Restoration Druid Playstyle and Rotation Guide

Playstyle in raids with Wildstalker & Keeper of the Grove

Keeper of the Grove:

With the changes introduced in the Midnight pre-patch, the overall healing philosophy has shifted away from heavy, cooldown-driven burst healing toward a more consistent and sustained healing pattern. However, this shift does not fully apply to Restoration Druid, as the spec continues to rely on well-timed healing windows and burst throughput when damage patterns demand it.

When playing Keeper of the Grove, Grove Guardians are tied to Swiftmend and Wild Growth. Each Grove Guardian summoned grants 5% increased healing done, stacking for every active guardian.

Because Convoke the Spirits can cast Swiftmend and Wild Growth, it has become significantly stronger in this setup. When used effectively, Convoke the Spirits can summon up to five Grove Guardians, resulting in a 25% spell healing increase during the window.

With Cenarius’ Guidance, this interaction becomes available every minute. The aim for the build will be to use Convoke to boost your heals.

Track your Reforestation stacks in order to use your Tree of Life procs as a major cooldown when needed. You can proc reforestation every 1 min and use Convoke the spirits in the Tree of Life form to further increase the healing boost.

Tip: Macro Nature’s Swiftness into Convoke the Spirits to ensure the buff is always active during Convoke. This guarantees that all Regrowth casts triggered by Convoke benefit from Nature’s Swiftness, significantly increasing their effectiveness. You can find this macro in the Macros section of the guide.

The reduced number of buffs and maintenance spells simplifies gameplay, but also leaves less room for inefficient casting.

Proactive healing remains essential; pre-HoTing ahead of major damage is still more effective than reacting after damage occurs. As a result, the familiar cycle of Rejuvenation “ramping” followed by Regrowth-focused healing continues, though with slightly less nuance compared to the previous patch.

The goal is to reach 10-12 active Rejuvenations, which grants 80-96% critical effect chance on Regrowth thanks to Abundance, once established follow up with a major cooldown (Convoke the Spirits/Tranquility).

With Intensity (boosting Regrowth critical heals to 275% instead of the usual 200%) and Nature’s Bounty (which heals all other targets with Regrowth for 20% of its healing), this setup significantly amplifies the Regrowth spam that comes after.

Reaching and maintaining 12 stacks of Abundance is easier now. Each time you cast Swiftmend, you spread 3 Rejuvenations on allies, thanks to Soul of the Forest and Power of the Archdruid.

Thanks to Sylvan Beckoning hero talent, your periodic heals have a chance to empower your next Swiftmend to summon a Dryad that casts Tranquility at 10% effectiveness. This Tranquility is affected by Flourish and extends the duration of your hots as well. Keep track of this buff and consume it whenever possible.

While doing this coverage, don’t forget the basics:

• Keep Lifebloom on a target with the highest uptime possible. Do keep in mind that you can refresh Lifebloom in the last 4.5 seconds of its duration to still benefit from its final bloom effect without letting it fade from the target.
• Keep Efflorescence down on a clump of players (ideally in melee, but this obviously can be adjusted depending on encounters/healing set-up). Lifetreading talent makes your Efflorescence automatically move every few seconds to where your Lifebloom target is. It saves you quite a lot of mana since you don't need to place Efflorescence yourself, and It'll will also simplify your rotation by cutting a major uptime spell.
• Use Swiftmend and Wild Growth frequently.
• Regrowth (especially clearcasts) is important to cast regularly
• Using support abilities such as Ironbark, utility abilities like Stampeding Roar and Wild Charge, or defensive abilities such as Barkskin and Bear Form is essential to use when needed.
• Don’t forget to cast some Wraths during downtimes outside of your ramp windows. In addition to the small DPS increase, you gain some very valuable mana via Master Shapeshifter.
• On top of this, try to optimize your DPS a bit by maintaining your Moonfire DoT though it is not essential but might be helpful.
• Don’t forget to use your Innervate during a ramp window, when available.

Keeper of the Grove, in my opinion, is the go-to build for raiding in the Prepatch.

Wildstalker:

The Wildstalker playstyle hasn’t changed much; you’ll still follow the same ramping patterns as in Keeper of the Grove.

