[Resto] Jiyambi's Guide to Tree Healing
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Restoration druids, commonly known as trees, have the potential to be excellent healers. With a wide array of spells, an in-combat res, an excellent group heal, the ability to stack HoTs to keep tanks up through damage spikes or silences, and added mobility from instant casts, trees have a lot going for them. This guide aims to teach you how to get the most healing out of your tree. For now, this guide is focused on PvE healing - in the future, PvP advice may be added.
Author's Note:
- I tried to think of all the things I had to look up/research while learning to play my tree and compile them in one spot. Much credit goes to WoWhead comments on each spell and talent, guild mates and other trees who I talked to, and the Elitist Jerks forums - there's lots of good analysis there. After researching what others said, I did my own experimenting in game, and a few basic calculations.
I try to keep this guide up to date, but I'm pretty busy with school and other commitments. So if you see something that is incorrect or you have a suggestion for a better way to do things, please leave a comment!
Table of Contents
- Common Tree-Related Terms
- Color Code
- Spells
- Talents, Glyphs, and Builds
- Gear
- Consumables
- PvE Healing Strategies
- Tips and Tricks
- Useful Macros
- Useful Addons
- Druid Healing Without Tree Form
- Leveling as a Tree
- Keeping Up to Date
- Special Thanks
- Comments
Common Tree-Related Terms
HoT - Heal over Time
MP5 - Mana Regen per 5 seconds, usually referring to regen during combat
GCD - Global Cooldown (1.5 seconds normally, can be shortened through talents and haste rating)
Res or Rez - Resurrection Spell
Spec - Specialization (talent, gear, and glyph choices)
Crit - Critical heal (x1.5 healing)
Resto - Restoration, a healing druid
Roll - To "roll" a buff means keeping it up constantly, usually without ever letting it's time run out before refreshing it.
Fall off - A buff "falls off" when it's time runs out.
HpM - A spell's total healing divided by it's mana cost
HpS - A spell's total healing divided by it's cast time or it's HoT duration.
WotLK - The current expansion for WoW, Wrath of the Lich King.
Buff - Can refer either: (1) an in-game, helpful effect applied to a character, or (2) an improvement to a class' performance intended to improve game balance.
Nerf - A reduction in a class' overall performance, meant to improve game balance.
Color Code
- Spells
- Talents
- Glyphs
- Code and Addons
Spells
In this section I will discuss each of the key restoration spells in a druid's arsenal. We will, for the sake of simplicity, assume level 80 and the top rank of each spell. However, most of the discussion should hold true for lower levels as well.
We will discuss the following characteristics of each spell:
- Mana Efficiency (HpM) - The spell's total healing divided by it's mana cost.
- Cast Time Efficiency (HpS) - For spells with cast times - the spell's "big heal" divided by the cast time.
- Heal Over Time Efficiency (HpS) - The total healing divided by the duration of the HoT.
We won't be using specific numbers, since they will change depending on your level, gear, and talents. I will talk about each spell in general terms, and how it might be improved based on itemization and spec. Note that talents which improve all healing spells, such as Gift of Nature, will not be mentioned as affecting each spell.
Mouse over the spell's picture to see a pop-up description of the spell, courtesy of WoWhead.
- PvE resto druids should always be in Tree of Life form - as of patch 3.0, you can cast all restoration spells from tree form, and the movement speed decrease was removed, so there is no reason to switch out. PvP druids may need to switch forms for mobility (to sprint in cat form), but still should primarily be in this form. In PvP, if you are fighting a warlock make sure you are NOT in Tree of Life form, or you will be banished.
- Tree of Life - Grants use of the spell.
- Improved Tree of Life - 100% additional armor from items, 15% of spirit added to bonus healing.
Patch 3.1.0: Now receives 240% increased armor. You can now use Nature's Grasp and Thorns while within this form. Mana cost reduced to match the cost of Travel Form. In addition, the discount on heal-over-time spells from this talent is now active at all times, whether or not the druid is in Tree of Life form. Mana cost reduced to match the cost of Travel Form. This makes Tree of Life a nice advantage due to increased armor, but if you are battle rezzed and forget to shift back into Tree form, you won't really be penalized.
Glyphs and Talents which affect this spell:
- This is a simple spell which cures poison. It effects only a single target - in cases where the poison is a multi-target effect, cure the main tank and main healers and then keep on healing - generally you won't have time to cure the entire group before the poison's timer runs out and still heal. If you have a shaman in your group, for mobs which cast multi-target poison, consider asking them to drop a poison cleansing totem so you can concentrate on healing instead of curing poison.
- This is a powerful buff which casts raid-wide. It uses a reagent, so be sure to have plenty on hand. There is also a single-target version of this spell, Mark of the Wild.
- Naturalist - Decreases casting time by 0.5 seconds.
- Tranquil Spirit - Decrease mana cost by 10%.
- Empowered Touch - Increases bonus healing effects for Healing Touch by 40%.
- Moonglow - Decrease mana cost by 9%.
- Nature’s Majesty - Increase critical strike chance by 4%.
- Glyph of Healing Touch - Decreases the cast time of Healing Touch by 1.5 sec., the mana cost by 25% and the amount healed by 50%.
Healing Touch was in the past considered too slow to put to much use. It is, however, extremely powerful in a Nature’s Swiftness + Healing Touch combo (this macro will be described in the Useful Macros section). In addition, this spell can now be modified through talents and glyphs to be an extremely fast, small heal. While the applications of this are less useful in PvE (though the ability to cast such a fast heal is nice in tank-saving situations), this fast heal has more use in PvP. Keep in mind that using this spell in that way will likely drain your mana very quickly.
Usage notes: Those not specifically specced into this spell should use it only in a Nature’s Swiftness + Healing Touch combo.
Glyphs and Talents which affect this spell:
- Glyph of Innervate - Gives you a "mini-vate" if used on someone else (in addition to the other person getting the normal innervate effect), and a "mega-vate" if used on yourself.
Innervate is a spell which druids essentially use to get a second mana bar. This spell increases your mana regen dramatically for a short time, in most cases mostly refilling your mana bar. For well geared trees, it may not be enough to completely refill you, as the new changes to the spell means it does not scale with gear. If you have mana issues, consider getting Glyph of Innervate.
Usage notes: In most cases, as a healer you will be using this on yourself. However if you pick up Glyph of Innervate, you can use it on someone else and still benefit. Note that with the recent changes to Innervate, it is now useful for any class that has mana - it is no longer dependent on spirit.
Glyphs and Talents which affect this spell:
- Nature’s Splendor - Ticks 2 extra times.
- Empowered Rejuvenation - Increases bonus healing of HoT by 20%.
- Tree of Life - Reduces mana cost by 20%.
- Genesis - Increases HoT healing by 5%.
- Glyph of Lifebloom - Increases the duration of Lifebloom by 1 sec.
Lifebloom is the staple of druid healing, and in particular tank healing. It is a very powerful HoT that ticks every second instead of every three seconds, then goes out with a bang, "blooming" for a large heal. Lifebloom also can be stacked up to three times per druid per target. Rolling Lifebloom is a method commonly used for tank healing, where a druid keeps three stacks of Lifebloom up at all times and refreshes the stack just before it runs out. This keeps up very high constant healing, ticking every second, requires little mana, and allows for a quick emergency heal if needed (the bloom). Properly glyphed, this spell is both more mana efficient and healing efficient than Rejuvenation (when rolling 3), and also ticks more often.
Patch 3.1.0: Mana cost of all ranks doubled. When Lifebloom blooms or is dispelled, it now refunds half the base mana cost of the spell per application of Lifebloom, and the heal effect is multiplied by the number of applications. Note that it is still more mana and healing efficient to roll Lifebloom, as long as you are good at refreshing it just before it falls off.
Usage notes: This should not be used to spot heal - use Rejuvenation for that purpose. If you are main tank healing, roll this on the tank at all times. If you are raid healing, you may want to still roll this on the tank, if it seems he needs a bit more healing.
Glyphs and Talents which affect this spell:
- Tranquil Spirit - Decrease mana cost by 10%.
- Nature’s Majesty - Increase critical strike chance by 4%.
