Legion Pre-Patch Resto Druid: What I need to know

Welcome to the Resto Druid “What I need to know for Legion” post. The Legion pre-expansion patch has dropped!

We know what it’s like to log into a new patch content with so many changes and get lost about where spells have gone, or what spells are new. In this post we hope to give you a quick run down for what has changed to make sure you’re up to date on your class!

We hope to tackle more advanced class mechanics (rotations etc.) after the release of Legion and once everything (hotfixes, number changes) etc have settled down.

What’s gone?

Spells

Nature’s Swiftness – This spell has been completely removed.

Talents

Force of Nature – Removed
Heart of the Wild – Removed
Dream of Cenarius – Removed
Nature’s Vigil – Removed
Rampant Growth – Removed
Feline Swiftness – This talent is now a baseline Feral Druid passive ability. It is however, available through the new Affinity(Feral) talent in the level 45 row of talents.
Faerie Swarm – This talent is now a PvP-only Honor Talent for Balance Druids only.
Incapacitating Roar – This is now a baseline ability for Guardian Druids only.

Major Glyphs

All major glyphs have been removed. The perks that major glyphs provided to spells have either been added permanently to the spells they affected, completely removed or have been changed into talents.

What’s changed?

Spells

Cyclone – this crowd control becomes a PvP-only Honor talent.
Efflorescence – Previously “Wild Mushroom”, this spell’s functionality remains the same in that it heals a radius around it over time, just a name change.
Swiftmend – This is now a straight up instant-heal as it no longer requires a rolling Rejuvenation or Regrowth on the target. It has also been changed from a 15 second cooldown, to a 30 second recharge.
Lifebloom – Duration no longer refreshed by Healing Touch or Regrowth

Talents

Ysera’s Gift – This is now a baseline passive ability for Resto Druids.
Ursol’s Vortex – This crowd control spell is now a baseline ability for Resto Druids.

Mastery

Mastery for the Resto Druid: Mastery: Harmony has been adjusted. Previously, all of your direct healing was increased by 10% automatically and the direct heals you cast also increased your subsequent heals over time by an additional 10%.

Now, your healing is increased by 5% for each of your heal over time effects on that target. The way this works is a little bit different to previously because instead of applying a buff to you, your heals depend on the HoTs on your target. If the target you’re healing has a Rejuvenation on them, then healing done to them is increased by 5% (including the healing done by that initial Rejuvenation). If they have a Rejuvenation & a Lifebloom on them, then it’s a 10% increase, and so forth and so on…

The spells that are cause this increase are: Rejuvenation, Lifebloom, Regrowth and Wild Growth. The talents that also cause an increase include: Cenarion Ward (after ward consumption), Cultivation, Spring Blossoms and Germination.

What’s new?

Spells

Innervate – New but old spell returning. This allows you or your target, should you cast it on someone else, to cast spells with no mana cost for 10 seconds.
Revitalize – Mass Rez, as it were, has been removed as a “guild” perk and given to all healers only. This is the Resto Druid version.

Talents

Tier 1 – Level 15
Prosperity – Gives your Swiftmend 2 charges instead of 1 and reduces the cool down by 5 seconds. Basically gives you an extra instant-heal every 25 seconds.
Abundance – This talent causes your Healing Touch cast time to be reduced by 10% for each Rejuvenation that is active. With a cast time of 2.5 seconds, a single Rejuvenation on a target would reduce this cast time by .25 seconds. It also increases your chance to crit with Regrowth by 10% for each Rejuvenation. While this could help to get your Healing Touch cast time down to becoming quite quick, it doesn’t really lend to the strengths of the “Heal over Time” master that is the Resto Druid.
Tier 3 – Level 45
Balance Affinity – If you don’t go for the Guardian Affinity for the damage reduction, this is probably going to be your backup talent for the tier 3 level 45 talent row. First, it’s going to be a range increase of 5 yards to your all of your spells and abilities. It’s also going to give you access to Moonkin form and the spells: Starsurge and Lunar Strike. You can use these spells in healing down-time to help your party/raid with DPS.
Feral Affinity – Similarly, the Feral Affinity will give you a 15% increase to movement speed, as well as access to Cat Form, with multiple abilities that Feral Druids use. This affinity would really only be useful should you need the movement speed increase for a particular fight, as we wouldn’t anticipate high use of the feral damage-dealing abilities, due to the close-range requirement. As Balance is ranged and Resto is range it makes sense to use the two together.
Guardian Affinity – The most attractive of the 3 Affinitys, simply for a damage reduction for yourself across the board. Less heals on you = more heals on others. On top of this, you also gain some Guardian Druid abilities, most notably: Ironfur to reduce damage further for a time and Frenzied Regeneration, a self-heal over time. A good choice for self-preservation.
Tier 5 – Level 75
Cultivation – If a party or raid member has on of your Rejuvenation buffs on them and it heals that target while they are below 60% health, an additional, less-effective Rejuvenation type HoT will be applied to that target. This additional HoT is affected by the newly designed Mastery(read more above)
Tier 6 – Level 90
Spring Blossoms – Triggered by the old-spell but newly-named Efflorescence(previously Wild Mushroom), this talent is handy in that it not only applies a small and short Heal over time, but that Heal over Time also contributes to the newly design mastery(read more above). So it’s like a quick automatic 5% increase in healing for those in that beautiful green circle!
Inner Peace – A pretty basic talent, this just reduces the cooldown of your Tranquility by 60 seconds, from 3 minutes down to 2 minutes. This could be useful for those fights where damage is intense every 2 minutes, however that is a pretty specific scenario.
Tier 7 – Level 100
Stonebark – Is stone tougher than Iron? It would appear so! This enhances your Iron Bark spell by reducing it’s cooldown by 30 seconds. It also increases the power of your HoTs on that target. Perfect for those pesky tanks!
Flourish – Extends the life of your already active Heal over Time spells by 6 seconds! This is a great talent to use immediately after Wild Growth. It works even better after a Swiftmend (with a talented Soul of the Forest) + Wild Growth and is our highly recommended choice.

And that’s it for major changes to the Resto Druid for now. As mentioned previously, we’ll be adding more information as we get closer to and also post-Legion release on the 30th August.