Restoration Druid Healing Spec, Builds, and Talents in Battle for Azeroth (BfA) 8.0.1
Table of Contents
General Information
On this page, we present the viable talent choices for Restoration Druids in World of Warcraft Battle for Azeroth 8.0.1. We detail what each of the talents do and in which situations they should be taken.
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. Talent Choices for Restoration Druid
| 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
|
Talents can be freely changed when out of combat and in a rested XP area
(such as an inn or a capital city). Moreover, 
Tome of the Tranquil Mind
and 
Codex of the Tranquil Mind can be used to temporarily allow
players to change talents anywhere, as long as they are out of
combat.
2. Tier 1 (Level 15) Talents for Restoration Druids
|
✔
Abundance
|
✘
Prosperity
|
✔
Cenarion Ward
|
Prosperity causes 
Swiftmend to have 2 charges and a
22-second recharge time (instead of simply having a 25-second cooldown).
Cenarion Ward is an active ability with a 30-second cooldown.
It places a buff on an ally, lasting up to 30 seconds. When the player takes
damage, Cenarion Ward activates a 8-second HoT on them, consuming Cenarion
Ward in the process.
Abundance causes each instance of 
Rejuvenation that
you have active to reduce the Mana cost of 
Regrowth by 6% and
increase its critical effect chance by 6%.
Prosperity is generally a terrible choice unless coupled with
Soul of the Forest (which is not a recommended talent in
the first place).
Cenarion Ward is a good talent in almost all situations. It is a
strong, efficient heal that synergises with your
Mastery: Harmony and Flourish.
Abundance can be a strong talent both in dungeons and in raids.
It provides stronger spot healing for dungeon healing and an efficient filler
for raid healing. Low 
Rejuvenation duration is the only downside,
since it might be hard to get to 5-7 stacks consistently, where
Regrowth starts to edge out Rejuvenation in efficiency. As such,
Abundance is only recommended at high Haste values and when Mana is not a
concern.
3. Tier 2 (Level 30) Talents for Restoration Druids
|
✔
Tiger Dash
|
✘
Renewal
|
✔
Wild Charge
|
Renewal is an active ability with a 90-second cooldown. It heals
you for 30% of your maximum health, it is usable in all shapeshift forms, and
it is off the global cooldown.
Tiger Dash replaces 
Dash with a 45-second cooldown,
200% movement speed sprint that decays over 5 seconds when activated.
Wild Charge is an active ability that is off the global cooldown
and which differs based on the
shapeshift form you are in, as follows:- No shapeshift form: you fly to an ally's location.
Travel Form: you jump to an ally's location.
Moonkin Form: you leap backwards.
Bear Form: you charge an enemy, immobilising them for 4
seconds.
Cat Form: you leap behind an enemy, dazing them for 3 seconds.
Aquatic Form: your swim speed is increased by 150% for 5
seconds.
In this tier, you will have to choose between two movement talents. Taking
Renewal for survivability is generally unnecessary, as Restoration
Druids are already one of the most durable specialisations. It is much better
to take Guardian Affinity for that and have a
movement tool available instead.
Wild Charge has a much shorter cooldown and travels the distance
required a bit faster than Tiger Dash. The downsides are: a
requirement to have a friendly person in range and a need to use a macro.
Neither of the Wild Charge versions in forms offer as much reactive power,
because of the global cooldown. While Wild Charge itself only incurs 0.5-second
global cooldown, switching to any form puts you on normal global cooldown and
only after it is over you will be able to use Wild Charge.
Tiger Dash's biggest downside is the fact that it replaces
Dash. The movement speed increase is very strong, it is very easy to
use. Although cooldown is a bit too long, Tiger Dash should be a fine choice,
especially for dungeons and solo content.
4. Tier 3 (Level 45) Talents for Restoration Druids
|
✘
Balance Affinity
|
?
Feral Affinity
|
✔
Guardian Affinity
|
Balance Affinity
grants you the 
Astral Influence passive
ability, which increases the range of all your abilities by
5
yards.
Additionally, you gain access to the Balance-spec abilities
Moonkin Form, 
Starsurge,
and 
Lunar Strike.
Feral Affinity
grants you the 
Feline Swiftness passive
ability, which increases your movement speed by 15%. Additionally, you gain
access to the Feral-spec abilities 
Rake, 
Rip,
Ferocious Bite,
Swipe,
and your energy regeneration is increased by 35%.
Guardian Affinity
grants you the 
Thick Hide passive
ability, which reduces all your damage taken by 6%. Additionally, you gain
access to the Guardian-spec abilities
Thrash,
Ironfur, and 
Frenzied Regeneration.
