Hello everyone and welcome to my PvE restoration druid guide. If I you have any suggestions, corrections, or any questions please don't hesitate to contact me. Chapters
Talents 
As Cataclysm came to an end, so have our old talents. We gained a new talent system that is shares with all specs. This was done to remove cookie cutter specs.
Dungeon/Heroic Healing
Just starting out? No worries. This spec includes [Celestial Focus] to increase your haste. If you just hit 80 or are starting dungeons, you probably won't have a lot of haste to begin with so CF will come in handy. This spec has 3 movable points (look at the one point in [Empowered Touch] for the missing 1 point) so feel free to put them wherever you see fit. You can either max out empowered touch, take a point from [Nature's Bounty] (making it 20%, not 25%) and put 2 points into [Revitalize]. You can also choose to just max out either [Revitalize] or [Living Seed] without having to take any points out of nature's bounty, it's your choice!
Healing under the haste soft cap
This spec is recommended for druids under the haste soft cap. In this spec you go into balance for [Celestial Focus] to make it easier to hit the haste soft cap until you attain more haste from gear upgrades. To get celestial focus, I put the point in [Brambles] to get to the next tier (you can put it anywhere).
Raid Healing
11/0/60
Here's a basic raid healing spec when at/above the haste soft cap. It includes all the basic talents needed for raid healing and also a little tank healing if needed. I put one point into [Subtlety] (10/20/30%) to get into the next tier, but you can put it in [Tranquil Spirit] (increases 2% each point in) instead if you want.
Tank Healing
This spec comes with talents that would help a lot with tank healing like [Empowered Touch], [Living Seed], and more. I put a point into [Tranquil Spirit] instead of [Subtlety] because nourish is your primary direct heal when tank healing.
Talents to Avoid - (DO NOT WANT)
Like most healing classes, druids have some talents that do not prove as useful. Here are some of those talents to avoid while speccing your resto druid.
[Furor] - A balance/feral druid talent.
[Naturalist] - We don't use healing touch that often for this talent to become useful. Useful for leveling up as a resto druid due to lack of a quick direct heal, but that's pretty much it.
Glyphs When looking for glyphs you may wonder, "There's so many! Which one do I choose?!". I'll be discussing healing type glyphies here.
Major Glyphs
[Glyph of Healing Touch] - Not really used often nor is it required. It's good for leveling up to 8o until you acquire nourish. Then after you get to 8o, nourish takes over so this glyph isn't really useful at 8o. The only fight this could be considered useful would be on heroic Anub'arak on 25 man.
[Glyph of Innervate] - Used mostly for regen or if you give your innervate to someone else and still need a little mana boost. This glyph is 43.7mp5.
[Glyph of Lifebloom] - Rarely ever seen due to how we raid heal now in woltk. It could be considered useful for the extra tick, but there's better more beneficial things to glyph for since we don't lifebloom as much as we did in BC.
[Glyph of Nourish] - Increases healing with each hot you have on the target you nourish, quite useful for tank healing. It receives that bonus from rejuv, regrowth, lifebloom (stack amount doesn't matter), and wild growth.
[Glyph of Rapid Rejuvenation] - Decreases the time between ticks by the amount of haste you have. Useful in some ways, but you wouldn't be able to have as many rejuvs out on the raid as you would if you weren't glyphed on it. Depends on your personal preference.
[Glyph of Regrowth] - One of the rare glyphs that resto druids use next to the lifebloom glyph. May be useful when hotting up a tank again if they have a regrowth present, but nourishing would seem better than spam casting regrowth.
[Glyph of Rejuvenation] - May be considered useful, may not be. I think it's situational mostly since most people aren't under 50% a lot during most fights. When the target is healed up above 50% the bonus of this glyph doesn't activate until they're below 50% again.
[Glyph of Swiftmend] - One of the most useful glyphs that a resto druid can get. It saves you a gcd from having to reapply hots when swiftmending. This is probably considered one of the "must have" glyphs.
[Glyph of Wild Growth] - Useful for raid healing especially since our 2 set bonus on t1o makes the tick not reduce as much.
Minor Glyphs
[Glyph of the Wild] and [Glyph of Unburdened Rebirth] are the most important to have. The third minor is basically a filler and is completely up to you.
