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Restoration Druid Healing Tips and Tricks

Updated 1 month, 2 weeks ago for patch 10.0 by Preston. View the change log.

Healing doesn't have a rotation of spells to go through like a DPS specialization does, however, there are different situations where some spells are better than other, or where the order of spells is important. I've detailed the most common situations below, as well as how to heal them. In the middle of an encounter, you may not always be able to stick to these things exactly, but with a little practice they should become second nature.

If you have any questions or feedback, you can leave a comment below, contact me, or tweet @PrestonDvorak.

Things to always do

The items noted below should always be done, even when attending to the other situations noted in the sections below.

  1. Maintain Lifebloom on a player at all times, usually the current tank, or yourself with Photosynthesis (talent).
  2. Maintain Efflorescence (talent) under the largest group of players, or under the tanks if players are too spread out.
  3. Use Adaptive Swarm (talent) whenever it's not on cooldown, ideally on a player that's missing health and doesn't already have the effect.

Basic healing practices

These are tips for healing more mundane damage that might not fit into the other headings below. 

  • Continue to do the "things to always do," noted above.
  • Cast Rejuvenation on players missing any amount of health.
  • Cast Wild Growth (talent) if five or more players are missing health.
  • Cast Nature's Vigil (talent) any time you're actively healing and there are enemies nearby that will live for longer than 20-seconds.

What to do when there's no healing to be done

  1. If your mana is low and the encounter isn't close to being over, use a potion like Potion of Frozen Focus to regain mana over time.
  2. Consider helping deal damage to enemies your group is fighting. It can be nice to set up focus or targettarget macros for your damaging spells.
    • Basic damage dealing: 
      • Maintain Moonfire on as many enemies as you can, without spending too much mana.
      • Cast Solar Wrath.
    • Advanced damage dealing, using abilities from the leftmost or rightmost paths in the shared Druid talent tree:
      • Owlweaving, Moonkin Form (favors the rightmost path of the shared Druid talent tree)
        • Shift into Moonkin Form if healing won't be required in between damaging spells, or if you want to use Convoke the Spirits (talent) for damage.
        • Against 1 enemy:
          1. Maintain Moonfire and Sunfire (talent) on the enemy.
          2. Cast Starsurge (talent) whenever it's not on cooldown.
          3. Cast Wrath.
        • Against 2+ enemies:
          1. Maintain Sunfire (talent) on all enemies.
          2. Maintain Moonfire if there are 2-4 enemies.
          3. Cast Starsurge (talent) whenever it's not on cooldown.
          4. Cast Starfire (talent).
      • Catweaving, Cat Form (favors the leftmost path of the shared Druid talent tree)
        • Against 1-2 enemies:
          1. When possible, start by using Rake (talent) from Prowl.
          2. Maintain Moonfire on all enemies if you're frequently shifting out of Cat Form.
          3. Maintain Rake (talent) on all enemies.
          4. Maintain Thrash (talent) against two enemies.
          5. Use Swipe (talent) to gain combo points against two enemies.
          6. Use Shred to gain combo points against one enemy.
          7. Maintain Rip (talent) on all enemies.
          8. Use Ferocious Bite if the enemy is unlikely to live for 15+ seconds.
        • Against 3+ enemies:
          1. When possible, start by using Rake (talent) from Prowl.
          2. Maintain Thrash (talent) on all enemies.
          3. Use Swipe (talent) to gain combo points.
          4. Maintain Rip (talent) on 1-2 enemies.
          5. Use Ferocious Bite (talent) if the enemy is unlikely to live for 15+ seconds.
      • Cast Convoke the Spirits (talent) while in either Moonkin Form or Cat Form for a burst of damage. Be mindful if you're going to need it for healing before it comes off cooldown.
  3. Be aware of incoming/predictable damage so you can start casting Rejuvenation on players ahead of time, as noted in the "healing group-wide damage" section below.

Healing heavy tank or single-target damage

  1. If you know the damage is coming ahead of time, cast Ironbark (talent) or Cenarion Ward (talent) on the player.
  2. If the player is already below 50% health, cast Nature's Swiftness (talent) with Regrowth, then follow-up with Swiftmend or Overgrowth (talent) for the fastest burst of healing.
  3. Continue casting Regrowth or Nourish (talent) if the player is still below 50% health.
  4. Once the player is above 75% health, cast Rejuvenation on them.
  5. If the damage is still happening, cast Regrowth, Invigorate (talent), or Nourish (talent) to stay ahead of the damage.
  6. The main thing is to recognize when the damage is no longer life-threatening so you don't waste mana or cooldowns.

Healing group-wide damage

Besides the scenario of literally every player in the group taking damage, I also consider group-wide damage to be when 10 or more players are taking damage while in a large group

Miscellaneous Tips

  • Convoke the Spirits (talent) can be thought of like another Flourish (talent), due to the chance it triggers a Flourish (talent), and is ideally used when heal over time effects are already active.
  • If you're raiding with a Discipline Priest, they're often most in need of Innervate

Comment on Restoration Druid Guide

Changelog - View the last ten changes. - +

January 30, 2023 - 4:19 pm (Healing Tips and Tricks) - Added Innervate usage and miscellaneous tips section.

January 28, 2023 - 4:12 pm (Talents and Builds) - Updated builds for patch 10.0.5.

January 20, 2023 - 7:31 pm (Addons) - Updated Grid2 import code with additional debuffs, primarily from Raszageth, and the way Reversion is tracked for Preservation Evoker, eliminating the "flashing" buff icons.

January 14, 2023 - 4:07 pm (Stat Weights and Gearing) - Updated Best in Slot lists based on ingame loot tables. Added some additional alternatives.

January 05, 2023 - 4:53 pm (Talents and Builds) - Updated talent builds and core/flexible talent information.

January 05, 2023 - 4:07 pm (Stat Weights and Gearing) - Made minor additions to the Best in Slot lists.

December 28, 2022 - 4:09 pm (Enchants, Gems, Consumables) - Added additional phials and food.

December 15, 2022 - 10:02 pm (Addons) - Updated Grid2 import code with several spell ID fixes and additions for Dragonflight Season 1.

December 14, 2022 - 7:47 pm (Addons) - Updated Grid2 import code and filtered debuff lists with Vault of the Incarnates debuffs.

December 13, 2022 - 8:32 pm (Addons) - Updated Grid2 import code and filtered debuff lists for Dragonflight season 1 dungeons.