DruidThe HOT King everyone knows Druids are there to add there Hots to decrase aoe dmg and take the edge of spike dmg.
SpellsRejuvenation (Rejuv, RJ) - places a hot on the target that heals once every 3 seconds (unless glyphed) for 15 seconds (unless talented). The first tick occurs 3 seconds after the initial cast (unless equipped with 4 piece t8).
* Rejuvenation is your bread and butter! There's almost no healing situation where it isn't useful: raid and tank healing alike.
Regrowth (RG) - Provides a large direct heal and places a hot on the target that heals once every 3 seconds for 21 seconds (unless talented).
* Regrowth is a very versatile spell, providing both a direct heal and a hot. When tank healing the hot should nearly always be present on the tank. However, for raid healing Rejuvenation is usually more effective unless a direct heal is needed and Swiftmend is on cooldown.
* Druids have 2 primary "spammable" direct heals, Regrowth and Nourish. There is a lot of debate on which is more useful as a direct heal: Regrowth has a longer cast time but also provides a hot that is Swiftmend-able; whereas Nourish has a significantly faster cast time, it benefits from having hots already on the target, and it can be made a stronger heal than Regrowth with talents and glyphs. I tend to prefer Nourish, but Regrowth has its strengths, and realistically either is fine to use.
Swiftmend (SM) - Requires that RJ or RG already be present on the target. Swiftmend instantly heals the target for the total amount of health that would have healed by the hot of either Rejuvenation or Regrowth, whichever has the shortest remaining duration, and removes that hot from the target (unless glyphed).
* Swiftmend is a very efficient and very powerful direct heal. It has a cooldown, so it can't be spammed, but that shouldn't stop you from using it.
* This should be your go-to direct heal whenever it's not on cooldown. Swiftmend is one of my favorite spells. Don't ignore it.
Wild Growth (WG) - Places a hot on up to 5 party/raid members (unless glyphed), healing them once every second for 7 seconds. The amount of healing provided per tick decreases slightly over time.
* Wild Growth is a very good raid healing spell that does a lot to mitigate the effects of AoE damage.
* There are many situtions where you'd want to cast WG on cooldown, especially when raid healing.
* In general, cast Wild Growth on the melee group (which is usually grouped up) as this is often the best way to insure it will hit the maximum number of targets. If you know that the ranged are somewhat stacked up then you may WG them as well, but melee is often your best bet.
Lifebloom (LB) - Places a hot on the target that stacks up to three times, healing the target once every second for 7 seconds (unless glyphed and/or talented). At the end of its duration, Lifebloom blooms, providing direct sizeable heal on the target and refunding 50% of the base mana cost of Lifebloom to the casting druid. The amount healed per tick, the size of the bloom, and the amount of mana returned with the bloom are all multiplied by the number of stacks on the target.
* The mana cost for lifebloom is extremely high, but the mana returned when it blooms makes the overall cost of casting LB pretty cheap.
* Using Lifebloom after an Omen of Clarity (OOC) proc is an easy source of free mana.
* 1. Rolling Lifebloom - this involves getting Lifebloom to 3 stacks on a single target and keeping 3 stacks on that target, always refreshing it within 1-2 second before it blooms. This is the most mana intensive method of rolling Lifebloom. It is so mana intensive that it's not worth doing unless your target is taking a ton of damage.
* 2. Slow Stacking Lifebloom - this involves building each stack of LB every 7 or 8 seconds (1-2 seconds before it's about to bloom) and then letting it bloom once it gets to 3 stacks, then starting the cycle over from 1 stack. This is the least mana intensive method of stacking lifebloom. It insures that the target has 2+ stacks most of the time, but it also means the target will not receive the full amount of healing lifebloom is able to provide most of the time. This is a good method to use when the target is not at high risk of dieing.
* 3. Fast Stacking Lifebloom - this involves building lifebloom up to 3 stacks as quickly as possible (within 3 GCDs) and then letting it bloom right away. This is rarely ever a good strategy to use as it wastes a lot of GCDs to keep LB on the target. It is, however, far less mana intensive than rolling lifebloom.
Nourish - A fast direct heal whose amount healed is increased if one or more druid hots are present on the target, in which case the healing amount is increased by a flat 20% no matter how many hots are present on the target (unless glyphed and/or equipped with 4 piece t7).
* Nourish is both an effective tank-healing spell because of the benefits it receives from hots and also makes for an effecitve "flash heal" because of its short cast time, which can be useful on occasion when raid healing.
