With the arrival of Cataclysm, the talent system received a massive overhaul, changing from the 71 talent points system to a more compact 41 points system. As such, many of the old talents were either completely removed or changed, resulting in fewer possible build variations. One key aspect of the new system is that you must use at least 31 points in your main specialization to use the remaining 10 points in a secondary specialization.
Talent Builds
Restoration Druids have a lot of flexibility to customize their talents depending upon their preferences and the needs of their group. Here are two build options to get you started along with some notes about how you can fine-tune them for your own character.
General Raid Healing Build
This build build focuses exclusively on healing, skipping any DPS talents. Here are some options for customizing this talent build:
- If you’re comfortable with your mana pool, you can skip Furor in the Feral tree and put those two points into Genesis from the Balance tree instead.
- Blessing of the Grove is an okay place to dump a point or two, but it’s weak enough that you can skip it if you have other talents you’re interested in.
- Perseverance does not directly help your healing, but it’s a great option for survivability.
- Nature’s Bounty can be dropped if you don’t expect to get much use out of Regrowth or Nourish. But if you need to do a lot of tank healing, you may want to go 3/3 here.
- Nature’s Cure can be skipped for any content that doesn’t require magic dispels or if your group already has them covered. But the alternatives aren’t that strong and when you do need it, you’ll be glad you have it.
Wrath Build
This build is very similar to the one above, but moves a few points into talents that buff your Wrath spell and allow you to do some DPS in your downtime. You lose relatively little in terms of healing and gain the ability to contribute some damage when there’s no healing to be done. A few notes here:
- Furor shouldn’t be needed with this build if you’re actually using Wrath a lot, since the spell will be free and you will be able to regenerate mana while casting it.
- Moonglow is an option to drop points from for the same reason as Furor.
- Balance of Power is needed to ensure that your damaging spells land. One point will not quite get you to the Hit cap, but it should be close enough for most situations.
- Blessing of the Grove is an okay place to dump a point or two, but it’s weak enough that you can skip it if you have other talents you’re interested in.
- Perseverance does not directly help your healing or damage, but it’s a great option for survivability.
- Nature’s Bounty can be dropped altogether if you don’t expect to get much use out of Regrowth or Nourish. But if you need to do a lot of tank healing, you may want to go 3/3 here.
- Nature’s Cure can be skipped for any content that doesn’t require magic dispels, or if your group already has them covered. But the alternatives aren’t that strong and when you do need it, you’ll be glad you have it.
Glyphs
Prime Glyphs
- Glyph of Rejuvenation
This glyph is standard for any Restoration Druid build since it significantly buffs one of your core abilities.
- Glyph of Swiftmend
Another straightforward buff to one of your core abilities that should be equipped at all times.
- Glyph of Lifebloom
One more solid buff to a core spell which you’ll want to have for most situations.
- Glyph of Wrath
A decent option if you’re using a Wrath build and want to buff up your damage, but most of the time you won’t want to give up the Lifebloom glyph to get this.
- Glyph of Regrowth
The only other relevant glyph for Resto Druids, but it’s not worth taking above the other options.
Major Glyphs
- Glyph of Rebirth
This glyph makes your battle rez much more useful since the target is less likely to immediately die, wasting the cooldown.
- Glyph of Healing Touch
A standard choice for most builds and vital if you’re going to do any tank healing.
- Glyph of Wild Growth
This glyph is mandatory in a raid setting but useless in 5-player dungeons. Despite its downside it is an overall HPS increase if you have at least six targets to heal.
- Glyph of Innervate
With this, you can use your Innervate on someone else and still get some mana back for yourself, which is nice. It won’t often be worth using above the your other options, however.
Minor Glyphs
- Glyph of Mark of the Wild
This glyph will save you some mana when you need to rebuff someone in combat.
- Glyph of Unburdened Rebirth
You’ll save a space in your bags and never run into a situation where you can’t battle rez someone because you ran out of seeds.
- Glyph of Dash
Get some more use out of your main mobility cooldown with this glyph.
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