In this tier, the default choice should be
Guardian Affinity. The passive damage reduction
you gain is extremely valuable during progression content, and even the active
abilities can be very beneficial. Notably, 
Frenzied Regeneration can
be used after taking heavy damage in order to heal yourself for free. The HoT
from Frenzied Regeneration scales with Mastery and contributes to it. In cases
where you expect to take a heavy hit, you should put Rejuvenation
on yourself beforehand to make Frenzied Regeneration even stronger.
Balance Affinity could be used for fights where the
raid is spread out, due to the passive increase in the range of your abilities.
A 5-yard increase is not much and will only see niche use on fights where both
your survivability is not important and players are spread far enough for 5
yards to make a difference.
Feral Affinity offers the unique ability to deal
substantial damage, both single target and AoE. This can be useful on
progression content, to help your raid beat enrage timers, while leaving you
with healthy amount of Mana for healing phases. For a few encounters, a passive
movement speed increase can be considered as the sole reason to pick this
talent.
5. Tier 4 (Level 60) Talents for Restoration Druids
|
?
Mighty Bash
|
?
Mass Entanglement
|
?
Typhoon
|
Mighty Bash is an active ability with a 50-second cooldown, which
stuns the target for 5 seconds. It is usable in all shapeshift forms.
Mass Entanglement is an active ability with a 30-second cooldown,
which roots the target and all enemies within 15 yards of them in place for 30
seconds. Damage done to rooted targets may break the effect. Mass Entanglement
is usable in all shapeshift forms.
Typhoon is an active ability with a 30-second cooldown. It
knocks back all targets within 15-yards in a cone in front of you, dazing them
for 6 seconds. It is usable in all shapeshift forms.
The choice between these talents is irrelevant in terms of your performance.
You will simply choose the one which you prefer most, or which best suits the
encounter mechanics. That said, Typhoon will probably be the
most useful talent in the majority of fights and dungeons.
6. Tier 5 (Level 75) Talents for Restoration Druids
|
✘
Soul of the Forest
|
✔
Cultivation
|
✔
Incarnation: Tree of Life
|
Soul of the Forest causes Swiftmend to
grant you a buff that increases the healing of your next Regrowth
or Rejuvenation by 200%, or of your next 
Wild Growth by
75%.
Incarnation: Tree of Life is an active ability with a 3-minute
cooldown. It lasts for 30 seconds and increases all healing done by 15% as well
as increasing your armor by 120% and making you immune to Polymorph effects.
Moreover, it improves some of your spells.- Wild Growth affects 2 additional targets.
- Regrowth is instant cast.
- Rejuvenation has its healing increased by 50%, and its Mana cost
reduced by 30%.
Entangling Roots is instant cast.
Cultivation causes Rejuvenation to place a 6-second
HoT on targets that are below 60% health when Rejuvenation heals them.
Cultivation offers a passive increase to your
Rejuvenation healing, increasing your Mastery synergies.
Incarnation: Tree of Life is a very strong cooldown. Both the flat
healing increase and the buff to Rejuvenation apply to spells you
cast before activating Tree of Life and last through entire duration of the
Tree. Tree of Life has a very good synergy with Flourish since it
lines up with every second one. The only downside would be reduced Mastery
value due to losing extra HoT stacks from Cultivation. Otherwise,
this is a very strong raid and dungeon talent.
Soul of the Forest is too weak numerically to be
considered for any content. Besides being weak, Soul of the Forest also
requires you to use your emergency heal in a rotational manner. However, if you
decide to use it, the buff is best used on either Regrowth or
Wild Growth, depending on which type of healing you need. For
maximum throughput it is advised to use it strictly with Wild Growth.
Incarnation: Tree of Life is a default option for raid content, while
Cultivation is a default option for dungeon content.
Soul of the Forest does not provide enough throughput or
consistency the other two options give you.
7. Tier 6 (Level 90) Talents for Restoration Druids
|
?
Inner Peace
|
?
Stonebark
|
?
Spring Blossoms
|
Inner Peace reduces the cooldown of 
Tranquility by
60 seconds.
Stonebark reduces the cooldown of 
Ironbark by 15
seconds and increases the healing of your HoTs on the target by 20%.
Spring Blossoms places a 6-second HoT on targets who are healed
by your 
Efflorescence.
Inner Peace is a very strong talent for raids. The power comes
from fitting extra casts of 
Tranquility into a fight. In cases
where it is impossible to do so due to either awkward timings, movement, or
your raid cooldown assignments, it is advised to take
Spring Blossoms instead. Inner Peace can have a niche use in
Mythic+, especially on 
Bursting weeks. It will allow your
group to make bigger pulls more often, which will speed up the clear.
Stonebark is a very niche talent, which mostly shines in tank
healing scenarios. It substantially increases your 
Ironbark uptime
and increases its power by quite a bit, making the target very unlikely to die
to DoTs or strong hits. Stonebark is only useful in dungeon content and it is
not advised to use it in raids.