- Nature's Bounty - Increases critical effect chance by 25%
- Glyph of Nourish - Increases the amount healed by 6% for each HoT on the target..
Nourish is a new healing spell only available at level 80. It is a direct heal which is significantly cheaper and faster than Healing Touch, and which becomes more effective when a Regrowth, Rejuvenation, or Lifebloom effect is on the target - which there usually will be. With the 3.1 changes, Nourish has become a major direct heal for druids, since it is very fast and can be glyphed to improve its effect with each HoT effect on a target.
Usage notes: Use Nourish to spot raid healing. If possible, try to make sure a Rejuvenation is on the target first (this also allows for a quick Swiftmend if needed). Nourish should also be used to direct heal the tank if you picked up Glyph of Nourish, since when tank healing you should have as many HoTs as possible on the tank.
Glyphs and Talents which affect this spell:
- This is a long-cooldown emergency heal. Nature’s Swiftness + Healing Touch is a nearly instant combo which can save a dying party member or tank (this macro will be described in the Useful Macros section). It has a long cooldown, however, so use it sparingly to be sure it's ready when needed. You may also want to use a timer to monitor your cooldowns and active spells.
- Nature’s Swiftness - Grants use of the spell.
Glyphs and Talents which affect this spell:
- This is your battle rez. Unless DPS is especially vital for a fight, you generally want to save this rez for tanks and healers. If another druid goes down, be sure you res them since they can res if someone else dies. This spell requires a reagent, so be sure you have a lot with you, unless you have Glyph of Unburdened Rebirth (which I highly recommend).
- Glyph of Rebirth - Increases the amount of health on a character brought back to life via Rebirth by 100%.
- Glyph of Unburdened Rebirth - Your Rebirth Spell no longer requires a reagent.
Glyphs and Talents which affect this spell:
- Nature's Bounty - Increases critical effect chance by 25%
- Empowered Rejuvenation - Increases bonus healing of HoT portion of the spell by 20%.
- Tree of Life - Reduces mana cost by 20%.
- Genesis - Increases HoT portion of the spell by 5%.
- Moonglow - Decrease mana cost by 9%.
- Nature’s Splendor - Allows the HoT to tic 2 extra times.
- Glyph of Regrowth - Increases the healing of your Regrowth spell by 20% if your Regrowth effect is still active on the target.
Regrowth has mostly fallen out of use for most druids, in favor of Nourish. You still want to keep this HoT up on the tank if you are main tank healing, but otherwise I would not recommend using it.
Glyphs and Talents which affect this spell:
- Improved Rejuvenation - Increases healing by 15%
- Empowered Rejuvenation - Increases bonus healing by 20%.
- Revitalize - 15% chance / tic to restore 8 Energy, 4 Rage, 1% Mana, or 16 Runic Power.
- Tree of Life - Reduces mana cost by 20%.
- Genesis - Increases healing by 5%.
- Moonglow - Decrease mana cost by 9%.
- Nature’s Splendor - Tics 1 extra time.
- Glyph of Rejuvenation - While your rejuvenation targets are below 50% health you will heal them for an additional 50% health.
Rejuvenation is often rolled along with Lifebloom on a tank, or used to spot heal. Unlike Lifebloom, it only ticks once every 3 seconds.
Usage notes: Use this as a raid heal and roll it on the tank. I roll this on the tanks even when I'm raid healing, since it has a long duration and allows for a quick Swiftmend in an emergency.
Glyphs and Talents which affect this spell:
- This is a simple spell which removes a curse. It effects only a single target - in cases where the curse is a multi-target effect, cure the main tank and main healers and then keep on healing - generally you won't have time to cure the entire group before the curse's timer runs out and still heal. Some curses are more dangerous than others: try to know the type of curse ahead of time so you know whether it needs to be removed right away.
- This is the druid's out of combat rez.
- Swiftmend is an excellent instant heal with a short cooldown. Rejuvenation + Swiftmend is not quite as powerful as Nature’s Swiftness + Healing Touch, but it's just as fast if the target already has a Rejuvenation on them, and can be used much more often.
- Swiftmend - Grants use of the spell.
- Glyph of Swiftmend - Your Swiftmend ability no longer consumes a Rejuvenation or Regrowth effect from the target.
Usage Notes: Use this spell liberally, especially if you have Glyph of Swiftmend (which you should).
Glyphs and Talents which affect this spell:
- Tranquil Spirit - Reduces mana cost by 10%
- Improved Tranquility - Reduces threat caused by 100%, reduces cooldown by 60% (to 4 min from 10 min).
This is a channeled cast spell which heals everyone in the area over the duration of the channeling. It is extremely powerful for AoE healing, but has a long cooldown, prevents the druid from taking any other action, and can draw a LOT of aggro (unless you have the talent which reduces threat). While it was once the only multi-target healing spell available to druids, we now also have Wild Growth to draw on.
Usage Notes: Save this for emergency situations, unless you take the talent to lower the cooldown. Make sure to pop Barkskin before using, since you may draw aggro and as a channeled spell, taking damage will reduce the effect (this macro will be described in the Useful Macros section). This powerful spell can really save you if your group gets in over your heads.
Glyphs and Talents which affect this spell:
- Empowered Rejuvenation - Increases bonus healing by 20%.
- Tree of Life - Reduces mana cost by 20%.
- Wild Growth - Grants use of the spell.
- Genesis - Increases healing by 5%.
- Revitalize - 15% chance / tic to restore 8 Energy, 4 Rage, 1% Mana, or 16 Runic Power.
- Glyph of Wild Growth - Effects one additional target (total of 6).
This is the new multi-target healing spell for druids, and it uses smart targeting to heal those with the lowest health first in a group. Most druids agree that this spell is extremely powerful for healing even as few as two targets. Some even complain that it leads to lazy healing.
Usage Notes: Use this spell if three or more people are hurt or taking damage. Above three, it's the most mana and time efficient spell in your arsenal, aside from Tranquility. It's especially nice since the healing comes quite fast at the beginning of the duration. It can also be nice as yet another HoT to roll on the tank for heavy damage fights, and it keeps the melee topped off. With Revitalize now effecting this spell, and considering that it ticks every second, it's better than ever to keep up at all times.
Glyphs and Talents which affect this spell:
Talents, Glyphs and Builds
Trees can use talents and glyphs to significantly specialize their style of healing. For example, while normally Healing Touch is not a spell commonly used by trees, a druid might choose talents and glyphs which make this spell fast and extremely powerful. Talents and glyphs will be discussed together here since they serve a virtually identical purpose: to augment and specialize a druid's healing powers. First I will discuss the talents and glyphs which may be of use to a tree, and summarize how useful each is. Then I will provide a few sample builds, for both PvE and PvP.
Talents
I will discuss all talents in the restoration tree and their relative usefulness, in addition to a few key talents from the balance tree. Feral will not be covered, as these talents are useless to healers.
Mouse over the talent's picture to see a pop-up description of the talent, courtesy of Wowhead.
Restoration - Tier 1
- This talent is useful, though only one druid in the group needs to have it. However, with smaller 10-man raids, 5-man groups, or the arena setting in mind, this talent becomes more important.
Patch 3.1.0: Now also increases all of your total attributes by 1/2%.
- More valuable in a PvP setting than in PvE, however still far superior to Furor.
- Essentially useless for PvE trees. It may have some limited use in PvP, where changing forms is more common even for healers.
Restoration - Tier 2
- This is a must-have for druids specializing in Healing Touch , but is relatively useless to those not.
- Fairly useful in PvE due to it's threat-reducing ability. Perhaps not vital in and of itself but good filler for higher talents - you can probably get away taking only one point here. This is also an excellent talent for PvP trees, since it helps keep your HoTs from being dispelled.
- In PvE, this talent is worthless except as a prerequisite for Master Shapeshifter. It's debatable whether it's worth taking (5 talent points spent for a 4% healing increase), but if you are not specializing in Healing Touch then there isn't a lot of other filler at this level in the talent tree. PvP druids will most likely find these talents more useful, since they are occasionally called on to switch forms, for example to cat form in order to sprint away from danger.
