Resto Druid

Classes Druid
1

Restoration Druid Feedback – Current Patch

The Good

:white_check_mark: Mythic+ & Raid Performance – Healing feels strong and versatile, not overly reliant on specific team compositions.

The Bad / Unchanged Issues

:x: Master Shapeshifter not being baseline for Restoration is disappointing.
:x: Double Swiftmend Charges should be baseline.
:x: Rebirth should be instant, cost-free, and grant Well Fed.
:x: Germination should be baseline.
:x: Spring Blossoms should be baked into Efflorescence.
:x: Photosynthesis should be baseline.

:small_orange_diamond: Soul of the Forest:

  • No UI indicator for affected HoTs is disappointing.
  • Should permanently amplify Rejuvenation by 150%, while Regrowth/Wild Growth remain modifiers.

:small_orange_diamond: General Druid Healing Issues:

  • Choosing between Rejuvenation, Regrowth, or Wild Growth feels restrictive as Soul of The Forest makes us have to choose. Instead of just choosing Single Target - Regrowth; AoE Target - Wildgrowth.
  • Perma Lifebloom duration would improve QoL given its single-target nature.
  • Soul of the Forest and Power of the Archdruid do not interact with rejuvenation / Regrowth leaving it feeling outdated.

The Sus (Weird or Unintuitive Changes)

:face_with_raised_eyebrow: Double Rejuvenation not applying Cultivation when it should be a thing.
:face_with_raised_eyebrow: Forest Flow, Dream of Cenarius, Embrace of the Dream remain dead talents.
:face_with_raised_eyebrow: Wild Growth should be instant baseline or at least instant during Incarnation: Tree of Life.
:face_with_raised_eyebrow: Power of the Archdruid should have a guaranteed proc on Wild Growth casts.
:face_with_raised_eyebrow: Regensis Talent should provide a flat heal amp to Rejuvenation instead of vague “low health” targeting. Vice Versa for Tranquility because these Threshholds are cappin’. Their definition of low health is below 20% HP.
:face_with_raised_eyebrow: Lifebloom should last 30 seconds or have a permanent uptime option.

:face_with_raised_eyebrow: Wildstalker
Doesn’t proc symbiotic off Rejuvenation which is sad.
Doesn’t extend off Verdant Infusion which sucks.
Doesn’t have a caster component off Starsurge to proc blood-seeking vines or a % chance of Wrath / Starfire.

:face_with_raised_eyebrow:Convoke
Should only proc Healing in Human Form.
Should not spam cast Wildgrowth and have a smart sensor when your in a 5 man. (I do not need 2-3 Wildgrowth casts in my mythic plus).
Should proc dmg only oriented in Cat / Moonkin form.
Should proc Tank / Dmg Oriented in Bear form.

PvE Performance

Raiding

:heavy_check_mark: Healing feels solid, but we’re still locked into “Keeper of the Grove” gameplay, spamming Rejuvenation. Which I love rejuv. But I wish for a Wildstalker gameplay inviting Rejuv to be viable.
:heavy_check_mark: The tier set is great.
:small_orange_diamond: Incarnation: Tree of Life / Convoke remains a situational pick. Which is good!
:small_orange_diamond: Mana efficiency is still a struggle.
:heavy_check_mark: Tranquility is always satisfying to press.
:small_orange_diamond: QoL could improve with:

  • Perma Lifebloom duration
  • Perma Efflorescence duration
    Managing these while also DPS weaving for mana and handling mechanics gets exhausting.

PvP Concerns

:small_orange_diamond: Ancient of Lore Changes Feel Odd

  • It makes up 40-50% of overall healing through Blossom Burst.
  • Immunity to CC is great, but at what cost?
    • We lost Tranquility’s immunity, making the spell feel much weaker.
    • We lost the ability to shift in and out of Tree Form, locking us in.

:small_orange_diamond: Survivability Trade-offs
:heavy_check_mark: Solo survivability improved, but losing instant Tranq Immunity hurts in dire situations.
:heavy_check_mark: Nature’s Swiftness + Ancient of Lore is an option, but it feels clunky.

:small_orange_diamond: DPS weaving in 3s & Shuffle feels worse than ever and impossible.

Recommended Changes

General Baseline Adjustments

:heavy_check_mark: Germination – Baseline.
:heavy_check_mark: Soul of the Forest – Rejuvenation should always have a 150% amp passive all the time, no Swiftmend consumption is required.
:heavy_check_mark: Wild Growth – Instant cast baseline.
:heavy_check_mark: Verdant Infusion – Baseline.