Spells | Name | Spell | Description |
| [Lifebloom] |  | HoT that ticks every second for 7s (9s talented) that stacks to 3 and also has a heal once the duration is up as well as giving back 50% mana cost of the spell. It's a neat hot that has high hps maximum stacked, but it's mana consuming so it's not recommended doing that for raid healing (that was so BC). Lifebloom can be used to help patch up a raid member when rejuv and wild growth isn't enough. It's also useful with hotting up tanks especially for the bloom at the end. Also remember to not refresh it before it falls off; it won't bloom nor will you get your mana back! |
| [Healing Touch] |  | Every healing class has their big direct heal and this is ours. Healing Touch is a 3s cast (without haste). It's a long spell but we have the tools to reduce it's cast time like [Naturalist](reducing it by .5s) [Glyph of Healing Touch] (reduces by 1.5s). This spell is mostly only used with [Nature's Swiftness] for an emergency instant heal. Naturalist isn't a talent most take nor is it recommended. As for glyphing it, keep in mind that you're cutting it's healing effects by 50%. It's fine to glyph this while leveling, but healing touch isn't really used so much in raiding to glyph or spec for. |
[Nature's Swiftness]
Nature's Swiftness is an ability that makes your next cast that has a 10s cast time or lower be an instant cast. You may overlook this ability, but it becomes very useful! Usually Nature's Swiftness is built in macros with [Healing Touch] for an instant, emergency heal. Also note that it's best to macro it due to the cd not starting until the instant spell consumes the buff.
Since it's on a 3 minute timer I suggest that you don't overuse it and only save it for emergencies. Nature's Swiftness can be used on healing spells like [Regrowth]
and [Nourish], but it's best to use [Healing Touch] if you're going for more healing output. It can also be used on all offensive nature abilities as well as [Rebirth]. [Nourish]
It's a quick heal with a 1.5s cast time. Nourish heals for 20% more if a HoT is active on the target you're healing (only your HoTs work). This spell is good for healing tanks or for quickly patching up someone in the raid.
Any of your HoTs ([Rejuvenation]
, [Regrowth], [Lifebloom], [Wild Growth]) will count for increasing your nourish by 20%. When glyphed, instead of your nourish only benefiting from one of your HoTs, it benefits 6% additional healing from each of your HoTs present on your target. It also includes the 20% from the initial HoT bonus giving a total of 44% additional healing. Also note that even though Lifebloom has multiple stacks, it only counts as one. [Regrowth]
Regrowth is a 2s cast that is a direct heal and applies a HoT for 21 seconds (27s talented). This spell is mostly used for tank healing due to it having a long HoT duration and can be used on someone who will be taking damage during it's HoT duration.
[Rejuvenation]
Rejuv is our main raid healing spell. Come on, don't look at me like that.. you know it's true! Rejuv is a HoT with a 15s duration (18s talented). It's good for keeping it up on the raid as well on tanks, especially if you have [Revitalize].
Rejuv ticks every 3 seconds but that can be reduced with [Glyph of Rapid Rejuvenation] depending on your haste. Keep in mind that the times between the ticks will decrease, but so will the duration.
[Swiftmend]
Swiftmend is an instant heal (can crit), but it only available to use if you have [Rejuvenation] or [Regrowth] present on the target. Keep in mind that the HoT will be consumed whether it's yours or not unless you have [Glyph of Swiftmend]. If you have both Regrowth as well as Rejuv on the target, it will take the one with the lowest duration left.
The amount healed is dependent on which HoT is consumed(Rejuv 12s, Regrowth 18s)as well as how much spell power you have just like any other heal.
[Tranquility]
Tranquility is a party wide channeling spell that heals every 2s for 8s (scales with haste, think of a rejuv glyphed for rapid rejuv) and cannot crit. Keep in mind that it is only party wide and anyone not in a 3oyd radius of you will not be healed from it.
This is a great heal if you're in a situation where you need to heal multiple people in your group that are taking heavy damage. It has an 8 minute cd so remember to use it wisely! Also it's a channeled spell so any movement or damage done will end/shorten the spell duration. I recommend using [Barkskin] before you start channeling tranquility if you're expecting any damage while channeling.
[Wild Growth]
Wild Growth is a HoT that ticks every second for 7s and has a 6s cd. This spell can heal up to 5 party/raid members (6 with [Glyph of Wild Growth]) and is a smart heal (will choose the 5 or 6 lowest people). Wild Growth isn't like every other HoT that we have. Each of its ticks heal for a different amount, with it's first tick healing the highest and it healing for less each time it ticks.