Restoration - Tier 3
- This is a vital skill for PvE druids (mana regen is the key to long fights), but is less important for PvP where fights end relatively quickly.
Patch 3.1.0: Now grants 17/33/50% of mana regeneration while casting.
- A must-have talent, costing only one point and granting a chance to "clearcast" - occasionally casting spells for free.
- Maxing out this talent will give you 4% bonus healing, but the cost is deceptive: in actuality this talent costs 5 points since it's prerequisite is useless in PvE. It's a high cost, but there's not much else to take as filler. PvP druids, who are more likely to change forms than in PvE, may find this talent more worthwhile.
Restoration - Tier 4
- This spell decreases the mana cost of your most powerful individual and group heals. If you are specializing in Healing Touch , this is a good talent to get. It's also a good one if you use Nourish or Tranquility often.
- Most traditional HoT druids use Rejuvenation a lot, so this talent is a good choice. Unless you specifically use the Tranquil Spirit spells often, you'll want to choose this talent.
Restoration - Tier 5
- One of two "OH CRAP" buttons a tree can get. Nature’s Swiftness + Healing Touch is a nearly instant combo which can save a dying party member or tank. It has a long cooldown, but is definitely worth the 1 talent point it takes to get it.
- 5 points for a 10% increase in healing effectiveness. As a healer, your goal is to do as much healing as possible, and this spell definitely increases your healing through-put. A must-have.
- Tranquility is a real life-saver in sticky situations, and this talent will allow you to use it more often and with no aggro gain. While it may not fit into every build, since there are many other vital restoration talents, this is still an excellent talent to take.
Restoration - Tier 6
- This talent provides a huge boost to the power of your Healing Touch. If you plan to specialize in this spell, this is a good talent for you. Other druids should avoid it.
- This talent now effects both of our direct heals, and fits into every spec nicely, barring straight Healing Touch PvP specs. It is a great talent to synergize with Living Seed, since the seed relies on criticals.
Patch 3.1.0: This talent is renamed Nature’s Bounty. Increases the critical effect chance of your Regrowth and Nourish spells by 5/10/15/20/25%.
Restoration - Tier 7
- Spirit is a valuable stat for PvE healing, as it increases mana regen. This talent is especially valuable in conjunction with Improved Tree of Life, since spirit also adds to your bonus healing. This talent is highly recommended.
- Swiftmend is the druid healer's second "OH CRAP" button. It only costs one talent point and has a very fast cooldown. Rejuvenation + Swiftmend is not quite as powerful as Nature’s Swiftness + Healing Touch , but it's fast and has virtually no cooldown.
- This talent is an excellent choice for PvP druids since it both increases their healing output while helping to protect them. While somewhat helpful for PvE druids due to the increased crit chance, it's not much and should probably be passed over for more helpful talents. However, if your spec is highly dependent on direct heals, take it.
Restoration - Tier 8
- HoTs are a druid's bread and butter, and this talent makes them more powerful. Two words: Take it.
- Taking this talent really depends on playstyle. The living seed is not something you can control. It's much better for tank healing than it is for raid healing, since it relies on the "big heals" that are mostly used on the tank and also depends on the subject being attacked again in the next 15 sec. It's also better for specs that use direct heals that can crit more often.
Patch 3.1.0: This talent now accounts for total healing including overhealing.
Restoration - Tier 9
- While this talent doesn't increase your value as a healer, it allows you to "buff" other party members by increasing their capacity to tank, deal damage, or heal. Whether or not to take this talent depends on playstyle - those who simply want the most healing for their talent points should look elsewhere.
Patch 3.1.0: This talent is now re-named "Revitalize" and now also works with Wild Growth.
- The definitive tree talent, take this one.
- PvE druids should take this without question, since we rely on spirit for mana regen anyway. PvP druids may choose otherwise, but it still provides a solid healing boost and is definitely a viable option.
Restoration - Tier 10
- For those who roll HoTs, this talent will allow you to increase your throughput and stack less haste gear. For those who prefer direct heals, this is not the talent for you. See the discussion of haste in the gear section for more information.
Restoration - Tier 11
- This is an amazingly useful multi-target healing spell which smart-targets those with the lowest health. Very powerful for healing AoE damage, all PvE druids will want to take this one.
Balance - Tier 1
- An excellent talent for druids who rely on their HoTs. Also needed to get to lower balance talents, since the other in this tier is worthless to healers.
Balance - Tier 2
- Reduces mana costs for Healing Touch, Regrowth, and Rejuvenation. Since any druid will use at least one of these spells often, this is a decent talent - for PvE. Saving mana is less important for PvP.
- Increases critical strike chances for Nourish and Healing Touch. Useful in and of itself (especially for direct healers), this talent also allows access to Nature’s Grace and Nature’s Splendor.
Balance - Tier 3
- This talent is only useful if you use a lot of "big heals" - heals with casting times that can crit. If you are Healing Touch specialized, this is right up your alley.
- This is a great talent if you use HoTs often (and most druids do) - especially considering it costs only one talent point. This gives you:
- 2 extra tics of Lifebloom
- 1 extra tic of Rejuvenation
- 2 extra tics of Regrowth
Balance - Tier 4
- Unfortunately this talent requires you to use up an extra point in the balance tree - I recommend Brambles if you decide to do this, since it might be of some use. If you want to save itemization on your gear for things other than haste (such as spellpower or mana regen), this is one option. It gives you 3% haste (not 3% of your haste rating, 3% actual haste). See the discussion of haste in the gear section for more information.
Glyphs
I will cover glyphs pertinent to tree healers. Feral and balance glyphs will not be covered.
Major Glyphs
Mouse over the glyph's picture to see a pop-up description of the glyph, courtesy of Wowhead. For a list of non-resto glyphs, see this page.
- This glyph turns your one powerful but slow heal into a fast, weak heal. Generally considered sub-par for raiding since it defeats the purpose of the Nature’s Swiftness + Healing Touch combo, but there is still something to be said for it: it makes Healing Touch THE fastest heal possible in the game (0.5 sec cast), when talented correctly. Because of this, it is quite popular for PvP trees. Be aware that spamming Healing Touch in this way will also make you run out of mana very quickly.
- This glyph vies with Glyph of Lifebloom and Glyph of Wild Growth for the third glyph slot. It's quite useful in mana intensive fights, since you can still Innervate another party member and receive a "mini-vate", or simply get an improved innervate for yourself.
- This glyph not only increases the total healing done by one Lifebloom cast, but also gives some breathing room in your rolling cycle. Combined with Nature’s Splendor, this increases your total cycle by 3 sec, which gives you 3 sec to either roll another bloom, heal AoE damage, or spam big heals on the tank. Some don't feel this extra tick is worth the glyph slot, however, and go for Glyph of Innervate or Glyph of Wild Growth instead.
- While somewhat useful, this glyph still does not measure up to other available restoration glyphs. However it is a good placeholder while you wait to get one of the more powerful glyphs.
- Since Nourish is used by most druids instead of Regrowth these days, this glyph is no longer popular. I definitely recommend Glyph of Nourish instead, but in any case get one or the other, not both.
- This glyph is generally considered to be of limited use. As soon as the target recovers above 50% hit points, it no longer functions. The target is below 50% health seldom enough to make it next to useless compared to other glyphs.
- This is the most important "must-have" glyph for raiding resto druids. This glyph allows much more freedom in the use of the extremely low cooldown Swiftmend. The druid no longer needs to waste time re-applying a HoT that Swiftmend consumed - this also saves a considerable amount of mana over the course of a fight in which Swiftmend is used often (which it always should be, considering it's relatively low mana cost). Widely considered to be the best glyph available for raiding trees.
- Added in Patch 3.1. I would go so far to say that this is now a must-have glyph, since in my opinion Nourish is superior to Regrowth as a direct healing spell. Pick this up if you use Nourish, especially for main tank healing.
- Added in Patch 3.1. A good choice for that third glyph slot that in the past has waffled between Glyph of Lifebloom and Glyph of Innervate. If you find yourself doing a lot of raid healing, and especially if you picked up the Revitalize talent, this could be a good choice. If you mostly run 5 man instances, this is not for you.