PvP Talent Ideas

  • :herb: Efflorescence – Larger AoE, zero mana cost.
  • :herb: Tranquility Immunity Returns.
  • :herb: Teaching of the Ancient of Lore –
    • Convoke / Incarnation / Reforestation grant CC immunity + damage reduction for 3-4 seconds.
    • Healing and damage increased by 30% for 15 seconds.
  • :herb: Ironbark – Two charges; applies a 15-20% max HP shield for 5 seconds. If the shield persists, it converts into a direct heal.

Final Thoughts:
Why overcomplicate things? Druid healing needs efficiency, not weird mechanics.

8 Likes
2

So resto druid has its problems, but nearly the entirety of this list boils down to you wanting significant buffs to the spec despite it being in a pretty good place in terms of its performance. If you think the how should be changed, that’s certainly worth discussing, but making multiple capstones base line is a pretty insane request for power spike. And if Blizzard were to entertain those changes, they would certainly nerf the spec in other ways to account for this change.

I would be curious what you would want Blizzard to replace the talents you want to become baseline with to give druid even more potency.

I agree. Then again, the entire HoT/DoT tracking on unit frames is terrible and could use a complete overhaul.

I agree with your logic on removing Rejuventation from the list of spells that are affected by Soul of the Forest, but giving a permanent buff just for having the ability is pretty wild.

Forest’s Flow is part of the meta build for M+ this season. I’m with you Dream and Embrace need looked at, but you’re just incorrect with Forest’s Flow.

I could live with a talent that makes it have a much longer duration (maybe a choice with Overgrowth), but extending the duration would actually be a nerf in a lot of cases because of Verdancy. I wouldn’t want to see this become the functionality without any agency.

100%, and this should be addressed.

Similar to your previous list, these is a pretty significant buffs to the ability, and I highly suspect nerfs would come elsewhere if Blizzard were to do this.

3 Likes
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Where did you get that from?
Embrace may not be used as much, but the other two are picked by lots of Druids

4

I dont think the capstones need to be baseline, i do think the tree needs some restructuring. The DF rework added to many fodder hots (along with duration increases and tiny situational modifiers) to fil out spaces, they contributed to the mastery overload and gcd locking while rarely doing substantial healing of their own and now that theres diminishing returns on mastery they really should go.
To me an ideal tree rework would remove or retool most of the extra hots, have slightly better pathing coherency and open up another possible sub build for swiftmend. Itd need to be an expansion start though for the level of rework.

  • Wildgrowth: remove unstoppable and replace it with embrace, its a decent interaction but the healing is to low for the final tier of talents its competeing with. Replace improved wildgrowth with early harvest azerite, increases the end of wildgrowths healing where its weakest, also has a nice innervate tie in which we no longer have anywhere in the tree. Since its in a 3 way path with other options we wont feel forced to take it for pathing when we arent running innervate.

  • The swiftmend stuff grove tending gone, its an azerite talent thats fallen to fodder status with how little it heals. Move renewing surge to its place, also an underwhelming talent with the 40% requiring the target be on deaths door but for a tier 1 talent thats okay. Seperate VI and Prosperity move prosperity to renewing surges old place. With them all seperated it lets us build a single target/burst defense profile around swiftmend.

  • Ms/call/dream remove cultivation and put MS there, then move call and dream up one to connect directly beneath it. This would give us a compact Shapeshifter/damage section like holy had with holy fire and moving them up would let you get dream from harmonious or UG. Having to pay 2 points for a talent where the first mandatory one does no healing and in such a crucial part of the tree is why i think this has such a low pick rate.

  • Efflo stuff switch it and Soul’s position. Soul’s to core at this point where Efflo’s use is more situational (pvp and really high movement fights its pretty bad) at some points i am just taking it to get soul would also place soul directly between renewing and prosperity for more swiftmend coherency in this hypothetical tree.
    Put overgrowth where MS was (out of the way) and make a new choice node between a buffed version of the tier 20 4-piece; 200~300% increased efflo healing for 10 seconds after a swiftmend (this is the tier renewing surge is from) and a reworked springblossom; efflo applies 6 seconds of rejuv/germ to the 3 targets within instead of its current heals nothing fodder hot.

  • Rejuv’s sad support switch forest flow and regenesis; forest flow can have a second nourish cast added for its 2/2 of it needs to cost 2 points there. Regenesis is now a 1 pointer in the right :fallen_leaf:rejuvenation corner :leaves: no tranq buff, increases duration by 4 seconds and healing by 20% on low health targets.
    Change nuturing dormancy from stalling up to 4 seconds of rejuv’s duration on overheal to storing a reasonable amound of rejuvs overheal living seed style. Rejuvs lack of support outside of duration is probably why it feels so weak when its pretty iconic to the class.

