Resto 90 healing in 5.3

How to heal as a 90 restoration druid in Mists of Pandaria.

Version: 5.3 (updated 5/20/2013)

This is an introduction to healing as a restoration druid. This is written at a beginner/intermediate level. Druids looking for advanced help should look at the additional resource links provided.

  5.3 spell and talent changes:

  • For 25-man raids, Tranquility will hit 12 people. In 10-man, it will continue to hit 5 people.
  • The radius for the ground-targeted AOEs of efflorescence (from Swiftmend) and wild mushrooms is now slightly larger. In addition, wild mushroom heals for more overall.
  • Ironbark cooldown will be 1 minute instead of 2 minutes (the PvP set bonus change means that this won’t really impact PvP).
  • Your smart heals will be a little bit smarter, and won’t heal the hunter pets quite as often.
  • Force of Nature  is is now one big tree (without a pet bar). This new tree friend is a little bit smarter, and should chain-cast spells more often. Your tree friend also now casts Swiftmend. With the overall changes, this should be competitive versus the other talent options, especially for new players who benefit from having a “fire and forget” spell.

 Overall healing style changes in 5.3:  Resto druids got an improved AoE healing toolset, which should be helpful for raiding. You should definitely be using wild mushrooms more often (if you weren’t already using them), but wait until they “charge up” before blooming them. You should also be casting ironbark more often, and note that you don’t have to only save it for tanks – but instead can sometimes cast on raid members likely to need that damage reduction. In addition, force of nature is now a viable talent option for resto druids, especially at a beginner level.  For more info on the 5.3 changes, see this post.

Table of contents (Click on links to view pages!):

  1. healing part 1: Description of Healing spells
  2. Healing part 2: Mastery, symbiosis, and other spells
  3. Healing part 3: Tank and raid healing advice
  4. Resto: Talents
  5. Resto: Glyphs
  6. Resto: Stats and Gearing
  7. Consumables, Gems, and Enchants

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Other Helpful MOP resources for resto druids:

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