Minor Glyphs
Minor glyphs are much less important for gameplay and are more a matter of personal preference. However, I highly recommend Glyph of Unburdened Rebirth for both PvP and PvE druids - forgetting this reagent will definitely get you yelled at by your team members, and having one less thing to worry about (and one more bag space) is always nice.
For a list of other minor glyphs, see this page, courtesy of WoWhead.
PvE Builds
These example builds are intended for raid or instance settings. Some may be more suitable to one or the other, or specialized for certain types of encounters such as heavy AoE.
Main Tank Healing - Nourish Spam
- Glyphs:
This build specializes in spamming Nourish once all HoTs are rolling on the tank. If you find yourself tank healing more often then raid healing, this is a great build to use. If you have plenty of mana regen, grab the Glyph of Lifebloom to make HoT rolling easier and trade out 3 points from Tranquil Spirit to Natural Perfection. If you need the mana, keep the build as is and pick up Glyph of Innervate instead.
Technique with this build: Keep as many HoTs on the tank as you can (including Wild Growth - more HoTs means more powerful Nourish. Once the tank is HoTted up, spam Nourish as needed.
- Glyphs:
In this build, we use Glyph of Wild Growth to make our Wild Growth (and Revitalize ) effect as many people as possible. If you feel like you have plenty of mana regen, take your points out of Tranquil Spirit and use them elsewhere, perhaps picking up Celestial Focus to lower your GCD even further.
Technique with this build: Use Wild Growth liberally. Even when group healing, I usually roll a stack of Lifebloom on the main tank. Use Rejuvenation, Nourish, and Swiftmend when group members need more healing.
PvP Builds
These example builds are intended for battleground or arena settings.
- Glyphs:
The ability to spam cast Healing Touch at a fast rate is an advantage in PvP. Often, HoTs can be purged and depending on them can be an issue. With this build, you have access to the absolute fastest direct heal in the game (when Nature’s Grace procs) - 0.5 seconds.
Gear
In this section I will discuss the stats best for druids, and provide recommendations on enchants and gems. Druid gearing requires a balance between two things: healing effectiveness and healing efficiency. Throw into the mix the benefits druids receive from spirit, and the complication of haste and crit, and you have some complicated decisions to make. Because of this, I'm not going to make specific recommendations for gear. Instead, I will point you to several useful tools to help you choose the gear that's best for your tree.
When gearing, keep a few things in mind:
- Even if it is an upgrade for you, it may benefit another class more. For example, items with hit should ALWAYS be passed to offensive casters.
- Be considerate of cloth wearers. They don't have access to as much gear as you do, and with spellpower changes you will already have the two DPS casters thrown into the mix, not to mention elemental shamans and moonkin druids who also want a cut. You don't want resto shamans and holy pallies taking your gear, so think first before rolling on cloth, especially in a guild situation.
- Be considerate of other healers. This is especially true in a guild situation where you really want everyone to succeed. Items with lots of crit should go to the Holy Pally, and high spirit items with crit are better for Holy Priests. The best combination for resto druids is spirit + haste, and you should get priority on these items.
Stats
Druid healing generally calls for gear with "enough" stamina, mana, and mana regen to get the job done, and as much spell power as possible. Spell haste and spell crit have limited uses. Keep in mind that the amount of mana regen needed has increased in WotLK, since fights are more mana intensive.
Generally:
- Spell Power > Spirit > MP5 > Haste Rating > Crit Rating > Intellect > Stamina
However, this can be greatly dependent upon your specialization and current gear. For example, a druid specializing in Healing Touch would certainly value crit rating more highly than one casting primarily HoTs.
Let's look at each of these stats in depth:
- Spell power is the stat that increases your bonus healing. In general, you want to go for as much spell power as possible as long as you have "enough" mana and mana regen. How much is enough depends on your style of play and the content you are working on, so balancing your stats is a personal decision.
- Spirit is an important stat for druids, since it can increase both your bonus healing AND your mana regen. It adds 15% of your spirit to your bonus healing while in tree form if you have Improved Tree of Life. 30% of your mana regen from spirit also continues in combat if you have Intensity
- MP5 increases your mana regen during combat directly, unlike spirit. There are many fights that are mana intensive. It's hard to weigh mana regen vs. healing power - you have to experiment a lot and find out how much is enough mana regen for you. I have two different sets of gear that I switch between - one with more bonus healing, and one with more regen.
- In the past haste rating was vital for druids, since it allowed us to decrease our GCD. Now, we have a talent which does this for us already. Haste rating can lower it further, but it is much less important than it once was. Keep in mind also that there is a "soft cap" on haste rating, since the global cooldown cannot be reduced below one second. This occurs at 50% haste. With Gift of the Earthmother, this means 655 haste rating. It's likely that you will often have a retribution paladin, shaman, or moonkin in your raid as well. You can also can take the balance talent Celestial Focus to increase your haste. This means, depending on your build and raid group, you'll need between 253 and 541 haste rating to reach the soft cap. For more information, see this excellent Elitist Jerks post on the subject. Thanks Bel for the info!
Patch 3.3: The upcoming patch will bring a big change to our most important haste talent, Gift of the Earthmother. In the current PTR build, the talent will no longer effect only the GCD for instant healing spells - instead, it will decrease haste across the board. This amounts to an overall nerf to druid healing. However there is still indication from the blue posts that this may be changed before the patch goes live - the possibility of making the GCD reduction still apply to Lifebloom was mentioned. Regardless, keep in mind that Haste may become more important shortly!
- In the past, crit rating was not very useful to druids, and most of our heals still do not use crit. However, with the recent use of Nourish as a spam heal, and the synergy with several crit-based talents, crit has become somewhat more useful. It is still by far inferior to bonus healing and mana regen, so be sure to consider those first when choosing gear.
Choosing haste rating vs. crit rating is largely dependent on your specialization and personal preference. If you are unsure, go with haste, since it buffs both types of spells.
- Intellect increases your mana pool. As with the mana regen stats and stamina, you just need "enough" intellect to get the job done. How much is enough is up to you and your playstyle. Typically you don't want to gear specifically for intellect, enough is usually on your gear.
- Stamina increases your survivability. This stat is vital in PvP situations, but is largely situational for raiding. Some encounters may require a certain minimum hit points, but most of the time you should not be taking much damage. As with mana stats, you just need to have enough to get the job done - how much is up to you. Typically you don't want to gear specifically for stamina in a PvE situation, enough is usually on your gear.
Gems
In general, red gems are the best choice for a druid when not geming for socket bonuses or metas. However, as usual this depends on your current gear and playstyle. If you need more mana regen, gem for mana regen. Likewise if you don't, gem for as much spellpower as possible. Always take Spirit over MP5 in gems - in general it will give you nearly as much regen but also add to your spell power, and also scales with stat-increasing spells and talents.
Meta
Red
- [Runed Cardinal Ruby]
- [Purified Dreadstone]
- [Runed Scarlet Ruby]
- [Purified Twilight Opal]
- [Royal Twilight Opal]
- [Luminous Monarch Topaz]
Blue
- [Purified Dreadstone]
- [Sparkling Majestic Zircon]
- [Purified Twilight Opal]
- [Royal Twilight Opal]
- [Sparkling Sky Sapphire]
Yellow
Enchants
Head
- Arcanum of Blissful Mending - Requires revered with the Wyrmrest Accord
- Master's Inscription of the Crag (Scribes only), Greater Inscription of the Crag - Requires exalted with the Sons of Hodir (you can pick up Lesser Inscription of the Crag at honored)
- Greater Mana Restoration or Powerful Stats, depending on your mana regeneration (and gold) situation
- Brilliant Spellthread (or Shining Spellthread if you are poor)
- Fur Lining - Spell Power (Leatherworkers only), Major Spirit, or Superior Spellpower, depending on your mana regeneration situation
- Wisdom, or Greater Speed if you want more haste (or just a cheaper enchant).
- Exceptional Spirit or Mighty Spellpower, depending on your mana regeneration (and gold) situation.
- Greater Spellpower (Enchanters only)
Gearing Your Tree
In this section, I'm going to discuss three tools that you can use to help you find the best gear for your tree: WoWhead, MaxDPS, and RAWR. These three tools essentially do the same thing, but at different levels.
