Restoration Druid Pre-Patch Guide for WotLK Classic

Restoration Druids expand their spell usage in the Wrath of the Lich King pre-patch, with Lifebloom becoming much more expensive but now also returning half of the Mana used to cast it when it expires.

This page will go over pre-patch talents, rotation, gear, and consumables for Restoration Druid, allowing you to quickly get up to date with your character while waiting for Wrath to officially start!

This talent tree takes most healing talents, notably skipping any that boost Healing Touch, which should usually be used with Nature's Swiftness for emergency healing while Regrowth and Swiftmend cover spot healing requirements.

Alternatively, Glyph of Healing Touch can be used in order to transform Healing Touch into a pseudo-Nourish which scales well with your Spell Power and can be used for all your spot healing needs. A downside of this build, however, is that the power of your Nature's Swiftness is drastically reduced.

Glyphs enhance or change class specific abilities, and you can have up to two major glyphs and three minor glyphs at Level 70, with a third major glyph being unlocked at Level 80.

Most glyphs will only be available after Wrath launches, so in the pre-patch Restoration should use two out of Glyph of Rejuvenation, Glyph of Rebirth, and Glyph of Healing Touch.

For minor glyphs, Glyph of the Wild, Glyph of Dash, and Glyph of Unburdened Rebirth are nice quality of life options.

1. Spell Power;
2. Haste (up to 1-second GCD);
3. Spirit;
4. Mp5;
5. Intellect;
6. Critical Strike.

While Mana sustain / Regen is highly valuable for Druid's new playstyle of heal-over-time blanketing, the pre-patch is predicted to have very short fights, lowering the relative value of Regen. Critical Strike is still a bad stat, as heals-over-time cannot crit outside of specific exceptions later in Wrath.

Healers do not have a formal rotation. As such we will display a priority list, instead.

1. Use Nature's Swiftness plus Healing Touch as an emergency heal for players about to die;
2. Use Regrowth and / or Swiftmend for emergency healing if Nature's Swiftness is on cooldown;
3. Remove dangerous debuffs from group members as soon as possible;
4. Use Lifebloom on the tank to spend Omen of Clarity procs;
5. Use Wild Growth when available on groups of damaged allies;
6. Use Rejuvenation on anyone taking damage, preferably Rogues, Warriors, and Death Knights for maximum Revitalize DPS value.

Most TBC Phase 5 gear in the guide linked below is still among the best gear available, but due to both Spell Healing and Spell Damage becoming a single stat, you will now be able to use any Spell Power gear you find without Hit on it to great effect. The short encounters of the pre-patch balance out the more Mana-hungry new rotation, allowing all stats except Critical Strike to have good value.

• Most Sunwell Plateau gear is good enough to enter early Wrath raids with, and competes with pre-raid best in slot items;
• Notably, due to the new Rejuvenation blanketing playstyle, the badge relic, Idol of Budding Life, is now best in slot until Wrath raid gear;
• To complement raiding, or if it is not an option, farming Honor in the pre-patch through battlegrounds will allow you to buy the full "Brutal" PvP gear set, which is close in power to gear from Sunwell and has no randomness in its acquisition.

Enchants mostly stay the same in the pre-patch but, due to the Spell Healing and Spell Damage merge, you can now use the old Spell Damage enchants as well, as they will typically give the same Spell Power as an old Spell Healing enchant would.

Elixir of Healing Power plus Elixir of Draenic Wisdom are the recommended elixirs for Restoration. Use Superior Wizard Oil on your weapon.

You can eat any of Golden Fish Sticks, Blackened Basilisk, Poached Bluefish, or Crunchy Serpent.

During combat, use Super Mana Potions to regenerate your Mana.