A few key points to keep in mind when playing the Wildstalker Hero Talent tree:

• Healing targets with an active Symbiotic Bloom provides increased overall healing thanks to Vigorous Creepers.
• Your priority Rejuvenation targets should be those affected by Symbiotic Bloom, as Bursting Growth procs occur when you Rejuvenate these targets.
• It’s currently recommended to track Symbiotic Blooms on your raid frames to maximize healing efficiency.

Playstyle in M+

The overall playstyle for Restoration Druids in Mythic+ hasn’t changed significantly. Your focus remains on keeping the group alive with HoTs while weaving in DPS whenever possible. The approach differs slightly depending on your Hero Talent choice, but the core setup is consistent.

Hero Talent Considerations:

Wildstalker:

This build encourages Cat-weaving. Alternate HoTs to keep your group healthy, cast your caster DoTs (Moonfire/Sunfire), then morph into Cat Form to use your Cat abilities. Repeat this cycle for maximum effectiveness.

Keeper of the Grove:

You can largely use the same gameplay, but you’ll face fewer drawbacks if you skip some Cat-weaving. Healing will be slightly stronger, though your DPS contribution will be reduced.

Regardless of your Hero Talents, the overall desired setup is mostly the same.

1. Keep Lifebloom active at all times. Cast it on the tank or yourself. Refresh it during the last 4.5 seconds of its duration to trigger the “bloom” effect. Lifebloom synergizes with the Verdancy and Harmonious Blooming talents, making it a powerful spell that you should maintain as consistently as possible.
2. Place Efflorescence strategically; you want it to cover the maximum number of allies and try to maximize its uptime.
3. Use your short-cooldown abilities, such as Swiftmend and Wild Growth, frequently, as they are highly efficient and now spawn Grove Guardians for extra healing.
4. Use Innervate early and often, especially during high-intensity pulls.
5. Apply Ironbark to the tank at the beginning of heavy-damage pulls.
6. Pre-apply HoTs before damage occurs and heal reactively if necessary.
7. Respond to allies dropping very low with Swiftmend + Regrowth, Nature’s Swiftness + Regrowth, or just Regrowth if the other options are unavailable. Maximize the usage of Swiftmend as it synergizes with Verdant Infusion, Soul of the Forest, Power of the Archdruid, Improved Swiftmend, Sylvan Beckoning, Dryad's Dance, and Grove Guardians.
8. Use Tranquility, a powerful AoE healing cooldown that instantly heals all nearby allies over its duration. It has a 2-minute cooldown, grants immunity to knockbacks, and provides 20% reduced damage for you when paired with Inner Peace.

Most of the time, your HoTs will handle the healing, allowing you to weave in DPS abilities during stable periods.

During stable healing:

1. Apply caster dots (Sunfire / Moonfire).
2. Auto-Cat Form via Rake/Shred (thanks to Fluid Form talent), spread your rake dot on multiple targets, apply Rip or use Ferocious Bite at 5 Combo points.
3. You can also use Swipe for AoE dmg.

Otherwise, in Single Target:

1. Rake (ideally in stealth before an encounter to utilize Strategic Infusion talent, but be careful on small mobs since it will stun them and can spread them from the rest of the pack).
2. Use Heart of the Wild to trigger an empowered Feral frenzy, dealing damage, applying a 6-second DoT, and generating 5 Combo Points.
3. Apply Rip at 5 Combo, if not present, or if duration < 10 seconds, otherwise, you can use Ferocious Bite at 50 energy.
4. Keep going with Shred to grind your Combo Points.
5. When your energy is depleted, and your Cat DoTs applied, time to refresh Moonfire & Sunfire, and maybe throw some healing abilities if needed before going back to Cat Form (via Rake/Shred).

If talented (as covered in the M+ - Wildstalker talent section), don’t forget to use Convoke the Spirits proactively for DPS (use it after your first Ferocious Bite to quickly gain another 5-combo points, then use Ferocious Bite another time), or when you need some emergency healing.

For the most part, your main job is keeping players alive; DPS is secondary until you’re comfortable with Cat weaving.