- Though usually thought of as a simple database, WoWhead has an excellent tool for finding and comparing gear. It has an adjustable weighting system preset for healing druids and an advanced filter so you can look at items only from a specific level range or source. You can compare gear quite easily with this source as well - it even has a nice system for comparing two hand weapons with combinations of one hand and off hand items.
WoWhead is probably the simplest and easiest of the tools you can find - it requires no download and can be used immediately. However, while you can adjust the weighting of the rankings for your gear, you have to know exactly what you are looking for. Because of this, for the most customized results, I would suggest using one of the other two tools - but keep WoWhead in mind for quick comparisons and look-ups!
- MaxDPS.com now has a restoration druid gear list. It is, however, based on single target healing, while most druids in a raid situation are raid healing. However, similar to WoWhead's system, the user can adjust weighting for the gear between high throughput and high mana regen. In addition, MaxDPS allows you to enter your stats, mark raid buffs you usually have, and even import your character directly from the armory.
MaxDPS is the most personalized tool you can get without a download. While not perfect, it allows busy druids to quickly and easily see what gear might be an upgrade. However, for the best and most accurate advice, just download Rawr.
- Rawr is a simulator. It was originally built for druids (though not for trees specifically), and has since branched out to cover almost every class and build in WoW. It is extremely powerful, containing models for almost every healing style - you simply go in and choose which style you use most often and it will base it's calculations on that style. It has all the personalization of MaxDPS, including direct Armory imports, and more. It will give you suggestions of upgrades based on the filters you choose, and can even recommend talent and glyph choices. Best of all, it takes into account Tier bonuses, something the other tools simply can't do. However, you do need to download Rawr for it to work, and you will need to update it when each patch comes out.
If you want the best and most accurate recommendations for gear, Rawr is definitely the way to go. If you can deal with the minor inconvenience of having to download and update the program, this is definitely the best tool to use.
One other useful tool is the in-game equipment comparison addon, Ratingsbuster. This is not a database, but instead a very quick way to tell if an item that dropped is an upgrade for you.
Consumables
Primarily you want to use spellpower consumables, since regen consumables don't give much bang for your buck. However, if you really need a little boost to regen, then go for it.
Please note that oils for weapons have been discontinued in WotLK, so no need to worry about them.
Food
- Fish Feast /
Firecracker Salmon / Tender Shoveltusk Steak
- Cuttlesteak
- Mighty Rhino Dogs / Spicy Fried Herring
- Great Feast
Elixirs/Flasks
Generally it is best to use the flasks listed if you are able to. If you can't get your hands on the flasks or they are to expensive, you can use a combination of a spellpower elixir and a spirit elixir, since one is a battle and one a guardian.
- Flask of the Frost Wyrm (Spellpower)
- Flask of Pure Mojo (Mana regen)
- Spellpower Elixir (Battle Elixir)
- Elixir of Spirit (Guardian Elixir)
- Elixir of Mighty Mageblood (Guardian Elixir)
Scrolls
- Scroll of Spirit VIII (unless you have a priest in the group casting the spirit buff)
PvE Healing Strategies
In this section I'll talk about healing strategies for PvE situations. Unless otherwise stated, I will be assuming you are using the Regrowth Spam Build discussed above - however most of this will apply to any PvE build.
Main Tank Healing
In a typical group in which you are healing a tank, you'll want to:
- Throw out a Rejuvenation on the tank (use this before Lifebloom since it has a higher initial healing throughput). Note: For multiple mob pulls, you may not want to pre-HoT the tank.
- Get a stack of three Lifeblooms going on the tank.
- Use Regrowth to get that HoT going.
- Continue to roll Lifebloom, Rejuvenation, and Regrowth on the tank, spamming Nourish if more healing is needed.
- If group members take damage and you are also responsible for healing them (such as in a 5 or 10 person group), use Rejuvenation for one or two targets and Wild Growth for three or more.
- For heavy AoE fights, you can roll Wild Growth as well. Alternatively, you can simply roll Wild Growth on the main tank as an extra HoT, which helps keep the melee topped off as well. While this isn't mana efficient, for heavy damage fights this can be very helpful in keeping the tank up and also helps heal the melee, who tend to take more damage than other raid memebers.
For trash pulls, I suggest you wait until the tank has given the mobs a smack before starting. For bosses, I highly recommend getting all your HoTs rolling before the fight starts (called pre-HoTing). Your HoTs don't actually heal until after the tank is hurt, and by then he'll have enough aggro to keep the boss from coming after you.
Unless you have stacked extra haste gear (which you should!), with this build you should generally be able to easily use around five to six global cooldowns between lifebloom refreshes (this depends on your latency). A single Regrowth takes up about two global cooldown's worth of time. Keep in mind that Swiftmend is not affected by Gift of the Earthmother and it's GCD will take a little longer than your other spells - you should still have enough breathing room to manage.
With all the extensions to Lifebloom's duration now available, you hardly need a tight rotation anymore - this is especially true if you have a good timer addon to watch your lifeblooms. See the addon section below for a suggested timer. In tough fights, you'll want to keep Lifebloom, Rejuvenation, Wild Growth, and Regrowth up at all times, spamming Nourish as necessary.
In a raid situation, you may be called on to roll Lifebloom on multiple tanks. With the extended duration of lifebloom and GCD reduction available from talents and glyphs, this is easier than ever. In the past, it was possible to roll Lifebloom on at most four tanks. Now, theoretically you could roll them on as many as seven or eight (or even more with haste gear)! However, it is unlikely you will have more than four tanks at once - this means you can roll Rejuvenation or Wild Growth, use other spells, or conserve mana between refreshes.
Raid/Group Healing
Most instance group healing in WotLK will be done with Wild Growth. It's exceptionally powerful and mana efficient for healing many people at once, and it's also very easy to use since it smart targets those with the lowest hit points. For single target heals, use Rejuvenation and, if needed, Swiftmend or Nourish. In emergency situations, you always have Tranquility to fall back on - just be sure to hit Bark Skin before using it!
For raid healing, trees are called on more and more to simply roll Rejuvenation on everyone in the raid. In 10 person raids, one tree can easily keep Rejuvenation up on all raid members while also using Wild Growth on cooldown and the occasional Swiftmend or Nourish. For heavy raid damage fights, this is the most effective way to raid heal, though it does get a bit boring.
Tips and Tricks
Aside from specific healing strategies for PvE, PvP, and leveling, there are a few simple tricks that will help improve your performance as a tree. If you have a good tip or trick, please leave a comment!
Set a Focus
This is especially useful if you typically heal one main tank, such as in a 5 or 10 man dungeon group. This allows you to easily see the main tank's health, even when you are targeting another player. It can help you easily retarget him or her, or you can even have macros set up to heal your focus so you don't have to manually target them! In addition, there are many addons that allow special configuration for a focus, such as ClassTimers or Quartz.
To set your focus, type /focus CHARACTER in your chat window, replacing CHARACTER with the person's name you want to have as your focus. Their portrait should appear on your screen (it's position will vary depending on your UI modifications). Typing /target focus will cause you to target your focus - you can make use of this in macros. I'm not going to go in depth here, but you can write macros or use addons to cast spells on your focus without ever breaking target.
Useful Macros
These are macros that I or other WoW-Pro trees use to make our healing lives easier. Some of these are duplicated by functionality in the addon section below. If you have other awesome macros that you use, please leave a comment!
Trinket-Trigger-Macro
Provided by murphyslaw
A macro to trigger the trinket every time you use lifebloom, so it will be up all the time. The 13 stands for the upper trinket-slot. 14 would be the lower trinket-slot. You can also exchange Lifebloom with anything else you might find better.
#showtooltip Lifebloom /use 13 /cast Lifebloom
Innervate-Whisper-Macro
Provided by murphyslaw
Whispers the player that you give Innervate to.
#showtooltip Innervate
/script SendChatMessage("You got INNERVATED.", "WHISPER",
GetDefaultLanguage("player"), Unitname("target"))
/cast Innervate
Rebirth-Macro
Provided by murphyslaw
Yells who you are going to rebirth. You could do the same thing for Revive. This can be duplicated by Healbot.
