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Restoration Druid Races and Racials
Posted 2 weeks, 4 days ago for patch 9.0 by Preston.
Below are details about the different races Restoration Druids can be as well as how to best utilize their racial abilities. Generally speaking, you should play the race you're most excited about playing because no racial offers too significant of a benefit. However, it can still be useful to know what your options are and how to best make use of them. Feel free to leave comments at the bottom of the page, contact me, or tweet @PrestonDvorak.
Horde
These races are available to Restoration Druids on the Horde.
Tauren
Tauren are one of nature's guardians and seek to keep its balance while honoring the Earth Mother.
Active Racials
War Stomp (Utility) - An area of effect stun that can be used to interrupt casts or slow damage on the tank if you need to catch up on healing. Especially useful in dungeons and Mythic+.
Passive Racials
Brawn (Throughput) - A small increase to critical heals, and because Resto Druids like a balance of stats you should always end up with some amount of critical strike.
Endurance (Survivability) - An small increase to hit points is useful in nearly all types of content.
Nature Resistance (Survivability) - Depending on what you're fighting, this can be another very marginal boost to survivability.
Cultivation (Non-combat) - A thematically appropriate skill for the herbalism profession
Troll
Trolls are fierce warriors with a shadowy heritage and close ties to the spirit world.
Active Racials
Berserking (Throughput) - A minor cooldown to use when healing gets tough, similar to how you might use 
Flourish or 
Incarnation: Tree of Life. The haste has the added benefit of reducing the global cooldown, too.
Passive Racials
Regeneration (Survivability) - A small amount of passive healing while in combat
Da Voodoo Shuffle (Utility) - This won't come into play often in PvE content, but being incapacitated for a shorter amount of time can be helpful when it does happen.
Beast Slaying (Non-combat) - A nice thematically appropriate boost to leveling.
Highmountain Tauren
Highmountain Tauren are devoted to the spirits of earth and have spent ages protecting their sacred mountain.
Active Racials
Bull Rush (Utility) - A charging area of effect stun that can be used to interrupt casts, slow damage on the tank if you need to catch up on healing, or even charge out of a bad location. Especially useful in dungeons and Mythic+.
Passive Racials
Mountaineer (Throughput/Survivability) - Additional versatility translates into a small amount of throughput and survivability.
Rugged Tenacity (Survivability) - Reduces all damage taken by a small amount, useful in all types of content.
Waste Not, Want Not (Non-combat) - Can be useful if you farm for consumables that require meat or fish.
Pride of the Ironhorn (Non-combat) - A nice thematically appropriate passive if you plan to take mining as a profession.
Zandalari Trolls
Zandalari Trolls are one of the strongest navel civilizations, dating back to the early existence of Azeroth.
Active Racials
Pterrodax Swoop (Utility) - Reducing falling speed likely won't see much use in PvE, but it could be useful for knock-up mechanics seen on some encounters where taking falling damage is a consideration.
Regeneratin' (Survivability) - Regenerate 100% of your health over 6-seconds, but is interrupted by taking damage. This seems less useful for a healer, but it could be useful if you're ever completely out of options to heal yourself.
Passive Racials
Embrace of the Loa (Throughput) - Allows you to select a passive buff/effect by honoring a loa. This can be changed once every 5-days.
- Loa Shrines can be located by talking to a guard in Dazar'alor, selecting Loa Shrines from the list, and then picking the shrine you want. Once at the shrine, open your spell book to the Embrace of the Loa spell and change it as desired.
- The following will be most useful to Restoration Druids (ranked from best to worst).
Embrace of Pa'ku - Getting more stats as a Restoration Druid is always a good thing, and this is the top choice because of that.
Embrace of Akunda - Having a chance to apply additional healing to a player isn't bad, but the healing provided won't outweigh the benefit of additional critical strike chance.
Embrace of Gonk - Resto Druids don't often need additional mobility, but this is an option if you ever find a situation where movement speed is needed over more healing throughput.- Additional, non-healing options:
Embrace of Bwonsamdi, 
Embrace of Kimbul, 
Embrace of Krag'wa
- Loa Shrines can be located by talking to a guard in Dazar'alor, selecting Loa Shrines from the list, and then picking the shrine you want. Once at the shrine, open your spell book to the
City of Gold - Not a combat bonus, but who doesn't need more gold for repairs?
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Alliance
These races are available to Restoration Druids on the Alliance.
Night Elf
Night Elves are ancient guardians of nature, their existence is as old as Azeroth itself.
Active Racials
Shadowmeld (Survivability) - This will most likely be used to temporarily drop threat on enemies to give the tank a chance to pick them up, especially if you're going to die otherwise.
Passive Racials
Touch of Elune (Throughput) - A small stat increase, and because Restoration Druids aren't too picky about their stats either time of day is useful.
Quickness (Survivability) - You won't often be taking melee or ranged attacks, but having a small chance to completely mitigate the damage from them if things go wrong can be nice.- Nature Resistance (Survivability) - Depending on what you're fighting, this can be a very marginal boost to survivability.
Wisp Spirit (Non-combat) - Makes getting back to the instance or your body faster when dead.
Worgen
Worgen are an old group of cursed humans that recently reemerged from their prison behind a wall meant to protect them, they now work to find purpose on Azeroth.
Active Racials
Darkflight (Utility) - Having an additional movement speed cooldown can be nice on encounters with frequent movement.
Running Wild (Non-combat) - Allows you to run on all four legs as fast as if you were on a ground mount.
Two Forms / 
Altered Form (Non-combat) - Allows you to switch between your human and worgen forms.
Passive Racials
Viciousness (Throughput) - A small stat increase, and because Resto Druids aren't too picky about stats having more critical strike is just fine.
Abberation (Survivability) - Depending on what you're fighting, this can be a very marginal boost to survivability.
Flayer (Non-combat) - A nice thematically appropriate passive if you choose to take skinning as a profession.
Kul Tiran
Kul Tirans are fearless explorers and elite sailors that helm one of Azeroth's most powerful navies.
Active Racials
Haymaker (Utility) - Can be used to interrupt casts or stun a particularly damaging enemy. The only downside could be the knock back, be careful not to knock things into other groups. Especially useful in dungeons and Mythic+.
Passive Racials
Brush It Off (Throughput) - Gives a small boost to healing throughput and some additional survivability.
Rime of the Ancient Mariner (Survivability) - Depending on what you're fighting, this can be a very marginal boost to survivability.
Child of the Sea (Non-combat) - Can be nice for questing or anything that involves swimming.
Jack of All Trades (Non-combat) - A nice thematically appropriate passive for your professions.
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