Cheat sheet
Last modified: November 29, 2011

One criticism of class guides is that they are too overwhelming, and they have too much information to wade through. I’ve really tried hard to encompass all of the things that newer druids would want to know about, but in doing so, it’s turned into quite a mountain of info to take in.

So I’ve created this cheat sheet as a super-quick reference guide for people who just want to know how to spec, what to gem, and what gear they should be wearing, for level 85 PvE. If you want to know more, you can follow through to the appropriate sections. Or, of course, you can work through the sections using the navigation menu above – whichever method works best for you.

I have to stress though that these are the basics, and if you want to really maximise your performance, then you should read through the relevant sections and also look to additional resources for information.

Best race for resto Worgen for Alliance, Troll for Horde. Races & racials
Spec

General purpose 8/2/31 (link) – general purpose heroics and raiding.

Tank-centric 8/0/33 (link) – grabs all of the tanky talents for druids who are assigned mostly to tank healing.

Max throughput 8/0/33 (link) – maxes everything that can boost your healing, but sacrifices some regen/utility.

Suggested specs
Stat priority Raiding: Intellect >> Spellpower > Spirit > Haste (to ~920) > Mastery > Haste (to ~2010) > Mastery > Crit
Dungeons: Intellect >> Spellpower > Spirit > Haste > Mastery > Crit
Stat priorities
Haste breakpoints

All druids should aim for an extra tick on Rejuv at the very least:
1602 haste unbuffed (aim here when first doing heroic dungeons)
1182 with Warlock Dark Intent
916 with Moonkin/Shadow Priest/Shaman 5% buff (most common for raiders)
517 with Moonkin/SPriest/Shaman and DI

The next breakpoint to aim for is for an extra tick on WG and Efflorescence:
2745 hasted unbuffed
2293 with Dark Intent
2005 with Moonkin/SPriest/Shaman 5% buff
1573 with Moonkin/Spriest/Shaman and DI

If you can’t reach the WG/Efflorescence breakpoint, you can reforge down to the Rejuvenation breakpoint and into Mastery instead, but if you’re doing dungeons, you may want to keep your haste a bit higher in case you don’t land a group with a 5% buff.

Reforging When first starting out in heroics, reforge for Spirit and Haste. Later, reforge to Haste if you can get to the next breakpoint, otherwise reforge Haste and Crit to Spirit (if you need better regen) and Mastery. The reforging page will spell this out better. Reforging
How to heal
  • Keep 3 stacks of Lifebloom on the tank (or anyone else) to get clearcasting procs and mana returns to you and your party.
  • Keep Rejuvenation up on the tank if necessary.
  • Refresh LB:
    • with LB if the tank isn’t missing much health, or if you don’t have time for a direct heal.
    • with Nourish if the tank is missing a chunk of health and you have plenty of time to heal them.
    • with Healing Touch if the tank is missing a large chunk of health and you have a clearcasting proc to use.
    • with Regrowth if the tank is in danger of dying quickly, preferably if you have a clearcasting proc.
    • With Nourish, Healing Touch or Regrowth if Swiftmend is on cooldown and your Harmony (Mastery) buff is going to drop off.
  • Use Wild Growth if 3+ people are damaged; follow up with Rejuvenation and Nourish if necessary; use Regrowth if urgent, and use Tranquility if you need to heal most of the group at once.
  • When you pop Tree of Life, try to get Lifeblooms on as many people as you can to increase your clearcasting procs, then use these procs for free/instant Regrowths.
  • Don’t use Nourish on targets without a Hot, as it is very weak.
  • Remember, use a direct heal somewhere once every 10 seconds in order to keep Harmony up, to maximise your HoT ticks. This can be Swiftmend, a Lifebloom refresh using Nourish, Healing Touch or Regrowth, or spot healing on the raid with any of these.
How to heal
Glyphs

For 5 mans you may prefer Glyph of Thorns or Glyph of Entangling Roots over Glyph of Wild Growth, as the Wild Growth glyph doesn’t give you any benefit in 5 man groups.

Glyphs
Enchants Enchants
Gems

Only match gem socket colours to activate your meta gem, or if the socket bonus is +20 Intellect or more. Otherwise, gem with Intellect (red) gems as a priority, unless you need a small amount of haste to reach a Rejuvenation or Wild Growth haste breakpoint.

Red: Brilliant Queen’s Garnet, Brilliant Inferno Ruby
Yellow: Reckless Lava Coral, Artful Lava Coral, Quick Lightstone
Reckless Ember Topaz, Artful Ember Topaz, Quick Amberjewel
Blue: Purified Shadow Spinel, Purified Demonseye
Meta: Ember Shadowspirit Diamond

Haste-only ("Quick") gems should really only be used if you are very close to a haste breakpoint. Reckless and Artful are generally better choices for Yellow slots (and can be used in red slots also)

Gems
Consumables Food:

Flasks:

Potions:

Consumables
Professions For raiding, don’t choose herbalism, skinning, or mining. All other professions give roughly the same bonus.

Professions