Wild Growth is another one of our main raid healing spells if we use it effectively. To do so be sure to use it on as many people as possible when damage is going out. Another thing to make sure you watch out for is for fights where ranged are mostly spread out. During these don't use wild growth to heal up one person, use it on the melee. They'll love you for it! Especially if you have [Revitalize].
Dispells
| Name | Spell | Description |
| [Abolish Poison] |
[Cure Poison]
We get Cure Poison first, but once you get abolish it ends up replacing cure. One thing is you don't want to spam cast abolish on the same person if they have 3 poisons and you want to remove it. Casting abolish while it's still ticking will reset it's ticks. It works just like a HoT! It's best to put up an abolish and then use cure poison if you're trying to get off ticks as quickly as possible.
[Remove Curse]
Does exactly what it says! Removes curses. No, we don't get an Abolish Curse as awesome as that would be.
Healing 
Raid Healing
Now that we covered our healing abilities let's talk about how to heal in a raid setting. Every resto druid is different and has different ways of raid healing, this is one that I adapted into. Two of the main spells to use for raid healing are
Reason being in fights where there's aoe damage you can set up a rejuv/wild growth rotation (Rejuv x5 -> WG, Rejuv x5 etc) on the raid, blanketing them in HoTs. Remember to use your wild growth effectively and not just to heal one person up (just use [Lifebloom] on them).
When HoTs aren't enough be sure to use your other spells as well such as [Swiftmend], [Nourish] (if swiftmend is on cd), or [Regrowth] (if they're expecting damage after). Other than that raid healing isn't too difficult once you're used to a fight because you will be able to predict damage and figure out which spells to use. : )
Tank Healing
Tank healing is a little different than raid healing, where you're randomly HoTing raid members. It's best to use [Glyph of Nourish] as one of your glyphs when tank healing because of how we heal, which will be explained. : ) First thing to do is to put up your HoTs on your tank.
When pre HoTing you start off with a regrowth, rejuv, stack your lifebloom to 3, and wild growth on the tank. Be sure to keep up your HoTs as well as nourishing to fill in the gaps if your HoTs aren't enough. Keep in mind to let your lifebloom fall off and then reapply its stacks. Your tank and your mana pool will thank you. It's your decision whether to use wild growth on the tank as an extra HoT and 6% increased healing to nourish (with [Glyph of Nourish]) or use it on the raid to help with overall healing. Usually when using wild growth on the tank, it will spread to the melee if they're positioned nearby. For emergencies where the tank is tanking moderate damage be sure to use
+ (NS+HT macro ftw!)
Tank healing in a nutshell = Keep HoTs up, let lifebloom fall off then reapply, nourish to fill in for damage, and save swiftmend and NS+HT for emergencies. : ) A few things to help with tank healing would be getting [Living Seed] as well as [Empowered Touch] from our talent trees to help with tank healing.
Macros Nature's Swiftness + Healing Touch
#showtooltip Nature's Swiftness
/stopcasting
/use Nature's Swiftness
/use Healing Touch
Barkskin + Tranquility
#showtooltip (Barkskin or Tranquility)*
/cast Barkskin
/use Tranquility
*Put either Barkskin or Tranquility. Whichever you choose will be shown as the icon and you can see the cooldown as well.
Mouseover Macro
/cast [target=mouseover][] Rejuvenation
This is a standard mouseover macro for Rejuvenation. If you want to make more mouseover macros for your spells just make a new macro and copy down this set up. Be sure to replace the spell name and make sure that it's spelled correctly. : )
Consumables Food
[Firecracker Salmon]
[Tender Shoveltusk Steak]Flasks/Elixirs
[Spellpower Elixir]
[Elixir of Spirit]
Potions
[Runic Mana Injector]
[Crazy Alchemist's Potion]
[Endless Mana Potion]
Stat Priorities As a restoration druid our stat priorities should look like this:
If you just hit 80 or just switched to resto regen (intellect/spirit)should be top on your priority list. Spell power and haste won't do much if you're oom. : )
Haste
In 3.3 [Gift of the Earthmother] was changed and haste became one of our priority stats. We needed enough haste to reach our 1 second GCD once again.
With [Wrath of Air Totem] (5% spell haste) and [Swift Retribution] or [Improved Moonkin Form] (3% haste, does not stack with each other) while specced into [Celestial Focus] you need 735 haste and without it you need 856.
