Once upon a time, levelling as resto was seen as inefficient and perhaps a bit masochistic. Feral is still the fastest way to level solo, as you are not reliant on mana, which means much less downtime. But with the introduction of the Looking For Dungeon (LFD) system, new healers can now level mostly through dungeons, reducing the need to “grind” as a healer. Here’s how the specs measure up:

Spec		Solo questing	Healing dungeons
	Restoration	Adequate	Best
	Balance	Good	Good
	Feral	Best	Adequate**

• Resto spec is okay for levelling, although killing mobs will take longer than if you were balance or feral. Obviously it is the best spec for healing through dungeons. Not recommended if you plan to do a lot of questing – but if you’re going to just do dungeons, then it’s great.
• Balance is – well, balanced – it is a good way to level solo, and you can also heal dungeons well as a balance druid because some of the talents in the Balance tree boost your healing or give you mana savings. It’s a nice, well-rounded way to spec if you intend to do a bit of questing and a bit of dungeon healing. You won’t need to carry two sets of gear, either, because Balance and Resto specs use the same stats at low levels.
• Feral is the fastest way to level because there is virtually zero downtime, especially once you have instant heals from your finishing moves. Unlike mana users, you can’t go OOM (out of mana) and then be helpless – even if you run out of energy, you can still auto attack effectively. There’s no need to sit and drink all the time. Plus, mobs can’t interrupt your casts, silence you, or lock you out of a school of magic, because you aren’t using magic. Basically – there are a lot more things that casters have going against them out there. Feral druids don’t necessarily DPS better – they just have less downtime because they are melee. However, Balance druids do have better AOE ability, to round up multiple mobs and AOE them down. This is something that may be tricky for new players though, as it is easy to aggro too many mobs and then die.

So – if you are going to heal exclusively, go with resto; if you want to blast through solo levelling, go feral; if you want a bit of both, try balance.

Can I heal dungeons if I’m specced feral?**

Yes, but it will be challenging.

You can heal dungeons from 1-30 as feral, as long as you collect a set of resto gear along the way. You won’t have the benefit of Swiftmend or Nature’s Swiftness; your heals will be more expensive and won’t heal for as much, so you will find that you need to drink a lot and probably use potions; be prepared for that. But yes, it is absolutely possible to be feral and heal dungeons – just make sure you dress for the occasion, and you play smart. Visit the dungeon strats page for more information. However, you should also be prepared for the fact that you may come up against groups who want to kick you because you are not specced to heal, so be prepared for that also.

Talent specs for levelling

Restoration levelling

Here’s my suggestion for how to spec from 1-85 if you’re looking to level primarily by healing in dungeons. Note: as above, if you’re going to be solo questing quite a bit, you might want to consider a balance spec; having a balance spec up to 30 won’t hinder your healing ability much, but it will give you more power for the times that you are out questing. At 30 you can then take advantage of dual specs to have a pure healing spec and a solo/DPS spec. Note though that some groups may not like you being Balance spec when healing – so you may come up against a little opposition, as some people are unaware that Balance druids can heal dungeons.

While I would generally recommend people stick to Balance or Feral for levelling, more and more people are interested in how to spec resto all the way through low dungeons, so here’s what I would suggest.

Lvl Talent Benefit 10 Heart of the Wild Increases Intellect by 2/4/6%. This will help with soloing (before you do dungeons) by extending your mana and reducing downtime. 11 13 15 Naturalist Reducing the cast time on Nourish will help you until you have more healing spells to choose from. 17 19 Improved Rejuvenation Increases your Rejuv and Swiftmend spells by 5/10/15%. These spells will be invaluable in low level dungeons, so boosting them is important. 21 23 25 Blessing of the Grove This is a fairly weak talent but we need it to progress down the tree. 2/4% on your Rejuv is good. 27 29 Nature’s Swiftness NS saves the day! Macro it to your Healing Touch spell. 30 At this point you can go and purchase your dual spec – this will mean that you can continue building a resto-only spec for healing dungeons, while easily soloing using your DPS (either feral or balance) spec. Hooray! 31 Revitalize Gives you mana back and gives your party mana also. 33 35 Living Seed Living Seed is pretty good for healing tanks, but not terribly strong. However, we need 2/3 here to get further into the tree. 37 39 Empowered Touch 10% to your Nourish and Regrowth spells (and HT later). The LB part is pointless at this level, but as Nourish is your go-to heal, it’s still important to boost it. 41 43 Nature’s Bounty Increases the crit chance of Regrowth by 20/40/60%. Regrowth is expensive, but is our "flash heal", so having a high crit chance is useful for tight situations. 45 47		Lvl Talent Benefit 49 Wild Growth Our main group heal. 51 Nature’s Cure Allows you to remove magic debuffs from your party. 53 Efflorescence Another group heal OR a bonus HoT for your tank/melee, depending on how your group is spread. 55 57 59 Gift of the Earthmother The Lifebloom component is useless at this level, but we need to progress down the tree, so the Rejuv bonus heal is better than nothing! 61 63 65 Malfurion’s Gift Now that you have Lifebloom, you should keep it up on the tank to return mana to you through Omen of Clarity, and to your party through Revitalize/Replenishment. 67 69 Tree of Life Our iconic shapeshift, the Tree of Life. At this point we are able to put points into other trees if we wish. If you are having mana issues, or if you tend to get groups with impatient tanks or careless DPS, go with Furor next; if not, start putting points into Natural Shapeshifter and Master Shapeshifter for a 4% boost to all healing 71 Furor (Feral) Increases your maximum mana by 15%. If mana is not troubling you, skip to Natural Shapeshifter and Master Shapeshifter. 73 75 77 Natural Shapeshifter Extends your Tree of Life for 10 seconds. 79 81 Master Shapeshifter +4% healing to all of your heals, in caster and tree form. 82 Living Seed Last point in Living Seed to help a bit more with tank healing. 83 Nature’s Majesty (Balance) Boosts your crit by 2/4%. HoT ticks can crit, and crit Swiftmends mean bigger Living Seeds and bigger Efflorescence ticks. 84 85 Go respec for 85 dungeons!

Other druid levelling guides

If you’d rather level as feral or balance, here are some guides to help.

• Restokin – druid levelling guide