#showtooltip Rebirth /y Rebirth: %T /cast Rebirth
Barkskin-Macro
Provided by honj93
Uses barkskin and then Tranquility or Hurricane (make a separate macro for each).
#showtooltip Tranquility/Hurricane /cast Barkskin /cast Tranquility/Hurricane
Nature's Swiftness-Macro
Provided by honj93
Gives you an instant cast Healing Touch with one button! Note that you need to be in range for this to work, otherwise it will only cast Nature's Swiftness. If this happens, just get in range and hit the button again.
#showtooltip Nature's Swiftness /cast Nature's Swiftness /cast Healing Touch
Useful Addons
In this section, I provide a list of addons useful to tree healers specifically. We won't cover general addons, though WoW Insider has an excellent list of great addons, descriptions, and links to their download pages here.
- From WoW Insider:
- "HealBot allows for up to 20 key and mouse combinations to be used to cast any sort of spell on a target to heal them. It provides the healer with various and critical monitors, meters, and range checks. The addon is highly configurable and can take some getting used to if you haven't used it before."
While not necessary for 5-man dungeons or PvP, healbot is an essential tool for a raiding tree. With 10 to 25 people to monitor, it's nearly impossible to effectively heal by pointing, clicking to target, then pressing your hotkeys. Healbot eliminates the middle step and also provides lots of useful information to help you heal more effectively. I even use it while soloing, so I don't have to have my healing spells on my soloing action bar.
When healing a main tank, I generally have him or her targeted at all times and use my hotkeys to do tank healing, while using healbot clicks for raid/group healing.
- From Curse:
- "Clique is a simple GUI that lets you assign click-casting for any number of unit frames. Click casting allows you to define the behavior the game takes when you click on a frame. This can be casting spells, running a macro, using an item, or something as simple as changing targets or assisting a unit."
Clique is essentially a Healbot alternative that allows you to use unit frames of your choice as opposed the specific Healbot unit frames. It's been recommended by several wow-pro users, and is what I'm currently using as my healing tool. Note that Clique can also be used by non-healers - my paladin tank makes great use of it for her many tanking abilities that target party members.
- Class Timer is an extremely useful addon for any class. It shows three customizable sets of timers - one for the player, one for the target, and one for your focus. These can be resized and placed anywhere on the screen. The timers show durations for buffs that you place on them.
For druid healers, these timers are essential for rolling Lifebloom and other HoTs on the main tank or your particular healing focus. When healing, I use only the focus timers to keep my screen clear, and set my focus on my main healing target (usually the main tank). You can choose exactly which buffs to show and not show. When healing, I show only Lifebloom, Rejuvenation, and Regrowth.
Note: The bug that this addon was suffering from has been fixed! It now only displays your HoT timers, rather than every druid's.
- From Curse:
- "Grid is a modular, lightweight and screen-estate saving grid of party/raid unit frames based on Ace2 and various embedded libraries provided by the Ace-community. It's currently in beta."
Grid replaces the default party or raid frame with a very lightweight and simplified version. It can be somewhat daunting due to it's flexibility. Grid can be combined with Clique to obtain a very flexible healing interface that is even more customizable than Healbot. However I recommend this only to the more advanced players who are used to using addons and are prepared to invest some time setting their interface up.
- From WoW Insider:
- "Recount records all the information that comes across the combat log and processes it into easy to read tables, charts, and other diagrams. It is highly useful in raid and group situations when trying to figure out what has killed people, or what people are doing right and wrong. The addon itself can be rather memory intensive at times, especially if many 25-man raid attempts are recorded with it. However with that said, it is a staple of the raiding community."
This addon is certainly not required, but it is a great way to see how you are doing as a healer. You can watch your healing per second, your total healing compared to other healers in your group, and your percent overhealing. In addition, you can get useful information about your effective playstyle that can help you choose gear: for example, you can see how much of your healing was from spells that can crit, how much was from GCD dependant spells, etc.
Druid Healing Without Tree Form
While this guide is specifically about tree healing, it's worth mentioning that in the past (and probably still somewhat today), there have been druids which elected to take Dreamstate instead of going all the way down the resto tree to Tree of Life. These druids would rely on big heals such as Healing Touch , since they didn't have the mana cost reduction from tree form. However, with the additions of deeper talents to the restoration tree and the ability to cast Healing Touch in tree form, it's very seldom you see a druid doing serious healing outside of tree form. It is, however, quite possible for Moonkin druids to heal most normal instances up until the level cap, if no healing-specialized player is available. Moonkin gear has lots of spell power and spell crit, so try to use direct heals when possible to take advantage of this.
Leveling as a Tree
First off, let me say that solo questing as a tree is NOT efficient. If you plan to do most of your leveling from solo quests, you would be much better off speccing Moonkin for the duration of your leveling - most of the gear is the same. However, if you plan to do a lot of instances or group questing as you leveling, speccing as a tree can still be rewarding. Luckily with the dual spec feature (and enough money), you don't usually have to choose anymore.
If you do end up soloing as a tree: There are essentially two schools of thought on killing things when resto specced. One is to root and nuke single pulls. This tends to be very slow but is quite safe and mana efficient. The other option is to HoT yourself and pull many mobs at once (3-5), Barkskin, and Hurricane. This can drain your mana quickly and is a bit more risky, but in all is probably faster. What you choose is up to your playstyle.
- You can use this build as a second spec via the dual spec feature. It specializes in high crits and in moves that help you control the mob and the damage done to you. Keep in mind that I was never actually specced Moonkin, so if you have a better leveling build, please share it in a comment!
Keeping Up to Date
This guide will be updated with each major patch. However, to get the news on exactly what is changing for resto druids, you can subscribe to my blog, Diary of a Fian. I provide a running commentary on the world of resto druids, in addition to observations about running guilds, raiding, and my work here at WoW-Pro.com.
Special Thanks
I felt the need to add a section to acknowledge and thank all the people who contributed knowledge to this guide.
First, the wonderful folks at Wowhead. I could NEVER have made this guide without you. The database, comparison, comments, and tooltips are simply the absolute best available on the internet.
A big thanks to the Elitist Jerks forums. These folks really know their theorycrafting. A lot of the questions I had about specific numbers and how spells were calculated were answered here.
In particular, I want to thank some WoW-Pro users who have been a huge help. murphyslaw, thank you for being so understanding and helpful when our guides collided! You rock. honj93, your many comments were so useful, I really appreciate your help in making this guide the best it can be. Also a big thanks to Tag for the excellent correction to the listed MT healing strategy. Thanks Logos for some great recommendations for addons and external gear sites. And thanks to all the others who have commented here that I forgot to mention!
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Moderator
Another guide on the official wow site!
Hi trees!
Just announcing that this guide is now listed on the OFFICIAL WOW WEBSITE. Granted some of the company there is less than amazing (out of date level 60 guides anyone?) but it's still pretty cool.
Revered Member
Congrats. Last time I
Congrats. Last time I checked that page they hadn't even added a section for death knights. I was pretty disappointed. But now I see they've added it, no guides listed though!
Anyhow, congrats!
Moderator
Useful List of Haste Items!
Sylly over at Rolling Hots: A View from the Trees has an awesome post up about haste items druids might pick up to deal with the incoming GotEM nerf. Check it out here!
Honored Member
While you're changing
While you're changing things, I noticed one very minor error. Under Talents, the image for Celestial Focus is linked to Nature's Grace. The text is linked correctly.
Moderator
Tree guide change on the way!
Hello fellow trees.
I know I have been letting this guide languish a bit lately. First of all, I've decided to remove the gear section entirely and instead direct people to three very useful possible gear resources - WoWhead, MaxDPS, and the best (in my opinion) - Rawr. Instead of a gear list that is unwieldy, non-specidic to your personal healing needs, and in constant need of updates, I will give a useful overview of how to use each of the three gearing tools I recommend.
I hope this will be a change that helps keep the guide up to date and useful through each patch. I will still be updating information on healing strategies, new glyphs, and so on as time goes by.
