Resto M+ Rotation

Greetings. Rdruid is the only healer I havent tried and I am starting to heal in M+ and was wondering if someone could just lightly check my rotation.

At the start of combat, I drop efflo, then lifebloom on two seperate dps, wild growth, and then regrowth/swiftmend as needed. I do not use rejuvenation, unless the tank is going down fast and I want an extra HoT. In between that, I cast balance spells.

I am currently using Keeper of the Grove. However, I see everyone else is using Wildstalker.

I wish i could link my druid character to this forum posting but it wont let me.

Any other insight would be appreciated. Im so burnt out on rsham and hpal, just need a change of pace. Thank you

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Your rotation kind of depends on your spec, but you posted on your paladin.

Efflorescence is important but because it’s so dependent on positioning, I would not worry about trying to artificially insert it into some fixed point in your rotation. Put it down when it seems like people are going to be stacked in one place for a while. It’s just wasting mana if you put it down and everyone runs out of it.

Are you not using Soul of the Forest? Generally you want to Swiftmend, which procs Soul of the Forest, and follow that up with a Wild Growth, since Wild Growth will benefit the most from Soul of the Forest. So other than exceptions where you were forced to use Swiftmend as an emergency heal while Wild Growth was still on a long cooldown, you pretty much always want to immediately follow-up a Swiftmend with a Wild Growth cast.

Who you put Lifebloom on will depend on if you take Photosynthesis or not. If you use Photosynthesis, then you should have one Lifebloom on yourself most of the time.

Try to only cast Regrowth during a clearcast proc. Not just for the mana savings, but also because of the 30% boost via the Flash of Clarity talent. If you have the Rampant Growth talent, then any time you cast Regrowth on one of the 3 people who don’t have Lifebloom, the Regrowth HoT will also go onto the two people who have Lifebloom. Putting 3x Regrowth HoTs out each time you cast Regrowth in this manner is something you want to do as often as possible.

This is the exact opposite approach that you should take. HoT healing isn’t a “I’ll use those HoTs if they are needed” style of healing. You want as many HoTs out on the group as possible before anyone even takes damage, so that your ramp is peaking when the damage hits. You don’t start ramping after the damage hits, or you will fall behind on healing. Rejuvenation is a cheap mastery stack.

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I had to use a laptop to change over to my druid.

So I do have Photosynthesis, and I am primarily putting a stack on 2 different dps because thats what WoWhead suggested. And I do have Soul of the Forest. (I Literally copy and pasted the highest IO rdruid from Murloc IO).

So, again, Ive been dropping efflo (which does seem silly sometimes when the whole party is spread out), then two lifeblooms, and wild growth. But you are suggesting I cast Wild Growth AFTER I use a swiftmend? And thats for the extra 50% buff that comes with it, correct? I just assumed I start a pull with wild growth since its an AoE heal.

And then, if cast Regrowth on someone who doesnt have, essentially causing 3 people to have it. So, Im going to assume once I spread 2 lifeblooms, i should automatically cast a regrowth on somone to get those procs going?

As for Rejuvenation, when exactly do I use it? And whom should I put it on? Im just thinking if Im supposed to cast it on everyone in a 5 man group, I wont have time for much else, especially dps.

As far as dps is concerned, should I be kitty weaving, or using balance spells? I understand Cat is the go-to right now. Thank you for your time.

-Hawke-

It’s okay to have the two stacks on other people. The extra blooms will help proc verdancy which is nice. Put them where needed. The increased healing from having it on yourself is very potent however, particularly if you’re not getting Verdancy procs from Efflorescence (high movement fight, etc).

You have to start somewhere, but don’t expect a cookie-cutter build to be an “I-win button”. The best spec for you is the one that you will make the most effective use out of. A talent that goes unused is a useless talent.

Absolutely. You can do some lifebloom maintenance after you cast Swiftmend if you need to, since Lifebloom won’t consume Soul of the Forest, but you want to use Soul of the Forest with Wild Growth as much as possible. SotF-boosted Wild Growth is a huge pillar of our AoE healing.