With that all of our rotational hots have some decent support options, we have fewer total mastery stacks so they can more easily buff the baseline hot heals without worrying about it spiraling, and the grouping/pathing makes a little more sense.
Tier 1 talents are mostly swiftmend on the left, regrowth in the middle and right. Tier 2 left Efflo, wildgrowth is right. Tier 3 is still build defining stuff but has the bottom right for rejuv gameplay. Middles mostly for cooldowns and lifebloom down the whole tree. But thats a pretty major overhaul and i wouldnt expect it outside of an expansion start or something.

The smaller changes i think could be done in a minor patch like a .5 to make the spec feel a little better

  • PoA every other or even every 3rd wildgrowth; i’m a healer i dont like rng in my healing, i want to know i can cover x amounts of damage at any given point not have to hope for procs even if it theoretically works out to be less then the currant proc rate.

  • Natures swiftness also affects wildgrowth, gives us an instant version of our aoe and helps us as a possible emergency aoe outside of convoke depending on scalling. Currently its just used for regrowth, a lot of druids are getting tired of all the regrowth.

  • wildstalker and keeper being updated with the damage split in mind. Tack moonfire onto the bloodseeker triggers and let every 5 bites trigger the BI instant regrowth. I like healing keys as wildstalker, i hate kittyweaving, i would like to not have half the hero tree bonuses do nothing.

  • Tranq options; this patch’s channel time change was pretty good but it still needs something in 2/3rds endgame content. With the immunity gone its dead in pvp, it doesnt slot well against the popular movement type heal checks of keys, its apperently bugged in 5 mans to not get the double healing if youre playing with a pet class. A choice node major healer CD isnt unheard of; its a utility choice for monk and disc gets 2 fully different spells, the way we heal between content types is so different i think it could warrant it.
    A visions of perfection type random proc, a buildable trigger like (x) rejuv ticks channels 1 stack of tranquility, an aura of tranquility passive that applies a mastery stack to the 5 nearest players (callback to old treeform aura), to front load the ramp or counter purge heavy comps in pvp.

4 Likes
5

Not really, I think Lifebloom should be permanent, be a huge QoL but have a pseudo Photosynthesis effect attached to Lifebloom baseline, say it’s 6% per periodic effect and the actual Talent Photosynthesis adds its 4% ontop.

So still procs Verdancy, still gain great value from Photosynthesis, still plays into our Hots but a huge QoL needed for Resto Druids.

It’s very much plausible to do and the amount of GCDs alone saved by this change alone is insane.

Resto Druid needs QoL moving forward. Sort of how I think Fluid Form should be baseline to the class but that’s for another topic.

3 Likes
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You want Lifebloom to not require globals unless you want to change the target, gain a passive effect baseline that’s currently better than a capstone, and still be able to add the capstone effect as well. This isn’t a quality of life change, this is a major buff that you’re proposing. There is no way Blizzard does this without making significant nerfs elsewhere.

You’re missing the point of why I said it was a nerf. Verdancy doesn’t just heal at random based on Photosynthesis procs, it also heals when lifebloom blooms by falling off or is refreshed within pandemic. This provides a predictable hit of Verdancy that would become rarer if lifebloom gained an extended duration and would be completely gone if lifebloom became permanent.

Like I said, perhaps a choice to gain an extended lifebloom could exist so players could choose whether they wanted it. Perhaps it would work as a choice opposite Undergrowth where we choose either 2 lifeblooms, a long lifebloom, or put the point elsewhere. But baseline there are times when this wouldn’t be desirable, at least not for me.

But again, it’s just disingenuous to call what you’re asking for a quality of life change. It’s a massive buff to one of the heaviest hitting abilities the spec has for healing. Perhaps it’s a warranted change, but it’s so far beyond QoL that it makes me question whether you actually know what that term means.

1 Like
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I find druid raid healing to be in a really weird spot, but maybe it is just me. If you look at logs, specifically mythic level raid performance, resto druid is doing good. If you look at heroic level, basically the class is at the bottom? Its like the class design is such that conditions have to be really favorable in raid (harder content for hots to tick, fewer healers, right composition, etc.) to perform well. I guess in some ways that has always been true for resto druid, but seems really prevalent this raid tier.

Above all of that though, and I have raided with druid, for a long time, including Mythic raiding, and the current iteration just is not fun to me personally. For that reason alone I hope there are changes down the road.

5 Likes
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I think a lot are hoping for changes to happen, perhaps next expansion :man_shrugging:t4:.

1 Like
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The main issue for resto druid in raiding is that it fills the same niche as disc priest but worse in nearly every way. Honestly I don’t think resto druid would even see much play this tier as opposed to disc priest if any of the other 3 specs were particularly good. Resto druid is objectively in a better spot this tier for raid than it has been for a long while now, it just doesn’t bring barrier or anywhere near the damage of a disc priest, which also still marginally out heals druid.

