Resto Druid

[Varibash]

Resto Druid

While there are many ways to build a resto and several guides out there on the internet, I will be talking about how I think about it and what works for me.

First and foremost, Talent Tree

This is the area where the most controversy comes in when dealing with a resto druid, there are forums full of people argueing about what spec works the best, but in truth, you need to build your spec around your play style. Me personally I rely on my hots to do most of my healing, I only use direct heals in heavy tank healing phases and to keep my mastery proc'd. So naturally, I build my play style around a balance of mana efficiency and hot's, (mainly since resto druids AOE heals cost a lot of mana) again, there are main talents a resto druid should be taking no matter the play style:

Natural Shapeshifter 2/2 and Master shapeshifter 1/1 are a must

Heart of the Wild 3/3

Naturalist 2/2

improved Rejuvination 3/3

Revitalize 2/2

Empowered Touch 2/2

Malfurion's Gift 2/2

Wild Growth 1/1

Efflorescence 3/3

Gift of the EarthMother 3/3

Tree of Life 1/1

Natures Grace 3/3

those are you 27 main talents points that are the best for a resto druid, the other talents need to be placed in slots that best fit your playstyle

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/skullcrusher/Phobi%C3%A0/talent/primary

that's how I spec and that is what works best for me

Stat Priority

Resto Druids basic Stat Priority works like this

Intellect - Intellect gives 1 spellpower per point and 0.006% crit per point. With Mark of the Wild, Heart of the Wild and Leather Specialization, Intellect provides 1.169 pellpower and 0.007% crit per point. Intellect also gives MP5 at about equal value to any MP5 you get from an equivalent amount of spirit

Spellpower - Spellpower will now only exist on caster weapons and some enchants; all other sources of spellpower have been converted to Intellect

Haste -128.057 haste = 1% spell haste. Haste reduces the cast time of our spells and makes our HoTs tick faster (and can squeeze extra ticks into the duration). Even though in Cataclysm there is less emphasis on being GCD-locked, haste will still be valuable. We have also lost a chunk of haste through changes to GotEM, changes to other buffs, and the loss of Celestial Focus as a haste option.

Mastery --------> 143.42 mastery rating adds 1% to our Harmony bonus (increases potency of our direct healing spells by 10 plus casting a direct heal gives a 10% to periodic healing for the next 10 seconds). This means that it is essential that you cast at least one direct heal every 10 seconds in order to maximise your healing. Note that this is a self buff (not a buff on others) and only applies to new HoTs cast after the buff goes up, not existing HoTs (that is, a HoT already ticking on someone does not suddenly get larger ticks when Harmony is activated).

Sprit -Spirit increases your mana regen. One point of Spirit is equivalent to 0.00836*SQRT(Int) MP5.

Crit Rating - 1% crit = 179.28 crit rating. Crit heals do 2 times the healing of standard non-crit heals. HoT ticks can now crit, so crit is more valuable to us than it has been in the past. Regrowth (our quick heal) has high crit stitched in through talents; but our other HoTs also benefit from taking crit on our gear now. Crit direct heals mean bigger Living Seeds and Efflorescence healing. Basically, Crit is no longer the red-headed step child of our stats.

There is a lot of debate within the resto druid community about the balance between haste and mastery, Since resto druid mastery is absolutely amazing since it is a straight buff to our AoE heals, basically it works out that you want to get your haste to one of the haste breakpoints then go straight into mastery.

Haste Breakpoints

Rejuvenation 12.5%, 37.5%, 62.5%, 87.5%

Regrowth (HoT) 16.666%, 50%, 83.333%

Lifebloom 5%, 15%, 25%, 35%, 45%, 55%, 65%, 75%, 85%, 95%

Wild Growth 7.15%, 21.43%, 35.715%, 50%, 64.285%, 78.57%, 92.855%

These breakpoints mean, at that percent haste, the specified heal will have an extra tick before it falls off, which means since HoTs are a Rdruids primary source of healing, getting an extra tick off is alot of over all healing done.

At the very least you should aim for ~920/~1610 haste, which will grant you an extra tick of Rejuv (our most-often used spell), plus an extra tick of Tranquility, which is even more attractive now that in 4.1 our Tranquility cooldown has been reduced to 3 minutes. If you are smack on 916/1062 and can

[Varibash]

updated

[Spilledmilk]

As Phobia said before talents should be placed to fit your playing style. here is how i spec my talent tree.. http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/skullcrusher/Spilledmilk/talent/primary

[Spilledmilk]

/cry Well after a partial raid 1 LFR and all the new heroics.. The mechanics for Druid priorties have changed and i now know i need to change my playing style and respec to make the difference worthwile and to see that good old resto druid back on top of the charts like they should be and always have been.. These pallies.. sheesh 1 button heals.. they can fap and cast HR and still top charts.. SHITS GHEY! lawl anyway when i get home tonight ill respec and hit up a heroic and hopefully by raid time i got the kinks worked out and ill see how things go.. hopefully im back on top.. CHEESE P.S. 4.3 is kinda nice so far... not so lucky on the loots just yet.

Edited November 30, 2011 by Spilledmilk

[Lyntha]

Hey now, the pallies need to change up who they're casting Holy Radiance on every once in a while.

[Likesitruff]

we do use the 1 button heal for some aoe but we cannot just use the holy radiance doesnt go well if we just use that heal i put it on 3 diffrent people to max the AoE potential. but than also u use light of dawn every 3 casts and than also i still feel we have biggest tank heals we cant just hit that one button or tanks die we need to take into fact when to use WOG and divine light along with all our CD's onto tanks most pallys forget bout them but they are a huge thing to keep in mind

[Lyntha]

Basically it's Holy Shock --> HR --> HR --> HR --> LOD. Rinse and Repeat. HS is worth using because of the low mana cost and its high chance of proccing a reduced cast time HR.

Every HR should be casted on a different person to have the hots overlap. Depending on your haste levels, you may be able to have 3 or 4 HR hots ticking at once. Having 3 ticking at once is almost as much healing as the front-loaded healing component of HR, so it's almost like getting a free HR heal.