Speaking of which, what do you trees think of the upcoming Rapid Rejuvination glyph? Since I only heal 10 mans, I am looking forward to picking on up and trying it out! However, I think trees that heal in 25 man raids and like to blanket rejuv on as many people as possible may not like the glyph as much.
Edit: I will probably be doing this update this weekend.
Moderator
Tree guide update!
So, I didn't get things completely done this weekend, and I may not have time next weekend either. However, I did replace the gear section with a more streamlined, and MUCH shorter, discussion of useful gearing tools. Hope you enjoy!
Moderator
Updating Tree Guide
Hi trees!
I will be slowly updating this guide, when I have time and as new gear information for ToC comes out. In the mean time, WoWhead is a good resource for quick item comparison, as is the addon RatingsBuster.
One more wow-head linking mistake
Hey there, I love the guide. A lot of good work has gone into this. One little thing I found that in the Glyphs section;
The glyph of Wild Growth links to the Glyph of Swifmend. (links to item 40906, instead of item 45602)
Hope that helps.
Moderator
Thanks very much! I think I
Thanks very much! I think I still need to make some of the changes Souricette pointed out. I'll get to this soon.
Moderator
Little bugs
Hello Jiyambi.
I started the localization of your guide in french, and noticed a few little "bugs".
In the "Shoulders" area, the "Conqueror's Nightsong Spaulders" has the "Shoulderpads of Dormant Energies" tooltip - it points on the "45136" item id instead of "46187".
In the "Shoulders" area, the "Valorous Dreamwalker Spaulders" has the "Mantle of Dissemination" tooltip - it points on the "40555" item id instead of "40465".
In the "Shoulders" area, "Svala Sorrowgrave" has the "Ley-Guardian Eregos" tooltip - it points on the "27656" NPC id instead of "26668".
You also refer some "ptr.wowhead.com" items, you may want to let thme point on www.wowhead.com instead
Anyways, big big thank for your guide, the bible of my main character!
Moderator
OMG thank you so much for
OMG thank you so much for including the correct item ID along with the mistakes. Makes fixing it very much easier!
I knew there were going to be a few bugs like this in that massive list, it was a copy+paste nightmare
Thanks a ton, I'll fix it tomorrow, boyfriend is yelling at me to go to sleep >_<
Moderator
No problem, I can continue
No problem, I can continue founding them then
In the Chest area, the "Ymirjar Physician's Robe" points on item id "36991" - it should be "37587".
(I'll update that message as I find more)
In the Ring area, the "Inscribed Loop of the Kirin Tor" points on item id "36975" - it should be "45689".
In the Ring area, the "Ring of the Vacant Eye" points on item id "45438" - it should be "45515".
An alternative for Class Timer
Hey there,
Really awesome guide! I've found it very useful especially the gear section is something I've never seen on any other class guide. Thank you.
You state on addon section to leave a comment for an alternative addon for Class Timer. I use ForteXorcist and it does the job very nicely. It has support for every class now and after a bit of tuning you'll get excatly what is needed for droods. It tracks Lifebloom stacks and HoTs even on multiple targets as easily-read-bars which you can place wherever you like on your screen.
Moderator
Thanks very much for the
Thanks very much for the tip, I'll have to try that out! I'm glad it was useful, that gearing section took quite a long time to get set up so I'm glad you like it
Gear Selection Questions
Viewing this on 7/13/09 and the Chest portion of the gear section shows Blanketing Robes of Snow appears as the Best in Slot and it appears again in same list three lines below. It's difficult to compare some items where one is better for throughput and the other for mana regen, so in clarifying where you feel Robes should go in the list could you elaborate on how you came up with the gear list ordering. FWIW, I saw similar info on LOOTRANK.COM when viewing with their default Resto Druid template which placed a high weight on on MP5 as an item stat.
Moderator
The double listing was just
The double listing was just a typo, the higher listing should not be there, I'll fix it.
As for how the rankings are determined, this list is basically just compiled using WoWhead's default resto druid weighting. It's a very rough guideline - you should always look at your own gear and play style to make gear choices. And honestly I have two sets of gear (though of course some pieces overlap) - one for long fights that require more regen, one for heavy hitting fights where I can't afford to loose the throughput.
gear list
Great guide. i use it frequently. Thanks for taking the time to develop. Would like to know if you plan on adding gear from arenas/battlegrounds to your list. I've use some pieces to complement my gear where i had holes. Just wondering how they would rank.
Thanks
Moderator
Thanks for the nice
Thanks for the nice comment!
I probably won't add battleground gear, simply because I have no experience with how it measures up to typical PvE gear, and because the focus of the guide is on PvE. However, if you want to compare gear, WoWhead has a great tool for that. What's best for you still depends on your stats and playstyle, but their gear comparison is a good start. I think it's linked in the gear section of the guide.
Honored Member
Back again
Hey there, I haven't played WoW for nearly 1.5 months and now I'm back again it's nice to see such an updated guide for patch 3.1.0 (especially the new format on the gear section is great). I didn't really have much time, only to mention a few things I've noticed :
-You may want to update healing strategies about the effectiveness of lifebloom rolling (especially on multiple tanks) after the nerf.
- You should change intensity to 50% instead of 30%
- I'm not sure if you have included it anywhere, but a short discussion of the different idols on different raid situations may be useful.
- On MT healing in the 2nd point lifebloom has no link, probably because it is in plural.
Oh, and the link for inscibed loop of the kirin tor seems wrong.
Moderator
Thanks much! As for rolling
Thanks much!
As for rolling Lifebloom, from the calculations I've done I think it's still more mana and healing efficient to roll it as long as you are good at refreshing it just before it falls off. I'm not sure if other people still do this or if it's just me, though. I'll at least mention it up there.
The rest of the stuff, thanks and I will fix it, and add a blurb about idols like I did for trinkets.
Moderator
Epic tree update again!
Hey folks, I was reading through the guide after doing the gear update and realized that while the spells and gear had mostly been updated, there was quite a bit of out of date advice in here.
I've re-read and revised the entire guide, it should all be pretty up to date. It's mostly based on my experience, so, as usual, please leave a comment if you have any other ideas or tips!
Moderator
EPIC TREE GUIDE UPDATE! Gear finally updated for 3.1!
Hey trees! I've finally finished the gear section revamp and added the 3.1 gear. Just in time for 3.2 to be announced and for me to get to work on that section >_<
Anyway, hope you trees like the new layout! I'm looking for feedback, please let me know if there's anything you'd like to see changed.
Moderator
Glyph Update 3.1
I updated the guide to include the new glyphs, and modified some useage notes to reflect the class changes with 3.1. More healing strategy updates on the way, as well as the gear section revamp. Busy with school, may be done this weekend.
Honored Member
A couple of weapons to add
I thought you might like a couple of one-handers to add for the 25-man bracket:
- Wraith Strike - I know it's more effective for balance than resto, but it's still a nice upgrade if you didn't get any of the drops from the 10-man set.
- The Impossible Dream - Another good one from 25-man, with spirit instead of spell haste.
I know you said it that section was added by murphyslaw, but since you said you were gonna try and update I thought I'd throw them out. I can add more if you'd like, such as off-hands and the like. And, as I've said before, awesome guide.Moderator
Both of these will be added
Both of these will be added in the new update, they were already on my list
I think you folks are really gonna like the new format, it should be a lot less confusing and stuff won't be scattered around so much. I know *I* am gonna like it!
I am going to be very firm on confining it to 3 pieces of gear per tier, with possible exceptions for hard mode gear.
Honored Member
That's good to know
That's good to know because having too many choices to pick from is one of my pet peeves. That's just me, however.
Honored Member
Glitched up guide?
War I'm not sure if this appears this way for anyone else, but the text in this guide seems to be too big for wow-pro's frame. Normally I only see this when someone smacks a freakinhumungobig picture somewhere in their guide, but I see none here. I am using Firefox, and this does not appear to happen to many other guides. Has anyone else observed this?
Moderator
Yeah something is breaking
Yeah something is breaking it, I think it's the picture conflicting with the add at the stop. I'll futz with it and see if I can fix it.
EDIT: Unbroken! It was one of the macros, the code style doesn't automatically line break when it normally would to fit things to the window. Woops! Anyway, it should be fixed now.