1 Like
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Dream of Cenarius is not a applicable choice beyond Mythic + 6-8 depending on player skill level. It isn’t a raid talent. Situational in 2’s and definitely not taken in 3’s, Shuffles or RBG’s. Therefore its relatively dead.

Forest Flow, I heal 10’s and time them. This heals 60% of the original OG Dragonflight version. It is weaker. I am for more consistent healing and opt in for more talents that do so. As well as this isn’t taken in raid. Followed by in PvP it isn’t taken either. Therefore dead talent.

Embrace of the Dream nets for 2% overall healing its better to just take any more situational talents like thriving vegetation or anything else. Therefore dead talent.

1 Like
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Your opinion that it is a dead talent does not make it a dead talent, though. And objectively for M+, Forest’s Flow is selected 80.7% of the time for M+ amongst the top 100 druids.

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Whether it’s stronger or weaker than the Dragonflight version doesn’t mean druids aren’t still using it heavily. If you don’t find it valuable, by all means, don’t play it. But it’s simply untrue to claim that it’s a dead talent.

12

At this point of the season 10’s aren’t difficult and the scaling and dungeon tuning contribute to this. Embrace the dream of cenarius I would agree are both pretty dead talents in M+. I would love to take dream of cenarius but the healing is pitiful and you need 2 talent points to get it.

Forest Flow I strongly disagree with, that talent is amazing and makes aoe healing so much easier. At the end of season 1 I already ran that experiment where I tried dropping Forest Flow in some mid level keys (14/15s) and I said never again…made healing so much harder. I didn’t realize how much heavy lifting it did in aoe healing until I spec’ed out of it. Some people run builds where they don’t use lifebloom and in those where you don’t take the boosted clearcasting talent I could see it making sense not to take Forest’s Flow, but I haven’t tried those builds myself. It seems weaker to me but there are strong druids that swear by it.

1 Like
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Unfortunately solo delvers exist, and it’s a great talent for that. It can provide a lot of additional dps uptime, and makes it way easier to get off full convoke channels.

Maybe it’s less relevant since they added a Tank Brann, but running with DPS Brann is still a viable option (IMO it’s better), and it’s way better for Underpin and Zek last season.

14

I wish Efflorescence would be out of the way to reach the left side of the tree. It’s not a good spell for PVP, and it even eats a PVP talent slot to become marginally useful (questionable, with the sheer amount of automatic snares).

Swap Efflorescence with Renewing Surge and Verdancy with Regenesis. There, a small swap wouldn’t change PVE in the slightest, while allowing PVPers to opt out of Efflorescence.

Other than that, Germination should just apply both Rejuvenations at once. I speak for myself, but I feel that pressing the same key 2x on the same target for the same effect feels really weird. I’d take a node choice to just make the single rejuv have a chance to proc the second one any day.

6 Likes
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Correction then.

it is only taken in Mythic + it is dead remotely everywhere else.

16

It feels better this tier than it did last season in raid. Hands down. Honestly, the first half of season one was so demoralizing in raid that I just about switched mains for the first time since BfA. I raid heroic and I felt like my being there was a detriment. I’m normally swapping between first and second slot on the healing meter, and last season, I was in fourth, doing literally HALF the throughput of #3. It was awful. It got better over the course of the season, but it was rough.

Now, it feels more like it always has, but when we 3-heal for a sub-20 raid group, I get much, MUCH higher numbers than when we 4-heal a full 20-man raid.

It’s always been like that, and I don’t think it’s necessarily an issue, especially not in Heroic difficulty. The only issue I’ve seen that would indicate a balance problem is that we have a disc healer who can just show up and roll his face over the keyboard to get bigger numbers than I pull, even when I’m parsing well against other druids in similar raids.

This past raid week, I performed very poorly (just personally), so I’m waiting for next week’s logs to look again. Anyway…all of that babble to say that it feels good to me at the moment.

17

I like your Nature’s Swiftness Wild Growth.

That lowkey sounds sick.

Imagine 2 Nature’s Swiftness Wildgrowths in a row followed by a 3rd casted.

Keep in mind in my head I’m guessing Nature’s Swiftness will remove the CD on Wildgrowth ;D

1 Like
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Totally agree about having to press Rejuv twice…it always feels clunky!

19

Call me weird I enjoy pressing it twice.

I just find it annoying soul of the forest doesn’t just perma amp it without swiftmend similar to soul of the forest for feral and boomkin.

That way we can focus it Swiftmend Regrowth for single target and Swiftmend Wildgrowth for multi.

Right now, it is frustrating, cause no perma buff rejuv >:(

20

Coming to think of it, even better than applying both rejuvs at once would be to keep them separate, the second rejuvenation cast within 5 seconds of the first one becomes off the global cooldown. It would allow a lot of strategic usage and better triage during raids.