The Druid’s role
Last modified: August 18, 2012

The role of the restoration druid in a party or raid is to heal (obviously), but this role can change depending on the size of the group and the other healers that you might be partied with. Below is a quick summary of our role in various groups; please visit the Rotations and Strats section to understand more about how to heal in these situations.

  • In 5 man dungeons, as for any healer, our role is to focus on keeping the tank topped off, while also throwing spot heals onto any party members taking damage. The priority here is to heal the tank, making sure you stay alive (a dead healer can’t heal the tank!) and then to give healing to the DPS members, if you can afford to.

  • In 10 man dungeons, you may be assigned to heal the tank, the raid, or a mixture.

  • In 25 man dungeons, we are often assigned to heal the raid, but this will depend on your assignment and the rest of your healing team. Generally while healing the raid, unless specifically directed not to, a resto Druid would keep HoTs up on the tank regardless, to provide a buffer; Lifebloom especially should be kept on the tank to boost your mana savings via Omen of Clarity procs. Druids can also be assigned solely to tank healing; our tank healing tools were greatly improved in Cataclysm.

Resto druids can resurrect their fallen teammates.

Strengths and weaknesses

 

Strengths:

  • Our instant cast abilities and our ability to shift out of snares gives us unparalleled mobility.
  • We can resurrect fallen teammates in combat using Rebirth.
  • Druids provide important buffs to their teammates.
  • We can remove poison, curse, and magic debuff effects.
  • Our HoT-centric healing style is unique to Druids, providing a valuable buffer.
  • Our Tree of Life is an excellent cooldown for when things get hairy.

 

Weaknesses:

  • Druids are “Jack of all trades” – providing solid tank and raid healing, but aren’t as strong in these roles as other healing classes.
  • HoTs can provide a buffer on our targets, but we do not have a damage mitigation ability that we can cast on others.
  • Our group burst healing is weaker than other classes.