Honored Member
Yay!
Yay! I'm glad you fixed it! This guide is perfecto now.
Honored Member
Chrome
I'm using Chrome and it looks fine. Not sure....
James
Moderator
Patch 3.1
Hi druids!
I just wanted you all to know that with everything else I've been working on, I haven't had a chance to really look over the 3.1 changes yet or what they might mean to us trees. I will do it eventually, but if someone else sees anything here that desperately needs an update, please leave a comment. I'll put it in and give you credit
Moderator
COMING SOON
Full revamp of gear section coming soon (hopefully this weekend)!
I want to redo the gear section, since the addition of Ulduar is going to make it even longer than it already is.
Look forward to it, trees!
Moderator
I've made my sandbox where I
I've made my sandbox where I am working on these changes viewable temporarily. I was hoping to get some feedback on whether or not to include the item's source. I'm thinking it's useful information, but does it clutter the table too much? People can always go to WoWhead via the link to get it if they want to.
Let me know what you think, you can compare the first table (two handed weapons) to the second (one handers) to see the difference.
Honored Member
Re: I've mademy sandbox where I
Oh my god that's totally beautiful. That table looks sooo nice! As for including the item's source, I think the way you have made the table invites it. If it's not there, the table seems sort of blank.
Oh, and I think mademy isn't a word. Perhaps you meant "made my"?
Moderator
Hush, you! Fixed the typo,
Hush, you!
Fixed the typo, and thanks for the input 
I'll also make the source notes link to any guides we have on the subject, for example rep guides or instance guides. And perhaps to the WoWhead link for the specific boss.
Honored Member
I have a tree
I have a tree!
So, how do you plan on revamping that section? Making a huge table or something? Care to share, or make it a surprise? 
Moderator
My current concept is a
My current concept is a table for each slot, with columns for the relative difficulty level of obtaining the gear (Normal/heroic/Tier 7/7.5/8/8.5). Each gear piece will be listed, from best to worst, and a bar will stretch from the more difficult content down to the easiest content where that gear piece will be possible to obtain. So someone who only has access to heroic content will simply look at that column and any bars that intersect it, they will be able to get.
The only special cases are crafted and BoE items, which can be gotten before their normal content but at high cost. I think I'll use a lighter colored bar for the "easier" portions of those types of gear, noting that it *can* be purchased but may be prohibitively expensive for some players.
It looks pretty in my brain, hopefully it will translate well to the actual page!
EDIT: Oh, I am also limiting it to 3 pieces per content level. There are some sections that would just get too large otherwise, and this isn't meant to be an item database, just guidelines for what to shoot for!
Moderator
I added in some notes for
I added in some notes for spells and talents that will be changing with Patch 3.1.0.
Glyphs next, then items!
Member
This guide is coming along wonderfully
Holy information overload, Jiyambi.
I just wanted to thank you again for all the time and work you put into this. I linked it on my guild's website for any of our aspiring trees.
Moderator
Wow, thanks! I'm glad it is
Wow, thanks!
I'm glad it is helpful 
Honored Member
Bands of the Great Tree
I had lots to do, so I didn't have time to say this, but here it is now :
Bands of the Great Tree (the bracers purchased for 60 emblems of valor) is BoE.
Except a good way of getting rid of you're extra emblems if you are a hardcore raider (as a druid I don't think I'll ever have this problem, first I'm not raiding very often and secondly think of gearing up 3 specs and then gettin PvP gear too
), it can be really useful to buy it from another player to save the 60 emblems for something other. As there is a limit to how many emblems of valor you can earn per week due to raid instance reset, it could save you some time (I think around 2 1/2 weeks of clearing all 25 man raids) and spend your emblems on something more useful. On my server (very high population server) the price is I think around 2-3k g, you see some people from time spamming in trade or you could also ask if someone from your guild wants to sell it. Unfurtunately there aren't many chances of finding exactly the bracer you're looking for in the Auction House.
And lol, one more thing, in the tranquility/hurricane macro I remarked you've written barkskin, but Tranquility and Hurricane (uff, I hate formatting without a text editor
) How unfair... Barkskin is an ability too, with equal rights 
Btw, on the paladin tank guide if you remember, his guide has more images included in his explanations but the amount of information you've rassembled... I think I couldn't ever do the same thing
(and I was mostly joking anyway... 
)
Moderator
Hah, thanks Honj. You're
Hah, thanks Honj. You're always a big help
Moderator
BIG UPDATE!
Sorry I have been so lax with updating the guide. Hopefully this will make up for it!
In this update:
Things not included:
I will be very busy with school for the next couple of weeks, so if you leave me comments I may not get to them right away. I'll do my best, and if I don't fix any other things before then, I'll definitely do another update once finals are over.
Hope you enjoy it!
Honored Member
Another set of bracers
For the 25-man gear, you only list the [Bands of the Great Tree] for bracers. However, [Swarm Bindings] drop from Anub'Rekhan and Gluth in 25-man Naxx, and is another real nice one. Thought I'd pass it along.
Moderator
Those are indeed quite nice,
Those are indeed quite nice, the 25-man gear was prepared by another user who for the most part only selected the absolute best in slot items, so not as many options were included. However I think the Swarm Bindings are a great item and I will add them in the big update I'm preparing. Thanks!
Great guide IMO, but you
Great guide IMO, but you messed up with a talent. Subtelty, the 5 Point in resto Tree. 30% chance for that shaman to not purge your hots, or that spell steal not working? Thats freaking godlike, and will cause the opposing dispellers to focus on removing hots while you and your team mate(s) can just destroy them.
Moderator
Thanks very much for the
Thanks very much for the comment. I don't have much experience with PvP, so this is really a big help
I will definitely edit that in the next update, which should come this week or coming weekend. Thanks again!
This is a really nice
This is a really nice guide!
One thing - I think you need to revisit the softcap you give for haste. 3.0.8 brought in an unsignalled and pretty significant nerf to Gift of the Earthmother. Have a look at:
http://elitistjerks.com/1079250-post270.html
http://elitistjerks.com/1079687-post272.html
http://elitistjerks.com/1080740-post276.html
http://www.resto4life.com/2009/02/06/gift-of-the-nerfmother/
For the same reason, you might now want to include a discussion of Celestial Focus in the Balance tree (as a way of hitting the softcap).
Great job though, love your work.
Moderator
I'll have to look into this,
I'll have to look into this, thanks for the info and sorry I didn't respond right away, this got buried somehow and I missed it.
Honored Member
Can't edit
For some strange reason I can't edit my last post
(maybe because it was from another computer?) so I'm continuing here by adding some new info aswell.
I've tried this macro and except some minor spelling mistakes (barkskin instead of barskin and hurricane instead of huricane) I had made in my last post it seems to work fine for me.
About the barkskin cooldown I don't really need it as I have it on a 2nd action bar to be able to use it in all forms. Also you probably want tranquility to show it's own cooldown, so it's only use would be for hurricane which anyway is just a sub-topic for soloing/leveling as resto in this guide.
In any case, I think I had solved this problem in my Nature's Swiftness+Healing Touch macro. I can't log right now (patching
), but this is how I remember it :
Choose the Healing Touch icon from the macro icon+name selection menu (the first thing that it asks you to do when you create a new macro, and yes I know lots of searching to do, there's probably a command for this job, but I don't know it
)
Then macro text is something like this :
#showtooltip Nature's Swiftness
/cast Nature's Swiftness
/cast Healing Touch
The only problem with this macro is that if you mouse over it it will show Nature's Swiftness tooltip, but it isn't that important for me. The same can be done I suppose with Barkskin+Hurricane.
Also, a small tip you could add in your guide together with the HT macro (you probably know that yourself
) is about being out of range. It has happened quite often that if I were for some reason out of range and the tank's (or anybody other's health) health drops low I want to use this macro, but if you click to fast at it (before getting in range) it casts Nature's Swiftness, but not Healing Touch. So in these cases don't panik, just get nearer and click the macro again, it will still work.
Oh, and about not updating so much who cares, you've made an awesome job with this guide, nobody can require you to give assistance 24/7