For more info about haste numbers you can view cuddlekin's post here.
Spirit vs Mp5
When gemming, you may wonder whether you should go for spirit or mp5. I would say spirit because in this battle, spirit easily wins. Here's why
Spirit increases our mp5 with [Intensity]. Not only that but it's increased by 15% due to [Living Spirit] which gives us more mana back than gemming for straight mp5 will. Spirit also increases our healing power by 15% with [Improved Tree of Life]. Spirit scales with [Blessing of Kings] as well as [Improved Mark of the Wild] while mp5 does not.
Spirit > Mp5
For more in depth restoration pve theorycrafting and itemization please visit:
Resto PvE Compendium and General Discussion
The Restoration Itemization Thread for 3.3
For my ICC gear list for restoration druids click here.
Gemming The best way to gem as a resto druid is getting as much spell power as you can by gemming with [Runed Cardinal Ruby]. You shouldn't stack spell power is if:
- You need more regen, gem [Purified Dreadstone] in purples.
- Need more haste ([Reckless Ametrine]/[Quick King's Amber] in yellow slots, red if you want)
-Need gems to activate a meta like Insightful, for example, you could use a hybrid gem like [Intricate Eye of Zul].
Haste Cap Reminder: You need 735 haste with [Celestial Focus] and 856 without.
| Slot | Name | Description |
 |  [Runed Cardinal Ruby] | 23 spell power |
 |  [Reckless Ametrine] | 12 spellpower and 10 haste |
 |  [Purified Dreadstone] | 12 spellpower and 10 spirit |
 |  [Insightful Earthsiege Diamond] [Ember Skyflare Diamond] | 21 in and mana restore 25 spell power and 2% int |
Notes: [Insightful Earthsiege Diamond] and [Ember Skyflare Diamond] are both meta gems. Meta is mostly personal preference. When starting out you'll most likely be using Insightful instead of Ember for regen purposes until you attain better gear.
What not to use:
[Brilliant King's Amber]
[Smooth King's Amber]
[Sparkling Majestic Zircon]
[Lustrous Majestic Zircon]
[Royal Dreadstone]
[Glowing Dreadstone]
Enchants | Slot | Item |
| Helm | Arcanum of Blissful Mending |
| Shoulder | Greater Inscription of the Crag |
| Cloak | Greater Speed |
| Chest | Powerful Stats |
| Bracers | Superior Spellpower |
| Weapon | One Hander, Staff |
| Gloves | Exceptional Spellpower |
| Leggings | Brilliant Spellthread |
| Boots | Tuskarr's Vitality |
Professions Now that I started talking about enchants and such, let's talk about professions! Here i'll be talking about how much spell power we can get with each profession.
Alchemy
Alchemy comes with [Flash of the North] which is 47 spell power. With alchemy's mixology, your [Flask of the Frost Wyrm] gives an extra 47 spell power. It also increases the duration of your flasks from one hour to two.
Blacksmithing
With blacksmithing you'll be able to add an extra socket in your bracers and gloves. That's 2 prismatic sockets where you can put whatever you want! You get 46 spell power from this if you chose to go with spell power.
Enchanting
With enchanting you can enchant both your rings with 23 spell power enchants each for a total of 46 spell power.
Engineering
From engineering you can get a 27 spell power cloak enchant in place of the 23 haste enchant. Rocket gloves would look pretty hilarious coming from a tree, but if you're looking to maximize your spell power from professions, this profession isn't for you. You also get a mana boost from using mana injectors from being an engineer averaging about 1k mana per fight.
Inscription
With inscription you get a shoulder enchant where you gain 46 spell power over the 24 spell power one from Sons of Hodir.
Jewelcrafting
With Jewelcrafting when replacing [Runed Cardinal Ruby] with [Runed Dragon's Eye], you gain a total of 48 spell power.
Leatherworking
The enchant to bracers gives 46 more spell power than the regular spell power enchant does.
Tailoring
With this profession you have Lightweave Embroidery. You gain a 295 spell power proc for 15 seconds with a one minute (6o second, 45 sec internal cd) cd, also sacrificing 23 haste from using it instead. It can proc off direct heals and hot ticks as well. Other than that, tailoring does not have any 100% time spell power bonus.
Resto Druid Guides Here are links to a few guides that have helped and inspired me to make my resto druid mini guide. : )
Tree Bark Jacket - Restoration Druid Guide
Restokin - 3.3: Restoration PvE Healing
