasonal affix at level 10.
4.1. Tier One Affixes
Fortified increases the Health pool of all non-boss enemies
by 20% and damage dealt by 30%.
Tyrannical increases the Health pool of boss enemies by 40%
and their damage dealt by 15%.
Fortified and 
Tyrannical are the two
affixes every player will see. These affixes shift the focus of dungeons from
boss to trash depending on the week.
4.2. Tier Two Affixes
- Raging increases the damage dealt by enemies below 30% by
100% until they die. This buff is dispellable using Soothe. You
should Soothe enemies that deal excessive group-wide damage or those able
to one-shot your group members.
Teeming adds additional trash mobs to certain packs
throughout each dungeon.
Bolstering buffs remaining enemies' Health pools and
damage dealt by 20% when an enemy dies nearby. To counter this affix, help with
damage on high Health mobs.- Sanguine places a pool of blood on the ground when a mob
is slain. This pool will heal remaining enemies who stay inside the zone and
also damage players. You should take Typhoon to push enemies off
of Sanguine zones.
Bursting forces enemy mobs to detonate when slain,
afflicting the group with a stacking debuff that causes players to suffer 10%
of their max Health in damage every four seconds. When handling the Bursting
affix, make sure you have multiple HoTs running before enemies die, have
Efflorescence down and use your cooldowns when stacks get high.
It is acceptable to spec into 
Inner Peace if your group plans to
do big pulls often.
4.3. Tier Three Affixes
Volcanic spawns volcanic plumes underneath and around
players when in combat with any enemy. When damaged by Volcanic, players suffer
50% of their maximum Health in damage. Make sure people in your group
stay above 50% Health at all times to avoid unnecessary deaths.
Grievous afflicts players with a stacking DoT when they
fall below 90%. Use 
Regrowth liberally during Grievous weeks. Heal
one person at a time instead of trying to heal all at once. 
Quaking will periodically attempt to interrupt casters by
creating a damaging zone around each player. About 3 seconds after the zone
forms, it will deal 20% maximum Health in damage to each player caught in the
zone as well as interrupting any casts and locking you out of that school for
4 seconds. Getting locked out can result in deaths or even wipes.
Explosive will occasionally spawn
Explosive Orbs that need to be targeted and burned down within a
short period of time or they will deal significant damage to the party.
Explosive Orbs can not be cleaved with 
Sunfire and
Swipe. You can assist in killing them with 
Shred or
Moonfire. It is generally cheaper on Mana and easier to kill them
rather than to heal the damage after they go off.- Necrotic causes all enemies' melee attacks to apply a stacking
debuff that inflicts damage over time and reduces healing received. You should
utilise Typhoon and Ursol's Vortex to assist tanks in
kiting enemies before the debuff stacks too high. Restoration Druids can also
use
Bear Form to taunt enemies to give a tank some breathing room.
Make sure to HoT yourself before doing so, since there will be nobody else
to heal the damage mobs will deal. 
Skittish reduces the amount of threat generated by tanks
throughout the dungeon.
4.4. Seasonal Affix
Infested is the seasonal affix for the launch of Battle for
Azeroth. Enemies afflicted with the Infested debuff will be scattered
throughout each dungeon once you reach key level 10. These mobs will heal
enemies around them and when slain, will spawn two Spawn of G'huun
that will attempt to infest remaining enemies.
There are several ways to handle Infested mobs depending on
pack size, which mob is infested, and group composition. The first way to
handle an Infested enemy is to burn down the infested target and the
subsequently spawning Spawn of G'huun while either crowd controlling
or ignoring the other mobs in the pack. The second way is to crowd control the
Infested mob and burn down all the other enemies. After you kill and infested
mob and the Spawns of G'huun spawn, Restoration Druids can use
Typhoon to knock them away, knock the remaining mobs away or use
Ursol's Vortex to prevent them from escaping. In case everything is
on cooldown, you can spam 
Entangling Roots continuously until they
are dead. Doing so will not completely stop Spawns of G'huun, but will keep
them in roots for a little bit, essentially slowing their attempted escape.
Keep in mind, that Entangling Roots cost a lot of Mana and spamming them can
force you into drinking.
5. Mythic+ Azerite Traits
- S Tier: the strongest and most generally useful traits; these are always good choices.
- A Tier: these traits are either slightly weaker than the S Tier traits, or only as strong in specific situations, but are still solid choices.
- B Tier: a below-average trait that should be picked only in the absence of an S or A Tier trait.
- C Tier: a weak trait that provides very little healing output or other utility and should be avoided if possible.