You can, but keep in mind that Regrowth is an expensive heal. I’d recommend trying to cast Regrowth mainly when you get clearcast procs. You should get clearcast procs very frequently if your lifebloom uptime is good.

Use it all the time and put it on everyone. There are only 5 people in the group, and it’s a cheap heal. DPS is something you can do when you have the opportunity, but your first priority is to heal, and as a resto druid that means LOTS of pre-HoTs. You shouldn’t actually need the mana from something like Master Shapeshifter, unless you’re casting tons of non-clearcast Regrowths… When damage hits, you want to be putting your 3rd, 4th, and 5th HoTs on people, not your 1st and 2nd.

At this point in the expansion you should probably just focus on healing… But go with whatever kind of DPS you like. Right now my only DPS comes from my Grove Guardians casting moonfire and from Convoke. Preventing even ONE death will likely save more time than any DPS you try to contribute.

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Hey man, I really appreciate the response, and taking your time out. Im pretty stoked to keep going. I know Resto isnt meta right now, but I dont care. After 6yrs of Rsham, i need something new. And I really like bear and feral for side specs.

Im pretty pumped to play again.

Last question: do you use an addon to keep up with your HoTs?

Resto is fun right now in m+. It’s not top tier of course, but it’s not terrible. We have a curse and poison cleanse… which is huge for this season. Our damage isn’t actually bad it’s pretty up there, and there’s more changes coming in the PTR patch that makes it better.

The 12% healing buffs helped a bit. I no longer feel like I struggle to get people up all the time. It happens still, but that’s usually a “personal responsibility failed” moment.

I am not the person you were replying to, but I use a set of weakauras and bigDebuffs to track hots. Tho I turn bigdebuffs off more often than not and use stock blizzard raid frames even in party. You eventually just get a “Feel” for things and know when your hots are expiring etc.

GNR gave good advice for the most part, but one alternative build/approach that lets you use regrowth quite a bit more without mana concerns…

If you take germination/thriving vegetation/abundance, dropping cenarion ward, budding leaves, and reforestation that are more commonly taken, you can spam the crap out of some strong regrowths at the peak of your ramp for not much mana. You also take both regrowth talents with this build.

You still get your lifeblooms + efflo out, at least 4-5 rejuvs, swiftmend + wild growth, but then you can start spamming regrowth on anyone taking serious damage, at reduced mana and a high chance to crit from abundance, and your regrowth hot cleaves to your lifebloom targets, and once you have the regrowth hot up casting another regrowth you get another 40% crit chance to it. So your regrowths approach a 100% chance to crit pretty quickly, and cost less than rejuv once you have about 5+ rejuvs out.

Cenarion ward feels pretty undertuned now, when i was taking it and even making a point to try to extend it with verdant infusion swiftmends, it still wasn’t doing a whole lot of my healing overall.

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I use the “Healbot Continued” addon, which is a continuation of the “Healbot” addon that I’ve used on my Druid since Vanilla. Despite it’s name, it’s just a raid-frames addon. Other similar addons have come out since then such as VuhDo which are likely just as good, but for me, mine is so customized after all these years that switching would be like trying to steer the titanic.

Yeah, this is what I do. Just keep in mind that casting Regrowth with a clearcast proc isn’t just about saving mana, it’s also about getting that 30% buff via Flash of Clarity, especially if you are spreading that Regrowth HoT to 3 people via Undergrowth+Rampant Growth.

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I appreciate both of you, very much. Im pretty pumped to try it out. Ive never used addons for any content, just felt like keeping up with HoTs would be tedious. I may try the ones you mentioned if Im struggling a bit

The point on saving mana was about how abundance reduces the cost of regrowth once you have some rejuvs out, even if you dont have clearcasting procs up, though those are always welcome and the 30% heal increase is great. Regrowth costs less than rejuv once you have 4+ rejuvs out w/abundance, so if you prep with a bunch of rejuvs, then SM + wildgrowth and spam a lot of regrowths cheaply during high damage without worrying about clearcasting procs

This is what I’ve been leaning into. Even though almost every rdruid says not to use Rejuv

What you mainly need to avoid doing is using Rejuvenation as a reactionary heal during heavy damage. Cast Rejuvenation out onto people during light damage phases or even before combat starts. In terms of how to integrate rejuvenation into your rotation, don’t even think of rejuvenation as a heal. Think of it simply as a casted mastery stack, so that your other heals like Regrowth, Wild Growth, etc, will hit harder on that target during the actual heavy damage. Any healing the Rejuvenation itself does is just a bonus really.