* Nourish should generally be considered a "filler" spell between casting hots. Casting hots, however, should normally be your number one priority.
* To see my opinion on how Nourish compares to Regrowth as a direct heal see the information on Regrowth above.
Healing Touch (HT) - A slow (unless glyphed and/or talented) direct heal.
* Best used in a "NS/HT" (Nature's Swiftness + Healing Touch) macro.
* Healing Touch should not be considered a useful healing spell except when used with Nature's Swiftness. Its cast time is far too long to be very effective.
* With the Glyph of Healing Touch (in addition to several "misplaced" talent points) Healing Touch can be made to have a cast time of less than 1 second. However, it is still limited by the GCD (any spell with a cast time less than the GCD, including instant cast spells (obviously), will force you to wait until the GCD is up before you can cast another spell) and it becomes very mana inefficient when glyphed. In general, you should avoid glyphing HT as it is only situationally useful and Nourish tends to be the better option if you need a "flash heal".
Tranquility - Is a channeled HoT that heals all party members in range for very large amounts once every 2 seconds for 8 seconds. It has a long cooldown (unless talented) and only effects members of the druid's party.
* This spell can be useful for healing 5 mans as a sort of "Oh S#@t!" button, but it's rarely useful in 10 and 25 mans (more so in 10 than 25). Most druids almost never cast Tranquility.
Healing RotationsBeing an effective healer most often involves knowing what kind of damage will be going out on a particular fight and then knowing what spells or healing strategies are best suited for handling that kind of damage.
Spike Damage:
Spike damage is generally considered to be a single burst of random (and often unpredictable) damage on one or more players that may put those players at risk of dieing to other sources of damage. Because of the inconsistent nature of these sources of damage, druid hots tend not to be very effective at healing them. That does not mean that druids are incapable of healing spike damage, however. You should always do your best to keep the raid alive.
If the damage hits a small number of targets:
* Nourish or Rejuv should be enough in most cases.
* Regrowth or Rejuv if you know the targets will be affected by other sources of damage.
* Wild Growth if the targets are somewhat stacked.
* Swiftmend if it's available, if there's a hot already on the target, and if a big and immediate heal is needed.
If the damage hits a large number of targets:
* Wild Growth will probably be needed.
* Pre-spam Rejuv across the raid in preparation for the damage if you have a reasonably good idea when it will occur (and if you aren't busy healing other things).
* RJx5 + WG* for damage that occurs consistently throughout the raid.
Dot Damage:Dots are damage over time effects. They are often debuffs placed on a target that will cause that target to take a tick of damage every second (or every few seconds), where each tick may be weak, but all the ticks combined can be deadly. If you know that one or a small number of people will be hit by an ability that applies a damage over time effect to them, then your goal should be to apply the sufficient amount of hots or direct heals needed to keep them alive through that damage. There are also some raid-wide Auras in the game that cause constant dot damage, which druids are particularly good at handling.
Depending on how strong the Dot is:
* Rejuv or Lifebloom may be enough.
* Nourish + Rejuv may be needed if the target gets low on health before or around the initial tick of the dot.
* Regrowth + Rejuv may be needed if the dot does too much damage for RJ alone to cover.
* Full Hots** should be used for very strong dots. If you don't have the mana to keep LB rolling, then use a slow-stacking method. (Consider using Nourish as well if these alone are not enough.)
If the Dot is an aura or similar effect that constantly does damage to most of the raid:
* RJx5 + WG* is the standard rotation for this kind of damage.
Tank Healing:Druids are capable tank healers and should not shy away from that responsibility when needed. Tank damage tends to be massive and spiky, and usually requires big, fast heals, while a druid's hots are mostly small and slow. However, all heals on a tank increase that tank's likelihood to survive, and druid heals are no exception. Though a druid does not have the burst-healing potential of a Paladin, druid hots mitigate the impact of incoming damage, providing a safety net that gives other healers more time to heal the tank to full.
Depending on the severity of incoming tank damage:
* Regrowth + Rejuv is the bare minimum amount of healing you'll need to provide.
* Full Hots are generally needed. Decide, based on how much mana you have, whether it's worth keeping Lifebloom rolling. If it's not, use a slow-stacking method.
* Nourish spamming may be needed between refreshing your hots. However, keep in mind that Nourish is an expensive heal. Don't spam it more than necessary or your risk going OOM.