I’m sure everyone who is above level 10 has seen a tree druid standing around somewhere. For a very long time Blizzard decided that being resto (Restoration Specialization) was the only way they wanted druids to be. If you weren’t healing you were almost never considered a serious player and never given a raid spot. Of course all of that changed in The Burning Crusade, when druids were given some love in the way of Feral and even the step-child spec of Moonkin (Balance). But Resto remained the prominent spec for several aspects of the game, just ask any hardcore pvp’er who is the best arena healer in the game, or ask any raid leader who is the most adaptable and solid healer of their raids. Most often they will say Druids.
I don’t want this guide to seem like I am saying priests and pallies and shamans aren’t good healers, becuase you are. Every healing class has its strengths and weaknesses.
As a druid, your strength lies in your ability to HoT, or Heal over Time. A hot is just as strong as a direct heal from a priest/shaman/paladin, but it isn’t instant. Instead you receive only a portion of the heal over a few seconds, for a certain duration so that by the time the duration is over you have received the full heal at the same quality the priest/pally/shaman would have healed you for.
So you ask then why not just heal with a direct heal?
A) because direct heals require a casting time, HoTs are instantly cast and can be cast on multiple targets by the time the first direct heal can be cast on 1 person
B) There a several HoTs in the Druid’s arsenal (more on the individual spells later) which all stack together to deliver a very powerful combination of healing effects.
C) by not having to stand still and cast your heals, a Druid can be a lot more mobile and isn’t such an easy target for damage dealers.
D) just look at that cool form we get to heal in, with the exception of termites, who wouldn’t want to be a walking talking tree?
Your Spells
I don’t want to get into the specific details of coefficients and base healing of spells, I just want to give an explanation and usage for each
Lifebloom: Heals your target for X amount over 7 sec. Can be stacked on each player up to 3 times. When the duration (7 sec.) is over the heal will “bloom” healing for an additional amount.
So, if you put 1 lifebloom on someone, it will tick (lets say X is 700) for 100 healing per second for 7 seconds. Then when it blooms it will heal for 1,000. If you apply 3 lifeblooms to a person it will heal them for 300 per second for 7 seconds and then bloom for 1,000 healing. This is a very powerful spell to use on someone and can often be all you need to heal someone with. But there is more
Rejuvenation: Heals a player for Y over 15sec. Rejuv is a good base heal to use as its overall healing is very high. It drawback is that it only ticks every 3 seconds so (If Y is 1,000) it will tick 5 times for 200 healing each.
Regrowth: Heals a player directly for X and then applies a HoT for Y over 21 seconds. This spell is just a direct heal like flash heal or flash of light, but it has less direct healing and a HoT at the end. So when Regrowth is cast on someone, it will heal them for say 1000, it will also add a HoT that will heal them for 1000 over 21 sec.
Nourish: Heals the target for X amount. This is our quick cast direct heal (flash of light/flash heal) for when HoTs just aren’t enough (which is rare but does happen) This spell should not however be used to replace hots since it has a bonus to its healing if you already have a HoT on the person. Meaning, if you are healing the tank and he has all 3 of your HoTs ticking on him and he still needs help you can cast nourish and it will heal him for a lot more than just a nourish by itself.
Swiftmend: Consumes a rejuv or regrowth and turns it into an instant heal. This spell is more of an emergency button. Say you are healing a tank and he has all 3 HoTs on him and he gets hit really hard for some reason. You can use swiftmend to turn a rejuv into a flash heal instantly and it can even crit on the person.
Healing Touch: for those times when you need to heal the tank for a lot and you don’t have time to wait for the HoTs to tick, cast Healing Touch (HT) . This is probably the strongest heal in the game with very few talents to support it. Healing touch can heal your target for anywhere from 5,000 to over 13,000 with good gear and a crit.
Nature’s Swiftness: this is just a way to make your next casted heal (HT, nourish, or regrowth) an instant cast heal. It also works for rebirth (our battle rez).
Wild Growth: this is our Circle of Healing spell, but better. Druids can use WG to start healing the party after taking AoE damage and instead of it just doing a small amount of direct healing it does a large amount of HoT healing. By this spell being a HoT type heal it allows druids to use it and start hitting everyone with another hot while WG ticks.
More later on healing rotations and situational healing notes. I just wanted to post this for anyone who was curious to what druid healing spells do and how they work. I hope this helps and that it might get some more trees in the game.
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