Spring Blossoms requires a lot of players in the group to be
stacked, because it makes your 
Efflorescence prioritise targets that
do not have Spring Blossoms HoT on them and ignore the injured player rule. It
is the most optimal if you can keep Efflorescence under 9 people or more
consistently throughout the fight without moving it too often. The HoT effect
is extended by Flourish, but does not speed up or scale with Haste,
with the exception of Photosynthesis. You should pick this talent
on stacked fights without much movement and very steady damage. Otherwise,
Inner Peace would be the preferred choice.
Keep in mind, that using multiple Autumn Leaves traits will
push you into using Inner Peace. Make sure you get priority on raid
cooldown usage to be able to fit extra casts of Tranquility.
8. Tier 7 (Level 100) Talents for Restoration Druids
|
✔
Photosynthesis
|
?
Germination
|
✔
Flourish
|
Photosynthesis makes all your HoTs heal 20% more — by
giving them 20% Haste — while 
Lifebloom is on yourself.
Alternatively, while Lifebloom is on another ally, each of your periodic heals
on them has a 5% chance to cause a final bloom. 
Germination allows you to apply two Rejuvenations
to the same target. When Rejuvenation is already applied on a target, a second
cast of Rejuvenation applies a second version of the HoT. From this point on,
as long as both HoTs are active on the target, Rejuvenation will always refresh
the HoT with the shortest remaining duration.
Flourish is an active ability with a 90-second cooldown. It
extends the duration of all your HoTs within 60 yards by 8 seconds and speeds
up their tick rate by 100%.
For raiding, the best talent in this tier is Flourish. The power
of this cooldown is too strong to pass up on. Flourish can also be considered for
dungeon healing.
Photosynthesis is, unfortunately, too weak for raid healing. While
it provides a steady healing increase, it does so by removing 
Lifebloom
as a source of tank healing. Lifebloom will mostly overheal while being on yourself,
thus reducing the added throughput substantially. Photosynthesis is. however,
one of the best Mythic+ options. Together with Cenarion Ward,
Cultivation and Spring Blossoms it can be a flexible option
for both group healing and tank healing.
Germination is a good option for dungeons, if you are struggling
with keeping tanks alive. It is generally weaker than Photosynthesis
in coordinated groups. Germination can find very niche use on certain Raid
encounters, which require very heavy tank healing and almost no relevant raid
healing.
9. PvP Talents (War Mode)
In Battle for Azeroth, there will be the option to go into "War Mode". Enabling War Mode provides the following benefits:
- PvP talents enabled in the outdoor world.
- 10% increase in World Quest rewards at maximum level.
- 10% more experience gained while leveling.
- Earn Conquest Points which can reward gear every week.
With the benefits of enabling War Mode for leveling and PvE content, it is recommended to enable the feature to maximize your leveling and rewards at maximum level. However, you will make yourself available for open world PvP, and the possibility to be killed while leveling or doing World Quests exists.
9.1. Restoration Druid War Mode Talents
In this section we will rank the PvP talents best for leveling and doing solo / small group PvE content. Below is a ranking of both General PvP Talents and Restoration Druid-specific PvE talents.
9.1.1. General PvP Talents
Relentless is a passive ability. It reduces the
duration of crowd control effects applied to you.
Gladiator's Medallion is an on-use ability that removes all
movement impairing effects and all loss of control effects.
Adaptation will automatically remove loss of control effects
over 5 seconds.
It is recommended to take either 
Relentless or
Gladiator's Medallion, if you do not expect PvP combat too often.
NPCs do not have long crowd control abilities for 
Adaptation to
consistently proc.
9.1.2. Restoration Druid PvP Talents
Thorns is the only PvP talent that offers a direct damage
increase. It is usable in any form and can provide significant damage on big
pulls.
Druid of the Claw makes your Bear Form even more
resilient to reduce downtime or save you from potential player attacks.
Disentanglement, Nourish, 
Revitalize,
Entangling Bark, 
Deep Roots, 
Focused Growth,
Encroaching Vines, Early Spring, and
Cyclone have limited effect on PvE content in terms of
increasing your damage in the open world, or healing in a small group setting.
Overgrowth is a good option to quickly heal yourself or someone
else with close to no downtime.
10. Changelog
- 12 Oct. 2018: Changed talent recommendations.
- 03 Sep. 2018: Updated Feral and Balance affinity recommendations.
- 13 Aug. 2018: Updated for Battle for Azeroth launch.
- 08 Aug. 2018: Updated talent selections for recent hotfixes.
- 20 Jul. 2018: Updated description of Spring Blossoms talent.
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 Talent Builds
- Feral Druid Talent Builds
- Guardian Druid Talent Builds
- Level up a Druid
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