Posted 26 June 2012 - 09:51 AM



On my last post I received a few comments to check out Restoration Druid. I have to say Restoration Druids are looking pretty top notch in Mists of Pandaria. Cataclysm Druids rejoice!







Restoration Druid



Check out this video from Diziet on Mists of Pandaria Druids. He goes in depth with some of the new skills, talents, abilities, and more. Be sure to subscribe for more awesome content from WoWSpotlights!



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_ccuNO-zvk&list=PL59CB7DE9C03AB418&index=1&feature=plpp_video



Significant changes I've noticed:

Overall heals has gone up. In Cataclysm PvP Druids have arguably the worst heals in the game. This is due to the ramp up time needed for Lifeblooms to bloom, and how their heal over time spells are relatively weak compared to a regular heal from other classes. This is not the case in Mists of Pandaria.

Nature's Swiftness causes a cast to be instant and also increases the duration or healing effectiveness by 50%. The cooldown has been reduced to 1 minute and usable in all forms.

Enrage is no longer in the game.

Wild Charge lets you life grip yourself to an Ally. Also allows you to do different abilities in other forms.

Typhoon can be learned via talents.

Mighty Bash can be learned via talents. Lets you stun a target for 5 seconds in any form.

Nature's Vigil a talent that increases healing and also causes your heals to do damage.

Glyph of Lifebloom casting Lifebloom on a new target gives as much stacks as the old target.

Glyph of Nature's Grasp reduces the cooldown of Nature's Grasp by 30 seconds.

Might of Ursoc increases your health by 30% for 20 seconds. Activates bear form.

Ironbark reduces all damage by 20% for 12 seconds. 2 Minute cooldown. Barkskin is still available.

Symbiosis is a new spell that grants one of your abilities to a teammate, and one of their abilities to you.



Nifty Abilities

Nature's Swiftness has changed a little in Mists of Pandaria. The cooldown on it is now 1 minute and it can be cast in any form. Nature's Swiftness for Restoration Druids have always been a life saver whether it was for himself or a teammate and that little extra buff could prove to be huge.



Enrage is among the list of many abilities that Druids have lost. This makes it slightly more difficult for a Restoration Druid to heal as much as he wanted to in bear form. Transforming to bear from any other forms as a Restoration Druid grants 10 rage.

Wild Charge is a pretty sweet self life grip that Druids got. One of the biggest problems for Cataclysm Restoration Druids is they get melted when trained. Having another escape mechanism will make it much harder for this to happen, especially when the cooldown is as low as 15 seconds.



Typhoon is an ability that can be learned via talents. Having this along with Symbiosis for Demonic Circle: Teleport is going to make Restoration Druids on Z-Axis maps a gigantic pain to deal with. This means a Restoration Druid on Blade's Edge Arena can typhoon you off the bridge, and can also freely jump off without being in danger as long as Demonic Circle: Teleport is up. Along with that, there's also Wild Charge! You'll never catch a Restoration Druid dead on a Z-axis map without a stun.

Mighty Bash is a 5 second stun learned from talents. In essence, Druids basically got Hammer of Justice that's 1 second shorter duration and also a 10 second lower cooldown. Though the regular bear bash is gone, this stun is a much bigger upgrade and will help Restoration Druids continue the infinite crowd-control chain with their teammates. Seeing Fire Mage, Affliction Warlock, Restoration Druid doing Dragon Breath (3 Seconds)->Ring of Frost(8 Seconds)->Fear (8 Seconds)->Mighty Bash (5 Seconds)->Cyclone (6 Seconds)->Dragon Breath Again (3 Seconds) into some more Polymorphs and Fears will be insane. Keep in mind the crowd-control of the second set of Polymorph and Fear will already be off diminishing returns (8+5+6=19 seconds) meaning near infinite crowd-control is entirely possible!

Nature's Vigil is an ability learned via talents that causes your heals and damage to increase by 20%. It also causes your heals to deal damage, and your damage spells to heal. This allows Restoration Druids to do a lot more hybrid action. Popping Nature's Vigil to get some counter pressure in tree form heals might be pretty insane. 25% of your heals as damage is probably 25% of what the other healer can do.

Glyph of Lifebloom is an insane Major Glyph that Restoration Druids can pick up. It causes your Lifebloom on a new target to have the same stack as the previous person. One of the biggest weaknesses to Restoration Druids have been their ability to not handle swaps well. They can easily use all their heal over time spells on one target, but leave another person vulnerable. Keeping full heals on multiple targets drains their mana too much. With this Glyph, all of those problems are solved.

Glyph of Nature's Grasp reduces the cooldown of your Nature's Grasp by 30 seconds. With dispels being on a 8 second cooldown, this could mean serious damage to melee players. Another new mechanic that makes Restoration Druids harder to train down.

Might of Ursoc is a built in battlemaster for Restoration Druids. It can be glyphed to 50%, but increases the cooldown by 2 minutes. With all these mechanics to make Restoration Druids survive, it's hard to imagine them being tunneled down as they have been in Cataclysm. In fact, Restoration Druids may be the hardest healer to ever kill.

Ironbark reduces all damage taken by the Druid for 12 seconds. It has a 2 minute cooldown. Guess what, another new defensive mechanic for Restoration Druids! With Ironbark (20% damage reduction), Barkskin (20% damage reduction + critical chance reduction), Glyph of Nature's Grasp (snares you), Glyph of Lifebloom (prevents swaps), Might of Ursoc (battlemaster), Typhoon (knocks you away), Mighty Bash (stuns you), Wild Charge (self life grip), Demonic Circle: Teleport (warlock Symbiosis ability) and buffs to their heal it's hard to imagine myself ever killing one of these guys.

Symbiosis is the biggest new ability for Druids. The amount of new possibility it creates is endless. Being able to Demonic Circle: Teleport, Ice Block, Cloak of Shadows, or Anti-Magic Shell is insane! Here's a list of the Symbiosis abilities from Restoration Druids:

Looking pretty buff there Mr. Tree.

What specialization do you want to see next?

List of abilities Druids gives to other classes:Death Knight - Blood = Might of Ursoc Death Knight - Frost and Unholy = Wild Mushroom:Plague Hunter - All Specs = Dash Mage - All Specs = Healing Touch Paladin - Holy = Rebirth Paladin - Protection = Barkskin Paladin - Retribution = Wrath Priest - Discipline = Entangling Roots Priest - Holy = Entangling Roots Priest - Shadow = Tranquility Rogue - All Specs = Growl Shaman - Elemental and Enhancement = Solar Beam Shaman - Restoration = Prowl Warlock - All Specs = Rejuvenation Warrior - Arms and Fury = Stampeding Shout Warrior - Protection = Frenzied Regeneration List of abilities given to the Restoration Druid:- Death Knight = Anti-Magic Shell - Hunter = Deterrence - Mage = Ice Block - Paladin = Was Hand of Sacrifice , currently it gives Cleanse which is essentially useless- Priest = Leap of Faith - Rogue = Cloak of Shadows - Shaman = Spiritwalker's Grace - Warlock = Demonic Circle: Teleport - Warrior = Intimidating Roar In my last article about Affliction Warlocks I talked about how strong I felt Affliction Warlocks were in Mists of Pandaria. In my personal opinion, I think Restoration Druids may even beat that. Both are looking pretty sweet though! My prediction of Restoration Druid + Affliction Warlock dominating in Arenas have been reinforced. Perhaps as I look into more classes in depths I'll find buffs that can match them, but from the basic outlooks of it I don't see any classes being able to match a Restoration Druid + Affliction Warlock combination.