Restoration Druid PvP Guide for TBC Classic

Restoration Druids are one of the strongest specializations in TBC Classic PvP, having high control, survivability, and great healing with their multiple heal-over-time effects such as the ubiquitous Lifebloom. They fit into all sorts of compositions and are great in all Arena brackets, Battlegrounds, and World PvP.

This is a healing-focused talent setup which can also be used in PvE with some degree of success, saving you some respec bills.

It is best used with teammates who require a lot of healing, such as Warriors, but is also a fantastic build for beginner Druids as it is much easier to just focus on healing than to try to mix in damage as well.

This is an alternative talent build, which skips some of the healing talents in the Restoration tree in order to pick up Insect Swarm and Nature's Reach, allowing the Druid to contribute more damage in a match. You could go even further down the Balance tree, but going just this far still allows you to pick up most of the best healing talents, making it the best compromise talent build.

This is a great specialization to play with teammates who do not need heavy healing due to their powerful defensives, such as Warlocks and Rogues.

Rather than a fixed rotation, Druid gameplay is about treading a fine balance between healing, drinking, crowd controlling, and damage dealing (as Restokin) when going in for the kill. Use your spells accordingly to keep enemies under control, and eventually burst them down:

• Keep yourself alive with Bear Form, Lifebloom, and Barkskin.
• Stay in control of the match with Entangling Roots, Feral Charge, and Cyclone.
• Heal through enemy damage with Lifebloom, Rejuvenation, Regrowth and the occasional Healing Touch, likely powered by Nature's Swiftness.
• Keep your Mana topped with Innervate and by tactically slipping away to drink, possibly while also using Shadowmeld to make yourself harder to interrupt.

You can find our recommended gear, gems, and enchants for PvPing as a Restoration Druid in the link below.

While Restoration Druids fit into just about any composition, these are some of the strongest Druid compositions in each Arena bracket:

In 2v2, Druid + Rogue, Druid + Warlock, Druid + Warrior, and Druid + Hunter are your best compositions.

In 3v3, Druid + Warlock + Rogue (or Warrior) and Druid + Disc Priest + Hunter (or Warrior) are your best compositions.

In 5v5, Druid can fit into just about any team, and does not have any specifically-favored composition.

In order to become the best Druid possible, you should understand what your talents and spells are for. The amount of details that can go into this section of the guide is endless, but we will try to keep things brief in order to give you a general idea which you can use to jumpstart your PvP experience.

Prowl allows you to go into stealth. This drastically lowers the range at which enemies can see and attack you, giving you initiative in PvP. Use it at the start of each match, but be careful of enemy Humans with Perception, especially if they can also use stealth effects (Rogues).

Tree of Life is a powerful shapeshift form, which reduces the Mana cost of most heals by 20%, and also prevents you from being Polymorphed, but you will not be able to use your crowd control abilities or emergency Healing Touch while in it, so use it with care.

Bear Form increases your defenses significantly, especially against Physical damage. While you cannot use any spells in this form, it is recommended to shift into Bear Form when under attack by Physical DPS classes until you can kite them away. You can also use Bash and Feral Charge while in this form, which are invaluable for crowd control and interrupting enemies as well as quickly moving around the battlefield.

Barkskin is a defensive cooldown that reduces your damage taken by 20% for 15 seconds on a 1-minute cooldown. This is usable while stunned and is one of your first lines of defense.

Innervate greatly increases the target's Mana regeneration for a short time, making it especially good when used on targets with high Spirit such as yourself!

Abolish Poison removes a poison from your target every 2 seconds for 8 seconds. Use it to stay mobile and increase your healing done against enemy Rogues, or to remove enemy Hunter Viper Stings. You can also go into Bear Form in order to stop being affected by Viper Sting.

Hibernate is a crowd control ability that puts a Beast to sleep for 30 seconds. This is usable on enemy Druids while they are in animal forms and Hunter pets.

Entangling Roots is a crowd control ability that roots the target in place for up to 27 seconds depending on the rank. Use it to crowd control enemy melee players and pets.

Cyclone is a short cast that stuns its target and makes it immune to damage and healing. It has multiple PvP uses and is one of the most powerful additions to the Druid kit in TBC Classic.

Faerie Fire creates a magic debuff on its target, lowering their Armor and making them unable to turn invisible or stealth while active. This is very useful against enemy stealth classes, especially Rogues trying to restealth.

Nature's Grasp causes the next target to damage you in melee to be rooted, allowing you to easily escape.

Lifebloom is an instant cast that heals the target over a period and stacks up to three times on the same target. When it ends or is dispelled, it bursts, instantly healing the target for a large amount. This is an extremely Mana-efficient heal that also has dispel protection, making it a superb PvP ability.

Nature's Swiftness is a Restoration talented ability that, when used, causes your next cast to be instant. Typically used with Healing Touch, it can also be used for instant crowd control with Entangling Roots or Cyclone. Use it only when you will be immediately using the instant ability, or you risk having it Purged / dispelled / stolen.

Moonfire, Insect Swarm, and Wrath are your main damage abilities as a Restokin, and you should use them to contribute damage when appropriate — healing is not needed or enemies are unable to attack or interrupt you — during a match.

Finally, it is important to note that Cyclone shares diminishing returns with Blind, and it is important to avoid overlapping these two crowd control abilities.

Entangling Roots shares diminishing returns with Frost Nova and the Water Elemental freeze ability. Bash also shares diminishing returns with all stuns except Kidney Shot, which is on its own DR category in TBC Classic.