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I kind of like how Gnr explained rejuv…i just use it as a mastery multiplier in Mythic+…but I do find myself casting it often.

For any wildstalkers out there, remember to be tracking your symbiotic blooms in your frames… I like to think of them as little healing grenades, because rejuv can multi-proc the Bursting Growth passive, on top of benefitting from the free effect you get when they expire. the healing explosions are very strong and noticeable, and reliable.

So they did kind of give rejuv a few interesting effects for M+ which might make it a bit more useful for us…compared to Dragonflight anyway :nerd_face:

Resto is an interesting spec to learn because it’s not exactly hard but it’s really easy for someone new to it to just not do it correctly. I taught a friend how to do it earlier in the year and I explained to him it is a spec best learned layer by layer. The first layer is the most important and that is:

Maintaining the following at all times:

  • Keep 2x lifeblooms rolling. One of them on yourself as a default.
  • Keep Efflor under your melee. Move it often. Refresh it so it’s active.
  • Use Cenarion Ward on cooldown.
  • Keep your Treants from being at max stacks.
  • Use your Clearcasting Procs

after that, in early dungeons when you’re first learning you can get by by spamming Regrowth. (Which isn’t optimal of course, but this is the basis of the spec for one to practice above all else.) Initially, don’t overthink it. Lean on that “Improved Regrowth” talent. Regrowth is what triggers your vines in Wildstalker. Practice the above, and then start adding extra things in layer by layer. But start here.

As a point of emphasis: Lifebloom is the ENGINE of the rest of your spec in M+. Do not neglect lifebloom.

Lifebloom:

  • is what triggers clearcasting.
  • causes Verdancy to proc (in combination with efflor)
  • is 3 stacks of mastery
  • receives the HOT from Regrowth when cast on someone else (Rampant Growth talent), resulting in Regrowth providing 3 people HOTs
  • makes all of your HOTs heal 10% faster (when you have it on yourself due to Photosynthesis, as you should by default)
  • heals better and better the more you keep it active (thanks to Budding Leaves talent)

If you neglect lifebloom everything that occurs downstream because of it is also getting neglected. Don’t do that.

The next thing to incorporate after the above is just getting Swiftmend more intentionally in the mix, and it’s interactions with various spells. (Like Wildgrowth, as someone else mentioned. Soul of the Forest value is important.)

Early on Rejuvenation is a huge bait to lots of players. It’s one of the last layers to add to your healing in M+, which is counterintuitive to folks who raid where it seems so central to how you heal. As someone else mentioned, think of it as an extra stack of mastery more than a heal.

Edit:

Also extra tidbit on lifebloom while you are practicing the above. If you refresh lifebloom with 4.5 seconds left on the timer, it will trigger the bloom, but will maintain the uptime. This is ideally what you should aim for outside of when you are switching lifebloom targets.

What does this mean, exactly?

By default, each HoT you have on your target will increase your healing on that target by whatever your mastery % is. So if you have 10% mastery and 1 HoT, your heals on that target will do 10% more healing; if you have 5 HoTs, you’ll have 50% more healing on them.

There is a talent in the resto druid talent tree called Harmonious Blooming. Each point you put into the talent increases the number of mastery stacks Lifebloom grants by 1, with a max of 2 points. Lifebloom is a vital heal for M+, so every guide you find will recommend putting 2 points into this talent. In doing so, your Lifebloom will count the same as if you have 3 HoTs on the target for the increased mastery healing, rather than just 1.

I also did not know this. So, if Lifebloom counts as 3 stacks, then by default it automatically makes it 30% more heals on the target? Throw in Wild growth and Regrowth and that makes it 50%

Does Efflo count as a Mastery HoT?

The idea of pre-emptive healing has always concerned me, as in, thinking I wouldnt be very good at it. Thus, why Ive always played Rsham. But now, Im getting excited for this challenge.

