PvE Restoration Druid Talents, Builds & Glyphs

Author: Nevermore
Date: September 27, 2022
Updated: September 27, 2022
Expansion: WotLK Classic

PvE Restoration Druid

Talents, Builds & Glyphs

Stat Priority

Best Races

Gems, Enchants & Consumables

Rotation & Cooldowns

Best Professions

Best in Slot (BiS) & Pre-Raid Gear

Addons & Macros

We have one Standard Build for a Restoration Druid that will be valid throughout the whole expansion. However, we will also present you with several iterations of the said Standard Build that provide different beneficial effects.

It is important to understand that, as a Restoration Druid in PvE, you do not have a lot of possible build variations, since Restoration is filled with talents that we simply cannot skip, leaving little room for variety. However, you are still free to try to experiment as much as you’d like and discover talent combinations that fit your playstyle the best.

Talent Builds

The Standard Build offers a plenty of strong talents that are extremely viable in all phases of the expansion, with beneficial effects such as increased critical strike chance, mana regeneration during combat, increased spell haste, boosted spell capabilities, and mana cost reduction.

The second build is an iteration on the first that focuses on increased spell haste. This is achieved by spending points further down the line in the Balance Talent Tree while foregoing some of the beneficial effects of the Restoration Tree.

We gain increased casting speed and spell haste from the Nature’s Grace and Celestial Focus talents, but we omit talents like Empowered Touch, Natural Perfection, and Revitalize. Basically, we will be gaining increased casting speed and haste over increased critical strike chance, mana regeneration, and the empowering effect for Nourish and Healing Touch.

pve restoration druid talent build increased haste build new — 18/0/53

The third build is very much like the Standard Build, however, it trades points from Natural Perfection for Improved Tranquility, significantly reducing its threat generation and its cooldown, allowing many more uses. The rest of the build works the same as the Standard Build.

pve restoration druid talent build tranquility build aoe heal new — 11/0/60

Notable Talents

Nature’s Splendor: Extremely important talent due to the increase in the duration of our main HoT spells.

Omen of Clarity: Extremely important talent because of the Clearcasting effect! This talent allows us the chance to enter a Clearcasting effect after each of our spell casts, effectively removing the mana required for the next spell after entering Clearcasting.

Intensity: Mandatory talent that allows 50% of our mana regeneration to continue while in combat!

Nature’s Swiftness: Mandatory for saving allies in clutch situations! Allows you to instant cast one of your abilities that has a cooldown of 10 seconds or lower.
- Important Note: Nature’s Swiftness will not be consumed if used with any instant cast ability, such as Wild Growth.

Master Shapeshifter: Extremely important due to the healing increase while in Tree of Life.

Living Spirit: Mandatory due to heavy spirit increase.

Living Seed: Mandatory due to transforming our critical strikes into an additional heal-over-time effect. This heal works just like an absorption effect, which is activated when you receive the next hit.

Improved Tree of Life: Mandatory talent that synergizes extremely well with Living Spirit. Offers a huge increase in armor and a 15% bonus Spell Power based on our Spirit value.

Gift of the Earthmother: Mandatory 5 points spent on this talent since it offers us 10% increased spell haste.

Wild Growth: Last point in the talent tree, impossible to not spend a point on this talent as it offers us one of the best area-of-effect healing spells in the game.

Nature’s Grace grants you a 100% chance to gain 20% casting speed for 3 seconds whenever you land a non-periodic critical heal. This talent is especially potent since it has no internal GCD, meaning that you can proc it indefinitely.

Revitalize gives your Rejuvenation and Wild Growth a 15% chance to grant you 1% mana, 8 energy, 4 rage, or 16 runic power per tick. This talent is astonishing — it grants your allies a universal replenishment effect.

Naturalist can be picked up for the casting time reduction of Healing Touch. However, this talent is mainly picked up by Feral Druids, for the physical damage enhancement effect, with little to no value for a Restoration Druid, since Healing Touch will mainly be used as a last resort in combination with Nature’s Swiftness.

Improved Barkskin is a talent better suited for PvP, since we will find ourselves in the Tree of Life form most of the time, thus rendering the 160% increased armor rating while in Humanoid Form quite useless. However, you can choose this talent for the increased damage reduction while in Barkskin, making for a rather efficient defensive tool.

Glyphs

Glyph Recommendation

Your main Glyphs will always be subjected to changes due to the different set bonuses and different types of encounters. However, Glyph of Swiftmend and Glyph of Wild Growth fall under the mandatory category, as they are universally extremely strong.

Apart from these two, the third glyph pick will always be subjected to changes depending on the situation and the phase/tier set bonus. It is completely up to you and your preferences. However, some glyphs are stronger than others depending on the phase of the expansion.

Major Glyphs

(Mandatory)

Glyph of Wild Growth increases the maximum number of targets affected by Wild Growth by 1. This glyph is extremely powerful, helping you become the “king” of AoE healing. It will serve you well throughout the entirety of the expansion!

(Mandatory)

Glyph of Swiftmend makes your Swiftmend no longer consume a Regrowth or Rejuvenation effect upon activation. This glyph grants you access to a very powerful instant cast heal on a very low cooldown! The ability to instantly use Rejuvenation/Regrowth plus Swiftmend as a panic button while retaining the effect of the initial spell makes this glyph mandatory throughout the entire expansion.

Glyph of Nourish increases the potency of Nourish by 6% for each of your HoT effects present on the target. This glyph is particularly strong as we have many HoTs in our arsenal, however, it truly shines in the first and third phases of the expansion.

Glyph of Rejuvenation increases the potency of Rejuvenation by 50% on targets that are at 50% health or below. This glyph is amazing overall, since Rejuvenation is the most reliable instant cast ability in our arsenal. Rejuvenation will be subjected to a lot of enhancing effects throughout the entirety of the expansion, and this glyph will make the ability shine even more so. This glyph is especially strong during the second and third phases.

Glyph of Rapid Rejuvenation makes your Rejuvenation get affected by Haste, speeding the ticks between each Rejuvenation tick. Controversial glyph! It can be amazing in 10-man raids, but it’s quite negative in 25-man raids — with this glyph your haste will directly impact the tick of your Rejuvenation, allowing it to provide faster ticks, but will require you to refresh Rejuvenation more often, consuming more mana to upkeep Rejuvenation on your allies.

Glyph of Innervate now grants the caster 45% of his/her initial mana pool over 10 seconds aside from the mana granted to the target which has been bestowed with Innervate. This glyph is situational, being mainly useful at the beginning of the expansion when mana management is an issue.

Minor Glyphs

Glyph of Unburdened Rebirth now removes the reagent requirement for casting Rebirth. This glyph is amazing overall since we do not want to rely on reagents! You especially do not want to find yourself in a situation where combat revive is of utmost importance and a puny reagent stands in the way of victory.

Glyph of Dash reduces the cooldown of Dash by 20%. This glyph is great and simple, granting you more frequent mobility options.

Glyph of the Wild reduces the mana cost of Mark of the Wild and Gift of the Wild by up to 50%. This glyph is great for instant rebuffs in combat, allowing you to rebuff your allies without jeopardizing your mana reserves.

About the Author

Nevermore

Hey there folks, I am Nevermore and have been deeply passionate about WoW for more than a decade. Whether we talk about the hidden mysteries of Azeroth or the otherworldly Outland, my journey brought me here to share the things that I have experienced with you all.