- D Tier: the worst of the worst traits, these are virtually useless.
5.1. S Tier
Grove Tending is an incredible trait for dungeon healing.
Extra HoT for 
Mastery: Harmony is very strong and always needed. You
do not need to spec 
Prosperity for Grove Tending to work.
Tradewinds provides very high amount of Mastery on proc
and will even increase damage of your other group members.
Incite the Pack also provides high amount of Mastery and
will increase damage of your group members on top of that.
Blessed Portents can be extremely potent on encounters with
high damage.
5.2. A Tier
Waking Dream is extremely strong when you have only one
trait of it, but the added value of a second and third trait are progressively
lower. It will be much stronger if you picked 
Germination.
Resounding Protection is an all-round strong trait. It is
always useful and provides solid throughput.
Blood Siphon provides a good passive increase to your stats.
Blightborne Infusion provides a solid proc with decent
uptime.
Archive of the Titans provides a strong Intellect increase, but
decays a little between the packs. Make sure your group keeps the pace,
otherwise the trait becomes much weaker.
Blood Rite is another trait that provides a solid proc with
decent uptime.
Lively Spirit is a good trait, especially if you time your
Innervate around burst phases.
Meticulous Scheming is a very strong trait, but requires
you to pay attention to a buff you receive in order to activate an extremely
strong Haste buff.
Lifespeed is a very good trait to pick up even just for
Haste itself. Avoidance increases your survivability, which makes it invaluable
on a lot of dungeon fights.
Secrets of the Deep requires you to move around and pick up
orbs, but that also allows you some leeway in when you want to activate the
buff. It should be easy to pick them up as a Restoration Druid.
Ursoc's Endurance can be useful to avoid dying to certain
infrequent one-shot mechanics.
Synergistic Growth does not provide a good amount of Mastery,
but Mastery is extremely strong and burst healing is incredibly strong in
dungeons.
5.3. B Tier
Anduin's Dedication / 
Sylvanas' Resolve provide
decent Intellect proc.
Swirling Sands is another trait that provides a secondary
stat proc. The duration increase part is trivial to fulfill with all the HoTs
Restoration Druids have ticking.
On My Way is a decent trait with passive movement speed
increase on top of it.
Azerite Veins provides incredible healing once it procs,
although it can be unreliable with only 1 proc per minute.
5.4. C Tier
- Rampant Growth provides amazing throughput no paper, but falls
short whenever you have to spam heal the tank.
Laser Matrix will provide some healing and damage, but
there are much better options for both.- Fungal Essence provides mediocre healing and it is tied to
Efflorescence being down.
Bracing Chill and 
Concentrated Mending both
proc healing in one way or another. The healing itself is pretty mediocre.
Earthlink does not provide enough Intellect to be considered
a solid choice.
Savior has too low of a Health threshold in order to proc and
the healing itself is not impressive.
Impassive Visage provides decent throughput, but in order to
do so requires quite steady damage events, which do not happen on all
or trash.
Unstable Catalyst's biggest downside is the requirement to
stand still, which is not always feasible, especially in dungeons.
5.5. D Tier
Self Reliance it is generally extremely hard to keep 20-yard
distance between yourself and enemies, especially in dungeons with tight
corridors.
Autumn Leaves is a terrible trait in dungeons. Most of the
time you will be looking to have multiple HoTs on any target that requires
relevant healing.- The second or third Rampant Growth traits provide very little
throughput and should be avoided when possible.
Ephemeral Recovery provides very little Mana. On top of that,
Mana is generally useless in dungeon content.
Woundbinder procs Haste, but on low uptime and the amount
is pretty low.
Longstrider is probably the worst trait there is. The
movement speed increase is laughable for a spec with incredible mobility, as well
as having no extra throughput benefits on top.
6. Changelog
- 12 Oct. 2018: Changed talent recommendations.
- 20 Sep. 2018: Updated Azerite trait rankings and talent suggestions.
- 01 Sep. 2018: Updated Azerite trait rankings, added optimal dungeon Azerite pieces.
- 18 Aug. 2018: Added detailed Azerite trait rankings.
- 08 Aug. 2018: Added page.
CONTENTS
FROM THE DRUID FORUMS
- RESTO enchants and gems
- I need help :) please help me? (not with meds)
- Boomkin Woundbinder Question
- Question about dot refreshing for boomkin
- Resto Playstyle Content
IN THE SAME CATEGORY
- Healing Guide
- Transmog Druid Sets
- Transmog Druid Models
- Balance Druid Specific tips for Mythic+
- Feral Druid Specific tips for Mythic+
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- Level up a Druid
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