Thank you for this information.

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If you have 10% mastery, then yes. Note I just used 10% mastery for easy math, but your actual healing bonus will use your current mastery value.

No, Efflorescence is not a HoT, just pulses a direct heal to up to 3 targets standing in it. The amount it heals will be impacted by your mastery per however many HoTs are on the target.

With that said, there is another talent Spring Blossoms that DOES apply a HoT to everyone who is affected by an Efflorescence heal. And that HoT is both improved by mastery and counts as a mastery stack.

Yeah druid and disc priest are nearly 100% preemptive healing. When you are able to successfully predict the damage patterns, it’s absolutely ridiculous how much healing you can put out. And for me it’s much more satisfying than playing whack-a-mole with health bars from reactive healing. But that certainly won’t be everyone’s cup of tea.

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I did a +2 Mists last night. Man, I aint never sweated so hard. Fun, but damn.

I put 2 lifeblooms on, one on me and one on dps. Hit someone with regrowth, popped swiftmend into wild growth. Applied rejuvenation liberally. I repeated that on every pull.

Im finding effort into dropping efflo. No one is stacked together, so I just put it where the tank is. Im also struggling to weave in dispels.

Are there any other tricks I should be aware of? Like an easier way of applying lifeblooms, short of clicking on name plates and applying?

Yeah, this is kind of the modern resto druid way of life these days. We have to commit a ton of GCDs to reach our healing potential, but our ceiling is pretty high.

There are times when it can be correct to put Lifebloom on someone else if you are fishing for Verdancy procs. Of course, if you’re having trouble finding value out of Efflorescence due to your group being spread out, that may be less important.

Efflorescence with an uncooperative group can be problematic. As long as there is at least one melee DPS, you can always safely drop it under the tank and make sure you stand in its range as well; it affects 3 players and while it would be better to have the entire party in it so you’re more likely to heal someone who needs it, it’s still better to have 3 people in it than not using it.

There are two tips with dispels I can give.

First, try to figure out what each thing that goes out does and how important it is to dispel. If it will cost you more globals to recover from dealing with something that could be dispelled than dispelling is the right play even if things are a bit dicey at the moment. Whereas some effects you can safely just heal through without even noticing them. In mists for example, the magic debuff that puts a circle around a player in melee is almost always going to be worse to leave up than dispel; meanwhile the poison from the wasps at the end at a single stack might be something that your stray rejuvenations and wild growths take care of anyway.

Second, and this will take some practice, but you’ll want to start working out a schedule for how long it will take for a teammate to be healed by your HoTs when deciding your next move. If someone has 40% of their health covered in Hots on them, they’re at 65% health, and they’re unlikely to take significant damage over the duration of your HoTs, you don’t need to top them off. Your HoTs will do that. As a druid, you will need to get comfortable with people being under full health while they have HoTs rolling that will get them to full over time. Once you get comfortable with that, finding the free global for dispels becomes easier.

I use mouseover macros for all my healing spells that have a target. This means that the spell will cast whoever my mouse is hovering over when I hit the button. Note that this does take some getting used to mouse placement, but it is a big help once you get used to it. I provided an example macro below.

I know Blizzard also added built-in mouseover casting support into the base UI in Dragonflight. I don’t use it because I combine several things together into my mouseover macro. But in theory you can use that rather than worrying with a macro.

Example Lifebloom macro:

#showtooltip Lifebloom
/cast [@mouseover,help,nodead] Lifebloom; Lifebloom

This macro has a conditional (the parts in brackets) and then a fallback (the part with no brackets). What it does is first checks if I my mouse is hovering over an ally (help) that isn’t dead (nodead); if so, it casts Lifebloom on that target (the first lifebloom before the semi-colon). However, if any part of the condition is false (so my mouse isn’t on a target, the target isn’t friendly, or the target is dead), it will run the second part of the statement after the semi-colon. That fallback will just cast Lifebloom per the standard rules I have configured for WoW, which is cast on my target if possible, or myself if not.

You can replace Lifebloom in the above with any healing spell that has a target (Rejuvenation, Regrowth, Wild Growth, etc.).